joshuaSEGRAVES

Exciting news!  July 10-17th, Meg and I will be supporting Amistad Foundation in a mission to support several initiatives they have underway in various parts of Guatemala. We’ll support local missionaries and medical clinics there by delivering much needed medicine and supplies.  In addition, we’ll spend time in both Guatemala City and Antigua on our trip.   We’re going to see a lot of the country during the week and I’ll be there to help document it!  This will be my first time to serve on a mission as a photographer.  I’m really looking forward to it.

We need your help! Any photography sales made during the month of July will be used to offset our expenses in supporting the people of Guatemala.  Anything.  Prints for a session you’ve already had, a new session, whatever.  This is a great opportunity for you to get awesome family photos while supporting the work that Amistad Foundation is doing to feed, shelter and show love to the people of Guatemala.  It’s a win all the way around!

I had the privilage to support Amistad on a mission serving the La Limonada area of Guatemala City back in 2008.  La Limonada is one of the poorest areas of an extremely poor nation. While there we roofed homes, cleaned homes, built a retaining wall, and hosted a Vacation Bible School at a school in La Limonada. The school there is providing education for the children of La Limonada, while meeting dietary needs of the students, and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

It was an absolutely amazing journey.  The first time we descended into the valley of La Limonada, the entire team fell deathly quiet.  60,000 people living in a mile by a half of mile, hastily built on steep, unstable land, punctuated by a river of sewage running through the center of the town.Thankfully, once we got to our destination and got to work, the feeling of despair lifted.  It was incredible to take a step out on faith, having no idea what I would do or say, but to totally trust in the Lord for protection and guidance.  

Here’s a few pictures from that trip:

Razor wire at the Hotel.  Both reassuring and terrifying at the same time … .

Ray enjoys some INCREDIBLE Guatemalan coffee.  They’re serious about their coffee in Guatemala.  People after my own heart. :D

Waiting for our ride at the hotel.

Our first stop was tourist day in Antigua.

Picture of the volcano that is close to Antigua.  We’ll actually have a stop in Antigua this trip as well.  Meg and I are hoping to get a closer view.

The tourist shot.

LOTS of folks peddling goods.

Guns are everywhere in Guatemala.

View of La Limonada.

Soil sample.  If you dig, you’ll find more ….

This is the “river” that runs through the middle of the town.  La Limonada receives virtually no city services.  Since they lack proper plumbing for sewage, they just divert it down the valley to the river below.

Dwayne and Peggy Owens from Amistad Foundation Planning our day with Tita from Lemonade International.

Los ninos y ninias

Supplies

Mixing concrete.  While there, we built a retaining wall for a family who’s front lawn literally ended up in her neighbor’s house.  People in La Limonada scavenge whatever they sell and salvage from leftover raw materials.  Prior to the wall, whatever supplies she had built up would wash into her neighbor’s house.

Posers. :D

Mixing concrete is hard work

This is the family we built the retaining wall for.

If you would like more information about what’s happening in Guatemala, I’d highly recommend checking out the documentary REPARANDO.  Meg and I had the privilege to see a screening of it at John Brown University a few weeks ago.  It does an excellent job looking at the highly complicated socal issues in Guatemala and how the Church is responding to it. 

Continue to check the website in the coming weeks.  I’ll be uploading pictures and info about the trip here.  Thank you all for your support and prayers! ~ Joshua

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Why hike to the top of a 14’er when you can ride a train?!  Wait a minute, why ride a train to the top of a 14’ er when you could hike it?  Maybe for a guys trip. :)

Honestly though, the train ride was a pretty cool experience.  Because of the steep grade of the climb, a special “cog” train is need to climb the mountain.  This parcular rail has been in operation since the 1880s(!).  The entire trip was just over 3 hrs, with a break at the summit for cocoa and donuts.

Come to think of it, summiting Pikes Peak to find a bunch of tourists sipping cocoa and eating donuts would be a bit of a buzz kill.  I guess rail’s the way to go. :D

~ Joshua

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On the trip, up, we had the pleasure of sitting next to the Backhaus’s of IA.  They were wonderful company!

Tickets! Tickets!

