Monthly Archives: July 2011

If you’ve ever watched a NASCAR race you’ve see the frantic pit stops where a team fuels the car and changes all four tires in less than 20 seconds. What you don’t see is the massive, behind the scenes, effort made by the tire sponsor, Goodyear, to have enough tires on hand for all the cars and teams in the race. The Goodyear trucks (yes trucks, plural) are parked right outside our Nikon office at the infield of of Kentucky Speedway. The importance of race car tires cannot be emphasized enough. It is the contact of that rubber on the track that can decide who wins, and loses, and even, who finishes the race. Traction is vital when you’re going through curves at over
150 mph.

In your spiritual life, the rubber that meets the road of life, is your relationship with Jesus. Everyday is filled with the curves of life, to maintain traction and keep it going straight you must keep in great contact with Him. Even the smallest percent of tire that does not grip the track can lead to a wreck, or an, out of control, spin. Even the smallest lack of contact between you and the Saviour, can lead to the same out of control sliding through life that happens to a race car without good tires. To walk in the path He has planned for you takes real contact with Him. Prayer reading the word, and meditation on His word will lead to the Holy Spirit’s deep involvement in your life. Don’t count on “luck”, remember, when mission control said good luck to one of the first astronauts in the Mercury Program, his response was, “Luck is not a factor….”

Don’t count on luck today, count on Jesus……….

the pilgrim

NASCAR Photo Gallery

*Photo note: Nikon D7000, 24-120 AFs VR.

This morning I will leave for a NASCAR race up in Sparta, Kentucky, I will be with good friends, but I won’t be at home for the next four days. When the image above was made above I was in Santa Domingo at the Pan Am games with three great Nikon buddies, Stanley Menscher, Mike Anskat, and Anne Cahill, but I wasn’t at home. Over 200 days a year I’m somewhere interesting, doing something fascinating, with great people, but I’m not at home.

Home is where your heart resides. “There’s no place like home!” the Wizard of Oz. I could go on, but it is senseless, I’m leaving home today and that is just how it is. Thankfully my heart is always at home with Him. If it were not for the presence of God in my life, I would spend a great deal of time alone. Don’t get me wrong, I love the people I work with, and for, it’s just not home. Through the years I’ve heard it thousands of times, “wow, I sure wish I had your job!” I tolerate it, and smile, but they really don’t know what they are asking for. Trust me, no place is as nice as your, bed, your kitchen, your home. I’ve been fortunate to stay in some very luxurious resorts, in beautiful places, but it’s not home. Last month when I was able to take Sherelene along on an assignment and add a vacation day to it to show her some of the places I went for years, without
her, it was my best trip to those places, ever. It was more fun showing her these great places than all the times I went there alone.

It would be torture to live a life with an empty heart, but mine is not, even when I feel alone, I’m not alone. I feel His presence in my life, He sends people to minister to me, and for me to minister to. He makes the loneliness go away. Walking with Him is always an adventure, a chance to not know what will happen next, but to be assured, it will be to His glory, and for my good.

I’m still madly in love with my wife, even after 42 years of marriage! Someone once asked my wife, having heard me say that, “How could you guys be so in love after 40 plus years of marriage?” Sherelene said, “ It’s simple, he’s only been home 15 of the 42 years…….”

Thank you Lord for helping us to live like this and thrive……..

the pilgrim

O.K. now on to NASCAR, hope to post some interesting stuff over the next few days……….

*Photo Note: Nikon D100, 80-200 f 2.8 lens. Santa Domingo street scene, altered in Photoshop.

This past Sunday of the 4th of July weekend, my music minister at my church gave a very wonderful sermon on Worship. I usually think of singing and praising when someone says worship, but he backed up a more important definition with scripture. God made us to worship Him and the worship He desires the most, is how we “live” for Him.

I reflected on that for most of the weekend and it has been a great spiritual journey for me. The more I read the word, and the more I think on this sermon the more I am convinced that my music minister is absolutely right. God wants us to live in honor of Him. He wants us to apply what His Son, Jesus, taught us. What brings the greatest honor to God is the highest form of worship. I made a little simple checklist of how I hope to do that;

1. I will be genuine. I will not try to stand before God and fool Him about who I really am. Of course He knows anyway, but I will not stand before Him trying to pretend I’m someone both He and I know, I’m not.
2. I will seek His forgiveness. Since I’m going to be honest before Him, I will need to repent of my wrongs and ask His forgiveness. The great news is that I know He will forgive me.
3. I will ask for His strength, wisdom, and compassion as I relate to others. I have no hope of honoring Him, if the effort is done in my own strength.
4. I will constantly remind myself that this life, this opportunity to serve Him, is not about me.

