Staff Conference Pictures…

To give you an idea of how busy I was at this past conference I wanted to show you all of the pictures that I took…but I came into a problem. I didn’t take any pictures during the whole week. Not a single one (with my own camera, to be fair). I was importing pictures last night and they jumped straight from Chicago to Amsterdam…not a single click in between. This is almost sad to me.

Thankfully, Rogier took a bunch of pictures and he’s put them up on Flickr to share…here.  

But being back in Europe is inspiring me to take more pictures again and I’m going to try really really hard to share them with you all!

Barcelona Pictures…

I added a new page to my blog called ‘photography’….so guess what is there? It’s up at the header of the page. Or you can click here.

I put up some of pictures of Barcelona for all to enjoy. Jen and I love this city and I hope that my pictures tell the story of it’s diversity, energy, movement, light, and creativity. 

Capturing Memories without a Camera…sigh

no cameraWhen Jen and I were packing for this trip to Europe we knew one thing for certain…We needed to pack light. This is normally a good rule to follow when traveling in Europe anyway. I had a friend tell me that there were two types of people who travel in Europe: Those who pack light. And those who wish they did. This is incredibly true.

But this trip is special. It’s special in that we have to try and get as much stuff from our lives in Paris into the bags that we fly back with. I’m talking shoes, more clothes, video camera, guitar gear, baby stuff, etc…We knew that for every article of clothing that we took to Paris, it went one less article that we were going to be bringing back. So we packed light. Like, I run out of shirts in a few days light. Like, I brought two pairs of pants for a month light.

Sacrifices were made…but the greatest sacrifice of all for me was that I left my camera gear at home.

Who does that? You’re going on a trip to Europe and don’t pack your camera? Even here in Colorado I’ve wanted to take pictures, but somebody was trying to be smart and didn’t pack his camera. I know that I’ll regret it every day we are in Europe. Even writing this right now makes me feel sick with regret. Ugh!!!

I guess in some ways this is a good thing…life can’t be lived looking through the lens of a camera. And just because memories aren’t captured in a 5 mega-byte jpeg file doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. I’ve already enjoyed flying without my camera and I know that on the way home when I have a ton of stuff on the plane that I’ll certainly be glad that I don’t have it. In the meantime I’ll have to deal and find other ways of creative outlet…thus the new 6 randomized headers on my blog!

Because I Love ‘Em

…Photos that is. I love pictures because the catch and freeze a memory and share a viewpoint. They communicate more than words and stain our brains. Here are 100 of them that Life magazine say changed the world…I would say two things about them first.

1. Most of these pictures revolve around US history or US involvement. I don’t know how I feel about the reality that all of them changed the world, but they do present some defining moments.

2. Some of the pictures are graphic in nature…so you’re given the heads up.

100 Photographs that Changed the World

World Press Photos

In the past two years photography has become a hobby of mine. It seems like everybody these days has a camera out pointing and shooting at nice looking stuff. However, truly great photos act as windows into bigger stories. They take our imagination captive to what was happening in the before and after of the sound of the shutter.

The World Press just posted some of the best photos of the year…check out these ‘windows’ here. Just as fair warning…some of these stories are one’s we’d rather not know or see…if you get what I’m saying.