FEBRUARY

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February marked the beginning of “booking season” for me. In between meetings and planning, I shot one of my favorite engagement shoots of the year with Zak and Katrina in Santa Monica. Love these two…

February was also a really sad month for me… my good friend Sean Riedl died. His death really shook me and served as a startling reminder of just how fragile our lives are. The memory of who Sean was in my life, also helped open my eyes to see the importance of laughter. Sean will always be the symbol of “Living the Dream” to me and will always be the voice in the back of my mind whispering, “Life’s not half as serious as you think it’s supposed to be, Berta.”

MARCH

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In the beginning of March, Christopher and I found ourselves on the other side of the globe… in the middle east. This trip was one of the COOLEST things to happen in 2010 and I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that we visited all these places! It put in “real life terms” what it means for God to hear my prayers, and it serves as an exciting reminder that He is a Good God who loves to give us the desires of our heart. Here’s some highlight shots…

Finally arriving in Cairo after almost a whole 24 hours of flying…

Waking up and looking out my window to see the Nile River…

Recognizing this building from the Transformers movie when we visited the Pyramids of Giza…

Discovering that the blocks that comprise the pyramids are, in fact, bigger than me…

Eating a legit falafel in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza… with my future fiance

Seeing the famous Egyptian hieroglyphics for myself… they’re so cool!

Surviving the flight over the Egyptian desert in a plane I thought would fall apart in mid-air…

The view from the base of Mt. Sinai at 4am… with no tripod… but this is still pretty amazing…

The view from the back of my camel ( I named it, Fernando) of the sunrise on my way up Mt. Sinai…

Christopher and his camel a little further up on our trek…

Self Portrait from the top of my camel…

Taking my shoes off on the holy ground we know as Mt. Sinai…

A picture that Christopher took of me while eating lunch by the Red Sea… the same day we hiked Mt. Sinai…

Testing the waters of the Red Sea to see if they’re still part-able…

The fabled entrance to Petra…

The Treasury of Petra…. HO.LY.COWWW….

Wide angle shot.. HA.

Sweating buckets at the Jordan River…

Standing at the entrance of the Damascus gate in the old city of Jerusalem in Israel…

Gleaning from the wisdom of Pastor Bob as we sat on the Southern Steps of the Ancient Temple of Jerusalem…

Sipping delicious coffee every morning at the nicest hotel I’ve ever been to…

Secretly listening to Christopher sing in the Garden of Gesthemane amidst the sounds of gunshots and explosions from across the street…

Our view of the Old City of Jerusalem from the Mt. of Olives…

An over the shoulder shot of two clergymen who appear to have teleported from ancient Jerusalem to 2010….

Worshipping with our group near the Garden Tomb (believed to be the place Jesus Christ was buried) with Christopher leading us…

It was a whirlwind of a trip and I’m SOOO thankful we had the opportunity to go and do what we love… me as the photographer, and him as the worship leader. Such a blessing and we are so thankful!

Right when we got back from our trip, work started back up and didn’t stop until Christmas!!!! These are my two favorite shots from Billy Jack and Alissa’s Engagement shoot in Balboa Park…

And of Chris and Chelsea’s Orange Circle/Peter’s Canyon Engagement Shoot….

APRIL

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As April rolled around, I was elbow deep into wedding season… and was also planning some magical surprises for Christopher’s birthday. The Good Kids had their House of Blues debut and asked me to shoot the concert…. I LOVED the lighting crew there!

For Christopher’s 25th Birthday, I threw him a surprise Harry Potter Birthday Party…. and it was EPIC. You can read about it and see more pictures HERE.

MAY

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May 1st finally came, and with it, Billy Jack and Alissa’s wedding! It was so fun seeing two good friends tie the knot and documenting it was the ultimate privilege…

JUNE

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The Mossy family helped bring in the month of June with a killer family portrait shoot at Osuna Ranch in Rancho Santa Fe.

