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Kirk Franklin’s Father’s Day

Kirk Franklin is a phenomenally successful and beloved musician. I’ve been a fan since 1993. Songs from his debut album, are all-time favorites and on my regular gospel inspiration rotation. Since 1993, he has produced fifteen albums, several with five named groups. His latest album, Father’s Day was released on October 6, 2023.  Shortly before the album’s release, Kirk released a short documentary by the same name. Watch it here:

Father’s Day: A Kirk Franklin Story

His documentary is very poignant and sad. As expected, with a focus on abandonment and adoption, his pain is palpable.

Three things came to mind while watching.

  • 1. What is it about people who grow up fending for themselves that lead to extraordinary lives?
  • 2. What is his mother’s story? It’s clear he doesn’t know the half of it.
  • 3. Does he really believe he hasn’t learned love in all these years with the anointing his music has?

Despite his tremendous success, Kirk says he has always been the most insecure man in the room because he has never known the love of his mother or father.

I don’t discount that. I certainly understand him. However, I know that love cannot flow from a place where love does not exist. His music is pure love and joy. Deeply so. He specifies that he has never been able to receive love. He gives a lot, but he’s not taking it in. Profound and sad.

Know that you are blessed as you are. Continue to be blessed as you go.

Somebody’s Son by Kirk Franklin
Needs by Kirk Franklin
All Things by Kirk Franklin

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The Best Interview Feedback I’ve Ever Received

Not only did my latest job interview get me excited – a rare feat these days – my interviewer was super excited about me. His feedback turned me into a spinning chorus singer.

I’ve been working for over thirty years. I’m sure I’ve collected many pieces of advice and phenomenal feedback in various roles. However, this most recent post-interview feedback immediately had me thinking of other memorable moments that have contributed to my very capable and self-assured persona.

In short:

1. Ask for what you want and stick to your number. This was an early and hard lesson to learn. It has been reinforced with almost every manager I’ve had since.

2. Go where you are wanted. There are jobs that not only need your skills, they want your presence and everything you’re willing to bring into their space.

3. Chemistry is better than experience. Working with people you click with improves life in so many ways. When work is not a hardship or a chore, you have so much more zest for the rest of life.

Each of these roles defined a period of my life – McDonald’s, Citigroup, and a transition to teaching. Watch the above video for the detailed feedback stories and great bonus advice I remembered while filming.

Cheers and be blessed as you go!

LaShawnda

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First post on Substack

Subscribe to me there!

My welcome and intro to Harvest Lifer on #Substack.

Link to Substack welcome and intro video
Harvest Life on Substack

I’ve been trying to transition platforms, formats, and models for a while. I like the idea of Patreon and may still post and share rewards from there, but I don’t  seem able to post long-form videos from my phone. Waiting to get home to my desktop will be the end of all sharing for me. 🫠

So, Substack is up for a try. Looks like I can also connect my fledgling Poscasters podcast to my Substack account which is great. We’ll see how posting audio and video to the two platforms blends with written and photo posts.

I will be uploading my email subscribers to both new accounts as I’m feeling confident these two may go a distance. There will be free and paid subscriptions. No pressure. Paid subscribers will qualify for digital and hard copies of selected images and books.

If you have any suggestions, I am open to hearing them.

I look forward to sharing more, more deeply.

Cheers and blessings,

LaShawnda

PS: Please bear with me as I navigate and learn new platforms and connections.

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Watch “Adam Arron at the Metreon SF 9/23/22 Avatar $ AMC” on YouTube

During the pandemic, I began investing in the stock market. I was slow to act and extremely timid at first, but my nature leans towards high-risk, high-reward scenarios.

In January 2021, I began investing in AMC Theaters to combat the short attack by which hedge funds were attempting to bankrupt AMC for their gain.

Retail investors (non-institution) of AMC are called Apes. Not sure how the moniker came about but it’s now proudly worn by millions of people around the world.

In this video, Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, speaks to his army of Apes about our mutually beneficial relationship. This is a great share from @CEOAdam
on the love affair between @AMCTheatres and #retailinvestors. It’s also insightful regarding business finance while in survival mode.

