weblog > archives > March 2008
Perspective
March 31, 2008 10:50 AM
(Looking down on St. Louis from "The Arch," July 2004)
What's old is new again.
March 30, 2008 10:08 PM
So I continue to potter around with old photos.
I have to admit that for the last little while I have worried that I have lost a bit of my passion for photography, but just playing around over the last little while has been great. I found a HEAP of old photos that I put onto lightroom & it's been great being able to breath new life into old shots, relive the old days & see how I have also developed in my craft.
With all that said, I think I will have to give my poor congregation a bit of a rest from the endless photo-essays at church. They get to enjoy every whim & fancy that I come up with.
Please enjoy a couple more shots from Scotland. No matter how I feel about photography, my love for all things caledonian remains!
The roof from the apartments across the road from where I lived. Why do they call them APARTments, when they are all stuck together?
They call this place "The Meadows." It is a lovely big park area just outside the centre of the city. Man it was nice to head there when the weather was warmish & thousands of people were just chilling & enjoying that foreign object to all Scots, the Sun!
Preset memories
March 28, 2008 12:56 PM
Occasionally I find out new things about certain programs on my computer. Just yesterday I found out that you can download "presets" for "Adobe Lightroom", which are the optimum technical settings for different styles of photo. A preset for the "Lomo effect", or HDR, even Velvia style... Lots of fun.
Occasionally I remember that I have thousands of old photos that I can look at & remember. It's nice to travel through Europe again, or relive first year of college.
When my revelation last night met my interest in some of my old photos, I decided to have a go at fixing/playing with some of the oldies. I am happy with the following, but would appreciate feedback. You never know as a photographer, whether you are more excited by the new process you have applied more than the photo itself...
Easyjet is a beautiful thing! Cheap flights everywhere. I think I got 6 flights for the equivalent of about $400!
I caught a train from Venice to Nice in this carriage. A short while after this shot I went to go to the bathroom. When I got there, the floor was flooded & I was just in socks, so I headed back to my cabin & found a guy fiddling with the door, trying to break into my room. He saw me & then just walked away. Had I not turned back, I could have lost my camera & a bunch of valuables! God is good!
Edinburgh itself is a beautiful city. I really love it. This is looking from George IV bridge, down onto the Cowgate.
New Things
March 26, 2008 1:20 PM
So it's back to work after a big weekend of Easter.
I had a good time over easter. We had Sim, Dave & Michelle up for the weekend, which was fun. I got to do a kids talk at church & felt like it went down a treat, so that was a bonus too. Finally, on Sunday evening we had a dinner as a church & it was great. Nice food, good company & instead of having a sermon, we had 4 readings done by different members of the congregation where they injected their own thoughts/feelings/ideas into the reading. It was a good time.
I've started a new blog for our Youth Group called "The WAY". At the moment, the only info on it is mirrored in stuff that is being done here, but I assure you (probably 5) readers that there will be lots of original information going up there in the very near future. Check it out anyway.
Well, It's also a sad week this week. My little Bro, his wife & child are moving down to Melbourne tomorrow, which will be the source of much sadness for Shona & I.
The only good news to come out of the move (hopefully) is that P,K & C will have to be more diligent in their blogging, so we can all keep up now... Here's hoping!
TCG.><>.
Old & New
March 19, 2008 2:47 PM
We'll start with the new... Next is the latest in the series that my youth kids have started. It speaks for itself...
I have Bible study in a couple of hours time & I am looking forward to seeing if we can come up with something else new..
Next is a couple of older shots. These are both from Scotland. One in 2004 (the church ruin) and one from 2007 (Glenlivet stable). Anyway, I'm just looking through old stuff & dragging it up. I almost felt like crying looking at Scotland photos. Man I miss that place!
Unexpected benefits
March 16, 2008 2:09 PM
It appears that one of the unexpected benefits of living up on the Central Coast is that going into Sydney City itself becomes exponentially more exciting. As you roll over the Harbour Bridge in the train, looking out at the Opera House & the city splayed behind it, it's just breathtaking.
So the other week, Shona & I got to head into the city for dinner; a gift from a bunch of her Brisbane friends. We'd chosen to use this universal voucher at the Hotel Intercontinental, going to the "Cafe Opera" restaurant.
Now, even I am ready to admit that when I think of class & sophistication, the word "buffet" rarely appears in the list of words floating through my mind. However, "Cafe Opera" is a totally different story. Amazing Sushi & Sashimi, awe inspiring salads, lovely bread, seafood, and the desserts were so beautiful I didn't know whether or not to eat them or photograph them! (Amy, you would have liked the Creme Brulee that was the size of a large salad bowl...)
So we ate, we chatted, we ate, we laughed, we ate & then we ate some more just in case. It was a magical night, just to be in the city, around the buildings, watching people bustle by & feeling like we were in a different world to our daily experience at home.
I think I need to visit more often. Maybe a chance to really get stuck into some photo taking again?
Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the occasion. (Out of respect for my wife & the fine institution of going on a "date" I refrained from food photography in the restaurant...)
The foyer of the Intercontinental
Shona, waiting for the train on the way home.
