January 8, 2008

Pretty original title, don't you think? Well, I admit, it is Sunday, January 13th, and I am catching up on the blog. It's been a great week. Miracles, pictures, the whole thing, so I'll at least catch you up on some pictures. I noticed while Jeanne and Annie and I were walking that there was potential for a terrific sunrise. By the time we got home I thought it would be too late. But I drove up Ridge Road to the first break in the trees, the Cul-de-sac previously mentioned and the above shot was the view. There's just something about the sun coming up every day that is mundane and miraculous at the same time. This certainly leaned toward the miraculous and away from the mundane. In any case it's a great way to start the day.
It was warm in the afternoon and I had told Tom Edmonds I'd drop by to see if he felt like getting outside. He had a tough night and wasn't up to it so I drove out Bainbridge Road to see what I could find. I drove right past this old, delapidated house but caught it in the corner of my eye. Photography could get me killed I suppose becasue I backed up, on a fairly dangerous portion of the road, to get the shot. It all worked out. I'm alive and it is one of my favorite shots to date. The strong side lighting casting long shadows and evoking vivid colors. The great colors in the house itself and in the background. Most of all I think I like it because it reminds of a "Jeanne" painting. It's just the sort of thing she would search out when we first got married.
From there I went down by the river. The Susquehanna is pretty in its own way. This night, the lone power pole standing in the middle of the river drew my attention. It just looks bold and fearless standing there all alone, doing its job. The river was flowing pretty good but you'd never know by how still it looks.
I was supposed to meet Joe Nehila at the house at 5p to meet about the upcoming board meeting for The First Tee. I would have been on time except when I came to the stop sign on West Ridge Road by the Raleigh's house, this was the scene. It cost me 10 minutes to get the shot. Joe seemed to be understanding.

Winter Eye Candy

I thank God everyday that Jeanne agreed to marry me. Trying to understand why she did would take a long book - but thank God she did. She knew going into this that she would need to be the teacher and gently persuade me to be the student. There have been many text books, most of which are quite long. One of the longest (it's taken about 30 years) is entitled, "How To Have Eyes That See."
I remember when we were first married and she painted a lot with water colors, I would go with her to watch her sketch and paint. We would go to old barns and fields where she would see something beautiful and translate her vision of it onto paper. Without fail, I would question her use of color. We'd be looking at the same thing, say, the same dingy, old barn, and she'd see vibrant, energetic colors while I'd see shades of gray. At first she actively tried to help me see all the colors that were there, but recognized this would be a difficult course for me and slowed down. She transitioned to telling me it was perfectly within her artistic license to utilize those colors in her own painting. Gradually, with her help, I began to see colors. It surprised me one evening several years ago when I blurted, while driving across a mostly barren, Pennsylvania winter countryside, "Wow, look at the colors!" She had never stopped teaching and the lessons were apparently beginning to sink in.
I'm so deeply grateful she never gave up on teaching me that lesson. Beauty, the wonderous beauty of God's creations, should never go unnoticed, because without noticing it one can't be properly grateful for it. Spectacular beauty is everywhere around us at all times, given to us by God to fill us with joy and awe, lighten our burdens, bring a smile to our faces and even tears to our eyes. I'm beginning to see, thanks to years of lessons from Jeanne. The above pictures were taken in Elizabethtown, PA at approximately 3pm on January 6, 2008. It was about 40 degrees and had been much colder since the beginning of December, sometimes very cold. But as I was taking pictures of the cold, low winter sun reflecting off the ice covering the college lake, I turned to see vibrant, spectacular color everywhere around me in the bark of the trees. It was like sweet candy, eye candy in the dead of winter and it reminded me of how Jeanne used to put colors on paper that she could see but I couldn't. Thanks for the lessons Jeanne. I love you.

Just Another Great Sunday

Sister Alyssa True

Like the title says, it was just another great Sunday. God created the sabbath for man and I'm grateful he did because it is frequently the very best day of the week. Today started strong with a visit to my friend Tom Edmonds at Masonic Village. He wasn't feeling well so I told him we'd come back after church to give him a blessing. Then we arrived at church on time, even though there was some misinformation about what time church started on the new schedule. We stayed at 10:30am, which is just fine with me. Fast and Testimony meeting was great, highlighted by the testimony of a new member, Sister Alyssa True, who powerfully witnessed how it is we are able to "know" through the power of the Holy Ghost and how difficult it is for those without the gift of the Holy Ghost to understand how we can know. It was stirring, along with several other testimonies right at the end of the meeting. Next, the curriculum for 2008 is Book of Mormon so teaching Sunday School this year is the greatest. We had a wonderful class full of testimony about the truthfulness of the book. Well, we invited Alyssa and the Ellsworths home for dinner. As it turned out, they know each other because Alyssa's older brother took Sharon Ellsworth to senior prom at Donegal High School (they were the two dressed in duct tape suit and gown). So it was fun for them to catch up.

