Well, it sure has been a long time since I posted and I’m not sure if I am going to get back in the saddle here on the blog, but I am going through tons of wrestling right now, and while I can’t get into it yet, please know I am doing just fine, but I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers! Thanks for that!
So I’ve got some good news… I made it in the Capture Cincinnati Photography Book! I submitted about 10 photos and 3 of them made the book! I am thrilled. For a link to all of the photos that made the book go here, and for a link to purchase the book go here.
Also, I officially have entered the http://photofocus.com emerging photographer of the year award. I seriously doubt that I will even be considered, but I really do love taking classic Black and White Landscape and Travel photography. I realize that classic Black and White Landscape is not as popular in the world today (most want color), but I love the simplicity and contemplative aspects that it brings. And that brings me to the post that inspired this blog post.
Please visit my flickr photo page and look through my photos, I’d love to have some feedback!
Over at photofocus.com there was a blog post talking about art and spirituality and a few quotes from the Pope. Now, this subject of the arts in faith has been intriguing me as of late and I must say that there is a book in me somewhere to help others to see how art (especially photography) can be used to deepen not only a photographer’s spirituality, but could be used to bring about faith discussions with in communities. Anyway, I just wanted to give yall a sample from the Photofocus blog and since they do not allow comments over there at the blog I invite anyone to leave some here.
Here are a few quotes from the blog post by Scott Bourne:
“Recently, the Pope held a meeting with hundreds of artists. Discussing beauty and art, the Pope said, “Beauty … can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate mystery, toward God,”….I’ve always believed that the artistic expression available through photography reaches higher than most would immediately think.
The Pope went on to say, “In a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there is an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art.”
I think you can substitute any number of words for spirituality that mean something similar. The Pope believes that faith can nourish art. And perhaps it can. It can’t hurt.” -Scott Bourne
And why can’t art nourish faith? – D.G. Hollums (ha ha ha) Bless yall, and KUTPs!!!
Hello everyone out there who actually still reads this blog…
I just wanted to let everyone know of the huge news that we have sent in our application and have officially created an adoption website to keep everyone up to date in the process:
Here is the website link:
http://adoption.hollums.com
Oh, and one of my photos from my family vacation last year has been added to a online travel guide!!! Kind of cool. It is a shot of the Niagara Falls. So here is the message they sent to me via Flickr mail:
Schmap Niagara Falls Eighth Edition: Photo Inclusion
Hi D.G. Hollums,
I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released eighth edition of our Schmap Niagara Falls Guide:
Niagara Falls
Here is the guide with my picture on the right side.
If you use an iPhone or iPod touch, then this same link will take you directly to your photo in the iPhone version of our guide. On a desktop computer, you can still see exactly how your photo is displayed and credited in the iPhone version of our guide at:
Niagara Falls
iPhone version of the guide and my picture.
Thanks so much for letting us include your photo – please enjoy the guide!
Best regards,
Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides
I love working in my local Starbucks, because there really is nothing like living a social experiment each day listening to people and loving people even if it is through just sitting and listening to other people, but I just witnessed and event that I wish I could tell most of the Christian world.
A lady just walked into the Starbucks and got the attention of the barista working the drive-through and handed him a Lee Strobel book, telling him that she bought him the book and wanted him to read it and then after he was done reading it to throw it away or give it to someone else it did not matter. And she reminded him that he told her something in the drive through that made her think of the book and she wanted him to read it.
Well, the immediate answer of the guy was, “I’ve already read it.”
she responded, “Oh well did you like it?”
after a short but awkward pause he said,”Well, he makes an OK argument, but your assuming that I am not already a Christian!”
And with that the lady felling a little embarrassed told him then he could give the book to someone else, and went as fast as she could out the door with out running into a dead sprint, heh.
This is a perfect example how the church has forgotten how to relate with the world that we find ourselves in. This well meaning lady, thought she was doing such a great thing for Christ by expecting a book to do all the work that the example of Christ wanted his followers to do. She did not have a relationship with this guy, she only knew him from the drive-through of a Starbucks, and she had not earned the right for him to listen to anything she said. It was a modified version of handing out a tract that “explains” the gospel and expects a sheet of paper to develop relationship with them and then some how the Holy Spirit will take over for them, and the problem of the Christian ghetto continues, huddled in the corners and seem to be getting smaller and smaller.
