Friday Photo

Friday Photo

Sierra Nevada range, outside of Lee Vining and Mono Lake. Cool clouds.

Friday Photo

California Poppies. I probably took this in the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, which is busy during springtime. Just beautiful.

New CD

I placed a library hold on this CD when I saw that it was coming out, "Maria" by Cecilia Bartoli. Kind of forgot about it until I got the email that my hold was ready for pickup.

I go into the library and this book is in the place of the CD that I expected. When I picked up the book, it has the CD in it, see the link: Maria

So the packaging is VERY COOL. Its a small book, nicely illustrated on good bond paper(hey, you can feel the qaulity!). The CD is in the back flap, and a little hard to get out of the book.

The music itself is great, with different moods throughout. I have several Cecilia Bartoli CD's , and I may have to buy this one. Or not take it back to the library! :)

Supposedly there is a DVD that goes along with the music, but I haven't seen it yet..

Friday Photo

Funny story behind this picture...

Landscape photograghers spend alot of their time "scouting" an area before shooting that area. So I am driving in Malibu for the first time one weekend day, and pulled to the side of the road(PCH), along an area called Leo Carillo State Beach. Lots of other cars are there, so it must be OK right? Walking around the beach I found this tree and previsiualized the picture at sunrise, and I knew it would work - but I would have to get out there before sunrise to get the shot. After walking around for about 2 hours I get back to the car to find not one, but two parking tickets! They were from different jurisdictions, but one was from Malibu and I had to appear in court one particular morning, during the week. This looks like a good reason to take a day off of work, get up early and drive out to Malibu again!

So that's just what I did: got up EARLY and got out there to get this shot - which is actually a double exposure with the moon, but done "in camera". (You advance the film while holding the film release button on the bottom of the camera, thereby causing the camera to think that you advanced the film, when in reality you have the already exposed film ready to now lay your next shot on top of, in this case the moon. IMO - this technique is the truest to a non-darkroom double exposure).

After shooting that morning, I went to court. My dad had told me that getting two tickets for the same offense was not legal, so when the judge called my name, I asked him about getting the two tickets. He confirmed that the other ticket should not have been gibven and wrote it off. I tehn had to pay the fine, and I think go to traffic school for the other one, but at least I only had to pay for one ticket and I got a few good shots that morning.

This trek also started me on the "early morning Malibu drives" that I began to do - once I realized it wasn't that hard to get up to get these kinds of shots!

Friday Photo

Icicle in the Merced River - Yosemite.

This was just one of those photos that I didn't plan initially, just happened to be there and saw the icicle in the river. Once I saw the icicle, I knew that I had to try to get a shot with the water moving around it, using I used a slow shutter speed to get that effect. The camera was on a tripod, and I had tho scrunch the tripod down as low as it would go to get the angle right.

With these water shots, you have no idea what it's going to look like until you get your film back. This one seems to work the best.

I took the stick and icicle with me when I left, it just looked so cool!

Creeping Phlox

Can you believe that I bought three 1 gallon containers of Creeping Phlox about 3 years ago, and this is how big they are now? Two of them grew together, but you can see how big the one by itself got.

The flowers look nice when it stays cool, but when it gets warm, the they go away. Another reason to wish for a mild summer!

JE Bio by Iain Murray - Chapter 1

This is a good book, and I don't normally read bios!

Chapter One gives a background to JE's family, starting with his grandfather and father. It gave me a good context for how he became the man he was. His father Timothy was a pastor and a skilled tutor, so much so that when his pupils would be examined for college, that it was said, "Mr Edwards pupils need no examination". Here is where JE learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew, all before he went to college at age 13 - which blows my mind.

JE was also the only son, but had 10 sisters! It would seem that each of them was tall for the day(about 6 foot tall), because it is was said "Mr. Edwards(Timothy) sixty feet of daughters".

His mother was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, one of the more famous pastors of the day. During his time, Solomon Stoddard was considered to be the most powerful New England clergyman.

He also seems to have been voracious reader as well as a proficient writer, even at a young age. He wrote a treatise on spiders that was influential in its observations. This seems to have set him on the path that later on in his life he would continue his learning.

Friday Photo

Death Valley.

This might have been the trip that I got a flat tire while in Death Valley. I would only go there in the spring, when the temps would only get up to the 80's.

