For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
It was always popular but I never understood this verse. I heard different teachings on it but it never really clicked. I mean I got it but didn’t at the same time. To live is Christ… That sentence just doesn’t make sense.

Tonight I got it. I heard it switched out for other things like; To live is money, To live is cars, To live is fame, To live is respect, or photography, or girls, or sex, or marriage, or family, or whatever else. To live is popularity and to die is loss. Put anything you want in place of Christ, and to die is loss. Even good things; Family, friends, others, anything… because everything will one day pass away but the Lord remains forever.

I’ve always wondered what people would say when asked what the most important thing in their life was, and then ask their friends about them separately to see if they would match. I would guess almost every Christian would say Jesus, since anything else would be idolatry (Exodus 20:3), but would the way they spend their time and money agree with that? We all know actions speak louder than words. If I asked you what would you say? What would your friends say? What does your Facebook say? What about me? I have a small snippet on my website that says I’m a Christian… big deal. I can almost guarantee you that my cousins and my friends would say that photography is the most important thing in my life. Before this, I’ve never blogged about anything spiritual. I spend my time building my photography business, on Facebook or Twitter, sending and reading emails, watching TV, how much of it do I spend reading my bible or in prayer? To be transparent; not much, and usually none. If I said Jesus was the most important thing in my life, I’d have to admit that my actions don’t line up with that. Will I continue putting everything I have into my business? If I do, my life will have been for nothing. To live is photography and to die is loss.

Imagine if your friend planned to give you a gift that he put his heart and soul into. He spend MONTHS making this gift come together. When the day comes and he gives it to you, what is your response? What if you weren’t appreciative, and you put the gift on the shelf and continued texting your other friends, how would your friend feel? What about the sacrifice Jesus made? For God so loved the world, he [GAVE] his only son… that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He GAVE. That is a gift. What is our response? Do we put him on the shelf and continue to live for ourselves? The greater the gift, the greater the response.

I need to make a change. Is anybody with me?

We were just driving around and liked the doors and went with it. We had a sheet and I thought that we could do something eery since Halloween was just a few days away, even though I’m just now posting this in December. I shot at f4, ISO 200 and a slow .5 second shutter speed to have lots of blurry goodness. If you have any questions about how this photo was made, feel free to ask in the comments.

I shot these two images separate and combined them because I wanted to make sure I had a clean shot of the background that was really bright and saturated. I shot the background shot at about 2 seconds hand-held at iso 400. Typically I avoid shooting composite images but this was a basic one and I wanted to be cool like Rob since that’s what he does all the time.

By the way… Rob is an amazing conceptual photographer who makes me super jealous, you can and should see his crazy good work here and here.

Jason has been skating for about 9 or 10 years now, he’s from Rancho Cucamonga, and he shreds Upland Park like he’s got full special meter. His sponsors are Hurley Clothing, Pawnshop Skate Shop, and Hosoi Skateboards.

After you go through the photos, tell me which photo is your favorite in the comments and then make SURE to check one of his most recent video parts at the bottom.

-Nick

Switch frontside flip

Watch Jason’s part in Skate Movie:

If you don’t know Bwall, you should. He’s that guy who does a lot of different stuff and he does it all really really well. Originally, he’s from Tennessee even though he’s spent a good amount of time living on Brian Sumner’s couch in California or on tour with KKSM filming skateboarding.  He’s an incredible skateboarder himself and he’s just as good filming it too.  He also designs my favorite shirts for his brand, Rainy Day, which he’s unfortunately had to put on hold for now, because a mountain of video, motion graphics, and web design work monopolize his time.  Myself, among many others have tried to get him to make the move out this way, but his new nephew and the rest of his family keep him in TN, working on his newest venture, Blend Mode Creative which will launch very soon.  While you wait, check out his Vimeo page if you’re into awesome.

-Nick

I couldn’t be happier. It’s a lot to explain but in short, it’s better than a breath of fresh air. Boo YA! By the way, it’s been almost exactly one full year since my last blog post. Somebody needs to get me a present or something.

I’m not looking forward to re-formatting my old posts that I imported from my old blog but I’ll slowly make it happen. Check back for updates and new blog posts. Yep. New beautiful beautiful blog posts.

-Nick