I then over heard the guy telling a co-worker that he used to attend a church that ran him out when he started to get serious about his discipleship and asked hard questions about Jesus and the Bible. And when the hard questions started to go past the “tried and true answers” he no longer felt like anyone wanted to join him in his traveling discovery of the Jesus he read about and how the words of that man/God are lived out and misunderstood by the world and his followers.
Please I beg of all of you, do not expect a billboard, tract, or Roman Road to replace what God desires of all of you…. build relationships and develop community!!!! Just do it and sit back and watch God and you start to develop community, relationships, and presence in this new way to be human.
I read the blog post of a friend (Chris Marshall) And wanted to post the same kind of memory and understanding of this day. So, here is his blog post with my own names entered:
On this day the Celts believed the veil between this world and the next was so thin that it was almost permeable. It was thought to be a day of transition, from summer to winter, where the dead from the year previous would passover to the eternal realm. I do not worship my ancestors and friends who have gone before me, but I do honor them.
So today I honor the lives that touched mine but have moved on either to the realm where God is or are asleep awaiting the final Resurrection (depending on your theology). These are the people that led me in my faith.
Rest and Reign well my beloved:
-Jay
-Nanaw
-Grandad
-Grannie
-Grandad
Hebrews 12 (The Message)
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
Have a happy hallows!
Oh and pumpkin pictures from this years Geek Halloween Pumpkins are below:
Daylight version
lit up on the porch, with the candy bowl lighted from under the candy…looked very cool.
Yep there it is. on my right forearm. I know that several people love it and several people hate that I got a tattoo, but I just wanted to share why I did and the reason for where I did. So,
1. The tattoo is of a window in a church that my brother and his wife attend before he passed away. My brother told me he felt called into ministry at his annual conference, and right before he could get started on track to actually be a minister in the UMC he came down with cancer. So, I felt this was a wonderful reminder for me of how much I loved Jay, how much he loved me, and to allow him to be with me as I follow Christ in the ministry.
2. The window its self is a Trinity Window. It represents the Trinity (Father, son, and Holy Spirit) I have always been a huge Trinity kind of guy, and love the understanding of relationship, and mystery found in the understanding of the Trinity! So, this Tattoo represents God in all the forms that God has chosen to reveal himself to his creation.
3. The Tattoo is on my right arm. In the Old and New Testaments, the right hand has always had the imagery of someone’s actions the “doing” of someone. (hence Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father because he was the ultimate actions of God) And we are to keep the ways of God on our right hands and on our foreheads) to remember that our being/thoughts and actions are to be those of God’s in the world. I desire to be the hands and feet of God in all that I do, so every time I look down an see this tattoo I pray that it reminds me to attempt to live out this passionate desire in my life and in the lives of those around me. I actualy wanted the tattoo to be on my hand, but Craig would not do it because we use our hands so much that it would eventualy just fade away and i would have to get the same tattoo over and over again.
4. When I went to Guatemala on the mission trip one of the things I noticed when we were doing prison ministry to the gang members, was their respect and immediate connection to anyone in our group that had a tattoo. I did not think about this until afterwards, but I also pray that through this Tattoo I may be able to develope relationships with others that I might not have normally been able to by finding some common ground of a Tattoo and possibly being able to have a chance to exaplain the meaning and purpose behind my tattoo and maybe have the honor of finding out about the same meaning and purpose behind thier tattoos.
Well, I am blown away by the responses I am getting from the Tattoo, and surprised that my Father and Mother got over the shock fast. (only 2 small moments of awquard silence over the phone. ha ha ha ha) I am sure that many others will be shocked, and mad over time, but all the more reason to be able to develop relationships and get to love others. If anyone is interested I got my Tatto from a good friend that I went with to Guatemala named Craig. (In Guatemala he was doing tattoo cover ups for gang membersthat wanted out of the gangs and covered up their gang tattoos with Christian art…amazing) Anyway Craig owns two Tattoo shops here in northern KY called:
<–click picture for the link
Craig is now actually going through a 3 year process to go into the ministry as well in his own church, so ministry all the way around, heh.
