Hats Off to Reading

I love that people still love to read, even in an age where everything has to have a screen and movement. Now, don't get me wrong, I teach digital media and fully understand its value but there is still something to be said about having a tangible book in your hands. Oh, I love my Kindle, its great for travel and nighttime reading. I don't lose my page when I put it down, but it's hard to look ahead or to go more than a few pages back. It's not very practical for textbooks and reference material. That sense of accomplishment after perusing stacks of pages is lost on the percentage line. But both work for me. Although I will tell you it was fun a few weeks back when several from my church set-up a book fair with hundreds of books in the center of Norristown. For several hours we had a light but steady stream of people from all walks of life come-in to find something to read. I'll never forget the young boy who was overjoyed to find a book about his favorite mouse. Or the young man who diligently looked through every title on the table and then through the overflow boxes on the floor. We had a few homeless people, a lot of Spanish speakers, the man from the tax place next door, families, children, seniors, and even a lady in full burqa. You see a good book knows not age, gender, race or religion but it sure does make for good company. And there are some books out there that can even change your life.

 "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” ― Oscar Wilde


"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."
— Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"


"The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that." --Mccosh

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” ― C.S. Lewis


I am currently reading a biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer...how about you?

f/1.8 Goodness

              Nothing is more relaxing on a Spring day than a walk with your camera. 

              A lot of times I will try to focus on one thing just to harness and 

              experience everything that the one photo concept has to offer. It maybe a 

              focal distance, or last week it was monochrome but today it was f/1.8.

As White As Snow

This winter much of the US has received a lot of snow. It is hard to resist the urge to run outside and photograph the newly fallen snow before the plows and shoveler's create dirty mounds of the not-so-white stuff everywhere. Those who do venture out with their cameras in hand are usually rewarded with a winter wonderland of shots from the trees wearing their winter white coats to the the fresh, pure and clean ground cover. But have you ever come back inside, thawed out with a nice hot cup of tea or hot chocolate then sat down at your computer anxious to see your new spoils only to be let down by images of grey dull-looking snow? What happened to the white crisp snow? There is an easy answer to this and it lives inside your camera. Don't worry your camera is not defective. It is doing what it is supposed to do. But there are a few tricks to bringing the white back. Of course there is photoshop, but who wants to spend hours cleaning up something you could have fixed while shooting.

Digital cameras shoot in grey values and for most situations this is great. But when you are shooting at the extreme tonal ranges such as white snow your camera meters that whiteness as neutral 18% grey to compensate for the lack of contrast. There are a couple ways to get around this. The first one is simple for some, many camera manufactures have a snow setting in the automatic dial that makes the necessary compensations. But not everyone has this option. 

The next step and most effective solution is to shoot manual. By doing so you can move your settings to slightly overexpose the image. A half to a full stop over for cloud cover, and one to two stops for sun will bring that scene back to white. Be careful not to go too far. You don't want areas that are completely washed out. 

If your are in doubt about how bright your photo is, you can always look at the histogram. What is that you ask? When viewing your photo on the LCD screen most cameras have an info or display button. This brings up a graph that often looks like a mountain. When you are shooting snow the graph information will be mostly over to the right. What you want to avoid is that information going completely off the right side. This means your photo is severely overexposed and there is no way to fix it later. If the majority of the information is to the right but not going off the edge chances are you will have white snow, but histograms that show all the information in the middle, in this situation, will render that grey snow that you are trying to avoid. 

Snow is fun to shoot but to get the results that you are seeking you must trick your camera meter in order to get that 'white as snow' appearance. Happy shooting while the snow last, spring is just around the corner.

Point of View

Who knew shooting could be so fun looking through, down and on a trampoline! Of course a wide angle lens helps as well. It helps to expand your creativity by looking at things with a new perspective.

While its not a really a resolution I want to make a conscious effort this year to push the boundaries, to see things in a new ways but most of all to see things the way God see them. Sometimes that is from a much different angle. Sometimes we are much smaller than we think especially in the grand scope of things but when we make God much larger in our lives you can't help but touch others and make an impact. I want His perspective this year in my photos and in my life, how about you?