Category : Pilgrim’s Chronicles

 

Day one and off to a fantastic start.  Today was really a lot of fun and it’s not over yet!!  I got visit with a lot of old friends, Scott Diussa, Mark Suban, “Snake” Barrett, Wayne Bennett, and lots of my NAPP friends, RC, Matt, Brad, Kathy, Dave, and of course, Joe McNally, Moose Peterson, and his sons, new friends like David Ziser, and will many others……  Today has been a lot fun in other ways as well.  I delivered a gorgeous print from Jasper Imaging to RC, and he was thrilled!

 

Tonight Sherelene and I will be going back to the great Maggiano’s Little Italy!!  Sherelene and I love this restaurant, and tonight is family style, so we will get to sample some different recipes! Your prayers are being answered as I’ve made a lot of important contacts and can see a lot of good relationships growing out of this event!  Some wonderful photographers and brothers in Christ are looking strong as future leaders at His Light Events.

 

Tomorrow is my first program at noon, so I’m pumped and ready to go!  Thanks for you supportive prayers, I will keep you posted!

 

Another important thing to share, I displayed, thanks to NAPP, allowing it, three very large prints from Jasper Imaging, right near the registration desk.  They are being received with rave reviews!  I truly believe that Stephen’s prints are among the very best you can get.  I’ e always said that Roger Laudy’s Image Wizards are the best Aluminum prints I’ve ever seen,  Stephen’s Acrylic face mounts are the same in more conventional prints.  I’ve found two printers that can do just about anything I will ever need!

 

Well, tomorrow the journey continues, thanks for being with me here in spirit!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

As you know, those of you that frequent this blog, from time to time I ask for you to join me in prayer for some concern or care.  This week is a very important week for His Light Workshops, and His Light Ministries!   This week I’m honored to be a featured speaker at Photoshop World in Orlando, Florida.  Many of my best friends in the industry will be there, from my Nikon family to my Kelby Media family!  Since the countdown timer on my iPad says it’s  76 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes, and 50 seconds until retirement on July 1st, there is much to do, to be prepared for the rest of my life!!!!!  Actually I know God has already been making those preparations and I’m thrilled to see what the future looks like!

 

The prayer request.  Since I will be exposed to a lot of new people this week, I want to ask you to pray a specific prayer for me;

 

 1.  That I will know, and be in God’s perfect will for me.

 

 2.  That I be a light shining with God’s love to those I meet and speak to.  That people will sense something different, and they will know, that something different is Him!!

 

3.   That I will be fully prepared to share good information, wrapped in the spirit of His love, with those that come to my programs!

 

4.  That I represent Jim, and His Light Workshops the very best that I can, through His power.

 

Now, why ask for this prayer?  Simple, I’m not retiring, I’m starting a new full time job, serving my Lord in everything I do!  Jim and I are running workshops with the number one goal of ministering to the needs of others, and bringing them closer to Him.  We have already gotten on our knees and given Him this workshop company, and our lives to His service.  I know it is already a done deal.  His will, will be done.  As our brothers and sisters when you pray for us, you are agreeing that God needs to be first in all our efforts, and we all want and will accept His answers to all questions.

 

I also want to share with others about Stephen Hart’s new company, Jasper Imaging!   Jim and i really love Stephen and are proud to make him a part of our company.  Stephen will be our official printer for future print sales, coming soon!!!  I feel certain that a number of very well known shooters will be joining us after they see the prints I will be displaying this week.  When someone does things right, for the right reason, their success is assured!

 

Finally, I’m getting so excited about the future, Jim and I are working on some very exciting new events, new locations, and working with some great new photographers.  The future is certainly looking wonderful.  It always does when you leave it all in His hands…….

 

Stay tuned for exciting updates, of what He is going to do….

 

Blessings and thanks for your prayers,

 

the pilgrim

One of the most satisfying thing about my job is working with good friends!  I’ve already mentioned the great time I’m having with Bill Pekala.  I first met Bill at a Nikon School in the early 70’s.  It was those first few Nikon Schools with Bill and Fred Sisson that started me on the path I’v followed my entire career!  They inspired me to want to be a photographer!  So you can either thank, or blame them!!!  At Sun n’ Fun I alway get to work with José Ramos s terrific aviation photographer that I first met through Scott Diussa.  José is a NATOPS (Navy Air Training and Operating Procedure Standardization) photographer, in laymen’s terms he is qualified to ride in the back seat of Navy fighter jets.  though not a military person he is highly respected and accepted as part of the team.  His photography is spectacular, especially his air to air stuff!  I will feature some of his work below, but last and certainly not least I’m getting to, once again, work with our great repair tech, Francis Yeh.  Francis make a lot of photographers happy everywhere we go with great clean and check services!  He really knows his stuff and has become a good friend at these events!  This has been a  great job and theses people are alot of the reason why I will consider the last 11 years some of the highlights of my career!

And now, some killer shots from José!

 

 

Most of my stuff is shot from the ground, here is my jet in a box shot!!!  Made with the new 80-400, pretty dang sharp!  Since it is hand held, the VR works great too!

 

 

Below, José straps in for a flight!

 

 

Thanks guys for being a blessing to me, and blessings to all of you that come by to visit each day!

 

In Him,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

So the best self portrait of the week goes to José!!!!

 

 

Please come see José and I at Photoshop World

 

 

 

 

Some years ago I started a business called,  AVART.  AVART of course stands for Aviation Art. My reason was that I love airplanes, and love to photograph them as art rather than just as objects.  I am especially thrilled to find a wonderful aluminum skinned airplane in great light!  This morning Bill Pekala and I road around Sun n’ Fun in the golf cart in search of subjects!  It was a bittersweet morning, knowing this is the last big assignment where Bill and I will be working for Nikon together!  Bill and I have been life long friends and I’ve worked for him at Nikon for the last, almost, eleven years.  I don’t think a single month has gone by in the last eleven years that I haven’t told him, “thanks for the job!”  We’ve had a lot of fun….

 

Fortunately our search was successful this morning having found a classic Lockheed 12, (the same kind of plane that Amelia Earhardt disappeared in!)  It is one of the most graceful and beautiful of airplanes and the rivets, in the right light, can really be interesting!  This morning with threatening storm clouds we had a great sky to reflect in the skin of he planes.  The other being a beautifully restored P51 Mustang named Crazy Horse.  Hope you enjoy my take.

 

 

Couldn’t resist ending this with a little self portrait reflection in the Lockheed 12, that’s Bill photographing me!  Fun days!

 

Blessings.

 

the pilgrim

 

Photo Info.   All images made with the Nikon D7100 and 10-24 AF-S f 3.5 lens.