Visit to Florida

On Wednesday we went to Jacksonville (actually, Callahan) for a visit with our big-city family.  My sister Darlene and her husband, Thurman, hosted us -- great food and fellowship.  We spent some time with their son, Jonathan, his wife, Jennifer, their son Alex. My brother, Jimmy, and his wife, Iris, came over on Thursday and we all went to their house Friday evening for more great food, games, and fellowship.

 

Christmas 2011

Christmas visit to South Carolina

We went to South Carolina yesterday to celbrate Christmas with Cheryl's family.  We came home today.

We had a great weekend with our family.  Karisa and Tegan flew down Thursday afternoon.  Alethea, Justin, Camdyn, and Charlie drove down Friday. Johnmark had to work and was missed by all.

Photography on the Mall

Alethea and I had a woderful time exploring the Washington Mall with our cameras.  Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, hazy, drizzly day.  We learned most people fail to take quality photos because (1) they forget the basics -- lighting, focus, paralax, depth of field, etc. (2) they are trying to preserve memories rather than create memories -- photos should "make a statement" about the human experience, (3) they make statues out of people and props out of statues -- strive to capture the human spirit being touched by the spirit of life, the awe of human encounter with greatness, (4) they fail to "enter into" the photograph -- photographs that make a statement carry the impression the photographer was an active witness/participant to an event in time and thereby invite the viewer to transport into that event, (5) they fail to have fun, if necessity is the mother of invention, joy is the energy of artistic creativity.  I am not certain if our teacher was pre-post modern philosopher or a perpetual fine arts student.