Fatherhood: Resting on Christ in a Tempest

This morning I had a rare weekend event…I woke up and everyone else was still asleep! This meant I got an unscheduled 0615 photo trip!

Waterford, Virginia is a nice place to catch some photos. Ten minutes from my door I get a gateway to a historic photographic location. Founded in 1733, and a national historic landmark, it goes back a bit in our history! Many of the buildings, plot lines and walkways let you walk the steps of our forefathers!

On the north side of town there is a bridge over Catoctin Creek. This old creek can get a lot of water pouring in as it drives north into the Potomac River. You can see the steep erosion in the banks telling of the high water’s power in a tempest. This contrasts deeply with the slow curve where grasses grow. On a morning like today it is all just peaceful.

As I dove into editing I began to think about the contrast of raging water power and the peaceful sunrise I witnessed today. While water supports life, in the Bible it also symbolized death. People of all times should fear raging waters engulfing them! Yet it is in water from the small river Jordan we are shown the very first step to become members of Christ’s body on earth. This spiritual death foreshadows the need for us to die with Christ on our own connected crosses to earn our way to heaven.

In rough times, like the night our Lord was ready to be sacrificed at Passover, we see the apostle whom he loved resting his head on Christ’s chest. Here we witness Christ tell all of the gathered a traitor is in their midst! Yet in the midst of such a tempest of emotion one man still rested on our Lord! It is great foreshadowing! He was the only apostle who stood patiently at the foot of the cross the next day with our Blessed Mother. It was this apostle, standing in for the whole church, who received the gift of adoption and duty to care for Mary.

This is symbolic of our own mission as fathers as well. Father’s should teach by example, correct deficiencies the best they can, sacrifice themselves for their charges, and must constantly push themselves to be more Christlike despite our fallen natures by resting in the Lord!

Today’s world is beat up. Its greatest deficit right now is the lack of men willing to be fathers, spiritual or head of a family. Just look in the news to find examples. In my own case, I look in the mirror and review my own missteps. Quite a few saints remind us we must pray and visit adoration 30 minutes a day in normal times. When we are in trouble, we must spend double the time in prayer and adoration!

In a world as crazy as ours, us Fathers must rest in the Lord with all our might. Just read the Bible, Listen to the Saints, go to adoration, say your prayers and then rest in silence with the Lord! Maybe if we can hear his heartbeat a little better, we too will hear the directions needed to rise up to the challenges of fatherhood in our lives.

-ehw

The First Steps towards understanding Mercy

        Today our youngest, John Paul, got serious about crawling.  A few little steps and lunges at a time, but it is the beginning of his journey towards independence.  The troubles and joys this will bring will arise in the minds of each and every parent who survived it at least once.

    One of the interesting things about our John Paul, compared to his four siblings, is his very delayed desire to crawl.  The fact is the boy loves his standing bouncy toy.  He bounces in that thing for hours each day.  He also realizes if you walk, your hands can play with toys when you go places.  So the reality is, crawling is not a very efficient or fun use of time.  So after some coaching, the boy finally realized all the pieces for walking are not in place yet...so crawling is not such a step down.

    Today I decided to join the nine day consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary being directed by Father Heilman of the website The Roman Catholic Man (Nine Day Consecration) using the writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe.  I'm already glad I did the reading and lesson...because like John Paul I found myself wanting to walk faster in faith, but I found myself without all the necessary tools.

   The one lesson I gained the most from today is the need for mercy in the grand plan for creation.  I recently came to understand grace as the extension of kindness to the unworthy, and mercy as the withholding of a justified punishment.  This made sense, but how does that relate to our salvation.

   St. Maximillian Kolbe explains the role of mercy in salvation history in the form of a math problem we all once faced in middle school.  Remember the problem where the teacher says:"To win this game you must obtain 100 apples.  I will start you with 33.  How long will it take you to obtain 100 apples if I give you 1/3 of difference you are missing each day?"  At first you say two days!  1/3 each day!  Then reality sets in.  

    You realize each day you would get only 1/3 of the way to the objective each day no matter how hard you try.  Even when you are down to one apple, the teacher will only give you a third of the remaining apple needed to reach victory.   Therefore you will NEVER reach 100 apples because I will keep giving you smaller and smaller slices for ever!

