Lukas VanDyke Fine Art Photography

It might seem like I have been missing in action on my blog. But last week was another one of those intense exciting non stop experiences. My church has hundreds of missionaries all over the world. Every two years we put together a conference so they can all get together, regroup, meet with the board of directors, and reconnect with each other. If you know anything about the intense work that is everyday in the life of a missionary, you can image how much this conference is looked forward to by everyone. The conference is staffed with a team of volunteers from church who spend the week caring for the 100′s of children and offering up their services to the missionaries. Usually the conference is held somewhere in Europe because it is more central for most missionaries to travel to. However, every 4 years it is held in Southern California so they have a chance to reconnect with everyone at church.

Suzy worked with the High School kids all week. I took a lot of photos of everything happening, taught a photography seminar, met with individuals to give them one on one photo/editing training, and did a lot of family photos for prayer cards. At the end of every conference, all the missionaries, their children and a number of the pastors from my church gather together for a banquet. At the end of the banquet there is always a video to review the week as the very last item before the conference closes. The making of the video below was a total blast and is what occupied a lot of my spare minutes last week. I made it on the fly so it’s a little rough, but you get the idea.

Thank you so much all of you who have dedicated your life to share the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ around the world. You are all my heroes!

In case you’re wondering about all the couples in the beginning, this year the theme of the teaching at the conference was “marriage”. The first part is a little slow, then it gets fun. =)

Missions Conference 2010 from Lukas VanDyke on Vimeo.

Photos: Canon 1d Mark III
Video: Canon 5d Mark II
Edited in: iMovie
Additional Photos by: Susannah, Anne, Quincy, Lauren.

Music:
Devoted to You, By: Carly Simon & James Taylor
I Saw the Light, By: David Crowder
How Deep the Father’s Love for us, By: Selah
Foreverandever Etc, By: David Crowder
Greater Than We Can Imagine, By: Sovereign Grace Music

Yesterday Suzy and I got to spend the afternoon with Josh and Nicole on Catalina island! Although we all got pretty sick on the boat right there, and I threw up on the boat right back, we still had a ton of fun! Here’s a one quick photo! I should have the rest up soon!

One of my favorite projects every year is working on all the screen art for the Resolved conference. I can’t show you everything we will be doing this year yet. But there was one image I took the other day which I thought would be fun to post! Make sure to sign up for the conference here, or click here to check out some art I did in previous years.

I was out shooting a super cool session all afternoon today which means I wasn’t sitting here at my computer editing. So it might be a another day or two until I get last weeks sessions up. But I do want to post a quick preview of a few shoots from this week. Come back soon. =)

Engaged:

Expecting:

Senior: