Practice 3

Some more pics from a day in denver...



A street scene on the corner of Colfax and Colfax and Colfax. I was amazed looking back after having crossed the street at the amount of information and signage surrounding us at all times. We learn to tune it out to pass it by, but it's there, everywhere.



Another building shot - glass, glass, glass. The picture of endless mirrors floating into the sky is a normal one in downtown America. You look up and all you see are windows. Windows in every direction especially up.



I was standing on a corner by a hotdog vendor, snapping pictures of the hotdogs and the people buying the hot dogs when I noticed this row of newspaper boxes. Free Newspapers. New York newspapers. Denver Posts. There was a lot of black and white print in oddly colorful boxes. Not sure why I took black and white. The man walking by said "hi" as if maybe he knew me. I didn't know him.



A classic perspecitve shot down a row of columns, the same columns in the photo from a previous post. This time I was between the columns and the main building looking west towards the mountains. Of course, you would never know that because you can't see the mountains. I still like the wide angle perspective.



Lastly, another building. The sun is glaring off a lot of glass, what else...? This photo isn't perticularly spectacular, but I like the way it looks very "un"rectangular. It looks like the top is bending up and to the left. Did you notice it...? It's what I enjoy.

125 of 184

I won't go off too much about this, but it bugs me that during a time of surging oil prices that ultimately hurt the economically challenged consumer, that during a war in Iraq (in which over 2250 US soldiers have died and many, many more others) that must be at least somewhat based on oil, and that during a time of increased pressure for drilling in the ANWR, we have publicly traded oil companies like Exxon-Mobile posting record profits. And when you speak of profits of $10.8 Billion, we aren't talking revenue, we're talking net profit. Profit! Something is wrong.

Think about this. Exxon's gross profit for the year ($36.4 Billion) would rank it as having a better economy than 125 of the 184 countries tracked by the World Bank. Or, if you check out this article, look at the number of oil companies in the top 100 economy list by GDP. Exxon is not a country last time I checked, though it is based in Texas.

I suppose my solice is that high oil prices are making consumers think more before purchasing gas guzzling SUV's and trucks. The demand for hybrid cars is skyrocketing among other eco friendly choices consumers are making. One day, maybe one day, we will find a better way.

practice 2

In another round of practicing wide angle shots, I took these pictures near a park I often run and walk with Leo (my Chesapeake Bay Retriever.)



Unfortunately for the sun beams coming in from the left, I used a fisheye to capture this walkway over a bog in the park. It was what they call a "bluebird" day here in Colorado and it's not hard to figure out why. There is no digital retouch at all to this image. The sky was amazing.



There's not much to explain about this shot of some reeds set against the backdrop of a small wooden bridge. It's just sort of classic front and rear imagery.



Lastly, this image was taken using a warm filter at sunset over the mountains east of Boulder. I used the window of my car as a 'tripod' and found the tree in the foreground as a good centerpiece. It gives you a good feel for why I love Colorado.

practice

Given my blog yesterday, unsure of myself, I decided to practice a little with my newfound niche in downtown Denver. Here is what I came up with:



This first image is of skateboarder, presumably skipping out on school since it was the middle of the day. Don't know. What caught my eye was obviously the skateboarder, the main subject of this picture, but also the school bus and more importantly the sidewalk itself. The sidewalk is his road and the sidewalk was also big and mostly empty. Being as it was, the sidewalk seemed like a good place to skate, but he wanted to be in the intersection of the sidewalk near the people. It's a funny thing about wanting attention. I wanted to make the sidewalk a predominant piece of the action, which I think I accomplished.





This next image was obvious for me, not much to explain. A man walked by, I was standing at the corner of this building with many columns. The shadows and columns made a perfect contrast to the lonely stroll reading the newspaper. I suppose I could have just shot the columns or could have just shot the man, but it's what the eye saw in its entirety that grabbed my attention. It's also what makes the shot.










Finally, this last picture tells the story of downtown, not just in Denver, but in just about any big city. Sometimes when you look up all you see are windows meshed with concrete meshed with some steel or whatever. You don't see sky. You don't see people. You don't see anything organic. Just building.

