Patriot Day Calling

Tomorrow is Patriots Day, and as we remember 9/11 we need to remember what historical patriotism is in our country's history.

Patriotism is selflessness of action when others are down.  Patriotism is using the talents God gave us to care for ourselves well enough to have a surplus from time to time.  Patriotism is sharing the bounty through charity tithes without being forced under a government edict.  Patriotism historically recognizes each person has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Note there is no guarantee of happiness..that is why the French ended in guillotines. the Russian revolution ended in some 10 million or so dead, and Mao killed his own millions.  I could go on and on...

If you are in doubt as to what you should do to be a Patriot, I think we need not look further than the cross.  Simply remember who will be our judge at the end of time.  I've yet to see anyone go wrong just following natural law in terms of Patriotism.  Because when people work together following natural law they build communities.  Natural Law does not divide people willfully.  We must respect those who go down their own path, under their own right to life self determination.  The Founders knew this, and built natural law into our national fabric from the beginning.  If you do not believe me read their writings from their own hand, not what a modern author says about them today!

So what will you do today to be a Patriot and join the ranks of those honored?  Remember our nation is not one of birthright defining our lives, it is one where we are supposed to have a birthright to stake out our own lives.  Whether you are 1 or 91 you can choose to live a life of a Patriot.  Simply follow the law that was here before time began.

-ehw

PS This is an example of re-developing a photograph using new processors.  I used OnOne to take a good photo and make it a whole lot better.  It is something I could not do a few years ago.  So go back and play with the past and bring out the vision you wanted with what we now have today.  Hey that is why they kept negatives in the film days!  No different at all!  Oh and don't write when you should be in bed...typos abound!

A tale of two portraits

It is that time of year when I need to catch up on things before the crush of school year life hits us with the power of a thunder clap.

So before my lovely big daughter grows out of her 2013 dance costumes I just had to take advantage of it to take her portrait!  This time I think she enjoyed it...at least for the first 90 minutes and four costume changes!  The last change is the one you see here.

I'll share some more over time, but this one has the emotion in the smile, the sweet innocence of a 12 year old, and the eye contact a daddy longs to get in the lens.  It was a wonderful time spent with my daughter.  This is an image I will not soon forget.

Now below you will see a photo of the little guy Kevin, he so wanted his photo taken with his dogs, the only dogs he'll ever get in my household.  I'm allergic to them, but he is not so far....and he reminds me of that every other day at least.  When these guys don't have breakfast with the two of us, one is smelling up my bed.  The miricle here is that he looked at the camera!  Grin is a little goofy, but everything at six is a little goofy for good reason!

So what do I take away from today?  Constant lights are perfect for kids indoors.  Set them and work them.  I just recommend you get as much power as you can.  I need more power from them to make the photos at a faster shutter speed, so I'll save up for a while and see what I can do.  I learned a lot, like I will not shoot portraits without my tripod.  Too much fun.  I also like how my mirrorless camera lets me back off the viewfinder and use the screen.  Much easier to keep eye contact with my subjects...and make them laugh!

Ironically the first two shots I am sharing are the only two I shot without my tripod!  The top is the Fujifilm X-E1 with 60mm Macro while I stood on a stool. The second it the Pentax K-5 shot head on a few feet back.  Both processed simply in Apple's Aperture using some Sara France Presets, and custom contrast curves.  I really concentrated while shooting to avoid eye reflections today in the glasses, and I think I did pretty well.  In both of these I actually thought through some classic posing rules as I worked the slightly more casual portraits.

I hope you enjoy them!  These are two of the five lights in my life!  Go capture some images of your blessings today!

-ehw

Just the way it clicks

Coming to the water?  Can you imagine how John felt when Jesus asked him to baptise him?  Here was the man sent to lead us to heaven asking one of us fallen ones to lead him by example!

The good people of Victoria, Kansas have this lovely statue giving us a look into that moment of service.  What I enjoy the most about these statues is the ability to walk around, below and above a scene.  When I remember or read the story of John the Baptist and then view this statue, I feel that I am starting to live the moment.  I find it easier to put myself in the scene, watching the interplay of these two great men...the great prophet and the one he was to announce at the River Jordan.

As with all things spiritual and artistic, the moment it clicks comes not from reading the story but rather from the moment it touches your personal soul.  Maybe your mind can grasp it from the words, maybe a picture might make it stick...or just maybe this three dimensional image puts these two men into our lives with the same power those people at the river bank received.  As fellow Christians we must all help each generation find the path that will connect them to Christ.  There is no right or wrong way...there is just the way it clicks.

-ehw

P.S.  I forgot the Holy Spirit dropped down and added an audio dimension to the story the statue does not..but hey we can add that today when join the chorus to sing our praises to God on high!

