a wee happy birthday cake

But I have a few assignments I’ve put myself on, and one of those has been to make a cityscape of New Orleans at a high enough quality I could print and hang.

So, last Friday night my Dad and I went out to scout a place; we settled just downriver of the Westbank ferry dock.  My brother also came, and between the three of us we had one phone with a camera.

We’re mental scouts.

Not mental, but…  never mind.

We came back Sunday night, tripods in hand, and began setting up with all four hundred thousand, nine hundred  and seventy two mosquitoes–of which about 70% went away with a little bit of me.

And we began shooting.  I played around with some long exposures, as some lit barges would float down the river.  Once I was happy with my exposure, I went to work on my panorama.  It took about four across and two high to get the job done.

This is it here (click twice for a larger view).

I shot my 70-200 around 150mm with an aperture of f/9. My shutter was around 6 seconds.  ISO 400.  Once I got back home and stitched it all together, my picture was well over 200 MB, and a dog to do anything with.  Matter of fact, I’m still not done with it enough to print; I’m going to have to shrink it down to make it more manageable.

To do the actual stitching I used DoubleTake.  It was good, not amazing.  But I was able to get what I needed out of it.  And PS, I was able to use the free version with the watermark because the watermark is at the bottom. I just stitched in a little extra water and cropped it out when I was done.

After that, the only post production was in Aperture: some levels tweaking and a black & white conversion.

Here’s dad (ten second exposure).

Okay, it’s not really a DIY project since there’s no way you could hire someone to do this, and technically it was more about the books than the bookshelf, but you get the idea.

I started by remembering my colors and not forgetting any.  The rainbow comes in handy for this step.

Then I began pulling off books by color and putting them into piles on the floor.

It was during this stage I found major color groups such as: white, off-white, yellowish-white, and light-yellow.  We have a smaller bookshelf that won the title for all these.  There were so many.

Once I had everything in piles, Kristin felt the need to dust–and it was a close one, she almost missed her window, I was on a serious mission by this time. Then I started putting everything back on.  I started with Red since it was a strong color. Some colors seemed to lend themselves to the next, others I had to look for a good transition.

And lastly I finished with black at the bottom.

Here’s what it looked like before:

You might be thinking, but how do you find books?! Well, they were in a completely random order to begin with. We just figured we’d make our randomness look good.  P.S. It was Kristin’s idea to color code. I love the results.

Bookshelf from Ikea.

TECH STUFF: All three images were taken in natural light. The last two with a 50mm f/1.4 prime.  The first one I used my 24-105 around 30 or so–that was so I wouldn’t have to move the couch.

I thought about setting up lights, but since we have two big windows facing the bookshelf, I liked the results I was getting with natural light.

It was epic.

And normal.

At one point Kristin took pictures of me.  Yep, that’s me at the end.

this was a chair. used as a prop. for pictures.

tomorrow.

For five dollars a transaction she’s buying internet time for “a little while” from “this guy,” but sending video over such a limited bandwidth is shaky at best. Each time she calls, it looks like’s she’s been locked up in a cold, dark room, and she’s somehow sneaking a glimpse to the outside world. I think it’s just a combination of bandwidth and the camera on her computer.

She gave us a quick walkthrough of her room. Quick because it’s so small that any slower would actually be not-moving. When she got to the bathroom, she noted that it was missing one critical item.

As she began to pan her laptop camera, I saw the shower, check…the sink, check…the toilet…uh, where’s the toilet?

Oh, the toilet, yes, that’s next door.

Okay, that’s weird.

But its sink is here.

What?

Yes, there’s a communal toilet, but there’s no communal sink to wash your communal hands when your done, uh…communalizing. You have to go back to your room for that sort of fluffiness.

I laughed and cringed at the same time. Anyway, that’s a quick excerpt from Denise in Haiti.

Now to make a grinding change of gears. I want to give you some of what you can expect on my blog soon:

I recently bought Jon Acuff’s new book. With that he offered to give blog critiques.

On my drive home the other day my phone rings from a Nashville number. I answer, and it was, “hi joe, this is jon acuff, got a few minutes?”

uhhh, yeah i do!

We talked about my blog for a little while, and he gave me some good ideas and strategies curtailed to what I want out of my blog.

In the past, I’d committed to posting five days a week. And that lasted for a good six months. But as my interests change, my schedule evolves, and my time is reshuffled, so that everyday-thing just doesn’t happen any more.

Lately I’ve been posting whenever and whatever. But in the last few months I’ve been tossing around a few different strategies, and with Jon’s help, I think I’ve settled on one:

I’ll be posting once a week, and it will be somewhat theme-oriented with a little more structure than in the past. My goal is to make my posts good enough for readers to always want more.

Sound good, right? Yeah, well, that wasn’t the revelation. What I’ve been thinking about is how to do that.  In short: weeding out the crap.

In other words, when someone comes to my blog, they should be able to take something away. Otherwise, why would they come to my blog…

And I still plan to include guest bloggers (in addition to my one post a week). This has always been an important part of my blog. And I am indeed very thankful for Michelle and Beau taking the time to write posts for me.

So, thanks again for sticking around.  More coming soon!

This time I’m going with her. And for the last month she’s been on serious count-down every time she’s walked past my desk. We’ll be there for exactly 31 hours, but I’ve been secretly adding up her list of must-dos, and it’s clocking in somewhere around eight days.

It’ll be good.

There will be pictures.

Speaking of pictures. I took some of those.

This is along the lake a couple blocks from my house. I used to always drive this way until they started doing this…

[sad face]

My brother makes a big impact on everyone he meets, and typically not a good one. I was on staff or maybe just a member at the time. I even convinced Joe to help me out with a  program for elementary aged boys on Wednesday nights at church and to go to camp with them. We had fun and Joe bought a camera, so in a way I single handedly kick-started Joe’s photography expeditions.

My name is Beau Bredow, and I am a Baptist minister living in Lakeland, Florida. I oversee the elementary children’s programs and Bible study programs at Scott Lake Baptist Church. I am married to Andrea–you guessed it: Bredow–and we have a two-year-old son named Blake, and another child on the way (coming in February of 2011). I am a Christian (a person who does his best to love Jesus and show His love to others through words, actions, and lifestyle).

Not sure what I will write about each time. I have my own blog, but the topics I discuss there are direct more toward church ministers and church ministry, but much is applicable to life, leadership, and relationships. Before this gets too long and boring, I’ll tell you now. I want to talk about TRIBES.

Seth Godin is, well, I am not really sure what exactly he is or does, but I heard him speak a few years back at a leadership conference where he talked about his new book called tribes. (You can download a free audio book here). At first I thought, what does this have to do about anything? After all, when I spend 300 dollars for a conference, it had better be about me. Years later I am still thinking about the tribes concepts.

Tribes are: groups of 3 or more people with at least one thing in common and have a leader. Anyone can be the leader, but typically the person with the most passion or interested naturally becomes the leader. People are asked to be part of these tribes (groups) and are expected to participate and be involved with whatever the purpose is while promoting it to others.

Think about groups on Facebook, AA classes, social groups, Tea Party, politics, Bible study classes, Trekies, Vampires, Harry Potter, Disney, Red Hat Society, Mason’s, Justin Bieber followers, Twitter, or as simple as a I-am-so-cool-I-have-my-name-tattooed-on-my-arm tribe (which I started, but canceled). I was sharing tribes with a friend, and she just could not get the point or the importance. I told her to start a Facebook page for red-haired, curly headed girls. The purpose to discuss hair styles and products for their hair and bond with other red-heads. Not sure if she ever did it, but if I had red, curly hair and was a girl I would join it. It’s informative, holds a status of belonging, and gives useful tips; these are things everyone is looking for, even for something as superficial as hair.

I think Joe has strong potential when it comes to tribes. When there is something Joe cares about, buys into, and finds reward in, he takes off and leads it. Photography, music, New Orleans, movies…

For me, what stands out are the principles found in starting Bible study groups. Once I have a leader who is passionate about sharing the Bible with people I can start the group (tribe). He or she as a leader will invite people to be part of it. If the group is, say, for young-marrieds, he will find all the young married people he can find to be a part of the group. The group needs to be marketed broadly, but defined specifically to those that qualify. The group is open to both those in the church and not a part of the church. The group’s purpose is to share life together, discuss the Bible, meet regularly, and start more tribes.

I have never met a person that did not wants friends, to be included, find purpose in what he or she is doing, and not to be judged for what he or she believes. These groups are very easy to get into, but if the follower (participant) does not hold up their part of the agreement to attend, participate, and promote the group, he or she will need to be removed because the group is the more important than the individual person. Some people want to make these groups broad, vague, and inclusive; but smaller, exclusive, and targeted groups have the most success, and they are the ones that people want to belong to.

Think about a person standing on the outside looking into what he or she really wants. He will do anything to get into the group, even start a new group of his own.

For me Tribes is important for developing Bible study groups. What kind of tribe(s) do you want to start or be included in? And as a side note, if you want a Power Point with Notes on Tribes email me, and I can get it to you.

Until Then,

Beau Bredow

beaubredow@gmail.com
http://beaubredow.blogspot.com/

“This is it. Let’s do it.”

I can remember, that’s what I was thinking at this moment as I watched the boat being made ready for the water. My own silent peptalk.

That was the start of a three-day live-in-a-cabin fishing trip I took last year. I can totally handle the cabin (I don’t even mind regular camping), but it’s the fishing that did me in.

I don’t particularly like the taste of fish to begin with, so the extra toil of pulling them out of the water and making them tasty appeals to me about this much less. That, and I’m not really the “be patient and wait” type. As a side note, I’ll have you know I spent my entire childhood believing the be-patient-and-wait trait was a grown-up gene.

Then I became a grown-up.

But the trip turned out okay. I survived. And my initial looming fears of boredom and extreme anxiety almost completely resided in my head.

As I write this, it strikes me, I’m not really into the nostalgic, throw-back posts (although my good friend Katie is doing it flawlessly on her blog right now). But I came across these pictures when I was looking for pictures of my Dad for last Friday’s post.

It was a funny and unusual situation for me to be in, and I wanted you to know.

There.

I’m flying to Kansas City from New Orleans.

Via Chicago.

It kind of reminds me of that person who asks you for a ride home from somewhere. You know who I’m talking about. You say yes, then ask something like, by the way, where exactly do you live?

“Oh, it’s kinda far out of the way.” Following up with a “you don’t mind, do you?” as you’ve just steered onto the onramp.

Sigh. Via Chicago.

Anyway, FocusFocusFocus. Kansas City is a place I’ve been to more than once. More than twice. Actually, if we’re being honest with each other, more than… well, it’s not necessary to go there.

The purpose of this trip and each before it is to attend, learn, and network at the annual International Food Aid Conference put on by USDA & USAID. There is some good stuff here, but most of it is just business. Suits walking around talking to other suits while they spear little fruit wedges with tiny, colored toothpicks.

All in all, despite my cynicism it’s a worthwhile trip. I’m just tired.

The name of this post is doubled in it’s allusion. It’s the title of one of my favorite songs by Wilco. Naturally, I’ve forgotten what it’s about.

Anyway, I’m writing tomorrow’s post now. It won’t be quite so stupid.

Joe