Louise McKinny Park Engagement: Jenny and Byron
Since I have been so negligent in blogging, I have accumulated a list about a mile long of things that I could/should post–things like how my move went, what it is like now living on the farm, the start of school, taking the kids bowling for the first time ever, how much I detest people who park in the “Parents with Children” stall without any children in their car–the list is literally a mile long. The sad thing, however, is that if I were to start to try to catch up with all of that I am afraid that it would push other things so far behind schedule that you would never get to see Jenny and Byron’s engagement session.
I mean, I could take up hours of your time doing some “catch-up”, but I think it is time for me to admit defeat. I’m so far behind now, there is no way I can reasonably ever expect to get caught up now. It’s just time to start over.
So, that said, this past Tuesday I shot an engagement session for Jenny and Byron, one in which the pressure was sky-high. I mean, outside the norm, there was not that much pressure on me to perform; what I mean is that there was a lot of pressure on me to arrive on time. Let’s just say that in our first meeting, I was a little late (yes, I am again pointing out another one of my photography faux pas), and when talking to Byron on the phone I discovered how severely lacking my vocabulary is when it comes to synonyms for the word, sorry.
Well, on this occasion, I was not going to be late. When I left my house I gave myself so much extra time I could have scheduled a picnic in the park before Jenny and Byron arrived. As it turns out, construction, plus rush-hour, plus downtown equals near disaster. I ended up spending over fifty minutes driving, growing more and more anxious every second and when I arrived at the park, it was exactly at the scheduled time. So much for being early to make up for my previous disaster. The best laid plans…
Turns out Jenny and Byron had the same problems I did; and, since both of them are engineers, I would have complained about roadways and construction but electrical and waste engineers have little or nothing to do with roads.
Anyway, enough about me, let’s look at Jenny and Byron for a few minutes, shall we?
And, as always, I will end with my favourite shot. Enjoy.
Fort Edmonton Wedding: Sarah and Chris
Did you know that Cinderella’s name was originally Aschenputtel? I know. Mind blowing. Apparently there was only one thing in the world that could bring me out of my blogging fast–and that was Aschenputtel. Sometimes I wonder if I grew up under a rock because I was under the impression that the writers at Disney were (in keeping with the German theme of Aschenputtel) über writers that made up most of the story lines for their movies. Apparently I was wrong and as such, have to lump myself into the group of people being described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when he wrote this exchange between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson:
“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
“Frequently.”
“How often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then how many are there?”
“How many? I don’t know.”
“Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen.”
Ah well.
Anyway, I would be lying if I said that the only reason I decided to post on my blog was that I wanted to express alarm over my ignorance concerning the connection between Aschenputtel, Disney, and the Brother’s Grimm. That would be a total lie. It just so happened that at the exact moment I decided to blog Sarah and Chris’ wedding, I happened to stumble across the whole Aschenputtel thing, which, as I said earlier, blew my mind.
So, with that out-of-the-way we can get down to the business of posting the pictures from the wedding I shot last Friday at Fort Edmonton Park. There were so many great things about this wedding it would be hard to describe them all: from the modern-vintage feel of the bride to the reception held above Reed’s Bazar in Fort Edmonton, there were a lot of wonderful details. However, all that said, it is the little unexpected moments that occur, completely unlooked-for and unplanned, that make for great memories; and when the Stanley Cup made an appearance, everyone knew this was going to be the best wedding ever!
I’m kinda starting out-of-order but I just had to post that picture first. It is pretty cool!
Now, back to the beginning.
And I will end appropriately with a group shot of all the guests. It wouldn’t have been half as fun, I’m sure, for the bride and groom without all of you there!
Ladies and Gentlemen…
I was asked a simple question a few months ago:
How much would it cost to hire me to photograph the grade 12 graduation?
Since I really enjoy being able to do things for my old school (from filling in for a year as a basketball coach to taking the senior’s graduation photos), my soft spot for my alma mater made the question a very simple one to answer:
I’d do it for free. Pro Bono. I jumped at the chance for a couple of reasons but mostly because, I could see myself fenangling a free dinner out of the deal (probably the most important thing to me as a photographer is knowing when I get to eat); and, secondly because I would get to spend the day with a bunch of grads who would not only be dressed to the nines, but would be celebrating what is probably the biggest accomplishment of their young lives; and all that equals: fun times.
I would love to go off on a tangent here, as is my habit, but I have way to many pictures to post and I am afraid most everyone will be skipping what I am writing anyway to have a look-see.
