For some reason I thought hair could grow an inch a month, and having a good employment from a company that seeks out ways to help the community, there was support from them as well as my family to continue after this goal.

The truth is that my hair grew out only a third to a quarter of an inch a month, making it a 30 month run before I could cut my hair without shaving myself bald.

I chose Wigs for Kids for several reasons. First and foremost, they ask no money from those who receive the wigs. Secondly, they focus their attention on children. I remember being constantly picked on and abused by my peers throughout the schooling years so this was a personal goal to help at least one child not suffer the humiliation I went through. Finally, because they have such strict requirements, very few of the donations are thrown away or sold. People who participate in Wigs for Kids don’t do it on a whim and are careful to make sure the hair gets to them in a qualified manner.

As an adult with a full head of hair I was criticized by those around me. Although it’s certain the judgmental behavior came from people of all ages, it was children who out of natural lack of verbal constraint audibly expressed condemnation. I felt a need to excuse my choices and told people at random why I was growing out my hair; it was often because of my fear of attention rather than my desire for it that people were told my motives.

Children usually don’t get that chance with their peers from whom biting harsh words are thrown. When dignity and support is torn from a child it ripples into the rest of their lives. Likewise, when support is given in the face of indignant situations, it can make a child stronger – possibly even a Tour de force that positively impacts other lives.

As it turned out, last weekend I reached my goal! To make the finish line even more emotional, the barber who cut my hair has a niece with leukemia. Even in rough economic times we can help. If you’re not growing out your hair, raise awareness. Pass around addresses to the facebook video or to one of the blogs or posts. Tweet it. Get people involved in hair clubs where, instead of trying to grow hair for themselves people are growing their hair for others.

Peace!

I suggest you just don’t. Don’t do it. They change their security settings every year, sometimes more than that, and each time they do so, they reset your security settings to benefit their business. People fail to see Facebook as a business because it’s social network based. In their blindness, they give away their personal information to rogue apps and to Facebook itself. Google couldn’t hope for a better model to acquire personal information on every living person.

That’s not to say that Facebook doesn’t have a place. When I have something to promote, more often a non-profit organization, Facebook becomes a central piece to advertise it. However, it’s something that I have to periodically maintain for no other reason than to fix back my security settings that Facebook changes at whim.

However, it turns out we can’t just do without Facebook. When businesses look up our information before or after an interview, they peer into the Facebook world. A sterile slate is met with skepticism, so it’s good to have a little activity. That’s where it would be wise to listen to Anna. Common sense things that extend personal courtesy to others through this social network medium. Don’t publicize your political or religious views (that essentially makes this entire website taboo) and don’t get into confrontations.

As far as I know, people aren’t alerted when you unfriend them or deny their friend request. Nevertheless, they often times find out by seeing who’s missing from your list of friends or if they’re suddenly denied access to see it. Although Matthew Stringer makes a good point about silent unfriending having a negative impact on your information feed (file under the keep your friends close and your enemies closer mentality), Anna has a stronger point that people look at who you friend and make real-life judgments based on it. I would even argue that information overload keeps you from knowing what your real acquaintances and social interests are up to.

So take an ounce of good with the pound of bad, but be careful. There are ways to clean up the security enough to not look like a recluse but still keep your private information private.

To read more about the recent security changes, check out the following links:
http://www.davidderrico.com/what-is-facebook-doing-with-your-info/
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline

In baseball there’s a term called “sacrifice”. A batter deliberately hits the ball in a direction that will likely get caught, but far enough away from the other basemen that members of his team can advance to the next base. There’s also a religious term “sacrifice” which could involve killing an animal or human to pour that blood over something to appease a deity.

Since God forbids human sacrifice, and Jesus constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man (not Son of God), could it be that Jesus was giving us a message throughout his teachings that his death wasn’t for atonement or as a human sacrifice, but rather to advance people to God? Would I be at this point today, seeking out what God wants if it weren’t for someone hanging up for execution nearly 2000 years ago?

So what is spiritual success? For a teacher it’s leading people to God and enlightenment of the truth and a better life. For the individual it’s to live out the truth, to live a better life now and have an even better eternal life later.

