Episcopal Relief and Development personal reaction and debrief

I will admit I've never been one for leaving any thing up to providence. But that is exactly how I ended up being a seminary coordinator for Episcopal Relief and Development. On our incoming class retreat we were given the opportunity to "discern" who was called to work with as a representative to the seminary on this cause. In this process of discernment we went around in a group and shared our strengths and weaknesses. As it turns out I think I said something of particular interest to my classmates because they unanimously elected me to be one of the *six* coordinators between CDSP (Church Divinity School of the Pacific) and Episcopal Relief and Development.

Being that I was one of six people who were tasked with the of representation of this group that I had never heard of (Episcopal Relief and Development) to the school I felt like it was a bit of a sham to be honest. Do you really need six people to promote a fund raising, and outreach program that is built into the Episcopal church to an Episcopal seminary? Felt awkward.

Well I just attended my first seminarian network meeting for Episcopal Relief and Development this past weekend - and I am unable to express how much of a difference it has made in my understanding and appreciation of this kind of work.

I'll be honest and say I've always had great respect for those who work in non-profit, but I am hesitant to say whether it is a lifestyle that I would ever like to take on for myself. As I traveled to Virginia for the seminarian network meeting of the Episcopal Relief and Development I was quite suspicious of the whole situation - I was concerned it was going to be just a bunch of people sitting around a table talking about how saving lives is important, but not really doing any thing about it. As it turned out this suspicion was only partially true - we did sit around a table and talk, but we were talking about some very tangible ideas and gathering some great information.

I was quite moved by the fact that the meeting was held at Virginia Theological Seminary - the implications of this for me included the fact that I was able to visit a very good friend in Washington DC, and being a history nerd I was able to really embrace the locale and appreciate the history VTS has played in the Episcopal church. And in the midst of visiting my friend in DC I was able to experience the city as an adult, which is quite different from my random trips back as a child. I was able to talk about politics a little bit, and recognize the impact that things like a faith based organization can have to the politics even of a staunch atheist. The recognition that DC is both a monument to our nation, as well as a working city that runs our nation is a bit of a head trip. But in the greatest sense of the word realizing DC as a city, and monument is empowering. As someone who has been questioning the point of graduate school for a few weeks it was refreshing to feel like there is a place for a non-secular mind, in this secular world we live in (but don't get me wrong I still won't define the divinity for you).

What frustrated me most about the meetings this weekend were the varied theological understandings of what social justice within the context of the church entails. There were some in the room who felt that although by working to save the lives of those less fortunate we are not fulfilling out baptismal covenant unless we are trying to save their eternal souls as well. This frustrated me to no end simply because I am a person who sees the world through fairly secular eyes however I feel that I certainly have a tinge or religiosity to my world view. Within this religious-cum-secular view that I bring to the table I was simultaneously frustrated and confounded as to why social justice does not automatically equate to doing justice in the name of God.
Further more are we in any way failing our baptismal covenant by saving the mortal lives of people, or does our covenant require us to seek the eternal salvation of a person no matter their own belief? Further is it not the duty of the leaders of the church to help the people in the pews understand that whether you call yourself Episcopalian, Catholic, Baptist, or any other variant that it is your duty to help save the lives of those less fortunate. To me this is the great disconnect that I felt: I would rather have four living Muslim kids than one dead Christian kid - I mean that in the most sarcastic notion possible; but in reality I am far more concerned with the generation that I can help than the possibility of saving the soul of one person. The salvation of that one person is between that person and the Divine, not between me and my covenant as a person of faith.

I am invigorated, and really excited that the the secular political world has a place for a confused crazy kid like me. We'll see how it all shakes out...

First Bike race of the year

IMG_1055, originally uploaded by mrjonathanpotter.

Well, this wasn't the first race of the year, but it was the first one that I got my lazy butt out to to shoot. I don't think that I'll be doing any racing this year, the fact that I could barely make it up Mt. Tabor on Sunday to spectate was bad enough. These are photos from the Portland State University collegiate crit race that was on Sunday the 6th. It was cool to see some of the old gang still hangin in the pack, made me feel even more out of shape to be honest.
But on the photo side of things I got a couple that were cool. I'm not much of an action sports shooter, so I figure that all the practice I can get will help. I really like the look of the flash off camera, but I think I like the panned shots even better. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and I only stayed about an hour and a half. Oh well, more next time. Next post will hopefully have some shots from Mt. Adams, which is where Dana and I are headed this weekend.

CSS and IE

Well, I went to look at my website the other day at work on my PC and realized that I have a fairly serious CSS issue. I didn't realize that IE and Firefox/Safari handled CSS code so completely different. Since I've been building my site on my Powerbook, I had no way of knowing that it looked like crap in IE...Yay...I gotta get 'er fixed, no wonder all my stats show Firefox as the browsers that look at my site...

Post Processing...

CRW_3169_RJ, originally uploaded by mrjonathanpotter.

Post Processing...I'm about four years behind in my computing technology, I'm still rocking a Powerbook G4 800, with no battery life, a slightly broken power adapter and OSX 10.2.3. So I don't do a whole lot of post processing on my images. I recently got an old Canon G3 and it does RAW so I've been playing around with it, as the raw files are only 4mp which is much more manageable with my ancient processor. These are a few photos I shot two weeks ago and I liked, so I thought I'd try my hand at a bit of post. Some of them look better than others, but that is ok with me. All in all pretty decent, I just need to get into a new computer and Photoshop CS at least.
As of now, that is all on the back burner as I just signed the lease on some office/studio space in Cathedral Park Place. I'll post pictures when I get a chance/get it all set up a little more, for now it is mainly storage for my gear away from home...

Website all updated and clean

screen, originally uploaded by mrjonathanpotter.

I updated the website last night, and cleaned it up a bit this morning. My eyes were pretty blearly by the time I got it all done. But, now I've got some tear sheets from Fresh Cup on there, and some of my portraiture as well. I'm pretty happy with it all in all. Once I've got some dedicated time, a new computer and CS3 I plan on doing some major revamping. But for now I'm happy with it.

IMG_0853_a

IMG_0853_a, originally uploaded by mrjonathanpotter.

Worked with a really cool model on Sunday, LaurenKiley. It was good times, she had a really cool Portland-urban-hip look. Which fit perfectly with out shoot location, a really crazy low ceiling room that was completely empty.
It was good fun, and I think I am finally getting the hang of this portrait/portraiture thing. Some of the images I came out with I was really quite happy with.

Up next, me possibly getting studio space so I can stretch my legs and give Dana some room at home. We'll see...

More updates

IMG_9962_a, originally uploaded by mrjonathanpotter.

More updates to the site, I'm excited. It looks nice and I think I've finally come up with a good interface for browsing through the galleries. Simple, yet effective. I'm starting to get a feel for CSS, although I'm sure I still use way more code than I need to.

I just added a gallery for food photography, which I'm actually quite lacking in now. So, if any one has any food they need shot let me know.
Check it out.