Brian Littrell at Night of Joy 2007 part 2

As I neared the entrance to Tomorrowland’s “Galaxy Palace Theater” for Brian Littrell’s 10:30pm concert, I began scanning the venue for the best spot possible. This particular concert location was one of the few of the night that featured actual seating. At first I began to get worried when I realized that most of the front seats were already taken. But, I then noticed a small crowd gathering at the front of the stage, people who were planning to stand through the concert. Standing seemed like a very small price to pay to obtain the kind of images that I was hoping for. So, I joined the crowd up front and found myself right were I needed to be.

Brian began his set with “My Answer is You” and then donned a guitar to play one of my favorites, “Angels and Heroes”. I had just been listening to that in the car on the way in that evening, now I was hearing it Live! Brian continued with his praise anthem “We Lift You Up”. I heard an “Awe” from some girl when Brian sang the lyric about God blessing him with his wife, “Let me share with you just how I know He’s blessed my life / He opened up His precious hands and gave me a wife / And then He touched her deep down in her soul and gave me a son / For it is He that knows no greater love for He is the One / And at night when I pray to the Lord that I know / I thank Him for His precious blood He gave to save my soul / And that is why // We lift you up!…”

The stage seemed to be a second home for Brian as he glided around it as if to be in his own living room. At one point, someone threw a Donald Duck doll on stage which led Brian into a story about his son, Baylee, talking to a Donald doll the other day and telling him that he was his favorite. The next thing we know, his son comes out on stage! (see video here) Brian knelt down to let his boy talk into the microphone. I think the intention was to get Baylee to sing, but all he wanted to do was talk about the funny voices that his Daddy could do. Brian had just nailed a perfect “Donald” voice before Baylee had come on stage. Once Baylee said a few cute things, he ran back off with the stuffed Donald. I’m still trying to figure out if the Donald was planted ahead of time or what, but either way it was a cute moment between father and son. As Baylee was exiting, Brian said to the crowd, “Good thing this is ‘Night of Joy’, cause ‘Lord help us!’” referring to his growing son.

Brian then said that he knew he had some "fabulous memories" with everyone there (referring to his Backstreet Boys success) and proceeded into a two song “Backstreet medley” of “I Want it That Way” and “As Long as You Love Me”. He performed it in a fun loving way that had the crowd singing along as he held the microphone out towards the audience.

The 45 minute set flew by. This was his first of two that he would perform that night, the other beginning at 11:45pm. Since I had captured the images that I wanted, I decided to venture over to Fantasyland to catch Jaci Velasquez’s second set…and I sure am glad I did. You’ll see why in my next post.

Brian Littrell at Night of Joy 2007

A few years ago, the Backstreet Boys were being interviewed and Brian Littrell was asked what he’d be doing if he wasn’t in the group. He said that he’d probably be a youth pastor. I took notice to that statement.

So, it wasn’t a surprise when it was announced that Brian was coming out with a solo “Christian” album of his own a little over a year ago. I knew that I would probably enjoy his music, so I purchased his album, “Welcome Home”, as soon as it came out last year.

I wasn’t disappointed. I was pleased to find lyrics that reflected the truths of Christ and a personal relationship that Brian has with Him. What a platform he has to share his faith! He’s a part of one of the most popular Pop groups in the world!

He's talked about how he’s taken a lot of flak from others who don’t understand why he’s doing what he’s doing. His song, “My Answer is You”, answers that question. He has said that he’s always wanted to be a Christian artist. That was always the plan.

His platform will continue to be built as the Backstreet Boys are scheduled to release a brand new album October 30th and go on tour.

Here are a few images of Brian Littrell’s Night of Joy Debut this past Friday night. He performed two sets at "Galaxy Palace Theater" in Tomorrowland. I’ll be sharing a few more photos from this concert in my next post.

You can find out more about Brian’s testimony by clicking Here and Here.

Click Here to sample some of his music. His song "Over My Head" is one of my favorites.

