Assignment 3

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: "Suppose you went to a friend's house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 'A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.' And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, 'Don't bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can't help you.' But I tell you this - though he won't do it for friendship's sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

"And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."

Luke 11.5-10

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A guy walks into a restaurant, sits down and orders his meal. The food ends up being absolutely exquisite, and so the guy calls the waiter over. "Please tell me, what kind of cookware does the chef use? His pots and pans must be amazing to create such a meal as this!"

This story is ludicrous.

It is not the pots and pans that create a good meal. It is the chef and his own talent, and he uses the cookware that he has.

+++++++++++++++

Tomorrow is the due date for our first shooting assignment. Uhm.. yup. :)

panning.

deep depth of field.

shallow depth of field. 

interpret frozen motion.

interpret blurred motion.

Hope you all are so well!!

-K

So, ya know

My roommates rock.

Hey!

So I figured I'd give a little photo tour, of some sort, of some probably small sort, about various things. 

So basically the first week has been a good one... I have difficulties being locked in a dungeon for 5-ish hours every day, but at the same time, it's good. This week we mostly talked about foundational things, such as what motivates photographers, what motivates us, how to apply this to Christian photographers, etc. 

We watched a documentary on National Geographic photographers, and as they interviewed the various people, it ended up just highlighting the extreme intensity of that specific job. At one point in time, the divorce rate for National Geographic photographers was 100%. They are so devoted to their work, to getting that one shot, that they will live months in the jungle just to catch it, amongst the worst conditions. Photography is one of the top five dream jobs, but it's not so glamorous.

We also watched a little movie/documentary about a man named Dan Eldon, a 22 year old who was killed in 1993 while photographing his first war in Somalia. They went around and interviewed various war photographers to see why they did what they did, to find out what drove them into such extreme conditions. One photographer described the job as buying a one-way ticket to Hell, doing what you need to do and then getting out of there. Then later, doing it again.

It was a really heavy movie, hard to watch, harder to cope with the questions and thoughts and considerations of doing that myself. I know I'm drawn to areas of conflict, and for me there is an increasing sense that that is where I will find myself at some point soon. God and I talked a lot that day.

At the end of the week we received our first assignments! The first was to research 5 photographers and then chose one to write about, answering 8 questions that the school leader had given us, about them. The second one was to find a scripture dealing with creativity and then write a short paragraph on how it is applicable to photographers. The second half of the second assignment was to look up 15 scriptures dealing with light and dark, and then choosing one and getting in a group and doing a skit with it.

Good times. :)

+++

Alright, on to the photographs!

This is from the back of our apartment/dorm room looking towards the front door [down the hall to the right]. Kitchen, loft, bedroom, bathroom. Notice also the bunk bed IN the kitchen itself... welcome to my bedroom. :)

From our front door you can look out and see the mountain [aka. volcano].

From our back windows you can look out and see the Pacific. :) [There is one spot in our hallway you can stand still and see the volcano and then turn your head and see the ocean!]

We had an ice cream social last night, and I'm pretty sure there were more photos being taken then ice cream eaten. At least 10 of us brought our cameras down, it was a great time.

Other photographers...

So I was checking out some of my classmate's photography, and thought about how much I wanted other people to see their work.

So, Other People, here are two of my classmates work. :)

I'll probably keep 'showcasing' various people throughout the school, as more stuff is produced. Thus far, only a few of us have stuff out on the internet.

These two, in particular, have a LOT out and totally inspire me.

Cliff, New Jersey, 22 [link]:

Sophia, Canada, 26 [link]:

Dig It.

Hey all!

This is brief for I am tired from walking up and down hills [Pullman, anyone?], but am also tired from my first day of class.

Did you catch that?

I'm tired from my first day of class.

:)

I was accepted officially as the 17th student today into the 2008 School of Photography!
There's a story to it, and of course, doing as I do, there are plenty of details to go with it. I'll shorten it.

But after sitting down with the school leader, and after talking with him and his staff multiple times, and after it had been made decently clear that 16 would be the maximum amount of students allowed in the course, we decided to take the weekend to pray about me auditing the class... what I was hoping for seemed to be twisting into something else and I was trying to cope with that, when the leader found me on Sunday evening and told me that after much prayer and after talking with his wife, his staff and with the Lord, he decided that having me as a 17th student was what the Lord would have, and that he admired Lindsey's and my own faith in purchasing one-way tickets to be there no matter the circumstances, and through the Lord was wanting to reward that.

So for now I get to chill [maybe 'chill' is the wrong word to use, however my roommates just got back from the mountain (aka. volcano) where there was snowboarding and it was below freezing... just an hour and a half away.] in Hawai'i for the next 3 months learning photography intensively amongst a tight knit, multi-cultural community, with grandparents to twenty-somethings to babies.

Basically, I'm radiating.

As for now, I just wanted to let you all know and to thank you sooooo much for those that have been praying, and those that have been thinking good thoughts, and even those that have been thinking horrid things... I'm sure something came of it...

So much love, more later!

-Kaarin

Lava rock down at the ocean's edge in Kailua-Kona with classmate/roommate Sheena.
(She's from YWAM Brissy too!)

Hawai'i

Hello all!

So let's see if I can catch you up in a short amount of time-taken-to-read.
I know some of you probably haven't heard from me since my last emails in Australia, so I guess I'll begin there.

