photography

Popinjay: Joyful

May 17, 2010 By heather 9 Comments

Cue The Bourne Identity theme song. Or any other music that intimidates covert ops, high-speed chases, and MacGuyver-like intelligence on steroids.

I stole Popinjay from Michelle Pendergrass.

For those of you unfamiliar with the weekly Popinjay Photo Challenge, here’s the explanation Michelle gives:

pop⋅in⋅jay–noun–a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter.

In other words, blogging.

Isn’t that what this personal blogging is all about? Me. Me. Me. For this photo challenge, that’s perfect. We’re going to dig inside of ourselves and do some concept photography.

I’m going to give you a word and you’re going to take a photo of something that describes the concept of the word.

Michelle gives one rule:

You may not use pictures of your children and/or pets.

Seeing as how Popinjay is mine (all mine! mwuhahaha) for the next two weeks, by all means, use any pictures of your children and/or pets you’d like. Rules, schmules.

Today’s word: joyful.

joy·ful
[joi-fuhl]
–adjective
1.
full of joy, as a person or one’s heart; glad; delighted.
2. showing or expressing joy, as looks, actions, or speech.
3. causing or bringing joy, as an event, a sight, or news; delightful: the joyful announcement of their marriage.

Sample from the Heather Goodman “Glimpses of the Resurrection” collection:

Ah, my beloved beach. Of course, I’m not picky about beaches (exception: Galvestion, TX–for those of you who have been there, you know what I mean). But Ocean City is the beach of my girlhood. It conjures contrasts of the warmth of the sun on your skin and the cold Atlantic numbing your bones, the salt of the sea air filling your sinuses and the sweetness of Italian water ice on your tongue, the laughter of the crowds and the white silence of the crashing waves.

Ocean City reminds me that God created the earth, that he called it good, and that he will redeem it.

Your turn. Let’s see your images of joyful. Please remember to leave a comment when you put up your link to make sure I don’t miss you.

Filed Under: joyful, photography, popinjay

Popinjay: Content

May 3, 2010 By heather 3 Comments

This week’s Popinjay is being hosted over at Candid Karina’s. Theme = content. So many choices.

Both pictures are from a recent trip to the Dallas Arboretum. The first, my husband took, but since we are one (see wedding vows for proof), I figure it’s not cheating. Plus, I took the second picture, so it’s all good.

Filed Under: content, photography, popinjay

Popinjay: Bitter

April 9, 2010 By heather 2 Comments

I know I’m early on this one, but since I’ll be traipsing around Chicago on Monday with my best friend, I thought I’d post today.

Every week, Michelle Pendergrass submits a photography challenge. Photograph this word, she says. This week’s word: bitter.

Let me tell you the story behind this photo. Several years ago, when my grandparents died, I inherited their record player and a few of their records. At the time, my parents did not have a working record player, so they gave me permission to take their records (with the proviso that I record some of them onto CD so they can listen to them–a project which I admittedly have not done).

They have no recollection of this conversation.

Once, perhaps twice a year, the records come up in conversation.

“Wait. You have our Beatles records?” Dad will say. Or, “You have my Handel Messiah?”

Yes, Dad. And I explain to him again when he gave me permission to steal, er, take, er borrow? them. Up until now, they sighed and reluctantly agreed to the already agreed upon arrangement.

A few months ago, they bought a new record player. These discussions now take on a whole new meaning.

Hence my picture for bitter.

Filed Under: bitter, photography, popinjay

Popinjay: Free

February 15, 2010 By heather 5 Comments

I left this, our junior snowman, with his carrot nose and broccoli eyes and smile, for a moment to get my camera.

Sneaking a Snack

For the weekly Popinjay Challenge. This week’s word: free.

Filed Under: dogs, free, photography, play, popinjay, snow, snowman

Popinjay: Guilty

February 1, 2010 By heather 8 Comments

I have not been able to keep up with Michelle’s weekly Popinjay Photo Challenge, but I’m able to pop in every once in a while (knee slap for that pun, please).

This week’s word: Guilty

Filed Under: guilty, photography, popinjay

Hope Sealed

January 11, 2010 By heather 8 Comments

Two things occurred to bring together this photo:

1. I gave my husband a Nikon D40 for Christmas (actually, several family members went in with me to give it to him). I (mostly) gave him the camera because he always finds creative shots and loves playing with the settings of our simple point-and-shoot for the best picture. If he produces unusual pictures now with limited settings, I can’t wait for the photos he’ll find with all the bells and whistles. But I also gave him this because I wanted to play with it. Yes, I know. I’ve opened the door to getting an HDTV for my next birthday gift.

