the BAKERS

2011.10.16 - cream of crab soup

2011-10-16T12:57:00.010-04:00

6 months since the last blog post...

So I have this new love for cream of crab soup. Last week after bible study we went to the Phoenix Emporium in Old Ellicott City. Jess got the soup sampler which was a cup of both of their soups, cream of crab and crab vegetable. A cup of one of their soups was like $4.95 and the soup sampler which was both cups for $5.95. Can't beat that. I ended up eating pretty much all of her cream of crab and have been thinking about it non stop.

We also split a bacon cheeseburger which was pretty epic because they get their beef from right down the street at J.W Treuth & Sons so you know the beef is FRESH and coming from 1 cow instead of 100. I ordered the burger medium and it actually came out medium.

Jess and I are going to be doing "No restaurant November" which I thought we made up but after a google search someone beat us to the punch. We're desperately trying to KILL OUR DEBT and enter 2012 debt free. So making the soup at home was a step in the right direction. EXCEPT this soup was freaking EXPENSIVE to make... all of the groceries to make it was a little over $40. The only thing we have left over is a cup of heavy whipping cream and a big thing of old bay :) The expensive part was obviously a pound of backfin crab for $17.99

I got the recipe from http://www.allrecipies.com

Here's a link to the actual recipe. Karyn's Cream of Crab Soup

Here are the ingredients and directions.

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 (1.25 ounce) envelope hollandaise sauce mix
4 cups half-and-half, divided
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning TM
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon cooking sherry
1 pound fresh crabmeat

In a medium bowl, blend flour and hollandaise sauce mix with 2 cups half-and-half.
Melt butter in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Slowly add hollandaise mixture, stirring constantly until thickened. Add remaining half-and-half, Old Bay, dry mustard, celery seed, and whipping cream. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Add crabmeat and sherry, stirring gently until warmed through. Serve immediately.

A lot of the reviews said that 3 tablespoons of old bay was to much, so I did a little under 2... 3 would have been fine. I put old bay on top when I served it. I also used a 1/4 teaspoon of celery salt instead of celery seed and didn't use any cooking sherry.

The soup was great, not as thick as the Phoenix, but served fresh it was actually HOT and not luke warm, and it had a lot more crab per bite for sure. I just heated some up in the microwave for lunch and it was good too.

Would I make it again? Sure, for a special occasion, but $40 for 6 servings of soup is way to expensive to be making any time soon.

I've never really liked soups but have been really enjoying them lately. Next I'd like to make french onion.

What is your favorite soup? Leave your answer in the comments!

jim baker

2011.04.02 - A NEW BLOG POST?!!!! Making deviled eggs with my neice

2011-04-02T18:03:00.016-04:00

Hey everyone...

I haven't blogged in 6 months and it's been a nice time unplugging. I sent out an update for the month telling what was up with us. If you want an e-mail update, leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll get you one.

Today is my nieces birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSEY! Thursday night I drove up to their house in PA because I had to drive my sister to knee surgery the next day. Jeannie (my sister) is doing fine.

Anyway, this past Thanksgiving I was thinking of all the delicious foods I love and thinking how we should have all of these things at Thanksgiving. One of them was deviled eggs, and Lindsey piped in saying she liked them too. So I told her that from now on for every family holiday she was in charge of making deviled eggs. And at Christmas time when we visited, guess what she made. Deviled eggs!

I got the idea since Lindsey likes to cook that we should make up a bunch of eggs and try out some different types of deviled eggs. She liked the idea so here's the result.

Every good evening should start out with some little caesars pizza, this one didn't have the deep dish pizza though.... I haven't had little caesars since I lived in NY. Remember when I almost burned my house down with their dipping sauce?

Lindsey made some cupcakes for her birthday to take to school. I got to eat one before the pizza. They were AWESOME. Cupcakes are all the rage. For Jess' birthday her friend Colleen make some amazing cupcakes too. Check out Colleen's recent NYC cupcake adventure here.

Funfetti cupcakes, white frosting topped with a chocolate covered strawberry. DELICIOUS!

My sister Jeannie did all the hard work of boiling and peeling the eggs. Thanks Jeannie :)

Ingredients: hardboiled eggs

red onion

bacon?!

Here are some of the other staples. White vinegar, relish (which we didn't end up using) mayo, and miracle whip.

Lindsey starts the process, cutting the egg in half long ways.

Recently a photography teacher that taught in my photo school responded to our e-mail update and reminded me to make sure that I am not always behind the camera during family events. So I handed my camera over to my sister and let her snap a few.

Jeannie did pretty good behind the camera, she took this one of Lindsey.

Lindsey gets a little help from her mom.

Lindsey got super fancy and piped in her yolk mixture in with a bag. Not only was it a ton faster than me trying to hold onto a slippery egg white and neatly scoop the yolk into the egg, it looked a lot better.

Look how good those look! Presentation, presentation, presentation.

Lindsey and "Uncle Jimmy"

Lindsey's usual recipe for deviled eggs is her dad's recipe. This is how he makes them.

Lindsey's next recipe was only a bit different. This one added in some white vinegar, and didn't have celery salt.

This was based around a recipe I found on allrecipes.com You can see the actual recipe here. I didn't follow it, I just threw in some of the ingredients that it listed.

And this was my second recipe. I based this one off of how I grew up eating them. We always used miracle whip in our egg salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, and deviled eggs.

Jeannie, Lindsey and me!

Mike (Lindsey's dad, and Jeannie's husband, my brother in law) came home after work and taste tested them all without looking at the ingredients and could tell what was in each one. He liked the white vinegar and egg salad ones the best. Jeannie, Lindsey and I liked the bacon one the best. Cause bacon makes everything better :)

Since I was spending the night to get up and take my sister to the dr the next morning I had to sleep in Lindsey's room. I didn't wake up with Bieber fever, just a stomach ache from all of the pizza and eggs :)

Thanks to everyone who still checks in here from time to time, I was pretty surprised to look at the analytics to see that people are still checking in.

What's your go to deviled egg recipe? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Should I get back into blogging? If you think so leave me some comment love and maybe I will...

JIM baker

11.09.10 - sorry for the neglect

2010-11-09T17:46:00.003-05:00

It stinks when this happens to blogs... they go for a while... and have a good go, and then they slowly start to fade and before to long you notice that your last post was weeks, months or even years ago...

I got a nice wake up call from a friend that sent me a message on facebook asking why haven't I updated the blog lately? Well... theres no real good excuse...

This blog sort of turned into a photography blog of sorts... it didn't start out that way but it kind of morphed into that. Now that I'm doing photography full time, I don't care to be blogging about photography on my personal blog.

So... where does that leave us?

I'm not quite sure.

I was looking at my old myspace blog the other day while searching for something to send to someone and didn't know if my life was just more interesting then or if it was more interesting because I took the time to actually write about my daily experiences.

So I think I'm going to lay this blog to rest. I appreciate everyone who has followed, and commented.

I do however think there may be a new blog in the future, maybe starting up in 2011...

Bless you guys
Jim (and Jess too) Baker

10.26.10 - the winner is...

2010-10-26T08:24:00.005-04:00

C is the winner! Jess took C.

Seth took A.

And Jim took B.

Sorry this is late, I was on the road this weekend. Our print giveaway winner is Jeremy Wat, Jeremy you have 48 hours to email us at jim@carpediemphotovideo.com with your address so we can mail out your photo to you.

We are moving the WHOLE thing to FACEBOOK because we've heard from a lot of people that they are still having trouble voting. And also you are WELCOME to tell us WHY now but its not required.

We've gotten a couple of entries for the critique contest this week with YOUR fall pics. Keep sending them in! Details here.

JIM baker

10.22.10 - CRITIQUE NEXT WEEK with YOU!

2010-10-22T17:07:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, we've been asked by a couple of people to open up the critique so we ARE.

The topic is FALL.

You need to send us a HIGHEST RESOLUTION jpeg you can, (so set your camera setting to the highest resolution you can) and make sure that the photo is cropped in a 4x6 crop, so we can blow it up to an 8x12" print.

It HAS to be a photo that you took after reading this post. So no awesome pics that you took from last year. It has to have been a shot intentionally taken for this competition.

Submit your photo to jim@carpediemphotovideo.com on Tuesday October 26th by 11:59pm.

The carpe diem team will pick the top 4 and then we will post them just like we always do on thursdays and open it up to everyone else. If you win we will send you an 8x12 of the print and also a winner that voted for your pic!

We're SO LOOKING FORWARD to seeing your work!

JIM baker

10.21.10 - kitchen utensil

2010-10-21T05:46:00.007-04:00

Only 3 submissions this week.

Vote by telling us which pic you like the best by LETTER and tell us WHY in the comment section.

Only votes on the blog comment section are official and you can only vote for 1 pic. Voting will end at 10am on Saturday Oct 23rd.

All of the votes for the winning picture will be automatically entered in a random drawing and the winner picked will get an 8x12" print of the winning picture!

The winning pic and print give away winner will be announced Saturday the 23rd on the blog.

Click on the word "comments" on the bottom of this post, and then click on name/url if you don't have a google account, and type in your FIRST and LAST name for us so we know who you are.

ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED and only comments on the blog count!

go vote and tell your friends to vote too!!!
JIM baker

10.16.10 - lit pic winner...

2010-10-16T12:10:00.002-04:00

This week's winner for the literature critique pic is JIM!

This print give away winner is BROOKE!

The winner has 48 hours to contact us at jim@carpediemphotovideo.com to claim their prize! Please send us your address in the e-mail.

Next weeks topic is Kitchen Utensil.

Got some ideas for themes you'd like to see us shooting? Let us know in the comment section. and SOON we're going to get you guys in on the action doing the photography so start dusting off your cameras and start practicing.

JIM baker

10.14.10 - lit pic critique

2010-10-14T10:10:00.005-04:00

Is thursday becoming your favorite day of the week? This week's theme was LITERATURE.

Vote telling us which pic you like the best by LETTER and tell us WHY!

Only votes on the blog comment section are official and you can only vote for 1 pic. Voting will end at 10am on Saturday Oct 16th.

10.09.10 - and the winner is...

2010-10-09T09:04:00.004-04:00

This weeks winner for the agricultural equipment/tools is JESS! D got 10 out of 20 votes.

This print give away winner is Russ Baker! (sorry no video this morning I'm on the road)

The winner has 48 hours to contact us at carpediemvideos@yahoo.com to claim their prize! Please send us your address in the e-mail.

Thanks to everyone that participated. Tell your friends, lets try and get 40 people to vote next week.

Next weeks topic is Literature.

JIM baker

10.07.10 - agricultural equipment/tools critique

2010-10-07T09:07:00.003-04:00

Hello! Time again for another critique competition between the CARPE DIEM team! This week's theme is AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT/TOOLS.

Vote telling us which pic you like the best by LETTER and tell us WHY!

Only votes on the blog comment section are official and you can only vote for 1 pic. Voting will end at 9am on Saturday Oct 9th.

Click on the word "comments" on the bottom of this post, and then click on name/url if you don't have a google account, and type in your FIRST and LAST name for us so we know who you are.

ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED and only comments on the blog count! (someone always tells me their vote on facebook, don't be that person!)

looking forward to your critiques!
JIM baker

10.02.10 - this weeks crayon winners are...

