Monthly Archives: February 2012

I saw a fellow today that at a distance I was sure was Scott Kelby, only thing,  I know where Scott is, and it’s not Las Vegas!  Several others made the same mistake.  Upon seeing him closer I realized it was not Scott at all by someone enjoying being mistaken for him.  Scott of course is a hair older, and of course because of his dieting,  slimmer, but you must admit this is a scary, the thought of two Scott Kelbys!!!!

 

Sitting in the room tonight in Las Vegas, it was little chilly to get out and walk the streets looking for shots, I thought this might be a fun way to open up a topic I’ve been wanting to address!

 

I want to thank Scott Kelby publicly.  Over the course of my life I’ve met many people that have made my life a great deal better, Scott is one of those people.  I first met Scott when I went to call on him since he was a client in my territory for Nikon.  I was immediately impressed with his immense talent, wonderful humor, and genuine nature.  I felt like I had known Scott for years after our first meeting.  I dare say many others would say the same thing.  What I admired the most about Scott is that in spite of his considerable fame, he really was a regular guy who could relax around others and just be himself.   He has that wonderful trait that so few people do, that once you know him you feel your one of his best friends, he makes you feel that way by his unselfish expression of interest in you.  He has earned his fame the hard way, he is who you think he is.   Talented in so many ways I’ve lost count.  Scott always says thank you and means it, he always notices what you do on his behalf and his words of appreciation are genuine, which is rare today!   Scott has opened so many door for so many people, and yet he never thinks of that, he just loves doing things for those he cares for, I’ve benefitted a great deal from his many acts of kindness!

 

Scott has surrounded himself with so many great people and he has shared those wonderful people with me too.  Matt Kloskowski, R.C. Concepcion, Larry Becker, Dave Moser, and Dave Cross just to mention a few!  Anyone that can associate with people like that is a wealthy man indeed.

 

So tonight as I sit alone in Las Vegas, I’m thankful that God blessed me with such a wonderful friend as this!  By-the-way, below, the real Scott Kelby and his beautiful bride, Kalebra!  Thanks my friend.

 

 

My father told me once that the measure of a man is the people he calls his friends.

 

the pilgrim

 

O.K. I promise these will be the last images from my balcony in the MGM towers.  I slept fitfully last night, but slept a lot of hours, by 6:30 I could no long fall back asleep, so I noticed some enticing light filtering through my curtains.  I was greeted with a very different scene than I photographed late yesterday afternoon!  This time all Coolpix 7100 and some HDRs as well.  As I was processing the images I notice about a half hour later just how much the light had changed!  I teach this all the time but am always amazed what just the right time of the day makes in how our images turn out.    I promise to get out after the show this evening and shoot something different!

It was great to see my Nikon friends yesterday and I was reminded of how much I will miss them one of these days.  God has given me so much to look forward to, that I am a winner either way!  Take a moment today to thank Him for all He has done for you.  Thankfulness is a trait we can’t “over do” with our Heavenly Father!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

HDR treatment on New York – New York

 

 

And finally thirty minutes later!!!!! Compare it to the shot above, is it worth getting up early????  I hope you said “yes!”  and you do!

 

Point made!

 

 

 

There is an old saying, “the best camera is the one you have with you!”  I work for Nikon and we make wonderful cameras and the vast majority of my images are made with one of them.  Sometimes though you are someplace and see something you really want to photograph and you don’t have your “good” camera with you.  Today was one of those days, I was in airports all day and then got ot Las Vegas and several things I saw struck me, but I wasn’t carrying my DSLR or even a Coolpix.  I did have my phone!!  Now I’m not suggesting that any of us should make our camera in our phone our go to camera, but…….  When it’s all you’re got it can do remarkable things.  Now in fairness, I just did replaced my iPhone 3s with the new iPhone 4s and it does have a pretty nice camera in it.  It has it’s limitations, but  one of them is not that you never have your phone with you.  The story goes that a man whose son wanted to be a writer took him to meet Ernest Hemmingway.  It is said that the father asked Mr. Hemmingway what kind of typewriter he used!!!   Probably not a good conversation starter.

 

I am a big believer that 90% of photography is seeing great light, and subjects, and composing well.  You can do that with any camera. Now in fairness the night scene from my hotel room is a Coolpix 7100  shot, but the rest are iPhone images.  The iPhone allows you to take and make anything from nostalgic image like he people getting on the plane with an app called Hipstamatic, and a hand held HDR of the seats in the Phoenix airport ( a scene I look at too often).  You may not care for either of those images, I consider them personal shots because they mean something to me, they don’t have to relate to others, but are just fun for me to capture.

 

 

Or the image I like to call sweet light, of the Tower across from mine.

 

Then walking back from the convention center at MGM Grand today I thought the afternoon light on two of the three towers was neat, so out came my iPhone.

 

The most important thing is to stay visual, stay aware, look for interesting subjects and great light, and whatever you have with you use it like a real camera, because they all really are!!!!

 

Be blessed,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

It may be a quirk of my lifestyle, traveling constantly, but I have to have a plan!  I can’t trust myself to get where I need to go, arrive with everything I need, and then get home with everything if I don’t have a plan!  I can’t stand to feel that I’m not prepared for any possible scenario.  If I’m that “wired” about business and personal travel, you can  imagine how much I want to have a “Spiritual Plan”!

 

Here is my spiritual plan:

 

1.  Know God, Accept God, and Trust God……

 

2.  Seek to know His will for my life.  I know part of His will is that I need to live in a way that is a witness to Him.

 

3.  I know I can’t live like I should if I try to do it in my own strength.  I’ve proven time and again, that I’m not able to do that, not in my own power.

 

4.  So, I have to rely on Him day to day, moment to moment, to be my strength when I am unable to live to His standard.

 

5.  The more I trust Him and rely on Him, the more able I am to walk this walk.

 

6.  I must stay in constant contact with Him,  Through His Word, In Prayer, and in listening for His voice.

 

7.  When I do hear His voice and know what I am to do, to answer Him Yes Sir, in other words be obedient.

 

8.  When the long day is done, to learn to rest in Him.

 

In practical terms this means to meet every situation knowing that my behavior or response will be a signal to whether or not my relationship with Him is real, or not.  Let me give you a real world example of how this works.  A day ago I had a conversation with a friend.  He was very upset and expressed it.  My first internal reaction was to shoot back and defend myself.  God placed His hand on my heart and said, “Are the things being said untrue?”  The honest answer was no, they were not untrue.  God’s next question in my spirit was, “Did your friend  have the right to express his anger?”  Once again the answer was, yes, he did have the right to be angry.  Now the result.  I was able to express sincere regret, and agree that I was wrong in the situation.   The friend started to calm down some when they realized I was not going to fire back.  I think it was a witness opportunity.  Often our egos get in the way of our admitting to fault.  No one likes to be attacked, but it is wrong, and blows our witness if we don’t face up to criticism and handle it in the right way.  The best part for me was that after the confrontation was over I was not left with feelings of anger or hurt, I was ready to move on to the next thing in my day.  For me this is an extremely valuable thing, in the past I would haver ranted and raved and sought to fight back, not because I was unjustifiably attacked, but because my ego, my self, could not accept being called on the carpet.  When your guilt, it’s best to just admit it, and move on.

 

A day to day, moment to moment walk with Him will really change us, and in my case, that is a very good thing……………

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

P.S.  I will be traveling tomorrow to Las Vegas for the WPPI show, then on the Fort Worth, Texas for Southwestern Photojournalism and then returning to rush to another airport to take my bride to St Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for some much needed rest, I will blog from all locations.  Maybe not as often from the Caribbean!