Del Ellsworth

It is wonderful to have Del and Mary Lou over. They are a joy to be around and are always willing to discuss fun and searching topics. Del pitched in to cut the roast because Rodger had disappeared to take pictures.

Mary Lou Ellsworth

We are looking forward to a slide show from the Ellsworth's mission to Chile as soon as it is ready. We can't wait to hear and see the stories about the ship wreck that occurred post-mission.

On the way home from church, standing next to the pond by the Christmas Tree Farm was a great blue heron. Of course, Rodger dropped everyone off at home, grabbed his camera and went back for a picture. Just as he exited his car by the pond the heron flew away without a single picture. Well, I was out and about and had my camera, so it shouldn't go to waste. The light was quite nice, it was about 2:30 in the afternoon, so the sun was already low in the winter sky and there were scattered clouds. Driving along Ridge Road I noticed the back side of this farm, which is the same farm in my ice storm pictures. It always surprises me just how beautiful it can be in Pennsylvania at any time of the year. Jeanne wished out loud the other day that Pennsylvania were eight states to the west so we could live here and still be close to family. In any case, I drove to the end of a little Cul-de-sac and got a great shot of the farm.
Also with me at the end of the Cul-de-sac was "Kippy," a new breed of dog, a cross between a Pug and a Jack Russell Terrier. I ask the owner if the idea was to get the more relaxed temperment of a Pug with the size and cutness of a Jack Russell. He said that was the idea but it didn't work with Kippy. She was just as crazy as most Jack Russells. She did pose quite nicely, however.
After leaving the farm scene I traveled to the college and found that winter light can be beautiful, if not particularly colorful. The next few pictures are examples of cold, gray light that turns into attractive photographs (I think). Above is the low winter sun reflected in the college pond.
The pond was partially frozen and I found the contrasting reflections between frozen and liquid to be fascinating and fun to look at. It also lent to the feeling of cold along with the winter light.
The contrast of the "upside down" reflection of the chapel steeple, pointing downward and the cat tails reaching upward lent itself to an interesting picture, sort of a "yin and yang" thing or the "opposition in all things" concept. It seemed fun to look at. Hope you enjoy it.

Perfection Achieved

Can Perfection Come From Disappointment?(Rebecca Erekson in the Kennedy Center)

Perfection is a hard image to capture. After all, all one ever hears is that no one and nothing is perfect. Nevertheless, the scriptures demand perfection and we do have at least one mortal example of perfection, so to me there must be other instances and measures that allow us to dabble in perfection so we can begin to have some image of what it is we are supposed to attain. So, here's a perfect day for Jeanne: get tickets to My Fair Lady at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and take her husband and children to see it. Jeanne had the soundtrack when she was young. She used to listen to musicals in the 8 track player of the station wagon as a teenager above the objections of her friends. So, when she saw the musical was coming to D.C. during the time that Casey and Mary would be home from college for Christmas vacation, she prodded Rodger to buy some tickets right away as "Christmas Presents."
I think if one ever is going to capture a vision of perfection, there must be belief that it can happen. So, what happens to this "perfect" scenario when two of your children (the most unlikely two - Mary and Emily) inform you that they can't or don't want to go to the show? Well, the first resort is retreat. Are the tickets refundable? No! (Of course not!) Perfection, I believe, does require creativity, and Jeanne has never been short on that account. She wondered out loud, sometime after hearing the bad news from her children, (I'm not sure why) whether the Erekson girls (Rebecca and Janessa) might be interested in going with us. Of course, necessity is the mother of all inven... for our purposes "creativity" so this creative thought occurred perhaps 36 hours before the event (proverbial crunch time). But, if you believe something can happen, well, it can!
Speaking of perfection, couples are a perfect creation. God knew we were not meant to be alone, it would be too hard to be creative and proactive at the same time, so he created Jeanne and Rodger. Jeanne mutters the creative idea and Rodger somehow puts a plan into action. Mind you, the creative idea is the more difficult challenge even though most of the credit usually goes to the activator. So, Jeanne wonders if the Erekson girls might be interested and Rodger needs to find a way to get in touch with them in a very short time frame to find out. Here's how that works. Rebecca stayed with the Picketts for the last 6 weeks of high school (five years previously). She and Rodger emailed occasionally to keep up on life. Rebecca and Rodger email while Rebecca is on her mission in Paris, France. When Rebecca returns, she emails Rodger and he emails back (in October 2007). It is now January 2008 but Rodger is confident he can find Rebecca's email address from their last correspondance and is right. He emails Rebecca at approximately 8p the night before the matinee performance in D.C. Rebecca, for unknown reasons, looks at her email approximately 3 minutes after Rodger emails (for the last time that night) and the plan is hatched to pick her and her sister up the next morning at their home in Sykesville, MD on the way to D.C. Now, that's cool, but is it perfect?

