Now you see him...

Now you see him..., originally uploaded by Michael Shattuck.

Haven't posted anything lately. I think my brain has been in reboot mode recently. I will return...just not ready to tackle anything "serious" yet. I will say that everyone is doing great...the kids are doing awesome in school and sports (Ben's playing soccer and baseball and Rachel started practicing with her new volleyball team tonight). It's been pretty fun.

I got some neat photo-related toys for my birthday (the 25th) and went out tonight to work on my nighttime lighting techniques with the new stuff. I put a few images from the evening up on my flickr feed but wanted to add this one to the blog...I really like it a lot.

Anyway, we're all alive and well. I'll pick things back up again soon here on the blog and give you a better picture into our lives here in the U-S-of-A.

Y'all are awesome!

Gear Fear

Trying to get the best image possible not only takes time, patience, know-how, etc...it also takes gear. Since light is everything, many times a photographer will need to at least supplement natural light with some kind of artificial light. The possibilities are endless, seriously.

That said, it's sometimes hard for me to "work" with all of the gear that is actually called for because I'm actually a tad afraid that someone's going to think that I'm trying to look like some kind of pro or whatever. [I'm sitting here laughing at myself.] Take Mattie's birthday party as an example.

The lighting was horrible. The place was very dimly lit...lots of shadows. Why is that a problem? Well, it's like this. When you've got dim light you've got to either augment the existing light (on- or off-camera flash or flashes) or use a faster lens that allows more light to reach the sensor in your camera. A faster lens is my preferred option but then you're talking about a big expense (most suited to this task are over the $1,000 mark...some closer to $2k).

Enter flash photography. Lots of other questions here. What kind to use...built-in or external hot-shoe seated flash? To diffuse or not diffuse. Bounce or direct. Then the "look" problem. If I were to have used the gear that I have which is most well-suited to that situation I would have been holding a seriously big rig. I've got a portrait grip on my Nikon D80 which adds bulk to the body (great for my big hands), allows me to use two batteries (also great when shooting a lot and using vibration reduction lenses), and allows me to shoot in portrait mode-or vertical- without contorting my arms. So picture a bigger camera body with a not-so-small Nikon SB-600 flash mounted on the hot shoe, with a Gary Fong lightsphere diffuser mounted on top of that.

If you can't picture all of that stuff in your mind, just think big. But again, that would have yielded the best pictures possible given the gear that I have. Honestly I just don't want people to think that I see myself as better than I am or whatever. The real reason I'm posting all of this, though, is because I came across a picture a couple of days ago that put all of my thoughts at ease. After seeing this picture, I realize that I should be using all of my gear with pride...knowing that even if I were to throw everything I have onto my camera body I'd look nowhere near as crazy as this guy does. Check out this monstrosity!

So, if you're ever in a situation where you see me with a 2' tall camera rig, just know (1) that I'm only doing it because I feel that it will yield the best results with the gear that I've got for that particular situation and (2) that no matter what I look like it is nowhere near as crazy as the dude with the monster 4-light setup!!!!

More pics from Rascals Game

I said I'd give you a few more pics from the Rascals game we went to last week. I got to play a bunch with my new variable neutral density filter at the game which explains the long exposure shots (that's not unintentional blur). I made the mistake of converting one to black-and-white...then I quickly realized that I preferred all of them in B&W. I just love B&W photography...what can I say?

Here's the link to the slideshow.

From the Rascals Game

I'll post some more pictures later, but thought I'd put one up tonight from our great night at the Rascals baseball game.. I haven't done many HDR images in the past but took 5 shots tonight thinking I'd merge them together in Photoshop to see how it'd turn out. The sunset was beautiful and this image comes close.

God's blessings and Solidarity

Having lived in Poland for the last several years, the idea of solidarity looms large in our minds. Its a concept that is interwoven in Poland's long history as Poles have banded together to ward off annihilation time and time again. Most recently the solidarity movement became ever stronger as Poles stood side by side in the fight against communism. While that fight is over, Poles continue to stand together in opposition of anything that seems to be encroaching on their personal freedoms.

Why am I going on about this? Well, we've experienced a little taste of solidarity right here in Ellisville, Missouri. Coming back to the states, we knew that Missouri education policy states that a kindergartner must be 5 years old as of August 1, 2007 or earlier. Problem is that our 5-year old had his birthday ten days past the cutoff. So, we have been hopeful that yet another miracle would occur allowing Mattie to start school even though it would be going against state policy!

