Happy New Years Eve!

On this evening I found myself in pleasant company leaving work...the three people I said farewell to are headed the same place I am in a few minutes...to church. I felt warm in knowing, contrary to popular culture, that some people out there still believe the evening is about more than a simple drinking fest..it is about thanking God for another tour around the sun!

Today's scripture reading in the Divine Office from Colossians 2:4-15 hits that point on the nose: "See to it that no one deceives you through any empty, seductive philosophy that follows mere human traditions, a philosophy based on cosmic powers rather than on Christ." It is to God that we owe thanks...not the maker of Miller, Jack Daniels, or whatever else there is.

The homily by St Leo the Great reminded us, "For every believer regenerated in Christ, no matter in what part of the whole world he may be, breaks with that ancient way of life that derives from original sin, and by rebirth is transformed into a new man. Henceforth he is reckoned to be of the stock, not of this earthly father, but of Christ, who became Son of Man precisely that men could become sons of God; for unless in humility he had come down to us , none of us by our own merits could ever go up to him."

I'm not implying we need to forgo a nice glass of wine, but we need to forgo the culture and philosophy of worshiping those earthly things for the sake of themselves. In many ways, abuse of anything takes our eyes off the prize. It could be internet addiction, money, sports, you name it...anything pulling too hard will hurt our time we should rather be spending to build up the kingdom of God. Just watch a few minutes of commercials during a bowl game or the parties tonight and you'll see what I mean in spades!

So there is my resolution. Get control of things that distract and get God put back in charge.

I hope you have a noble resolution as well!

Happy New Years Eve!

-ehw

A child's eye silent night

A great photographer I met once, and listened to often, Scott Bourne once said to explore the world creatively you need to see the world from the mind of a five year old.  Well I've been doing that with my now six year old. Today I reviewed photos he took over the last four months on my old Canon P&S.  My wife mentioned several times he imitates me when he shoots...he was actually doing quite well!  He does video much better than I do!  Well in his photos I did see the sense of wonder I often miss as I get older.

So tonight I set the tripod up and looked at the tree from the level of my two year old.  I just fell into the wonderful world of bliss.  I saw the lights, the shiny ornaments, the dark spots, the smiles on faces, the tassels and beads.  It was fun.  It was like my first memories of Christmas growing up...and when I made up the HDR images I just had to capture the feeling of the moment of when I can remember looking at my family Christmas tree a the age of four or five at Fort Devens, Massachusetts in 1974 or 75.

Then I thought about the most important part of the evening...the arrival of Jesus.  A hundred thoughts started running through my mind.  I can see so much of the story rushing together, and my mind is just too slow to understand or explain it right now.  I turned my lens on the family nativity scene, and turned of the lights.  I felt a peace come over me as I worked the light and tried a few different angles.  I began to reflect, that on a night like tonight I don't think Jesus wants us to think too deeply.  He wants us to look at his arrival like a child who can feel something special in the air, and now that in the darkness of the night a child was born who gives peace to our souls if we but choose to listen for the sound of his voice.

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1.  These are HDR processed in HDR Efex Pro 2..the second one got a touch up in Perfect Suite 8.

Lessons from the farm

So what does a farmer do when a baby lamb loses its mother hours after it birth? My second son's Godparents recently had this occur on their farm. A ewe carried her 10th lamb to term, and died shortly after the birth. If the lamb existed in the wild, it would simply be left to fend for itself immediately. No other ewe will care for it, preferring instead by instinct to care for its own offspring.

This farming family instead will feed the lamb ewe by hand until it can fend for itself. Extra work yes, but it is an example of proper stewardship of the world we live in. These Godparents let nothing go to waste if they have any say in it. I find it is also a little example of following the wisdom of God, and an example of what we saw from Christ. We are all fallen creatures, even if we have good genes we are all still flawed. Despite this problem of ours, he for came into the world as a child, and grew to become a man...the perfect sacrifice and example for us to follow so we too could be with him in heaven.

So as you prepare for the arrival of Christ tonight...remember that as hard as it is to fathom...he calls us to follow his example in largest, smallest and everything I between parts of our life.