No big interesting stories on this trip, sorry!

Jonathan Edwards Bio by Iain Murray - Intro

I have heard so many good comments about the book, “Jonathan Edwards – A New Biography” by Iain Murray, that I had my eye on purchasing it for a few months. The writer has written other well respected biographies, most notably a two volume set on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of my favorite pastor/authors, even though he’s been dead for 25 years. So when I won the book in an online auction, I had to wait a few long days for the book to arrive! But it did and I didn’t even wait until I got into the house before tearing open the shipping packaging!

I am going to blog the book so that I have a record of what I get out of it. I have the tendency to read a good book really fast and get a lot out of it, but then forget some of the “Ah-HA!” moments of the book. Lastly, I also want to share with others what I get out of this book, and to see if the book is worth their time and money.

Introduction – On Understanding Edwards.

Murray begins by pointing out, “Whether or not a biographer of JE reveals his personal standpoint at the outset makes little difference, for inevitably it will soon be apparent.” Since the time of JE, biographers have had different views of him, from being America’s first philosopher and greatest thinker of the eighteenth century, to being a “tragic religious figure of a bygone era”, to being “a great Divine”.

These different views of Edwards are not due to the lack of source material. There are over 1100 sermons existing in their manuscript form. There are many books that Edwards published during his life. We have portions of a diary and about 200 letters from his hand as well.

Murray makes a great point when he says, “The modern writers, in general, have passed over in silence what was at the front of JE’s own thinking. First of all, he was a Christian and a teacher of the Christian Faith.” Later the he drives the point home, “ depending on where we stand in relation to Christ, we shall join ourselves to one side or the other in interpreting this man who was, first of all, a Christian.”

Murray then surveys biographies of Edwards, the first being in 1765, going through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and ending in 1962. This is an enlightening section.

He closes the introduction by relating a story of a gathering of Edwards descendants that occurred in 1870. One of them, S. Irenaeus Prime, was asked at the last moment to give a brief speech. He told them that “remembering Edwards was more than a mere bow to history, but the message he preached was for every age… ‘His theology has in it revivals and repentance, and salvation from hell, and this made it, and makes it, and will keep it divine theology until Christ is all in all. A student comes to Princeton and hears that same theology, visits the grave of Edwards and his fellow-laborers, and something of their fire kindles in their soul.’ We fail to understand Edwards aright until the record of his life begins to make the same impression upon us.”

After that, I had to put the book down and ponder, why am I reading this book, to learn more about Edwards, myself, or to have a fire kindled in my soul for the Almighty?

Ducks Season is over

I still haven't gotten over it yet....

Friday Photo

Yosemite Valley with El Capitan shrouded in low clouds. 4x5 positive(you can see the poor job of scanning I did - I will have to rescan this.

This pic was part of a weekend project when I was in college getting my degree. For a reason the eludes me today, I decided to do one of my photo class assignments by taking a road trip. It was in the fall and I started by going to Mono Lake. After I got my shot at sunset, I then went to the hotel in Lee Vining. They had on the board that Tioga Pass was closed that night, and that it may open in the morning. I needed to get to Yosemite by the next day, as I had reservations that I didn't want to not use.

So I get up early the next morning, and Tioga Pass is still closed, but the passes to the north are still open. I decided to go for it on the next pass north, which I think was Sonora Pass. I get there, and that pass is closed. So I decided to try the next pass to the north, and it was open. I had to "go a little faster" than I wanted to to get to Yosemite while it was still light enough to shoot, but I made it! I think I got a few shots off before it got too dark. But this one photo was worth the trip.

Ducks Must Win Tonight!

The Ducks are down 2-1. They must win tonight to even up the best of seven series.

The caption on this photo "Goaltender Marty Turco #35 of the Dallas Stars gives up a goal to Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks during game three of the 2008 NHL Western Conference Quarterfinals on April 15, 2008 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas."

Cool photo. Love the puck BEHIND the goalie! Let's see more!

Jonathan Edwards First Sermon

Hoping that my new book will arrive soon, here is an excerpt from JE's first published sermon:

GOD GLORIFIED IN MAN'S DEPENDENCE

Preached in Boston, July 8, 1731; and published at the desire of several ministers and others in Boston who heard it. -- This was the first piece published by Mr. Edwards.]