2010-10-02T13:59:00.005-04:00

This weeks crayon critique winner is... JESS! B got 9 votes out of 22.

Jim's pic got 4 votes. Jamie's got 5, and Seth's got 4.

Check out the video below to see who the winner of the 8x12" print is!

The winner has 48 hours to contact us at carpediemvideos@yahoo.com to claim their prize! Please send us your address in the e-mail.

Thanks to EVERYONE that participated, we LOVE reading the critiques.

Next weeks topic is FARM EQUIPMENT.

JIM baker

09.30.10 - CRAYON CRITIQUE

2010-09-30T10:56:00.004-04:00

Whats up everyone? Time again for another critique competition between the CARPE DIEM team! This week's theme is CRAYON.

I know some of you wanted to vote last week and could not because of the required google account, that has CHANGED so now everyone can vote.

Vote telling us which pic you like the best by LETTER and tell us WHY!

Only votes on the blog comment section are official and you can only vote for 1 pic. Voting will end at 11am on Saturday Oct 2nd.

A

B

ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED and only comments on the blog count!

Click on the word "comments" on the bottom of this post, and then click on name/url if you don't have a google account, and type in your FIRST and LAST name for us so we know who you are.

09.23.10 - the CHICKEN challenge

2010-09-23T09:30:00.005-04:00

So the Carpe Diem team has decided to get competitive. A little healthy competition is GOOD for us, it keeps our creative juices flowing.

The subject for our little shoot out was CHICKEN.

But we NEED your help. Vote on which picture you think is BEST and tell us WHY in the comment section of the blog. Only comments on the blog will be accepted as official votes.

Don't worry right now about who shot what, I'll let you know that once the votes are in. Lets see if we can get at least twenty votes! Voting ends Saturday the 25th at 10am.

A

B

Thanks!
JIM baker

09.16.10 - Calvert/Fessler Wedding

2010-09-16T16:14:00.010-04:00

The wedding ceremony and reception was held at the beautiful Elkridge Furnace Inn near Baltimore Maryland. (I actually worked here for about 4 months during high school, this is where I found out that I didn't want to be a chef.)

Gordon and his son Jack get ready!

Joanna the bride getting ready.

Abi, Gordon's daughter contemplates before the wedding.

Abi and Joanna showing off their matching shoes.

Abi doing an excellent job as the flower girl.

Joanna's dad walks her down the aisle.

Scripture is read and a song is sung.

You may kiss the bride!

The rings.

The Calvert family!

Bridesmaids.
Charlie's angels?

Gangsta?!

Intimacy.

Chef Wecker and his staff do an amazing job cooking up delectable meals!

First dance.

Daddy daughter dance.

The cake.

Music provided by Jose from Alder entertainment.

It was Joanna's dad's birthday as well so he was suprised with his very own cake.

Father daughter dance.

The escape.
Goodbye! Sent off with bubbles, headed to Jamica.

CONGRATS to Mr and Mrs Calvert! Thanks for the honor of sharing your beautiful day!

JIM baker

09.10.10 - Clare [SENIORS '11] Maryland

2010-09-10T10:02:00.002-04:00

So with less than a week before moving 500 miles south west from New York to Indiana, I decided it'd be a brilliant idea to drive 300 miles south EAST to Maryland.

Makes a lot of sense huh? I was actually driving out there to shoot a wedding that I had booked earlier in the year not knowing that the time frame would be so close to moving since the move came VERY quickly.
(Wedding will be blogged next week)

Clare contacted me about doing her senior portraits during the summer. She was actually living and working about 20 mins from where I lived in New York on Lake Chautauqua most of the summer but again, driving 300 miles to do photoshoots just seems a lot more logical than driving 20 mins :)

Anyway Clare did an excellent job as you can see from these pics! Clare it was a blast working with you!

JIM baker

09.09.2010 - Colin [SENIORS '11] Youngsville, PA

2010-09-09T16:01:00.003-04:00

Colin was one of the students in the youth group I used to pastor. I was able to shoot him the morning before I left for Maryland to do a couple of gigs. Here's a couple of my favorites.

JIM baker

09.07.10 - finally getting caught up [indiana]

2010-09-07T08:04:00.005-04:00

Colin [Youngsville Seniors '11 - Pennsylvania]

Clare [South River Seniors '11 - Maryland]

Joanna and Gordon Calvert [Wedding Elkridge, Maryland]

The Stanton Family [Russell, Pennsylvania]

The VanHouten siblings [Youngsville, Pennsylvania]

Hey everyone! So Jess and I are in Indiana, we're moved in, but not quite unpacked. We're having an awesome time. I'm finally getting some time to process some of the pictures that I took right before I left so here's a sneak peak! Full blog posts coming soon.

JIM baker

p.s the new header is a pic of my chicken friends :)

08.26.10 - Vanessa's Senior Portraits

2010-08-26T07:59:00.002-04:00

I had the awesome opportunity to shoot Vanessa 2 weeks ago. She did an excellent job! Here's a few of my favs!

JIM baker

08.23.10 - BIG NEWS [summer update 2010]

2010-08-23T15:06:00.001-04:00

08.10.10 - PAINTING

2010-08-10T09:20:00.004-04:00

taken at a Darrell Hill painting seminar in Hawaii

After 6 months of trying to choose paint colors for the apartment, we pulled the trigger and went and bought paint. (For the living room at least) Luckily there was a lady there at Lowes also buying paint that gave us some tips. I had no clue there was so many choices. Different paint finishes, different types of paints, different types of tools to apply the paint.

We ended up buying foam rollers which are much smaller than your typical roller but everyone said they were quite nice. Jess and I had never seen them before, I think they are intended to use on doors and cabinets, we'll let you know how it goes. We also got a rolling edger since we have a lot of molding in our house and Melissa Stanton said we should get one. She's pretty much the local expert on painting right now since they just bought a house and a redoing it all.

We had a small trim edger in our hands but the lady that worked there said that she had one and threw it away and recommended us a small brush. We got a corner brush too. It was really nice to get real help in a store.

We bought Valspar Hi-def paint. It's a paint that you don't have to use a primer with. We also bought matte finish, because the lady that was there buying paint asked us if we had a lot of flaws in our walls. We answered with an emphatic yes. She said glossy paints show the walls flaws more. So we bought the flat matte.

Here's a pic of how things are looking before the paint

We'll keep you updated
JIM baker

08.03.10 - Burdick Engagement Pics

2010-08-03T09:03:00.000-04:00

Last week Jess and I went up to Presque Isle with Sarah and RC. It was our first time up there and we took some shots of this awesome couple who's getting married next year! Congrats!

JIM baker

08.02.10 - MONDAY! [new layout]

2010-08-01T23:07:00.004-04:00

Monday! New week, new month, new LAYOUT. I like August because I get to park on the side of the street nearest to my house haha. Anyway, I feel super behind on blogging, things have been busy but thats a good thing.

I shot and edited my first video this past week with the 5dm2, I enjoyed it and learned a lot too. There's going to be some more video projects coming up soon.

I'm processing print orders for people and I feel like I've been shooting a lot more for people than usual. I'm shooting a wedding in Maryland at the end of this month and I'm starting talks with a designer so I can get some advertising stuff up and running.

Ordered two float wraps for our house. We're still in the process of making our house feel like a home.

Here's the two that we ordered.

obviously won't have the watermark... but this one will be 15x30" on metalic paper and will be hung in our "dining room"

and this one will be 16x24" also on metallic paper and will go in our kitchen.

cheers
JIM baker

07.27.10 - Maier Family Shoot

2010-07-27T09:57:00.004-04:00

Last week I did family portraits for Pastor J and his family. We went to Betts park and here's what we got!

JIM baker

07.24.10 - Leman/Eloge Wedding

2010-07-24T08:53:00.006-04:00

On July 3rd I had the privilege to second shoot Josh and Hannah's beautiful wedding. The main photographer was Pranee Loffer a friend of mine who was in my photo school in 2008. You can see the complete collection in three parts on her blog.
[part 1] [part2] [part 3]

Here's just a few of my favorite shots from the day.

Congrats to Josh and Hannah!

JIM baker

07.21.10 - the rest of the trip

2010-07-21T07:48:00.005-04:00

Ashlynn Mary Koenig - 1 month

So we left Memphis and headed straight to Atlanta to visit Jess' sister, her husband and their brand new baby girl! This was Aunt Jess' second time seeing her brand new niece but my first. She's ADORABLE!

Then we headed over to Hilton Head to visit my parents. My sister Jeannie was also visiting with her daughter, we grabbed lunchand hit the road to Ft Lauderdale FL. We listened to a time share presentation so that we could get our "free cruise" and boarded the boat to the Bahamas with my parents.

our cruise ship was called the "Bahamas Celebration"

We went on a snorkel tour in the Bahamas and Jess took this EPIC pic with the G11 and the wp-dc34 underwater casing. I was trying my best not to drown. I wish I still had the snorkel I bought in Hawaii, it actually WORKED. It started storming just as we left the dock in our boat, and by the time we got out to the reef it cleared up but the water was still choppy. My mask was leaking so I was just having a hard time doing anything. I handed the camera to Jess and she got some great pics.

The cruise was fine, being in Grand Bahama for such a short period of time was strange. I would have liked to see a bit more of the island before we had to get on the boat.

After we docked back in Ft Lauderdale, we drove back to Hilton Head. Then I headed to my oldest sister Jennifer's house in Candler, NC. There I got to spend some time with my sister and my 2 neices and nephew.

Sammie, Scott and Eryka

my oldest sister Jennifer.

So all in all 2 weeks, 4000+/- miles through 13 states, 2 countries, using 2 cars, and a ship. And great times with family and friends.

JIM baker

07.08.10 - memphis

2010-07-08T23:14:00.003-04:00

Me, Jess, Krista, Jeanette, and Mark

Settlers of Catan!!

Jeanette and Mark with the shirt we got for the baby on the way.

It's our last night in Memphis and we've had a great time. We're staying in Krista's home. Krista was in our School of Biblical Studies in Kona. You can check out her blog here.

Mark is another YWAM friend of mine that was in my DTS in Nashville. He and his wife Jeanette are living here in Memphis for a couple of more weeks before moving back to Louisville. They are expecting in December. You can check out their blog here.

I found Settlers of Catan at the Barnes and Noble. Matt and Lisa Stanton turned us onto this awesome board game. Mark came over this morning before work to play a game. We've played six games in the two days we've had it. I had to go out and buy the expansion pack today so that six people could play instead of four.

Next stop Atlanta.

JIM baker

07.07.10 - the RAINWATERS!

2010-07-07T17:21:00.003-04:00

Please meet Seth and Jamie Rainwater :)

(this one is my favorite of the shoot)

Jess and I are on vacation traveling all over the place hanging out with friends and family.

Our first stop was Indianapolis, Indiana to visit our friends Seth and Jamie Rainwater.

They are photographers as well, you can check out their blog here. I actually shot the Rainwater's wedding four years ago.

We had an awesome short but very meaningful visit with them, it was really refreshing to see how well they are doing and the awesome things they are involved with and the dreams they have for the future.

JIM baker

07.02.10 - hello July... and hello James family!

2010-07-02T23:32:00.006-04:00

Please meet the James family.

The 3 kids.

Paiton and Tate.

Paul and Lori wanted to get in on the action too.

