My Inspirations

My parents. 

This is their wedding day....one of the best days for the whole family. 

They are always there to guild and support me and are my best friends. They are both true inspirations. Intelligent, fun, loving, and just flat out awesome. I honestly cannot find a better word then that..my parents are just cool! I hope someday I can follow their footsteps into being as wonderful people and parents as they are. I'm so blessed to have parents that I feel comfortable enough to talk to about anything. They always push me to go for what I want in life and to choose happiness and health.  

My Grandparents

My Grandparents have been with me every step since the day I was born. My Grandma is such a peach, and everyone who knows her would agree. It never fails when I introduce her to someone and they say "Your Grandma is so cute!" She also gives the best hugs and can never fail to put a smile on your face. My Grandpa is one of the hardest workers I know and is something I really look up to in him. You don't meet too many 87 year old's that are still working as hard as he does. Shoot, he is a harder worker then most people I know that are under the age of 30.  I was pretty blessed to have grown up with such fun and loving grandparents. 

That wonderful man I call mine. 

Do you see this handsome man? Let me first tell you..I was a creep and took this photo off facebook, from his Mom's facebook page to be exact. However, before we went on our first date and were just talking online while I was in Mexico I was in love with this picture. That smile..I knew I would fall in love...& look what happened! I still get butterflies when I see his smile.

I have never met someone as intelligent, sweet, strong, and understanding as he is. I cannot express to you how blessed of a girl I am to have him in my life. Everyday he does or says something to amaze me. I love how comfortable I am when I'm with him and how I don't feel the need to be a different person. My weaknesses are his strengths, I learn so much from him. There is no way I could ever give this up. We are going to stay strong through a long distance relationship and make it work, don't you worry. 

Sunday Inspiration

Photography books. 


It was a Sunday Morning well spent.
The rest of today I knew I had to study hardcore for my placement test and took the morning to relax.
I decided to lock myself in my room with a Chai latte and my photography books.
These books give me inspiration and excitement of having my work published into a book someday.

In Portland I would love to spend my time in Powell's bookstore and get lost in the photography section.
When there weren't creepy men going nuts and drooling over the nude photograph books. Made things awkward.
Once I found a postcard leading to someone's photo project, it was interesting to say the least.
Click here to read the blog about the stranger's secret hidden in my book


My collection so far makes up of  these six books.
Places by Jim Krause- "Ideas and inspiration for creating professional-quality images using standard digital equipment"
Face Time by Patrick De Wilde- This book has photographs of many faces from different countries. Something I hope to do one day. It shows the true beauty of the people and their culture.
Citizens of the Sea... National Geographic- I had an obsession with intense sea animals for awhile. I was hoping to take photos underwater while in Mexico. I thought this book would be a good inspiration for me, exploring the deep blue ocean with my camera. I chickened out though.
Annie Leibovitz At Work- This wonderful book shows the photographs she has taken of the famous. She tells stories behind the photographs and how she made the photos in her own words. You get a real look of Annie behind the lense.
Pilgrimage by Annie Leibovitz- If you are an Annie lover like I am this is highly recommended. Not only is it filled with amazing photographs but it goes into depth about the photos and the history of the places she traveled.
Vanity Fair The Portraits..A century of iconic images.- It's a true beauty. It is simply large prints of portraits from Vanity Fair telling the year it was taken, the photographer, and the subject. My goal is to memorize all of the photographs, the year and the photographer. I'm sure I've narrowed down Annie's photographs.

Someday I'll get there.
Someday my work will be printed onto pages of a book and stories of my photographs will be written and read.
 Someday I'll inspire other photographers too. 

Sunday Inspiration.

A photograph with awareness

Most everyone knows I'm confident with who I am and the body I have. I do have my days though, days like these where I wish I was thinner. 

Days like these I look at the photograph I have hanging on my mirror that I've had for a couple years now. 

I cannot tell you which magazine I found this in...but it's always meant a lot to me. It sends a message that everyone should have awareness about. 

When I got these photo I was more worried about my body being thin, I was not as confident as I am today. This photograph made me click. Ever since I found it it's been mirror and reminds me of how I am healthy and inspires me to be happy with the body god gave me. 

Sunday Inspiration. V.3

Joni Kabana

When I was in Portland for school my photography instructor would always bring in guest speakers, once we had a wedding photographer, a food photographer, and this lovely inspiring lady, Joni Kabana. I can not tell you how much of an inspiration she was to me. I was so moved by her and her work that I was in tears, she was doing the things that I have been dreaming about. (I forgot that I really did cry, I looked back at the e-mail I sent her and said I was Mariah Baumgartle, the red head that was in tears, guess she did move me that much)

She has been doing street photography and traveled to places like Madagascar and Ethiopia to take photographs. She is a lady with a huge heart and amazing photographs. I have always wanted to go to places such as Africa and take photos of the people there. I want to go to places who are in need of help and show that awareness through my photographs.

