Hanging On

After first hearing the term concept photography, I’ve tried—in vain—to find a clear definition. So, after reading the dictionary’s definition of concept and after looking at many examples of concept photography on websites, I’ve concluded that a concept photo is one that tells a story and/or illustrates an abstract idea or theme.

Although almost any photograph can tell a story or make a statement, concept photos are those that provide the viewer with a clearer idea of what something is. For example, no one can take a picture of abstract ideas such as love or loneliness, since they do not exist in physical form, as does a waterfall or a window. But photographs can be composed in such a way as to lead the viewer to conclude, “The person in this picture looks lonely. This photo gives me a better idea of what loneliness looks like, a broader concept of how it might feel to be lonely, a greater sensitivity to loneliness, etc." When that happens, the photograph is a concept one.

Sometimes simple items can be arranged in such a way as to express a concept. For example, an image of paper dolls of various sizes, linked hand to hand, implies family. A picture of ABC blocks, a notebook or two and a red apple causes viewers to associate that image with the concept of school or education. Hearts, especially red ones, symbolize love.

Ever since I first heard the term concept photography, I’ve been trying to understand what it means and to take photos that fit into that category. For example, one January day, while searching my yard for something to photograph, I noticed two dried up, brown leaves still attached to a limb. Aha! I thought. That’s an illustration of hanging on, of tenacity. Unlike the many other leaves that had once been attached to that same limb, the two leaves had held on, despite being pressured by the wind, drenched by the rain, and subjected to temperature changes. I have no clue how they had managed to hold on. Apparently, some leaves, like some people, have more “staying power” than others.

For people, Jeremiah 17:7, New Living Translation, holds one of the secrets to staying power: "But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.”

A Savior Is Born!

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire...All returned to their own towns to register for this census. And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancee, who was obviously pregnant by this time.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior--yes, the Messiah, the Lord--has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloths!"

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others--the armies of heaven--praising God: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors."

Luke 2: 1-14, New Living Translation

Photo taken by Johnnie Ann Gaskill in 2005 at Callaway Gardens (in west central Georgia) during the annual Fantasy In Lights.

Reminder from the Leaves

LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and that my life is fleeing away.

~David~

Psalm 39:4, New Living Translation

Fall Has Arrived

The hot, humid summer now is past.
It looks like Fall has come at last.
I feel a slight nip in the air
As the cool wind blows through my hair.

It’s time to pack the shorts away,
Since cooler temps are here to stay.
The nuts are falling down, down, down!
Leaves are turning from gold to brown.


Soon we’ll move the potted plants inside,
Checking them first for insects trying to hide.
The deck chair cushions will be stored away.
We’ll get them out again some warmer day.

As the wind blows leaves across the ground,
I enjoy the signs of Fall I’ve found.
The sight of mums blooming in a pot
Reminds me that I like Fall a lot!

(c) October 24, 1999, by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. For permission to use, please contact her.

Friendship

Hands of the Potter

Note: This photo was taken a couple of years after the column was written. This image shows the hands of the potter over those of a young girl.

I watched in awe as a skilled potter shaped a blob of clay into a small bowl. As the wheel spun around and around, the potter cupped her hands around the wet, supple clay she’d placed in the center of the wheel. Once the bowl began to take shape, the potter placed her right hand outside the bowl and her left hand inside the bowl. By applying gentle pressure—inside against outside, outside against inside—she used her fingers to create the details she wanted the bowl to have.

“I’ve got it started,” she said to a young boy who was watching the demonstration. “See what you can do with it.”

She got up from her chair, and the boy, who looked to be around 12 years old, sat down. She said, “Press the pedal so you can see how fast the wheel will go.” He did.

“Slow it down,” she said. He complied.

“Too slow,” she said. “Try to set the speed somewhere in between.”

After he’d cupped his hands around the clay, she squatted beside him and used her hands to help him shape the clay.

Watching the teacher with the pupil reminded me of a phrase I heard years ago: “Each one teach one.”

Teaching often involves more than simply telling and/or showing someone how to do something. So, as the learner struggled to obey her instructions and replicate her actions, she provided additional guidance by actually taking his hands in hers, allowing the gentle pressure from her fingers to guide his. As a result of their working together, the bowl turned out fine.

