This past weekend I was again honored to be among the presenters at Grandfather Mountain\u2019s Camera Clinic. The event is sold out every year with over 140 people packed into the beautiful theatre in the round auditorium. Don Nelson was honored for his decades of service to the photo community of the region, running the two photo events annually for many, many years. A few years ago Don fought and won a courageous battle with Lymphoma. The treatments knocked him down hard, but he has slowly been recovering, but the after effects make life more challenging
\nand he was stepping down from those duties this year. I was glad to get to be there for this years
\nevent and share this last time on the mountain with him in charge.<\/p>\n
Of course many great
\nold stories were retold,
\nincluding, (to the right),
\nthe year Don had
\n100 t-shirts and hats
\nmade that said, \u201cI
\nStayed Awake During
\na Bill Fortney Slide
\nShow!\u201d We all had a
\ngood laugh and shed a
\nfew tears remembering
\nall the great times, \u201cOn
\nthe Mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don has been one of
\nmy best friends for many
\nyears and he has done
\nmore than almost any-
\none to further my
\ncareer as a photo-
\ngrapher. I treasure
\nthese great memories
\nof being with him, his
\nsons Scott and Jeff,
\nand our dear friend
\nTom Payne so many,
\nmany times on Hugh
\nMorton\u2019s mountain.
\nHugh went to be with
\nthe Lord several years
\nago and we missing
\nhim very much.<\/p>\n
Above, Don accepts his thanks graciously, as always.<\/p>\n
I did two programs, one Saturday and, one Sunday morning. We had a great time and all went well. After one of the programs a lot of kind people complimented me on the teaching programs.
\nI thanked them for their kind remarks, and tried to deflect the honor to Him. This morning the scripture for the In Touch devotional wrapped it up nicely.<\/p>\n
Psalm 139
\n<\/b>\u00a01<\/b> O Lord, you have examined my heart
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and know everything about me.
\n\u00a02<\/b> You know when I sit down or stand up.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You know my thoughts even when I\u2019m far away.
\n\u00a03<\/b> You see me when I travel
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and when I rest at home.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You know everything I do.
\n\u00a04<\/b> You know what I am going to say
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0even before I say it, Lord.
\n\u00a05<\/b> You go before me and follow me.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You place your hand of blessing on my head.
\n\u00a06<\/b> Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0too great for me to understand!
\n\u00a07<\/b> I can never escape from your Spirit!\u2028\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I can never get away from your presence!\u2028\u00a08<\/b> If I go up to heaven, you are there;\u2028\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0if I go down to the grave, you are there.\u2028\u00a09<\/b> If I ride the wings of the morning, *( I thought of this many times flying my
\n ultralight!)\u2028\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0if I dwell by the farthest oceans,\u2028\u00a010<\/b> even there your hand will guide me,\u2028\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and your strength will support me.<\/p>\n
God is so good to let us have these wonderful times, with dear friends, enjoying photography
\nand great places like Grandfather in a spirit of praise to HIm.<\/p>\n
Be blessed this week,<\/p>\n
the pilgrim<\/p>\n
*Photo Note: All images courtesy of Edger Payne.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past weekend I was again honored to be among the presenters at Grandfather Mountain\u2019s Camera Clinic. The event is sold out every year with over 140 people packed into the beautiful theatre in the round auditorium. Don Nelson was honored for his decades of service to the photo community of the region, running the […]<\/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":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090","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=2090"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2737,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions\/2737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}