How does anyone get spiritual success? John Macarthur Jr. said “Spiritual success requires commitment to others.” but the scriptures indicate it has to do with commitment towards God. People were committed towards the priests during Jesus’ day, but Jesus didn’t condone the acts of those people and even condemned the acts of the priests. Commitment towards the wrong person isn’t a path to success. So that brings me back to my search for God. The key to spiritual success is finding Him and being obedient to what He has to say. More often than not what I hear is theology and philosophy that people taught over the years directing towards self-inflicted suffering, which doesn’t equate to denying one sense to accentuate another. Fasting, for example, for the sake of suffering through it doesn’t get anyone anywhere but hungry. Fasting to deny that physical element of comfort that can impede on our search for the spiritual can make people more observant of the spiritual world around them.

I still have more searching to do… On a final note, is it possible to prosthelytize myself?

There are some issues with this that Jews have. First, God forbids human sacrifice of any kind so – why would He go against His own law and sacrifice someone? Second, there are plenty of blood sacrifices that aren’t for sin atonement but merely for thanksgiving. Third, there are plenty of atonement “sacrifices” that don’t involve blood or killing an animal. Consider Abram giving his tithe to Melchizedek. Consider the laws of a peace offering in Leviticus 3. Also consider the offering of the first fruits. The point I’m making is that there is more than one type of sacrifice. Some require blood and others don’t. What we need to look at are the different types of atonement.

• Kippur (כִּפּוּר) as in Yom Kippur (יוֹם כִּפּוּר) (http://www.ulpan.net/yom-kippur) represents an atonement with God that involves making your heart right with others.
• Kapparah (כַּפָּרָה) represents certain types of sin atoned through animal sacrifices – usually birds (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10735.html).
• chet’ (חֵטְא) [rhymes with "hate"] (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H2399&t=kjv) represents more of harsher need for atonement: sin that we are guilty of. This type of atonement can also be translated as “punishment”.

Kippur is a root for other words such as frost or washbasins (כְּפוֹר), asphalt or village (כּוֹפֶר). These are all things that cover. In that similar fashion, atonement means to cover. Frost covers and destroys the plant in doing so. Asphalt and villages cover the harsh landscape making them habitable. There are different meanings and purposes. Sometimes that atonement comes in forgiveness and sometimes it comes in discipline which can range from paying for damages to death.

I’ve read some Jewish sites that claim blood has never been a requirement for atonement, but that there are other ways to get the atonement without involving an animal sacrifice. Depending on your definition of atonement, that’s true, and in Biblical standings there’s more than one type of atonement. The King James translation often uses the phrases “sin offering for/of atonement”, “atonement money” and “[a levite does something to] make an atonement for them/him”. Atonement may be achieved through repentance, animal sacrifices, money sacrifices (for census), confession, restitution, Yom Kippur, tribulations (suffering), corporal or capital punishment sentenced and executed by a court system, and death. The type of atonement is based on the need. Atonement and sanctification are intended to bring the people back to God and to keep order amongst the people. Noxiae poena par esto – Cicero (let the punishment fit the crime).

Jesus took the laws one step further and made it a matter of the heart. When we think about sin we’re guilty of it. If you hate your brother, you’re a murderer. If you eye down a woman, you’re an adulterer. When you imagine taking something that isn’t yours, you’re a thief. Not just that, you’re guilty of sin if you don’t do your duty. If you don’t base yourself to help those in need, if you don’t seek out the widows and orphans to provide for them, and if you don’t plan ahead to take care of your parents in their old age you’ve committed a crime. Suddenly everyone is guilty according to Jesus.

Having some lower-class bastard from the ghettos telling people that schoolteachers, government officials and the judges in the courts are all wicked wouldn’t make a good impression in any society at any time yet that’s exactly who Jesus was known as. Strangely, through his execution He proved himself right. The priests of His time performed the role of teachers, government officials and judges. Having banded together for His execution, they only proved Him right. So then the question is – was Jesus simply stirring up the hornets nest to prove a point, or was he really sacrificed by the hand of God, unbeknown to those involved and acting out predestined roles?

One born a Jew can become a Wiccan, Buddhist, Athiest, and any other imaginable religious zealot other than Christian and still be considered a Jew; yet any Jew who believes in Jesus as the Christ and Messiah is no longer considered a Jew – he dies to his Jewish heritage according to recent man-made ordinances and laws. But there’s another twist. Christians who come to understand more of God’s intent in all of us following His laws, and start following them are shunned by other Christians. Those who were born Jew get to still consider themselves Jews even if the world denies it. The Christians who live out Judaism, on the other hand, are a sort of amalgamate nobody. Jews won’t allow them to become Jewish. Christians consider them to have “left the faith”. Either way you look, both the Jews and the Christians who move towards Messianic Judaism are screwing themselves socially. It becomes a continual sacrifice and the atonement of tribulation is always nearby.

