This Friday is a very special day, not because it’s Skywatch Friday and I don’t have an appropriate image for the occasion, but because my wife and I will be celebrating our forty-fourth wedding anniversary.

A lot of things have changed in forty-four years.

I shaved my mustache, cut my hair and got a lot older. My wife just got better looking.

The family now includes our daughter, son-in-law, and four grandchildren. Later this year a grand-son-in-law will be added. The oldest granddaughter is getting married in November.

In this day and age when half of all marriages fail within the first ten years, one might ask,  “What is the secret to a long and happy marriage relationship?” The truth is that there is no secret or magic bullet. It is hard work and commitment to each other. There will be good days and bad days but there is always the next day. If there is any one thing that can hold a couple together through all of the things that life will throw at them, it is a common faith in Christ. All I can tell you is that the message from God’s Word is critical to the happiness that each of us enjoys.

First of all, God loves us and everything He does for us is for our benefit. He created the institution of marriage to be enjoyed by a man and a woman and to bring each of them happiness. The Bible tells us that God loved us so much that He gave His Son to die on a cross for us so that we might, through faith have eternal life. Christ tells the husband that he is to love his wife with the same love that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for that church (Ephesians 5:25) If I love my wife with that kind of love, then everything I do is because I love heer and I want her to be happy. I want my Lord to be pleased with me as a man who loves his wife and realizes that his wife is a gift from God created especially for me and my happiness.

Secondly, marriage is a partnership. Like any partnership, it takes work to maintain that relationship in peak condition. A happy marriage doesn’t just happen. bot of us are committed to the relationship and to each other because we love one another and it is our desire that our partner be happy in this relationship. No major decision in this partnership is made without prayer and conversation. god is not the author of confusion, therefore He will not give my wife a different answer to any issue than the one He gives me. Again, Go created the institution of marriage for our benefit, not for our demise.

Finally, I married a woman far better than I deserve. I thank my Lord for her every day. My wife is the most thoughtful, caring and giving person that I know. Proverbs 31:10-12 says, “An excellent wife, who can find” For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.” I have found that woman. Furthermore, Proverbs 31:25-30 states, “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her, her husband also, and he praises her, saying: Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” I married such a woman. So, back to the question, “What’s the secret?” The answer is, you have to give yourself to the marriage. You have to give yourself to your spouse. Whatever you have within you, “Give it Away”.

Note: This year we will not be celebrating our anniversary nor Mother’s Day in the traditional manner. Instead we will be traveling to see our oldest granddaughter graduate from college. She has her degree in elementary education. Her last semester she achieved a 4.0 grade point and she has completed her student teaching and passed her board exams. She even has her first job offer. Life is good.

 

 

Soccer – A Season In Review

Junior Varsity soccer season has come to an end, so I thought I would post a “Season in Review” of our youngest grand daughter’s exploits. She is a sophomore in high school and plays center forward and both wings on the team. Those positions have given her the opportunity to score several goals this season. One thing about soccer here, it doesn’t have huge fan support, so getting close to the action to photograph the matches is not a problem.

Like I said, playing center forward has given her the opportunity to score this season and she has taken advantage of it. Here, she beats the goal keeper to the corner of the net and scores.

A little later in the same match she  gets one step ahead of the defense and slaps the ball in to the corner of the net again. The final score in this match was 2-0, so she did all of the scoring.

A flashback to 2010 shows that our grand daughter, in yellow,  has never let being out-sized keep her from competing for control of the ball.

It’s also never kept her from engaging in a little contact, which is all a apart of the game at this age.

Finesse is not her strong quality on the field, but getting the ball in the net is, even if that means going through the goal keeper.

Concentrating on the ball seems to be more important than worrying about the crowd around her.

We’re already looking forward to next season.

Footnote; As a dual spring sport athlete the grand daughter won the conference high jump championship, in track, a couple of weeks ago that you can read about in an earlier post. Last Thursday she finished second in the state meet.

Both boys and girls track teams won state championship trophies this season, so she will get a ring. It’s been Awe…some!!!

