Megachurches

Online magazine SLATE has compiled a list of megachurches (and when I say megachurches, I do mean houses of God that could house tens of thousands of people at a time) and put it in a nifty slideshow complete with information about the infrastructures.

The image below is one of the 10 photos included in the slideshow:



Slate says:

The 16,000-seat sanctuary of Lakewood Church in Houston (at right), the nation's largest nondenominational congregation, has padded theater seats instead of wooden pews, a stage instead of an altar, and video projection screens instead of stained-glass windows. Hardly a classic place of worship, although the expansive expression of religious community in this vast space is as impressive, in its way, as any soaring medieval nave.

16,000! It's like a concert crowd! I could hear the roaring of the crowd from where I'm typing.
To view the slideshow, click here.

Image aggregated from Slate.com

Light Painting

This is what photography is all about, that is, using light to your advantage. :D

As it seems, not everyone knows how to tinker with the dials and buttons on most digital cameras, so most shots are fired with the usual setting-- Auto + Direct flash. And if you haven't noticed it before, this is the usual setting they use when they take a photo of you for your driver's license, or worse, when police take a mug shot of you. Not exactly the best combination when taking outdoor shots at night. That's where the slow shutter setting comes handy. You just mount the camera on a tripod, fire away and let the light "paint" the picture for you (for about 5 to 10 seconds).

Or, you can get crazy with "light"--flashlights, LED lights, blinkers, the works!--and craft up a creative night shot, just like what these guys did:

So there! Get creative!

For more ideas on light painting, you can check out this cool gallery at Creative Nerds by clicking here.

Images aggregated from Creative Nerds and are copyright by its respective owners. Please contact them for permission to use the images commercially.

The Fish Eyes of Dietrich

There's just something in fish eye lens distortion that fascinates me...there's so much, in fact, that when I started in photography, it's one of the first few lenses I bought.

And then I came across username Dietrich's Flickr pool and was even more fascinated. The way he used the fish eye lens to his advantage was amazing. Check out the gallery of this very talented guy, just click here.

image copyright by Dietrich

Don't forget to also check out his Year In Photos 08 set...That's even more riveting.

Info aggregated from Flickr.com