Choir Tour Through Germany 1

These pictures do absolutely no justice to the amazing sights I've seen on this tour. More pictures will be posted as I am able to post them with our busy tour schedule!

Old Town

So I got to do a cool photo shoot today. A friend and old church leader of mine and her room mate wanted some shots of themselves to print and post up for a graduation party they are going to throw pretty soon, so they called me up. I think this was my first actual designated photo shoot for portraits and candids. I was doubtful that I got anything very good, but now that I've looked through everything and recolored them, I'm starting to think otherwise.

The Murrays

I am blessed. So so blessed.

I was invited to stay with the Murray family Thanksgiving weekend in Newport Hills. Friday evening they had planned to head down to Laguna and take some family portraits so I tagged along with my camera and took some 'behind the scenes' shots when the hired photographer wasn't shooting. To say the least, this family is awesome.

Miscellaneous Madness

I just thought I'd throw up some graphic designy-type stuff that I've done for the heck of it. I'm not NEARLY as happy with this stuff as I am my photography, which is why I think I'll focus on graphic design a lot more in college than on photography. I have a lot to learn and tons of room to improve.

The first piece is a three-step process of an art piece I was trying to do for my Point Loma application, but it fell through in the end and I didn't finish it... maybe I'll try coming back to it another time. It was a play off of one of my favorite bible verses, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life." I really need to learn how to color on photoshop and get my hands on a better drawing tablet.

The second piece is one you may recognize from an earlier post. It was a graphic to go along with a promotion for a big service project we used to do at Lake Avenue called Black Out. It was intended to raise awareness to all of the injustices in our world from across the globe, right up to our door step. This was something I whipped up in a couple hours in the morning before I left to go on a mini missions trip for a weekend to East LA, Pico Union Dist.

The third piece has no story behind it. I just got bored and had some time to kill so I grabbed a couple cloudy-ish type brushes for Photoshop, found a skyline picture, and when to work manipulating the shot. I threw in the colors, the sky, the reflection on the water, and the glow of the city. The End.

Some Things Hit Way Too Close To Home

I realize that this post is a tad bit late and after the fact, but what the heck! So you had to have been living under a rock to not have known about the Station Fire that started in La Canada and graced us with its presence in La Crescenta. I believe it is still burning to this date, but it has been completely surrounded by fire lines and has long since moved away from homes, thank goodness! I had the misfortune and the blessing of having the fire come quite close to where I live and having mandatory evacuations placed on my street. I think it's obvious why it was a misfortune, but I also see it as a blessing because it was a huge opportunity to get great pictures. Once the evacuation orders had been given, the intersections leading up to my neighborhood had been blocked off leaving the streets completely empty of traffic other than police and fire vehicles. My family and I decided not to evacuate, as did many other families, which I soon realized was a huge advantage for myself to get great pictures. Only those who lived above the police barricades and didn't evacuate could walk the streets that were closest to the fire lines. In the end I was able to get closer to the fire than most people... if only I had a press pass, though. THEN I could've gotten some insane shots, but oh well. The first picture with all of the glowing dots is taken from a street about 4 blocks up from my house. That hill that you see in the picture is at most only 100 yards from the houses... pretty dang close! What you see are the embers still glowing a day after the fire had been extinguished.

Today, the smoke can still be smelled and ash continues to rain down on La Crescenta. We are now worrying about the rain that is soon to come. Mud slides, anyone?! It will be an interesting development in the story of the Station Fire, but I'm sure everything will be fine in the end.

La Crescenta Meets La Jolla

I was VERY blessed to have been able to take the train down to San Diego over Labor Day weekend to visit a very close friend that I met at Forest Home this past summer. I had all intentions of taking tons of pictures while i was down there, but as it turned out, I just had far too much fun to worry about getting all the shots. It was a matter of living through the lens or really taking it in and living in the moment. I chose the latter, and enjoyed every second of it. BUT, here are just a few shots that I did manage to pull off!

The Big Easy

I just realized that I never posted any pictures from the Louisiana trip! OOPS! Well here's a few cool ones!

 Good Times. :D

The Mighty Seahorse

I spent a week volunteering at a soccer camp for 7-14 year olds, although almost all of them were 8. Being that I havent played real soccer since 3rd or 4th grade, I opted for the "hey, you take pictures right? Could you get some of the camp throughout the week?" option. Playing and shooting, though, was a real blast. These kids are GOOD.