You can read more about Jewish atonement here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_in_Judaism

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. – Colossians 2:16-17

The writer of Colossians wrote this well after Jesus died and rose again. Notice, however, that he states a future tense: “shadow of things to come”, not “shadow of Christ”. Most commentaries that allude to how Christians should not celebrate the feasts and holy days commanded by God misuse this verse to state that the laws, feasts and sabbaths were merely shadows of Christ. Although I agree with how each law, ordinance, rule and especially each festival outlined in the Torah reflect both the behavior of God and the fulfillment that comes through Jesus, they are not suddenly without merit because they reflect the Messiah who came and left. Since we anticipate the Messiah to reappear to save His people from destruction and to rule over the world, these festivals hold even more weight than ever because the substance of them has been revealed to us. Knowing Christ is the meaning behind these festivals makes them even more important to participate in.

When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” – Luke 22:14-20

This was unlike other Seder dinners. It was performed the night before the day that Passover is generally prepared, the 14th day of Adar. During Passover, the first and the seventh day are sanctified as sabbaths (Exodus 12:15-16). So Jesus’ Last Supper and Communion happened on the 12th, He was scourged and killed on the 13th (the day the lambs were slaughtered for the feast – the day of preparation) which means the mention of the Mary’s coming to the tomb on the first day of the week so as to not profane the Sabbath (capital “S”) does not include the first Passover sabbath. Jesus was in the tomb for two sabbath days as well as the day he was buried (Matthew 27:57-66,28:1-6). That means it was Thursday, not Friday, that He was killed. Evidence that Christ was in the grave for three days and three nights aside, why would He have such a strong desire to eat the Passover with His disciples if He were only being held back from eating it for a few days unless the Passover hasn’t been fulfilled in the kingdom of God through His death alone? The secret of the Passover fulfillment lies in Communion.

This Seder dinner was a training Seder conducted by a teacher to students. Jesus didn’t drink any wine throughout this Seder, though He blessed it (Luke 22:18). The bread He broke is referred to as the Afikomen. The Afikomen is one of three special matzos that are set aside. Unlike the other two, it is broken in half and half of it is placed in a cloth and buried somewhere in the house for the children to find at the end of the Seder. The one who finds it gets a reward, then the Afikomen is divided amongst the partakers of the feast. Nobody seems to know how this ritual came about, but as Christians we see the symbolic significance. Jesus, one of the holy Trinity, was broken, shrouded and buried. All those who seek Him will find Him, and everyone who’s saved from death (that’s what the Passover dinner represents) partakes of Him. This is how Christ fulfills the feasts. Without Him, many of the symbols have reduced meaning. With Jesus, however, the symbols have even stronger importance. The cup after supper is the third cup, known as the “cup of redemption” or the “cup of blessing”. This third cup literally represents the blood of the lamb that redeemed them from death in Egypt. Jesus said “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:20) So the blood no longer comes from the lamb that saved the Jews from death in the tenth plague, but from the Son of God personally.

When Jesus told His disciples to “do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19) He hadn’t yet been handed over for crucifixion. Passover lasts a whole week. For seven days we’re commanded to not eat any leavened product, but to eat matzo throughout its duration. We are to continually remember Jesus until His grand return on the LORD’s Day. It’s on that last day when all of God’s people are delivered from death and given the Land God promised Abraham that the Passover will be fulfilled. Jesus’ fervent desire is to savor a special moment with His disciples because He won’t be back for a while.

Now a question arises on whether or not those under the new covenant also partook of Passover and whether or not Christians should today. Consider that Paul was wise and addressed people in context of what they lived and understood. When addressing Jews he would talk about their heritage, and when addressing Gentiles he would mention customs that Jews wouldn’t have any connection to. Then why, in I Corinthians 5:4-8, would Paul write about the Passover to Gentiles? He even states “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” Why would he say to Gentiles “our Passover” unless they were already celebrating it and understood the meaning? When Paul addresses believers in Romans, he calls the Jew (Rom 2:17) because they have both adapted God’s law into their hearts and have been grafted into Judaism through Christ.

