Finishing Touches on the Book

Hello Everyone,

Right now I am done here at Texas A&M putting on the final touches on the photography aspect of the Aggieland 2010 Yearbook. This year has been incredible and I have had a blast photographing new people and seeing new traditions our school has. One unique story that comes to mind is one we covered on “Haunted Places at A&M”. So with every story there has to be photography so one day I went to the Animal Science Building by the grassy knoll, which is one of the locations that is “haunted”. Thankfully my friend and fellow photographer Stephen Olmon came with me. We went during the day and it was still creepy as all get out. We found the place where the guy passed away but no ghosts, Hah!

On another note I took this portrait of Jerrod Johnson later this semester. It was a really quick shot on Kyle Field but I liked how it came out. I used two flashes directly next to him on full power. It was the beginning of the afternoon so the sun had was very harsh. Anyways thought I share this photo with yall. Also I know the article is older but if you want to read more about Jerrod check out this Sports Illustrated Article.

Well  these last couple of weeks I have been placing photos in the designs and finishing up the yearbook. Its been another phenomenal year and I am really excited to see the book in print. On June 19th I am flying to Berlin and I will be daily posting photographs to the blog.

Shameless Plug: If you havent bought your Aggieland yet or just want to go look, go to our website, www.aggieland.tamu.edu

Church Under the Bridge

A while ago I went with my good friend Luis Rodriguez and Andrew Cagle went to Waco, Tx on a Sunday Morning for church. We had heard about this church that was made up mostly of homeless people as well as college students and families that met underneath of an overpass underneath I-10. So we drove up there to see what it was all about. I brought my camera, really didn’t know what to expect.

Well we pulled up to the overpass, which was very close to the Baylor campus. People were scattered all around the place and music was already going. we jumped out and found some empty chairs. It was packed mostly because of the speaker that came in from Philadelphia. Some of you may have heard of him, Shane Claiborne (future post). At this time the music stopped and a guy got up on the temporary stage and welcomed everyone to the service. He prayed for us and then we went on to worship. I sat back after singing a song or two and started just to think about the crowd that was here.

There were people in button downs, men who don’t have jobs or homes, kids from Baylor, crazy people, smart people, families, etc. It was awesome! I don’t think I have every seen such variety in a church before. About that time a huge semi went over our heads and added some noise to our voices. We keep singing for quite a while. People were wandering around the whole time. Homeless were just stopping and hugging random friends. There was joy around but also not a ton of order either. After worship ended, a man stood up and introduced Shane. Shane gave the message for the day and for those of you who havent heard of him let me say, he is a very unique guy. He purposely chooses to be homeless and his calling is to minister to other homeless that way but also he travels all over the country speaking. His message that day was very similar to his bestselling book “Irresistible Revolution” message. He talked of how Christians need to stop reading just their highlighted verses in their bibles and take to heart that ones that command us to feed the poor and love the widows. Pretty much he spoke to us to get up and start walking the walk instead of comfortably sitting at home.

After Shane gave his message we all sat down and they filled up the offering containers and a man got up and explained how communion would work. We were to get into groups of ten or more people who were next to us, friends and strangers. A person or two went up and got the juice and bread and brought it back to the group. We were told we could confess openly our sins or to ourselves and then we were suppose to eat and drink. Our group was made up of Luis, Andrew and me, four Baylor freshman girls and a middle-aged couple. It was cool because after a few quite second, the middle-aged man just kinda started talking about what communion means to him and what scripture says about it, then he passed around the communion.

After communion was over, a man went up on stage and talked about a few things the church was doing. Thanked the organization that brought the food before the service and then everyone was dismissed. We stayed around for quite a while, talking to people and helping put up the stage. Primarily we were waiting to talk to Shane, which we did. More on that to come in a future post.

Overall it was an awesome Sunday morning. Being Lutheran has given me a really cool perspective on Church. One of the points Martin Luther argued was the revolutionary idea that the church was not about the building but the people/ body of believers. His idea about church has never been so real to me until I stood underneath that overpass that Sunday with people smoking cigarettes, reading scripture and watched people of all beings worshiping together to the same Lord, our Christ.

Here is an article “Christianity Today” wrote about Church Under the Bridge.

