Craver-Vii

Dear Friends, things have been crazy-busy lately! I miss our regular visits. . Mr. Dave has done some clever things with his photography. First, he takes pictures of animals at the zoo or on a nature hike. Then, he prints them with Scripture or an encouraging saying. Then he sells them at a very reasonable price. If you buy these prints at a craft show, you'll get it framed, too. He doesn't get bogged down in high tech stuff or fancy equipment. We frequently tell each other stories about a... Read Full Story

I was just thinking about the snow we had this time last year. These pics were taken February 2nd and 3rd (2011) respectively. Some places had higher snow than others. The snow plow mangled my mailbox that day. Read Full Story

This is what we're missing, folks! When fresh snow comes, it makes things beautiful. I love to look at large, open areas where there are no footprints. Okay, I'll make an exception for animal tracks... I like seeing those in the snow. . This is from a few pics that I took during a trip to the library the day after our big snow. Did we forget already? Yes, it snowed so much that commuting was a nightmare. We shoveled our paths, just in time to shovel them again. There were high piles in the... Read Full Story

Did I miss it? Yup. Chinese new year was on January 23. Silly me; I was thinking about other things. They call this is the year of the dragon. That sounds like a good excuse to post a dragon pic that I snapped downtown last month at an outdoor Christmas market. I'm wondering... what kind of mind decides that it is appropriate to carve wooden dragons for Christmas? Hmmm... . Mrs. Craver and I did not take pictures of ourselves on our anniversary date this year, but here is one from our... Read Full Story

The snow started coming down pretty good Friday afternoon, and it made the evening commute so slow, that it was the top story on the news. My employers graciously let us out early (with pay). . There was lots of shoveling on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was time to recover, but as I drove around with my wife, I found a few places that I wanted to photograph. I did more than just make mental notes, I talked to Mrs. Craver about it, and got some good confirmation that these sites were worthy... Read Full Story

My daughter uses a pen name. I wonder where she got that brilliant idea. (You don't really think my parents named me "Craver," do you?) She submits writings to a web thingy called Teen Ink . Most recently, she wrote a song and of it she says, . "I wrote this for my dad's birthday this year. I think one of the best gifts is a song, and I did my best on this one! I could always ask him my questions, and I don't always understand his answers, but he's always happy to answer. Love you Daddy... Read Full Story

Today is Blue Monday . It is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. . Let's see... I ache all over. It feels like an elk performed Riverdance on my back while I slept. But that's because I was ambitious about moving stage furniture on Saturday. My dog woke me up in the middle of the night three times on Saturday night, but since then, we seem to be back to normal. I don't know... it doesn't feel any different than any other day... maybe I'm not celebrating it the right way... Read Full Story

Whew! I have been worked like a dog lately! (That makes as much sense literally, as sweating like a pig. ) Gabriel, the dog in this photo is an angel in a house of saints. By way of explanation, the home is owned by godly Christians (saints), and the dog is named after an archangel. Christopher Walken played that same angel in a 1995 movie called The Prophesy, but his character was nothing like either of the other Gabriels. This dog does not work hard at all. He exists by gobbling up dog chow... Read Full Story

One child is a missionary, visiting from another continent. Another child is an out-of-state college student. When will we see this family all together again? Nobody knows. . The mom asked me to take a family portrait, and between everybody's hectic schedules, we only had the one opportunity, so here's what I did. I scoured the web for samples of family portraits, to see if I could get some ideas for lighting and positioning. When I went to the house, I had three rough sketches for... Read Full Story

No cars, busses, taxis, and no pedestrians. Here is a sight you don't see every day! A city as busy as Chicago seldom has a view like this at 5PM. . For a moment, this was our view on a Sunday. As my friend drove us around, I had already been looking for pictures of the Willis Tower (a.k.a. Sears Tower) from the back seat. So, when I saw this unexpectedly vacant scene, I panned and snapped the picture. It would have been preferable to take the shot with a tripod and bracketed settings, but... Read Full Story