So…
Let me introduce to you the Parkland Immanuel Christian School graduating class of 2011 as they do their best Abbey Road impression.
The whole time I was preparing these images for my blog, I could not help but feel that they needed to be accompanied by music–a soundtrack, if you will, was needed for this project to be complete; and, as my blog has no sound, the only way to remedy this situation was to create a slideshow. So, if you want to see more pictures from their day, head over to Vimeo and take a look!. I will say this: make sure to watch the slideshow in High Def because firstly, this class is just to sweet to be contained by the paltry limits that mere Standard Definition has to offer; and, secondly, it’s just that awesome!
Family Portraits: Pat and Ed
Okay, so I am behind in my blogging; but only because something very serious has happened as to cause me a setback of monumental proportions.
I moved.
Before I moved, I thought to myself,
“Hey, it’s not that big a deal. The first thing I will do is unpack my computer and things will carry on from exactly where I left off.”
I was wrong for thinking that. So very wrong. I’m actually not sure I knew exactly what I was thinking, truth be told. I was expecting my routine to be thrown off a bit, for sure; but I was wholly unprepared for the sheer magnitude by which my life would be thrown out of whack. So, firstly, I would like to both apologize to, and thank everyone who has been patiently waiting for me to finish editing photos. For a while there, it felt as though I moved not only to a new house, but to a new dimension in which I have to take crazy pills and there were less hours in the day to work with. Before I knew it, I was suddenly two weeks behind in my work while feeling as though I experienced the passage of only a couple of days at most.
I may have been abducted by aliens because, as they say, unexplained time loss is one of the characteristics shared by many abductees. And this makes it the second time I have had unexplained time loss, too. The first time happened several years ago when I was going to go to the gym. I looked at the clock and saw that it was one in the afternoon. Since I had to be at the gym by three I knew I had plenty of time so I lay on the couch and decided to watch television to kill an hour–one of those horrific, hour-long shows like Beastmaster or Hercules: the Legendary Journeys–I forget which one it was; but it was in that dreadful genre). After the satisfyingly predictable conclusion, I got up, hopped in my car and drove to the gym. When I got there it was 3:30.
Whhaaaat?
I don’t know what happened to all of the two o’clock hour. It simply disappeared.
Kinda like the last two weeks of my life. They just vanished.
So, that said,I am going to try and catch up on my blogging, starting with Pat and Ed, and in keeping with the tradition of my latest blog-themes, I have been confessing my photography foibles to you all–and falling off a picnic table would rank up there as one of the worst things you could do while on a shoot. Thankfully, I was able to tuck, then roll expertly, saving my camera from destruction, and only dirtying up my lens on the focusing ring a bit. See, I stepped backward while standing on a the top of the picnic table and as I was falling thought about how incredibly stupid it was for me to do that; and then, as I hurtled earthward, there was just enough time before impact to cradle my camera like a newborn babe, doing my best to save it from what most likely would be certain death.
Fortunately, my pride was the only thing seriously injured. It is funny to think that when everyone there was asking me if I was okay, all I wanted to do was yell “MEDIC!” while trying my best to console my camera. Fortunately, I did not have to lie to my equipment and pretend that everything was going to be okay.
Smooth operator.
That said, I will give Pat what she has been inwardly dying for–and that is a little preview of their family shoot.
Histograms? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Histograms!
I get asked, often, if I ever shot with film and my answer is always no. It’s not true to say that in my life I have never taken a picture with a film camera; but, I imagine that the asker is wondering if I have ever shot a paid gig, like a wedding or some-such, so with that in mind, my answer is always no. I have always been jealous of people who are old school and still take pictures with film because they possess a skill that I don’t have–and that skill is total awesomeness. To be able to shoot an entire session while receiving none of the instantaneous feedback a digital camera provides, and to be able to do this well, requires a level of sophistication,technical knowledge and patience that to me is worthy of serious respect. There is no histogram on the back of a film camera.
But, I’m sure this is all pretty obvious to you–as obvious as the direction this blog is heading, no doubt.
So, the other day, I was out garage sale-ing and after hitting dud after dud after dud, I was both extremely hungry and losing faith in the whole garage sale as a means to find a treasure hitherto unknown. At the last one of that afternoon I found a camera bag, filled with all kinds of ancient (read 1970′s) camera equipment, priced to clear at a whopping ten bucks. Since I was in the market for a new camera bag and was hesitating in my decision to buy one, going back and forth as to whether I wanted to drop the money and order a new Domke anyway, I figured that for 10 small, I could hardly go wrong. But besides buying it all just for the bag, the deep-seated urge to shoot with film was pushing me to buy it all and just get all Ansel Adams with that relic of a camera, fulfilling my dream of shooting black and white 60% of the time, all the time.
