Monthly Archives: January 2019

 

Why did I get a Golden Retriever puppy???!!!  Trust me I’ve asked myself that question a lot in the last 6 weeks, but the answer is always the same though, I wanted a canine buddy!  Raising a high energy puppy can be daunting, but I love Chester and we have lot of great times together, far more than enough to weather the “puppy fit” storms!

 

Chester is finally sleeping all the way through the night until around 6:30 am each morning and the routine is the same.  1.  Out to the yard to potty. 2. fill up his water and food bowl, but before he eats he insists on 3.  Our special morning time. (Photo above) I get down on the kitchen floor and stretch my  legs out making a space for him and he comes over and lays between my legs resting his chin on my thigh.  I proceed to give him a good petting and stroking over his ever larger body. This usually lasts about five minutes until he really starts to wake up and do some yoga worthy stretches and then I’m free to go do my morning routine while he annihilates his puppy chow!  The morning this images was made he fell back to sleep in my lap.  Speial times with my good buddy!

He came to us at 8 weeks and 12 pounds, in three weeks he was up to 22 pounds and he gets bigger everyday!  Fun times ahead!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

When manufacturers are constanty bringing out new models and we are buying them, why would you keep the older model it replaced?  Above are my current three most used cameras in the Fujifilm X Series (the only brand I own)!  Left to right; The new X-T3, the X-Pro 2, and the X-H1. Each of these camera sits at the top of their respective model line.  I also have my X-T2 and an original graphite X-T1, and a compact X-30.  Why did I keep those previous cameras?

 

(1)  They are still very usable for the kind of work I do.  Why sell something that can be and still is used.  If I go out and decide to work with the X-T3 as my main body, then the X-T2 is an almost identical back-up camera body.  Though the X-T3 has advances, the X-T2 is still a very capable back-up or extra body!.

 

(2)  Special uses.  I love the X-Pro 2 and I love to use it for personal travel, teamed up with the three Fujicrons, (23 f 2, 35 f 2, and 50 f 2) it is a great system for travel, light and the lens are tack sharp!  With the addition of a 16mm f 2.8 coming it also will cover a great range.  I  have been begging Fujifilm to make a 70mm f 2.5  (105mm f 2.5 equiv.!!!!) On a serious trip where you may need more reach the 55-200 fits this system very well, and is still light and very sharp!  Sometimes I also just love the optical viewfinder!

 

(3)  Used prices.  I just don’t have the heart to give a way a perfectly good camera body for sub $500.  I would rather give an older body to someone just starting out to help them get started.

 

(4)  Personal attachment.  The X-T2 that I have was a gift to  X-Photographers, with our last names as the serial number, kinda neat, and i can’t part with that!!!   My X-T1 Graphite was a gfit from a very dear friend at Fujifilm when I did a series of video interviews for Japan, at the corporate office. I still think the X-Pro 2 and original X-T1 have the best Graphite colorization, love them both.  Would love to have an  X-T3 in that Graphite color.

 

(5)  Good loaners.  I teach workshops and sometimes someone has a body go down or needs to borrow a camaera, so this way,  I have some bodiesthat I can loan in emergencies.

 

(6)  I just like camera bodies!  Go figure!

 

(7)  Date night camera!  When Sherelene and I are traveling and we go out for the evening heaven forbid that I had a chance ot make an image, but had no camera.  The little Fujifilm X-30 is a pocket size (big pocket) camera that still makes great images when you don’t want to be burdened with a  bigger camera and bag.

 

I would love to know why you keep older models, shoot us all a note below!!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Right after the new year I went into my Photoshop CS-6 app in the dock and double clicked it (Mac guy).  It times past the application simply opened and then I  went to work.  Now it takes me to the Creative Cloud Renewal sight.  I let my CC account lapse late last year.  I did not use CC and got tired of paying for the priviledge.  I bought CS-6 out right and own it, or at least I thought I did. Has anyone had this expereince or does anyone have a solution.  I want to keep my CS-6 not any of the CC apllications.

 

Feel dfree to answer inthe comments or email me at:

billfortney@earthlink.net

 

 

Thanks in advance!!!

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to share an interesting story with you and it has some twists and turns. A couple of years ago I bought a watch, the watch above, the Luminox ANU 4200.  ANU stands for Approved for Navy Use.  This is the watch that is given to BUDS graduates (Navy Seals)!  I found it on sale for a little under $400. and finally broke down and bought it.  I really like Luminox watches and have several.  I hate to admit I have several dozen watches, I just like them.  So I wore it for a few weeks and one morning in church a older member of our congregatio,  let’s call him Bob, was sitting one pew in front of me. I love Bob he is an ex-Marine, though he would say there is no such thing, “Once a Marine, always a Marine!”  Bob is in his late 80’s and wears a hat to church every Sunday covered with pins related to his Marine service.

 

So I’m sitting behind Bob staring at his Marine pins and the Lord spoke to me in my spirit, “You know you’re not a Marine, you never have been, but yet you’re wearing a fine watch made for a Marine, don’t you think Bob would like to have that watch?!”  For the rest of the service the Lord and I had little wrestling match which I was slowly loosing!  By the end of the service I knew what I  had to do and what I should do, and in fact what I wanted to do!  I approached Bob and asked him if he had a watch.  He said yes, and showed me an old square faced watch on his wrist.  I took the luminox off my wrist and handed it to him and said, I think God wants you to have this!   I told him the Marine signifcance of the watch and he teared up and thanked me very humbly.  I said Bob,  “you served your country with great honor and distinction, you’re the kind of guy that should own this watch, not me!”

 

A couple of weeks ago Bob went home to the Lord and a bunch of Marine buddies that proceeded him in death.  It was a great loss for our church, community and for me personally.  I looked forward every Sunday to visitng with Bob, who was a character and always had a funny things to say!  After his death I called my Pastor and shared this story with him and aksed him if it would be inappropriate if I asked his wife if she would allow me to wear the watch in Bob’s memory.  He said he thought that was completley appropriate.  I called her explained that it was a gift and she was free to do anything she wished with the watch, but if she had no use for it, I would like to wear it and remember Bob that way.  She said she would like that, so this morning she brought it to church and told me that Bob showed it to everyone and told them the Marine significance of the time piece.  It is once again on my wrist and though I don’t deserve the honor that goes with it, I will wear it proudly knowing Bob, a real American hero once wore it, and earned that honor with his sacrifice and service.

 

On more than one occasion I wished I had it, but I knew it was where it should be!   So it came full circle and I’m so glad I listened to my spirit when the Lord urged me to do what He urged me to do!  A part of me really did not want to part with it, but I felt the tug on my heart strings so strong that morning, I knew it was the right thing to do.  The look in his eyes confirmed it and his wife’s words when she handed it back to me this morning was further confirmation!  We don’t really own anything here, it all belongs to Him, and we need to share and distribute according to His instructions!  I’m so glad I did!

 

Obedience is better than sacrifice!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim