Yesterday I flew from Seattle to Phoenix and then from Phoenix to Louisville, and then drove the two and half hours home.  Translation, a lot of time to think!!!  I can’t be home with my beautiful bride, remembering my great time in Mt Rainier, the great honor of teaching with Jack, the pleasure of knowing and working with a guy like Jim Begley.   To live everyday enjoying the craft I enjoy so much, and not reflect on, why me???!!!

 

I have long since stopped wondering if somehow I deserve my great blessings!  Gave up on that one a long time ago!  A life well lived can probably be because a person has lived in a way that leads to it, but not a life as good as mine!  It won’t surprise you with what I came up with.  My life is completely undeserved.  Grace is unmerited blessings.  When I gave my life to Jesus, I not only received forgiveness but also it started a journey with Him that has blessed every area of my life!

 

So why am I sharing this with you?  Well, if you are already standing where I’m standing you’re shaking your head in agreement, on the off chance that you’re not, food for thought.

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

After 5 straight days without internet or cell service, I’m finally able to share about the great Fuji Workshop Jack and I just wrapped up this morning at Mt. Rainier National Park.  We had a great group and a wonderful Fuji team, and the attendees got a perfect mix of dramatic skies and fog shrouded forest and running streams.  Perfect conditions to enjoy this beautiful park!  Our first evening we had gray smoke filled color due to the forest fires a hundred mile sway in Central Washington.

 

 

The first morning we had some of the most spectacular skies you can imagine over Reflection Lake, here are a few examples!

 

 

Then the rain rolled in and the streams filled with water and the water shooting was on!

 

 

 

All in all a great group and great workshop, if this is a foretaste of future Fuji Workshops, we are off to a great start!

 

 

The best moment, well it’s hard to beat my time with Jack and Linda’s great dog, Roscoe!  Of course Jack, I enjoyed teaching with you again too!!!!!

 

 

Thanks for hanging in for a week without posts!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Jack and I embark on another great adventure.  When I retired from Nikon NPS, Jack asked me if I would run a workshop with him, that has now grown to 7 annually!  Jack said he hated to tell me but he was shooting the Fuji system and was thinking of going to it for all  his needs, I said this is amazing, I’m headed the same way!  So since the summer of 2013 both Jack and I have become Fuji shooters and this spring were both made Fuji X-Photographers.  We’ve watched as many hundreds of our friends and clients have followed the lead and are Fuji X-System shooters too.  The next natural step was to teach some X-System workshops!

 

One thing I’ve learned in the past two years is how many ways the mirror-less cameras make my life easier and better.  It is exactly how to take full advantage of this new revolution that our workshops will be based on.  Every photographer has different needs, and mirror-less is not necessarily best for everyone, but for many of us, it is the perfect mix of capablity and portability. Stay tuned this week and I will share the things going on at Mt. Rainier.

 

Stay tuned!!  By-the-way I’m on planes all day tomorrow, so I will try to get it going Wednesday!  Please keep in mind that cell and internet service in the park are pretty bad, but I will do my best!

 

Till then, Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

 

Last night Sherelene and I sat in our beach condo, (rented, we don’t own one), listening to the ocean and feeling the evening breeze through the open door after a good thunder storm.  Then we settled in for her first, my fifth, watching of the movie, Do You Believe.  This morning I awoke to the first signs of a sunrise over the Atlantic and caught this couple walking along the beach from our balcony.

 

As I looked at the image on my computer screen, the Holy Spirit, inspired these thoughts.  What is a daily relationship with Jesus Christ?  It is a walk.  Sometimes a run or sprint, but mostly a slow, methodical walk.  There are flat smooth places, slight inclines, and sometimes steep climbs over rocky terrain, but it always varies and it seems He always give you some easy patches between the difficult ups and downs.  This week is one of those nice pleasant flat easy walks.

 

O.K. enough symbolism, what am I saying.  Committing to a moment to moment relationship with Jesus is not a walk in the park, not all of it.  There are times of testing, of training, of endurance and facing pain, there is also lots and lots of sheer joy and laughter.  It takes it all to grow in Him. Without challenges we would never grow stronger, and more reliant on Him.  God is not satisfied with your acknowledgment of His existence, He wants to have a  relationship with you, to talk and walk, and for you get to get to know each other better.  He wants us to trust Him, and He knows that the only way we can trust is to see He is trustworthy.  When we walk through difficult times we learn just how trustworthy He is.  When we suffer we find out just how much He loves us and how far He is willing to go for us.

 

It sounds like this walk is actually a hike or a trek, and sometimes it is.  The most incredible thing about this journey is that after a while you will know that He is right beside you and it will bring you such wonderful peace and joy.  You come to understand that if He is for you, no one can stand against you, at least not for very long.  You see God takes care of His children.  On the fifth watching of Do You Believe  I did the same thing I did in the first four watchings, I ended it with a prayer that God would sustain me in my walk with Him.  I want desperately to live for Him, to love others with His love, to offer forgiveness as He did for me, to survive and be victorious as the enemy attacks me.  I want to be an example of how good this walk can be.

 

Long ago the Lord started a process in me that continues to this very moment, the dying of self.  I know that to really serve Him I have to let all my self die away and live only for Him.  It is not an easy process, it is very hard not to want to defend yourself, to strike back at your attackers, but it is not His way.  I cannot serve Him, exhibit His love and forgiveness and seek retribution, and I won’t.  I will trust in Him to protect me, to surround me with His angels and to give me the strength to stand firm for Him.  If He was willing to die for my sins, I must be willing to turn way from my sins and seek His higher ground.  I am not powerful in my own strength, but I am more than an overcomer in His.

 

In truth, I don’t walk all the time, very often, He carries me!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim

 

Photo with the Fuji X-T10 and 55-200 lens.