Magazine Article

Here is Church Under the Bridge’s Official Website

Church Under the Bridge

Qatar Battalion Cover Wins Award

First off sorry I havent written anything or posted anything since Chicago. School has been crazy and work has been packed and since spring break I also got to help launch a movement at College Station called “I am Second”. Take a look at the website that is designed specifically for Texas A&M, its really awesome.

I am Second – TAMU

Last year I designed a cover for the special edition of the Battalion over Texas A&M Qatar for the frontpage. Recently it won an national award for design  and you can see that underneath. I spent about 20 hours the week after the trip piecing together a collage of photography from the trip. I took over 2,000 photographs while I was there. I wanted to show more than just a few photographs on the front of the battalion, so this is what I came up with. I also was inspired by a front cover magazine shot of my fellow friend and photographer, Spencer Selvidge. All in all, I was so excited this cover got such acknowledgment.

Last year the Battalion Newspaper wrote a story written about my experience over there, here is the link to it.

Qatar Newspaper Story

Also if you want to see some photography from that trip take a lot at my photo post.

My Qatar Photography

Academic Deans and the overall excellence of Texas A&M

Over the last couple of weeks I have had the great opportunity to meet and photograph with some of the most academically influential people at Texas A&M. The reason for this is because we decided at the Aggieland Yearbook to showcase all the different deans and colleges and organize the academic section in that way. Well, each Dean of every college has been awesome. Some are very busy and the shots have been quick and others I got to spend a few minutes with them. One of the Deans that I got to talk life with was the Bush School Dean, Ryan Crocker.

President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush applaud as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker acknowledges the audience after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, during a ceremony to commemorate foreign policy achievements at the U.S. Department of State. Photo Credit: White House

His secretary met me at the front area of the “Office of the Dean” and took me to a meeting room where I was able to photograph Mr. Crocker. I set up my lighting which was a 580 flash on 2/3 power and a shoot through umbrella that I placed to the left of him and triggered with alien bees. I waited a few minutes after I set up and in walked Mr. Crocker. I took his portrait and after a while we started talking about our overall disgust with the cold and wet weather outside.

After we took the shot in their meeting room we traveled through a secretive side looking door into his office and I took a quick portrait there. I liked this one better because you can see the outside through his window. He explained to me that he hadn’t been in the office long and that was the reason there his walls were not yet decorated. We talked about what my plans were after college. I told him the general answer I usually give saying “I would love to do photography. I feel like God has blessed with me with a good eye for photography and creative mind to produce photographs. So I really think I am going to try at least after college and see if I can get that going”. He replied telling me I should try photojournalism and then he looked at me and encouraged me. It was awesome just being able to talk life with him just for a few minutes. We talked real quick about Texas A&M Qatar and how he was just over there. Except what he meant about just being over was that he was America’s ambassador to Iraq. Before that he was the ambassador to Kuwait and Syria under Clinton’s term and before that he was Bush Sr.’s ambassador to Lebanon. I was blown away by the moment.

For the Aggies who are reading this, how awesome is it that we have people like this pouring into us at different departments. For future Aggies, check out what opportunities await you here. If you have motivation and good foundation, you will exceed here. To non-Aggies, I am sorry you didn’t go here and experience this but use this piece of A&M to understand why we are so crazy about this school.

Everyone, thank you so much for all your support, prayers and encouragement. Photography is a huge passion of mine and I thank you so much for following me and reading about my experiences. This year is bringing a lot of positive growth to “Doug Klembara Photography”. We are creating a flash website, that should be up soon,  I have launched a lot of the social media, including twitter, vimeo and a facebook fan page that has more than a 1,000 people following me. There is a lot of change happening but one thing I am so happy to tell you that is not changing is my heart behind photography. I am here to serve God and bring him glory. I love Him so much and my prayer is that I can show you some of His beauty, His people, His greatness through my photography.

Soli Deo Gloria

New Breakaway Video

Hi Everyone,

Hope ya’ll are having a great day. I took this photo at breakaway during the fall BUT a few Tuesdays ago the staff from Breakaway showed a video they created. Its pretty awesome, check out what the Lord is doing here at our school.

Follow me on Twitter!!!

Hi Everyone,

Okay I have fallen into the world of twitter and it is awesome. I will be posting photos and status updates on it. For example; when I am on different shoots and trips. So if you want to follow me click the link below and add me. Hope you are all having a great Sunday!

My Twitter Page

The Forest among the Skyline – Dallas World Aquarium

This last Friday I had the absolute joy of revisiting the Dallas World Aquarium. Its located in an old warehouse in downtown Dallas near the arts district and if YOU havent been there it is well worth the money. One of the reasons I went to the DWA was to hangout with a few members in Brotherhood of Christian Aggies.

The moment we stepped into the building warm air hit my skin and I started to hear noises unfamiliar to the Texas. Chirps, rattles and water rushing. We made our way upstairs and walked through a hallway which opened up to a rain forest. The first thing I saw was three story waterfall. We walked in amazed and trying to capture everything with our eyes. Some of the animals were behind glass and some were literally flying around or hanging around. We walked and saw many animals some underwater some on land.

Amy, my sister, read that they were going to start feeding the sharks in the Mundo Mayan exhibit. So needles to say we all started rushing to the underwater glass shark tunnel. We made our way into the tunnel only to find that we had a lot of company.

I thoroughly enjoy this photograph because it looks like the shark is just floating behind this class of kids from Central Elementary.

After we watched many sharks including the saw shark seen above devour sardines(little fish) we made our way up over the water and towards the jaguar temple. This place is consistently my favorite section of the whole Aquarium, because of the jaguar.

The Jaguar walks around the glass cage and plays with kids and college students who walk up to it and every once in a while it will stop at one of the corners and just relax. I sat next to it for a while and then it started to stare off in the distance and I snagged one of my favorite shots of it.

After reluctantly walking away from the big cat we made our way around to different places. One of the stops we made was by a creek thing filled with flamingos and other birds.

And finally went back and took a BCA photo to commemorate our awesome trip there.

Promo Video for my Future Flash Website

http://vimeo.com/8183297

Aggieland 2009 named Columbia Crown Finalist

WHOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!! Alyssa you are super awesome and you are so much of the reason why we are receiving this award. To the staff who worked on this, “Ya’ll are awesome thank yall for all your super hard work putting this together”

Okay here is what I know, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association is one of the gives out one of the highest awards given out to yearbooks. I literally copied the rest of the info from their website.

“Crown Awards are the highest recognition given by the CSPA to a student print or online medium for overall excellence. Both Gold Crown and Silver Crown Awards are given each year.

A panel of Crown Judges assembles each year at Columbia University to view all entrants, whether they are newspaper, magazines, yearbooks or online media. Judges are experienced former advisers to student media, professional journalists who understand student media or professionals such as photographers or online specialists with particular expertise needed for the judging exercise.”

Here is a list of the finalist.

College Yearbook Crown Finalists

Aggieland, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX;
Agromeck, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC;
Arbutus, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN;
Cactus, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX;
Ibis, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL;
Royal Purple, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS;
Selah, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA;
Sooner, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK;
Talisman, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY.

Columbia’s Crown Website

I did a Barrel Roll in a Jet

Some of you might recall the photograph of me in sheer terror on the front page of the batt a while ago, well i liked to explain. I had the opportunity the fly in a jet. What happened was one of my friends J.D. called me and asked if I wanted to cover a story this story with him. I heard the words “fly in jet” and told him yes before he could end his sentence. So J.D. and I went out to the the airport out by 2818 to cover the story. What was going to happen was the Texas A&M volleyball team was going to be flown by the Marine Corp but they lost a close game the night before, therefore they couldnt come. But regardless we got to fly. We flew in the plane for a good hour and it was a blast!

click on the pic below to see it bigger or click on the link to see the story on the batt

http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2009/11/09/News/Learning.To.Fly-3825996.shtml

During the flight, we all got to go up to the cockpit and fly the jet. He told me to put on the headphones and from there I put my hands onto the wheel and then he took his hands off his. I was in complete control of the jet. It was quite an incredible feeling. From there he motioned for me to turn and I did and then he motioned for me to pull or to push and I did. I was blown away by the awesomness of the situation. When I was up there he asked if we wanted to do a barrel roll only to receive “Heck Yeahs”. So I sat up there and all the sudden the horizon started to turn until I saw nothing but ground underneath of me, my world was literally flipped upside down.

From my understanding when talking to the pilot, The Marine Corps Flight Orientation Program comes to Aggieland one week every semester. When they come anyone can go and fly in the jet, specifically people who are interested in joining the Marines. Once again, everyone thanks for keeping up with my photographic adventures. Yall are awesome.

Okay, I made this video that shows a lot of cool stuff that went down, CHECK IT OUT. ITS SUPER COOL.