smoke

Header Challenge:smoke

August 7, 2013

First, a public service announcement: Today is my second daughter's 20th birthday! The photo below gives the impression that her uncle has his hand behind her head, making bunny ears. Nope. That's all her. My daughter really does have bunny ears that look like fingers sticking out of her head. It's a genetic defect from her mother's side of the family. ;-)

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program: The privilege to select today's theme was given to me, and I tried to think of a subject that had potential to be innovative and interesting, and possibly even challenging. Today's challenge is smoke.  Check out my  pals for their interpretations on this theme: Fishing  Guy, Katney, Imac and Lew.
 
The source for all this smoke is a stick of incense. That was more difficult to find than I expected. I took the picture at night, and carefully lit it so that the light sources did not shine directly on the camera lens or the black cloth I used as a backdrop. This shot below is what it looked like to shoot the smoke in the dark of night. For the header, I changed the colors and combined some photos for a collage. While this required some thought to produce, the cost was negligible. The only thing I needed to buy was the incense sticks, which only cost me a buck.

cell phone pics

cell phone pics

November 12, 2014

This week's challenge selection is cell phone pics. It was my choice.  Check out my pals for their interpretations on this theme: Fishing Guy, Katney, Imac, Lew, and Christine Anne.

This week's idea came as a result of hearing that the photographer's mind is more important than any of his or her photographic equipment. That is to say, it is not a piece of technology or expensive glass that makes a good photo, but quality can be attributed to the photographer's own eye. That in mind, I proposed that we take pictures with the cameras on our mobile phones this week as an alternative to the pics from our favorite cameras.

My cell phone is the LG Rumor Reflex. Here is how PC Mag.Com describes this phone's camera:

"The 2-megapixel camera lacks auto-focus or a flash. Shutter speeds were fine, at 0.5 second, but test pictures were poor. Photos look soft and hazy, and colors are dull." And,"You can transfer photos and video via Bluetooth or microSD card, but they really aren't worth the effort."

This project was more difficult for me than I expected. The cell phone camera's limitations forced me to think harder about each picture. I did not do more cropping or post-editing than usual. This week's header is a silhouetted selfie--a reflection from tinted glass.

sunset reflected off a black pickup truck

crayons on canvas - original art by Melissa Swierenga

desktop still life - the cigarrette holder was printed off the web (I don't smoke)

I decorated a friend's beanbag with cardboard cutouts for Cookie Monster's eyes and smile

3-d art in my library

more 3-d art in my library

hanging globe lights on the 3rd floor of... my library

same pic, but I added a bokeh effect

Addendum: Pardon the misrepresentation. When I speak of "my" library, I mean of course the Bolingbrook Public Library.

where there's smoke...

We did a lot more entertaining last year than this one. For a while, it seemed that I was grilling quite a bit, and I was hoping that this year, I could diversify a little bit from the grill, instead of the same old burgers and chicken.

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The charcoal grill (last year's Father's Day present) has been such a treat, that it's been a while since I've even opened up the gas grill. I went in there yesterday, and HEY, we've got company! I grilled anyway, and I was sure that I was going to get stung, but they left me alone. Too bad I couldn't return the favor, but with some folks having allergies, I don't want to have these things swarming on my deck.

petal pusher

Let's see whether we can I.D. these here...  I think that's a Drone Fly perched on a Shasta Daisy.  It looked like a bee from behind, but the eyes and wings are clearly not bee-like.  Then, we have a Hibiscus flower.  This one was an interesting shot for me, because it had strong backlighting, and I used a white board to reflect light back on to the front of the flower.  Finally, we have a bunch of Daisy Fleabane.  Again, there was strong backlighting, but the angle of the sun put these flowers in bright light, and the Juniper bush behind them was completely in the shade.

On another note that is not entirely unrelated, I would like to offer a tutorial on my special grilling technique.  If you want your hamburgers to turn out like mine, you will need to let yourself be distracted and keep walking away from whatever you're cooking.  I know that is unorthodox, but it is a critical component to my method, and it is how I end up serving those nice, dark biscuits that taste remarkably like charcoal.  So throw those formed patties on the hot grill, and walk around the yard with your camera!  You'll know when to grab the spatula by the smoke signals, which are easy to spot from virtually anywhere on the property.

Sky Watch Friday!

Jacob's ladder?

Ho hum. We had a rather UN-interesting overcast sky. Sorry to bore you. Bye.

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Wait! Before you leave, let me tell you what was happening in the foreground. A rooftop air conditioning unit malfunctioned and set off the smoke detectors. This was not a drill; we had to evacuate the building immediately. There were LOTS of emergency vehicles outside. Apparently, the automated system also notifies the adjoining suburbs... wow!

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No one was hurt, and I have no idea how bad the rooftop unit was, but I could not see any damage from inside the building.

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I have two questions for you. Choose a place... home, school, work, whatever. If you had to evacuate immediately, what would you take with you and what would you miss the most if all the property was consumed?

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Here's my answer: I grabbed a book off my desk, because it is part of a discussion group. (The camera was not optional; it's permanently attached.) If the whole place were damaged by fire or water, I would miss all the photographs I have stored in the hard drive. Precious few have been saved to a Web-based album.

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Visit Tom if you want to play along with Sky Watch Friday.

hope secured

It is tempting to say about my friend who died, "You can't keep a good man down." As much as I respected him, that would not be perfectly accurate. If that statement is wholly true, it is only true about Jesus Christ, because there has never been anyone who was truly, thoroughly, spotlessly good... not in and of themselves, anyway. And when I hear that phrase, my mind is drawn to the Lord's resurrection. Yes, then it would be true: you can't keep a good man down.

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But folks, we have this theological whatchamajiggit called "imputation" which basically says that Jesus (who never sinned) took sin upon himself to pay the penalty for all who believe in him. He answered for it in a legal sense, even though he did not actually commit any of that sin. Got it?

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There is a flipside of the imputation. Just as our sins were charged to Jesus Christ, the Lord's righteousness then covers those who belong to Him. His people are legally covered with the perfect righteousness that Jesus lived and earned. That is how the Lord presents to himself a "spotless bride." That is the reason we can be confident that Alan Haymaker is experiencing paradise today. And that is why our grieving is only temporary.

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Wanna smoke some brain cells? Think about the imputation for a while. Ponder it, and try to wrap your mind on the unfairness (to God) of it all. See if you can agree with John Newton that God's grace (unmerited favor) is amazing.

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"And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope."

1 Thessalonians 4:13 (New Living Translation)

New World Translation

A couple of Jehovah's Witnesses visited with me for a couple of hours this week. This was a followup visit because I told one of them I was concerned with the way their Bible (NWT) translated John 1:1. This gentleman gave me a little booklet which offered an explanation of their translation, and then we made an appointment to sit down and talk about it. So, we talked about a lot of stuff, but I made sure we dealt fairly with the issue of John 1:1. Their NWT says, "and the word was a god." My Bible says, "and the Word was God." Big difference! We discussed several points on this matter, but one sentence from their little answer book said that "some Bibles do not translate this passage "and the Word was God."" Is that so? I have somewhere between 18 and 22 different translations if the Bible at home, so I pulled them from the shelves, and one-by-one, I would find John 1:1, read it aloud, put a sticky-note in it to save the page, and pass it down for them to confirm. We could not find even one translation to verify their little book. I think that's because most translations got it right, and theirs contains a deliberate smoke screen, attempting to blur what God's word says about the identity of Jesus Christ. There is but one God, and his nature or essence is in three persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.