Laurel Lake in Fall, Southern Kentucky near Corbin, KY where I live.

 

For the vast majority of my photographic life I have shot everything from ground level to 5′ 9″!  That offered a very limited perspective on most subjects.  It was not until I was in my 50’s that I finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to become a pilot and a whole new photographic perspective was opened to me with a view from above the earth.  Flying, for me, was the ultimate visual experience and it has changed the way I see photographically forever.  From above your subject the world now becomes line, form, texture, light and color.  I now see all subjects much more graphically!  Please allow me to share some of my favorite images from the project and book, America From 500 Feet. Some of these images never appeared in the book, so they are being shared for the first time.  I hope you enjoy them!

 

Newly paved and painted road in the Dutch Country of Pennsylvania.

 

Cumberland Falls State Park in fall, (13 miles from home), in Southern Kentucky.

 

Imperial Sand Dunes National Recreation Area in Southern California.

 

Augusta National Golf Course, the day after The Masters Golf Tournament, Augusta, Georgia.

 

View of the Gand Tetons in winter from a rented Cessna, Jackson, Wyoming.

 

Sunrise over the Canoe Boundary Waters in Minnesota.

 

It’s amazing how different our world, or any subject, looks when we seek a new perspective!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim

 

I got inspired this morning!  I was looking at Youtube videos, something I do way too much, but, I found a review of the X-T5 and it was one of the most wonderfully produced videos I’ve seen in a while.  The information was spot on and the video work was very, very well done.  Don’t worry, I will link it below!

 

Anyway, the point of the video was this person got an X-T5 and, for two weeks, shot one image a day with one lens the 56mm f 1.2.  It reminded me of a great book Jim Brandenburg, celebrated national Geographic photographer and friend, did many years ago.  So I have decided to take the month of February, usually a very un-inspiring month around where I live to make images and make one image a day for the month!  I will use the new X-T5 and some one lens to be determined.  I’m leaning toward either the 18-55 f 2.8-4 or the 50mm f 2.  I will allow myself one close-up diopter so I can do some close-up images too. The self imposed rules will be.

 

1.   One frame per day, that is one shot only.

2,  I will allow myself to let the camera bracket three different film simulations for that one shot;  Velvia – Provia – Acros with a red filter.

3.  I will allow myself only a minimum of post processing, basically I want the images to be straight out of the camera, jpegs.

4.  I will keep the camera, tripod and close-up diopter with me all the time and only attempt a shot when I think I have what is worth my one frame per day.

5.  I will post that image, everyday, regardless of the success of the image.

6.  The pressure is on now!!!!!  ….and that’s a good thing, that is why I’m doing this, to force myself to get really serious again about looking, seeing, shooting and planning out my shots!

 

 

I hope you will join me everyday to see how it is going, I encourage you to post your thoughts to encourage me to stick with it!!!!!  Hold my feet to the fire!

 

The first image will be posted February 1st!

Here is the video that inspired this project:

 

 

Thanks for coming to my blog!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim

Nikon D3s – 200-400 @ f 4.5 and 1/4000th of a second

 

Photography, to me, is problem solving.  You get an idea of what you want to  show the viewer in a photograph and then you have to work out the technical and aesthetic problems to make it happen!  Motion rendition is one of those problems we need to deal with.  Do we want to stop the action so we can see all the details in a moving subject or allow the motion to blur giving the illusion of actual movement?  In the photo above of a NFL football game a fast shutter speed was used to stop the motion of the players allowing the viewer to see all the details.  Below a slow shutter speed and panning with the horse and rider gives the illusion of motion.  Both are valid problem solvers!

 

Nikon D7000 – 70-300 @  f 22 @ 1/20th of a second, panning.

 

Below, once again, I wanted to show the movement of the water, and thankfully all in the scene that was moving was the water, so with a slow shutter speed I could get this effect without anything else blurring.

 

Nikon D800 – 16-35 @ f 22 – 2 seconds.

 

Nikon D700 – F 8 @ 1/2,000th of a second.