There was one other bit of advice Chava shared with me before I left her store. “Don’t listen to anybody. But read. Read a lot.” Her point couldn’t be more clear as I read blog after forum after commentary on what makes a Jew, on how Jews aggressively attest against Christians, on why a Christian can never be a Jew… but in Scripture I see otherwise. I see God telling even the Christians that there’s benefit in celebrating His Holy days, on observing the Sabbaths, on recognizing the time that God created for us to share His love with each other.

Finally, consider this. If God doesn’t intend for us to keep his celebrations, why does he command it from the survivors, Gentile and Jew, after defeating the world at Armageddon? God is the same now as he was 3500 years ago. A new covenant, like a Persian law, can only supplement the laws already made. It never voids the foundations already set.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. – Zechariah 14:16-19

There are 613 commandments outlined in the Torah. We’re often just told about the main ten, and more often assume that only those ten were written on the stones God gave Moses. Each law we break is a mark against us. Jesus painfully takes those marks on Himself.

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. – Colossians 2:13-14

The risk any person has by attempting to live out the laws is pride, or as the writer of Colossians puts it, “false humility.” What is the benefit of following any of the Judaic law?

Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. – Colossians 2:16-17

The first benefit is that we don’t have to accept the judgment of anyone other than Christ. The next one is that God provides for the “Head”. Something I’d like to point out before moving forward is that the book of Colossians has controversy as to who actually wrote it. Nevertheless, whether it was dictated directly by Paul or was written by one of his disciples under his authority is not really the issue, but that this group of churches was struggling with legalism and asceticism. Legalism is when the letter of the law is more important than the law’s intent. It makes any law burdensome. In the case of God’s law, legalism puts focus on the law itself rather than on God. Christ put down legalism several times, pointing out that more often than not the person pointing at the letter of the law justified not following it himself. Lawyers were called vipers for a reason. Asceticism is the philosophy that through living a terribly restricted and debased lifestyle one could attain a higher order of spirituality. Jesus confronted this matter, too, when he talked about making a big deal when we’re fasting. There is something spiritual that occurs during a fast, but that spiritual experience doesn’t give anyone a larger bandwidth to God. It’s not a gateway into mysticism. So when it’s later written”

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world , do you subject yourselves to regulations – ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using – according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

Notice that the commandments and doctrines that are being addressed are not the ones from God, but those from other men. Which means, as Colossians 2:16 states, when other men, Jew or Gentile, start getting uptight and judgmental because one decides to take a day of rest or doesn’t execute one of the feasts in just a certain way, one can accept the freedom that Christ offers and disregard the legalism of man’s influence on the law in favor of loving the Creator who ordained the law.

If all the Prophets and the Law hang on the commands to Love God with all our heart, mind and soul… and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40) then Jesus doesn’t void the Prophets or the Law. In fulfilling the Prophets and the Law, Jesus does two things: 1. Attests to the deity of God on behalf of the Prophets and 2. Pays the atonement on behalf of the Law. Doing so doesn’t discredit the Prophets or the Law, but reinforces them. Why, then, would a leader of Christ play God in deciding what is and what isn’t pertinent today? God is the same today as he was when giving the Law to Moses. The new covenant justifies the old one; it doesn’t nullify it.

This apologetic is not about turning a hand up against Christ, but about the merits of incorporating the Jewish lifestyle with all its blessings and curses as a Christian. It’s a journey of a man towards the God that accepts and loves despite our grievous nature, but also about a God of Law and justice that lays out the rules in life and the consequences of disobedience.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. – Ephesians 2:8-10

Most pastors stop before talking about why we were created. That’s where my journey begins: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Workmanship is the quality of integrity applying to the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture, people, or artisan. We could apply that definition directly here. Those whom God has called are to demonstrate love and righteousness to the the world as evidence of the fruit of the spirit that God provides. In short, we are defined as the goodness of the hand of God on the Earth. It’s important, though, to recognize the pretext because it humbles us and defines our relationship with God.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. – James 2:20-26

What happens to Ephesians 2 if faith is dead? This is not intended to open a debate between Calvinism and Armenianism, but invariably does so anyway. Instead I’m just going to point out three fundamentals presented in these two texts.

• It’s grace through faith that saves us.
  • Faith without works is dead.
• We are created for good works that God has already prepared for us to do.

