I’m expecting this year to be a challenging year, work will be getting busier (in a good way) and I’m looking to push myself to be better at everything I do – being a husband, photography, my job, being a friend. It’s also going to be an exciting year. 2010 marks Linda’s and I being married for 5 years. To celebrate, we’re going on holiday to Canada for 3 weeks in September, which we’re both very excited about! I’m a bit suspicious of ‘New Years Resolutions’, mainly because I’ve never been good at keeping them! But then, usually I’m the only one who knows them so there’s no accountability! So, I thought this would be a good place to air my intentions for the year:

.To be more regular on my Blog, not having 3 month gaps!
.To stick to my 365 photography project
.To push myself in my photography so that I can see a marked improvement between now and the end of the year
.To be a more helpful husband
.To be more assertive – not pushy or nasty, but more sure of myself
.To be better at keeping in touch – I let too many people down last year by being pants at keeping in touch

what are your intentions for the year?

The afternoon was taken up with a long prep session for tomorrow. As I right this, some of the other youth reps are heading home from the worship session in the assembly hall, and others of us are just chilling out while waiting for another prep session at 8pm!

The Sunday always feels weird. Although we are busy, its bizarre not being busy in the assembly hall!

The prep sessions were brutal, not as much in what we covered but rather how much we covered and how long it took! We were at it for quite a while, but then Mark Cameron, our worship leader for the week, led us in a great time of worship where we just sang and listened and prayed. One song in particular is stuck in my head from lsat night:

A thousand times I’ve failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I’m caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
my heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart is to bring You praise
From the inside out Lord, my soul cries out

I love the sentiment behind this song. When I sing it it I do so to remind myself that I need to give everything to God. Yes I sometimes fail, but I have to push myself to put God, and not myself, first.

We went out for a walk in Stonehaven today, its lovely walking round the harbor. I’ve always wanted to get a nice photo of an old, heavy chain, think the B&W makes it look that bit better!

111/365 I love this photo! The shot was looking good when the Heron was just sitting there with its reflection perfect in the water. Then Timmy, the dog I was walking, deciding to chase it, just as I pressed the shutter it decided to fly off, just goes to show how much lick plays a part in photography!

112/365 Timmy, the dog (obviously!) taking a wee swim on a gorgeous day!!

113/365 Took this shot as I was on the bus to Edinburgh airport to catch the plane to Bournemouth for my masters course, took 7 attempts to get a shot with the plane in it!

114/365 The weather was gorgeous when I was down for my course, so we spent one afternoon sitting out on the grass chatting over various things! As we were sitting, myself and Wayne noticed this jet flying about, quite a cool shot eh?

115/365 Had to spend ages waiting at Bournemouth airport to get my flight home, its not the most exciting airport in the world! There was a gorgeous sunset though, which I thought looked quite cool reflected on the side of the plane

116/365 Yes, this shot is overexposed, the ksy looks horribly white. But it had to be to get a decent shot of the buildings. This is one of my favourite views in any city. I’ve spent so much time on that hill, The Mound. You can glimpse New College, where I studied for years. Its also where the General Assembly is held. That building has, and always will be, a huge part of my life.

117/365 Since getting into photoraphy seriously over the last year or so, I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of the beach at Aberdeen. So I thought it was about time I started playing around with perspectives and colours, I quite like this black and white number!

118/365 Linda and I met Jonnie and Susie in Elgin on Saturday, East Stirlingshire FC were playing Elgin City FC in the Scottish 3rd Division, not the highest quality game, but Jonnie, my brother in law, is a big East Stirlingshire fan. They are also one of the teams that play within 10 minutes of my parents house. It was quite an entertaining match, gave me a chance to try out lots of photography techniques. Also, East Stirlingshires number 11 (in the red) is a guy called Andy Rodgers, one of the guys I went to school with.

119/365 Every month, on the last Sunday of the month, I take an evening service. we’ve just started to do the services in a cafe style, we’re going through the Alpha material. We thought it’d be a good opportunity to use our COSY Coffeehouse pack, looks good eh?

120/365 Thought I’d go for that ‘down the post’ perspective again, this time with a bit more control over exposure and doing it in colour!

121/365 for some reason I didn’t tae any photos yesterday, hmm?

122/365 There were loads of these birds in our garden for ages today, they didn’t even fly away when I opened the window loudly just feet away from them

Yet another beautiful day in Aberdeen!
I’d been hoping that the fog would be a bit thicker at the beach, a shot of the tanker looming out of the mist would have been cool, but this one is still quite cool!

As we were leaving to head back up to Aberdeen after a lovely weekend in Penicuik, I noticed some hangliders coming off the top of Hillend. Something I’ve always wanted to try. This photo will have to suffice for now!