Monthly Archives: July 2011

As each phase of our lives pass, we enter new and uncharted territory. In the next few years I will be retiring from my NPS position at Nikon, but I won’t be retiring. I will be starting what I hope is the next part of what has been a fantastic life. My goal is to spend my time devoted to serving Him and teaching and shooting. Since a big part of the future will be my faith outreach, and my photography teaching through my own workshops, and Kelby Training/NAPP, I wanted to have a vehicle that will support all of that. When I started my website, www.billfortney.net some years ago I wanted the web address billfortney.com but someone has bought it with the thought that
when I finally realized I needed it, I would pay their very high fee, ($500.), to have it. They were wrong, I purchased .net instead. Over time they must have realized billfortney.com was not a hot property and let it go, I got it last week for around twenty bucks.

My extremely talented friend, RC Concepcion of Kelby Media, has agreed to help me develop a completely new website with the address www.billfortney.com (If you click on the link now nothing will come up, we hope to have it up and running my October). With this kind of wonderful talent helping me design the site I have high hopes that it will be something you will really enjoy. We will be using WordPress for a clean, professional, and easy to navigate site.

Let me tell you some of what you will find there;

1. First it will be a one stop spot to get to everything. All my information will be there at one simple to find, and easy to remember address.
2. Second, it will become the permanent home for the Pilgrim’s Chronicles. Everyday I will post, just as I have for the last two years, and it will be one easy click away once you get to billfortney.com. A new feature will include great links for other Christian Photographers sites that will inspire you. Also links to great sites to help with Bible study and research. *If you’re a believer/photographer with your own site or know of a great site, please email your site address so I can look it over and see if it would be a good site for my readers. We want to share the Good News……..
3. The new site will be the home of extensive Galleries of my work. The categories for these galleries will be: Aerial, Aviation Art (AVART), Nature Landscape, Close-up, Fine Art, people, Americana, HDR, Black & White, and much more. A link for print ordering will be available as well for those that have requested how to get signed prints. Incredible Aluminum prints will be available through Image Wizards and conventional and canvas wrap prints through MPIX Pro.
4. The new site will include a new feature that I am tentatively calling Tech Talk. Illustrated articles on all things technical about photography, camera reviews, lens comparisons, test reports on new products, accessories, and much more. A fun place to get honest information about all the things photographic we all buy, and use.
5. The new website will also feature a new section called, The Learning Center. This will be a site with articles on how to make better photographs, with illustrated lessons on, exposure, composition, light, color, patterns, texture, sharpness, motion affects and many other subjects directly related to becoming a more effective photographer.
6. The Great American Cheeseburger will finally get it’s own dedicated site. All the info from the current website, and much more will be available, with frequent updates on great burgers across the fruited plain!
7. Another cool sub-site will be “Trivial Pursuits”. All the fun things that made up some of the original website will be expanded upon in the new .com site. The Lists, Quotes, and other fun stuff will always be available and “updated” here.
8. Workshops & Lectures, finally for those kind, and wonderful people that keep emailing me wanting to know where I will be teaching workshops and doing speaking engagements, an
entire section will be one click away, with locations, dates, and all the pertinent information
you’ve been asking for. When I’m no longer punching the 60 hour a week job clock, there will
be time to offer more opportunities for us to fellowship, travel, and shoot in-the–field together.
1. On top of all this we hope to make use of the latest video technology throughout the website
to bring great reports to you with Hi Def video, and sound……..

Don’t worry, we will be giving you ample time to know when the big changeover is coming, we will work on it diligently and hopefully it will be even sooner than October.

Serious Business; Let me take a moment to thank you and make you a promise. When I started the Pilgrim’s Chronicles two years ago I had no idea that the visits would exceed 100,000 hits. We were over 60,000 visits when the site crashed, and have added over 50,000 since then. I want to promise you that I will continue to make serving our Lord the most important thing on my mission statement. He will always be in first place. Second, since this is an outreach ministry to the photography community I will work hard to bring you relevant and helpful photography information that will help you enjoy the process of getting better and better as a shooter. Lastly I will continue to try and share the sheer excitement I have about life, laughter, fellowship, and of course a great cheeseburger.

