Ensenada, my thoughts

YWAM Ensenada.
Wish you were here, rather I wish I'd be here longer, my vacation is hours away from being over. Last night after a walk on the beach during the day, hanging out with the leadership of this location - asking them a fist full of questions, and returning from doing laundry with the DTS I snapped a few pictures of this base at night. The gentle roar of the waves on the beach, tempted temperature, a quite evening, and most staff secure in their homes (not that this area is dangerous, it's not) I sought refuge behind the lens. The lens provides me an opportunity to touch without getting touched. The lens provides me an opportunity to connect you (& myself) with a moment in time of touch. I find a simple redirection of focus changes the perspective and meaning of a photograph. I find also the lens provides me the touch I want, the opportunity to get close, to grab life, to give life. Isn't it ironic how I use the lens?

Thoughts of returning quickly to this location tops my heart. I want to distinguish between the heart thump of coffee in my veins from the heart pull of GOD in my life. What would I do here? Easy come on staff as a photographer and mix it up with being on staff as builder. What does this mean? It means that my main purpose would be to take photographs for YWAM San Diego/Baja at this location with the different programs offered with Homes of Hope. The other purpose would be to assist in building homes when my skills as a photographer is not required. The little bit of construction I have played well last weekend. The experience in photography proved invaluable the weekend before.

Poverty is the lack of options, it no longer phases me to the extent in did 15 years ago when two men wrestled a bag of garbage from me when I brought it down the gang way of the Anastasis in Senigal west Africa. The poverty I see here is people without options wanting to provide for their children. They live in squalor but not the squalor of India. I see that with providing them a clean shelter as what Homes of Hope does their out look on life immediately changes to that of hope for their future and that of their children.

Christ commands us to shelter the poor, to help those in need. I feel that too on my life. I do have things I need to over come before returning here. I am earnestly praying about returning here.

Pentax K-10 D

The K-10 D by Pentax is my hit for the season. I picked one up just before leaving on vacation. Without much time to play with it, to learn the nuances of the beast I turned to the forums. I'll admit arrogance and assumptions in this, it was a mistake. The K10D is solid, rock solid with a plethora of intelligence with the design and buttons. Unlike its sibling I tote the *istDS it is not menu driven. The flip flop between focus/metering/format is a selection of the right button or dial. Most of my shots were with high saturation and over exposure settings which lead to a few to many blown out images (the forums were wrong). Besides not experimenting with exposure setting - my bag - I did a lot of fast action shots to capture emotion and the emphasis of the moment.

I shot this past weekend for YWAM Baja and their Baja Vision event. The intent of this is to bring a few people together to build houses for the poor in Ensenada Mexico. The other aspect is to raise funds to add to the ministry of YWAM Baja. This group wants to build a training center on 14 acers of land just south of Tijauna. One evening the Mayor of Ensenada gave Sean Lambert a plaque of recognition for the work his group does. I encourage you to follow the link and read the story.

I'll admit the image of Sean Lambert is not so sharp. I shot it with the *istDS and 28-80 f/2.8. The picture of Brett Curtis below was shot with the K10D and 12-28 f/4.

Back to my camera review. Go to figure the one day, the first day of the build, the weather chilled & wet. I fought of the rain while hiding the cameras under a jacket. The rain seemed not to affect the operation of the camera. The dust of the following day thou may yet haunt me. I cleaned both cameras thoroughly each night and the whole kit on my return to San Diego. I do really enjoy how fast the K-10 D focuses. One night I flip flopped the f/2.8 lens to the K-10 D. In low light shot after shot the camera focus proved dead on in low light & a hell of a lot faster then it ever was on the *ist DS. The most impressive item of all is the RAW button. I shot a lot of JPGs the RAW button lets me shoot RAW on those images I must capture without diving into the menus. The RAW can be either PEF or DNG with the inclusion of a JPG. The camera is taking me on a learning curve. I do need to watch what I do when I go from one Pentax to the next. They both have interesting nuances to work around.

Over all I found my weekend with the K-10 D a delight. I'll pack both cameras around until they die of over use.

Links:
Sean Lambert article: http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/articles.aspx?id=20893
YWAM Baja: http://www.ywamsandiegobaja.org/
Pentax K-10 D: http://www.pentax-k10d.jp/english/
*ist DS: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxistds/