The Thief

"The Thief Comes"

I went to my first bible study last night since I have come back to Christ.

The woman there were so wonderful. Full of Gods love, they seemed so holy.

I felt unworthy, like I wasn't as good of a Christian as they were.

I felt discouraged and almost felt like I would give up on the Bible study thing.

Then God reminded me of "the Thief." ( Satan)

Just a few days ago I read this from the book "Come Closer" by Jane Rubietta:

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."( said Jesus in John 10:10 ) An intruder creeps into the house, bent on destroying the very life Jesus offers. This is not petty theft- some cat burglar sneaking around for our silver candlestick or a loaf of bread. This is outright murder. This enemy will lie, connive, depress and suppress us, snuffing out life's sparks at every opportunity. He will try to twist our longings, convert them into something shameful, and use them to lead us into death, deception, decay, and sin."

It was the devil telling me I wasn't good enough. The last thing he would want is for me to go to a Bible Study, so he fed me lies. I knew then that I was equal in Gods eyes to every girl in that room. I hadn't had christian fellowship in well, never! So it scared me, and I bought the lies. But now I know the truth and will definitely be there again next week :o)

Be aware of the thief!

Much Love <3

Exhale B&A

I just finished editing a shot, "Exhale" and I really wanted to share the process with you. I played with flashlights tonight as my lighting for outside. Out of probably 50 shots this was one of the few that came out pretty interesting. The smoke was awesome. I thought it looked odd that you could see my arm holding up the flashlight so I did some cropping. Here ya go:

Before (Original) During

After (final edit)

as you can see I cropped quite a bit, and took my arm out of the photo. It's amazing how you can change the feel of a photo with a simple crop. You would never think that I'm holding a flashlight up in the air from looking at the final edit. I never used to crop my images, only to make them square format, but my last few shots I tried cropping a large amount and was very pleased with the result.

Ok I'm goin to bed, Much love as always!

Before and After

I never wanted to show a before photo of mine because I feel it takes away from the magic. But I remembered how happy I always am to see a fellow photographers before and after, so I decided to share :o) I chose one of my latest called "He Whispers In Her Eear" Enjoy!

Before:

After:

Oh I may be going on Missions Trip to the Dominican Republic, very excited!

Wanted to share a passage from a book Im reading by Jane Rubietta called "Come Closer"

"So today, I hold out my empty, open hands to Jesus and wait for Him to wrap his nail-scarred ones around me. As he picks up my heart and spins me about, my laughter mingles with my tears, and I whisper through a trembling smile, "Im here. I come."

Much Love,

Cheryl

My Motion Collection

All of these are Self Portraits

Copyright: Cheryl Maida

My first blog

I have never considered myself a "blogger" infact I even hate the word. But here I am! Sucked into the neverending world of computers and their gadgets. I would like to tell you a bit about myself.

I am 22 years old and reside in Connecticut, USA. I used to do some modeling, which is where the name "Payton Guerra" came to be. For some reason I didn't want to use my real name when I started. I had always loved the name Payton, and used Guerra beacause it was my grandmothers last name and have always felt closer to the Puerta Rican side of me :o) The other side is Italian, where my real last name Maida comes into play.

Cheryl Maida is my name - call me what you wish. I have photographers that still call me Payton so its become a part of me.

After deciding to stop modeling I wanted to bring my real name out. I am very proud of my work and have worked very hard to get at the petty level I am today. I am self taught. I have taught myself photoshop litterally through trial and error. I will continue to do this until I have learned all the wonderful tricks :o)

Hm.. I wanted to get the name thing out of the way and I've done that, so I guess this concludes my very first blog entry. I Love you all and hope to get a gallery going on here of my work. Along with updates and even some outtakes.

Much Love,

Cheryl ( Payton )