The Hand in the Sand

    On this Sunday morning, with the two youngest kiddos on my lap, I read the Divine Office of Readings for today.  The reading was about Ester.  Here she was a young woman being rounded up, just because of her beauty and taken into the harem of the king.

    I cannot imagine the thoughts and fears she had on that fateful day.  She was nothing more than a pawn, in fact she was less than a pawn at that moment.  She was a grain of sand in a vast desert.  However, inside that grain of sand we know as Ester something stronger and more significant was ready to bloom through the grace of God.

   See Ester had the seeds of faith planted inside that grain of sand through the gift of faith.  Through the events unfolding around her she would receive the choice to stand fast with her faith or cover her face in fear.  Her free choice to sacrifice herself for her people is a foreshadowing (one of many) of the type of life Christ led on his way to the cross.  

    As a parent Ester's story only tells part of the story's lesson.  Her foster father Mordecai fulfilled his parental and priestly duties towards Ester by first forming her in faith, and then continually reminding her of God's covenant through to her people.  A covenant which only survives if each generation embraces it freely in their hearts and deeds.  That is why Mordecai continued to remind his adopted daughter of God's commandments and covenant until the crisis peaked.

    The challenges we face in this world today are no different than those Mordecai and Ester faced.  The way to overcome those challenges are also no different than their responses.  Parents and children must respond to the hand in the sand, the love and wisdom of the Holy Spirit in all that we do.  

    Parents and clergy must form their children with wisdom and the fear of God (that is the desire not to disappoint God) so they can evolve their faith into Love of God (where we make his will our own).   We parents can never stop living our lives calling out both ourselves and our children to holiness.  We must never stop praying the gift of faith is given to our children.

    Children must understand as early as possible, they have a great inheritance.  The covenant of God passed down and expanded from God through Abraham, through David, through Christ to each of us.  Through this covenant we bind ourselves to follow his law, and obtain the rewards of eternal unity with him in heaven.    Their basic choice in life is to chose virtue over vice each day of their lives.   Whether they choose to do it from fear or love will be their own, and a decision they must understand accountability falls on them alone.

  Have a blessed Sunday while remembering how Ester and Mordecai listened to the hand in the sand.

-ehw

Fingers in the sand

Today someone drew in the sand a little story.  The lines left behind still drew me into an enchanting world of mystery. I may understand parts of the story, but I will never grasp the whole story!  I am sure of this since it was not my hand drawing out the tale.  It immediately made me think of God's handiwork I see around me, and the mysteries of God I will never comprehend.

Did you have an adventure from fingers in the sand today yourself?  

-ehw

Shelby Cobra 67-500

This Shelby Cobra is the last of the 67's.  Number 500 in fact!  I saw the documentation and original window sticker to get all the proof I could need.  

So it is also the last of the Cobras in the original Mustang body style.  As you can see the car also wears a special badge signifying the good work of the owners to maintain it in original form.  Yes it still has that wonderful throaty engine sound.  It has about 14,000 original miles on it (well if I remember accurately).

This photo is available for sale if you'd like to have it adorn you wall, christmas cards or coffee mugs....please contact me at www.ehwphotography@gmail.com!  It will help me pay for the website!  Let me know the size you are looking for, and I will get you a price quote!

-ehw

A Different Day

A different type of day today.  It is a Federal holiday, so I had the day off and wrote up a busy schedule for myself.  However it was a still a school day for Regina Caeli Academy so the four kiddos with the momma got up and at it in the early morning light.

Nine days out of ten...well 95 out of 100...I am the guy up first and out the door while they enjoy their warm blankets for another hour or so.  So to be roused by my wife's alarm, and the sound of lots of other feet is a game changer.

Today you can see the Silver Bullet headed out the door on its mission.  As it left I found myself reading the news alone with my coffee.  I found myself experiencing the same fears I had in my bed last night at 2 and 3 and 4....Ebola, TB outbreak, Flu type 68,  ISIS, Russia on the move worldwide, China on the move in the South China Sea, a disarming US, Bishops in the middle east and Africa reminding their people they need to defend themselves, and a blatant turning away from natural law this country was founded on on every page.  