A 10 year milestone

10! Updside Down of Course

Another milestone in my family...my oldest son reaches the ripe young age of 10.  His sisters insisted on the bow to complete his outfit.  He wanted pineapple upside down cake after Grandma made it for him last month...and his little brother insisted he have a police command truck for his lego collection.

He is so 10 right now.  Impossibly Big and mature one minute...thinking deep thoughts the second...and then a complete goofball the third.

Right now he is watching Star Wars Episode II for the very first time!

It is a great day for him and he was so grateful for every special moment.  It made me so happy to see him get hugs from his siblings, and the joy they all shared together in his special day.  He displayed great affection for all Mom did to make it so special as well.

I can only pray God gives me many more years to watch him grow in grace and wisdom.

-ehw

Top of the Alpine

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

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...

Picnic Time

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

Morning in Roswell

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

Into the Woods

Went for a walk in the historic district this morning in Roswell.  The summer light is harsh pretty early, but I got a few keepers using HDR techniques.

More of the fun downtown over the next few days!

Water flowing from a rock...

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

For my Babcha!

Each year, right now, the gardenia's bloom in my back yard.  When we moved into the house I was drawn to their complete package of beauty and fragrance.  If I had seen these flowers before, I had no memory of them.  I just knew they were something important to capture and enjoy.

Last year I shot a few of these wonderful flowers and sent them off to my family, only to hear a wonderful love story.  See paternal grandfather, DjaDja, brought these to my Babcha (grandmother) when they were dating since she loved them.  This was expensive during the war, especially up in the cooler climate of Boston.  My Babcha enjoyed them so much, they made up her bridal bouquet!

That love story took place during World War II, but I only found out about it the day I sent her the photos some seventy years later.  For years that lovely story laid dormant, untold and a my connection to these flowers unknown.  Only by sharing this image, which cannot compare to the real thing, did I learn how they are part of my story.

Since that day last year, when my Babcha sent me a lovely note, I've found myself anxious for them to reappear.  I've also shared other flowers with my wife a little more impulsively than in the past.  With each gift I think of my Babcha and DjaDja as I knew them as a child around thirty five years ago.  Two people very much in love, smiling together, and loving each other through the better, poorer, health and sickness parts of life.

So with the gardenia bloom I think of those two people in love, and try to show my wife the same devotion I remember my DjaDja doting on his bride.  That is a legacy I don't want to ever forget.

So as i used to tell him....Thanks Dja

-ehw

The right mix

When one reads about "how to photograph waterfalls" one can come up with a dozen different ideas.  Some people enjoy the smoothed out water that looks like cotton.  Some people like the water drops frozen like ice.  Each conveys the power of the waterfall in different variations and can be beautiful.

Me?  Well I had no tripod on this trip, was forced to shoot in mid-day light, carried a 22 pound toddler on my back, and had my small Fujifilm x20 to work with.  So I went right to the middle and tried to come up with something to take home.

I was slightly envious of two twenty somethings as I unloaded my big vans.  The two young men had two cameras each, carbon fiber tripods and were intent on catching some great locations on the trail and falls.  Meanwhile I loaded up my kids, put the toddler on my back and marched off with my lightest camera.  I knew the science said their big sensors would capture images with far more dynamic range than my little combo would...and the tripods would lock in sharpness I could only dream of.

I did get some keepers by working with what I had, and the conditions in which I was shooting.  I also had the immeasurable joy of watching my children look at a waterfall up close for the first time.  It was a reminder that God gave me what I needed, when I needed it....and it resulted in much more than I would have otherwise thought I could obtain.  I knew I picked up some "cranium chromes" those incredible cameras never could.

-ehw

PS Fijifilm X20 F3.2 1/140 and ISO 100.  Post in Perfect Effects with a little natural HDR, and contrast adjustment.

Polarizing Adventure

We took the family an hour north today to enjoy lovely Northern Georgia.  Amicalola Falls lies just a few miles from the southern base of the Appalachian Trail...

Back in 1998 I was wondering through these mountains a few miles away at the Ranger Mountain Base Camp...and slid down one of these little hills through three feet of snow.  It was not what I recall as a great time.  The little slide down the mountain helped my legs get infected, and an all expense paid trip to the hospital for five days of treatment.  As I recovered, we often walked by a nearby waterfall on some short hikes between sessions.  As crazy as the day was, the sound and beauty of the waterfall always brought me back to a level of calm.  I cannot explain why, it just happened.  So this trip was a nice one, just because of those same lovely sights and sounds being shared with my wife and children.

What made the adventure polarizing was that I put a polarized filter on my camera to help me with water reflections.  I had not done this in a great while...and it was the first time on the X20 (Mr K5 forgot to tell me he wanted a freshened up battery before we left...).  Some results were stunning, some said try a little harder.  I hope you like this one.

-ehw

Liberty is not free!

On this Memorial Day remember the fallen who gave so much to let us be free, and pray for them to be enjoying the sweet embrace of Christ in heaven.