I’m sure with more thought and prayer I will add to that list, but for now is daunting enough….

the pilgrim

Sherelene is working today so I’m not taking the day off either. I had several things I wanted to
address, so here goes;

Email from a friend: I got an email from a friend who is, “not yet” a believer, he was some what offended by yesterday’s entry, in one way, he stated in his email, “I guess you are saying if we are not Christians, or alongside you politically, we are the enemy!?” Absolutely not! The enemy is Satan. His sole purpose of existence is to steal and lie. He is the great deceiver. We are not struggling against flesh and blood, but a spiritual enemy. If I did not believe strongly enough that
God is the answer, I would not have ever made “the” decision. Since I’m fully committed to Him
I can’t deny where I stand on the issues of the day. People may not care one way or another, but
I still must stand my ground if only to demonstrate that it’s real. We are not pitted against others,
we are pitted against the real enemy, God’s enemy. I pray my friend will find this peace.

The 4th of July: This weekend is more than a chance to Bar-B-Q out and have parties, it’s that too
but much more. It’s a celebration of our declaring independence which led to the forming of our nation. It is a time to be thankful for what God has established, the greatest experiment of freedom in the world How will the experiment end? That’s up to us. Are we willing to stand up for what so many died to leave us?

What chains bind you? Jesus came, showed the way, and died so that you might be set free! We are all bound in the chains of this life; sin, fear, anger, jealousy, greed, deceit, dishonesty, self -indulgence, lack of concern for others. I hate that list, it is awful to think that describes me, but sadly it does. At our worst, we are capable of this describing our behavior. The Good News, and that’s why we call it the “Good News”. That Jesus has made it possible for us to live above our nature. Will we still make mistakes, fall and bust our knees, but with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can rise above our nature. If you no longer want to drag your chains around, you can only get rid of them, if you see one man, Jesus.

Thoughts on DSLRs: I’ve been doing an informal study of Nikon’s current top four cameras. In the coming weeks, I will make that study more formal, but for now here is what I’m thinking. The D3x is the ultimate Hi Res camera for the studio and fashion shooter, and very useful for the landscape photographer. It is ruggedly built and a little on the heavy size for carrying around in the field,
but oh what beautiful files it makes. Speaking of files, they are big, and that means it eats up your storage, but then storage is cheaper everyday…… The D3s is the ultimate quality file maker that still has speed and agility. The D3s, for me is the near perfect camera, great looking files, ridiculously good Hi ISO low noise, and just sweet ergonomics. I think for most folks 12 mega pixels is plenty. Heavy? yes, worth it, you bet. The D700 is the value camera in the current line, near D3s performance, maybe 95% as good in a smaller more affordable package. If i could only own a single camera this might be the one. Then just when I was sure I had a good handle on things, we released the D7000. Wow, this truly is a great value. For only $1,200. it is a 16.2 megapixel camera that also shoots 1080p Hi Definition video. It is packed with top end features and is light and easy to carry, but still very well made. I have to admit, I’m in love with this little sweetheart. So what do I use almost all the time? The D7000, when I need more speed and better High ISO low noise the D3s and D700 are the ticket. If I bought three cameras today for my retirement, they would be those three, D3s, D700, and D7000. But retirement is still some time away and before then who knows what the line-up will be…… Fun, fun, fun.

A fun project is coming: Through the years I’ve collected a number of old manual focus Nikkor lenses, many classic, super sharp, zooms, wide angles, and micros. Since all the current higher end bodies allow you to use the older lenses, a very cool feature by-the-way, I will soon do a full test of many of these lenses on current bodies. Should be interesting as many of these old classics can be bought for very reasonable figures. I hope to work on that in July. I plan to test the following manual focus Nikkor lenses; 24mm f 2.8, 50-135 f 3.5, 80-200 f 4.5, 80-200 f 4, 300 f 4.5 IF-ED. All on FX and DX bodies.

Have a great 4th weekend and be blessed, and thanks for joining me here.

the pilgrim

*Photo note: Nikon Coolpix P300, old car, Utah.