It’s been a busy, busy week.
Christmas Cookie Weekend turned into Christmas cookie week. I’ll take pictures.

Taking care of someone else’s boy regularly is much harder than I thought. I mean, when I go head to head with my kids, it’s a battle wills I have a chance to win. With someone else’s, no such luck. I might win the battle and lose the war. *sigh*. I hate fighting over stupid stuff with a kid. But it was twenty degrees outside and a t-shirt isn’t going to work. A coat. Wear a damn coat. And you’re not leaving the house until you do. Yep. That went well.

Rewriting is not fun at all. I’m going to finish and I can see the end, but man, does it suck.

Do you need a little relaxation for the holidays? I suggest Jodi Redford’s “TAKING LIBERTY” which is one of the best Sci Fi Romance books I’ve read in a while. The action was fantastic and the world building was stellar. I fell in love with her hero along with the heroine and the tension between those two was electric. I especially loved her aliens and Jodi is a brilliant writer. I’m keeping an eye out for more of her sci fi. She and I exchanged a few emails and I was SHOCKED to discover it was her first sci fi. Yes, it’s that good. Good SFR is tough to find, so I hope we see a lot more from her soon.
I also suggest “The Dickens With Love” by Josh Lanyon (if you like m/m romance). The research Josh did for this book really makes this story shine. I love the characters and the plot is terrific. Josh always writes hot sex scenes and these are smokin’, but he ALSO adds the element of holiday angst and emotion that gives the story depth.

This hasn’t been an easy year. I’ve never been so eager to see a year come to a close. As 2009 winds down, I realize it’s been my most challenging, least productive year since I started writing in 2005. My writing has improved and I’ve kept my nose to the grindstone, but it HAS been a grind. My resolution for next year is to love writing again. I’ve had glimpses this year, but not many.

Good news!!! For those of you who follow my blog, you know that the Redneck works out of town five days a week. He’s been on the road for over four years and it has been a monotonous ride. He found out that he’ll be working close to home–only thirty minutes away–starting next March. Nothing is ever set in stone, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll get to have him home for a while. I know that doesn’t sound like I’m jumping up and down, but I’m always cautiously optimistic. When he’s really home, I swear you’ll hear my “YEE HAW” all the way to Canada.

Oh, and I’ve been following along with Alaska Steve on his vacation. He has some absolutely stunning pictures of the Capitol and New York. Don’t miss them.His D.C. pics were gorgeous, but I love the take he had on Seattle.

Got any ideas for a Thursday Thirteen? LOL.

Venue: Indera Kayangan Ballroom, Empire Hotel and Country Club

Vincent Goh, Assistant General Manager of Interhouse Company delivering his welcome address

Steven Goh, getting ready for the Presentation

Roland Poon, Senior Manager of Canon Singapore Pte Ltd, showing the EOS 5D Mark II miniature with capacity of 2GB storage pendrive

Kris LeBoutillier setting up for his presentation

The Moment - Something that you can't plan for, it just happens

Kris LeBoutillier – Assignment Photographer for National Geographic Traveler and Books, Discovery Channel, Forbes, Washington Post, and many others. In his presentation, Kris focused on mastering the basic technical skills and knowledge in photography, which will open up doors for photographers in Brunei to excel in their field.

Who want's a EOS gifts?

A Sense of Place - Capturing Photographs That Tell A Story

What Do I Look For? - Moments, Light, Landscapes and Cityscapes, Details and Portraits

Making Images That have ...... IMPACT

Anakbrunei and Kulimpapat

David Cheok wiht his 5D Mark II and EF70-200mm f/2.8 lens

Everyone busy filling up the feedback form

The Model of the EOS 5D Mark II

Roland Poon, talked about the 5D Mark II fitted with the Redrock Micro cinematic video kit mounted to the EF70-200mm f/2.8 lens

Light that tells a story

* Early morning and late afternoon/early evening give the best results
* Flat light works great if you have it
* Learn to use your flash. Digital LOVES flash

Shoot lots of pictures. The more you shoot, the better your shot.

Digital, remember the film is FREE!

