Monthly Archives: May 2008

Choir Tour 2008

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For the past eleven days I have been on Choir Tour. Those following me on Twitter have been receiving updates along the trip. For the purpose of creating an archive of events, I am here posting the whole of Choir Tour (at least in my perspective) in 140 character chuncklets.

I did a bit of cleanup on sections where I made mistakes with typing on my phone. I decided not to worry about punctuation and capitalization.

Friday, May 16

Choir Tour Leaves tomorrow @ 9:00am. I’m running@ about 1/8th my current tech setup. 7:43 PM

Saturday, May 17

Killing time till Choir leaves. Listening to Jonathan Coulton. Enjoying the lack of pressing work. 7:19 AM

Busses mostly packed. Gathering for pre-trip brief. 8:50 AM

On bus waiting to leave… 9:14 AM

Leaving Bethany Lutheran College! 9:27 AM

First rest stop. Windy and dusty. Played frisbee.11:18 AM

Lunch stop in Sioux City. 1 hour break. 12:55 PM

Watching Transformers. Screens are too small and the volume too low. Still good though. 3:32 PM

At the church, concert in 1 hour. 4:01 PM

Concert is starting now. Walking to the front. 5:28 PM

Concert went well, supper was excellent, 1.5 hour drive to hotel. 07:55 PM

Hotel goofed up, lost our reservation. Guess we are looking for a new place to stay. 09:50 PM

At a new hotel. Got an internet connection set up. Wireless and insecure, but I’m just checking in on Twitter. 10:31 PM

Sunday, May 18

Up early, breakfast and on bus to first concert. 06:59 AM

setting up at church, concert in 1 hour. 07:46 AM

Another amazing meal, now it is nap time. 10:42 AM

Looking for things to do in Branson, MO on Tuesday. Have the whole day free. Any suggestions? 12:49 PM

loading bus to go to second concert of the day. 04:47 PM

Being fed again! Yummy! 05:21 PM

This church is amazing meal and great sounding sanctuary. 06:35 PM

Monday, May 19

Breakfast time. Concert at Waco NE this morning. 07:39 AM

Just walked to Starbucks for a latte. Bus leaves in 45 min. 08:11 AM

Concert went well. Rest of the day: bus ride. 10:47 AM

still on bus. stopped for lunch at noon-thirty. still have a ways to go. 03:25 PM

bus ride feels unending… Another hour or two left… Back to playing with my ds. 05:55 PM

Finally arrived at Precious Moments Hotel. Woot! Done with driving, time for Frisbee or swimming or ANYTHING besides being on a bus. 06:47 PM

Supper is almost the same as lunch: peanut butter sandwich. With the addition of Pringles and a double cheese burger. 07:36 PM

I love the smell here in Carthage. Very nature-y. 08:22 PM

Tuesday, May 20

Up, showered, headed to breakfast. Bus leaves for Branson MO around/after 8:30. Sounds like a group is headed to the beach… 07:17 AM

Driving around Branson, MO. 10:50 AM

Walking to the dam at benson 03:02 PM

Walking to the Stone Hill Winery, them to find supper. 05:49 PM

just finished the winery tour. Time to find some dinner. 07:43 PM

Chinese for supper. 08:18 PM

Wednesday, May 21

Breakfast was the best yet. Two hours till departure. 07:57 AM

Loading the bus and heading to the Titanic museum. 10:07 AM

Just made it through the Titanic museum. I died. But I helped to save many others. 11:56 AM

lunch break. Saving money… No mcflurry… Sadness! :( 02:01 PM

Arriving at the next church. 05:11 PM

At hotel for night. Concert went well. My throat is scratchy… must not get sick! 09:24 PM

Off to bed for the night. Load time tomorrow is 9:30 (I think…) Desperately want my throat to not be sore tomorrow. 11:20 PM

Thursday, May 22

I’m up and headed down to breakfast. Roommates still sleeping, buss leaves at 9:30? 07:46 AM

Loading bus and leaving. Next stop: St. Louis. 09:39 AM

Walmart stop for lunch and cold medicine 11:24 AM

Arrived at Missouri History Museum. 01:25 PM

done at museum. 2 hours to next stop. Time for chips and salsa. 03:04 PM

at the next church. 05:14 PM

Amazing meal. Rhubarb pie. Nuf said. 06:10 PM

stupid hotel doesnt have free internet. Stupid hilton. 10:23 PM

Frisbee on top level me parking ramp. w00t! 11:17 PM

Friday, May 23

wandering around spring field. Lincoln-y stuff. 10:12 AM

Toured some Lincoln sites. Back to hotel for lunch. Roommates are still sleeping. 11:43 AM

Off to library and them capital. 12:32 PM

Off to cold stone for had cream. 06:38 PM

Going to see Prince Caspian. 06:56 PM

Saturday, May 24

load and leave at 7 am this morning. 06:46 AM

Stop at McDonalds I guess this is breakfast. 09:08 AM

stopping for lunch in madison wi. 11:58 AM

In West Salem for 4 o’clock concert. Supper to follow. 02:58 PM

concert done, food time. (i like singing before eating as opposed to singing after eating.) 05:36 PM

frisbee! 06:20 PM

back on bus. headed to hotel. 06:24 PM

Finally! A Hotel with good Internet! 07:15 PM

@boblmartens Okay, your right… it is kinda slow, but at least it doesn’t cost $10 a night! 07:55 PM

Just got done playing an hour of ultimate frisbee. SO excited! 10:11 PM

Sunday, May 25

Far too early to be up… Bus leaves at 6:45 06:30 AM

first service done, i need a nap before round 2 09:27 AM

second concert done. dead tired. food time. Legs cant support self. 11:58 AM

Loading bus and off to next stop: 12:49 PM

arriving in wisconsin dells 02:24 PM

No internet at this hotel. so, not only am i starving, but i cant use google maps to find food. 07:28 PM

