About Suzy G

I am a born and raised Louisiana farm girl. I think a swamp is a beautiful thing, that cooking big meals for friends and family is the way life was meant to be, that sweet tea is wonderful and disagree that coffee needs chicory to taste good.

I am a mom to two boys, 6 & 9, who keep life interesting and entertaining. I never knew love could run so deeply until I held my first son. Life, at any age, and any intersection of change, can always surprise and amaze me.

I am passionate about photography almost to a fault. I am always researching, looking, learning, working toward being better tomorrow, than I am today.  I have always loved photographs and sat as a child for many hours looking at all of my memaws old photo albums. I loved how it felt as though through the images I could learn of people long passed. I completely give God the credit for any talent I have been blessed with. I know I have been blessed with both a wonderful job and an important one. I am always honored to be the one capturing the images that will live for generations to come.

I love people, well, really I love to watch people. I try to guess their story, their personality. I think everyone has a story and that it should be told. So there are diaries and journals everywhere in our home. My sweet husband Joe, just wishes I would completely finish one before starting another, but when I see a new journal with a cute front, I can’t help myself. Basically my children will have to rip pages from all of the books to put together their life’s story.

I am emotional, I cry at commercials, and usually at every wedding I shoot, or at least on the way home from it. I love, love and my netflix instant Que is full of romantic old movies, much to my families disdain and frustration. My favorite movie has to be Pride & Prejudice, the new version. It makes me think men should still wear trench coats and stand when a lady enters the room.

I love scrap booking. I think it is a wonderful way to tell the story of a life through words and images. The shelf in my office closet is warped under the weight of the 9 albums it holds. It makes me happy, it makes my hubby cringe.

Music has to be a part of every day. I could never imagine a day with out music and the wonderfulness it brings to life. Sometimes I walk around with my own made up soundtrack in my head, it’s just how I roll.

My favorite radio station is Air One. It’s christian and uplifting. Life is hard enough, I look to find encouragement where ever I can in life, music is one of my absolute favorite ways to turn a day around and make it brighter.

I love the elderly, I look forward to being in their ranks one day. Don’t know if you have noticed, but elderly people, especially the woman, get away with a lot of things us younger crowd could never do. So I say I am Happy to be in my thirties because I am closer to one day being able to pinch cheeks and give an opinion to the younger crowd, whether they want to hear it or not. I can’t wait for the fun it is going to be. On a serious note though, I find elderly people beautiful, absolutely. There is a wonder in the wrinkles that come with age, a story hidden, waiting to come out. To me, they have earned every wrinkle by living their years, and in so doing, they have earned my respect. I find it sad that the younger generation runs from the idea of aging. Beauty can be at any age.

My favorite color is orange, I hate pink but unfortunately have the perfect complexion for it. I am not the girly girl, but I respect fashion. I do still love to dress up on occasion and even my dress shoes are glorified flip flops in one way or another. At least that’s what my family says.

I love hats and have had the same pair of crazy green sunglasses for three years. I wear them so much, I one time sang through a whole church service in the choir with them on my head and no one noticed. They are such a part of who I am, my friends and family just see them as part of me and never said a word. Even our sweet pastors wife didn’t notice them. I may cry when they eventual break. I can’t seem to find a pair like them anywhere. Why Cato’s, why? Bring back my glasses I need another pair before these disintegrate while I am driving .

I love a good sale and will wait for months to find what I want at the perfect price, whether I could afford the more expensive one or not. I refuse to spend more than 2.50 on a box of cereal, no matter what, so I love coupons and my hubby loves buying cereal when I am not there. We agree to disagree, although he says I am adorable when I am mad, which of course makes me mad. We have been together for 12 years. The church girl and the tattooed bad boy, opposites do attract. Don’t worry, he cleans up nice, lets me wear flip flops with my coats in the winter, and he always knows were I left my current pile of bobby pins, so it is true love for sure.

I LOVE books, the written word is a wondrous thing and I finished the whole existing Nancy Drew collection when I was in the fourth grade. Mysteries thrill me but I dislike horror to my core. I don’t read romance novels but have the whole collection of Grace Livingston Hill books. She was a christian romance writer my memaw loved to read and she blessed me with her collection of well read, well worn, cover taped together books. I cherish them.

I grew up with a huge pond in my backyard and loved to fish. Since I left home and discovered you have to purchase a license to fish, I have not fished once. I think I just can’t get past paying to fish, my hubby and kids have no such issue with it, although since they never come home with a very big catch, I am beginning to think I might need to rethink my stance on the subject and join them.

My biggest hero is my Memaw. I used to love running to her house, bursting through the door to get a kiss on the top of my head, it wasn’t long before it was I who had to kiss the top of her head as I grew and she became the one who fit under my arm, instead of me under hers. She always whistled while she work, and she was never not busy, but never to busy she couldn’t give me her time. I loved nothing more as a child than spending the night and listening to her pray. Her relationship with God amazed me and she lived by example, not word.

She got a television before we did. It only had two channels and when we were there we watched what ever came on, which included the Saturday night movie. I think she was in her late 60′s the night she sat patiently with me and my brother and watched Alien. When I look back on it now, I realized she loved us more than we knew. There is a photo of her and my oldest sitting on my desk, always reminding me of where I came from.

Never forget your roots, good or bad, they help make you who you are, whether by encouragement or the will to be different than that which you grew up in. I am a firm believer in never letting those that hurt you, pull you down. I believe you should always push yourself to rise above them. Let them be the force that propels you forward.

I also believe that if you are going to dream, dream big, large than life. Ignore those that laugh at you and give it a shot. If you fail, you will always know you tried. Nothing is ever gained by playing it safe and never taking a chance, regret is always harder to carry, than trying and failing. Life, so like love, is worth really living. Don’t hold back your heart when you love, even if you get hurt, you will still be you, a closed off heart will never bring happiness. In the same sense, if your going to live, then live whole, live all the way, don’t hide. You have one life, so take the chance to dream.

Let me end with my favorite saying,

“Breath deeply, Smile with abandon,Laugh till it hurts, Love without question,Live like life never ends,and Be uniquely you always.”