Pursue.

That was the theme for this summer's FCA camp. For me, it was a trip in pursuit of photos to deliver to the FCA Support Center for marketing purposes. But for many, it was a week of God pursuing his children, leaders pursuing their students, and athletes pursuing what it means to compete for Christ.

Having the opportunity to attend FCA Camp as the corporate photographer was incredible. I had the opportunity to meet the band (ever so briefly), have conversations with leaders and coaches, and even run one day with the cross country kids (running always breeds great conversations, so that was incredible!). It also was a time for me to gain more exposure and experience in various areas of photography. I was sent to camp with a desired shot list, including action shots, worship and spiritual aspect shots, posed shots, interactions with coaches and players, interactions among different players, and a few others. It felt overwhelming, but exhilarating. I was constantly on the lookout for photo ops. I took over 4000 photos in the three days I was at camp... I have never taken that many photos in one setting before. It was awesome, and exhausting.

While at camp, I was reminded of a few things:

1) We must serve with an attitude of gratitude. The moments I was most joyful and most blessed were the moments I remembered how great of an opportunity this was, how incredible it was to be able to witness these moments, and how awesome it was that I was getting paid to do this.

2) Diversity is real, beautiful, incredible, and unforced when in the body of Christ and truly in a posture of worship. During one of the evening worship sessions, every player in the room had their arms around their neighbors. Gender, race, age, background... none of it mattered. They all were there to worship the one true King. I choked up at such a stark reminder and example of what Heaven will be like, and it was so beautiful.

3) You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Like I mentioned above, I took over 4000 images. Even still, there were moments that I missed! But I also took some shots personally as I seized opportunities to build connections with people at camp. It would've been really easy to be the photographer that just faded into the background and never spoke to anyone... but God had other ideas. Being able to connect and laugh with players and coaches reminded me how much I love athletics, how much I wanted the opportunity to coach, and how much I just love working with high school students.

I can't post all the photos here because that would be crazy. So enjoy a few of my favorites: