Colonel Oliver North & Bellevue Loves Memphis.

So this past week and weekend all started with me doing some journalist work for Bellevue Baptist, the church my family and I attend here in Memphis. Bellevue Loves Memphis is a program the church jumps into once a quarter and we send teams out into the city and inner city to help with community projects and to do some spring cleaning. This is truly a cool program. I got to shoot 3 different locations and here are a few pics from my rainy, cloudy & briefly sunny Saturday morning. Enjoy!

This little guy was working with his Dad and a few other guys in a part of town I did not like in the daytime and no way I would be down there at night!

This young lady was 66 years old and proud of it. Of all the folks planting flowers in this part of town she was the only one not wearing gloves, God Love her, she was great.

Here's My "artsy fartsy" shot for the day, this was not set-up, someone actually placed the sign against the shovel and took a break, cue the camera!!!

Celebrators Conference presents Colonel Oliver North

Growing up I remember living in South Fulton, TN and the summer of 1987 I remember turning on the TV everyday and the only thing on it seemed was a hearing of some sort with this Kernel guy and it seemed to go on and on and it really messed up my cartoon watching, I was 11 and cartoons were important to my daily activity. Spring forward 22 years and Kernel North was a guest speaker at Bellevue Baptist Church and yours truly was asked to cover it. Que the remotes!!

So, I knew that during a service like this I needed to be in two places at once. I had originally planned to shoot a remote from the balcony since it was closed off during the service but once I arrived I found out the music dept. already hired a guy to shoot wide shots to shoot mainly the color guard they had in for the service so I chose an alternate route. Within the sanctuary we have dead smack in the middle 2 TV cameras. Not just 2 dinky deals, but these are the big boys you see on the sideline of SEC football in the fall, they count your nose hairs from 30 rows away. Well I found Steve Cowhert the production guy, told him what I wanted to do, he said "Do it!, but stay away from the cameras!" Man!!! So I set-up the remote in between the 2 video cameras and I would love to show you the pic of it had Nimrod here not inadvertently deleted it. Use your imagination!

Here is the shot I was looking for. Nimrod here shot this from the seat where he would be spending the next 2 hours getting tight shots so I wanted this one to get the wider shots. This shot freaked out a bunch of folks. When I walked back to double check the settings after this shot one guy was fixing his hair, or lack of hair and asked me to shoot it again....funny.

This wasn't him but I learned quickly to turn the remote off when the crowd stands up. This is Earl, (That is what I call him) Nice shirt Earl, Hang with me, I will make you a star!

This is the Canon 30D on the tripod about 30 rows back, from the main stage.

Colonel North is an awesome speaker, It's tough to pay attention to his stories and testimony as I am trying to fire off shots. He moves around alot and had plenty of pics to show us of the war on the big screens.

Canon 50D with 100-400L Lens

Here is the remote camera when Earl sat back down. Look close see if you can find Nimrod, Oh, there I am!

Canon 30D with 28-135mm Lens

Here is another remote shot and the handheld version below.

Canon 30D with 28-135mm lens

Here is the tight shot from my seat on the front row.

Canon 50D with 100-400L lens

Colonel North's Testimony was incredible. Honestly, no smoke here, if you ever get to hear him speak you need to, He is really, really good.

Canon 50D with 100-400L lens

Here is another remote and another Where's Nimrod.

Canon 30D with 28-135mm lens

Here is the tight shot with the Canon 50D and the 100-400L lens. This 2 camera set-up is really helping me be more efficient. I know they are nothing special but you have to admit it is pretty freaking cool!

Lastly this is probably my favorite shot of the 967 that I shot. Seriously, this one and the the 2 right above it are my favorites. Here Colonel North is towards the end of his talk and he pauses while telling of the letter he leaves for his wife each time he travels back to the war. The letter she is to open only when and if he does not come back alive. You could hear a pin drop and the shutter in my camera clicking away.

The Faithful banner in the background seemed fitting.

Colonel North spoke not on political correctness but more so on Biblical Correctness and the job the Heroes of this great Country are doing overseas. They are the real Heroes to allow us the freedom to do what we can do.

Thanks for reading, next week I will be working alot more on photos and with several shoots going on next week look for daily updates. I hope you like fishing and the outdoors because it will be a fun filled week of it.

Again, thanks for reading and as always, God Bless.

Chris

Luke 5:20