I flew back to Washington in April, after being in Brisbane Australia with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for 7 months, and stayed with my parents and have been working up until this December. During that time, Lindsey (a friend from Australia) and I applied to a school with YWAM called the School of Photography (SoP). Lindsey was accepted in June and I was accepted in July.

A little about the school: the School of Photography is a 12 week intensive course taking place at the YWAM University of the Nations in Kona Hawai'i, focusing only on photography and how knowing God plays a role in that talent. It begins January 4th and the credit from the school can be applied to a degree through the University of the Nations, and can occasionally be transfered to other schools on the mainland. There are 16 people accepted into the school and it only runs once a year.

Since this is the only YWAM SoP in the world (sometimes they will open similar schools in various nations), it gains a lot of attention in the form of inquisitions, applications, etc.
Since some people are accepted into a school a year or a year and a half in advance, there is a waiting list in case people that hold a 'top 16 spot' end up canceling due to a change in circumstances, finances or plans.

So when Lindsey was accepted she was placed at #14 on the waiting list. By the time I was accepted she had moved up to spot #7 and I was placed in at #9. Yet from that point on, we didn't move an inch in the line up.

In October however, we decided it was time to take a step of faith and chose to purchase one-way plane tickets to Kona in time to be there for registration day and the first day of class, just in case we were accepted, we wanted to be ready. And if we weren't then hey! sweet vacation in Hawai'i!

Yet watch the ball roll - after we purchased the plane tickets and began praying harder, we averaged one spot a week in moving up on the list. On Wednesday, Lindsey flew up from Oklahoma to visit and get ready for our departure. As of Saturday, Lindsey held the #1 spot on the waiting list into the school, and I had the #2.
And then came Sunday... bum bum bummmmm.

We received a phone call from the school leader that there had been a last minute cancellation and Lindsey was in! YAY!
So that put me at #1 on the waiting list, with fingers crossed for my own acceptance.

On Monday we went snowboarding, Tuesday we packed and headed up to Spokane to 'sleep' before our early Wednesday morning flight.
This is how it went:
Spokane - Seattle
Seattle - Oakland CA
OH WAIT. Nope. That flight was canceled. So instead they plopped us onto a flight into LA (Hooray, it's LA! *name that band!) and let us have a nice 6 hour layover in LAX until we flew on to Kona, arriving at 8pm Kona time (Hawai'i time is 2 hours behind PST).

We arrived and had a funeral for the sake of the mourners, as Lindsey's bag didn't arrive. We all wore black.
We were picked up at the airport by a lovely lady named Mrs. Wong and sped off up the mountain (aka volcano) to her and her husbands home. They were extremely hospitable and were generous with their time.

Today we drove to the YWAM Kona base so Lindsey could register and so we could meet the school leader. We went through all the registration steps and were introduced to the dorm room - which mind you, is an apartment and compared to where we lived in YWAM Brisbane, we've decided the dorms on the Brisbane base are the ghetto. Lovably pink, yellow and periwinkle in color, but the ghetto nonetheless.

We drove back around town and decided we needed to track down this deceased baggage at the airport itself, since the phone calls were getting us nowhere. As we arrived, so was a plane coming in from LA, and as Lindsey stood in line to speak with baggage claim, I watched the conveyor belt. Shouts of hysteria followed as a large green army bag with L BRUNSMAN stitched on the bottom floated through the plastic flaps and out. I think I was more excited then she was. Praise God for sweet happenings and good timing.

SPEAKING of timing...
This is where we're at:
We've moved into the YWAM Kona base, however I am not into the school (because I am still on the waiting list, and mind you the school starts the 4th and today is the 3rd) and am therefore not a student, and am therefore a guest, and have therefore emptied my wallet sufficiently enough to be allowed to stay in Lindsey's dorm room for a maximum of three nights.

I'm pretty much not giving up hope on getting into this school until the door is totally closed - the past 60+ hours have been a roller coaster, but as we were flying over the Pacific and our plane hugged the ocean, I felt the ocean hug me back. And I realized that my faith has not been so strong in so long. Not in a way of "Point blank, I'm in the school" but in a way of total peace. In a way that I actually could ask God for what I wanted without hesitation and honestly speak with Him about what I was feeling - the times when I was at peace, and the times when I was suddenly overwhelmed with fear and questioning and discomfort.

"Let today be today."
I don't think I've ever done that before. I really don't. I'm a dreamer, I'm a jump the gun type of gal, and I'm always skipping steps and looking forward to the ones just beyond. But not now. Not in the past three days. I have let the day be what it is and have enjoyed it for what it is. I have been at peace and I have trusted that no matter what culminates, it will never leave His palms.

If I think about what happens after my three day stay here is up, I kinda freak out, so I'm not even going there. Because that isn't today. Today we will inquire about tomorrow as much as we should, and from there I let it go. From there I let it rest and allow Someone else access to what it will hold.
I am at peace.

So as of right now, I have lived in Australia and been back in Washington, and am now in Hawai'i, waiting word on if I will be able to continue these relationships that have just begun or if it is time for something else. I don't yet know.

Yet today is not quite over.

So that is what has been up with me. As of 6:55pm, January 3rd in Kona Hawai'i.

Just so you know. :)

-Kaarin

cliffnotes

Sunday afternoon Lindsey was accepted into the school.
I'm at the top of the waiting list.
We fly out in less than 24 hours.
It is Tuesday.
I have two days to get into this school.
It's 23.6 degrees Fahrenheit outside, and 8:16 am.
I haven't packed yet.




We're going to Hawaii.