I LOVE my wife and kids! I am so blessed. Very tired with a newborn and very busy with two active and social boys, but very much blessed and in love! I am REALLY trying to keep focused, keep first things first and am determined to not look back on this season of my life and regret the way I lived it. My children will only be young once and before long they'll have plenty of other options, but right now I am their first choice! O LORD help me to live wise! So little matters that we live and strive for and it's so easy to overlook that which matters most! I think hell will be a place where we'll always know what we could have had, should have had but we refused to choose it! As a wedding photographer I'm reminded how precious little ones are and how fast they grow up. I see mom's and dad's doing their father daughter and mother son dances and you can always see in the tears what they are feeling. Most often the tears I witness are one's that say to me "O how fast you've grown, I desperately wish I could go back and relive it all over, only this time I'd do it more carefully!" Rarely, but on occasion I have the privilege of witnessing those that are simply crying tears of joy! Joy, because they raised them well, without regret and now they see the fruit of their love and sacrifice as their little one has found their own love! I'm sure every parent has a little of both and I'm not always discerning things correctly but I just know I want to look at my little one's as they grow up and not look back with a bunch of regret because I wasted my life trying to impress or do so much for others (or rather myself) that I neglect that cherished moments on today! Today this manifested in letting my boys help me prime my deck. Can I tell you that it's really, really hard to get dried primer off of a 3 year old!!!! But we sure had fun working together. 4 times they both said "Dad, thanks so much for letting us paint with you, this is alot of fun! So, though I sure have alot of drips and high spots on my deck, they'll only remind me of how fun it was to do it together! Thank you Jesus for my wonderful wife and kids!

I love being Karsyn's dad. It's quite an adjustment but so good!

As my blogging tells, she's keeping us quite busy.

A star is born!

Here is a quick snapshot of Karsyn's first commercial shoot!

It was for an insurance company out west but was filmed here! It was pretty cool to be on a live set and see how they do stuff~ One cool thing they did was make it seem like day time when it was pitch black outside. Anyway, enjoy the shot!

She was a pefect angel, slept the whole time and has been sleeping great at home too!

Thank you Jesus!

Well we are settling into to home now with our new little bundle.

She's a great sleeper so far, we need to work on it at night though! She's kinda got it backwards, but not as bad as brayden did so I think we'll survive.

Funny quick story. We were being considered for karsyn modeling for a commercial that needed a baby, but they said we were pushing it too close to her birth etc. So they picked two other babies instead. However, I sent her pic anyway and they contacted us and said, "We canceled the other two, we want Karsyn!" Soooo, I assume that my bias has nothing to do with how cute she is!!!

We are headed off to watch the Buckeyes at grandma and grandpas house. We have the cutest little onesie (sp?) for her to wear that has buckeyes on it!

God bless you all!

Speaking of "God bless you all", have any of you read "Irresistable Revolution"? Wow, gotta read it, it's really making think about all I have, do, possess and access and asking tough questions about it all.

Also, if you haven't done so, please consider going to www.thirstrelief.org and sign up as a monthly donor, it's so easy and so effective. One $5 a month contribution will save a life every month! That's a life time of water for one individual for ony $5. Each month someone new will receive a lifetime of water! If you want to understand more about how $5 can really save a life read about it on the home page of www.thirstrelief.org

For real, God bless you all!

Introducing . . . Karsyn McKenna Hicks! 7lb 3oz, not sure how long but cute as can be!

Pray she stays as easy as she is so far! She's nursing great, beautiful and very happy so far!

If pregnancy wasn't so miserable and dangerous for lara we'd probably have more! Wow, 2 hours or so of contractions and 2.5 pushes and she was out! Dr. Raymond is an incredible Dr. and did a great job!

And I'm sooo proud of Lara, she's such an amazing woman and it was so wonderful to experience this together. After it was all done and visitors faded, we had the most amazing time in the birthing room just sitting and enjoying as we turned the lights off and enjoyed the sun coming through the window and we just sat with our little girl! What a hard road this has been but so worth it! Thank you Jesus! For real, thank you Lord! What a gift from above.

We are soooo in love already! More pix to come in the future. I'm off to the hospital!