What I see is an obvious statement. Those who have the faith for God’s grace to save, are also compelled to do good works. But “good” in the human psyche is relative. Fortunately, Christ recognized this when presenting a profound statement to a young (unmarried), wealthy merchant.

Now as Jesus was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. – Mark 10:17-22

Only God is good. That sets a very high standard. That means for us to do good, we must be as righteous as God. Although this is an impossible achievement from man alone, we have righteousness in faith provided it is demonstrated by our works.

This is how living faithfully is like a ritual. There are moments when after fall short of expectations we’re given the chance to try again (and God is a teacher who tests us). Each successive attempt only emphasizes the righteousness accounted to faith because we have faith that God continues to be our teacher. Righteousness is defined throughout all of God’s word, including the Laws of Moses (2 Timothy 3:16-17 and Deuteronomy 6:25). As we act righteously, denying ourselves for our Creator, we further establish that faith.

It was her first day in the maternity ward and knew only what she was trained for. Contractions were two minutes apart, lasting more than a minute each, and the patient was well over eight centimeters dilated. Ironically, I had read how to deliver a baby in a taxicab in the strange book “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook” just the night before, never imagining I would actually use that knowledge.

A new nurse rushed in and looked at me. “Are you ready?” she asked. “What?” I questioned what she was asking me to do. “Go get some towels, you’re going to deliver a baby!” As I rushed for a towel, another nurse draped one over my arms. I ran back and gave encouragement to the lady who was already in stirrup position. “You’re doing great!” Honestly, I had no idea how she was doing. A nurse told her to push and just as suddenly I was holding up the head of a newborn. The baby was still half way in her mother until after another push when she suddenly slipped out.

The tiny baby was so slick and slippery I was afraid she would drop out of my hands and onto the hard floor. That’s when the coarse towel suddenly made sense. The doctor came in slamming open the door, still clothed in slacks – had he really been golfing!?

I can’t attest for other cultures, but very few American men will ever have the blessing of delivering their own child. That experience continues to teach, and it’s in that lesson I begin this apologetic. Being born doesn’t happen instantaneously. It takes about twenty minutes to fully deliver a baby. In that event there’s a time when the baby is half in and half out no matter how quickly the delivery takes place. Being born again has similar properties.

Abraham’s rebirth began through faith in God and obedience to Him, but his name wasn’t acquired for 25 years. Through that journey Abram continued to change into a more faithful man. It was this faithfulness that was counted as righteousness, not any acts, but the actions that Abram performed reflected his faith. Moses was 40 when he left Egypt and it wasn’t for another 40 years until God revealed Himself to Moses. Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days. Saul was blinded for for three days. Even Christ was in the grave three days. From the chrysalis of a caterpillar to a butterfly to the metamorphosis of a tadpole to a frog, these periods of changing from one world into the next are reflected in nature as well. The point is that spiritual rebirth isn’t necessarily a sudden event that one can point a date and time to.

In my case, varying events in life – the drama of death to the elation of new birth, the insight of good friends’ late night conversations and the path in my career – each step draws from me a spiritual response just as much as it requires a mental or emotional one. Only die-hard atheists argue that man isn’t a spiritual being. As such there must be a spiritual realm we walk in parallel to our physical one.

For learning photography there isn’t one “perfect” site to stick with. Each decent site has its strengths, but each of these sites also miss some important topics. There are several sites for learning great general photography techniques, digital photography techniques and post-processing techniques. Many times the general photography and digital photography techniques overlap.

The most important concept, and sometimes the most difficult, for a beginner to grasp is that of exposure. Painters, like most artists, are trained to notice light and shadow. Most paintings compress the dynamic range to allow the viewer to enjoy all aspects of the painting in a similar way that our eyes and brain process images. Photographers, however, need to look at light differently because of the constraints of their primary tool. Cameras see light differently, so when taking a photograph think about lighting like a camera. The most important thing you could learn is how aperture, shutter speed and ISO Sensitivity work together in creating all exposure.

Books:
Scott Kelby’s   Digital Photography
Bryan Peterson’s   Understanding Exposure
National Geographic’s   Photography Field Guide
Bryan Patterson’s   Learning To See Creatively
Bryan Peterson’s   Beyond Portraiture
Brenda Tharp’s   Creative Nature Outdoor Photography

Websites:
Digital Photography School was founded by Darren Rowse. While not much more than a photography hobbyist, he has done an excellent job of collecting ideas and getting guest writers to produce great articles on photography.

