Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond

Title: Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond (Originally: “O” Marks The Spot)

Place: Niagara Falls, New York

Description: ENGAGEMENT! Alright, for those of you who have not been following my blog or checking out my posts, about 4 months ago I got engaged to my gorgeous, beautiful, wonderful, amazing girlfriend, Gabrielle. Now this picture has a lot going on in it. First of all, the ring is the ring I gave her for the engagement! It has a beautiful blue diamond and the infinity symbol going out from it on the sides. The “beyond” part of this photograph is really the interesting part! The part inside of the “O” of the ring is the exact place that I proposed to my fiancee! I proposed on that bridge, which crosses from the Unites States to Canada so that she was on the United States side and I was on the Canadian side! Yay for being in different countries when we got engaged 😉 So! That’s the significance of the “beyond” 😛

The World of Geocaching!

Alright, so Geocaching. What is it? Well here is the easiest way I am able to put it: Geocaching is a WorldWide Hide-and-Seek Treasure Map game… Alright, maybe that’s confusing, so I’ll break it down for you. Geocaching starts with a person somewhere in the world that decides to hide a “geocache”. This geocache can be anything from a pill container, to a Tupperware container, to a full blown treasure chest. Now, this person hides this geocache in a place where it is quite hard to find for someone who isn’t looking for it. This is where YOU come in! On the Geocaching website (Geocaching.com) this person has put the information for this geocache. This information consists of many things: coordinates for the geocache, terrain difficulty, hide difficulty, description, past logs by others that have found this geocache and sometimes there will even be a hint! Then what you will do is use the coordinates on the site and your fancy shmancy GPS to locate the area of the geocache. What do you do now? Search for it 🙂 The GPS will only take you to the general area, and won’t tell you exactly where it is so sometimes you have to search in trees, under benches, under ground, etc. If you still have a hard time finding it, it would be best to grab the hint from online which will give you a little clue as to where it is. Now what happens once you find the geocache? Well, all geocaches have a log book in them. This you will sign with your geocaching username (created on the geocaching website) and the date of which you found it. Now, if the geocache is big, then this is where the fun part comes in. Geocaches can have many trinkets in them from toys to flashlights to hotwheels to bouncyballs to…. who knows what else! But to take something out you have to put something in. And that’s how they stay stocked. 🙂 So! That is the jist of geocaching! Do you have any questions for me about it? Feel free to ask! Below are pictures of some of the things I have found in geocaches. 😛

River Of Wellness

Title: River Of Wellness

Place: Winona Lake, Indiana

Description: As much as I wanted to get a clear shot of this little creek, there was no way! It was moving too fast for my iPad to capture, but that’s alright, I still really love this picture. This little creek is right next to one of the Grace College buildings in Winona Lake. It’s part of a little (very very little) sort of zen garden… It’s a peaceful place that I will sometimes go to think. 🙂 Have any of you heard of Geocaching? I know that seems like a random question, but I promise it’s not! If you have heard of Geocaching, you’ll be happy to know that there is one in this “zen garden.” If you live in the area feel free to try to find it! If you don’t know what Geocaching is… Stay tuned! Because tomorrow I’ll post about it. 😛

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination 2

Title: Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination 2

Place: Winona Lake, Indiana

Description: Alright, so normally I wouldn’t do two of the same weekly photo challenges because I don’t want to overload with other people’s ideas, however, It was requested by Liz Gray to submit my lighted longboard for this weeks challenge of illumination. So a little bit about this. Yes! This is a longboard. What is a longboard you ask? It’s basically a longer skateboard. I got my first longboard two years ago for Christmas and loved it! So after wearing that one out (almost completely) I decided to buy a new one. But of course, I can’t have some normal longboard… I had to find a lighted one! 🙂 I found this board on TNG Lighted Boards website and fell in love. So, having a decent job I just decided to buy it 🙂 And now you get to see some pictures of it I took in my room! Unfortunately since it was dark and it was in my room, the pictures aren’t the best quality, but at least you can see the main point, which is illumination! 🙂 

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I’ve been nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Thanks to Gman’s Galaxy for nominating me!

