3 Queens

This Beautiful Short Film Shows Exactly What It Is That A Stay-At-Home Mom Does All Day
“My mom teaches me about the world, my mom is a cleaner, my mom is a doctor, my mom is an angel.”

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem."    - Isaiah 66:13 

While surfing the web this morning, I came across this simple, short, 2 minute film showing just a  fraction of what it means to be a "stay at home mom". The film itself is a bit crudely put together, however it is all heart and very accurately shows the sacrifice, love and nurturing that goes on in the home, to those who are called upon the Lord to do the most important of all jobs, raising and nurturing their children.

The actual video can be found here. http://vimeo.com/76834417

Playful Abandon On a Southern California Beach

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” - Psalm 127:3-5 

The more I do family portraiture, the more I feel the Lord reminding me that this is where He has called me to put forth my efforts, photographically. It is the joyous celebration of the family and the honor of getting to spend an hour or two with young people and their families, simply hanging out for a late afternoon and documenting a day at the beach, or at the local park.... Just watching and enjoying the joy of children at play and parents loving on their kids.




I first met Kenlyn as a complete stranger when she had her oldest daughter baptized at Leadbetter beach here in Santa Barbara couple of months ago. I was taking portraits of all of the people being baptized and the picture (above) of her and her daughter were among my favorites for that day.

Fast forward another month or two and it turns out that we ended up in the same small group that meets on Friday nights.  After a couple of weeks, I got a call from her asking if I would be willing to do a shoot with her and her three daughters. Absolutely! We decided to meet at Butterfly beach near the Biltmore hotel last Saturday, about an hour before Sundown.

One of things I love about doing shoots like this, is to just let the kids run around and do their thing and then just candidly "snipe" shots and just go with the flow of what the children want to do.  If they want to run, let them run! If they want to run TOWARDS you, even better!

We turned the kids loose on the beach and let them do their thing. As it turns out, the oldest daughter was a bit shy and kept a bit distant, while the middle girl was a bit more of a social butterfly and a bit of a flirty ham. She kept asking me to take her picture (How could I resist? ;0) She was an absolute joy to photograph as she was always smiling and even willing and able to take direction and pose. It was pretty much impossible not to get a perfect shot of her. ;0)

As I was shooting the girls, a song lyric kept popping into my head as I was reminded of the song "Soliloquy" from the musical Carousel. The song is about the hero "Bill" just learning the amazing news that he is going to be a dad. As he goes on and on about how he is going to raise his son to be a tough, no-nonsense kind of a guy, reality smacks him in the face and he says "Wait a minute, what if he, is a she?" He then instantly starts thinking about the beautiful precious little girl and thinks of her growing up to be "A neat and petite little tin-type of her mother..." A "tin-type" being a old photograph, ie an exact copy.

Watching the girls do their thing, I marveled at how much they looked like their mom. Genetics are funny like that....

"Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Luke 18:15-17

Lastly, this is the third family I have photographed in two weeks. Coincidentally, each family has had small children. In my Bible reading the other day, I was reading the book of Luke and read the verse above. Seeing these families and their small children, this verse really hit home to me what child-like innocence and trust in The Lord is all about in our relationship with Jesus. We are all called to receive and trust in our Lord Jesus Christ just as little children.

It's funny... I am reminded that sometimes we have earthly models of God's love and grace in the seemingly ordinary and mundane things in life. Sometimes we can see the Lord and his various attributes at work, simply by watching child-like joy, laughter and all-out playful abandon on a Southern California beach, on a late Saturday afternoon.

What a beautiful sight to behold.

=BM=

The Lashua Family

One major benefit of doing newborn photography is getting the chance to see these beautiful, tiny infants grow up right before my eyes.  The Lashua's are good, dear friends of mine, so I called them up to see if they would like to update their family photos and the agreed!

We got to hang out at Leadbetter beach in Santa Barbara and enjoy a gorgeous late afternoon "kicking it" on the beach

Two Year Reunion

 

A couple of weeks ago I received a call from the McAvoy family wanting to do an update to their family portraits I did two years ago.

Before I go on, I need to give a little background on this particular shoot.

Two years ago, My good friend and fellow photographer Kenji Fukudome had auctioned off a family portrait session for a local charity, which the McAvoy's won.  Unfortunately, Kenji was out of the country when baby Sia came into this world, so he asked if I would fill in. I agreed.


Having never shot a family portrait session before, I went in just a tad nervous as I had never met the clients before the shoot, and as a single, unmarried bachelor, with no children of my own, I did not know what to expect.