  Having the sun shine on us as we collect those apple parts would be a whole lot of grace.  But to reach 100 apples you need a game changer.  That game changer would be mercy from someone who will bridge the gap by giving you some of his apples, I will not provide, to reach 100.

  This is the mercy we need from God everyday.  We are imperfect creatures, and no matter how hard we try will always be imperfect.  God took care of this imperfection problem by providing a game changing assist. God the creator of our souls, worked through the Holy Spirit to place Jesus in our physical world as the son of Mary.  

    God became one of us, spoke to us, broke open the gates of hell, and offered each of us a spot in his family through his offer of adoption.  These acts provide us the missing "apples" to put 100 in in our basket if we but stay on track to be in his family.  This offer of mercy still must be earned, but it sits on the table for all to take advantage of if we are smart enough to grasp it.

    Quite a lesson, and there was so much more...what a wonderful journey to start crawling on.

-ehw

The Harvest of Salvation

    Many modern Catholic theologians, and clergy, assert the world’s population has a reasonable assumption of reaching heaven.  This theological viewpoint by nature runs over quite quickly into how they interact with the world through preaching, parish life and politics.  Although I am just a novice in understanding grand theological ideas; the assumption cannot be true due to conflicts with sacred scripture, Church Fathers teaching, and natural law.

    We are created in the image of God and built to share in knowledge and the life of God (CCC356).  Our capacity to do so however depends on each of us freely choosing to offer back to God all of the creation he provided to us (CCC358).  The stain of original sin on our nature makes it impossible to do be completely intimate with God without constant reliance on our Lord’s sacraments and teaching (CCC 402-406).  This results in the “hard battle…” of life in the real world where one who lives in ignorance of man’s wounded nature “gives rise to serious error in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals.”(CCC407)

    Our Lord also clearly repeats this theme in scripture through his parables.  In the parable of the sower we find all the seed is good.  The seed just lands on different ground.  The seed only thrives when it can find enriching soil and few external dangers.  Some ground is easily fertile, some is fertile but full of thorns, and some falls on rocky infertile soil.  The end result is two thirds of the seed yields very little healthy wheat.  Meanwhile the fertile soil thrives with the fewest plant failures.  The moral of the story becomes the minority of people grow into wheat the Father takes into heaven.

    Now the great philosopher would reply, any man can have their own faith in God which generates hope.  The same person could then use their intellect, and observations of nature to do good works of charity for others.   So therefore the scripture, tradition and sacraments are not required for assumption into heaven for eternal life.  So therefore reasonably people can assume God has a wide entrance to everyone to obtain heaven.

    The philosopher would err however in his final assessment.  By relying solely on our own intellect for decisions, we in fact prevent ourself from submitting our intellect to the will of God.    This fact, in and of itself, means the person living alone is not ready to become one with God.   No being ready to form complete union with almighty God prevents us from obtaining the gifts of heaven.  Giving back everything to God includes submitting all of our intellect to the words and commands of Jesus for introspection.  

    The lone person also becomes one against the fallen world, with all of its physical and spiritual dangers. With no community in which to find refuge from hostile forces, the lone person must fight alone and will be unaided by the wisdom of others on their quest for heaven.  So at the end of the lone journeyman’s life, it will not be a final chance to beg for God’s mercy (which those who submitted our lives before hand may possibly receive).  It would be a complete act of mercy from God to grant mercy to someone who did not submit completely to his rule, and is still defiantly saying they are their own judge on matters of faith and morals.

    We have scriptural evidence for this when Jesus himself tells Saul his work of persecuting christians hurt his body, and he needed to change.  Saul becomes the Apostle Paul, and every day begged for mercy he did not deserve.  Paul submitted his teachings, and service to the guidance of the other apostles in Jerusalem to insure their continuity with those of the remainder of Christ’s body.  Paul celebrated the eucharist with the rest of the church as daily nourishment for his journey.  Paul did this because the Body of Christ on earth was the church, and its sacraments is God’s life blood poured forth to the nourishment of the individuals in that body.

    If men as great as St Paul and other church fathers realized how thin the path to heaven was, then the historical and theological evidence clearly comes down against a “reasonable assumption” for each person to reach heaven.  It is time to recognize how this carefree attitude hurts moral decision making in our daily lives and the governance of our church.  If we recognize the real rocky path towards heaven, maybe we’ll re-acquire the missionary zeal of those first christians once again.

