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11 years, 9 months ago 8

It’s almost 4:00 a.m. and I’ve slept for 7 hours.  I feel better, but not just because of the sleep. I woke up and looked quickly at my images from the last 24 hours of the workshop.   When  looking at the lighthouse image above, I remembered a great song by Garth Brooks called, When You Come Back to Me Again.  It brought the experience of last night full circle.

 

First I want to thank Sherelene for bringing things into perspective last night when she shared Romans 8:28.  God does have a plan for our lives and even the unpleasant experiences are His way of protecting us, and doing what is in our best interest.  I needed the sleep more than I needed to get home after midnight, only to leave less than thirty hours later on the next assignment, but I couldn’t see that at the moment He was protecting me.

 

It reminded me of a precious tape recording we found years ago of me talking with my son, Scott.  He was just a little fellow and had stepped on a tiny piece of glass which was stuck in his toe.  As I worked with a  pair of tweezers to remove the little sliver of glass, he asked repeatedly, “What is it daddy?  Is it a piece of glass?!”  I heard my own voice, strong and confident, yet gentle and filled with love and empathy for him, telling him, “it’s o.k. it’s just a little piece of glass, I’ve got it.”  God has our little slivers of glass, He knows that the momentary times of crisis are not a crisis at all, but our frustration of not having things the way we want them.  How we want things to be, is not always what He knows is best, and we can trust that He does indeed know far more about what we need than we do.  It’s hard to remember that in times of disappointment, but it is reassuring to know that, “There’s a Lighthouse in the Harbor…….”

 

the pilgrim

11 years, 9 months ago 2

Well I whistled all the way to the airport excited to know that after a very long run, I will be back in my own bed around midnight!!!  Not so quick young man, Delta stepped in and once again shot a hole in my boat!  I will not go into just how much I detest Delta here and now, I was reminded by Sherelene at the apex of my anger, that Romans 8:28 has not been repealed!

 

Romans 8:28    New Living Translation (NLT)

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

 

O.K. sufficiently spanked, and or, reminded!!  So I’m going to let it go, (but will never book a flight with Delta again  &^%^&%$@#^*&).  Now I feel better!  Here are some fun shots I made today!  Enjoy!

 

I love shooting with my D800 and Nikkor glass, but every once in a while shooting with the iPhone is good training to make you go back to the basics and think more about composition and less about all the technical issues!  I don’t agree with people that say the iPhone and other camera phones are a threat to the point and shoot market.  I think anything that creates interest in photography, creates interest in all kinds of cameras.  I can only judge from my own experience, but for me I  still rely on a DSLR for my serious work, a high end, point and shoot type camera, for serious travel work when I don’t want to deal with a bag of lenses, and I always have my iPhone with me, and feel it can be used to  make “real” photographs!  It makes no sense to think that photographers are going to abandon any of the categories we enjoy  now!

 

I find it liberating to think that I can be a photographers no matter which imaging  device I use!  All of these images are with the iPhone and the HDRs with Simply HDR app, $2.99!!!!  Except for the last.

 

Try looking at the images as photographs instead of thinking about how they were captured!

 

 

 

Then again shooting with great DSLR with incredible resolution sure is fun!!!!   D800, 105 Micro Nikkor!

 

Good night,

 

the pilgrim

11 years, 9 months ago Comments Off on Last Day – Wheels Up……

 

Well another workshop/assignment has ended.  At 3:15 a.m. the alarm went off and I was out the door in 30 minutes.  Our group did there last shoot at Otter Beach and we finally were rewarded for three straight days of early rising and late night bed times with great light.  I can’t express how much I appreciate this group, what wonderful people they are, everyone!  I’ve done eight meetings with these folks and they have become far more than Nikon clients, they have become dear friends.  I can’t say that I hate anything about my job, there may be an assignment or two that I don’t look forward to, but this is one I really enjoy, and anticipate.  That is one of things I will miss someday when I move on to other pursuits.

 

One of the greatest rewards of a life as photographer has been the great people it has led me to.  I’m thankful this morning for all the joy and memories they have provided!

 

Father, watch over my friends and associates, my family, and brothers and sisters in You!  Thank you for this wonderful gift!

 

the pilgrim

11 years, 9 months ago 2

Well, tomorrow the actual Nikon workshop starts and there will be little or no time to test the manual lenses for the rest of this trip.  So what have I learned?  Here goes:

 

1.  Not too surprising the older classic manual Nikkors were tack sharp back then and they still are today.  Are they sharper than current lenses?  No, but they are a lot better than you might think.  Some individual lenses are still very viable if you don’t mind the effort.

 

2.  The effort to use the older manual focus glass is considerable.  I found my work flow in the field to be a lot more “fits and starts”.   If you want to make yourself slow down and work more carefully, this is a great way.  Through out the trip I found myself missing, the shorter zooms, autofocus, and the general comfort zone I’ve come to have with the modern lenses.

 

3.  What will I do in the future?  I enjoyed the experiment and I’m certain that, from time to time, I will get back on and ride these horses some more, but I won’t sell all my modern lenses, I just need to be able to work faster much of the time and the manual focus workflow, does slow things down, considerably.

 

4.  The final conclusion is that the old Nikkors hold up very well when compared to modern glass, but they do lack the more modern coatings, and except for close-up work, where I always focus manually anyway, I really missed the speed of the new lenses.  What’s neat is that manual lenses are still plentiful and can be an attractive bargain for something you just would love to play around with.  One thing is for sure, I don’t think my work suffered, it was quite pleasant to slow down and remember how things used to be!!!!!

 

the pilgrim