Nov 30 2009

11.30.09 – an offer you probably shouldn’t resist

Seese Family – Columbia MD 2007

For a donation of $200 (tax deductible) towards our Africa Trip (click on link for more info) I will do family portraits for you for this year’s christmas cards and christmas gifts. Final edited photos on cd, you print as many as you want.

Normal photoshoot usually $499
first TEN responders only
1 location, 1 outfit, up to 1 hour of photography, limited to 1 hour of travel from Jamestown NY
E-mail me jim@worshipplace.org
to see more of my portrait work click here

Blog readers get first dibs, if I don’t get much of a response it’s being opened up to everyone else.

JIM baker

p.s sorry for the lack of blog posts, I was traveling and I haven’t felt that great, I’ll try and get a blog update up soon

by Jim Baker

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Rick RohlinDecember 1, 2009 - 4:00 am

Count the Rohlins as one of the 10

AmazedDecember 2, 2009 - 5:22 am

I love this idea of family photos…

WOW. This is an amazing pic of this family.

Do you do animals birds too? Senior Pics?

Blessings and Prosperity !!!!!
Lois Bentley

jim bakerDecember 2, 2009 - 9:23 am

@ rick – lets set up a time

@ Lois – i’m not too fond of animals so if I’m taking pictures of animals I’m charging more :) But I do do senior portraits

blaecceDecember 28, 2009 - 6:07 am

Jim,
I saw your post from a link from the Erretts. We live across the street from them. Do you have your 10 slots filled? If not, I am interested, but we may be a challenge – we have 5 children, so we are a big group. Not sure if we are a good candidate….let me know – Just thinking that we havent had a family pic but once in the 10 yrs we have been married. Also, if you are up for the challenge – would it be possible to do in the spring/summer/fall? Not sure when your trip is or how long it is….lots of questions – ok, i see when your trip is. could possibly pay up front for future pictures when the weather is better.. please let me know.
Lori Pumford

jim bakerDecember 28, 2009 - 6:13 am

Lori! Thanks for checking out the blog. The Errett are a great family. We have not filled the ten spots yet. Let me email you with more details and answers to your questions.

jim bakerDecember 28, 2009 - 6:15 am

Oops I don’t have ur email address. Why don’t you email me. Jim@worshipplace.org

Nov 24 2009

11.24.09 – nuts and bolts and parking garages

oahu – 2009 (for some reason I love doing photography in parking garages)

We’re headed to MD today for thanksgiving. My parents have sold the house I grew up in and moved into a two bedroom apartment. Should be interesting. Hopefully nothing like what happened last time on our way to baltimore will happen this time.

If you want to see the sermon I preached yesterday you can watch it online for another couple of weeks. Or you can get the audio here.

Jess and I had dinner last night with Tim and Aruna Swauger of Equip India over at Rick and Sandi’s house. Aruna brought authentic home made Indian food and it was AMAZING. We met them to hear how our youth group could help their ministry. I will write soon more about their ministry, it’s pretty amazing.

Aaron Reinard came and spoke last night to our youth and brought a message of Jesus constantly raising the bar in Matt 5-7. We had our students ask themselves where they were settling in life and where they needed to raise the bar. That life isn’t just about existing and hoping and waiting for the weekend.

Jihan Mora – Toronto Summer 2008

We’re meeting up with Jihan Mora as soon as we get into MD to meet up for Indian Food at India Delight. I LOVE Indian food.

Thanks for the recent comments, make sure you check out the comment section after you leave a comment, I always try to respond.

JIM baker

Nov 23 2009

11.23.09 – great day yesterday

haha thanks to jon barnes for the fun graphic

So yesterday was my birthday. I started out the morning by preaching at church which I think went really well. I shared my story with the church and preached a little bit about some things that were on my heart.

Then my wife and I, Sandi Walrod and Eric and Stacey Clark headed out to Erie to see The Blind Side which was seriously such an awesome movie. Then we went and ate indian food (which I LOVE) at the Raj Mahal.

Today my wife and I are going to get some home made Indian food at Pastor Rick’s house and we’re going to meet Aruna Swauger who works with Equip India.

And tonite Aaron Reinard is speaking to our youth.

A fun filled day.
JIM baker

p.s leave comments i LOVE THEM!

by Jim Baker

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JStanfordNovember 23, 2009 - 1:28 am

HERE’S A COMMENT!!

