Monthly Archives: August 2012

 

As a photographer you’re never lost, you’re just on your way to a subject you didn’t know existed !  Traveling on the blue highways, (the roads that existed long before the interstates or four lanes, and blue in color on the road maps), is one of life’s greatest adventures, taking the roads less traveled!  America lives on the back roads, our history is tucked away,  just around the bend.  Get off the Interstate and discover our past!

 

For ten years, between 1991 and 2001, I drove over 70,000 miles a year, passing through virtually all the lower 48 states, EVERY year!!!  Many of those miles  were on the blue highways!   Route 66, Highway 50, 421, U.S. 1, and many more historic roads of yesteryear….

 

Traveling America’s Byways is a wonderful way to see the treasures, forgotten, and left behind.  Travel by car has become a race to see how much distance we can cover in the minimum amount of time!  We are so focused on “getting there”,  we’ve lost the joy of the journey!  As a photographer, the journey IS the destination!!!

 

I sat watching my granddaughter, Abigail, sleep in the shade on Thursday, ( two posts back), and my life came full circle.  Life truly is about the intimate  pleasures, the best moments in life are not the costliest.

 

Spiritually, we need to discover the same road less traveled, time on our knees talking with our Heavenly Father.  We need to get off the expressway of life and fellowship in a quiet place with Him.  If we truly want to do His will, we need to know Him better, and fellowship is the only way to do that.  God does not want to yell into your spirit above the ruckus of daily life!  He desires to speak to your heart in the quiet moments of intense fellowship.

 

Slow down and take the next exit from life’s super highway, find “the  rest area” and wait on Him!  Trust me when you seek Him, He will be there!!!”

 

The pilgrim

 

Recognizing treasure?   Here is my list from the five days since I returned from Oshkosh;

 

1.   Watching Abby sleep.

 

2.  Cuddling Sherelene on mornings when the alarm doesn’t  matter.

 

3.   Watching the sun sink into the horizon and then watch the glow spread across the sky.

 

4.  Reading the Word, and hearing God speak directly to my heart!

 

5.  Sitting in the car riding to Lexington looking at my wife’s face, and thinking how proud I am of the woman she has become.

 

6.  Listening to my grandsons, Cade and Elijah talk about their life’s adventures.

 

7.  Sitting at the computer waiting quietly for God to speak to my heart, before I post, and reading Chuck Summers calming words in his blog!       www.seeingcreation.com

 

8.  Taking afternoon naps when you’re exhausted.

 

9.  Talking with Jim about plans for His Light Workshops.

 

10.  Talking and listening to God in prayer…..

 

I don’t know why that is so indicative of me, but I push hard.  That is the sign in the window at the cleaners Igo to in Corbin.  Their door sticks in hot weather and you have to push hard to get it open!  I love to joke with Joe the owner about that sign!  I think in life, many times you have to push hard.  There is a difference in pushing hard after you get God’s go ahead, and just pushing in every direction, without a thought of the consequences!

 

God wants us to trust Him, and listen for His voice, but when the time comes to do His will, I know He wants us to do it with everything we have, which still will  never be enough, but if it is His will,  He will make up the difference!  I’ve often asked myself why I’m so driven to share His love, and to reach the lost!?  It is clear that He inspires us to be driven for Him. I harken back to the great line from the film What If;

 

“Life comes down to just two things; God loves you, so love others, and God sacrificed everything to be with you, so, sacrifice everything!!!”

 

Yes, it is just that simple, and that hard, but with His strength, we can do all things!

 

the pilgrim

I’m still feeling the after affects of watching Scott Kelby’s new class on travel Photography.  I think for most of us, most of the time, a one camera, one lens system for travel, actually makes a a lot of sense.  So I decided to put it to a “Real World Test”.  I took Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday off to spend a little time with the family, (after working for 8 straight days), and took them to Dollywood Splash in Pigeon Forge Tennessee.  The number one rated water park in America, according to several Travel Channel editors, and one of my clients, I actually got a short pro visit in as well!.  I used the new D3200, a 24 mega pixel, compact DSLR and the 18-300 Super Zoom we talked about yesterday, (sorry day before yesterday).  This time I used it just like most consumers would, hand held!  In spite of the fact that the 18-300 has VR II and it works well, it is still not a fair test because of the 66 year old man hand holding the camera.  What follows are the kinds of pictures all people shoot on this kind of day out with the grandchildren.