Well, in a shocking twist of events, I ended up no buying the camera bag or the medley of old camera equipment it contained. As I was looking at it the man running the garage sale came up to me and said,
“You can just have that all.”
“Pardon me?”
“Yeah, go ahead. Just take it all. I kinda just want to get rid of it.”
“For free?”
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
Did he not realize how close to making ten dollars he was? Did he realize that if he kept on this line he was going to lose a huge, ten-dollar sale? This was lunacy! I had been looking over the bag and its contents for probably five minutes and had firmly made up my mind to buy it, solely for the bag alone–but now this guy was working his way out of a sale and basically forcing me into the decision to learn how to shoot on film. How could I refuse?
“You sure?” I asked.
“Yup.”
“No. Really?”
“Really. You look like such a nice, young man and, looking into my crystal ball, I can see photographic greatness in your immediate future; so, I want you to have it.”
Well, that last part never happened; and, now that I am being honest, most of the above conversation never happened either. Other than the part with the man telling me I could just have the camera for free, to which I replied, saying, “Cool. Lisa! Free camera. Awesome. I’m hungry. Let’s skidaddle.”
Other than that, the rest was all hyperbole, the sweetest of all the literary terms.
And, now that I have this sweet new Pentax Spotmatic II, and a nice little Takumar 55mm 1.8 to fool around with I have been quite occupied, of late. I can’t believe how funny it feels to shoot a picture and then find myself looking at the back of the camera, forced by habit, to look for the histogram, finding only nice black bit of plastic staring back at me. It’s pretty cool, I have to admit.
But, strangest of all, is that my kids cannot comprehend this device. They know it is a camera but they cannot, for the life of them, figure out where the pictures once the shutter is released.
“Can I see the back?” they ask after I shoot a picture of them.
“Uhhhh, sure,” I say, showing them the plain, black back, sans screen.
“Is that whole thing the screen?” Ava says, a confused look on her face as she points to the back of the camera.
“Nope. There is no screen, it’s all on film.”
“Whats film? Is it kind of like ashes?” Ava retorts.
“Ashes?” I ask, incredulously. “Ashes? No it’s not like ashes,” I add with a laugh. “Where did you get that from?”
“I don’t know what film is–so I just guess it looked like ashes.”
Kids. They can be so crazy.
Books and camera equipment equals awesome garage sale!
Edmonton Wedding: Sadie and Al
I find it very difficult to remain professional and business-like when I am emotionally invested in something. Take this wedding for example. Not an easy task for me, being the photographer, because I was just that very thing–emotionally invested. My own mother-in-law was getting remarried and it was a big deal to me. Trying to wear both the hats of an invited guest and hired photographer required a difficult amount of juggling.
Let’s be realistic–amidst all that juggling, at one point I was bound to drop one of those hats, right?” Don’t ask me why, but I often get the irrepressible urge to confess some of the embarrassing things I have done; and today is no different. Whether it’s because I feel the need to have others share in my discomfort or some other deep-seated reason for confessing my wrongs, I just can’t help but tell people these things. So, here I am, a couple of weeks removed from Cindy and Ryan’s wedding where I felt the urge to talk about my misfortunate encounter with the paper flower during the ceremony, and I, again, am feeling the urge to blunder and tell; and, although, for my mother-in-law I did not do anything overtly embarrassing (no decorations were destroyed during the photographing of this wedding), I still managed to covertly do something that make me go, “Whoops!” seconds before beads of shamefaced sweat formed on my brow, almost at the exact moment I had realized what I had done.
It’s funny how fast your body can perspire. For me, I always wonder why it is that, when suitably mortified, every pore on my body puckers and I find myself instantly sweating. It may be imperceptible to anyone else, but I can feel it–that thin sheen of moisture across my brow; and it appears so fast I feel as though it boarders on perspiratory precognition. So there I was during the ceremony, suitably mortified I was when, to my disappointment I realized that I had dropped my photographer’s hat and was clutching my participant’s hat tightly in my hands. What I am getting at is that I had stopped taking pictures. I suddenly found myself just kinda standing there, camera dangling in my hand, watching the wedding unfold instead of photographing it. After the exchanging of rings and the registering of the marriage, there came the time in the wedding for the lighting of the candle; at this point I was caught up in the people, wrapped up in the moment, a regular guest, before I caught myself.