One lone tree above the tree line.

Top of the world :)

The attraction to CO Springs for us was to check out Garden of the Gods.  The park is owned and maintained by the city and was literally 10 minutes from our hotel.  There’s a road that drives the perimeter as several miles of hiking trails that criss-cross the park. Locals would use the road around the park to jog or bike(!).  I think I could get into running if the views were like this!

It was a truly breathtaking place.   The first shot is the drive up to the park, taken with my iPhone!

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We had managed to get to CO Springs just after peak color (drat!), but there were still a few stragglers.  One thing that was quite different about Colorado is that the fall color is almost entirely yellow.  They don’t have the variety of shades of yellow, orange and red that we do here in Arkansas, but they also don’t seem to get that really awful brown color that we get when we don’t get enough rain. :)  Some of the low-lying areas still had a few leaves on the trees.

There were lots of evergreens and firs around the park.  They had a really cool scraggly, wind blown look to them.

The rock formations were really impressive.  You can  actually rock climb at the park.  Well have to do that on a future trip. :)

In contrast to the first day at the Air Force Academy, it actually got a little toasty!  Luckly, we had our trusty, manly, pink Nalgenes.

The pic above is my personal favorite from the day. :)

The park was close enough to the hotel that I was able to get there before sunrise and take pictures as the sun came up.  The place just came alive in the warm light.

Back in November, the wife and I took a rather impromptu trip to Colorado Springs.  We were really needing to just get away.  We had managed to find a bargin on airfare and decided, “why not?”.  It was such an awesome trip.  Colorado is BEAUTIFUL.  It was my first time to go to Colorado for a purpose other than skiing.   If we ended up living there at some point, I would not be disappointed. :)

One of the first things after arriving in CO Springs was check out the Air Force Acadamy.  We stoped by the vistor’s center first and took in a quick filck about the life of the cadets there, then took a quick stroll around the musem inside of the academy.  

Honestly, there wasn’t much exciting about the Academy itself.  The Air Force Chapel on campus though, was worth the trip and was FREE (one of our favorite words :)  ).  

Meg and I are on the lookout for our next trip.  Have you gone anywhere interesting lately?  If so, drop a comment below!

Hope you enjoy the shots!

~ Joshua 

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Greetings all!  Sorry for the long radio silence.  We’ve been incredibly busy and I just haven’t made time to post.  In addition to that my old MacBook was on it’s last legs and was disperatly needing to be replaced.  Photo editing isn’t much fun when you run out of RAM and have to wait 5-10 seconds for space to become available.  : /  Managed to fix the slow compy issue recently.  More on that in a future post.  :)

In any event, way back in September, Meg had some kind of a girls night shin-dig, and I was just buming around the house on a Friday evening.  I decided on a whim to go to Pickin’ in the Park on the Bentonville Square.  I’m not sure if they’ve kicked off for this year, but once they do, they’ll meet on the square every Friday evening, and sing the night away.  

I was well below the median age, but no worries. :)  It was a BLAST! These folks were incredibly talented!  I met lots of really wonderful people and really enjoyed just shooting for my own enjoyment.  One of my favorite things about photography is that it forces you to go out and explore your world.  If it wasn’t for my desire to shoot, I probably wouldn’t have even thought to go to Pickin’ in the Park that Friday night.  

Do you have a hobby that opened a door to a group of folks that you wouldn’t have met otherwise?  If so, drop a comment on the post!

~ Joshua 

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Congratulations to Katie and Sam!  It was an honor to get to share your wedding day.  

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Once upon a time, I used to rock climb.  Then I bought a house in May of 09 … . 

Trips are much fewer and farther between now, but we do have the occasional Saturday where good weather + available peeps + no appointments all intercept.

One of my resolutions for 2011?  Climb more!

Best wishes and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

These guys were awesome.  High winds on a brisk day, and they still rocked it.  :)

Here were some of my favorites from the day:

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Katie and Sam came all the way down from Cincinnati, OH! They both grew up in Arkansas and have been leaving in OH for several years now. They were very laid back and were an absolute pleasure to work with.

Hope you all enjoy the pics! ~ Joshua

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