Now fear is not a good state to live in, instead it is an emotion that should push us to new work to right the situation.  So I made my list for the day, heard the divine office, read the morning prayer, and moved out to 9Am mass.  During mass I listened and fell deep into thought.  I wanted to ask God where he was.  I wanted to ask him to do something about this madness around me, to help my family survive the coming turbulence.  In the silence of post communion I my head rang with words from so many other sources me like a piece of lead dropped from the roof.

"Son I did do something about all this.  I made you."

With that I got myself into motion working on preparation for Blue Knights tomorrow night (6 new boys coming in for the first time making their shields), meeting with a friend, and saying a few prayers along the way.  I guess the big guy reminded me, to do what I can, where I can to build his kingdom.  So I better get a little busier!

-ehw

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Our old Bug

My parents were not hippies (not my Army officer Dad!), but we did have this type of camper back in the 70's.  Since the statue of limitations is over I can tell you we sat five in a car with only three seat belts for several years.  My sister and brother both slept on a hammock over the driver's seat as toddlers.  I can't remember if I was in the tent or not.  I think I did, at least once.  We also went to see the first Superman movie at the drive through in this big bug as a family.  That was a fun night.  I also remember holding the check from the back used to pay for it...and as an adult I drove past that spot and memory every day for two years 30 years later.

This automobile may not be a horse, but it does foster bonds between who we are today and our past.  Maybe it is because we associate travel with growth and freedom here in the USA.  I know this is a poor way to explain an American and their automobiles.  I just had to get those stories out.  The car made me do it!

-ehw

P.S. X-E1 with HDR Efex Pro2, Slight color treatment in Nik Color Efex 4.

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.

A Shelby Day

I'm very excited.  My son and I had a great time at Caffeine and Octane on Sunday morning.  I cannot reveal the details yet, but lets just say this photo is practice for an upcoming project.

Although we had many challenges as a family this weekend, it turned out alright.  Now I'm getting ready for another good work week with great people solving problems.  I can only thank God for the opportunity to care for my family and others whenever possible.  Jesus is the greatest example of selflessness in history...and I hope I am living the calling he set before me.

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1 post in Nik Color Effex4..and a touch of sharpening in Aperture with a brush.  As always if you want to know what I did, contact me and I'll share.  

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

3rd Place!

EHW Photography took home 3rd place in the 2D art category at the Roswell Art Festival! There were over ninety vendors total, and over twenty outstanding 2D vendors.  So I am thrilled to receive this recognition for the hard work of my little crew.

It was a good weekend meeting great people.  Our next show I hope will be with the ROMEOS on the first Sunday in October in East Cobb, and then Octane on Caffine on the third Sunday of October.  I will also be setting up personal car shoots with many people I met this weekend.  I hope to show you that working the coming months!

Much more later...but for now I'm still excited and recovering from the long weekend.

-ehw

A Rocky Stairway of Life

    Life poses challenge after challenge.  It is sort of like this rocky stairway.  You get there, but steps can be unevenly staggered, too smooth, worn, overgrown...and downright dangerous.

    God never promised us an easy life...he just gave us life.  As our license plate says, "Your Life does have an instruction manual"...The Bible.  

  I am sure you too can find many a good example of people who live it out with love, compassion and toughness allowing them to climb the rocky stairs of life honorably before God and man.  Those good people are the ones to emulate, be mentored by and befriend.  The company you keep pulls you up or drags you down.

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1, Velvia simulation, 23mm lens..Savannah waterfront district

Travel into the wild...

Yesterday I met a young photographer and she showed me some of her urban explorations....pretty cool stuff.  Well talking to her I also made me long to get out a shoot myself.  You know work and play often don't mix it up very well...and the client projects I did make over the last month were for internal release only!

So after we got home, fed the kiddos and enjoyed a quick date night out I realized I still had some daylight left.  Instead of urban exploration I did some deep forest exploration from my backyard.  I spent the rest of the night playing with development settings, Aperture, Capture One, OnOne, Nik Suite....just to see what I could do.  This is one of the three I liked.  I wanted it to make me think I was really deep in a mysterious woods. I hope I fooled you!

So the moral of the day is..as Bob Coates would say...take some time to play and imagine.  Sometimes it unlocks doors you would not know existed.

-ehw

PS Fujifilm X-E1, 23mm, tripod mount, Capture One and Silver Effects Pro2.

