If your in the Denver area and would like to attend our production of Godspell, you can find out more and register for free tickets at GodspellColorado.com.

Thanks again to Troy… If you like his work, then go like his page on Facebook.

There’s a park in the foothills, about 20 minutes from our home, where you can see mountains that are 50 miles north and 50 miles south… It’s a gorgeous place to shoot the sun setting over the Rocky Mountains… If you come to Denver, be sure to check out the Mt Falcon Open Space…

PhotoFriday is a feature of my own photographic art. Join our group on Flickr.com to submit photos for post illustrations and FlickrFriday slideshows…

Troy is different… I know Troy very well… in real life.

Sitting down over Chick-fil-A sandwiches, while my daughter terrorizes the boys in the playland, we talked for a half-hour about projects that we’re working on at LVC, our families and painting his house.

Troy has this off-grain sense of humor that makes me vaguely uncomfortable in public… He doesn’t mind being the center of attention… It totally freaks me out. He’s one of THOSE people who has never met a stranger, while I’m one of those people who learned to never talk to strangers…

After several years and a number of outings with him and our kids, I’m more accustomed to the way he reaches out to everyone he encounters… He’s charming, really… But being in public with Troy is still very similar to the experience of riding on a parade float…

So, I wave helplessly at the passers-by and ask my questions.

I already know quite a bit about Troy… He’s been interested in photography since he was a small child, growing up in Michigan. His first pictures were captured with a MagiMatic camera; images of the outdoors and Canadian geese whose heads were often out of frame. He studied later at the Art Institute of CO and spent a number of years working in a portrait studio before starting his own business about 2 years ago…

I have worked with Troy at LVC as well… He does free portraits for guests at our Night in Bethlehem event and has submitted work for our galleries. He has also done work for 2=1 (a marriage ministry) and CO-AID (a non-profit that does work in India and Haiti).

What I’ve been wanting to share with you guys for a while is Troy’s work with Shiloh House, a foster-care home for boys that have difficult and often troubled backgrounds…

He shared his vision with me more than a year ago:

…To photograph the boys at Shiloh House… To affirm them in who they are by portraying their hearts through imagery and portraiture (that) uses their ideas…

Which is the sort of thing that Troy does with high school seniors and brides-to-be and other characters he meets… His portrait work begins with building a relationship with his clients, finding out what they like and who they are; then going out to locations where they feel comfortable and shooting pictures…

There is a strong sense of collaboration with his clients… Capturing their loves and aspirations and stories is as important to Troy as getting the light and composition right…

Relationship is vital to his work and that personal understanding comes through in the images he captures… His portraits are intimate and compelling…

He has been working with Shiloh House, shooting their events, as a part-time member of their volunteer staff…

It seemed to take forever to get through the paperwork and training. They do background checks and training about interacting with the kids… It was quite a process…

I had the opportunity to be around while Troy was doing a shoot… His outgoing nature is at its best in these situations to draw out his subjects, to make them feel at ease, to be their friend…

No doubt, this is a tremendous experience for boys who come out of poverty, neglect and abuse…

You can see more of Troy’s work on his website: www.TroyRowe.com or become a fan on Facebook.

All of Troy’s images are copyrighted and used by permission.

Travis Silva (Forgiven! on Flickr) is a regular contributor to our Flickr group. This image was taken on a recent mission trip to Uganda. Check out Travis’ photostream (which has some really dramatic HDR images) here.

If you photoshare on Flickr, why not join our group?

Have a great weekend!

Ben Darby (Ben_D on Flickr) is a regular contributor to the WOP group on Flickr. This image was captured at sunrise on Myrtle Point in the Great Smokey Mountains.

Thanks to BillMcCarroll for submitting this great image of St John of Damascus Orthodox Church to the Flickr group. You can browse Bill’s entire photostream here.

If you photoshare on Flickr, join our group.

Be sure to check out Jason’s photostream on Flickr and his blog…

Check out Travis Silva’s (Forgiven! on Flickr) mission trip images from Gulu, Uganda… Beautiful and poignant images of children living in poverty…

If you photoshare on Flickr, join our group.

Many of Jason's images capture the local beauty of his home in Huntington Beach, CA.

A few months back, Jason Tockey joined our Flickr group and started submitting these really inspiring images of sunsets off of the California coast… Of course, I didn’t know then that this self-taught, amateur photographer would be thoughtful, wise and personally inspiring as well…

Jason has developed a significant talent in photography in just over 2 years… Beginning in August 2008 with the camera on his phone, Jason was quickly hooked and began creating projects for himself… By January 2009, he picked up a Nikon DSLR and never looked back…

Picking up tips from friends on Flickr, other online resources and a few good books, Jason continues to explore different styles and creative artistry. He sometimes shoots 3 or 4 times in a week, taking an average of 150 images in each shoot… Then evaluates his work based on technique and his own artistic criteria…

“After I’m done, I go over the photos and (keep) the ones that capture 4 things that I want to characterize my images…
Beauty, Unity, Transcendence and Iconic-ness.”

Jason talks about his art being central to his Christian walk… What started as a quest for an interesting hobby, quickly transformed into a focus of his identity:

“I started to see photography and being a Christian who is a photographer as a core part of my identity as a Christian.”

Realizing that this was true, his goals changed. While he continues to enjoy shooting images (in fact, I would go so far as to say his images express a deep sense of joy), he has cultivated vision and purpose in finding opportunites to use his gifts and in “improving (his) ability to reflect God’s goodness and faithfulness through His created world.”

“I find that in photography, the hope of God’s goodness, faithfulness, greatness and abundant redemption are the focus of my work.  I feel ministered to and blessed by God as I photograph the beauty of His creation.”

Like many of the artists that I talk to, Jason finds that his gifts “don’t fit the mold” of art in the Church at-large. While his own church-family has been very encouraging, Jason doesn’t envision his photography being used in church primarily…

“I prefer to think of myself as a Christian who is a photographer and the audience for my work being people in general…. I hope the images speak truths about God to everyone who looks at them…. I see my ministry as one of creating excellent images that reveal God to everyone.”

As we spoke, I got curious about what would prompt a guy in his mid-30′s to suddenly start looking for an artistic hobby… He explained that his grandfather had recently died, leaving his reputation for hard work as his legacy…  Seeing the same characteristic in his own life, and wanting to pass along more to his own children, Jason decided that it was time to do something different…

It’s a decision that has changed Jason’s understanding of his place in God’s Kingdom…

Can you start something new today?

You can read and subscribe to Just Images, Jason’s blog, or add jstimages as a contact on Flickr.