Popular photography magazine has a more professional team that still covers the basics. I particularly enjoy their “how-to” section for ideas that range the entire gamut of the digital photography experience.

a href=”http://photo.net”>Photo.net is an interactive learning site with many fantastic articles on learning general photography. This site was founded before digital photography became mainstream so most of its content is geared around general photography. You’ll notice the “Post-Exposure” section is only a small part of their list of tutorials. Here are the main articles I would recommend from this site:

1. Then there are a few online books and articles at Photo.Net. This is the place I got started on since there were no other resources on the internet at that time, but it has some really key articles that every photographer should read.
   1. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/
      1. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/light
      2. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/lens
      3. http://photo.net/learn/making-photographs/exposure
   2. http://photo.net/equipment/tripods/philg
   3. http://photo.net/equipment/tripods/

Those last two links from the photo.net site about tripods are pretty important. It turns out that if you want to do really good professional photography, even in fast lighting, a tripod can greatly improve the results. This is especially true for landscape photography. Of course, with wedding and on-site portrait photography you’re usually very limited to when you can use a tripod, which is when that first article on flash photography techniques (below) becomes excruciatingly important.

Podcasts:
Do you have iTunes? There are some amazing video podcasts for photographers!
Scott Kelby’s Photoshop User TV
Scott Kelby’s D-Town TV (Usually Nikon gear specific)
Ted Forbe’s The Art of Photography

There are other photography podcasts that are really good, but don’t have video – just search for “Learn Photography” or “Photography” in the iTunes search bar then click on the Podcast Section’s “See All” link.

Blogs:
There are blogs that are written by professionals that have amazing information. Below are some of my favorites articles:

1. Flash Photography Techniques from Niel Van Niekerk – http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/ – Absolutely the best article on flash photography, period. He now sells a book, but still provides the material free on his site.
2. When buying new equipment I check two sites: Digital Photography Review (http://dpreview.com) and Ken Rockwell (http://www.kenrockwell.com/). Ken Rockwell is very upfront and honest about equipment and talks about certain aspects that others miss. He has a good primer and reminder called “Your Equipment Doesn’t Matter” (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm) and an overview (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/aboutrvw.htm) that reminds us that spending big dollars on equipment does not make us any better than well trained eye. Apparently some of the best pictures have been made with really bad equipment (including the really poor camera on the original iPhone).

Personal Experience:
about photography:
Take pictures often. Keep a digital camera at hand always, even if it’s just a cheap point and shoot that you picked up at the Target clearance shelf for $25. After you take pictures, look at them critically and if you have time and it’s possible (some photographic moments are fleeting) return to the site with your nice DSLR for an actual shoot. Look at your EXIF information. This is a photographer journalist’s dream come true! I used to record the f-stop (aperture), shutter speed and ISO along with the subject and shot # on a sheet of paper. That was a pain and took some joy out of the moment, but it’s still just as important. The difference is that nearly all digital cameras record that information for you – even the point and shoots. Now you can look at dozens of technical aspects of the photo from free software to learn from it. I think iPhoto has that ability, but it has been a while since I’ve played around with it. I use EXIF Viewer from opanda software for the PC and as a FireFox extension. Simple EXIF viewer for the Macintosh should be identical to the PC version just mentioned.

about flashes:
I read somewhere that it was better to have multiple SB-600s for the same price as one SB-900. The reasoning behind this is that with the right camera, the SB-600’s become multiple slave sources of light allowing for more control than the single SB-900. What I’ve learned is the type of lighting system you use is really dependent on the type of photography you’ll be doing – e.g. studio photography has more controlled lighting so less featured lights work well while on-site photography has less controlled lighting so flashes with more features and power become desirable and in landscape photography the flash is rarely ever used. Before investing in an expensive lighting system look at renaissance lighting techniques that utilize natural light with a great wow factor: Google “Chairoscuro lighting technique”. You should also use the natural window light technique. My most favorited photo by visitors on Flickr was done through natural window lighting (from a north-facing window).