The moment had passed and all that was left to me was a film of hot, chagrined sweat that had magically condensed upon my forehead and a really, really awful picture.
It is very hard to remain detached when emotionally invested in something.
Sigh. Worst picture, ever.
Anyways…
I was thinking about what more I could say in regard to Sadie and Al that, firstly, I have not already said in one blog or another, and, secondly, that has not been said better by someone more qualified to speak on this topic then I am. People such as my wife, and her speech to her mother that made it impossible to wear my photographer’s hat and left nary a dry eye in the house–including my own; and Brad, Al’s son, whose words painted such a touching and personal view of his father; and especially I am left thinking of Al, the subject matter expert on his relationship with Sadie, and what he said during his thank you speech at the end of the reception where he expressed his absolute joy and wonderment that he has been so blessed by God that he has been given this chance to marry again.
You see, I could go on, telling you how beautiful the day was or how memorable the ceremony was; or, I could tell you how much I enjoyed the reception or how great the food was. But, in the end, all this would amount to nothing more than a superficial glossing of the wedding, a treatment that misses the mark so completely it would be laughable.
That said, for the first time ever, I am left not knowing how to express myself or what to write. Both of you, Mom and Al, know how we feel. We have had many, many long conversations and I don’t think there is any misunderstanding on how happy we are for you both. All I can think to say is that it is very, very hard to wear two hats; and, that said, I will take this opportunity to just stand and watch, keeping my blogging hat hung on the hat rack, just this once, without fear of being suitable mortified.
Sneak Peek Preview: Sadie and Al
It does not happen very often that I get the urge to post pictures the second I get home from a wedding; but today, I have just that urge. I don’t know if it came from the dozen or so people who approached me during the wedding telling me how they, already, could not wait to see the pictures from this wedding on my blog–and the wedding was not even over yet. Maybe it had something to do with that, or the fact that I honestly, have never seen a couple more happy, more in love on their wedding, than I have today. To be a part of something like that was almost unreal, and I will admit, highly contagious. It made me love my wife a little more, which is saying a lot.
So, when I got home, the first thing I did was unload my gear. The second thing I did was feed my kids’ supper and then put them to bed and then, that’s when I had the chance to have my sneak peek preview. It is usually my practice to download (or is it upload?) the pictures from my card to my computer to prevent a disaster from happening, and then I wait until the next day before I even look at them. I wait, because, as I always tell Lisa, “It’s to near to the trauma still.” There is a little bit of pressure on myself to perform when I shoot a wedding so that when I get home, I am always nervous to see my pictures, just in case they suck. So, I spend the rest of that night, psyching myself up to view them and then the next day I dive right in.
Not so today. I was extremely anxious to look, dying to know if I caught even the faintest hint of the emotion that was displayed between Al and Sadie. As a result, I found one picture that I absolutely love, that gives just a hint of the fun that I was able to share with them during their formal portraits.
And, on a side note, I am not sure I have ever seen or heard of another bride and groom having their formals done on Big Island, so, props to us for that! Yeah!
So, just like on Sesame Street, this Sneak Peak Preview will be short and sweet, and, oddly will be somewhat educational; but unlike Sesame Street, this contains no Oscar the Grouch only Telly giving this wedding five out of a possible five “wows”.
I will probably read this tomorrow and wonder what I was thinking referencing Sesame Street, but until then, enjoy!
Fort Edmonton Wedding: Cindy and Ryan
I have been to a few weddings in my lifetime and, for one reason or another, some are more enjoyable than others. To me, what makes a wedding memorable is when the intimacy of the whole affair is palpable. As a photographer, when I am able to feel the genuine outpouring of love and affection, not only between the bride and groom, but more specifically between the guests and the wedding couple. It’s that one, abstract detail that defines a wedding for me. When I can share in that, the wedding goes from good to great.
That is the feeling I got from Cindy and Ryan’s wedding. I won’t say that this wedding was perfect, as no wedding is, but this one, in my eyes, was very close. I would give it a higher ranking then a nine out of ten, but there was this one little incident involving myself destroying one of the decorations at the church during the ceremony–and not in a very quiet manner either. See, while decorating the church prior to the wedding day, Cindy closed off one of the doors leading to the sanctuary, wrapping the door handles with a decoration as a clear indicator that guests were to use the other door. Well, during the ceremony, I was shooting from the cordoned off area of the church. It was then that I realized the exchange of rings was coming and I had a long way to go to get in position for this moment. How best to cover a great distance in a short amount of time? Running, of course. So I decide that instead of sneaking around the front of the church I would go out the back doors, run, nay sprint, through the foyer, and come back through the second set of doors and arrive, cool as a cucumber, ready to snap some pics of the rings being exchanged.
