So why was I outside, sitting cross legged in thigh high grass, wearing my best satin dress and praying whatever I had just walked through was not poison ivy?
Well, I’m making a CD.
There is a lot to the process: recording, mastering, marketing, clear or cardboard cases, cover art . . . .Currently, we are working on cover art. Which is why I spent Labor day afternoon in a photo shoot with the very kind and very professional Bryan Chris of Bryan Chris photography. Visit www.bryanchrisphotography.com and Bryan Chris on FaceBook.
We began in his elegant 
downtown studio where he had the challenge of trying to light some very attractive ladies–my three harps: Jocelyn, Sigi, and Claire. Meanwhile, I tried to relax with some facial calisthenics.
As a theater person, I have developed the habit of warming up my face with some rather wild expressions. Between shots I would scrunch my lips, nose and eyes all to one side of my face. “One of these times, I’m going to catch that,” Bryan would threaten. I realized that a photographer is the only person who can make that old threat come true, “Don’t frown or your face will stay that way!”
Bryan had several brilliant ideas–literally brilliant. He positioned lights behind me to give a flair in the camera. It accidentally dazzled my curious eyes looking at one of the four flash bulbs just as he was testing it. The light bulb in my brain didn’t go on until the one in front of my face had already flashed!
Then we moved outside to the rolling hills of Bonneyville Mill. With the wind blowing my dress over glowing grass and the harps shining in the evening light, it was a perfect picture. But to get that perfect picture I had to haul my harp up a very tall hill, sit in sand and walk through what was probably poison ivy before I noticed it. Brave Bryan actually lay in the underbrush and my faithful mother was bracing the stand for the outdoor light with her whole body. I was a little worried that the picturesque wind would pick up the light defusing umbrella and send my mother over the trees like Mary Poppins!
So that is why my best satin dress is in the laundry room waiting for me to brave the anti poison ivy fabric treatment.
I joke about my face staying in a silly expression. But it is true that the more we practice an expression or and an attitude, the more likely we are to fall into that expression in odd moments. Therefore I want to practice looking into glory, because while it can be blinding, it is the best way to get the look I want to achieve.
2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is t
he Spirit.