Dad and the kids.

Daddy and daughter. (my fav of the shoot)

Kaleb with his dad.

Tate and his mom eating ice cream. (I LOVE Tate's ice cream eating face.)

Siblings sharing

And lastly Mom with her boys.

Wow... July already. Jess and I had a blast spending the last day of June with the James' family. They contacted me when I was offering the deal you shouldn't refuse which helped us get to Africa at the beginning of the year.

The James' saw my work while getting their haircut at the Erretts. I did a family shoot for the Erretts before I even started this blog. You can check out their pics here.

When we started the shoot, Paul said that they were going for half as good as the Erretts and if we got that they would be happy. I think we did at least half as good huh? ;)

We started out at Celeron Park which is seeming to be my go to spot now for photos. To get their kids to smile they kept talking about getting ice cream after the shoot. So when we wrapped up the posed pics, I asked if we could tag along and take some ice cream candids . We went to the Ice Cream Shack in Lakewood. We snapped some pics and they graciously bought Jess an ice cream cone too! They offered me one as well, but holding an ice cream cone and taking pictures is a bit difficult.

Tomorrow I'm second shooting a wedding with Pranee Loffer of THIS beautiful couple.

Then Jess and I are hitting the road for a couple weeks. I'll try and post as often as I can.

JIM baker

2010.06.27 - Happy Birthday Jess' mom

2010-06-27T06:54:00.004-04:00

Jess and her mom Kathy Anstrom

This past weekend we went to Ohio for a short visit. The only thing that Jess' mom wanted for her birthday from us was a picture of her and Jess. She wanted a copy and she wants one to go on my desk at work. We went and celebrated early with a dinner at olive garden as well. Happy Birthday Kathy!

JIM baker

06.23.10 - I don't leave comments on your blog because...

2010-06-23T11:22:00.004-04:00

Trying out a poll... trying to get easy feedback. I even put a picture up of a flower for your viewing pleasure.

JIM baker

I don't leave comments on your blog because...
(check a box or boxes and hit vote)

06.20.2010 - meet my newest niece :) Ashlynn!!!

2010-06-20T23:04:00.002-04:00

Ashlynn Mary Koenig

Born June 2nd at 5:52PM.

7lbs 5oz and 19-3/4"

Shelli, Justin and Ashlynn

Jess spent the first week of June in Atlanta with her sister Shelli. She took the canon g11 and snapped some pics of her baby niece. So here's Ashlynn's first blog debut!

JIM baker

06.17.10 - Adelgren Wedding!

2010-06-17T11:56:00.002-04:00

detail shot of the grooms tux

Groomsmen - the Adelgren brothers

Father and the bride

Smiling bride Ashley :)

First dance

first dance

Saturday July 12 2010 Ashley and Nathan got married. I was actually the best man in this wedding but the groom said I could bring my camera along too so I did. I got a few comments from people that they had never seen a best man photographer. Call me the best-man-ographer.

Nate Blick was the actual photographer for the wedding. But we were all switching roles. Nate was playing drums for the first dance so I was asked to take pictures for that segmant of the reception so thats why I have a few first dance pics.

Nathan and Ashley are enjoying a 2 week honeymoon in Hawaii right now and I'm jealous!

Congrats Nathan and Ashley Adelgren!

JIM baker

06.15.10 - Walrod Family Portraits

2010-06-15T11:11:00.002-04:00

Matt and Lisa Stanton took me up on the offer you shouldn't refuse and helped support Jess and I to go to Africa this past winter. We waited until it was spring so that the weather was nicer than shooting during the winter but the day that we picked it was rainy and cloudy! We went for it anyway and I think the pics turned out great. The Walrod's are such an awesome family.

JIM baker

06.14.2010 - Emily [New York Seniors 2011]

2010-06-14T11:21:00.006-04:00

Emily was a camper of Jess' at Camp Mission Meadows a few years back. She was a complete trooper during our shoot, walking through a ton of high grass with bugs and weeds so we could get the second shot down with the wildflowers. Jess and I had a blast shooting with Emily and she did an awesome job.

JIM baker

06.11.10 - Chris and Sharon

2010-06-11T15:19:00.005-04:00

While we were in Baltimore we visited our friends Chris and Sharon, and I asked them if I could do a quick shoot of them. So we walked around Baltimore for a while and snapped some shots. Here's my favorites! Chris and Sharon are a super fun couple as you can probably see from the pics.

JIM baker

06.09.10 - Alex [Maryland Seniors 2011]

2010-06-09T22:10:00.007-04:00

I actually taught Alex guitar lessons when she was in middle school. She's been a fan of my photography for a while. She even interviewed me for her photography class! Way before she was a senior, she told me she wanted me to shoot her senior portraits. Well the time has come and I was glad to. She did an AWESOME job.

Upgraded to Lightroom 3 and am very happy with some of the new features. Watermarking being one of them. I'm getting some logos designed up currently I'll let you know how that goes.

If you're interested in working with me for your senior portraits contact me! jimjessbaker (a) gmail (.) com

JIM baker

06.07.10 - sneak peak photos

2010-06-07T13:54:00.005-04:00

Alex - Seniors 2011 // Maryland

Chris and Sharon Hidey // Baltimore MD

Emily - Seniors 2011 // Jamestown NY

Walrod Family Photos // Jamestown NY

Here's a sneak peak of the photography I've been doing over the past two weeks. I'll do full posts of them all soon.

JIM baker

06.03.10 - back from MD

2010-06-02T23:16:00.006-04:00

Check out the video of Jess eating her first maryland crab :) Sharon was an awesome instructor. Sorry for the crappy quality, when I uploaded it to blogger, blogger compressed the heck out of it.

Here's a highlight recap of our time in Maryland. (Kinda a long post) Click on the links if you want and LEAVE COMMENTS! I LOVE COMMENTS! If you've having problems leaving comments, let me know via facebook or e-mail.

Saturday night, Jess and I went to Phillips Restaurant at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. We went with some friends we were doing a senior portrait shoot for. I tweeted something like "showing Jess real seafood" and got some flack for it on facebook from a couple Marylanders. My parents don't like seafood so I didn't grow up eating it, so I didn't know any better. My friends didn't like the fact that I called it "real seafood" when its a chain. Honestly it was the BEST crab cake I've ever eaten. And it seemed a lot more authentic and fresh then anything I can get here in Jamestown NY :)

Hopefully we redeemed ourselves by having Jess eat a crab from Bo Brooks. We were hanging out with the Hidey's and Sharon insisted that Jess had to try a crab to fulfill her Maryland experience.

We got back from Maryland yesterday. I'm not going to lie, it was hard to leave. It's strange, I never used to look forward to going back to Maryland, but this time I was REALLY excited to get back, and when it came time to leave I didn't want to.

It was a full week. I feel like I really need at LEAST a week and a half when I go and visit, but I was very grateful for having a complete week. I wish I had some pictures to show you but I don't. I need to start 365ing again. Maybe I'll start this summer. Oh here's a pic I can show you :) Its me and the fam!

from front to back, me, jess, my mom, jeannie (my sister), my dad, lindsey (my neice) and Stephen (my nephew)

My float wraps came, and I'm really happy with the way they turned out! They were put on the wall in our church lobby today! Thanks to Holly Aipolani for taking the pic with my iphone.

I had the float wraps sent to MD so I could share with some people what God has been doing in our lives over the past 9 months. I really truly feel SENT here from Maryland, with an awesome team of people back "home" that are very supportive and encouraging.

It was also great to catch up with a lot of people that I haven't seen in sometime. Its crazy how fast time flies.

I enjoyed driving around Maryland. I got horrible gas mileage (city driving) but I felt like I was actually driving. Weird, some of the things you miss. Checking your blindspot, switching lanes, accelerating quickly.

I was going to keep listing things I liked about MD and things that I learned to appreciate in NY but I decided I won't do that. This has gotten long enough. :)

JIM baker

05.25.10 - random thoughts all about photography

2010-05-25T18:50:00.007-04:00

out and about last week doing some photography with Sam Whittaker and some faux hdr editing

I'm super impressed with WHCC's customer service. The float wraps I was getting printed didn't look like they were going to make it here in time before I left, so I'm having them shipped to Maryland. I sent a request in and they were very fast in responding and rerouted them to Maryland for me for a low charge.

Pranee Loffer told me about WHCC and I'm impressed for sure. I'm excited to get the biggest prints I've ever had printed. Although maybe we printed 16x24 in SOP? I'm second shooting a wedding with Pranee in July! I'm looking forward to working with her. She's an inspiration.

I stopped by a photo studio today in the area which will remain unamed. I wanted to check on their print prices. They wouldn't give them to me. They wanted me to schedule a sitting, which was real cheap. Then once they've taken your pictures and those beautiful pictures are staring you in the face they try to sell you on prints afterward. Interesting yet pretty normal tactic.

My thoughts on it is be upfront. I want to charge higher on the sitting fee, you're really paying for the photographers artistic ability and skill in my opinion. And then mark up prints around 100% not 400% like a place does in this area. Haha should I be revealing all of my business secrets?

I'm also going to take about 8-10 photos and print them from WHCC and then from walmart to show people the difference. It will be very interesting to see the difference for myself as well. That way people don't think they are being completely ripped off when walmart can sell a 4x6 for 15c and I have to charge $2. At least its not $11.50 for a 4x6 like some places around here... I'm almost positive we're all printing from the same place.

I ordered a new 43" white umbrella and shipped it to Maryland. It took a hard fall when I was shooting for the Erretts and never really recovered. I've had it for over two years and was like $20 so I guess it doesn't owe me anything. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say umbrella, its a white umbrella that you shoot your flash into or through. You can see a pic of what I'm talking about here.

I'm going to be shooting a bit while I'm in Maryland and looking forward to it. I feel like I know the area a lot better there still and have some locations in mind. Going to be hanging out with Jon Barnes and Cory Pampalone too which are some of my most creative friends, always an inspiration to get around them.

Meh... lots of photo talk in this blog. Photography has been on my brain lately.

JIM baker

05.21.10 - april showers bring may showers here in WNY/WPA

2010-05-21T14:59:00.002-04:00

flowers from our wedding in the trunk of my car (photo by Sheena Stropas)

When Jess and I got married last August the very generous Robinson family donated all of the wildflowers that we had as table settings. Bruce told me to come out again in the spring to take some pictures of the daffodils.

Nate Blick and I hang out and do photography on Wednesdays and I intended to make it out to the Robinsons in time to take pictures of the daffodils but they had come and gone already.

I was borrowing Ashley VanHouten's 100 macro 2.8 for this shoot.

We met (I re-met) Bruce's son, Bruce Jr. who remembered me from my nursery days at First Cov in Jamestown. You can check out his photography work here.

Anyway, not a whole lot is new. I got 5 free 8x10's from WHCC that look a ton better than wal mart prints. And I just ordered six 16x24" float wraps of some of the portraits of the Okinda Kids.

In other news... Jess and I are headed to Maryland this Wednesday for a week. We're looking forward to catching up with people that we haven't seen in a while.

JIM baker

05.14.10 - African Safari!

2010-05-14T10:57:00.002-04:00

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. But if you EVER get the chance to go on Safari DO IT! It's CRAZY how close you get to the animals. I rented a 100-400mm lens from lensprotogo for this trip. Masai Mara was a nice treat at the end of this trip.