Night of Joy 2007

This past Friday and Saturday evening I attended the 25th annual “Night of Joy”. Night of Joy is a two night Christian music festival held each September at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. The park is only open to concert attendees during this event and is usually sold out as it was this year. Most of the popular Magic Kingdom rides are open for you to enjoy in between concerts, much to the delight of all the church youth groups there as well as all the young at heart.

There are usually three to four different concert locations throughout the park with Cinderella Castle being the stage for the “Headliners”. The smaller venues this year were "Galaxy Palace Theater" and “Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café”, both located in Tomorrowland. Fantasyland was also used for a stage location which was a change from using Frontierland in recent years.

The park hours for the event this year were 6:00pm to 1:00am on Friday night and 4:00pm to 1:00am on Saturday with concerts getting started at 7:30pm each night. There are usually two to three different artists playing at one time, so you have your choice of who you want to see. As you walk around the park, you’ll also hear modern Christian music being played through the parks sound system. It’s usually songs from all the artists who are featured at that year’s event. For me, it’s the greatest night to be at the Magic Kingdom.

This was my third Night of Joy and fifth of this type of event in the past five years. Universal Studios also holds the same type event the very same weekend called “Rock the Universe”. I usually make my choice by who’s playing at which park.

I had a great (and tiring) weekend to say the least. I took my camera on Friday night and captured some good images of some of my favorite music artists which I will be sharing with you this week. Saturday night I did not take my camera but will still give you some commentary on that great evening as well.

I captured the above image at the end of Friday night as “Third Day” was performing at Cinderella Castle. If you look closely, you’ll see a little glimpse of the sea of humanity that was in attendance.

Pop Gallery

I took this photo almost exactly a year ago. “Pop Gallery” is a store in Downtown Disney that features unique paintings, sculptures and the like as well as some artsy trinkets. The store is jammed packed with color and peculiar things to grab your attention as you navigate your way through the narrow isles as to not break anything. Most items inside feature a hefty price tag.

As you can probably tell, I did a little selective color here to add some intrigue to an image that didn‘t really have much to it. The two bulbs illuminated were the only ones on at the time I captured this image.

I was out with some really cool people on Saturday night and we spent a good amount of time in this store. As we all took our time exploring the establishment, I was surprised at the things I never even noticed before. There really is a lot to take in.

Shadow Play part 2

Another image from my archives. This is the first image to be posted twice on this Blog…but with a little twist…a little twist of lime.

I’ve talked about how shadows catch my “photographer’s eye” before, you can read more about that by clicking here, if you missed it. I got this image back out recently and did a selective color treatment to it. This photo was originally captured over a year ago at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton Florida.

What things catch your “photographer’s eye”?

Need to Phone a Friend?

As you may recall my earlier posts about “my little friend”, the cell phone, here’s an image from almost a year ago of another one of my little friends. His name is Kaa, and he was my house guest for a little over a year. I “snake sat” him while my friend, Jonathan, was away in Afghanistan. Jonathan’s wife, Patricia, didn’t mind me taking Kaa off her hands for that time period either.

This photo was taken during a shoot a few days before I had given him back to his owners. At one point, I decided to incorporate my cell phone into the scene. It didn’t take much coaching to get Kaa to wrap his body around the object. I think it may had been a comfort to him on that flat surface. Having the phone there also gives a sense of scale, though I think it’s still slightly deceiving, because he was actually about three feet long at that time. He won‘t grow to be many more feet because of the type of breed he is.

I’m surprised at how comfortable I was with him and he with me. I think it’s because of how calm and docile a Ball Python can be most of the time. Now, when it was feeding time, that’s a different story, but I‘ll spare you the details. You can see other images from this shoot and learn more about my experiences with Kaa by clicking here…if you dare?

To me this kind of a strong image, maybe even a little “surreal”. It’s probably even more strange and surreal to some of you. What messages or ideas come to your mind when you look at this?

