a small view into my life _ by _ mark collins

Moving Time!

2009-07-05T01:12:00.002-05:00

it's been 6 years that i've been posting on this blog. and it's been great, but the time for change has come.
i'm integrating my blog into my website. my website is going to become sort of a one stop shop for all things by Mark Collins.

http://bymarkcollins.com is the place to go.
click the "blog" tab when you get there to see what i've been up to, and what i've been thinking about.

The extra super small view into my life…

2009-03-12T04:05:00.006-05:00

…at least that’s what this blog seems like with how little I post.

Anyways, a life update is long overdue.

Since the last post was, well, last year. We’ll start there.
Christmas and new years were great, my older sister Rebecca came back from Guatemala and then her fiancé drove up shortly after…..fiancé? Yep, she got engaged, while doing what God told her to do(how cool is that.)
To shorten that story up, since most of my readers already know it, the wedding was last saturday. It was a beautiful wedding, and everyone had a great time. And the happy couple are off on their honeymoon.

And with how big the pile of presents is, i'm thinking i should get married sometime soon too, anyone out there want to be my bride? we can split the gifts 50/50 : )

To back up a bit, I shot another wedding that required a bit of driving, a friend in arkansas. That was jan 31st. That wedding went really well as well.

On to the present, I’m still working for FLCC, lots of stuff on my todo list for that one.
Then I occasionally do some support for showit, answering help tickets.
Matt and I are working on developing nameless design, building it into a better company.
On the more personal business front, the byMarkCollins suite of businesses are in desperate need of a overhaul, which is in the works, but moving slowly, since some of the above jobs have to take priority at times.

In the non work area of my life, I’m becoming increasingly in love with music. I’ve been enjoying playing the guitar, at least the assembled ones, the disassembled one is being refinished, or maybe refurbished, whatever the term it’s going to look much nicer than when I got it.
I’m also going to start learning piano soon, I was given a great little 61 key roland keyboard. Which I immediately took apart, and is now sitting on my desk in pieces. It had a few broken keys, new ones are on the way, so it’ll be back together soon. And once I find a power adaptor for it, it’ll be good to go.
Been enjoying playing the drums here and there as well, my set is in the basement so I don’t get down there much, but it's fun when i do.
The other thing is, I’ve been slowly building up my ability to record, my closet is a “vocal booth”, and I’ve been adding new pieces of equipment as the budget allows. This is going to be a great tool, not only for recording my own music, but also the music and songs of people I know, and whoever God brings me into contact with.
My heart is for music that is original and new, and glorifies God.

the new face of nameless DESIGN

2009-02-04T03:43:00.003-06:00

Matt and I have just finished a completely brand new site for our web design company nameless DESIGN.
click the image above to go check it out. we are especially proud of this one.
try out our contact page and let us know what you think.

prayer for our new president Barack Obama

2009-01-20T23:41:00.005-06:00

Schlyce Jimenez posted a excellent prayer for Obama, our new president.
click the image above to go to her blog and read it.

it doesn't matter if you voted for him or not, it doesn't matter what you think about him.
if you're a christian, now is the time to pray for our leaders, their family, and our government.

random photo

2009-01-17T22:59:00.002-06:00

here's a photo from the other day.
this is micah's cat, and he was hanging out in my room, so i took a picture.

food for thought

2008-11-28T15:27:00.005-06:00

just something to think about.
what kids are eating, and also what we are eating.

brief web update

2008-11-19T02:45:00.004-06:00

just a quick note about a couple things i just updated.

on the sidebar on the right you'll see a section called 'places to go' i've just updated that to include a few more things of mine.

and if you know anyone getting married next year, on my photography site i decided to do a end of year special and reduced my price from $3600 down to $3000. that price is only good for couples that book before jan 1st. the actual wedding date can of course be anytime in the next year.

for 09 i'm going to be revamping allot of things and making some big changes to my web presence.

so take a moment to go check out those links. and then come back next year to see what i've come up with.

Costa Rica: day 5, 6, 7 and home.

2008-11-13T16:02:00.004-06:00

so the last few days flew past, we traveled into the mountains and then back down, saw lots of great views, went to many churches, ministered to lots of people.
we also didn't have much time or internet, so blogging and slideshows didn't happen like the first few days.
but now we're back home, safe and sound, and starting to catch up on things.
here are the last three slideshows:
day 5
day 6
day 7
the image at the top of this post is a little digital painting i did on my iPhone while on the plane back.

click here for Joe's post

Costa Rica: day4

2008-11-07T00:57:00.003-06:00

well it's almost 1 am, today was quite a long day for me,
got up around 8:30, had breakfast, and then shortly after i went to help out one of the guys here with some photoshop, video, and mac tricks.
from there i came back to the house, grabbed my camera stuff, and we were off on a 3hr drive to where we ministered tonight.
i'm pretty much falling asleep sitting here, so i'll jump to the conclusion, and say it was a great night, i really feel Gods love flowing, and i was happy for the entire bumpy, curvy, hilly, 3hr ride back.

pictures are on Joe's post
link for the larger slideshow is right here

goodnight everyone

Costa Rica: day3

2008-11-06T00:24:00.002-06:00

Today went really well. again i'm going to point you to Joe's post about today for his take on the day.

After breakfast i helped out with some stuff for their website, sharing what i know.

From there we went downtown San Jose to take care of a few things and had a nice lunch.

Tonight Joe and i tried out creating a narrated slideshow. and i think it came out great.
photos by me, voice and guitar by joe.
so turn on your sound and click play below, or click here to see the big version.

Costa Rica: day2

2008-11-04T23:19:00.003-06:00

today went very well, the flights were on time and we had no problems going through the various airports and such.

tonight we went to a church and ministered to some students there. check out Joe's post for a slideshow of some images i took of that.

no video tonight, the time here is going to be pretty busy so i'm not sure if i'll have time to edit together videos on the trip. but definitely keep checking back for updates while we're here, and then videos once we're back in the states.

speaking of the states, if the news predictions are true about our next president, there's no question that now is the time for the church to get in gear and function properly as the body of christ should.
these are going to be some challenging times coming up sooner than we realize.

it's time to grow closer to God our father, and be led by the spirit in everything we do.

busy day tomorrow.
goodnight

Costa Rica: day1

2008-11-04T00:17:00.006-06:00

Well we had a interesting start. Read Joe’s entry on today for his perspective.
Basically, there wasn’t enough time left till his passport expired, so they couldn’t let him go.
Here’s a quick video from shortly after we found out.

Only option was to get it renewed downtown chicago.
So off we went downtown, and enjoyed the beautiful day around the city.

here's some pictures from the day: (click here to view larger)

Successfully renewed the passport, enjoyed the day, and we’re all set to head off to the airport again in a few hours from now.

To everyone that’s been praying for us, Thank You!, you’re prayers pave the way and make everything we’re doing possible.

Abortion, from my perspective

2008-10-28T07:35:00.006-05:00

Elections are coming up fast, many people have even taken advantage of the option to vote early, and have already cast their vote. I will be voting early as well, since I’m going to be out of the country on the 4th. Now on to the topic of this post.

As with every election, one of the hot topics is abortion.
Pro-life on one side pro-choice on the other.
Some people base 100% of their voting decision on this one issue.
Groups spend tons of time and money fighting for their side. Pro life people want it made illegal, pro choice people want to make it easily available.
But here’s the thing, everyone is missing the point, focusing precious resources on the symptom not the problem.
The problem is not the procedure. It is the demand for the procedure.
Think about it, it’s just like any business, no demand means no facilities needed.

At this point some of you may be thinking “Ok mark, you’re talking in ideals. but the reality is, there is demand”

So here’s what’s going on, take a look around, look at the society we live in, glance at the entertainment. We live in a society that says, sex outside marriage is great, everyone is having sex, enjoying it, having a good time, wear a condom and you’ll be fine.
Find a more dramatic show where a girl actually gets pregnant, and society and cultural norm pipe right up saying abortion is the best option, just take care of the problem so you can continue to live your life.

Why does no one tell the girls that when you have sex with multiple partners, her body will begin to release less and less of the natural chemical that is designed to bond her to her husband and deepen her love for him(this is the same exact chemical produced when a mother nurses her child. Which bonds her to her baby.)
The result of this is sex begins to have very little significance to her, the rush of that chemical slowly goes away, and before long sex=nothing. And when she eventually get’s married, her feelings towards sex stay exactly the same, and the marital relationship suffers.
The world leads the young to believe that the only possible consequences are STDs and pregnancy, and turns right around and says, but if you use proper protection you’ll be fine.

Why does no one tell the young that yes, sex is great, it’s a gift from God, but pregnancy is not the only risk, having pre-marital sex will rob them of the joy that it is supposed to bring in your marriage.

Sex has become so taboo in christian circles, resulting in no one talking about it, the truths are not taught. And the kids are left with few options to answer their questions, so they accept the worlds ideas, and learn about it on the internet, and they end up with a perverted truth about sex and what it is. and cheap pornographic ideas about what it should be like.
And all they hear from the church is “don’t have sex before marriage”
without any deep reasons or convictions that doesn't hold up against the pressure of the world for long.

Come on church, we are the body of Christ, and we’re not doing our job.
You never saw Jesus shying away from tough and challenging topics.
Most christians live a watered down existence, staying away from anything that in their mind might offend someone, or “push them away from God.”
But the reality is, people are starving for something real and genuine, they see right through the soft christian facade most churches front, and they see a bunch of baby immature people, who have little to no reality or genuineness about their relationship with God. And they come to the conclusion that christianity is nothing, so they move on to other religions till they find something real that fills the need they have inside.
And you know what, these starving people are not just people who grew up with no beliefs. statistics say that 80% of people leaving high school and going to college, stop going to church with zero plans of going back.
Do you hear this? These starving people that are searching for something real, are our own kids, kids that grew up in the church.
And if the church doesn’t wake up and start behaving like the body of Christ, this is going to continue.
And the next generation in their search for truth will accept the worlds perverted truths about every area of life.

You want to make this country a better place? Start focusing on the problems instead of wasting valuable time trying to fix a symptom.

some more info on the costa rica trip

2008-10-26T00:57:00.005-05:00

Hey Everyone,

In case you haven’t heard yet, and didn't read my last post, I’m going on a mission trip November 3-10.
This is going to be my first….everything(mission trip, flying outside the US)
My pastor has asked me to accompany him on a trip to Costa Rica. We’ll be working in churches, bible schools and the ministry of a missionary there who reaches all throughout Central America.
Personally I’ll be helping out in the area of computers, and capturing the trip with photography and video.

so really really soon, just over 1 week.
if you'd like to help out with the trip here are some ways for you to get involved:

1. Pray for us!
When you’re going on a trip like this the devil doesn’t like it much and will do everything he can to oppose it. So prayer is very much needed.
Pray for our safety
Pray for our effectiveness
Pray that God’s will be accomplished

2. Help with the finances of the trip.
The trip will cost around $1,000 per person, $3000 altogether ,
this will include some extra money that we can give to those in need while we’re there.
Tax-deductible gifts can be sent to
Family Life, PO Box 585 Glen Ellyn, IL 60185-0585
or you could give on-line at www.familylife.cc/donate
on that page you’ll see this:

If you’d like to add any notes along with the donation, when you’re on the confirm donation screen you’ll see the option to add note:

click that and type whatever you’d like.

3. Hopefully this doesn't come across as selfish, but you can help with my personal financial needs. I’ll be using a good amount of my personal equipment to do this, computer and cameras that i've invested allot in. So any extra monies to help me out with upkeep and accessories would be a huge help.

No pressure to give any money, but please do pray.
thanks for reading

what's happening?

2008-09-28T02:18:00.004-05:00

hi to my few readers, (probably more than i realize, this is the internet after all)

been over a month since my last post.

here's a bit of what's been happening in my life:

-(aug 21st) had a birthday, i'm 23 now.

-bought a 40d and a boda dry lens bag to have for the wedding. love this camera, nice improvement over my old 20d.

-(aug 31st) shot the wedding of a good friend of mine in oklahoma.
drove down with a couple great friends of mine who helped me out with the wedding and in general just made the trip great.

-(forgot the date) went to the free to succeed tour, helped video it, and got to hang out with a few of the guys afterwards, ended up with a part time job. that was fun. just officially started the job recently. yey for extra income.

hmm what else

OH!
-(sep 22) applied for my passport, in prep for...
-(nov 3-10) i'm going on a mission trip with Joe Barlow, going to San Jose, Costa Rica. i'll be working with a guy down there doing computer stuff(since that's one of my strong points), as well as taking photographs and video.
should be a really amazing trip.
a really good friend is super excited for me, which has actually made me pretty excited to go.

i've not gone to bed till around 4am the last few saturday nights, sundays i have to wake up at 6am to get ready, looks like the pattern continued this week.
actually i've been staying up till about 4 every night this week, i just usually don't have to wake up early.
i told andrew i'd try to get to bed earlier tonight, didn't happen.

for those that know what twitter is, you can follow me here.
i post random things there roughly once a day.

well that's all that's coming to mind, time to get in bed and at least get a little rest before i have to work in the morning.

i'd say that i'll be trying to post more often, but i've done that many times and it didn't happen, so till next time...i'll be off living life.

published

2008-08-13T15:40:00.006-05:00

this came as a result of being part of a art exhibit you can read about it in my previous posts here and here
i guess outreach magazine heard about it somehow, and did this little article:

to clarify, the being published refers to the image of my painting.

the state of my life

2008-08-08T04:22:00.007-05:00

Lots of thoughts going through my head at the moment, hopefully this won’t be to difficult to read.
The image above is my room, as it is right now, as you can see the entire surface of my desk is covered with things. I have allot of things. A list that would take a long long time to write out. So why is it that it’s so easy to focus to much on the things I don’t have, the next item on my “to get” list. The list does have a end, but I get the feeling that the closer you get to the end of the current list, the more the list grows beneath that. I’ve discovered I’m amazingly good at spending, basically everything I make. Every expenditure of course has a good reason behind it.
You see, I have allot of interests, just look at my website, and I’ve managed to turn most of them into businesses, which of course all require certain things(equipment) to do well. In essence, I work to buy things to enable me to work more. I do enjoy what I do, so I look forward to all this.
This brings me to something I’ve been thinking allot about for awhile. God has given me allot of talents, probably more than I know of.
So I’ve been thinking allot about why, why has he given me all this, and how should I be using them. And you know what I’ve come up with….i still don’t know. But here’s what I do know, my purpose in life, I never thought I knew this before, I always thought it would be something along the lines of a job description, like “my purpose in life is to paint beautiful images that capture the attention of the viewer and awaken their imaginations.” While that does sound pretty nice, I’m learning that is not my purpose, that may be part of what I’m supposed to do, I don’t know, but it’s not the underlying purpose.
It’s so easy to get caught up worrying about specifics, check out matthew 6:25-34 that whole thing is good, here’s the part that’s really hitting home with me right now:

“What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”

So what’s my purpose? My purpose is not about me, I have to quit living a life for me, focused on me. My purpose is not inward focused, it’s outwards focused, to love my God with everything that’s in me, to love others with the same kind of love God has for me.
If I simply do this, and follow His direction through this life of love, I will fulfill my purpose, and use all of my talents as He intended for them to be used.

This is really good

2008-07-31T03:18:00.002-05:00

Ok so I'm posting from my iPhone so this isn't going to be long.
But I was just readings Romans today (chapter 1-8) in the message bible version.
And I just want to say that if you've ever struggled with sin in the past and couldn't seem to stop doing those things no matter how hard you tried, take the time to read this.
It talks allot about what God has done for you and His love for you.
If you don't have a bible in that version go to bible gateway.com you can read it there.

That's all for now. God loves you, truly, never forget that.

i just read a good book...well, not technically a book.

2008-06-28T02:23:00.007-05:00

Ok so there’s this guy, Max Hsu, producer, song writer, photographer, pretty much your standard multi talented guy.
The other day I found out about his blog from david jay, DJ said to go check out his blog for some incredible photography.
I’ll just say this, I went for the photography, and stayed for the writing.
Tons of really good advice and wisdom about creating, and life in general.

Something he talked about a few times is if you want to do something, spend 15 minutes a day doing it, because you’ll go so much farther 15 minutes a day than if you spent 3hrs on saturday, as saturday never comes.
Inspired by this I’ve just started something I’m calling “the 15min list”
The things that will go on this list are those things that I want to do, but I never seem to do.
Here’s what it looks like so far:

In case your wondering, that’s a dashboard widget called checkmarker, and it’s really handy for keeping track of things.

So, go check out Max’s blog, I ended up reading the entire thing, beginning to now. Had me laughing, learning, and being seriously challenged to change how I live my life.
Also somewhat inspired me to share more of my knowledge and things I have learned and will learn. So look for some for stuff from me in the future.

chocolate slavery

2008-06-24T02:07:00.008-05:00

two words that should never be related, but this is a sad reality.
it's no secret that i'm a fan of chocolate.
what you may not know is that the majority percentage of the worlds chocolate is produced on the ivory cost of africa, and in large part the labor is provided by child slave labor.
i'm not going to repeat allot of information here, but do a google search for "chocolate slavery" and you'll find lots of information on the topic.

so what can you do to make a difference? how can we change a multi billion dollar industry?
first thing you should know, you vote with your dollars, every time you buy something you are saying "i approve of this item, keep making it exactly the same" corporations could care less about letters/phone calls/petitions. what they care about is money.

at this point you're possibly saying something along the lines of, "i'm just one consumer, the small amount i spend isn't impacting anything"
and this is possibly true on it's own, but through being conscious of what you spend your money on, and also telling others why, educating others, then we can start to make a difference. knowledge is power, the more people that are knowledgeable about their purchase decisions, the more power we have, the more influence we have.

so a buying guide for chocolate:
forget the major brands like Mars, Hershey's and Nestle. they could care less about the fact that they're the reason for the slavery.
instead, look for organic chocolate, it's better for you, often tastes better, and is slave free.
the other option, look for fair trade certified. fair trade guarantees that the producer was paid a fair price for their goods.
and fair trade isn't just chocolate, make a effort to buy fair trade as much as possible, check out their site for more info. www.fairtradecertified.org

if you can find fair trade certified organic chocolate, that's some good stuff.

so in the future, think twice before grabbing that candy bar, you can make a difference in the world, simply make knowledgeable decisions, and share information with the people you know.

and if you want to buy me chocolate, you know what to look for.

UPDATE: read the comments for some additional info from a guest poster and myself.

6/2/08

2008-06-02T03:32:00.003-05:00

So
I’m 22
Almost 23 (aug 21st, in case you were wondering)

I remember sometime awhile ago I told a friend, if I’m still living at home at 23 I need to seriously re-evaluate my life. Here I am, less than three months away, no where closer to being financially independent than I was when I said that. So I’m thinking maybe I should go ahead and start that re-evaluation.

I thought about going and getting a job, maybe somewhere like a music store, that would be cool, regular hours, regular income, around instruments all the time.
But now thinking about it again, how irresponsible would that be, I already have a list of things that I haven’t done, that need to be done, what kind of character would be to say to those people “sorry I haven’t done that for you yet, but hey I just got another job and I’m busy so it’s going to be even longer.” So in that way getting a ‘regular’ job would look responsible from one angle and irresponsible from another.

Hmmm…responsibility: the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.

The problem becomes clear, it’s me, my complete lack of being responsible, keeping my word in a timely manner. I can name several projects off the top of my head that should have been done months ago. How can I sanely expect higher levels of income, when my work habits are exactly the same as they’ve always been, which in essence comes down to “oil the squeaky wheel and as long as nothing is squeaking then it’s all good” the squeak usually being a email.

So, why am I posting this for the world to see, (possibly including clients past/present/future, and my boss.) the answer to that being accountability. When everyone knows your habits, everyone knows the reasons things are the way they are. And they know when to call you out and challenge what you’re doing.

So here’s what up, I need to change, I need to get my life on track, this involves going against the grain of deeply rooted habits, aka, not easy. But completely necessary if I want my life to expand beyond the 8 walls of my room(my room isn’t exactly square.) and making about 1k a month.