All of this in mind, my dear wife takes off to visit the registrar at the local elementary school. School #1...wrong school. Area has been re-districted. Everyone is super helpful. They made some phone calls, found out where Vicki needed to go, gave a map. Pretty awesome. So, she heads off to the next place.

School #2...right school. She walks in with much fear and trepidation. Vicki met the registrar and sat down to begin explaining our situation. Immediately after telling the woman about us having been living in Poland, the registrar excitedly tells Vicki to hold on...that she has someone for Vicki to meet. Well, kick me in the pants and call me Shirley because the principal of the school walks out and one of the first things she asks Vicki is, "Czy pani mowi po polsku?" (Do you speak Polish?)

How about that??!! It turns out that the principal (Mrs. Malgorzata "Meg" Brooks) is an incredibly nice, and helpful, Polish woman! She talked with Vicki for awhile in Polish, to the amazement of everyone in the office, and began working to help us take care of Mattie.

Long story short...Mattie is starting school today. Solidarity is alive in Ellisville, Missouri. God's hand continues to bless us...even in the face of state education policy.

First Day of School

Big day...BIG DAY today. The kids were both excited and scared (brings a song from Into the Woods to mind) as they went out to meet the bus today. Imagine...their first ride on a school bus...first day in an American school. Wow! Big day!! We're already looking forward to hearing about everything this afternoon when they get back at 2:47pm.

A few pics to share

I threw a few pictures into another small slideshow for you to check out. We've got a great science center here in St. Louis that we visited today with my mom (mimi). It's so incredible to be able to do things like that...not only because we all get to be with our family but because there just aren't these kinds of places back in Poland.

Click here to check out the pics.

Blur of light

Went out tonight with camera gear in tow. After going to the St. Louis Science Center this afternoon with the kids and my mom I came back home and crashed for about 2.5 hours (I think). Don't know what happened. Is it possible I'm still getting used to everything here? Maybe.

I like the abstract image I captured tonight. It's a long'ish exposure of some cars passing by on a nearby road. I was standing there practicing panning techniques and grabbed a few fun, wacked-out images like the one above. They're fun and easy. Interestingly, it's a great symbol of what I'm feeling right now...like everything's sort of a dizzying array of lights, buzzing all around me. No, I'm not high! Haha!

There's a lot going on...and at the same time it's sort of strange that we don't "professionally" have anything to do for the time being. Don't really know how to explain it. I just think it's going to take a bit more time to get the hang of life here again. Bizarre feeling. In no way did I think we'd have to readjust to American life. And not to over-exaggerate...we're not all freaked out or anything. It's just different.

Matthew Jordan's Birthday

Better late than never, right?! We had Mattie's birthday party this past Friday night at the Incredible Pizza Company in south St. Louis. I've got this theory that says that someone who says they're cool generally isn't...products with quality descriptions in their titles are generally off...see what I mean? But I can say that my theory was crushed by Incredible Pizza. It really is incredible.

We all, definitely including my 5-year old son, had a great time. Imagine the many buffets (pizza, pasta, potato bar, salad, dessert), big-screen TVs (showing the Cards and Rams games), and games galore. The kids couldn't hardly believe their eyes....video games, carnival-style games, go-karts, mini golf...it was in a word, well, Incredible.

I made another slideshow with some pictures from our evening for your viewing enjoyment. Click here to check it out.

Making of a train cake

Tomorrow is Mattie's birthday...he's going to be a whopping 5 years old! He's big time into trains so we decided to go with a Thomas the train cake this year...although Thomas seems to have gotten a bit "hulky" in this version (you'll see).

I got the idea of taking a bunch of shots and showing "the making of..." in a slideshow. So, for your viewing pleasure I give you the making of a train cake. There are quite a few pics (and a silent audio track)...so it might take a few secs to load.

A special thanks to uncle Doug and aunt Jo for coming over late tonight and helping us make this dream a reality. :-)

Muny Missionaries

This past Saturday night our family was treated to a night out at the Muny, a very well-known outdoor theatre in St. Louis' Forest Park. As birthday presents for myself and Vicki, as well as "just because" presents for our kiddos, we were given tickets to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was a great time! You should have seen our kids on the edges of their seats, literally.

Captured beautifully above (thanks uncle Doug, armed with Rachel's P&S) are the family missionaries. Along with the Shattucks is my aunt Jackie. We are thrilled that she's on stateside assignment at the same time as us (yeah we planned it) and even living next door!! Amazing how we've been living on two distant continents for the last several years (her at the southern tip of South America and us in Eastern Europe) and now we'll be about 50 feet from each other for the next 6 months or so!!