Final Match of the Season

Last Friday our youngest grand daughter played her final soccer match of the season. It’s been a great year for her. She is a sophomore and plays on the high school junior varsity team. She was one of only three freshmen last year to make the junior varsity. Next season she will move to the varsity team. It has been a great year for her. She has played both wings, center forward, a little midfield and a couple of short stints on defense. Her goal count is in double digits. In the next week or two I will probably post a “Year in Review” of photos.

 

 

This is what a conference championship winning high jump looks like.

 

This is what a conference champion high jumper looks like when she realizes that she may have just won it all.

And this is what the conference champion high jumper looks like in front of the team tent after the meet. In two weeks she goes to the state championship meet. She’s only a sophomore, so there could be great things in her future. Have an Awesome Monday!

The skies have been overcast recently, so I thought we might head back to the soccer field to see what is going on. Both the varsity and junior varsity teams are having very good seasons. The varsity is the two time defending state champs and they appear to be headed back to the play-offs again this year. Our youngest grand daughter is a sophomore and plays on the junior varsity, so that’s where 99% of my soccer photos are taken.

Before each match the mood is pretty casual. There are few final words from the coach and a group huddle, then it’s time to take the field and carve out another victory.

As you have probably seen in previous posts, the grand daughter, shown here in the black uniform, is not opposed to a little contact.

Occasionally, one can find themselves being double teamed. Soccer players are among the best conditioned athletes in sports. One is constantly moving and the matches are longer (35 minute halves) than basketball, with no timeouts.  Substitutions are allowed but they are few and far between.

Like baseball, time on the bench is time for a little lighter mood. But when the coach points in your direction, it is time to stretch your legs and prepare to return to the fray.

Back on the field and the contact resumes. There are times when soccer moves from the realm of contact sport and becomes a …

Collision sport. This is especially true around the goal box. Here you can barely see the ball between the foot of the goal keeper in blue and the leg of the grand daughter in black. This time the goal keeper made a great save but there are times when…

The grand daughter, in white this time, delivers the ball and the goal keeper into the net. There are only a couple of more matches left in this season and I will be sad to see it end. But I can look forward to two more seasons of high school “football”.

2018 Prom

Last Saturday was Prom night at the local high school. Our middle granddaughter, the tall one in the middle wearing the black gown, is a senior this year and will be graduating in a few weeks. One of the popular places for the kids to meet for photos is at Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern American Art. It was a good thing, since the skies turned overcast and it started raining later in the afternoon. The two young ladies in the middle are the girls associate youth leader at church and the wife of the Youth minister. These girls are members of the church student ministry and many have been together since preschool.

Here our granddaughter is sharing a few moments with fellow seniors. They will be going to different colleges next year so time together will be limited after these next couple of weeks.

Then there are the proud parents. Just a note, Emily is wearing heels for the photos so she is taller than her 5′-10″ mom and still a little shorter than her 6′-3″ dad.  Note: the heels came off at prom in favor of sandal. No point in punishing your feet all night long.

And she is the tallest of her siblings even without the heels. The grandson is missing in action here, but she is taller than him as well. He decided a trip with friends to Kansas City was better than hanging out at a prom photo shoot with his sisters.

But she is eyeball to eyeball with her Papa and taller than her Nana. One thing about being tall and slender.

I think it makes for a very elegant prom photo, don’t  you? Well let’s go back indoors for a few final close-ups before the limo whisks them away.

As you can see, Crystal Bridges makes for some very nice, subtle background images. This is one of my favorites.

Well that’s it for this year. Next year the youngest granddaughter will be a junior and we will be doing this all over again. See you then.

Above is just a little something that Lucy and I put together.

It was an awesome week. If you remember the photo below from a recent post…I submitted it to the website, Pixoto. People view photos in head to head competition and vote on their favorite. This image won best photo of the day and best photo of the week in the sports/fitness category. If it should happen to win best of the month, then I will probably enter it in a couple of local fair competitions later this year.