-ehw

The Blacksmith of My Manhood

Give a lad a training suitable to his character and, even when old, he will not go back on it.

Proverbs 22:6 Catholic Online 

   Good fathers remain indispensable to every child on the planet.  A father is the person God entrusts to look at each child he gives them, and call them into adulthood.  Fathers should take the faith filled heart a mother forms, and steel it like a blacksmith works metal.  The steel must withstand every tempest the world will throw at it until our bodies fade to dust.  I am blessed my father did this for me, and I accepted his molding to form the man I am.

    From an early age I remember my Dad as a pillar of strength and determination.  He still gets up before dawn, works long hours, deployed at our nation's call for forty-five years, learned things from diverse resources way before the birth of the internet, demands honesty and gives it unfailingly, requires common sense be applied to all critical thinking, expects you to know a fact based history on what you speak, and displays a dogged determination to achieve which puts a bulldog to shame.  My father steeled my heart to respect my mother and her core values.  He then slowly built a frame around my heart to carry me into adulthood.  

    My father's greatest wisdom, in forming his children, was to ensure we knew how to think.  My father knew our world would be as different from his as his world was from his father's.  As a result, he knew his children needed well rounded educations grounded in those family core values.  This frame protected us, gave us limbs to build new futures, and a head to seek the wisdom of the Lord in new faraway lands when he was not there to guide us.  My father trained our character traits to last a lifetime.  

    After meeting many people with dads who failed to accept their duties as fathers, I know I am a blessed child.  I also believe this is why I am committed to do the mission my father does, but often shields from view of his own children.  My father throughout the years tended to lost sheep, and got them better prepared to meet the world.  He gave these lost sheep the blacksmithing their fathers should have given, or the sheep rejected out of the pride of youth.  Some responded well, others did not.  In any case he tried, and willingly gave of himself without desire for acclaim or fortune.

   I am blessed with a Dad who embodies God's call for father's to follow.

-ehw  

A Lesson in Forgiveness for Thanksgiving

    A few weeks ago a most incredible person told me a story, a story of forgiveness which humbled me.  The story goes something like this...

    Years ago this person suffered a great injustice at the hands of another.  Bonds of trust broke, and a relationship broke into pieces.  The breakup effected more than the two inside the relationship.  The shattered relationship hurt many others, and still does to this day.  Defenses went up to prevent additional pain, but the grace of forgiveness remained open to the offender.  Not only does forgiveness flow, the offender gets prayers and encouragement to return to the church and obtain salvation from the victim!  

    I suffered a few injustices in my life, and I will admit my pride gets the best of me from time to time when the wound resurfaces.  When I asked the person, their response was "To hold on to the anger and hate is to condemn your own soul to Hell.  We can only move forward to Christ when we release the hate and let it fade away.  We can only achieve heaven when we wish for those who harmed to repent and join us again on the path to heaven."

    I prayed about this on a few nights since I heard this sermon of word and deed.  I realized how much more I need to grow as a person to reach this type of holiness...and I hope I can imitate their example with a few more years of practice.  Until then, I'll also pray this incredible person continues to show people like me the true path of Christ in this fallen world.

-ehw

P.S. The photo is of Kellie at the Antiedam Battlefield Museum.  It was a wonderful moment to watch her enjoy flowers, amidst the stories of war.  It reminded me of the decades it took to heal the wounds from the Civil War, and the lesson above being the path towards reconciliation.

Seventeen Years of Marriage

    Today my bride and I celebrate seventeen years of marriage.  The rings you see above display the weathering, scratches and soil of living as a couple.   These years included ten moves, five home purchases, four children (14, 11, 8, 3), one baby on the way (34 weeks thank you God), four miscarried babies in heaven, hundreds of friends across the country, illnesses galore (some very scary), tears of joy for children's achievements, arguments, resolutions, and deep religious growth granted by God's grace of faith to both of us inside the sacrament of marriage.   We each fear the premature loss of the other more than ever.  Just the thought takes our collective breath away.

    We now, through the years of experience, understand the deep commitment required to maintain this relationship.  We learned of the complex interaction between all the forms of love: agape (self gift), philia (friendship), ludus (playful), and eros (physical).   At this point of our marriage we can only say we are starting to to keep them all in proper perspective.  We find our marital joys multiply when we use these tools God built in us while building his kingdom here on earth.  This understanding is right on time.   Little kids normally only provide little problems.  Big kids have the big head hurting problems to deal with.  The next seventeen years should be more interesting then the last seventeen.  Therefore we have a lot more work to do on our relationship.