She told us a story of how she photographed this girl in her studio, later after seeing the picture she was crying and told Joni how beautiful she thought she looked, she never thought she was beautiful, she had horrible problems with her husband. It's things like that I want to do with my photographs someday, make people realize how beautiful they are and let them have their time to shine.

One thing I remember that she does is take photos of people on the street, she gets up close and personal to them too. You know those people that just seem and look so interesting? I've always wanted to get photos of them but never knew how to approach it, I am still scared to just take photos of people on the street for fear of what they might do. She has a way of being able to do it though.

One of my favorite projects she does is called "Children's Cancer Association" she takes portraits for children (& sometimes with their families) of children who live in serious health conditions. The photographs are so beautiful and moving. As she was telling some stories she was in tears.

After I went back home from her talking I had to send her and e-mail and tell her how much she inspired me to go for what I really want to do. She e-mailed me back saying how happy she was to get my e-mail and that she was really busy getting ready to go to Ethiopia but to go to one of her events so we could talk more. Sadly, I was not able to make any of her events. I am hoping that when I visit Portland it will be a time she is having an event.Not only is she amazing at what she does but she has such a drive and a passion for her work. She told us before she left to just go for what we dream, don't worry about the money, if it makes you happy, then just do it.

She does so much, more then I could ever explain!

Here is the link to her website, you should seriously check it out: jonikabana.com

Sunday Inspiration. V.2

givesmehope.com

I almost forgot how happy this site makes me.

For those of you who don't know about the website...it's a place where people write small stories about what gives them hope. It's just like FML but for optimists. It is a really great website to visit if you are ever having a bummer day day. It makes you think about how beautiful life is and the people it is filled with.

Here are a few I found today that I love.

• " A boy was dying of cancer and needed an expensive brain surgery, but his family, broke and desperate, couldn't afford it. His 8 year old sister Tess took her piggy bank savings to a pharmacist in order to buy a 'miracle.' It just so happens that the right man witnessed the little girl's tears at the pharmacy counter: a neurosurgeon. He performed the surgery for free"
• "My little sister came home from school one day and demanded I take her to the library so she could get books on sign language. I asked why? She told me there was a new kid at school who was deaf and she wanted to befriend him. Today, I stood beside her at their wedding watching her sign..."I DO."
• "A week before my junior prom, my cousin died in a car accident. She had wanted a yellow prom dress, but the one she picked out was blue. I planted pink flowers in her memory (couldn't find yellow), but they died in the frost. They flowers re-budded and grew back yellow."

Here is a personal story of mine.

There was this girl I knew from one of my classes, she did not have very many friends, was extremely shy, and quite a unique person. I use to sit by her in my class and befriend her. She was telling me how she didn't know if she would go to our upcoming dance because no one asked her and how shes always wanted to go to a dance. When my date and I arrived to the dance I was surprised to see her there, she looked so lovely! During one of the slow dances I noticed she was standing alone and crying...she had no one to dance with. Our prom king from junior year asked her to dance, I can remember just how happy she looked.

Is anything inspiring to you on this Sunday?

Sunday Inspiration. V.1

I'm sure you noticed that this is now "Inspiration Sunday." instead of my normal "Sunday song."

Since I'm getting into this blogging even more now then I ever did I'm still trying to test things out and how I really want to run my blog and what things I want to share with my readers.

Instead of posting a song on Sundays I think I'm going to share with you blogs, people, video, photographs, or anything I really find to be inspiring in life. I want to share with you stories and things that really uplifts my spirit and dreams and I hope it does yours as well.

My first Inspiration Sunday will be about "The Traveling Triplets"

This is a blog about triplets who well...travel the world. They share the things they have done, places, to go, tips about being there, and great deals for tourist type things.

One of the triplets happens to be a photographer/videographer. Her and her husband lived in Ecuador for 6 months doing service, photographing, and taking video. They really inspire me of what I want to do in life.

I have a dream to travel the world and photograph the amazing places and people while doing good in the world at the same time. I hope to contact Kylie sometime soon and talk to her about what inspired her to do what she does and how she got to where she is in life.

Here is one of the videos they did which wraps up their 6 months in South America

Enjoy! & you should really consider checking out their blog.

Click here!