Blogs of Note

Here’s an image that I took during one of my photo excursions in downtown Lakeland over a year ago. It wasn’t long after I captured this image that I began sharing my work on this Photo Blog. Looking at this image now, I can’t help but think about the style of my Photo Blogging friend, Anna. She recently made the comment that we “shoot alike” and I totally agreed with her.

On another note, my Dad, “Salty” (Formerly known as "Salty Dawg" in Blog land), as moved his Photo Blog to a new address, countrycaptures.blogspot.com. He made the change to keep consistent with his new Blog title and theme. He’s doing a lot of great stuff over there, so be sure to check him out.

Another Blog of note, is one of my cousins up north, Amy. She also captures a lot of great country and nature themed images. Her "Frosty Mountains" image will cool you off on this hot summer day. So go check out her photos and let her know what you think!

Antique Dish

This is another object from my Gram’s house that I photographed over a year ago. This candy dish of sorts originally belonged to my Great Grandmother at one time. It’s amazing how it can still capture the eye and imagination.

Blue and Green

This is a vase that I bought for my apartment a few years ago. I have it sitting in the middle of my dining/kitchen table. It catches the evening sun as it shines through the window. The vase features two of my favorite colors, which is what drew me to it.

One of my favorite parts of this photo is the piece that is distorted by the other piece of glass at the bottom right of the image.

Gram's Shade

Here’s an image I took two years ago at my Grandparents house. It’s of a lamp shade in their guest bedroom. I’ve always loved the stained glass in it as well as the frosted white glass you see there.

I had this image on my computer as a part of a framing project I’m doing for one of my friends. This image may be used in collaboration with some other images. In trying to think of what to post, I spotted this fond image and decided to share it with you all.

Rise of the Silver Surfer

This is an image that I captured a few months ago at the best theater in town, the “Cobb”. You’re looking at a life size model of the “Silver Surfer” from this Summer's hit “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”. This is one of 400 made for promoting the movie at a theater near you.

So far this Summer, I’ve taken in most of the really big blockbusters; Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Fantastic Four 2, and Transformers. All four films were visually stunning and great stories, but I think I was the most impressed with Spidy and Transformers out of this list. I’m getting ready to see the third installment of the “Bourne” series, The Bourne Ultimatum, next weekend.

What about you, have you seen any of the “Blockbusters” this summer? What was your favorite? Have you seen this silver guy at any of your theaters?

30

At times, it feels as if it’s staring me down.
Time used to crawl when I was a child, now it jogs. A year no longer feels like the eternity that it did when I was a boy. 12 months seem to feel more like six now. It’s as if time has doubled it’s pace. I can’t believe July is almost gone! “Attention, this is your captain speaking, we’re about to begin our decent into the Holiday season.”

As I stood listening to some good music on headphones at the “Virgin Records Megastore” in Downtown Disney Saturday night, the numbers above the CD selections represented something to me. Their intended purpose was to indicate where that particular album ranked on a “Top 40” list, but to me, they represented ages. I knew then that I wanted to capture an image with these numbers.

For the most part, I haven’t been effected that much by turning any age. Some of my friends have spoken about how turning 25 or 27 was hard on them, not me though. The only thing that has gotten to me in recent time is how much faster time is going. It was just yesterday that I was 27, now I’m almost half way through 28 and 30 feels very close.

A wise old man named Bob Snyder once told me that “it’s a blessing to grow old”. I took stock in what he said that day, it brought comfort to me. I surely hope and plan to grow old and wise like him.

It’s odd to think that my twenties are waving good bye and that I’m about to begin a new decade of my life. I want that decade to be really good.

Have any birthdays affected you in some way? What advice do you have to offer this 28 year old?

Wall of Blinding Lights

This past Saturday evening I…you guessed it…went to Downtown Disney again to photograph. This visit however, went a little different than planned...

As I was contemplating going there again, during the day, one of our daily thunderstorms arrived outside my apartment around 3:00pm. I thought I’d give it an hour or so and see if the sky looked promising later. Well, around 5:00pm, it was still cloudy with a bit of drizzle. I decided to still venture in there with hopes of getting some post rain shots of the location later in the evening. Images of neon lighted reflections on the sidewalk filled my head.