Group Photo by Kris can be seen on Jan Shim’s post

CANON – Delighting You Always

Spread the message

Welcome to Brunei, Kris, Kevin and Roland (and a big hello to fellow Bruneian photographers),

Introducing Kris LeBoutillier international photojournalist and author of the book On the Iron Rails of the Orient who has photographed assignments in a number of countries in Asia with thought provoking photographs published in National Geographic Traveler. In his presentation, Kris shared insights and tips that I consider useful along with a visual journey that inspires and stirs the senses. One of a number of things Kris looks for in a photograph is meaningful and creative use of light. The images below are my personal interpretation of light as seen through my 5DII and 50mm f/1.4 at ISO up to 6,400 in a very dim room. Before that some pictures of the Redrock Micro cinema rig for the EOS 5D Mark II—a serious tool for contemporary cinematographers who produce serious stuff in high definition.

An EOS 5D Mark II miniature that's more than just eye candy. It's also a 2GB pendrive with meticulous attention to details including a slightly oversized EF24-105 kit lens replica. What can I say, excellent choice for a door gift—we're all DELIGHTED!

↑ A great addition to my EOS 5D and 30 Million EF Lenses Anniversary miniatures

One of a series of photos of the 5D Mark II fitted with the Redrock Micro cinematic video kit mounted to the EF70-200mm f/2.8 lens. Seen here are the microFilter trays.

The white "ring" is the microFollowFocus with 35mm lens gearing for accurate and repeatable focusing.

Mr Steven Goh turning the dial on the microFollowFocus and using a HDMI LCD monitor that's tethered to the 5D Mark II for real time display.

The underbelly of the follow focus, mattebox and baseplate stainless steel rods

An associate and highly regarded professional cinematographer and photographer David Cheok checks out the SGD$5k retail Redrock Micro kit. Bro, any closer and it's sold

In focus is the Swing-away mattebox for light management and easy access to changing lenses

"The Moment. Something you can't plan for, it just happens. You always need to have your camera ready for the shot." advises Kris

"Learn to use your flash. Digital LOVES flash" emphasizes Kris as he describes use of flash to seize the moment.

The Big picture and the little details. The sort of stuff Kris looks for in a picture are: Moments, Light, Landscapes, Cityscapes, Details and Portraits

"The more you shoot the better your shot" and "never miss the details, the little things that make a place special"

Kevin Chua, Country Manager of Canon Singapore with one of Kris' large prints.

According to Kris, the EF16-35mm f/2.8 is one of his favourite work lenses. I own the EF17-40 f/4 and have recently found myself thinking of the EF16-35mm Mk II. My favourite lens on the 5DII is the EF70-200mm f/2.8 IS.

Something to smile about—another one of Kris' masterpieces unrolled to his audience.

"Capturing photographs that tell a story" A shot of the highly inspired and excited crowd by Kris at the end of the event and here's the story: WE WANT MORE! Click on image to see large size ↑

Here's a shot I took of Kris with the Canon and Interhouse folks who were responsible for hosting us all. Thank you very much! Click on image to see large size ↑

A postcard souvenir from Kris LeBoutillier that I got him to autograph on.

Earlier this month I caught Susana Raab’s blog announcement  of her new “magazine/catalog from [her] series on Southern writers, A Sense of Place.”  She sweetened the deal by “offer[ing] up the first 30 of these zines, with a limited edition (to 30, natch) 6″ print of faulkner’s telephone for the low,low, introductory price of $20, incl shipping and handling.”

I really like the immidicacy of this type of zine or book publication and could not resist.  I think I was one of the first few to place an order.  The catalog arrived promptly, with a hand labled address and an attractive stamp on the cover.

When in college I heard Faulkner speak in Charlottesville, Va.  If I remember correctly, among other things he railed against a Kennedy invitation to come to the White House for some function [perhaps it was one in conjunction with his Nobel prize.].

To me, the most nostalgic photo in the catalog is the one of his typewriter with a can of “My Mixture” Dunhill pipe tobacco on the side.  I don’t recall the number of the ‘My Mixture” I used to smoke, but I remember vividly that they ‘cut me off’ for a bunch of late payments on my part, when I was in Viet-Nam.  C’est la guerre.

If Susana has some issues left, go buy some.  It is a wonderful way of supporting your favorite talented photographers.

We are home. At least for the next ten months. It sounds like a lifetime given that we have been in transit since December, though when I really think about it, the six months in Boulder before we left and the three months of traveling in Spain this summer, have all went by very quickly! Ten months will fly by too, and then we will see what next adventure awaits us.