Long story short, I had an absolutely amazing experience!. The McAvoys were an absolute joy to work with on every level. In fact, I had such a positive experience, I decided that family portraiture is an are that I would lie to specialize in!

Here we are, two years later, baby Sia has grown into a precocious two year old and older sister Keira was just a bundle of joyful energy.

I wanted to thank the McAvoy family for allowing me to spend an afternoon with them enjoying some quality time with them at the beach. Better yet, thank you for the beautiful honor and the opportunity to document the growth of your children.

=BM= 

Headshots!

Last Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of photographing head shots of the students at Santa Barbara Junior High School.

My good friend Rich Lashua just happens to be the drama teacher over there and he thought it would be a great idea to get the kids some head shots to post int he lobby before the show. What a great idea!

The setup is pretty simple. Two Nikon SB-600 speedlights blasting into a neutral grey background, blow out the background to white.  The main light is a Nikon SB-900 Speedlight in a Westcott Apollo 50" softbox, camera right.

The lights were triggered with PocketWizard Flex TT5 and controlled with the awesome PocketWizard AC3 Zone controller. (For the record, I absolutely LOVE this thing!)

After that, it was just a matter of getting Jr. High School students to come out of their shell, in front of a middle-aged stranger pointing a massive camera lens in their face. Why would they ever feel self-conscious?. (That would be sarcasm)

Luckily Mr. Lashua was there to help, as he is a bit of a nut (Which is probably why we get along so well) together, we were able to get some great looks from the kids! Be sure to check out the show "Rules of Comedy" Friday and Saturday March 15-16 at the  Marjorie Luke Theater at Santa Barbara Jr. High School.

It's going to be a great show!

So, God Made a Framer

I just got home from watching the Super Bowl at my good friends' house, and after what looked to a bit of a snoozer after the first half, the 49ers just about pulled out an exciting win at the very end.

Alas, it wasn't to be...

Regardless, there were many fun and creative television adds this year, but the Dodge RAM Truck/Paul Harvey "So God Made a Farmer" commercial blew me away!

According to TheBlaze.com, the speech was given at the 1978 Future Farmers of America convention.  (A full audio version of the speech can be found HERE) The full text of the speech is listed below. Items in bold blue were sections omitted from the commercial.

    And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said I need a caretaker- So God made a Farmer

    God said I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk the cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board – So God made a Farmer

    [I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs,tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to await lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon, and mean it - So God made a Farmer]

    God said I need somebody willing to sit up all night with and newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say maybe next year. I need somebody who can shape an axe handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out of hay wire, feed sacks and shoe straps, who at planting time and harvest season will finish his forty hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, will put in another 72 hours – So God made a Farmer

    [God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain, and yet stop in midfield and race to help when he sees first smoke from a neighbor's place - So God made a Farmer]

    God said I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to wean lambs and pigs and tend to pink combed pullets; who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadowlark.

    It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and rake and disk and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church.

    Somebody who would bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing; who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says he want to spend his life doing what dad does – So God made a Farmer

Wow...

First of all, the photography was absolutely stunning, but coupled with Paul Harvey's flawless narrative, this was the best two minutes of television I might have seen in a VERY long time. It was absolutely brilliant!

Paul Harvey was known to be a man of great faith and what struck me most about the poem in the commercial, is how the generic "farmer" so eloquently reflected the attributes of a Goldy man and how we should walk with the Lord.

We are to be caretakers of the land, hard-working, tending to our children and our family's needs, be grateful and loving husbands, strong, yet gentle, a good neighbor, creative resourceful, not ones to cheat or take shortcuts, nurturing, I could go on and on... The narrative really touched a sympathetic nerve with me.

I guess the point that was driven home, is that the farmer is a metaphor for us as men and women in Christ. No matter what our occupation, whether it be in the fields of the mid-west, or in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, we all need to think of ourselves as lowly, humble, farmers, doing our work humbly and faithfully for the Lord while caring for our family and the neighbors in our community.

After all, isn't that what he created us to do?

Carl Sagan on Books

 

A good, dear friend of mine, who just happens to be a teacher, posted this wonderful quote from Carl Sagan regarding the gift of books.  My friend mused that he though it might be a good idea to blow this picture up and post it as a large poster inside his classroom (A mighty fine idea, if you ask me)

I too, thought it was a wonderful quote, however, I was struck with something perhaps unintended by the author, a well-known agnostic.

Let's break it down, shall we?

 “A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. 

Indeed! Especially the ones in Arabic. (A little linguistics humor)

One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. 

