Hardship and toil...they saw it too...

This weekend my church celebrated the Holy Family.  It is my wife's favorite mass of the year.   It is a very personal theme for us, and gives us as a role model family to look up to.

This statue sits outside our church, and on the cold rainy we saw today it reminded me of their challenging life together.

Here we have a man and woman, given the mission of raising Christ.  They are displaced from home during the pregnancy, chased into exile by a homicidal king killing every male child from Bethlehem, go into Egypt a country alien to them with nothing but their clothes and talents, and finally they lose their child in the temple together.  They fought hunger, exposure, heat and other men to survive.  Any way you chalk it up, this family faced hardship, toil and challenges matched by the most unfortunate in this world past and present.

Through all these challenges, and the madness of trying to keep their family alive, they still found time to listen for the direction God sends each of us for these adventures.  The most prolific messages came from angels, but I often wonder how many were just whispers in the wind of the desert or the guidance of old proverbs.

Our pastor today at mass reminded us, the last words we hear attributed directly to Mary are at the wedding in Cana.  There she instructs the servants to do whatever her son directs them to do.  This in a manner was the culmination of the Holy Family's stewardship of the Son of God.  The love of Joseph and Mary ensured the people of the world have the word of God no longer confined to angels and prophets.  We actually have it now available to us in the first person.  The words of Christ in the bible direct our hearts and actions on the way to communion with the Father because of their faith.  It is the Holy Family's eternal gift to our past, present and future.

So this year, I challenge myself and anyone else out there to 1) Read the words of Christ and 2) Meditate on those words.  Just then maybe out hearts will hear the whispers of wisdom directing you through life's challenges in the fashion Jesus directs.

Who knows...we just may find ourselves following the footsteps of the Holy Family!

-ehw

P.S.  The inspiration to write this came from the image of the stature I saw at church, and the many friends and family of mine of know of in crisis.  Please pray for them and all those you know of in need as well.

Angel Flight

As the new year dawns I hope some light can break through the storms and make your days a little happier!  It was just what my wife's guardian angel would order up to make her smile after such a run of doldrums.

We were joking at work that with the storms it seemed like the Mayan calendar was a few days off...Thankfully we had a break in the weather today and the sun buoyed up our spirits on an almost warm winter day.

-ehw

Brotherly Love

Just a quick picture to illustrate something the great Tony Corbell said at Skips Summer School.  5.6, Auto Flash and be there.

I know i-TTL or e-TTL for those of you shooting the big brands..or me with P-TTL on the Pentax...is supposed to be "the solution."  Well I think it often is, but sometimes a little "old fashion" goes a long way as well.

In this case I ran the whole day with the camera on Aperture Priority, ISO 100, center weighted metering and flash on Auto.  This is a sample of what I got right out of the camera.  I only cropped the photo a bit for the web.  I think exposure was pretty good, the reaction time of the camera acceptable and I could understand why it happened.  The last part is most important to me since if I understand what happened, I can either modify my work to change the results or repeat it if it works correctly.

Either way I got a photo that really summed up Christmas Day with my four kiddos and loving wife.  It was fun, relaxed, family and God centered.

-ehw

PS Go visit Tony Corbell at http://www.corbellproductions.com/

Five Year Old Saves Christmas

My five year old saved Christmas!

The last few weeks pressed me from every angle. Work, not being able to get my dream moving, the evil at Newtown and in my own town..All felt like a bone crushing weight on me. Even my picture taking, my refuge for sanity, was falling flat. The spirit of Christmas felt as far away as the moon. I could recognize the evil was in a person's choices, not the wonder of creation.  I was just overwhelmed by the amount of darts thrown at good people of late.  I had closed myself off to the spirit of Christ's power because I was letting things other than keeping God foremost in my thoughts and family's development matter.

All this started to change when as I put my head down, my lovely wife said...make small changes and the change will come. I slept on it, and through the night the weight of everything started to feel workable. I got up and walked into the living room to watch the sun rise on the Christmas tree. It was then that my five year old came down the stairs and plopped himself right on top of me.

