Monthly Archives: March 2008

Animals, Bowling, Macro, Work

Texture

Our bowling team has been making a bit of run as of late. Two weeks ago we won 21 of 24 points. Then last night we won 19 of 24 points. We’ve pushed our way all the way from nearly last place to 5th place. We might even be higher when the standings come out next week.

On Monday night we were dealt another blow. We lost another team member for the remainder of the season. I didn’t quite catch all the details, but one of our team members violated their probation and now they have to go away. However, it didn’t sound like he was going to prison. He kept using the word treatment.

The good news is that a bowling phenom just moved back to the area from Arizona. Now all we have to do is convince him that he needs to join our team.

While I have been avoiding the cold weather this winter I’ve been trying to figure out ways to add texture to my images. This search has caused me to make the image below while I was testing a scanner at work a few days ago.




I do love getting play with scanners at work. I just wish I got more time with them.

Boone FUMC, Logan

Mentoration

Today Logan and I concluded our Confirmation mentoring journey. It took 10 weeks, but now he possesses some of my wisdom and that could make him a very dangerous teenager.

We celebrated the conclusion of the mentoring program by dining at Hu Hot. Then we had our picture taken.


03-09-08


The only thing left for us to do is to burn the confirmation book. I know that seems strange, but it needs to be done.

Becky, Event, Jay, Music, Shannon, Shorty

The Church of the Inebriated Saints

2 Comments

Shorty often refers to going to church twice on the same day as building up credit. On Friday night I went to The Venue to attend the Church of the Inebriated Saints. I think by Shorty’s logic, I get credit for that and can skip church some time in the future.

I took several pictures of Inebriated Saints and I’m going to unload a large collection of them right here. I left shortly after their show concluded, but based on then names of the other bands, they sounded like yelling-screaming-angry-white-male-feel-sorry-for-me music, I’m just going to assume that they were the victors.


Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints


Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

Inebriated Saints

It is a fact that many of these pictures aren’t really your standard picture and might be kind of artistically pretentious, but I felt the need to get a bit creative because bar photography is not my forte. There is limited light, so you are really kind of limited in your options. You can crank up the ISO, but that results in digital noise. You can crack out the blinding flash and my Top Photo Assistant can tell you, I don’t really like flash photography. The only other option is to get a little creative. Admittedly you will find examples of all of these in the photos above.

On a more personal note. This trip out to The Venue was my first trip to a Boone bar in almost 2 years. I saw some people that I hadn’t seen in several years. Anybody that has ever seen me knows that I’m not a big personal appearance person. (Although I have really gotten into color coordinating my beanies lately.) If I know somebody, I know them and don’t even really think about what their personal appearance might be saying to the rest of the world.

A couple different people came up to me and asked me: “You are Christopher Bennett, correct?”

One of these people was a muscular looking gent with a shaved head and a goatee. I had a brief conversation with him and then he returned to his job duties. I never thought of him as being scary looking. Although I might not ever be muscular looking, the clock is ticking on when I will be a bald dude with a goatee. The only thing to be determined is whether or not I will have the guts to keep the sideburns.

Shannon said that guy was really scary looking.

I thought, really? I mean maybe a guy that looks like that can be intimidating, but I only see Larry Sprecher. One of the kids (along with his brother Mike and Kelly Wilson) that I played G.I. Joe with.

Becky came to the concert with Shannon. This resulted in a bonus photo session that I call “The Get Your Picture Taken with Shannon Session”. Check out these bonus photos:


Inebriated Saints Concert

Inebriated Saints Concert

One other person that talked to me at the bar was Jamie’s friend Bonnie. She wanted to know if I had a “little, short, blonde guy with me”. She was referring to Jay. When I relayed that story to Jay on Saturday morning, he became distraught. It turns out Jay doesn’t like to be referred to as both little and short.

Equipment

Screwed Up Priorities

A few months back the 5D suffered a wicked blow and was put out of commission. I recently took it down to Walden Photo to get it fixed, even though it was now going to be relegated to the third string camera.