Breaking My Own Rules

It may seem like I've given up on my blog, but I've decided to give up on my rules. You know, the whole tuesday post thing. With my sumer having been super busy and not slowing down until summer itself runs out, I've found it really difficult to stay on track with posting every tuesday. It also used to be that I felt like I didn't have any new and fresh selections to post here every week, but now, after a soccer camp, trip to Mammoth, trip to Louisiana, and many church events, I have many hundreds of decent shots not being used. So I've come to the decision, as I sit at a cafeteria at Chapman University (enjoying the free wifi...and not enjoying yearbook camp), that I'll post new pictures ASAP after an event. They may not have those long, deep, and philosophical entries afterwards, but I'll try to write something. I'll try to be more consistent with my posts, and hopefully I'll get more traffic to my blog because this is what I plan to keep running as I finish high school and go through college. Stay tuned!

What Does The Future Hold?

This was a fun day. 

A few sundays ago, I had the privilege of attending a graduation at Mayfield Senior High School. The older sister of a good friend of mine was about to take the big plunge into official adult hood and I has hired to document the event. I was more than happy to be a part of such a big moment in someone's life, where they finally get to see their future unfold. 

The school is a gorgeous one and had a ceremony to match. All of the graduates wore the most elegant white dresses accented with rich bouquets of red roses (dont worry, its an all-girl school...no guys were wearing elegant white dresses). However, I couldn't keep my soon-to-be-senior mind from wandering and wondering what my future holds. With just one more year left to go until I am able to break free and explore the world, I seem to be fixed, more than ever, on what I want to do with my life... what God wants me to do with my life, rather. I've been convinced for some time now that I will be diving head first into the photography world and hopefully coming out with a degree from Art Center and a hefty list of clients to keep me busy for years and years to come. My dad, however, thinks I'm destined to fall into ministry somewhere, somehow, and hopefully contribute my photography and design talents to a Church. When he first mentioned that, I wasn't too stoked or supportive of the idea, but now I've had about a year to sit on it and look into it, and I'm starting to lean that way. 

Within the last couple of months, I've been really interested in Biola University. They've got a pretty decent design/art program and are 110% devoted to God and carrying out His will. Also, I've gotten to meet some awesome people who graduated from Biola, some with design degrees, and are continuing to live a God driven life to this day. After Biola, I would imagine that I would start up my own little photography and design business and be freelance until I got a sick job offer or feel pushed to go somewhere and figure out some form of ministry. Even this afternoon, I found an inspiring blog ( promisetangemanblog.com ) which serves as a near perfect example of what I would love to do. 

As for now, I'm just tying to find God in more aspects of my life, so that I'm that much stronger when I graduate and am on my own. I am continuing to look for more photography opportunities for experience and hopefully some mulah so I may someday afford legitimate photography gear. Pray for me, Stay tuned, and watch it all grow. It should be exciting! :D

Giving Myself An Excuse

To those who check my blog every tuesday, you may have noticed that its been almost a month since I last posted anything. You can thank school for that! I've had tons of work dumped on my lately as CV approaches the end of the school year, and I haven't found time to pick up my camera and go to work. I have thousands of pictures that I've taken over the last couple of years, but I can't bring myself to post anything that isn't fresh or intriguing enough to write about. I'll be leaving my blog alone until I get out of school and settle into summer. Next week is my last week of school, but the work load will not be slowing down until the end of June. So give me a couple weeks and I'll be sure to have plenty of sweet shots to show you guys and write nonsense about.

More Than Meets The Eye

Think about the person that you think you know the best. The person that you could confidently say you know just about everything there is to know about them. You could complete their sentences, laugh at jokes that they tell don't make any sense to anyone else, and make eye contact with them and know just what they're thinking at that very moment. Think about that person. Now think about how it is, exactly, that you got to know them so well. Has it just been a cumulative thing over time? Have you had specific conversations with questions directed at learning more about them? How? Have you ever wondered that maybe there are things that you don't know about them? I don't mean things like what they're doing at this very second... of course you won't know that unless your right next to them watching their every move, but I mean things about them. Things that define them... define their character. Things that make them who they are. Things about their past, present and future. Hopes, dreams, and struggles. Do you know all of that? Well, here, let me answer for you...