As I drove the 40 minute trek on I-4, I was met with spots of rain and an endless overcast sky. Once at “DTD” I realized that I may have to wait to shoot for a while until the conditions became more friendly for my expensive little sidekick. So, I decided to kill some time at the mammoth Virgin Record store. I walked along the massive wall of listening stations and found a CD to demo. As I jammed, I began to notice “shots” that I could capture if only I had my camera with me. Once in a while I would glance over to a window area only to realize that there was no end in site for the rain.

Before too long, I decided to brave the falling water and jogged back to my car to get my camera and salvage this otherwise photoless night. I ever so carefully shielded my investment with my umbrella on the way back to the media store. I then returned to the same listening station and jammed once more but with my camera now around my neck and my trusty umbrella drying at my feet.

As I stood there, I took in the almost endless wall of light that was before me. The way it curved in the distance and resembled something from a U2 concert captured my imagination. The only problem was that the shot I wanted to get was one without any people in it. Let me tell you that this store is crawling with tourists and Floridians alike. I would only have a small window of opportunity to get a shot of the wall without anyone blocking the view that I was envisioning.

The image above was about as good as I was going to get that night. There’s really a more impressive view that shows just how far this wall stretches, but I was never able to catch it completely alone…maybe next time.

Spinning

As I was photographing the light show that “Stitch” was providing for me at Downtown Disney, I looked down on the ground and found this little guy at my feet. It’s a Mickey Mouse that has a spinning light apparatus attached to the top of his head. As the three stranded rubber propeller spun, Mickey would slowly rotate as he wobbled from the movement of the propeller above him.

Mickey Mouse is such a worldwide icon, did you still recognize this “blur” as “Mickey”?

Warp Speed

Yesterday evening, I made another trip to Downtown Disney to look for some good images. After walking around for a time, I passed by a Disney street vendor who was selling glowing sticks for the forthcoming night as well as a few character specific souvenirs. One that caught my eye was of “Stitch” the alien from Disney’s “Lilo and Stitch”. He was in his racing style space craft that featured three rubber strands of different lengths with lights at the end of them, serving as a sort of propeller. It was getting near dusk and I immediately thought of doing a slow exposure to capture a cool light blur.

At first, I walked on by, not wanting to draw attention to myself by photographing this toy that the vendor wanted to sell and that little children wanted their parents to buy them. But, I stopped in my tracks, thought for a moment, then turned around and walked up to the guy manning the cart and said, “I have to photograph this thing”. He very accommodatingly replied “Sure! Go right ahead!” So, I tried a few shots and as I began realizing that it was still too early to get the desired effect, the guy working the station said, “Are you gonna be here for a while? You can Come back later once it’s darker.” I thanked him and told him I’d be back.

So, I eventually returned and began shooting this little alien with spinning lights in front of his space ship. Once I thought I had captured what I needed, I thanked the vendor once again and went on my way, knowing I had probably gotten my “shot of the night”.

Say Hello to My Little Friend part 2

Well, I definitely got some interesting feedback on the topic of cell phones! Thanks everyone for contributing to the discussion.

I must say that I was a little surprised at the number of you that do not have one yet. One things for sure though, it sounds like you all would be or are among the “considerate users’’ practicing proper “cell phone etiquette”.

As I shared in my previous post, I’m quite happy with my mobile friend. I love receiving calls from the people close to me. I would say my phone gets moderate use, not nearly as much as some of my friends' cell phones. When I don’t want to be bothered, I just turn the power button off.

My biggest piece of advice for any cell phone user out there, is know when to turn it off. If you’re out on a date with someone special or just spending some quality time with a good friend, do both of you a favor and turn that thing off for a little while. Choose to “be there” with that person.

Above is another one of my favorite images I captured of my cell. There’s something significant to me in this image. Just a subtle tie-in to my life right now. Can anyone guess what it is?

Answer revealed in the comment section!

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Almost everywhere I go, this little guy tags along.
Within the last 10 years, the cell phone has made it’s way into our everyday lives and has made itself an necessity for most people. Because a good percentage of people own at least one now, you need to have one of your own if you’re going to “stay in the loop”. Whether it’s on the job or just hanging with your friends and family, cell phones now play an important part in our lives.

I must say that I really enjoy this modern technological wonder most of the time. A cell phone makes “making plans” a lot more “spontaneous”. I can be somewhere out and about and receive a call from a friend who’s inviting me to dinner. At the trade show that I was just involved in, cell phones were a very valuable tool utilized by everyone in my company to communicate with each other across the vast show floor. Because of the great calling plans that are now available for cell phones, I was able to get rid of my long distance land line plan all together. In fact, my land line is hardly used now except to receive those pesky “telemarketing” calls for me. So far, my cell phone number has not been “compromised” that much. The list of benefits of cell phones keeps going, not to even mention the capabilities of some to surf the web, play music or capture images etc. etc. Capabilities that I’m sure will become more standard as time goes on.

Like with mostly anything, there are some negatives that we have to deal with as well. For instance, when you’re spending time with someone, trying to have good conversation, maybe at a restaurant or book store…and then your companion receives a call disrupting the flow of your evening. Another frustration are the hands free ear pieces that some have, although great safety devices for talking while driving, are deceiving when you see someone walking down the street seeming to talk to themselves. Maybe you begin to talk to them only to realize afterward that they are already having a conversation with someone else. Ok, just a little venting there.

I think the bottom line is, cell phones are wonderful tools (and toys) that have improved our lives in many ways, but we need to practice “cell phone etiquette” and “use responsibly”.

What’s your thoughts on everyone’s best friend, the Cell Phone?

"Last Ride" by Dozer Cycle part 3

One More View.
Ok, I had to give you one more view of this frightening ride.
I guess when it comes to “Bikers” having a sometimes scary wrap, this bike is the ultimate ride for that stereotype.

In the words of “Joel Reynolds”, “Ghost Rider called - he wants his bike back.”

"Last Ride" by Dozer Cycle

Yeah, I thought this would get your attention.
You’re looking at the front of a Motorcycle that is known as “Last Ride”. It’s a bike that sports a human skeleton made of steel that covers the length of it’s body. It literally looks like a skeleton on two wheels. I overheard a show patron say that if he saw this bike pull up beside him, he’d probably pull off the road.

I’ll be showing you a few more views of this unique machine and the man who built it, in the next couple of days.

I'll borrow an idea from my photoblogger friend, Carmi, and ask you a question. What first came to mind when you saw this image?

Show Time

I just photographed the annual trade show that the company I work for puts on each year in Orlando, Florida. The show consists mainly of automotive tools and equipment with the occasional cool bike or car to look at. We had a few special guests at our show this year, one being “Dozer Cycle” company. They brought a few of their motorcycles for all the show attendees to enjoy gazing at. As I was photographing the great bikes, I aimed at one of the mirrors to see if I could get an interesting reflection of the girl working the booth who was sitting about 15 feet away. I was able to see her in the mirror, but couldn’t capture her smiling. So, I went over to her and showed her what I had photographed so far and explained why I needed her to look my way and smile. Once I grabbed this image and showed the result, she said, “Wow, that’s amazing!” She made me feel like I had just performed a street magic trick for her.

This was one of the many images shown in a slide show on four huge screens during a 2,000 attendee dinner Saturday night. As everyone enjoyed their meal, some of the 600 images I took from the previous two days were on display. Later that night, one of the vendors complimented me on my photography and mentioned this shot as one of the ones that stuck out to him.

I hope you all enjoy the new look of the photog blog. The phrase “every image has a story” is something that came to me recently. I think it applies well to photography and what my Blog is all about. Not only does an image “tell” a story itself, but there is always a story as to how and why that image came to be. At this Blog, I hope many stories are enjoyed; the stories that the images tell and the stories that I tell of how those images were created.