It was a smoky afternoon in Montana. That was the story of the week, if I'm being honest. But challenging situations caused us to travel, to look, to try something different. Which I'm actually glad for. But on this particular day, we ended up driving all over. I can't recall the original plan, but it fell apart, and we drove northward to one mountain range in particular, if my memory serves me correctly. Montana is full of back roads, dirt roads, and roads that you can't rea

Cold water rushes through a narrow ravine. On either side of the stream, sections of rock are exposed, revealing ancient breccia, a mixture of sharp-edged rock fragments and finer grains, like a rough, natural concrete, formed by ancient volcanic activity and other dramatic forces. Vibrant green moss covers the landscape as the water rushes over ancient boulders. The stream flows through a canyon surrounded by peaks over nine thousand feet high. The American West and its geol

Do you remember back in the nineties when TV shows would have recap episodes? A couple of people would talk and remember something. Then the screen would get all fuzzy, chimes or some dreamy music would play, and then there would be a scene from an earlier episode. I suppose I do something like that on this website at times. But hey, I was a nineties kid. It is amazing to me, however, that here we are, around a year in. By God's grace and with His help, I've been able to writ

Four hundred and six miles. That's how far we drove, if memory serves, one day on my recent trip. Montana is a big state, and there is a lot to see. Smoke, however, kept us from some locations. Instead, we searched all around, and on this particular day, we ended up looking for a waterfall. It wasn't one that either of us knew much about; we weren't even really sure where it was. Well, other than which trailhead to go to. We arrived with a couple of hours of sunlight left, an

Not the typical photograph I would go for, but when conditions are what they are, you have to make do. Is it everyone's cup of tea? Perhaps not. But it actually is one of my favorite shots from my recent trip. It tells a story. And those are my favorite photographs. Mountain vistas, alpine lakes, wildflower meadows, epic sunsets brought on by afternoon thunderstorms. These are all things that come to the mind of a photographer when they think of the American West in summer. B

Greatest shot of all time? No. But a stunning scene that points to God's beauty and creative power? I believe so. I'm in Montana with a friend of mine. A big part of why I'm here is because it's a spectacular place to photograph, and lately I've been wanting to be better at photography. But, as you have probably seen in posts I've written on the topic, photography itself can be a challenge. If you've ever played golf, then you know how it is. You may have all the knowledge in

The light was looking pretty good. That's what I was thinking as we cruised along Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park the other night looking for a sunset. The weather had been promising a couple of days prior. But I hesitated and opted to wait for another day. So, it would be the last opportunity to venture into the park before my upcoming trip to Montana. I wanted to make it count. A particular location I know of seemed a good option. I had scouted a couple of shots i

Yesterday, as I was cruising up around 32,000 feet at almost five hundred miles an hour, it had me thinking. Now, I am not a science expert, especially on topics like the theory of relativity. But I can't help but wonder: if we’re flying around five hundred miles an hour, and I run down the aisle toward the front of the plane, am I running at five hundred and ten miles an hour? If at the same time someone runs on the ground, maybe even sprinting, am I still not running expone

Well, I had wanted to share about my trip the other evening up to Shenandoah National Park, but between work, being very tired, and packing for a trip tomorrow, I'm going to postpone that until I'm a little more up to it. Instead, I want to link to a post I wrote last year about packing for my whirlwind adventure last Autumn. Packing is an art, and I'm not an artisan when it comes to it. I'm more of a throw-it-in-a-bag-and-hope type of packer. But I hope you'll find the post

Surrounded by incredible geology, Palisade Falls drops roughly one hundred feet. Many millions of years ago, volcanic activity in the west formed what is now Hyalite Canyon, just outside of modern-day Bozeman, Montana. Or was it millions of years? Was it, perhaps, only thousands? How can we know for sure? The debate over origins and ages has not diminished over the years, sadly. But one thing we can all know and agree on: we all have access to the same rocks. And the funny th

Imagine being in a situation where you had to be told constantly to be brave and strong. A high-pressure moment where you needed a constant reminder that you weren't alone. An extra boost when you might be facing discouragement. That was the case for Joshua. Shortly before Moses died, and even after, God consistently told Joshua, commanded him in fact, to be strong and courageous. But God also reminded Joshua that He would be with him through it all (Joshua 1:9). Wouldn't it

Today I want to share another video that I recently worked on. I know I had posted one earlier in the year, and it is still my official first video. As such, it will be posted to YouTube in the near future, Lord willing. But I also recently finished this one, and it will be titled "episode 1". This one summarizes much of what I discussed in the recent articles on the events surrounding Lazarus' death and resuscitation. I hope that you'll find it encouraging and consider likin

For this trip report, instead of re-write the events of the day, I realize I had actually written out a draft of a post the day of. So, what is written below (with some corrections, etc. ) is from September 27th 2025 while in Montana, a day of photography, challenges, and a lot of cows. As I've mentioned in recent posts, I am currently away from home. This has inherent challenges in and of itself, especially with blogging. But I'm determined to continue on writing. Maybe th

Hardly an original shot, but a stunning location to be sure. There are few places I can think of in the United States that offer more variety, ranging from wildlife to geology, scenic views to just out of this world features, than Yellowstone National Park. Within this amazing place, one could spend multiple lifetimes researching, exploring, and photographing, and still come up with new things. It is a testament to God's creative power. On the northeast corner of the park lie

I've never tried my hand at road side photography before. At least, not quite to the degree that my friend and I did in Montana recently. But given our difficulties with the weather, we had tried a few different things, that being one of them. Of course when I say road side, the term "road" loosely. I'm not entirely sure some of the paths we drove on can legitimately be called roads, but I digress. The places we visited were actually quite beautiful, and not as photographed o

Pride goes before a fall. It's such a true statement, but hard to swallow when it's yourself that it applies to. Yesterday I decided to search for a waterfall well off of trail in a certain location. Where, I will decline to say exactly, for various reasons. I knew there was a vague forecast of rain, but I didn't check the details. The exact path to the falls? I figured I knew enough to be able to plot my own course. I have a GPS app, so I should be good, right? In other word

Montana feels like it was months ago and yet it was just a little over 2 weeks. It's weird how that works. Anticipate something for a long time, it comes, and it's gone before you know it, and then the memory of it so quickly goes. It's kind of like Christmas as a kid. But it's time to start going through some of the many photos and memories from Montana. One of the first evenings out there, we had driven around for quite a while looking for spots to photograph. But the fall

It's the final day, I'm packed and ready, and our flight leaves in under 5 hours (Lord willing). It's still not the time (nor do I have the time) to go into all the details and thoughts of the week, but I think that's ok. Mission trips are life-altering, and you don't write out a 3-5 paragraph blog to cover all of that without taking some time to dwell on it. But as for today, it started out bittersweet. Of course we're all ready to go home. Two of our team is able to do an e

One last night up on the roof in Peru. It's certainly been an interesting and eye opening experience this week, and it will be time til I am able to process it all. Photos as well. I've taken hundreds of photos this week, but the editing process will take some time. But the next step for me will most likely be to process the spiritual and emotional side of it. Coming on trips such as this, in my short experience, results in high emotions, and that takes some time to settle, a

Today's blog will be short-ish and not very deep, as I realize the last few have been as well. Our schedules have been so packed, the internet so spotty, and my brain so frazzled from the days, that it has been pretty hard to write. Today's challenges were just that, challenging. And I don't really feel it's the time to jump into the details of it. But I do want to mention a conversation I had with a young man on our way home. One of our translators was a young man who, I don