salt-n-peppa

A few days ago, we got to talking about ethnic diversity [different is good]. That spun off into an email conversation about photographing a lighter person and darker person together. My thought is that it could be much more challenging than when taking a family portrait where they're all nearly the same color. Kapish?

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I saw a photo of a couple of young people who were on opposite ends of the light spectrum. My nephews here, are not as extreme, but this is the best I've done yet with these two. It was purely by accident, but the general background was was kind of a neutral gray, light behind the darker nephew and dark behind the lighter one. I used flash for fill-in, and then edited the image to remove just a little of the color saturation, because that red shirt wanted to steal the show.

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What do you think? What kind of poses, lighting or other tips do you think might be helpful for creating a good photograph of a combo light and dark subject? Maybe you can even point to some good samples??

different is good

There was a time when we local homeschoolers looked like we came from the same cookie-cutter. All the gals wore denim jumpers. I didn't mind that we were associated with that look, but I celebrate a more diverse look today.

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The Craver clan went to the Illinois Christian Home Educators' Family Camp this weekend. I think each of us had lots of fun in our own way. As for me, I came home with a couple nice macro shots, but I especially enjoyed the diversity of people that is being represented in our group. We have a lot of the same interests, in that we are homeschoolers and we are predominately from a theologically conservative strain of Christianity. But it is good to see a little bit of ethnic diversity. There was one mom who had a shawl that looked tie-dyed. I saw her wearing a top that was not the old standard denim "uniform." It was more like a dashiki. She had a dragon tattoo above her ankle, and I thought it was pretty cool. (She kinda reminded me of a certain blogger from Pennsylvania.)

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Generally, I'm not a big fan of tattoos, but I like to see people with different preferences work together for a higher goal, and especially when they can retain their individuality while appreciating others.

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This little boy was not paying attention to the speaker, but preferred to play with pebbles in the dirt. He is biracial. People used to warn me about letting my children get cozy with other skin-types. "What if they decide to marry and have children?" That was their mantra. Well, I happen to think that biracial children have an intriguing look about them and all children are beautiful regardless.

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Hasta later, Friends!

soul siblings

We held an Arts Festival with all kind of exhibits on Saturday. I entered my photographs. Among the artistic expressions was another church's choir, praise team, and worship dancers. Some of their expression may be a little different, but our bond through Christ runs deep, and this is my family, who I will share the rest of eternity with. Think about that... my blood kin will be my family for a few decades, but my church family throughout the planet, those before me and those to come, these will be my brothers and sisters forever!

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I generally don't care for interpretive dance. I'm not condemning it as wrong, or anything like that... it's just not my cup of tea, that's all. But now that I have the disclaimer out of the way, let me say that I found this very interesting, and even exciting. They artistically, and effectively communicated the ideas of their songs. I hope I recognize some of these church people at the grocery store or local parks. I would love to continue the sweet fellowship that began on such a high note.

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Then on Sunday, we had another multicultural moment. This lady got baptized. She is from Haiti, and does not speak English. She spoke in French or Creole (I couldn't tell which) through a translator.

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She has a sad episode in her past. Many years ago, she was a single mom. She joined a church and wanted to be baptized. After 6 months of preparation, she was finally told by her old pastor, that they would NOT baptize her until she was married. I don't have all the facts, but that doesn't sound right to me.

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Wanna hear something cool? This lady from Haiti faithfully attends my English-speaking church every week. Like I said, she does not understand the words, but participates as much as she can, and then hears the message for the first time, when her son translates the sermon at home for family devotions on Sunday nights.