I have been thinking about “home” and what it means for as many months as I have not had one. I tend to be a home-body, a nester, someone who needs some solitude and comfort in each day. But I do like change and exploration and travel too. I’ve just always had a home to return to at the end of the journey. This trip has forced me to consider a mobile home, one that goes with me from place to place, hotel to hotel, villa to villa.

The easy and quick part of defining home for me is family. I have Scott and Grace and Emma with me. I have left behind parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents and friends and they are all already sorely missed, but I have their voices and pictures and memories to sustain me from place to place. And I am hopeful they will visit us and add to our experiences here. And there is something about that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” saying; I think it might be true. I’m willing to experiment with it for a time.

I recently ran across a book I am now eagerly awaiting from Amazon called A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk about Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration. The author, Michael Shapiro, talks with seasoned travel writers, such as Bill Bryson, Frances Mayes and Isabel Allende, about their views on writing, the world and home. Perhaps it will help me define home and place while on the road.

Well, enough philosophizing about home and on to the details of our new one! It’s wonderful! We really just lucked out with it, through a Boulder connection none-the-less! (One of those small-world stories. Thanks Judy for putting us in touch with the Ramseys!) We moved into nuestra casa a week ago. We’ve all had a great first week of swimming in the pool, dinners on the many terraces, organizing our rooms, finding secret places to relax, breathe deep, read, smile.

The house is considered to be in the campo or “country!” I suppose given the big yards, views of the open valley and eight minute drive from the pueblo, it would be considered the country to Spanish families escaping their village houses to the weekend family country house. Many Spanish families who live in the village during the week all congregate to the family home on the weekends for long meals and lazy time together. Siblings, parents, cousins, grandchildren, young and old all spend the weekend together. It is a tradition that reminds me of Eudora and Sunday morning breakfasts after church where the entire extended family shows up for biscuits and gravy, eggs and sausage, and time together.

The house though doesn’t feel like the country as we would define it in America. It is more like the town has grown and neighborhoods with it and we are one of them, nestled under the Montgo. The mountain is behind our house, like a stage backdrop hanging from the sky, its facade so abrupt is doesn’t look real. Because it’s behind the house, I forget it’s there mostly, until I glance out my kitchen sink window and find it soaring up. Its sheer beauty makes me smile. It is most appreciated from the pool though and whether swimming laps or pretending to be a circus seal, diving through the floating pink ring, it is staring down at us.

The house suits us and our family. Lots of outdoor spaces and terraces, the pool, the mountains and valleys. There are tall pine trees along the east side of the house that remind me of Alma and our camping trips there when the wind whispers through the pines. And the pink and blues of the sunsets are calm and inspiring from the upstairs terrace. The kitchen is newly updated in the American style (i.e. big and with a refrigerator that has an ice and water dispenser on the freezer door!)

We look forward to another week of nesting before school starts, building our home, settling in, and finding our place.

I find this post very disturbing to write and a sad reflection on our current economic situation here in the US, as well as an unfortunate look at the trend in book publishing to find the cheapest and “good enough” printing press for the production of Fine Art  Books. Where are most “fine art” books printed now?…China! That is not to say that good books can not and have not been printed in China, but we all know there is a huge difference between a  book printed on a cookie cutter press and one printed at a true fine art printing press.

I personally have been very fortunate in my career thus far, having my first book printed at the Stinehour Press in Lunenburg, Vermont and my second book at the Salto Press in Belgium. Both of these presses represent the pinnacle of printing quality (which translates into options for the artist) yet now it seems that the Stinehour Press will be no more in just a few months. 

Founded in 1952 and employing over 21 employees the Stinehour Press had won numerous awards for printing excellence and it’s collection of printed books and materials reads like a list of luminaries in the field of Art with a very large capitol A. Stephen Stinehour, who I consider a personal friend, left the press several years ago to pursue other printing projects, yet I know he finds the closing of the Stinehour Press- which was founded by his father- a sad statement on the currect position of the printing industry in the US.

In our quest to get to get the most for our dollar (or Euro or whatever) many people seem to lose sight that in that process of “how low can you go” a lot is lost… and once it is gone it is gone forever. In the “new” industry of Giclee Fine Art Printing I can remember only a few years back where how cheap and how fast you could print was the driving force for marketing products and services. Fade-out/fade-in 5 years and most of the get-rich-quick printing operations are gone, dying, or consolidated because you can only cut costs so far and most of these technologies at the end of the day are still quite expensive to run and upgrade. It seems correct to me that a great print deserves a fair price/competitive price…but you have to compare apples with apples. Also remember that cuts in cost almost always come at the expense of quality and workers pay or health benefits…you know the complaint and I’m sure you hear it everyday on the news or in your own community. 

