Child, Hear your Father's Instruction

Proverbs Chapter 4

THE TEACHER AS MODEL DISCIPLE

1  Hear, O children, a father’s instruction, be attentive, that you may gain understanding!

2  Yes, excellent advice I give you; my teaching do not forsake.

3  When I was my father’s child,  tender, the darling of my mother,

4  He taught me and said to me: “Let your heart hold fast my words: keep my commands, and live!

5  Get wisdom, get understanding!  Do not forget or turn aside from the words of my mouth.

6  Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;  love her, and she will safeguard you;

7  The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom; whatever else you get, get understanding.

8  Extol her, and she will exalt you; she will bring you honors if you embrace her;

9 She will put on your head a graceful diadem; a glorious crown will she bestow on you.”

The New American Bible for Catholics, Proverbs Chapter 4

-ehw

Ready to Climb

    A playground always brings out the best in kiddos...open spaces and fresh challenges every day!  I always love to watch the little guys and gals climb the slide backwards for the challenge and shortcut to the top!  In the case of this mountain climber the hill will pose no obstacle!

-ehw

P.S.  for you tech-cats  this was the X-T1 sporting the 18-135 zoom.  A nice all around tool in good light.  When you hit the playground it is good to have a tool which reaches out and goes wide at a whim.  You don't miss too much action that way!  If you hire a photographer for an event, make sure he has the tools for the job you need done.  That is why a good guy will have to charge a little bit more...he has to pay for the right gear and it costs a good amount to purchase.

Almost time to be a Big Sister

    My baby big girl will only be a baby a little longer!  I cannot believe how she grew, and how our family of six changed since we moved to Roswell, Georgia three and quarter years ago!  Any time between now and the end of the month Baby Echo will be on his own here in the house, and little big girl will be a BIG SISTER in a family of seven!  She'll always be my rascal princess.  She will be full of life and opinions until the end of her days.  She also makes a cute picture perfect cutie from time to time!

-ehw

P.S.  This is exactly why I always try to have a decent camera with me...cell phones are great...but I just cannot hold them steady.  So to me a proper camera is still a decent one.  In this case my XT-1 with a walk around 18-135 zoom.  Using the new version 4.0 firmware, the lens and camera combo are like a thoroughbred.  So instead of wanting a new camera, I become willing to purchase new (to me used to you) lenses and hold the camera a lot longer.

My Girls

    After dinner and having fun on a lazy Sunday afternoon.  Playing with some light in a corner near the front door.  The hardest thing is to get the three year old to look up at the same time the bookworm is pulled out of her library book!

-ehw

Flowers for my wife

    What is an anniversary without flowers for your beloved?  Thankfully after 17 years of marriage I can tell by sight what she would like....I just wonder if she noticed I put some roses in this one for a change.  Red roses at that!  That was the sneaky item this time.

    I know you all wanted a portrait of my lovely and dear wife for my project!  No better time than an anniversary or Father's Day to get such an achievement done!  If your wife is at week 34 of pregnancy, feeling achy, nauseous, and reminding you it is all your fault than you should probably wait a little longer for a portrait opportunity.  it is best for the health of the photographer.  I am sure I can get a fabulous photo, but I don't know if I could live long enough to develop it.

   So until the better opportunity appears, you get a little memory of the flowers I picked up for my wife in the late summer sun on our front porch.

    Just a reminder...if you have art needs please let me know. I would be happy to help capture your special day, a portrait or make some special art for your home.  Ten percent of your final purchase price will go to charity..right now Regina Caeli Academy our family educational and spiritual home!

-ehw

Seventeen Years of Marriage

    Today my bride and I celebrate seventeen years of marriage.  The rings you see above display the weathering, scratches and soil of living as a couple.   These years included ten moves, five home purchases, four children (14, 11, 8, 3), one baby on the way (34 weeks thank you God), four miscarried babies in heaven, hundreds of friends across the country, illnesses galore (some very scary), tears of joy for children's achievements, arguments, resolutions, and deep religious growth granted by God's grace of faith to both of us inside the sacrament of marriage.   We each fear the premature loss of the other more than ever.  Just the thought takes our collective breath away.

    We now, through the years of experience, understand the deep commitment required to maintain this relationship.  We learned of the complex interaction between all the forms of love: agape (self gift), philia (friendship), ludus (playful), and eros (physical).   At this point of our marriage we can only say we are starting to to keep them all in proper perspective.  We find our marital joys multiply when we use these tools God built in us while building his kingdom here on earth.  This understanding is right on time.   Little kids normally only provide little problems.  Big kids have the big head hurting problems to deal with.  The next seventeen years should be more interesting then the last seventeen.  Therefore we have a lot more work to do on our relationship.