Then I flew to Texas to surprise my BFF Betsy Lackey for her 21st birthday… we did some fun portraits with her and her friends too…

Betsy also invited me to join her for a Bridal Shoot with this beauty Dayna…. also EPIC.

JULY

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I flew back from Texas, and almost immediately, wedding upon wedding came and went. This wedding, in particular, stood out because it took place at Hotel Maya… an AWESOME hotel in Long Beach, CA. I HIGHLY recommend it!

This little guy had the funniest facial expressions I’ve ever seen in a ring bearer…

Then my Photog friend Hanssie Trainor asked me to help her teach a Socal Photo Shootout, a workshop for new photographers at the Ebell Club. This was probably one of the most terrifying things I did this year. Just the concept of ME… teaching ANYONE… is so weird… I feel like I still have a lot to learn. So I taught the Bridal section of the workshop. Here are some SWEET images of this gorgeous model named Phoenix. It was such a fun experience and I’d love to do this again soon!

Another intense learning experience was shooting more band portraits for the Good Kids. The only reason this was challenging was because we did the first portion of the shoot in the woods in the black of night, armed with only a flashlight, my lighting set up, and a blue lightsaber. I learned a completely new photographic concept for this shoot called “painting with light” to illustrate their new album’s title.

AUGUST

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In August, I launched a new project called “GO | Portrait of a Missionary” where I did a portrait shoot and interview with young people getting ready to head out into international missions… the first of the series was on Becca… who is now on her outreach portion of the trip.

I shot a few weddings, and, at one of them, stumbled upon these two love birds sharing a cute little kiss….

Justin and Bryna’s romantic beach wedding. The sunset that day was unbelievable!

Fun with Bradley and Czarina shooting their “UP” themed engagement photos…

SEPTEMBER

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September ended up being the busiest month of my entire life. I 2nd shot a wedding with my good friend Amanda Patrice, then the following day, I shot Kraig and Eryn’s wedding in Temecula….

Then met Brandon and Tiana on Coronado for an Anniversary Portrait Shoot…

Then, the next day, flew to Winnipeg, Canada to shoot a friend’s wedding with my BFF Betsy Lacky… we ended up being more like guests though…

Then Betsy came to stay with me in California for a week or so and then an unexpected Proposal happened… Christopher asked ME to marry HIM!!! Betsy got it all on camera…

Then, literally the next day, we all drove to Ventura to shoot Zak and Katrina’s wedding…

September ended with a trip to Oregon for a family wedding then to Las Vegas for my family reunion. Like I said… the busiest month of my life!

OCTOBER

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October came quick and as much as I thought I’d be able to catch up from the prior excitement…. it just seemed to keep getting busier. And as we all know, when it rains, it pours. One of the most influential people in my high school and young adult life was a crazy swim coach by the name of Todd Larsen. Todd was one of my first bosses, and a formative mentor in my adolescence. He taught me so much and was my role model for a life “lived.” Todd was yet another person who taught me the importance of laughter, fun, and hard work. His death put a lot of people through the emotional ringer and left us all wondering why, of all people, cancer had to take him. I would not be the person I am today without his influence and mentoring.

As much as I would have liked the world to have stopped for a time so I could catch my breath, it didn’t. It did, however, bring many gorgeous sunsets and warm days to remind me that He is good despite the pain in the world. October also brought some really fun shoots for me… one of which I still can’t get enough of… David and Chelsea’s Newport Beach Engagement Shoot…

NOVEMBER

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Weddings, weddings, weddings. Engagements, engagements, engagements. Portraits, portraits, portraits.

Chris and Chelsea’s BEAUTIFUL Strawberry Farms Wedding…

Andrew and Erin’s romantic Santa Monica Engagement Shoot…

The Botsford’s Lifestyle Family Portrait on Coronado Island…

Jeff and Jamie’s Casper’s Wilderness Park Engagement Shoot…

DECEMBER

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The last shoot of the year was scheduled for Dec. 11th and I was so grateful to not be adding to the pile for the rest of the year. Since then, it’s been work work work, trying to finish everything. Here’s a shot from Michael and Rebecca’s Antique Store Engagement Shoot…. LOOOOVE this shot!

