Wow, can you believe that it's been nearly nine months since I've written in this thing?! I've been somewhat inactive here on dA over the past year. I'm not really sure exactly why; I guess it's just been one of those off seasons in my personal life. Things have been going a bit slowly these days, which has been nice. Honestly, my first two years of college were filled with an extreme lack of focus, and I ended up getting...for lack of a better word...burned out.

But one thing still remains the same - dA is always my happy place. It's great to be back again, and I hope I can actually be here consistently this time around.

I've officially started a portrait business of sorts here in the East Texas area, called - simply enough - J.B. Lewis Photography! [link] It's been going really well so far, with quite a few engagement shoots, one bridal shoot, and several senior portrait sessions to date. I've been gradually uploading some of my work here on dA over the past several months, so if you've missed anything, be sure to check it all out in the "recent" section below! (recent being...the last eight to nine months )

Meanwhile, I've got a lot of catching up to do here on dA...so many amazing new changes! Critiques, new page layouts...perhaps someone can fill me in on it all. At any rate, it's wonderful to be back again - please drop me a note and let me know how you're doing! We've got a lot to catch up on.

It's been quite a crazy week! Yesterday was one of the most anticipated days ever for this year - the day I applied for my driver's license. I couldn't believe this when I first heard it, but they've got this crazy system here in Texas where you have to wait six months after getting a permit to apply for a license (and NOT take the driving test) if you're under 18, but if you're over 18 like me, you have to take the driving test with an inspector - parallel parking and all! Needless to say, the hours beforehand were pretty nervewracking. But by the time the test rolled around, everything fell into place. We ended up driving through a short course in the neighborhood adjacent to the Public Safety office, which wasn't hard at all. Today, I got to drive around town by myself for the first time - and it's been such a relaxing feeling on the road. I don't know how to describe it, but it's awesome.

Other than that, not a whole lot has been going on this past week. I've been preparing for this upcoming semester at school - mentally and spiritually. Again, I don't know how to describe it; it's such a surreal feeling to have only two years of college left. I don't know if I've mentioned it on here yet, but I'm going to be serving as a chaplain for off-campus students this fall, which I'm very, very excited about. It's going to be quite an adventure!

Check out the corresponding news article here: [link]

Be sure to check out all the excitement going on around dA these days! This will now be a regular part of my journal so you can stay up to date on community happenings and valuable photography-related news. I'll be adding more articles this weekend.

- 8th Birthday Prints Event - Art for AIDS Orphans

- Strictly Speaking, Strictly Street

- How to make DA work for YOU!!

- Subscriber Features and Version 6

- NEW PRINT PRODUCTS

- The Blues - Stock Contest

- deviantART v6

- CSS Contest : Win a sub!

- July Grand Prize Give Away Contest

- $anna's Upgrade Contest

- Minimalism Contest

- Constructive Critique: Things to consider

Has anyone else been having problems posting comments lately? I've been trying to go through my devwatch over the past few days with limited success. After going through 30-40 pictures and replying to about the same number of messages, I get taken to an error page if I try posting any new comments. If I reply to messages within the page the messages are on, I get dA's "we think it's spam" message in a window. If I try to send a reply within the message center, I get a "there was an error posting your comment" message. Sometimes, I wait about half an hour, and everything works again, but only for two comments or so. Has anyone else been experiencing this?

Be sure to check out all the excitement going on around dA these days! This will now be a regular part of my journal so you can stay up to date on community happenings and valuable photography-related news.

- 8th Birthday Prints Event - Art for AIDS Orphans

- Strictly Speaking, Strictly Street

- How to make DA work for YOU!!

- Subscriber Features and Version 6

- NEW PRINT PRODUCTS

- The Blues - Stock Contest

- deviantART v6

- CSS Contest : Win a sub!

- July Grand Prize Give Away Contest

- $anna's Upgrade Contest

- Minimalism Contest

- Constructive Critique: Things to consider

This morning, I sluggishly awoke from sleep and crawled out of my bed to a huge surprise: I received a DD!! Thank you so much to =aksdareflection for suggesting "Pollution" and to ^hellfirediva for featuring it. And a very special thank you to the dA community - you have been a huge inspiration and an encouragement for me to continue creating art. I couldn't do it without you all.

I saw this awesome CSS in `love4art's journal and couldn't pass up the opportunity to use it! Thanks to `nyssi for putting it together - it's very slick and fits right in with v6 so well.

I was tagged by both `babyducks and =Kayley1590 - normally I don't do these sorts of games, but this one looked like fun.

Rules of the game:

- Choose a singer/band/group

- Answer using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group

- Tag 6 more people (let them know they've been tagged)

I choose "Weird Al" Yankovic

"Bob"

"White and Nerdy"

"I'll Sue Ya"

"Close But No Cigar"

"It's All About the Pentiums" (no, I'm not actually in a relationship right now )

"Albuquerque"

"A Complicated Song"

"Trapped in the Drive-Thru"

"Pancreas"

"Dare to Be Stupid"

Now, I tag: `princessmorgan *godscapes =evile33 ^SheTakesPics ~ZachNiles `Beccalicious