-ehw P.S. Fujifilm X-E1 with the 18-55

Getting Ready!

A few weeks ago I was able to walk around town and snap some images on a cold November morning.  Our town works hard to create an old city center worthy of visiting, and the business owners do their part to make it inviting.

In these final days of preparation for Christmas, don't forget the reason for the season of advent (and it has nothing to do with present lists or parties).  Do your best to ignore the last minute sale emails ,and focus on getting your heart ready for the arrival of our Lord!  Take a walk, dodge raindrops, and look at your fellow man for all the reasons he came to die for us!  Then ask yourself...have I made a home inside of me for him?  Have I risen to the challenge?  When I failed did I beg forgiveness and make amends?

Ok...time for me to get ready for church myself and get my own head in the right place!

-ehw

PS-Fujifilm X-E1 with 18-55mm.  Cropped in camera using the square framing option.  It is fun to see the world in different framing formats than the standard 2x3.  It think it really allows you to do some extra mental calculus, and come closer to making the final product in your camera.  If you spend less time behind the computer the better off you are!

Stetson Hats!

Walking around Seattle I found an amazing store full of awesome hats! It had been years since I'd found a nice hat store and I enjoyed the visit. I even found my old hat made new! Trying on the hats I found myself easily noticing the difference between the affordable hats and the higher quality hats...and I liked the the best ones because of their light feel and quality construction.

The store owner and workers were great hosts as they helped me size my head, explained the colors and materials. They even sold one of my coworkers a hat while I dreamed of my own.

Oh I wanted to bring one home, but not in the budget this month! If I lived in Seattle I'd have one in my budget for sure!

I captured the photos using my Fujifilm X-20, and post processed in Snapseed. The little bugger is a decent travel camera and stayed with me all the time in my coat. It did not leave my side, and caught a few good photos along the way.

-ehw

Keep Working

The only thing between the almost two dozen of us and home is getting the job done....13-15 hours a day for the last nine days. Leadership works longer and harder than us little worker bees...and treats us fairly...so I am happy to be here learning more skills needed to be a better leader and supervisor back home.

So until I come up for air again....I hope you like this little bit of Seattle.

-ehw

Thoughts of a Father

Walking the streets of Seattle's business district is a study in contrasts. Historic buildings stand next to new steel structures, the working port competes with the white collar district for attention, trendy tech stands side by side with food vendors trying to work out a living, the mentally ill panhandlers walk the streets side by side with Bill Gates.

I saw this very nice store a block from the hotel while grabbing breakfast one morning. The wedding dress made me thing of my wife's wedding dress, it is something I could enjoy seeing my growing daughters shine for a night like princesses in.

I know the reality of my life trajectory will never let me give such gifts to my children. I would never begrudge those who can enjoy such things, heck they end up paying my salary! I just know I will never be "up there" with the big boys.

I just know that each person needs to dream good thoughts, and look for beauty in our lives. For some it will be those incredible dresses making someone a princess for a night. For others it will be the smile of children enjoying their favorite meal, made for them with the love of Mom. For still others it will be the act of selfless giving to those in need of help for their poor spirit or accidental misfortunes.

I have not been away from my clan like this for quite a while. While the work is good, I can see it on the faces of myself and colleagues the longing for the comforts and love waiting at home.

I can only imagine if my longing for being with family and giving them gifts is this great, how much greater is the longing and love of the Father above for each of us to be one in communion with him? Imagine the cloaks of glory and food he has prepared in a house of joy....I guess it is time to really enjoy waters of life he offers.

-ehw

-

Market Time

The only time I've had to shoot is when I got to run out of the building to grab something to eat. Crazy hours the last week...great learning opportunities but CRAZY hours! Good company though, as made some good friends for the future here in Seattle.

Ok so the first shot is as we approached the downtown Farmer's Market. The closing is what I snagged for breakfast one cold morning. It was pretty darn!

I must say Seattle is an interesting city downtown from what I've been able to see. Not take that with a grain of salt because I am not a city person, and this entire environment might as well be the far side of the moon to me!

My biggest beef is that I am not really comfortable shooting. First I am in someplace new and strange to me. Second I only get seconds to snag a shot because we have to get back to the office. So everything is supper rushed, and really is almost like I was running and snagging shots in a complex and hot news scene.

As with all my travel photography I'm processing in Snapseed with a few of my favorite presets. I still enjoy the program and the ability to get something nice well under my two minute processing rule. The photos are first from the X20 and second from the X-E1.

-ehw

Hat man's delight!

I you ever met me you know I enjoy a good hat. When I was 16 I became the only guy to ask for a fedora for Christmas, probably in the history of the planet...but I did. That hat served me for ten years, only to be crushed when my household goods came home from Germany.

Well this store has my name written all over it. I so want to go in and get me a good hat...but unlike Seattle I'd definitely need a winter hat and summer hat in Atlanta!

Oh the choices only get harder don't they!

Ok story for the shot is that I had a few minutes and did a recon of the local area around the hotel. This store came up, and if tried to get a good shot with X-E1 in with the few minutes I had left before my shift started. I edited it this evening after shift completed in Nik's Snapseed on the iPad.

So now I am going to crash and sleep well after a hard day's work and a moment of relaxation dreaming about being a pro businessman making photos for a living.

-ehw

Through the Looking Glass

Full day of travel and meetings...and this is what I see from my window. If I was not so tired I'd be walking with the tripod snagging a few shots. Instead I'm going to crash!

Besides I've been reading a lot about the Theology of the Body and I have a lot to pray about...it provides so much to learn and apply in my family life that my head is bursting from that as well!

-ehw

P.S. X-E! from the hotel room with a couple tweeks in Snapseed.

Travelling Lighter

Going on a business trip, so I packed up my camera as I usually do...only to recognize some pretty big changes in my load plan. Now this is a business trip, and if I get to shoot and enjoy myself it will be a small miracle. I just feel unprepared without a good camera on hand...and being a geek I wanted my toy set with me. On my last big trip I toted my Pentax K-5 DSLR along. Great camera, outstanding quality from its 16mp sensor. I took the little bag you see below. Inside was the K-5 with a 16-50 F2.8 and either the 50-135 F2.8 or a trio of primes (usually DA 15 F4, DA35 F2.8 (or the FA43/FA77) and DFA100 F2.8 Macro). I could take either one flash, or store my batteries and charger in the top compartment. This was a great set of toys.

Over the last six months I traded out a lot of Pentax gear to pick up a Fujifilm rangefinder style kit. So this time I put the following in the bag: Fujifilm X-E1, 18-55 F2.8-F4, 55-200 F3.5-4.8, 14mm F2.8, 35mm F1.4 and 60mm F2.4 close focusing lens with a small XF-20 flash, XF-42 Flash, off camera flash cord and the battery charger. This is way more than I need...probably too much. The way I shoot though is opportunity driven, as such the better a set of tools I have on hand the better I can handle any situation.

What did I gain and what did I lose? Well the X-E1 displays much sharper image due to its lack of an AA filter, and in dim situations and almost no noise up to IO3200. Now I also want to point out that I have an early generation 16MP sensor in the K-5, and a later generation 16MP sensor in the X-E1 both probably made by Sony. Sony does continuous improvement on the sensors, and users of current 16MP K-5II and K-5IIS do have a better sensor. On the plus side I also had more room to carry some fill flash without exceeding my previous carry weight in the Fuji package. I used that a lot over Thanksgiving, and it could become useful here.

The style of the X-E1 is definitely a retro design with aperture rings and a shutter speed dial. It is simple and direct. For more complicated functions I can dive into the Q menu and handle the need quickly. It does force me to slow down in some situations to get everything set up the way I want it in terms of focusing point just because of button positioning and how my brain works. The AF is definitely slower compared to a DSLR, but it is very precise. I also can compose just as easily on the large LCD as the small Electronic Viewfinder (EVF). I am still working to use it as fluidly as I did the K-5.

