The Cross and St. Joseph

     What can you learn from a man who says nothing in the entire Bible?  It turns out we can learn a great deal from his silent example and the symbols of his biblical and tradition based stories handed down from the Patriarchs.  For this reason he is a patron saint of my family and our little Blue Knight Evangelization club.

    St. Joseph was a carpenter, and it is this trade he passed down to his son.  Working with wood is one of the oldest traditions of mankind.  In the Garden of Eden we began this tradition of working with wood through the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.  Working with first gave us the fruit of unity with God, and the later one's fruit planted inside us the seeds of pride to create our fallen world.

    The Tree of Life required no pruning or sacrifice to care for it or provide for our souls.  Once the world fell though, God needed to send his son to set things aright.  The job required Jesus to use the materials, tools and symbols we humans could grasp.  As partakers of the Tree of Knowledge we humans always look for God to symbolize rewards for good behavior by showing us the "land of milk and honey." Overturning our fall from grace could not however come without sacrifice and correcting the pride from the fruits of Knowledge.

    So enter into this story a carpenter.  A man who sizes up a tree, cuts it down, cures it, and then crafts it with man made tools to provide necessities of life.  A carpenter will build tools, homes, carts, and hundreds of other items to ease our daily burdens to give us a better life.  Yes the carpenter kills a tree to provide us a better life.  It is the way of things in a fallen world.

    It was the carpenter St. Joseph who provided Jesus with the earthly skills and tool set to make the very cross he will carry to Calgary.  In the Jewish tradition it would be St. Joseph who introduced Jesus to earthly scripture (remember Jesus was there when they wrote it in the Trinity), apprenticed Jesus, brought up in the knowledge of Jewish ritual, taught Jesus the culture of the world he lived in when they went to market or met customers, and ensured Jesus had a sound domestic church with his wife Mary .  St. Joseph was responsible for introducing Christ to the complete earthly tool set needed to communicate with the world the message of salvation. 

    Being the faithful and obedient son, Christ learned his lessons well.  This is why Christ took the dead wood of the cross, a barren man formed tree as his greatest tool.  While the Romans saw it as a tool for a public belittlement of men to keep their earthly power over a population, Jesus had other ideas.  Jesus took the dead tree and used it to pass through to eternal life.  Through his death he obtained the glorification briefly glimpsed at the Transfiguration for all eternity.  In this act he corrected the error of Adam and Eve, and showed us our personal path to redemption.

    Through the works of a child, we get a glimpse of the qualities of the parents who raised them.  Although St. Joseph never said a word to us in the Bible, the impact he had a profound impact on the life of Jesus.  Looking for guidance in his example and patronage for our families can greatly advance our spiritual lives towards the Tree of Life.

-ehw

ANCIENT PRAYER TO ST. JOSEPH

Oh, St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interest and desires.

Oh, St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.

Oh, St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him close in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for me. Amen.

Please visit The Catholic Company to see more about this prayer.

Live Love Not Vanity

    Two days ago I attended the funeral for a friend's husband.  He passed unexpectedly after a bout with cancer.  I heard testimonials from several friends of the deceased.  They told the story of a man who lived a life of love for his fellow man.  From what his wife told me in the months we've worked together, these were no exaggerations.  These tales exactly described his character.  

    This gentleman was a leader.  He bore other's burdens with joy.  He called out other men to be leaders in their homes for their wives and children.  He was the rock on whom his wife and boys could lean at any time of the day or night for support.  From what I heard, and knew from his wife, he was also not a man who allowed blind love of another person to cover up their faults in his eyes.  This man called all people to raise themselves up to meet the challenges of life.  He carried the same attitude when he looked in the mirror as well.  He had confidence in himself, but never a vanity for himself.  So when he did not know answers to life's hard questions, he reached out to a trusted circle of friends and the Lord for guidance.

    Good men seek challenges, camaraderie, glory in the Lord, and lay down their life in service.  Somehow the best of the good men do all these things with a smile.  Obviously this gentlemen was all of these things.

    So as we stood at the Canton American Military Cemetery, I looked out at the headstones and thought of what this fallen soldier could teach others in one sentence.  It really came down to what all good military men have in common.  He lived love not vanity.

   Please pray for this family.  My friend and her two good sons lost a good husband and father.  Now they will need the strength to carry on their own lives, with the direction left by a good man in the example of a life well lived inscribed on their hearts.

-ehw

PS  Just a note about the photo above.  In American Military Cemeteries on US Soil we are not legally allowed to photograph the names on the tombstones (per the custodians at the Los Angeles National Cemetery).  So in the four minutes I had to take a few photos before a huge thunderstorm...I got a few quality photos...under that specific guidance.  Took some adjustments to make sure I stayed in the law, but I think it worked out.

