Monthly Archives: July 2024

 

Thought Number One:  As you guys know I have been playing around with Micro 4/3rds and really enjoying it!  One disappointment was I bought a OM System OM-D-E M1 Mark III.  The camera is well made, and has tons of great features and makes wonderful files, but……..  the controls and control placements just didn’t work for me.  If you have one and it works for you, that’s great, but it didn’t for me!  I also bought a Lumix GX85 and its menus and controls were near perfect, but I still wanted a bigger more capable body!  When I was wrestling with this I decided to sell some Fujifilm gear that I loved, but honestly were not using, much, so I listed them.  I got an email from a dear friend, and good photographer who also happens to be a FBI agent.  He and I have corresponded a lot and he wanted to buy my Fujifilm XF 100-400 and happened to mention that he was shooting both Micro 4/3rds and Fujifilm and he had a mint condition Lumix G9 that he would like to use as part of a trade and cash for my lens.  He said he would be happy to send me the G9 to try and he was sure I would find it a lot less confusing I terms of controls and menus!

 

Long story short, I love the G9, it is a much friendlier camera in terms of controls and using the menu system.  Problem solved!

 

 

Thought Number Two: Once I got rolling with the. newer body I wanted one long zoom lens to use with it…… but most of the choices were in the thousands of bucks. and I I didn’t think I would use it that much!  In the past I would only invested in very expensive long glass, but I found a Lumix lens that covered a range of 200-600 with a maximum aperture of f4 -5.6, and it got very good reviews so I sprang for one and to my shock, while not a super heavy duty made lens, it was very sharp, some images below.  It cost less than half of the more expensive and much larger alternative lenses and was actually a faster maximum aperture!

 

 

Lumix 100-300 @ 500mm and f 8.

 

Lumix 100-300 @ 600mm and f 8.

 

Problem two resolved.

 

Thought Number Three:  I really resisted getting into the Micro 4/3rds world, fearing that noise would objectionable, the mega pixel count might be little low and fear of lower quality all around!  Well I was wrong on all counts, the G9 and the GX85 both have great low noise out to 3200, and the noise at 6400 is easy to fix with Topaz DeNoise!  I shoot at 1600 a lot and I see nothing that bothers me at all!  The lenses for this system are small, light and optically very, very good!  What about Fujifilm?   Still have it, still love it and still use it, but it is heavier and the lighter Micro 4/3rds stuff is easier on my 78 year old body!  …..and the images are making me happy!

 

All these images made with the Lumix G9 and the Olympus 60mm macro lens, handheld!

 

Thought Number Four:  Do we worry to much about medium format vs full frame or APS-C vs Micro 4/3rds?  I guess it depends on how severe your pixel peeping condition is!  I’ve been a working pro for over 53 years and I have set very high personal standards for my work, and I’ve shot all the formats mentioned above.  I would never say that each of those formats doesn’t have certain advantages and disadvantages was well, but for me, I can have a lot fun and make images that please me with any of them!  Whatever you love, shoot it and dedicate yourself to getting as much out of it as you can, just don’t let the technical stuff steal your joy!

 

Thought Number Five:  Have Fun!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

Welcome to our home, 160 Whirlaway Trail in Corbin, KY!   Sherelene and I moved to Corbin in 1979 when I went to work for Doug Blair at Richland Conrich Energy.  Our home, built the year before,  utilizes Western Red Cedar for the entire exterior, treated pine for the decks a walkways and a lot of the. inside walls are also made from Western Cedar.  I love the natural wood, but……. it requires a certain amount of care to keep it looking rich and beautiful.  The cost of western Cedar has escalated so much that if I ever wanted to build the same house again, there is no way I could afford to do it!  The cedar requires a good pressure washing, stripping and an application of a product called Revive before applying a oil based preservative to bring back the cedar color, at least every 5 to 6 years!

 

 

Sherelene and I have been searching for over 3 years to find someone that could do this!  Several painters have come and looked at the project and never came back, it’s a man killing job!  The point of this blog entry is to praise the company we finally found! Collins Custom Creations based in Bell County, Kentucky.  Don’t worry at the end of the blog I will give you all of their contact info.  Jody and Evan have just spend over three weeks with us working from daylight to dark almost every day!  My assessment is that they are talented, hard working, and able to deal with almost any situation!  Beside all the wood work they rebuilt part of a from deck walkway, some electrical work, and indoor ceiling work repairs.  When they say they are finish work carpenters, they truly are!  We are thrilled with the results of their hard work!  Over the time we had them with us Chester fell in love with them and so did we!