Whoa! This got my attention. I immediately thought of the Bible and God's word and how it has been handed down and endured over hundreds of years. This thought then brilliantly teed up the next sentence of his which drove the message home to me.

Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. 

AMEN! The author (Jesus Christ) is indeed speaking, clearly and silently inside my head (but not so quietly in my heart) and it is indeed DIRECTLY to me (and hopefully to you too!) When we read the Word of God, we draw closer to his love and grace. We are enriched by his Holy Spirit and moved to live in a way that pleases Him.

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.” 

Keeping things framed in terms of the Bible and the word of God, it is through His written word that He has reached "citizens of distant epochs", "binding them together" and although we "who never knew one another" perhaps personally, we do know one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the Church, brought together divinely by an "assemblage of flat, flexible parts, imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles, brought to us by people who are dead, thousands of years ago" with a whole bunch of the Holy Spirit thrown in for good measure. ;0)

Sagan ends with the thought "Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.” 

 

I would respectfully disagree with Mr. Sagan and say that it is Jesus Christ who is working the magic. The humans are just instruments in which He does His will.  

The real magic is that He can use a self-proclaimed agnostic such as Carl Sagan to illustrate just how wondrous and precious his Holy Word is to all of us.

 =BM=

COLUMBINE 12 YEARS LATER

One of my favorite blogs as of late, is that of Bill Fortney, who is an ex-professional photographer and a fellow brother in Christ, who fancies himself now, as a "hardcore amateur" because he "no longer makes a living at photography". (I should be so lucky ;0) Yet, he is employed by Nikon as a Professional Services Tech Rep covering the Southern United States. (What a hack! :0)

IN all seriousness, it was his blog that inspired me to go the direction that I have chosen to go here, mixing both faith based issues with those that are photography based. I would invite everyone to go check it out at billfortney.com. (He's pretty darned good ;0)

Today's post on his blog, was something that was something shared with him from a friend, that I just had to share with all you.

 COLUMBINE STUDENT’S FATHER 12 YEARS LATER!!

Guess our national leaders didn’t expect this. On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton , Colorado , was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful.

They… were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness.. The following is a portion of the transcript:

“Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

“The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used.. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain’s heart.

“In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA – because I don’t believe that they are responsible for my daughter’s death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel’s murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy — it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best.

       Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
       Your words are empty air.
       You’ve stripped away our heritage,
       You’ve outlawed simple prayer.
       Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
       And precious children die.
       You seek for answers everywhere,
       And ask the question “Why?”
       You regulate restrictive laws,
       Through legislative creed.
       And yet you fail to understand,
       That God is what we need!

“Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation’s history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine’s tragedy occurs — politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.

“As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA — I give to you a sincere challenge.. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!
My daughter’s death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!”
– Darrell Scott

As a nation, we are becoming splintered and torn apart at the seams. We need to embrace the Holy Spirit and come back to Jesus. We do that through prayer and daily time in his word, building a relationship with him and making him the center of our lives. He has healed my life and he can heal yours too! All you need to do, is ask with a sincere heart, confess yourself as sinful man or woman and ask Jesus to take control of your life. He will bless you and honor you in ways you never thought possible.  - Amen

=BM=

Chakra Chip Cookies

One of the many blessings of attending Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, is our pastor David Guzik, who just so happens to have an EXTENSIVE Bible commentary online at Enduringword.com.

If you ever read a passage of the Bible and aren't quite sure what it might mean, or perhaps you simply want a much more in-depth insight to a particular passage, this sight is for you!  I can't recommend David's commentary highly enough, for anyone wanting to delve deeper into God's word. I can't believe that we have such an amazing resource right here in Santa Barbara!  We are truly blessed.

The only drawback to the site, is that the (free) website is online, therefore, if I am out and about with my iPad and not near an internet WiFi hot spot, I am out of luck. 

What's the solution? Download an electronic copy for your Kindle (I use the  Kindle iPad app) and then you are free to read at the beach, or wherever your favorite place is to seek quiet time with the Lord.

Having recently attended a church retreat based on Romans 5-9 "Grounded in Grace" I decided to further study the book of Romans and go much deeper and in-depth.

The Kindle version of the Romans commentary is only $2.99, so I bought it.

Fast forward to a week later, and I see this priceless little ditty in my Amazon "suggestions"

One cannot find two more diametrically opposed viewpoints of spirituality than these two schools of thought.

One balancing "power-centers" inwardly, sellf-reliant and worshiping the god that is you.

Yet another, casting away the self as sinful and unworthy, yet saved by the loving, eternal grace of Jesus Christ, by simply believing in Him.