As we pray for them, grab a the Federalist Papers and read what the founders understood liberty to be.  Learn what histories they read, and why the rejected so many notions we see advanced today...as if they are new and improved ideas!

Meditate on why they said on more than one occasion that our nation cannot survive without God's natural law as its moral guide.

When you do these things you will honor those who sacrificed all..and understand why cannot forget liberty is not free..it comes with the acceptance of consequence and the grows with charitas (selfless gift).That is the wonder of liberty.  When abused and made selfish; liberty becomes destructive to family, self and country.  When liberty becomes a cherished gift and our actions towards one another are selfless giving; liberty grows healthy families, communities and country.

-ehw

Life Changing Day

Life can change in a moment.  One of those moments is when you become a father. Twelve years ago I first laid my eyes on my lovely daughter Julia Rose, and my whole life changed.  The first night she was born, I told her everything she needed to know for all of her years as we walked the floor of the ward.  She put her little hand into my shirt collar and rubbed my neck gently. Four weeks later at her baptism I became overwhelmed at the feeling of responsibility as I professed before God and family that this child was in my care.

She has had me wrapped around her pinky since then, but never abused that privilege!  Last night she had a small party with family and three close friends.  It was wonderful to see them play in the yard, make up stories filled with honor, and then hear the cards written by her friends with words of fellowship based in Christ's example.

God blessed us then, and continues to bless us now.  But watching the candles burn I could not help but think back to that first hospital cuddle, the first night of walking her to sleep, the first smiles and connecting touch...what a memory..what a wonderful life...

-ehw

PS Here is one of our first digital photos of my girl two weeks old!  Taken with an HP610..lit by Pentax glass!

Music through the looking Glass

Last night we attended the Joyful Noise Spring Orchestral Concert.  Joyful Noise is a music organization serving the musical education needs of over 300 home and charter school students in bands, orchestral, vocal, guitar and marching band. The ministry is supported gracefully by Sandy Springs Baptist Church, and is a Christ focused music organization.

While walking the halls with my one year old before the concert I was able to capture this photo.  I am fascinated by the play of glass on my image.  In this case the children of the beginning band were tuning up in the cry room, and the glass captured the reflection of the busy sanctuary where people were waiting, music stands awaited a musician.  Our children's teacher was helping another child with the tuning of their violin...and I tried to capture that whole story in the frame.

I hope you like it!

For you techies....F6.3 to get some depth in the photo, 1/50 sec @ ISO 1600.  I used a 35mm Macro so 1/50 was the slowest I could go to prevent shake on a Pentax K-5 APSC sensor. Post processed in OnOne Perfect Suite.

-ehw

From a new perspective

Down at the church for a few minutes, and saw this great image...also wanted to test the phone photo editor! -ehw

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

 

After watching the altar stripped and made bare on Thursday, it was so refreshing to come back and see it set to celebrate his rising!

The contrast between Thursday's post and today's could not be greater.  As a photographer, much of my mind is constantly searching the world in front of me for a composition.  Something in the daily course of life that tells a story.

Friday while at Stations of the Cross, with the bare sanctuary I remembered the lessons of black and white photography.  In B&W you strip something normal from the picture, in this case color.  This absence of color subconsciously forces the viewer to look for patters, form, contrast changes and ask why something familiar looks different.  Good B&W artwork lets you appreciate the world in a way you never could before because of the forced re-examination of the "normal."

For three days I forced myself see the world differently and I heard it in my devotional.  I took home lessons I was not ready to receive at different points in my life...and have a new set of challenges I hear Christ calling me to rise myself up to.

I hope you have a good Easter celebration today, and accept whatever challenges God has set before you to come closer to him and his people.

-ehw

The Way of His Cross

It was all done to save each of us...the pain...the suffering...the perfect sacrifice of God's only son as ransom for our lives.

Through the suffering he delivered his last sermon.  He demonstrated his love for us while he lived out the ancient prophecies.

Now we have a long night to contemplate the way of the cross...and if we will begin accepting its calling to change our lives.

-ehw

Fun Work!

I had a chance to have some fun today while doing a quick job for a friend.

My friend's wife runs probably the most awesome seconds store I've ever seen, and they needed some photos made up for their new website.

So after taking photos of the store i got some environmental shots, and this cool red animal just stuck itself out at me wanting its photo taken.  It was also saying. "Take me home to Kevin."  I was able to satisfy the photo craving without adding to the extensive at home stuffie collection.

I'm still not sold on Lightroom as the be all, end all of photo organizing.  It certainly has a lot of rough edges left, and need for speed improvements in other areas where Aperture still shines (yep that Aperture).  It does however have one killer tool everyone should try....CLARITY.  It helps with sharpening and contrast.  It is just awesome.

So that is what I'd like to share tonight...try clarity!

PS:  If you need seconds for children in Roswell go to Ladybugs and Lizards in historic Roswell!

-ehw