 

 

We love our home and love it even more after the loving care it got from Jody and Evan, if you are needing flooring, trim work, window installed, decks built. or repaired, or need wood work I can highly recommend them.  Today nothing is cheap, but their fees were very reasonable, considering that they show up, work hard and leave everything cleaned up and as it was before, except with the work very well done!  They went above and beyond our expectations and today that is rare indeed!

 

Thanks guys, it was a pleasure having you working in our home!

 

Collins Custom Creations            (606) 541-6345             jodycollins@live.com

 

 

This will need a little explanation!  I bought a Panasonic Lumix GX85, a small rangefinder style camera and then started buying small high quality lenses to go with it, and as usual,  I couldn’t stop!!!!!  After acquiring a bunch of lenses (7) and then thought, hey maybe  I need a second body and some more serious lenses!  So I bought from OM System their OM-D E-M1 Mark III  20 mega-pixel camera body with a ton of great features!  To go with it I bought the Olympus 12-40 f 2.8 Pro II mid range zoom and the Panasonic Lumix G X Vario 35-100 f 2.8 Asph, lens.  Bottom line, the body is very capable, and the two lenses are honestly two of the best of their focal lengths I’ve ever used and very well made!  Keep in mind that because these are Micro 4/3rds lenses they are a 24-80 and 70-200 respectively!  So what’s the problem?

 

The Lumix GX85 is pretty simple to operate, the Olympus has so many features and functions that I’ve had a hard time figuring it out!  I paid  $2,100. for the three, they are like new and I  have the boxes.  Bottom line I will take $1,500. for the set!  Combined that is a pro body with a two lenses ranging from 24mm to 200mm all at f 2.8!  They’re compact and easy to carry! By-the-way, the body comes with three batteries and a charger, not included in the box new!

 

 

Contact me at billfortneyphoto@gmail.com if you are interested!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim

 

 

A couple of weeks ago I lost a very dear friend and brother, Gus Clouse.  I wrote a blog entry about how much I loved and appreciated him.  As loss always does, it has caused me to do a lot of soul searching.  It brought me to a troubling conclusion!  I’ve spent the better part of the last fifty + years traveling all over the world to make photographs of many subjects that for the most part that are, truthfully, fairly insignificant.  Yes they were beautiful and interesting, but, they did not matter to me near a much as my family and friends!  Above, top left Jim Haverstock and his late wife Sue, Jim Begley, bottom left to right, Carl Turner and his wife Monica and Jack Graham. I have well over 500 images of waterfalls but very few of these people!!!  I realized this when I tried to find images of Gus!  I have more images of Sherelene and my children and grandchildren, but I’m with them all the time, but then I’m with these people a lot too!!!

 

So what am I going to do?  I’m going to try to make more photographs of the people I love!  I’m sorry that I’ve dropped the ball of the ability God has given me, I need to use it to magnify Him and the ones I care so much about!  This group at the top are among my closest and most dear friends!  Jack Graham has been my teaching partner, friend  and brother and we’ve gone though lots of trials together, He’s a true friend!  Jim and Sue are two of the dearest friends I’ve ever had, and I really miss Sue, but she is with our Lord!  Jim is God’s guide to me in my spiritual life!  Jim Begley is not only a great photographer, but also a dear friends with whom I’ve shared many great adventures, he’s wonderful Christian man and friend!  Carl Turner is one of the most God loving men I now, he truly has God’s ear, when’s the chips are down he’s the one I pray is on his knees lifting me up to our God!  Monica is one of the most Holy Spirit driven Christians I’ve ever known!  These kinds of friends are priceless!  I don’t deserve them, but I’m thrilled to have them in my corner!  I love doing portraits of our students in the Missionary Baptist church in Cades Cove, one below, I promise to try to do better!

 

One of my favorite workshop guests!

 

I promise to work hard at it!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim