[photos]Cannon Village at night

[photos] Big Tent Revival

It is always on honor when I have an opportunity to help out and second-shoot any event at my church.  Under two huge tents last night, The Refuge held the first-ever meeting on the property that will become the Kannapolis campus.  It was an awesome time of worship and learning from a great teacher of the word.

Robert Morris, pastor of the 17,000 member Gateway Church in Dallas, came to speak and help kick off the Living Stones capital campaign.  If you haven’t had a chance to hear Robert’s series or read his book, “The Blessed Life,” you should check it out.

Here are a few shots:

Camera: Canon 7d
Lenses: 100-400 4.5-5.6L; 85 1.8

[photos] March madness

Today is St. Patricks Day and the start of March Madness.  The weather here in North Carolina is gorgeous, so I’m torn between watching tons of basketball or enjoying the day.

Here are a few shots I got today.  The first two are from a ‘junk’ yard in Mount Pleasant and the other one is from a pear tree in my parents’ yard

[photo] poplar tent mountain biking

f3.5, 1/250

It has been a long time since I’ve been out to the mountain bike trails off of Poplar Tent Road in Concord, but I had a chance to go yesterday with a few buddies from church.  I got a few pictures of some riders on the trail and at a jump called “Gravity Cavity” — hopefully I’ll have the chance to go back soon.

f3.5, 1/160
f5,1/80
f2.8,1/250

[photo] lip service

It’s hard to believe March is already here.

[photo] ETS and ProFoto

I had an opportunity to help out Marcello again and shoot some photos for Equipping The Saints (ETS), which is a course my church offers to people/families who are interested in learning more about the church and pursuing membership.  At the end of ETS, close to 50 families had a chance to have their picture taken with a studio setup.

The setup was a white backdrop with four lights – two continuous in background and two ProFotos.  The ProFoto camera left was shot through an umbrella and the ProFoto camera right used a beauty dish.  There were a lot of great families, and here are two fun shots to share:

f8, 1/160.  The cute little girl on the right was a natural.

f8, 1/160

Now if I just had a few grand lying around I would definitely pick up some ProFoto lights

[photo] Mix it up – 85 1.2

The other day, I had an opportunity to help shoot some photos at a service my church has every few months.  It is called “The Mix” and is a time of baptism and inter-generational worship.  Marcello Aquino is the church photographer and graphic designer, and he let me use his 85mm 1.2L.

This lens is a beast!  I shot it wide open most of the time, but there is definitely a learning curve.  The depth of field can make it difficult to focus.  Here are a few ‘decent’ shots I got with it:

f1.2, 1/30

f1.2, 1/50

f1.2, 1/30 sec.  The bokeh is crazy on this lens, very dreamy

[photo] from the rooftops

Camera: Canon 7d
Lens: 24-105L
Subject: Aaron Beaver shooting video from the room of the Gem Theater

[photo] guitar foolery

I played around with my DIY beauty dish and a long exposure to ‘paint’ a treble clef

blast from the past

Man, I feel old.  I just came across an old demo from about 12 years ago that I recorded with a band I played in during high school.  We called ourselves “Decided” and our lineup consisted of me on rhythm guitar, Patrick Keeling on bass, Norman Hill on lead guitar and my best friend Justin Porter on drums.

I haven’t had a chance to talk to Patrick or Norman in quite a while, but Justin is now the campus pastor at the Refuge in Salisbury.   I’m so proud of this guy.

Warning: The audio quality is horrific.  I think we recorded it into a single channel.  This was way before GarageBand, amplitube, etc.

Song: I’ll be a servant.  A pretty mellow song.  I wrote the music and Patrick wrote the lyrics.

Song: I’m Decided.  A more rocking song.  I wrote the music and Patrick wrote the lyrics.  I still like the guitar solo that starts around 1:56.