I Shot a Birthday Party

My Cousin's Daughter turned 1 year old! I got to shoot the party. My eyes are blurry from going through all the pictures. It ended up being more of a 'documentary' type of a photo shoot (who was there, the cake, decorations, etc) rather than getting to spend time on capturing those perfect moments and looking at things with a 'creative' eye.

Also after going through pictures, I certainly think I could have done a better job. Next time I will know how to increase the amount of usable photos! So many trash photos - yuk!

I'll try to post some pictures after I'm done with the edits, but the above photo is a teaser. The theme was "polka dots"

I'm Back

The computer's been down, but I'm back now. Didya miss me?

The Color of our Eggs

We had a grand time coloring eggs today with the family... thought I share some images (you didn't think I'd be without my camera did you?). Click on the images for a larger view or click to get your to my Flickr Photo Stream.

Sarah made the above egg for Eddie (Bubba)

Hope Hearts Hearts

Even Josh participated

Eddie couldn't contain his excitement about what was going to happen

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! HE IS RISEN!

A Place for our Butts (and yours too if you come for a visit)

This morning I built a picnic bench to go with the picnic table that I built earlier this week. The kiddos ate lunch on it today.

I feel manly.

I just thought I'd share.

Crafts Man

Coffee Tastes Better Outside:
I'm determined to eat my breakfast and drink coffee outside in my backyard before it gets to be 1,000 degrees outside. So, today I built a picnic bench for my backyard.

Digital Photography School
I've used Digital Photography School (DPS) as a resource for help and interesting articles for a long time. Today I participated in my first "Weekly Assignment".

Picnic Table + DPS = The photo you see above.
The weekly assignment for DPS was "Construction". So, I had a great photo opportunity in my own back yard.

My Process:
Are you ready for me to reveal my secrets? I had NO IDEA of what I wanted; no clue of what would make a good 'construction' photo. So, I just started taking pictures. I took approximately 50 shots. I was looking for some spark, some inspiration... it wasn't coming to me.

I walked all around my work bench and took photos from above, from below, I whipped out the wide-angle and nothing looked promising until I got the bright Idea to pull out the macro lens. Ah ha! The Macro provided that "something" that I was looking for.

The only thing that I did to this photo in photoshop was to use "auto adjust" on the levels and I cropped it at 5x7 inches.

I liked the colors right out of the camera.

I don't think this is particularly an outstanding photo. It looks like it should be in a Craftsman Catalog or something (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). One thing I don't like about it is all the space in the upper right side of the image.

Anyway, it turned out much better than my "Class with Dave and Dave" assignment that was due today.

Check it out here.

Life: An Update

EMPLOYMENT:
As you may know, I'm looking for a Jay-Oh-Bee (job).

• The job that I want is here. It's for a College Pastor Position. (Terrible website for such a big church!)
• Also, I'm pretty sure I can take a job as the Worship Pastor here. I've led worship here a couple of times now and I'm pretty sure they'd give me the job if I want it. (one problem is that it doesn't pay very much)
  

So, it's decision time. I think I may put off any decisions until after Easter.

EDDIE:
I signed him up for T-ball! Can you imagine 3 year olds playing T-ball?!

NEW BLOG:
I'm contemplating a foray into Photography as a source of income - freelance, of course. So, I started a photo blog. Check it out here.

HORTON HEARS A WHO:
Sarah and I took Eddie and Hope to see this movie today. It rocked. period.

I was pretty sure that I would enjoy it, but I was shocked at how much I actually liked it! Besides the voices being stellar, and the animation was amazing... the story was profound. I won't bore you with why I found it to be profound. It should suffice to say that my faith was strengthened by the time the movie was over.

Seeing the movie and finding God's imprint in it was my favorite divine moment today.

Breakfast with Eddie

Sarah drove Hope to school. That left Eddie and I alone at the table. We ate our oatmeal and we talked about sugar, camping in the summer and his Batman Suit.

Then we talked about camping in the summer with his Batman Suit.

There aren't many things in life greater than a Dad and Son in their pajamas eating oatmeal, talking about superheros and the great outdoors.

1. I'm thankful for unscripted moments with my children.
2. The morning sun on my kitchen table
3. Sugar.
4. God's divine imprint on my son's life. Created in HIS image.

Testing

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note to self: Test successful.