You may also recall this image of our youngest grand daughter competing in high jump. Well, last Thursday she finished first in a meet, set a personal record of 5′-3″ and qualified for the state championships. I am pretty sure that qualifying for state has earned her an athletic letter in track as a sophomore. Next week she will be competing in the conference championship meet and getting ready for the state event. Have an Awe….some Monday!

More Fun With Filters

Last week I posted a few photo edits of this soon to be demolished structure. The previous image was taken from a little different angle. You can scroll down a couple of posts to find the post if you’re curious. I did a few different edits with this image, so here we go.

Using PhotoShop Elements 15, I used a mosaic tile filter then a rippled blur to get this effect. It has a bit of a landscape painting quality to it.

I got a little abstract here. There is a distortion feature available which allows you to get very creative with the image. Here, I distorted the entry and most of the siding. I left the roof line and background pretty much intact. Next I added a watercolor filter and while this does have a watercolor painting feel to it, the colors are still a little too strong to be believable.  Okay, now for a couple of Black & White edits.

I added a tile filter here, then added a pen and ink filter to convert the tones to fine lines. Overall, this reminds me of looking through a vintage screen door.

By removing the tile filter and selecting a very pale gray and and very dark gray as my two colors I used the pen and ink filter to created kind of an aged rendering. This is also the header photo for this post.

Leaving the PhotoShop filters behind I went to an On1 filter called tattered paper gray for this final edit. I really like how this one give a sense of age to the building. I don’t think you can get this with a color image. Well that’s all for this week. See you next Friday with something new and different. Have a blessed week-end.

Fun With Filters

Whenever the weather prevents me from getting out and shooting new images or when my schedule doesn’t allow me to capture some new material, I will often just pull out some old images and give them a new look through the magic of PhotoShop Elements and a few add-on filters from Nik or On1.

As an architect in my former life, I am fascinated by the ornate brickwork done from the turn of the 20th century and continuing into the mid 1940’s. Everything from modest homes to impressive commercial high-rise buildings were draped in beautiful masonry. It seems that a mason was not only a trade, but a craft populated by artisans.

This building is found in the small community of Okmulgee, in Northeast Oklahoma. It’s about thirty-five miles south of Tulsa and about ten miles north of my birthplace in Henryetta.  I like the combination of cast stone and brick. While color images give one a true image of the structure…

There is nothing quite like black & white to bring out the soul and character of the design. Here I used a combination of two filters from On1, which is a free add-on package to PhotoShop Elements. This detail is centered over the main entrance. Meanwhile…

over on the corner of the building is this handsome minaret. Like automobiles, most new buildings are truly more energy efficient, better constructed structurally, offer better lighting, and are safer that those of bygone days, but they simply don’t have the soul that details like this give to the design.

And black & white only adds depth to that soul. Have a blessed week.

Last week I was back at the track for another local high school meet. Every venue is different and the opportunity for photos varies with the event. After checking out a few of the event locations, I decided to try to capture a couple if images of the hurdles. I like events with props. The hurdles really add to the interest of the photos in my humble opinion. My legs are too short to make it over those obstacles with any speed or grace, but these guys make it look easy.

From a strictly photographic viewpoint, the pole vault is my new favorite sport. There is speed, strength, coordination and an obstacle to overcome. It is a great event to photograph, regardless of where your viewing the competition.

For me there are three photos to capture the excitement of the event. The first photo captures the bend in the pole as the athlete begins to launch skyward and the bar is in sight. The second image is at the peak of the vault and one hopes that the competitor doesn’t touch the bar on the way over.

This is the peak of the jump when viewed from the runway side of the vault. The last image is not available and that is the release of the pole and knowing that the vault has been successful.

The most interesting place to photograph a running event is at the corners. If it is the 4×100 or 4×200 relay race, the excitement is greater because that is where the batons are passed and the opportunity for success or failure hangs in the balance.

No track meet I photograph would be complete without an image of the youngest grand daughter competing in the high jump. Again, speed, strength, skill, and overcoming an obstacle are all a part of the competition. Have a blessed day.