Brothers

Raising a family comes with many challenges. One of the greatest is raising siblings to respect each other through childhood, not compete for everything, and show each other charity.  In between the challenging moments it is always encouraging to see a moment like this, when there is peace between them.  I'm glad I caught it.  It is a moment to cherish.

For once the trains are running on time!

-ehw

PS Fujifilm X-E1 with the awesome 23mm 1.4

View fullsize

Brothers at work

Hustle For Home

Here is the premise...I wanted to capture the interior of Grand Central Station and show how busy it is when people make a break for their trains so they can get home.  Yet on frame just did not get it done.  I had the little bits of motion here and there, but I still wanted more of the magic this place has.

So I went ahead and tried it...a seven frame HDR.   The station came out great...the people are ghosted.  The motion is both visible and implied.  Captures the hustle and bustle...and the grand interior of the station.

Ah a try at something new, and yep next time I'll make sure the 14mm comes along.  Going to and from work I was with a one lens set up...in this case the 35mm!

-ehw

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station is an amazing sight to behold. Hustle, bustle, and still some elegance while it is at work. I think that is what I still like about it 20 years after my last visit to this landmark.

Wherever I go, whatever I do I think I find the best actions and places are the ones with elegance ingrained in their pursuit of a noble purpose. In this case, Grand Central is a vital transportation center. It gets people to and from this city on hundreds of train trips every day. Yet while doing this the building stands tall with beauty and grace. Its caretakers keep it gleaming and functional. I find deep enjoyment in both of those observations when I stand amidst all of it. I also sadly find that not enough of those ethics remain in many new stations, stadiums and transit stations who have planned obsolesce built into their core DNA...and their caretakers just seem to accelerate the process.

I hope my photo does justice to the grand station...and the people who keep her gleaming.

-ehw PS Fujifilm X-E1 with the 35mm At F1.4 to catch the light.

Wiley Coyote's last stop

Did you grow up on Road Runner and Wiley Coyote cartoons?  If not your missing a little bit of modern education.

This site at the top of Pike's Peak seemed to be the inspiration of all those falls Wiley Coyote took...Track runs all the way up to the edge and then...well it is a 2,000 foot drop.  Good for getting home in a hurry if you are not worried about arriving in one piece.

It was a fun part of the trip.  Everyone had to remember to work a little slower because it was not hard to get light headed up there in the thin air of 14,000 feet.

-ehw

P.S.  Mr. Fuji made this trip up the hill.  A nice story teller told me once that if you can get an interesting angle, like the top shot that can be the grabber.  The second shot finishes the story you wanted to tell.  So depending on the purpose of your post, share either one or both.  I thought both would work better on this little story of our trip.

Photographers Delight

The Grand Lake Museum is a photographer's delight. I could return there time and time again working new angles on various exhibits. This is really what I love to do with my travel photography, pick up a scene or environment and convey it to the world with an enriching twist. Capturing my children, and in this case their cousin as well, in wonder at grasping these new lessons just is icing on the cake....

The big lesson for the family was that everyone had to be able to do everything...and life was pretty sparse by today's standards for the "rich" townsfolk. The boys learned they had a lot of skills they had to learn as tradesmen in building, repair, hunting, fishing, and finance to keep the family afloat. The girls learned that a family lived and died on their skills managing money, supplies (something as simple as running out of lard or meat in the winter meant death), clothing, and daily management meant a smart and skilled lady was highly sought after!

In the end though, families pulled each other through...they had no government handouts or fire departments to assist them! If they messed up they died in the remote mountain country, unless someone else could assist out of their bounty and charity. What a different world, and one that did make our country great....

The first photo is of the cousins looking at an old stereotype photo viewer...yes they had three dimensional viewing too!

The second caught my eye due to the really cool window light..and then my father-in-law said the towel was like the ones his mom made, so of course I had to capture it for him!

The final photo is a pin cushion upstairs in the sewing room. I loved the color, texture and setting. I could just imagine one of the girls there working hard at mending a borders shirt or making a quilt.

I hope your enjoyed this as much as I did! I'll have more photos later!

-ehw

Looking Forward

Planes, trains and automobiles...all can take us places.  To these boys the power and majesty of a train is awe inspiring.  I can almost hear their questions and dreams over the clickty clack of the track.  "Where is the train going?  How strong is it?  How many cars is it pulling?  Could I drive that thing?  I'd love to travel the rails and be the engineer!"