So, look for changes to start happening, if you don’t see anything, send me a email markATbymarkcollinsDOTcom, or contact me in any other way you have access to.

thinking right

2008-05-25T02:39:00.005-05:00

so this image you see here is actually the logo i designed for new generation entertainment. the concept being thoughts and ideas coming from God.
i'm realizing more and more that this isn't just a better way to create entertainment, this is a better way to live life.
so this image is now the wall paper on my cell phone, to remind me that i need to stay connected up to God.
check out isaiah 55 especially the first half of the chapter.
the point being, life spent thinking Gods thoughts instead of your own, i believe this is the best way to live.
i'm using this logo to continually remind myself to keep my mind in line. you're welcome to do the same.

Sabbath Center - may 08 retreat

2008-05-08T03:06:00.007-05:00

Just wanted to write a quick post to share some images with you.(click above image to launch slideshow)
I went on a prayer retreat from sunday evening through tuesday morning at the sabbath center.
It was a really good time, resting for one, hanging out and talking with the other guys that came(Joe Barlow, Rob Ritacco, Roger Flanagan) and also walking and just hanging out with God.
In the slideshow you’ll see pretty much all the images I took minus the bad ones that I deleted. Driving in, the morning walk, and the evening walk.
If you get bored of it be sure to at least go to the end and take a look a the couple panorama and HDR(high dynamic range) images. the image in this post is my favorite of the HDR ones.

a good message on how the church should operate

2008-05-03T02:57:00.003-05:00

i heard about this guy named kris vallotton recently in a post on sarah's blog.

i just listened to a message he gave titled Living In Covenant. and it really speaks allot about how the church should be operating.
here's the link to the podcast, i really recommend taking a listen.

Revival?

2008-04-29T14:07:00.003-05:00

Revival, what is it? why do christians seem to long for it as some kind of ultimate outpouring of God?
Lets take a look at what the dictionary has to say about the term:

Main Entry: re·viv·al
1: an act or instance of reviving : the state of being revived: as a: renewed attention to or interest in something b: a new presentation or publication of something old c (1): a period of renewed religious interest (2): an often highly emotional evangelistic meeting or series of meetings
2: restoration of force, validity, or effect (as to a contract)

Ok so that’s revival, the act of reviving, and to clarify “revive” is “to return to consciousness or life.”
Here’s my point, to need revival, you need to be dead.
People always seem to be longing for revival, which is basically saying, we’re dead.

Why as a church are we declaring so loudly that we’re dead, and saying someday we’ll come back to life through some big outpouring. And yet live our lives the same, remaining dead, changing nothing.
In case you don’t understand here’s something to think about, being alive, living, that is base level, that is standard. If something is going wrong, don’t just sit there longing for life, find out what is happening, find the cause, why are you dying? And once you find out the cause, CHANGE.
I’m going to make a statement here that might ruffle some religious feathers:

Revival should not exist.

I am not saying there isn’t a need for revival, I’m saying it shouldn’t exist, there shouldn’t be a need.
As christians we are called to be alive in christ, and to teach others how to live, how to be alive.

Now let me pause for a moment and talk about revival and what makes it happen.
Check out isaiah 57:15

For this is what the high and lofty One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
"I live in a high and holy place,
but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite.

I want to highlight that last line, to revive the heart of the contrite, I looked up contrite and here’s what it says: “feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming”
Here’s what I’m getting at, revival is not a special location, or a special meeting on a special date. Revival is people coming together and saying, we are messed up, we are so sorry at the root of our being, we need you God.
And God sees that, and He comes and moves in those people, forgiving their screw ups, bringing them back to a place of living in Him. Bringing them back up to that base level of being made new.
Revival should be happening everyday, on a personal one to one level.
And if you’re feeling the need for revival in your life, throw away the idea that this has to happen at a special meeting. Simply come to God with your junk, with your screw ups, your mistakes. God will forgive you, the bible says He casts it into a sea of forgetfulness,(cast: throw something forcefully in a specified direction) as far as the east is from the west, aka infinity away.
This is revival, your slate is wiped clean, you are restored, you are back to base level.

Now you may notice I keep referring to ‘base level.’ Here’s where that is coming from, when you got saved you were made new, everything forgiven, alive in christ. Like a baby coming out screaming with life, that was you. This is base level, the starting place, step 1. To move forward and to grow you have to be nourished at first by others and then yourself as soon as you’re able. If you don’t continue to be nourished in a balanced way you will begin to deteriorate, and if you don’t eat at all, you will die. The only way to continue living is to be revived.

Thankfully if you’re reading this, you eat regularly, and you’re not dead. And if anything starts to go wrong(you get sick) you find out what the problem is and take the steps to fix it.
The same should be happening with your life in christ, you have to get nourishment, learn and grow. If things start to go downhill figure out what’s causing it and make the change to fix it.

So let me restate the statement I made earlier and add a bit to it.
Revival as we see it today, in big sweeping movements every few years, shouldn’t exist.
There shouldn’t be the need because it’s a continual thing on a individual level.

When the church gets to a place where we need a widespread revival, this is a major warning that something is wrong on a fundamental level. This means the church is dead and dying everywhere.
Something is wrong, the leaders, pastors, and teachers should be on their face before God. Asking what are we doing wrong? What needs to change? Why are the people that we’re supposed to be helping dying so regularly that we need a revival every few years?
And the change needs to happen now.
Revival is happening, millions are going to be brought back to base level in the coming months.
The leaders around the world need to find out the problem and fix it, or all these people are going to die. When they should be growing and flourishing.

You need to find this out straight from God. The following are my thoughts.

Something is wrong in the message. Look at Jesus’ ministry, and that of the disciples, they didn’t hold revival meetings, or go on evangelistic crusades. They simply taught the message of forgiveness and love. And the church exploded. Because once you teach one person how to live a life of love they can begin to teach others, and others begin to teach others, and the growth is exponential(:becoming more and more rapid.)
Are we living the message of love? are we teaching others? only the message can change the world. Not ministries of any kind, no matter how big, they will not make the needed change.
Church needs to be completely rethought from the ground up. Whatever version the church is at now(2.0/3.0/4.0?) it’s time to make a fundamental change, question everything. Grab the baby, throw out the bath water, it’s time to start again.

video from Mosaic(see previous post)

2008-04-21T00:00:00.002-05:00

Mosaic - 041808 from Mark Collins on Vimeo.

this video is a collection of footage from friday night.
shot with my canon 20D+lenses, my new canon HF10, and the title image is from photobooth on my macbook.

enjoy

Mosaic Coffeehouse, free exhibition.

2008-04-18T11:59:00.004-05:00

ok really really last minute.
last night i found out about this thing:

Friday, April 18, 2008

7:30pm

The public is invited to the second annual “Mosaic Coffeehouse,” a free exhibition of music, art and poetry by local musicians and artists, at Wheaton Bible Church’s Main Street Chapel building.

“There is an incredible amount of artistic talent in the area that we want to support and encourage,” Pastor Ted Coniaris said. “It is amazing to experience the combination of hearing artists perform and seeing paintings and three-dimensional art pieces all in the same space. There is a lot of energy. This is a great event.”

There is plenty of on-site and street parking. The event is hosted by Ecclesia, the young adult community of Wheaton Bible Church. There is no admission charge and free coffee and food will be available.

Wheaton Bible Chapel Building
327 North Main Street
Wheaton, IL

-link

i saw it in the newspaper, it had a email address so i sent them a quick email last night to see if they had any more room for art.
got a reply this morning to bring a few pieces and they'll hang at least 2.

so hey if you're in the area, stop by and check this thing out, i'll be around there somewhere i'm sure.
it's 3hrs long so 7:30pm-10:30pm.

i'll bring my camera along so i'll post some pictures after.

some thoughts on business

2008-04-03T00:45:00.004-05:00

the following is some excerpts of things i wrote from a IM conversation i had a little bit ago, i was sharing some of my thoughts on business, and thought i'd post them up here in case they're useful to someone else.

-------------------
12:00
Something i've learned is that having your own business takes allot of time and effort spent learning and choosing the best options for your business. if you don't have the time to put into it, it may be hard to make it successful
12:05
the thing i see people try to do is just do the same as others they see. when really everyone you look at does things differently. for example pictage may not be right for me, but sarah seems happy using them. and she's been pretty successful. of course that's her full time job, she has lots of business flowing through. i on the other hand am doing a whole bunch of varied things and not a high volume of weddings.
12:17
what's fun is each one of us has a different set of skills and talents which makes us unique, this is why you see such a huge variety of ways of doing the same business, two people may do the same business in completely opposite ways and both be very successful and happy with how things are.
so the reason i'm always pointing at ways of learning the answer to your question instead of just giving you some answer. is cause i know for you to develop your business into something truly successful, you're going to have to spend time learning what things are best for your unique business.
12:25
i hope i'm not discouraging you in any way. i just felt it important to point out that there aren't any formulas or presets to make your business take off. i've seen people who waste of ton of time and money trying to find those formulas, and never make it very far. for example i'm willing to bet that there are people out there who try to do everything exactly the same as david jay, and are wondering why it's not working.
12:26
of course take all i say with grain of salt, as i've only booked and shot one wedding on my own.
-------------------

you need to listen to this.

2008-03-18T03:53:00.002-05:00

i just listened to a message by ed gungor.
all about living our lives really loving God.
i think it will help you, here's the link

my conclusion based on it:
live every day focused on loving God, don't worry about the trophies in life, live your life loving God and every day will be special, when the trophies(cool big events) happen they'll be the cherry on the top of the goodness of a life spent with God.

painting from 3/6/08

2008-03-15T21:44:00.001-05:00

Here's a video of a painting i did recently, enjoy.

financial responsiblility

2008-03-13T05:14:00.004-05:00

isn't my credit card awesome. they started a thing where you can get your own image on the card. here's a link to the image.

ok on to the point of this post.

spending is so easy these days, fill in a few fields of information, click a few buttons, and just like that something new is on the way, and more money is spent. sure the next credit card bill will be 12 times the amount you have in your checking right now...but you'll get enough pay checks before that bill is due....right.

it's a fine line between spending responsibly and getting closer and closer to developing spending habits that will end up in debt that you can't pay.
especially when the credit limit nears a few thousand and your wish list could easily spend twenty thousand.

i wouldn't go so far as to say this is something i'm dealing with....at least not yet.
i am working on reversing this progression....so i guess i am dealing with it, in the positive sense.

sometimes i find i have to take a step back and look at my life, look at the trends and habits i have. cut some back, build on others, refine my life.

wedding video?

2008-02-21T05:25:00.005-06:00

something new has appeared on my website.
click the image, take a look, tell me what you think.