At Indian Hill Imageworks we have never sacrificed quality for price….QUALITY always comes first…and the price is what it is.  I have friends in the printing industry who I know share this same commitment to quality (much like The Stinehour Press did)…now I just hope a Giclee printing factory/operation does not open in China or India! Let’s all remember, options are good, choice is good, and much like the debate that continues here on the Figital Revolution, it is good to have film and digital available to photographers…it is also good to have true fine art presses and production presses available…Film, just like a great printing press such as the Stinehour Press, is fragile, and once gone and buried these things will not be resurrected.

SO, lets make sure to:

1. Support your local ARTIST
2. Support your local PRINTER
3. and YES your local CAMERA STORE!

otherwise they too will soon only be a memory lost to penny-wise/pound-foolish get-rich-quick mentalities that in the end undermine our community, medium, and nation.

Echoes, echoes are an amalgam of voices, they enshroud us, surround us, and draw us into themselves. Echoes invite us to enter into another realm, into some faraway and distant place that is simultaneously closer to us than we ourselves. Echoes are expressed in the genetics that we carry, they are memories of everyone who has contributed to our identity. Echoes are expressed in the stories we carry in memory, they beckon us beyond self awareness into a reflection of our composite nature. We are individual, but our individuality is not detached from the places we come from, the genes that make us, and the stories we carry in our hearts. Echoes when they happen in real time, are a manifestation of memory, an awareness of the ‘us’ that is inside every ‘me.’

Echoes are an awareness of memory, a remembering of everything that makes up our being. We are composite systems of relations, our relations are unified into a single consciousness, but we are nevertheless a system of relations. Another way of saying this is that, we have emerged out of something, never, ex nihilo. To believe otherwise is to displace community and heritage for a self created meaning that stands over against the truth of what identity really is. We are not conscious in the universe alone as floating arbitrary beings that define ourselves and refine ourselves by ourselves. We have come from somewhere, and that somewhere is in our skins, in our hair, in our eyes, in our smiles, in our memories and pasts, in our futures, in the things we hope for, and the disappointments we share among one another. We have ideas that were not born in a vacuum, but are the product of observation, genetics, inclination and intuition. Our individual consciousness depends on the interactions we have between ourselves and others, between the past and the present, between our bodies and the world around it, between imagination and reason, between language and the divine, between the spoken, and the ineffable.

Whispers in the essence of who we are make up some of the quirks and choices that we make and being aware of those whispers is how we will find our true individual consciousness. Individual consciousness is a composite dialogue between several varying awarenesses that indwell our entire “selves,” wholistically. To be aware of the past is to look to those things which contribute to an awareness of place, an awareness of where it is we come from, an anchor from which we set out in search of bringing new things back to where we came from. But it is also necessary to be conscious of the present, by realizing the present as a means of self expression and as an opportunity to give and receive freedom amid others. The present calls us to an awareness of the reality and particularity of ourselves, in which we live aware of the past but allow it to act as a voice amid the consciousness of our whole, not the determined end of it. Individual Consciousness necessarily depends on the awareness of the past as a guide to which we are anchored, and an intimacy with the present through which we acknowledge the need to become a self through choices we make and our reactions to the relations that we encounter.

In relation to the lives of others, our consciousness and being depend on being aware of others as relationally in need of interaction as we are. In the church there are times of solitude, contemplations, meditations, solaces and individual yearnings after God, but in the larger context of life our being depends on our relations to others. Our being depends on our being able to connect with others and be their liberators.

Our freedom in self-awareness is not a call to detachment but instead provides us the opportunity to interact with others in mutual relations that ask us to identify between one another using our getting to know others as a means of coming to know ourselves, as well as with one one another working together to find mutual identity amidst each other, and finally to identify ourselves as individuals indwelling one another, realizing that as Christians, we are dwelling within one another as one body, not to say that we are all the same, or share a hive mentality, but that in our individual expressions there is a single spirit that unites us.

