Occasionally I’ll post photos I’ve taken that catch my eye. This one is from Allison and Ed’s wedding back in May. Loved their colors and set up.

We don’t use any pre-made curriculum for the kid’s ministry. I prefer to instead keep a finger on the pulse of the kids and see what they need spiritually. The last two weeks we’ve been talking about how God changes hearts. Last week we got into how having more of God changes us even more.

I posed the question, “do you honestly want more of God?” After a lot of work I’ve finally brought these kids to the point where they can be honest with me and not give the “church” answer. After a few confused looks they more or less agreed they didn’t want more of God because they didn’t really know what that meant.

So that’s what we’re diving into next. What does it mean to have “more of God?” What can you do to have more? How does that change lives and hearts? How do you get the desire for more of God and keep it going?

Ironically these are things I struggle with all the time and I think I’m not alone. I look at teenagers and see kids that need more of God but just don’t understand how it can alter their lives. I look at adults who need more of God but make no room for him in their life.

I was going to kick this off next week, but I think I’ll put if off for a couple of weeks to really dive into this question. There are so many angles to take I really want to get to the meat of it and teach what will help these kids the most.

So help me. What does it mean to have more of God? What do you do to have more of God? How does that effect your life? When I ask that question, what parts of the Bible does it bring to mind?

I’ve got a few ideas on where I ‘m going with it, but I’d like this to be a group experiment.

As the staff of Legacy, we’re required to fill our weekly accountability reports. They are a mix of questions about our week, our relationships and things along that line. I’m not going to lie, sometimes it gets tedious.

But, even in the tedium I still love them. They provide an opportunity to look back on my week and see all the great things right beside all the mistakes.

And often times, God is able to show me things I didn’t notice at the time because I was still in the middle of it all.

UPDATE: See the comments below for the list of questions I answer every week.
If you don’t already, find someone to be accountable to. There’s a lot of value in it.

Last Saturday we shot Brittany and Clinton’s wedding. I’ll have a preview of that wedding up tomorrow. In the mean time here were a few of my favorites from Brittany’s bridal session.

Just a warning to those of you thinking of having kids, once you get to the three kids point, a date will be a minimum of $100.

$50 of that is just for the baby sitter.

The rest is just a meal and a movie.

It’s just depressing. So if we want date night once a week, that’s a budget of $400 a month. We’re about to start trading baby sitting with other couples because that’s just ridiculous.

So do you have date night once a week? What are some cheap alternatives?

I’ll write a full review tomorrow, but for now, just know I’m amazed at The Dark Knight. In the history of movies, none has been more appropriately named than this one.

This is not a summer popcorn movie. This is not a movie about watching Batman beat up the bad guys. This is an exploration of good versus evil. A look at terror and what it does to us as a society. It’s a deep look at purpose and that thin line between what’s right and what’s decidedly not.

I was shocked at how far this movie goes. This is not a happy-go-lucky summer film where everything wraps up at the end. This is a film that will kick you in the teeth for two-and-a-half hours then spit on you as it walks away.

This is the only movie I’ve been to in recent years that not only met my expectations, it blew them away. And my expectations where sky-high for this one.

The Dark Knight goes beyond being the greatest Batman movie ever and becomes one of the classics we’ll still be in awe of 20 years from now.

Go see it. Just not with kids.

I’m currently listening to the audiobook of The Shack. I’ve been told by a lot of people it’s great and I’ve liked it so far. One of the ideas put forth is God being proud of the work we do, like a parent of any child would be.

I look at my kids. They bring me things they’ve made with that look of expectation on their face. Sometimes it’s just a rock, but they are beaming with pride either way. And it’s my love for them that makes me proud of what they do. I don’t necessarily care about the rock, but I love them so much that I have an interest in the rock and I’m proud of them for discovering it.

Is it the same way with God? Is he proud of the work we do? Does he look at the photos I make with the same feelings I have when my sons draw me pictures? Does he look at the things I write and create fondly because I created them with talent he’s given me? How different would our lives be if we looked at each project knowing we could please God if we do our best, even on the small things?

I can’t shake this thought and I’m in awe that God might be proud of the work I do.

I don’t really know the answer to all those questions, but I know if he is proud of what we do, he must have the universe’s largest refrigerator to hang it all on.

What do you think?

This is a quick post for iTunes users. Have the DRM (digital rights management) restrictions on the song ever created any problem for you? I’m in a hurry this morning so I don’t have time to look it up but I think Apple’s DRM allows you to play a song you purchase on up to 5 computers and an unlimited amount of iPods or iPhones.