08 Primaries are coming up.

2008-01-30T13:11:00.000-06:00

i posted about the election coming up a few months ago link

if you've been paying attention to what has been going on lately the value of our dollar is going down, they keep having to raise the federal debt ceiling, as a country we're in a whole lot of debt. take as look at the debt clock(tip: refresh the page a few times and watch how fast it increases)
i don't know about you, but i can't afford to pay that, but somebody has to, and it's the next generations shoulders that it's going to fall onto.

if something doesn't change in the way our country is run things aren't going to keep going, just like how your car wont run without fuel, how can a nation run on a negative bank balance.

i've been watching videos and reading things around the web about the candidates that are running. allot of them talk about things needing to change. but do any of them actually have a plan on how to make a real positive change? i've only heard one so far.

i'm voting for Ron Paul.

here's some info on him:
christiansforronpaul.com take a look at his statement of faith.
ronpaul2008.com his official site, learn about him, read his stance on issues.
and search google for him, there are videos everywhere on youtube and the like.

------------------

also i want to say, we seriously need to be praying hard about this election and our country, something has to change.
things are going downhill really fast. i'm not trying to discourage you or inspire fear, we need to not fear, we need to put our trust in God. and i mean this for real, we need to come to God at the beginning of each day and ask what we're supposed to do today. the only way things are going to really change is if each individual gets serious about following God. it has to happen in your heart. there is no place for laid back christianity, it's time to go full out for God, we are His body on this planet, we need to be connected to the Head(God) and we need to carry out the instructions immediately.
can you imagine how long it would take something done if every time your brain told part of your body to do something you had to wait for that part to get around to it, to decide if the instruction is really what they should do, if that instruction was really from the brain. nothing would ever get done.
and yet this is how most of us operate in our walk with God.
and then we turn around and ask why things aren't changing, why we aren't reaching the world, and wonder when Jesus will come back.
we as a body have a job to do, and until we wake up and do what we're supposed to do how can we expect to move to the next step.

don't be discouraged, be encouraged, our Dad loves every one of us so much, start spending time with Him, develop a deep relationship with Him. you'll find that when you're absolutely in love with Him that the things He asks you to do will be a joy to do.
as a body we need to have a heart that is so close and so in tune with His that we have the same heartbeat, the same passions and desires flowing through us.

this is how we will change the world.

Dad, I’m kind of lonely

2008-01-22T23:53:00.000-06:00

Allot of my kids are tonight, it breaks my heart, I love you all so much. I haven’t forgotten about any of you, I am here with you, I never leave, I never stop loving you continuously. I have good things in store for each and every one of my kids, love me, put your trust in me, I won’t let you down, have faith in me, I am taking care of you. Come talk to me, each day spend some time with me, I want to tell you things, things to help you through your day, open your heart and listen, feel those words coming from your heart up into your head, that’s me, I love to talk with you, to have conversations with you. Listen, I love you, you are my child, you are beautiful and precious to me. I long to see you happy and full of love for me and all your brothers and sisters. Come talk to your dad, and then listen to my reply, I have wisdom and advice for you, I will help you with every thing, simply ask.

Loving you with a unending love
-Dad

i love ed gungor's message titles

2008-01-22T13:18:00.000-06:00

"What I Hate Most About Christianity"

click the link to check it out and take a listen.

if you want more browse around that blog, it's the whole archive of his messages.
another fun one is "What To Do When Sheep Happens"

those are some good ingredients.

how good are the ingredients?

2008-01-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

have you ever noticed how the best foods are made with the best quality ingredients.
you can't make amazing food with bad ingredients.

the same thing is true in life, what goes in matches what comes out.

i'm talking about influences here, everything you experience is a influence whether you realize it or not, the people in your life, the entertainment you consume, etc. these are the ingredients that make up a person.

personally in my life i've been trying to pay careful attention to what influences me, the music i listen to, the movies i watch, the things i read. i have to ask myself is this adding something positive to my life, just wasting time, or being a negative influence.
as a result i've been cutting down the number of blogs i follow to only those that add to my life in a positive way.
and i've limited the entertainment i consume.

i'll leave you with this challenge. take a careful look at your influences. are you being made with good ingredients?

Stephanie & Blake's Wedding

2007-12-30T01:04:00.000-06:00

We just got back from shooting a beautiful wedding. Stephanie and Blake are both amazing people. Everyone was really nice, and also relaxed, the day went incredibly smooth. We all had so much fun hanging out and shooting.

click the image above to play our favorites slide show.

Thanks to everyone involved in the wedding.
And special thanks to my crew, Josh, Matt, Geni, i couldn't have done it without you guys.

Christmas blog

2007-12-25T01:36:00.000-06:00

Just thought I’d write a quick post to wish everyone Merry Christmas.

Here’s a link to a pdf version of my families Christmas letter.
My mom wrote most of it, I did the layout. enjoy.

Have a great Christmas everyone, cherish the time you have with your family.

new album - Elizabeth & Logan

2007-12-15T23:11:00.001-06:00

a new album completed for Sarah Anne Photography.
click the image above to check it out.

copyright info
photography: Sarah Anne Photography
design: Mark Collins

ah the christmas season has arrived

2007-11-27T23:31:00.000-06:00

this popped up as the quote for today on daisy tracker.

i found it very fitting for the time of year.

definitely something to keep in mind, especially since in the end things fade, it's our words and actions that have the ability to stick and make a change.

a couple times recently i've gone to the store to pick up one or two things for whatever project i was working on at the time, and the person in front of me in the check out line saw i wasn't getting much and offered to let me go ahead of them. what's interesting to me is that i don't remember much of anything else about those trips to the store, but i do remember the kindness of those people.

the gift of kindness is free, you can give it to anyone anytime, and at the same time it's one of the most truly valuable gifts you can give.

this holiday season pay attention to how you act in the stores, at work, and at home, think about all the immaterial gifts you can give (kindness, love, etc.) and you may greatly impact those around you. possibly more than you'll ever know.

iPod Sketch

2007-11-18T06:32:00.000-06:00

ok so of course this isn't a reality, above image is my own creation. but allow me to ramble for a minute on a device i would buy right now if i could.

the current ipod touch is of course a beautiful device, cool touch screen experience 8mm thin. but you can't draw on it.

and then there is wacom who makes the best drawing tablets around. but they can only be used with a computer.

so of course if combined you get a amazing digital sketch pad, that's super thin, and allot of fun to use. imagine being able to use multi-touch gestures to zoom in and out, switch tools, bring up pallets, the ideas for a invisible interface with this kind of device are endless...and then on top of that have the super accurate pressure sensitive pen experience for digital painting. all on a great device you can take anywhere.

i bet there's a huge amount of artists like me looking for something like this.

i'm sure studios like pixar would love having these.

what do you guys think of this idea?
i'm sure i'm not the first to think of it, but who will step up and do it?

Abegail & Ben

2007-11-10T04:04:00.000-06:00

Just finished a new album for the talented Sarah Barlow.
click the picture above to check it out.

copyright info
photography: Sarah Anne Photography
design: Mark Collins

8 days of public rating left

2007-11-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

Only 8 days left to rate Writer's Block. we need to be in the top 25 to even have a chance at winning. if you haven't rated please do soon. and have everyone you know rate it.

to rate it go here
you'll see this on the right side.

If you see login required like in the image, you need to log in before you can rate it.

it'll ask you to login with your apple id. if you don't have a apple id you can create one by clicking 'create an account now'
once you're logged in with your apple id. it will take you to a rating registration thing.
You only have to fill in the fields with an *

once you're fully logged in, make your way back to the Writer's Block page and then you can rate it 4 stars and click the arrow next to it to enter the rating in.

if you're wanting more info about the film take a look at my original post.

if you're searching for our film using the galleries search field, ours is the one made by 'new generation entertainment'

Writer's Block

2007-10-20T20:06:00.000-05:00

alright so what the vague previous post was referring to is a short film by the name of Writer's Block. the film is a collaboration between myself and my cousin Rob Kohler.

the details:
apple is hosting a contest, which we entered, to create a 3min short film in 24 hours.
here's their info about it:

On Saturday, October 13 at 9:00 a.m. (Eastern time), we’ll post a top-secret list of elements — special props, dialogue, settings — you get the idea. Choose any three to include in your movie. Then all you and your team have to do is write, cast, shoot, edit, score, and upload your 3-minute masterpiece within 24 hours. No problem, right?

the monday before contest day is when i found out about the contest and from there rob and i texted back and forth for awhile figuring out what resources we had available to use for creating this film.
rob then came up with a idea and script, and from there we worked out as many details as we could so the contest day would go smoothly. we even made up a band.

so the 13th came and from the moment that list arrived we were going, 23.5 hrs later we had the finished film submitted.
originally they said the videos would be online on the 19th, but due to the mass of entries they received it took them till tonight to get it working.
now for the rest of apples details:

Once the films are in, your friends, family, and adoring fans will be able to watch them online and rate their favorites. The 25 entries with the highest rating on November 9 at 12:00 a.m. EST will be screened by industry professionals, including Barry Sonnenfeld, James Mangold, and Nora Ephron.

If your film is the biggest hit with either the public or the pros, each member of your team will receive a MacBook Pro, Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Studio, and Shake so you can get started on that first sequel. How’s that for a Hollywood ending?

so as you can tell, for us to win, we're going to need allot of votes.
here's how you can help:
first- go enjoy watching the film.
second- rate it (you do have to log in to do this, but don't worry the sign up is relatively painless) and you can also comment on it if you'd like, we'd love the feedback.
third- send emails, write blogs, post it online anywhere you can, tell everyone you know about it, ask them to vote.

the more votes we get, the better chance we have of winning, which will give us what we need to make many more films, we already have ideas rolling around for more shorts and eventually feature length films.

now it's my pleasure to present to you... Writer's Block

PS. the apple site runs rather slowly, i'm guessing it's cause of the large amount of entries in this contest. so be patient, the pages do load, eventually.

coming soon...