Old School
March 14, 2008 4:46 PM
I was looking through some of my old pictures from Europe '04, because I needed some for illustration of my Youth Group talk. Anyway, I found the particular German pictures I was looking for, when suddenly I realised that I had all these old pictures that I hadn't done any recovery on with my lovely swish "Adobe Lightroom." Here is one pic that was too dark & messed up before, which has been (in my estimation) effectively recovered.
It captures the feel (for me) of being at an underground club at 3am, playing ping-pong with a bunch of film-makers....
Does it make you wonder what my illustration is about?
March 12, 2008 11:24 PM
I was on one of my friend Jenn's pages today & it had this video. It certainly gets you thinking! I'd love to hear people's impressions/opinions...
While I'm pilfering stuff from Jenn, here's apparently how my theological mindset would break down. That said, I really disagreed with a number of the questions. I don't always like having to pick something categorically.
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What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You scored as Neo orthodox You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.
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In news that I haven't pilfered from someone else.... actually there is none. I got inspired by a picture that I saw on Jodi's blog, and I decided to start my own series, where I get my youth kids to think up one (or several) word ideas that can be written on a hand (or other body part) and then expressed through a physical action & then photographed.
The following was just a test. The rest I suspect are going to be focussed more on "virtues."
Dreams
March 11, 2008 11:47 PM
I would love for you to have looked up this site & found a really interesting blog. Something that stimulates & challenges you. Something that informs your worldview, or causes you to want to inform me, but the truth is... well I'm tired, I have a big rest of my week & I think I'm just going to go to bed. You'll have to hold out for my critique of certain articles in the paper, my plans for an interesting photo series with my Youth Kids, and a review of the restaurant that I was lucky enough to go to last week with Shona...
Soon and very soon, my dear brothers and sisters...
Advantage who?
March 4, 2008 8:25 AM
I went to a Bible Society showcase morning tea the other day. The speaker dropped the statistic that over 40% of Australians say that they will most likely never read another book for pleasure once they have finished their education.
Never
Again
Read
A
Book!
It shocks and saddens me. Surely that statistic can't be right. Australians are supposed to be some of the biggest readers per capita in the world, but I suspect that this doesn't change the facts.
I guess I am pretty lucky. I read from a young age & had a love of reading patterned to me. I remember trawling through mum's home-library & visiting my dad in the country & seeing him sit up at night burning through Robert Ludlum style books.
I even remember the very moment that a casual interest in books moved to a passion. It was in 5th grade & the school librarian read out to us the beginning of Tolkien's "The Hobbit." I decided to read it for myself, and though the first page and a half was very different to the rest of the book (I was expecting something along the lines of "More Adventures of the Muddle Headed Wombat," the longest book I had read up to that point in time) I was hooked. Since then, my affair with good books has continued.
Viscount Herbert Samuel said "Libraries are thought in cold storage." I've always been fascinated by the fact that, on my shelf, is the collected thought, dreams, ideas, blood, sweat and tears of hundreds of men & women. Thousands, possibly millions of hours of deliberation, poured out onto the pages. Even if the subject doesn't interest you, the insight into the author can be fascinating. You can ignore the story & instead be lost in postulations on what kind of character or mind produces such ideas like this?, what headspace delivers such material? What do these characters say about this persons perception of reality & what does my reaction say in return?
Once you have a taste for literature, the bonds that time have on you are loosened. Anyone can now feel free to explore Paris in the enlightenment, reformation Germany, or the dark ages of Italy. Visit almost anywhere. Even better, visit almost anywhen!
Heck, why even limit ourselves to the terrestrial. The world is our oyster, but there is a whole ocean waiting to be explored beyond our little mollusk....
Middle Earth, the Disc Worlds, The Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy. It's all there before us.
All this lies at the feet of any man, woman, child. All they need is some basic literacy and a library card...
40% of Australians, never picking up another book....
I'm sure people still find a thousand other ways to inform themselves. They say that by the age of about 8, the average kid has received as much information as their grandparents did in a whole lifetime. But that doesn't change the facts. TV, the internet, mobile phones. None of these things ignites a fire in the heart like a good book.
It's a great challenge for me to think about how I am feeding myself while i work here on the coast. Too quickly people say that they don't have the time to read for pleasure any more. I'm convinced that the trick to longevity in ministry, and happiness in most walks of life, includes, in part, a paperback, 15 spare minutes a day (or longer on your day off) and the willingness to transport yourself into another mans life, or maybe even another world.
After all, as Twain once said "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't."
What are you reading at the moment?
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On the menu at the moment:
1: The contemplative pastor- Eugene Peterson: I started it, loved the first 100 pages, then kind of stalled. I should finish it. Maybe if I start blogging about my books, this will help me finish things like this.
2: Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church- Don Carson: Another book that I have started & need to work through. Good help in understanding what I am working with & a counterbalance to some of my online reading on Emergents.
Gustavus Adolphus: A Hero of the Reformation- C.A. LaCroix: Adolphus was a Swedish King, and a defender of the protestant faith. I'm enjoying the chance to read a little about an "unsung hero."
Books I just finished:
1: What is the What- Dave Eggers: An awesome Biographical look into the life of Achak Deng. Born in Sudan, growing up in refugee camps and trying to eke out a life in the USA.
2: The Voyages of Sinbad- Unknown Author: An interesting book to read. Translated from Arabic. It's interesting to see certain people held up as heroes who display characteristics that might make us uncomfortable in the western world.