Today I made the shot that has always eluded me!  The Red Eyed Tree frog from Costa Rica!  Nope I’m not in Costa Rica, not going to be either….  So here is the story.  I’ve see this shot made many times, and always wished I could make it, but I have many friends that have gone and spent a week in Costa Rica, and came home without it, and in fairness a few that did get it!  But they hiked through rain forests, were eaten alive by insects, slept in beds surrounded by mosquito netting, no thanks!!!!!  I saw in the program for the Florida Birding and Photo Fest, where I’m teaching and speaking, that Mike Mathews was teaching a class on reptile photography, so I went this morning! To make a long story short, Mike was fantastic, really knew his stuff, the class was small, and I got to shoot a lot of wonderful subjects!

 

Turns out Mike is fellow believer, and we both have a common friend in Adam Jones, a wonderful photographer from Louisville!  I told Mike I would love to offer my His Light customers the opportunity to do a workshop like this and he said he does them every winter in Florida!  Plans are to set something up for next February or early March.  I imagine it would be a week long event that would include 3 days of reptile shooting and then Florida birds to include eagles, native Florida birds, and burrowing owls!  More details to follow when we announce our 2015 season in June.  If you would be interested in this kind of a shoot please fire me an email.  His events always sell out and we would have to limit it to a dozen attendees!  Here are some of my winners from today!!!!  I’m excited to do this with one of our groups!!!

 

Red Eyed Tree frog (Costa Rica)

 

Male Veiled Chameleon  (United Arab Emirates)

 

Face to face with a Bearded Dragon (Australia)

 

A juvenile Emerald Boa (South America)

 

A ball Python (Central & Western Africa)

 

Left to right, Austin Gehen & Wayne Louvers photograph the Python!

 

Pueblan Milksnake (Mexico)

 

An Orange Spotted Gargoyle Gecko (Grande Terre Island)

 

Mike was a great guy, an expert on these animals, and terrific reptile wrangler!  I can’t wait to team up with him for a wonderful wildlife event over in Naples, Florida next year!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

*Photo Note:  All images made with the Fuji X-T1 and the 55-200 OIS zoom, ISO 3200 and 6400, and with the Nikon 5T Diopter.   Tripod mounted camera.  No flash.

 

Isn’t photography great!?  This morning my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. yep, O:Dark thirty!!  I first showered and then drove the 35 minutes to the beach for our morning shoot with horses.  Met with the great folks that were riding for us, and providing the horses, and then waited for my participants to show up.  I was joined by Chris Klapheke, great shooter, owner of Outdoor Photo Gear, and my new friend, and my co-counsel, as it were!  The 14 people that attended our session were fantastic, really nice folks who had a good time inspite of absolutely awful light!  Which is why I got permission from the people putting on the event, to have them join me again on a better morning, either Friday or Sunday!!!  So we shot some horses, had some fun, and then moved on!

 

 

……and then again, we shot some early morning trees!

 

 

……and then again, driving back to the hotel to post this blog entry, I saw a tourist trap called the Oldest Store, which considering St. Augustine is the oldest city in America, it was worth the nine bucks to see what it was…….   $9. well spent!!  This was the original general store serving the young city of St. Augustine around the late 1800s.  You know me and old Americana stuff, this will be a definite stop when ouse run our workshop next year in St. Augustine!  Here is some of my mornings find!

 

Part of a well stocked grocery shelf in the General Store section.

 

Turn of the century medicines!

 

A classic metal Pillsbury sign!

 

Glass front seed cabinet.

 

Very rare, early Hershey’s Chocolate bars.

 

Turn of century, gear driven farm wagon.

 

Great old metal signs.

 

Antique hardware cabinet.

 

Hand made wooden gear.

 

Thanks to Mr C.F. Hamblen and his family for keeping this treasure trove of Americana!

 

And then again,

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

*Photo Notes:  All beach images with Fuji X-T1 and 55-200 and 56 f 1.2

 

Tree Image:  Fuji X-T1 & 55-200

 

Oldest Store Images all X-T1 & 35mm f 1.4 lens and hand held @ 3200 ISO.

The 505 German U- Boat captured during WW II.

 

Last week I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and got a few unrelated images during my time there.  Speaking of unrelated!!  The images are just window dressing so I an share a few images while I talk about something much more important!  So I hope you like the image while I share about Sherelene!

 

The anchor of the German U-Boat 505!

 

The purpose of an anchor is to fix and stabilize the position of ship in a tossing sea.  To prevent it from moving away and coming into harms way.

 

Sherelene has been my earthly anchor.  She has jokingly said that she raised four children, our three and me!  It is not very far from the truth.  I believe that God protected me and held me until she camera along, she has had more to do with what I have become as a man than anyone else, with the exception of my father on earth, and my Heavenly Father.  She has been my Heavenly Father’s instrument here!  As a young married man, I thought I knew what a man was supposed to be, but step by step, Sherelene has helped me to realize how different a real man is from the fictional description I thought I knew all about!!!

 

Sherelene has taught me what sacrifice is all about.  She never told me about it, she modeled it!   I watched how she raised our children, dealt with others, cared for her patience, loved and respected her family, and honored her father and mother.   I saw here work tirelessly for all of us, never complaining, and never slowing down. Always willing to do whatever ended to be done.

 

Sherelene taught me what steadfastness was all about.  I’ve never known anyone that has more drive, energy, dedication, and grit!  There is no quit in Sherelene!  She faces every challenge knowing it will be defeated, and then slogs on into the battle!

 

Sherelene taught me what love and devotion are all about.  I have seen real love first hand.  I’ve seen faithfulness, and kindness, grace, and compassion.  All the attributes I needed to learn God used her to teach me.

 

Thank you Sherelene for loaning me your life for the last 44 years, I would not have wanted to spend it with anyone else, and feel so honored that you gave those years to me!

 

……and now more totally unrelated museum images!!!

 

Aircraft Carrier model.

 

Wagon and bucket.

 

Mike Ditka’s Steak House!

 

Old pharmacy bottles.

 

Sherelene and I had a great trip to Chicago together, today as I drove away from her for the week, I wanted to call off my trip and just go back home to her!   This retirement is pretty great, spending more time together!  Can’t wait for her to join me this coming weekend!

 

Blessed,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

If you drove by this little pavilion, above, at the People’s Gas Company in Chicago, you wouldn’t likely even stop.  However when I saw a stunning image made by Angie McMonigal of the structure from inside, I couldn’t get there fast enough and what a day I had visually sliding through the wonderful curves of this structure!  Below is my version of the wonderful shot made by Angie, and then a lot more versions, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed looking through the lens and finding one striking composition after another!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes, and some building with some terrific curved terraces like the Aqua building here!!!

 

 

 

This is only about a third of the versions I found, wow, what a wonderful place to get your visual juices flowing!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

This week I will be in Florida at the St. Augustine Birding and Photography Event, i’m honored to be teaching and speaking there including the keynote address on Saturday night!  I will share images from beautiful St. Augustine through out the next two weeks!