about tripods:
In a couple of words: Garage Sales. When garage sale season comes up, I look for two things: photo props (e.g. chairs, hats, etc) and tripods. Stick with the following names: Gitzo, Manfrotto, Slik, Sunpak in that order. Gitzo will be the most expensive while Sunpak the least. Also, ball-heads are better than tilt-heads. Finally, you’ll want a tripod with a quick camera release of some sort. Usually it’s in the form of a foot that you screw to the bottom of the camera. Before I knew much about tripods, I was able to get a Gitzo tripod at a garage sale for around $20. I thought it was expensive at the time, but it was very sturdy so I bought it. Turns out to be an $400 tripod. It’s as heavy as a sack of bricks but in the windy mountains it sits very solid, which is critical. My other tripod is a light-weight “cheap” Sunpak. It’s okay for quick indoor shoots, but wobbles when anyone walks past it.

about purchasing camera accessories:
Since I like to trek off the beaten path, and got tired of having hard knobs and metal banging against my back spine, I got an inexpensive tennis racket bag from Salvation Army to carry the tripod in. In other words, since good tripods and tripod accessories are so expensive and cheap tripods and accessories are so plentiful, keep an eye open for the good ones at garage sales, flea markets and pawn shops and compromise when it makes sense. A benefit of getting beaten up, tattered and torn camera bags from these places is thieves overlook them for the snazzy new $100 looking bags that other tourists carry. If you noticed, the camera bag I looked at in the store didn’t look like a typical camera bag. The only accessories that most photographers don’t skimp on, and are very picky with are the lenses. Lenses range from $100 to $2000+. I have purchased some good used lenses, but only after really scrutinizing them through my camera body and taking a few test shots with them first.

about post-processing (sometimes called post-exposure):
Post-processing usually involves Photoshop, but can often be done with an equal quality with Gimp, a free open-source version. A new license of Photoshop usually runs around $600, though it can be had for as low as $200 on special occasions (as an upgrade path). Be very wary of eBay. I bought a copy of Photoshop from someone there and it ended up being pirated. Pirated versions have TEMPORARY license keys. After a couple of days your “bargain” $200 purchase of the $600 license will be rendered useless. I knew enough about Adobe products to pin the guy down the hour I received it. He quickly refunded my money in fear of being reported to the authorities. So caveat emptor. Gimp is free and, though the menus and hot-keys are different, the main functionality that you need for photo touch-ups are there. The most powerful are your layers, masks, Hue-Saturation-Brightness, Levels and Curves. 90% of all my post-ops involve only the last three while 9% of the rest only involve the full five. That last 1% is for special filter, convergence, and alignment functions. Another growing-popular choice for photographers is a workflow processing program called “Light Room”. This one normally runs $200, but could go as low as $100 on special occasions. Again, eBay can be a great place to get this, but “buyer beware” still applies. Light Room is also from Adobe and utilizes the same temporary license key technique that disables your software if its server discovers it to be pirated. For the past few years companies have been writing software that not only automatically updates the program when new bugfixes come out, but also reports to the server the license keys to determine if its legit or not.

Get Plugged-In:
Once you know the rules you’ll know when to break them and have the power of knowledge to deliberately do so. Even so, you need to be around others who are also familiar with these rules to give good direction and advice. Also there will be times when you get the equivalent of “writers block” and will need a push or an inspired idea to get rolling again.

You should get plugged into a social network photography site such as Flickr. From there you can join groups that will inspire, broaden and even critique your photography. At the very least, it allows a quick way for you to share your photos with friends and family. My wife likes to use the i heart faces social photography site.

And if you use someone else’s idea, or if a picture you see posted on the internet inspired you to take a few shots be sure to mention it. It’s okay to pull someone else’s hat trick as long as they get credit for the idea.

Finally – have fun. Enjoy it. If it becomes laborious you’ll resent it.
Catch me on Flickr

The lowdown is that everything happens for a reason. If we choose not to risk ourselves for righteousness in whatever circumstance we’re placed into then the end result will still happen, but to our own demise. Our choices both define who we are and are ascertained from our predefined disposition.

The holiday also has several theologically formulated side plots: Good versus Evil, What goes around comes around – specifically that those who live by the sword die by the sword, There is such a thing as universal beauty, Humble obedience to God is often mistaken for human arrogance – but only to those already saturated with arrogance, and Laws can’t be broken but may be trumped by higher laws.

There are so many nuggets of wisdom that come from this holiday that it’s ironic to consider it a fool’s holiday. Shrouded in costumes, groggers, silly pranks, cookies, candy, plays, goofy songs and lots of wine, this holiday is really a beautiful message in masquerade.