Iron Sharpening

Have you ever felt a little bit dull? Rough around the edges? In need of a little bit of some much needed care? I sometimes feel like I could go through some much needed refining in order to knock off some of the rough parts in my life. In Proverbs 27:17 (MSG), "You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another." We are called to be connected with one another. One working with the other during the refining process in order to build each-other up as believers. We are not meant to do it all on our own. Even Jesus couldn't do it on his own, and that's why he had his twelve disciples that could help him spread God's word.

In Joel Osteen's book, Become a Better You, he talks about bringing the best out of people. "I want to spend most of my "discretionary" time with people who will strive to bring the best out of me. The Scripture says, "iron sharpens iron." The way we live out our lives with one another should encourage one another to do better." He asks his readers to consider the following questions, "Are the people in my life better off or worse off because I passed their way? Am I building them up in conversations, and bringing out their best, or am I dragging them down? Do I believe in somebody? Do I give them the confidence to improve their lives? Or am I focused on myself?"

We should be choosing to bring out the best in everyone, from our family and friends, to our coworkers. We should be helping them and inspiring them to be and do their best, even if they don't personally know what their best actually is. Everyone wants to be encouraged and supported in what they are doing. I know a lot of people at church that are lifting my wife and myself up in prayer during this time in our lives, and encouraging us by speaking God's blessing on our lives. We have our prayer warriors out their speaking God's blessing on us and this is so encouraging. These prayers and words lift us up in our time of need. We then can go out in the world and speak God's love to others.

On Sunday, we had to run over to Walmart in Caldwell for a newspaper so that Kerstin could get some coupons. As we walk into Walmart and pass the greeter, and she was standing on her gray mat with her head down. We could have walked past her and said nothing, as some people do, but we chose to greet the greeter. We were friendly and spoke encouragement into her. She brightened up right way. Positive words had changed her whole attitude in an instant. This is what it means to me when I hear "iron sharpens iron." We are called to help one another to knock off the worn and rusty edges in order to lift them up during their time of need.

We are blessed by our many iron sharpeners in our family and our community. Thank you for helping us to keep shining God's light in the world. God Bless You.

"I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love." - Philemon 1:7

Lighting Tips

After posting my last blog on camera tips in the summer, and receiving all of the wonderful feedback on the post, I decided to give you a couple of tips on lighting. Lighting is key to composing your images. The way the light comes across your subjects face can give the impression of mood, emotion, and textured style (i.e. soft, smooth skin). If the light is coming directly from your camera, such as a flash, it can sometimes make the face appear flat or two dimensional. To counter act this affect, having some side lighting from a lamp or a window can add depth and dimension to your subjects face. This can be difficult to balance between the flash, which will fill in the shadows of the face, and the side lighting which can be multi-directional. So take a couple of shots from different points in the room, use you LCD preview screen to check your images, and check your cameras histogram levels to see that you have a good balance of lights and darks. If you are unsure how to use you cameras histogram, which measures Red, Green, and Blue light, you can check your camera manual for more detailed information. All point and shoot cameras should have an Info button to check your images and their histogram levels.

A note about kids and flashes. A flash is incredibly bright to a child's sensitive eyes. Whenever possible, try to avoid using the flash directly in front of a child's face. For a child it is like being flashed in the eyes by a Mag light and it can be very disorienting. If you have a situation where the room is very dark and you have to use the flash, there are a couple of things that you can do to mediate the light. Use your hand to partially cover the flash to diffuse some of the light. You may have to try this a couple of times because your hand may reflect a red glow on your images. By moving your hand up or down you can minimize this red glow. Try not to cast shadows on their faces in the process. Another thing that you could do to diffuse the light is to attach a small piece of white cloth or clear frosted tape (like scotch tape) in front of your flash. This will help to soften the light on their face. There are also more sophisticated diffusers on the market that you can purchase, but this seems to work in a pinch.

When it comes to the power of your flash, please keep in mind that your flash will only be effective if you keep the optimal distance from your subject. Such as shooting from the back of the room during a children's play. This will vary from camera to camera, and you should check your manual to see what distance your flash works best at. If you have a flash that you can adjust then by all means adjust it to meet your specific needs, but keep in mind that a large flash uses a lot of batteries and you may have to change them more frequently. So keep a fresh pair of batteries handy.

When it comes to digital images from your cell phone, Blackberry, iPhone, and so forth. There is no flash typically on these phones, so you need to use more of the available light. There are settings on the phones to increase the amount of light, but this can make your image look very grainy. Also, keep your lenses clean, so that you don't get images that look like they went through the dryer. Since we typically put our phones in our pockets, or like my wife, in her purse where it collects lint and dust. You can take a Q-tip or soft, non-abrasive cloth, and clean your lens. Lens paper typically works the best for cleaning the lens. Avoid using alcohol based products on your lenses.

I hope that some of these tips are useful to you and you get some great shots this summer.

Summer Experiences

This is the time of year where the kids are out in the blistering summer sun for hours on end. It is a great time to capture them in their moments of greatest excitement. You bust out the point and shoot camera (or digital SLR) and start snapping some shots of your precious tike's. Your in the moment, they are making goofy faces, and you can't wait to share your day with your Facebook friends. When you get home and look at your photos are you happy with what has developed? Or do you think to yourself. . . "I'm not sharing these with anyone!" Here's a couple of tips to help you get some shots that you do want to share, and to get some images of your kids that will really stand out in your collection.

1. Become a kid again. You would be amazed at the difference that it makes when you get down on your knees or stomach and shoot from a child's perspective. By changing the angle of perception with your camera ,you add depth and character to your images. The kids will play and act around you, adding even more fun to your images, and you become apart of the fun of the day. How many times have you stood back and taken photos of your kids from your height and from far away? You probably couldn't see their faces and it looks like God took the photo from high above. You could try mixing it up a little bit by shooting from inside the playground equipment, or sit on the swing beside them to get a different angle. Give it a shot the next time that you are out.

2. Shooting in Sunlight. The middle of the day can be the most difficult time to compose a shot because this is when the lighting is at it's maximum levels. This may seem counter intuitive, but this is when contrast is at its greatest, shadows become lost, color levels are really low, and the depth of your photos can look very flat. To solve this problem there is a couple of things that you can do. Whenever possible, try to photograph your kids in the shade so that you get a better overall tone to your pictures. If your camera has an ISO setting, move it down to it's lowest setting of 100, this will reduce the amount of light coming into your camera. You could also use your hand to shade your lens, thus reducing the light, while still being in the sun. If you use a camera that has aperture settings, increase the aperture setting to reduce the amount of light coming into the camera.

3. Shoot Fast. If your images are coming out blurry or not in focus, you may have a problem with your shutter speed. The shutter speed is the speed at which your camera's shutter moves to expose your cameras digital sensor. By increasing the shutter speed you can capture the action as it develops, at a faster rate, and your will get better images at the same time. The faster shutter speed will also reduce blurring from camera shake. If you increase your shutter speed, you must increase your ISO setting to let in more available light, and you must lower your aperture setting as a result. This way you get more light coming into the camera as a trade off for a faster shutter speed.

4. Have Fun. This is your summer as well. Go out and enjoy the sunshine. Bring back some memories that show how much fun you had this summer.

Let me know if any of these tips were beneficial for you and share what you did with your camera.