2007-10-14T23:11:00.000-05:00

imagination creativity exercise

2007-10-08T02:22:00.000-05:00

creativity is one of the greatest gifts we have been given. it's good to exercise it every once in awhile.
the following conversation happened spontaneously tonight between myself and matt swanson

1:05 AM
Mark Collins: by the way i'm running at 7:45 in the morning
Matt Swanson: oh.
Matt Swanson: so it would be good if i recorded that stuff NOW
Mark Collins: um, possibly
Matt Swanson: lol
Matt Swanson: ok
Matt Swanson: sorry
Matt Swanson: it's quiet enough
Matt Swanson: ish
Mark Collins: oh ok, i'll call off the snipers
Matt Swanson: whew
Mark Collins: good to hear, hopefully it's better than last week, you wouldn't want those whisper quiet sniper rifles to start whispering
1:10 AM
Matt Swanson: *gulp*
Matt Swanson: ya well if you kill me, my nonexistant ninja sniper girlfriend will track you down
Matt Swanson: those nonexistant ones are hard to kill
Matt Swanson: because, well, they're nonexistant
Mark Collins: she's been taken care of
Mark Collins: sorry
Matt Swanson: RIP. I guess now my only option is to do the recording
Mark Collins: yeah i didn't order it, just some ordeal with my top guy and someone thinning his nonexistant brand chocolate supply, apparently he's very protective of that stuff.
Mark Collins: i guess she couldn't resist and went in for one more piece
Matt Swanson: she always did have a weakness for that chocolate...
Matt Swanson: oh well, I guess I'd better make a new one.
Matt Swanson: Good thing I kept the source code.
Mark Collins: back ups are very important
Matt Swanson: very.
Mark Collins: i'm glad you're learning that
1:15 AM
Matt Swanson: one question
Matt Swanson: your guy wouldn't be able to give me back her clothes would he? dude, prada isn't getting any cheaper
Mark Collins: you shouldn't have wrote in that self distrust on injury line. took him two months to remodel his place after that one.
Matt Swanson: dude, i had no idea one of YOUR guys would try and take her out
Matt Swanson: hahaha. you should send me pics, I'd like to see how that spiky shooter outer thingie worked.
Mark Collins: he didn't take any pics, he only told me, cause all my guys have to disclose all their activities to me or else their out.
Matt Swanson: company policy.
Mark Collins: you should beta test those things in house under surveillance
1:20 AM
Mark Collins: if you're going to have her self destruct at least put in a recognition of intent on injury.
Mark Collins: he wasn't trying to kill her, just protect his chocolate
Matt Swanson: dude, she was my beta model. she wasn't supposed to have gone anywhere, but I did a firmware upgrade that was supposed to fix her chocolate cravings, but it just made them worse
Mark Collins: you and your coding projects
Mark Collins: stop using firmware, that stuff is to problematic, nanometaware is much more solid
Matt Swanson: ya, i agree. i've upgraded my beta 2 to that. she's compiling as we speak.
1:25 AM
Mark Collins: why'd you give her a appetite in the first place?
Matt Swanson: because I wanted to be the first person to accomplish that successfully.
Matt Swanson: get this though
Matt Swanson: I gave her new clothes
Matt Swanson: so that
Matt Swanson: she can blend in with her surroundings
Matt Swanson: the clothes are actually one big screen
Matt Swanson: i have 1,000 cameras on her covering 360 degrees, making her virtually invisible
Mark Collins: that's faulty though, what if a camera goes out or you get a tear
Matt Swanson: then I'm screwed.
Matt Swanson: give me some slack though, this is only the beta2
Mark Collins: just use holo projection
Matt Swanson: not as stable, if there's rain it tends to have issues.
Mark Collins: if i remember right the camera's aren't so water tight either
Matt Swanson: they weren't. my new model can completely submerse herself in water without any problems.
we're working on hardware that will enable her to go as deep as 300ft, however right now she is limited to 20ft
under water
1:30 AM
Mark Collins: well that's good
Matt Swanson: yup.
Matt Swanson: we've also completely tossed the GSM based wireless transmitting/recieving feature
Matt Swanson: now it's totally directlink satellite
Mark Collins: what about when the clouds are heavy?
Matt Swanson: we were hesitant at first, due to concerns about clouds/weather/buildings etc to prohibit transmission
Matt Swanson: we believe we've done away with that problem
Mark Collins: higher power frequency?
Matt Swanson: that and we've added more satellites, but these are actually on earth. far less distance means clouds etc do not matter, it will penetrate through basically anything.
Mark Collins: cool
1:35 AM
Mark Collins: by the way, we? since when did you get partners on these projects
Matt Swanson: not parters.
Matt Swanson: employees.
Mark Collins: wow you must really trust them, i didn't know you let anyone near the server arrays you use for these kind of projects.
Matt Swanson: heh.
Matt Swanson: yaaaa about that.
Matt Swanson: i have this new machine *cough*
Matt Swanson: reads thoughs.
Matt Swanson: thoughts*
Matt Swanson: not entirely legal yet.
Mark Collins: monitor your buildings?
Matt Swanson: I've installed it in my complex, (unknown to the employees) and a computer sorts through thoughts and sends me any possible security breaches
Matt Swanson: yup.
Matt Swanson: I've based it out of my house...
Matt Swanson: and employees come nowhere near it
Matt Swanson: you know that my entire facility, (minus my house of course) is underground?
1:40 AM
Mark Collins: of course
Mark Collins: i love jogging on the property above it, the landscaping you have up there is beautiful
Matt Swanson: you'd never guess that it's home to the biggest underground facility in the world, that only about 20 people in the world know about
Mark Collins: i know right
Matt Swanson: did i tell you about the conversation I had with George the other day?
1:45 AM
Mark Collins: he mentioned something but i was working on something at the time and didn't really pay attention, i figured you'd tell me if it was important
Matt Swanson: he wanted to buy my facilities for $50,000,000,000
Matt Swanson: well the gov did.
Mark Collins: cheapskate
Matt Swanson: said they were going to use it as a place to bring top level officials etc for secret meetings.
Mark Collins: with how much top level tech we've built into that place
Matt Swanson: I told him I'd trade it for the state of hawaii
Mark Collins: they'll never part with that base, high up military won't let it go.
Matt Swanson: I wouldn't bet on it.
Mark Collins: you can't trade it, i like yours how it is
Matt Swanson: haha. ya. i'm not planning on it.
1:50 AM
Matt Swanson: oh
Mark Collins: especially the ability to set the climate temp on the path i'm running on above it, so glad you put that in
Matt Swanson: haha, you like that eh?
Matt Swanson: you know how it seemed like the tram ride from the underground parking lot to the entry took like forever
Matt Swanson: well I just had it upgraded
Mark Collins: finally
Mark Collins: geez
Matt Swanson: haha I know
Matt Swanson: I guess I finally realized it was time when i had the TV's installed
Mark Collins: tell me it's under 5 seconds now
1:55 AM
Matt Swanson: eh, 10. we had it at 4 but the rocket launch was slightly uncomfortable
Mark Collins: oh fine
Matt Swanson: when you think about it, going over 1 mile in 10 seconds is really rather good.
Mark Collins: true
Matt Swanson: so anyways, i abandoned the rocket idea.
Matt Swanson: it was costing me about $500 one way, and since it was so fast, my employees found excuses to go to their cars more often
Mark Collins: plus fume cotrol
Matt Swanson: eh, that was kinda kewl. you could get a high off of it.
Mark Collins: you were suppose to put all sealed windows in the transport!
Matt Swanson: the windows were sealed..
Matt Swanson: so maybe I forgot to put the seal tight liquid titanium around one bolt
Matt Swanson: 1 out of 20000
Matt Swanson: give me a break
2:00 AM
Mark Collins: oh ok
Mark Collins: oh hey, it's 2, i need to run down and tend to some experiments, i'll be back in a few
Matt Swanson: kewl.
2:10 AM
Mark Collins: woops, one blew up, containment field held fine, but now i have to start it over.
2:15 AM
Direct Instant Message session ended

i knew there was a reason i chose to partner with matt in business.
: )

more on double whacked

2007-09-25T18:39:00.000-05:00

this week I have the pleasure of having my partner Matt Swanson in town staying with me. For those that don't know he's my partner on the comic double whacked and on our web design company nameless design. We've been spending allot of time working on some fun stuff, you may see some of it appear on the comic in the next couple months, we are starting a update every monday thing so check it out every week to see what we've come up with.

double whacked back online/9.11 tribute

2007-09-11T15:43:00.000-05:00

Double Whacked was offline for a little while with some hosting problems. we've now switched servers, transferred the database over, and we're back online.
today we posted a special comic as a tribute. click on the image to view it.

online store open for business

2007-09-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

you may or may not have noticed that i have a online store setup on my website.
the problem was, i didn't have much of anything in it.
well not anymore, i now have 21 paintings listed ready to buy.
everything is priced a lot lower than i would have sold them for before, because i want more people to have the ability to own one of my paintings.

if anyone would like to help me out, spread the word to anyone you think may be interested, (email, blog post, phone, in person, etc.)

need to be perfect?

2007-09-01T03:44:00.000-05:00

have you ever felt like you weren't being good enough, not as perfect as you think God wants you to be. the good news is you don't have to be perfect.
take a look at this video by ed gungor on the topic.

painting part2

2007-09-01T03:17:00.000-05:00

this painting started in the first video i put on youtube.
didn't like it, painted it over, here's part 2

power update

2007-08-25T21:17:00.000-05:00

the power to my house has been restored(internet is back up,) now we're working on moving all the soggy cardboard boxes and other things out of the basement. so in our yard is a nice big pile of boxes that are no longer any good.

in other news i'm tired from lack of sleep last night and a full day today, so i'm off to try to get some sleep, before i have to wake up at 6 for another fun sunday of making church happen.
----------------
typing this part a hour or so after i originally posted the top part.

i just wanted to add how grateful i am, i know in surrounding areas tornadoes touched down, whole trees fell over with their roots pulled up out of the ground, houses and cars damaged.
we(my family) are so blessed, some boxes and a few hours of labor is nothing, we needed to clean out that basement anyways. so i want to say thanks to my Dad in heaven, my God who loves me and takes such amazingly good care of me, i'm nothing without Him, and being able to talk with the one who created me everyday is about the coolest thing ever.

goodnight all

i'm not here

2007-08-24T16:48:00.000-05:00

just so you know, due to the lovely storm we had yesterday, power is out at my house, not sure if it'll be back on later today or in a few days. this means i don't have internet (or running water, lights, a dry basement, you know those minor things)

i'm posting from my grandparents, their power has been restored, but they have allot of tree limbs to clean up. here i'll go grab a shot with my phone to show you. oh hey blogger can do video now, i'll grab a video with my phone instead.