Well, that one little decoration had other plans. As I tried to open the door, much to my chagrin, it is tied shut, a neat little flower-like decoration hanging from the handles on the other side. At this point, I’m committed to this course of action so I take a deep breath, push the door open and rip the ornament apart, and make good on my escape. In my humble opinion the photographer should be like the grey man–not very noticeable in any way, so as to get all the shots needed but not interfere or be memorable to the guests when recalling the event. With that in mind, I’m pretty sure that just for good measure, I stepped on the decoration before letting the door bang noisily shut behind me, making my efforts during the ceremony to remain “hidden in plain sight” pretty foolish and disruptive.
Sigh.
Besides that I was annoying, this was also the first wedding that Lisa was my second shooter. Before the wedding she asked,
“Can I second for you?”
“Sure?” I replied, in exactly that manner–with a question mark hanging at the end.
“Okay, cool. But, just so you know, I don’t know what I am doing behind a camera. At all.”
Having a second shooter that has no experience using a camera is not an ideal situation, let me tell you, unless that second shooter is my wife, Lisa. After being there for every photo shoot I have ever done, having been through the pre-planning and been involved in critiquing almost every image I have ever taken; and, being my premier research assistant extraordinaire, she knows how my mind works, probably better than I do–so having her along was probably the best thing I could have ever done for myself while shooting a wedding. I felt immediately that I had a photographing partner, someone I could talk to and bounce ideas off and, more importantly, someone to remember things that I may forget. ”Remember that one pose you were thinking of the other day…” was all she needed to say in order to spark my memory of a recollection of something that, if on my own, I most likely would have forgotten.
So to say Lisa is an unskilled second shooter would be a grave misrepresentation because she was very valuable, even with her lack of experience with a camera.
All that said, I was talking about Cindy and Ryan’s wedding, which, as I was saying was a beautiful affair. The reception was held at Fort Edmonton Park, the day before it opened officially for the summer, meaning we had the entire park to ourselves. Other than the handful of staff wandering the grounds, there was not a soul in sight. It even gave us opportunity to break into the building housing the carousel where we had some amazing photos.
I think I inadvertently wore them out as there were so many great places to shoot we ended up walking the entire length and breadth of the place, during which we ended up time travelling from 1846 up to 1920–and you know my thoughts on time travel.
I will end by saying that this was my first wedding of the year and a very memorable way for me to kick off the wedding season; and, a big thank you to Cindy and Ryan, as well. I hope you are having a great honeymoon–where ever you are at this very moment! Your wedding was beautiful and it was over way to fast; in the words of Ron Pope, “ beautiful things never last, That’s why fireflies flash.”
Now, time for a photographic intermission to let you know that this wedding also had Lindt chocolates, pushing it back up to a nine-point-five out of 10. Awesome.
Resume photos.
I will end with what maybe a stereotypical ending shot, but a beautiful one, none the less.
**** Special note to the groomsmen, but especially David: your photograph with the leading lines will have to wait for another day unless you email me a special request to view it. I will tell you this, however–it is most awesome and the lines just lead your eye.
Its About Time, Riley Jacob!
No, Riley is not walking yet. Sigh. That would be cool, if he were; but, alas, he is not.
I don’t know if it means that I am more of a bad parent then a bad photographer, but I finally got around to shooting Riley’s headshot. I do recall that last year at approximately this time, Lisa asked me to shoot a nice headshot of each of the kids so she could fill some frames she had bought. Well, as a testimony to how fast time goes by, Riley is suddenly a year old and he finally got his own, dedicated session for the sole purpose of getting a nice picture to hang of him along side those of our girls. Like the lawyer with a 15-year-old Will or a landscaper with a disinterested, weed infested yard, I am the photographer with outdated pictures of all his kids.
But it was not for lack of trying that I have not had a picture to hang of Riley. I shift the blame one hundred percent onto Riley himself. I’ve tried, but Riley is an uncooperative sort, prone to all kinds of misery, and every time Lisa and I set something up for him, Riley would have other plans–whether it be getting sick, getting angry, or just plain getting bored and falling asleep, it never seemed to work. And if it seemed that Riley was going to cooperate, mother-nature had her own ideas.
