music « ScottFillmer.com

Jun 12 2008

Journal

My Love of Baseball and Music Come Together :: Throwback Thursday

This is my latest installment for Throwback Thrusday from Vagabondrunn (see Throwback Thursday (7)). Yes, I finally was able to get some images of me. This one of course is me showing off my two passions at the time, baseball and music. Actually, not much has changed, except now I am the one taking the photos. I still love baseball and music (although I no longer play the clarinet). This photo was taken in March 1981 by my mother of course. So there you have it, me at age 11. Have you posted your throwback Thursday photo? Leave a comment below and let me know where to find it.

Tagged baseball, family, history, music, pic, scott, sports, throwback thursday, thursday

Jun 05 2008

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Photography

Meet the Cornerstone Buzz Band :: Photos

I had the privilege last night to do another photo shoot with the Cornerstone band. Being able to do a photo shoot while listening to and participating in some great praise and worship music is pretty cool. This is part of a larger collection of images (see full photo shoot set here) that Cornerstone is trying to gather, and step everything up to the next level. I am glad I can be a part of the process. Out of about 1,000 images I shot last night I edited down to about 50, then those 50 were narrowed down to about 30, which are now loaded in the full shoot session on my gallery, and I chose 5 of those for this post here. So, come meet the band.

Now that you are down at the bottom of the post, click on the last image to see them all in a gallery in the larger size. If you start at the top my youtube video sticks on top, sorry, haven’t figure out why yet. Hope you enjoyed the images as much as did taking them. There will be more to come, for now you can see all the current images on my gallery. Leave a comment below and tell me what you thought, or some creative critique on how to improve.

Tagged band, church, cornerstone, music, worship

May 30 2008

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Photography

Low Light Photography with a Worship Band and Some Great Music

I did a short photo shoot of the Cornerstone worship band this past Wednesday. I am still gathering and editing the images but here are a few below from the shoot. Low light photography is one of my favorites when you can get some good directional light concentrated on the subjects. Here, it is a pretty dark room for photography, especially for hand held work, but some great subjects, and a little light from above and you can still capture some interesting shots.

I have tried so many different online gallery programs over the years and never could find one I fully liked, so I finally gave in and just started organizing my gallery. Coming soon I will upload wider variety of images from each shoot along with past photo shoots from all over the country. For now, you can see the current uploaded images on the Auburn Images music gallery. Check back there soon and I will have more organized and uploaded.

Tagged band, light, music, worship, worship band

May 22 2008

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Journal

Prayers for Steven Curtis Chapman and His Family

I am sure by now just about everyone who knows who Steven Curtis Chapman is knows what happened in the news with his daughter being killed on Wednesday.

One of those tragic accidents that reminds me very much of the situation with the Burgess family back in January (see Attacks on the Burgess Family). Both of these “events” came to see the tragic loss of a child by a Believing family. It is not something that makes any sense or any of us can put a reason or explanation on it. It is only the understanding that we (as a people) are not in control down here, nor should we be I think. In God, all things work for His good.

One thing that comes to mind to me is Psalm 147:5

5 Great is our Lord and abundant in strength;
His understanding is infinite.

Although it is not under our own understanding, I am sure the Chapman family will turn to God during this tragic even, and we should as well. I know I don’t speak alone when I say many people are praying for you Steven Curtis Chapman.

Update: The Chapman family has setup a blog for their daughter Maria Sue Chapman and the post for the condolences are located at Maria Sue Chapman (2003-2008) (be aware, the page loads slow with more than 14,000 comments so far)

Here is also a post that was part of the memorial service for Maria Sue Chapman. Maria’s Memorial Service

Tagged children, current events, music, news, prayer

May 18 2008

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Faith

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

As is customary on Saturday’s around our place, I am usually out cutting part of the pasture grass and listening to my music, and today wasn’t much different. Today I had a very wide range of music set to random play and the song Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day came on. One thing I like to do with music, even with songs I know well, is read the written lyrics as I listen to the song.

As I listened to the familiar lyrics it got me thinking and wondering if this is sometimes how we as Christians feel at times. I am not going to repost all the lyrics to the song, but basically the songs chorus is summed up into a few words I Walk Alone.

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me and I walk alone

It made me wonder how often we feel like this, even though we know differently in our hearts. Do we walk the road alone, or do we walk the road knowing and remembering that Jesus is right there beside us?

Tagged dream, jesus, music, the walk

May 15 2008

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Journal

Music, Work, Worship, Photography and a Little Fun

It has been an extremely busy last several days and my normal daily journal post (as in this one) has been lost the last few days. We have been very busy with the books and all other aspects of work, but I also took on a few extra projects that took a bit more time than I anticipated (not unusual). Yesterday was Deborah’s birthday, see post Happy Birthday, Deborah, and I hope she had a nice day, but it was one where we didn’t have to leave the house for work, but just tried to get things done here at our home office. That basically means carrying boxes up and down the stairs all day and getting them listed on our store.

Deborah went through more books yesterday than in a typical day, which means I carried more boxes up the stairs and down the stairs than a typical day, BUT, we are starting to be able to see the floor in our dining room. Something we haven’t seen in going on two years now (we received a shipment of about an 18-wheeler load of books some 18 months ago and are still trying to get through all of them).