You can check out his blog here:

http://thebatamonblog.wordpress.com/

The rules of the award are:

Display the award logo, link back to the person who nominated you, state 9 things about yourself, nominate 9 other bloggers for this award and link to them.

Here Are 9 Facts About Myself:

1. Well for those of you that have been following my blog closely you might have already guessed this. But I am a Christian. I’m not sure if I can say only a Christian though because in today’s society that has 100’s of meanings. No, in fact I am a believer, believing that Jesus Christ was born, fully God and fully man, lived a perfect, sinless life enduring the same trials and tribulation we face today, and then was betrayed; hung on the cross where he suffered the agony of crucifixion, but worse than this he suffered the weight and pain of the sins of the world, past, present and future. He then died and was buried, but death could not handle him, Hades could not hold him, and so three days later he rose again defeating Death and Hades and is now the intercessor for my sins at the right hand of God the Father. This is what I believe.

2. Here is the second fact of my life, it is that I adore the one called my fiancee, Gabrielle Clouse. Apart from God she is my life and my all. I love her to death and would do anything for her. She is the cutest, most gorgeous, more beautiful girl in the world and is perfect for me. God knew what he was doing when he placed us together. For those who care to know, we are getting married May 25th which is just a short 4 months and 10 days away!

3. Another fact that I love to tell is that I go to Grace College & Theological Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana. You may have known this already because of the hundreds of pictures I have posted from Winona Lake. I love this college. It has been my college since my freshman year and without it I know I wouldn’t be the man I am today. It has given me so much more than education. It has given me friendships, both professionally and relationally. It has provided me with job after job after job in an economy that makes it hard for anyone to find one. I thank God for this college.

4. Going along with the previous fact, I also love this town of Winona Lake. It’s a small town with no major stores and a lot of friendly people. There’s an island that is connected to the main land here in Winona Lake and I love to tread that island to watch the sunsets every so often. The sunsets are beautiful… And if you’ve been with my blog for a while then you have seen it. It’s such a peaceful place.

5. I love Christ Covenant Church (CCC). CCC is the church that Gabrielle and I go to in the mornings on Sunday. Over the last 4 months we have grown a lot closer to this church as we have begun to teach the three-year-olds during the second service. They are so cute! I love playing with them and listening to them! We also go to a Sunday School lesson before we teach the three-year-olds which has been so helpful in our faith. I think the most impact it has had on me was the fact that it taught me how to study the Bible more effectively

6. I love Mission Point Church. Mission Point is the church that Gabrielle and I go to in the evening on Sundays. The setting of this church is phenomenal. The church has its service at a local Christian High School every Sunday  This might seem weird since the church is made up of a decent amount of people and they could probably afford a newer building, however their reasoning for this is that they don’t want to own a building that will just be used on a Sunday for church. Instead, the pastors of Mission Point want a building that can be used all day every day for the furthering of the gospel. So until they can find a place like that, they will continue to meet at the High School. I love that…

7. Well this one is an obvious fact, and so I will expound on it a little more… I love photography! I love looking at it, I love doing it, and I love sharing it! My all time favorite way to photograph is up close and personal. I’m sure for those of you that have been with me for a while know that. 🙂 I love to see the macro beauty in everything!

8.On top of photography I am also a hard core nerd. I loooooove wed designing and web developing. I currently run the Learning Management System for Grace College which I very much enjoy! I also just finished a job where I was updating four websites on a daily basis which was really fun. Now I just run this blog and also do as much side work as I can find.

9. The last fact about me is that I thrive on working. If I had nothing to do all day then I would sleep the entire day because I wouldn’t know what to do with myself, so I like that I work and take college classes, I thrive on it. Even though, at times, it can be very overwhelming, I know that it will all be worth it!