Sunday introduction

I thought you would like to see this picture of our family being introduced yesterday at church (thanks Emil, my uncle's dad, for that! That's my aunt, a 30+ year missionary to Chile, on the left there.). Someone told me I was looking good. I responded, "well yeah...because you're looking more at those other 4 good lookin' people walking around everywhere with me!" I am a blessed man!

The morning went very well. The kids did an incredible job of smiling, shaking hands, getting their cheeks pinched, and hugging strangers. Honestly I was a bit surprised. I expected them to keep it together and all but I didn't quite expect the beautiful, constant smiles. We spent quite a bit of time preparing them for what it was going to be like. So maybe they were just well prepared and stood up to the pressure. Awesome kids folks...awesome kids. And I have to add that we have prayed so much for these kiddos and God continues to answer as seen in their great attitudes yesterday when meeting all of those people.

The other thing I wanted to write about this morning is how unreal it was yesterday to hear from so many people who had been going through everything with us over the course of the last year+. I'd been visualizing that day for so long and it was incredible. Our family was just showered with love and support...and with so many people celebrating what God has done.

On a final note, I also saw firsthand how important our blog has been in keeping people updated so they can feel a part of what has been going on in our lives and ministry. I'm always interested in keeping up with our visitor stats but it was great to hear from the people behind the numbers yesterday morning. It's a huge encouragement to know that so many people (including many we don't know) feel a desire to stop by here, often daily, to read about what is up with us. God's definitely not done with these 5 folks...so stay tuned!

Brutal Attack

I know that this is probably not the kind of content that you've come here for. But I couldn't resist. I guess we all have our ways of coping with the stress of change. It appears that our black dog just needed to take his frustration out on another unsuspecting creature (and roll a bit in its "guts"). Brutal.

We're going to church for the first time this morning with our gang. Speaking of brutal attacks, it will be interesting to see how the kids respond to everyone coming up to them. We're excited about that...but the kids (mostly Rachel) are pretty nervous about the prospect of meeting so many new people at once. I figure the best way to get over that is by jumping into the "deep water" immediately...so I'm going to ask if Rachel can get up in front of everyone and introduce all of us herself. Just kidding...do you really think I'd do that?!

We're about caught up on our rest...especially after my 7:30pm bedtime the other night. We've been going going going...take in all of the sights as well as the incredible sales around town. I can't believe what you can get here for a little money. We bought about 13 pieces of nice clothes yesterday for around $100. I promise you that those same clothes would have been at least 3 times the cost in Poland...and I think that's being extremely optimistic. It might be even up to 6 times as much. We kept telling the sales lady things like, "that would have been $x.xx more where we have been living." She got a real kick out of that and agreed that she would have waited that whole time to buy more new clothes as well.

There are some things that have caught us off guard here, surprisingly enough. For one, food is everywhere. We'd honestly forgotten about that. You can't escape it. When you're in the mall you literally cannot find yourself in a place where you can't see or smell some kind of food...ice cream, starbucks, restaurants, etc. It's amazing. And the portion sizes...good grief! Of course I'm not saying that I haven't been enjoying it...I have been...way too much! We're going to have to bring it down a notch before I need to begin replacing my belts!!

I also realized something was up when I walked into Petco the other day (the day after we arrived) and I was literally stopped in my tracks in the doorway. I couldn't believe my eyes. So many selections...so many of this and that. It took my about 5 minutes to just figure out what kind of dog food to buy. In Poland there were about 3 choices of Eukanuba. Here there was an entire wall (and a big wall at that) of Eukanuba choices...and none of them were what we bought in Poland. I finally picked up a bag of dachshund food, amazed that they actually had a special food for our little guys.

This all might be pretty funny or maybe even a bit unbelievable for some of you. I know it was when I've heard missionaries talk about this "phenomenon" in the past. But after spending 3 years and 8 months in Poznan we had seriously forgotten what life here looks like, smells, and tastes like. Funny huh?

Well, off to get ready for church. It's going to be strange not worshipping in Polish...and not leading communion (haha!). I'm going to miss it actually.

Back in the U-S-of-A

We're about to head out of here but I wanted to just write a post something here quickly.

We got home yesterday and it has been incredible. God has blessed us exceedingly here with family, friends, the home we're living in...everything has been, again, incredible!

The kids did great on our flights, all the time growing more and more in anticipation of seeing their family. Think of the milestones in their lives during the course of that one day: first airplane ride, first time out of Poland, declared American citizens in Detroit, meeting the big family...it's wild and there's only more to come.

I'll post more as I get time and especially when I get my internet connection setup at home. Thank you for your prayers. Everything yesterday went perfectly and we continue to bask in the joy of being back home!