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Thursday, July 15, 2021

Bella Grace Magazine as Inspiration

Every season I get a beautiful issue of the inspiring magazine 'Bella Grace' and every season I tell myself that I will use it for my creativity, but I never do. Life seems to get in the way. In this season I find myself cooking more, cleaning more and spending most of my time on family and friends which is so good but leaves little time for creativity. 

I left my tutoring position with Cambly in the hopes that I had more time and my mornings free for my photography adventures. Honestly, that hasn't happened and I've had to fill that time taking morning walks with my husband as his work has changed and has become more demanding leaving us with little personal time together. I thought I was giving up tutoring to be more creative, but it was so that I had some time with my husband. I was still left with the question of when do I take the time to work on my photography since mornings are not meant for someone else?

I don't have the answer to this question, but it will be something I bring to the feet of Jesus. It's not an all-important question, but I do know that God loves to be involved in our lives and this is one way I walk in my creativity with Him. He's given me this talent and I want to make sure I don't run away with it, but walk with Him and be lead by the Holy Spirit to use it for God's glory and not mine. 

Now to the point of this post. I want to be blogging regularly as it is a part of the creative process. I had an idea that I will go through the Belle Grace magazine using their titles and stories to write my own. It won't be perfect and always pretty, but it a goal and a start. I need a creative goal to keep me on track and so far this has been my best idea.

The first article I will start working on and photographing is called 'A Summer State of Mind'. Summer is indeed my favorite season so I hope that this will be a good start to my blogging and photography adventures. 

Honestly, stepping away from Instagram and going into Vero, so far, has been a very good decision. I'm seeing the changes in my heart, the freedom from cultural tides, and a sense of newness in my creativity. Almost no one is on Vero and that in and of itself is freeing. I'm excited to see where with journey will take me in a few years.








Friday, July 9, 2021

Goodbye Instagram

For the last 11 years, I've been on Instagram sharing my life and photography with the world. Today I logged out of my account for the last time and deleted the app off my phone permanently. My husband asked me how I felt about this big step and my answer is excitement and hope for a new way to share my creativity. I feel like this is the right move because it was a long time coming. So many people want to step away, but not away from the community that's been built, but something has got to give.

I remember the first time when one of my posts got over 100 likes, it was still in the time of organic reach and hashtags. It was also the time of Instagram filters and there was this one that got noticed which I seemed to have used for years. Anyway, we were on a trip to California and I took a picture of a door in a house. I added the preferred filter at the time and added those hashtags and that's how Inspire by Annetta was born. I had found a niche and grew my following to over 32k before it all started to crumble in 2016 as my family and I started to travel America.

While on our travels I had to let go of my Instagram identity and the identity I found as a photographer. I had to give it all to Jesus and be okay with no more thousands of likes and see my following decline to where it is at now 23k. It took a couple of years to work out my heart, to let go of all that I've worked for, and to put God back into His first place. I am able to walk away today because I did all that work some years ago. I don't mind letting the world go and grabbing on to God. You see recently there was another bigger issue that was coming up in my heart.

Recently Instagram became like Tik Tok and my heart issue wasn't likes or being unfollowed anymore (I worked through that) it was letting the world into my heart through Reels. I was starting to get a hard heart as I watched all the content IG threw into my face Reel after Reel. Instagram plans to dive further into the video entertainment industry and my heart can't have a part of it anymore. I am choosing the run the other way from the tide of the world. 

These are my convictions and what God has been working on in me. I am not telling anyone what they should be doing as this is between God and me. It's what He is asking of me and it's for my own good. I pray that He replaces what I am asked to give up and gives me a good outlet for my photography and creativity so that I can safely share it with the world without it spoiling my heart. For the moment I will be posting here regularly and also on Vero. I've chosen that app because it's ad-free, goes in chronological order and I don't have to worry about likes, popularity, or competition. It's a place like IG used to be, to share my photos and to document the beauty of my life that God has blessed me with. 



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