Monday, May 26

beautiful morning today. great time to explore while choir mates sleep. 07:39 AM

at tanger outlet mall looking around, killing time. should really find some cheese curds. 10:33 AM

Got cheese curds. eating cheese curds. 11:06 AM

Heading to madison for a 4 o’clock concert. 01:26 PM

setting up at grace lutheran for the concert. 02:53 PM

fruit buffet for pre concert snack. Watermellon, grapes, cherries, oranges, apple slices. (My headache has slightly subsided). 03:31 PM

hottest concert yet, it was hot in there. 05:09 PM

done swimming for the night. Pool is closed. 09:01 PM

Tuesday, May 27

Lunch break. headed to dennys. 11:57 AM

Stopping to ride the ducks. 01:02 PM

finished the duck tour, headed to our final stop of the tour! 02:20 PM

Arriving in eau claire. Last stop before home. 04:39 PM

Brats for supper. Concert at 7. 05:32 PM

One more concert to go, home concert tomorrow at 7:00pm 08:23 PM

On the road back to mankato, mn 09:18 PM

Arriving in mankato. soon to unload busses and go to bed. 11:49 PM

Wednesday, May 28

Home Concert is at 7:00, choir meets to setup, warm-up and robe-up at 5:30. 05:07 PMConcert over. Packing up, heading home. Choir tour is done.

Shattered like a Young Man’s Dreams

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Closed Dandy LionSince mid March I have been using a convex lens to take macro photos. I haven’t used it much, but I have been able to do some neat things with it. Basically this was just a piece of glass with a few scratches on it which was about the same size as my camera lens. Up until today I had been securely fastening it to the front of my lens with a rubber band which ran around the perimeter.

I decided to take my lens outside today and get some nice flower or insect shots. It was windy, but I did get a couple of neat photos.

Shattered like a youngman's dreamsThen, to my horror, the lens came loose. The rubber band was not holding it well and simply brushing my hand on the rubber band caused it all to come crashing down. I watched helplessly as the lens fell three and a half feet onto a metal grate. My head was yelling a dozen thing, but no sound escaped my dropped jaw.

I stopped and stared. Then I picked it up. I stopped again. I put it back down and snapped a picture. Then I picked it up and looked it over. I took another photo.

Broken GlassToday was the first day I had actually taken this outside and up to this point I had actually had several visions of this falling and shattering. Each time thinking to myself that I just might be able to somehow break it’s fall with my foot or perhaps it would fall into something soft. In my mind though, I could imagine the lens shattering into a million pieces. And now it had happened. For the most part.

CurbEven more glum then when I started out and already envisioning this blog post in my mind, I continued on my trek. A minute later I stopped again and decided to try taking a photo through the broken glass. Turns out, it still works for the most part, it just requires that it’s held in place by something other than a rubber band… such as, say, a hand.

I don’t know what exactly I’m going to do, I’ll probably go out and buy a new magnifying glass at some point, but for now I think I can live without.

A Study on Studies: Enlightenment

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Today begins the internet release the photographic project that I have been working on for the past few months. I will be releasing one set of three photos each day for the next nine days.

I have so much to say about this project that I don’t know where to start. The idea for this project came to me this last fall. There are a several reasons I wanted to do this project. First, I had some really good ideas for neat photos. I could see the images in my mind and wanted to find out if I could capture them with my camera. Another thing that spurred me on was that I wanted to work with models. I don’t usually like taking pictures of people, but I do it from time to time. I wanted to try something where I was specifically shooting people and even more so, posing them and setting up my shot perfectly. Lastly, I really wanted to do some sort of project that involved a tangible outcome. I wanted something to show for my work and I wanted something I could be proud of when I was done.

The original plan was to have one photo from each set, but after my first few photo shoots I realized that I was going to have a terrible time narrowing my favorites down to one photo. I finally caved and decided that three would be a good number of photos for each set. My original list included five different pictures, but the more I thought about it, the more ideas I was able to come up with. It didn’t take long for me to come up with a total of nine sets.

My goal was to make the photos convey a message that could be encapsulated in a single word. Sometimes this required some editing the Photoshop. My Photoshop work was mainly limited to correcting the color, adding saturation, cropping the photo and blurring or darkening the background. Knowing I could always touch things up in Photoshop, I really wanted to try to do as much as I could with just my camera. (For the record, the photos of David jumping are simply layered and made translucent. I didn’t have to move them around.) A few of the photos did require a bit more post editing than the rest though. The Practice series has a funky background which I created and, believe it or not, the Enlightenment series was actually shot in the chapel.

The hardest set of photos to take was the Daydream set. My original concept required a sunny day and a group of people The weather was at odds against me for several weeks. I was almost despairing that the photo would be simply impossible for me to take when two things happened. First I had a whack on the side of the head and came up with a new idea and secondly God gave me the perfect day and perfect timing to grab the necessary photos.

There were aspects of this project that were extremely frustrating and some of the pictures still are not quite perfect. However, I believe I have found a good stopping point, and I am very happy with my final results. The feeling of accomplishment at finally having completed this project is absolutely wonderful. I hope that you enjoy these photos as much as I do.

A lot of time and effort went into this project and there are many people who helped make this project what it is. I would like to thank all my models for being so willing to help me and make time in their busy schedule. I would like to thank Anna for whacking me on the side of the head when it came to the Daydream photos. I need to thank Andy Overn for saving the day and printing out my photos when the original prints didn’t turn out. Lastly, but never least, I want to thank God for giving me the perfect day and the perfect timing to get my final photos taken. Soli Deo Gloria!

Enlightenment 1

Enlightenment 2

Enlightenment 3