We arrived in SLC yesterday around 11:30 a.m. and Jim Begley and I picked up our two attendees riding with us, Chuck Barnes and John Barrett. Then we drive the 6 + hours down to Page, AZ to meet the rest of the group. Had a good start and now it 4:30 a.m. and we are getting ready to head out for our first sunrise. Having fun yet? Yes, I am, but this is early……

The group are nice folks and I believe that over the next few days we will show them some of God’s most creative natural creations. I’m going to have a little fun with you this week, I’m carrying my usual compliment of gear, plus the new 28-300 mentioned last week and the new
P7000 the great little Coolpix camera. Each day I will throw in one or two images from the Coolpix P7000. The next day I will reveille which images were from the small guy.

So may God richly bless your Sunday and stay tuned for all the fun…..

Here are the first images, any guesses?????

the pilgrim

Below, left to right, Chuck Barnes and John “the Snake” Barrett get into the wing of things near Bryce Canyon N.P. Bottom, Jim Begley starts to work his HDR magic.

If you are considering getting seriously into video with your DSLR, you need to consider a good quality, sound recorder to augment you video productions. The unit above is made by Tascam, it’s their model DR-07, I picked it up for around $115. You can spend up to a couple of thousand and most people get something in the one hundred to four hundred range. Good units are made by Tascam, Sony, Zoom, Rode, Marrantz and many others.

I would recommend from low to high in price:

Tascam DR-07 around $115.
Zoom H2 for round $125.
Sony PCMM-10 around $200.
Zoom H4N around $270. If you can swing it, this is my favorite.
Tascam DR100 around $290.
Olympus Model 10 Around $399.

Why own a digital recorder. Let’s say you are at a great site for shooting birds and the thousands of birds are making a sound that only a thousand birds can make! If you get the recording you can integrate it into you slide show, (I know that is an old term I can’t get away from). If you’re shooting video, you will want to record soundtracks to later be synched to the video you’ve shot.
These little recorders can make very high quality recordings, if used with care. The more expensive units take canon connectors so you will have more choices in microphones.

I know that many folks are still saying they have no interest in video, but trust me, the first time you produce your very own,m and it looks a lot like what you see on the big screen, you will be hooked. Nikon just introduced a camera, the 16 mega-pixel D7000 that offers 1080P High Definition video and the camera sells for under $1,200. You may be getting into this sooner than you think……

Tomorrow is the start of the big swing though the Red Rock country of Utah and Arizona.
Stay tuned for lot of landscape images. To add to the fun I’m going to be using the new Coolpix P7000 some each day, I will slip some images in from the new Coolpix and let you try and guess which images were D3s/D700 and which were from this nifty, new little buddy of mine.

Thank you Father for your faithfulness, for hearing our prayers, and for enriching our lives.
Now, Father please use me to enrich the lives of others in the coming week, may it be all You and may You get all the glory. Amen

the pilgrim

This morning I’m flying home to make another mad dash to another airport. Saturday I will arrive in Salt Lake City and will drive up to Page. I will try my best to get blogs in each day and keep you posted on the beauty God is revealing to me. Above, Zion in all her splendor. Stayed tuned,
and please pray that I may bring a great times to my attendees, and friends, and I will try to reward you with fun stuff for the next eight days……

Today’s story…… I had a bad experience at the start of my Missouri trip. Before I start I have to tell you that I think of myself as a very seasoned traveler. In the past 20 years I’ve driven over a million miles and flown half that number. All of this makes the following story even more unbelievable to me.

When I arrived in Columbia, MO on Saturday, it was the smallest airport I’ve ever flown into on a commercial airplane. My local FBO building at my non towered airport was much larger than the terminal. When I got my luggage off the single conveyer, I went straight to the car rental counters to pick up my keys. I’m an Avis preferred member, just means I rent a lot of cars. Well there was a Hertz counter and a Enterprise, but no Avis. I asked the guy at the Hertz counter where Avis was and he said in town. I said I was sure that when I rented the car it said at the Columbia airport, he said no they haven’t been at the airport for many years. I asked if I could rent a car from him and he said he and Enterprise were all out, the big Missouri football home game was that day. He said I could catch a cab to the Avis office 12 miles downtown. Having no choice I found a nice guy named Rick with Rick’s cap service and he happily took me to the Avis office. I paid him and tipped him well, and asked if I could have his card so I could call him on Thursday to get a ride back out to the airport from the rental office. He pulled away and I lugged my three bags to the rental office front door and pushed on the door, it didn’t move, I look up and a big red sign in the door said, CLOSED, open again tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I was so mad I could hardly get my Avis Preferred card out to call. After the poor young lady at Avis, (in India), answered I spewed out and angry assessment of them and demanded to know what in the h e double L was going on. The lady stayed much calmer than I was and asked for my rental number. I dug it out of my backpack and read it to her. After a few moments she said, “Mr Fortney, the only thing I have for you is a car to be picked up to day at 4:00 p.m. in Columbia, SOUTH CAROLINA. I was embarrassed and deflated all at once. After apologizing and feeling stunned by my own stupidity I heard the thunder crack in the sky and felt a wet breeze that was promising a down pour.