While I think the world would be a better place if it were DRM-free, I’ve also never had any problems with the restrictions or hit any of the limits.

So other than the fundamental gripes people have with DRM (like, we buy the songs, we should be allowed to do what we want with them), has it ever created issues with your daily use?

This will only be funny to people that have played games online. Let’s just say it’s populated mostly by idiots.

Oh, and 256-player online? We don’t doubt it will work … we just doubt our brains’ ability to process 255 racial slurs and/or homophobic remarks simulatenously.

From this story talking about a new Playstation 3 game with 256-player online battles.

Being that today is my birthday, I had a wonderfully eloquent post planned about my 28 years on this earth. Instead I have to finish a huge project before 10 this morning and then go shoot a wedding until midnight.

So, all you get is some pictures of Cody in his hobo hat with a harmonica…which he later decided to try to eat. Enjoy.

Don’t view every photographer you meet as competition. Sure they could technically be your competition. But the reality is, we’re not all selling the same thing. We offer some of the same services, but we all have our own unique style and personality.

When you meet another photographer, use it as an opportunity to learn and network. There are plenty of potential clients out there. If you’re good at what you do, you’ll be fine. Don’t worry about what “the competition” is doing. Focus on what you do and offer and figure out new ways to impress your clients.

In my experience, most photographers are really friendly and love talking to other people in the field. So be nice.

In the post I just wrote about investing in a photography business, I talked about the constant want/need to upgrade equipment. As a side note, I’d like to quickly talk about the upgrade process.

Upgrading is usually very expensive so I’d give you one piece of advice; if you aren’t producing beautiful images with your current camera, upgrading isn’t going to help. As I said in the comments of the post below, it’s hard to tell the difference between an image produced by a low-end camera versus a high-end camera if the user knows what they are doing. If you aren’t taking great pictures now, upgrading probably isn’t going to help.

The only thing nicer cameras give you is more flexibility. You can shoot faster and in different situations with a higher-end camera and this allows you to capture more great shots, but not necessarily better ones.

Last week I wrote about taking better pictures. This week I’m writing a series of shorter posts about the business side of photography. I know a lot of people considering or currently trying to make photography their job. This is for you guys.

My first tip is to be willing to invest a lot of money. Most people look at the falling prices of digital SLRs and assume getting into photography will be cheap. You can take very good pictures with a Nikon’s entry-level DSLR, the D40. However, as you grow as a photographer and begin working professionally you’ll very quickly hit the limits of what a D40 can do and want to upgrade. It’s a never-ending cycle. My first camera was a $1,300 Nikon D70s. My second was a Nikon D200 for about $2,000 with all the accessories. My next camera will be a Nikon D3 which will ring up at a bank-busting $5,000.

Do I need a Nikon D3? Yes, I do. Do you need one to start out? No, but just know it’s in the future and start saving now.

And that doesn’t even get into the costs of lenses which will ultimately probably cost more than the camera bodies. Add to that marketing costs (I’ll probably spend between $5,000 and $10,000 this year on marketing), computers (you need a fast rig to process thousands of RAW photos) and more hard drives than you know what to do with (we’re currently up to 5 terabytes; that’s 5,000 gigabytes). And that doesn’t include all the little things required. Needless to say, it can add up fast. Before you know it, that $600 DSLR you have your eye on can turn into a $20,000 business investment.

Photography pays well if you’re good at it, but it can also require a lot of money, so know that going in and you should be fine.

Took a second to look out the window. Found this thing brewing.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about one of my childhood staples, Ecto Cooler.

Well, good news everyone! It’s still available on store shelves today as “Orange Lavaburst.” It’s lost its formerly Slimer-esque green tint, but it tastes just like I remember it.

Today, Tony and I had to appear in court as character witnesses. With both of us receiving less than an hour’s notice we both showed up with what we were already wearing, jeans and a button up long-sleeve shirts (which, by the way, is standard Sunday attire).

Before the judge swore us in, Tony and I were both asked by the bailiff to step outside the courtroom and tuck our shirts in. I just found it very amusing that the two pastors in the room had to be asked to tuck our shirts in.

I think times have changed a lot.

Yesterday we had a security system installed.

So my question is, how do you feel safer without scaring the crap out of your kids? Of course with kids, they ask a million questions during the install. What we settled on was “if you ever hear the alarm go off, immediately get under your beds and don’t make any noise.”

“Why?”

“Because someone might be trying to break in and steal our stuff.”

“So bad guys are going to come here?”

“No, it’s just in case.”

