July Bible Verse Photography Challenge

Can I just say how much I love this link-up? It's once a month, so no pressure, and it challenges me to be creative and come up with my own interpretation of a Bible verse. I typically am not creative. I'm more of a follow-the-instructions type of girl.

This month's verse is: Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O LORD. Psalm 36:5-6

When I read this verse, my first thought was of a church tower. So here's my picture.

"The unity of a Gothic cathedral, we know, is not the static unity of a classical temple, but a unity born of the dynamic tension of diverse forces which impel the architecture upward, pointing it to heaven." -Pope Benedict XVI.

To see the other photos, head over to Flowers Round the Cross!

June Bible Verse Photo Challenge

I am squeaking in just under the wire here, because I forgot that the link-up was this weekend, so I went and scheduled a trip to Rome. I didn't have time to take a special picture, so here is a preview of my Rome photos. Given that there are over 500 to sort through, the rest may be a while in coming.

This month's verse is: "It is you who light my lamp; the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness." Psalm 18:28

So, bright, and religious? Hmm. With this weekend's weather, that wasn't so hard! And as a bonus, you get three photos.

Irritatingly, the photo that best fits the quote is not a good photo. This flame has been burning since...2005? I think. Pope Benedict lit it. Since it is kept behind glass, so no silly toddlers or immature atheists can blow it out, I didn't get a very good photo of it. So here are two more photos, which are sort of lacking in the darkness quotient, but still (I think) worth posting.

 This first photo, of course, is St. Peter's in the Vatican. Obviously a must-see for a Catholic visiting Rome. I have to admit, though, that I found it a rather stressful place, because there are sooooo many crowds. Not only were we there on the weekend of the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, we were there on the weekend where entrance to the Vatican museums are free. And the weather was beautiful. And we went to the Angelus with Pope Francis. So there were vast quantities of people, and that is not my favorite thing.

This is my favorite thing! St. Paul Outside the Walls is my new favorite church ever. It has passed the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC in my eyes. I have no idea why it was so impressive, but when I walked in I started crying. If I hadn't already been a Catholic I would have converted then and there, I think.

More photos to come!

If you want to add your photo, go to Flowers Round the Cross and add your link--I haven't given you much warning, but at the time of this post you have nearly nine hours. So, ready, set, go!

May Bible Verse Photography Challenge

Ok, challenge number one seems to have been trying to do something with the formatting, which decided to throw a temper tantrum and then be unfixable. (What are the defaults on these posts?) I gave up and deleted the whole post and am now starting over. Here is the verse:

"And I commend enjoyment, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and enjoy himself, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of life which God gives him under the sun." Ecclesiastes 8:15

Here are my photos:

I was invited to participate in a wine tasting with a friend and his family. We tried eight wines. One sparkling wine, three whites, three reds, and a dessert wine. All were local. The winery is fun to tour because they are an experimental winery which is working on "shaping the wines of the future," as well as training new winzers and winesalesmen. They showed us their current experiments with a netting to protect the plants from hail and a different way to prune the vines. The last red they gave us was the best wine I've ever had in my life, but it cost 29E per bottle. So I didn't buy it.

In terms of photography, does anyone have a good website to recommend that will teach me how to make better use of my camera? I can use the presets (like "auto" and "fireworks") but I'm sure the camera is capable of doing more, since it lets me customize almost every setting. Is there a website tutorial that will teach me how to do this, or do I have to get a book?

Head over to Flowers Round The Cross to see the rest of the photos!

April Bible Verse Photography Challenge

This month's verse is:

"My beloved speaks and says to me: 'Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.'" Song of Solomon 2:10-12

 This is part of the reading we read at my great-grandmother's funeral, so of course my picture is of her.

Head over to Flowers Round the Cross for the other photos!