I made the jump because quite frankly Pentax had not grown very far since I had purchased it. Now they made advances in the last year I would like to take home with me....but I was not sold on where the company was going and what their intentions were. Heck the company could not tell anyone what they their strategy was. My prize lenses were the FA43, FA77 and DFA100. They were dreamy...but out of place on crop sensors most of the time. I had hoped to use the crop sized zooms for sports, and the primes for deliberate work on a 35mm size sensor one day. With no Pentax FF on the horizon to waltz into at some point, I really had to make a decision about their usefullness. Fujifilm on the other hand had a coherent strategy of getting great APS-C quality with compact glass that was very portable (and when on sale relatively uber affordable). So for now when focus speed and weather sealing is of most importance, Mr. Pentax comes out to play. Other than that....it is getting aback seat right now. The Pentax primes are gone except for the macro....all to fund the new Fujifilm kit.

I must admit the jury is still out on whether I made a good choice. Both are good systems, and a little off the beaten track. I almost picked up a Micro 4/3 Olympus OM-D5. Iit has incredible glass, better AF, and a good sound design except it was a little too small for my hands. The Fujifilm fits me well...and the system is growing by leps and bounds. So time will tell if I did the right thing...until then I just need to learn my craft until I get blue in the face! The gear today is very, very good...and the limiter is not the gear but rather me!

So if you are looking for something to lighten your load take a look at the growing number of mirriorless options. They are good cameras, and by design could save you quite a few pounds on your next all day excursion.

-ehw

Signs of Fall

A few signs of fall appearing around the town of Roswell, Georgia the last few weeks...and I finally got to enjoy a photo walk win town to capture a few of them. I particularly enjoyed how the leaves gave a sense of closure to the season as we zoom quickly to the dawn of winter. This bench was very interesting to me. I enjoyed the rich textures, contrasty color, and detail. So I tried to capture it faithfully.

If you've followed the blog for any length of time you know I enjoy shooting in the fall. The afternoon light is so warm and enticing. Funny thing is this photo does not get that full treatment due to placement of the bench! Oh well a few more days of this light before a business trip will take me for a spin way out west!

I've become increasingly self critical of my work. I think it comes with the higher expectations I have for myself. That is good because it drives me to improve my game, it is bad because it gives me greater pause before I shoot and share. I'm still learning the needed balance between shooting for fun, sharing and living. What a wonderful journey life is...who knows where it will take me or teach me in the days and years to come.

-ehw

Joy in Keeing the Faith

On Veteran's Day I took my family down to the Georgia Aquarium to enjoy some of the lovely things our country can do.  After participating in two incredible Veteran's Ceremonies the previous two days, this was the reward.

At the end of the day my wife asked me what was my favorite part of the aquarium.  I told my wife the joy in the eyes of the children.  I don't think she understood what I meant.  How could she?  These photos still were locked up in my memory card!  Me?  Well I knew what was there since I had seen it through the lens!

-ehw

P.S.  Fujifilm X-E1.  Polarizer brush in Aperture on the glass.  The JPEG was pretty much straight out of the camera other than that.

A Veteran's Day Salute

Each year this Veteran's Day becomes more emotional for me.  This year I reunited with an Infantry colleague from 20 years ago on a project for our current employer, and  he had sad news to share.  He spent some time going back and looking for soldiers we worked with in our first few years in the Army, and found many of them on the casualty roles in the since 2001.  He shared a name, and I remembered the face and a story.  I myself often did the same thing, and had only found a few of my old soldiers or comrades in the casualty roles.  The number of names my friend found though, staggered me.

Over the weekend my family participated in a Knights of Columbus Patriotic Rosary filled with invocations by our founders on the need to follow the guidance of the Christian God (or as some called him Nature's God).  It was so powerful my ten year old son came home wanting to say that forty five minute rosary every week for our nation.

Yesterday we held a brief Remembrance Ceremony during mass, just seven minutes.  We Knights of Columbus provided an honor guard as the roll of Georgia veterans who lost their lives in the last year blended with taps.  We closed with bagpipes playing as the poem of why remember the fallen from World War I filled the hall.  I barely kept it together as I stood at attention rendering an honorable salute with my sabre.  I know I saw a lot of handkerchiefs out afterwards, so I know it was not just me being sentimental.