Here are a picture Tiffany took on her iPhones of the work getting done:
- Last meal before surgery was Andy’s Grill! Good food and better company! Off to bed, hospital by 5:45am. Thanks for the thoughts & prayers! #
- I’m at Elsmere, KY, USA – http://bkite.com/01drh #
- I’m naked & ready for IV nurse. Nun getting surgery too & the nurse had to ask if she had body piercings! Ha ha they & I laughed!
#
- I’m at St Elizabeth Medical Center (1 Medical Village Dr, Edgewood, KY 41017, USA) – http://bkite.com/01dx1 #
- http://twitpic.com/7bx6 – Me before surgery #
- This is Dg’s wife-dg in surgery. Let me just say that dg on drugs is hysterical. Doc walks in wearing a purple shirt and dg yells ‘barney’ #
- @brandice I want to try you Earl Grey so bad! #
- I’m at Walgreens (6617 Dixie Hwy, Florence, KY 41042, USA) – http://bkite.com/01dEx #
- Getting drugs then home to enjoy painkillers & sleep! Wish stupid stomach muscle spasms would stop. Not best feeling after hernia surgery! #
- I’m at Elsmere, KY, USA – http://bkite.com/01dFR #
- It’s bed time! I’m sure I’ll wake up when the drugs wear off and the pain shows up, us ha! Have a great day everyone! #
- New Flickr Photo Trinity Window Tattoo Distance http://tinyurl.com/55djza #
- New Flickr Photo Trinity Tattoo B&W http://tinyurl.com/5cgxjz #
- New Flickr Photo Night Path http://tinyurl.com/648×7d #
- New Flickr Photo Cincy I-471 Yellow Bridge http://tinyurl.com/6zcs9t #
- Good morning world! Off to church early. Excited! Good friends from Guatamala going to be speaking @ church. Pray they get tons of support! #
- @fulltimemom happy birthday! Love and blessings! #
- Eating Sushi!!!! I’m a happy man! #
- @tiffinita yea!!!! I still get to kiss my wife before surgery! #
- Great OG tonight! My time is getting a little better now sorry twitter friends I should be more active now! Missed ya! #
- I’m at Elsmere, KY, USA – http://bkite.com/01cbx #
- OKm, Olympics you are boring me. Going to bed. Excited about the New Media Cincy meet-up tomorrow!! #
- @justinrains cya man. #
- @justinrains yeah that is freaking amazing! #
- Who would have thought a small little boy would overshadow a 7.5 ft tall man!
#
- @danieljohnsonjr yep, @tw3nty3ight has a corner ripped of his man card! He will get it back when he’s married, ha ha! #
- @tw3nty3ight nah a real man dies for his lady when he pleases her he ends up with a child, ha ha! #
- Ok that is freaking cool! Running in midair! #
- @studionashvegas congrats! #
- @gregschwartz easy, someone gives you a really big check, heh heh #
- Ok enough Twitter vomit going to bed! Night all! #
- What time is the new media Cincy again? Thanks. #
- @tw3nty3ight thanks I will be at Panera around 2:00pm #
- wow men’s rowing looks amazing in HD! #
- I’m at Panera Bread (3806 Paxton Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45209, USA) – http://bkite.com/01ctK #
- Chillaxon at new media Cinci. With a bunch of other Twitters!!! #
- New Flickr Photo Cutie http://tinyurl.com/64mnlq #
- I’m at Kenwood Towne Centre (7875 Montgomery Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45236, USA) – http://bkite.com/01cCd #
- Just got home from my tattoo so sorry to the live TGP fans! & sorry to online tweet-up I’m dead tired going to bed. #
- http://twitpic.com/6xj6 – 1st steps of the Tattoo drawing the lines. #
- http://twitpic.com/6xjc – Here is my good friend Craig working on my arm! He is amazing! #
- http://twitpic.com/6xjt – Well here is the final tattoo! My sweet wife took the pic. wish it was bigger for yall! #
- Off to the last day of Ghetto VBS. I get to make ballon animals & take pictures!!! #
- Ghetto VBS is over! Happy & sad. Now grabbing laptop to head up to Rookwood’s Potbellies for the OG. Everyone welcome! #
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