mom said the latest from the power company is that all power should be restored within 72 hours, that's for the whole area, so somewhere within that time period my house will have power again.

doing some album work at the moment so i should get back to that.

if you need talk to me, calling is the quickest way, i'll check my email whenever i have net, no clue how often that will be.

new painting

2007-08-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

new generation clothing

2007-08-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

so today i randomly decided to check out my web stats. when i took a look at where people are coming from i noticed that someone in California is looking on google for a t-shirt with the quote i have posted on the side of my blog. "a woman's heart should be so lost in God that a man has to seek Him to find her." but my blog is pretty much the only result that comes up from that search.
so i figured hey i can do that on cafepress. so person from cali(at least that's the state it's showing you're in), if you see this, i'm working on designing the shirt. when it's done you'll find it here: http://www.cafepress.com/newgenclothes just give me a couple hours.
also, if anyone wants to request a certain type of shirt to have it on (men's, woman's, tank, fitted, normal, dark, light, etc.) just leave a comment.

what i want for my birthday

2007-08-14T22:32:00.000-05:00

some of you may know that a week from now on the 21st i'll be 22.
so as expected the most asked question i hear right now is "what do you want for your birthday?"
so i've been thinking about it, and i've come to the conclusion that all the 'things' i want, are just that, things. do i really need more things?
then i began to think about what would really add value to my life in the next year, what would really help me, here's what i came up with. Wisdom.

so for my birthday what i'd like everyone to do, is spend some time with God asking for a bit of wisdom for me. and whatever you get just post it up as a comment to this post. weather you got a single word, saw a image or vision, or several paragraphs, post it up.

i know these gifts will be far more valuable than any 'thing', card, or amount of money.

lets be well informed this year

2007-08-11T02:41:00.000-05:00

quick note to you guys
here's a video by a guy named Ron Paul
i know it's long but it's worth it. if you have other things do to you can just leave it open in the background and just listen.
anyways he talks allot about getting back to the constitution, and returning our country to the way it was meant to be, individual freedom being key.

also i'd like to challenge you, don't take my word for it.
be well informed this year, youtube has done a great thing and put up a thing called You Choose 08
basically all the candidates are up there with a ton of videos by each one of them speaking on different issues.
so check it out find out where they stand, and more importantly where you stand.

lastly, and most importantly, it's time for us to get in prayer about our country.
pray for our leaders in office, and for the leaders that will be coming into office.
major things are about to happen, and we need to be continually in prayer.
now is the time for us to not just petition God in prayer, but to have open dialog. He's our Dad after all, He loves to talk with us.
it's through these conversations with Dad that we'll begin to see positive change in our lives, and in the world around us.

happy 4th everyone

2007-07-04T23:35:00.001-05:00

had a good day, went to the parade this morning, watched it from the sidewalk in font of the house i want(all i need to get it is more income:)

then later we headed over to my grandparents to eat and hang out

and then once it was dark lit off a few fireworks.
these particular ones went through a flood so they, at times, blew up on launch.

how was your day?

Erin & Dan

2007-06-30T17:14:00.000-05:00

Another one done!
this one is from Erin & Dan's wedding, this is the last wedding i shot with Sarah last year.
click the picture above to check it out.

copyright info
photography: Sarah Anne Photography
design: Mark Collins

Side note: this was the last album i had waiting to be designed, so if you guys know any photographers that need some album design point them to design.bymarkcollins.com.
album designs will now have a turn around time of about a week(from receipt of images.)

Sarah & Jackson's album

2007-06-29T18:01:00.000-05:00

this album is from Sarah & Jackson's wedding, this is one of the weddings from last year that i had the privilege of second shooting at with Sarah.
click the picture above to check it out.
copyright info
photography: Sarah Anne Photography
design: Mark Collins

a Vision Art Book

2007-06-28T20:16:00.000-05:00

the album arrived!
i made a short video using the camera built into my macbook to show you guys how it looks.
check it out.

a word about vision art book, they are fast! i ordered this album on friday the 22nd later in the day, uploaded the files, got the invoice email on monday (25th) , it arrived today (28th).
that's less than a week from ordering to my door!
and the album looks great.

t-shirt update

2007-06-27T07:43:00.000-05:00

i just added a few "family + home = FLCC" into the mix of shirts in my little cafepress store. click the image above to check them out.

how embarrassing

2007-06-27T01:30:00.000-05:00

so i was just working on making and ordering some new shirts on cafepress, and when copying text over to make a bymarkcollins shirt i realized 'photography' has been misspelled since i redid my site a little while ago...
...i can't believe i overlooked that....well it's fixed now.

if you want to check out my little cafepress shop click here
there's not a whole lot in there cause i mostly only use the shop to buy shirts for myself.
if you want to buy a shirt go ahead, i left the prices at base level so they're as cheap as i can make them be. if you buy one be sure to send me a picture of you wearing it!

Stephanie & Blake

2007-06-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

i should have posted about this amazing couple a long time ago.
Stephanie & Blake booked me to shoot their wedding in December, and for their engagement shoot they had the idea of going and hanging out at a cubs game (they're both big cubs fans,) we had a great time.
so main reason for this post i just finished doing the layout on a 6x6 vision art book. for a cool little engagement album. click the image above to check it out.

Stephanie and Blake and been so much fun to work with starting with the very first email i got from them. I'm so excited to be shooting their wedding in December.

enjoy

home sweet home

2007-06-14T22:40:00.000-05:00

I'm back!

the rest of the trip was great, Monday went to hang out and have bbq lunch, Tuesday we went to see the Niagara falls, Wednesday we drove to a cool hotel in Michigan a short walk away from lake Michigan, and today we hung out there for a little while and then drove home. it was a great trip, but I'm really glad to be home.

picture at the top is a stitched together pan of the falls in canada, enjoy!

sunday night update

2007-06-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

no pictures this post cause the hotel wireless is being weird and only letting my slow computer connect and not the fast one with all the pictures on it, very strange.

anyways.

saturday worship conference was really good, it was a good mix of varied speakers all speaking some good stuff.
here's one thing i wrote down, "worship isn't sunday morning songs, worship is a daily lifestyle, worshiping God with every moment of our lives"

today we went to a morning service where darrell evans was guest doing worship and gave a message, a good message about having a healthy secret life, how our lives in secret effect the rest of our lives.
from there we went out to lunch with the pastor of the church, and then went with him to another church he pastors at for a afternoon service, that was also very good, at the end of the service when it was over the pastor and his wife prayed for my parents and me.
something cool, part of the word that was spoken to me during that prayer was this, "don't worry about who you're going to marry, God has it all laid out for you, it's taken care of, stay focused on God" there was more said but that part really stuck with me because that has been something i've been thinking about allot for awhile, devoting lots of my attention to it, so hearing God speaking through someone telling me to stop focusing on and worrying about that, and instead to focus my attention on God and His will for my life, was very good to hear.

well it's late now (midnight here) so that's all for tonight
goodnight everyone

greetings from canada

2007-06-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

my parents and i made it safe and sound.

today we drove here, and shortly after arriving and checking into our hotel, we left for a night of worship with Darrel Evans.
it was a great time and now we're back in our room, tomorrow we're going to a worship conference, darrel will be speaking there along with several others.

that's all for tonight, i'll leave you with a couple pictures from my p&s camera.

Canada and such

2007-06-08T00:21:00.000-05:00

in a few hours my parents and i will pack our stuff in the van and head off to Canada. alarm is set for 5am go time is 6am.

you lost?

ok let me back up a little bit.

awhile ago my parents set aside about a week to go on a prayer retreat,
original idea for the prayer retreat changed,
a pastor friend of theirs in Canada invited them to come up for a visit,
my parents invited me to go with them,
this is going to be fun.

more details soon

Mary & Tim's album

2007-05-15T17:38:00.000-05:00

hey everyone,

just finished another album for Sarah
click the picture above to check it out.

a post for the guys

2007-05-10T07:51:00.001-05:00

what are we doing?
where are we going?
how are we getting ready for life?

hey guys, so something i've been thinking about recently, what am i doing to become the man that can provide for and lead a family.
i'm 21 right now and the desire to marry "her"(the woman God has for me) is a very real thing. but when i take a step back and look at my life, how can i expect God to bring her into my life, when i'm not ready.
currently i live in my parents house, and i've been sporadicly working two part time jobs (one is church, the other being my personal businesses) i say sporadicly cause in the past i haven't been disciplined, just randomly working on something when i feel like it. and then i look at my spending habits, i tend to spend all the money i have available to spend.
the result, i'm going no where, while time keeps passing and the one God has for me has to keep waiting and waiting.
check out this quote pulled from another blog

WHERE ARE THE MEN??????
Ok...so I'm starting to get a little frustrated with this...MOST of my Christian friends are getting involved with unChristian guys!!!! What up with this!! It seems like there is a major lack in strong Christian guys who will stand up for what they believe!

this isn't right.
and i know i'm not the only guy who lives like this... guys what are we doing?
we live in our own little world of working and buying, staying busy going nowhere, often so busy we don't even have time for God.
and the women God has for us, they're stuck waiting and waiting, wondering what is taking so long.
We need to wake up and get serious in our relationship with God, and find out, from Him, where we're supposed to be going, and then we need to go and do what He says.

last night i wrote up a daily schedule for myself to get my daily working life in order. starting each day with a wake up time followed by time with God, then breakfast, then work.

my challenge for you is to go spend time with God, and when He tells you to do something, do it!

it's time for us to leave our boyhood ways behind and become the men that God has called us to be.

bored? want to vote

2007-05-03T13:08:00.001-05:00

so the other day i was bored a entered a design contest over at asus computer.
so voting is up now, so if your bored and want to take a moment to vote for me.
by voting you have a chance to win something, and if i get enough votes i could win something.
link http://usa.asus.com/tko2/
oh and once you're there if you filter by category and select "s6 leather collection" it'll make it allot easier to find mine.

in other news
doing a engagement shoot tomorrow, stop by early next week and there should be a slideshow from it.

morning walk

2007-04-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

this morning i looked out the window and saw a cool mist in the air.
so i grabbed my camera and walked down to the marsh to grab some shots as the sun rose.
click the picture for the slide show.

fun illustration

2007-04-05T01:00:00.000-05:00

i was just listening to a message by ed gungor i loved this illustration he gave , check out the clip.
to check out the full message, go to edgungor.com and in the podcast player in the top right corner look for the message titled "what to do when sheep happens"

also while you're there check out 'salt' it's a bunch of little videos giving some good advice.

have a great day everyone

this automatically increases my artist skills right?