 

Keep in mind that the goal of this kind of photography is different from the way many of us think about the photographic process, and in many ways, that’s good.  I have recently been making a number of images with my iPhone, mostly because it was the camera I had handy when I needed to photograph something.  I believe that reverting, from time to time, to point and click photography can really help you recapture the reason you started doing photography in the first place.  In my home I have a series of images spread over several rooms they are 24X36 prints and larger.  Most “normal” people, (not photographers per se) that come into my house stand back four or five feet from the prints and comment on them, mostly that they think they are lovely, thank you!   Photographer friends approach the prints completely differently, they stick their noses right on the prints surface looking to see just how sharp they are, or looking for noise.  The regular person wants to see what the photograph is about, the photographer wants to examine the minute details and look for flaws.  It’s all a matter of why we do photography in the first place, and my point is that we need to get back to making images for the sheer joy of capturing things that matter to us.  Yesterday with my family, I was with the people that matter most to me, and I wanted to capture them, and not worry about noise, or tack sharpness.  O.K. I worried just a little!!!

 

I believe that most people that buy a D3200 and decide to use one lens to cover it all like the 18-300 will approach photography from a less clinical perspective.  Before we examine the days shoot, let me make one thing clear, the D3200 is a very capable camera that if used with great care and technique, (tripods, support, etc), can produce images that are virtually indistinguisable from the most expensive cameras we make!  The point is it can make perfectly wonderful images with a more leisurely attitude about the capture method.

 

Simple point and shoot, family portrait of Wesley, Elijah and Abigail.

 

 

Another shot of Cassidy in her glasses of many colors!

 

One of the neat things about the 18-300 is the ability to shoot close-ups from the 450mm end of the range (300 X 1.5 crop factor)  The shot below is a full shot of a T-shirt my son-in-law Clint was wearing with illustrations of fishing flys, the close-up is what the lens can do in terms of close focusing ability.  * Keep in mind that his was a hand-held close-up shot at 450mm equivalent @ 1/80th of a second!!!!!!!   The VR II really works even if it is not tack, tack sharp!

 

 

 

While we are on the subject of close-ups and technique, my granddaughter, Cassidy,  saw a blue tailed lizard and snatched the camera to stalk it, her technique was better than mine, no big surprise!

 

 

The family went over to ride the big water slide called Fire Tower Falls, a water slide with a 70 foot vertical drop!!!  I participated by being the photographer!  Below is The Dollywood shot from the top and my very tightly cropped (about 1/4 of the full frame) of Clint coming down the chute!  24 mega pixels sure is handy when you need to crop to get the shot!!!!

 

 

 

Finally, the real reason for this kind of camera, in my set of gear, is capturing candid image of family members.  Below are two shots I got of my youngest grandchild Abigail.  Even though they and stand on their own I couldn’t resist showing a 100% crop below them to show just how sharp this camera lens combination can be!!

 

 

 

100% crop from top image of Abby, shows just how sharp the 18-300 can be!

 

This proves what the 18-300 is capable of and remember this is a hand-held shot at 1/800th of a second at ISO 400 and a focal length of 300mm equivilant.

 

So my final thoughts are that we keep seeing better cameras, with more capabilities, with each new model. This D3200, which will sell, with a kit lens, for around $700. is a great camera for any family outing, and if used with good technique is capable of outstanding results.  It’s also light, compact and has tons of resolution 24 mega pixels.  Even with the 18-300 you are still talking about around $1,700.  Not a lot of change for a camera, lens combination with tis kind of capabilities!!

 

Better than anything else was a great day, having fun, with the family I love so much!  Thanks to Sherelene, and my Heavenly Father!!!!

 

the pilgrim