1 Corinthians 1:29, 30, 31 -- That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

“…The redeemed have all from the grace of God. It was of mere grace that God gave us his only-begotten Son. The grace is great in proportion to the excellence of what is given. The gift was infinitely precious, because it was of a person infinitely worthy, a person of infinite glory; and also because it was of a person infinitely near and dear to God. The grace is great in proportion to the benefit we have given us in him …

The grace of God in bestowing this gift is most free. It was what God was under no obligation to bestow. He might have rejected fallen man, as he did the fallen angels. It was what we never did any thing to merit; it was given while we were yet enemies, and before we had so much as repented. It was from the love of God who saw no excellence in us to attract it; and it was without expectation of ever being requited for it. And it is from mere grace that the benefits of Christ are applied to such and such particular persons. Those that are called and sanctified are to attribute it alone to the good pleasure of God's goodness, by which they are distinguished. He is sovereign, and hath mercy on whom he will have mercy.

Man hath now a greater dependence on the grace of God than he had before the fall. He depends on the free goodness of God for much more than he did then. Then he depended on God's goodness for conferring the reward of perfect obedience; for God was not obliged to promise and bestow that reward. But now we are dependent on the grace of God for much more; we stand in need of grace, not only to bestow glory upon us, but to deliver us from hell and eternal wrath. Under the first covenant we depended on God's goodness to give us the reward of righteousness; and so we do now; but we stand in need of God's free and sovereign grace to give us that righteousness; to pardon our sin, and release us from the guilt and infinite demerit of it.

And as we are dependent on the goodness of God for more now than under the first covenant, so we are dependent on a much greater, more free and wonderful goodness. We are now more dependent on God's arbitrary and sovereign good pleasure. We were in our first estate dependent on God for holiness. We had our original righteousness from him; but then holiness was not bestowed in such a way of sovereign good pleasure as it is now. Man was created holy, for it became God to create holy all his reasonable creatures. It would have been a disparagement to the holiness of God's nature, if he had made an intelligent creature unholy. But now when fallen man is made holy, it is from mere and arbitrary grace; God may for ever deny holiness to the fallen creature if he pleases, without any disparagement to any of his perfections.

And we are not only indeed more dependent on the grace of God, but our dependence is much more conspicuous, because our own insufficiency and helplessness in ourselves is much more apparent in our fallen and undone state, than it was before we were either sinful or miserable. We are more apparently dependent on God for holiness, because we are first sinful, and utterly polluted, and afterward holy. So the production of the effect is sensible, and its derivation from God more obvious. If man was ever holy and always was so, it would not be so apparent, that he had not holiness necessarily, as an inseparable qualification of human nature. So we are more apparently dependent on free grace for the favor of God, for we are first justly the objects of his displeasure, and afterwards are received into favor. We are more apparently dependent on God for happiness, being first miserable, and afterwards happy. It is more apparently free and without merit in us, because we are actually without any kind of excellence to merit, if there could be any such thing as merit in creature excellence. And we are not only without any true excellence, but are full of, and wholly defiled with, that which is infinitely odious. All our good is more apparently from God, because we are first naked and wholly without any good, and afterwards enriched with all good.

Updates

The wife had to work last Saturday night, so I took the kid out for dinner and then a trip to Circuit City. I got the new POD CD that came out last week - "When Angels & Serpents Dance". Pretty good CD, but I haven't had time to listen to it more than once yet, but so far a couple of standout tracks. The cover is off to the side here.

I also got my wife a 2GB MP3 player for cheap. So I have been ripping some of her CD's and transferring them over.

I also found some headphones that I had my eye on - Skullcandy Lowriders. When I paid for them, they were full price. Here is where the headphone angle gets interesting: online these things are half price what I paid in the store for them! They are pretty good headphones too - lightweight, collaspable, and they sound pretty decent, especially considering what I paid for them. The wife likes the headphones as well, except for the skull icon - she says that we have plenty of stickers to cover them up!

So I order 2 more of the headphones online, take my pair back to a different store, and these guys are totally cool. They let me keep the ones I had, and walk out with one of the new pairs - I basically got a pair for free!