 

This last shot was one that was the result of several days of attempting to capture this exact moment.  I was at the Reno Air Races where the Navy’s Blue Angel’s demonstration team was preparing  to perform over the weekend  On Wednesday Thursday and Friday they practiced their routine over and over in preparation for the big Saturday and Sunday show.  The moment where two planes past very close to each other, nose to nose, I shot over and over.  At first I would get just one plane and not the other, then just two tails, finally I was getting both planes in the frame but not nose to nose!  By the time they were ready to perform on Saturday, I was too and on one lucky shot I got this image!  When I reviewed the images I was a shocked that the other planes behind and below them, miles away, right there.  The Navy photographer said he had never see that captured before and asked how did I pull it off, I was honest, I said, “I didn’t even know they were there!!!!!”

 

Sometimes practice plus dumb luck pays off!

 

Blessings,

 

Bonus shot!

 

Nikon D3 – 70-300 – f 8 @ 1/2,000th of a second.

 

the pilgrim

 

 

Next month I will turn 77 years old.  My father passed away just short of his 66th birthday, and for that reason I’ve assumed most of my life that I wouldn’t live much longer than that, thankfully I was wrong, but the clock is ticking and is counting down every day. None of us knows when God will call us home, but since it is getting late in the 4th quarter I have something very important to share with whomever reads this. 

 

When I was a young man I did not really like myself very much.  I, like everyone else, wanted to like myself.  I was pretty good at photography and I saw that as my ticket to being somebody special enough that even I would be proud of myself.  I worked very hard, studied my mistakes, of which there were many, and then improved.  Over time the hard work paid off and I was starting to get some recognition for my efforts.  I was 35 years old and things couldn’t have been better, until my Doctor said these words, “Bill it’s cancer and I’m afraid it is multi- strained cancer and the survival rate is around 3 to 5%.”

 

How would you react to that diagnosis?!  Yep, that is exactly how I felt.  I was in the prime of my life, loved my family, and things were heading  where I hoped to go in life.  Now I  had a few months to live and it was soon all to be over.  I had surgery and they removed a tumor about the size of man’s fist from my lower stomach.  For the next three days I spent  in my hospital bed and went through the stages of grief.  First, I was angry at God.  I was not a bad person, at least not in my own eyes, so why me?  That didn’t last long, I knew in my heart that I was not evil person but far from perfect and at a time like this being mad at God seemed pretty pointless.  Next came self pity, but it did not take me long to know that while the cancer was not fair, life is not fair and bad things happen to people all the time so I couldn’t allow myself to go down that road.

 

The last stage was resignation, but not without a fight.  On the last night before my doctor was to return with my final pathology and any thought of an attempt to treat the cancer, I prayed.  It was not a King James prayer it was mostly weeping and asking God to give me the strength to hold up so it would be not any harder on my family.  I ended my prayer with an attempt to cut a deal with God.  It was a simple proposal, “God if you would let me live long enough to see my three children grown and not in need of an everyday father, I won’t serve you every day for the rest of my life, I will serve you every moment for the rest of my life.”  That night I got the best night’s sleep I’d had since getting the news of my cancer.

 

The next morning my doctor arrived in my room with a smile on his face.  I wondered what he was so happy about?  He said, “I have good news and bad news, which do you want first, still smiling.”  I said give me the bad, he said the tumor we removed was definitely cancer, he then said the good news is it is not the kind of cancer we thought, the kind you have has a treatment success rate of 95%!

 

At that moment my life changed forever!  I knew God had answered my prayer!  I’ve had unbelieving friends ask if I really believed God had changed the cancer or could the doctor have just guessed wrong?  Truthfully it didn’t matter, God had gotten my attention!  I truly believe that they call this in heaven “A Wake Up Call.”

 

So there you have it, I have kept my word to my Heavenly Father. I’m still far from perfect, but I’m perfectly devoted to serving Him and sharing His incredible love with everyone I come in contact with.  God has richly blessed me beyond my wildest dreams but not with becoming a famous photographer, that it turns out is a figment of people’s imagination.  There is no such thing.  I received a gift far more precious, peace and joy!

 

So if you ever wondered what made me tick, there you have it. If you didn’t wonder that is ok too.  But if by any chance you don’t have peace and Joy and the life you wanted you now know where to find it!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim