Posts Tagged ‘Freeport’

At the end of last month, I was scheduled to do the kind of assignment I love! Antonia needed someone to photograph her family before they moved to the Netherlands for three years and to remember the beauty of her husband’s parents’ gardens. Their home was scheduled to be on the Gardens United 2010 Garden Walk in mid-July and all of their children and grandchildren would be there at one time. Their yard had something special and unique in every corner and even in a Secret Garden.



We started at 8:30 am to take advantage of the lower, directional light and to avoid the hottest time of the day. There was a misty fog dripping onto the plants and made this Lady’s Mantle look like crystals of sugar outlined the leaves.

It was a delight to observe the candid interactions between grandparents and grandchildren and between cousins.



Now that our episode has aired, I am able to reveal a few more of the photos that I took as part of the M45 photography team. My shifts were scheduled at odd hours of the night but I knew I would have the opportunity to see some great work being done with some dramatic lighting. I was told that the place would be lit up like a football field and that was absolutely the truth. The volunteers were impressive and I felt somewhat guilty documenting the progress rather than doing hard, physical labor like so many others. I sure got tired, though!

I was enthralled each day to note how they utilized the cameras and the big boom arm that swung the camcorder out over the poured basement on my first night there and also, as seen in the first collage, that they had little yellow pieces of tape to indicate the purpose of each button. Now, that is something that I had to do when I first started my photography business – just to put up a light stand with an umbrella!!

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I want to include this last photo because, while the production that aired Sunday night was indeed heart-warming and revealed much of the family circumstances, for time’s sake it had to omit much of what happened in front of the ABC cameras and in front of my camera. I was astounded on Reveal Day to see so MANY video cameras follow the Stott’s up to their house – what, is there seven of them?

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These photos are from last Wednesday and already so much has changed. The cross inlay on the North side was in progress and today, at church, we saw it was completely done! I really like the combination of textures: brick, three kinds of stone and the stucco. It makes the facade so much more interesting, doesn’t it?
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I had a friendly talk with the men working on the stucco as they had a few questions about the baptism tub and stage area. Our wide stage is made more intersting by the sweep of a generous curve.
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The old fellowship area will be used for classroom space, I believe – note the addition of the designer-look columns. The fellowship area will be relocated to our old gym which will actually be a muti-purpose area with the new kitchen seen her in the background.

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This photo shows our own Bob Logothetti wiring the stage area which will now be handicapped accessible with the addition of ramps on each side. The curves are continued in the windows and a few of the door frame openings – very nice design element.

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We Have Doors!

October 27, 2009

Yes, we actually have doors on the South side of the church addition. I was suprised to see them because I sure didn’t notice them on Sunday. Sunday was a gorgeous day and at the end of each of our church services the congregation filed into the new sanctuary to grab permanent markers and “sign the beams.” What a cool idea. Even though our thoughts and praises will soon be covered by dry wall, it was something that each family, child or individual could take the time to add a little bit of our hearts to the heart of the church. I know it meant alot to Jim and I and since I didn’t have my camera on Sunday to capture the actual event I wanted to show you what it looks like.

The last photo is an acquaintance, Jack Miller, who is the mason on our church project. Jack is from Freeport and is working with his son, Adam, to lay the bricks. They look like they match the rest of the church quite well!

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Today I intended to post a couple of images from the last time I photographed the construction progress at our church. However, since they’re so out-of-date now I’ll post a couple of current ones instead. It’s getting more difficult to see outward progress from Stephenson street so I will be focusing more on the interior in the future. Like I tell my students, interior photos aren’t usually as pretty photographs, though, due to using flash. All sides are enclosed except the south side and they were pouring some cement areas today.

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Well, the summer is officially over since my school started this past Monday. These construction photos were actually taken on July 28 but I really want to post in order so I can track the progress. The first photo is the inside of the old locker room. Volunteers have almost entirely gutted it. Alot of volunteer work is taking place in addition to the contractor’s work. The roof is going on now so I’ll get some new shots soon.

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Well, you can finally see the shape of a building happening from Stephenson Street now! I also got to meet Chris today who’s the manager of the construction project for Brown’s. He lives in my home town of Cedar Rapids and travels to Freeport Monday through Friday. What makes that even harder is that he has three-year-old triplets and other children, as well. Marsha said that exciting things are also happening inside the interior of the church as evidenced by a huge rubble pile of cement but I didn’t have a flash with me today. More on that progress tomorrow …

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I’m going to try and photograph the progress of our church addition every day that I’m in town.

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Yesterday, all I saw at the church to indicate something was about to begin with our construction project, were the little “do not dig here” orange flags. But today, Tom notified us that there was a steam roller in the parking lot. Glad he told me what it was because I have a hard time knowing what to call these pieces of heavy equipment. I’ve been driving by every day since Sunday anxiously waiting for the opportunity to photograph our progress.

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This is the best view I got after Howard Norman landed his plane and we returned to church for the rest of our celebration. Park Hills broke ground for a new addition and my job was to take aerial shots of the crowd. I’m so sorry we both missed seeing Mark Balmer’s grinning face as he drove this bulldozer around from the south end of the church to replace the people digging with hand shovels. You can see more photos in this slideshow. Howard and I were in the air for over an hour and I was feeling VERY queasy by the time the crowd finally appeared so I wasn’t able to stick it out much longer. I’m surprised at how sharp the photos appear since the brisk breeze caused for a great deal of bouncing around – both my stomach and my camera shots suffered a bit. It was really wonderful to see our house, the golf course and Highland from way up there this morning.

Park Hills Evangelical Free Church Groundbreaking

Park Hills Evangelical Free Church Groundbreaking