Last updated: 11/30/2011, 11:00PM

We reached $500! Read the exciting details on the Purchase with a Purpose page.

And we have now reached $1000!! At 9:00PM, three hours before our deadline, we reached exactly $1002. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated! More details will be posted in another post.

To reach this goal, Lenspiration is selling Original 2012 Calendars at $12 per calendar, $10 of which will be given directly to Jonathan. To help reach $500 $1000 by midnight, November 30, please click the Add to Cart button above to make your donation now! This post will be updated frequently to display the fundraising progress.

• Goal: $500 $1000
• Amount Raised: $1000
• Yet to be Raised: $0
• Time Left: 0 days, 0 hours

No more calendars to go! Jonathan and I are overwhelmed with gratefulness for everyone’s generosity, and we thank each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts for your contributions.

• Michael B.
• Jayma G.
• Esther M.
• Melody L.
• Michelle P.
• Amanda S.
• John & Joyce
• Amanda H.
• Stephen W.
• Beverly K.
• Libby Z.
• Doug R.
• Mrs. P.
• Owen Y.
• Wayne B.
• Loyniwati K.
• Michele N.
• Andrea-Lynne S.
• Donald S.
• Richard B.
• Eddie H.
• Robert & Kendalyn
• Richard J.
• Jim & Beth
• Nancy B.

Get your Customized 2012 Calendars before Christmas! Order before December 5, 2011 to insure that your customized calendars will be delivered to you in plenty of time before Christmas.

Place your order using the links above or by shooting me an e-mail at james@lenspiration.com. After gathering your logo and contact information, Lenspiration will generate a preview of your customized calendar. Calendars will not be shipped until you have approved the contents of the flap.

While Original 2012 Calendars will continue to be sold through the ensuing months, there is no guarantee that orders placed for customized calendars will be fulfilled before Christmas if placed after December 5. Now is the time to place your order! And it never hurts to get your Christmas shopping done a little early.

Twenty-four-seven, 365 days a year, a calendar with your branding presents customers, sponsors, potential clients and passers-by alike with an ongoing awareness of your business or ministry that they normally would never have. Customized calendars provide a quality, affordable, applicable promotional tool which you can use for fundraising, giving away, advertising or simply fulfilling the needs your business or ministry is currently facing. Don’t hesitate to contact me for questions or further information!

Between fulfilling volunteer responsibilities and attending various events at the National Bible Bee in Nashville, Tennessee, I was able to snap a few shots of the friendly, spirited, and emotionally thrilling mood of the occasion!

In both shooting and editing, I was reminded over and over again of how important depth of field is to a pleasing composition. If you do not know already, there are three factors that determines how “deep” your depth of field will be:

1. Aperture. The wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field.
2. Focal length. The further you zoom in, the more blurred the background will be.
3. Distance. The closer you are to the subject, the less detail in the background you will see.

So, having said thus, here are a few of my favorite images from the Bible Bee. Notice the depth of field in every single one of them.

My absolute favorite from the week!

I love the combination of DOF and subject movement which draws the eye to the joyous countenance of the father’s face.

Blurred just enough to produce a cool effect while still giving enough detail to know what story the picture is telling.

Not much you can do with depth of field when the speaker is so far away, even from the front rows of the auditorium. But still, when Kirk Cameron is speaking live, an ok picture is more valuable than none at all.

Just a very cute shot.

GraceAnn Westfahl, 2nd place winner of the Senior division.

Keli Erickson, 1st place winner of the Senior division!

“By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged: and by the
fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” –Proverbs 16:5

‘Tis an exciting week! After memorizing hundreds of Scripture verses over the summer, the top 300 highest-scoring National Bible Bee contestants from across the nation will demonstrate their diligence in Scripture knowledge and memorization in Nashville, Tennessee, from November 17-19. While the top winners will be awarded more than $260,000 in awards, I love the Bible Bee because of it’s creativity and excellence in encouraging young people to get into God’s Word and study it with purpose. With this goal in mind, I look forward to working as a volunteer during the competitions this week, doing my small part in God’s bigger work!

This quaint little bridge, situated just off Rt. 7 in the lightly populated county of Litchfield, Connecticut, is probably the smallest covered bridge I have ever seen. Just tall enough to walk through, the miniature, almost romantic little structure is the gateway to Kent Falls State Park, one of the best spots to photograph waterfalls in the State of Connecticut.

To get shots with flowing water like this taken pretty much in the middle of the day, I am very glad I had a Neutral Density Filter with me. Essentially adding sunglasses to the lens of the camera, an ND filter decreases the amount of light that enters the lens by a specific number of f/stops allowing for a longer shutter speed even in well-lit situations. True, the day I spent at Kent Falls was cloudy, but still I wouldn’t of had nearly as much flexibility in choosing exposure settings without the filter. The particular ND filter that I have is the Tiffen 0.9 filter. When 0.3 equals 1 stop of light, 0.9 is equal to a decrease of 3 stops of light, just about perfect for most situations, even direct sunlight.

If you want to add character and professionalism to your photos, I highly recommend you get one of these. The silky water effect is not something you can add in Photoshop very easily, let alone naturally-looking. I got a 77mm on Amazon for just under $43.00. Now that I’ve been using it for a while, I wish I had purchased it years ago!

After returning from my excursion to the West Coast on the 22nd, I had the opportunity of being on a Journey to the Heart team in the Northwoods of Michigan for a week. By that time of year, the autumn colors had almost fully faded that far north, but there were a few birch specimens that were lagging behind their compatriots. This particular tree was photographed at the Black River Harbor Campground along the shores of Lake Superior. Along with the untamed shore and fall colors, Black River Harbor also boasts a few attractive waterfalls along the Black River worth stopping to see if you are ever in the area.