Psalm 34:8

"Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing" (Psalm 34:8-10, English Standard Version).

Isn't that a neat verse? I've been thinking about it some recently, and have found it to be very true. The Lord is good. Sometimes I might imagine that there are things that are better or things that might give me more pleasure or satisfaction, but there isn't. He is the one and only source of true satisfaction and happiness.

Christmas Eve in our family is the one day of the year where we are allowed to eat as many sweets as we can fit down. All through December we spend a significant amount of time baking and cooking all kinds of chocolatey sugary goodness and putting it in containers. When Christmas Eve rolls around, all the containers get laid on the table, and the lids are taken off. We spend the rest of the day eating nothing but chocolate and sugar. It has to be one of the best days of the year! And yet, at the end of the day it has its drawbacks. You get really REALLY sick of sugar. Just goes to show that this world really doesn't have anything to offer for true satisfaction. The pleasure given by that great food was both temporary and, in the end, sickening. But the satisfaction given by delighting in God is eternal and wonderful.

Well, after thinking about this verse, a picture came to my head that I simply couldn't resist trying to take. So I got my camera out and set up for the picture below. It's no photographic wonder, but it still serves as a nice reminder of the truth taught in Psalm 34:8:

Like I said, it's nothing spectacular, but it's still a good reminder that God is the only one who is truly satisfying and delightful.

Map of Our House

Okay. I promised I would get a map, and I got a map, courtesy of Google Earth (a very cool program!). Here you go:

This map is laid out like a normal map, north being straight up, south straight down, and so on. The field is where I get all my sunset pictures, behind the stone wall is where I get all my sunrise pictures, and the hill is where we usually get our star pictures. The horsefield is a great butterfly photography location, and I've gotten the neighbor's permission to use it for that. But needless to say, right now the weather isn't quite ideal for butterflies. The hill is where I got my last John 15:5 picture, the field is where I got my Against the Grain picture. Behind the stone wall is probably my favorite place, because there are relatively few houses out that way, and it's just so hilly and pretty out there. Some day I'm sure you'll see some pictures from out that way. But anyway, that's our property. So now hopefully when I attempt to describe where my pictures are being taken from, I can refer to this map to make it easier.

John 15:5

Back in September of this year, I was thinking a lot about John 15:5: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (English Standard Version). It's a neat verse. I love it when God uses good analogies and imagery in His Word. It makes it so much easier to understand! Anyway, I was thinking about the verse and what it meant for me. Sometimes it seems like my life isn't very fruitful. I often feel that I don't really accomplish anything useful. So this was a neat verse to remind me that whether it seems like it or not, if I'm abiding in Christ, I will bear fruit. That was an encouragement to me, and I couldn't help but picture the imagery in my head. I pictured a big thick vine with a branch rooted in it, and that branch was bearing a bunch of grapes. Immediately I began thinking of how I could create my ideas into a photograph.

Now you may be wondering where in the world I am going to get a picture of a vine, branches, and grapes. Well, I wondered that too, but I had an idea. So one evening I went outside with my camera to a slope to the south of our house (one of these days I'll post a map!). On this slope, on the edge of the woods, we have some wild grape vines. I thought that just maybe I could use these to get what I wanted. It also just so happened to be their season, and the vines were loaded with wild grapes! However, the vines were tiny, never more than a quarter of an inch thick. There was, however, a thin tree that the vines were wrapped around, and I thought it might just pass for a vine. So, after trying several different angles and taking a lot of shots, I finally got one that I liked. So I took it inside, and in a short while put the verse on it, and walla-walla-poof, it was done! Here's what I got.

The picture may not be all that I had in mind, but it still serves as a reminder to be sure that I'm abiding in the Vine. If I abide in Him, I will bear all kinds of sweet fruit for Him, but apart from Him, I can do nothing.

Squirrels

I love squirrels. They're so cute, with their little grey fluffy tails, but they're hard to photograph. They're rather nervous little guys for the most part, so it's tricky to really get pictures of them. But I've gotten a few this year.