The benefits of Social Media in reverse

     Oh tonight I had to laugh at irony.  See in our house we have two thoughts on social media.  I use it to connect with people, but I do try to be pretty careful with where and what I publish.  I know that it is probably not going to go away in my lifetime.  So I just try my best to deal with it.  My wife hates social media.  It can all burn in hell for all she cares.  She likes her cave, and the telephone.  Give her a call or set up a visit is her motto.

    Well tonight a family friend reconnect via some social media.  We've been out of touch, and our two families had a pretty busy couple of years.  So by luck she finds me on one of those blasted social media sites, requests to be linked up, and we share numbers.  Since this is my wife's good friend I send the number and tell her just minutes later.

    Now I sit here 70 minutes later and the two friends are still going strong on the phone.  I am sure I will go to bed and be followed when I am fast asleep.  To be honest I am happy she is on the phone.  Just a few nights ago I was enjoying a conversation that took me back to my highland home in N.Y. twenty two years ago.  So it is a good event we should be joyous for.   I just hope she remembers it resulted from that blasted social media.

    So the motto for the night is social media is ok when used in moderation.  The power of a friends voice is a timeless remedy for many of the trials we face in this journey.  So do yourself a favor, put your life in reverse and connect with an old friend.  Share your journeys, pray for them, and I am sure you will sleep with a smile on your face tonight.

-ehw

P.S. Pentax K-5 from 18 months ago.  I reprocessed this one in Capture One Pro tonight.  I really like what that program can go out of the box.

Change of Perspective

Just a quick post as we all head past the top of the week...

Just a quick play with light and depth of field here in our Blessed Sacrament chapel a few weeks ago.

It is very peaceful in the chapel, and the soft lift, and lovely rose window let one sink into the presence of our Lord.  

Like most people I found myself drawn to the largest light source...and after a few minutes I realized the Lord was there in the quiet shadows waiting for us all.

-ehw

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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

Back to School Sale!

Tomorrow will start my last visit to the Alpharetta Art in the Park show for the summer.  I'll be in the park Saturday 9AM-4PM and Sunday 11AM-4PM with samples of my work, and I hope you will stop by and visit.

For my loyal readers and visitors I am offering the promo code SUMMER and get 20% off this weekend.  The link to the market is https://squareup.com/market/ehw-photography  All items ordered will be fulfilled and mailed directly to your home.

I will also extend this offer to any item you see and like in my online portfolios (both my website and Smugmug!   I can make anything on my website a print suitable for your home.  You can access my other photos through my website www.capturinghisglory.com.  In addition to several galleries, you can also view my blog and select from something here!

And finally, some of you requested photos of family cars or photography lessons.  I will have some openings next week to do those as well!  I'd love to assist you in a special project or gift for a loved one.

Thank you for your interest in my photography, and I hope to see you tomorrow!

-ehw

Looking Up

     I've had a heck of a time photographing these roses.  It always seems that I get too much light on the red while the greens get properly exposed.  Then I'll fix the red and the green gets so dark you see no detail.  Oh it drives me nuts!  However the beauty of the rose just continues to call me to try and get it right.

     The photo you see above is one of my better attempts.  In this case I shot the rose using backlight in the shade.  Everything seems ok because the shade and the backlight made let the subtle details and colors come out.   To get this photo I had to crawl between the bushes, avoid stepping on other lovely flowers and then get low looking at an unusual angle...upwards.

     We all have something that drives us crazy as we try obtain that perfect rose photo.  We will often fail in the individual attempts, but those failures do not have to define us.  We just have to keep improving and learning...and not failing so catastrophically that we lose the resources to try again.  If we keep going we can navigate around the obstacles and get the next shot at the rose.

    Rough week at work?  I know all about it...just maybe keep this in mind.   Keep looking up!

ehw-

Welcome to the new home of EHW Photography!

     Welcome to the new home of EHW Photography!

     This new website is the result of several months of discernment on where this photographic and life journey is taking my misson, artistic interests, and business opportunities.  So please let me take the opportunity to explain what you see before you!

     Last year when I started this business I had big dreams of what I could do with it.   I wanted to understand how the real world works for dinner, pay for my photography habit, give my children a workplace example they could participate in as part of homeschooling, and also express my joy in capturing God's Glory in our daily lives!  As you could expect the real job interfered here, general life requirements interfered there, and pretty soon I realized how hard it would be to do anything I dreamed of a few months earlier!