NO.

And we probably won't ever know for the most part. They won't tell us everything thats inside of them. As humans we are inclined to lock up so many things. We are SO good at putting up walls and putting on masks to shut our real selves off from the rest of the world. I think so many of us are afraid to show what's really inside of us. Maybe it's because we're afraid of what others may think, or because that might prove that we aren't all so tough. Is it a bad thing to admit that we are weak? That we have vulnerable hearts and minds? What ever it is, someone's got to break down those walls and see through those masks. If you ever can... it will rock your world. Just look into their eyes. Eyes don't lie. As I mentioned in a previous blog, you can shut your mouth and quiet your mind, but your heart never stops speaking (from Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life). If there's any outlet for your heart, I would say it's through your eyes. As cheesy and cliche as this may sound, its completely true. I have been blessed a couple of times to just stare into the eyes of those who I thought I knew so much about. During a couple church trips I participated in an activity where we rotated around a room in two concentric circles, stopping at each person, face to face, and spent what seemed like for ever staring into their eyes. With the right introduction, an appropriate atmosphere, and all immature giggling from awkwardness thrown aside, we all began to cry. The entire group. With each person that we stood in front of, we became more overwhelmed with a feeling of such vulnerability and weakness. We were letting go all that was locked up within us and taking all of the weight off of our shoulders without saying a word. If there has ever been a moment when I knew God was present, it was right then and there, between two faces and flowing tears. Some of us tried to smile and act like we were okay, some of us tried to act like we had nothing to cry about, but looking into each others eyes we could all see how fake we really were and had always been. We hadn't necessarily learned more about each other, but we saw that we were all in the same boat. We all had weaknesses, failures, and downfalls that we had gotten sick of covering up for so long, and we were finally able to let them go. As good ol' Dr. Phil says almost every day at 4 o'clock, "you can't fix what you don't acknowledge!" I've found that to be very true in my life time, and its as simple as praying. My example of letting go of it all by staring into people's eyes may get you a black eye in return if its not set up properly, so I'm not necessarily instructing you to do that, but give it a shot with God. I mean really devote time to him sometime. Block out every distraction as best as you can and focus on Him. Dump all of your crap on Him... He can take it. Just give it a shot. When you finally get there, well... the feeling is indescribable. 

You might recognize this picture from the Blackout post i recently submitted. These are the same eyes as the black and white eyes hovering in the skyline of the city. So... I may have saturated the blue in her eyes a little bit for drama's sake, but its not that far off. C'mon, it looks cool right?

Garbage In, Garbage Out

So where do people get off just ditchin their trash just about everywhere BUT in the trash can? Is it really that hard to walk a few feet to the nearest trash can and take care of it there? Have we gotten THAT lazy? Have we lost all regard as to how our communities look and the image portrayed by them? Sure seems like a lot of us have become that way.

This is an issue that has really gotten on my nerves over the past few years so I'm just going to dive right in. When I see someone toss their crap on the ground and walk away without the slightest thought given to what they just did, there are a few things that come to mind. Call me judgmental, presumptuous... what ever, but they must not care about anything or anyone but themselves. They must expect the school slave...or I mean janitor... to come around and pick it up for them. They must think themselves above those few foot steps to the trash can. They must disregard the fact that others that share the community might care about how things look and that they might be interested in preserving or improving the wellness of the community. They must ignore, reject, and flip-the-bird to a lot of things with one small gesture such as this. 

Look, I know I don't live in Beverly Hills or Flintridge or South Pas or the upper portion of Altadena, but I don't live in the ghetto by any means, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as I'm around and for as long as my family and friends are in this nice little (and booming) town of La Crescenta. I feel very blessed to live where I do with a good sized home, three pets, generally friendly neighbors, safe streets, cops that rest more than arrest for lack of anything better to do, and two of some of the most elite public schools in the nation... so blessed that I would do what I can to appreciate all of it and keep things the way they are. And I would REALLY appreciate it if others might give a rats patootie ( yea so that was corny... just go with it.) and take care of the community too. 

