Admiration

After our trip to New Zealand, my parents stayed a couple nights in Sydney. Unbeknownst to me, they visited Ken Duncan's Gallery there. So Thursday night I'm sitting in my friend's living room checking my email on her laptop and I start freaking out! "Why do I have an email from Ken Duncan?" I asked to no one in particular, and in my head I'm thinking "THE Ken Duncan? Do I know any other Ken Duncans??" The answers turned out to be, yes, THE Ken Duncan, and no, I don't know any other Ken Duncans. But You might still be wondering why this Ken Duncan is emailing me, who is he anyways, and why in the world was I so excited to be getting an email from him. Well, Ken Duncan is amazing. He's an Australian "panograph" photographer who's work I'm so utterly in love with. Knowing this, my parents looked up his gallery, went there, bought me a gorgeous book of his work in Australia, and signed me up on the VIP email list!!!! I have the BEST parents in the world!!!

I discovered Ken Duncan no more than 2 years ago when I found his book "Walking With God in America" at Sam's Club. Actually, at first I was soooo disappointed because in this book was my life goal and what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing; photographing state by state all 50 of the uniquely magnificent United States of America. Darn! Someone stole my dream! Now what!?!!??... Well, naturally, I bought the book, 1) for it's sheer beauty, and 2) so I could show and complain to my dad when my mom and I got home from our shopping. I was amazed that someone else had the same passion and patience for the United States that I had, and on top of that, he's Australian! Already at this point in my life, I wanted to and was planning on studying abroad in Australia. So there you have it, that's the story of how I came to know Ken Duncan.
(Since purchasing the book, I haven't been able to find it, even on his site, so I've linked the title of the book to a different book of Ken's panographs of America, just so you know.)

Fast forward 2-ish years. Now I'm studying abroad in Australia. He went to America to photograph her, and I came to Australia to learn about photography. Imagine that! So, my parents were in Sydney and they're just so darn tricky! hehehe! When they came down to Canberra on Friday the next day, they brought with them "Australia Wide: The Journey, Panographs by Ken Duncan". A "panograph" "is a panoramic photography by Ken Duncan- a wide shot capturing the essence of a place at a particular point in time-inviting the viewer to share in the moment of its original inspiration" as described by the front cover of the book. He takes the most beautiful shots I've ever seen, and they don't point me to his artistic genius, but to God's artistic genius in fashioning this earth from His imagination and using only His authoritative voice to bring it into existence. The more I learn about Ken Duncan, the more I love him. It seems he has the same dream that I do: to travel this one-of-a-kind earth and reveal its beauty to those who are unaware and unable to see it, for the glory of God. So, please spend some time enjoying his wonderful shots and contemplate how BIG and BEAUTIFUL our God is to have created such diverse splendor. :)


One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. Psalm 27:4