Here's a video I took with my iphone of how close some of the elephants were.

The overcast weather was nice, I feel like it gave the photos a different feel than typical safari pictures.

I'd love your comments :)

JIM baker

p.s I THINK this will be the last Africa blog... I went and showed my grandma all of the africa pics last nite realized I overlooked some photos. I think I'll go back through the safari ones and post a few from time to time. Thanks for journeying with me!

05.11.10 - photo shoot Jackie Dates

2010-05-11T16:30:00.003-04:00

my fav of the set

vertical

high key b/w

purposely edited to give an intimate/doll like feel

green/gold lr preset

Jackie is a friend of ours and I asked her if I could take some pics of her. She did an excellent job. When the weather clears up we plan to do more outdoors.

To see the rest of the set click here.

All using off camera lighting, 580ex fired at 1/32 power through a shoot through white umbrella trigged via pocket wizards. Canon 5dm2 50 1.4 and 100 2.8macro lenses.

JIM baker

05.03.10 - more photos of Okinda Kids

2010-05-02T22:42:00.009-04:00

Meet Daniel Samson. He is 14 and in grade 7. He enjoys playing keyboard and playing football and wants to be a submariner.

This is Samuel Moseti. He is 12 and in grade 7. He enjoys drama and singing and wants to be a pilot.

This is George Ouma. He's 14 and in grade 7. He likes playing football and singing and wants to be a psychologist.

This is Austine Ndiege. He's 12 and also in grade 7. He enjoys music and wants to be a lawyer.

When I came back to shoot some more of the students there was not enough light in the location I was using before so I went outside and had the students stand against a wall, which is what you see above.

Here's a pic of Jess amongst a crowd of kids organizing them as I shot. All I did was turn around from where I was shooting and snapped this photo.

At one time while I was taking the pictures I smelt sewage and wasn't sure what was going on. Then I looked down and a couple of feet from where I was standing and raw sewage was in a small ravine. Remember that I was already sick while I was taking these photos. Then out of no where my eyes started burning and tears were just streaming out of my eyes and snot out of my nose. It got so bad that I couldn't see and had to run back to my room and wipe my eyes and blow my nose.

Click here to see video of Jess and I in action taking photos of the kids on the last day in Migori.

This is the last post about Okinda Kids. The next and final post about Africa will be about the Safari we went on. And I guess I MIGHT put some pictures from that trip... would you like that?

JIM baker

05.02.10 - orphans

2010-05-02T21:54:00.004-04:00

Maureen Akinyi is 6 and in the nursery. She enjoys singing and her future dream is to pray for people.

Eliavona Aoko is 4. She is in the baby class and enjoys playing and hopes to help people in the future.

Both of these girls were brought to the compound that we were staying in while we in Migori, Kenya. A lady brought them both with death certificates for their parents saying that she could no longer take care of them. John and Pamela Okinda had JUST opened their own personal home for orphans and in a matter of weeks they had 14 orphans living with them.

JIM baker

04.29.10 - unwillingness to receive

2010-04-29T22:12:00.006-04:00

an accident I came upon in Maryland in 2008.

So Thursdays has become our day to hit the streets and pray for people. It's honestly really such a refreshing time for me, because by Thursday I'm fried from meetings and it's a nice change of atmosphere.

I was AMAZED last week when I went out with James Dickey into downtown Jamestown how RECEPTIVE people were to receiving prayer. In about an hour we must have prayed for about 20-25 people with only 4 people saying no.

Today we went out again and got turned down a lot more but we did get to pray for about 10-15 people. It's amazing the responses we get when people say yes, people are blown away and honest with you about what they're going through. We had one guy come right out and tell us about his drug addiction and how he wanted to quit, we had another guy just tell us that he was trying to hold a job down because he had 5 kids at home.

The interesting thing though is the excuses that we get when people say they don't want prayer. Things like... "nah, I'm alright my mom's Catholic." Or when you walk up to someone with an obvious infirmity and they say they are fine.

Last week we walked up to a guy sitting in a motorized wheel chair and an oxygen tank. When we asked if we could pray for his healing he told us that he didn't need prayer and was okay.

So do we walk around with less than God desires for us simply because we believe thats what we deserve?

Last time I checked John 10:10 says that Jesus came to give us life to the fullest and it was the devil that kills, steals and destroys.

Let's stop living in LESS than what God has for us. Fullness of life. Jesus came with GRACE to FREE us from the power of sin and death. That means that sickness isn't part of what God desires for your life. It's NOT HIS WILL!!

God thinks we are so valuable that He sent His one and only son to come and die for us so that we could be in relationship with Him.

I don't see many people wasting the lives of their sons on something they think is worthless.

If God thinks we're that valuable... then maybe our view of ourselves should change.

John 15:9 - "As the Father has loved me, so I love you..."

JIM baker

04.25.10 - Okinda kids portraits and stories

2010-04-25T19:21:00.009-04:00

This is Brighton Majwango. He's 7 and in the 1st grade. He likes singing and skipping and he dreams to be a pilot someday. It was probably Brighton's first time ever seeing a plane when we flew in.

This is Sharon Awuor. She is 11 and in the 7th grade. She likes to travel and play with friends. She wants to be an attorney when she grows up.

This is Wilfrida Moraa. She's 8 and in the second grade. She likes watching and wants to be a doctor.

This is Arnold Onyango. He's 8 years old and is in the first grade. He likes matching items and also wants to be a pilot.

Do me a favor. Take a minute to pray for these kids as you look at these pictures. Pray for them by name. Pray and ask God if you are suppose to help them in any way.

I struggled putting these pictures up here for everyone to see. I don't want it just to be some "nice picture" that we look at for 5 seconds and then disregard. These are real lives, with real dreams.

+ + + + +

From a photography standpoint... I saw this wall and wanted it as the background for the portraits. I went there early afternoon and the sun light was diffused shining in from a window to my right. I had the students step out about a foot or so from the wall.

There wasn't a TON of light, so I cranked my ISO up to 1600 to get a decent shutter speed hand held. I zoomed my 24-105 lens in around about 100mm and fired off 3 horizontal and 3 vertical pics. I focused in on their eyes. I choose f/4 to keep my shutter speed up and a shallow DOF to blur the background. Still a lot of these were pretty low for hand holding... 1/80th of a second or so. Relying pretty heavily on my IS.

The students were brought down in their classes by grade. Jess was handed a stack of sheets by the teachers with the students information on it. Name, age, grade, hobbies and dreams.

Jess called the students names and they came over to me to have their picture taken. After I took the pictures I told Jess what number the pictures were on the cf card and she wrote it down next to the students name. Jess was such a huge help, organizing the kids, letting the kids know who was on deck so the whole process went quickly.

Most of the students were very shy. When I asked them to smile they got embarrassed, sometimes their fellow classmates would playfully harass them which allowed me to get some pretty authentic expressions.

I had to continually ask the group of students to back up away from me. They were trying to see the display on the back of my camera and they would push in and start pushing me.

No fancy lighting set up... just good soft natural light. I tried to be fast, spending less than 30 seconds with each kid. Not my usual portrait technique but its a whole different ball game when you know you have to do 300 of these.

I wanted to shoot well enough and get good enough exposures that I didn't have to come back and edit all of these pictures. Sorting through and picking the best picture out of 6 (x 300) was enough for me. If any post production was done I might have bumped the exposures up just a tad in Lightroom in the quick develop module.

Questions? Comments?

I hope this blog post blessed you and brought a smile to your face. I can't help but look through these portraits and smile. :)

JIM baker

04.24.10 - Narnia!

2010-04-24T20:46:00.003-04:00

Dave (Aslan) and Arielle (Susan) both went to Africa with us.

The costumes and the make up were awesome!

KT, Katy and Jess. (Jess made a few signs for some of the students that we knew!)

Thursday night Jess and I went and saw the Warren County Christian School's production of Narnia. They did such an awesome job!

JIM baker

04.21.10 - youngsville track meet

2010-04-21T22:31:00.004-04:00

Nathan - triple jump

Hannah just passed off the baton to Lexi in the 4x400

Heather doing the high jump.

This was both Jess and my first time to a track event. We learned a lot and got to watch some of our students compete. They all did a really good job!

Back to left align, last post was center (out of habit)

JIM baker

04.20.10 - the main reason I went to Africa...

2010-04-20T10:50:00.005-04:00

This is Larisa Adoyo Ongeri. She is 14 and in the 8th grade. Larisa likes playing football, signing and reading storybooks One day she hopes to be a lawyer.

Larisa was the first of almost 300 portraits that I took while I was in Kenya.

If you're interested in sponsoring a student for $35 a month please contact Anne VanHouten.

Taken with the Canon 5d Mark II
24-105 f4 L IS USM
ISO 1600 - 67mm - f/4.0 - 1/60sec

I saw this wall near the entrance of one of the buildings when we went on our tour of the grounds. I took this picture of Arielle and knew that this would be the background for the portraits. Window light is coming in from the right.

I'll write more soon showing more portraits and talking about what was going on as I shot the portraits.

JIM baker

04.10.10 - Africa (peanut butter time)

2010-04-10T15:26:00.005-04:00

Remember when we went to the Nakumatt and bought all of that food? We picked up enough peanut butter and bread for each kid to have a peanut butter sandwich. Many of them had never tasted peanut butter before so we decided to treat them. They really seemed to enjoy it!

This was the only thing that I got out of bed to do on this day, otherwise I was trying to sleep off the sickness.

The next Africa post will be about the main reason I went there.

In the mean time, I got bored of the blog and changed the layout again.

Leave some comments.

JIM baker

p.s New header pic from the engagement shoot by Pranee Loffer.

04.09.10 - i love days off.

2010-04-09T21:00:00.005-04:00

Caribbean Cole Slaw
Fresh cabbage tossed in a light vinaigrette, garnished with craisins and toasted walnuts.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken
Grilled boneless chicken breast marinated in caribbean jerk rub, served with red beans and rice and sauteed vegetables

Rock Cake
Cake with almond glaze and toasted coconut

Jess, Andrea and Nicole.

So I'm using left align text just for Johnny Koster who said my center text really bothered him. What do you guys think?

Anyway, I LOVE Fridays. We finally found a day off that works. We tried to make Tuesday our day off and for some reason we ALWAYS had something to do on Tuesdays. So we moved it to Friday and for two weeks in a row now we've actually had a DAY OFF.

We went to Mercyhurst today for our friend Andrea's meal. She is in the culinary and wine school there and this was the meal that she prepared. We met Andrea and Nicole working at Camp Mission Meadows. Andrea and Nicole actually made us our wedding cake, here's a pic.

photo by Sheena Stropas

I hope you guys are taking days off and enjoying time with good friends and good food :)

JIM BAKER

04.08.10 - photos from this evening

2010-04-08T21:03:00.004-04:00

Didn't touch the white balance on this pic, I've never seen the sky so purple.

Just going for minimal and soft.

It's been so long since I shot last that when I went to look for my camera tonight I totally couldn't find it at first. Nate Blick has some new work up on flickr and I told him on sunday that I haven't been out to shoot forever. He said he just read that if you haven't taken your camera out in two weeks you've got a problem.

So I went out tonite with Sam a student from the youth group that I've been teaching photography to, and solved my problem.

Now that its getting nicer I've got some photography gigs coming up that I'm looking forward to!

Leave me some comments of what you think of the photos.

JIM baker

03.04.10 - HE IS RISEN!

2010-04-04T06:09:00.003-04:00

(not a tomb at all, actually lava tubes... closest picture I could find taken 02.27.08)

He is risen indeed!

HAPPY EASTER!

2 services today at Praise Fellowship you can watch online. Then we're headed to Ohio to spend some time with Jess' family. I'll get back to blogging this week... hopefully.

JIM BAKER

03.23.10 - mo loco attack

2010-03-23T12:31:00.003-04:00

breakfast at U TOP IT Kailua Kona Hawaii

I don't know why but I've been thinking about Hawaii A LOT latley. Here's a hawaiian breakfast from a restaurant in town. It's called the mo loco attack.

It's made up of a pan crepe, fried rice, hamburger patty, egg, brown gravy with a side of spam and kona coffee too.

I've been real busy this week, but I'll try and get another Africa blog up this week.

In the mean time check out Seth and Jamie's blog. They are doing an awesome job of keeping us updated on their Kenya trip. They stayed in the same place we did when we got into Kenya. Jamie is a third grade teacher and is recording vlogs to keep her class updated!

Aloha!
JIM baker

03.16.10 - as promised another Africa blog SUNDAY morning

2010-03-16T14:17:00.003-04:00

Sunday morning, Brian and Devo introduce themselves and are interpreted into Swahili to the congregation of over 600 people.

Worship was loud and joyful. Click here to see a video of some of the kids dancing.

Bishop John brings one of the students forward whose parents were killed in the election violence.

Second time preaching a sermon and I preached to a church of 600 in Kenya. I brought a simple message of God's love for them and their authority as sons and daughters of Christ. I also encouraged them to dream big dreams because we were all reaping the fruit of John Okinda's big dream.

Brian blows bubbles with some of the kids after the service.

Heather and Arielle are asked by the students to sing the US National Anthem... the students respond by singing theirs. Click here to hear them sing it.

Jess serves some of the female leaders in the church cookies. I will let Jess write a blurb about what she experienced here and post it soon.

While Jess and Anne were talking to the female leaders, Brian, Dave and I were talking to the pastors.

I was utterly humbled by this group of pastors. When I asked them to articulate their struggles as pastors someone stood up and said that their main struggles were as follows...

1. Our congregations are made up or orphans and widows 2. They have not eaten and do not have money for food 3. They do not have clean water

The group was so hopeful and I reminded them that without the supernatural intervention of God nothing would change. If Jesus could turn water into wine and He said that we would do greater things then maybe we need to be using our authority to be turning dirty water into clean water. A bold thing to say but it flew out of my mouth.

The group really wanted ownership of what they were doing and were not just looking for handouts. They were so grateful for the things that we were assisting them with but desperately wanted to become self sustaining. We were handed a micro-finance proposal.

While we were there we were able to buy them 3 acres of land with a river running through it which will start them in agriculture so that they can be self sustaining.

During this pastors meeting is when I first started to feel sick... I left this meeting to go to the bathroom and it was all down hill from there...

I'll post more soon and promise to leave all of the graphic sick stories out of it.

Take some time after reading this to pray for the pastors and church in Kenya.

JIM baker

P.S - leave COMMENTS!

03.15.10 - who sucks at blogging? I DO!

2010-03-15T09:22:00.009-04:00

Old Ellicott City, MD - 2007

30 sec exposure 10mm 20d

I think I might get this blown up and put it on one of my bare walls... I miss just going out and shooting for fun. I think there is a fun shoot in the works coming up this week.

Anyway I put this picture up because I feel like it depicts my past week well.
"FLYING BY."

Tim Lease and Jon Lawson and me (taking the pic) at McMobile in the middle of the night

Tim Lease drove in from Maryland through the night saturday the 6th for Jon Lawson's wedding. We took Jon for the usual pre wedding tradition of a mani pedi... check out the video here.

KT worships - photo by Rick Rohlin

Okay so last week...a group of Warren PA youth pastors went up to the Warren County Christian School for spiritual emphasis week. We got served breakfast every morning, led worship and spoke to the high school group.

Our theme for the week was 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

When it was my day to preach I preached on vs 26a
"Therefore I do not run..."

I even backed it up with another scripture

1 John 2:6
"Whoever claims to be in him must WALK as Jesus did"

Haha... then I taught them about the importance of CONTEXT. And I wrapped up the teaching talking about the aim of living a Christian life is based in obedience, which is based in trust, which is based in the character of God. Because God is LOVE and loves us, anything He asks us to do or not to do is in our best interest. Living obediently to God takes us on adventures.

photo of Mark Krebs' fruit medley waffle we get in Tennessee sd870

Monday night our youth ministry Higher Calling meets. I shared my testimony from high school with them. And challenged them with something that I've been realizing. The gifts of spirit are free because they are gifts. But the fruits of the spirit require cultivation. You can walk in anointing and power without character and it will lead you to failure.

Saturday night we took a group of the youth to go see To Save a Life. It was a really well done movie. Lets all admit it sometimes Christian media can be CHEESY! But it dealt with real life issues that teens face in high school. It didn't spark any great conversation when we tried to debrief but I think kids are still thinking about it.

Pray for our youth that we'd be able to have open and honest conversations.

I'll post another Africa blog this week. Seth and Jamie Rainwater are headed out to Kenya on Saturday!

These blog posts would be SHORTER if I wrote them more often...

JIM baker

03.02.2010 - more about AFRICA!!

2010-03-02T11:23:00.003-05:00

Anne our team leader giving Bishop John a laptop that many people from Praise Fellowship helped buy him! He just kept saying "praise God, praise God" over and over again.

Before every meal someone would pour HOT water for us so we could wash our hands. There was only one source of running water on the grounds.

A shot of one of our meals. Rice, mango, french fries and chicken. African chicken is TOUGH.

We were given a tour of the grounds. This is one of the student dorm rooms. The dorm rooms held 10-12 kids.

Oh the joy of digital photography. Dave shows some of the kids a picture he just took of them.

The only source of clean running water. A well that is overused every day.

A student sits alone in a classroom to study. Bishop John's school has some of the highest test scores in the nation.

We went to the NAKUMATT which is similar to a Costco or a Sam's Club. It was about an hour drive to get here but everything was much cheaper in price compared to the local markets.

Brian piles up loaves of bread for a special treat of peanut butter sandwiches for the students. (Pictures coming soon!)

Each student got a bar of soap, a roll of toilet paper, and a bar of laundry soap. We spent around $1,000 USD on food and supplies. I asked Bishop John how long what we bought would last. He looked at me and said it would last about 3-4 days. Food is not cheaper in Africa. And when you feed 300+ people a day it gets expensive FAST.

JIM baker

03.01.2010 - where did February go?

2010-03-01T09:35:00.005-05:00

Where in the world did February go?!

Anyway, I'm feeling better, my stomach is pretty normal, I'm still pretty tired though all the time. Malaria test came back negative, which means either I never had it OR the meds killed it.

We had a retreat this weekend. The time4revolution group got together which is a group of 4 youth ministries in the Warren PA area.

Our theme for the weekend was something along the lines of "Chilling Out." We met up at Camp Mission Meadows and by the end of the weekend I had over a foot of snow on my car.

Aaron led worship all weekend and did a great job.

J brought a real solid message of not giving up on God because He doesn't meet our expectations.

Rick came up and preached an awesome message that I wished I would have heard in high school. Outlining that from age 15-25 this is the decade of decision. And that you have to decide on 4 "M" words.

who is your MASTER
you can have many masters, but only Jesus is going to love you

what are you going to do with your MONEY
give!
live below your means
stay out of debt

what are you going to MAJOR in
do research see if there are jobs in the field you want to go into

and who is going to be your MATE/MARRIAGE
choose well

I spoke during the evening session and just had the kids intention themselves on Jesus during the worship time. And then we just sat in silence and I encouraged them to listen to Jesus. I brought a simple message of God's unconditional grace for them and said that they would never be able to chill out until they knew who they were and who's they were. We ended the evening praying for kids which was awesome.

PJ spoke the next morning. His premise. Not everyone who poops on you is your enemy and not everyone that cleans you off is your friend.
(Come on.. it's youth ministry)

He taught from Proverbs 27:6-7
⁶ Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.
⁷ He who is full loathes honey,
but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

He encouraged the kids to pick friends that wouldn't just comfort them and agree with them, but friends that would get in their faces and speak hard truth to them. And also ended with verse 7, saying that when we aren't getting our fill of God that we run to stupid things. He also encouraged the kids to MAKE COMMITMENTS and said that if we don't commit to things we don't grow.

Another Africa blog this week I promise.

JIM baker

02.18.10 - hey

2010-02-18T15:38:00.003-05:00

hey everyone... sorry for no update yesterday, I'm still not feeling good, I went to the dr today... keep praying for me I've been laying pretty low, I'll keep everyone posted as to the lab results I had taken today.

I'm also going to be using twitter and facebook a lot LESS during lent.

JIM baker

02.16.10 - from Nairobi to Migori

2010-02-16T10:00:00.004-05:00

We woke up on Friday morning and I took a quick walk around the premises to see it in daylight. The warm morning reminded me of Hawaii. This is when I tweeted this video.

The team ate a breakfast of pancakes, with a room full of other missionaries, Jess said it reminded her of a YWAM base.

Brian led us in a quick devotional before we left for the airstrip.

This was our pilot Amanda. I took the picture mainly because I thought it was funny that she was using a Garmin GPS.

Why is Devo looking so smug? Well he just saved all of our lives. As our pilot was speeding down the runway ready to take off she suddenly aborted the take off. She thought the "door ajar" light was malfunctioning. It was not, when we started for take off the back door flung open and Devo closed and latched it.

A view of Nairobi from the air.

When we landed in Migori, which was an airstrip not even on the GPS, we were met by Bishop John Okinda, his wife Pamela, almost 300 elementary and middle school students, the high school students, the teachers college and local pastors and congergants. We had over 500 people waiting for us when we hit the ground.

Many of the kids had never seen a plane before. So the Amanda the pilot allowed Bishop John to choose some kids to sit in the plane.

There was a ton of pushing and shoving as kids wanted to get on the plane.

We were welcomed with various songs and skits by the different groups. Click here to see a short video of this performance. This performance brought me to tears, and made me feel like I was actually in Africa.

JIM baker

02.15.10 - Okay finally a BIT more about Africa and some pictures

2010-02-14T21:38:00.005-05:00

The Africa team and some of the staff gathers at Praise Fellowship on Wednesday Jan 27th to pray and say goodbye to family.

A shot from the window of one of our 3 flights. Which I don't remember.

Brian Adelgren getting his Kenyan phone set up in the Nairobi Airport.

Jess, Arielle, and Heather waiting patiently as our driver pulls up to take us to the AIM Mayfield Guest House.

The guys room complete with mosquito nets. Make sure you use those!

The dinner they served us at the guest house. It tasted more Mexican than African.

I'm going to try to go through the trip day by day with pictures and captions so you can get a feel for the trip a little better. We had 3 flights. Buffalo to Newark. Newark to London/Heathrow. And then London Heathrow to Nairobi.

The Newark to London flight was on a newer 777 and had individual touch screen tvs in the back of the headrests. Jess loves movies and long flights so she stayed up the whole flight and watched movies. I snoozed a bit and watched one movie. On this flight they served us chicken tikka massalla. I was pretty stokked about that.

The travel wasn't bad at all. Rick told me to avoid caffeine on the flights and drink tons of water and get up from time to time and move around and sleep when I could. Staying hydrated on the flights made them a lot more enjoyable. We arrived at the Mayfield Guest House in the dark. A few of us ate some dinner and showered and went to bed.

I'll write more about the day after this one tomorrow!

JIM baker

02.12.10 - quick post

2010-02-12T09:37:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone...

Jess and I are in Columbia Maryland visiting my parents. Its been a great time of rest. My mom and dad have looked through all 4,427 photos from Africa. Only my parents and grandparents get the privilege of seeing EVERY picture. I try to be good about only putting my best work out there.

The trip here was crazy. Maryland is getting a ton of snow fall and they aren't used to it. While I was on RT 70 and had just passed the Maryland line a semi passed me on my left and my car spun out and I hit a snow bank. I was stuck facing the wrong direction and had to be towed out. It was pretty scary. Minimal damage to the car.

I've tried to sit down and write a blog about Africa a couple of times and just haven't been able to do it. I was going to on Wednesday but the internet cut out and yesterday I just could not conjur up a blog. I'm going to try my best to do things chronologically and take you day by day through Africa.

I got my facebook account back.

And Jess and I are headed out in a few to go meet up with Cory Pampalone.

My first pictureless blog.

JIM baker

02.09.10 - another early morning and some side notes

2010-02-09T05:03:00.005-05:00

saw this in a gift store, shot with my iphone

After talking to some people back here, I'm not convinced that I really had malaria... I've heard that there is an incubation period and the doctor there diagnosed me with malaria only after being in Africa for a few days. I do know however I felt like I was the sickest I've ever been, I think it was just the food.

fried tilapia - taken with iphone

While I was in Kenya my facebook got hacked. Someone logged in as me and used chat to tell people I had been mugged in London and needed money transfered immediately. The sad thing is that it seemed a bit more believable because I had just been through the London Heathrow Airport to get to Nairobi. I've heard from a few people that were contacted by this hacker and luckily they realized it wasn't me and didn't wire him the $1,500 he was asking for.

So facebook deactivated my account and I'm now in the process of starting a new one. I've got about a tenth of my friends back. It stinks to be starting over from scratch but whatever. If you've got facebook and we're not friends I THINK this link should take you to my profile.

You can read more about this scam here. I'm still trying to figure out how I got hacked or phished or whatever it's called. I haven't figured it out. I am however glad that my password for the e-mail account I use with facebook is different than my password for facebook otherwise the cyber criminal could have taken over my e-mail account as well.

In other news... Robert Park has been released... you can read that article here.

Anyway... no one ever told me if you like the changes that I made to the blog layout... Are you enjoying the twitter feed on the blog? Is it okay to only see the most recent post and have to navigate from there? Leave me comments and let me know what you think.

Sorry if you were waiting for a more detailed Africa post... patience :)

JIM baker

02.08.10 - 3:47am

2010-02-08T03:45:00.005-05:00

Jess and me right before we left Masai Mara

Its 3:47am right now, jet lag. At least I'm not up with a stomach ache like I was last night.

Africa was awesome. We were so blessed to be able to go. John and Pamela Okinda are doing AMAZING things for the kingdom of God. Our team was so honored to come alongside them and provide any help we could.

It was a quick ten day trip, but I feel like we accomplished a ton and learned a lot.

While we were there John and Pamela invited another 4 orphans into their own personal home. They now have a total of 12 orphans living with them.

I'll write more about the things we did in future posts. Consider this an introduction.

* * * * *

From a photography standpoint...

I took 4,427 photos while we were there. Most of them, portraits for sponsorship of the nearly 300 students that John has.

I set out to take 10,000 pictures, or 1,000 a day, but wound up getting diagnosed with malaria last monday and spent quite a bit of time in bed.

The 5dm2 and the 24-105 treated me real well, I'm VERY glad I was able to get the new camera before I went.

Masai Mara is AMAZING. I seriously highly recommend going if you ever have the chance to go. It was a great way to end our trip. I had no clue that you actually got THAT close to the animals.

I'll post soon about more photography thoughts I had while in Africa.

JIM baker

01.27.2010 - off to kenya

2010-01-27T09:24:00.004-05:00

a graphic my dad made for us :)

Jess and I are off to Kenya today. Please be praying for us. We return in 10 days.

Wanna read about what we'll be doing there? Click here.

If there's internet where we are I'll do my best to keep you all updated, but no promises. Check the twitter feed below for the most recent updates.

JIM baker

01.22.10 - why a vision statement is important

2010-01-22T12:46:00.004-05:00

out and about with the 5dm2 // jamestown NY // jan 2010

In a previous post I asked other youth pastors if they could sum up what they were trying to do in 5 sentences or less. We had an awesome ongoing conversation with 26 comments. It challenged me to think about a lot, and it made me realize how blessed I am to be in such an awesome network of people.

While I'm not impressed with grand vision statements if there is no real evidence of those things getting done, I think that having a tangible vision statement helps put parameters and borders on what we do. We can examine everything we do with, "does this help us achieve the things we've set out to achieve?" A vision statement helps keep us focused and on track. In a world where there are pushes, pulls and well meaning suggestions in every direction, we could use some parameters.

I'm still working on my 5 sentences. They need to be given more thought because I want you to hold me accountable to them. I encourage you if you have a vision statement for your ministry or for your life share it with us and ask yourself if the things you're doing are in line with that.

JIM baker

01.21.10 - layout changes and twitter

2010-01-21T14:29:00.007-05:00

Jason approves :) // dec 2009 // 20d

So as you're looking around you probably notice some things... the header image changed... its still an image from our engagement shoot by Pranee Loffer though.

I added a twitter feed below so you can see what's going on most recently.

If you tweet add me @jimjessbaker

I'm only displaying the main post, you can click on old posts at the bottom of the page. ~~Below that you can see posts categorized by labels.~~ (didn't like the way it looked so i removed it)

I've been thinking about making the dive into twitter for a while now and made the jump last nite. My friend Phil Cunningham tweeted a video of him in Cambodia shot on his iphone, which showed up as his facebook status with a link.

The whole point of me buying this phone was to keep in better touch with people so be looking for more pic and video correspondence soon.

Let me know what you think of the changes in the comment section.

I'm using echofon as my iphone twitter app as reccomended by Phil.

JIM baker

01.20.10 - one week till we leave for KENYA!

2010-01-20T17:08:00.008-05:00

The Africa Team! Photo Courtesy of Josiah Blick.

Jess, Jim, Anne, Heather, Dave, Arielle, Brian and Devonne.

Next week at this time we will all be on a plane headed for half way across the world to Migori Kenya.

So here's a little bit more detailed post about what we'll be doing while we are over there.

photo courtesy of Rick Rohlin

John Okinda runs an orphanage, a training school for Christians, a high school, and a teachers college. One of our main objectives in going over is to get a headshot portrait of each of the 200 orphans so that we can find sponsors for them.

Along with meeting with the District Commissioner of Migori, Mr. Julius Mutul, we will have opportunities to teach, preach, love on and most of all learn from the people of Migori, Kenya.

Our team is made up of 3 different parent/teen pairs. As the youth pastors of the congregation sending us, we are truly honored to be a part of such an experience that will deepen these family relationships for a lifetime.

Here's John's website. And here is a satellite view of where we will be staying.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and financial support!

JIM baker

01.19.10 - WOAH! Daniel Chung's art

2010-01-19T18:54:00.008-05:00

I was just looking at Daniel's facebook profile tonite and ran across his album of artwork from his first year in college. I am BLOWN AWAY.

I met Daniel in the summer of 2007 in Comitan Mexico. He came down with his youth group to serve where my team was already.

I asked his permission to download the pictures and clean them up a bit (adjusted the white balance, and did a crappy job of cloning out the distracting lamp in the top pic) to show you all.

Its been a while since I've seen something that has impressed me so much.

When asked about his artwork Daniel said..

"We were to make art out of 1 object and I just went crazy with it, I just started art so I didn't have the drawing/painting craft practiced like them so i just did what I was used to building stuff.."

The two pieces above were made with plain white drawing paper.

If you're interested in buying these pieces... you can't.

"I'm glad you like it, sold it all though, took up too much space"

To see the full album of Daniel's artwork click here.

JIM baker

01.18.10 - digital noise ISO

2010-01-18T13:42:00.005-05:00

As I mentioned in this post, I bought the canon 5dm2 because of its full frame sensor which allows it to handle noise much better at high ISO's. Meaning better quality pictures in low light. Below are some completely unedited examples of how my different cameras handle ISO 3200.

Chris and Sharon's wedding // October 2008 NYC

taken with the Canon G11 @ iso 3200
(notice ALL the noise)

Shot for a photostory (click the link to watch it) I did for Phil Cunningham // Kona Hawaii 2008

taken with the canon 20d @ iso 3200

(some noise, more noticeable in the upper left hand corner in the shadows, not as bad as I thought it was in my head though, I always made out the 20d to be a noise monster)

Dan Mohler preaching at Praise Fellowship this weekend

5dm2 pretty much no visible noise.

So there ya have it folks... can you tell a difference?

Just got confirmation on my lens rental of the 100-400 for Africa. 9 days until we leave.

I'll write a bit more updated blog about Africa since I know a little more than when I wrote about the trip in October.

JIM baker

01.17.10 - Dan Mohler

2010-01-17T19:07:00.004-05:00

dan preaching friday night // iso 3200 5dm2 :)

So I'm not going to lie, there was a lot of hype to the leading up to Dan Mohler coming and speaking to our church... I was getting a little sick of hearing his name. (I'm just being real.) But the hype was underplayed, Dan Mohler was amazing, some of the best teaching I've sat under.

Friday night, Dan brought a strong message about our identity because of the finished work of Christ. This quote blew me away.
"The cross of Christ speaks more of our value than of our sin."

Saturday morning he just shared testimonies and gave practical ways to see God move in power in our every day lives. When asked about overcoming the fear of man when we're 'doing evangelism' he responded with this
"the love for man takes away the fear of man."

The pastoral staff went out to lunch with him saturday afternoon for lunch and we had the privilege to hear testimonies of some of people that Dan walks with. Crazy stuff, crazy in a good way. Crazy, like Jesus was serious when he said

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." - John 14:12

Saturday evening, and both services this morning were packed with more great teaching and ministry. I plan on getting the whole weekends teaching on cd to hear it again.

God's GOOD.

JIM baker

01.15.10 - cf cards

2010-01-15T12:34:00.010-05:00

taken today with the g11

In this post I complained a bit about having to throw down a pretty penny on bigger and faster cf cards for my new camera. I tested my san disk extreme pro 16 gig card this morning and am amazed at the speed.