I've heard of studies that inquired what it is that turns nice comfortable neighborhoods into sketchy ghettos. One of the biggest contributing factors, as they found, was when a building (house, office, shop, etc.) is left vacant and run down for a prolonged period of time. If the property is unkept, trashed up, tagged on, littered on and left to rot... chances are thats a good glimpse of where the community is headed in the not so distant future. Some of you may know this as The Broken Window Theory. 

Now you may say "oh well c'mon... thats a little extreme. No ones going to let their quaint town turn into a trash dump that easily." Well I would hope not! But there's evidence every day that proves the theory to be true. Just within the last few years that I've been in high school I've seen waaay more people throwing trash all over the place. And just a few weeks ago I learned the story of the Pico Union District and how it used to be a pretty upscale place, but as families moved out and things weren't taken care of, things dove downhill and now its looked down upon as one of the worst areas of LA. So what do we do about it? Well, I've gotten a good sense of who reads my ranting and I don't think you guys are the ones that would trash up a place, so thanks for that! But next time your out and you see someone else dump something on the ground, try saying something... don't get yourself beat up, but if you don't feel threatened or uneasy about the person, tell them to pick it up. And if that doesn't work, then pick it up yourself and throw it away for them because you don't know who else is watching and that act may trigger a thought in their mind to clean up there act, so to speak. We really shouldn't let these things slip by because the more we do, the more the become a cultural pandemic. And when you think about it on a bigger scale, such carelessness and disregard leads to graffiti, even more foul language (now there's something to write a blog about), and just lower standards all together. Not to be a total pessimist, but I don't have a whole lot of hope for my generation, but maybe we can all work towards making the next generation a lot less selfless and a lot more courteous. 

Fog

This is a picture I took during last summer at a church event we had once a week called The Yard. This one specific evening we had dry ice... naturally we couldn't keep our selves from playing with it. In some ways we just never grow up. Fog is so much fun!

I couldn't seem to come up with a topic to write about for this post, and seeing that this is being posted on a Wednesday instead of Tuesday, I figured I'd dig up a cool shot from the deep, dark depths of my external hard drive and just go with it. Enjoy :D

The Richest Among Us

As of right now I am looking into selling the camera equipment I have and investing in a much more advanced camera body(the Nikon D200/D300 as opposed to my current D40) and a wider variety of lenses. I realized that, not only do I need to sell what photography gear i have now, I need to sell of a bunch of other toys laying around like my BMX bike, MX helmet, a little point-and-shoot Nikon, 1st gen. PSP, and a few other valuables. 

As some of you may or may not know by now, I am a die-hard fan of Road Biking, also. After photography, road biking eats up the rest of my time. It has become my saturday morning adventures, my after school stress relief, and the occasional 4:00 AM suicide mission. I have been biking for quite a few years now and push harder and further with each year that passes. Currently I can pull off about 30 miles per day if I cut out the time for it (back in september i was doing 40+ per morning until I had to cut it off due to knee rehab and complete retraining of my quads to fix an ongoing running injury of 5 years). The steeper the hill, the more inviting it is. The higher the street speed limit, the harder I'll push to break it. The more cars I can outrun, the more pumped I get. The only problem, now, is I'm outrunning my bike. I got my bike, labeled as a serious beginners bike, 5 years ago, and I am out performing it by far. I push harder and move faster than its geometry is made to take, and I'm beginning to hit a wall. Now if only i had upwards of a few grand to get my hands on a competition level, asphalt shredding frame.

So here's what I'm getting at... This isn't bragging time, this is humility time. So far all I've written is just the opposite, you might say... well just hold on a second and let me explain. My two biggest hobbies are very expensive and time consuming. Together, I have anywhere from 5-10K to save up in order to fulfill my wants and wishes. Whether you're wealthy or not, thats a decent chunk of change, right? I think so. Well then its a darn good thing I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, where the electricity powering my macbook is coming from, whether the drinking water is clean, whether I'll be able to get my full 8 hours of beauty sleep tonight, or whether I can get medical attention in the event that I get hurt pretty bad. I can let any care of every necessity slide and obsess over the luxuries in my life. How lucky am I? How lucky are any of you who are able to read this right now? Have you ever stopped to consider how fortunate you and I are, even in spite of our "hard times"? Have you ever truly appreciated the roof you live under, the food that you snack on when you aren't hungry, the car that you drive in, or the country that takes care of you? I do... rarely. Not enough. Not nearly enough. Now I wouldn't say that I'm spoiled, but you don't have to be in order to be guilty of this. 