Photography (With a Little Worship), Finally

It has been a while since I have done some actual photography shooting on location, but last night I had the opportunity to do some shooting at the church of the band while they practiced. Below is just one small “head shot” of the worship leader. All in all I took about 500 shots over the hour and a half so it will take some time to go through (hope Brian doesn’t mind me putting up his mug shot for everyone to see).

I am trying to get some graphical images of the worship band up on the worship leaders blog site (now over at http://th.eophil.us or http://www.worship-journey.com for the long url). It is an ongoing project and hopefully will have a great impact on those who read and follow Brian’s story.

Everything Else

I was able to get to my guitar lesson this week, although I have been so busy I haven’t had time to practice yet. I now know exactly how much I don’t know, just about everything. I did get some new music arrivals this week as well, they included another interesting mix:

David Benoit – Here’s To You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years! (mix is a little off here)
Dan Fogelberg – Greatest Hits
Phil Keaggy – Inseparable
Phil Keaggy – Acoustic Sketches (great guitar album)
Billy Joel – The Nylon Curtain

Yes, those are from all over the place but I like to collect a wide range of music. Today should be a calmer day, one that we can stay here at the house and work. Glad to finally get back to my journal blog here. I am not to happy with my newish theme so I might go back to the other one and use the head graphic I did the other day, who knows.

Tagged band, brian, cornerstone, music, work, worship

May 07 2008

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Journal

A Sharp Shinned Hawk Snatched a Bird From our Feeder

Well, I was so busy yesterday I didn’t actually get to do my normal daily post, so this is a Tuesday/Wednesday version. We spent most of Tuesday in town doing all the various chores we normally do when we take our orders into USPS.

Tuesday is also the day I continue with my guitar lessons, so that was a quick 30 minutes and then on to the post office and everything else. Today, Wednesday was a calmer day of work from the home office, and I did get a good bit of work done today. It is always nice when you don’t have to drive into town at all. Deborah did spend most of the day in town today, getting her hair done for the upcoming 2008 National Polka Festival. We will be heading out to Dallas for a nice visit with family and polkas.

New Music Arrivals

Received several new albums from my friends over at lala, thanks for the new tunes guys. On the list for today was:

Stevie Ray Vaughan – In Step (great album, wow)
Incubus – Make Yourself
Men at Work – Business As Usual (not tops on my list but makes for a rounded collection, I think)
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Greatest Hits (replacement for one damaged in shipment)
Robbie Williams – The Ego Has Landed (replacement from one damaged in shipment)
Alan Parsons – Try Anything Once

Nature in View

Well, today we had a new visitor. We had a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Had never seen one before today, but he managed to snatch a finch right out of one of our feeders and proceed to have a feast right there in the yard. It wasn’t the first time a hawk has presented himself for a meal, but this Sharp Shinned Hawk was really something to see (I did not take the image below, just didn’t have a chance to get my camera out as fast as he moved).

All gray up top, rustic red color underneath, and apparently, quite hungry. A real treat to see (although probably not for the finch). I ended the night with a wonderful service, called the VIP service and for more on that you can read the current posts from http://d.amasc.us

Tagged hawk, music, nature

Apr 30 2008

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Journal

Coldplay's New Viva La Vida Cover Art Released

Coldplay just announced the release of their new album, Vivav La Vida or Death And All His Friends. Coldplay is doing two free concerts, one in New York and one in London for their new release in June, and are offering a free download of one of their songs on the album, Violet Hill. I love the fact that they released a high res version of their front cover, and a free copy of a single on the album. They seem to get working with the digital age where the music industry (like Sony) just want to fight it.

The artwork for the cover is pretty interesting, and this is said to be (by Coldplay) the album which the world will remember them by. Certainly took long enough to release it but I am sure it will be great. From the first single release for Viva LaVida is Violet Hill and probably has a lot to do with the album art above.

The album’s artwork features the classic painting Liberty Leading the People (La Libert guidant le peuple) by French painter EugÃ¨ne Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830. It is currently on display in The Louvre in Paris.

Go get the download while you can, it is the only release until June.

Tagged alternative, artwork, band, coldplay, music, release

Apr 29 2008

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Journal

Learning Music History Again and Trying to Pick the E Blues Scale

Tuesday’s are busy days around our place. We usually take all our orders from over the weekend in to USPS, which we did today. Deborah packaged up all the book orders, I did all the eBay orders and we made it into town in time for my guitar lesson.

What’s in an E Blues Scale Again?

We found a great deal on a beginner Fender Guitar a month or so ago, and I started taking lessons each Tuesday. This was only my second lesson, but I learned today that I was not holding the pick properly (or using the proper pick), looking in the correct spot, plucking the stings in the correct way, and I lost track after that. It wasn’t really that bad but I have never picked up a guitar prior to my last two lessons so the learning curve seems high to me, especially when you have a day job and can’t practice all that much. I did continue on with the open E Blues Scale, and will try to use some proper technique for next week. At least I can play and still feel my fingers.

New Music Added

I received a few new CD’s from my trading pals over at LaLa again today, and few from Amazon. I have been trying to get a better collection of blues guitarist and these will fit the bill quite nicely.

Santana – The Essential
Santana – Supernatural
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – The Sky is Crying
The Killers – Hot Fuss
The Killers – Sam’s Town