Fighting Back

I am really getting tired of seeing pictures of Jesus portrayed in pornographic pictures lately on FB. It gets me really mad especially because nothing I say will make these pictures go away, so why not fight back and put up inspirational pics of Jesus =) anybody is more than welcome to join me if you guys want. In a way it's like fighting back ;)

Suicide

Having somebody close to you being killed (homicide) really hurts. Most cases, nobody knows when they are going to die but in some few cases, people plan their own deaths and take action upon them to kill themselves and this is called suicide.

People usually commit suicide when they feel that life is not worth living anymore. 

This feeling of ending the life of your own can be caused by many things including

• any kind of abuse including sexual, drugs, alcohol, etc…
• stress and/or overwhelming depression 
• bullies at school or at work or even on the streets
• no self love

They believe that they can't take it no more therefore they decide to end their suffering but little do they know because their minds are being clouded by evil is that an immense suffering is awaiting them if they do decide to end their lives.

Here comes the TRUTH !!!! 

Suicide is a one way ticket to HELL !!! and the main reason is because Satan is a murderer and a father of lies as it says in John 8:44

Here's what people may think before they commit suicide, "I don't want to live anymore, my life is not worth all this suffering".

Then they commit the act of suicide and because of that are committing the act of not honoring the SIXTH COMMANDMENT "Thou shall not KILL". Once you kill yourself, you cannot ask for God's forgiveness because it is already too late. You are also rejecting the fact that Jesus died for you so you shall be saved.

Imagine how long you have lived up to this point of your life, whether you are a reader that is in your teens, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's or even 60's.

In comparison, the time we spend here on Earth is nothing but a quick blink of an eye to the infinite lifetime of where we are going to spend out eternal life.

Seriously imagine being engulfed in flames for a few seconds… now minutes…now days, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 100 years, 1,000 years, 100,000 years…

When I say eternal life, that means infinite lifetime, there is no limit of how long you are going to burn, that is forever for billions and trillions of years and even after those billions of years, there is no ending after that.

Luckily for you and for the person who is thinking about committing suicide. Jesus died for our sins and through accepting Him as our personal savior we can spend eternity in heaven.

Here's what Jesus said about the devil in John 10:10.."The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" 

If you know anybody that is going through hard times, pray for them and tell them to pray to God because just as God said in Matthew 11:28… "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened , and I will give you rest"

Why give up on yourself when you have God that never gave up on you before even after all your mistakes, so if you know somebody that is going through hard times and is thinking about suicide, talk to them tell them life is worth living and direct them to a pastor so they can pray for him and her.

Special thanks to J.R =)

" & when I count my blessings, I count you twice" =)

" & when I count my blessings, I count you twice" =)
Days weather like todays makes it easier for one to become more gloomy, but then I started counting my blessings and I feel much better. Staying positive is the way to be and listening to great christian music helps as well and praying to God for guidance is a biggie. Stay blessed y'all !!!

My New Way Of Living

As many of my close friends and family know, I am trying to go back to church. It's been an ongoing battle between the flesh and the spirit. The wants of the body are hard, but are they really?
What good does alcohol, sex, and drugs can really offer someone other than a high that lasts for a few hours. What comes from sin? Better yet, ask yourself real quick and think about it for a couple of minutes of what has been the outcome and consequences because of sins that you committed in the past.

While the wants of the spirit is craving for me to pray and and have a communication and close relationship with God and also by reading the Bible.

The spend we time here is a mere speck in the long timeline of where we are going to spend eternity. My new sister in Christ sent me the following video for which I thank for putting a lot into perspective for me…

I'm not perfect and nobody is. There will be times where I will mess up, no doubt about that.
I just ask kindly if you can keep me in your prayers for strength and guidance.