“So what if the bad guy comes in my window?”

“Lay very still and don’t make any noise, the alarm will scare them off. But there aren’t any bad guys coming.”

“Well I hope when they show up, they don’t come in my window.

This went on all night. The kids would get out of bed every few minutes to come ask another question.

So my advice is don’t get a security system. Your kids will feel safer without it.

And by the way, having to pick out passwords in case there is ever a hostage situation is a little disconcerting. I wanted “the eagle has left the nest,” but was summarily overruled.

Tony and I went to the Apple store the other day as he ponders a switch to a Mac.

So, I just figured I post these two articles for him and anyone else thinking of moving over.

Tips for Switching from Walt Mossberg and Mac 101.

Here are a few of my favorites as a preview from last Saturday’s wedding. Amy and John had great kids which made the shoot that much more fun.

You can view the rest of the preview here. Full set coming next week.

One of my favorites is that last shot of John’s buddies making sure he ended up in the pool.

I did an engagement shoot for Jessica and Will a few months ago. That day we had to contend with high winds and rain so we decided to do another shoot at Zilker park under slightly better weather conditions.

You can see the rest of the set here.

Here are a few of my favorites from Alicia and Francisco’s wedding day. They were married on June 9th at Vintage Villas in Austin.

I used a few new treatments on some of these to give them an older feel and really like how they turned out. I really love the last shot of the Francisco’s dad talking to two other guys.

You can see the entire set here.

I am in no way an expert. In a lot of ways I’m still learning. However, I get a lot of questions about photography so here’s some basics to learning to take better pictures. Whether you want to be a pro or just take better pictures, these will help.

Step one: Take pictures
Take them everywhere in every situation. Don’t wait until you can afford a nice digital SLR camera to start. So much of photography has nothing to do with the gear you are using. Take photos of every-day things. Look for new ways to make the mundane look interesting. Watch your angles. Look at your photos after your done and picture in your head what it would look like from a different angle.

Step two: Learn like crazy
There is simultaneously a lot to know about photography and not much at all. The basic concepts are pretty easy but it takes a lifetime to master all the nuance in those simple concepts.
Whether your goal is to do this for a living or just take better photos, I’d recommend starting at The Open Source Photo Forum. This is an amazing forum populated by some of the best photographers in the business. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned just by reading through the various threads. Part of my lunch time every day is looking through OSP to see if there’s anything new I need to know. Also almost every photographer has a blog where they post their photos. Subscribe to them and look at everything they do. Try to reverse engineer their photos and figure out how they did it.

Step three: Shoot in manual mode
Once you own that nice SLR the first step is to switch it to manual mode and never ever go back to automatic. Manual mode is not that hard to master (really only about four things to keep track of) and will make a world of difference for your photos. Automatic mode assumes the camera knows what you want and how best to get it. This is almost never the case. Just learn what the four major adjustments on the camera are (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance) and how each effects a photo and you’re set.

Step four: Pick gear that fits you
The Nikon versus Canon debate will probably still be going long after the Mac versus PC debate is settled (that’ll be when Bill Gates admits defeat through tear-filled eyes, by the way). That’s because unlike the Windows versus Mac OS argument, Nikon and Canon both make incredibly great products. Nikon users are going to recommend Nikon and Canon users are going to recommend Canon. I say before investing any money in cameras and lenses, test them all out in real-world situations. When we first invested in a digital SLR a few years ago I had spent extensive time using both the Canon Digital Rebel and the Nikon D70s in the field. I knew the ins and outs of each one. Based on that I went with Nikon. When it came to entry-level SLRs, there’s was superior to the Canon offering. It felt like it was built a little better and I just liked the layout of all the controls better. That’s just me. Try both out. I don’t think you can go wrong either way.

Step five: Learn lighting
Learn absolutely everything you can about lighting. Then dive into off-camera lighting. Learning lighting will make the difference between a good photo and a photo you can make money on. Start here for off-camera lighting. Zack Arias is basically the expert in this field. You may not want to drop the money for one of his workshops (you should, though, if you can) but he has a DVD coming out in a few weeks which will be a little cheaper and contain hours of great info. Even having not seen it, I’d recommend it. This guys knows his stuff and he knows how to do it without breaking the bank, which will be nice for most. After you learn the basics, lighting is the key to great photography.

Tomorrow: How to get into the business side of photography

On Saturday, June 7th we shot Lisa and Steven’s wedding. This was one of the most enjoyable wedding we’ve shot all year. They are a great couple and really have fun together. We got some of the best shots of the year just because they are always doing something funny.

