M e e t t h e p h o t o g r a p h e r s : Me - Alexa Taylor-Jay Ogilvie from my Taylor Jay Photography https://www.facebook.com/taylorjayphotography/ & Kelsey Bailey from Kelsey Bailey Photography!! https://www.facebook.com/Kelsey-Bailey-Photography-247736875434016/ Kelsey and I have been shooting along side each other for over 5 years now!! She is Uplifting and I am Unstoppable :):) Together we have done TONS of dual shoots together and each time I feel we have created such a positive and amazing experience to those we photographed. It's always SO MUCH FUN to work with her and I'm SUPER STOKED to show our very first BIG photography project to you!! Picture credit for the 2 pics of me: Kelsey Bailey Photography B a c k s t o r y : The creative vision for this photo shoot came to me while I was watching youtube.com a little over a year and a half ago. I have recently been listening to youtube as I edit my TJ photo sessions and it's really helped me be more creative in my own work just by seeing the creativity that has been coupled with presenting my favorite songs here and there through their music videos. I am so fascinated with how the videographers use and particularly place their angels, the creativity behind the stories they tell and the happiness radiating from those in the music videos. It has greatly helped me in how I photograph and with my creativity as an artist!! ONE music video in particular caught my eye and I felt it was truly inspired :):) The music video is Most girls by Hailee Steinfeld. I love the lyrics, the whole vibe of the song, Haliee's beautiful voice and most importantly the empowerment I felt for myself from watching her music video!! I immediately opened up my youtube web tab to view her music video, since I hadn't ever heard her song before. It popped up on the finale of her song, the part where all the women, including Hailee, are in white t-shirts, jeans and they all have a power word in black across their t-shirts. I IMMEDIATELY felt a BIG IDEA coming on!! I watched that part of her music video at least a hundred or more times and each time I felt more empowered. I wanted to recreate this in some way!! I wanted to empower women to love themselves and the skin they've been given without apology just like in the music video!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBB_QOZNEdc I couldn't seem to get that song out of my head. I kept dreaming up a photo shoot that I could help women sky rocket their journey to self-loving instead of the normal self-hating!! I HATE that this world says we need to change to fit in. Our clothes are never good enough, never expensive enough, you will never have the perfect hair, don't even try cuz you will ALWAYS look fat, you should be tanner, you should get botox EVERYWHERE, you should get every surgery cuz you... just the way you are will NEVER be enough!! Why do we let the world and Satan get in our head like that??!! God made us, each of us, just the way we are ON PURPOSE AND FOR A PURPOSE!! There is NOTHING wrong with any of us!! We are Spirited. We are Believing. We are Positive. We are Authentic. We are Gentle. We are Warriors. We are Fearless. We are Unique. We are Passionate. We Rise above. We are Strong. We are LIMITLESS. I wanted to help empower women into believing, TRULY BELIEVING that!! I knew I couldn't do this project alone. I prayed so hard to know who to ask to help me fulfill this vision of mine. I was within minutes told to ask Kelsey Bailey. I knew IMMEDIATELY that was the right choice!! I contacted her the next day and she quickly responded, "Oh my gosh!!!! That sounds AMAZING!!! I'm so excited!!!! Yes yes yes please!!!! I'm so down!!!" :):) We got started on it right away and she helped me turn this idea into an INCREDIBLE one!! Together we dreamt up something we were both proud of and we made the idea SOOOO MUCH BIGGER. It was SUCH a positive experience from start to finish collaborating with Kelsey Bailey from Kelsey Bailey Photography!! Every step, all the hundreds if not 1000's of messages back and forth, all the time, energy, effort & money that went into this was on purpose and for a purpose. We just couldn't WAIT to help these girls, whoever they were, wherever they were, see themselves the way Christ does. Our number one goal was to Uplift them, bring them to a higher ground and show them they are personally Unstoppable!! We started with stories. We each asked, in our own way, through a model call, for stories of hardship, for trials. I wanted to know why so many women self-hate instead of self-love. What was the reason behind their intense self-hating? Why did they feel they needed to change to be accepted by society? Why don't they feel they can change that false opinion of themselves and see themselves how Christ sees them? I received over a dozen stories each so truly heart breaking, most brought me to tears and I wanted to help them ALL!! Kelsey and I prayed so hard about each woman who contacted us or who we contacted. We were lead to these 12 women. We each ended up asking 6 girls to model for us and within a few short weeks, we had all our models. Excited, nervous and feeling filled with the spirit of the Lord we started on this amazing journey together. All 14 of us. Each woman that will be highlighted in these coming blog posts was chosen not by us, but by the Lord himself!! We were simply his helping hands to make it happen. It was an INCREDIBLE experience to talk that closely with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I just wanted to fulfill His vision the best possible way I could and I feel we achieved that with the Lord's help!! We asked the girls to each think, pray and really dig deep when deciding on what word to have represent them. We asked them to choose a word that they felt was one of their biggest STRENGTHS that God gave them!! We wanted them to showcase their best quality and be proud to wear it across their heart!! To celebrate that special gift given to them from God!! We feel each girl truly chose the right word for them!! We then asked our 12 girls to write their story about WHY they chose that word. WHY it is important to them and thank