This was a baby squirrel I saw earlyer this year, in springtime I believe. There were actually two of them, this one and another one a little lower down the trunk. They were perfectly frozen in their place. They didn't move a muscle. This one just sat there and let me take his picture, and so did the other one, but he wasn't in as cute of a position. Their mother was off in a tree some distance away giving me some nasty warning sounds, so I got a few pictures and then left so they could stop being frozen, but it was pretty fun. Baby squirrels are so cute!

This squirrel was one I got a picture of while I was out in the woods one summer evening. I kept hearing something crashing through the brush and landing with a thud on the ground. I looked up in a tree, and there was this squirrel, running around and picking walnuts, some of which he would drop, and others that he ate. He looks so funny! He's just sitting up there about 20 or 30 feet high, munching a walnut that is the size of his head!

This squirrel was one I saw not to long ago. Actually Dad spotted him first while sitting in his chair in the living room. He called me over and I got some pictures. We have a Bradford Pear tree on one side of the house, and this squirrel was right outside one of the windows eating Bradford Pears! I got a lot of pictures of him, eating little pears and walking on his branch.

This is one of my favorite squirrel pictures of all. We were eating lunch one day, and someone saw our half cat half monkey Elsie up in this great big tree, about 20 feet up. Then someone noticed a squirrel in the tree, and sure enough, there he was. Elsie was doing what she could to catch the squirrel, but she didn't stand a chance. The funny thing was how the squirrel played with her. He didn't run down the tree or up the tree, he just jumped around as though daring Elsie to catch him. She eventually gave up, and climbed down the tree. The squirrel ran up the tree, and that was that, but it was so funny!

Proverbs 3:5-8

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones" (Proverbs 3:5-8, English Standard Version).

Sometimes it seems like my life is a roller coaster. I don't know if it's like that for everyone, but I know that for me, it's up and down, side to side, round and round, and all over the place at different times. Some days I feel great, and other days I just feel rotten, so when I came across this verse, it was really neat for me. It was a great reminder that God is in control, that He knows everything, and therefore He is the one to trust with my life. I simply do not understand what is going on around me well enough to control my life. But God does, so if I trust Him, acknowledge Him, fear Him, and turn from evil, He will make my paths straight, and less like a roller coaster.

So I took this verse, and did the best I could to get a photo that summed up verses 5 and 6. I like roller coasters for the most part, but I do not like having a roller coaster life. Solomon shows that life trusting God is no roller coaster, but rather a straight path.

What is Black and Yellow with Red Eyes?

Any ideas as to what this is? Pretty tough huh. You can see the black and yellow though, and you have a few hints as to what it is. But unless you're really smart, you won't get it yet. But you should know that it is something between a dragon or a dinosaur and a lizard. I think the next picture will clear some things up. Or will it?

Now it's pretty clear. It's a dinosaur. Right? Hmm... My brother Tyler and I were out in the woods when we came across this beast. It was a cloudy, wet day, in the middle of fall. The fall colors weren't particularly spectacular yet, but many of them had come down. To get really specific, it was October 22, 2009 when we ran into this wet-loving monster. Though not particularly speedy, he made up for it with his ferocious looks. You might think that we would have been too terrified to take pictures, but surprisingly we were not afraid, only a bit surprised. As we got closer I took several pictures. Now I think you'll understand what it is:

It was just an especially evil-looking Box Turtle. Actually, in real life he didn't even look particularly evil, just very brightly colored. I just took the pictures in a way that made him look mean, but he really seemed pretty friendly for a turtle. Usually Box Turtles are mostly black with a little bit of yellow. But this one was not that way! He had a lot more yellow than most of them do. I really like the little patterns on his shell. They look just like little yellow hand prints or something. He was really quite a spectacular looking little guy. I enjoyed seeing and photographing him. It's especially nice photographing turtles because they're too slow to run away! So while he was stuck there, I just had to take a picture that portrayed him as a nice turtle rather than a mean one. Smile, Mr. Turtle!

