Grammies!!

Highway Diner

I had a photoshoot this evening and met up with some guys afterwards to get some studyin in for class tomorrow at the classy highway diner. ;) Addis, Jon, Ryan, and I had a grand ole time getting nothing done, but having good time none the less. Jon and Ryan are two good friends of mine and we are planning on moving out of our current places and getting a house together at the end of summer so I am looking forward to that. Addis is also a good friend and a fellow musician as well. We've had some good times playing guitar together. So yea.. I had my camera so I took some snaps.

Well isn't that amazing..

Duck

So true..

Band Newz

We are playing a show with Remedy Drive April 25, at Berean.
This picture of our band makes me laugh because well.. I am bald and this picture was taken
more than a year ago. We need a little updating with our band pics.

Longest Dunk

haha this is hilarious

Bass MakE oVA

This bass guitar once was a blue Hamer which was my second guitar that I ever owned. After getting my Carvin I never played the Hamer. Last year I decided to take my Hamer and "monster garage" it back to life. After doing every unethical thing to a bass guitar I came out with what I think is a beauty.

First I took a power sander and took off the shiny blue along with every other blemish it may have obtained through the years. I really didn't do a good job of making sure the sanding was level so it had a lot of divots in it (but no worries.. i fixed that later). So now I had a naked bass. I wanted this bass to have a little attitude so I took a torch out. I lit the edges of it on fire and then sanded that down afterwards. So the divots... I took care of them by using a LOT of lacquer. The first coat was Thompson's Deck Water Sealant! Water proofing the bass was a must. Next I put about 7 coats of lacquer until it was smooth. Problem solved. heh.. Remember..the point of this bass was not to be a smooth looking pretty boy bass. I left the stock looking pretty rough as you can see. The pick guard was a mistake gone good. I accidentally sprayed the wrong can of paint on it and then quickly tried to wipe it off. While wiping it off I realized that it had potential so I left what I smeared. I kept doing this with a few different colors until I got what you see below. I put a few screws in the body for the straps. To finish it off I ordered some quarter pound Duncans off Ebay and put some black DR's on the baby and this is what I got! Check this bad boy.

Thinking

"Nawatakieni neema na amani kutoka kwa Mungu Baba yetu na Bwana wetu Yesu Kristo."
I Corinthians 1:3

Although I left Africa much of my heart is still there. Every night I still read from a Kiswahili Bible that I picked up before I left Kenya. Sometimes I worry that I will forget what I saw back in Africa and that the busy lifestyle that I live here will make me lose sight of what really matters. Lately God has really been blessing me with opportunities. Whether they are with new friends, with photography, with new jobs, or whatever comes my way... He keeps blessing me. I pray that wherever my life will go, I will always be able to see through "success".. "MY future"..."what makes sence to me"..."reliance on money"...and faith without works. Instead I pray that I will always make the most of the time and resources that God has blessed me with and work at my jobs whether I am rich or poor as working for Him and not myself or others. Sometimes when success comes our way we seem to get so focused on it that we lose perspective of the BIG picture. We lose where we came from...and who we really are. For instance... In my life God has been growing my photography business immensly over the past few weeks and it is very exciting. But, am I losing focus on Him when I feel like I am a success? I pray that God puts me in bankruptcy before that happens. I never want any amount of succes to take my eyes off the one who gave it to me in the first place.

I am still wanting to go back to Africa and have been thinking about how I could do that. Here is how I will do that. First I am going to apply for a job at my church to work with the Sr High youth group. I enjoy high school guys and feel that I could be spending my time to influence them in a positive way rather than calling people around the country to ask people about their opinionz...gallup. If I get that job I will quit working at gallup and work at the church and start putting even more time into photography. I will finish school in the next two years and by then am hoping to be well along with a studio and booked with weddings. Maybe I will spend a year here after I graduate to raise a little more money...and then I will go to Africa and build a house/orphanage/church and live there for a few years until it is well established. Then I will come back to the states and get more people to come to Africa with me cuz my orphanage will be too full to run by myself. haha sounds like a plan. If anyone wants to join me let me know.. I think it will be a good time. ;) aight well I gotta go to bed

Opera

I was the photographer for Wesleyan University's Opera. This Opera was different for me because of my best friends was in it (Zach Schroeder). His sister Talea also performed in the Opera and the two of them tore it up! It was really impressive... good work man. This was a little different genre of photography for me, but in the end I really enjoyed it. I am looking to do more performance photography, especially in the area of music. Since I play in a band I understand what kind of shots they are looking for so that gives me a slight edge in that area. Maybe when I get more time to do a little more free lance photography this summer between shooting weddings...cabin leadings junior highers at maranatha this summer and playing in the worship band there as well..working at the church/gallup/detasseling/firework stand... going hiking..playing shows with my band..and whatever else that will come my way, I will get to that. heh.. I enjoy being busy and making the most of the time I have so its all good. Well I gotta study for a test that I have tomorrow. It shouldn't be too hard. After all... its Music for the non-musician major.."The Musical Experience". hah..ohhh college and electives