    My wife and I lamented the Supreme Court ruling yesterday.  It was wrong on a matter of states rights and morality.  More importantly it gave into the concept that everyone deserves happiness and love as they personally define it at this moment.  The concept of love people throw around in common speech today, has a diluted definition resulting from poor catechesis by churches and schools.  I also venture to say the concept comes from a lack of self reflection.  The constant bombardment of noise in our brains from so many media sources provides no silence in which God can be heard.  If our marriage followed such a fluid metric, we would be a separated wreck of humanity by now.  

    We will pray our country does not continue down this manmade path of tyranny.  This is of course the inevitable result in any country refusing to subordinate itself (and its rulers) to Natural Law principles.   This couple will continue to trust in God's compass, not our internally flawed guidance systems subject to radical narcism.  We will need it to navigate the scary world now before us.

    Thank you God for making my wife, and revealing yourself to us through the graces of his son Jesus Christ by  the power of the Holy Spirit.  I am grateful for the journey you gave us to travel together.  Amen.

-ehw

A Father's Calling

A Father's first calling is to bring his children to know and love the Lord

    What is the role of father?  In the image above you can see some of the roles he ordained for us.

    We see Joseph, the earthly father of Christ standing watch over Christ.  The cloak is on showing us he is ready to move in any direction God ordains.  His staff in hand serves as an extra support with the ground, keeping him in touch with the reality of natural law.  It also serves as a weapon, to protect his charges and extend his reach using the wisdom of God to make tools with the knowledge he bestows on us through revelation.  Joseph did his duty to provide shelter for his wife, so she could for fill the task of providing a home for their son.  Together they made an environment welcoming angels into their home as messengers of God's wisdom.   I can feel in this moment Joseph already thinking of presenting this gift of our savior to our Lord in the temple of Jerusalem...here he participates showing the wonderful reciprocation of salvation history by Christ becoming man.

    Finally we see a child coming to the Holy Family.  It is our job as fathers to bring our children to Christ, teach them the words of wisdom Christ provided, and a quiet place where Christ can speak to them without all the distractions of the world.  I put the child in focus, because this is our fatherly mission on earth.  The Holy Family, through recognizable is out of focus.  The refinement a child's view on the mysteries of God is a gift of grace given by God alone.

-ehw

P.S.  Thanks to my Dad for giving me a safe place to Love the Lord and work ethic, my Pappap for showing me the power of the Rosary and spiritual fatherhood, and my DjaDja for embracing the culture of life with a rich family life.  A special thanks to my father-in-law who has taught me many ways to torture young suitors who would like to court my daughters in the near future.

A Family Day To Grow in Faith

A day to contemplate our domestic churches

    Today we're taking a family day out to grow in faith at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.  It is also the shrine Mother Angelia led the development of for the Sisters of Poor Saint Claire.  We are blessed to have three priests from our diocease lead the retreat for the Regina Caeli Academy community.

     The domestic church is a central link between God and Man for salvation.  Throughout the entire Old Testament God builds his plan though families.  When Adam and Eve fall, God proclaims there will always be enmity between the offspring of Eve and the devil.  It prefigures the birth of Christ through a new Eve, we now know as Mary.  The creation and nurturing of the covenant relationship between Abraham, Moses, and David reaches its fullfillment in Christ the son of Joseph of Nazareth.

    Joseph was an heir of the of the covenant, and a decendent of King David.  He lived the law handed down for thousands of years.  When Joseph adopted Jesus, he did so under Jewish law.  In Jewish law there was no step-father status,  You were a father, or just another man to a child.  Jesus became entitled to everything Joseph had through adoption, to include his birthright as an heir of the King.  It also bound Jesus, our savior, to the same covenant relationship that each of his earthly forefathers lived under.  Joseph taught Jesus the ways of Jewish life to make aliving and as spiritual as head of family.

    Mary, was the daughter of a temple priest.  Ancient legends also say she also played her part in the temple sewing the sanctuary veil.  As a child, Mary possibly worked on maintaining the physical  barrier between God and the people of Isreal.  As a young woman, Mary broke the barrier by nurturing the Son of God from conception to death.  Through Mary, Jesus Christ inherited the bloodline of a priest of Isreal.  