Congratulations, guys.

You can view the rest of the shots here.

I’m going to paraphrase a little, but in filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s book Rebel Without a Crew, he says if you want to become a filmmaker just tell people you’re a filmmaker and dive right in. Sure you may make your living as an accountant, but that 10 hours a week you spend working on scripts and short films defines who you are. You are no longer an accountant. You are now a filmmaker. Congratulations.

I’ve always subscribed to this theory until I became a photographer. I still think it works in practice but the proliferation of affordable digital SLR cameras has made it more complicated. Now not only can people say they are photographers, they can say they are professionals despite having zero ability.

This may sound like a little photo snobbery, and it probably is. I’m not saying beautiful images can’t be created by someone with an off-the-shelf Nikon D40. I’m saying creating beautiful images consistently in many varied situations takes a combination of natural talent, technical knowledge and experience. Buying a $600 digital camera gives you none of those.

I bring this up because of the “Uncle Bob” phenomenon. Uncle Bob is the name photographers have given to that wonderful family member at every wedding who fancies him or herself a professional photographer. I normally don’t mind them and, in fact, answer a ton of gear related questions for them. However, I bring this up because I’m currently editing a wedding where Uncle Bob is in every wide shot of the ceremony. This Uncle Bob did everything except stand between the bride and groom during the kiss. This is where experience comes in. You learn you are not what the wedding is all about so you stay the heck out of the way as much as you can.

I got my start in photography the same way he did so I don’t hold that against him. I spent some money on a nice SLR and started playing. However, I didn’t shoot anywhere I wasn’t invited to do so and I made sure I always stayed behind the people being paid to be there.

Please read this Uncle Bob. I love you, but you’re killing me here.

Tomorrow: How to get started the right way.

My time these days is incredibly limited. Because of this I’m having to work extra hard to make time with the boys special.

Last night I put all the kids to bed about 9:30. After 15 minutes I woke Colton up and told him to put his swimsuit on. We went swimming at 10PM then headed to Sonic for some late-night tater tots with cheese. Mmmmm…..

Sorry, I was distracted by the thought of cheesy tots.

Those two hours Colton and I spent together are something he’ll probably remember his whole life. I can’t say that for most things I do with my kids. Looking at my schedule I’m trying to figure out when I’m going to be absolutely covered up. Starting Tuesday this week will be like that so I’m trying to spend a little special time with each of my boys.

As soon as I’m through writing this, Conner and I are headed to Pizza Hut for a little buffet action then to Wal-Mart for some new toys.

I’m making changes to better balance my life so I can do things like this. I don’t want to look around and realize my kids have grown up and I missed it.

What do you do for special time with your kids?

This evening the neighbors and Colton decided to skateboard a little. I had almost as much fun taking pictures of them falling on their faces as they did falling on their faces. And I didn’t use the long zoom lens so I really was pretty close to having the boards hit me in the face a few times.

The last one is Colton bailing off.

You can see the rest here.

Apparently all it takes to be a zombie in our house is pulling your shirt over your head and making zombie noises. All morning we’ve had zombies roaming the house, randomly attacking things.

After about 10 minutes of them trying to scramble up my office chair and clawing at me I said, “Go try to eat someone else’s brains.”

They both stopped for a second, looking around the room. Their eyes settled on Becca.

“Mom’s brains!!!” they screamed, moving toward her.

Notice the disclaimer in the top right that says this blog is about what interests me. Well this is one of those times, so you’ll just has to stick with me while I remember one of the joys of my childhood…Ecto Cooler.

Today I was walking through the kitchen and a memory of Ecto Cooler popped into my head. I’m not sure why exactly, but there it was. Memories of my youth came rushing back and I considered the wonderfully tangy concoction that was surprisingly green for an orange-flavored drink. And of course, having Slimer on the box, I had to drink it like it was water. I’m pretty sure my parents had to buy it by the case.

I first searched, hoping to find some decade-old Ecto Cooler still for sale on eBay. None was to be found. A little more research lead me to everything you could possibly need to know about Ecto Cooler, a petition to bring it back and the commercial below.

According to Wikipedia, Ecto Cooler was discontinued in 2001 but is now available as “Crazy Citrus Cooler.” I guess the marketing power of Slimer and Ghostbusters just isn’t what it was back in the 90s. Maybe with a new Ghostbusters game coming out we’ll see the resurrection of Ecto Cooler.

Now I’ve got to go to the store to get some Crazy Citrus Cooler and see how it tastes.

Do you remember Ecto Cooler?