Akesson PhotoBlog

Wednesday night/Thursday morning about 450 people came to a Leadership seminar. Flew Dr Phil Pringle in from Sydney. This guy is an incredibly astute leader of people, absolutely focussed on what he does best, and totally committed to building the Church. He would be one of the best speakers and exponents of leadership around. Tells it as it is. You can listen to him on podcast here. His book (Leadership Excellence) is well worth getting too. Some photos from Wednesday night. One of them is where he is recording one of his brief “Where’s Phil Pringle” vids.

Been developing some effects for photo’s heading for wedding albums. Here’s one designed to centralise attention on the groom and his little brother without losing connectedness with the other guys. It’s interesting and I’ll work more on this. (and no the little tacker didn’t drink any of the contents of the bottle!!!) Make a comment & let me know what you think.

Abe is one popular High School Chaplain. He lept into humungous shoes by following Jase at Duncraig High - but he’s got what it takes to make a significant difference in the school’s youth culture. Wisdom beyond his years, huge energy reserves, Faith with a capital F, a creative brain,… and he’s teachable; always learning. Abe is another product of our Stadium Generation youth who’s gone on to changing his world of influence.  Photo was taken at the recent Real Men conference.

From an album I am currently doing up - the Page Boy was a real suave lad. Full of confidence and “I can do it” approach. For sure he’s going to be one strong “Chick Magnet” when he gets older. Second pic is of him and his partner in crime - Mischief Maid. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She was so cute with Page Boy during the ceremony!!!

Does your Sports Car dream reflect your personality??? I’m a Chevrolet Corvette - so this test tells me.

Very nice car.

It says,… You’re a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. ([ed.]Once upon a time maybe) You’re all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do. So take the test at the Tomorrowland site and discover which Sports Car you are!!!

Friday night/Saturday we held a “Real Men” conference - this year about influence. Sometimes you’ve just got to wonder what it is to be a real man in a world of confusion and gender-bending. But we gave it a go.

Photos below are of one of the speakers - Darren Hultgren. He used to be a police officer in West Australian Police Service About 10 years ago took up as Youth Pastor with our church. Then 4 years ago planted a church in Crawley - expensive little suburb just out of Perth City. It’s is going great guns - and is it any wonder,… Darren is one extremely fantastic speaker. His humour is right on target. He’s a world class act.

As I said, he really gets a great story across - actions and vocals included!!!

Couple of other little incentives at the conference - Red 427 Cobra, Black Porsche, and a Harley trike for half a dozen guys to go for a cruise. All great fun. Guy drooling over the Porsche is Ryan Waters - he’s a great youth pastor up at Joondalup.

One of the great dilemmas in creating wedding albums is not so much selecting photos to tell a story but what to leave out. Was doing up a book this weekend and out of 40 possible photo’s for the double page shown on this post only 5 are used to convey the moments. Said it before and I’ll say it again;… I just love Yervant’s Page Gallery software.  Huge numbers of great templates.

I’m not a person who ever wanted pets. Grew up on a farm where animals had a purpose to fulfil. In the 60’s we had some 22 semi tame felines and 50 million mice. Couple of thousand sheep and 400 turkeys.

So if weren’t for having two daughters,… probably would never have had pets. But over the years a number have managed to rise to the exalted position of Domestic Dictators. The latest is Leyla - 6 months old moggie who terrorises the other cat in our house. I simply cannot understand why we have them. They consume too much, create chaos, and leave smelly presents in litter boxes.

Meet Leyla.

So butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth… . . . Now here’s the rub. Chai is an 18month old Abyssinian who lived in a cage and whose sole role in life was to be a stud. Yet this ex- ‘king of the cage’ quite happily lets Leyla rule the roost and win most of the (play) fights. Do we humans learn our behaviour from them or what!!!

So many emotions are expressed at a wedding, and the photo below exudes joy. It’s of one of the bridesmaids at a wedding I shot - taken in the week leading up to the wedding.  The sheer excitement of the coming event was evident for all to see.  You’ve gotta love it.