Welcome to my new blog. I'm glad you stopped by. Here you will find updates from my life as a child of God, a Husband, a father of five, a missions mobilizer, an orphan advocate and a photographer.
For those who read my previous blog you know who I am and what you might expect from this new blog. I'll post pictures from recent photo shoots as well as pictures from our adventures in Honduras. I'm contemplating writing a book so you might get some test chapters here as well. I'm honored that anyone would be interested in what I say or what I do. I hope you'll be encouraged and blessed!
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Calling all class of 2011 members looking for senior pictures that don’t look like everyone’s in your class. Seniorzrock Photography specializes in senior portraits. We have over 20 years experience working with teenagers and will make your senior portrait experience ONE OF A KIND! Check us out and become a fan on Facebook.
In less that 24 hours all seven of us will be in Honduras again. I am excited about the opportunity to provide a camp for two orphanages in Honduras. I’m not at all excited about our TACA adventure on the way down to Honduras, but I’m never excited about traveling on airplanes with 5 children!
For those of you who pray and are reading this blog post please say a prayer for our travels tomorrow. I know Daniel is a little nervous because the last leg of our trip is on a turbo prop jet! I’m a little concerned that all our luggage gets there with us. We do, however, have a few days before the first team arrives so as long as we make it we’ll be fine! I’ll write more this week from Honduras on our upcoming camps for orphans until then enjoy a picture from last year’s camp.
This is the first in a series of promotional pieces for my senior photography business (www.seniorzrock.com). If you live in Gaston County, I’m looking for senior representatives from the class of 2011 from all of our High Schools. If you have a senior in the class of 2011 or know of a one please let them know about our services!
Many of my blog readers will remember that our adopted daughter is deaf. We didn’t sign-up for a deaf child, but God chose her for our family. I vividly remember the day they delivered her to us at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It was a scary, happy, anxious, beautiful, glorious, excited time for both Amy and I. We took her up to our room and within 15 minutes I knew something was not quite right. She wouldn’t respond to Spanish or English. I knew something was wrong, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
It wasn’t until we had her home for a week that Amy said one night, “Mark, I think she’s deaf.” To which I replied, “No way!” So, being the scientific guy that I am I came in the house and did an impromptu hearing test. I got a big pot and big spoon from the kitchen and snuck up behind her and began banging it. No response! To which I surmised – Amy’s right, she’s deaf!
Long story . . . she had cochlear implants on February 28, 2008. And on March 17th, 2008 her ears were “turned on.” That means Mariah has been hearing for two years now. That explains why when I asked her this week if she wanted to watch Dora or Diego she replied, “No, I want to watch Diego.” Well, it wasn’t that clear, but I could certainly understand her two year old speech.
There is rarely a day that goes by lately that I’m not amazed at how well she is hearing. Last week while I was teaching my photography class she was downstairs and heard me talking and exclaimed, “Daddy, my Daddy!” It’s amazing to me that she can distinguish my voice from the voice of other males. So, Mariah is three years old, but today is her two year hearing anniversary and with that here is a picture I took of her for one of my photography class assignments. She’s one of three “Daddy’s girl’s” in this house!
This week’s photography assignment was to take two pictures of the same subject: 1. A bird’s eye view and 2. A bug’s eye view. The point of this assignment is to get the photographer to explore different perspectives to make their photographs more interesting. This week I’ve included my 11 yr. old son’s pictures along with mine. He has been assisting me on photo shoots since he was 9, but he’s taking the class with his peers. I thought it was interesting that Daniel (accidentally) included a little bird poo in his bird’s eye view photo! Enjoy . . .
Daniel’s Photos:
This past weekend Amy and I had the privilege of being at Frank Hopkins 90th birthday party. Well, it might not have been his 90th birthday party, but you know what I mean. Frank Hopkins is 90 years old. Wow, I just realized I’m exactly half his age (for a couple more weeks). I have known Frank closely for about 15 years. For several years we served together on the staff of Woodland Hills Church in Asheville, NC. I have many fond memories of Frank Hopkins over the years.
One memory that quickly comes to mind are those Monday mornings we spent together at the Buncombe Baptist Minister’s Conference. Frank has been the secretary for that minister’s group for many years. He’s known among that crowd for making the “reading of the minutes” a comical affair. His dry sense of humor and gift of writing made something as boring as reading meeting minutes enjoyable. I remember those countless lunches after those meetings at Ryan’s Steakhouse with all of Frank’s old buddies (many of whom have passed on into their eternal home in heaven). I was, without a doubt, the youngest among them but I enjoyed listening to their “war stories” and tales of the “good ‘ole days.” It was there at Ryans with Frank that I first learned to love spinach leaves on my salad! I miss those times!
I also remember the many Christmas Eve’s that our family spent with Frank and Betty. For years, while living in Buncombe County, NC they served as surrogate grandparents for our children. Our children still love going to Frank and Betty’s home and eating Betty’s homemade pickles and playing with Frank’s carrom board (It’s hyperlinked for those of you who have no idea what a carrom board is).
When I think of Frank Hopkins as he enters his 9th decade of life, the following are a few words that come to mind: Pastor, Friend, Mentor, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Great Grandfather, Great Great Grandfather, Role Model, Humble, Honest, Godly, Generous, Servant, Witty, Faithful, Reliable, Passionate, and Hero!
Thanks Frank Hopkins for being an great example of a Godly man and friend. I, along with many others, look forward to celebrating your life for many more years to come!
I’m late getting this past week’s photo assignment posted because the files were on Amy’s computer and I just transferred them today. The assignment I gave my students this week was “fill the frame.” Another way to say it would be “get in close.” What I’m trying to get them to see is that too many times we just center our subject and they are often so tiny that they get lost in the frame. As always, I go out and do the assignment myself each week. The first shot (Sundrop Logo) was what came to my mind as I gave the assignment. After I took that shot (and others) I realized it’s harder to completely fill the frame than I had first thought. I continued to a local graveyard and was successful in getting my subject to fill the frame.
For this coming week I gave my student two assignments. The could choose which one they wanted to do, but for each of the two assignments they have to submit two pictures. For any who want to “play along” the assignments were 1. Take two shots of the same subject illustrating blurred action and stopped action. 2. Take two shots of the same subject illustrating a “bird’s eye” view and a “bugs eye” view. Let me know if you “play along.”
I wasn’t as tired when I got out of bed this morning, and my back wasn’t hurting as much as it usually does. Why not? Mariah slept all night in her bed! Mariah is three years old and should be sleeping in her own bed. Most three year old children sleep in their own beds and that’s not a problem. Yet, when you’re a sucker like me it can become a big problem. How can you say no to that face? My philosophy has always been, “it won’t be this way forever, so enjoy it while it lasts.” Amy’s philosophy has been, “sleep is the more important than making a ‘baby’ cry.”
If she sleeps all night in her bed tonight and I wake up feeling like I feel today, then I think I’m going to adopt Amy’s philosophy. I’m sure it will be different when I see those big brown eyes staring me in the face at 3:30 a.m. To be continued . . .
Today I’ve been working on a logo for our orphan camp team shirts. I have designed a logo I like, but I’m having trouble making a decision on the colors (the background color represents the t-shirt color). I thought I might let both of my blog readers help me decide. If you’d like to get in on the fun just leave a comment with the number of the color combination that you like the best. Thanks for you help!
