On the third day ther was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, the mother of Jesus was there; so was Jesus and his disciples.( John 2: 1&2)

    Last weekend I attended the wedding of two of our children here in Rose Creek Village, where I live. (see www.rosecreekvillage.com) I decided to post some of the photos I took at the celebration. I like to digitally enhance or alter my photos. So, what you’ll be viewing is a creative alteration of the photographs that I took at the wedding. (If you click on each image they will enlarge)

  Everytime I go to one of our weddings I always end up being reminded of the wedding in Cana where Christ performed his first recorded miricle. Two things stand out to me about what happened there in Cana: The first is that God picked a wedding for his son to do his first miracle, and second is that the actual miracle involved water and wine. In this story (John 2: 1-12) I see a picture of the wedding supper of the Lamb is the first. Then symbols are to me a prophecy of sorts. The wedding is on the third day. Jesus is ressurected on the third day. The water becoming wine is significant in that it represents rebirth and new life. Oh the joy that will fill his heart and ours on that day of days! 

    We like to dance at our weddings so there are a lot of dancers pictured here. In my mind the best way to express joy is to dance. Ther are many examples of God’s people dancing for joy in the scriptures. My favorite is King David dancing a the triumphant entry of the Ark of the Covenant into his city.(2 Samuel 6:12-15) Who wouldn’t dance with joy over the merciful and loving covenant that God makes with His people? 

   This first one is of  the wedding couple.  I’ll put up a series here and explain as we go. By the way, alot of the pictures came out blurred because of the action and the low light levels. This may be dismaying to some but I actually like that effect when trying to portray movement either in a photo or in a painting. I also like to crop for effect. This way get to arrange the composition and take advantage of those spontaneous occurances that happen when photographing in crowds. Everyone is either smiling or moving in this shot, with the exception of my friend Benjamin leaning against the wall in the background. Other effects that can turn into interesting  images are when things are just plain out of focus. Movement does that but there is always contrast, form, and color to take advantage of when trying to frame subject matter.

    At this juncture someone is probably asking “Whats this dude’s problem?” Or, maybe not, if you appreciate color and form in abstract. This couple was just married in the fall of 2009. There names are Quinn and Amy Pennington. They are also in this next picture. As you can tell, I’m having a field day with my photography program. I love the distortions I get when I adjust the contrast, brightness, and color controls. Everything gets very surrealistc and etheral. I can also introduce a mood buy making the tint and color temperature cool or warm. For instance, I did most of the adjustments toward the warm side because it delivers a romantic feel to the composition. Most of these have sort of a peachy or coral color tint that reflects the candle light and tea lights that lit up the room. I love candle light especially in photos. Here’s an example of  what I,m talking about in this shot of the bride and groom.

    We also borrow heavily from the scripture that says: ” Then shall the virgins rejoice in the dance…” These next few pictures depict some of the young girls in a celebatory dance. You must witness first hand the beauty and grace that is exhibited by the dancing that our young ladys do. They choreograph all of it themselves. Which is also a tradition that we have here. Every wedding, festival, and and passage is puntuated with their dances. Occasionally there are crys and shouts of “Do it again, do it again!” and sometimes they do a repeat performance. Then othertimes they just smile and shake their heads no. Then you realize that they had to overcome too much stagefright the first time to want have to another experiance with it just yet. This young lady’s name is Hosanna. A great name for a dancer at a wedding, don’t you think? Of course her name comes from Christ’s entry into Jerusalem where the people were crying” Hosanna, Hosanna!” which means” God save us now.” Everyone who says her name  makes a plea to God for salvation. I love it.

   We have another wedding coming up. This next couple is betrothed to one another. We are all very excited about they’re devotion to our Father and his Kingdom. We can’t wait to see what He has instore for them. Her name is Chasah(pronounced : Chaw-sah) and his name is Brian. Here they are dancing:

   ( By the way all these pictures can be viewed in a larger format if you click on them.)

   Brian and Chasah have encouraged our hearts in the  way that they have walked in holiness with each other, with us, and with our Father. May Yahweh bless and keep them throughout this life and the next. Is this a picture of the joy of the Lord or what? This is my favorite of all the pictures I took that day. Brian is a good friend of mine, and that we have been through alot together. The other thing you ought to know is that Chasah is my God-daughter. She decided that she wanted me to be her God-father, of course I said yes. Gotta tell ya, I’m honored beyond words…….. I love these two. They exemplify all that is the Body of Christ in Rose Creek Village and the joy that we experiance from the life that He has given to us. Come and see………..