I watched the live feed from yesterday morning. Awesome stuff – It was cool hearing things you’ve told me over the years all at once. Great thoughts too – we do need to stop praying out of unbelief. Often when I see God answer a prayer of mine in some obvious way, I am surprised – as if I didn’t really expect Him to. We’re not a servant begging for our request to be granted – we’re sons and daughters coming to our loving father.

Stay awesome, glad you had a great birthday!

You and My FaceNovember 23, 2009 - 2:50 am

That’s so cool, Jim! I hope you began your sermon by saying “I’m a big boy today.”

Bang! Zoom! To the moon!
-Chachi

joan NewhallNovember 23, 2009 - 3:12 am

I heard that your sermon went well. I watched until 10:45 but had to leave for my church service. I hope that it will be posted on the Praise Fellowship Service soon so that I can view it.
Congratulations…..
Love, Grandpa and Grandma

P.S. going to see The Blind Side Tuesday evening.

Jodie LindellNovember 23, 2009 - 4:38 am

Jim,
We watched from the webcast and it really was a great service. Thank you for sharing your heart and allowing us to have a glimpse of who you are. God has truly blessed you, impacted you, and quite obviously created you in His image! We look so forward to meeting you and your beautiful wife one day real soon. Blessings,

Mike & Jodie Lindell

PS We made sure we had our 7 yr. old son Caleb listen to your testimony as well, telling him that you would be having a major impact on his life one day…. He was really blessed by many things you spoke about. Thank you again for your willingness and obediace to share your life and heart w/ this body. You are valuable.

Jeremiah and AmyNovember 23, 2009 - 3:34 pm

Happy Belated Birthday! I am glad you had a good time. Fun to hear you saw Sandi, do you hang out a lot?? Say hi from us! I sure hope we can meet all of you again in the future! That would be so great!

LisaNovember 23, 2009 - 6:15 pm

i think i’m gonna order the dvd. i really want to hear your story from your mouth (I heard bits and pieces from my family, but yeah, I wanna hear).

jim bakerNovember 24, 2009 - 4:44 am

@ jeff – thanks so much man, your words are an encouragement to me, its been my privilege to walk through life with you and see you run hard after jesus, God is going to use you mightily for His kingdom

@ chachi – i actually started it out by saying something about my birthday and a suit… and letting everyone know that it wasn’t my birthday suit

@ grandma – hope you enjoy blindside it was great, the sermon is online on the website now.

@ Mike and Jodie – man, you guys are awesome I’m excited to meet you all soon too, thanks for having Caleb watch it will be a good day when he’s hanging out with us on monday nights :)

@ jeremiah and Amy – thanks for the b-day wishes, yeah Sandi and jess are actually hanging out right now, we all live in the same town now (crazy huh?)

@ lisa – no need to buy the dvd you can check it out on the churches website

LisaNovember 24, 2009 - 12:39 pm

i’ve tried to do it with some of the sermon’s i miss, and the videos won’t load and the if i pause the audio, i have to keep searching to find where i was, but I’ll try. :-) And I wish worship was online instead of just the sermon. I miss worship too.

Nov 21 2009

11.21.09 – random thoughts from today

Natchez Trace – Sept 2008

Someone just commented on this picture of mine on my flickr. So I decided to share it with you all. And this brings me to my most recent predicament.

Someone else bought www.jimbakerphotography.com

I contacted him and asked him if I could buy it back since I’ve got thousands of business cards out… he said he just did a whole branding process with that domain name so no.

My flickr account and my gmail address for photography is all based around jimbakerphotography too.

I really think it just furthers the fact that I didn’t move up here to western NY/PA to do photography. I moved up here to do ministry, so that needs to be my focus, completly.

I don’t know why I get so touchy about not having that domain name anymore… for some reason it really really bothers me.

I do really love photography though.

+++

In other news… I went out to lunch with Devone today a student from our youth group. We went to Bob Evans in Warren PA and as we were waiting in line to be seated three elderly white ladies kept looking back at us repeatedly. I guess it is a pretty uncommon to see an african american and an asian in the same place in Warren PA but do you really have to stare? Our hostess sat us without really saying anything to us, no “have a nice meal” or anything, maybe she was just having a bad day.

the flowers in b/w shot with the g11 and off camera flash

Devone and I went over to wal-mart to pick up my wife flowers and we noticed multiple people staring at us. Not just a look, but like a holding gaze. The cart boy on the way in and then on the way out an elderly gentleman kept staring at us, so I waved and smiled and said hello, he waved nervously and walked quickly out of sight.

Oh western PA.

I went to a high school that was 49% miniority so this is a bit of an adjustment for me.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I’m preaching. We’re headed to Maryland on tuesday for thanksgiving.

Jess and I going to Erie tonite for a dinner date and movie. She loves Thai food so we’re going to get thai and go see the movie “blindside”.

JIM baker

by Jim Baker

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AmazedNovember 22, 2009 - 11:51 am

I enjoy your blog and photos. Please keep adding the photos to your blog. The thistle one reminded me of Matt 12:20. Also reminded me of Heather Armstrong’s work.
Thank you for your open sharing and strong preaching of the word today.
Again. Welcome to WNY, PA. You are indeed a light. Lois Bentley

LisaNovember 22, 2009 - 12:09 pm

mm.. i love thai food too.

it’s funny how people will stare at you until you wave and are friendly then they get all embarrassed and walk away.

jim bakerNovember 23, 2009 - 1:17 am

Lois! thanks so much for commenting and checking in with the blog. I just went and checked out Heather Armstrongs work, she’s REALLY good. How did you hear about her? You’re welcome for sharing/preaching today it was fun!

Lisa – we didn’t end up getting thai food, maybe in MD this upcoming week…

AnonymousNovember 23, 2009 - 2:03 am

Stumbled on your post while searching for something else, and felt terrible about your experience. On behalf of the “normal” (I know that’s a stretch) folks in Warren, PA, I apologize. Beautiful photos BTW.

jim bakerNovember 24, 2009 - 4:48 am

Anonymous, thanks! I know that the staring is not intentional or rude, its just a natural reaction to things that are different, I’m trying to not take offense to it. thanks for the compliments on the photos. feel free to check in whenever :)

Nov 19 2009

11.19.09 – "value creates obligation" – Dean Sherman

a Darrell Hill workshop that I took photos for inHawaii Jan 2009

This past sunday was the best church service I seriously have ever been in. It was so evident that God was in the room with us and so sweetly revealing His love. Pastor Rick preached a simple message about our worth and value because we were made in the image of God. He made a bold statement that I agree with that if you take out Genesis chapters 1-16 out of the bible (the creation story) then humans are stripped of their worth.

Simply put, we have value because we were made in the image of God, no other created thing was.

Rick taught about the value of art, and said that these three things make a piece of art valuable.

1. The ARTIST is what makes the piece of art valuable
2. The UNIQUENESS of the piece of art
3. A BUYER

He related this to us as humans. ALL humans are valuable because we were ALL created in the image of God and the artist who created us is pretty amazing. We are all so unique. And we were BOUGHT at a price, a very expensive price, the blood of Jesus.

These seem like such simple facts, but sit and dwell on them for a while and ask God to make them a reality.
JIM baker

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LisaNovember 20, 2009 - 8:14 pm

So I was thinking tonight about how cool God is. I think when He’s doing things around the world, you see it start popping up all over the place. And I think it’s cool that within the last three weeks, Rick, and you, and I have all emphasized on the value of an individual. I don’t know which one of us had the idea first, or if we all had it all along (possibly the case considering we all care about people and people finding value in Jesus), but we’ve all emphasized on it in one way or another. And, to my knowledge, it had nothing to do with us talking to each other. I mean, I haven’t even been around PF too much lately. My blog came out of a deep conversation I had with a friend who was feeling unwanted and unloved. God is just sooo cool. I just thought it was cool that there was a theme going on. :-)

jim bakerNovember 21, 2009 - 9:19 am

God’s good at speaking the same thing to His people in seasons huh? Makes me realize we’re not all insane haha…

Nov 16 2009

11.16.09 – testing out the canon 100-400 lens



Shot at the Jamestown Audubon with the Canon 100-400L f4.5-5.6

I met my great Aunt Anita and Uncle Dave today at the Audubon before I went into work. I knew that my Uncle had recently purchased the 100-400L lens and I wanted to try it out because I am thinking about renting it when I go to Africa in January.

So here comes a bunch of photography talk… if you’re not into gear talk just enjoy the pictures.

