A few shots to share

Pentecost - The Breath of life

The Birth of a Church
Adapted from a blog by Katherine Willis Pershy

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were

shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood

in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed

them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.So

Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And

when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20 19 - 22

As humans, we are sustained by the same intimate inspiration God exhaled into Adam’s muddy lungs - breath that permeates every cell of our being, nose to toes, invigorating our bodies and minds and souls until it is ready to be released, silently, from the same nostrils through which it came. 

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the believers as the life God breathes into the new born Church - the new born Body of Christ.  It is a gift from God to the church on the occasion of it's birth; it is, after all, the gift that brings the church to life. And just as a baby wails in surprise at his first breath, the newborn church inhales deeply of that intoxicating spirit and lets out a resounding holler. Tongues of fire guide the people’s awestruck tongues to speak in the languages of every nation under heaven. 

The believers are no longer cloistered, set apart from the world. They are thrust into the public, equipped with the divine power to communicate the gospel with anyone and everyone who needs to hear it. We are sustained by the same intimate inspiration God exhaled into the Church: people with a mission, unified and empowered by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Are we still praying? Are we faithfully sharing the Good News with our actions and words?  Are we still enthousiastic to speak the name of Jesus Christ.

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Bits from recent days out wiith the camera

Simplest Facts of Flight

"Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again. For most
gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating."
Jonathon Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach


To view the Album
http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/126/A_few_shots_to_share

To view the Slideshow
http://multiply.com/slideshow/cleaunz:photos:126


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Next Shot Week 13 - Technique Black and White or Sepia, Theme "Old"

Re-creating Landscapes - a look from the past

I do not have much spare time to make more photos for this theme so have just these two to present for the theme this week. I like paying with photos in this way - not that I ever do this sort of thing except for a theme like this. I try to make photos look authentic as if from a particular era as with th above. With this one which I took a few days back I used macromedia fireworks to create that antique look. I converted the original to Mono and then layed it over the original and brought a little of the colour through from behind. the next step was to add a wite texured border to give that worn look and finalllay  an opaque layer of sepia over that - voila!!! This I tried to make look like a photo from around the early 20th century - hope you agree!!

This one I did in the same way except without the sepia look - as if from the1950's. Again I use a little colour. I do not think I quite got it right but present it for you anyway. I know the theme is about being creative with black and white or sepia but I think this looks better with a hint of colour to give that age or era look.

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This post is for the new photography group 'Next Shot' created by Baz ( oceankinguk2003). This is the Twelth technique theme, created by Baz. Other members posts can be found below in the comments from other participants! If you would like to join the Members only group just let me know and I will send an invitation.

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bokeh album

Next Shot Week 12 - Technique - The Bokeh Effect

Kookaburra

This Kookaburra came by the other morning looking for any tasty titbits we might have to offer. This is the first time I had any visit from a Kookaburra but it was obviously well used to human, knowing there is nothing to fear and humans tend to provide something for them if they can look cute enough. They are a large kingfisher type bird that preys on everything from small rodets to snakes and other reptiles. They have a call similar to someone laughing out loud and are refered to as the Laughing Kookaburra. I have just this one photo of Bokeh but attaced is an album of photos for you to view or if you wish there is a ink for a slideshow.

Have a listen
Laughing Kookaburra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ZbykXlg6Q


Click Here for the album of Bokeh shots
http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/125/bokah_album

or if you prefer - the slideshow
http://multiply.com/slideshow/cleaunz:photos:125

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This post is for the new photography group 'Next Shot' created by Baz ( oceankinguk2003). This is the twelth technique theme, created by Joanne. Other members posts can be found below in the comments from other participants! If you would like to join the Members only group just let me know and I will send an invitation.

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Next Shot Week 11 - Technique - Differential focus with a motion blur

Again from Archives
No time to experiment!

.

This first is one of the two women in my life, Michelle and our daughter Tess, who decided to liven
things up a bit by having a dance and a little party together at home one quiet evening. Here we
have a differential focus of a blurred subject with a background in focus

This one is I tried to capture in a pan as oscar skirted across our lounge room floor. It did not
quite work but his face almost kept in focus and motionless enough I think to fit in with this
theme!! It seems to be a combination of both No 1. - a blurred subject and No 2. - a blurred
background. Making for the happy and cheeky looking little dog that he is!!



 

This last is of one of the students returning to the Hostel and curious as to whats happening
with his friends - an example of 1. the subject blurred.

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This post is for the new photography group 'Next Shot' created by Baz ( oceankinguk2003). This is the eleventh technique theme, created by Sonny. Other members posts can be found below in the comments from other participants! If you would like to join the Members only group just let me know and I will send an invitation.

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Images And Words Week 158 ~ Beauty

If you could see her through my eyes




If you could see her through my eyes
You wouldn't wonder at all.
If you could see her through my eyes
I guarantee you would fall (like I did).
When we're in public togther
I hear society moan.
But if they could see her through my eyes
Maybe they'd leave us alone.
                                                                                                    As sung by Joel Gray from the film Cabaret



To view the original song click on the link below
http://youtu.be/zZ7qdG2kcIc

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This week the theme is created by Milli for the Images and Words group also run by Milli. should you feel inspired to join in
go to this link and join in the fun. For rules and such, visit the group home page.

http://imageswithwords.multiply.com/

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Picture Perfect - "A Two Week Project"

Playing with Accidental photos.

The above was accidently taken, in my haste, while walking back home along a long beach in a sudden storm. If you tip your head
sideways you can see the curve of the beach - to help, the white are the waves breaking on the sand.

Although not exactly as required, for the theme, the above photo is one that I have used in a way to be creative as the task this week asks for (to use an existing photo in a creative way). I have an album filled with many mistakes, or photos taken accidently, that most people would throw away. More often I tend to keep them and try and find some future use for them in such things as backgrounds for web pages or greeting cards or some inspired photoshop creation like the ones I have here below. This is from one of the first times I used photoshop and fireworks when I created images of what the above photo created in my mind when I worked on it. There were a number of thoughts that came - mainly related to out in the universe images.

So this is what I have to share - my ideas on how to use this photo creatively. I will now hopefully find some other 'mistake' photo to be creative with and come back for week 2 and post the result in the way asked for in the theme - thats if my creativity will flow from my will rather than inspiration.

 I flipped it to the right and these two thoughts are what came to mind - the solitude and stillness of space. I combined photos of a hurricane taken from space with some photos I also found online of a nebular and from memory a moon from some other planet far away in our universe.

When I tipped it sideways again I still had an image of space -a view into the mysteries of the universe from the side of a passing planet. It felt drifting and then thoughts of old sailing ships came to mind and they silently passed through the mists of time - I chopped a sailing ship from a photo and added it in different sizes to give the feel for depth as they drifted past in line. This is not such good editing but you get the feel anyway and I might one day re-do this idea and perfect it a bit more!

This final one I tipped upside down and thoughts came of a sunrise. I then chose another photo from my latest photos at that time, lay it under the image and slowly revealed it to a state I thought suited the feel I was getting. This is a sort of greeting card image again with that feel of solitude.

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For the rules of the Group Theme

http://fotofriday.multiply.com/

To enter this Weeks theme
http://fotofriday.multiply.com/journal/item/528/Picture_Perfect_Creative_Ideas_a_two_week_project



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A radically different interpretation of Jesus...

Something to share!

From one of my subscriptions - http://www.catholica.com.au

All of the great religions are, in a sense, a paradigm or framework out of which we construct our view of the world and our relationship to it. Catholicism and Christianity are paradigms — a set of rules and beliefs that help each of us "make sense" of our world, and navigate the mountains and valleys of our earthly journey. I sense part of the contemporary problem institutionalised religion might be going through or, more specifically, institutionalised Christianity, is that the "paradigm" is breaking down. That's essentially why we are seeing this big "exodus" in educated society today not just from institutionalised Catholicism but from virtually any form of institutionalised religion. The only places where institutionalised religion still has some hold is in societies where the ordinary people still have a sense of being oppressed, either by poverty or lack of access to education.

In recent history — by that I mean from the time of Constantine and Roman Catholic Institutionalised Christianity — Jesus has been presented to us as this "goody two shoes, conservative, social conformist" model. He is presented to us as a law-giver and one we had to emulate as one who obeyed the law, obeyed his parents, obeyed the "authorities" (whoever they happened to be). The Roman Empire adopted Christianity under Constantine not primarily because of any beliefs Jesus might have had but for the political reason that the temporal rulers saw in Christianity a way to unite the Roman Empire and build a conformist, law-abiding society rather than an unconformist, difficult-to-control society. Christianity was perceived as a pathway to social and political stability even if, in its earlier history, the Roman authorities of the time had viewed it as a radical movement and potentially destablising to their social and political agenda. The Holy Roman Empire that evolved after the collapse of the Roman Secular Empire took all this a long way further and we've subsequently had evolve these great litanies of saints and role models who basically all model social conformity and docility on the part of the masses in humanity. Jesus, in a sense, is presented as a means, or model, of social control.

Is that actually true to the Gospel picture presented of Jesus? Is this "paradigm" we were all taught to believe in actually faithful to the "historical Jesus"? Was Jesus really some "law-giver" and social conformist — some pawn, or tool, of the political and religious authorities of his day?

I think not. Jesus did not have some "political" or "social conformist" agenda. It was a radically individualist agenda albeit about how the individual could live within a community and retain their fundamental integrity. It was NOT "radically individualist" in the sense of how modern capitalism often presents itself as "radically individualist" but always as "the individual acting in harmony, or in communion/in communio, with one's neighbours, with society at large and with one's environment, habitat and the rest of creation". In proposing a "kingdom", Jesus wasn't proposing yet another political party — some alternative to all the rest of them — or yet another monarchical system of government or social organisation. He didn't even pretend to found some "church" or "religion" from what we can discern in the Scriptural record he left behind.

His agenda, if you can call it that, was a "radically individualist" message directed at each individual person trying to show them that the pathway to a fulfilled life, to personal integrity, rather than some "program" or "paradigm" or "gospel" that might be adopted by some political party, some church, some high priests that could be used to "build some kingdom". The "kingdom" Jesus presents via his parables and the entire Scriptural story is created not by political parties, government and churches but rather by a huge community of individuals each striving for personal integrity in their lives.

The outcome may well seem similar: if you can create a whole society of individuals with deep "personal integrity" you create "a perfect society". That is radically different though to some government, some king, some prime minister, some Roman Emperor, some Pope, some parent, trying to create "a perfect society" or "a perfect family" by encouraging docility and social conformism in all their citizens, or in their own family if we're talking the case of a parent.

Jesus is so often presented to us by the institutional churches as some kind of law-giver and social conformist. He was neither. He was a law-breaker and non-conformist — almost every parable in the Scriptural record is a lesson in how to break some law or social custom. Not just for the hell-of-it though, like some anarchist or radical individualist capitalist, but always in morally legitimate ways. Essentially the message is that to achieve personal integrity, to become a whole, self-individuated person, to live morally, the harsh reality is that you have to disobey many laws and rules and human statutes and social mores. The entire "message" of Jesus is essentially one huge "life lesson" in how to go about that. Jesus is often described as the great iconoclast — the smasher of idols. Is that not what is being described in this paragraph?

I really wonder if this present unprecedented drift away from institutionalised religion that we see going on society-wide today is not some intuitive sense we collectively all have that we've been "led up the garden path" by our priestly class and ecclesial leaders. The "people at large" have begun to sense we've been fed porkies* for far too long. Society-wide are we not searching for a new religious paradigm — a new interpretation of Jesus that is far truer to the original model and the scriptural record and wisdom that was left to us?

* Porkies is a shortened version of Australian slang for lies = telling 'pork pies' - telling lies!!

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Odds and ends from the last few weeks

Walking - reflecting



Michelle walking Deedee

This photo above is a sort of intro to a small album of leftover shots I have edited from photos over the last month. If you wish to see more click on a link below.

To view the album
http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/123/leftovers

or for a slideshow
http://multiply.com/slideshow/cleaunz:photos:123



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The Ironman Australia - Port Macquarie - Cycle leg

Passing Through Bonny Hills

The annual Ironman Australia, held in the Greater Port Macquarie region, passed through Bonny Hills on Sunday Morning. The whole coast road was closed for the day meaning there was no going anywhere from 7.45 am till 4.15 pm. A bit annoying but I found, thanks to Michelle, plenty to do at home for the day - an Autumn Spring clean for example!!!! Of course a photo shoot at the Aid Station near the end of our street was a must so I was there at 8 am ready for the first lot of Ironmen and women on their bicycles to come through. The station was at the top of a long hill so with them moving a little slower it was easier to capture the action. The addition of the young volunteersin the photos I feel added something special. The event is held over three legs - a 3.8 km swin leg, a 180km cycle and then believe it or not, a 42km run (226km or 141mile total). The event took the eventual winner  8 hours 17 minutes and 38 seconds. Pretty amazing stuff realy when I think how I feel after say a 60 km ride let alone adding  another 120 plus on top of that a run and a swim!!

Anyway I have added an album for you if you wish to take a look and to
 make ut easy I have added an  extra slideshow link if you wish!!

Click the link below to view the Album
http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/124/Ironman_Australia_Port_Macquarie_may_2012_-_Photo_Album

or

click here for the slideshiow
http://multiply.com/slideshow/cleaunz:photos:124



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Ironman Australia Port Macquarie may 2012 - Photo Album

leftovers

I just had to post this!!!

Please Note
This photo is not my work.

These photos in the link below and the photo above are just so clever and funny too - so funny I just had to share!!!!! Makes me want to go out and purchase an underwater camera and have a go myself. Please enjoy!!

http://www.littlefriendsphoto.com/index2.php#!/3/underwater_dogs/1
if this link does not work - copy and paste it



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Early Autumn Weather.

Autumn Sky

I have a few photos of the seas and beaches from the last week to share with you.Not a lot of time for photography of late due to work and sleep committments! Each afternoon I do take a walk camera in hand and these are some of conditions at the moment with Autumn now here!!

To View my album please click the link below
http://cleaunz.multiply.com/photos/album/122/Latest_-_A_Photo_Album

or to view as a slideshow
http://multiply.com/slideshow/cleaunz:photos:122

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Latest - A Photo Album