Isaiah 55:8-9

On November 11, my brother (who also enjoys photography) and I went outside at about 9:00 PM with our cameras and my tripod. It may seem crazy (I know it did to me!), but we were out there on that pitch dark, moonless night to try to get star pictures. I've personally never succeeded at that, but tonight was different. Tyler had been showing me a lot of the camera functions he had been learning, such as aperture, iso, and shutter speed. Using these functions, we managed to get some amazing pictures that brought out the awesome spread of stars.

I'm sure some of you have been outside on a moonless night, and if you happened to be out there sort of far from any town, you'll know how awesome it is when you look up toward the stars. They are EVERYWHERE!!! Just millions and billions, all over the place. It is really cool. These pictures don't quite do it justice, but that night it was really awesome. We spent quite a while out there, taking turns with the tripod to get good pictures of the stars.

It was really neat when we got inside to see the pictures and how many stars our cameras had picked up. That little star cluster down in the bottom right corner is called the Seven Sisters or Pleiades. To our eyes it was just a little bright cloud, but when we got it on our cameras we could see even the individual little stars! Our cameras were almost like digital telescopes or something!

After we had gotten these star pictures, I wanted to make one of them into a verse picture. So I looked in a concordance for a passage that would go with one of my pictures. I found one in Isaiah 55:8-9. I also wanted to incorporate a little bit of Star Wars, so I had some fun getting all the text just right. Here's what I wound up with:
It's such a neat passage, especially if you take it out and think about it when you go out under the stars. They are so high! And to think that in the same way God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts. It really gave me a new perspective on God and how much higher He is than I am. It is awesome to think about. It's one of those neat parallels God has put in creation to show me spiritual truths in a physical way so I can understand them better. He gives a spiritual concept a physical parallel that I can relate to, which gives the concept more meaning and reality. How neat for me to have been able to see that parallel, and photograph it! Isaiah wasn't able to photograph it, but I bet he would have if he could have.

June 2, 2009 - Job 36

After seeing the pictures that I had gotten that day, as well as a few other pictures I had gotten from other storms, I began to put together a series of pictures with verses on them that wrote out a portion of Job 36. It was such a neat bit of Scripture, and seemed to fit really well with the pictures I had gotten. All but two of the following verse pics (the second and last ones) are from June 2, 2009. Hopefully the text is readable. If not, just click on the image and see if it will enlarge. But just in case that doesn't work, I'll write out the passage as well.

Here's the passage:

Remember to extol His work,
of which men have sung.
All mankind has looked on it;
man beholds it from afar.
Behold, God is great, and we know Him not;
the number of His years is unsearchable.
For He draws up the drops of water;
they distill His mist in rain,
which the skies pour down
and drop on mankind abundantly.
Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds,
the thunderings of His pavilion?
Behold, He scatters His lightning about Him
and covers the roots of the sea.
For by these He judges peoples;
he gives food in abundance.
He covers His hands with the lighting
and commands it to strike the mark.
Its crashing declares His presence;
the cattle also declare that He rises.
(Job 36:24-33, English Standard Version)

A neat passage. I had to think about that last verse, where it says, "the cattle also declare that He rises." I decided that it was just showing that it's more than just the crashing booms and flashing lights that declare the glory of God, but even the cattle. The focus of the passage wasn't meant to be the great big thunders and storms, but the God that they declare.

As a side note, in the second verse picture from the top (not one from June 2), all those little black specks are raindrops! You might not be able to see them very well, so you might just have to take my word for it, but they're there. It was neat when I looked at the picture to see all those millions of little raindrops falling from the clouds! Clouds really drop a lot of rain, don't they!

Well, that wraps up the posts on June 2, 2009. It was a really neat day that God blessed with several neat photographs. I enjoyed that day, and I've enjoyed remembering that day as well as I shared it on this blog. But now it's time to move on. . .