I remember vividly the first time card speed became a bother. It was when I was shooting Nate and Ashley's engagement photos. I had just gotten back from traveling and was so tired. I was quickly shooting frame after frame, because the sun light was disappearing fast. I was using san disk extreme II 4 gig cards and the camera would seemingly lock up and not let me take more pictures because it was slowly writing to the card. My new camera came with an extreme III 8gig card and gives me the same lag as the 20d did with the extreme II cards.

photo by me // canon 20d // aug 2008

The extreme pro cards are a different story. Sitting in my living room this morning I popped off 16 raw files in continuos mode before it even paused to write, and then when I kept the shutter held down, the lag was less than one second between taking the pictures. The extreme pro cards are definitely pricey but well worth it in my book. I can keep shooting at the speed I want to shoot at and I don't have to wait for the card to catch up.

JIM baker

p.s no I'm not avoiding my own 5 sentences, I'm still thinking, thanks for all the responses, if you haven't checked out the conversation you should do so here.

01.13.10 - what are we working towards?

2010-01-13T14:15:00.007-05:00

photo by me // feb 2008 // kailua kona hawaii

This post stems out of my own frustration, of trying to figure out what the real goal is of our youth ministry. What is it that I want the students in our ministry to walk away with? What do we want their lives to really look like? I think this question has to be asked before we start trying to do anything. Identifying the goal to see what we're working for.

For those of you involved with any ministry, can you sum up what you're trying to do in five sentences or less? What are your ultimate end goals?

If our goal is vague, then what are we really working towards? "Living a Godly life" isn't specific enough, what does that look like?

As we are trying to figure out what to do with our youth groups, with our congregations, small groups, with the retreat we're planning, with our very own lives do we ever stop to ask "what's the point?"

I challenge you to think this over, and post your five sentences or less here in the comment section. Then ask the question, if these are the goals, is what we're doing moving us in that direction? How can what we're doing be tweaked to be more effective to help us reach our ultimate goals?

JIM baker

01.12.10 - truth

2010-01-12T09:47:00.004-05:00

taken with the 5dm2

Last night at our youth group we talked about truth.

Some of the students preformed a skit where the main character was trying to figure out what 2+2 was. As she asked people this question, people told her different answers based on how it felt, or gave a convincing argument simply by how loud they spoke, we even had a news caster interviewing a "math expert" give us a different answer from anyone else.

Mike Rohlin (who introduced himself as the older, smarter, better looking brother of our pastor Rick Rohlin) came and spoke on Media Literacy.

He challenged our students to dig a little deeper, and ask some critical questions. Examples like what is the motivation of this news channel? If they are simply just trying to provide information then why are there ten different news stations? If its about viewers, ratings and money then how does that effect how they will tell the story?

The highlight of the evening might have been when Mike Rohlin sang along to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus which we were analyzing for truth.

"Why do we believe that the bible is true?" I asked our group of 6th through 12th graders. The room was silent. I smiled and assured them in two weeks we'd be learning why from Tim Smart one of our church elders.

"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - John 8:32

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." - Mark 12:30

JIM baker

total side note check out Perry Noble's latest blog "What if the Pharisees Twittered"

01.11.10 - remain

2010-01-11T14:30:00.005-05:00

on a walk with the 5dm2

REMAIN - verb
continue to exist, esp. after other similar or related people or things have ceased to exist

Saturday the 9th about twenty of us twenty-somethings gathered for two hours in the PF cafe for some musical worship led from an electric guitar. The sermon time seemed more like an honest conversation between Corey Errett who was "preaching' and us, the congregation.

I would guess that the biggest age demograph of people leaving the church would be between 18 and 30. Why?

Is it that church isn't relevant or is it that authentic community is hard and requires effort from us twenty somethings. "Real life" has set in, and everyones schedule is a lot busier than it was in college when community came easy.

It's our time to be the initiators, the decision makers, the influencers. The very reason you probably don't come to church is the very thing you need to be respectfully and honorably talking to your church leadership about and bringing change.

Come REMAIN with us Saturday Jan 24 2010 in the PF Cafe. Feel free to ask hard questions, we don't promise any answers though. Be ready to take initiative and responsibility for your faith, we aren't going to blame anyone else anymore. Lets be the change we want to see in the church.

JIM baker

01.10.10 - MY NEW CAMERA IS HERE!!!

2010-01-10T23:05:00.003-05:00

first pic with the 5dm2 and EF 24-105 f4 L IS USM -taken on jan 8 2010 in Jamestown NY

first pic with the 20d and EF 28-105 f3.5-4.5 II USM - taken on feb 2 2006 in Columbia MD.

Quite the contrast... 4 years ago no wedding ring, no beautiful wife, and the pic was blurry, good thing I've improved a bit and learned to use my camera out of the box.

Pictures are fun. A great way to remember things. I encourage you to take more pictures in 2010.

I'm super impressed with the 5dm2, I'll put some examples up soon. But the biggest thing I notice is its ability to shoot without much digital noise at high ISOs. One of the biggests reasons I bought it and it delivers.

It's funny to me, I purchased a mid range zoom as my first lens with my 20d and now that I upgraded to the 5d the first lens I bought for this camera was a mid range zoom too. I guess its a good place to start.

I'll blog more soon, promise.

JIM baker

01.07.10 - accumulation

2010-01-07T11:04:00.004-05:00

shot with the canon g11 edited in imovie hd

Tuesday was our day off and I spent it making this video, all shot from the warmth of my home.

I've had plenty of days off but this was the first one that felt like a "real day off." Jamestown NY is starting to feel like home. Jess and I rearranged some furniture in our apartment, played monopoly with Sandi, (I LOVE monopoly) and then had dinner with our friends Andrew and Jackie.

I shot this video because I wanted to show you how peaceful snow looks as its falling. But it made me think. Even though snow looks so peaceful as falls, once it hits the ground it accumulates quickly. If it's not properly taken care it can become destructive very fast.

What have we allowed to build up in our lives because we were caught up in enjoying how it looks and how it feels but not realizing the affect of its accumulation. What in our lives needs to be maintained?

JIM baker

01.04.10 - out with the old and in with the new

2010-01-04T16:45:00.005-05:00

Kailua Kona Hawaii 2008 - School of Photography

It's been a week without a dslr and well, enough is enough. So today I ordered my new camera.

I bought the Canon EOS5d Mark II with the 24-105 f4 L lens. :)

I'm pumped to have pro gear to go to Africa which happens to be a little more than 3 weeks away...

I choose this camera because it has a full size sensor which means it handles low light A LOT better than the crop sensors like on my 20d . I find myself a lot of times shooting in low light situations so I'm pumped to have a camera that can handle it without giving me a lot of noise at higher ISOs.

Plus it shoots HD Video... here's a sample video from canon's website shot entirely with the 5dm2.

The only downside I see so far is that when you upgrade to pro gear you have to upgrade EVERYTHING to pro gear. Since the new camera is 21.1 megapixels that means I need MUCH bigger and faster cards. I dropped a pretty penny on CF cards.

I had to do some shopping around but between B & H, Adorama and Amazon I found the best deals on everything and didn't have to pay a dime in shipping. Yay for smart shopping!

JIM baker

01.01.10 - happy new year

2010-01-01T16:20:00.005-05:00

NYE @ camp mission meadows 2009

Jess and I brought in the new year with over one hundred kids grades 7-12 from six different churches at Camp Mission Meadows.

Andy Frudd from Bemus Point Methodist brought an awesome message about allowing God to unload our backpacks full of junk and start the new year fresh. I presented the simple gospel message of God's love and plan and an awesome time of worship followed led by Ben and Liz Blick.

Andy encouraged the kids to pray for one another. A teenage boy whom I didn't know ran up to me sobbing and just clung on to me. I had the privelage to minister God's love and truth to him as he spewed tears and snot all over my shoulder :)

What an awesome way to bring in the New Year.

God I ask that 2010 would be a year that we realize how much You love us and that you have so much more in store for us than we're currently living in and that You'd free us up to walk in those things.

JIM baker

12.31.09 - how to change your blog layout

2009-12-31T09:44:00.013-05:00

A screen shot of what the old layout looked like...
(yes its off center, thats what happenes when the picture is to big for your layout)

A few people have asked how I changed my layout so here's what I did.

Pranne Loffer gave me this link this past summer after I asked her the same question.

For the new layout I'm using 900px as my outer wrapper and 900px as my main wrapper with no sidebar. Just mess with all of those numbers and see what each one does and see what you like.

Hope that helps? If not feel free to ask more questions and I will do what I can.

I changed the comment section so everyone should be able to comment now too. (you should try it out!)

Happy New Year!
JIM baker

12.30.09 - just come home

2009-12-30T14:51:00.012-05:00

I saw this video on Perry Noble's blog which was recommended to me by Justin Joyner at starbucks yesterday.

I went up to The Flip Side last night in Bemus to lead worship for the Camp Mission Meadows Staff Reunion. Their theme for the summer was "Now What?!" And 4 months after camp is over the theme really hits home. As I prepared for the time of ministry God led me to the story of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:11-24
Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.

What great imagery into the character of God. God does not have his arms crossed, waiting to scold us when we return in repentance from our wandering, He leaps off the porch and runs towards us the moment we are in sight.

Secondly the son, says that he's no longer worthy to be called his son. The father's response? To give him everything that his son deserved, because no matter what this son did, the father KNEW that his son was still his son. I long for us to really know the extravagant love of the Father. And to know who we are as sons and daughters of the king of kings.

"Identity creates destiny" - Kris Vallaton

JIM baker

12.29.09 - Robert Park... wow he did it.

2009-12-29T00:08:00.005-05:00

taken at a Korean-American young adult missions conference 2007

If you don't know what I'm talking about... the article is here.

But basically Robert Park a 28 year old Korean America went into North Korea and was detained. "He did this to bring awareness to the situation in North Korea, alert the churches around the world to the atrocities and human rights violations — not pay lip service, and (to) do something about it," Benson said in Tucson. "Drastic situations call for drastic measures."

Well... you've got my attention. But... what do we do now?

I always knew koreans were crazy. Go to any 4am morning prayer meeting and you'll see. Crazy in a good way. Most of the time. :) I have some Korean-American friends that have done missions work in North Korea. They don't really talk about it much, like its no big deal.

I was thinking just the other day... where are the revolutionary leaders? Where are the people like Dr. Martin Luther King who had a dream and changed history? I don't feel like we've seen a leader like that since, maybe we have and I'm just ignorant to it.

Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

JIM baker

A quote from Hotel Rwanda.

I am glad that you have shot this footage and that the world will see it. It is the only way we have a chance that people might intervene.

Yeah and if no one intervenes, is it still a good thing to show?

How can they not intervene when they witness such atrocities?

I think if people see this footage they'll say, "oh my God that's horrible," and then go on eating their dinners.

12.28.09 - provision

2009-12-28T14:39:00.010-05:00

jamestown audubon 2008

Matt 6:26 - Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Mark 8:14-21 read it in context here.
¹⁴The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. ¹⁵"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."

¹⁶They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."

¹⁷Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? ¹⁹When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
"Twelve," they replied.

²⁰"And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"
They answered, "Seven."

²¹He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

* * * * *

Uh, Jesus... yeah... I guess I still don't understand.

I've seen your hand of provision over and over again. Radical miracles... crazy provision. The kind of stories that people put in books.

I knew you told me that I'd have a new camera to go to Africa with, but it just didn't look possible so I began to doubt. But in your PERFECT timing, you gave me a gift, something you knew I really wanted, to celebrate YOUR birthday.

Our financial situation looked BLEAK for 2010, but in your faithfulness, you are providing more than enough.