    My wife and I lamented the Supreme Court ruling yesterday.  It was wrong on a matter of states rights and morality.  More importantly it gave into the concept that everyone deserves happiness and love as they personally define it at this moment.  The concept of love people throw around in common speech today, has a diluted definition resulting from poor catechesis by churches and schools.  I also venture to say the concept comes from a lack of self reflection.  The constant bombardment of noise in our brains from so many media sources provides no silence in which God can be heard.  If our marriage followed such a fluid metric, we would be a separated wreck of humanity by now.  

    We will pray our country does not continue down this manmade path of tyranny.  This is of course the inevitable result in any country refusing to subordinate itself (and its rulers) to Natural Law principles.   This couple will continue to trust in God's compass, not our internally flawed guidance systems subject to radical narcism.  We will need it to navigate the scary world now before us.

    Thank you God for making my wife, and revealing yourself to us through the graces of his son Jesus Christ by  the power of the Holy Spirit.  I am grateful for the journey you gave us to travel together.  Amen.

-ehw

An Anniversary Present

    This is my third annual tribute to two of my Grandparents on what would be their anniversary month....my Babcha and DjaDja.  This was the flower Babcha loved dearly, and my grandfather scrounged up for all their dates during World War II in Boston, Massachusetts.  A special couple and full of love.  Through better and worse they made a good life together, and have a wonderful love story.  I miss my DjaDja and wish I could visit my Babcha more often...

    What is hard to tell here is that two years ago this bush almost died in the coldest winter in decades.  We had no blossoms last year.  So this year I am loving the sweet fragrance of these flowers, and their beauty before my eyes. 

   My next project is to get my Nana's favorite flowers so I can do the same in the memory of my other grandparents!  Such good people, and examples of time hardened marriages!  Their grey hair are crowns of glory as spoken in proverbs, and had so much to pass on I just did not have time or the experience to fathom.

-ehw

A Father's Calling

A Father's first calling is to bring his children to know and love the Lord

    What is the role of father?  In the image above you can see some of the roles he ordained for us.

    We see Joseph, the earthly father of Christ standing watch over Christ.  The cloak is on showing us he is ready to move in any direction God ordains.  His staff in hand serves as an extra support with the ground, keeping him in touch with the reality of natural law.  It also serves as a weapon, to protect his charges and extend his reach using the wisdom of God to make tools with the knowledge he bestows on us through revelation.  Joseph did his duty to provide shelter for his wife, so she could for fill the task of providing a home for their son.  Together they made an environment welcoming angels into their home as messengers of God's wisdom.   I can feel in this moment Joseph already thinking of presenting this gift of our savior to our Lord in the temple of Jerusalem...here he participates showing the wonderful reciprocation of salvation history by Christ becoming man.

    Finally we see a child coming to the Holy Family.  It is our job as fathers to bring our children to Christ, teach them the words of wisdom Christ provided, and a quiet place where Christ can speak to them without all the distractions of the world.  I put the child in focus, because this is our fatherly mission on earth.  The Holy Family, through recognizable is out of focus.  The refinement a child's view on the mysteries of God is a gift of grace given by God alone.

-ehw

P.S.  Thanks to my Dad for giving me a safe place to Love the Lord and work ethic, my Pappap for showing me the power of the Rosary and spiritual fatherhood, and my DjaDja for embracing the culture of life with a rich family life.  A special thanks to my father-in-law who has taught me many ways to torture young suitors who would like to court my daughters in the near future.

Musicman 2015 at Regina Caeli Academy

    We had a wonderful set of school plays this year, and this is a collection of images from the wonderful evening with the Musicman! 

    It also serves as a test for embedding video..so bear with me while I work out the details!  If you have any problems viewing or enjoying the video stream let me know so I can try and work out a fix with my service providers, Squarespace and Smugmug.

    Enjoy the work of a wonderful cast, crew and production team!  As always I try my best in these types of parent shares to get as many participants seen as possible.

    If you enjoy my work please help support my habit and mission of Capturing His Glory in the faces and places we live.   If you see anything here on this site you like, please contact me and I can help you take it home!  I remain available for assignments in a wide array of photographic missions!  Please contact me using the button above and let me see if I can help you build a piece of art! 

-ehw

The Growing Harvest

   The crops are in, and working towards their harvest this fall.  This leads me also to wonder what are we doing with the talents God put in each of us. Are we tending to the harvest as we should? Sounds like a good thought for prayers and meditation tonight!