His first words were, "Dad we have a wonderful tree. It is magic." God was speaking through the mouth of a babe. For ten minutes we sat still, and quietly talking about favorite ornaments lest we wake up the other four souls in the house to early. Then he said, "Dad we need to take some pictures of our tree." That was all I needed. Out came the tripod, the light for my first light painting attempts, and photographic direction from my five year old. My soul was alive, and responding to the cuing from God to live and enjoy Christmas in the present.

Every year I look at the Christmas tree form a new perspective. This year I took it from my five year old. Christ does bring grace if we let him. I pray that you and yours can do the same.

-ehw

PS These photos are from perspective of my five year old...his height I hope conveying some of the awe we felt as kids before the Christmas tree.

Palm Tree Christmas

Being born in Hawaii...I should be use to this site...but I was three when I left so I'm not!

Palm trees are fun to look at.  To my mind it is like peeling back an onion that is 60 feet tall!

The moral of the story is that anything can help bring out the Christmas spirit!

-ehw

Christmas Ball

We enjoyed another evening at church with my service and fraternal organization, The Knights of Columbus, at the annual Christmas Dinner.  We enjoyed being with other families, good food, and a festive atmosphere.  During the day my family went to church to help decorate for the holy day coming up, and my wife and four kids decorated two trees in the church.  I was pretty impressed when I heard my wife had the 11 month old on here back while stringing lights!

Well they inspired me to take a look at the trees for something fun to snap!  The hardest part of this was getting me out of the reflective surface of the ornaments.  So this took a  few minutes....and caused my wife to come rescue me from my photographic obsession!

This is yet another photo with my hip bound Oly XZ-1.  Processed in Perfect Photo Suite 7.  Just a note for you tech junkies... I am shooting RAW with my Point and Shoot.  So my files are typically the RAW flat, so I need to post process them.  This is just my normal preference and gives me more control over the product.  If I had no time to process them, I'd really have no problem with the on board jpeg engine or effects filters.  Olympus colors are just great.  I often use filters when I am on the road to get an effect without the post shoot work of RAW.

I am leaning to picking up a M4/3 camera as a slightly bigger "hip" camera.  That way I'll have a few accessories that can be used on either camera.  We'll see what the future will bring.  For now this is a good tool for my mission.

-ehw

Sting of Stars

These lights were part of the decorations at a small dance company's holiday show.  They mesmerized me, so I tried to get at least one good shot of them before intermission ended.

For the techies...shot in RAW on the Olympus XZ-1, edited in One Perfect Effects 7 using a Surreal HDR effect.  I used some blurring effects in Aperture to make the bokeh a little more attractive after the HDR provided a lot of detail in the small lights I did not want.

-ehw

Southern Rust Belt

Traveling through Southern Georgia is a combination of wonder and sadness.  You see people making a living working hard, and then you see things like this old bridge waiting for time to melt it away from conscientious.  Walking through small St. Mary's I saw two businesses going out of business.  I saw another two dying on the way into town.  On my ride I pulled into a sit down restaurant that I found boarded up in the last two months.  It made me count my blessings to have a job and the ability to feed my family.

Just 100 years ago the measures of a nation's greatness was the amount of steel produced, increased railway track being used, having a budget in the black, and being able to feed itself.  Today...well this poor bridge summed it up.  We just don't seem to be interested in building ad maintaining great achievements anymore.  When all we worry about is splitting up the spoils of others labor, we lose the desire to achieve greatness for ourselves and the nation.

On future trips I hope to get some pictures of the great people I met along the way during my travels.  Those hard working people I've met really are the ones that make my heart sing with delight.  There are rays of hope, their story and spirit just needs to be released for all to see. I hope to make some of those images in the near future

-ehw

What is your travel camera?

I am traveling right now with my Pentax kit and my Olympus P&S. After listening to all the camera podcasts during my drive I had to wonder what some of my friends were using when they travel. (St Mary's first church, one of the oldest in Georgia. Pentax K-5, Sigma 17-50 F2.8 EX OS) [polldaddy poll=6749711]

Family Circle Memories

I'm getting ready for a little trip here in Georgia.  So I have the usual feelings of already "missing" my family before I leave.  Kids are in bed, fast asleep and I am all packed ready for a long drive.

