Vanessa Embling » A blog about my life & photography

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  • WELCOME!

    I love photographing people and events. I love telling stories with pictures. I love watching people and capturing emotions and feelings in an image. I love to have fun. And Laugh. And be silly.

    I am an endless wanderer and my middle name means 'bringer of light' so I try to do that wherever I go! I lived overseas for three years doing humanitarian photojournalism, which was a dream come true. I am now back in the U.S. establishing roots and figuring life out.

1.29.13

A pep talk from the kid president

Um, WHAT!?  I love this!!  My awesome friend Bethany shared this with me and it made my day.  Feeling down, just watch this video.

A few of my favorite lines:

The world needs to stop being boring.

Life is a cereal.

This is life people!  You got air coming through your nose!

Not cool Robert Frost!

Don’t stop believing, unless your dream is stupid.  Then you need to find a better dream. -Journey

Space Jam

We got work to do.  We can cry about it.  Or we can dance about it.

You were made to be awesome.

So get to it!!

She’s fightin’ cancer… like a BOSS!

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January 30, 2013 - 11:00 pm

Bethany Cox - the best

March 4, 2013 - 7:51 pm

Lorena - that’s an awesome and inspiring video, very funny too 🙂 love it

1.28.13

It’s so hard to say goodbye…

to yesterday… Can’t you just hear the boyz II men song…??  A classic.

I have my quirks, I know.  I’m so grateful for all those close to me that love me and my uniqueness.  My good friends from Boston threw me a ‘Farewell Party’ last night and it was amazing.  So many people came out to share words of encouragement, share memories and to say goodbye… or so long… or see you later… We ate food, we laughed and we cried.   Here’s the video of the skit they did – to roast me.  It was awesome and gave us all a good laugh!   I’ll post some other things from the night later…

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10.8.12

Columbus Day – A New England Tradition

Today is Columbus Day – the day I make sure I’ve enjoyed ‘Fall’ in New England properly – every year.  It’s a ‘holiday’ here and as tradition has it, we drive up to New Hampshire to have brunch at Parker’s Maple Barn.  We usually have to wait to be seated for 1 to 2 hours so we all play football, eat maple glazed donuts, wander through the gift shop, stroll the trails and take pictures of each other.  After we’ve stuffed our bellies with pumpkin pancakes, yummy hash browns and maple flavored coffee we head towards home, stopping off a road-side farm to pick up pumpkins, fresh apple cider and take a gander through the sun flowers and apple orchard.  Today I got to bring my friend, Bethany, of Bethany and Dan Photography – she was my ‘road dog’ and we had a blast of a road trip and of course, took lots of fun photos!  Here are a few from the day!

Mum’s the word… hahahahha

Below: This is the prettiest, most perfect rose I’ve ever seen (spotted at Lull Farm, NH)

 

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October 9, 2012 - 5:05 pm

Bethany Cox - This is awesome and you are SO right about that rose. Thank you for inviting me.

10.2.12

A shout out to The City

I lived in New York City for about 4 years – I went to college there at the Fashion Institute of Technology.  I followed my dream of pursuing fashion design and walked away with two hard-earned degrees… one in fashion design, one in direct marketing. I love ‘The City’ as New Yorker’s call it – it’s full of life and buzz and energy.  It can also be a ‘concrete jungle’ as Alisha Keys sings about.  I am so grateful for the time that I was able to live there, to go to school and to work there.  It’s an incredible city.  A few months ago I headed back to visit my Grandfather who lives fairly close to the city – so I decided to take a detour and drive by my old apartment and visit my favorite park on the edge of the Hudson River (on the Jersey side) that looks out at the island of Manhattan.  It’s so good to just stop and remember and reflect on the blessings God has showered on me and where my life has come and gone and all that he has brought me through – the good and the bad and the ugly.  I never would’ve believed you had you told me when I was younger what the last 15 years of my life have been like.  And I’m eternally grateful.  Most of all for the firm & steadfast walk that I have with my Maker – it truly is the greatest love of all.

 This is the view from the park looking towards the southern tip of Manhattan.

69th St and Blvd East – my old apartment – great memories from here!!

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December 17, 2012 - 3:20 pm

Hans - Nice photos of the city! I’ve enjoyed checking out your work!

9.22.12

I’m a Camping Diva

When we were kids, my dad used to take us camping all the time. I have very fond memories from those camping trips. My dad is a camper extraordinaire. Sometimes we slept in tents… sometimes we had the pop-up camper… but he always had his propane stove and all the fixin’s for elaborate breakfasts and dinners. He also brought his guitar and we would all sit around the campfire at night and sing ‘Kum ba ya‘ and ‘He’s got the whole world in His hands’ and songs of the like… I’m not kidding people. It was awesome.

Fast forward many years, I’m older and a little bit more set in my ways and the comforts of home. I was super excited when I heard that some of the singles at my church were planning a camping trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire and I jumped on board. I quickly started tapping shoulders of friends to see if I could borrow camping gear – because I own almost none. So, with my car nearly full (and it was just ME driving up there) I headed north. I got to the campsite late on Friday night. A few of the guys were kind enough to help me set up my tent. Someone else lent me a blow up mattress (score!) and I managed to finagle things so that I had my tent all to myself = DIVA. After the first night’s sleep… or lack-of… I realized I should’ve gotten a hotel room. That’s when I just embraced it – I am a camping diva. I like the ‘idea’ of camping… but there’s a lot about it that I’m not a huge fan of!!

Needless to say, we all had an awesome time. Jeff was the master chef and hit up the local coffee shop each morning to bring us vats of coffee and then he made the most amazing breakfast sandwiches on the grill… WHAT!? Saturday afternoon we split into two groups – one group went on a hike that led to a beautiful lookout – and the other group went on a scenic drive that led to many beautiful lookouts and involved some swimming too.  Larry Reed and his family joined us on Sunday and led an outdoor church service which was awesome.  The message was all about God’s love for us.

Camping trip to the White Mountains! from Vanessa Embling on Vimeo.

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