End of a Great Week!!

This has been a great week!  The surprise performance of the brand spanking new D800 certainly has enhanced those feelings, but honestly the fellowship with some great friends trumps even that!!  Above from left to right; some guy that wandered into our picture (o.k. the pilgrim), my boss and friend Bill Pekala, General Manager, David Lee, Senior Executive Vice President of Nikon Inc., my freind, Scott Kelby, founder and President of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and Kelby Media, and Kelby Training, and probably a bunch of other stuff!!  José  “Fuji” Ramos, aviation photographer extraordinaire!  Scott Diussa, my boss and wonderful friend and our great repair tech and friend Francis Yeh.

It is a rare gift to spend your life working with such great people.  I’ve known Bill Pekala for, probably, 30 years and it has been a honor to work for him at Nikon.  Bill is a truly wonderful photographer, who has little time to practice, but when he get time to get back up to speed he shoots killer stuff, as he did this week!  David is obviously one of Nikon’s top executives in the U.S., but a really down to earth, nice guy and loads of fun to hang out and shoot with!  I couldn’t say enough about Scott Kelby, talented beyond belief, and a joy to spend time with! In recent years Scott has become an extraordinary shooter!  Personally, Scott has a great deal for me and I really appreciate him!  I first met José a few years ago and really like this young man, he is an exceptional aviation shooter and we have worked a lot of Nikon events together and he’s always a pleasure to work with!  Scott Diussa is my direct boss at Nikon and over the last several years we’ve developed a great friendship, Scott is fine young man, with many talents including, photography, video, and he’s a great guitar player as well.  Scott and I share a number of common interests and he’s been a great person to answer to at Nikon.  Francis Yeh is one of our top Repair Techs in Melville, our corporate headquarters.  Francis is a very pleasant guy and always takes great care of our customers!  I always enoy working and event with him, and we’ve done a number, including the Kentucky Derby and the Breeder’s Cup horse races.

So why did I go into such detail about all the occupants of the photograph above?   I truly believe that  one of God’s greatest blessings are friends and associates who make our lives far better than they would have been without them!  These guys and many others that I get to spend my work life with certainly have contributed greatly to my life.  Even though we have a lot of fun, we work hard too, but getting to be with these guys makes the work a lot more fun!  I really miss my family when I have to travel, but then, God has given me a whole new family to appreciate when I’m not with my family, at home…..

Thank you Father for your countless blessings!

the pilgrim

A few last shots from my glorious week with the D800!  Today I concentrated on patterns and color!

One final funny story.  The other day David Lee wanted to go to the Pilot’s Mall and didn’t know where it was, so I drove him over in the golf cart.  David just got his pilot’s license so he was like a kid in a candy store.  He stopped by the watch counter (they have great pilot’s watches and you guys know how much I love watches…).  So he selected a watch he wanted to see and I looked over his shoulder and saw that it was a  Torgoen Chronograph, a very highly respected watch.  I looked again to see the watch was on sale for $189. it normally sells for $425.  I had just seen it online the other night for the $425 price!  To make a long story short, David bought one, I bought one and then Bill Pekala saw ours and rushed over and bought one, finally Scott Diussa fell victim as well, so there we were all wearing the same watch, had to take a picture!!  Below!