None of these things are ours. They are God's. Who are we to take them as "ours"? What... because we've worked so hard for what we have? Yea I see your point, and that makes sense, but at the very root of it all, we are given life, forgiveness, grace, freedom, and heaven all at no cost to us. We didn't work for that, but do we appreciate that? Do we REALLY appreciate that? Our souls are what goes to heaven. All material possessions are left behind to rot with the sins of man, yet we all seem to devote all of our time and money on the material. Okay maybe not ALL, but the vast dang majority. I applaud you who sacrifice what you are blessed to offer whether it be money, time, talent, or otherwise.... you have done something that I feel I haven't done enough of. 

I spent this last weekend right in my our backyard, LA. I went with the high school group from church on a missions trip to get our hands in the poverty and homeless problem thats so close to home. As it turned out, we became the homeless. Friday night we were stripped of all our possessions except two items of our choice. I grabbed my sleeping bag and a stick of deodorant... I didn't want to stink myself out of my own bed). From there we slept outside on the sidewalk, woke up at 4:30 thanks to the law that states no person is to be sleeping in public when the sun rises, and got to work making due with what we had. We weren't given meals to eat, a place to clean up, or any means of obtaining such. We had to beg for money and find our own way to get food around the city. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to beg on the streets. What that did to our pride and mental state in just one day was incredible and it makes me wonder what it must do to those who live that reality for years. I'd get much more into detail of what it was like to be on that side of the world, but I think you get my point. IT SUCKED!

You have to see, though, that I'm not writing this as a guilt trip for those of us who have money, whether it be a lot or not so much, but as an attempt at a wake up call. We are blessed and privileged to have the possessions that we have, but with that we most likely have the ability to sacrifice for those less fortunate. Instead of indulging in our material possessions, what if we took those material things and put them to use in changing the souls of the hopeless. Because the soul is that only thing that ever lasts. You and I may be rich with this world, but we can also be the poorest in compassion, humility, love, and soul. God blessed us with material riches not to dig our roots deeper in this world, but to help others stay afloat in this cruel world that loves to take them under when they can't provide for themselves. We can use our riches, big or small, in the name and image of God to show God to those who may not know Him and, instead, only know frustration and misery.

The picture I put up is a logo I made last Friday for a series that we do at church called Blackout. It is an effort to make us more aware of those who are less fortunate and need to see Gods loving hand now more than ever. It covers poverty and injustice here at home and on an international level. It is student lead and student created, but fueled by God. If you are interested in learning more, please contact me. I would love for anyone reading this to consider attending a Blackout event and getting involved at any level to serve and sacrifice for our Father.

Faith is dead without action. 

So Do Something.

The Nephew

Die Blase

I'm sorry to say, having had a less-than-friggin awesome weekend, that I'm sort of at a loss for words this week. I know I usually get all philosophical and mushy on you, but I'm not really feeling it this time. I apologize to those who enjoy reading my rambling, but then again some of you may be sighing with relief that I'm coming up for a breath of air this time around. 

With that said ,and without further ado, I give you The Bubble. oooooh aaaaah! Now you can finally take a good gander at what has fascinated us since we were all little kids and provided endless laughs and smiles. Unless, of course you were one of those kids that thought it was an awesome idea to drink the bubble juice... I have no words for you. 

Enjoy The Bubble and have a wonderful day.

P.S. The title is the german translation for The Bubble. I am currently studying German for the second year and I like to throw in little bits of it every now and then.

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

I'm not quite sure how I am going to go about this blog. I know what I want to say in my head but I can't think of the best way to write it out. Shoot... feels like the essay I wrote in first period English this morning. Well I'll spare you all of that story, but for this just bear with me as I attempt to make sense of the gobbley guck in my head.