So, that's it for today, a little practice and a little angle.

unsure of myself

So I've been wrestling for a long time about whether or not I'm any good as a photographer. Well, that's not the whole truth. The truth is that I know I'm good, when good is defined as 'OK.' But good doesn't cut it. Am I really good? - the question is still a little fuzzy. Do I have the potential to be really good...? One day, will I be really good...? Will I be pretty good if I don't ever practice...? Is it even worth being good of any kind...?


These are the questions I ask myself. I did decide something though. I decided my niche - the ever expanding world around us. It goes a little something like this. Photography is a form of art in which the photographer captures a moment in time at a particular location of a particular subject trying in essence to stir some sort of emotion from the person looking at the photograph. I love photography. It is hard. Most photography books are all about the subject, filling the frame with the subject, make the subject stand out from everything else. It's not always easy to do.

But, what if the reality is that our world is huge. Our focal point in life is never - ever - on one thing. So why do we emphasize it so much in photography. Well, there are many answers why, which I won't get into here about being pleasing to the eye and working well and etc, etc. etc.......

What we're able to see is huge though, it is much, much more than a particular subject, a flower, a mountain, a building, a person. We see in a vast expanse. As a result I've decided that my niche is wide angle photography - trying to capture what we actually see. The photo I took at my good friends wedding is a good example. The subject is the bride and groom, but what do we really see when we look. We see a church, a scene unfolding, not just two faces. Big skies. Open spaces. The whole face. The entire field of flowers. It's not easy to make something appealing that is so big.

I will try.

defend or attack...

I'm reading the book Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara right now. It is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel about the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Well researched, well writtin and just plain, well done, this book is a must for any history buff interested in the forming of the United States of America.

The first several chapters of the book are dedicated to introducing the reader to the main characters present at Gettysburg. There is Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and J.E.B. Stuart of the South and John Reynolds, John Buford and George Meade of the North, among a host of other notable generals and officers. Some of these officers were graduates of West Point, most famously Robert E. Lee and John Reynolds (who both garduated at the top of their respective classes), but others are ordinary men who have risen through the ranks, many of whom were battle tested in the US-Mexican War. Their stories are intriguing and interesting, so much so that I look forward to reading more detailed accounts of these officers in the book (also turned moveie) Gods and Generals, by Jeff Shaara.

Gettysburg was, I think, the bloodiest three days of fighting the US has ever seen, where more than 50,000 US soldiers died in those three days alone. To put that in perspective, 58,000 US soldiers died during the whole Vietnam War, which spanned more than eight years. Generals and enlisted men alike were put to tests of will and courage I will never know.

I did a bike tour once of the Gettysburg battlefield. It's a beautiful scene and horrible at the same time. Having grown up in Pennsylvania I knew of the wonderful rolling hills and glorious farmlands scattered all through the state. Gettysburg is much the same. Riding a bike through places like the Devil's Den, Little Ruund Top and Cemetary Ridge, I had no idea at the time the significance of this battle. Reading Killer Angels has opened my eyes.

I'm sure I will enter a few more blogs about this since it's captured my attention so vividly over the past week or so, but I will leave with two interesting points. First, Robert E. Lee attacked the "north" mainly because Virginia has been so devastated by the war - the ground literally needed time to recover. Confederate troops were underfed and undersupplied, mainy because the physical assets of the territory were demolished. There was no livlihood left. So, the battle went north, even if only 50 miles from the Mason-Dixon line.

Second and more profound is Shaara's account of the internal torment Lee experienced during the war against Federal Troops, but magnified in Gettysburg. As a graduate of the US Military Academy, a seasoned veteran of war, Lee had given his oath to protect the very country he was trying to overthrow. He was not the only one. But Lee was different. He was a Godly man, sharp, honest, humble. It literally caused him pain deep within his heart at what was unfolding before his eyes. Shaara has a great passage telling of the torment...

"...he put his hand to his chest...Lee felt a deeper spasm, like a black stain. I swore to defend. Now I invade. A soldier, no theologian. God, let it be over soon. While there's time to play with grandchildren... he moved to the map table. The guilt stayed with him, ineradicable, like the silent alarm in his fragile chest. Swore to defend. Misty matters. Get on with the fight."