2. Michelle started a new photo challenge called Popinjay. I won’t spell out the details (you can see them here), but this week’s word is hope.

Now, on to the picture itself.

I chose a mailbox. At summer camp, my muscles jittered at mail call. And who doesn’t look through the stack of bills and junk mail with some semblance of hope of a real letter, or at least a Netflix DVD? Also, I wanted to get the mailbox from a child’s perspective.

You’ll notice that the mailbox is dirty, old, simple, and leaning to one side. I knew this was the perfect mailbox when I saw it. It’s not about the mailbox itself. The mailbox is the conduit for the real hope–brown paper packages tied up with string.

It’s a simple shot, but I took dozens of photos of this mailbox (because I wanted to play around with all these magical settings–in some cases my camera yelled at me, like when I tried to make it have a large aperture with bright sunlight; Too much light! it said, or something to that effect). I wonder what the neighbors thought of me as I snapped away. Stalker?

And, yes, I know you’re not supposed to take pictures into the sunlight, but I liked the bit of haze the sunlight gave the mailbox.

Filed Under: hope, photography, popinjay

Glimpses: August

August 10, 2009 By heather Leave a Comment

A new issue of Glimpses comes out tomorrow. It features an interview with Andy Crouch (author of Culture Making) and amazing photography by Cinde Rawn (I’d like to spend a day or two seeing the world through her eyes).

For those of you who aren’t subscribed but would like to be, you can sign-up on the handy-dandy link to your right. You’ll get a free copy of a Bible study tool using some literary structures to understand stories of the Bible.

I should be a town crier. (My husband tells me I cry enough.)

Filed Under: Andy Crouch, Glimpses, photography

Striving to be Good

September 10, 2008 By heather 2 Comments

On The Writer’s View 2 (a yahoo group for writers where we discuss craft, market, and career), Cecil Murphey asked:

"’I want to be an excellent writer,’ he said.
‘What qualities make a writer excellent? How do I develop as a writer?’

Before you respond, the resident curmudgeon believes that writers fit into one
of three categories. [He doesn't mind if you disagree with him.]

1. The Mechanical Writers. They know and practice the rules but their writing is
dull and lifeless. They’re like the pianists who hit the right notes, but it’s
not good music.

2. The Okay Writers. They write; they sell. But there’s something lacking. It’s
not bad writing. I like to say it this way: Their writing is as good as 50 other
writers, but it’s not better than the 50.

3. The Gifted Writers. They combine the spiritual gift with hard work and
produce quality. They may not be top sellers; they may publish little. But their
goal is quality, not quantity.

WHAT MAKES AN EXCELLENT WRITER?
Can average/mediocre writers become excellent writers?
How much of being a writer is a gift or talent and how much is the result of
hard work?"

I expanded in my answer to what makes a good artist, or what makes good art and what makes bad art (what are we striving toward and from what are we moving away). Here’s what I said:

"Because beauty is found in who God is as Trinity and what He does as
Creator, Redeemer, and Re-Creator, I believe there are objective
aspects to beauty. As I strive to develop, there are dangers that
threaten good art:
1. Art that is sentimental–it refuses to delve
into the depths of pain and ugliness or it refuses to emotionally move
beyond that (nihilism) (balance of the cross and resurrection)
2.
Art that is super-saturated in culture and doesn’t move beyond that
(following trends rather than working from the vision of the earth’s
resurrection)
3. Art that is manipulative
4. Art that is self-centered (merely wanted to express myself)
5. Art that refuses to explore (stubbornly clings to tradition)
6. Art that is escapist or a form of distraction (escape into feelings,
entertainment–now I have that song stuck in my head, "Feelings, nothing more than feelings…")
7. Art that is subjected to the utilitarian
8. Art that is mellodramatic
9. Art that is elitist–’Intelligence does not eliminate. It invites’ (Haven Kimmel).
Good
writing or storytelling, then, evokes people to think about things in a
fresh way, balances simplicity and feasting, is energetic, exposes the
depths, transforms, improvises, is based on the beauty of God and God’s
work and moves toward the vision given us of the future resurrection."