2007-04-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

...it almost looks like it should.
my new artist tool has arrived, a wacom intuos3 tablet 6" x 11" drawing area. got a good deal on it.
and so far i am very happy with it.
at about half the size of my screen, this is about as close as i can get to naturally drawing on the screen without actually drawing on the screen. someday

well that's it for now, you should see a new comic up sometime soon, since i have some new motivation to draw.

ahhh spring

2007-04-02T03:07:00.000-05:00

the weather is slowly warming.
flowers are creeping out of the ground slowly unfolding the beauty they hold.

[picture taken a couple days ago with a lensbaby on my 20d]

bed head - self portrait

2007-03-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

so this morning i woke up to find my bed head was better than usual(read:sticking up higher)
so of course my only option was to take pictures and share them with you.
click the picture for full size.
enjoy!

take the time

2007-03-26T12:47:00.000-05:00

hey everyone, i was just talking with Dad, felt like he wanted me to share this with you.
---------------------------------
Hi God, how are you today?

I’m good, lots of my kids have a hard time getting what I tell them, that’s why I have to have people write books about things, I’d rather just tell them straight from me, but all my kids are so busy, they never take a moment to stop and talk to their Dad.

I’m sorry, I do that allot.(get busy)

Mark I love you, and I love all my kids very much, I have so many blessings for each and every one of my kids, if they’d only take the time to receive them.
Again, I love you so much.
Walk with me, talk with me, I want to have a relationship with you, take the time to have one with Me.

doublewhacked.com-LIVE

2007-03-25T02:09:00.000-05:00

matt and i have been hard at work....um....well we played around for awhile.
and the new comic site is live!
i'm sure we'll add new features overtime, but the comic is there and that's the important part.

the plan is for this to be a daily comic, so stop by there every day or so and see what's new.
doublewhacked.com

now i'm off to bed
goodnight all

Joy & Eric album proof

2007-03-24T03:41:00.000-05:00

so i just finished this album for sarah
Joy & Eric are the couple.
check out the album

copyright info
photography: Sarah Anne Photography
design: Mark Collins
music: Sumertime by LaRue

enjoy

Duuuuuun

2007-03-21T02:33:00.000-05:00

just something fun for you to look at.
me trying to warm up my sketching skills

if anyone is confused by the title click here

comfy

2007-03-21T01:46:00.000-05:00

my new chair has arrived, ok so i said no less than four controls and it ended up having three, anyways, i love it, was worth every penny all 33,033 of them.

in other news, matt and i randomly decided to start a comic, i haven't drawn in a long time, and i was never good at drawing people, so....it'll get better over time.
this whole thing was started tonight...in other words...the polished site will come eventually.

quickest way to lose readership...

2007-03-19T19:14:00.000-05:00

...never post.

so once again it has been months since i last posted.

let me write a quick list for myself
things to update

design.bymarkcollins.com
video
my paycheck job
current life.

ok design.bymarkcollins.com album design.
things here are going good, slow at the moment, but that's fine since...well i'll go into current life later. two albums i design for sarah arrived and i finally got to see printed versions of my designs, and those books looked amazing, sarah ordered them from queensberry, and yeah huge, heavy, massive, amazing books. let me see if i took a picture while i was there
i have another design for sarah in progress i'll try to remember to post a showit show of it when it's done.
in other kind of related news, i ordered a brand new desk chair that should be in soon, it has no less than four levers for ergonomic adjustment, and when i sat in it in the showroom it fit my back perfectly, so any day now.
also on the way is a second 500gig external drive to back up my first one. (tip: never store important data, like photos and album designs, in only one spot)
if you're curious, the enclosures are this one and the drives inside are these number1 number2

now video,
the site video.bymarkcollins.com still needs to be completed, but i am working on getting the current projects completed.

if you're bored and want to waste 9min check this out

oh, not on the list but in the area of my art, i'm currently working on framing all my paintings, making the frames myself cause it's more fun that way. once i'm done with that they'll be ready to hang in whatever gallery or home God wants them to go in.
here's one that i framed.

my paycheck job (the only one i get official paychecks from)
things here are going very well, currently in the works is a brand new website, a major improvement over the current one. also since i'm the head of video i've dreamed up a cool three camera shoot setup, two on tripods, one on a steady cam type of thing, believing God for the $11,400 to come in for it. these two wish lists contain all the stuff to get us there, one & two just change the quantity of cameras to 2.

current life
well my parents are celebrating their 25th anniversary with a three day getaway to a hotel on lake michigan, they left on sunday.
rebecca is flying out tomorrow, to dallas texas to hook up with the group and then they're off on a mission trip to mexico.
so i get to take her to the airport tomorrow.

canon had to go out and come out with the markIII, my photo wishlist has been updated.

in my life,
in the past i've been very good at starting projects, and not so good at finishing them.
so i've been focusing recently on completing projects. started with a list of 11 projects, now it's at 9 with 3 of those nearing completion, oh and add one more with the addition of the new church website project.
so i'm not avoiding anyone by not posting much, i'm just busy.

ok i think that's it, any questions? just leave them in a comment.

time sure flies

2007-01-25T00:27:00.000-06:00

just upgraded my blog template to the new version, liking the new archive navigation.
looks like i've averaged about 27 posts a year.

was just reading my blog, the old stuff from the beginning up to now.
amazing how much has happened.
life really is short, we don't realize it day to day, but we have such a limited time on this planet.
why are we so absorbed with our own comforts and wants?
it's God plans we should be absorbed in, they are what is worth while.
it's 25 days into 2007, this year is going to be bigger than you could ever imagine.
it's so important to get inline with God's plan for you, start praying, start praying every moment of every day.
we already know everything in this life will pass away, give Him control of your life, you have everything to gain from it.

get ready everyone, this year, weather you're ready or not, the world will change.
are you ready?

01/23/07 prayer meeting

2007-01-23T21:46:00.000-06:00

something i got at tuesday night prayer
---------------
My children; the lost and scared are drawn to those who are full of Me, full of prayer, full of My love.
They won’t know why or how but when you are full of Me they will feel a irresistible draw towards you, they’ll have desire spring up inside them to be around you, to find out what about you is different. And you will show them My love, My unconditional love. They will take notice; they will be impacted and changed. Follow Me and show My love in everything you do, and you will change the world.
---------------
can others see His love in you?

do you limit God with your dreams

2006-12-22T00:22:00.000-06:00

every once in awhile you'll see me wearing a shirt with this picture on it. it shows a person singing in front of a limitless crowd. no i don't have dreams of singing, but it was a good way to illustrate what i'm writing about here.

I've heard a few different people speak recently on dreaming big. it seems to me this is something God is really trying to get across to His kids(you and me.)
one of these speakers said, "everybody close your eyes, think of the biggest craziest thing God could ever do in your life or through you, now look at me, He's bigger than that."

He is bigger.
I've found this is really tough for us to wrap our minds around. and that's one of our biggest problems, our tendency is to not do something until we have our minds wrapped around something. we feel we need to understand the purpose of us doing something and then we decide if we want to do it.
and at the same time we say we are followers of Christ. have you ever been following someone to get somewhere because they know the way and you don't? do you know the purpose of every turn before you make the turn? no you don't, you just follow because you know if you stay behind them and turn where they turn, you will get where you're supposed to go.

do you trust God? are you following Him in your dreams? if God gives you a dream, that's the destination, that's where you're going, and all you have to do is follow Him, He will lead you and guide you the whole way.
But we don't do that, we get the dream and we instantly pull up our own version of maps.google.com, we think wow that's where i'm going, ok so i'll go this way, and then this way, and oh look this way is quicker, i'll go that way.
and at this point if we feel like it is manageable, we finally start to move forward, and we go the way we feel is best.
but if we don't feel like we are quite up to the challenge, we put it off, or shrink it till we feel like we can handle it.

in a message similar to what i'm talking about my pastor said God said this to him "every time I give you a idea you shrink it down so much it's hardly worth doing anymore"

do you limit God in your dreams?

let this challenge you, don't limit the dreams God has put in you, if it seems bigger than you remember all you have to do is follow God, it's as simple as turn left, turn right, go straight.

God has huge things for you, and all you have to do is follow.

if you want to talk more about this subject feel free to contact me.

a post for my few awesome readers

2006-12-10T06:49:00.000-06:00

this one is for the people who have been reading my blog for awhile, and who have gotten to know some stuff about me through it. like it says at the bottom of the blog, this is kind of like my diary at times. i hope you continue to enjoy these small glimpses into my life.

and now a update:
well the last post i wrote about me and jen was this one. lot has happened since then.
she did fly here, and it was a amazing time together, with a hard goodbye.
and from there she started school and as a few of you know we planned a trip for me to fly out there to visit her, from the 11th - 21st.
oh and i need to add, after she was here, i felt like i wanted to marry her.
but through much prayer and talking with God, found out(after a little while) that the want to marry her was simply my own desire, and not God's desire. He has someone amazing for jen and for me. we're just not sure who yet.
and if any of you are getting the "aw i'm sorry mark" feeling, just let it go right now cause God has a plan for me, and for jen, and i'm really glad that both of us our dedicated to following God, and his plan, and not our own desires.(no matter where that takes us)
so a little while ago(a month or two) jen met a cool guy named joel. they hit it off pretty much right away, and have started dating. and we'll see where God leads that relationship as time goes on.
so a few weeks ago after much prayer, jen and i decided that the timing wasn't right for me to go out there and visit, and that we both felt much more peace in our hearts with this decision, so we canceled the trip.

so in closing.
for those who are wondering where jen and i stand now.
we are the best of friends, we talk often, about things happening in our lives, council each other, and help each other grow in our love for God.
everything jen and i ever had was built on a solid friendship, and when everything else washes away, that friendship will always remain. we're life long friends. and in a few years(best guess) i'll be like a proud brother and watch as she marries the amazing man God has for her.

till next time, have a beautiful life everyone, God loves you more then you can ever begin to comprehend. so smile.

New screen!

