This week’s 4th of July parade included the Elks Lodge Clowns with this high riding unicyclist. For the kids, getting candy is the highlight of the parade and receiving a sugary treat from this clown requires that you “look up.”
You can find some more examples of what’s above you when you “LOOK UP” these additional examples of this week’s photo challenge.
Following Cheri’s suggestion to check out the “Finding the Best Shot” post, I chose to show both landscape and portrait orientations of the same sunset. Which do you prefer?
While the landscape orientation is a rural Iowa shot, it almost has an African savanna feel to it.
Before the sun went totally behind the horizon I took this portrait orientation, allowing me to zoom in on the trees and catch the “fire” in the trees.
For more examples of the week’s landscape theme, click HERE.
Our city has the privilege of hosting a hot air balloon competition every September. An average balloon system – envelope, gondola, fuel tanks, and 40 gallons of fuel – will weigh about 600 pounds, deflated on the ground. Adding two to three people will increase the weight by another 300-500 pounds. But, once the envelope is filled with hot air…weightless!
This post is in response to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.
Flying over Kansas on Wednesday, I caught an optical phenomenon that I had never seen before: a glory. 
From Wikipedia: The glory consists of one or more concentric, successively dimmer rings, each of which is red on the outside and bluish towards the center. The effect is believed to happen due to classical wave tunneling, when light nearby a droplet tunnels through air inside the droplet and, in the case of a glory, is emitted backwards due to resonance effects.
Though the “glory” effect may have a scientific basis, I believe that all creation bears the mark of THE Creator, thus helping us see glimpses of His glory.
11 Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above all the earth. Psalm 57:11 (NASB)
May your New Year be truly glorious!
Click HERE for other examples of this week’s challenge: “circle.”
This post is dedicated to the Iowa Hawkeye football team (12-0), playing Michigan State on Saturday for the Big 10 Championship. GO HAWKS!
Last August, I spied this red-tailed hawk on a telephone line as I drove down the street. He obliged by allowing me to take a few photos from my car before flying to a nearby tree. I was able to walk within about 30 feet, the hawk keeping his eye on me!
We continued our stare down for a while, but….
…he finally blinked!
For more examples of this week’s theme, click HERE.
While not quite winter, we had our first snow last weekend. It wasn’t much, but because the temperatures were above freezing when it started, there was a layer of ice/slush under the snow that required a shoveling of walks before parishioners came on Sunday. As I shoveled, my attention was captured by the maple leaves, dancing on top of the snow – a sort of last hurrah as we transition from fall to winter.
Fall into Winter
For more takes on this week’s theme, click HERE.
This week’s challenge allows for different interpretations. This might be a “cause and effect” composition. For my interpretation of the story, display the caption by running the cursor over the photo.
Click HERE for more examples of Frédéric Bever’s challenge:
With an intuitive approach, I considered the photos’ subject matter and graphic attributes and chose those that resonated with each other, creating cross-dependencies and visual analogies. They’re combinations that tell a story. The resulting dialogue — they story they tell — is the creation of each viewer’s individual perception. It’s your turn now: for this week’s challenge, bring together two of your photos into dialogue. What do they say to each other? – Frédéric Bever
In reality, the squirrel on the left (not sure it’s the same one on the right) is doing what God has programmed it to do. As I watched it this past Saturday, the squirrel went from one place to another in the yard, placing food away for winter. It, however, binged to prepare for winter. The squirrel on the right looks as though he was well prepared for winter, displaying a fat belly.
Nature has some things to teach us about being ready for times of leanness According to the Bible. Solomon observed:
Go to the ant, you sluggard;consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8 (NIV)
In practical terms, we must prepare materially for the “winter seasons” of life, that are in some ways as cyclical as the seasons. Whether it is in the order of shelter, provisions or finances, we should be ready for those occasional periods of hardship.
But there is the “winter season” of our lives, too, for which we should be spiritual prepared. I just received notice of the death of a friend in my last church. He was advanced in age and had declined physically and mentally. However, he was prepared for this season of life for spiritually, having stored up treasures in heaven that first came by placing his own life in a secure, eternal, loving relationship with God through Jesus Christ (John 14:1-6). Secondly, he had set his affections on those that God has His heart set on…the world. (Acts 1:8)…loving them as God had loved him.
Summer is fading…don’t be caught unprepared!
Sunsets at the beach are always a family viewing event. Last October, I caught this “last of the day” beach stroll of my sister and her husband, who celebrated fifty years of marriage that year. I love seeing them still go through life hand-in-hand,
Silhouettes at Sunset
Click HERE for more examples of “silhouette.”
The “Honey Moon” was visible in the Northern Hemisphere on Friday the 13th.The name comes not from the traditional wedding month, but from the moon’s yellow tone as it seen through more atmosphere, traveling a path closer to the horizon in opposition to the sun’s higher path as the summer solstice approaches. Because my amateur photography is characterized by a lot of trial and error, I was searching for moon photography tips online. I discovered this site and app, The Photographer’s Ephemeris. It allowed me to add the extra, extra for which I was looking. While the full moon was beautiful in its own right (extra), I was wanting the moon’s reflection in water (EXTRA, EXTRA).
The app gives the times of sun/moon rises and settings, as well as the coordinates of each with a compass feature. Knowing the angle of the moonrise, the app enabled me to do a map search on my phone of various lakes in my area to find a place to set up for the shot with the most water in the foreground.
The TPE app will prove to be very valuable in calculating sunrise/set pictures, as well. Check out the video to see some of the additional features.
There are few things in the visible, celestial realm as enthralling as a full moon. To think that it has no light of its own but is just a reflection of the sun brings to mind so many spiritual applications. The example that I like the most has to do with Jesus’ words to His followers that we are to let our lights shine.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16 (HCSB)
As followers of Christ, we have no natural spiritual light but only a reflective light of the glory of God in our lives. When we are living fully in His grace and under the control of the Holy Spirit, we are motivated to show His loving kindness to others. They see our good works and begin to get a picture of God’s love for them as we radiate a bright reflection of Him.
However, just as the earth begins to cast its shadow on the moon, eclipsing and even blocking out the sun’s reflective light on the moon, worldliness in the life of a Christian diminishes the reflected glory of God in our lives. The less of Christ the world sees in His followers, the more unlikely they are to grasp the glory of God.
May the full moon be a reminder to you, follower of the way, to shine brightly the way for others!
Click HERE for more examples of “Extra, Extra.”
Spring is something to be celebrated, especially for those who live in the Mid-west. After a long Winter, it’s time to plant and start the labor that leads to the fruit of the harvest. One Iowa town’s Spring festival highlights its Dutch heritage. In the first weekend of May, Pella, Iowa, hosts the Tulip Time Festival. It was a perfect fit for this week’s challenge!
With the unpredictability of Iowa weather, the tulips are not always in full bloom by the first of May, and last year’s event saw snow! So, we were grateful to enjoy a the beautiful blooms of Tulip Time.
While we enjoy the beauty of Spring and it’s blossoms, I am reminded how quickly it passes. And, so do our lives. However, there is one thing that never fades…God’s word! The first century disciple of Christ and apostle, Peter, wrote that having heard and believed in Jesus, His followers lives would be transformed by obedience to the truth the imperishable word of God:
23 since you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you. – 1 Peter 1:23-25
To say that the word of the Lord endures forever means that its message continues to be relevant to every generation and every culture. Other descriptions in the Bible speak of the living and active nature of God’s word, so that it has a dynamic nature to radically transform people that no other written material has (Hebrews 4:12). It is inspired (literally, God-breathed) and brings about teaching, rebuke, correction and training in right-living (2 Timothy 3:16-17). One anonymous writing found in the flyleaf of a Bible sums up the importance of God’s word, the Bible:
May you enjoy the beauty of this Spring, but seek after that which truly and eternally endures: the word of the Lord. Its words can transform you life!
Rural Iowa Pastor 