Christmas Stage on ChurchStageDesignIdeas.com
Our staging/scenic design for Advent is featured on churchstagedesignideas.com again this year. It was a fun set to work on, and as always, I had a lot of help from the staff and volunteers at First United Methodist.
http://www.churchstagedesignideas.com/2011/12/13/twinkle-lines/
Vimeo Video School – Lesson on Depth
I got an email blast from Vimeo talking about their video school features, and they have a great, simple overview on adding depth to your shots with video.
I’m pumped about my Pinterest Invite
I never thought I would be so excited about digging in to a website and social arena filled with crafts, baking, dieting, and fashion inspiration, among other things. However, Pinterest can really be a cool place to get great ideas and give me a jump start on some creative thinking. I don’t care where I get my inspiration as long as it helps me push myself or simply execute a great idea for people to enjoy. Hopefully it’s another tool that helps my work serve as a piece of art that communicates who God is or gives us a tiny little reminder of his love and power.
Writing Reviews
I should be writing more reviews.
I do a ton of product research online and reading user opinion is a huge part of that process. It takes time to write a complete, thoughtful review, but this is something that benefits a lot of people who are trying to make an informed decision about a purchase. I typically use Amazon.com for most of my review research, and I imagine many others do the same, so you would only have to go through one site to make a decent impact.
Just some thoughts on taking some time to review what I use and try to help people like me who appreciate and rely on reviews so heavily for purchases. Thank you to the people out there who write thoughtful reviews, and I will try to do more of my part.
New Studio, Funny Test Shot
Running Water 5K
I’ve had the immense privilege of working with Preston Goodie for the past few months on her project/campaign to benefit charity: water. The result of this effort is coming this Saturday. It’s crazy to think about the time invested in this event from so many different people, but the fantastic part is the fact that the event has become a reality and I am 100% confident Preston will reach her goal of funding a complete clean water project through charity: water. This is one of the rare times in my job when creative, technical production has a measurable impact. I’m sure Preston’s mission and vision would have gotten around the community through word of mouth – any great cause will to some extent, but it’s nice to see the web and social media provide immediate information to people on how to get involved, what to do, and how they can help accomplish this goal. I’m thankful for the tools we get to use and the generosity of First United Methodist to allow their resources and my time be allocated to this fantastic project. I hope this is just the beginning of my involvement in many more projects like this in the future.
Here is Preston’s website and more information about everything going on with this event: nprunningwater.wordpress.com
Google Reader – Be in the Know
If you are passionate about a skill, vocation, hobby, or anything else actually, you need Google Reader or another RSS subscription service. Here is a short explanation from Google on what their product (Google Reader) does:
Stay up to date
Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Whether a site updates daily or monthly, you can be sure that you won’t miss a thing.
Simplify your reading experience
Google Reader shows you all of your favorite sites in one convenient place. It’s like a personalized inbox for the entire web.
Discover new content
Millions of sites publish feeds with their latest updates, and our integrated feed search makes it easy to find new content that interests you.
This is huge. You get immediate updates on what is relevant to your life – personal, professional, or both – delivered to you in one place to digest and learn from.
Try it, subscribe to sites you already frequent, and search for others that may interest you. I have already come across sites and posts that challenge me and change the way I do things. I would have missed these opportunities if it wasn’t for Google Reader organizing everything in one place and delivering the content I want directly to me.
Great Beginner’s Guide to Digital SLR Photography
My sister recently purchased my Canon Rebel XT camera as her first SLR camera. She had been asking me some questions and mentioned reading the owner’s manual for the camera when I remembered the fantastic web site that I discovered when I first jumped into photography on a deeper (more geeky) level. It took me a minute or two to find it again, and I thought it would be useful to more people out there just getting into photography, especially with a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex camera). If you always wanted to know what made some photos have a soft blur to their background while still keeping the subject razor sharp or what some functions on your camera like aperture, shutter speed, and ISO means to you and your pictures, take a look through this website. I am actually headed there right now again for a little refresher on some terminology before I get my new Canon T2i and start into this hobby again. Enjoy.
Google does this for free!?
Google is amazing. I just recently helped get First UMC switched over to Google Apps for all of our email and calendar functions, and the functionality they offer (in a free product, especially) is phenomenal. We can set up all the accounts we need to handle email, advanced calendar functions with sharing and synchronization, realtime document sharing and collaboration, and intra-net web sites. We are using the fantastic email service for web based access as well as desktop and mobile synchronization/support. It isn’t a local MS Exchange server, but I have never been disappointed with the IMAP update speed or any calendar sync functions. Everything has been fantastic, and again, we are using the free option. Google offers a reasonably priced paid product for Google Apps that many large corporations are using, even switching from Microsoft Exchange solutions to go to Google Apps with pretty much the same Gmail and Google Calendar we all know and love.
Even if you don’t need to set up a business or organization with email accounts or other functions, you owe it to yourself to switch from whatever web based email service you are using to Gmail and start taking advantage of robust IMAP synchronization (auto updating and synced folders, sent messages, archives from your mobile, desktop client, and web) and the fantastic Google Calendar. There are even many products and applications (if it isn’t already natively supported that is) to handle sync between your mobile device (Google Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and more), desktop workstation (MS Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and more), and Google’s servers. Even free Gmail accounts offer over 7GB of storage and a fantastic conversation view email threading.
Here is a quick overview of the service.
Christmas! The season of “Go”
I can’t believe how quickly this Christmas season has come. I still feel like I just started at First UMC in some ways. In any event, I am excited for a lot of reasons that it’s Christmas. This is my first Christmas with my new church family, it’s a time to celebrate the birth of our Savior, and my wife and I are finding out the sex of our new baby just a few days before Christmas!
This is such an intense, but exciting time in my life as well as the life of the church. We are starting to wrap up the first phase of our construction project, making final decisions on many of the outstanding details, and preparing for a new, powerful tool for ministry in the community. The new year will bring a new building, an updated sanctuary, and a new staff member into the mix. This could be chaotic, and I am sure it feels that way to some, but in talking to other staff and involved members of the church, the feeling of excitement and anticipation well overshadows any anxiety. The people here are incredibly optimistic and positive, excited for the ministry of our church to be able to reach even more people with the word of Christ.
Let’s remember this as we enter into the new year and a new season of ministry opportunity at First UMC: Jesus said “Go.” We are expanding and changing in order to better serve the community and the world as a church, a community of Christians. We are here to make and mature disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Please join us for our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve.