    In Jesus final moments of life on the cross he also used his role as head of family to make this circle of family ties complete.  As the family high priest he offered himself as the sacrifice for our salvation.  As the head of household, put his earthly affairs in order by ensuring his mother was cared for.  Christ turned to the disciple he loved, and told him Mary was his mother.  Jesus then told Mary the disciple was her son.  Jesus adopted the disciple, and as such Mary was the disciple's mother too.  In this act, Jesus passes the new covenant he set forth and the Queen Mother on to his church family for all eternity.  

    Through the language of family, Christ completes the circle the covenant relationship.  From the family cornerstone our parishes, diocese and universal chruch obtain their form.  It will be a day well spent to contemplate means to strengthen and nurture this critical institution ordained by God himself through natural law at the dawn of the world.  I hope you can find time in your day to do the same!

-ehw

Revisiting a shot...and Christ's example today

    Two nights ago I read a very short essay on photography.  The author (Scott Bourne) exhorted readers to revisit a site time and time again.  To shoot the scene from above, below, left, right, with new settings and depth....all because in photography we try to capture three dimensions in a two dimensional frame.  When you also consider we artists may try to communicate a sense of the environment and emotion in those same two dimensions I think you can agree the task of making art communicate is actually harder than it looks.

    So that is why I again visited a familiar subject.  The cross in our sanctuary at St. Thomas Aquinas Church here in Alpharetta, Georgia.  I've heard a few sermons about Christ's victory on the cross recently, and it made me think in new ways about those hours when he sacrificed himself for us.   Then last week I read about using flash with grid to isolate a subject in broad daylight.  Well I had no flash, but I could play with my exposure meter just enough to get me on my way to the same effect.  So in the silence of the church I was able conceive in my mind a vision of a piece of art I wanted to share.

    I wanted to convey the feeling the devil wanted Christ, and you and I, to feel when crucified or targeted by his dark friends.  I wanted to convey the sense of darkness surrounding Christ on the cross.  While I conveyed that, I also wanted to give us viewers a sense of hope.  I did that by making sure the inner light of the word made flesh shone out above the darkness.  I thought this might show how he gives hope to the world in our darkest moments.

    See I could also see, in the back of my mind, the terrible atrocities being committed against Christians in the Middle East.  Boys and girls my son' Kevin's s age are being tortured, and murdered, under the crucifixes of their churches because their hearts stand with God.  As a father and shepherd, my heart and gut is wrenched thinking of what happened to them.  I fear what could happen to my sweet children, if spiritual and martial defenses weaken in the slightest degree. The darkness is my fear revealed.

     I can also see the light.  Those young innocents and martyrs also demonstrate complete faith in Christ's word.  They literally display the faith of a child in the face of men with weapons and fully developed strength.  Those children are the light of Christ on the cross, hands outspread, using their final acts of faith to call me to greater unity with God in my daily lives.

     I have so much more I need to learn and do to live the life God intended for me.  It makes me wonder who and where my next lesson will arise from.

-ehw 

Christmas Eve Traditions

In our home we switched up traditions a few years ago to get a little peace back into our Christmas worship...and also to enjoy our Christmas Eve traditions a little more.  See we get the house ready, make our Christmas Angel Food Cake, then we have a nice dinner, light the Christ Candle and sing to our Lord and Savior.  Truthfully the house is so full of nervous energy I am amazed everything gets done and enjoyed!

After dinner we set the family gifts out under the tree, say our prayers...and the kids get off to bed so the good St. Nicholas of Myra (the good Bishop who smacked Arius) pay us a visit!  Oh I mean Santa Claus in the red suit.  Except for a last minute requirement to find eggs (thank you Bunn family for letting us share your egg coop bounty at 945PM!) everything was perfect.

More later...but all is good in the Wojtkun Home!  Our Lord is made incarnate!  He is ready to show us the word spoken and expressed in creation since before time began!  What a wonderful, wonderful blessing to the world!  I also love how my children love each other.

So enjoy a glimpse into our home, celebration of Christ's birth, and understand my poor wife only looks a little green because Baby E is doing well and will make his name known next August.

-ehw

PS  These are the very first photos from Mr Fujifilm X-T1...enjoy!

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Merry Christmas Aunt Suzi and Uncle Steve!

Set out the Cookies with care

Can you feel the excitement?

A brief timeout!

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I am so blessed my Children love each other!

