Oklahoma

Recently, my parents, grandparents, and I took a trip to Oklahoma for the birth of my nephew. We drove

twelve long hours through the night to get there early enough for my sister to go to the hospital (She was

having the baby the same day we arrived.) For the first two days that my sister was in the hospital, we (my

family) got to watch my niece, Quinn; she is an energetic ball of fun, and we had a blast with her. On the

first day of our trip, (three hours after we arrived) my sister gave birth to a healthy 8 lb. 15 oz. baby boy!

My sister and her husband named him Wyatt Ellis. It's hard to believe that in just eleven months Wyatt will

be as-big-as Quinn...  All-in-all Quinn had fun, my family had fun, and I had fun; we're so glad that

everything went well and Wyatt is healthy. We're overjoyed to have a new little manly addition to our family.

Below are some pictures from our trip.

Quinn likes to make this face.

Quinn's eye

Quinn meeting Wyatt for the first time.

Baby Wyatt

Wyatt and I

Winter Jam 2012

Winter Jam is a national music tour, covering most of the nation. Last Saturday a couple of

friends and myself went to one of the tour stops in Cincinnati! We had the privilege of hearing

music from the likes of Kari Jobe, Group1Crew, Peter Furler, Building 429, Sanctus Real, and

many more. Winter Jam is a first-come, first-serve concert, so we had to show up really early to

get in line for tickets. We ended up getting in line a whole 4 hours before the doors opened!

While we waited, my friend Hope wanted to do a photo shoot, so we did and one of the many

hilarious photos from the "shoot" is below. We were, of course, hungry, and in need of food

when we arrived in line; so we left Jenilee and Julie (some of the adults that went with us) to fend

for themselves in line. Whilst the leaders were in line, we (all the youngens and one adult) went

running through the streets of downtown Cincinnati looking for food; did I mention this was all

during the St. Patrick's Day Festival? So after a long time of speeding through the green-clothed,

bagpipe, and kilt laden city; we found a Chipotle. While we were in Chipotle, waiting in line for

forty-five minutes, We saw and met the lead singer of Group1Crew along with the group's

drummer, and Kari Jobe eating; so I said "hi" and got a picture. Finally, after we got our food five

minutes before the doors opened, ate it as fast as we could, and had to throw the leftovers away;

we got in to the arena. The bands were amazing, and Skillet (the final band) kicked our faces in.

In an onslaught of running, waiting, and amazing music, we made some unforgettable memories;

life is short, live it well!

 

   

Group1Crew

Building 429

 
 
 

Skillet

Gimp

With useful tools being so expensive these days, you rarely find something completely free. Gimp is a photo

editing software that is available online for absolutely no cost! Gimp, like most software, requires a bit of a

learning curve. After playing around with, and getting used to the functions within, Gimp is a powerful editing

software. Gimp takes functions that software like Photoshop, and Lightroom use, and makes them available

for everyone; Gimp has the ability to edit photos using layers, and the like. Surely Gimp doesn't offer all the

functions that a $400.00 editing software does, but it includes all that you should need to do basic editing.

All-in-all Gimp is definitely worth the extra time it takes to learn it's functions. Below is a photo that I edited

using Gimp. Here is the link to the download site: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Jessy & Cassie

Below are a few pictures of a couple whose wedding pictures I took; these are two great people, and I had

a great time taking their pictures. I really like shooting weddings, because I have the opportunity to capture a

once-in-a-lifetime event. I also like that I can capture the love of two people for one another. I hope that

you can see that in these photographs!

O Father.

O Father, you always were, yet you never deserted.

You always heard, but you never reverted.

You created us for praise; you enlightened our eyes.

You opened our cages; we demolished our lives.

The choice you gave us; we never did our part.

We trampled your love; we cracked your heart.

We were content to be counterfeit, we did not care.

Your heart did not permit our hatred affair.

We held our own while you held life.

We were blind to what we had done, but you never closed your eyes.

You held the tears, you felt the pain.

You heard the swears, you did not constrain.

You let us go, but you did not forget.

You fell from the clouds, to take our sins.

You lived life in a garment of peace.

You died for a time, but your life did not cease.

The stone rolled from the eyes of man; you could not be held down.

You stretch out your gracious hand; you rose from the ground.

O Savior, we did not deserve the sacrifice, but you loved us so much.

When we betrayed you with our lives, you still had a passion; a love.

RAW Capture

Let me tell you about a thing called RAW capture, RAW capture is a setting on cameras (mainly 

expensive) that takes a picture in completely uncompressed form. What the heck does that mean? It means 

that when one takes a picture, the camera records all the information it sees, it doesn't leave any out. There 

are pros and cons of RAW capture. The first pro is that images are extremely high quality; the second pro is 

the editing is high quality. The only con of RAW capture is that the image file size in ginormous. The only 

reason one would need to use RAW capture would be if that individual was a professional, or needed a very 

high quality image for some reason. The photo below was captured in RAW; edited, then converted to 

JPEG. 

