My Favorites: Part 3

MAGIC, it doesn’t happen that often, in fact I’ve attempted to shoot this part of the Tremont Branch of the Little River over a hundred times, this was the only day it looked just like this!!!  It takes the perfect water level, the perfect light, the exact time in Spring, this was the day!  Then you have to compose it right, use the right shutter speed and aperture and set your polarizer just right!  Thankfully as photographers once in a great white it happens and we get it!  This is why we keep going out there with a camera!  May 1st, 2009 at 8:47 a.m.  Nikon D700 with a 35mm lens set at f 22 shot for 5 seconds.

The sad thing about this shot is just how nearly impossible it is to shoot it now!  Christmas morning of 2022 there were over 200 photographers here!  The place you need to stand or kneel in to get this angle will only accommodate 10 photographers all working together to get the shot! January 29th, 2008  Nikon D700 – 24-70 zoom exposure not recorded.  On this morning there were 12 people here and we took turns letting everyone get the shot, and everyone did!  * Thank you social media!

i was with a group of very dear His Light Friends in NewEngland in the Fall.   October 9th, 2011.  We were shooting a farm and I found these barrels in a shed with the red barn outside the window!  I remember I was so excited!  Nikon D7000 66 mm on a 24-120 zoom, 2.5 seconds @ f 11.  The window light was perfect!

I have been shooting this same shot of a Bel Air fender side since March 10, 2012 the year before I retired from Nikon. I think this was my first trip to Old Car City. Shot with a Nikon, did not record which model, but exposure was 1/45th of a second at f 9 and ISO 400.  Still one of my favorite shots from that location.  Today it is completely faded with only a hint of blue is left and part of Bel Air is now missing. Shoot things when you see them, don’t wait!

Jack and I were leading a group on the Amish Workshop at Yoder’s Farm, I found this on a shelf in the garage where they park their buggy!  These are the kinds of shots I treasure finding and I was thrilled with this one!  October 22, 2015  Shot with  Fujifilm X-T1 with the very sharp 18-135 zoom (can’t believe I gave mine away)!  Shot at 1.4 seconds f 16 @ ISO 400 on a tripod.

Same New England trip with the His Light Friends group.  Stopped for lunch in a restaurant in an old house, while waiting for my lunch decided to see what was in the other rooms, found these bottle on a shelf, my lunch was cold by time all of us shot this!  Was well worth it!  Shot October 11th, 2011.   Shot with a Nikon D7000 shot at 66mm (24-120) for 2.0 Seconds at f 11 ISO 1600. Bottles shot as found!

While walking down the street in St. Petersburg, Florida I saw this homeless man. I stopped and starting talking with him, we talked for a while, he knew I was a photographer, carrying  tripod, wearing a photo vest and with a camera over my shoulder in plain sight.  After talking for while I asked him if he would allow me to shoot a portrait of him, that I thought he had such incredible character in his face! To  my surprise he said he would and I got several great shots of him.  After we finished I offered to buy him breakfast and we went in little cafe and ordered breakfast and continued to get to know each other.  I offered to give him some money but he refused, he said, “you showed me kindness, we’re even!”  I think of him often and wonder what ever happened to him.  He reminded me that we’re all human and but for God’s Grace it could’ve been me standing there on the street.

This is the joy of being a photographer, who we meet, who become our friends, the incredible beauty we see and the disturbing things we see too, it all adds up to make us who we become, I pray it has made me a better man!

Blessings,

the pilgrim