Monthly Archives: February 2012

As a photographer my visual life as most often been driven by color.  I shot Black & White for many years, an still enjoy that medium, but color is my first love.  Roaming around looking for color is one of my favorite past times.  Thankfully color is everywhere!  I’ve always loved the photographers whose work screams with color; Jay Maisel, Bryan Peterson, and Jim Begley shoot in your face, killer color.  Freeman Patterson, Christopher Burkett, and Tony Sweet shoot in wonderful shades of subdued but rich hues.  I loved the almost monochromatic, but yet pleasing colors of Ireland in Scott Diussa’s travel class.  All kinds of color, in all kinds of form are fun to shoot.  I admit to having stolen every good idea I’ve ever seen.  When I see a vivid color subject, I’m reminded of how much God loves us, how many incredible colors he placed in our world.

 

People that have had after life experiences and have been brought back often tell of seeing colors they have never seen before on the other side.  Wow, sure hope we can carry a camera there!  From the rusted cars in Old Car City, to the brilliant hues of the Caribbean, I love color, thank you Lord!

 

the pilgrim

 

 

* All images with a point and shoot camera, I’m traveling with several including the Coolpix P7100 and Coolpix AW100.  Dedicated to Sam Garcia who can get the best images I’ve ever seen from a pocket camera!

 

 

Before I start, the images in this post have nothing whatsoever to do with the subject, usually that’s not the case, but I’m here and all of you are there, so just  enjoy the Caribbean scenes, and believe my words.

 

After my relationship with my God, and the wonderful family He has given me, the next most treasured thing in my life is the wonderful friends He has allowed me to enjoy!  There are people that have inspired me, we touched on that yesterday, those that have been great companions, those that have taught me spiritually, prayed for me, stood by my side.  Those that have lead me into truth.  Those that have provided great times and fellowship.  They have been co-workers, fellow photographers, and co conspirators!  The key is they have been right by my side.

 

I can’t tell you how excited I am about being with the friends that will gather in early March for the next His Light Workshop in White, Georgia!

 

When Jesus sent out the disciples, He sent them in pairs.  He knew they would need each other, and we need each other too.  We need others to stand up for us, and stand behind us, to have our backs, and pray for what is best for us.  We need people to defend us, and cheer us on, and we need to be that person for someone else doing all the same for them!  It is a great gift when God allows you to be someone’s friend, it’s also a big responsibility.   Such a big responsibility that Jesus said, “No man hath greater love than to lay down his life for his brother.”  Real friendship means you will be there, no matter what, for your friend.

 

1 Corinthians 13

Love Is the Greatest

 

 ¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 

 ⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

 

 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 

 ¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 

 

Having a friend to love is an honor, and I’m so honored to have you………..

 

the pilgrim

 

 

Oh yes, and I’m thankful for getting to rest in such a beautiful place too!

 

 

The single greatest gift I’ve ever gotten as a photographer is the inspiration to want to learn more!  From John Shaw and the late John Netherton who set the bar so very high, to Scott Kelby, and Jim Begley who showed me just how much more there is to learn, each of these people and many many more have shown me just how much vision can be stretched!  Tony Sweet showed me how to see with “better” more artistic eyes. Chuck Summers taught me how working very hard and never stopping or giving up, can make your work infinitely better!  Freeman Patterson and Bryan Peterson taught me how to see the same things everyone else sees, and ignores, and find an image in them.  My students have taught me that no matter how much you think you know, you’re, at best, only getting started!  Sam Garcia and Jay Maisel have mentored me in learning how to see the extraordinary in the ordinary!  Scott Diussa showed me how to travel with eyes wide open, Fred Sisson taught me to be curious!  Jim Sugar and Joe McNally  showed me that even a single flash can breath magic into an image.  Jim Haverstock and Raymond Jabola showed me how having a gentle spirit transaltes to gentle, and profound images.  Arthur Rothstien taught me that one camera and two lenses is more than enough!  Ansel Adams taught me that it’s o.k. to manipulate a print!!!  The folks at Nik and Topaz software taught me that no file is ever finished until you imagine the possibilities!  The list could, and should,  go on, but you get the point.  Learning is addictive and necessary if you want to get better every day!

 

I thank God for those friends that have shown me how to see the world differently, and feel more deeply for my subjects. I thank God for waking up every morning wanting to hold a camera in my hand.  I thank God that everywhere I walk I see countless things that can be a photograph.  So this mornings exercise is to walk around the building I’m staying in in St. Thomas and shoot whatever I see that interests me, “photographically”.  I will push the publish button when I have a few keepers!

 

Today’s Prayer:  Father thank you for all those mentors, countless in number, that you have allowed me to meet, and learn from their vast experience and kind tolerance of my great visual hunger.  Thank you for giving me that hunger, to want to learn more, experience all you have allowed me to live out in these 66 years!  Thank you Father for opening my eyes!

 

the pilgrim

 

 

Sherelene and I are in St. Thomas for the week, there is no place I would rather be and no one I would rather be with.  Sherelene is not only my wife of 42 years, she is my best friend, and the woman I always dreamed of meeting and falling madly in love with, and I did……..  It will be and endless mystery to me for the rest of my life, how I could have ever captured her heart!  Sherelene has not only been a faithful wife, she has been a wonderful mother to our three children and an adored “Nanna” to our six grandchildren.   She is the only person I trust to tell me the truth about my photography, my walk with the Lord, and my integrity, she knows me better than anyone and she always shoots straight with me!  I devote one week of vacation time every year to place her in an environment that I know will renew her physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  That usually only requires warm weather an an ocean!  Together we’ve explored most of the Caribbean, Hawaii and still enjoy finding new places to let her rest and recuperate!

 

It has been the greatest honor of my life to be called her husband, and honor I still can’t imagine how I won!  Take a moment today to be truly thankful for the man or woman that God has placed in your life.  As Paul instructed,  Love her like our Lord loved the church, He gave His very  life for her.  That’s the perfect model of love……..

 

the pilrim

 

This week I will share something each post for which I am very, very thankful.

 

*Photo Notes:  the top image was snapped with an iPhone  4s on our flight down, it’s shocking how little an iPhone does for picutres of me!   the images below was with the really neat Coolpix AW100 which really encourages you to shoot different with it’s being waterproof to a depth of 30 feet!