New Portrait page

Check out the new portrait page, I really like it. You can click the photos to view larger, you can click to view full screen, pretty fancy.  If you want to check out how to do it go to this website...

http://www.cooliris.com/yoursite/express/

Time to reverse the Great Reversal

The great reversal is a term coined by Timothy L. Smith.  In early American history the church was very active in setting up hospitals, ministries and organizations to help those in need.  However, around the turn of the (1900) century the church withdrew from these organizations (there were multiple reasons, I've heard, and not one specific instance).  This left a hole in our society that the government has been trying to fill for the better part of the century, with social security, medicare, food stamps, etc.  While it has been a valiant attempt, I think, it is time for the Church to stand up and do something (after all, Jesus told the rich man to go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor, not to Caesar).  As governments (both state and federal) are forced to cut back on services, we the Church, have an opportunity to reverse the great reversal.  This is a opportunity that we can't let pass.  The needs are great, the workers are few, but if we are to show the world the light has come (Jesus at Christmas), we must get to work.  The door is open (governments are cutting back on social services), we just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.  Over the next few weeks I will be working on a tab for the blog that has ways of getting involved, different ideas, different organizations.  It won't be complete, but hopefully it will spur people on to make a difference in their community, a difference that will change lives.
Let us reverse the great reversal.

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" Isaiah 58:6-7


Sources:
http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?114

Christmas Photos

Love these shots my wife took at my aunts of their tree.  Hope you enjoy.

Christmas Lights Bokah

I really happen to like the bokah produced by shooting at christmas lights but having the lens be out of focus.







You can see more photos of Christmas Light bokah on flickr, by clicking any of these photos and going through my photostream to see more.

Testimony

Today at our church we had four different people share their testimony's and it was a great time of sharing and listening to a glimpse of what other people are going through.
The thing that really stuck with me though was how life is about the journey and not about the destination.  I don't think I will ever look back and say to myself, "boy, Nathan, you really should have spent more time at work, or on yourself."  Hopefully I won't have to say to my self, "I wish I would've spent more time with my family, friends, on things that matter."  Hopefully, I will be able to stay focused on living my life in a way that pleases God.   I often get caught up in doing 'things', working, going from one thing to another that I forget to just enjoy the life that is going on around me.  As a new year gets ready to begin, I think its a good time to evaluate my priorities, and make sure that they line up with what God wants from me.  Help me to remember to enjoy every day.  That I may be a joyful person that spreads the Good news wherever I go.

Romans 15:13
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

We are reminded this Christmas that we still hope on a star, on a baby born in Bethlehem.   And that hope should change the way we live.

More Reflection

Here is a great reflection photos.

From Blogger

Merry Christmas

I took these two pictures the other day of decorations we have around our house.  My mom made the card in the first one.  I really like playing with focus and depth of field. Merry Christmas

From Blogger

From Blogger

Mount Baker

Down on the Jetty north of the ferry dock there are binoculars that you can swivel and point toward different things. Here are three photos of my attempt to shoot through them with the camera.

From Blogger

From Blogger

From Blogger

Even more focusing fun

Just too much fun to be had playing with focus and depth of field. Here we go on some more. Maybe its just a passing phase I'm going through.

Thankful

This year has been so great and I have been blessed in so many ways.  As Christmas and new years draws closer, I feel it is good to reflect on what a great year it has been. 
Today I am thankful for a great job, with an awesome class of kids.  They have been great to work with and so many days have made work less like work and more like fun. 
I'm thankful for my great wife, who gives me so much love and support, especially during this tough quarter where we didn't get to spend as much time together as we would have liked.   I am thankful for our larger family, their love and support as well, so awesome to have around.  I'm thankful they are close and we get to spend Christmas with them.
I am thankful for living in such a beautiful neighborhood, with the beach so close and the warm shelter of my house. 
I'm thankful for our small group that read C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity this fall.  Looking forward to world religions in the coming months. 
Thankful for great friends and time spent with them.  I wish there was more time. 
May God Bless you this Christmas. 

Psalm 95:1-6
O Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

Near Focus

Here are some shots with the focus on the foreground and the background out of focus.


Love the bokah in the background.




Love how the water is soft and out of focus (OOF)

Panoramas

Last Friday was a beautiful day here, so I went down to the beach and decided to try to make some panoramas of the different views.  They might be kinda hard to see here, since I'm limited to 1000pixels wide, but the full image is something pretty amazing. 
This is the hardest one to see. It goes from Mount Baker in the North, to the southern most Olympic Mountain that I could see. Almost 180 degrees of view. Click and you can view it a little larger in flickr.


