A Little Christmas Miracle

Christmas break is a wonderful time, made even more wonderful when it's actually a break. Although after sleeping in every day for a week straight I find myself feeling a little anxious to do something at least somewhat productive... so now I'm blogging.

Life has been busy so I kind of forgot to make a post about dancing in Christmas Around The World in the Marriot Center. It was a great concert and I was thrilled to be a part of it as a part of the Performing Arts Company this year. Really it's been a dream come true. The entire week before the performance was definitely crazy with all of the rehearsals, but luckily my biggest paper was due before all of the rehearsals got started that week. For the actual concert I got to dance in five of the numbers: Haj'd Povedi Veselo from Serbia, Hambone from the USA, Balle Balle from India, Betekintés Szatmárba from Hungary, and the Hopak from the Ukraine.

Last year I was in Christmas Around The World and did Tinikling from the Philippines. I remember being in the wings waiting to come on for the finale while PAC did Hopak. Each night I would watched Hopak and wish that I could perform it... someday... maybe if I was lucky. But I never really imagined that I'd actually make PAC and perform Hopak in Christmas Around The World. Folk dance is part of my heritage since my parents were both folk dancers, and something about that dance really has allowed me to connect with my heritage in a whole new way. So this year I've had a simple prayer answered that I prayed offstage and never imagined would actually come true. It was a tender mercy for me.

Below is a picture of my mom, Mary Bee (the founder of folk dance and director when my parents folk danced at BYU), and me in the Serbian costume.

Here is a picture of me, Ed Austin, and my mom. Ed is the director of the Performing Arts Company now, and he danced with my parents way back in the day.

After the concert I had finals to look forward to. Don't worry, I survived, and almost all of my finals went better than I was expecting them to. Okay, now I'm going to go back to relaxing and taking advantage of the break. Have a happy new year everyone!

Spam

If there's one thing that gets a little tiresome it's the students who miss use Blackboard e-mail privileges and send incessant mass e-mails to their fellow classmates clogging their inboxes with messages they really didn't want in the first place... (deep breath)

Well, I got ANOTHER one of these e-mails yesterday from someone who may hold the record for mass Blackboard e-mails. It was unique enough I thought I'd share it. Enjoy.

"I wasn't able to make it to class today. This was unfortunate and unavoidable, and I really regret it. You now have the ability to make me feel worse by refusing to share notes with me, or to make all of my wildest dreams come true . . . what kind of people are you? Before you answer you should be warned that, as a political science major, I'm conversant in the deadly art of comparing my enemies to Hitler. Thanks."

Hopefully there was some saint out there kinder than myself that responded to this spamers request. Right now, however, I am perfectly content letting this person compare me to Hitler.

Abundance

Abundance makes it easy to overlook our blessings.

Forced Perspective

This is an amazing picture I saw on the Digital Photography School blog...

The picture is of 18,000 men preparing for war in a training camp at Camp Dodge, in Iowa.

A few facts about the image:

Length from base to Shoulder: 150 feet
Right Arm: 340 feet
Length of Torch and flame: 1000 feet
Total Length: 1490 Feet
Number of men in body and head of figure: 2,000
Number of men in right arm: 1,200
Number of men in torch: 2,800
Number of men in the flame only: 12,000
Total men: 18,000

Homework

I can be fairly productive sometimes. Other times I have quite the knack for being counter-productive. This past Saturday I was somewhat productive. After grading papers for the class I TA and doing laundry I thought, "nothing can stop me now, on to homework!" That's about when I saw what my roommate Scott was working on. It was some graphic design type homework, which looked much more enticing than my homework. Naturally I started working on his homework instead of my own, and I came up with this banner/poster:

(It's original work, picture and all. I started with a picture of a quarter I took.)

In case you can't read the quote it says,

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."

--George Washington

The Mother of Beauty

"Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers."

-Wallace Stevens

Top September Photos

September was a good month for photography (with another trip to yellowstone, how could it not be?). The following are a few of my favorites:

This osprey dove into the river and snagged a fish while I was taking pictures of it (lucky, I know).

Idleness

I'm reading Cliff Young's autobiography right now and I found a quote that I thought was worth sharing.

"Too much idleness is a bad thing for anyone and it's all too common now for wives to have an affair with other men and their men with other women. Or, they turn to drink and drugs to overcome their boredom. Happiness thrives on work, respect and admiration for one another."

Jackson Hole

Last weekend I went on a camping trip with a group of friends up near Jackson Hole. It was amazing and quite the adventure. We started the trip Thursday evening leaving Salt Lake around 8:30pm. We got to the campground we wanted to stay at sometime after 2am, if I'm remembering right. The stars were incredible and made driving that late worth it right away. The rest of the trip included a near moose encounter in our campsite, rafting the Snake River, wandering around Jackson Hole, driving past the majestic Grand Tetons, seeing Old Faithful, hanging my body out the suburban window to get pictures of buffalo, and celebrating Cynthia's birthday in Paris... Idaho. What a trip! I took almost 800 pictures, most of which I haven't had a chance to do anything with. There were a few good ones, and a lot I probably won't show anyone. But that's just what I anticipate anytime I'm taking pictures. After such an eventful trip it's probably no surprise that we got home at something like 3:30am Sunday morning. Don't worry, I managed to stay awake in church all the way until Elder's Quorum.

Macro 2

I really should just go out and get a macro lens, but what I've got will do for now. Here are some more macro shots I got while hiking in Rock Canyon yesterday evening. I'll start it off with a flower for Cayla's sake.

Macro

I really enjoy macro photography (close-up photography of small things with big detail). I don't have a macro lens which makes it a little more difficult, but here are some of my recent attempts at some macro shots:

Raspberries and the Scriptures

This past Thursday I was at home in West Valley dog sitting a new puppy my family recently acquired. It's a wonderfully behaved puppy but don't let that fool you, he'll still poop on the floor if you don't keep an eye on him. Anyway, I let the dogs out in the backyard so they could take care of business and get some of their energy out. The weather was gorgeous and I noticed there were plenty of raspberries ready to be picked, so I grabbed a bowl and set to the task of filling it to the brim with raspberries as an excuse to enjoy the nice weather.

While I was picking raspberries I came to two conclusions: First, life would be simply beautiful if it required only gardening and reading books. And second, picking raspberries is a lot like studying the scriptures.

Let me explain the second. My younger brothers had breezed over the raspberry bushes a couple days previous and had obviously gone straight to the prominent and easily accessible raspberries. They filled up a bowl, but left plenty of huge ripe raspberries untouched. While I was picking raspberries I realized that I could stand in one spot for quite some time and pick a lot of raspberries. Then I would move down a couple of feet and pick more. When I looked back at the section of bush I thought I had picked clean, I was surprised to see many ripe raspberries still there. From my previous vantage point I had missed some clusters that had been hidden under leaves. All it took was lifting up a branch or getting a little lower to see if there were more berries before I moved on to the next section.

As we approach the scriptures we can quickly read through them and pick out the obvious insights and teachings. There are beautiful doctrines that are there near the surface so even children can understand them.

We can find even more in each passage of scripture as we spend more time and attention focusing on the passage before moving on. (After all, the goal isn't to race from one end of the raspberry bush to the other, it is to fill your bowl with raspberries) Spend time in the scriptures.

There is always more to find in the scriptures especially as life alters the perspective we approach the scriptures with. New insights come as we look for specific answers to questions as they relate to us in our own unique situation. Also, often as we spend time in the scriptures we just need to dig a little deeper. Lift up a branch, look under some leaves. This may require time to ponder and meditate. In fact, not all the berries are ripe at the same time. Some treasures in the scriptures are found after a lot of time has been spent searching, when we are ripe and ready.

Halfway through my quest to fill my bowl with berries I realized that to really get in there and get some of those raspberries I was going to have to get dirty. By the time I was done my hands were stained red and I had some red spots on my T-shirt. Scripture study becomes the most meaningful when we get out there and apply what we've learned. Don't be afraid to get dirty through work and service.

Keep your hands clean by getting them dirty through service.

To Washington and Back Again

As soon as the spring term ended I found myself on a road-trip, alone. I had planned on driving to Tacoma to do two weeks of EFY, but I hadn't found anyone that needed a ride when I was headed up there. So it was approximately 14 hours of just me and my camera from Provo to Tacoma. By the time I hit Oregon I decided I better actually use one of the rest stops and take a nap if I wanted to finish the trip alive. By the end of the trip, however, I found that pulling off the interstate to snap some photos was more rejuvenating then the nap in Oregon was.

Well, I showed up alive to the University of Puget Sound (aka UPS; an acronym that seems vaguely familiar) in Tacoma and quickly made some awesome friends with the other counselors. We tried going to a Mariners game but all the cheap seats were sold out by the time we got there, so we took a ferry ride instead.

EFY was fun, and exhausting. The kids were cool and made it easy to have a lot of fun. I wish I had the time to do more weeks of EFY, but alas, there is a movie that needs to be finished...

I spent the fourth of July with my Uncle Dale and family before leaving Seattle. It was a blast! We jumped off a yacht in Lake Union, and saw a firework show in Bellevue.

The trip back to Utah included a lovely visit to Emma's house in Spokane, and then a beautiful drive through Montana (it was actually the first time I've ever been to Spokane and Montana). The drive back wasn't nearly as hard because my friend Mitch came along.

Overall, Washington was great! I had some good times, made new friends, saw new places, and now it's good to be back.

I'm on Flickr

I joined Flickr today. Check out some of my photography here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brycegandy/

or view a slideshow of my photos.

I'd been meaning to for a while now, but I finally created an account because I didn't have a good place to share some panoramas I recently took. They're so long I can't really post them here on my blog, but on Flickr you can see a decent sized image. Don't worry I'll continue posting pictures here on my blog as well.

Rain or Shine

The world is a beautiful place, rain or shine. It's the contrast that makes it so gorgeous. There is something wonderful, something to be appreciated about the people, places, and things all around us each day. Photography for me is about finding a piece of what is beautiful in my surroundings and exposing it. Here are two recent photos... rain and shine.

Also, this last week I found out that I made PAC (BYU folk dance's performing arts company). I am soooo excited to perform with this group! It's something I've dreamed of doing, but I honestly thought that the opportunity had already passed me by. It will be fun, and I'm sure you'll hear more about it in the months to come.

In the Movie Month of May...

May has been an all consuming month of movie making for me. My short film "Man of the Cloth" has been filming the past couple of weekends, and with some luck we'll finish shooting this Saturday. It's kept me incredibly busy, and has definitely been the most valuable experience of my college education. I love making movies, and I've enjoyed working with some incredible and talented friends and classmates on this one. Actually finishing a film is nothing short of a miracle, no doubt about it.

The movie is about a newly ordained Catholic Priest in an old forgotten mining town. It will be done sometime this summer and playing in festivals internationally starting this next fall.

One of my favorite parts about making this film has been our locations. We filmed some of it in the west desert in Tooele County, but most of the film has been shot on location in Eureka, UT. That's in Juab County about an hour south west of Provo. Eureka is one of those places that you wouldn't want to go back to after a first glance, but if you spend some time there the place grows on you.

Just for fun I've put up a panorama shot of Eureka below. I like combining images to make panoramas, and this is probably the most seamless one I've done yet.

Blossoms and Canyon

April has been a great month for pictures, so I thought I'd share a few more before the month is over. Enjoy some stuff from campus and Rock Canyon!

Parable of the Film Emulsion

I'd like to share a gospel insight that I discovered as a result of photography a little over a year ago.

…have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts? …can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances? (Alma 5:14,19)

How is it that we can have the image of God engraved upon our countenances?” Perhaps the parable of the film emulsion can help explain it.

Film emulsion is made of millions of light sensitive salts and crystals that react and change to light, and make photography possible. When the light sensitive emulsion of film is exposed to light coming through the camera lens, past the shutter, the image of whatever the camera was “looking at” is “engraved” on the film. The emulsion is extremely sensitive so the camera settings must be very precise to take a clean picture. So it is with us, if we look to Christ his light will shine through and engrave itself on our countenance. We have to be careful not to take our eyes off of Christ and the light of the gospel and “expose ourselves” to harmful influences. When we are looking for solutions to the stresses of life, where do we look? If we want Christ’s image in our countenance it’s not simply enough to look in his general direction. The lens must be adjusted and the focus set. It is easy to miss the mark and lose focus if we don’t give careful attention to our priorities. Even within the frame of the gospel, is Christ the center of our attention, focus, worship, and service? In a world of so much filth hopefully we are especially careful about the images and messages that appear in front of our lens. If we want to keep ourselves spiritually sensitive, we can’t afford to overexpose ourselves to worldly influences or underexpose ourselves to light of the gospel.

Run For Your Camera

The other morning I was walking back from campus after taking a final, and saw something similar to the image above. The sun had recently peaked over the mountains, was backlighting the clouds, and rimming the edge of the mountain. Moments like that don't last long, so as soon as I got to my apartment I grabbed my camera and ran over toward Kiwanis Park to get a clear shot of the mountain. By the time I got there the moment was gone, but it was still picturesque as you can see above.

Sometimes it's nice not to have a camera at my side, because I can't get anywhere fast with one. I always want to capture those moments I see and share them. Often it's better to enjoy what's there for a moment and gone the next, rather than missing the joy of the moment because I was caught up trying to preserve what was always meant to be transitory.

And just for fun here's a picture that I've posted before, but with a couple of filters added to it.

Hello Spring!

It's beginning to look more like spring and less like winter everyday now. Warmer weather means more pictures, because I don't have to risk frostbite on my fingers. Here are a handful of photos from the past week:

Isn't spring beautiful! I'm still looking for a tree with real popcorn though...

An Easter Message

"May we declare ourselves to be more fully disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in word only and not in the flush of comfortable times but in deed and in courage and in faith."

Festival of Colors

I went to the Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork yesterday. I'd never been before, and I was glad I made it. It was amazing! People were throwing colorful chalk everywhere. I was smiling for a picture and got a load of it right in my mouth at one point. Two of my friends got chalk in their eyes, which is not so fun I imagine, but when tears started streaming out of their eyes leaving a wet path in the chalk on their faces it looked pretty awesome! You know, sometimes you just have to let your face become a canvas to be painted on.

Also, here are a few more photos from the last couple of days:

Which do you like better? Black and White, or Color...