Me

"Foggy Day"

This winter, Ohio (where I live) has had extremely strange weather; on February first it was 70 degrees! In 

this warm weather there has been a deluge of rain, and when there is rain; (if conditions permit,) there is fog. 

Fog creates an amazing atmosphere for photography; you get a dreamy haze, and a melancholic gray in  

photos. The photo below is of a tree in the fog we had here in Ohio one day in late January. This fog was 

very thick; you can faintly see power lines and my neighbor's barn in the background. 

"Foggy Day"

Lighting

Lighting is a fundamental part of photography, lighting can make the difference between a photo having a 

sad feel or happy feel to it. This photo, I think, conveys the effect lighting can have on an image. If the 

subject of this photo would have had blue or green lighting in it, it wouldn't give you the warm feel 

that the red light gives. This picture was taken in the youth room at my church. 

Item Photography

I have recently grown an interest in photographing everyday items, these pictures are a product of that. This

first picture is of a fisherman nutcracker from my room; the latter of the two is of a really old Coke, also

from my room. The background on the first image is the wood foot board on my bed, the second

background is a wall in my room. I used a home-made aluminum foil light reflector to reflect light from a

lamp in my room (Overhead.) Overall I took close to 50 pictures between the two items, a different reflector

position every time, to get the mood I wanted for each shot.

(Shot with a Canon T3i; Canon EFs 18-55mm lens. Post processing used.)

"Carson and I"

Most normal people like, or even love dogs. I'm not very normal, but I do like dogs.

This is a portrait of my dog (Carson,) and I. 

"Carson and I"

(Taken with a Canon T3i, Canon EFs 18-55mm lens. Post processing used.)

"Never Alone"

Self portrait taken/edited by yours truly.

"Never Alone"

(Taken with Canon T3i; Canon EFs 18-55mm lens.)

Human Trafficking Awareness Day

In life, it is very easy to slip into a vicious cycle of "Me, Me, Me." It has become popular, common, and even easy to live only thinking about self, and; honestly, we all do it. Every day it is a challenge for humans, especially Americans, to wake up and not think of themselves first.

In times like these, where wickedness is thriving, and most people don't seem to care; We have to remind ourselves of the pain some people live in every day they wake. Some people are trapped in a sphere of sorrow,  unable to get out. The people I'm talking about are woman trapped in human trafficking; you ask why I'm bringing this topic up?

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Many people have never even heard of human trafficking, it is a horrible thing. In the simplest of terms, it is forced prostitution. Woman- young and old- are forced to be prostitutes just so men can make money. Most times these girls are taken from their homes, and abused; beaten if they don't obey authority. I really can't think of anything worse you could do to a girl.

There is so much we can offer, and we don't. The least we can do is pray.
So I encourage you to pray that God will allow men to end this horrible thing.

1st Birthday

Recently I had the opportunity of taking pictures at my niece's first birthday party.

My family had loads of fun, and; even though I sat behind a camera the whole night, I had a good time too.

Below are some of the pictures from the night.

                                                                       The family and cupcakes.

The baby and cupcake.

"Zealous Melancholy"

Some of the most breathtaking views on life are the simplest of views.

Some of the most moving art conveys a concoction of emotion.

When we view something of such beautiful stature, that it brings onto us gloom; euphoria arrives within us.

That is my goal for you in viewing this.

I present you: "Zealous Melancholy."

Enjoy:

Click to enlarge.

"World's Most Relaxing Song."

This is a song I stumbled upon. This song is called "Weightless," It has been dubbed,

"The world's most relaxing song." I almost fell asleep listening too it!

I don't know how they did it, but they did!

Here it is:

Twitter Follow Button

Great news! I just got a Twitter follow button! As I continue to write and post here on Drew's Blog, you

can follow me and receive instant information from me with just one click of the mouse. Twitter

provides instantaneous access to my opinions and such. This is also a good way to receive updates about

my postings; I normally tweet a reminder when I post on this blog, so you never miss a post.

You can find my Twitter as well as my Facebook follow button at the bottom of this page.

Braces off! (My hygenic journey)

Today is a major milestone passed in my life, this morning at 7:00 A.M. these bad boy braces came off!
Twenty-two months of cleaning, to this glorious day! This is such a joyous day; I can't even put it in words!

Even though braces are considered a gauntlet of pain and restrictions, I didn't mind them much. I had my braces for approximately tenty two (not-so-painful) months. Time with braces can be easy, if you take good care of them. I really didn't understand the constant pain aspect, I really only had pain and soreness two or three times during the whole process, (when I got them on, and once or twice after.) To be honest; I only flossed once in those twenty two months, but I did brush, use a Water pic, and rinse with fluoride. I am glad to say that I didn't have any problems, (Woo-Hoo!) and elated to tell you that my orthodontist went so far to say, "Those are some of the cleanest man braces I've ever seen." I'm overjoyed if you didn't notice. Finally: I'm so glad I decided to take care of my braces, because if I didn't this day wouldn't be here.

Me with my braces.

Sunfowers

Yellow, yummy; fun;

Dance and move, in mellow prance.

Sunflowers; so young.