Category : Pilgrim’s Chronicles

I was driving home early this morning from taking Sherelene to work, still a little icy here, and I saw this incredible light and had to stop and take a few images. It got me to thinking about light. It is amazing how much you “see” when you start to observe with photographers eyes. If you spend your entire life looking for the right subject in the right light, after a while, you start to see a lot. I believe that if I were to loose my sight tomorrow and could never see again, I’ve probably seen more in my lifetime than many others. From casual observations, it seems that many people simply
glimpse at life, and what surrounds them. The greatest reward from becoming a photographer
is that it has opened my eyes. Life is so unbelievably extraordinary, to miss one moment, one ray of light, would be a tragedy. I thank God that I have spent my life submersed in His light, both
physical and spiritual.

When I am driving down the road and see the kind of wonderful light I saw this morning, it is so obvious, it simply screams, photograph me. God’s light, His love is just like that. When you finally see it clearly, you wonder how did I ever live without it? God’s gift to us, His grace, His forgiveness, His compassion, and His love, the greatest of all His gifts to us except one, His Son.
When you say light, you describe His Son to a T. In fact, scripture calls Him the Light of the World.

I’m reading a very special book, called 90 Minutes in Heaven. It is a book by a man named Don Piper. Don was in a very bad automobile accident and was declared dead on the scene. A Baptist Pastor and his wife happened upon the accident scene and the pastor felt a strong urging
to pray for Don. The Paramedic insisted that he was already gone, but the pastor insisted. He crawled into the mangled wreckage and started to pray. After several minutes, for no reason he could recall, he started to softly sing hymns to Don, and to his utter shock, Don softly tried to sing along. Don was alive and over several years recovered. During the time that Don was “gone”,
he went to heaven. The book is about his after life experience.

Don’s description of Heaven was very exciting, the most startling part was the light that flowed from everything. He said he didn’t have words to describe how the light glowed with a peace that went beyond his ability to describe. He said that the way it made him feel was greater than anything he had ever experienced on earth.

Jesus is truly the Light of the World and apparently the light we will see when we stand with Him in Paradise will be far beyond anything we have ever seen. Now that is “the” light I want to see most of all, and if I can’t try to capture it with a camera that will be fine with me.

Till then I will try to stay in practice.

the pilgrim

*Photo notes: All images with the D7000, 16-85 AFS VR and 70-300 AFS VR.

As photographers that’s what we do, seek and find. We seek great subjects, in great light, and then find some way to capture it in a dynamic way. Photography is my profession and a great love, but my first love is my relationship with Christ. For a long time I’ve been seeking, seeking how to better serve Him and how to grow further into the man He wants me to be. The blog is part of that process for me. It’s my chance each day to wait on Him and find one more way to get down this path.

The subject of seeking and finding is a recurring theme in the new testament. If we do not seek
we won’t find. How do we seek God?

Let me suggest three things that have worked for me;

Seek with your mind. Believe in Him, accept His existence. Live in the knowledge that He not only is there, but He is truly there for you.

Seek with your heart. Open your heart to Him, prepare to be loved more deeply and compassionate that you’ve ever been loved. Prepare to be accepted, without reservation and with no conditions.

Seek with desire. Desire to know Him, walk with Him, and listen for His voice. Desire a relationship that will change you forever…….

This is the best news of all, God has promised that “if you seek, you will find……”

In this most blessed of all seasons, start your journey to seek Him today.

the pilgrim

*Photo note: The image has nothing what so ever to do with this post, just saw this old truck and had to photograph it. D7000, 70-300 AFS VR.

Over the weekend we got a pretty good snow for southern Kentucky, around 6 inches. It reminds me of a time when I was doing a lot of workshops with David Middleton and I called him excitedly once to tell him we had gotten over 5 inches of snow overnight, he dryly responded, “we got five feet!” David lived near Vale, Colorado. Perspective at it’s finest.

I love snow, especially around Christmas. I can still remember those snowy days of my youth when they called off school, what a great treat that was. Today, a roaring fire place,and falling snow is just about my earthly equivalent of heaven. When I look out into the forest behind my house and see the snow sticking to the branches and falling gently to the ground I’m overcome with a great sense of peace. Unfortunately that peace is short lived, and not the kind of peace we would love to have in our lives every moment of our existence. We can have that ultimate kind of peace, we just need to know where to find it. To start we need to know that we don’t have peace because of some things in our lives that block it.

Un-forgiveness. We can never have internal peace while we hold hard feelings towards others. It’s normal to get upset by the actions of others, but it’s damaging to hold onto, and dwell on those feelings. Jesus gave us the greatest example of forgiveness while hanging on the cross, He looked down at the men that had driven the spikes though His hands and feet and said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Holding on to hate and anger only hurts us, it has no affect on the one that offended us. Scripture teaches that we are to forgive so that we may be forgiven.

Disobedience. You can’t walk with God, if you’re running with the devil. Turning away from the ways of God can only lead you to the path of the enemy. The scripture teaches that obedience is better than sacrifice. God does not want anything from us but to listen to Him and obey. Our heavenly father never leads into anything that is not for our ultimate good, and we can trust Him, no one has, or ever will love us like He does.

Refusal to confess our sins. We cannot run from the facts of what our lives add up to. We may have done some wonderful things, but pushed way back in the shadows, we are all aware of the terrible things we’ve done, thought, and said. God wants us to bring those deep dark secrets out in the open before Him, He already knows all about them anyway. He wants us to confess and show genuine regret for our actions, and seek His forgiveness, which He will gladly give.

The great old hymn says it best, to have peace and joy all the days of your life,

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace
Make Jesus the center of your life.

No Jesus – No Peace
Know Jesus – Know Peace

When your life is filled with Him, you will be a loving example for others. Make your life count for something more than yourself.

*Thanks to my Pastor, Tim Thompson for the thoughts above from his wonderful sermon yesterday.

Snow at the old home place in Kentucky.

Below, my neighbor’s Christmas decorations in the snow.

You can have perfect peace because of this promise:

Jeremiah 29:11  (New Living Translation)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

I pray for everlasting peace, for you,

the pilgrim

*Photo notes: All images D7000, 16-85 AFS VR lens.

I just spent an afternoon and a morning shooting in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The coldest weather of the winter, so far, greeted me. In the morning and afternoon I never saw temps above freezing and a low of 12 degrees one morning. I traveled light and used only three lenses; 17-35, 24-70, 70-300. They proved to be more than adequate. I have mention often in this blog that I am really a fan of zoom lenses, even though I still own and use a half dozen single focal length lenses, zooms just make a lot of sense, and these are spectacular performers. Always use lenses that you know are superbly sharp, that way, if your images aren’t, you know who to blame!

Perspective is what something looks like from a specific location. If you see a scene and you want to represent it just as you see it, you must stay in the same position relative to the subject. If you want to take in more or less of the subject with the same perspective, a zoom lens allows selective cropping from that same photographers location.

Since most images can be cropped in the range of 17mm to 300mm the three zooms I was carrying in the Smokies can allow just about any images size without changing perspective. Zooms accomplish something just as important. When you look at a scene you will know that you want to approach it with a wide angle, medium range lens, or a telephoto. With the these three zooms or any in their range, you don’t have to think about “what lens should I use?” Simply choose from the three catagories; wide, medium, or long! Try to figure out which lens was used for the scenes below?

Sure is nice when your work is also your fun!

the pilgrim

Photo Note: All images with D700, lenses? Grist Mill Wheel (24-70), Single window in cabin wall
(24-70), Walkway to Grist Mill (17-35), Icicles (70-300), Inside Church (17-35).