As a son of God, I don't live under the curse where I sow and do not reap.

I do not even live in sowing and reaping, where I solely reap what I sow.

I live in Your blessing, where Your GOODNESS is made known to me in every area of my life and as a GOOD father, YOU provide for me.*

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - Matt 6:33

JIM baker

*a Kris Vallaton teaching

12.28.09 - what the blog?!

2009-12-28T01:54:00.010-05:00

a gift from my mother-in-law. it has a ball in it that lights up too.

Gary S Chapman tweeted recently a quote that he read in Collide Magazine.

"Use social media because you have something to say, not because you want to be heard."

When I met with Stanley Leary this past summer and we were talking about blogging and push/pull marketing, he said that a blog had to offer people something for people to keep coming back.

Michael Hyatt, whose blog I just started reading wrote a blog entitled "Do you make these 10 mistakes when you blog?" Lets just say if this was a pop quiz... I'd fail. You can see the cached version here since his site is under construction for the new year.

But I've been chewing on all of this, I redesigned the layout of the blog because I want to be a better blogger.

I'm not sure this is at all what Rick Rohlin, the pastor of the church I work at, had in mind when he asked me to start a blog, but this is the result of "Hey Jim, why don't you start a blog."

The only blogs I ever looked at before starting this blog were photography blogs. I guess I did read real live preacher before I was into photography blogs though. The other blogs I've done in the past both had to do with photography. Well over half the blogs I read are photography blogs.
(If you're an avid blog reader check out bloglines, I just set up an account yesterday and am loving it.)

The new layout visually sets it up to be a photography blog. But although a lot of the posts have had to do with photography, it can't be constrained to JUST that. Good blogging would force me to have a separate blog for photography and another blog for everything else, whatever everything else is. Not happening.

So do I blog because I have something to say or because I want to be heard? Google analytics says I had 1472 visits in the past 30 days. 548 of those visits were absolutely unique visits. So I guess people are reading. But that doesn't tell me why I'm writing.

If you're a regular on my blog, what do I offer you that you keep coming back? What are you coming here to see? What do you want to see more of in the future? And if you had to sum up the three things we write/post about what would those be?
(yes WE my wife did post for the first time this month, probably the best post on the whole blog)

Leave your thoughts in the comment section. If you're having problems leaving a comment try using a different internet browser, I know for a fact that firefox has problems with it. If you're a mac user download camino. Its made by mozilla FOR mac.

I don't think I'm ever going to be a good blogger. ;) This was WAY over 500 words.

JIM baker

12.27.09 - trusty and FAITHFUL

2009-12-27T15:41:00.001-05:00

Canon 20d with EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM

EF-S 60mm f2.8 USM and EF 70-200 f4 usm

I woke up to an e-mail Christmas eve saying that someone wanted to buy my photography equipment. An amazing gift because now I can upgrade to PRO gear before I go to Africa in one month.

But I wanted to dedicate a post to the gear that I've pretty much learned to shoot on. My trusty Canon 20d.

Seth and Jamie wanted me to shoot their wedding in 2006 so they fronted me the money to get the gear. At the time I bought the 20d, an EF 28-105 f3.5-4.5 USM II and the 580ex flash.

Its been to 5 other countries with me.

LATVIA // MEXICO // CZECH REPUBLIC // HUNGARY // CANADA

The picture of the 20d has the 10-22 attached. It's the lens that I shoot with most. I've actually realized lately that I'm really sick of the distortion that the super wide gives... but it did pretty good with landscapes. Below is a picture shot at 10mm.

Kailua Kona Hawaii 2008

The 60 was mainly used for portraits and macro stuff. And the 70-200 was used to ZOOM. I've had a couple of 50mm lenses in the past but didn't see the need for one if I had a 60 in my bag.

Its been cool to go and look at professional photographers websites and see that they started out shooting with the 20d too. David duChemin's ebook TEN has a picture on the first page that was taken with the 20d. I just read last night that Jasmine Star started out with a 20d. And one of our friends and supporters and professional photographer Rachel Barker started out with the 20d too.

I'll be sure to give a full update on the NEW gear when it gets here.
JIM baker

12.27.2009 - new blog layout

2009-12-27T02:27:00.001-05:00

What REALLY seems to separate the boy blogs from the MAN blogs is simply LARGER pictures. So I moved some stuff around so I could accommodate larger pictures, got rid of the boring sidebar, and am using an awesome pic for our header of Jess and I by Pranne Loffer who was in my school of photography in 2008. Here's another pic that she took of us in Columbia South Carolina this past July. Are you guys digging the new layout? I am :)

JIM baker

12.22.09 - Christmas Newsletter!

2009-12-22T22:57:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, here is our Christmas Newsletter...
if you want a copy e-mailed to you so you can actually read it e-mail me requesting one jim@worshipplace.org

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
JIM and JESS baker :)

12.20.2009 - Christmas and stuff

2009-12-20T19:40:00.000-05:00

Jim and I watched this video clip the other day and I thought it was definitely worth sharing. Aside from the fact that it's an entertaining twist on the typical nativity play, it completely changed my outlook on the Christmas story as we picture it. It hit me when the angels came in... and notice the chorus keeps repeating "i've been waiting my whole life for this one night." I mean, how awesome is that? I have no idea how time works in heaven, but I am of the understanding that heavenly beings are at least aware of the passage of time here, and I bet they were up in heaven watching all of humanity waste away in our own sin and just waiting for the day when we would be redeemed, and then the day came!!! And think of the Jewish believers, the shepherds and even the wise men; all these people who have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of a savior who would bring them freedom. All that time waiting, hoping, and then finally to witness his arrival!

I think that sense of excitement is completely lost on us. I mean, we get jazzed about waiting a year - or more likely - about a month for Christmas morning to arrive and that's usually just so we can eat cookies and receive that expensive toy, phone, camera or whatever we've been wanting for the past six months. It's easy to miss really, because Jesus already came for us. We don't have to wait for anything. Which is actually probably for the best, as we all have short attention spans anymore anyways.

But these people were waiting for GENERATIONS... their WHOLE EXISTENCE for this one thing to happen! And when it does... can you even imagine the party in heaven?!? After all the build-up of excitement, the anticipation of joy... the celebration must have been unbelievable. I bet they danced their halos off. Literally. A completely unrestrained explosion of joy.
I'm all for reverence and honor and respect. But it's an absolute crime to miss out on the excitement of the celebration. Party on, world. Party on!

JESS baker

12.18.09 - Rick Rohlin's fam!

2009-12-18T15:25:00.001-05:00

Rick, Sandie, Zachery and Jason all decided to get in on the deal too.

Zachery

Jason

Brotherly love.

JIM baker

12.14.09 - Rohlin Family shoot

2009-12-14T10:55:00.000-05:00

So Janie was one of the two people that took me up on my I'll do photography for your family in exchange for support towards our Africa trip deal.

The group shot went MUCH better than I had hoped, I was a little intimidated shooting a group of 14. I used a wingback chair (Stanley Leary would be so proud) I used my 580ex fired through an umbrella at about 1/2 or 1/4 power triggered via my PW Plus II's. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to light the whole group of 14 with just one light, but I did. This was the biggest group portrait I've ever done and the family did a GREAT job.

Here's a pic of the kids.

Sidique, Jadenne, Rashad and Julie Fofana.

Mike, Lily, Meridith and Megan Rohlin.

Zachery, Rick, Sandie, and Jason Rohiln.

JIM baker

12.09.09 - pirate duck

2009-12-09T22:52:00.001-05:00

nyarr.

Ridiculous?

What would your life look like if you could stop trying to be something your not and just be yourself?

Be free to be who God created you to be.

YOU.

JIM baker

12.08.09 - patience, goodness, kindness

2009-12-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

april 2008

God you're so patient. You are the best thing, yet you never force your goodness on anyone. You never demand the respect that You deserve. Why? Is that because you just want people to recognize your goodness on their own? To come to their own conclusion? I guess respect comes in its purist form when its given freely, and not done out of obligation and duty, guilt or coercion.

You were silent as they mocked you and crucified you. You even prayed forgive them father for they know not what they do. You are the king of kings and the lord of lords. You created man, and man tortured you to death.

You did it because you love us. You did it to expose our ugly sin, the depravity of our humanity without you.

God you loved us so much that you made a way for us to walk in relationship with you even though we messed it up. You are the initiator.

Help me to know this love better, and to love with this same love.

JIM baker

12.05.09 - xmas traditions

2009-12-05T14:36:00.000-05:00

some of our Christmas decorations on our mantle

It looks fine in this picture, but on our mantle it looks kind of sad, because the mantle is so big and the things on it are so small. It looks a lot better now that we super glued Joesph's head back on. I said we should probably go buy green army men to protect Jesus and that would make it better but I'm not sure Jess thought that was a good idea.

our advent calender that my parents made for us

While we were in MD over Thanksgiving my parents gave me our own advent calender. It was one of our family Christmas traditions growing up. To take turns each night reading scripture that told the Christmas story and then putting on one of the small ornaments on the tree.

As we were doing the readings that went along with the calender I heard Jess read this statement and I got really excited. :)

"Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end."
taken from Isaiah Chapter 9. (italics mine)

I also heard Dwayne Roberts from IHOP (international house of PRAYER, not pancakes) preaching the other night and he said how sick he is of hearing how we should be "afraid" of radical Islam. He simply stated that our God is so much bigger. Yes and AMEN.

So how is God choosing to increase His government in the earth right now? Through His ambassadors. Do you know who those are?

You and me.

JIM baker

12.03.09 - what's the point?!

2009-12-03T12:48:00.000-05:00

part of my photostory assignment for School of Photography
Kailua-Kona Hawaii 2008

Dude... Christmas is in 22 days. Thats crazy.

Anyway, last monday at Higher Calling I encouraged the kids to ask themselves what is the point in every area of their life. And then ask themselves if the way they were living matched up with that purpose. The room got silent when I asked that about church. The kids got real honest too. It was good for them to just think and answer their own questions. Sometimes you simply have to present a question and let them draw their own conclusion.

At the beginning of the meeting we always share testimonies and two people shared how God had healed them in the past week miraculously. During worship I felt that God wanted to heal people that evening as well. So I went forward and I asked if people who had pain in their body to come forward for prayer.

I prayed for one student's back and asked him if he felt anything and he said no. I then reminded him that even Jesus had to pray twice for a blind man. (mark 8:22-26) So we prayed again and I asked him to test his back out and a grin came across his face as he was moving his back in ways that he could not before without pain.

I came up to another student an laid hands on him and asked him what was wrong, lower back he said. I prayed for him and asked him what he felt. He looked at me surprised and said as I prayed he felt heat running through his whole body and felt his back pop like fifteen times and the pain left.

Jess prayed for a girls ankle and felt tendons moving around as she prayed. She asked the girl if she was moving her ankle and the girl was like no, and she tested out her ankle and the pain was gone. The girl that just received that healing then prayed for another girl with a right ankle sprain that had kept her out of dance and that girl was moving around her ankle without pain and tears in her eyes surprised and grateful at what God had done.

It was interesting to me that it was two lower backs and two ankles that got healed that night. That there was almost a theme for what God was doing.

Christianity isn't boring when we're seeing God do supernatural things in our midst.

JIM baker