#AMC #APE #AMCApe
#AMCsqueeze

https://youtu.be/gysdIzjM4qQ

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Bronzeville Cultural & Arts Fest

It’s a vending day today. I’m out today on NORTH & MLK in Milwaukee selling my wares. I’ve got some books, photo prints and t-shirts with me. Stop by if you’re in the area.I’m next to the gospel stage so you may see me singing and dancing in the street! 😘Cheers for a great day! Peace and Joy to you all!https://harvest-life.org/movie0031-mp4/#naturalhair #afro #from #tangledlocks #festival #fest #day #rainyday #cloudy #day #bronzevillemilwaukee #bronzeville #artsfest

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Sunset Photo Walk w/Father + Son

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hosting Rio and Rei for my Sunset Photo Walk Along Lake Michigan. Father and son are on a road trip from Washington DC to New Mexico. I’m so pleased they added my #airbnbexperience to their stop in #Milwaukee

Young Rei is into photography and got some great practice time with techniques and suggestions I shared with him.


#roadtrip #travel #travelphotography #photowalk #airbnb #airbnbhost #lakemichigan #mam #milwaukeeartmuseum #milwaukeephotographer #mkephotographer #milwaukeephotography #visit Milwaukee #Walk #tour #Sunset #moon #joy

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A Note About Personal Agency

We all have responsibility for our own lives. People assume we give up that agency when we enter certain agreements and relationships – employment, romantic, parental, friend, etc. We may even assume we’re handing over our agency to others at different stages of life. However, the bottom line is: no matter the situation, relationship or agreement we are each responsible for our own lives. We each create the conditions for our joy, peace, and growth. Even when the choices are not ideal, we can still choose what we allow to impact our forward motion.

#life #vlog #personal #agency #whodoyousayyouare #beyou #keepmovingforward #respect #respectisaminimum #harvestlife #harvestlifer

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Song: The Forever Now

This Is Us has been a favorite show since it premiered. The series finale aired in May 2022. This song was performed shortly before the last episode. The first chords have played at the beginning and end of every episode. It wasn’t until the final season that we got a full sing with amazingly poignant lyrics.

Listen to The Forever Now

Instrumental:

Mandy Moore episode performance:

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Branching out into RE Video

SH-Images.com now offering video tours and virtual open houses for agents, brokers and home sellers.

Prior to receiving a call from an agent I met some months ago at an open house, I had not considered shooting virtual open house videos. His request that I shoot a virtual tour of his listing opened me to new opportunities for my creative work and a viable income stream.

In this post, I’m sharing two different edits of this first real estate video job. Many versions of the video were created as I learned the software. Each version taught me something new about how I can improve on the next shoot, how to shoot to avoid certain editing needs, how to edit to improve my footage and even how to coach for voice over recordings. I learned many things that fall into many different job categories: software features, shooting technique, lighting, voice-over, music overlay and editing it all! This first shoot was a very interesting and fulfilling experience.
I used Premiere Pro 2020 for the first round of edits. I have the Adobe Suite for my photography so it was an easy choice to begin with. The primary issue I ran into with Premiere is that processing (rendering and stabilizing images) took a long time. After watching several training videos I realized my six year old computer doesn’t have the power to process video in the default quality size of Premiere Pro 2020 fast. From several threads I read on forums, many folks talked about how they left Premiere for DaVinci Resolve. The cherry on top of the high quality output from DaVinci was it’s price tag: FREE. Adobe went to a subscriber model a few years ago and I am now paying over $600 a year for a product I don’t use nearly as much as I should for that price. I thought it prudent to give DaVinci a try. I noticed right away that processing was much quicker. That being said I couldn’t figure out how to add titles (the way I wanted them) in DaVinci and ended up exporting the DaVinci video into Premiere to add my text.
All in all, I’m looking forward to building on what I learned to provide a great service and product.
First round of edits with Premiere Pro 2020

Second round of edits with DaVinci Resolve 16

Videos by LaShawnda Jones for https://SH-Images.com

#realestate #realestatevideo #virtualtours #virtualopenhouse #voiceover #videoediting #skillup#realestate #realtor #realestateagent #photographer #photography #virtualopenhouse #videotour #virtual #quarantine #makeitwork