Daily Archives: June 22, 2012

Well, tomorrow the actual Nikon workshop starts and there will be little or no time to test the manual lenses for the rest of this trip.  So what have I learned?  Here goes:

 

1.  Not too surprising the older classic manual Nikkors were tack sharp back then and they still are today.  Are they sharper than current lenses?  No, but they are a lot better than you might think.  Some individual lenses are still very viable if you don’t mind the effort.

 

2.  The effort to use the older manual focus glass is considerable.  I found my work flow in the field to be a lot more “fits and starts”.   If you want to make yourself slow down and work more carefully, this is a great way.  Through out the trip I found myself missing, the shorter zooms, autofocus, and the general comfort zone I’ve come to have with the modern lenses.

 

3.  What will I do in the future?  I enjoyed the experiment and I’m certain that, from time to time, I will get back on and ride these horses some more, but I won’t sell all my modern lenses, I just need to be able to work faster much of the time and the manual focus workflow, does slow things down, considerably.

 

4.  The final conclusion is that the old Nikkors hold up very well when compared to modern glass, but they do lack the more modern coatings, and except for close-up work, where I always focus manually anyway, I really missed the speed of the new lenses.  What’s neat is that manual lenses are still plentiful and can be an attractive bargain for something you just would love to play around with.  One thing is for sure, I don’t think my work suffered, it was quite pleasant to slow down and remember how things used to be!!!!!

 

the pilgrim

Today’s life lesson is simple to understand, but hard to do, in fact in our own strength, it’s impossible, but with God all things are possible!

 

2.  Obey God and leave all consequences to Him.

 

I have shared with you over the past months that my church has been undergoing a mighty spiritual attack. Some members, a very few, have taken it on themselves to make major changes and with the power of their financial hold on the church they have succeeded in getting rid of a number of staff members.  The church is in turmoil.  I know the culprit, it’s Satan, and he is using these members to sow seeds of conflict.  I learned the other day that even though they got their way, and pressured our pastor into leaving, that wasn’t enough. One of the people causing all the trouble sent a letter to the church where our pastor is going, accusing him with all kinds of false accusations.  It wasn’t enough that they ran off a pastor than 99% of the congregation wanted to stay, they had to follow him to his next appointment and try to hurt him further!!!!

 

I was very, very angry and had decided it was time to strap on my guns and ride into town, (figuratively), and face down the bad guys!  Then Number 2. struck me!!!  My position is to be obedient to God and leave the circumstances to Him.  I searched the scripture and could not find a reference that said, “When some of God’s people act in union with the enemy, it is your job to go and attack and defeat them.”  On the cross, Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they no not what they do.”

 

That’s hard to do, but if it’s God’s will, it is the only course of action that will bring His results!  God has a plan, and He is far more capable of handling this than I am.

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

Today I finished the scouting for the Bio Communications workshop that starts Saturday morning.  Tomorrow I speak to the group at 10:30 a.m.  When you hit your knees remember me! I am never nervous about speaking, but I love these folks and I really want to do a good job for them!  On the way driving around the loop road today I listened to Contemporary Christian music on the rental SUV’s XM radio.  Two song really grabbed my attention and I’m using one for my ending slide show in the morning, a wonderful song by Jaci Valasquez entitled, Imagine Me Without You.  It is a wonderful worship song and I hope to make a strong statement with it!  As i walked virtually alone through the Acadia Gardens I experienced such peace and joy and did some worshiping myself, if you don’t mind my saying so, I think my take today shows some of that peace!

 

I hope you enjoy them, by-the-way you can get that song on iTunes, I think it will bless you!

 

Top shot with 55mm Micro Nikkor, Directly above 105mm Micro Nikkor, below 105mm Micro Nikkor.

 

 

The last two are with the 55mm Micro Nikkor.

 

Be blessed,

 

the pilgrim