Well, now that you know everything about me, (alright, maybe not… we’ve only scratched the surface here) it’s time for me to choose my nominees! They are listed below: 

1. http://arooseyeview.wordpress.com/
2. http://shutterbugsage.com/
3. http://michaelqpowell.wordpress.com/
4. http://tamaramaphoto.com/
5. http://morninggloryphotography.wordpress.com/
6. http://snapshootergeb.wordpress.com/
7. http://fortheloveofnike.com/
8. http://wallpaper-tadka.com/
9. http://iphonephotog.wordpress.com/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

Title: Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

Place: Winona Lake, Indiana

Description: Alright, so it’s about time that I start getting into doing these Weekly Photo Challenges again! I’ve gone quite a few weeks without them and I miss them! So here in this weeks on Illumination! I was unsure of which picture I should choose for this week. I have a few different ones that would have worked, but I love this picture a LOT! This is an edit to a flower I did on my iPad. The flower is originally white and maroon, but through some editing took and my obvious genius (Just kidding, haha!) I was able to change a few colors and cause the blue so sort of “illuminate” the rest of the flower 🙂 I love it! And I hope you do too!

Best Time To Drive

Title: Best Time To Drive

Place: Driving from Michigan

Description: Ahh the open road. This was me driving back to Winona Lake, Indiana one morning after visiting my fiancee in Michigan. It was such an amazing morning! It started off dark and dreary as I left at 6:00 in the morning, but then as the sun rose it shone through the fog and illuminated the gorgeous colors with its bright yellow rays! You can’t look at this picture and not wish you were there looking at the blue skies and the fog… I tried quite a few times to spice this picture up with some sort of contract or brightness change, but nothing does it justice. This is a completely unedited picture taken from my iPad while driving. 🙂 It’s amazing how the most unlikely of pictures can turn out so amazing. Tell me if I’m crazy, but this is one of my favorite unedited pictures ever. 🙂 Hope you all like this photograph. 🙂 I know I do a bunch!

Natural Fireworks

Title: Natural Fireworks

Place: Chicago, Illinois

Description: It’s about time that I have a post from somewhere other than Winona Lake! I took this picture while in Chicago this past summer with my girlfriend, now fiancee. We had a BLAST! It was my first time to Chicago. It was fun to see the all of the art and architecture there. Anyway, this flower was such an interesting one that I found in one of the many parks in downtown Chicago. When I saw it I just had to take a picture. It reminds me of a firework in flower form! 😛 Let me know what you think of it! 🙂

Streets Of Gold

Tile: Streets Of Gold

Place: Winona Lake, Indiana

Description: This is a picture I took a while ago on a day when I didn’t have too much time to take pictures. I really love this photograph for the color and the silhouette of the church in the background. The content is great and all, but the meaning behind it is even better! What I think of when I see this picture is a street of gold leading to the church where we learn of the real streets of gold that we will experience if we are born again believers in Christ Jesus! What a great thought. 🙂 Anyway, that’s what I see in this picture! In reality though… This street is a stone bench which sits about 300 feet from the church… But never mind that! 😛 Hope you enjoy!

Visual Texture

Title: Virtual Texture

Place: Winona Lake, Indiana

Description: Did I mention that I go to college in Winona Lake? Here’s another one from the little town of Winona! Alright, so there’s something you should know about me… I looooveee the texture of rocks. I love to touch them and more than that I love to take photographs of them because they are always unique! No two rocks are the same! (Alright, maybe that’s not true, but I would like to think it is!) Anyway, so this is a rock I found with a beautiful color and an even more enticing texture to it. (PS: Click on the picture above and then zoom in on this picture! It’s the only way to grasp the full effect of the texture! 🙂 ) I can almost feel its rough edges through this photograph! 🙂 Hope you enjoy this as much as I do! (Unless you’re normal, then you probably will think I’m crazy. 😛 )