This one is just the Olympics off the Fishing Pier in Edmonds.


This is the view to the west and north from the Jetty just north of the ferry dock.


This last one is from Sunset Ave. Looking down at the ferry dock with the Olympics in the background.


Photoshop stitched all these together by itself. Pretty awesome.

Reflection

Deb took this picture, i think it is a fabulous picture.

Bible and Candle

Here is another photo Deb took this past quarter of my Bible in candle light.

Spider

Took this photo with a the canon 100mm f2.8  Macro Lens, I was renting from the UW.  Pretty awesome how the focus comes and goes.  I really dig that.

Playing with Focus and Depth of Field

Here are some fun Depth of field and focus shots. I think Deb took all of these. I really think she has a better artistic eye for photos than I do.  I also think they were all taken with the 70-200mm F4L lens.



These next two are really cool, the focus changes between the two pictures.

Digital Frame

I finally figured out how to make the frames I've been searching how to make.  I will need to improve upon it a little, but for a quick frame, I love how it turned out.  Not only that, I can quickly and easily swap out the photos, It rocks. 
Here is the tutorial I followed.  Its for Photoshop.

Click for a larger version.  The photos were all taken in our recent snow storm.

Sunrise Mountain's

Here are two pictures of the Olympic Mountains during sunrise a few weeks ago. It is really interesting to see how the camera makes a .jpg out of the RAW file. The .jpg files lacked a lot of color, these two were RAW files that I edited a little (to bring out the color even more) and converted to .jpg.
Remember that the RAW file is exactly what the sensor 'sees' where the .jpg is a slightly edited and compressed copy of that.

Advent - A time of waiting

Recently I read this article on when its okay to sing Christmas Carols. 

Growing up in a non-liturgical church, we always sang Christmas Carols during advent.  I've always thought that Advent was a time to prepare for Christmas.  However, according to this, and it seems to make sense, advent is more about an intense longing for the Savior to come.  As a child, I'm sure that waiting for Christmas was filled with longing.  But it's been a long time since I have felt that way.  I have mostly felt that it always sneaks up on me much too quickly. 
This time of Advent is to remind us of the longing of the people of Israel for a savior.  It is a time of waiting to prepare us for Christ's arrival. 
That got me thinking, how often do I long for something, how often do I wait for something.  I don't.  Our culture is not a culture that supports waiting and patience.  My only examples are my longing for a good camera, which I got this past summer.  And my longing to go back to Maui.  I loved every minute of my time in Maui in 2009, and can't wait to go back, but I have to.  Both of these examples seem quite superficial to me. 
Do I truly long to see God's Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven?  Or are those just words that I pray.  Do I long to see Christ's return, or do I hope that he will wait a while, because life is pretty good right now?  How would my life be different if I was focused on Christ's coming. 

C.S. Lewis once said, Aim for Heaven and you get earth thrown in, Aim for Earth and you get Neither. 

People who live longing to see heaven are the very ones that have the most impact on earth. 
Just a new way (for me at least) to look at this season. 

Death and Taxes

Ever wonder what exactly how your federal taxes get spent.  Here is an interesting and informative display on government spending.
Some interesting things to note:
Defense and Security Spending 63%.  All Other spending 37%.
More money is spent on Veteran's affairs (~57Bil) than on the Department of Education (~50Bil).
EDIT: not trying to make a point with these numbers, just trying to inform people of where their tax dollars go.    




http://www.deathandtaxesposter.com/

Christmas Tree

Christmas is almost here, and we are getting ready around here to celebrate. Hope this season is a great time for all.





I really like it when just one thing is in focus and the rest of it falls out of focus. 

Ferry Favorite

Just saw on Flickr that the Washington State Department of Transportation likes my Ferry picture.  Pretty cool.

I will be posting more stuff, in the coming days. School is wrapping up and most of the tough time consuming work is done for the quarter.

Luke 10

Luke 10:  ⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Read this on the way to school.  Kinda what I needed right before finals week.  Make sure I focus on the things that really matter in life.   I am far to often likely to be Martha, and do things. Sometimes I just need to sit back and take things in.

Injustice

Guinea ethnic conflict

Came across the above link yesterday while avoiding homework.   Now it seems to me from reading that the one group was mad about the election results and did a little bit of damage to the other group, who retaliated by murdering some of the first group.  I have a hard time understanding what I can do to stop this kind of injustice in the world.  Giving to http://www.ijm.org/ is a start, but that doesn't feel to personal, and I don't know if it needs to be personal, and I don't fully comprehend the situation, and probably can't.  Sometimes I feel so helpless in this world to make real change.


Isaiah 58: (NIV from Biblegateway.com)
 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.