Hand in the Candy Bucket

I'll confess this little one is a sweetheart, and I'm partial to her since her parents are good friends of ours.  However I think those eyes make the shot, and capture your heart.  Her eyes will captivate you in person, and I hope I put such a feeling in this photo.

To accomplish this little shot I was playing with my favorite little lens, the Fujinon 23mm F1.4.  In this photo I experimented with an extremely shallow depth of field, opening the aperture all the way just to see what it will do.  Because I was using a mirrorless camera, my Fuji XE-1, I was able to see the DOF in the screen as I composed the image in real time.

I know some purists out there will be screaming that professionals use a viewfinder, and that I am violating some law of photography since I did not have my eye up to the viewfinder.  Heck I might as well have used a cell phone right?  Well probably yes and definitely no.

See part of the reason I switched from traditional DSLRs to this mirrorless design was I got comfortable keeping eye contact with my subjects during composition.  An instructor told us how vital was, and at first I was like yah right...but then I tried it.  Eye contact helped me take a great group photo of 64 VIPs.   Why?  Because by looking at my subjects I kept control over them.  It then helped me take individual subjects mind off the camera and kept it focused on our conversation.  With younger kids it became much less about the camera, and more about the game we were playing.  I found more candid moments caught, and fewer cheesy smiles that look like the child in under duress.

Well...the journey is still moving forward as I learn more about my little craft...and I hope to share more of these lessons as I go forward with you!

-ehw

Stepping Outside the Norm- Blue Knights

    As a high schooler I so longed to escape the drama and pressures to simply conform to popular culture.  I had no desire to participate in underage drinking, running the edge of the law, or disrespecting my parents.  I had no real love for the show described as funniest of the times...the Simpson's.  Here we see the prototypical popular culture Hollywood wants us to accept: A dunce Dad who worships beer and donuts, the Mom who is good hearted, the girl who always knows best, and the little boy who is a bratty idiot bumbling through life.   Any number of shows continue this tradition today.  

   I thought then being an adult would allow me to just be...me!  Then came college and adulthood.  That pressure to conform to popular culture just nevers stops.  I was watching football one Sunday last year, and noticed the commercials were just a rehash of everything of those years but even worse.  Dumb men, women on display, worship of bear and stupid stunts by young boys.

    I finally realized the reason I kept being targeted like this was I refused to come inside the "normal" range of tolerance for this behavior. Where most say that this is simply harmless, silliness I could not in good conscience allow my children to see it, before they had the Armor of God to fend off the vices.

    So I've been supporting this little boys club at church, called Blue Knights ( www.beholdpublications.com). In fact a friend and I founded the parish club for our boys.  Since then the group remained small, not for lack of marketing...simply because it competes with so many other things out there.  I pulled my eldest from the last part of two baseball practices last year to attend these meetings...yep we're not the norm.  We shut off broadcast TV, and screen what we see on Netflix.  Radical?  To most yes. However only the beginning of what I must do as a parent.

    My wife in her spiritual journey learned the thing we will each be judged on by Christ will be how we did my our children in terms of bringing the faith to them.  I learned contemplative faith is a gift of God given to some, but not all.  As a result, whatever we do for our children to raise them as children of God requires us to provide each child the unique skills and rules necessary for them to traverse life's turbulent seas.  

    My Father repeatedly said the same as I grew up, "I love you the same.  I just love you differently."  As a child I did not understand it as well as I do now. Of course I also wish the English language would use the proper words for types of love more freely.  What he said really echoes the bible parable about the workers coming in at different times...or being given different amounts of talents.  To each God loved them the same (unconditionally). However God gave of himself to each differently based on the man before him.

    Some children will never pass the stage of the Fear of God (doing what is right as to not disappoint God).  This is fine, because if they keep the Fear in their hearts, they will always live inside the boundaries of natural law. This takes them towards God's Kingdom with their fellow men.  Other's given the contemplative gift, well maybe they will be quiet enough to listen and heed God's word.  From that personal message I pray they develop a Love of God, where they make God's ways their own freely without reservation.  Either way, as a Father I would be happy to one day have them beside me worshipping God in heaven for all eternity.

    Society has no interest in you making it to heaven.  The world we see on TV wants you to buy this good, pull the election lever for their candidate, or pull you from others and focus on your personal pleasure.  So to each of you out there contemplating the road you will travel with your family, don't be afraid to step outside the norm.  Homeschooling, one parent employment, staying up every night working late in charity for your public school child, finding the right worship methods for you, finding the right role models in faith....each journey is custom built for you.  