Life has been less than awesome for me lately. I can't really give a time table as to when things started to head south... weeks maybe months ago, but its been long enough for me, that's for sure. You might ask what the matter is, but that is an explanation for my parents ears. Ears that have a higher tolerance than anyone else and don't start bleeding until the later half of the conversation. (yeeea I'm kind of a talker once you get me started). An easy way to put things is this; In just about every corner of my life there's been some tough things to deal with. Some of them have just been major stress, but the bigger ones have been major issues that, now in hindsight of it all, I believe God put in place to really test my character and teach me a few lessons. Like I said before about how long this has been going on, its been a long time coming. Longer then I've actually given thought to up until this past weekend. Years actually. A couple issues in particular that I've shared with my parents and a few trusted loved ones have been slowly gaining speed and difficulty over a good deal of time, but it wasn't until fairly recently this year that I felt the full effects of things and started to get really down. Those same few people that I had confided in with my past issues, I now threw new time consuming and mentally draining conversations at*. As always, they gave me more encouraging words of wisdom in an attempt to brighten things up in my world, but that wasn't the cure-all anymore like it used to be. Not say that those words fell upon deaf ears, but I needed answers now. Answers which I knew could only come from God, but at this time I honestly wasn't feeling so close to Him. I'm not sure what it may have looked like to everyone else outside of my little bubble, but I sort of gave up on praying for the last few weeks. It would cross my mind that I should probably check in with the Big Man, but when it came down to it, I really didn't want to and it became easier to continue on with whatever I was already doing at the time. As I learned very recently though, God was still listening. He's always listening. You can shut your mouth and quiet your mind, but your heart never stops speaking. And if there's anything God listens to the most, I believe its our hearts. The most raw and pure form of our character and soul. Even with that though, we still do need to talk to God about it, and fortunately for me, God had provided plenty of people who prayed for me when I couldn't, and I know God got the message that I need a little helping hand down here. I got that hand. My problems weren't necessarily solved, but within a day or two I suddenly had my entire outlook on my life changed for this season of my life. An old friend whom I missed terribly had come back to me this weekend from some other world. Three awesome photography opportunities opened up in just one morning without any notice. And the following afternoon of that morning, I was forced to put a newly learned lesson to the test with a dear friend. A test to forgive and accept and take people at face value and just appreciate the relationship that I have with them without letting insignificant mishaps slowly tear down that bond. 

So what in the freakin world does ANY of this verbal diarrhea (yes I did just use that phrase) have to do with the picture. Well let me tell you, that is if your ears, or eyes for that matter, aren't too tired yet. The picture is a lovely portrait of my good friend Chloe. I was in another friends car with her on our way from church to her house to spend the afternoon hanging out before we both had to go to a church meeting. In my Art Center class we are currently studying lighting and portraiture, and I saw this car ride as the perfect opportunity to practice what we have been studying. So I sat there snapping picture after picture of Chloe go on and on about who knows what and burst in laughs and song and dancing... if any of you know her, you know exactly what I'm talking about. She was the perfect subject. Every second she had a new expression worth taking a shot of. Later on, as I looked through the pictures I had taken on Sunday, I stopped on this one, and just saw happiness. Happiness... thats what I've been missing. I haven't had too much to be happy about for a little while, but maybe I wasn't looking for it. One of my closest friends, Kirsten, told me over and over to be positive... look towards better things and things will get better. I listened each time, but I didn't internalize it or see what she was talking about. It took a picture like this for me to see it. Happiness has been around me this whole time, but I was so distracted with bad things, that I shoved it all aside. Considering that this picture was taken by random chance and I was just clicking away, maybe God set up this shot in a round about way so he could slap a frozen sample of happiness in my face and say "look yuh idiot. here it is. RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU! you want it? take it." So I did just that this week and so far things are lookin up. So I encourage you, who ever reads this and might feel a little down. Go find the ones you confide in most and spill it all to them. They'll catch you when you fall and make up for your losses, trust me, and God sees that. Vent, pray, and give it all up. As humans we are not at all big enough to really solve the problems that smack us down in life, but as humans we have the ability for emotion. Raw emotion that comes from the heart. So give the raw downer doses to God and do your absolutely very best to fill up the space with some smiles and laughs. There's always someone around that can provide such a medicine and all you've got to do is stick it out and you'll start to see the brighter side of things. Its hard to explain, yes even after all of that, but just give it a shot. It seems to work.

 

P.S. you may have started singing a monty python tune in your head as you read the title. Ahmen to you.

