streets of prague

i spent an afternoon at this one intersection of two cobblestone streets. i was listening to linkin park on my ipod and watching all these people walk by. i'll show you photos later of the people, but here is the place.

one thing i loved about prague is how much everyone walks, and all the bridges over the Vlatava river. i took the metro to Malostranska one rainy night and walked along the river. the sky really was this blue and the wet streets reflected everything.

here's brad kaspar. he's one of my best friends and the only reason that i knew czech republic would be so awesome. brad and i lived together in kay house in college, worked at honey rock for a summer, and have had some great road trips. he moved to czech two and a half years ago and lives on the czech-polish border in cesky tesin. a lot of people mistake him for a czech now because his language is really good and he just looks like one. anyways, suffice it to say brad is unusual: he lives life with more gusto than usual and he cares about knowing god way more than the usual, and i believe he is living a very full life. and brad makes everything more fun than it would otherwise be, because he takes chances and has an attitude of "go for it".

you'll be walking along, a streetcar will whiz by, you'll hear the rock music playing from bakeries and cafes, and in the middle of all these modern signs and sounds, you can look up on the hill and see castles! its so wierd. this one is prazsky hrad, where i think the king/president still lives.

ok, so the photos are finally up for this post... there's some kind of bug in the picassa-blogger transfer.

the newton clan

this is why i'm going to be an emergency pediatrician. his name's sam.

after new york, i headed west to lancaster, PA. if you've ever been there, its basically just like new york city, except way more farms, way fewer people, no subway, and everyone speaks english. or dutch. newton and i have been friends since the summer 'o 2001, when we led campers on wilderness hikes at deerfoot lodge in upstate new york. we both love the outdoors, and have made it a point to get out in the woods at least every couple of years... when life gets crazy, i can go in the woods with a friend like newton and it feels like i've stepped through a portal, outside of time. i sincerely believe that being out in the woods or on the water is central to the human experience, and we become impoverished without it. here's ben, lindsay, and sam, on their guatemalan hammock in the backyard. there is so much joy in their house that you cannot help but be warmed by it.

and here's newton loading up the car for our canoe trip... the canoe is one ben brought from deerfoot, so you know its been through it.

new york city

3 weeks ago I went to new york for the first time. i was really impressed by the subway system. i don't know who first thought of moving the people around underneath the streets of a city, but its just brilliant. it was friday night when i arrived in queens, where my friend amit lives, and i jumped on the purple line, following it by stadiums, apartments, fields, throught a tunnel, and into manhattan. there were 3 kids, i think siblings, on the train coming home from baseball practice. there were people coming from work, or going to work, or going to meet friends... and we're all here, together, in the train.

amit is an emergency physician at a hospital in flushing, (the most ethnically diverse zip code in the US) and a great guide who made my time in new york richer. on saturday we went all over the place, riding in the chinatown shuttle, the metro, and yes, a crazy taxi that almost made me throw up. here we are underground at astor place, amit perusing the New York Times.

living in the desert

i was surprised that in a place so dry and barren, life found a way to survive. also, when something dies in the desert, its skeleton decomposes very slowly, so you end up with these skeletons of plants and animals scattered among the the living.

the reason i went to the desert is to hang out with my friend brent at his family's house in scotsdale, AZ. many people do not know this, but brent has been riding motorcycles and dirtbikes since he was a tyke. but for me, it was the first time. obviously that is brent in the picture. i didn't manage any tricks, but i did fall off the bike a few times.

we had some great drives and some great conversations out on the highways in the desert. if you ever get a chance to hang with brent in AZ, go for it! you will not regret it.

just a scratch.

rain on christmas

christmas day, 2006, the rain poured down on ocala, florida

water and leaves on the glass of my accord

trauma: walking the line

for those of you i haven't talked to this month, i've just finished a rotation on the trauma service at our hospital. i truly loved it, felt so alive in this room, so buzzed. some thoughts on trauma:it is the #1 killer of people between the ages of 1 and 44 in america.
this is where they bring the broken, bloodied, beat up, crashed, and shot.
and we do everything we know to fix them up.
there is a line, sometimes narrow, between life and death.
as the trauma team, it is our duty and our priviledge
to take our patients by the hands, and lead them along this line,
no matter what happened, no matter whose fault,
no matter what time of the day or night. no matter what.

some of our patients lived this month, some died,
some will never walk again, some will never talk again, and some will.
it's not fair, it's life. it's the way it is.

light, water, and just being there

the movement of water has the power to still the raging mind, but requires the time to

l i s t e n a n d w a t c h.

this leaf was hovering above the lake in ohio in mid-october. it is now rapidly becoming soil, i am sure. things die, and we keep on living. photography is a matter of now-you-see-it-now-you-don't. "here i am" says the light, "catch me if you can." i think that 90% of photography is just showing up, and opening your eyes.

one of the fascinating things about water is its ability to be either a lens or a mirror, depending on your angle of approach. here the murky lakewater mirrors the rich blue sky above.

comment: At 1:54 AM, Bethuel said...

photography... the mind of a philosopher, the heart of a musician, the soul of a poet, and the eyes of an artist.

fare thee well, old friend

3 1/2 years ago I had to sell my first automobile, a dark blue 1990 toyota truck. i nearly shed tears thinking about that wonderful truck, which my friend paul called "the icebox" because the AC worked so well and i'll admit i kept it about 45 degrees in there. now i am having a similar experience, as i say goodbye to my trusty camera, the sony f828. i am selling this one and replacing it with sony's new DSLR, "the alpha". word's cannot describe how much i appreciate the 'ol 828, its metal rings, macro setting, tilt body, 2.o-4.5 aperature, 28-200mm focal length, comfortable grip, and sleek design. but times change, and so must i, but not without saying thank you to the camera that brought me to where i am today.

 

bro trip 2006

for those of you who don't know me, scott is my big brother. he was married to holly last weekend. the week before his wedding, we drove up to a lake in rural iowa for an extended bachelor party. unlike the traditional bach party, we spent our time biking, shooting each other with paintball guns, watching mission impossible, braveheart, bourne supremacy, and of course, making fire. this is the firepit where we were last thursday night for a ceremony of last rites. (reflections on scott)
is this picture not hot?
here is myself with scott just before we "ran the gauntlet". the game was this: two of us had to ride bikes down the road while being ambushed by two gunmen in the woods, one at ground level and one in the "snipers nest" above. it was a total rush.
here is the crew at scotts bach party, minus matthew who was driving in that night.

 

flowers of dewali

siberian sunfolower growing in front of my apartment. according to the seed packet, these plants will reach a height of 12 feet. this one was about 7.
this is my friend swetha, who invited me to a festival of dewali at old dominion university. it was really cool. i was impressed by the amazing indian dances, both traditional and modern, and by the sarees. dewali, i learned, is among other things a celebration of light. i'm not a physicist, but as i understand it color is the name we give to certain wavelengths of light. it is interesting that of the entire spectrum of elecromagnetic radiation, our eyes can detect and differentiate only a small portion of those waves, what we call the visible spectrum, or ROYGBIV (red orange yellow green blue indigo violet). in any case, here is a vibrant green/blue saree above, with rich reds, violets, and blues below.
since going to dewali i've noticed that most of the clothes virginians wear is so muted. the colors are out there, why aren't we wearing them?

 

CAMP

A couple of weekends ago the high schoolers from Lighthouse went down to north carolina to a place called camp kahl on the pamilco sound. my friends pete and emily and myself and the other youth leaders go with to facilitate reflection and spiritual growth. as pete and i were talking about on the way back, these weekends end up being a time of growth for us probably as much as our little brothers and sisters. and we shot trap (shotguns + clay pigeons!) and went swimming and it was a blast. here are photos i took during "solo" reflection time on saturday morning. austin, peter, jesse
natalie
david

 

october ski

jodi took this photo, and we instantly fell in love with it. the unusual focal point in the foreground, far from detracting, adds depth and interest to the photograph. that's me in the background.the position of the hands is what drew me to take this photo. this is jodi taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. ok you get it.
this insanse person is matthew, who is not only making the perfect slalom turn in this shot, but doing so in almost glacial water.