As I reflected on that, I thought about how I’ve often wished I could’ve heard Jesus speak and watched His actions—and had Him come to my aid whenever I’d messed things up. How wonderful, I’ve often thought, to be among those who say, as one of His disciples did, “We have seen him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands” (1 John 1:1, New Living Translation).

Although the “Teacher,” as many called Him, is no longer on earth in bodily form, I am not without a master teacher, and neither are you, dear reader. You see, after Jesus returned to heaven, God sent us another teacher, one Jesus referred to as the Counselor, the Paraclete, the One who comes alongside. (See John 16.) The Spirit guides us as surely as the potter guided the young boy, as surely as Jesus would if we could receive instruction directly from His lips or feel the guiding touch of His hands on ours as we work, as we minister according to His commands.

Since we have the Spirit to accurately teach us and to divinely enable us, we can know and do infinitely more than we ever could on our own. Like the young boy who would have made a mess of the bowl (apart from the potter’s presence and patient assistance), you and I will make a mess of our work (of our ministry) if we depend solely on our own abilities. Even the most earnest effort is not sufficient for success—apart from the Spirit’s help—for, as God said centuries ago, “It is not by [mankind’s] might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6, NLT).

Copyright © 2005 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. For permission to use, please contact her.

Incredible Transformation

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love butterflies, but I can think of a whole lot of folks who don’t get excited about caterpillars—from whence butterflies come! Compared to caterpillars, butterflies are so colorful. And, unlike slow-crawling caterpillars, butterflies flit freely from place to place, making it hard to keep your eyes on them, especially when watching through the tiny viewfinder on a camera, as I did one afternoon.

For nearly an hour, I tried to get good photos of those lovely but elusive creatures as they sipped nectar from the blooms on the lantana bushes out by the garden. By the time I’d locate one of the dozen or more butterflies in the viewfinder, compose the shot, and press the shutter button, the butterfly would have fluttered away to a new spot, leaving me with photos of orange lantana blooms—minus the butterflies or, at best, half of one! Only rarely did I get a full, sharply focused, beautifully framed shot of a butterfly.

Now, if I’d been trying to take pictures of pokey caterpillars, I’d have had plenty of time to get the perfect shot! But I wanted pictures of butterflies not caterpillars.

Why am I so drawn to butterflies? For their beauty, obviously, and for the way they move so freely. I also enjoy butterflies because they remind me that change, dramatic change, is not only possible, but it’s expected. That’s exciting!

When I’m looking at a butterfly, I find it hard to believe what it once was. It bears almost no resemblance to its former self, to its former way of life. Only the Creator Himself could make such a change possible.

Scientists have a big word for that remarkable change: metamorphosis, which comes from a Greek word meaning “to transform.” Transformation is sometimes subtle--almost imperceptible, actually--as when tadpoles ever so slowly begin to look like the frogs they will one day be. Such slow transformation is certainly amazing; yet it seems less thrilling than the miraculous change that takes place in secret between the time the caterpillar enshrouds itself inside a chrysalis and then emerges days later as a butterfly.

Because I’m awed by butterflies, my mind latched onto something I heard a motivational speaker say. “Your body ‘morphs’ itself every seven years. So should you!”

How incredible! Imagine the body replacing all of its cells every seven years, getting rid of the old ones, producing new ones, changing constantly in order to remain at peak performance. WOW!

Since the Creator designed the body to miraculously renew itself continuously and subtly, surely He intended the mind, soul and spirit to renew regularly, too! After all, the Bible says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:2, New Living Translation, NLT).

When you and I start thinking right, we’ll start acting right and talking right, as well. Imagine how we’ll feel when we no longer resemble our old sinful selves. Incredible, huh?

© 2005 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. For permission to use, please contact her.

Free Indeed!

For a long time, no one dared speak as we looked at the hummingbird sitting stone still in the palm of a woman’s upturned hand. Amazingly, the bird continued to sit there, despite the click, click, click of the cameras in the hands of photographers thrilled to have such an unexpected opportunity to take close-up photos of the tiny bird.Even as we repositioned ourselves to get better shots, the hummingbird remained still, her eyes bright and ever watchful. She appeared calm, despite all she’d been through in the past few minutes.

You see, once she’d been flying free in a beautiful flower garden, zooming from flower to flower to sip delicious nectar. But the moment she decided to fly inside a large bird cage in the middle of the garden, she set in motion an unimaginable chain of events.

