Sample 142 - Dark Dream

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

    and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you,

    and his glory will be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to your light,

    and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Isaiah 60:1-3

Sample 98 - Olympic Parkway

Car light trails, shot with the Nikon D40, kit lens. 

Taken on the other side of the Overpass 

Taken on the walk back to my brother's place

I just have to say that Christ is all we need - before, during, and after we make our own exits from this highway we are all on.

So much is going on. God bless you.

_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 90 - Baguio Alley Through A Fisheye Lens

Shot on April 2008 with the Nikon D40, with a Nikkor Fisheye lens (Forgot the focal length, not really willing to check EXIF right now) borrowed from a good friend, Dawin. 

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.
- Proverbs 18:1

Photography is a tool, not a status symbol. The moment you realize that you aren't taking pictures for yourself, rather, FROM yourself.. I believe that's a step forward.

God bless you.

_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 71 - Moonset | Starfall (Bauang '12)

Here's a zoomed in crop of the sky, contrast adjusted and run through a noise-reduction program.

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?"

- Psalm 8:3-4

When I think of the sheer complexity of the smallest sections of the atom and the absolute enormity of the sky and the stars, I am humbled. I ask myself, how can our own minds grasp the truths of creation, and how could our own thoughts ever hope to measure up to the infinitely superior intricacy involved in the cell structure of the tiniest of insects, or in the birth and death of a star?

Truly and indeed, God's foolishness (for lack of a better word, I suppose) is far incomparable to the wisest of wisdoms we claim to formulate on our own. We will never be able to comprehend His ways from beginning to end in this life, yet He is so gracious to show in all things that He is reaching out to us to believe in Him... He reaches out to us for us to know that the best thing for us is to just run back to Him!

He is so gracious to guarantee that we can come back to Him, even in all His absolute glory and holiness, in His infinite power and wisdom. It is not by what we do that we are worthy to stay a second in His presence; no, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but would have everlasting life, an eternity with the Father!

It was Jesus Christ who took the judgment for the sins we committed, that those who believe would literally have a clean slate, clear of all guilt and condemnation, made whiter than snow.

I mean, I know I've said this all so many times in the past, but I just couldn't stop giving Him all the glory and praying for His will to be done as I shoot and post photo after photo of His creations... It is my prayer that we all would connect to Jesus Christ.

No matter what we've been through, no matter what we've dealing with now, and no matter what we have in store for us in the future, one truth remains - that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one could come to the Father except through Him.

Choose Jesus Christ today. It doesn't always make sense, but to run to Him will always be the best decision we will make.

God bless you.

_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 40 - Transition (Baguio '12)

Nikon D80, 18-200mm @ 55mm, f/8, 25 second shutter (-0.3EV, Center-weighted metering), ISO 125

Nikon D80, 18-200mm @ 36mm, f/8, 1/800 second shutter (-0.3EV, Center-weighted metering), ISO 100

Transition - From the lights of the night to the light of day. As the night fades and as dawn looms, the glow of many lights gives way to the slow yet pronounced ushering in of the brightness of the sun.

This is the second time I shot the sunrise with some good friends in photography up in Kabuyao, an area you would pass as you climb Mt. Sto. Tomas. You'd have to wake up really early to make sure you're up there, all set up and ready before sunrise. As I go through these shots I'm reminded of some very important lessons.

You need to be prepared - well rested, fully charged, with all equipment accounted for. Also, sometimes you need to do some travelling to get to some good spots to shoot.

I have to be honest; The reason why I posted these shots is because I took some shots from my iPhone during the same shoot, and I posted that shot on Facebook first. Here it is:

iPhone, Auto-all Settings (Like I had a choice), Instagram filter (Forgot which one)

Now I figure, posting this shot on Facebook was an accidental challenge I gave myself - is it possible for the pictures I took with the D80 to look at least a bit better than what I took from my iPhone?

I'll leave you to decide on which pictures look better. Of course, constructive feedback is always welcome.

God bless you!



_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 37 - BreakPoint (San Juan, 030612)

This is a reduced and cropped composite of around 11 shots, taken with an 18-200mm lens on my trusty Nikon D80, @ 18mm, f/11, 6 seconds per shot.   

See that rock in the middle? Pao and I were there at least one time before. We almost broke up there when we made one mistake too many. 

Involving God in our relationship initially meant that we needed to hold each other up to a standard 'to keep Him in the center.' The problem with that was that we were, in our church's terms these recent months, 'keeping ourselves under the law'; i.e. we were too caught up in guarding ourselves in our own efforts that it was inevitable that we would make a mistake and our relationship would consequently take a turn for the worse. It was all about our own performance, and that simply would not do, for us as individuals or as a couple. 

The moment the love we have does not come from the cross, the moment we love without realizing that Christ loved us first, all sorts of crazy things happen.

One famous verse we see often shared in Christian circles is Proverbs 3:5-6; "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." This verse certainly applies in relationships as well. In our case, we make it a point to keep recognizing Jesus Christ as the reason and purpose of our relationship; we acknowledge that it is only by the grace of God that we are strengthened by the Holy Spirit to keep on going, together.

I simply cannot share this photo without that message. God bless you.

_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 33 - Mixed Emotions (Taguig '09)

While it may be worth it for some people to pay to be up close when a barrage of fireworks are fired into the sky, some of us with cameras may beg to differ - I should know. There was at least one evening that I was close to punching myself for being too close - too close that 18mm on the lens was no longer as wide as I thought; too close and too bright for the camera's shutter to be set to anything less than half a second.

This shot was taken on the evening of the first Philippine International Pyromusical Competition, which I witnessed with a couple of good friends, Dawin and Rowi (and her sister). So why haven't I posted any fireworks?... Next time na lang po. I have to be honest. I found this picture separated from where it's supposed to be - in my November '09 Folder. I was about to gripe about how this shot could have possibly been the best one I took that evening, but when I took a quick scroll up and down the folder where the rest of the shots were, well, I'm imagining there will be more to follow.

By the way, it may be impossible to reshoot this picture - I think someone bought and is starting to build over this grassy parking lot, last time I saw. 

 God bless you!


_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 23 - Ortigas Overpass, Night and Day

It's the return of the dreaded HDR... Well, at least what I hope are competent reasons to still do that processing approach. These used to be in my flickr photostream until I deleted them a few hours ago. I got some feedback regarding that first shot, that there was some barrel distortion going on. It's because I'm using the 18-200mm lens. There's a reason they call this specific lens a 'Swiss Knife' - you can do so much of it but if you have a separate dedicated knife, screwdriver, scissor, lightsaber (?), etc., you'd probably use those instead.

After reading countless boys and girls praise and complain about the 18-200mm, I just have to say this - it does the job. It may disappoint some 'pixel peepers', but I'm enjoying it. Though I've been trying to make the 'Nifty Fifty' (50mm f1.8) the main lens on my D80, I always find myself coming back to using the 18-200mm when I need to take some 'safety shots', especially during events. 

About these shots - well, they're of the overpasses on the junction of Emerald Avenue and Dona Julia Vargas over at Ortigas. Enjoy. :)

_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 19 - A Drop Of Golden Sun (Anilao '09)

Please accept my sincerest apologies for posting reruns and for not posting recently - I've been lazy, perhaps intimidated to keep uploading for some reason. 

God blesses us for us to bless others. Indeed, we love only because He loved us first. We are gracious because He has showed us grace first. The blessings we have, they are of no use if we keep it all to ourselves - it simply cannot be kept hidden! That being said, I must continue to clear my repository, sharing what I have seen to the world, for His glory! 

I want the pictures that I take to go far above the shallow and worldly intention of merely showing where I've been. I want to glorify God with every click of the camera.

May I always remember this whenever I shoot, and whenever I share. To God be all the glory and praise, forever and ever!

_________________________

jb.redeemed

email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 13 - Raw Flash

"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." - Matthew 24:27

There is a certain joy to be felt when you're out in a gentle drizzle at dusk, waiting while your camera is properly perched, shutter open. That alone is thrilling in itself; exhilaration follows when the night turns to day for a split second, resulting in these images.

During these times I feel blessed to have been with fellow MWC's (Men With Cameras): Waffy, Dawin, and RJ. Visit Waffy's site here, and Dawin's collection here.



_________________________
jb.redeemed
email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26

Sample 7 - Burnham Park at night, January 2011

I was blessed to have shot these pictures with a good friend, Karl. I was also blessed to have a friend like Dawin who was gracious enough to lend me his 17-55mm f2.8 lens, therefore giving me a small taste of Nikon's 'higher-level' glass - didn't know how to deal with the flare you see in the Panorama, but I'm pretty sure I'll be learning along the way.

God is gracious enough to remind us to keep our priorities straight in His very unique ways. It's always been on my mind to shoot for His glory, but when other agenda comes in the way, I end up in a pickle. That's what I learned later on in the evening, when, even if I had more than enough shots from Burnham, I thought I'd shoot with Dawin's lens a little bit more by taking a few shots of my house before I went inside. The camera fell and landed on the lens (!), but... I was blessed to find out that it was only the hood that was destroyed. I was blessed even more when I spoke to Dawin about it, and I was blessed yet again to see how calm he was when I returned the lens (with cash to pay for a replacement hood).

As I write this now, I'm thinking, 'I'm probably saying 'I'm blessed' too much'... But that's how our God is! If we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, and the blessings will follow! 

Shalom.

_________________________
jb.redeemed
for full resolution pictures, email me at jibee@rocketmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom. - Numbers 6:24-26