Photos at LAF

Young children and adults gather at the United Church of Christ on Wednesday evenings for their LAF program. LAF is an acronym for 'Loaves and Fishes' and is in place of Sunday school each weekend.

I haven't been involved with the program much, I don't yet have children. Though it would be a wonderful volunteer opportunity. One Sunday I noticed an announcement in the church bulletin looking for individuals who would loan their digital camera to they children to use. The posting also asked if anyone would like to accompany their camera and help the kids.



Anyone who knows me understands two things: I don't like cameras nor do I like children. Wait a minute, scratch that - I AM a big kid who is cool working with children and I do enjoy photography. So, of course it seemed like something to do.

These children (that I helped with) are preschool age. I wondered how one would present photography to children. Hinduism is the religion that all children at LAF have been learning about for the last couple of weeks. Photography would be used to demonstrate how to see God in everything.

In this photo Pastor Steve is teaching the children to greet each other by using the phrase "Namaste". If I recall his explanation he said that it's a good way to say, "The God in me recognizes the God in you." I hope that I paraphrased that correctly.



Jason Askew, a local photographer and memeber of the UCC, brought his computer to the group to show images that he thought were beautiful. He does a lot of work with HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. You can check out his website here.

We really only got about ten minutes with the kids to go and look for things that they find interesting in the church. I was paired with Liam and his mom. Here are a couple of photos that he took:





You may or may not be able to see that the children in the above photo are learning how to do yoga. They were children aged 5 and above. We went downstairs, I thought to take some photos of them.

This young man thought that he might like to try to do yoga and that it might be more fun than taking pictures. So, he handed the camera to his mom and joined the kids on the floor.

Really, who can blame him? I enjoy yoga when I get around to doing it. And really the goal is just to create a positive experience in church.

Click on the "People That You Meet" photo along the right to view the photographs that I snapped at LAF.

Photo Safari in Yankton and Clay Counties

In general I have many hobbies, though I'm mainly pre-occupied with two: cycling and photography. Cycling hasn't been happening so much lately, but a few of my bicycling friends are also into photography.

We've decided to form a small photography club and have been giving ourselves weekly assignments. A few weeks ago three of us got together to search out photographic subjects in Yankton, Utica and rural Wakonda.

First, we stopped by the Sacred Heart Convent Cemetery.

We visited a couple spots along the river before heading to Utica. Admittedly this isn't the best photo ever, but I liked the blue truck in front of a yellow house.



There was also a stone structure across the street. I didn't take a photo of it, but I thought that it was an interesting frame for Cathy. She was photographing the old fire station in Utica.


You may view additional photos from our outing as well as other scenic images here.

Photographer's Assistant

Today I was on the ground making this photograph:


Then, I got a visitor. I felt a fuzzy monkey hop onto my back. This little guy thought that he'd supervise.

Playing with Flashlights

Here is the result from my work on this weeks self imposed photography assignment as part of the Camera Clickin' Cyclist group on Facebook. Our task: Home. No other parameters. I thought that I'd like to try actually drawing in a photograph instead of just writing. I thought that it might be an alright way to put a spin on the 'American Gothic' idea.

This morning I got up and had a bit of time before it became light out, so I made a few attempts at an image.


Well, I wanted to try the same image - but at night. I got a spotlight and I wanted to try to illuminate the house myself. So, I used the same timing from the morning for the interior lights, turned them off after the appropriate amount of time. I did the drawing and then I went around the house to light the structure and the visible trees.

This photo is what was taken inside of the camera. In the interest of full disclosure, I did tweak what's supposed to be a heart. I copied a portion of the photograph before this one to make the segment look more heart like.

The heart is still a bit wonky, but it'll do. I was working with a freaking laser pointer. :D Laser beams are fine to attach to the heads of killer sharks so that ... Read Moreevery creature can have a hot meal (says Dr. Evil), but they're not super useful drawing tools.

I'm pleased. Is that okay to admit? I hope so.

Macro Photography

A few of my cycling friends are photo enthusiasts as well. We all have other interests too, but cycling and photography are definately common bonds. We can relate as we each dive further and further into these potentially spendy hobbies.
:-)

The nice thing about both is that they each allow room for personal growth. Cycling improves one's health and both contribute to one's mental health and well being.

Since this is a photography blog, I'll focus on that. There are so many things to learn and relearn with photography. My friends have recently (in the last couple of years) acquired DSLR cameras. I studied photography in college and have had a film SLR camera. I purchased a DSLR model this summer. We all want to get more familiar with our cameras.

I think that my friends and I benefit from structured learning, in a way. We wanted to give ourselves assignments to practice things that we've learned in classes past and present, or have read about online.

We'll have weekly tasks to practice and then report back to a Facebook group (Camera Clicking Cyclists) with the results. I think that we'll be able to see some improvement as we work along.

This week was macro photography.

Here's a slide show that includes photos that I created for the task, plus a couple that just add to the series.

I have a Canon 40D and a Canon 430 Flash which I used on camera, set to 0 or -1 for most of these images. I also had a bounce card reflecter attached to the flash. The subjects were so close that the flash would bypass them, I needed the card to reflect the light down for a bit of front light. I also have a small Promaster flash that I have hooked to an optical slave. I handheld that and pointed it toward the background so that the light would bounce and backlight the fruit. Exposure was typically 1/200 (maybe a little slower on an image or two) and the fstop was typically between 16 and 22.

MS 150 Weekend

Hmmm... Do I put this entry on my cycling blog or on my photo blog?

Photo blog it is!!

I did my best to announce the riders as they crossed the line. I had hoped to be able to have my camera on a tripod so that I could snap a photo as riders came in. Even with a shutter release cable, it just didn't work. The camera didn't focus on the riders on its own and I couldn't flip the switch and hold the rider list with numbers AND the microphone AND try to identify anyone at the same time. Sorry.

I did have company later in the afternoon.



This little girl came over and asked me if she may take my picture. She was a cutie. She photographed me, I took a picture of her, she took a picture of me looking at her stuffed doggie. I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She said a picture taker. I said, "Oh, you want to be a photographer, that's great!" She asked, "What's a toe-phog-rapher?" I said a picture taker. :D She soon ran out of film on her disposable camera, so she helped me check for numbers on the riders. Her daddy was a rider this weekend. Gotta love kids. They're a lot of fun.

Sunday morning Nick and I got up, made coffee and went to watch the riders pass by. We live on the route, so figured we may as well cheer our friends on! I brought my camera to document the occasion since I wasn't riding it this year. I plan to send a disc to the chapter office in case they'd like any of the shots. So many people take pictures over the weekend. I'm sure that they have plenty documenting every angle of the ride.

There are more pictures of Sunday's ride here.

On our way home we watched two riders accompany each other into the ditch right by our driveway. We stopped. Everyone was fine. I still really hate watching people crash. The handle bars on one of the bikes got tweaked pretty well, so we gave her a ride to the next pit stop. She was from Madison, though I've forgotten her name. Donna, I think. She said that she felt bad that we had to drive so far (like 5 miles). I assured her that I've depended on the kindness of strangers before and it was no problem to help her out. Cyclists are so nice. Everyone is eager to help each other out. I think that'd be the same in any other sport/hobby though too.