whoa...where HAVE I been???

It's been busy here in the Mac Clan household. We started "round 2" of VBS (vacation bible school). Back in June, right after school let out, the kids attended VBS at Mt. Horeb Methodist Church. I'm all for VBS, so I signed them up here. One of Hannah's good friends (she lives up the street and I'm friends with her mom as well) goes to church there, so it was a better deal for Hannah to know at least ONE kid there. Now...that VBS is HUGE...they ran THREE sessions daily - morning, afternoon and evening. I heard tell they had about 2,000 (yes, THOUSAND) kids come through in the three sessions combined. It was a madhouse, but a well-organized madhouse. The kids enjoyed "Crocodile Dock" (the VBS theme, and apparently the most popular offering from Group this year!).

Of course, our church, First Baptist Church of Lexington, hosts VBS later in the summer...which means it falls this week. Now...LAST year, I volunteered as the Crazy Craft lady during VBS at Westview Community Church, but I was pretty sure I didn't want to volunteer in that capacity again. I wanted to be involved, however. Just wasn't sure where to connect. I decided to volunteer my services as the roving photographer. Our youth director was thrilled to have a volunteer. The theme for our VBS is "God's Flight School". We have only one session, an evening session, and they start it on Sunday. So...

On Sunday night, I ran around taking photos...lots and lots of them. Different conditions...poor lighting, flourescent lighting, etc...I ended up with 103 usable photos. I decided to make a slide show of sorts. I used the Microsoft Movie Maker that was bundled with our PC. This made it REALLY easy to create a slide show. I took the VBS theme song "I'll Fly Away" by FFH (not the "hymn" most folks are used to, but a different song entirely) and set the slide show, to include titles to this music. The next day (Monday) it was played for the kids while waiting for VBS to start, and again as they came in for closing session. Turned out great!

On Monday, I shot over 200 pictures. OUCH. I need to stop doing that, lol! I culled it down to about 160 usable photos. I like to shoot candids, but also love getting in close to get one or two faces. The kids do love to see their faces on the big screens! This time, I set the slide show to the song "You Are Good" by Israel Houghton. (I love this song; it was introduced to me at Westview when we played it in the Praise Band!). This was one of the songs that the VBS praise team sang, so I thought it would be good to bring it back.

Last night (Tuesday) I shot about 100 pictures. Of course, last night, the OTHER roving photographer presented me with a cd of pictures SHE had taken on Day 2 and Day 3 (she had her laptop and she downloaded all the pics). I don't know if I'm going to use all the photos for the slide show...I'll likely use a good majority of her day 3 stuff, along with mine, but I'm not re-doing the other day's show. I will likely make a compilation video as well. Tomorrow is the last night they'll see any photos, since it's the last night, and even if I shoot photos, they won't see them, unless the church decides it wants a recap for Sunday's services.

But I'm beat...we don't get home until almost 9:00 p.m. By then, I've been running around for 2 hours taking pictures. And there's a dog in the neighborhood that's been barking itself hoarse (but not mute, unfortunately) for the past few nights...I am not sure whose dog it is, but how ANYONE can NOT hear that thing all night long is beyond me. So...tired.

Anyway. I WILL do an update on vacation...just been spending time doing the VBS photo processing and whatnot...takes a lot out of me.

I'll be uploading my "movies" to Youtube and I'll post them here when I do!