Live Love Not Vanity

    Two days ago I attended the funeral for a friend's husband.  He passed unexpectedly after a bout with cancer.  I heard testimonials from several friends of the deceased.  They told the story of a man who lived a life of love for his fellow man.  From what his wife told me in the months we've worked together, these were no exaggerations.  These tales exactly described his character.  

    This gentleman was a leader.  He bore other's burdens with joy.  He called out other men to be leaders in their homes for their wives and children.  He was the rock on whom his wife and boys could lean at any time of the day or night for support.  From what I heard, and knew from his wife, he was also not a man who allowed blind love of another person to cover up their faults in his eyes.  This man called all people to raise themselves up to meet the challenges of life.  He carried the same attitude when he looked in the mirror as well.  He had confidence in himself, but never a vanity for himself.  So when he did not know answers to life's hard questions, he reached out to a trusted circle of friends and the Lord for guidance.

    Good men seek challenges, camaraderie, glory in the Lord, and lay down their life in service.  Somehow the best of the good men do all these things with a smile.  Obviously this gentlemen was all of these things.

    So as we stood at the Canton American Military Cemetery, I looked out at the headstones and thought of what this fallen soldier could teach others in one sentence.  It really came down to what all good military men have in common.  He lived love not vanity.

   Please pray for this family.  My friend and her two good sons lost a good husband and father.  Now they will need the strength to carry on their own lives, with the direction left by a good man in the example of a life well lived inscribed on their hearts.

-ehw

PS  Just a note about the photo above.  In American Military Cemeteries on US Soil we are not legally allowed to photograph the names on the tombstones (per the custodians at the Los Angeles National Cemetery).  So in the four minutes I had to take a few photos before a huge thunderstorm...I got a few quality photos...under that specific guidance.  Took some adjustments to make sure I stayed in the law, but I think it worked out.

Trouble in River City!

    Our school put on one of my two favorite musicals this year....Musicman!  If there ever was a show I'd want to be the male lead in, it would be this one!  The directors did a great job with the kids on this production.  Having been in plays in high school, and our class production at West Point for 100th Night, I am ever in awe with how much work everyone puts into making such a fantastic night.

    The teachers and cast turned an old stage into a place of magic for this old soul for just a little while.

    For right now I can say I have three of my children who performed on stage for the first time tonight.  My daughter did her favorite thing...sing and dance.  One special music teacher has my big girl singing with confidence for the first time in her life, and it is a blessing from heaven to see her smile when she sings!  One teacher let my daughter dance, and taught her to act.  Another teacher took my sons...one who did not act and one who is a natural...and brought out something special in each for a night they are taking into next year in the lower school play.

    More later...late night is just about done.  I just got all the photos ready to push out to parents from both upper and lower school performances.  Only a couple hours of work...learning a lot of tricks and techniques building my style and processing plans.  It really is my only contribution to the work the teachers and kids put into it.  I hope they like the album and can just sit back and enjoy their hard work with these memories I give them tonight.

-ehw

Timeless

    One great part of recitals are the timelessness of costumes and many dance moves.  I often think this is why so many parents return to sports fields or the arts.  We can literally put ourselves right there in the center of the action if we simply suspend belief in our current age.

   In this photo I simply waited for the girls to assemble for their final pose, and snapped away.  With the classic hair and costume it was easy to go black and white to add to the timelessness of the image.  I wanted to to make viewers wonder if this was last week, last year or ten years ago.  

    A great photo is really a timeless.  That is what I want to keep learning to do.

-ehw

Flying Dance

    Capturing a dance recital for an semi-pro want to be like me is a lot of fun.  You get opportunities to capture artistic poses, action and if your lucky the drama of a performance all in one sitting.  This means the challenges range from simple to complex in the technical and composition aspects of shooting.  I categorize the main challenges as lighting, subject placement and choreography.

     If you are lucky you get a professionally lit performance.  The lighting in a professional show always follows the action and movement (or creates a special effect on purpose).  If you do not get a well lit show, you will find the active dancers in the dark.  This slows the autofocus times, and puts your subjects literally in bad light.  Bad light just ruins a good composition.

    Subject placement can also bedevil you.  If your favorite dancer is in the back, or obscured because they are the tall one, you will have a hard time getting the clear image.  Subject placement will also effect the quality of your autofocus system.  Objects appearing between you and your desired subject almost always cause the AF system to switch tracking to a near subject at the worst possible time.  

    Finally, the choreography will present the final challenge.  Disciplined performances and staff will make sure the spacing and marks are exactly placed on the stage and in the performers heads.  Leaps, spins, and other actions in the higher level groups and dance company will be precise.  For shows where you can one chance to get a photograph, you also want an identifiable rhythm between the music and actions on the stage.  This rhythm provides the photographer a predictable composition guide during the performance.

    With some practice, and luck, you will get shots you want to keep and post.  Up above here I have my girl in motion.  Face sharp as a tack, some motion in limbs and those around her let you know this was not a still life.  Such photos are possible with just about anything on the DSLR or Mirrorless market today.  Just takes some time to practice, and patience in post processing to make the most of what you get in camera.

-ehw 

P.S. This shot came from my Fujifilm XT-1 with the 18-15 F2.8-4 lens.  If I had another few hundred I'd use a 16-55 F2.8...but it is out of my budget right now.  And it was an odd location for the primes I had in my bag that night.

Our Father...

    The "Our Father" is the perfect prayer since Christ himself taught it to us.  It is therefore so fitting we say it just before we approach the altar to receive communion.  I reminds us of the awesomeness of God, the reverence for his name, the greatness of his kingdom, the submission to his will required to be part of the kingdom on earth and in heaven.  The prayer then foreshadows the transubstantiation of Christ in the Eucharist by asking for our daily bread!  Finally it asks for forgiveness of our sins, and the openness we must have to forgive others who also come home to the Lord.  Why?  We are all sinners in a fallen world where temptation lurks everywhere.  We will all fall from time to time, and have a need to come back into the good graces of God.

-ehw

PS  Sorry my thoughts are so jumbled this week.  I feel like I have a huge case of writers block!

Prettiest Time of the Year

    The last few weeks are the prettiest of the year in Atlanta.  Flowers and blossoms exploding with wonderful color all over town.  Our metro area is the most forested in the United States, and we have lots of blooming trees and bushes! It is also the only time my eyes want to be closed shut to fight off the pollen!  I am doing a little better this year thanks to my doc...but it is really tough!

-ehw

The Request Granted

    Tonight I finished up a long deployment worth of work far from home.  I took a walk and for the first time was able to enjoy a few minutes of golden hour sun bathing the sights around me.  The Cathedral was already locked up tight, so I could not visit the Blessed Sacrament one last time before I went home (Mass was wonderful yesterday morning though!).  Then my little phone buzzed.  I saw a note from my friend, fantastic photographer and master marketer Kristi Church (Here is one of her current projects http://infinitereachagency.com/) while I sat at the corner of the street in front of the church (cool..Mrs Church sends a note while I am at the church).

    In the note she asked me to post my photo from a few days ago...well I looking at the light I said there has to be something new I can do for her.  So here you go Kristi!  A new photo session just for you!

    This photo goes to my Americana side of my artwork.  This statue sits in front of the Federal Reserve Band of Cleveland.  (You can find out about the Cleveland Fed at this website)  The statue reminded me of my youth, when John Wayne and my grandfathers seemed to me made of the same cloth.  A cloth of masculine strength and obedience to a power far higher than they.  The monument still bursts forth more symbology telling a story through timeless allegory.  Through the story I could understand the mission of the organization housed inside, and a mission greater than merely survival.  I could sense a call to greatness.

    Then I turned to some fascinating modern architecture adjacent to this site.  It was rich geometry, but devoid of character.  No story do they tell, and no greatness other than self importance do they speak to.  They also can change like the wind, by merely changing the sign you change their purpose and function.  In modernity I found no timelessness enduring story, only narcissism for serving a purpose here and now.   Sadly I could see in it those modern buildings a desire to replace the role models of my youth and American heritage with a one world order world.  A skyscraper here is the same as Dubai, Mexico City, Tokyo or Shanghai.  Scary thought, but the symbolism stood starkly there before me.  

    So here is the request granted Mrs Church!

God Bless

-ehw

Using Constraint to Grow

    Today I walked out on a perfectly dreary overcast day.  No lighting existed for making magical images the eye naturally follows.  Instead I found myself working towards composition to make an interesting photo.  I had on my camera a trusty 35mm prime lens (it is a normal 50mm equivalent on my APSC).  This is a hard lens for me to use.  I really see the world normally at more of a 23mm view (a 35mm lens on my APSC sensor).  I found myself already constrained twice, so I added another constraint to my day.  Compose everything for black and white as well!

