lloydslensphotographyllc

The Liebester Award

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Hello Friends! I was nominominated for The Liebester Award by Daily Life’s Journey

I’m very honored 🙂

The rules are simple.

Acknowledge the bog that nominated you.

Answer 11 questions denominator asked you.

Nominate 11 other bloggers.

Let them know they were nominated.

The questions are as fallows:

Q.What inspires you to write a blog?

A. I started the blog as a way to showcase my photos and eventually promote my business. I have truly been blessed with the friends I encountered on WordPress.

Q. Does your mood effect your writing?

A. Yes. My mood profoundly effects everything I do. It’s one of the sources of my inspiration.

Q. How often do you travel?

A. I very rarely get to travel for myself. Fortunately for me I’m blessed to live in the beautiful Appalachian mountains. The image below is only a few minutes from my home.

Q. What is photography to you?

A. To me, photography is way to place time into a bottle and enjoy the special moments of life over and over. It’s also the best way I have showing people how beautiful they truly are.

Q. What do you do when you’re feeling down or troubled?

A. I like to get out into the wilderness and pray about my next move. Getting back to basics is often the best way to find answers.

Q. When was the recent fulfilling moment in life?

A. This is a hard question for me. I tend to find a fulfilling moment every day. You just have look a little longer sometimes.
Q. How much do you love your family?

A. Beyond description.

Q. Who is your greatest inspiration in life?

A. The Lord Jesus Christ.

Q. What Hobby do you like most and why?

A. I have so many interests that is hard to narrow it down to a favorite. I do seem to spend a lot of time listening to documentaries and podcasts. Basically anything that either teaches me a skill or inspires imagination.

Q. What does “true friendship ” mean to you?

A. When you love someone like family that’s true friendship.

Q. How do you handle the different personalities of people around you?

A. I try not to let the negative things get to me. And I try to set boundaries when appropriate. Because my home is so isolated it’s something that I don’t need to think about often.

As for the nominees I’m going to pick at random since I have encountered so many talented people on word press.

As I understand it I’m allowed to set the number of nominees between 5 & 11 and the number of questions between 5 & 11.

Due to some time constraints I’m only going with 5.

1. Opening Doors in Brick Walls

2. nesha `e

3. The Godly Chic Diaries

4. A book Nerd Travels

5. Happiness Between Tails

My questions are…

1. What is the best part of blogging for you?

2. Tell me something about the best day of your life?

3. What is your favorite spot in the whole wide world?

4. What is your greatest challenge?

5. What is the best surprise you ever received?

Bridge To Today.

Color Photography, encouragement, Thoughts and Musing

It’s a new day in a new year in the Three Rivers area of Gauley Bridge West Virginia. This is my first published image of 2018. We are creatures of the moment. It’s so easy to get lost in tomorrow’s plans that we miss the moment. It wasn’t until I got serious about photography that I began to appreciate the here and now. The moment you are in is more precious than gold and its so easily lost to sands of time. Once it’s gone it’s gone and looking back means you’re going to miss the next one coming. We are constantly on the edge of a moment. We can choose to stay in one place and let the moment pass or we can step on to the bridge and become a part of the moment. It’s all about observation, action and choice.

Back in the 80s I read a book that implied that seeing through the eyes of God meant that one could stop time and observe patterns in past, present and future. While actually freezing the space-time continuum and casually making notes about the nature of the universe isn’t actually within our grasp there is a way to enhance our perception.

I call it Rippling. When you drop a pebble into a calm pool of water it produces concentric rings. The waves travel outward in a even pattern. We’re very familiar with this because of the thousands and thousands of pictures on the internet. But there’s more to the event. Those ripples don’t just go out. They also interact with the edge of the pool and other ripples. Eventually they form patterns that an active observer can read like a map. It’s said that back in the day a Polynesian sailor could lay down in the floor of his boat and find land that was out of sight just from the pattern of waves.

We know that the ripples have a source and with practice we can learn what direction they come from and the size of the event that caused the ripples the moment is identified. Once we have mapped the event it becomes part of a larger map and so on. It becomes easier to predict the next event by the previous ripples and whether or not we want to step on the bridge and become a part of the moment.

OUT OF THE PIT OF FEAR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION (guest post)

encouragement

Tonight I want to do a bonus post. Since its the first day of the New Year it’s a great time for new beginnings. The longest night of year has passed and if we watch carefully we’ll see the day lasting a little bit longer. As life returns to the Earth so to do our souls awaken with new energy. But, sometimes the day seems to be dark just for us. The crushing weight of depression effects not only ourselves but those around us. In an effort to help people find and appreciate the new dawn I’m inviting my wife Angela to take over my blog as a guest and talk about her book Out Of The Pit Of Fear, Anxiety and Depression.

Hello everyone!!! At some point in life I believe depression touches us all. Sometimes there’s a cause that we can pin point, for example: the death of a loved one, the loss of a job or some other major life change. Other times we can be taken over by depression and not know why. It’s a combination of many small things.

I went through a horrible time with depression and I describe it as being in the bottom of a pit where no light or air exist. It is a smothering darkness, that makes you want to die. It’s easy for someone on the outside to look at you and say, “Oh just snap out of it, it’ll be okay.” If it were only that easy.

Once I escaped the pit of darkness and depression, I wanted to do something to give back. It took me a long time to write my book because I wanted everything to be so precise.

I’ve often prayed, ” Lord, please don’t allow what I’ve been through to be in vain. Let me use that to help someone else escape the pit.”

I now know you have to want to escape and it is a fight. But you are worth the fight. Freedom is worth the fight.

The above link to my book will take you to Amazon where you can download it for free this week. From now through Jan 5. If you are depressed or know someone who is suffering from depression, I hope you get my book and it helps you navigate the rough waters ahead.

I will leave you with a quote that helps me keep perspective:

I CANNOT CHANGE THE PAST…I CAN ONLY MAKE THE MOST OF TODAY AND LOOK WITH HOPE TO TOMORROW.

May your days be filled with optimism, it is possible to live a happy life after depression. I am a survivor of the darkness of depression.

Thanks for reading, feel free to share with anyone you know suffering from depression. Thank you for your support and encouragement of my husband Lloyd and his new business venture.

Goodbye 2017

Color Photography, Thoughts and Musing

The old year is fading away like the last few minutes of the setting sun. I’ve spent the past few days listening to talk about New Year’s superstitious. If you’re to ensure a prosperous New Year there’s a laundry list of do’s and don’ts. Does it work? Well, that depends. Ceremonies formalize intention. It helps us focus on actions and actions bring results.

I can’t tell you what your 2018 goals should be. I can’t tell you what you should leave behind in 2017. What I can tell you is that resolutions without actions are just another wish list.

I plan to spend the last day of 2017 creating a playbook for 2018. Each entry will include a goal, actions that will be needed and a blank page for adjusting the actions.

My 2018 wish for you is that your plans are actionable. 🙂

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Thoughts and Musing

The mountains of Appalachia provide a lot surprises. Common sense told me that there are tunnels here and there but I had never spotted one until the day I took this picture. As I look at the image the obvious thought is about the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a phrase that we use when encouraging a friend who’s having a tough time. But, we never really think about what the tunnel represents. The tunnel at Kimberly West Virginia was put in this spot to ease the efforts of traveling through the steep landscape. The tunnel made the path straight and eliminated a grueling climb.

The times in life when it seems like we’re in the proverbial tunnel just trying to make it to the light at the end it helps to remember that it’s a shortcut. Just stay on the tracks and keep moving forward.