The battle would last three days... more to come.

11.13 seconds

I had to post this article about the World Record for solving a Rubik's Cube puzzle. Leyan Lo solved a mixed puzzle in 11.13 seconds. I can't even fathom this. These guys memorize algorithms in order to quickly complete the first two rows and then Wham! its done. I don't even think I can begin thinking about to solve one in 11 seconds much less actually move a piece.

The Heart Revealed

I'm reading Waking the Dead by John Eldridge right now and am very impressed. I have enjoyed other books by Eldridge as well so it shouldn't surprise me, but I'm especially drawn thus far to a chapter about the heart. To quote him:

...the heart is the source of our emotions. But we have equated the heart with emotion, and put it away for a messy and even dangerous guide. No doubt, many people have made a wreck of their lives following an emotion without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so. Neither adultery nor murder is a rational act. But equating the heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is a feeling. Surely, we know that love is more than feeling loving; for if Christ had followed his emotions, he would not have gone to the cross for us. Like any man would have been, he was afraid; in face, he knew the sins of the world would be laid upon him, and so had even greater cause for hesitation (Mark 14: 32-35). But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost him.

This idea was a little strange to me at first. If I understand it correctly, Eldridge is saying that the heart is the source of emotions, but that emotions are an offspring of the hearts thoughts. The heart can think...? The author points the reader to several places in the Word which describe such a reality including: I Kings 3:9, Heb 4:12 and Proverbs 23:7. It's still a mystery.

Then, yesterday I was reading the Saturday edition of the Rocky Mountain News, the local Denver paper (which incidentally has more advertisements than news, but that's a different story altogether.) The story was a sort of continuation to larger section they had done a few weeks ago called A Final Salute. It tells the story of US Marine Major Steve Beck whose duty it is to notify the families of fallen soldiers. It is a gripping and incredible special report. I highly encourage you to read it.

Anyway, the follow-up article is about Katherine Cathey whose husband, Marine 2nd. Lt. Jim Cathey, was killed in Iraq when a booby trapped door exploded in his face, basically vaporizing him. Katherine was pregnant when Jim was shipped to Iraq. On the day of her delivery, she was expecting a phone call from Jim asking about the baby, instead, Marine Beck arrived at her door with a folded US flag and a few words explaining his death.

Now, the baby is healthy and without a dad. I could barely make it through the article. I walked over a few feet from the table where I was reading, tears streaming down my face, and picked up my son. I held Asher tight against my chest and somehow he knew to hug me back. I can't explain it - he just knew - our hearts bonded in that moment. After a minute or so, I walked back to the table and attempted to finish the article. Here's what I read next:



For the Marines, transporting the ashes-filled urn was no different from their original mission to bring Jim Cathey's body back to his family from Iraq. An extension of the "never leave a Marine behind" mandate, a Marine was required to escort the urn each step of the way.

At Katherine's request, the Marines called upon 2nd Lt. Marcus Moyer, who trained with Jim Cathey in Quantico, Va.

"I never really looked at it as escorting a box or escorting ashes. I treated it as though he was with me," Moyer said. "I never left it alone."

As crew members on the airplane to Denver discovered the Marine's mission, they asked to shake his hand. One flight attendant wrote him a heartfelt thank- you note on a United Airlines napkin.

"As we were coming into Denver, the pilot came on the loudspeaker and announced that we had a special passenger onboard," Moyer said.

The pilot then read the information about Jim Cathey and requested that passengers remain seated until Moyer left.

"As I was walking forward, people said things. 'Oo-rah,' if they knew I was with the Marines. Or 'Thank you.' Or, 'You're our hero.' Or they would clap . . . Regardless of their feelings about the war, they all seemed very supportive. People would come up and thank me for my service. They would call me a hero."

Moyer paused for a long time, then sniffled.

"Whenever I could do it without crying, I would tell them that . . . that I wasn't the hero, but that I knew a lot of them."