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."   

    -Robert Frost

    Happy praise God Sunday!

-ehw

P.S.  These photos are what you can do if you turn the norm on its head....Halloween should be looked at for a Christian as the eve before All Souls Day when we praise those of virtuous living!  We should pray for our family, friends and selves to be on the same road to heaven!    

Classic Lines

This car sat right next to my booth on Sunday.  It was screaming to be photographed.  This is one of my favorites from the car.  The light and reflection of trees in the chrome makes it almost magical.  Well in my opinion!  I hope you agree.  Any feedback is appreciated.

As with so many cars at the show this one brought back memories for my childhood.  This was the car of the Rich and Famous in my teen years.  I could never hope to own one (still can't) but they were very refined and lovely cars for their day.  Today they are just plain old classy.

-ehw

P.S. jpeg HDR conversion, nine shots +/-3EV.  Done in HDR Efex2 by nik.  Color Effex4 chrome correction, and finished in Perfect Effects 8.

Caffeine and Octane Tomorrow

EHW Photography will be at Caffeine and Octane tomorrow morning from 7A-11AM at 12600 Deerfield Parkway, Alpharetta, Georgia.  I'll be selling photos, and hopefully capturing a few new ones to share!  Over 600 people and their autos usually attend.  So if you want to see classics, hotrods, and modern special editions come on down!

-ehw

Techie Wednesday

Today is Techie Wednesday is about color, or lack thereof...

Today we have a lovely photo where the color of Blues and Greens provided a nice compliment to each other.  However I wanted a bit more...I wanted contrast of the blue on grey to make the blue really pop on the screen while the leaves provided context without distraction.

So remember that!  Black and White focuses the eye on the structure, patterns, form of the photograph.  Color can sometimes enhance this, but many times will detract from it.

In this case I wanted to place each element where it would help me make an image with impact.  So I used both to the best effect I could.

Hopefully if you like these little techie moments I'll make sure they get out to you more often.

-ehw

Memories of Childhood

Walking through Old Car City an International Harvester pickup sat thinking of glorious days long past...and I thought of shifting my first gears at the age of 7 or so...

See we once had a 1970 Scout, made by IH.  It was the fancy model with dual gas tanks and a four speed manual transmssion.  It ran on anything according to my Dad.  It was pretty smooth going to school down Poverty Lane (yes there is such a road in West Lebanon, N.H.)  It was so smooth in fact that my Dad could drink his coffee in an open cup while changing gears!

I know you are now asking how do you drink coffee nicely when you are driving a stick shift?  Well that is of course easy when you deploy your optional automatic child transmission to shift on command.  I think my Dad was WAY ahead of his time.  I mean this transmission was voice activated!  "Second! Third! Fourth!...slowing down now Four, Three, Two.......stop...First!"  Google car eat your heart out!

I was the proudest second grader on the planet when I got to school.  Not only was my Dad the ONLY Army officer in the state, the only one to understand how to build a Army standard bunker...but I was the ONLY child shifting gears of an automobile!

-ehw

P.S. As for the image this is my first image in the Fall Collection.  After reading the HDR Book by RC (www.aboutRC.com) I went back to work on several older photos.  Using new ideas, tools and skills many images found themselves re-invented...and much improved.  That is the beauty of digital and art...it can grow with you if you challenge yourself from time to time to not live on your laurels.  This will be available for purchase on 12x12 metallic floating mount for $115 by the end of the week.  Larger sizes available on request...I promise you will not be disappointed..Why later?  I am awaiting the proof copy right now to make sure it is just the way I want it!

Capturing a musical note

     Oh old horns are such a hoot.  I have two myself and I enjoyed them for years.  Now I have other passions...and besides I never got the coordination down.  I became a much better singer over time than I could ever play!  No hand, eye, finger, breathing muscle movements!

   One challenge to always watch for on these lovely subjects are reflections.  If you can keep them as controlled highlights I think you can really appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship of these musical instruments.  So if you cannot get a good shot full or partial shade bring scrim into the photo shoot to reduce the lighting's dynamic range to something your camera can capture fully.

    Well now it is time to get the big kids off to their music lessons!  One Violin and one Cello need exercise!