That same Spirit which is The Spirit of Christ, seeks to bestow upon us unity as well as diversity, so that being happens in relation to others but individually as well as we discern what we are and what we are not in relation to other things. For a short analogy, being would occur as we dialogue with our relations, we learn what we are, as if by looking within another we see the contrasts and comparisons between ourselves and the others. So that when we look we are given a picture of those things which we are or wish to become as well as those things which are not part of our being and thus show us the boundaries of that which we would call our self.

God has united us by one spirit and that same spirit calls us to remember the echoes, the communal memory of those who have gone before us, those who live on in our bodies through our genes, those whose stories we carry in our hearts, whose lives shape parts of the direction of our own.

Our own individual memory serves us as well. Not just the echoes. Echoes, are in fact only a mere part of the memory we seek for ourselves. Memory grounds us in our identity, remembering is something beautiful. Memory is our grounding as beings, it is in memory that we have an awareness of who we wish to be through seeing who we have been. Memory in the context of a single being has an infinite value which can be associated with it, in that it is the only intangible thing which has a real presence outside of God. Memories can haunt, comfort, speak, even echo, or resonate.

In memory we find an obligation, the need to recall, to respect, that which has been and to look forward with an awareness of that past. We have an obligation to commemoration, by this I mean we have a duty to remember as a community, as a communion, to co-remember, but also to call forth that past into our present through an awareness of it. By this I simply mean, we as individuals must remember the nature of our relations in searching for being, and as communities, we must remember to listen to the voices that echo within us, to the other memory, the voices of a thousand ancestors past, and remember the places we have been through them, the evils we have faced as well as the victories we have had, the gravities of despair, as well as the heights of triumph.

Memory helps shape individual consciousness, and develop us into communal awareness. There is a necessary tension between relation and alienation, individualism tends to make the individual being of such importance that anything other, including friends and family are seen as infringements upon the freedom of the one. But in seeking freedom for oneself, one must also realize that without balance, anything that is other will necessarily be subordinate to our one.

Nietzsche was right to describe the will to power, without a conception of things that are other as having value for their relations to us, and without a value for any relations between self and things that are other, one necessarily creates a system where only the self matters. Where only aesthetic nihilism can flourish. Individualism with the goal of asserting a pure individual self will always suppress the role of anything that is other, so that in the end that assertion ends in power struggle after power struggle, failure or success alone.

In terms of God, individualism can strip us of God because it takes from us an awareness of the echoes, of the memories, of the many, the others in our lives, the communities we participate in, as well as our ability to relate to anything outside ourselves. This can become dangerous when we lose our ability to find a God that is wholly other yet relatable, in our striving to relate to ourselves and fit God in that picture, we can misrepresent and even destroy a working positive image of God before us. We can skew the voice of God and interpret it through radical subjectivity so that there is no God, in the end only interpretation based on the assertion of self over anything else. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard were right to say that was a possible outcome of modernity, only one of two things can happen in the face of a society that is modern.

Either we become part of the crowd and join untruth, part of the herd that makes us passive and disinterested, or we become power striving totalitarians, out of a necessity to meet the ideals of pure self subsistence.

So what do we do with all this? In short, we need a dual awareness of ourselves as united, many relations, with a single consciousness, as individuals. Furthermore we must remember the power with which we can recall those who have gone before, and those who are presently with us. We must be aware of our individuality in terms of relations, and how we are all interconnected, and made up of interconnections.

Memory/Echoes, Awareness, Existence, these three are one, and find one consciousness in those who unite them into one being. These are parts of consciousness, again not an end all say all, just an idea.

We are the relations we dwell in. Our being takes place in between the objects of self and other. The self, still remains fully self, the other still remains fully other, but there is meaning in the middle, and that meaning, that interaction is what makes our being a being at all, the dialogue between relations.

We are the relations we care for, and cultivate. Our being will be shown in the spaces between ourselves and others, the life of the spirit is found in our selves, but is most evident in the spaces between ourselves and others. Why else would they have an inherently social nature, one has never needed to be patient without some outside force requiring it. The spirit can guide us, giving us an awareness of the space between ourselves and others, showing us ourselves in the relations we have. Those relations are our mirror.

We are the relations we dwell in. Our being, both as individuals and communities will expose itself most strongly in our relations to the other, to memory, to echoes, to breathing in memories, and breathing out wisdom.

Breathe in, absorb your past, Open your eyes, and flooded with the light of awareness, become that which you are called to become.