Yesterday I talked about reflecting back in time, and coming into the present in prayer.  Those reflections provide us the necessary torque to pull the burdens of our lives forward on the track God intended.  Within those boundaries, we actually get freed to obtain the greatest rewards life can offer.

To us life is one linear motion, but to the maker of all things time has no linear boundaries.  It is limitless, without boundaries, and makes sense all at once.

Just like the boys, that mystery makes me say, "Where is God's train going?  How strong is it?  How many cars is he pulling?  Would he let me drive that thing?  I'd love to travel the rails and be his engineer on the way to the kingdom!"

-ehw

PS Mr K5 working his magic...F5, 1/5000 @ ISO 1600 -3ev

Looking Back

Looking back over our lives I think we sometimes realize we went too quickly past the best moments.  Thankfully my little passion of photography lets me remember them in ways I could not appreciate in the heat of the moment.  Sometimes I think it even lets me experience the moments more deeply.

A friend recently wrote about needing to remember to take time and pray.  I could not agree more.  For some of you effective prayer might come from reciting a rosary, others pure meditation on a devotional, or for some it could be a spontaneous outpouring of music.  It is in any of the forms of prayer that we can appreciate God's works, experience his calming power, or petition him to give us strength to overcome our weaknesses.  Use that prayer to focus your efforts at coming into communion with his will, so that your works can then match his guiding hand.

I'm trying myself to follow the sage advice of my friend...just like the struggle to capture a wonderful frame...it is never easy...each time is never the same...but each frame's unique moment can open a window of reflection as you look back that can change your future positively forever.

-ehw

PS Techies...this is Mr K-5 screaming at F4, 1/8000 and ISO6400.  He's not FF, but he's one good dude...edited in Aperture with a Dusted Warm preset and minor tweeks...

All Aboard!

Three boys and a train museum...with buses!  What do you get?  Fun and energy all wound up and let loose at the Southeastern Train Museum in Duluth, Georgia!

The boys (my son and his two best friends) were really good, considering how much energy they had they were angels!  I loved every minute of their discovery, but had a hard time keeping the lens on them in focus.

I wish I could see the world as they do...in awe and wonder...and with the vivaciousness of their souls leaping out at all times.  Instead I'll do as God intended us to do.  I'll look on then with wonder, accept the challenge in being their guardian for the day, and see what lessons I can bank for another day.

-ehw

PS Yet another shot showing the versatility of the Fujifilm X20 when equipped with a simple external flash unit (EF-20).

Published on Bill Fortney!

 

Hey Hey!

My friend Bill Fortney just published one of my HDR photos to illustrate how you can use various types of tripods to get "surprising" shots.

To check it out please go here!   http://billfortney.com/?p=7863

In this photo I wanted to try and see what motion would look like in an HDR photo.  In my first attempt the exposures were way to long, and the trains actually disappeared.  So unlike my other HDR where I kept the ISO down at 80, these are way up at 1600.

And in my final photo of the day I wanted you to see what it looks like when a group photo is requested...and you get a lonely tripod field of dreams...

If you get a chance do attend a His Light Workshop!  It is so much more than the photos!

-ehw

Self Portrait

Just had such a fun time this weekend, that I also snapped a quick one of me that actually came out alright...

I will not make self portraits a habit, but for a change up I wanted to toss it in.

-ehw

Bel Air Glamor

One of the effects of HDR photography is also to bring out textures and color in a very realistic way.

I took this photo and had some fun with it in HDR Efex Pro 2, then ran it through Color Efex 4.  Sharpened to taste and called it a day.

RC Conception pointed out to us on the second night that the purpose of HDR is to get a good product to finish in post processing.  He found many people shot, process and don't finish.

It would be like writing the first acts of a play, and then walking away from the final act.

I called this Bel Air Glamor because the Glamor Glow filter seems to be all the rage in many a circle today, and I wanted to try it out for myself.

If you want to see some really extraordinary HDR check out both RC Conception's website and Jim Begley's.  Both are true master artists with this technique.

Check them out at www.aboutrc.com and www.wowphotoshdr.com.

-ehw

-ehw

Mail Time!

Day Three at the Old Car City HDR Workshop took us to the Duluth, Georgia Southeastern Railway Museum.  Twenty six photographers danced their way through this car...which except for the cooking cars was the top attraction for the day.

The team was fantastic. During the day talked gear, life, Christ, and how to get shots right in camera.  It was big boy rules, if you wanted help you got it.  If you did not want help you just shot... and shot...and shot again.

This postal car was the first scene one I wanted to process and share.

I'll write more later.  For now I wanted to let you know to keep His Light shining in your hearts and send it out for all to see.

God Bless.

-ehw