-ehw

A Good Day

     This weekend my family joined a co-op hybrid school (part school, part homeschool) at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new campus.  The event was simple and awesome.  Why?  Because they opened in thanksgiving, reminded everyone that the core mission of the school is to build the Kingdom of God, and we prayed over the people and facilities for God's grace to reign down on them.  

     I worked as the "official" photographer.  I hope I did well enough that they ask me back! I told my wife that I felt great that I could be a part of the communinty by working.  She just smiled at me and whispered, "I know" as she smiled rubbed by head.  That wife of mine is a keeper.  (She's at teacher orientation today!)

     One of my favorite moments was watching the lonely playground quickly fill with over a dozen children.  Here I caught just a second of the fun, but you can clearly see my son loving the fellowship of new and old friends.  It is a moment of joy I want to hold on to for a long time in my heart.

 -ehw

P.S.  For more information on this community of faith please go to the Regina Caeli Academy homepage  http://rcahybrid.org

Looking for guidance?

    Well this weekend I had time to read two books!  Both books were gifts and I enjoyed them immensely!  I could recommend both to you without reservations.  Just a warning to you though, you might come away knowing you need to do some deep thinking.

    The first was a "gift" from my son on Father's Day.  He "re-gifted" me a school book.  He put a lot of thought into it, and he made a good choice.  I read his fourth grade book called Saint Dominic by Mary Fabyan Windeatt.  Wow,  he was a giant of a man in the life of the church, and is credited with providing us the rosary after receiving a vision from Mary.  I knew his story in general, but not enough to be inspired by St Dominic.  Well I am now inspired.  It inspired me so much that my wife and I said the rosary tonight..and I think this will be a more common occurrence.  Actually we'll also be learning the Latin version as well to help the children with schoolwork.  (This will be hard on me...as all my foreign language teachers will tell  you I was very hard on them!)

    The other book was a fabulous book called The Pope and the CEO by Andreas Widmer.  In it  Widmer describes his encounters with Saint John Paul the Great while he served two years with the Swiss Guard in the 1980's.  When I looked at the title I initially thought, "Ah huh?"  When I started reading the book I realized it was exactly what I needed at this point in my life, and I did not put it down.  What makes the book special is the format.  He tells a story to explain his leadership lesson, then he sets a list of activities for you to do using that lesson, and finally asks you to reflect on your life experiences in the view point of the lesson.  As I began the exercises, I must say I find myself changing a little here and there because I am now looking through leadership more in line with God's intent not mine.  I'd encourage anyone to read this book, and do the most important action it recommends....PRAY and then PRAY SOME MORE!

    So there you have it.  Two books with potentially life altering ideas.  Well I am off to pray a bit more.  With this much reading in one weekend, I definitely need to think it through some more.

-ehw

Love a Rainy Night!

     I love a rainy night...ok twilight!  The rain was very, very light but the open ground was soaked!  So that of course means dark, contrast filled colors if captured right! 

   The mood was pretty somber as well.  I thought the taxis would get busier (and therefore happier), but the rain was so light it actually felt good in the humidity...sort of portable Miami air conditioning in an old school manner!

     Even the park benches were quite lonely.

Maybe some sun tomorrow?  Oh that is another song...."The Sun will come out tomorrow! Tomorrow! You can bet your bottom dollar...."  Ok I'll be quiet before security comes up and makes me an offer I cannot refuse.

-ehw

P.S. For you gear heads all these came from my Fujifilm X-E1.  Today was zoom day. I travels with my standard zoom (XF18-55 F2.8-4).  Nicely made lens, and it did allow me to reach out and grab a few photos without moving my feet.  I will say that the biggest thing it did for me was the mild telephoto effect.  The second and fourth photos show what happened when I racked it all the way out to 55mm...or a short telephoto of about 78mm Full Frame equivalent.  The telephoto allowed me to compress the elements in the frame, and they seem closer than they would with a standard focal length.

     Something else I learned is that I got the shots in low light by increasing my iso to 3200.  However this also made much the photo very bright, approaching daylight scenes.  So I went back into the camera and applied negative compensation to bring the scenes closer to what I saw.  I did not want a night vision goggle effect here. 

    Finally these are almost exclusively out of camera jpegs.  Your camera probably has a very powerful RAW converter.  Use it, save variants and shoot some more.  If the product is good, variants will help you explore the what if's of your camera's potential.