You might remember my photos a couple months ago from the youth conference my church puts on every year called Future Quest. I posted images from the first two days, but on the third day, I was the one up on stage.

We worked so hard for many months on this video, and I’m really proud of the end result. I think it’s incredibly powerful and moving, and the rest of the cast did an amazing job!

Enjoy!

Day 2 of Future Quest was a lot of fun…especially the concert-Phil Wickham!

Lots of favs from Day 2!

More inflatable fun:

Plus, Pastor Mark’s son Neil leading this crazy plastic glove blowing up contest-and you had to blow it up with your nose! I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time!

More awesome worship by Cedar

And a good message by John Hoffman….and how can you go wrong when you use Nacho Libre as an illustration??

Aaaannnnnddddd then it was time for Phil Wickham…..please excuse my over abundance of images from his show.

Each year in June, after school is let out, my church (Foothills Christian Church) puts on Future Quest-A 3 day youth conference filled with tons of fun activities, awesome general sessions and equipping breakout workshops. This year I was asked to help out with capturing the greatness that is Future Quest.

It was a really, really fun time being able to be on stage capturing worship, speakers and bands. (Including Phil Wickham on day 2!)

Here are some shots from Day 1:

Fun inflatable stuff for the kids to play on!

A dance competition…some of the kids were REALLY good!

AWESEOME worship band Cedar always brings rad worship

Chris Hill brought a great and relevant message…and he was hilarious to boot!

And finally, we ended the night with a rad Run Kid Run show!

Yep, I’m on crutches right now, and it really sucks! I’ve got a really bad case of patello-femoral pain syndrome, which is a fancy phrase for runner’s knee, which basically means that my kneecap is tracking diagonally when I walk and run, instead of straight up and down. This rubs my knee’s cartilage raw and in my case I think it’s even bone rubbing on bone when I bend my knee. OUCH!

So I went to the doctor on Monday and have been on crutches ever since. My knee’s feeling much better than it was, so I’m hopeful I can be off crutches tomorrow or Saturday. Good thing I don’t have any weddings! (Not that that would stop me…I’d rather be dying of pain than miss a wedding!)

I’ve learned some things while being on crutches though, and I thought I’d share:

- Crutches are exhausting! I’ve been sleeping better these past few nights than I have in awhile, thanks to lugging my body weight around with my arms all day.

- To tie in with the above, crutches are an EXCELLENT arm workout! My triceps especially are feelin’ the burn, but my whole upper arm’s muscles are firm all day because I keep using them. I feel buff. haha

- It’s okay to ask for help! After almost spilling several cups of water and tearing the towel bar from the wall trying to catch myself from falling, I’ve learned that its totally cool to ask for help carrying something when you’re on crutches, and people don’t mind helping you because they realize that crutches suck!

- You make lots of friends. Seriously, random people will come up to you and ask what happened, or tell you they totally sympathize with your knee injury (I got a brace from the doc so people can tell it’s my knee) or just agree with you that crutches are lame.

- You learn to think if really creative ways to do things, like sitting on your butt and pulling yourself up or down stairs. Or carrying things in your mouth when there’s no one around to help you. Or having all your bathroom stuff brought to the downstairs bathroom so you don’t have to kill yourself going up to yours.

- Showering is infinitely harder!!! We have 2 types of showers in the house-one that’s also a tub, and one that’s strictly a shower, and I can’t decide which one’s better. The shower-only one has that handle in it that I can grab to steady myself once I’m in the shower, but it’s REALLY hard to get over the little ledge to doors are one because it’s wet and I can’t jump in. The tub shower is easier to get in because I can sit and just swing my legs in, but there’s nothing to grab onto once I’m in. Conundrum!

So, as I said, hopefully tomorrow or Saturday I will be off of crutches, though I’ll still have to wear the brace for awhile all the time, and then just when I’m running. In the meantime I guess I’m relegated to the bike and the elliptical!

Biggest lesson learned: lift weights when you run otherwise your quads won’t be as strong as they need to be when you run and your kneecap will track out of place.

I’ve got a confession to make: I’ve had a Live Journal for EIGHT YEARS. No seriously, I really have. I got it senior year in high school (well now that just makes me feel old) back when you still had to get an invite code to get one. Kinda like Gmail in the beginning. It was mainly to vent the frustrations of a high school senior, but I’ve actually mostly kept up with it through the years and now it’s really fun to go back and venture into my past. I do it often when I’m feeling nostalgic. Or bored.