Pics That Tell A Story

If it's one thing I love, it is for me to capture a moment that literally tells a story.
For example:

The picture above was taken in one of the last few warm days of September of this year (2011)

it is pretty obvious what the guy in the picture I took was trying to do, because I was doing the same thing he was doing earlier was to capture the reflection of the buildings on Michigan Avenue on the bean. After a few shots I moved my camera to the right and I thought to myself, why am I capturing a refection of beauty when the real beauty is in front of me, and no, I was not talking about myself because guys are handsome, not beautiful ;) I was talking about the beauty of the skyline that was in pure awesomeness in front of me instead of being reflected and its true beauty by a reflective mirror that is covered in handprints and is not as clean as it should be. 

In other words, when I captured this moment I called it, "Guy that is too busy concentrated on a refection of beauty while I see the real beauty in front of me" =)

The pic above was taken by me in the same night. I really love how there is so much going on in one moment. I was lucky enough to capture this moment when the flash went off on another persons camera. Not only that but there is a couple in the background sharing the nice weather and being in each others arms..and other people taking pics. But as I see it, I saw the bigger picture =)

This last picture above is a love/hate kind of pic. Obviously I love it more than I hate it but the only part I dislike is the motion blur displayed because the individual wouldn't stay still…

butin a way, that is why I love it because they were not posing for me, they were just photographers as I trying to explore new ways to shoot at night.

In order to best view these pics, please click on each one.

When You Point At Someone, You Have 3 Fingers Pointing Back

Its true, point with your hand and look at it =D

Regardless of the irony that is being shown in front of your eyes, apply it to your life.

I've been judged so many times that I could care less what anybody says about me. I'm not perfect and I know the person judging me isn't either, so that is why I don't let it bother me.

I know I may say really really stupid stuff sometimes, but that is because I usually don't think before I say something,lol ( but I'm trying to get into the habit of thinking before I say something)

Regardless of what I put out there online or what comes out of my mouth.. does not mean that is who I am. Most people don't know anything of how I am at home and how I am a big component to my family's well being.

As long as I know that I do my best to take care of my family, I can care less about what people think of me.

People are quick to judge and enjoy talking about negativity.

People don't see that I could be selling drugs but I don't, but I do be on my grind with these photography shoots.

Most people are not gonna say.." Oh, I'm proud of you Obie for doing something productive".

But they will talk behind your back if you do something destructive.

So to those people, all the judging they do is never going to change who I am, only God will.

Haters

We all have them one point in our life's or another. Best thing to do is to learn to embrace their negative and turn it into positive. For example, if you are a girl and you know you are looking fresh to an event and you feel and look sexy but as how girls are real catty to begin with, they will stare at you up and down and side to side trying to look for a flaw in you to talk about. They know the dress looks marvelous and that is a fact but haters will always talk and say stuff like, "who does she think she is to wear that?", "she is too skinny/fat for that outfit" and so on.

The way to turn that negative feedback into a positive is to remember that you are wearing that outfit because you like it, and it makes u look sexy, therefore making you feel sexy. The fact that you caught someone's attention whether it was negative or positive is letting you know that you stood out from the rest.  All females are not nice, but if you do receive a compliment, embrace it ... if you receive the opposite or worse of all, a girl whispering to another girl while looking at you then you should realize they have nothing better to do than to be criticizing you just to make themselves try to feel better about themselves. We are all the same under God's eyes, her feces smell as bad as yours so why let yourself think for them to think they are better than you.

One thing that gets the most criticism which includes bad criticism is "ART". I'm not talking about just painting but artistically involving things such as Music, Painting, Poetry and in my case Photography.
When it comes to art, you put your work out there. If you are a singer, you are gonna project your beautiful voice out loud for everyone to hear. If you are a painter, you are going to paint a heartfelt painting and post it in a gallery for people to be mesmerized by your creation. My job as taking photographs, is to capture moments and that is what photography is  all about . Some bring back memories, some make you think, some make you smile but what photography mostly does is make you "FEEL". If you see a baby picture of your grown up child, it is going to make you feel joy and remember how it felt to carry him or her in your arms and when you look at him or her all grown up, it will remind you that they will always be that baby that once always relied on you for everything.

It is important to know the difference between criticism and constructive criticism. A person that is critiquing your work constructively is analyzing on how you can improve or become a better artist. They will say negative but also say positive feedback. Haters just focus on the negative.

So that being said, let the haters hate ;)