2006-11-16T23:56:00.000-06:00

So my CRT wasn't doing the job anymore, my eyes would get sore after a short period of use.
so here's the before:

and after:

Here's the link to it on newegg.com

oh and check this out:

portrait mode, so much fun for reading blogs and other long stuff like that, also great for viewing portrait images nice and big.

so i got this one over a apple 23" because it had better reviews, sorry apple.
haha

have a great day everyone!

Gay fun...?

2006-10-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

This post is directed towards christian guys.
---------------
Romans 12:1-2 (the message)
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

How often are you hanging out with friends and either you or one of your friends puts on the gay voice? everyone laughs, you're all just having a good time, right? it's just innocent fun, right? Here's the above bold text from the amplified bible "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs]"

Think about that for a second, the bible is saying do not do these things, and yet it's just innocent fun? think for a second, who taught you that it is innocent fun, the answer is, the world did.

Guys be careful, I see this happen all the time in church when the kids are hanging out after, your actions show who you serve. do you serve God? do you serve the world? your actions will tell.

God is AMAZING!!!

2006-10-27T01:12:00.000-05:00

[random picture of me-thank you sarah!]

ok i'll start back last saturday. i got a email with a great offer for signing up with Pictage, so i had been thinking about it, and that night i was journaling(click there to listen to a message on what that is) basically writing to me from God, as i was writing i was wondering if i should go with this pictage offer, and God said "Now son for your business move forward, I am going to bless you, watch and be amazed at how I work." that was plenty for me, so when i finished talking with God i signed up with pictage(see previous blog post for details on that.) a few days pass by and now it's wednesday night, i stopped by the bludomain blog and noticed they were soon to release their new interface(bludomain builds website templates) and they were running a contest to win the new interface for free. before this i was already knowing i needed to redo my photography website for wedding photography. so i entered the contest, praying asking God for favor with the judges. today the site released and i looked at the demo one of it, and it was exactly what i wanted, so i kept praying and believing God, and tonight they posted the winners. and i won!!!
(they typically sell these websites for $800.) i saw that i won and the first thing i said was, God is so amazing.(and smiled really big)
the sequence of events happening in my life to get me where i am today, it's amazing to see, and i praise God for everything He has done and is doing for me.

If you aren't in love with God including Him in your everyday life, seriously, fall in love. He is so amazing, He'll blow you away again and again.

when you jump you either have to fall back to the ground....or fly.

2006-10-22T03:45:00.000-05:00

Things are beginning to move forward, with the help of a lovely blog post by sarah, my album design service is launched, design.bymarkcollins.com. I'm looking forward to many clients and many album designs.

Next up is my photography, i jumped, tonight i signed up with Pictage, this will give me online proofing and order fulfillment, and also listings on weddingchannel.com and in the Pictage directory.
I'm excited to see where this takes me.
With God's help i'm not going to fall...i'm going to fly.

CUE: laugh track....?

2006-10-02T22:54:00.000-05:00

How often do you see this, you’re watching tv and a skateboarder misses a trick and lands on the the rail right between the legs,
CUE: laugh track.
Or the camera shows a person hiding and some unsuspecting person walking towards their hideout, hidden person jumps out and scares the other.
CUE: laugh track.
Or a old classic, the prank call, some unsuspecting person becomes the entertainment of the caller, all at the expense of the person who doesn’t know what’s going on.
CUE: laugh…track….?

Do you find yourself laughing too? Do you realize you’re being trained by the world to not think or care about the person, but instead to laugh at their pain?

Do you think to yourself, ‘oh it’s just harmless fun’? is it really harmless?

have you ever been the brunt of a joke everyone is there laughing at you, so you laugh to keep up your image, when inside it hurts.

Listen, this is not God’s way, look at this:
1 Corinthians 13
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

His word tells us to love, and not delight in evil. So answer this, do you laugh at things out of love or out of evil?

The world teaches us, trains us, to delight in evil, in others hurt, in others pain.

God teaches us to love.

My friends, choose God’s way, retrain your mind away from the world’s way and towards Gods way.

Hot! Or Not?

2006-09-23T00:34:00.000-05:00

How often do you hear someone say something like “they are hot!” and how often do you find yourself looking in the mirror later and comparing yourself to that person. How often do you think of yourself with a ‘ick’ or ‘ugly’ thought.
Why is it that we do these things?
Here’s why, we are four eyed, if you don’t understand let me explain. We have two sets of eyes to look through, the world’s eyes, and God’s eyes. The world’s eyes see, hot or not, they compare the physical appearance to the world’s definition of what looks good. God’s eyes only see one thing, the beauty in every single one of His creations. You see He made every single one of us in His image, and did you know that in the bible it says angels bow down at His beauty. God made you beautiful!
Now you may be saying, “yeah I know that, but I have this, and I have that”
That’s the world’s eyes you’re looking through, the world focuses solely on imperfections, it tries to get you so focused so tightly on those imperfections that you become convinced the whole person is imperfect.
God’s eyes see the person for who they are, His eyes see the whole person.
So for world, beauty is truly only skin deep. But for God beauty come from the inside out.
Which eyes will you choose to look through?

jen and kevin

2006-09-07T09:04:00.000-05:00

this post is about two unrelated things that happened last week.

Jen

On the 27th-31st Jen was finally able to come visit wheaton and me. it was so nice to finally meet her face to face. we had a wonderful time together talking and just hanging out.

Kevin
So on friday i get a call from this guy named kevin (got my number from sarah barlow.)
his second shooter canceled for saturday so he suddenly needed someone to shoot with him. i wasn't doing anything so i agreed...

here he is doing what he does very well. [shot using his lovely 16-35 f2.8L]

look at this church the ceremony was in, i walked in and was like, wow. [another shot using the 16-35]

There once was a guy who loved a girl...

2006-08-04T02:47:00.000-05:00

Ok so this post is more on the personal side, and it’s definitely something I need to do, to update and inform those who have been reading my blog for awhile.

…the girl is Jen, for those who don’t know you’ll have to read back in my blog a ways.(july 05) When you read that post you’ll notice that I was quite in love with her. Don’t worry we haven’t “broken up” but that’s only because we were never “together”, in that sense, in the first place.

In the time between that post and now Jen and I have both grown and matured; and now we are good friends. Do I still love her? Well of course, I care about her and truly want the best for her, and she wants the same for me, but we’re not meant for each other in the “together” way. Best description is as a brother and sister.

And speaking of my sis Jen, it looks like she’s going to be able to fly here for the last week of august, to meet her bro and hang out.

are you a victim of your own small thinking?

2006-07-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

this is just me thinking.
i have a friend who was shooting a band and thought "they aren't really going to use these for anything" and shot all the pictures on a lower quality setting. then found out a couple weeks later they wanted to use some of those images for printing some huge things. i'm sure the final products will look great, but how much better would they have been had the thinking of my friend been thinking big instead of small.
are you a victim of your own small thinking?
God has a plan for your life bigger than you could ever imagine, but often we get caught in our own small thinking, with no idea of how what we are doing will be used in the future.
"do everything as unto the lord" that's a different way of thinking, it's big thinking, how much better would you do your job if God was your boss? i know i'd want to do the best i possibly could.
but you know the truth is, everything we do should be as if God was signing our checks.
think big, you never know how God is going to use you.

something i'm working on applying to my life.

by the way...the picture above was taken with a cheap one use camera. you don't have to be great to produce great things. let God work through you.

2006-07-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

Quick update.
Life has a way of suddenly getting very busy very quickly, more details below.
Yesterday I shot a wedding with sarah and jake, It was a very windy day but a very beautiful wedding check it out.

The two bosses Barlow.
You already know I work for Sarah Barlow, shooting at weddings and other such photo stuff. Now starting on Monday I’ll be starting a new job working for EMPOWER with Joe Barlow(sarah’s dad) as my boss. At EMPOWER I’ll be doing just about everything I love to do and more. I’m really excited about this new job, and continuing to shoot with sarah, and my other new job…wait a third job…yep…on the morning of the same day that I was asked to work for EMPOWER, KK gave me a call and asked if I could doing photo editing for her, and of course I said I’d love to. So from one to three in one day. That was a good day.

2006-05-28T07:54:00.000-05:00

WE'RE HERE!

that's what my muscles are saying after yesterday.

yesterday at church we finished putting in a flower bed. slideshow

i was doing abit of work with a pickaxe digging a trench for the stone border, and i'm definitly feeling it this morning.

so today
first is church and then right after i'm heading over to sarah's house where we'll meet jake, and then we'll be off to shoot a wedding. i love shooting weddings, kinda wishing i wasn't so sore but hey what can you do.

2006-05-20T00:38:00.000-05:00

All good things end with cake.

today was my last day of class at college, graduating with a associate in film/video, and tonight was the graduation.
it was allot of fun to go through all the silly processional stuff and walk across the stage.
Sarah Barlow, who many of you know, came and took a few shots while enjoying the ceremony.
funny story, sarah didn't know i had my 20D with me, so she was taking a few shots of me as i was walking in and then i brought up my camera and took a few shots of her with my family smiling behind her. caught her off guard and was quite funny.
afterwards we came home and had some yummy cake!

between sarah's and my pictures i put together a little slideshow for you. enjoy!

2006-05-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

man i haven’t been that excited to receive a box in a long time.
photoshop cs2. i just held that shrink wrapped box in my hands kinda smiling, feels so good to own a real copy.
my ibook gets the pleasure of having this amazing program on it, and i'm believing God that my new 17" macbook will not be far behind.
---------------
classes are finishing up with the 19th being the last day. i'm so glad it's almost over. and i'm so excited to move forward in my life and start doing what i love.

2006-04-05T14:38:00.000-05:00

Ok I have the privilege of working with and getting to know some amazing people.

First off, a huge thank you to Sarah Barlow and David Jay for setting me up with the most amazing web slideshow program showit web (it was the question mark surprise I mentioned in my last post.)

Second is today Sarah tells me “you are now featured” take a look, so you know what, I’m going to feature Sarah:

here she doing what she does very well.
but besides being a amazing photographer, sarah also has a amazing giving spirit, she doesn't just want to climb to the top, she wants to take everyone there with her.

and if you've ever been around sarah you know of her energy, always smiling, and laughing...and laughing..and laughing. LOL.

keep your eye on sarah, she's going to go places you'd never expect.

till next time have a great day everyone.