I called Scott Diussa, who was, at that very moment, pulling into Macon, 60 miles north of me. He agreed to come on down and get me, he said just call when you have an address for me to come to. I looked around and could see nothing open where I could seek shelter. About a block away I saw a lit sign that said cafe. I figure I could take shelter there, have a bite to eat and wait for Scott. As I trudged over the broken concrete sidewalks with two large rolling bags and my heavy backpack I got close and saw the sign, “Middle Eastern Restaurant”. Now let me be clear, I’m not anti Muslim or anti Middle easterners, but we have had a bad run with “some” of these folks and I guess I was expecting the worst, I mean my day was already on a serious down hill slide. I was welcomed in, shown sympathy for my plight, was given a warm meal, and allowed to sit and catch up on computer work while I waited for Scott. They could not have been nicer to me. When Scott arrived they genuinely wished me well, and I thanked them, again and again.

As Scott and I laughed about my mistake and pulled away from Columbia, I felt embarrassed, and shamed. I don’t know what all people of their nationality are like, but I know they dispelled any thought I may have had that all people from their region were suspect. Relations with others from other cultures is always tricky, but I learned one valuable lesson, don’t pre-suppose what someone is going to be like. I think I already knew that, but God gave me a good little review on the subject.

Thank you Lord, and yes, I will double check all my travel reservations.

the pilgrim

God Bless……..

First, every once in a while I want to display some photography that I really love, which means some bodies besides my own. No, I like my work, but I’e seen once in the mind and then as a finished product, with other work, I get to se the fresh impact of just viewing it. Few people do work that impacts me more than Jim Begley’s. This shot is among my favorites, though that is hard to say since, I can think of at least a dozen of others that I like a lot too. I also am equally affected by Richard Small’s work, and Bill Pekala and Scott Diussa’s stuff when we are out shooting together. O.k. I started with a theme and I’ll get back to it. Exploration, I would like to use today to explore a few things that have been on my mind lately. I’ve come to realize that of all the incredible blessings in my life the most important to me are the relationships.

My relationship with my Lord is first and foremost. I simply can’t imagine going though life without the constant relationship with Him. The comfort, the peace, the joy, the sense of having real worth not because of what I’ve done, but because of who He is, and what He has done for me. Thank you Lord for counting me as Your friend.

Of course the first earthly soul on my list has to be Sherelene. She is my best friend, and the love of my life, as well as the mother to our children, and “Nana” to our grandchildren. She is the only person I trust to tell me the truth, and even though she knows me better than anyone, she still loves me, will miracles never cease??!! Life with her is fantastic………

The next list is too long to make so I’ll spare myself some grief by limiting it to the folks coming to our Moab Workshop. The list of wonderful friends God has blessed me with is just beyond belief, but next week I’m going to be with 35 great folks and some very dear friends. Scott Kelby is one of those people that you can’t believe that he allows you to be on his short list of buddies. I can honestly say I know of no other person, of my acquaintance, that is more talented. Many folks know of his wonderful writing and teaching skills, and most know he is a shooter, but few know just how good he is, he is truly gifted. Then there is his comedic wit, and he is a really great musician. I could go on but I try to keep the blog below a thousand words! Most importantly he really is a great friend.

Richard Small has become a dear friend and a photographer whose work I admire a great deal. I know of no one that does what he does that does it better, and that’s saying a lot. He is also one of the most generous people on earth. Richard is one of those kinds of people that is a blast to hang out with whether you’re shooting furiously or wolfing down a burger. Richard Small is prince.

Jim Begley is a relatively new friend who has become one of my favorite shooting buddies, and he lives right in Corbin so we can see each other a lot, or we could, if I was ever in Corbin! Jim is a very smart guy and he has applied his solid horse sense to his work, he shoots what he knows best and that give him a great affinity for his subjects, his work really shows it. This will be Jim’s first big out west workshop and I can’t wait to see his eyes pop at what he is about to see, I also can’t wait to see how he puts his personal touch on this new subject matter!

My history with Wayne Bennett goes way, way back. We’ve known each other for decades.
First Wayne is truly a great guy, I don’t know that I ever met anyone who didn’t have kind things to say about him. He is also a very good shooter, his bird work is world class and everything he does is very competent. He is also a very good teacher, it’s always great to get to spend time with Wayne.

Tim Isaacson is the photo dept. head at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He is a dear Christian brother and we’ve had a lot of great times when I go up to Liberty to speak to the community and
his classes. Tim is a soft spoken, extremely kind man, who really live his faith. It will be great to have him with us. People will also love his work, He has a great eye.

Thank you Lord for your incredible grace, goodness and love. And now enjoy work from these great friends:

the pilgrim