Wednesday around 2:00 p.m.ish we expect to meet Karsyn face to face! Karsyn is our new little daughter that we are so excited to meet! I really am crazy excited to meet her. Honestly I'm a little afraid it wont be a her as my friends Mike and Kim Lotz thought they were having a girl too and it turned out to be a boy!!!! Our Dr. say's he's 99.9% sure and our boys were very obviously boys when we did the ultra sounds with them, soooooo, we'll see! Either way we'll be very excited to meet Karsyn or Carson :)

Now, a tribute to the beautiful woman that helps me look good in the photo above! My wife Lara. Wow, what a woman. She has been through a pretty rough ride with this pregnancy. Not sure how many of you know the details but she gets incredibly sick during her pregnancies to the point of total bed rest and in home care just to keep her from vomitting! She ended up this time hospitalized (was previously too, but before it was hydration related) this time she had an infection in her leg where she was receiving her anti-nausea meds. It turned very ugly, very fast. She could have easily lost her leg or have died! Dr. Raymond sent her to a specialist immediatly and they hospitalized her right away. Then, while in the hospital she almost died due to an allergic reaction! Our friend (and creative assistant) Anne Marie called her in the hospital and woke her up, she realized she couldn't breathe as she was passing out. So she hit the nurse button and a ton of Dr.s came rushing in and were hooking her up to a bunch of stuff etc. and going kinda crazy! They said "good thing your friend called you honey!" Well, she made it through and has just been dealing with the general overall misery of pregnancy that "most" women experience I think (though i hear some bizzare stories about those that actually feel better pregnant!" All that to say, Lara, I commend you, honor you, love and respect you for carrying three of our babies even through the misery of it all! I love you and so appreciate you for all you have and will do! Thank you. I'm excited to have a daddy's girl!

And YES, we do plan to be done, we're all about adoption from this point forward!

Quick Question for anyone reading this.

Would you be ticked if this image came to you in an email, unsolicited but as the result of signing up for Columbus Bride magazine? (Advertisers receive free access to their mailing list and I've never done anything with them until now, and only cause we've had so much fun shooting these sessions we figured we'd market to those that may or may not have been happy with their wedding pix. Not our couples of course :) but for those that maybe couldn't afford our wedding coverage but would still like a similar style only on a weeknight shoot!)

Anyway, I'm excited to shoot the sesssions for those that were happy to get it! No offense was intended if you did receive it and didn't want to. (this goes for any photogs that could be offended too, I've not had any negative response from any but I thought about it later and thought "Hmm, that could be offensive to a photog too if they think I'm trying to take their clients away from them or indicating that their work wasn't any good."

I did a Sr. Port session the other night. I had hoped to do alot of outside stuff too but it was just raining like crazy. I suggested we reschedule but they wanted to go ahead with them. We actually did a few shots in the rain too but I like the studio stuff best.

Anyway, Jackie is a super sweet girl and it was fun to get to know her and her mom!

This has been a pretty big week for Ashton! Tuesday was Orientation at Kindergarten (I seriously cried like a baby. It was very hard for me to send him off to school and still contemplating alternative ways to educate.) I actually heard a great quote from John Wimber "I don't mind education so long as it doesn't get in the way of learning!" This can be very true when a child doesn't learn affectively in a traditional "education" model. Ashton is definitely a artist who reflects much of me, my parents say he's EXACTLY like I was at that age. (artistic, talkative, creative and managing, he's always orchestrating something and getting others to help him fulfill his plans.) Anyway, we'll see where that goes. I have so many thoughts on this, but I'll save it for some other time.

On Wed. we did a daddy date and went crawdad hunting for hours in the river! What an amazing time. Ashton kept saying to me "Dad, this is soooo fun. I'm so glad we did this!" I even blitzed on an important conference call as a result of not having my watch or phone with me in the river. It was absolutely worth it and they were incredibly gracious in understanding.

Then the first and second day of kindergarten and a lost tooth! Enjoy the pix above they are of the first morning of school and the lost tooth. The last pic it's hard to tell but he's holding his tooth on a string.

I'm so blessed.

Karsyn is on her way in less than 2 weeks! Keep us in your prayers.

WOW! That's about all I can say! Wow!

We just finished the first ever Davis Photography, Davis Tools Seminar!

It was titled "Summer Revival Seminar" and that it did! I can't tell you how fun it was to hang with some amazing people and grow and learn together as we discovered and shared knowledge on lighting, capture, editing/workflow, album design, (a favorite of the attendees,cause my wife rocks!) business sense, marketing and cause marketing and more! It was awesome!

I'm gonna post a little show it web show later that incorporates all the images from attendees and all! Also, I'll post links to their websites!

Thank you Mike Lotz for all your help! You rock! Also, thanks to Rob from Encore! And thank you all who supported our event by giving some great hook up pricing on some cool products! Bludomain, Show it Web, theknot, Me Ra Koh and our very own ActionRunner!

Also, a big thank you to our amazing models Devon and Rachel and Elliot! You guys were amazing!

Last but not least, thank you to all who attended! I'll be posting links and our group shot soon!

