focused

This sharp young lady was a contestant in the local Bible Bee.  They stand before a panel of judges and recite memorized Bible verses.  The amount they memorize is something that I find absolutely staggering.  My memory is so blurry, I have to concentrate to remember my own phone number.  I have not practiced the discipline of Scripture memorization for a while, even though I used to do it on a regular basis.  Whether it is a lot or very little, the memorization of God's Word is never wasted.  There is still a benefit, even if you have trouble recalling what you used to know verbatim, so keep trying, and don't give up.

Speaking of sharp and blurry, I learned something new.  That judge and the rear wall are equidistant from our contestant.  If I want the painted wall and judge to have the same level of blur (bokeh), I would need to place our contestant closer to the judge.  So, a more balanced depth of field (if that's what I wanted) would split the front and back in quarters and place the focal point -not in the middle, but about a quarter away from the front.  Does that make sense?  I looked it up, and this is phenomenon is related to a technique called zone focusing.

Enough tech talk.  Don't you just love that healthy glow that speaks volumes of the wonderful care provided by her parents?

Oh, let me tell you about one other thing that amused me.  The older children (like this one) quoted their verses phrase by phrase, and with inflection, just like normal speech.  But the youngest contestants fired off a steady, rapid, monotone machine-gun that almost sounded like a different language.  It's as if the contest was to see who could say their verses the fastest.  I got a kick out of that.