Tagged with worship …

Sep 09 2008
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Faith, Photography

Encounter Performs Live in Auburn Student Activities Center

Encounter Live with Grace Campus Ministries at Auburn

This past Thursday I was privileged to be able do a photo shoot of the Encounter worship band performing live at the new Auburn University Student Activities Center on the Auburn University campus.  Once again, this week was a fantastic time of music and worship.  If you are a student at Auburn University and just enjoy hearing a great live band perform, I encourage you to check these guys out, they will not disappoint.  It’s free and you don’t have to do anything but listen to some great music.    You can check with Grace Campus Ministries for dates and times for the next live event (usually on Thursday nights at 8:30pm in the new student act center).

I had a hard time picking 3-4 images of Thursday to post here, so I have 6 here for you.  The entire gallery has about 100 images from Thursday night so if you want to see a little more of the band, some of the students, and the evening in general, just check out the Encounter at Auburn Sep 2008 gallery for the full shoot.  To see all the gallery images at once without having to click on each image, just click on the slideshow in the upper right corner.

I have really enjoyed getting to know the band members over the past few weeks, they really have a heart for the Lord and are about as genuine as it gets.  They play with passion and emotion because they believe in what they sing.  Talking with Daniel Bashta (the worship leader) after the concert he told me why bother doing anything if it can’t be done with passion, and that is how they play. Again, if you are an Auburn student I would really encourage you to visit the student act center one week while they are playing.  With 1,000 fellow students there, you are bound to meet someone you know.

Encounter Performs with Grace Campus Ministries at Auburn

Encounter Performs with Grace Campus Ministries at Auburn

Encounter Performs with Grace Campus Ministries at Auburn

Daniel, Worship Leader for Encounter

Encounter Live with Grace Campus Ministries at Auburn

The image just above is Daniel the worship leader for Encounter.  The entire band can be seen in the first two images and several more of that particular shoot in the gallery.  If you were at Encounter on Thursday I would love to hear your comments below about experiences you had that night.  All of the photos and lights and the music, are all for the glory of the Lord, but without the students, there wouldn’t be anything going on in the student act center at all, so I hope all those who did come had a meaningful experience last Thursday.

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Sep 04 2008
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Faith

Rhythm Guitar Adds New Flavor to Cornerstone Band

Todd Plays Electric Guitar with Cornerstone

Todd Plays Electric Guitar with Cornerstone

One thing I like about smaller local bands is they bring in new musicians to play all the time, and they always seem to add their own flavor to the band.  If you follow some of the large bands of our time like Third Day or Coldplay, a new guitarist would be big news and would probably disrupt the unity, flow, and chemistry of a band for at least a period of time.  Smaller bands don’t always have the luxury (if you want to put it that way) of being able to have the same musicians play every single time.  As frustrating as that can be for a worship leader or other members of the band, sometimes I find it very refreshing because the guest or new musician always brings his own perspective to the group.

Last night Rob (pictured below), who plays with Martha’s Trouble, joined the Cornerstone band practice to play on Sunday.  I was able to shoot the whole band for about an hour yesterday and these two are two of my favorites shots from last night.  Although I didn’t get a chance to talk with Rob last night (sorry Rob) I have really come to enjoy shooting live bands.  Musicians are one group that (in general terms) love to be photographed doing what they love to do, and that makes for much more appealing images than those who can’t stand to have their photo taken.

If you would like to see the rest of the shoot from last night you can view it in the gallery under people, called music.  A few weeks ago I was able to do a shoot with Encounter with Grace Campus Ministries (see Opening Day for Encounter at Auburn University) which I really enjoyed. Tonight, I will be back on the Auburn University campus to shoot Encounter again, should be a great night, look for some images from that shoot in the upcoming days.

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Aug 23 2008
3 Comments
Photography

Opening Day for Encounter at Auburn University

Grace Campus Ministries and Encounter

This was opening week for the Auburn University Campus fall semester, and for Encounter with Grace Campus Ministries. As indicated in my previous post, Grace Campus Ministries with Encounter, I was on campus to shoot the the opening night for Ecounter.  What a great awesome night it was and here are a few more images from Thrusday. To view the final edit, please see Encounter Aug 2008 in the gallery (click the link for “slideshow” to view all in large high quality format).

