This Christmas Present Rocks!

From the lovely and gracious Mrs. Meyers!

I renewed my membership this morning at the Arnold Rifle and Pistol Club. In the afternoon I took my sister- and brother-in-law out to the range to shoot. He shot his new Kimber Ultra II Rapter. We had a great time.

Keeping Warm

Advent & Christmas

Today is the first Sunday in Advent.  Not everyone understands what to think about and do during Advent.  There are still plenty of Presbyterians who think Christmas is pagan or some sort of compromise with Roman Catholicism.

Here's a simple catechism I wrote last year (for children) explaining the Church Year and Advent.

The Church Year

Q 1. Why do we have different seasons of the year?
A. God created the seasons for man’s use and enjoyment.

Q 2. What do Fall and Winter remind us of?
A. Fall and Winter remind us of sin and death because it is dark and cold.

Q 3. What do Spring and Summer teach us?
A. Spring teaches us that God brings light and life to the world through Jesus Christ.

Q 4. What does the church calendar chiefly celebrate?
A. The church calendar celebrates the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Q 5. Why does the church have her own seasons?
A. The church has her own seasons to teach the world that true life is found in Jesus Christ and to resist reducing life to politics and economics.

Q 6. How are we to sanctify the seasons that God created for our benefit?
A. According to 1 Timothy 4:5, we are to set apart the seasons with the Word of God and prayer.

Q 7. How has the church set apart the seasons with the Word of God and prayer?
A. The church has chosen readings from the Old and New Testaments for each season and has ordered the prayer life of the church to match the life of Jesus.

Advent & Christmas

Q 8. What does the word “Advent” mean?
A. The word “advent” means “to come” and has to do with the coming of Jesus.

Q 9. What portion of the life of Jesus does Advent celebrate?
A. Advent celebrates the times leading up to the birth of Jesus as well as his coming again at the last day.

Q 10. How many Sundays are there in Advent?
A. There are four Sundays in Advent.

Q 11. What are the colors for Advent and what do they mean?
A. The colors for Advent are purple and royal blue. They remind us that Jesus is a glorious King.

Q 12. What do we pray for during Advent season?
A. During Advent we pray that Jesus our King would continue to come to us and serve us as he has promised.

Q 13. In our Advent prayers are we pretending that Jesus has not yet been born?
A. No. During Advent we are praying for him to come to us again and again as he has promised.

Q. 14. How did God fulfill his promises to his people in the Hebrew Scriptures?
A. God fulfilled his promises by uniting himself to our human nature in his Son, who faithfully lived a perfect life of service, died the death we deserve, and was raised to life again as the new man, and all this for our salvation.

Q 15. How has Jesus promised to come to us today?
A. In many different ways—to be with us on Sunday for worship, to help us daily when we are in trouble, and at the end of the world to establish the new heavens and earth.

It's about time that I start posting on this blog. Facebook has been fun, but I can't do the kind of commentary that I've done in the past. So I'm going to start blogging this Advent season, maybe every couple of days. And more than just photos. Bible, theology, and all that good stuff. But first a link to some images I took at our Thanksgiving extravaganza this year.

You can see all of the images here.

Planet Busch Stadium

Presbyterian Planet

This is Providence Church - a world unto itself!

Planet Manhattan

This is a polar perspective on 5 images stitched together as an equilateral panorama.

The Final Anniversary Dinner (This Year)

Last night we enjoyed the final anniversary dinner last night at Favazza's on the Hill. Favazza's has been one of our favorite Italian restaurants in St. Louis for 25 years. We always get Cavatelli Shrimp Mario (Chris) and Linguini Pescatori (me). We also had a wonderful bottle of Jordan (2003) Cab.

Thirty Years Ago!

Chris and I celebrate 30 years of marriage today. Here's what we looked like back in the day!

At the Wedding Reception

The Evening after the Reception at West Port

The Bride!

Honeymoon Shot

More New York City Photos

Look up!

Times Square

Empire State Building

New York City

Time to post some NYC images from our 30th anniversary trip a few weeks ago.

Lower Manhattan from the Top of the Rock(efeller Center)

Sightseeing

Copper-topped

Spiderman

Good Morning Sparrow!

I'm still learning how to use this Nikon 400mm Ai-S lens. It's an older, non-CPU lens with manual focus. I used a Nikon 1.4TC with it for these shots yesterday morning. What's a challenge in these long lenses is getting the focus right with such a narrow depth of field. The eye of the bird is key. If that's not in focus, the shot is ruined. This is the best one I got yesterday morning.

Birthday & Dogs

Last night we had a nice (cool) cookout at my parents house. We got Spencer and Bear together for the first time. Bear is my parent's yellow lab. They got along just fine. Here's some pictures from the evening.

Spencer & Bear

Standoff

Not so Loud!

Gotcha!

Bite!

Spencer

Mom & Spencer

German Chocolate Cake

Machine Gun Fun

Had some fun yesterday shooting. Here's a friend shooting a small AR-15 with a flash enhancer.
No photoshopping this next image:

I've been neglecting this blog. So here's an image from our Men & Boys Campout last weekend.

Shaw Nature Reserve

Well, I see that I've neglected my dear old blog for some time. It's that seductive mistress Facebook. Mea culpla.

My friend Weisan and I took a little photowalk at Shaw Nature Reserve on Wednesday. Here's a few of the infrared images I captured.

#1 - Titled and Twisted


#2 - Dark Road

#3 - Mirror Image

Living Room

Making QT VR movies is fun. Here's a HDR VR movie of our living room. Give it a few moments to load. Use the shift key to zoom in and the control key to zoom out.
If you looked closely at the reflection in the fireplace you can see the tripod legs used to capture the HDR images that were later stitched together.

Providence Sanctuary

Here's a QTVR of the inside of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Use your mouse to look around. Zoom in and out with the shift and control keys.

My Home Study

Just playing around on Friday afternoon. Check this out.
I fixed it. The first one had some bad color cast and the white balance was off. I also figured out how to fix the size.

Use your mouse to move around. Press shift to zoom in and control to zoom out. Cool, huh?

My New Book

Red Rush - Bush Stadium Today

Three Palms

Captured with an infrared-converted Nikon D70s.

More Pelicans

Three Pelicans

Pelican Dive

Pelican Glide

Pelican in Flight

Famous Pensacola Beach Sign

Jellyfish

It's been storming and we have this critters all over the beach.


Captured on my little Lumix Lx3.

Storm on the Beach

Life on the Beach

It's Spring Break time again. Thanks to the generosity of the Forsters we are staying at Starboard Village on Pensacola Beach, Florida!

Streetside Panorama

Beachside Pano

New Lens Madness

I got a great deal on a new Nikon 400mm lens last week. You gotta love eBay! Here are a few test shots from my back yard. I think I'll keep it.

Anything for a Snack

Gackle Cackle
I'm leaving for Spring Break tomorrow evening and hope to capture some good images in Florida this year!

St. Paul's in Cooper Hill, MO (est. 1890)