Category : Uncategorized

I left home on June 1st and will return Monday the 21st. Such is the life of a tech rep, but I’m not complaining, in fact it has been a great three weeks! Just consider this, in the last three weeks I
hung out with Moose Peterson, Joe McNally, Jay Miller and some of the world’s greatest aviation photographers while photographing all kinds of great military aircraft all around San Diego. A day later I was joined by my wife, Sherelene, my boss, Scott Diussa and the great folks of Bio Communications to tour Lower Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park,
and the Paria Wilderness Area. After the big group left. Sherelene and I spent a few great days together, just kicking around the region and she got to see Arches and Canyonlands for the first time. What a hoot to see her experience this great red rock region.

Then Sherelene flew home and I flew on to
Reno and met up with Richard Small and
we went down to Bridgeport, California
for an afternoon and morning at Bodie
State Park. Tuesday morning we shot back
up to Reno to start getting ready for the rest
of our gang, Bill Pekala, Scott Diussa, Mike
Anskat, and David Lee to join us for the Reno
Pylon School for air racers. As usual we
photographed lots of great airplanes, every-
one got a chance to take a ride in a war
bird and we also did some air to air still
and video work. We shut the operation
down on Saturday afternoon, packed the
four giant cases of gear and spent the
afternoon letting our motors spin down.
Thanks to Delta’s increasingly poor service
and lack of concern for their professional
travelers, I still will not fly home until Monday.
(They wanted over $400. for a change of
ticket) I’ll be picking a new air carrier on
Tuesday.

So I will get a little rest on Sunday before I can
return home very late Monday night. A very small price to pay for such a great whirlwind trip.

So here comes the spiritual part, if all this were not enough, on Wednesday I got the honor of being the guest blogger on Scott Kelby’s blog. The response was overwhelming, I’m still trying to get my mind around it. So once again God has blessed me beyond belief. What and honor to serve Him and have so much fun in the process. Not everything in the Christian walk is a bowl of cherries, but I can’t imagine life any other way. Have a blessed Sunday.

the pilgrim

I got an interesting email last night from a good friend, without revealing their identity let me quote directly from the email; “I saw you blog entry on Kelby’s blog yesterday, I can see it was well received, please don’t take this the wrong way but why would you take that kind of a risk? You know some people will take offense! I care for you man, I just am not sure why you felt you needed to do that??”

Let me start by saying this person is a good friend and I understand their concern and do not in any way take their comment wrong. I do want to address their question, as it is vital to my walk.
Let me first say, that in some ways, my friend is right. The world is hostile to people of faith, and often for good reason, they feel looked down upon. That is our fault. Being a Christian, being saved, knowing and walking with the Lord does not make you better than someone that isn’t any of those things, it just makes you forgiven. If someone thinks you think they are evil, they will naturally not care much for you. Being a Christian means you; (1) realize you’re a sinner, (2) you genuinely regret the wrongs you’ve committed, (3) you desire to be forgiven by God, (4) you accept His Son Jesus as your Saviour, (4) you know that you are forgiven and start trying to live life again in this new relationship with Him. Nothing in there makes you better than anyone else, just forgiven.

When I was forgiven I was so relieved to be rid of the burden of my life, I couldn’t thank the Lord enough. I was literally a new creature, changed in every way. Every aspect of my life was better, relationships, my work, even food tasted better! I knew that I had to share the experience with everyone I met. Now I knew my way of witnessing would not be to rush up to people and start talking about Jesus. What I could do, because of the ways he had changed me, was to love others the way He did. He gave me a love for others that was far greater than my natural feelings. I was lost and then I was found. Some people out their are still lost and I’ve got a copy of the map!!!! If you met someone and knew they were lost, would you not offer to share with them the way?

My obligation to the Lord is far greater than my obligation to my job, my reputation, or what others think of me. I have a brand new life, a new way of seeing, hearing, and existing. I could no more not want to share that than to not want to breath. Will some people not understand?
Sure, but I don’t want a single soul that I could have affected go by the wayside……

Be blessed,

the pilgrim

*Photo Notes: D3s, 24-120 and 70-300 lenses.

One more time, thank you so much for your prayers, I’m still hardly able to get over the wonderful response to yesterday’s blog entry on Scott Kelby.com. Such a good feeling to share your faith and see other appreciate the God you are praising. As promised we were up at 4:00 a.m. this morning to make the airfield for sunrise. Reno is a spectacular place to photography planes
because, they’re here and the early morning light is so wonderful. Today I got make images of some planes I’m very familiar with, even flown in and others I shot for the first time. I hope you enjoy the images. I tried to use the light to the fullest extent I could, just like we all try and use His Light for all it’s worth………

Blessings,

the pilgrim

*Photo Notes: D3s, 24-120 and 70-300 lenses.

*First, thank you so very much for your prayers last night, and today. I want you to be fully aware of what a powerful tool you wielded for Him. Today’s blog posting for Scott Kelby hit the very mark I asked you to pray for. The nearly 100 responses, ( 99% very positive ), indicates to me that God had a message, and it was received loud and clear. I can’t thank you enough for standing in the gap with me. This is such important work, and your obedience, concern, and faithfulness made it possible. I got a wonderful phone message from Scott today expressing his profound appreciation, I share that with you because you are very much a part of this. I knew you can be counted on, and that means more to me than you will ever know.

I promise this will be the last day of Bodie images, in the morning we start photographing airplanes and I hope to have some nice stuff to share on that subject matter for the rest of this week. Thanks again for being my partner in crime…….. Don’t forget my friend needing God’s answers…..

a very thankful pilgrim