Today I was perusing in April of 2004 and I’ve pinpointed the exact day I decided to be a photographer.

April 29, 2004:

“On another note, we had our critique in photo today and everyone loved my pictures I put up. ^__^ It made me feel really good about my photography skills. I think I might want to explore this a little more. I don’t know how viable it is for the future, but I really really love it, and I’m doing pretty well on my own without help from the teacher.”

How neat to be able to go back and see the very day I decided to do what I do! It’s been a long process, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

And because blog posts are no fun without pictures, here’s MY senior picture; how I looked when I first made that journal. (apologies for the bad scan, I scanned it when I was like 19 lol)

I must have been extra lucky in Vegas or something, because I won all kinds of neat stuff! No, I didn’t win any jackpots or anything, but I did win some cool stuff some great vendors were giving away!

Colorati was giving away t-shirts at a party I was at. These were to be worn around on the tradeshow floor Tuesday and if we were spotted, we got an iTunes gift card plus an entry into a drawing for other stuff. I didn’t win the other stuff, but I got some free music and a rad shirt out of it! =D Plus, I learned that Colorati is local (well, as local as Carlsbad is to El Cajon lol)

I attended a talk by JB & DeEtte Sallee and they were giving away some I Shoot People Tour shirts. They say “I Shoot People” with a little camera clip art at the bottom and are too cute! They were throwing them out into the crowd and I actually caught 2 (well, one hit me in the face when I wasn’t looking) but I gave away the second one to the girl sitting next to me.

Wednesday night I attended a dinner for members of Modern Photographers, a really amazing organization I’m involved with that promotes modern and ultra creative photography by well-respected and qualified photographers. As soon as the senior photography section launches, I’ll be running that section of the site, and I’m super excited about it! Mark Eric, the genius behind Modern Photographers, had a bunch of shirts for everyone, so while I didn’t “win” so to speak, I AM really really excited to be working with him and Modern Photographers, so I thought I’d give it a mention. Plus, you seriously can never get enough free shirts!

Edit Team threw a fabulous party Monday night at the Peppermill Lounge. It was really retro styled, so of course I loved it. I dropped my business card in the drawing pile, seriously not expecting anything (I NEVER win anything, after all!) and I won a full wedding edit!!! I wasn’t even paying attention when they were calling names, because like I said, I never win anything, so they had to yell it like 4 or 5 times before I even noticed. lol In fact, I think someone I was with noticed before I did! lol

Studio Cloud is really really cool studio management software that helps photographers get super organized and together. I’ve been thinking about it since last year, when I saw them at WPPI for the first time. I stopped by their booth again this year and they were having a cool drawing for either an iPhone or a lifetime membership to Studio Cloud. Your entry was determined by spinning either an even or odd number on their prize wheel, and I spun an entry in the lifetime membership box. Well I got an email today and…..I WON A LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP! I’m seriously telling you I never ever ever win anything, and to win all these awesome things in the span of a week is totally mind blowing and such a blessing!! I’m really excited to start with Studio Cloud and moving forward all invoicing and such will be done through that.

Thank you so much to all of the above awesome vendors for having drawings for free stuff. You all rock!

The Chargers loss has put me in no mood to do a happy cheery video this week. (Really, I just don’t want you all to see my tear-stained, makeup smeared face. hahaha) I’m just so let down!

- Cardinals

Okay, I am now rooting for the Cardinals…really anyone but the Steelers, but the Cards are as big of an underdog team as the Chargers were, and I always love an underdog story. Plus Kurt Warner’s a pretty cool dude. Go Cards!!

- 85 degree weather

Okay, I’m sorry to brag about this to everyone back east where apparently it’s literally freezing all day long, but we’ve been having some awesome weather this week and I’ll just add that to the list of reason why San Diego RULES.

- WPPI!

If you were around the blog last year in March, you’ll remember that I spent a week in Vegas at the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention in Las Vegas. Well this year it’s in February and I can’t begin to express how excited I am to see all my cross-country photographer friends again, and meet new ones! Besides being one big giant party, there’s all kinds of amazing speakers, get togethers and shooting opportunities to be had, and I’ve been looking forward to this since I went home from last year’s. Super super super excited!!

If you are reading this right now, and going to WPPI, then we must get together! Send me an email (alyssa@hybrid-photography.com) with your cell # and we will make sure to hook up! I can’t wait to see everyone!