the Lord for gifting them that very special gift. They each paraphrased what they have gone through in their life in their journey to finding their own self-worth. They each talk about their individual trials and why they feel the word they chose empowers them to go through their trials with courage, strength and optimism. They are all so incredible and brave!! Brave enough to share their hearts, trials and triumphs with the world. They are truly inspiring and I can't wait for them to inspire and help you too!! I felt a little while later that the white t-shirt, jeans and empowering word were only the beginning. I saw the music video for Carrie Underwood's Love Wins and I KNEW that's exactly what we were missing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Py8OWAMkns In the finale of that music video they throw colored chalk and it's truly incredible to watch!! I messaged Kelsey and she loved the idea of throwing color for the finale of our photo shoot!! She said, "Oh I LOVE that. Yeah I'm down for that. Lets do that. Have it be a CELEBRATION OF BEAUTY!" and with that our name for the photo shoot was born!! These 12 girls are truly inspiring, they are courageous, they are loving and kind. They're helping "put a world that seems broken together again!!" Their stories will touch your heart, you'll cry with them and celebrate their victories with them. They have found their purpose, they are able to truly see themselves as God sees them, they love who they are and we can't wait to celebrate ALL of this with you too!! So over the next few weeks we are planning to post two BEAUTIFUL women a week. We will post their stories, their light and their beauty through our images <3 <3 You will get to know each wonderful woman personally, you will be able to connect with them on a deeper level and hopefully see yourself more positively through their inspiration and honesty!! All of this was done with the intent to not only help these girls but to help women ALL OVER THE WORLD to start self-loving. To realize they're not alone, that we all feel inadequate sometimes and that's ok. As long as we don't stay there. To celebrate the beauty that is all around us and be happy for others' successes. To STOP comparing and start showing love to everyone you come in contact with. We are all made by God and He truly loves us all!! T h e W h y : I have always been so fascinated with why women hate themselves. Why they are constantly down on themselves. Why, when they look in the mirror all they see are their flaws. Why do we let Satan control how we feel about the beauty GOD GAVE US??!! We were made my God on purpose and He doesn't make mistakes!!!! We are ALL beautiful and it's ok to celebrate that!!!! It's important we celebrate that!!!! So I wanted to help women, all over the world, to start self-loving. To be happy in the skin they've been given. To support each other, to build each other up, to realize we NEED EACH OTHER!! As sisters in Zion, we need each other. I can think of no better way then to have a Celebration of Beauty!! U p N e x t : Over the next few weeks you will get to experience each girl's heart, her beauty and her inspiring story. We will highlight each woman one at a time. They will each have their own spotlight for a few days <3 <3 You will see new images from this photo shoot twice a week!! Both Kelsey and I will be posting these images onto our blogs. Please make sure you check out Kelsey's blog for her take on our Celebration of Beauty photo shoot and to see her GORGEOUS images as well!! https://kelseybaileyphotography.weebly.com/blog You will get to experience each girls' journey towards her ultimate goal of self-LOVING!! We are SOOOO very excited to share our entire Celebration of Beauty with you!! I will also be posting on my Taylor Jay Photography Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/taylorjayphotography/ so be sure to check out and 'like' #ALLTHETHINGS!!!! A special thanks to ALL OUR BEAUTIFUL MODELS!!!! We couldn't have done this without EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU LOVELY LADIES!!!! THANK YOU a million times over for helping us fulfill a very big dream!! Left to right: Kyla Cecil Shaila Baker Steffani Rowley Cassie Firth Kiri Martin Amanda Lundskog Marcee Carlton Lauralee Hill Mindy Johnson Alexandra Scherzinger Karen Fullmer Christee Schofield Photo credit for the photos of Kelsey and I: Shaun Schofield I couldn't have done this without Kelsey y'all!! That girl is AMAZING!! She's so inspiring, spirited and Uplifting!! She has the BEST ideas and knows how to bring them to life. I was so grateful the Lord told me to ask her. I couldn't have done this, on this great of a scale without her!! THANK YOU KELSEY!!!! Kelsey and I chose words for our white t-shirts too!! I chose the word UNSTOPPABLE. I am NOT defined by my wrong choices, by my sins, I am defined by how God sees me and the potential He KNOWS I can become. I chose the word UNSTOPPABLE because of this quote I recently found: “I tried to throw in the towel, God threw it back and said, WIPE YOUR FACE. YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!!" I am Unstoppable!! A very special thanks to Shaun Schofield with DOZE Videos for being our videographer and documenting every AMAZING & BEAUTIFUL moment of our Celebration of Beauty photo shoot for us!!!! Thank you Shaun!!!! You are soooo INCREDIBLE!!!! Check out & subscribe to Shaun's Youtube.com channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsu0f8IJm3Nv7UpnjElRPdw Do yourself a favor and go 'like' his FB page!! https://www.facebook.com/dozevideos/ HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I dare you to watch this without tearing up ;) Heroes (we could be) Alesso Why I chose the second verse <3 <3 ANYBODY'S GOT THE POWER They don't see it 'Cause they don't understand Spin around and round for hours YOU AND ME WE GOT THE WORLD IN OUR HANDS Everyday people do Everyday things but I Can't be one of them I know you hear me now WE ARE A DIFFERENT KIND WE CAN DO ANYTHING!! We could be heroes We could be heroes ME AND YOU We could be heroes We could…
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