June 2, 2009 - Lightning

I kept my eye on the radar, watching the storm come closer and closer. I went out on our front porch and heard the thunder off in the distance. The first flashes of distant lightning were appearing in the sky. I got my camera ready, setting it up so that I could just hold the shutter button down and have it take picture after picture. I set up my tripod on the porch stairs, and watched. I sat there for about 20 minutes taking pictures of the dark sky, for it was not only cloudy, but also about 9:30 at night. I got this distant flash of light in the clouds, but that wasn't quite what I wanted.

As the storm got closer, I realized I wasn't in the most ideal location for getting the pictures I wanted: there were too many trees. So I moved over to a different side of the porch where there was a shot of more open sky. There I set up my camera and tripod and began snapping pictures like crazy.

A little while after I had started taking pictures from this location, I got a teeny bit of what I was after. In some ways I couldn't believe my eyes: I had finally gotten a lighting picture! But I was determined to keep at it and see about getting a better one. The following pictures reveal what I ended up with.

In short, these photos were simply awesome for me. The thunder was really loud, particularly that last one, but I was thrilled and thankful. After that last lighting bolt I went inside, with over 600 photographs on my camera, though all but 6 were totally dark. It was such a neat experience. I love thunderstorms, but I never thought I'd actually capture a bolt of lightning. Normally they happen so fast you can't really see them, but when you capture them you can see how intricate they are. If you click on the third bolt pictured above, you'll see bunches of little electric strands coming off the main bolt. It's so neat. And so loud!

And so ended that day of photography. I had really enjoyed it and was very thankful for the pictures that God had given to me! But that was the end of that amazing evening. So now I bet you're thinking: "Hey! You said there would be five posts for June 2, 2009. What about the fifth one?" Well, that post has pictures from June 2, even though I put them together later. If that doesn't make any sense to you, hopefully you'll understand it better when the next post comes.

June 2, 2009 - Final Clouds

After I had scared off the little herd of deer, I headed back up the hill toward the place where I had first seen them. I looked out towards where the big ice-cream cloud had been, and found it had gone atomic. So far everyone who has seen this picture has said that it looks like an atomic bomb going off. It was an awesome sight. I sat there and took a lot of pictures, but really not that many good ones. I just couldn't photograph it like it really was. You just can't capture the sheer size of a thing like this with a camera. By now (I checked on the radar again), this cloud was about 40 miles away, if that helps you get an idea of how big this cloud is. I can't recall if I used any zoom or not, but if I did it wasn't much. This cloud was simply massive.

After I'd spent some time up at this cloud, I went back toward our house and took pictures of many of the other large clouds that were floating around our house.



All these massive clouds just got me thinking how amazing it is that I could be out there so fearlessly. Here were all these massive clouds just floating around me, and I wasn't even the least bit afraid. I was certainly a bit awe-struck, but not afraid. I realized how very confident I had to be in God's rules staying the same and these monstrous clouds following them! If one of those giants were to somehow break the laws that held it in the air, I'd be smothered with cloud very quickly.

I was also reminded of how very small I am. Here were these gigantic clouds just flying around through the sky over my head, so high that I had to strain my neck to see them. They were reaching heights I never want to reach without an airplane, and were way more massive than I could ever be (unless I ate WAY to much!). Those clouds were really amazing.

As it got darker, I headed inside and checked the radar and saw that there was another big storm coming. When I saw that, I thought I'd try some photography that I'd never tried before. Little did I know that I was about to get some pictures that I have always wanted to get.

June 2, 2009 - Deer

After I had seen the first clouds, I got a big surprise. I was shooting pictures, and I happened to look up from my camera screen. I gasped. My initial response was to duck down out of sight. But as I knelt there, I realized that there was no way to get a picture if I didn't stand up at least a little. So I stood up and began snapping photos.