Because, post full time employment, I will be attempting to support my photography habit with additional income, some aspects of the new website will be for commerce. I may have some sponsors, but only if they are products that I use myself, and have the greatest confidence in. I would never recommend something to you just because their is some gain in it for me, that’s not the way things are done here, and never will bel Any advise offered here will be something I truly believe in or it will go unsaid. If Jesus is looking over my shoulder, and He is, you can be assured that my recommendations will be run through that filter before you ever see them.

Please continue to join me, tell your friends this is a safe place to come. Come often, and enjoy what we all celebrate together, a joy of capturing this great world with our cameras, and holding the Lord in the center of our hearts.

To and exciting future, be blessed,

the pilgrim

P.S. I would welcome suggestions for the new site, I want this to be a place you want to visit and gain much from. Please email all suggestions to: billfortney@earthlink.net

*Photo Note: P7000, Arches National Park.

Sherelene is working this weekend, so I am as well………..

Isaiah 55:8-9
New Living Translation (NLT)

 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
      “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
      so my ways are higher than your ways
      and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
How many times have we mandated what we expect from God? Tragedy strikes, people get sick, family members unexpectedly die, and we demand an answer from God. The problem is not with God, but our lack of understanding of Him and His ways. When things happen that we don’t like it is natural to try to find out who is to blame. Blaming God is never the right answer. Just because we don’t understand why, doesn’t mean that God did not have a good reason for allowing things to happen as they did.
I once was without a job for several months, after a while weekends lost their meaning. Everyday was like Saturday, nothing changed. I came to a stark realization, it is the absence of blessings that make them so appreciated when they do come. The same is true of photography. You can go to the same location, even some beautiful place, but until that magic morning or evening happens when the light and conditions are perfect, you never get that ultimate thrill or image. We learn to endure many mornings dragging ourselves out of bed well before sunrise to be on location, just in case, the magic happens, when it does, it is all the more exciting because of it’s rarity.
One of he greatest gifts of this life is anticipation. The hope for something good. God is good and He gives us only good things, but He teaches us to endure so that when we face real difficult times we can hold on through them. Would we like all times to be just perfect? Sure, but we would be unwise to wish for such an existence. Years ago I had very dear friend, who has gone on to be with the Lord. He was very wealthy, far beyond what I could imagine. He once told me that he truly missed the days when he and his family had very little. They took one, one week, vacation a year and they spent months planning, and in anticipation of it. He said, “Now I could pick up the phone and buy airline tickets to anywhere I wanted to go in the world, and the magic is gone. It’s just not special like it was back then, when we had so little.” That’s real wisdom.
We desire to have everything, and have it now. God in His infinite wisdom, loves us to much to spoil our lives with too many blessings in a constant stream. His ways are higher than our ways, His wisdom is far beyond ours. True peace and joy comes when you can rest in the knowledge that He has a plan and it is a plan for our good. Thank Him for all the good in your life, and then know when hard times come He will be right beside you. Good times will come again.
Instead of trying to direct God’s path, how about letting Him direct yours?
Be blessed and rest in Him,
the pilgrim

* Photo Note: Nikon D7000, 24-120 AF-S VR f4 lens, HDR (3 shots at 2 f stops apart) Processed with Photomatix Pro, Painterly filter. Then desaturated in Photoshop CS-5.
* Today’s entry inspired by Dr. Charles Stanley’s In Touch daily devotional for today July 15th, 2011.