What made this even more stinging right now was the insanity I see around me, with national core beliefs being challenged with a fervor that can only be fueled by the great enemy of all mankind.

Sitting in our Supreme Court is a challenge to opening civic meetings with a prayer from New York brought forward by two atheists.  Every meeting of the Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention, the U.S. Congress , Supreme Court and Presidential Inauguration stated with a prayer!  That is over 240 years of prayer invoking God to raise us above narcissistic selves to achieve a higher calling for all of mankind through faith, hope and charitas!  How this even has grounds in the court is a tribute to people not reading the Founding Fathers.  Time after time they found historical examples of leaders thinking they knew the answers, and trying to rewrite natural law to create failed nations.

Can you imagine priests being threatened if they serve their God by offering the sacrifice of mass?  That happened this year!  Practicing Catholics and religious people being forced to pay for abortion!  That happened this year!  these are not alarmist stories.  These happened, documented six ways to Saturday, and twice on Sunday.

So on this day taps meant a lot more to me than every before.  I've seen these evils coming for a long time, and today as they wrap themselves in the law of the land around me I have to question the implications they have on everything I do.

I know a soldier fights on the field of battle for his buddies on his right and left....but what are they enlisting for?  What are they keeping up?  Is it anything that resembles what those intrepid souls stood up for in the previous centuries?  Or I have to ask, was this taps being sounded for a lot more than a few men....but as a warning to the soul of our nation?  I fear the latter was why my tears were so plentiful this year.

-ehw

PS The photo above was scanned from my analog files.  Taken in 1994 in Luxembourg American Cemetery with a Canon Rebel on that thing called film.

Piano Master to be!

Today I had to substitute as the Silver Bullet driver for my wife who was out with the nasty stomach bug...so I took the three big kids to Joyful Noise Band.  Me being me, grabbed my camera to do some street photography and contribute to the yearbook.

Ok, for those of you new to the blog we are homeschooling in the Wojo household.  Best thing we've ever done for our little family of six.  Atlanta Metro has a growing home school movement over over 85,000 children!  Well Joyful Noise Band is a large group of dedicated parents and children who gather once a week to form orchestras, bands, jazz bands, guitar bands, recorder bands for the youngest children and choirs.  I know I forgot something...but they do gather and make merry music.  The teachers are wonderfully trained instructors, many of them home school their own children.  I sat in with my big kids and snapped photos in their intermediate orchestra, and I was impressed.  I almost felt like I was back in the pit orchestra with Mr. Whitman at Paul VI High School ready to play myself.

Well this young boy was in the cafeteria between classes.  He was not much different than a number of other boys and girls who aw the piano and just started playing.  The music they played was not some chopsticks number, it was wonderful beautiful music.  Some talked while they played, they were the party social butterflies.  Others took a challenge and played at the urging of their friends.  Some like this young lad put their fingers on the keys and played, leaving the busy auditorium behind and entered the place where you can play with the angels.

I found myself wanting to capture the photo so badly, that I set the camera to quiet mode, and shot from the LCD at hip level.  It was not a stealthy shot, it was quite crazy inside a busy door!  But the lad just kept playing away long enough for me to experiment with the camera and get the shot I wanted.

I hope it makes the yearbook...and I hope I can get it to his parents.  It was a special moment that will be with me for quite a while.

-ehw

PS X-E1, 18-55 lens at F4.5.  Internally processed jpeg with extra saturation and contrast.  Processed in Silver Efex Pro 2 for the B&W with vignette added back in Aperture 3.

Dodo Bird spotted in Alpharetta!

Contrary to most textbooks, the dodo bird does show up from time to time in the wild.  This one wore a mask to disguise itself amongst the busy downtown Alpharetta Canton Street.

