Monthly Archives: January 2023

 

 

Next month I will turn 77 years old.  My father passed away just short of his 66th birthday, and for that reason I’ve assumed most of my life that I wouldn’t live much longer than that, thankfully I was wrong, but the clock is ticking and is counting down every day. None of us knows when God will call us home, but since it is getting late in the 4th quarter I have something very important to share with whomever reads this. 

 

When I was a young man I did not really like myself very much.  I, like everyone else, wanted to like myself.  I was pretty good at photography and I saw that as my ticket to being somebody special enough that even I would be proud of myself.  I worked very hard, studied my mistakes, of which there were many, and then improved.  Over time the hard work paid off and I was starting to get some recognition for my efforts.  I was 35 years old and things couldn’t have been better, until my Doctor said these words, “Bill it’s cancer and I’m afraid it is multi- strained cancer and the survival rate is around 3 to 5%.”

 

How would you react to that diagnosis?!  Yep, that is exactly how I felt.  I was in the prime of my life, loved my family, and things were heading  where I hoped to go in life.  Now I  had a few months to live and it was soon all to be over.  I had surgery and they removed a tumor about the size of man’s fist from my lower stomach.  For the next three days I spent  in my hospital bed and went through the stages of grief.  First, I was angry at God.  I was not a bad person, at least not in my own eyes, so why me?  That didn’t last long, I knew in my heart that I was not evil person but far from perfect and at a time like this being mad at God seemed pretty pointless.  Next came self pity, but it did not take me long to know that while the cancer was not fair, life is not fair and bad things happen to people all the time so I couldn’t allow myself to go down that road.

 

The last stage was resignation, but not without a fight.  On the last night before my doctor was to return with my final pathology and any thought of an attempt to treat the cancer, I prayed.  It was not a King James prayer it was mostly weeping and asking God to give me the strength to hold up so it would be not any harder on my family.  I ended my prayer with an attempt to cut a deal with God.  It was a simple proposal, “God if you would let me live long enough to see my three children grown and not in need of an everyday father, I won’t serve you every day for the rest of my life, I will serve you every moment for the rest of my life.”  That night I got the best night’s sleep I’d had since getting the news of my cancer.

 

The next morning my doctor arrived in my room with a smile on his face.  I wondered what he was so happy about?  He said, “I have good news and bad news, which do you want first, still smiling.”  I said give me the bad, he said the tumor we removed was definitely cancer, he then said the good news is it is not the kind of cancer we thought, the kind you have has a treatment success rate of 95%!

 

At that moment my life changed forever!  I knew God had answered my prayer!  I’ve had unbelieving friends ask if I really believed God had changed the cancer or could the doctor have just guessed wrong?  Truthfully it didn’t matter, God had gotten my attention!  I truly believe that they call this in heaven “A Wake Up Call.”

 

So there you have it, I have kept my word to my Heavenly Father. I’m still far from perfect, but I’m perfectly devoted to serving Him and sharing His incredible love with everyone I come in contact with.  God has richly blessed me beyond my wildest dreams but not with becoming a famous photographer, that it turns out is a figment of people’s imagination.  There is no such thing.  I received a gift far more precious, peace and joy!

 

So if you ever wondered what made me tick, there you have it. If you didn’t wonder that is ok too.  But if by any chance you don’t have peace and Joy and the life you wanted you now know where to find it!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of you seem enjoy this, some wish I would just quit!!!!!  Fat chance, I enjoy it too much!  My apologies to those that have had enough!

 

So as I plan my travel for 2023 I plan to drive to almost all my shooting locations and therefore I can now take all my gear, might as well, if you own it and it is not with you, why own it!!!???   I’ve broken my gear into three bags so that I can select just what I need for any kind of work.  First, I will not be carrying any of these on my back, I will carry only the small shoulder bag nothing else will actually leave the vehicle while in the field, all are way too heavy for that!  I have pictured, below, the interior shoots off the two bigger bags.  One is my most used bodies and lenses in a Guru Gear Kiboko 16L V2.0,  and the second holds the specialized lenses that certainly get use, but less often in a Tamrac Anvil Slim 11 backpack.    The shoulder bag ( a Think Tank Retro 10), is my jump in the car and go hunt Americana subjects and of course family and people, not that my family are not people!  The perfect lens package for photographing people is a 24mm, 35mm and 95mm which is the effective focal lengths of these lenses!that my family are not people!

 

 

 

 

I did not list all the small accessories in the bags, maybe on another day!

 

So just in case you wondered, here it is!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Full List of all Gear:

 

 

Main Assignment Bag:

 

Guru Gear Kiboko V2.0 16L+

Bodies:

Fujifilm X-T5  –  Fujifilm X-H1  –  Fujifilm X-T1

Lenses:  14mm f 2.8  –  16mm f 2.8  –  23mm f 1.4

27mm f 2.8  –  35mm f 2  –  50mm f 2  –  60mm f 2.5 Macro

18-55 f 2.8 – 4  –  70-300 f 4 – 5.6

 

 

Additional Lens Bag

Tamrac Anvil Slim 11

Lenses:  Rokinon 8mm f 2.8  –  10-24 f 4   

T-TArtisan 50mm f 1.2  –  16-80 f4  –  80mm f 2.8 Macro

90mm f 2  –  50-140 f 2.8  –  100-400 f 4.5-5.6

 

 

Small Out & About & People bag

Peak Design Everyday Sling 6L  (below)

Body:  Fujifilm X-Pro 2

Lenses: 16mm f 2.8  –  23mm f 2  –  50mm f 2  –  27mm f 2.8 Pancake 

 

 

 

Since I did this post I ordered a Peak Design Everyday Sling 6 L size and it holds the above gear in the bulkier Think Tank Retro 5 Leather edition and I think I will like it better for everyday carry, in fact I got one more small lens in the bag as well, the 27mm f 2.8 pancake lens.  It appears to be very well designed and made, I will give it a try and we will see!

 

 

As we are all starting a new year everyone is wondering how can I make this the best year ever?  May I make a suggestion?  If you want to have a great life, ask someone who has had a great life, how they did it.  I’m not perfect, far from it, but God has blessed me with a great life and I think after almost 77 years of living, I might  have discovered, through His Word and His guidance,  just how to do it!

 

Here are my (HIS)  Rules for Living:

 

     1. Trust God, no one is more trustworthy and cares more about you than He does!

      2.  Put others above yourself.  Selfless living pays incredible dividends!

      3.  Admit to yourself and Him, who you are, what your not proud of, and ask for His forgiveness.  He already knows, he just wants you to face it, and He will gladly give you a new start, another chance to get it right and foregiveness!

       4.  Don’t worry about pleasing or impressing others, just be sure your Heavenly Father knows your heart is chasing Him and Him alone.

 

That’s it, please trust me, it really, really works.

 

May God bless you in this new year!

 

the pilgrim

 

 

In November of 2011 I bought my first Fujifilm camera, the little X10 and it was love a first sight.  I still can’t believe the quality of the files to come out of this little $699. compact camera.  The lens was razor sharp and the colors wonderful, see for yourself!

 

 

That little camera cost me a heck of lot of money as I have bought virtually every camera and lens Fujifilm has produced since 2011!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim