Stunning artwork and symbols even at the foot of the altar in Grand Lake......one aspect of churches I truly enjoy are those which teach the faith through art...
I'll have a treat in a few days when I show you the Cathedral of the Plains. The parishioners there really made art and faith sing...
Since this was a circle the square frame seemed to be the best choice for the selection.
-ehw
Today will be a full day...so I am happy to share this simple composition of a little flowers shining in morning light....
-ehw
P.S. When shooting flowers outdoors I highly suggest wind breaks and diffusers. One keeps your subject still. The other helps control the highlights by making harsh light bigger.
After a full day of exploring (remember my version of exploring with a family ages twelve to 17 months old is not what the twenty something with no children crowd calls exploring) my almost ten year old showed disappointment . His Junior Ranger book was called for him to see a few more animals. I knew, and he knew, midday on the mountain near the road was not the time to see large animals interested in safety. So I proposed a dusk big boy expedition with Grand Dad looking for big game! As you can see we were successful!
We saw lots of caribou, one moose in the far distance, and three sunsets as we again climbed the mountain looking for the elusive mountain goats with no success. Our little adventure resulted in rich discussions, and a chance to experience the wonders of the world through the shutter clicks and voice of an almost ten year old boy. His seriousness on completing his ranger mission made me proud. He is a boy focused on accomplishment, with a heart sensitive to caring for others along the way.
Those moments on this little jaunt up the mountain will be long remembered and cherished. It is why we must struggle from time to time to separate ourselves from the daily struggles of workplace survival, to reconnect with those around us. Even Jesus did it by walking up mountains to pray closer to his Father without the distractions of crowds and disciples! I know my moment of appreciation would only be a shadow of what the King of Kings would feel, but then again my burdens are a fraction of a shadow of those he bore.
So as I finished this day I was happy with a few good frames, the growth of my eldest son, and generosity of my father-in-law. It was an excellent day in of photographic discovery.
-ehw
PS This is Mr Pentax K-5 with 60-250mm at 98mm (147mm in 35mm equivalency) , F8, 1/250 and ISO 800. Close lady caribou huh!
At the top of the mountain, I captured a wonderful vista with my children descending off the peak. In this seemingly desolate space, just a few feet away was this cluster of small flowers.
Throughout my trip one theme arose before my eyes time and time again, it was the tenacity of life.
On this windswept mountain, these little flowers stubbornly cling to the thin soil in the brief Rocky Mountain summer just a few feet from my position in the first majestic photo. In the plain states it was large trees owning the low ground, avoiding the windy peaks. In the high prairie we saw how grass and cactus eked out survival on little water. In each case life was present and thriving where it was not easy to achieve basic survival. Yet as you can see, the beauty and power of that little life is just as moving as places rich with plants and animals.
Today's Gospel reminded us that life here on Earth is a struggle...and every moment of success we get should be savored...and every hardship we experience should help us revel in the beautiful moments a little more.
-ehw
P.S. Fujiflm X-E1 with 14mm top and Pentax K-5 with 60-250mm below...
Standing at the top of the Alpine Pass in he Rocky Mountain National Park was a thrill. Above the tree line at about 12,000 feet it left your heart racing a little bit when you reached the tip top. It was a wonderful day of learning, travel and family as the big kids and I made the "final" accent.
A rather amazing experience....
-ehw
P.S. First two photos from the Fujifilm X-E1 with the 14mm. The one with the children was done with a in camera photostitch. The snow is from the Pentax K-5 with a long telephoto racked out long to compress the ridge line and increase the drama of the scene.
Back on line...finally!
Our Uverse cable was physically cut at the junction box down the road! Took four days for AT&T to find it. So the sun is up again over the Wojo Clan and it is back to work!
-ehw
P.S. this photo is a reminder to take your gear with you...Grandad took us on an unexpected expedition up the mountain and I did not have my flare resistant primes with me...so the photo was not what it could be...
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
On our first day in Grand Lake we took the kids to the local museum, which was the first boarding house in town. The sights were fun, educational and for the kids enough to make them want to come back. More on the museum later, but today I wanted to share the children's highlight..the dress up area! They all dressed up and played their parts! They even played bank robber!
When they left they actually wanted to come back again for more! Both learning about the crickets old house and the games!
-ehw
P.S. Ok this shows the value of a simple program like Snapseed to process photos on the fly. I also could use the sepia setting on my camera (which I also did) to give you a fun historic shoot in just a few taps of a finger.
The final push to our Rocky Mountain campsite took about five hours. The kids were surprised that they got the treat of seeing the Rocky Mountains up close thirty years sooner than their Dad...
They fell into their grandparents arms, Kevin (boy number two at age six) moved out of the trailer immediately to take up residence with his gran parents, and we settled down for a delicious dinner. I was thrilled to simply know I had no driving ahead of me for a few days.
Since this is Sunday I thought I'd share my wife's choice for a vanity plate on the van. It says "You're life has an owners manual" with a picture of the Bible.
-ehw
We stopped after a long drive in Goodland, Kansas for a night on the high prairie. The KOA there is run by a lovely team of husband and wife. Alicia immigrated from Poland about 30 years ago. She was the second person in over forty years to say my name correctly!
The prairie of Kansas is incredible during the summer. It really can call to you...and make you forget about the cold winter ahead if you are not careful. The people are hardworking, the entire state seems cultivated, oil co-exists easily with wheat fields, and everything seems down to earth. In general it seems like a place that really works the land for a living and manages it carefully.
During our stay she was running the camp herself, as her husband was back in the old country attending to the funeral of his loving and kind father. She had here hands full as the park filled up, but she keep a great attitude towards everything, and longed for her husband's return. We were under a storm threat all night long, so the clouds were dramatic, the winds strong, and my worries a little higher than normal.
In the morning the sun rose with lovely color, and I captured the state flower in its glory! I told Alicia I would post that photo for her, as a memory to here kindness and hospitality.
-ehw
P.S. Evening photo with the X-E1, edited in Snapseed. Morning photos same camera but with the 60mm close up lens.
We travelled hard all day and arrived at the KOA in Independence, Missouri...aka the East Kansas City Kampground. It is summertime, so it was of course very hot and muggy! So after setting up shop we launched into the pool to cool off as a family.
I guess for so many of us, our best memories of summertime were around a pool, lake or ocean. We loved the hours we spent in the water, making castles or learning to dive to record depths to recover diving sticks. We cared little about what we looked like, or what others would think. We just lived those golden summer moments for all they were worth, our attitudes matched the wide grins on our faces, and those memories remain strong with us today in a lovely glowing memory.
So my photos from this day were very, very few. They were however designed to capture those golden memories, the magical grins, and fleeting moments of summer past and present. I hope Normal Rockwell would be pleased.
-ehw
All three photos from the Fujifilm X-20. Top photo is the OOC JPEG, no edits. Second had a Vignette added in Snapseed, the last one had a little drama added in Snapseed to bring back the contrast in the fading light.
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Kentucky....driving north from Atlanta we passed right by the first home my wife and I purchased as newlyweds. At mile marker 1 one on northbound I-24 there is a bridge followed by a rest area. I used to run there and use it as my personal mile three marker for my weekend six mile run. I'd look at people pulling in and wonder where they were headed.
On this day a few weeks ago I pulled into the rest area with four children and the same lovely bride 15 years later. Lucky guy I be...lucky guy I be...
The photo of my girl is from the rest stop...photo two is from the KOA in Paducah with my kiddos are at play. Kentucky is a lovely, lovely state. It is one I love to visit just for its sheer beauty.
-ehw
P.S. Here we have one shot with the X-E1 55-200 (the portrait). The other is with the relatively fast focusing X-20 while on a morning walk. Originals are nice, but some tweaking in Nik Snapseed for fun.
Here are the boys with me last week out shoot our cameras. Kalen got some pretty nice shots with that telephoto on my Pentax K200D, and Kevin did fine with our family's heirloom HP C618 digital camera. (It was my first digital...and yes Pentax made the glass for it). We had a great time going around town, into the woods taking photos, teaching each other to slow down, reading maps and sharing our photos later. Times like this I just don't want to forget.... -ehw PS These were shot with my new Fujifilm X-E1. I am really enjoying the deep rich colors and perfect skin tones.
On America's birthday I thought a little Red, White and Blue were in order to share....
I hope you enjoy America's birthday tomorrow..and if you get a chance enjoy a few chapters of one of my top five favorite books...The Federalist Papers. The Founders had some pretty good ideas that seem long forgotten at times.
-ehw
PS: Fujifilm X-E1 again from last weekend. This is the RAW processor with just a little highlight recovery. Just love the colors...contrast...and recovery from the shadows.
Just before bedtime little guy always gives his Mom love..and then requests she tuck him in. Tonight I caught his ritual in my lens, and it just reflects the real bond he has with her. Moments like this are why I shoot. Isn't it the real reason to live to enjoy moments like this?
-ehw
On Main Street Roswell you can pickup a front row seat here to watch the world go by with a cup of joe...oh that is cappuccino in the fancy neck of the woods. People sitting hear have however also been known to bring up some coffee and a Krispy Creme from down the street though!
Well Monday is here...and I rather be there instead of work. Oh well...got to earn a living!
-ehw
This is another example of post processing done in Capture One. I continue to find the tools are very sophisticated, and attack problems a bit differently than Adobe or Apple's solutions. I'm liking them a lot! Speed is also pretty darn good on my rapidly aging (in computer years) iMac.
Walking down the street in Roswell in any season you will see the picnic place ready to host you for a bit on the lawn. At night it is quite a busy place, and finding a seat on the lawn is harder than it looks!
One of the hard things in composing this photo is that there are so many elements. Everywhere I looked multiple items poked themselves out to say, "Focus on me!" I tackled this in my viewfinder by getting the sign to grab your attention...and framed it with trees, sidewalk and the house. In the end, I hope the composition corralled the picnic scene and made you think about taking one there!
I attended mass tonight, and had to say I could not miss the parallels to prayer life. I wanted a few minutes of peace...and the dang work phone beeped. In my job I cannot ignore it, or I could get reprimanded. So I had to look. As a result my prayer life..not just then...but always...gets diverted from thinking of God to a distraction I had to laugh when I thought about how this is the perfect Devil's tool for my weaknesses...and pulled me away from the solitude required to listen for God's directions.
So somehow in the next week, I will try to push those distractions away. I need to carve out the quiet needed to calm my mind and stay on the course the Lord intends for us all.
-ehw
A nice patriotic morning in Roswell, Georgia. The downtown of our little city is full of cafes, restaurants, and artsy boutiques. Wish some of my "stuff" could make it in there someday.
I do enjoy the downtown..the mix of colors, architecture and lovely flowers really are fun to work with. They are also like my back yard garden. Changing gloriously week to week.
Oh well...off to church to pray my family returns home safe this week from Virginia...and to thank the Lord for all he's thrown my way. One of these days I'll be starting a tour of the churches down here, they are pretty amazing.
-ehw
Water flowing from a rock? Well..yes and no.
Our basic earth science classes remind us that rocks cannot make water, but water can pass through their layers. This is our aquifer layer, and the birth of mountain born streams.
In a way that is a metaphor for how God works through us. Lets take the original Christian rock, aka Saint Peter the first Catholic Pope. He represents us all. He is a fallible man. The image of God, but no God himself.
Like each of us, he rose to great accomplishements and also stumbled into the depths of failure. Remember he was the one who kept cutting through all the distractions during Christ's ministry, and first proclaimed him as our savior. This same man then denied Christ three times. In each of our lives I am sure you can find the same types of success and failure. I know for me, my head bows immediately when I realize what I've done wrong in my life.
Despite his faults, and maybe because of them, Christ chose this common man, to pour his grace on the world in the early christian church. Peter accepting the God's grace in his heart, set the example for us by letting grace flow through and around himself to enrich the lives of each and every person he met.
On this Father's Day, let us men be a rock like Peter. Accept whatever grace filled water we can in our pores and crevasses. As we do this, realize our ability to absorb grace is infinitesimal compared to the love God pours on us. With every fiber of our being, redirect that great flow of grace onward to others in need. First to our families, and then teach those children to spread the love of God ever outward to every soul in need. Enrich each and every life we touch, so they can join us in making a waterfall of grace. The more people we touch the more beauty, power and grace of God can chance the face of the earth.
Just like a waterfall it starts one drop at at time...with water flowing through and around every rock it meets.
Happy Father's Day Dad
-ehw
