{"id":12856,"date":"2015-01-08T15:17:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T15:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=12856"},"modified":"2015-01-08T15:38:14","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T15:38:14","slug":"growth-mine-and-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=12856","title":{"rendered":"Growth…Mine and Yours….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Step up to the Mike, \u00a0By Bill Fortney<\/p>\n

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Jack Graham, Scott Kelby, and Matt Kloskowski all did 2014 retrospectives and I enjoyed each of them! \u00a0I started to do one and then came up with another idea. \u00a0I would like to first ask myself, and you the most important photographic questions of 2014, (or any previous year for that matter!) \u00a0Did you grow? \u00a0Did you grow technically? \u00a0Did you grow visually? \u00a0Did you grow aesthetically? \u00a0Before I attempt to answer that let me share portfolios from three dear friends who certainly did so in all the above categories!<\/p>\n

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Before I feature more photographers, let me start with these three! \u00a0I’ve known Jack Graham for almost 30 years and our photographic friendship and personal friendship goes back all that time. \u00a0I first met Jack at a GAPW event, (Great American Photography Weekends), featuring the late Galen Rowell. \u00a0Immediately, \u00a0Jack was on of those people you meet that you really like and want to get to know better. \u00a0Through the years we have remained in touch and when I retired from Nikon in the summer of 2013 he asked me to teach workshops with him, and I did. \u00a0I’ve genuinely enjoyed teaching with Jack and just hanging out with him! \u00a0He rarely mentions it, but when we met he was a very successful professional musician, a trumpet player. \u00a0He was good enough to have done performances live, on stage with the likes of Frank Sinatra and many other stars of that era!<\/p>\n

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I met Scott and Matt when I first went to work of Nikon in the early 2000’s \u00a0I think around 2002 or 2003. \u00a0I talked my boss, Bill Pekala, into what we use to call a weasel deal, a fond monicker for getting the company to send us on a trip to mostly have fun! \u00a0It turned out to be money well spent for Nikon and I! \u00a0I met Scott and Matt at the Salt Lake City airport and drove them on a 5 day trip through the golden circle (Bryce Canyon, Zion, the Grand Canyon, and other great red rock parks)! Both were in the beginning stages of a great interest in photography, and I tried to show them the ropes, so as to speak! Please don’t misread that I am taking any credit whatsoever for their meteoric rise as shooters, no, I just had some fun with them, and gave them some pointers. \u00a0The best part was we became really fast friends and that friendship has grown over the past decade! \u00a0My points that even though Jack was already a good shooter when we got to know each other, He, Matt and Scott have really “grown” and their work shows it!<\/p>\n

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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention two other very dear friends who continue to shock me with their work! \u00a0Jim Begley and Jim Haverstock are not only two of my best friends, they are truly gifted shooters and in 2014, it continued to be proven! \u00a0More than the photography, and both are wonderful photographers, it is their fellowship! \u00a0Both Jim B and Jim H. are two to finest Christian men I know, and they always lift me up when we get me together, which thankfully, we often do! \u00a0Here are just a few of their incredible stock pile of fantastic images!<\/p>\n

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So lastly what are my accomplishments of 2014? \u00a0Let’s see, I love the Lord more than ever, and I’m more thankful for all He has done for me. \u00a0I am more madly in love with Sherelene than I ever thought possible! \u00a0Now that I am retired, (Ha ha!) I am enjoying more quality time with my family and my grandchildren. \u00a0I finally got started only long desired eBook writing journey (as of next week), \u00a0it will be a total of 12 eBooks and I’ve sold or given away a couple of thousand! \u00a0I am having a blast writing, shooting, praying, sharing His Love, and being on this side of the grass!!!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Step up to the Mike, \u00a0By Bill Fortney     Jack Graham, Scott Kelby, and Matt Kloskowski all did 2014 retrospectives and I enjoyed each of them! \u00a0I started to do one and then came up with another idea. \u00a0I would like to first ask myself, and you the most important photographic questions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12856"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12873,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12856\/revisions\/12873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}