For this photo I did a little bit of work in Capture One 7 Perfect Effects.  One thing I've learned is that many, many effects can be done in your primary photo editor.  Programs like Perfect Effects and the Nik products (I own both) can make the process of having fun with your image faster.  Yes there will be some things you can only do in Photoshop, but reality is that for 95% of your work these tools will do just fine.  Yes I did use some one shot HDR work with Perfect Effects for this...as RC Conception says...everything can look better in HDR.

-ehw

PS Fujifilm X-E1 with the old 18-55 again.  The darn thing is just so versatile!

To color or not to color

During my work around in Alpharetta I began to work with my camera settings internally.  In this case I shot the jpeg with Artisa Film mode on high color and contrast.  It as nice, but I also wanted to see what the B&W would look like.  So I simply reprocessed in RAW using the B&W setting with increased contrast and detail.  The more I get comfortable with adjusting settings in camera, I think I may be able to reduce my time at he computer after the shoot.

I also wanted to experiment with the B&W because out of camera, many much more experienced and savvy photographers, say this machine is a B&W dream machine.  I think it did pretty well, but I'm not an expert yet.

In either case, it makes a good study of how removal of color can change up a photograph and focus your eyes and experience on different parts of a photo.  While the white frame and dress draw you in while it is in color...the shapes and patterns box you in for the B&W version.

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1

Pretty Kitty

Here is a rarity for me...portraits of a cat.  Yes, you read right, I photographed a cat.  Yes the animal I am very allergic to.  The animal that looks at me and says, "I can take you."  The animal that is ripping up my popup trailer cover.  I photographed a cat!

This cat is called Friendly by my trusting, adoring, cat petting, and often drawing wife and children.  She is a neighborhood cat.  My kiddos go out an pet the cat, the 22 month old chases the cat with glee.  She and her buddy Shiloh own my yard and keep it free from snakes and other pests (for the most part).

How did I come across this?  Well I was playing with my camera working on a tree across the street with its fall colors and late afternoon sun.  Then Friendly waltzed up into the yard and starting being coy.  She even wanted me to to pet her!  Obviously she needs glasses and a smell test.  I look nothing like my six year old or my red headed wife.

Seeing that she wanted to play, and pose and goof off I took the opportunity to get some photographs of a new type of subject for me.

What I learned was that working in the contrasting light, on a subject with such a glossy coat is not in the easy to do category.  Next time I'll stop down up the aperture a bit as well.  I threw out a number of photos because my depth of field was too small.  The portrait up top is a good example of the eyes being perfect, and the rest good.  The others...well not so much.  The final photo was a fun one of the cat on the prowl.  Just as with any photo or portrait I found myself taking some time to touch up parts of the photo to make the cat look like a winner.

-ehw

PS: Fujifilm X-E1 with 18-55

Fall Colors in town...

I went for a walk yesterday and learned I have a lot to learn...while using my tools.

Fall is a wonderful time.  Great light, cool weather, and some things slow down around the house.  Well as the kids get older it does not seem to slow down much, but it does a bit.

This photo is an interesting juxiposition (well to me at least) of nature's leaves, a service panel on the sidewalk and a spray painted spot of blue!  Not expected with the fall and natural colors in there!

I hope you enjoy it!

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1 with the not so kit 18-55 lens.  RAW file conversion and edit right in Aperture.

Heart Struck!

One last one from Art in the Park here...

This is from my friend Wendy Dickerson's booth called How Charming.  She makes charms of every type you can imagine.  This one struck me as sentimental since it reminded me of my nurse wife.

I'm finding in my artistic journey that it is not the technical aspects of a photo that sells it to most of us.  It is the sentimental that makes us want to attach a photo to our walls or story books.

That said, the any good of a photo is almost equal parts technical and art that can tell a story.

So I guess our job as an artist trying to create a story from our minds and then to capture it in our particular product.  If we do our jobs right with technical and artistic competence, we will have that story connect with some cord in others in a way that allows them to relate to the piece as well.

Not as easy as it sounds or looks...or to understand late at night after a good long day with four kids, yard work and a photo session!

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1with 60mm Macro.  Contact Wendy at Howcharming22@gmail.com if you'd like to see her work!