Friday Photo

Sorry there have not been any updates this week. Its been crazy at the house. Tuesday night we found out that the freezer in the basement had not been working, so almost all of the food was bad. So after I gave the kid a bath and put her to bed, I took a garbage can downstairs and filled it with thawed meat and other spoiled items. Then Wednesday my wife is feeling so ill that I barely started work when she called me back home. I tried to pull double duty with work and taking care of her/the kid. She was feeling at little better yesterday, but I stayed home and took the day off from work, but still called in to a conference call and answered a few emails. Today we have some friends coming into town for the weekend, and they are going to go to a few baseball games, while the wife works her taxes I get the kid. WHEW!

Onto the photo!

This is from one of my favorite spots, Leo Carillo State Beach in Malibu. One of the few spots in SoCal that has a great sunrise, which is this. In order to get there for the sunrise, and even before as this one is, I used to plan on being there at least 45 minutes before sunrise. When I lived in OC, it would take me about an hour and a half to get here. Some mornings were easier than others to wake up.

So this particular morning I think I must have been running slow, cause I was in a hurry. I could see that the clouds were going to be cool, and I had to get to get to "my spot". I knew this spot so well that it would be worth it to get there, even a little late. This morning also happened to be New Years Day, so there wasn't much traffic out.

So when I get to the spot, I had to pull a quick and questionable u-turn. It's right off of PCH. There was only car way behind me, so I do it. Guess who is in the car behind me? The Highway Patrol! My heart sank when he pulled a u-turn and pulled up behind me. And here am looking at not only a ticket, but missing out on getting the shot! I had my gear on the passenger seat when the officer stepped up to the car. After greetings were exchanged, he asked what I was doing, and I told him that I was here to get pics of the sunrise, and I pointed it out to him. (I must have seemed a little excited.) He glanced up at the scene, looked at my gear,(I was still using 35mm at the time, but I still had my bag, tripod, etc), and reminded me that it was a questionable move to do the u-turn, especially after New Years Eve. I thanked him and he didn't give me a ticket after all. WHEW! I don't even think I waited for him to get back in his car before I was running down to the beach.

I got other pictures this day, so of which will be posted later. On this day I found out that there is no such thing as having too much film...

Angels Baseball

I'm not much of a baseball fan. The season is too long. The game is a little slow. I don't live in a "baseball" town, even though there is a pro team here. I wasn't very good at hitting when I was in Little League. I could go on, but why?

If I had a favorite team it would be the Angels. When I was kid, we would go to a couple of games a year at the "Big A". I even remember going to a "Freeway series" game at Dodger Stadium, and having some guy give me a hard time about wearing an Angels jacket. But back then they were called the California Angels. Then they changed to the Anaheim Angels, which I think was the most appropriate name for them. But then new owners changed the name - I still will not call them the LA Angels, even though I think the owners are doing a pretty good job. They were better as the Anahiem Angels, or even the California Angels.

But this article on USA Today caught my eye:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/dailypitch/2008-04-08-angels-streak_N.htm

Friday Photo

Mono Lake, CA.
The original is a 4x5 positive. This is a scan of the contact proof.

I took this picture one Winter Evening at sunset. I like the way the snow and shoreline move and give perspective. If I had a chance to take this picture over again I would probably try to get more of the tufa mound on the right.

While taking a good piture is not too tough at Mono, taking a great one takes planning and a little luck. Mono is one of those spots that its tough to nail down only one shot for the sunset, or whenever time is short.

Mono Lake is one of my favorite places to be. Taking some shots at sunset, then driving down the road to the highway, while listening to Joe Satriani's song "Friends" brings back good memories.

Favre is Not Coming Back.

Yesterday there are these reports that Brett Favre which stated he was having second thoughts about his retirement. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported the former Green Bay Packers quarterback - who announced his retirement last month - was contemplating a comeback with another team.

However, Favre told SI.com on Friday that he is not considering coming out of retirement.

“That’s the last thing I’m thinking about,” Favre said. “I have no idea where it came from, but it certainly didn’t come from me. I’m happy about my decision and I haven’t once said, ‘I wonder if I made the wrong decision.’ I know it’s the right one.”

Favre also was surprised a story surfaced about him returning.

“It’s crazy to me that I’m the guy they’re all talking about, and the story is out there everywhere, and I have nothing to do with it,” Favre told SI.com. “It’s not something I’m thinking about. It’s kind of funny. Even when I’m retired, they won’t let me stay retired.”

Let the guy retire already. I'm as bummed as any other Packer fan, but c'mon already!

Please Stay on the Path...