After assessing the highs and lows of this past year, I feel as if the time that’s passed has been decades instead of just one year. And the amount of growth that’s occurred in all areas of my life and business has been HUGE. It’s still inconceivable how far I’ve come since I started Kate Noelle Photography in 2008… and looking back on all the places He’s taken me and remembering all the beautiful faces I’ve had the opportunity to photograph since then is mind blowing. If there was ever a testament clear as day to prove that God is Good…. my business would be that testament. It has definitely NOT been smooth sailing this past year. In fact, 2010 has been one of the most challenging years of my life. But at the finish line of 2010, I can look back at all those times I fell flat on my face, and see that I picked myself back up and I finished the race. He has been SO GOOD to me this year and it’s a shame that most days I allow myself to be too busy to appreciate it. Everything I have, and everything I’ve accomplished this past year, I owe, in its entirety, to the One who gave it all to me in the first place… and I am SO THANKFUL.

It’s now 2011 and I’m excited to see what will happen! Bring on the ADVENTURES!!!

Still processing. So much to think about. So many images to process. Here’s some. More to come. We leave Israel in the morning. To view the gallery, click here. See you on the flip side….

Today I’d like to share something I wrote in May of 2008. It’s something I wrote at the start of a project I was working on in the wake of my adventures in YWAM…. a book of compiled pictures, thoughts, and prayers. The project is still in JUST the starting phase because I set it on the back burner when I began building my business that summer…. but it still tugs on my heart everyday and I wanted to share it with you.

“Yada’—to know by experience. The Hebrews used this word to describe how a man knows his wife after they consummate their marriage vows on their wedding night. Intimate. Exposed. And this kind of knowledge is only gained through experience; no amount of hypothesizing or imagination can substitute. I think out of all the many characters in the Bible, more specifically the Old Testament, Moses was the one person who had something even remotely like this kind of knowledge when it came to his relationship with God. Exodus 33 tells us “As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. When the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow down in front of their own tents. Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend (Ex. 33: 9-11)”. I want that. How amazing would that be to have such a relationship with God…face…to…face. I wouldn’t have to feel like these heroes of faith in the bible were products of then, and I, here in the modern context of things, am somehow too different and too insignificant to house the capacity to have such a knowledge of what God can be like. Just because Moses and David were one in a million, doesn’t mean I can’t be. Who knows…maybe they’re the only ones who had courage enough to entertain the thought that they were wired for something bigger than themselves and that this God of their ancestors was actually more real than they could comprehend.

I am, by no means, a Moses or a David. I am not even close. But I refuse to think that just because I live in America in California in Orange County in Irvine in a two story house with a car and a family and a pool that I can’t be a Moses or a David. I reject the notion that I can’t hear His voice because there are so many other things vying for my attention. I reject the notion that I can’t move with the Holy Spirit because only holy people like Pastors and monks know how to do that. And I reject the idea that I can’t be used in such a way, that centuries from now, people will refer to me as a woman who met face to face with the living God. In the name of Jesus Christ.

I recently read these words: “we all believe in God’s power to change the world through others; we just struggle to believe in His power to do it through us” (Pete Grieg, The Vow). So true. I think it’s a difficult thing to wrap our minds around because we grow up reading these amazing Bible stories about how God parts the Red sea and Jesus raises from the dead and the apostles performed miracles, and yet we don’t put two and two together that it was reality. We can learn the theology of what we believe, we can study the life and teachings of Jesus, and we can read all the books we want on the subject, but there’s something to be said about the phrase “you’d have to be there.” I do have to be there, or at least, I prefer to be there.

So, This is my journey, of sorts, learning from being “there”….and “here”, that I can be used to change the world…and from these lessons, experiencing Yada’.”