That night, after Moyer met up with Beck, the Marines once again pulled up to Katherine Cathey's home, clad in their formal dress blue uniforms.

"It's another notification," Beck said. "Jim doesn't die all over again, but it's the introduction of more pain. And another whole difficult process we need to go through. And everything starts over.

"In a way, it was like walking up to that porch for the first time."

At this point, I could barely contain myself - I also understood without a doubt, exactly what Eldridge is trying to say. Our heart is "the wellsping of life." The sadness and pain I felt for Katherine and her baby were way beyond emotion and feeling. I was experiencing something much greater within the very depths of my heart itself. I wasn't feeling hurt, I was hurt.

The heart is real.

The Marine motto, semper fidelis, is Latin for ALWAYS FAITHFUL. I can't help but to think of Jesus's fatihfulness to his heart. Thank goodness.

New Pictures

Have you checked out my photoblog lately...? There are some new pics up like this one I took today of a flock of Canadian Geese near Brighton, CO. It was an amazing take off as more than 1000 geese roared into the air as I approached their position in a field. Wow.

Don't Read Much

I've never been a big reader, as I think the ADD part of me loses interest quickly in books. Nevertheless, over the past few years I've been challenged by some close friends to read more. I did this past year. It wasn't much but I hope it's a trend that continues on for the upcoming year. Here is a sample of books I read in 2005:

Mother Teresa - Her Life, Her Works, Her Message
The Magicians' Nephew - C.S. Lewis
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis
The Barbarian Way - Erwin McManus
You Have What it Takes - John Eldridge
Fatherhood -
Babywise - (I had to put it... it's life)
Band of Brothers - Stephen E. Ambrose
The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer
The War of Art -
Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller

As for 2006, I already have some books on a list I would like to read, and a sample of those are:

Waking the Dead - John Eldridge
The Divine Conspiracy - Dallas Willard
The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis
Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
The Pursuit of God - AW Tozer (yes, I want to read it every year)
Lion and Lamb - Brennan Manning
Searching for God Knows What - Donald Miller
Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
D-Day - Stephen E. Ambrose
Travelling Light - Max Lucado
Going Local - Michael Shuman
What Matters Most - Jeffrey Hollendar
Good to Great - Jim Collins

Anyway - my goal for the year was inspired by Todd, and like him, I hope to finish a new book every two weeks (the Divine Conspiracy aside, since it's like reading a dictionary.) I'm suppose I'm just learning how much I learn when I read. Profound.

An Aslan sighting

On a recent trip to Florida, I had the opportunity to visit a friend of my dad's where you honestly wouldn't believe the decorations in his house without these pictures to prove it. He literally built himself a "zoo" of taxidermied animals, all of which either he, his wife or kids has shot. It truly is unbelievable... and wierd. Though I was wide eyed and in basic awe, it wasn't for me. Really, there are probably over 100 animals on his walls, on his floor, everywhere. Just check out this picture of the entry way.



I'm talking about lions, american buffalo, elk, deer, little deer, even smaller deer, a 17 ft alligator, a 6000 lb. hippo, a 3500 lb. cape buffalo, leopards, more deer, antelope, elephant tusks, and more. Just look around the picture and see what you can find.

I took this next picture of "Aslan's face" in his family room. Yes, his family room. (You can see a wider angle view below.)



I think I dare not mention my views on this whole thing out of respect for the fact that this man even let me into his house, and the last thing he probably want's is me pointing my finger at him and telling him I think he is wrong.. I won't go there.



I was amazed though at the beauty of these animals, especially the leopards. And, without such an opportunity I would probably never get so close to such beautiful creatures. The majesty of these wild cats could not be tamed in the confines of taxidermy.




Really. These animals are truly amazing and though I wish they would be left alone, in their own habitat to live and run and play, I am thankful this man let me in to his house. I will use the experience for years to come.

The Reunion

It was pretty crazy to see so many people from the original "Amsterdam Team" back together again in Fort Collins. The last time I saw all these people together was at my house in the spring of 2002 - weird. It was fantastic though to catch up, to realize how much has passed, to remember good things and to hear about present happenings. The only thing that could have been better was if I was still in Amsterdam itself.