This image is one that I stole, well I didn’t steal it, but Chuck Barnes did one like it at a workshop in Savannah, turned it in for review and when I saw it I said, I love it and you will tell me where you shot it!  He took me to the location and I shot a very similar image, I loved the shot and wanted to capture it myself, but it’s not really my shot!  So I’m giving myself permission to add an extra shot in the blog entry, and for this one congratulate Chuck!

 

I was speaking at the Florida Bird gathering a few years ago and one of the instructors brought a big selection of reptiles and set them up in a classroom for us to photograph.  He had the proper plants to pose them on and all we had to do was move from station to station to photograph them.  Most people were using flash, but I wanted to make a less contrasty image so I used the X-T1 with the 55-200 zoom and a Nikon 5T Diopter, I had to shoot at ISO 6400 to get enough shutter speed to handhold, but the noise was very low in the final file!  This is much better than fighting mosquitos and snakes to do it in Costa Rico!

 

This shot made in northern Ohio during one of mine and Jack’s Amish Photography Workshops.  It was a fantastic morning with great fall color and thick fog, when I look at this image it reminds me of what a great time I’ve had teaching and shooting with Jack! Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good!

 

I don’t know what it is about this image that appeals so much to me.  It was shot at Nelson Ghost Town just south of Las Vegas.  i love the texture differences between the gleaming chrome on the bicycle, and the rough texture of the wood and rusty signs.

 

When jack and I teach workshops on either coast we love to knock around the fishing docks, this dingy was a great pale blue color and someone had left a orange life jacket on the seat, it was a perfect set-up for the kind of imaI love to make, design and color of color sake!

 

Shot very recently when Dr. Paul Pedersen and I went up for a flight in his Gruman American airplane, on our final approach I got the shot with my iPhone and I love the red cowling of  his plane and the beautiful sight of the runway stretched out right in from of us on final approach.  This is my home airport and I’ve flown out of here a number of times!

 

 

Number of years ago I was attending an ISAP Meeting (International Association of Aerial Photographers) and we got the chance to see and photograph the brand new “First” F-35.  They set up a metal stairs so we could get a unique angle on the plane, and i chose to concentrate my shot on just the canopy!  Not many people outside the hard core aviation community even new about this plane then, it is now in full service!

 

Hope you enjoyed these and as a final thing I have two mages to share with you, the one I made and the one I created, not sure how I feel bout the one with an added sky, I love it, but I can’t bring my self to do it!  You can fire off for thoughts!

 

 

 

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

I shot this image with one of my best friend, (Bill Pekala), in the Great Smokies at Morton’s overlook.  We were sitting watch it rain after everyone else had left, with no shot at all and decided to just wait 10 more minutes until official sundown, them we agreed we would head down for dinner in Gatlinburg.  A minute later the clouds broke, the mist started rising and this occurred, we shot so fast I thought our motor drives would burst into flames, we still argue about who got the best shot!

 

It has been said that the line between genius and madness is very fine, very fine indeed!  After two weeks of sharing the work of some of my favorite people and their incredible photography, which was very well received, by-the-way,  I thought it might be fun to share, maybe, 10 of my favorite images from my 53 year career.  Following the stunning work of the last two weeks it might be impossible to follow their work,  but there is a method in my madness, let me explain.  After a pretty good search I ended up with 100 images!  I broke them into 10 categories; Abstract (7), Sports (3), Monochrome (17), Friends (6), Travel (13), Family (8), Americana & Rust (8), Color for Color Sake (9), Landscape (18) and  Wildlife (3).  I discovered something very interesting, I had a very specific connection and memories to every subject and situation. Please allow me to share each image with it’s own short narative.

 

I was teaching a workshop for the Bio Comm Meeting in Bar Harbor. ME for Nikon.  We had just released the new Nikon D800 and I was testing it on this trip.  I headed to one of my favorite beaches in Acdia National Park and shot these colorful rocks in the incoming surf.  I remember how much I enjoyed the sound of the water rolling over the rocks, and the nice breeze and the smell of the ocean. I also remember how I was wowed by the files that camera produced!  That shot hangs in our great room 30 X 40  Crystal Archive face mounted print!

 

When teachings a workshop in Nashville Tennessee, I found this unique decorative arrangement of rusty tools welded together on an office door.  I shot it with the Fujifilm X-E1 and the 18-55 zoom lens. That was that day, with this image, that I realized what a great system the Fujifilm X-system truly was, it is still one of my favorite images!

 

One of my favorite shooting locations is Old Car City in White Ga.  It is the largest junk yard in America with 36 acres and over 4,000 rusting cars and trucks, many prior to 1960. I love to shoot hood ornaments and this one on an old Cadillac is my favorite, she is beautiful!  Fujifilm X-T1 with the 60mm macro lens.  I love visiting with the owner and my friend Dean Lewis!

 

I am a writer, photographer, pilot, comedian and story teller.  I love this close-up image of the type hammers shot with my first Fujifilm love, the X10. I’m still shocked at the quality of images you can make with that little camera and this is such a big part of how I started my writing career!

 

While leading a tour in the South of France with a my dear buddy Bryan Peterson I wanted to make this shot and looked all over France for it, but to no avail.  On our last day before flying home Bryan suggested one last market in Paris, as we entered the market this was the first thing I saw, it was exactly the shot I had dreamed of!  I borrowed the vendors chair and stood up on it to get just the right angle.  His spices were covered by a large white nylon tent, (think softbox!!), it was the perfect light for the shot I wanted so desperately to make, once again, this print now hangs in our kitchen!

 

One of my favorite shooting locations for a sunrise is Hurricane Ridge Olympic National Park.  After shooting the first light I love to drive to the end of the parking lot and take the gravel road a hundred yards or so down the mountain where there is a large growth of Lupine, if they have dew on them they make spectacular close-up images, this morning we hit the jackpot!

 

I would love to share some more, if you desire, if you do, post a comment and I will keep this going all week!  It’s been fun for me to relive these memories!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I end the second week of sharing my favorite photographers Ive got someone very special to share with you today!  Bryan Jolley is a man after God’s heart, and that deep devotion to his Heavenly Father truly shows in his images.  Bryan has told me and his other brothers and sisters many times that he wants his work to announce the Glory of God’s Creation, and it certainly does.  The kind of vision that Bryan posses is not from man, but can only be given and received with a heart for God.  Every year Bryan sends his close friends a set of calendar pages for the coming year, I always look forward and dread receiving it, dread because it reminds me of how much further I have to go to be a truly great photographer, and it thrills me because I know the source of Bryan’s inspiration, and you will too in a few moments after your absorb his art!  May God get all the Glory!  I know that is the desire of Bryan’s heart.

 

 

If you are not overwhelmed, look again, I certainly am!

 

Have a Blessed weekend,

 

 

the pilgrim

 

I have really enjoyed sharing the images of these friends with you, I love letting others see the work that has inspired me, and hope it does the same for you!  Miles Smith is one of those photographers that I keep going back to, to be inspired myself.  Miles is so much more than a great shooter, he is a great brother and friend as well!  Our friendship goes back to the days of His Light Workshop when a band of photographers all came together to share our love for the Lord and photography and we had a lot of wonderful fellowship to boot!  When I first saw the image above I knew that Miles had something special, through the years his work has just gotten better and better, enjoy!

 

 

Please celebrate Miles’ vision along with me!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim