There’s a key design concept that I learned at Desktop Publishing II last week. We learned a lot of cool, geeky deep things, but this one jewel of knowledge kept popping up over the course of the entire week. Without it, you can do all the re-designing you want but still not get anywhere.

The key to redesigning is to rethink the layout before rethinking the look. Generally speaking, a redesign is needed not because of a bad look, but because of a bad layout.

So before turning on your laptop, pull out a real notebook and start sketching thumbnails to get your staring line outside the box!

Greetings from Verity Institute’s Desktop Publishing II, Indianapolis, the first ever advanced class of it’s kind! We’re breaking through our current boundaries of creative knowledge and advancing into unexplored territory of design principles, sophisticated Photoshop processes, in-depth InDesign capabilities, and beginning-to-ending job management and presentation workflow. I must say it’s an interesting mix of enjoyable stress!

Proverbs 25:1-28

Drum roll, please!

Having critically thought about how each post on this blog is organized, I have determined it most advantageous to create a new category of posts which I now officially announce as, Impressive Places.

My hope is that the creation of this new category (and the slight rearrangement of the others) will assist readers, photographers, and adventurers alike to speedily emerge themselves in the forest of posts most agreeable to their tastes, interests, and purposes for traversing to this site.

So, swing on by the new arrangement of blog.lenspiration.com posts and enjoy the detailed (and some not-so-detailed) explanations of some impressive places in God’s creation that I’ve blogged about for the past one and a half years!

A list of blog categories:

Impressive Places – Observations on particular places that have singly impressed me, whether immensely or moderately.

Perspective – The bigger picture on photography and desktop publishing.

Pic of the Month – In-depth observations on my monthly favorites.

Recommendations – Remarks on why I do, or do not, recommend various photographic paraphernalia.

Stories & Expeditions – Explanations for the predicaments I get myself into while living the adventurous life of a photographer.

Tips & Tricks – Sharing my experiences in as practical a way as possible.

Updates & Opportunities – Updates on my whereabouts; opportunities for your interaction with Lenspiration.

Uncategorized – These posts are still very interesting to read; it’s just that I forgot to assign them to a specific category . . .

Thought I’d share a few of my favorite shots from a scouting excursion at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia. What was there to see? I half expected to see the place loaded with alligators and pristine swamp landscape, but in February at the recent fire-ravaged east entrance, there was mainly vast stands of mature longleaf pine forest along the Chesser Island Homestead Trail. It was beautiful scenery for a foreigner, but just one of the many ecosystems that comprise the Okefenokee Swamp.

Even been asked to take portraits of guests at a wedding reception? When I found out that the guest attendance at David & Pricilla’s wedding in Florida last weekend was going to be 400+, I knew I had a job ahead of me!

Here’s some pointers I learned for pulling something like this off:

• Make sure all your studio equipment works before you arrive. Getting started smoothly is a big step toward reaching the finish line. .
• Set up your studio equipment in plenty of time before the appointed time. I gave myself 2 hours, but that wasn’t enough time when I found out that one of my strobes had quite working. If I had set up the night before, I could have had someone who was flying in on the day of the wedding bring another one with them.
• Work with a team. I recruited 3 other guys to help me out. One guy went out and asked guests to move to the studio area, another guy greeted and received the guests (ie. collected their purses, cameras, cups of punch . . .), I set up and shot the portraits, and the last guy handed them a gift with information on how to view and order their pictures online. One guy could never do all this in the short amount of time assigned!
• Write up announcements to be read after the ceremony and during the reception.
• Take one picture of your subject while they hold a sheet of paper with their last name written on it. This way, you can accurately identify who they are later when you are organizing all the pictures on your computer!
• Have plenty of water handy. When telling guests how to pose every two or three minutes for 2 hours, your mouth goes dry pretty often.
• Stay calm and collected. I like to pretend like I’m moving underwater because my natural tendency is to jerk around when I’m under pressure.
• Don’t worry about what other people think about you. Just go about your work as unto the Lord, let His joy flow out of you, and do the best job you can!

Here are a few of my favorite portraits from that incredibly crazy afternoon.

Remnants of A Bygone Era

There’s something about this image that speaks of mysterious emptiness. Uninhabited dwellings, girded in wintery vesture, showcasing nothing more than the antiquated existence of a bygone era. Even the composition itself speaks of vacancy, each component leading the eye into an alleyway that displays nothing but emptiness. The pile of bricks, the sagging deck, the broken wagon wheel; what were once useful elements of every day life are now long forgotten fragments of archaic memories.

But there is one element that might possibly suggest something different. The sun is shining! A sun that will melt transient snow and dispel sheepish gloom. The bricks are not remnants of deterioration, but are simply an unassembled support for a sagging deck. The broken wagon wheel is an unearthed treasure. The empty alleyway is an open conduit for curious historians. This is not the monument of decay, it is the pillar of historical preservation!

There might be more than meets the eye . . . behind what first greets the eye. Though it might not seem like it sometimes, never doubt that he that hath the Son hath life! (I John 5:12)