     On the really good side I learned people liked my work more than disliked.  I just needed to give them a product they could either visualize on their home or use right away.  My children did a wonderful job of introducing themselves to potential clients, and helping me with various jobs at the market.  One even froze his fingers to the bone helping me get some of this year's selections!  This taught me volumes, volumes I'd never learn standing on the sidelines..  For what it is worth, everything I learned merely made me realize how much more I need to learn in all areas of my craft!

     I also learned a lot about the technology and services available to business today.  Unfortunately for this part time owner, some the of really great solutions didn't fit my model.  So after a mountain of research and fiddling I came up with a combination of Squarespace, Smugmug, Square Market, and Shootproof to make my work come to life.  That is why I will slowly move away from my Wordpress site to this new one for all my work.

     So EHW Photography is ready and willing to help you.  I can help you decorate, learn a few lessons about camera operations, composition, editing photos, and even photograph your car if you'd like!  Most of all though I want to help you Capture His Glory in Life!

     God Bless You!

-ehw

And the world fell silent

The world fell silent on that Holy Saturday.  The Lord who lowered himself to become a mere mortal man, in death went even lower.  As he opened the gates of hell, we could not see his preaching and the legions coming to the sound of his voice and the promise of salvation.

This thought from todays Divine Office sermon in the daily Office of Readings made me think a lot differently today.  The rain here last night stopped baseball and sports in its tracks across northern metro Atlanta.  My day went from overfull to silent in outside activity.  We were able to do what my heart really no desires, focus on preparing for the big religious celebration tomorrow.

I spent time with my father collecting a few final supplies for the big Easter feast.  It was busy out in public, but the time we spent together reflectively.  The children were at home with my wife, mother and sister prepping the house and the easter cake (A two foot tall bunny cake).  When we arrived home we all decorated the eggs made with care in the morning by my mother, dad and I.  My wife was checking out the clothing for Easter Sunday, and making sure we had enough of the vitial things like dark socks cleaned and folded.  Then a final treat when my Dad took us all out for dinner...before we shuffled everyone off to bed.

Now the house is quieting down...only the two year old remains calling for anyone to get her out of the crib to play a few more hours (this kid does not sleep enough...GO GO GO).

I'm now reflecting on the incredible challenges we overcame, the love of friends helping us in deed and prayer through those challenges, and finally the growth my family went through spirituallyin the 40 days of Lent.

I am happy the world went silent today.  It gave me the time to now go to bed with a long list of thanksgiving prayers I need to say.

The first to the Lord for his suffering and final victory.  The rest to all those who followed his teachings to lift us up when we were down.

-ehw

Weakness turned into everlasting life

Christ took on the burdens of all of us. He hung the on the tree, and the weight of our sins pulled him into death.

Christ then showed how the power of God defies worldly wisdom.

In the weakness of death he set all men free.

By ripping open the gates of hell, Jesus brought the gospel to the faithful who died before his word circulated the world. Those who embraced it, I am sure, are now saints in heaven praying for us below.

The words he preached continue today to circulate among us, and possess the power to save us if we surrender our lives to him.

I am working on the complete surrender to Christ's call...I know it is a lifelong process. I know with each step I take, he will be there with me making my cross lighter. I certainly know that this week he lifted my family up through the power of his love, his church's sacraments, and words of wisdom. I could not have done it without him.

I hope you too will make the same journey, because God's love grows with each and every step we take together in his name!

-ehw

Pink Springs In

Spring is barreling its way into Roswell, Georgia. Those of us with hay fever are also remembering why Atlanta Metro is known as the friendliest city to trees in the entire Untied States. The pollen count went well over 2000 for trees this week. Lovely time of year, the weather is great...but your cars are yellow...and don't touch your eyes!

We had a crazy week around my house, and a zany week to come with all sorts of fun and Holy Week to wrap it all up!

This year I found myself able to take off the last three days of Holy Week. SoI grabbed it. It is my favorite time of the liturgical year. I love the opportunity to contemplate on the fact that Jesus, God Incarnate, dies for me and everyone so we may be free. It brings me hope and peace.

The photo today reflects that thought as well. The tree went to sleep in fall, shedding its outer layer of leaves to survive the winter. Now with the light and warmth of spring new flowers arise. In them we see a mere prelude to the glory and beauty that is the love of God in our lives.

-ehw