What is Amazon thinking? Is this some kind of cruel joke? Seriously?

I can only hope that Amazon recommends David Guzik's commentary on Romans to the people who look up "Chakra Balancing"


Paul writes at the end of Romans 8...

³⁷ "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

AMEN!

Oh, and one more thing Amazon... No thank you. I'll pass on the Chakra and stick with Jesus. ;0)

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Cold Streak In SoCal

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philipians 4: 6&7

I stumbled upon this hilarious clip form Jimmy Kimmel Live regarding the cold spell we have had here in Southern California.  I'm ashamed to admit it, but this is me to a "T"!

I get upset becasue I have to put on a sweater at night, or actually sleep UNDER the covers of my bed, instead of on top as I am accustomed to doing.

What really got to me, after the good natured fun of the clip, is how I am guilty of being a bit too petty in my prayer life with Jesus. Lately I have been praying for little things, selfish things.... things that when I step back and look at myself honestly and objectively, I come accross like the well meaning people in the clip above. Shallow and a bit selfish.

The verse above reminds me to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be known to God.

God wants us to be prayerful and he wants us to go BIG. Come to him with EVERYTHING not matter how big or how small. 

God does indeed like the small stuff, however, if we all we do is concentrate on self-centered requests without faith that the Lord can work mighty and wondrous things, then we too can end up looking like the newscasters above.  Privileged, blessed people who are, living in one of the most pleasant climates on the planet, complaining because we had to put a sweater on our dog. In other words, petty and self-centered.

Lord, keep me humble and more focused on others and help me think outside of the box when coming to you in prayer.

=BM=

A Simple Altar

Almost exactly one month ago today, I had the great honor of taking some group photos of a local choral group here in town "The Quire of Voyces" whom I am a big fan of. If you ever catch wind of them holding a concert, I encourage you to attend. You will LOVE them!

They asked me to take a group photo as they wanted to use something for promotional purposes, so I gave them the photo above, which was taken inside the chapel at St. Anthony's Seminary here in Santa Barbara. The idea was to give them a shot with LOTS of head room, so they can populate the top portion with dates, maps, concert graphics etc to advertise for future events.

The intricate stone carving (actually I believe it's plaster) is at the back of the chapel and is quite ornate and absolutely beautiful.

I edited these photos just after this morning's sermon which was based on Exodus 20:18-26 when Moses had just received the Ten Commandments. Lord tells Moses, (paraphrasing) "Don't make and gods of gold or silver (idols) and then procedes to tell Moses to build an altar, but with very specific instruction on how NOT to build it.

Verses 24 and 25 read: ²⁴ An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. ²⁵ And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 

In verse 25, God says "you may make make a stone altar, however, it must not be hewn, or carved stone." God did not want the altar to be made with any man-made carvings or anything ornate as to distract the worshiper from the spirit of and beauty of God.


As the sermon was fresh in my mind, while editing the photos, I was struck by the ornateness of the background in the images I was editing. Although it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL sculpted artwork, I couldn't help but think of this mornings sermon. As I looked at the image, the ornateness and beauty of the background competes with the choir at the bottom of the image.

Now, when the photo will be used in promotional purposes, there will be graphics and titles, dates, maps and all sort of other items covering the background so it wont be that big of a deal. However, on its own, I could see how such ornateness could be a distraction. Would that not be the case if one were listening to sermon in the chapel, particularly a very BAD sermon? How easy would it be to drift of and study and admire the beauty of the art, instead of focusing on the word of God being taught at that moment?


In looking at the sculpture, at the very top of the image, we clearly see God the Father, followed by Th Holy Spirit descending down from heaven in the form of a dove, followed by the crucified Christ, with a glowing sun and what appears to be a rainbow beneath him.

I am told the giant circle above the choir, is a communion wafer, obviously representing Christ's body.  

To the mediate left, you can see what looks like a priest with two loaves of bread and a chalice of wine, and next to that, it appears to be a group of people partaking in communion.

A closer examination of the full-sized picture can be found HERE.

The rest, I'm not entirely sure about. If you know, then please leave your comments below. I would love to know.


Regardless, at the end of the sermon, we then went on to learn that greatest sacrificial altar ever made, was simply two intersecting wooden beams, in which Christ's blood was shed for the ultimate sacrifice for mankind. 

Truly, the simplest and must humble of altars.

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Having Once Fallen Away

             

                      16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,

                          from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.

                      17 She has abandoned her husband

                          and ignores the covenant she made before God.