Recently my car’s slow descent towards the junkyard was quickened. The latest development is that I don’t have turn signals. I know from experience that it would cost about 80 bucks to get the turn signals fixed.

The estimate on the 5D came back at about 300 bucks.


03-07-08
The Newly Repaired 5D

So here is an example of my priorities being screwed up. I didn’t even have to think for a second about spending 300 dollars to get my third string camera fixed.

On the other hand, I’m planning on buying a new car in the next month or so, this means I won’t even consider spending 80 bucks so that the rest of the drivers on the road have a clue what direction I’m turning.

So if you drive by and see my car mangled on the side of the road in what looks like an outtake from Blood on the Asphalt, don’t feel bad for me.

Brog Frog, Commercial, Derrick, Jen, Music, Photoshop

Selling Out

4 Comments

I’m not what you would call a commercial photographer. However, recently I have gotten some commercial photography gigs.

The first gig was (and is ongoing) to do some of the photography for the website of a local soap company. However, I don’t want to delve too deeply into that because I will go into much greater depth about that when the website makes its World Wide Web Debut.

The second and third gig are kind of similar and somewhat related. Look at the picture below.



UnHingd Publicity Still

Some of my best friends were in a now defunct local band known as UnHingd. The members of this band have pretty much gone their separate ways, but they have stayed musical.

Not pictured is Dennis. He has moved on to become the lead singer of 35 South.

Mike has formed a new band with the old drummer from Obsidian’s Dream and some dude named Adam. His new band is called Inebriated Saints. Mike contacted me about taking some pictures of them during their upcoming show.


Mike Practicing
Mike in the UnHingd Practice Lair

Let me tell you what all the cool kids are going to be doing this Friday night. I can hardly believe I’m about to write this: (Grit your teeth you can get through it.) The cool kids are going to be going to The Venue to watch Inebriated Saints win the Battle of the Bands. The winner gets to open for Firehouse. Yeah, that might be one of those win/lose things. It will also mark my first appearance at a Boone Bar since June of 2006. I think it was the Southside if you are wondering.

No really. It should be a great time and Mike is the self proclaimed “Best Bass Player in Ames”. Who am I to argue with that? I will post some of those pictures in the near future.

Then earlier this week I was contacted by Shawn, the former drummer of UnHingd.


Shawn - Homecoming Concert
Shawn-Homecoming Concert

Shawn booked me to take pictures of his new band Act of Gravity for their website. I’m pretty excited about this opportunity and will certainly post those pictures when they get taken.

You can check out Act of Gravity’s website by following this link:


Act of Gravity – Dead Link

One other small tidbit of news. On Monday I had a check pass through my account that made it official: I’m debt free. Not for very long hopefully, but it feels good to breathe the sweet air of freedom

Perhaps you are wondering what happened to Guitar God Derrick Gorshe.



Outburst of the Soul – Portrait of Guitar God Derrick Gorshe

He is also still active musically. Besides being the sound guy for 35 South and being the store manager of Rieman’s Music, he might also be putting the pit orchestra for one of the Ames community theater groups next productions. Look for updates about that as they become available.

Black & White, Dawn, Photoshop, Self-Portrait, Writing

The Calling

I got an interesting MySpace e-mail today. It was related to the picture below.



The Waiting

It is from a woman I graduated from dear old BHS from all those years ago named Dawn.

I like to give credit where credit is due, and as one creative person to another, I thought you would enjoy knowing that your latest default picture helped influence my latest poem “the calling”. I had already been working on another poem about Spirit Lake, but your picture took me in an entirely different direction. Anyway, enjoy!

The Calling

Looking upon nobility of the sea
Ebbing tide whispers
Follow me…follow me

Life’s course has been set for me
Seagulls cry
Break free…break free

Thoughtful now I can’t turn to flee
Buoy holds tight
Let me be…let me be

My savior has set me free
Steady pier
Just for me…just for me

It feels good to have helped influence a fellow artist. This e-mail comes at a good time. I have felt less than creative lately. It does remind me that I wish I had poetry writing in my skill set.

Christianity, Mark

Taiwan Times – February Issue

Family and friends,

Greetings everybody. It is still February, so my newsletter is just in time. I hope and pray all is well with you. This past month gave me the chance to travel, take some vacation, get sick, recover, and start a new semester of teaching. It was quite eventful, but I would like to focus this newsletter on my journey to Vietnam.

Last month I had the chance to travel to Vietnam for a service trip. I went with a team of six other teachers from Taiwan. We coordinated our efforts with James Rush, who is a volunteer teacher in Vietnam and my former roommate here in Taiwan. James works at a university in Phu Toa, Vietnam.

In total, the trip was planned to be five days, but I did stay a few extra days to hang out with James. We arrived in Hanoi on a Sunday, and Monday we traveled 3 and half hours to Phu Tao. On Tuesday the conference started bright and early at 7:30 am.

The conference was a one-day event designed to provide prospective English teachers with ideas and strategies for the classroom. All of the participants were Vietnamese, and most attended the college that James teaches at. Some of the attendees were already teachers in local schools. In total there were over 100 people who participated.

The conference focused on three sessions: ESL (English as a Second Language) activities, English writing, and teacher observations. We divided the people into 3 groups, and they rotated amongst the 3 sessions. I was in charge of helping with the teacher observation session. I worked with Heidi Greimann (from Taiwan) and Viet Hang (local professor at the university) to lead the teacher observations session.

For the session Heidi and I modeled a teacher observation. I taught a mini lesson to the class and then she observed and made notes about my teaching. After the lesson we had a conversation about what she observed. We did this to model how a teacher can observe others and to emphasize that observation should not be intimidating. We hammered home the point that these observations can help both the person being observed and the one who is doing the observing. Next Viet Hang provided some good information about how to conduct teacher observations. Finally, we then gave the students their own mini-lessons to teach, and they had time to practice by giving each other feedback. I really enjoyed it, and I think the students learned from the session.

The entire day went really well. The Vietnamese at the college were most hospitable, and the participants seemed eager to learn. On Wednesday, we spent the morning helping in English classrooms. In my class, I spent my time in a small group of about 12 students. They practiced basic conversation with me, and asked me to share about myself and America. This was one highlight of my time in Vietnam, because I got to have some good personal conversations with the local people. It also gave me a chance to share about customs and holidays. This led into me sharing about Christmas being Jesus’ birthday and Thanksgiving being a time to be thankful for the many good things that God has given us. Vietnam is a little strict on evangelizing, so I was only aloud to share my beliefs if asked. Praise God that He provided an opportunity.

After helping in English classes, we returned to Hanoi. The next day we had a day of traveling and sight seeing in which we had the chance to see the beautiful Ha Long Bay, and a Vietnamese water puppet show. On Friday, some of the teachers returned to Taiwan, but I stayed with others for a couple more days. We had the chance to spend some more time with James and just hang out.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. I thank God for the chance to serve the people in Vietnam and work with all of the volunteers currently serving in Vietnam. If you are interested in reading more about my travels and reflections from Vietnam, please check out my blog:

http://www.livelikeachampion.blogspot.com

Prayer requests:

1. For strength this semester. I have my teaching and Bible Studies, but I also have started taking an Internet course to work for my ESL teaching endorsement.
2. For God to continually bless my relationships with my friends and family back home and those here in Taiwan. That He would continue to strengthen and uplift all of them.
3. Praise God that I will return for a fourth year of service here at CMS. Pray that God would be with those on the team who are still making decisions about the future. May He guide them.

Thank you all for everything, especially your prayers. May the love of Christ fill you with peace, hope, and joy. May you live in victory as He ever guides you.

God’s peace,

Mark