The reason I’m sharing this with you is because I’m about to embark on a seriously AWESOME trip…. following the footsteps of my man Moses. On March 9th, I will be flying out of Los Angeles with a group of 50 people from Horizon Christian Fellowship, and we’ll touch down in the place where it all started… Cairo, Egypt. From there we’ll be visiting pyramids, the sphinx,  St. Catherine’s Monastery (the place rumored to have been the site of the burning bush), The Red Sea, Petra, and through the ancient land of Moab to Mt. Nebo. We’ll also be spending the 2nd part of the trip tracing the footsteps of Jesus in his last days. We’ll be visiting the Mount of Olives, Garden of Gesthemane, the house of Caiaphas, the wailing wall and the rabbinical tunnels. And the last part of our adventure will take us to Bethlehem, then the Garden Tomb, and a few other historical sites.

I find it amazingly curious how this whole trip has been orchestrated… I’m in awe of this opportunity that’s been presented… and I’m STOKED to have this chance to use what God’s given me to experience such an amazing part of the world!

This isn’t just a trip I’m going on. I want you to come with me! My job on this trip is to be the photojournalist, documenting what I see and feel and the places we experience. It’s also to keep a blog as we go so you can experience these amazing places with us! Make sure to check back here as we take off on March 9th…  and experience the Middle East in the Footsteps of this man who knew the living God… face to face.

My hope is that this trip will bolster our faith and change the way we read the scriptures…. that we might draw closer to the heart of the living God and experience Yada’.

(Warning: Before I was a photographer, I was a Pre-Medical student majoring in Biology. I loved every second of it and yes, I’m a geek in real life. If science freaks you out, don’t read this post.)

The Oxford American Dictionary states that Entropy is: “A thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system’s thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness of the system. Also defined as a lack of order or predictability.” In other words…. Entropy = Change.

Something that never fails to freak me out a little bit is the concept of change. Not only is change constant, but it’s something that, if you allow it to happen, can overwhelm and inhibit your life. You’d think that we’d figure it out and adapt since it’s a constant. I guess some people are better at adapting to change than others.

Interesting fact though… Entropy = Fire. The heat lost in fire dissipates and therefore cannot be retrieved or put back into a compact object for further use. I think it’s funny how, of all the outdoor activities, the place all the worries and stresses dissipate most is around the campfire. As I sit around the epitome of change with friends, talking about how much change trips me up in life and recounting all the good times that have since changed, I stare into the fire (change) and it mesmerizes me… it calms me… and all my cares seem to burn up in the dancing flames. (Hopefully you followed that…)

There you have it… I love hate change. I love it because it gives me the chance to become who I want to be. I hate it because change FORCES action whether I’m ready for it or not. So this Thanksgiving season (post-Thanksgiving season) I’m thankful for Entropy… on more than one level. I’m thankful that change has happened this year and I’ve grown so much because of it. The beginning of this year started me off with a bang… I was drop-kicked into being self-employed when the coffee shop I worked at closed for economic reasons. Things changed. My business has changed so much since I first started in August 2008… and I’ve had more opportunities this year than I had ever dreamed. Things changed. I am not who I was last November. Things changed.

I hope this holiday season, you have the chance to take inventory of all the entropy you’ve encountered this year. Remember who you were last November… what your biggest worry was… who the most important person in your life was and why… what your dreams were… and compare it to where you are now. Did your biggest worry get resolved? Who was the most important person in your life and are they still? What changed? What were your dreams last year? Did you take action to make those dreams come true or did you push them off as “unattainable” and let them fade away? What made you choose what you did? And… how can you learn from the change that occurred last year? Are you going to let another whole year pass without pursuing your dreams? I would hope not…. because I’m definitely not going to let that happen in my own life. This year has been HUGE… and I only anticipate that 2010 will only make life even more crazy awesome.

Lastly, for your enjoyment, and since I’ve come to realize a blog post is waaay better with pictures, a little family mini shoot for you: Meet The Urbina family… Jamie and Rachel, and their ridiculously awesome son Wesly.