I got tons of pictures, but hardly any were good. The ones I listed, however, were the ones that were decent. This picture is where I first saw them. There are three bucks here, apparently in order of rank. The first one has the biggest antlers, the second one has the second bigest antlers, and the last one has the shortest antlers. That last one was the one who seemed to see me, but aparently wasn't convinced that I was really there.

After a while, without spotting me, they headed down the hill. I followed them as best I could, taking pictures as they went.

They got to the bottom of the hill and came to a little grove of trees where they laid down for while. I snuck up on them and tried getting pictures. But I dropped my walking stick. The deer pictured to the right saw me and gave his deer snort, which isn't like a horses snort, but almost more like a coarse train whistle or something. Very difficult to describe. Anyway, he gave his snort and all the deer ran off, and that was the end of the deer watching.

After the deer had run off, I headed back up the hill to where I had first seen them. There I saw and photographed an awesome sight.

June 2, 2009 - First Clouds

The evening of June 2, 2009, was an amazing one. There were some MASSIVE clouds just floating around as the sun went down, making for a nature photographer's perfect evening. Later in the day I checked many of the clouds I had photographed on a weather radar, and most of them were heavy rain clouds. But the heavy rain clouds weren't all that I photographed that evening, and in the next five blog posts (including this one), I think that will become clear.

I first went down to the field west of our house where about a month later I got the "Against the Grain" picture. It's hardly ever boring out that way, and these clouds certainly lived up to that statement. I think if you click on the picture you can see a bigger version and see even the sun rays down underneath the clouds.

Next I headed down toward the eastern side of our property where we have a stone wall marking our border line. I only cross this wall ocasionally, but I confess this was one of those occasions. The clouds were huge! It's a shame these pictures can't show it, but this cloud was probably about 20 miles away! Simply massive.

This other cloud is the same one I think, just at a different time, showing just how fast the clouds can change shape. It looks like a giant scoop of ice cream without a cone, just hovering over the hills. It was pretty weird.

It was while taking this picture that I noticed something that led to the second section of the photography tour of 6/2/09.

Slow Down

August 6th was a foggy morning, and I love foggy mornings. So I grabbed my camera and ran outside to see if I could get any good pictures. At first glance it might look like I got some decent photos, but I probably could have gotten some much better ones if I had walked rather than run.

As I ran madly down the clearing to where the fog was best, I heard a crash up ahead. I stopped, looked up, and saw a deer just disappearing into the woods. I thought, "Oh man!" but kept right on charging down the path to get to my destination. More crashing. I stopped and looked again, and this time saw TWO deer disappearing into the woods. That was really sad. I only have one deer picture that's any good (I imagine it will show up in this blog soon), and it would have been great to have gotten some more.

But I got my fog pictures, and hopefully I learned a lesson too. Hopefully next time I go out on a photographic mission I'll slow down and keep an eye out for things I would otherwise miss.

"Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way" (Proverbs 19:2, English Standard Version).

Against the Grain

Earlier this year, in July I believe, I entered my second photo contest, which was held annually by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. The photo contest required that you submit a photo that followed one of three subject phrases: Beauty from Ashes, Journey's End, and Against the Grain. I was going to go with Beauty from Ashes at first, then Journey's End, but I finally settled on Against the Grain, because I had an idea of how I could portray that subject in a Christianish way.

The photo I actually submitted didn't have the Scripture verse on it, but that was the verse my photo was based on. "Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'" (Matthew 16:24, English Standard Version). What Jesus says just sums up to me a life lived against the grain.

So I made a wooden cross in the workshop, and took it out to a field near our house. I stood out there trying to get this picture for a LONG time. The sun was getting lower and lower, but finally I got a photo that I was satisfied with.

It may not have been the most stunning of sunsets, but the sort of simple sunset seemed almost to make the photograph better. I didn't get anything in the photo contest, but the photograph has become one of my more favorites because it gives a picture of how Jesus said His followers should live.