The Black Church at Buðir (in Iceland) is a striking, black, wooden structure with white door and windows. Black pitch (or tar) preserves the church from the weather and has done so for most of a century at a time. This same black pitch is used to preserve the hulls of wooden sailing vessels against rot. The aphorism pitch black describing darkest of nights derives from this same black pitch. The church began serving parishioners in 1703. The rebuilding of the church occurred in 1847. A woman petitioned her King for permission to do so after the hamlet of Buðir encountered a decline in trade. Steinunn Larusdottir won her King’s consent to rebuild the church.

My curiosity about this church stirs. What would Sunday’s service be like for a parishioner when the church was first built? What would the order of service have been? How would the parishioner come to know God? How would he or she meet the people within the narrative of old and new testaments? Was the church the place to meet in the hamlet of Buðir for fellowship through each week? A broader curiosity, involving centuries perhaps, is how Viking heritage / culture came to resolve and coalesce with Christianity.

Quotes to Consider – ‘Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming.’ – Eugene Peterson, Montana-based Pastor, author-translator, translating the bible himself into what would become ‘The Message Bible,’ the Bible in current, everyday, layman’s language.

Listening to – an unabridged audiobook memoir by Bruce Springsteen entitled, ‘Born to Run;’ current songs include ‘My Debts Is Paid’ (Brian Houston), ‘When One Door Closes’ (Carrie Newcomer), ’24 Frames’ (Jason Isbell), ’78 Eatonwood Drive’ (Garrett Viggers & a Thin Places Band) and ‘Hope’ (Sarah Masen).

Before dawn, out with my camera, capturing reflections along the Athabasca River as it travels through Jasper National Park (July, 2016).

Quote to Consider – ‘Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But, above all, know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.’ – George Eastman

Listening to – ‘Singing Is The Most Companionable of Arts,’ an ‘On Being with Krista Tippett’ podcast interviewing Alice Parker. “The voice is a part of us much as our physical appearance is, and the customs that we have, the way we use our bodies … so we each have a sound. And we communicate emotional states through that sound that are impossible to get at any other medium. It’s deep. Sound gives us what is behind the surface. Sight gives us the surface (excerpt, On Being, 8 December 2016).”

In my photography I am back to basics. I am working the fundamentals of post-processing in Adobe Lightroom 5. Haste in producing a photograph is taking back seat to broader consideration of what can happen with each image. Post-processing holds choices that I would also make using the Nik Collection. The resulting photograph, though, does not degrade with each edit.

B-side images contain surprises – they often hold gold. Post-processing becomes a means of mining for that gold. It becomes a means of re-discovering what you saw and now see. It is practice. It is also a kind of meditation, a practice of seeing more. I am tied in with Mitchell Kanashkevich for post-processing instruction with Adobe Lightroom 5. There is more to understand / discover – yet, I am getting somewhere.

Images – Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, Halsanefshellir Cave and Dyrolaey Arch – South Coast, Iceland.

Quote to Consider – ‘Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.’ – Winston Churchill

Listening to – ‘Truth, Beauty, Banjo,’ an ‘On Being with Krista Tippett’ interview with Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, presented as podcast.