This is a little picture my then seven year old son made on his birthday showing how we were having a good time with his then three year old brother a few minutes before.  He wanted to remember the moment, and I wanted to remember the image he created as well celebrating the love surrounding him that day.  When I feel like I do now, I pull it out and look at these types of good memories long past.

As Scott Bourne said in a recent speech, photographers are the guardians of all our memories.  After an event fades away, the photos are often the only physical memory we'll be able to keep when the other trappings are long gone.  So take the photos, and make each one the best you can!

-ehw

PS Check Scott our on http://photofocus.com/

Build a home to fly free

This summer my father found he had a shallow spring at the corner of his property.  So he had it dug out to make a pond, and then left and overflow drain to keep the creek flowing regularly.

One consequence of building a pond on the farm was that wildlife now gets a new home to flourish in.  This lovely bird is one that took up residence in the pond area.  On the grace meter... I will happily give this one a 10 out of 10!

This reminded me of the movie "Field of Dreams" when the hero is told, "Build it and they will come."

Instead of a baseball field, my father combined some diesel powered bucket loaders with nature's life giving water to make a new home for some of God's creation.  A home to which animals flock to and obtain strength to fly free towards their dreams.

I hope we can all find the springs of life God put around us, and build them up using the tools God gave to glorify his name.

-ehw

Perspective Changes

After shooting several people in the Model A truck over a few days, I had to literally find a new angle to shoot the truck.  Looking up I saw the mirror, and decided to have some fun with it.

I like the photo, but the reality is that you cannot tell if this is an old truck, a Jeep, or a go cart.  So I learned something about perspective in reviewing this shot.  The first lesson was if you keep looking around you can find interesting perspectives of a subject you missed before.  This perspective change may not however meet the goal of the image's sponsor to show off people in a clearly identifiable Model A..  In this case I have a cool photo, but it does not scream, "Cool Model A!"

-ehw

Sheep teach photojournalism!

Dinner time was calling these sheep, all only a few weeks old, to come with their mothers to dinner on a Virginia farm.  The sheep were pretty well mannered about everything....although some did find a way to get more than others!

After dinner my children held several of the lambs, helped get their water ready and did a few other tasks for their aunt and uncle who raise them.  When we were done, the babies were left in the heated barn to protect them from a strong cold front that hit that night.  The little lambs needed the extra protection, just because we don't want to lose any of them!  Just minutes after we left I missed an opportunity I'd wanted to capture for years on the farm, the birth of a lamb.  The last pregnant mother gave birth to two more lambs.

I have to say that is one of the hardest sets of challenges facing photographers wanting to capture a realtime photojournalism story:  We have to be there, the conditions need to be "right" and we have to be prepared for those two conditions to collide before us.  This gets even harder if you want to make that moment art.

I think that is why, even though I love all types of photography, trying to capture the beauty of life in its own moment is my favorite type of photography bar none.  I love the challenge and the reward that comes from these adventures, and I say quite a few prayers of thanks when I see the moment captured in my frame.

-ehw

Let angels guard your way home!

A lot of traveling this weekend...so here is a little angel from my Roswell walk last week...to hope you have someone else looking out for you on your trip home.

A bit about the photo. This was an exercise in depth of field for me. I took two photos at two different apertures to see the effects of depth of field on the angel. It turned out I used the one with a slightly larger depth of field for two reasons.

1) I had more of the angel in focus...but not the whole angel. I wanted to focus eyes on the details you see here. It was a conscience decision.

2) The smaller aperture also created a harsh octagon shaped bokeh. I knew this might happen because it is a know characteristic of this lens. In certain conditions when used below F2.8 you can create octogons instead of pleasing round dots in the bokeh behind your point of focus. I learned one situation when it happens. You can still see some it behind the angel to the left.

We'll be safe going home...and I hope you enjoyed the photo.

-ehw

Happy Fall Day

Today was a happy fall day in Roswell, Georgia.  I enjoyed company of visiting family, and the warmth of their love matched the warm fall day.

Roswell is a very nice town, just north of Atlanta on the north bank of the Chattahoochee River.  Originally a milling town for textiles and lumber, it grew into a quiet suburb of Atlanta over the last 35 years.

Our downtown has a little historical center, often used for movies and promotional photo shoots.  Today I was able to take a walk down the street and catch a few photos.  While we were walking back, the setting sun was too low to obtain any good photos along most of the steet.  I didn't put my camera away though.  Just a few feet short of the car the sun poked through a cloud and illuminated this cute doll.  Since my camera was still out and on, it took but a second to frame and shoot three shots with different creative settings.

Just like everything in life, we always need to be prepared.  The best camera you have is the one you have with you.  The best camera available is the one out and powered up.

It is a metaphor for us all as we face the many challenges of our lives.  When faced with an ethical choice do we have tools needed to negotiate them ready?  Do we have the background materials available to study the problem in greater depth?  Do we have our courage up and ready to defend what we know is right in the face of serious straw men challenges? Are we ready for deep cutting personal attacks rather than philosophical or logical ones?

We will never know the time or day of our greatest crisis, but we are all called to be ready to the utmost of our abilities.  God will help carry us though the rest, but only if we prepared for the test.

-ehw

PS Stand by for a few more Roswell photos over the next week!

Perfect Suite 7

The family did some yard work yesterday and the Little Red Wagon was calling me to make a portrait.  I liked the rich fall light, and it just suckered me in.

I am testing the Perfect Suite 7 for editing.  It is a very powerful set of utilities, in a convenient package for round tripping in and out of Lightroom and Aperture.  The "unique" thing about Perfect Suite is that it is layers for the rest of us.  Photoshop is extremely powerful, as it is pixel level editing.  The terminology of Photoshop is that of digits, and not necessarily traditional photography. Some of us out here in the real world have trouble with the multiple languages required to think Photoshop vs Photography.  Perfect Suite is a lot more photo centric, and for me personally easier to grasp. For others who are new to editing maybe it does not matter as much, but it does for me.

I used Suite 6, and I am finding a number of the new Suite 7 tools are easier to access and work with and visualize how they will make their effects.  Another thing those on a budget will appreciate is the loyalty program.  Perfect Suite updated everything at one time, and you just pay once for all the updated tools for the year.  I love Nik, but the incremental update policy means I am still spending more to updating the suite costs more than the initial purchase.

On average I can save a lot of time by using Perfect Suite when I need heavy editing.  I can do here in under two minutes what it would take ten or more in Aperture or Lightroom.  When editing my big assignments, this is a big deal.

It does have a 30 day free trial, so you can try it out for yourself.  Their information on the website explains everything in detail. Perfect Suite 7 Website

-ehw

EXTRA EXTRA!

EXTRA EXTRA! As of today I am in business!  Everything is in with City Hall and approved.   I can now take orders and provide photography services to you!

It is an exciting day.  I have a long way to go before I can quit my day job, but now I can grow in new ways!

So if you are looking for someone with passion who wants to tell your story...I'm available and ready to serve you!

-ehw

Stay the Course!

I am writing this post for a good friend.  Tomorrow he is halfway through his project of taking 50 straight days of macro photographs.  His rules are that he must take the photo and edit it that day.  I am very impressed with what he did...and wait in great anticipation to see where he will go from here.

So in tribute to his halfway point I am going to remind him to stay true to his journey's goal my keeping his focus on true north, and then to tell himself that he is only half full of lessons he has yet to learn from the project.

Take a look at his work and even if he calls himself a newbie...don't believe it.  This guy loves Kelby Training Videos.  He borrowed my Metz ringflash, and wore out a new set of batteries in one night...actually four hours between shifts!  He loves bugs and takes requests.  He is a macro lover and growing into quite the artist.

Rich I'm proud of you buddy!  Just remember your journey is only now starting to show its rewards.  The first bud is coming, and so many more are now ready to bloom. Just keep plowing on.

I have a project coming up after baseball season, inspired by you!  Just have to figure out what it will be though...

Here is his project Mendler's Macros  let him know what you think!

-ehw