The first thing I noticed is that this lens is wicked heavy. Well three pounds isn’t heavy, but it sure felt heavy when my heaviest lens is the 70-200F4 weighing in at half that, a whopping 1.6lbs.

The push pull instead of turn to zoom took a bit of getting used to but wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. I didn’t feel like I was getting very much contrast out of the lens but I just realized that it’s because it was a cloudy day.

The lens wasn’t super quick at focusing at all which was frustrating but I don’t know if thats because I was shooting in relatively low light, or it had a much longer distance to hunt, or because of the not so fast aperture or all of those things.

To get shutter speeds fast enough when using this lens zoomed out to 400mm I had to have my ISO set at 800. Instantly I wished I had a full frame camera like the 5d Mark II or even the regular 5d that can pull off high ISO shots. Anyway even at iso 800 I still sometimes was in danger of getting to slow a shutter speed for the focal length but didn’t dare kick it up to 1600. I just relied on the IS and fired in continuos. Luckily I doubt cloudy will be an issue while in Africa.

With just an hour of using it my review is this. It is a fun lens to play with and will it be useful in Africa. But it’s not a lens I would keep in my bag for daily use. It’s much more of a speciality lens for wildlife. So with a price-tag of $1610.00 I will not be buying this lens ever probably, but will be renting it if the need arises, like a safari in Africa:)

JIM baker

by Jim Baker

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JStanfordNovember 16, 2009 - 1:01 pm

I love these pics, good test, haha!

LisaNovember 16, 2009 - 6:19 pm

not sure what the fuzzy things are, but they look really cool

GaryNovember 17, 2009 - 5:24 am

Love the flying Geese…think stock!

You and My FaceNovember 17, 2009 - 9:28 am

Wow, these are striking! Amazing eye, sir.

jim bakerDecember 27, 2009 - 9:58 pm

@ jeff – thanks man!

@ lisa – haha yay for fuzzy thing, I take pics all the times of things I have no clue what they are and people are always asking… psh… sorry i forgot to stop and ask the flower its name… and no i’m not getting out a flower book haha

@ gary – thanks! ::sigh:: i totally need to make the jump into stock don’t I…

@ chachi – thanks man!

Nov 15 2009

11.15.09 – office pic and mini sandbox/sand garden

my office

We had an awesome church service today (i will blog about it later today) and two of the staff from camp mission meadows where I worked for part of this summer came to our church and visited and I went out to lunch with them after and had a great conversation.

I decided to come back and unpack my office since there was still two large boxes that need to be unpacked that have been here in the church since August. I decided it was probably time to do that huh?

One of the boxes was stuff that I had in my last office which I haven’t touched for almost two years. In it was this “zen garden.” I worked at a high school in Maryland as the alternative education assistant and worked with all of the at risk kids, mostly supervising in school suspension. My supervisor had one in her office that I often made fun of it but found myself always playing in it, so she bought me one for Christmas. She said she had it in there so that kids could come in and just chill out. Playing in the sand with the little tiny rakes is actually quite relaxing.

So I’m redeeming it… we’ll now call it a prayer garden or something and rebuke the zen part. But I wanted to tell you why I had it in my office. No I’m not into zen… and no I don’t just have it cause I’m asian… haha. Here’s an open invitation to anyone to come hang out in my office with me when I’m here and try relaxing with the… eh, lets just call it a sandbox.

Also we’re gonna repaint it and get rid of this obscene border too… I’m thinking grey to match the blog what do you think?

JIM baker

by Jim Baker

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markandjeanetteNovember 15, 2009 - 1:01 pm

That border is redonkulios bro! But the ‘sandbox’ is nice. I think your wife needs to get home before you go crazy or blow something else up…

LisaNovember 15, 2009 - 6:19 pm

i want to play in your sandbox!

Russ BakerNovember 16, 2009 - 3:33 pm

Nice office. Always good to see the mandatory milk crate… :-)
DAD

jim bakerDecember 27, 2009 - 9:58 pm

@ mark – the office is freshly painted… i gotta get some more stuff up on the walls and then i’ll do a post of the new version

@ lisa – feel free its in there, it even now has sand from waikiki

@ dad – thanks… milk crates are a must :)

Nov 14 2009

11.14.09 – productive day!

tonight’s dinner

Even though when Jess is away I burn things in the microwave I can cook. Well if you count sauteing up some chicken and then pouring a jar of pre-made tiki masala sauce over it and simmering it and then throwing it on whole wheat pasta that was already in the fridge. Whatever…

Sent in Jess’ passport renewal application so it will be under her married name. Cost me like $150+ grrrr. I guess these are the times where I have to really TRUST in God’s provision. I feel like peoples natural generosity has already been stretched, which makes me realize that maybe I’ve just trusting in that and not God.

Picked up some toiletries for work. I find myself getting back to the office often and wanting/needing to brush my teeth after a meal or something. So I picked up some stuff to keep at the office.

Washed and waxed Jess’ car, rain-x’d the windows too. I feel like I’ve cleaned our drinking glasses like a million times cause they never seem to look clean. Does anyone else have that problem with Jamestown water?

anyway, thats it.
JIM baker

by Jim Baker

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CherylNovember 14, 2009 - 2:53 pm

Dinner looks great! Mom

jeannieNovember 14, 2009 - 4:20 pm

Looks better than raw sausage!!!:) way to go Jimmy!!

jim bakerDecember 27, 2009 - 10:00 pm

@ mom – it was alright… it reminded me of a beef dish mom used to cook… thin strips of beef with like sour cream… what was that? beef paprika?

@ jeannie – haha, anythings better than raw sausage, thats why when i come back to town we go out to eat now and i don’t let you cook for me :)

Nov 13 2009

11.13.09 – crazzzy day

R.I.P Moscow
(1997 – 2009)

Today has been crazy, setting things on fire in my microwave, being chased down by some guy who cornered me in a store just to tell me I couldn’t turn right on red in a school zone, and my cat had to be put down today. It was getting mean, and my parents are moving. (the comments section is not for an animal rights discussion so please keep those comments to yourself, they will be deleted)

I miss jess. Luckily cell phones keep us in pretty good contact. She got knocked over today by a kid when they were doing ministry in a children’s cerebral palsy home, everyone is fine though. They did evangelism on the ferry last night and have been receiving some training as well. Hoping that tomorrow will be a bit more productive and a little less crazy for me.

JIM baker

by Jim Baker

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joan NewhallNovember 13, 2009 - 5:12 pm

Sorry to hear about Moscow. I know he’s been sick for quite awhile. Must have been hard for Mom and Dad…They become part of the family.

chrisNovember 14, 2009 - 3:38 am

Sorry about Moscow… I think you had a love/hate relationship with him. Still, it’s too bad.

jim bakerDecember 27, 2009 - 10:00 pm

@ grandma – thank you

@ chris – love/hate indeed thank you

Nov 13 2009

11.13.09 – flaming buttery garlic epic fail

taken with my iphone

Sooo… jess is out of town and I was heating up some left over pizza for lunch and I love little caesars butter garlic dip so I threw that on the plate too since it had congealed in the fridge…

I poke 1 minute on the microwave and walk away and hear all this popping, I turn around and open the microwave to see the dipping sauce in flames…

I stood there for a second thinking this will make a great blog post, I somehow wanted to tie in something someone said earlier this week to my blog and this will be great, and I should really put a battery in my smoke alarm and then it dawned on me… I should blow this out. Four giant huffs and puffs later with ashes flying all over the microwave and no more flaming butter garlic dipping sauce.

I just put a battery in our smoke alarm, (Here’s a friendly reminder to GO TEST YOUR BATTERIES RIGHT NOW TOO) and wrote little caesars telling them what happened and told them that they might be able to save themselves a lawsuit if they put “do not microwave” on the dipping sauces. It really never dawned on me that the lid would have foil on it… its not readily evident.

I might write about what I thought this blog post inspired later but I try to keep these short since technology has ruined all of our attention spans. 😉

JIM baker

by Jim Baker

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JStanfordNovember 13, 2009 - 7:08 am

haha, I am glad life is exciting :)

joan NewhallNovember 13, 2009 - 7:22 am

Ha, ha, Amazing what women know that men don’t have a clue. Happy to hear you did blow it out….and fix the smoke alarm… Love, Grandma

jeannieNovember 13, 2009 - 1:04 pm

haha that is too funny, I guess you got that from me…. I too have done that only with the papa johns garlic sauce!! luv ya :)

jim bakerNovember 13, 2009 - 2:33 pm

lol… it runs in the family.