(Janessa Erekson in the Kennedy Center cafeteria)

Well, if that's not perfect, this makes it pretty close. As it turns out, the Eriksons are BIG fans, not only of musicals, but of My Fair Lady! They know the story, they know all the words, they know all the songs. AND - they were THRILLED to be able to go with us to the show. Now that's getting very close to perfection. (You might notice from the above picture that Janessa gets pretty close to perfection as well - sorry, I got off track.)

The show was very good. The cast was talented, the seats were great, the music was good (but the dialogue was too long - whoops, so much for perfection). Ahh, so you're wondering, if the dialogue was too long how could the day have been perfect even if the Ereksons were perfect company? Well, the show started at 1:30p and ended at 4:30p (see what I mean about the dialogue). We parked right under the Kennedy Center, so we went down to the parking, drove out into the late afternoon sun and ohh, it was perfect. The temperature was hovering around 23 degrees. There was a pretty stiff breeze, but the light was incredible. Of course, Rodger wanted to take pictures. He kept trying to find some parking by the mall so he could shoot monuments (and this is where sometimes what appears to be adversity leads us right to where we are supposed to be) without any luck, so he finally looked over at Jeanne, while at a red light, and said, "you drive, I'm getting out," grabbed his camera bag and bolted. "I have my cell phone," he yelled as he ran away, to which came Jeanne's response, "I don't have mine."
The light was spectacular, thrilling! Rodger started shooting picture after picture across the Potomac at the Jefferson memorial and then turn around and shoot the Washington memorial. It just so happened that that's where the stop light was.
At first it was utterly enthralling. It was perfect.
Perhaps as a reminder of the nature of perfection and just how much must be done to achieve it, Rodger did begin, after perhaps twenty minutes, to notice that it was quite cold out. He had a sweater and leather jacket on, but wondered, momentarily, if Jeanne and the kids would ever find him again before he froze to death, leaving only his last photographs as a memorial. He pondered taking a self-portrait so his grieving loved ones might have one, last portrait of a smiling Rodger and be consoled in knowing he died doing something he loved (ok, that was artistic license, I don't think that actually happeded, but it made the story better).
Finally, he thought, "perhaps one of the kids has their phone." Rebecca's number was at the top of his "Last Calls" list, so he dialed. Only a few other times in life had there been a more welcome "hello?" He was saved, they could find him now and he wouldn't freeze.

Sorry to have left my thesis about perfection. To tie it all together - if this isn't a perfect sunset, then I don't know if there is such a thing. And seeing that this kind of perfection exists reminds me that God loves me and affords some earthly examples of just what it is we are all striving for. Thanks Jeanne for the tickets, thanks Casey for coming, thanks Rebecca and Janessa for making it a "perfect" outing, and thanks God for perfect sunsets.

You Never Know What's Around The Next Corner

So, today I had to go pick up something at the attorney's office late in the afternoon. It was about 4p. His office is located one block off front street in Harrisburg. We spoke for a while and I left the office, got in my car and proceeded to drive home. Upon leaving the office parking lot, I turned left onto 2nd Street, then left onto a street that took me to front street. As soon as I turned the corner, the beauty of the moment, the fantastic light shone in my face. I pulled the car over to the curb, grabbed my camera and just started shooting. The above picture is the first in the series. It is untouched, raw out of the camera to give you an indication of just how spectacular the moment was.

Moments like that can't help but remind one that God does exist. For me it is a reminder of the words of Alma to Korihor, "...behold, I have all things as a testimony that (there is a God and Christ shall come); ... yea, and all things denote there is a God, yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."
Sunsets like this witness to me that there is a God. This kind of beauty, albeit telestial, brings warmth and peace and whispers God is in His heaven. The geese were very cooperative and posed quite nicely for me. They knew it would be posted on the internet and wanted their 15 minutes of fame.
I love the bridges across the Susquehanna. From downtown one can see seven bridges, each beautiful in its own way and complimenting the beauty of the bridges next to it. On this night the river water was calm and doubled the beauty by reflecting it. So, after I had taken enough pictures to become quite cold, (it was 30 degrees with a breeze), I returned to the car to drive back to the office. From the freeway it was difficult to see the sky and as I exited my back was to the sunset, my mind was on business and the images were fading already.
Then, as I turned into the office parking lot the view took my breath away. Once again, park the car in the middle of the road (thank goodness it is lightly travelled), grab the camera and just start shooting. The picture above doesn't quite do the sky justice but gives an indication of just how spectacularly beautiful a winter sunset in central Pennsylvania can be - and that God lives.

Retro Thanksgiving - A Look Back

Since blogging is new to me, here's a question for all you experienced bloggers: When you take 200+ pictures at a large family event and wish to blog about it, where do you begin? How do you effectively represent the magnatude of something like that when your blog allows you to only upload 5 pictures per post? Not having had your answers in advance, I just went with what turned out to be some of my favorite pictures from our fantastic thanksgiving trip to Utah. And, there will most likely be multiple posts about the trip. If you have better ideas, please comment below. The picture above is one of my favorites. Ella has the sweetest face. I sneaked up on her and Becca with the camera and she looked just as the shutter actuated (another perfectly planned moment in photography). While color balancing in Photoshop Elements, the thought occurred to me that the real focus of the picture should be Ella's face and everything else should take a back seat so I extracted her face, blurred everything else and put her face back in. Even Jeanne liked it (which is saying a lot!) Photos like this were possible because of the miracle of the Condo. You'll have to review my journals after my death for the whole condo miracle story but because of the miracle, Becca and Jake and kids were able to stay with us the whole time we were in Utah which gave lots of opportunity for good pictures.
Like this one. There was a playground in the gated community where the condo was and one of the playhouse features was a little round opening (perhaps to provide more light or maybe the designers knew how cute it would be to photograph grandchildren looking out the opening). The tough part about the picture is that Ella had a runny nose the entire time we were in Utah so you just have to get past that to really appreciate it.
It's still a bit stunning to me that Emily is growing up. This was a candid shot at Joanne's house which simply made me pause and realize just how grown up she has become. It is a great blessing to have her at home. She is fun, full of energy and laying the foundation for a good, strong testimony. A parent can't ask for much more than that (although I'm sure Emily feels like I do).
These are "Four Young Girls." The Young's are so good to Becca and her family. Natalie and Audrey are like sisters and Sister Young has taken Becca in as a true daughter. You can see from this picture that I'm entranced by Ella's face - the others are beautiful but Ella's is mesmerizing.

To me, the picture below just captures the whole meaning of "Thanksgiving" and the restored Gospel for that matter. While the picture isn't special the people and the purpose are. It is of those who attended Victoria's baptism on Thanksgiving Day. A baptism on Thanksgiving with family - there's just something Celestial about that.

All In The Name of Friendship

When Joe Nehila reminded me that I had offered to take family pictures for him I imagined Joe and Heather and the three boys. At 10a Saturday, just as the Littles were leaving, a knock came at the door. It was the Nehilas - all of the Nehilas!
It is, of course, an entirely different thing, managing that kind of crowd, trying to keep everyone happy, looking for good shots, and dealing with "posing misery." Of all the things I lack in photography (and there are many) posing is my biggest shortfal (that I'm aware of). We had good fortune and got some reasonable results.
This picture is sort of like "Father of the Bride 2." The little girl belongs to Kelsey and Dan (Kelsey is Joe's daughter) and the little boy belongs to Joe and Heather. Kelsey is pregnant with number two and Heather is pregnant with number 6. So, when Heather delivers, she will have had 6 and Joe will have had six and when you add it up, 6 + 6 = 8. (You figure it out.)
This was a fun shot, taken on the run. I used Photoshop Elements to blur Joe and keep the little one in focus. I first tried that effect on a picture of Ella and Becca. Even Jeanne, the biggest critic of "Photoshopping" ("It looks fake" is her standard comment) liked the effect with Ella a lot, so I tried it again here with good result.
It took a fair amount of work to get Ashley to smile (13 is a tough age for that sort of thing) but as you can see, it's a great one when it happens. I like this photo and feel like it's as good as any professional studio shot. It was taken in the living room with an 85mm f1.8 lens and camera mounted flash (SB800).