Soon large human hands placed a mesh bag over her. They carried her to a nearby table, where she was gently removed from the bag to be inspected and banded. Information about her was recorded on a sheet of paper and a tiny band was placed around one of her legs.

The man who held her then carried her over to a feeder filled with red-colored sugar water and allowed her to drink. All the while, the cameras were click, click, clicking, and the crowd watched with rapt attention.

After she’d satisfied her thirst, the man carried her nearer the crowd to give them a better look at her and to answer the many questions they asked about hummingbirds. After several minutes of that, he walked over to the lady who had been selected, by luck of the draw, to release the hummingbird.The man gently placed it in her hand, giving her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Everyone expected the hummer to fly away instantly, as previous ones had done, but she didn’t. The longer she sat there, the more puzzled everyone became. Finally, someone whispered, “Why doesn’t she fly away?”

“She doesn’t realize she’s free,” the man replied.

That was surprising, since the woman wasn’t preventing the bird from flying away. Her palm was cupped slightly, to encourage the bird to remain, but her fingers in no way confined the bird. She was perfectly free to go, perfectly free to live life as the Creator intended. Yet, she sat there, still feeling trapped when, in reality, she was free.

As I look at the photos I took of the tiny hummer, these words of Jesus come to mind: “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31, 32, New Living Translation, NLT).

Since, as Jesus pointed out, every one of us is (or has been) held captive by sin, we need to know—and live in the light of—this wonderful truth He expressed: “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free” (John 8:36, NLT).

Since “God has purchased our freedom with his blood [shed on the cross] and has forgiven all our sins” (Colossians 1:14, NLT), we who believe in Him are no longer held captive by our sins. We are free indeed to live a good and godly life—as our Creator intended.

©2007 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. To request permission to use, please e-mail her. Additional photos are posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/johnniegaskill/Hummers.

Kindred Spirits

As soon as I read on http://www.betterphoto.com/ that “kindred spirits” was the theme for that month’s photography contest, I began thinking about photos I might take in order to have some that would fit the theme. In previous contests, such as "gold" and "bliss,"I submitted photos I already had on hand. But my supply of “kindred spirits” photos was woefully lacking. I did find one I’d taken of my two oldest grandsons having a grand time playing in the leaves last year. But that was the only one I thought I could enter.

So, while my husband and I were on vacation in Prince Edward Island, Canada, I often said, “Remember, I need a ‘kindred spirits’ photo!” Since he knew what I liked to photograph (churches, flowers, horses, lighthouses, barns, etc.) and was willing to pull over so I could snap such pictures, I encouraged him to help me spot “kindred spirits” photos.

One day as we were leaving the northernmost tip of the island, I noticed two horses in a pasture right beside the road. “Pull over!” I said. “Those horses will make a great ‘kindred spirits’ photo.”

But when James parked near the fence, the horses were too apprehensive to hold their heads close together, as they had been doing when I’d first spotted them. However, they soon relaxed and renewed their focus on each other, so I snapped photo after photo until I finally got one that I was excited about.

Several miles down the road, we stopped at Northport to photograph a lighthouse. As we strolled on the pier, I saw several cormorants sitting on the edge. Two of them were sitting fairly close to each other. But as I snapped photo after photo, they moved even closer together. The perfect shot came when they turned to face each other, their beaks only a short distance apart. “What a sweet pose!” I said. “You look like you’re best friends!”

I didn't know if my photos would receive awards, but having to photograph an abstract concept like “kindred spirits” made me do a lot of thinking.

“Kindred spirits” calls to mind the close kinship two people have with one another. Perhaps they enjoy the same kinds of things, feel similarly about certain matters, and/or share common goals and dreams. Some “kindred spirits” could even order from the menu for the other person or go shopping for him or her, for what one likes the other does, too. They often exclaim, “You sound just like me!” or “That’s just what I would have done!” Or they might say, “We’re two peas in a pod, aren’t we?”

Jesus spoke of that kind of kinship when He said to His disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father! Even the words I say to you and the works you have seen Me do have come from the Father. For I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” (See John 14.)

Truly, the relationship between the Father and the Son epitomizes “kindred spirits.” But guess what? Jesus also said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23, The New American Standard Bible). We, too, can become “kindred spirits” with them and with fellow believers!

©2007 by Johnnie Ann Burgess Gaskill. For permission to use, please contact her.