   I should have felt depressed and boxed in.  Somehow that did not happen.  I found myself invigorated to look at the world in a whole new way instead.  The resulting shots were some I'd never thought to do if I was just plain being normal.  I grew, maybe, a little in my versatility and creativity because of this experiment.

    When you really think about it, it is the same in a lot of endeavors.  One of which I may get to discuss tomorrow night.  As for now, I hit the constraint of time available in a day.  It is off to bed with me now.

God Bless

-ehw

PS Fujifilm XT-1 with 35mm.  Fun gear!

Sense from Tragedy

    This week two sisters lost their babies in child birth on the same day in childbirth just hours apart.  One of the sisters, and her children, are friends of our family.  The loss struck home after our two miscarriages last year, and with our anticipation of Baby Echo's arrival in August.  We know of their pain, and pray for their families to weather the storm of emotion which comes with it.   The event brought back common question from a few people I talked to: "How can God let such pain enter the world if he is so great?"

    Maybe this can help explain a little bit...

    A little over a week ago some criminals broke into my car, and emptied it out of everything they could make money from.  I was mad, scared, embarrassed, the whole range of emotion.  I of course went to mall security, called the cops, and asked if they had anything which could help my situation.  As I walked with the security manager to my car we started talking.

   As we approached my car he identified how they crooks got in from previous robberies.  Then we waited for the patrol unit to arrive with a detective.  As we waited I popped the trunk and in it only three items remained.  One of them was a 14 year old army camouflage folding chair issued at only one place in the Army.

  He looked at it and said, "Were you an OC in the desert?"  Well yes I was...  Soon I found out he was Sidewinder 39 Ancient, and he found out I was a Cobra 13 Ancient at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.  He threw artillery fire, and I chased armored companies across the desert floor.  We roamed the desert  for two years together, possibly only meeting at a dinner or two for mere minutes...but we effected each other's work and knew the call signs. 

   I asked him how he liked the tour, and he responded it was a tough tour.  During their tour out in the desert he had a stillborn baby in 2001.  It was then my heart sank, and I knew the other side of a story.

  Almost 14 years ago in a desert far far away in 2001:

   When my wife had our first pregnancy her blood pressure spiked greatly.  The doctor scheduled extra checks, and on her week 38 visit the blood pressure was still at the same spot...high...as the week before.  The doctor then said abruptly, "One way or another this pregnancy ends today."  Just the tone of her voice put chills in our hearts, and the words sunk into our heads like lead weights in water.  After a quick trip home to get our hospital bag we had our baby girl in our arms just four hours later.  My wife's blood pressure ended up causing no problems, and quick action by the doc kept the cord around my girl's neck from causing lasting harm.

   As we held our baby a few hours later I asked the nurse if the doctor was always that curt in her bedside manner.  The nurse said no.  My wife however matched the profile of a women who lost her child in the clinic earlier in the year.  The doctor would take no chances with this pregnancy, and wanted to protect the baby at all costs.  This was why the doctor was so focused during our delivery day.

Ten days ago...

   I put my hand on that Security Chief's arm, and told him his baby saved my baby's life.   I know my words can do nothing to ease the pain of such a loss, but I had to say them.  I was happy to then hear his other children are now strong adults.  He is proud of them, as he should be.  I did however remember him and his family in my prayers at some point in the days since that moment.

    So here is the answer to the question about pain and suffering in this world right under the nose of an all powerful God.  We live in a fallen world feeling the effects of original sin.  Fallen worlds have sickness, death and people doing their selfish will rather than working for unity in God's will.  Through all of this God, still gets the last laugh.

    I know babies born without the breath of life go straight to the embrace of God.  Then you have incidents like the losses of these three families.  I know the crooks got away with my stuff, but in their evil I met a man thousands of miles and years later who's family's sacrifice saved the life of my lovely oldest daughter...my Desert Rose.  What will come out of the losses of these sisters today?  I do not know yet, but I know there is seed sown for great and redeeming works of grace which may not bloom for decades.  When it blooms the name of two cousins will be on it, and they two will rejoice in its bloom as they dance with the Lord.

    Until the day this new grace blossoms, I will enjoy the dancing of my blooming Desert Rose as I reminisce on this chance to see how God works his will through both the good and the bad.

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Transfigure Us O Lord!

    Today's reading was about the Transfiguration of our Lord.  The great foreshadowing for heaven's glories!  

    The thought of that reminded me of this photo I took a few weeks ago.  A nice statue of Mary  backlit and a little flash up front...Well illuminated just like she was in life as she fully accepted and lived the life of love Christ called us to lead.  

     Well here is to praying we all have a good week dreaming of God's glory!

-ehw