My thanks to Matt Dean, Dan King, Daniel Bashta, and Biscuet (glad we were able to meet while you were in the states this time) for showing me around and making me feel welcome while I was there.

Grace Campus Ministries and Encounter

Grace Campus Ministries and Encounter

Grace Campus Ministries and Encounter

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Jun 18 2008
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Journal

Summer Swing in the Park Concert Sessions in Opelika

BJ Playing the Drums at Summer Swing

Do you know what goes on in your own city? Apparently I don’t. Last night I went to shoot the Summer Swing Fest in Opelika Alabama and, who knew, it is a whole summer series of concert events that goes on each Tuesday night during the summer, wow.

Every Tuesday evening beginning May 13, 2008, the Opelika Parks and Recreation Department hosts a free outdoor concert at 7:00 p.m. at Municipal Park in Opelika Alabama. This 14-week concert series offers a wide variety of musical entertainment including Gospel, Jazz, R & B, Oldies, Country, Big Band Swing, Folk, and Community Band music.

Ok, so I found out because I was scheduled to shoot the Cornerstone Band that night, but what a great event for the city, and there were a lot of people there as well.

This particular event had two bands, the Cornerstone Band and the Sons of Asaph Band from Auburn United Methodist Church. I had a great time and although I did not know this was an event that goes on each summer, I do now. I am still in the process of editing the shoot from last night and I will post an update here with a link to the final image edit when completed.

Update: I completed the edit for this gallery and you can find the complete Summer Swing gallery upload here.

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Jun 05 2008
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Photography

Meet the Cornerstone Buzz Band :: Photos

Cornerstone Buzz Worship Band

Cornerstone Buzz Worship Band

Elizabeth Singing Raise Your Hands at Cornerstone

Patrick on the Electric Guitar at Cornerstone

Cornerstone Worship Band

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.

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May 30 2008
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Photography

Low Light Photography with a Worship Band and Some Great Music

Worship Leader, Brian

Electric Guitar

Keven at the Keyboard

Keyboard with Worship Leader in the Background

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.

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May 15 2008
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Journal

Music, Work, Worship, Photography and a Little Fun

Brian Johnson Worship Leader

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.

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Mar 18 2008
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Faith

Music Can Be the Soul of Worship, but Can Led Zeppelin?

Led ZeppelinI can’t imagine worship without music. There are some Believers that do not feel music has a place in the church, or if it does, it is of one form or another.

I view music as a gift from God, but I don’t just listen to one genre of music, I have a large collection of music from all over the spectrum. Music can evoke feelings and thoughts that come about because of the chords and lyrics we hear. That doesn’t mean they are always good [good being Godly] thoughts, but music has always had a way to move the soul.

Even David felt music was important. Throughout 1 Chronicles 15 David speaks about the importance of music, and shows that music is always one of those great gifts from God.

25 So David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of units of a thousand went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obed-Edom, with rejoicing. 26 Because God had helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD, seven bulls and seven rams were sacrificed. 27 Now David was clothed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and as were the singers, and Kenaniah, who was in charge of the singing of the choirs. David also wore a linen ephod. 28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouts, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps.

There is probably as many different kinds of music as there are kinds of Christians, and some of the greatest musicians in history weren’t Christians even though their talent was given to them by their maker. Stairway to Heaven is often times considered one of the greatest songs of all time, even by people of faith. Interesting is was sung by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. Not exactly elders of the church, but I love the introduction to the song.

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed
With a word she can get what she came for

In my opinion, a song can have great spiritual meaning and transcend time, yet come from a secular entity. The Lord works throughout the entire world and all its people, not just the ones who are Believers and music is certainly a gift from God that can reach people of all walks of life.

If you have ever listened to a live band play you know how different it can be to listening to an mp3 on your iPod, and listening to people play in a worship service can bring out the life of our Lord much as it did with David when he was celebrating the arrival of the ark in Chronicles. The Lord can, and will, move through the sounds of praise to Him.

And we as Believers know, all that glitters is not gold.

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