Through all this, I learned something very important. In the past I was placing far too much emphasis on the location of the shoot than anything else, trying to force things into what I wanted. I mean, a great photographer can find amazing light in any location, but I am not a great photographer; through trial and error I have learned that it makes things go much smoother when I first look for great light, which, incidentally, has the odd effect of making the location look that much better.
So, the other night, Riley was in the best mood of his life (which is also truly a key ingredient in this equation, lets not under play that fact); and so at that moment, Lisa and I scooped him up, rustled up the softest, most excellent light I could, and had at it.
I am happy to say that Riley had his shoot, be it over due as it was. And since Riley just turned one, I will say that this is his birthday present–even though he is too young to know or care what he gets for his birthday.
Since I mentioned it, I guess I will post a few pics from his birthday celebration we held for him while on vacation in California. There is no better way to turn one then in Cali!
Okay, now you saw his one year old birthday, here are the photos from his shoot, shortly thereafter.
Its Not Often I Find Myself Humbled By a Book
I will admit that the vast majority of my best reading is done in the bathroom. Besides the time spent with a book in my bed before I go to sleep, the peace and solitude that comes with reading behind a locked door is unmatched; and, I know for a fact, I am not alone in this. Bathroom readers abound throughout the globe. Of this I am convinced. In fact I am also quite sure that bathroom reading, like the lineup, is a globally recognized social norm, the type of activity common to almost all humanity, no matter your place or station, and no matter what your culture.
Everyone does it.
I figure that, over the course of my life, I have spent many, many long hours locked in the bathroom, the hustle of daily life drowned out by the white noise of the fan, with either a book on hand; or failing that, leafing idly through one of the reams of magazines and catalogues that call the bathroom their home. Between the reading tastes of Lisa and I the bathroom has quite the eclectic ensemble of magazines and catalogues, ranging anywhere from Anthropologie and J. Crew, all the way up to Martha Stewart Weddings, Popular Mechanics and Photoshop magazines; and, all this seasoned liberally with iconic reads such as The Potty Book for girls, and Dora the Explorer. The reading choices for my family and for the comfort and entertainment of my guests during their visits to my throne room are vast.
Of late, the subject of my reading (both bathroom and otherwise) has diverged from a Charles Dickens centred library to focusing on a series of books lent to me by my friend, Dan. I am not exactly sure where he finds such great reads all the time; but, if I ever am in want of an interesting read and am stuck for ideas, he will have twenty-five suggestions that leave me stuck again, merely for over abundance of great suggestions. It is not my habit to book-review something I have not quite finished but I am going to review this series anyway, because after reading the first three books, I can safely say I have sufficient a taste to accurately give account of the flavour of the books proceeding.
The series is called, The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years, which gives historical and factual accounts of the people, places and things that revolve around the birth and spread of Christianity, starting from Jesus Christ and working through to the present age. As I am only on the third book, encompassing the third century A.D., I have a ways yet to go but, as I mentioned, these three have given me enough of a taste to formulate a solid impression. As a history junkie (and especially a Roman history junkie) these books are perfectly suited for me–you can’t talk early Christianity without talking about the Roman Empire, a fact which delights me to no end, making this a very interesting read.
Besides appealing to the historian within, there were two substantial things that struck me while reading these books. The first being how completely lacking my knowledge of the specific details concerning Christianity’s formative years was. Outside of the accounts given in the Bible and what I learned in school, I really had no knowledge of the specifics surrounding the spread of Christianity. The more I read the more I came to see that anything I knew about Christian history was so very shallow. I feel, now, kind of awed that I would not desire to know more, being that this history is, in essence, my history; but, at the same time, seeing now how rich and storied a history it is, I am glad I came to discover it, regardless of how late it was coming.
The second thing, and most important to me, was that I learned exactly what persecutions Christians suffered at the hands of the Romans during the first several hundred years after Christ’s death. Before now, I knew that Christians were killed in a variety of horrific ways; but that knowledge seemed so abstract and distant. To see how steadfast so many were during torture and while facing execution in grotesque ways, does to me now what it did to so many Christians who were witness to it then as well: it gives me encouragement. I feel, almost ashamed that I would consider any inconvenience I suffer as part of being a Christian today as worthy of a second thought in the light of what Christianity has been through in the past.
The impact of learning the things portrayed in these books was immense. It’s rare that I read a book that changes the way I see the world, but this one has–putting my life into better perspective.
All said, the books for me could be simply described as humbling.
