05/17/2011 ***Andrew -vs- the Soft Box*** I told him to yell at the soft box and he did while I took his picture. My Step-Mom is still hanging on. I made it to Michigan and am at my sister's house. We head to the hospital first thing in the morning. If Mary Ann is still with us, I will get to see her and say our goodbyes. If not, I am happy to be here for my family :)
05/15/2011 ***Our last youth night for the scholastic year was this evening. We held a semi-formal dinner and Ricky (our youth minister) shined shoes. He did it with such love, too. I took this shot after the teens all went inside to eat their dinner. While Ricky polished his practice shoes, he explained to us why he brought his shoe shine chair to youth night. He compared shoe shining to washing feet. Both are very humbling experiences, he told us. And when Jesus called his disciples to a life of service, this is exactly what he did. He washed their feet and then told them to do the same for others. So tonight, Ricky polished shoes and then invited the teens to sign up for various acts of service in their church community. Clever man. Most of the teens there chose to sign up for one thing or another. Thank you all for the prayers for my step-mom and my family. It is now nearly 1AM on Monday morning and I have not received any word of her passing. It was difficult in some ways to participate in the youth night knowing that I was not with a dying loved-one. But then it occurred to me that one of the best ways to honor the ones we love the most is to serve the ones who need us the most. So I served the youth and hoped that in some way, this act of love would honor Mary Ann in her final hours.
05/14/2011 ***Abandoned*** I recently read an article about producing high quality HDR images. I put the technique to practice at Aquarena Springs. In the height of it's activity in the 1950s, Aquarena Springs was an amusement park. Now, it's a protected wildlife sanctuary owned by Texas State University. But some of the remnants of the amusement park still lay there in decay. This is the shelter for the sky-lift. Normally from this perspective, the domes are too dark to see any detail. So I was pretty pleased to see how this 5 shot HDR (ranging from 1/10 sec to 1/60 sec) brought out the details in the peeling paint. If you would please take a moment out of your day to pray for my stepmom, Mary Ann. She has been fighting cancer for the past few years. Her fight has reached its end and Friday, she went into Hospice care for her final days and hours. She will likely draw her last breath sometime today. I await the news since I was unable to get to Michigan to be with her. Please pray for her to have a happy and peaceful passing. I will let all of you know when I get news of her passing.