God bless you all,

Jim and Lara

We are so excited to do our up coming seminar!

So far we have attendees from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and . . .

Congratulations to Linda Turnbough for winning bragging rights for the farthest traveled so far for the Summer Revival Seminar on August 27th and 28th.

She's coming from Texas!

3 Seats are still open! If your serious about taking your images and business to the next level or even just getting started in the business of photography (especially weddings) then you will certainly have spent your money well.

A little over two years ago Lara and I, along with our friends Greg and Jennifer Gibbs and Gary and Karina Sammons and with the help of Mike Colon, David Jay and many generous donors, started an organization called Thirst Relief International. Our mission "Together saving lives and changing the world." How, by providing LONG term pure water solutions to those around the world that are dying simply because they lack access to clean water. WATER is one of the most abundant natural resource available to man, yet over 1.1 BILLION lack access to it. Often it's running in abundance right outside their door in a contaminated river, or it's 30 feet below their feet in an underground spring. However, without the proper tools to access and or purify this water these people are sick and dying. Nearly 25 MILLION deaths ANNUALLY are attributed to water borne diseases. So, why do I write this today? To call others to action! Inspire and say that WE can all make a difference if we simply care and are willing to help make a difference in this world. Since it's inception Thirst Relief Internatinalover has proivded 20,000 people with access to clean water, this from just a simple idea that is helping to change the world.

Two years ago it was a handful of friends giving of time, money and energy to start a revolutionary water project, now it's a network of children, professionals, churches, businesses, individuals and our field laborers that continues to grow and make a difference around the world. How can you get involved?

CLICK HERE to watch an awesome video by Nickleback that will inspire you to find someway to get involved in making a difference in the world!

Click HERE to see the promo video for my upcoming seminar! REGISTER HERE!

So my buddy from Lotz Photography asked me if I wanted to go downtown and do a bridal shoot that he could video and make a promo piece from for us for the Summer Revival Seminar! Of course I said "Absolutely! Let's do it!" So he provide the true married couple and all of us (lara, me, mike, kim, ashley and cody) headed downtown!

We had such a great time!

Here are some of my favorites from our time together.

Enjoy!

I'll be demonstrating the editing techniques that I did to this image at the seminar!

http://www.davistools.com/

I'm finally doing it! I've had so many people contacting me asking for training opportunities and if I would mind helping them get started in a photography business that I decided to do a seminar. This seminar will be for both working professionals that want to take their business and images to the next level as well as a bonus session that will focus on a quick start guide to starting a wedding photogaphy business.

It's gonna be great!

Click HERE to learn more.

Here are a couple more shots from the studio portion of my shoot with Brit and Andrew. I am so loving doing more studio work now that the old carriage house studio is almost complete!

I just had the privilege of shooting engagement pix for Brit and Andy! What a great couple! I am really excited to shoot their wedding! should be a great time!

Here's a shot to enjoy.

God bless you guys. I enjoyed getting to know you guys.

Today I had the privilege of doing some studio work for Dan "Beard" Banks. He's a great voiceover guy and you can see his site HERE. Crazy thing is, is that his wife Georgia was my 4th grade teacher! Awesome couple!

I liked this one.

My son Ashton came in the other day and said "Dad, look I drew a Thirst Relief International picture. It's you, taking a water filter to a little boy."

I love having a dream job like photography that allows me to be more philanthropic than just entrepreneurial.

I'm so excited to spend the next few days on vacation enjoying my family and God!

Enjoy the pic. (I added the logo of course.)

Click HEREhttp://www.prophotoshow.net/blog/2007/05/26/pps-31-pro-photo-roundtable-talking-tech/#comment-524 to listen to the Pro Photo Show round table talk.

Around the 27 min. mark you'll hear Gavin Seim the Host of the show brag on ActionRunner 2.0!

Pretty cool.

In the last 9 weeks I've shot 7 weddings!

Why am I not stressed trying to get them edited before we leave for vacaion?

Because if I don't have any major technical problems etc. I'll have them all edited an ftp'd to pictage within the next 10 days. Granted I've already edited 3 of them but with the speed of ActionRunner editing is a breeze. I spend more time selecting my pix and provide my clients with more better pix as a result. It's so smooth.

Here is a screen shot similar to what the new 2.0 for PC version will look like. I'm hoping it's available online in the next 30 days or less.

God bless,

Jim

What are you afraid of?

Sure some are afraid of spooky stuff, dying, failure etc. but most of all, what really cripples us is the fear of others. What they think of us, what they might say, if they'll accept us or reject us.

In the entire history of the world there has never been, nor will ever be anyone that has reached their FULL potential while still holding onto the "fear of man" or what others think about them.