                      18 Entering her house leads to death;

                          it is the road to the grave.[a]

                      19 The man who visits her is doomed.

                          He will never reach the paths of life.

                      20 Follow the steps of good men instead,

                          and stay on the paths of the righteous.

                      21 For only the godly will live in the land,

                          and those with integrity will remain in it.

                      22 But the wicked will be removed from the land,

                          and the treacherous will be uprooted.

                      Proverbs 2:20-22

                      New Living Translation (NLT)

Ack... What can I say? I have had a rough couple of days. I have been hit with the flu bug that has been going around and stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday, so I have been dealing with being physically down, but I have also been burdened by an extremely heavy heart.  I wont go into details, but pray for the Lord to intervene in a supernatural way for a peaceful and humble resolution.

This afternoon, as I like to do, I went out to the Deveroux Slough for lunch time and went through today's passage in my One Year Bible. Today's lesson ended with the proverb above. 

I thought it had pretty well encapsulated my life over the last 20 or so years, before rededicating my life to Christ almost two years ago.

Here, the writer uses a promiscuous woman as an example, as someone who "ignores the covenant she made before God." as she seduces men taking them away from the Lord.

My friends, that was me just two years ago.  I was seduced by the immoral woman (the sins and lusts of the world) and turned away from Jesus Christ.

Now don't get me wrong. If you had asked me if I considered myself to be a Christian, I would have said "Yes I am".  However, the term "lukewarm" would barely do me justice. I neither lived nor acted in a way that glorified the Lord for a period of 20+ years.

I believe it was pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills who once said of believers who identify themselves as having "Fallen Away" is that (paraphrasing) "The great tragedy of the believer who identifies himself as having fallen away from the Lord, is that he once knew what it was like to be in the close proximity of the Lord" - Ouch!!!

The first half of my life, I grew up in the church and loved the Lord, but then around my early to mid 20's "I entered her house" (the ways of the world) and turned away from the covenant I made with God.

Verse 16 says that "Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman" and thank God that I had enough wisdom to see and recognize the path to destruction this world is on, and that the path I was currently on was leading to death. It took 20 years for me to see that, but by the grace of God, the Lord delivered me and he can deliver you too!

Continuing my reading, I then found great joy in verses 20 & 21 "20 Follow the steps of good men instead, and stay on the paths of the righteous. 21 For only the godly will live in the land, and those with integrity will remain in it.

I have been so blessed to reconnect with some past friends who are believers, as well as make some incredible new friendships with other men and women who truly love the Lord. Find good, strong believers and hang out with them! Seek their wisdom, pray with them! Sing songs and enjoy each others company. There is so much garbage and foolishness in the world (Have you tried watching MSNBC? :0) get away from it and turn back to Jesus Christ.

It will be the best move you ever make and will help tremendously when dealing with days of sickness or a heavy heart.

=BM=

The Shot That Almost Didn't Happen

Living very near the beach, just a mere 200 yards away from the waters edge has its privileges. Santa Barbara is known for its sunshine and warm weather but we do get an occasional storm rolling in. This past Sunday I woke up just as the sun was about to rise, looked outside my window and noticed some amazing looking clouds. With sleep still in my eyes trying to clear my mind from having just awoke, I did what most photographers would do in a situation like this...

I checked my Facebook account. 

After a bout 5 minutes, wasted on Facebook, I kicked myself and got off of my lazy butt, got dressed (unshowered!) and made the 200 yard trek to the waters edge and snapped off a bunch of frames. 

The contraption you see above, is called a dredge.It is essentially a large underwater vaccum cleaner that is used to suck sand off of the bottom of the harbor and then depost it further down the beach. This keeps the mouth of the harbor deep enough for the larger ships to pass in an out safely.

This was a standard bracketed 3 exposure shot with a base exposure and the an addition +2 stop and -2 Stop exposure. The three images were processed in Photomatix and then furhter refined in Lightroom 4.

I am still putting the D600 through it's paces and so far, I am loving what I am seeing. The detail of the image above at full resolution is just AMAZING! I was having an awesome time this eving blowing up teh shot on my 30 inch monitor to a 1 to 1 pixel ratio..All of the machinery, hoses, pipes and tools are visable ont he deck of the ship. Truly amazing stuff....

As I was looking at the picture this evening, I was reminded that it almost didn't happen.  Had I been lazy and stayed planeted in front of my computer, the light, the clouds, all of the elements that make up this shot would have been lost forever and I would have nothing to share.or enjoy.

National Geographic Photographer Joe McNally says "The most important piece of equipment in your bag, is your attitude".

Amen to that, Joe.

=BM=