flickr

I was recently invited to take some pictures of the campus and interior of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Shrewsbury, MO (nestled in a neighborhood just outside of the City of St. Louis), and I just finished processing and uploading them to Flickr; see my St. Michael the Archangel photos.

There are so many of these little Catholic churches in St. Louis and around the country, with so much hidden beauty. I always try to find a neat little parish near where I stay in any city I visit; usually these parishes showcase more artwork than even the diocesan cathedrals—though that's not the case in St. Louis!

Yesterday I was invited by a friend to photograph the Memorial Mass for Justice Antonin Scalia at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Justice Scalia was a Catholic first and Supreme Court Justice second... may we all live our lives in a way where our faith, family, and morals lead our work and interaction (and not vice-versa)!

I've uploaded all the photos to Flickr: Memorial Mass for Justice Antonin Scalia, and here are a couple of my favorites below (it's hard not to have some majestic images when shooting at the Cathedral!):

The Rorate Mass is a traditional Mass held during Advent, usually early in the morning (pre-dawn) or late in the evening, where the entire church is lit only by candlelight. Mass begins with the singing of the Rorate Cæli (translated "Drop down dew, ye heavens"), and as it is a votive Mass for the Blessed Virgin Mary, white vestments are worn instead of the typical Advent violet.

In St. Louis, we had a Rorate Mass at St. James the Greater parish in Dogtown, which is a western part of the City of St. Louis (and about a 10 minute drive from my house).

Like Tenebræ, It's one of the liturgical events that's better experienced in person than viewed through the lens of a camera, but I did as much as I could with the dim candlelight available and my f/2.8 lenses (most shots were handheld):

This weekend, I'm down in Springfield, MO, photographing the Steubenville St. Louis Mid-America youth conference (which is on its second weekend—more than 6,000 teens participate in this event!).

I'll be posting my pictures in near-real-time to Flickr (on stlyouth's photostream — here's a link to all the pictures from the weekend), and I'll hopefully have time to do a writeup on the gear I'm using—two Nikon bodies (including a rented D7100!), two Eye-Fi cards, and a 4G hotspot.

Here are two of my favorite shots from the tonight (Eucharistic Adoration is always a highlight):

Remember to help get #ThanksPontifex trending today at 1:45 p.m. CST!

It was a great run! Now that I have the iPhone 5 (see my iPhone 5 review here), this trusty iPhone 4—which still looks and runs perfect—is going to be passed along to some other owner. What an iconic and well-crafted product:

Read my review of the iPhone 4, from 2010.

This weekend I'm heading to Steubenville St. Louis to photograph the weekend's events. There will be a wide variety of photo opportunities, from band shots/stage lighting, to outdoor portraits, to group shots and environmental shots. Thus, I will be needing almost all my gear to make sure I can have the versatility I need to get the pictures people want to see.

I'm going to try to document the whole process—packing up/readying my gear (in this post), getting outfitted with the equipment I need (once on location), processing photos, and then cleaning things up.

(Click on the photo to view a TON more detail about all the gear)

As you can see from the picture above, I pack relatively heavy. At least, for a solo photographer who doesn't do much commercial work :)

During today's Mass of Priesthood Ordination at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, I was waiting for the procession to start outside the entrance, and decided to stand in the garden between the Cathedral and the rectory for a few minutes, even though the sun was beating down (93°F in the morning!).

I was rewarded with a wonderful shot of this interesting little bug:

I haven't done a lot of flower/closeup photography in a while, but it seems this picture turned out just right, without any work. It was a nice little moment in a rather hectic day.

I'll be posting tons of pictures from the Ordination on Flickr soon. Working on processing them now (I've already whittled down over 1,000 photos to 450ish).