Family Promise

April 21, 2013 Timothy Price7 Comments

What does homeless bring to mind? Indigent street people, addicts and alcoholics with mental issues that are not to be associated with, like the Samaritans in the first century CE? While many of the homeless individuals you might encounter on the street have serious issues that contribute to their often perpetual homelessness, there is another, almost invisible, side of homelessness — homeless families. Homeless families tend to be “normal” people who have had some kind of catastrophic event that caused them to become homeless. Fortunately, there is Family Promise of Albuquerque (FPA) to help. FPA is made up of churches that temporarily house homeless families and volunteers who help support the families. Instead of ignoring these families, FPA, offers them life sustaining water.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? (John 4: 4-11 NIV).

Central United Methodist Church hosted two families this past week, and Laurie and I volunteered to help yesterday afternoon. When we got to CUMC, we had a pleasant surprise — there were four students from UNM playing with the kids as part of the 11th Annual Spring Storm Event put on by the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM) who volunteer in a one day service project. The students, Katarina, Jackie, David and Rudy, were wonderful. They played and played the the kids, and had a lot of fun. I was really impressed that they took a day off from their heavy class loads to play with kids — the kids were so happy, and their mom got a nice break. By giving up some of their precious time yesterday, Katarina, Jackie, David and Rudy helped make earth a little more like Heaven.

Downtown Drive-by

April 9, 2013 Timothy Price3 Comments

A costumed crowd was gathered outside the Kimo Theater. I wanted to park and get photos but there were no parking spots available, so I swung around the block and did a drive-by photo at about 10 mph. The sunset was beautiful, but my best opportunity of getting a photo of it was a drive-by at 80 mph on I-40.

Five Legged Spider on Daf

April 3, 2013April 3, 2013 Timothy PriceLeave a comment

Macro photography in low light at a high ISO gives interesting results as in the photo of the spider on the fancy daffodil. I got a couple more street scenes in downtown. Things I see every day will suddenly catch my attention when the light is right.

Peaceful Pigeon

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

A pigeon flew over me as I walked out the my car, and a couple of police officers were harassing a guy outside the Gold Street Cafe for who knows what. The sunset on April Fool’s was beautiful.

Great Getting

March 31, 2013April 1, 2013 Timothy Price8 Comments

The “Great Getting’ Up Mournin’ celebration” with the CUMC Chancel Choir and Fellowship Baptist Unity Choir was fantastic. Jazz a la Carte played Dixieland Jazz before the service, between sets and after the service, and they were very enternaining. Pastor Scott Sharp (CUMC) and Pastor Dennis Dunn (FBUC) both delivered short, but inspiring sermons. The music, choirs, musicians and congregation were very lively. It was a great service and moving experience.

I’ve been looking for a second full-frame Canon body, but new Canon full frame bodies are expensive, so I started looking at used bodies. I saw a Canon 1Ds advertised on Amazon as “Like New, little use” for $650 with no other description. I emailed the seller and asked what it came with and the shutter count. Canon 1D bodies are the hard core professional bodies that start new for $6000 and run up to over $8000 depending on the model. Normally used 1D bodies with low shutter counts are priced higher than 5D and new 6D. 1D bodies in the $600 range usually have very high shutter counts (80,000+), and are normally very well used.

The seller emailed back and said the camera came with all the original accessories, in the original box, and that the shutter count was 1846. My 5d that is only a year old is ready to turn over 20,000 clicks on the shutter. I ordered the camera and it arrived on Friday, and it is really “like new”, so it was “great getting” on my part.

All the photos, except for the photos I took of the camera sitting among Laurie’s cookies, were taken with the 1Ds. The sky was overcast and very bright when I took the outdoor photos, so it was a good challenge for the metering system. The auto focus is fast and accurate and it focused on black (Rosencrantz) immediately without searching like the 5D. The shutter is much quieter than the 5D and is super quick and responsive. All the photos are how they came straight out of the camera with little manipulation (of course, the panorama of the sanctuary was stitched together). The service tonight was a good test for indoors, under low light. While it focuses in the shadows very well, I discovered the autofocus searches on bright white, so it’s not perfect.

I got a photo of the first butterfly of the season, and it looked pretty ragged, so it either wintered over locally or migrated. One of the peach trees is blooming, as are the wild plums, and the honey bees are enjoying them.

After the service, we gathered in the ‘Life Center” for fellowship and cookies. The couple in the last photo asked me to take their picture. They are a handsome couple, and my first portrait with the 1Ds. I put on the super-wide angle lens and got a photo of the trombonist in the jazz band with his “le long trombone!”

HoneyBeeBlossom

Hit by a Bus

March 23, 2013 Timothy Price11 Comments

It’s probably better to get run over by a rhinoceros than a city bus. Yesterday morning a driver ran a red light at 3rd & Gold, and was broadsided by a city bus. The occupants of the car were taken to the hospital, the bike on the front of the bus was smashed up and a passenger on the bus had minor injuries. These are the city bus investigators at the scene.

Tonight’s sunset through the trees by the Corrales park was quite colorful tonight.

Peace on the Go

March 20, 2013 Timothy Price7 Comments

As this motorcycle passed me while I was doing 60 mph on the way home this afternoon, I just held the camera against the side window and pressed the shutter when I saw the front tire in my peripheral vision. I guess he noticed my camera, because he gave me a peace sign that luckily was in the frame.

Gelato Burritos

March 19, 2013 Timothy Price9 Comments

Jesse’s Coffee Hub in Corrales is offering Gelato Burritos — if you are feeling adventurous, the triple venti, gluten free, chocolate, orange barrel crush with sausage, bacon, double cheese, eggs, spam, spam, eggs and spam is pretty tasty. I noticed while I was trying to get my dumb phone to read the DR Code on the back of a DIGBY truck, the driver was taking the idea of an orange barrel crush literally. Another sign that spring is almost here: more people are strolling around downtown enjoying the mild temperature in the late afternoon light.

Adam and Marissa

March 13, 2013 Timothy Price4 Comments

Adam is leaving for boot camp next week, and will serve in the Army for the next three years. He brought is girlfriend, Marissa, with him to the photo session, and although she was reluctant to get in front of the camera, she turned out to be a delightful model. Marissa is studying mechanical engineering at UNM. Rosencrantz had to get in action, of course!

Holy Moses

March 11, 2013March 11, 2013 Timothy Price2 Comments

I had my day all planned out — go to the second service, get material on the way home to finish the door, do more watering, herd cats — or so I thought. After the service, which had a wonderful liturgical dance to “Moses”, Jerri asked me if I had gone to their concert at Keller Hall last night and photographed it — I hadn’t, so she asked me if I could photograph the concert this afternoon. The concert was great. A mixed Choir, with the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, performed the Easter selections from Handel’s Messiah, then the SOA played Brahms’ “Academic Festival Overture” and Camille Saint-Saens’ “Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor,” with Natalia Tikhovidova on piano. Ms Tikhovidova is a phenomenal pianist and the “Piano Concerto…” was very lively and showy. The SOA and choirs will do another performance on March 17, 2013, 2:00 pm at John XXIII Catholic Community, 4831 Tramway Ridge, NE.

I started out the photo session standing with the choir in the beginning of the concert, so I got a super-wide angle photo from the choir’s/orchestra’s point-of-view, with the audience in the pews. The percussionists were fun to watch because they followed their music with such intensity — there were times they played only one or two notes, so they obviously didn’t want to miss them.

Although I had to lay aside my well-laid plans for the day, the concert was well worth it.