Last night I had a rare pleasure, I got to sit at the hospital and wait for a baby to be born. My friend Brandon Pratt and his wife Whitney got the greatest of God’s earthly gifts a new baby.
Lucas Tyler Pratt was born at 7:06 p.m. and one of the largest family gatherings I’ve seen in a long time all gathered in the waiting area erupted with joy. I was there to offer the only service I have the talent to give, make some pictures for him, Whitney and his family. I’m late posting because I spent a lot of the day working on images to distribute to all the grandparents and great grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. Brandon has a terrific family, but then our country is filled with families that deeply love one another and are so proud and happy at these most wonderful of occasions. Sherelene and I have three adult children all married and they have brought us the great joy of six grandchildren. I’m proud to say I was at the hospital for all but one of the six. I am not a part of
their family but after almost
four hours of visiting with
them I kind of feel I am now.
Good people that care
about each other and have
found the sweet spot in
life. Being involved in the
lives of others and less
hung up the capital “I”.

I’ve had a rough couple
of days trading emails back
in forth with some people
I use to work with. Turf
battles, one upmanship,
staking out who will be the winner. They can have it. I really don’t care about that kind of stuff anymore, and really never did. Give me people that live a simple life, work hard, go to church, love their families, and stick by each other through thick or thin. Fame and fortune looks mighty dull if you compare it to devotion, steadfastness, sacrifice, and love. Give me what the Pratts have any day over what the world says we need. The world got it wrong…….

Father, bless this family, watch over them, guide them and protect all their little ones, especially the newest member of the clan, Lucas Tyler Pratt. Amen

Take a deep breath and look close around you, and behold the treasure God has placed at your right hand.

the pilgrim

Photo Note: D7000, 50mm f 1.4 and P300.

I’ve spent the last 42 years trying to figure out what to carry and even more importantly, why?!
I’ve always thought that before you can solve a problem you need to define it. So here goes, when you go into the field to make photographs you need to have everything you might need to make said photographs, that you are capable of carrying. If you work for National Geographic
you can take 800 pounds of gear and hire three people the shlep it. I don’t work for National Geographic, though I once had a subscription to National Geographic…….

I soon learned that my limit of weight to carry without hurting myself was around 20 pounds. I also knew that I needed lenses that covered everything from pretty wide, around out to 18 mm, and long glass that went out to around 400 mm. Since Wide Angle zooms and telephoto zooms would cover that range, I knew something would have to cover the middle range. Over the years I owned and used a lot of lenses in each of those categories. As of July of 2011, I have found the two wide angle zooms that work best for me. Why two? I use both DX and FX bodies and in the area of wide angles, they require different lenses to get the widest focal lengths. DX 12-24 AFs f4
and FX 16-35 AFs VR f4. The mid range zoom was not as easy, I’ve used the 28-70 f 2.8, the older 35-70 AF f2.8 and the newest 24-70 AFs f 2.8. The only problem for the way I shoot is all of them often had to be removed from the camera to get something longer. When Nikon released the 24-120 AFs VR f4, I got one in my consignment, I decided to give it a try. I fell immediately in love with this lens, it covers a great range on either FX or DX and is tack sharp, maybe a hair less so than the 24-70, but with the addition of VR it is more useful. It also focuses very close and with a diopter, can almost serve as a Micro lens.

On the long end there are many choices and all of them have great merits. Since I don’t shoot a great deal of available light, the 70-300 AFs VR f4.5-5.6 is very, very sharp, and on the DX is the equivalent to 105-450. Since I don’t have a fast lens for those low light moments, I picked up the 85mm f 1.8. It is very sharp, compact, and less than one fourth the cost of the fabulous but very
bulky 85 f 1.4. For most close-up work I use any of the longer lenses with a diopter and or, automatic extension tubes.

I use polarizers a great deal, and always carry a good tripod, head, and cable release.

Is this all I own? Nope, I have a number of other lenses, mostly collectables and back-ups,
and just for fun. One lens that I do use a lot for serious, dedicated close-up work is the 200 mm Micro Nikkor. The point is to make virtually every image I want to make with a minimum of gear.
By simplifying my gear, I don’t think about gear, I think about images. Photography is to important to waste on thinking about anything but the image…….

I could have been any of a number of things, but God allowed me to be a photographer. I will never stop thanking Him for the sheer pleasure of doing what I get to do. God is truly good.

Blessings,

the pilgrim

It’s all about the image……..

Photo Note: All images made with the equipment listed in the post.