As I'm putting together my thoughts for a possible photo seminar I'm compelled to face this reality.

We will NEVER be all that we are created to be as photographers or anything else in life if we live by our fears and what others think of us!

WOW, WHAT A WAKE UP!

I don't believe for a minute that the "good old" days didn't have flaws and there are always ways we can improve upon what we have. And I don't think that the Bible or Christianity should be forced upon students etc. We live in a multi cultural and diverse society. But we have gone to an extreme by completely trying to eliminate any trace of God and morality from our school systems. I think the following below really puts it in a concise pattern and clear thought flow that makes alot of sense.

Enjoy. Jim

____________________________

Dear God:

Why didn't you save the school children at ?. .

Moses Lake , Washington 2/2/96 Bethel , Alaska 2/19/97Pearl , Mississippi 10/1/97 West Paducah , Kentucky 12/1/97Stamp, Arkansas 12/15/97Jonesboro , Arkansas 3/24/98 Edinboro , Pennsylvania 4/24/98Fayetteville , Tennessee 5/19/98 Springfield , Oregon 5/21/98 Richmond , Virginia 6/15/98
Littleton , Colorado 4/20/99 Taber , Alberta , Canada 5/28/99 Conyers , Georgia 5/20/99 Deming , New Mexico 11/19/99 Fort Gibson , Oklahoma 12/6/99 Santee , California 3/ 5/01 andEl Cajon , California 3/22/01

Pennsylvania 2006

Virginia Tech College 2007

Sincerely,
Concerned Student
-----------------------------------------------------
Reply:
Dear Concerned Student:
I am not allowed in schools.
Sincerely,
God
------------ ----------------------------------------------
How did this get started?...
-----------------
Let's see,I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools.
And we said, OK..
------------------
Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school,the Bible that says "thou shalt not kill,thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbors as yourself,"
And we said, OK...
- -------------- --
Dr. Benjamin Spock saidwe shouldn't spank our children when they misbehaved because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem.
And we said,an expert should know what he's talking aboutso we won't spank them anymore..
------------------
Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators saidno faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued.
And we accepted their reasoning...
------------------
Then someone said,let's let our daughters have abortions if they want,and they won't even have to tell their parents.
And we said, that's a grand idea..
------------------
Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway,let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school.
And we said, that's another great idea...
------------------
Then some of our top elected officials saidit doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs.
And we said,it doesn't matter what anybody, including the President, does in private as long as we have jobs and the economy is good....
------------------
And someone else took that appreciation a step furtherand published pictures of nude children and then stepped further still by making them available on the Internet.
And we said, everyone's entitled to free speech....
------------------
And the entertainment industry said,let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence and illicit sex...And let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes...
And we said,it's just entertainment and it has no adverse effect and nobody takes it seriously anyway,so go right ahead.
------------------
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, classmates or even themselves.------------------
Undoubtedly, if we thought about it long and hard enough, we could figure it out.I'm sure it has a great deal to do with...

"WE REAP WHAT WE SOW,"

On May 30th, Scott and Jenny Shine will be taking off on a 5000 mile self supported tandem bike trek!

There journey is twofold:

1. Raise awareness regarding the world water crisis.

2. Raise funds to help save lives and change the world.

3. (secretly Scott say's there is a third "get out of my cubical :)

There journey will take them from Washington state across the northern border of the US and Canada, down into Michigan and south from there until the loop back up to somewhere in Utah.

This incredible journey is unbelievable and we commend Scott and Jenny for their efforts in this journey they are about to begin!

Scott and Jenny will be riding, camping, cooking, riding, camping, cooking, maybe stopping by the Oprah show if that works out, did I mention riding? Anyway, they are doing the hard part!

All we need to do is help them by:

1. Raising awareness ourselves via your blogs, friends, churches, networks etc.

2. Sponsoring Scott and Jenny on a per mile basis.

You can lear more about their journey at www.teamhydrate.net

100% of all their procedes go directly to Thirst Relief International and you actually make the donation at our site www.thirstrelief.org

If your wondering why your reading about this on your photographer's blog it's cause I serve as the volunteer President of Thirst Relief International

Introducing . . .

Thirst Relief Bottled Water!!!

If you or anyone you know wants to order some water for your business, church, event or home please contact Greg Gibbs at greggibbs@thirstrelief.org. All of the procedes that come from the sale of this water directly benefits Thirst Relief International.

We also sell it as a wholesaler to larger businesses or distributors (ie. gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores, you name it!)

Here is some cool buzz about our business and what technology we use!

Check it out by clicking HERE!