*As a side note I just want to thank those people with all of my heart for their time, energy, and advise. You are my proof that our God is a loving God... I mean after all he gave me you guys. 

Something Bigger

What must the world look like through the eyes of all those little inhabitants in our yards? The journey up the stem of a rose bush must be epic for an aphid. Or how about when the ladybug lifts off from your fingertip once you've finished counting the spots on its back and it makes that voyage to your neighbors garden? And of course you have to consider what a snail must encounter over those vast distances it travels throughout a good days hard work. Just try to put yourself in their... "shoes" for a bit and imagine what it must be like. How grand a brick wall must be to them. But that same brick wall is nothing to us. Heck we made it and we can tear it down if we want to. So what about us? What we see as big problems or obstacles in our lives must be nothing to someone else. To me, that someone is God. 

As we go throughout our day to day lives, we run into speed bumps and road blocks that totally throw us off track and through a loop, but in the end, how many of those issues really matter? If we just trust in God and rely on God, could he tear down those brick walls so that we might make our way to new parts of our lives? Well its certainly easier said than done. And I wish I had an answer as to how to rely on Him more easily and have faith that we will be taken care of... but I don't. I guess thats one more question we will spend our entire lives trying to answer. I hope that where ever I go in my life, I will be with people who are also searching for answers in God about God. The more of us there are, the closer we are to him and the closer we might get to finding answers. 

A View From The Top

Last wednesday night I took another trip up Highway 395 headed for Mammoth Mountain. I was invited a few weeks ago to take this five day escape by my good buddy Blake Riboli along with his parents, the Gibsons from church, and another couple that are good friends of the Gibsons. We stayed in a slightly cramped, but cozy, condo that belonged to a co-worker of Kathy Gibson. Blake and I got two-day lift tickets for thursday and friday which turned out to be plenty of boarding time considering our legs flopped around like jello with each step when we climbed the stairs to the kitchen for a warm Saturday morning breakfast. The following evening the Ribolis and I went to a 7:30 showing of Watchmen. The previews looked really cool and I was really excited to see it. Well let me warn you, the previews are extremely deceiving. Not to say that the movie is bad, its incredible actually, but I don't recommend such a movie if you are squeamish to blood, buts and gore, or are easily offended with.... well lets say intimate scenes. As the nearly three hour movie progressed you can sort of tell when disturbing scenes are coming up, and I personally just worked through the awkwardness and appreciated the work that must have gone into making such realistic looking blood. Now don't get me wrong, I loved the movie. Especially the opening scene! Shoot, if you enjoy a good action flick fight scene with two macho guys throwing punches at mach 5, then you've GOT to see this. It'll blow your mind right out of your head as your jaw drops to your lap. Bottom line, absolutely stunning cinematography. 

So what does any of this have to do with the picture I've got sitting up there? Well I had an interesting thought just after I uploaded the picture. It occurred to me how much I take Mammoth for granted. The vast majority of people I know have never been to Mammoth and have all said that they would really love to go. The only thing stopping them is a 6 hour drive and a painful sum of money to rent a condo or hotel room. Its understandable, however, as to why its so expensive... Mammoth is a little taste of heaven if you ask me. For every month of the year, Mammoth offers an experience of fantastic beauty and adventure. I've been blessed to have a house only a couple blocks away from Canyon Lodge that we are able to visit many times a year. Before I was even born my family was vacationing in Mammoth. I've got such a great privilege and here I am rambling on about a movie that I could just as easily see in my own home town. 

As I looked through the hundreds and hundreds of pictures that I took over the five day period last week, I realized how beautiful Mammoth is. Unfortunately there was a pretty mean storm on friday, which is when I did the good majority of my shooting, and a lot of my pictures are completely dominated by white outs, but even the overwhelming whiteness comes off as beautiful. That kind of weather is so pure, the air up there is so clean and fresh, and the snow is just perfect, and its right here in our state of California. A state known for insanely hot summers and frustratingly dry winters. This might be a bit of a repeat from my last blog entry, but I really do think we ought to take a bit of a time out and appreciate what is around us. Take a look at the things we pass by everyday. Whether you're in the most urban parts of the city, the calm and collected suburbs, or up in the majestic mountains, we could all gain from studying our stomping grounds.