North, South, East, & West and into the past as well…..
I just returned from a few days in Lynchburg, Virginia at Liberty University! Jim Begley and I spoke to several of Tim Isaacson’s photography classed and did a program for the the community on Tuesday night, we had a blast. I apologize for missing a post, I was pretty sick when I got home last night, and I really needed to crash and rest. I feel better today, but still am fighting a spring bug of some kind. On the way back from Lynchburg, Jim and I stopped in Roanoke to visit the O. Winston Link Museum. Winston Link was a commercial photographer from New York who took a great interest in the steam engines commonly running on the Norfolk and Western Railway in the mid 1950’s to the mid 1960’s. He saw and era coming to and end and he committed to make over 1,000 trips down to the region to record the great steam engines all over the line. Viewing his images was an amazing experience, especially knowing he shot them with an 8X10 view camera and lit all his subjects with massive numbers of flash bulbs in large reflectors! His work is utterly amazing! The shot above copied from a post card, is of a typical old country store scene along the rail line. If you love trains and black and white, you must get to Roanoke and visit his museum. My father-in-law, Virgil Scott, worked on this very railroad and the images have special meaning to me.
The entire trip was great, wish I could have felt better! I am safely home and trying ot heal up, I awoke this morning to beautiful fog in my back yard tgrees, feels wonderful to be home! God is good!
the pilgrim
Winston Link and his camera gear!!! Wow what a guy!
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
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Hi Bill,
I’ve been praying for you. Guess I should have put you on some of my prayer teams as well. Anyway, consider it done today.
Prayerfully, you’ll be up to full-steam right away. Be sure to have Shereline fix you some honey-lemon tea, and make some Momma’s fix all chicken soup. My favorite has lots of rice, lots of chicken, a good home-made chicken stock (that has some carrot, celery, a little parsley, some garlic, and a little onion cooked in it), lots of greek seasoning (might expect that from a Greek-Huh!), and lots of lemon. The Greeks call this “A-La Lemonyon” or just Greek Chicken/Rice soup. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.
Sometimes God gets the opportunity to do His greatest works when we feel lousiest. Just watch and see what He accomplishes from the time you spent there at Liberty. I know that while you were there you weren’t constrained by social politics of any sort, but were able to speak plainly from the start. Watch and see what He’s going to do with the lives who were there.
God’s Best To You-sometimes it’s best just to have a time of rest with your wife and loved ones while God makes His most wonderful masterpieces.
Blessings,
Rob
Hey my friend the Honey Lemon Tea really works!!!!
Loved this Bill,It reminds me of the old hymn, I think most of the yreogstuns around us today have never heard it, but here it is, I need every hour, most gracious Lord.No tender voice like thine, can peace afford. I need thee, oh I need thee.Every hour I need thee, Most blessed Savior, I come to thee.Blessings Bill,Rob
Mr Fortney, I just want to thank you for visiting Liberty and snkeaipg in my class. I learned a great deal and yall’s photos were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Thank you so much. -Sarah
Thank you for coming to Liberty and sharing your gift of photography and also your love for Christ. It was truly inspirational and I’m glad to be able to have been apart of it.
We enjoyed being with you guys so much! Thanks for your warm welcome for Jima and I.
Thanks for coming and speaking to us, Mr. Fortney! It was truly a blessing having you and Jim to our class. I hope to see you again in my future photography class!
Thanks Zack, I hope so too!
O. Winston Link created some wonderful images on the N&W. He was a master of his craft. In addition to photography, he created a number of recordings of N&W steam engines in the ’50s. The records are prized possessions of steam rail fans.
Many of Link’s images have a tranquility about them much like your fog in the trees. Please use that tranquility to rest and restore you health. And yes, God IS good!
David,
I think you hit the nail on the head, his work was fantastic, God is way beyond anything we will ever see in our time on this earth!!!
Mr. Fortney,
Thank you so much for coming to LU last week and being such an amazing inspiration to so many of the students here. I absolutely love hearing and learning from such an amazing man of God that just happens to love photography! I hope to have a side career in photography and you have definitely been a great inspiration and help towards that dream! Thank you again for coming out!
In His Hands,
Morgan Carriker
LU student
Mr. Isaacson’s Class
Morgan, we are all in His hands, and He wants us to reach out and love other for Him and to Him.
Thank you for taking the time to travel to Liberty and visit our photography classes. We enjoyed meeting you and everything you had to share. We follow your blog and it was good to meet in person. Keep up the great work and faith in Christ. Look forward to having you back next year!
Kaleigh
Hey, Mr. Fortney!
Thank you so much for coming and talking to our photography class. It was so great to get some lessons from you and to hear about your passion for the Gospel as well as photography. We really appreciated the time you spent with us 🙂
Dear Mr. Fortney,
It was great to have you speak to my Digital Photography class! I enjoyed what you said about viewing the world. As artists we really do have the privilege of viewing God’s creation in a deeper way. I loved seeing your pictures and listening to your fatherly advice about photography. Thank you so much for taking the time to come and encourage and inspire us.
Sincerely,
Yael Galiley
LU Student
Mr. Isaacson’s class