This morning while sitting on the 24 passenger mini-bus that takes us from the Marriott to the Media Center, I overheard a conversation between a few guys sitting two rows in front of me. It\u2019s not like
\nI was ease dropping, the conversation was pretty loud, as it often is on the morning bus ride. Anyway, the conversation was about the Power Ball Jackpot being up to umpteen millions and what they would do if they won. One man said he would leave his job the minute he found out he had won. He said, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t pick up a camera again, I\u2019d hire someone to shoot for me!\u201d I thought how sad, I love my work. I would love to sleep in occasionally, and not have to hit the showers at 5:30 a.m. but I love what I do and don\u2019t mind working for my check. I think most people would find having more money than they know what to do with less settling than they think. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I work hard and try to do a good job. Would I like to have more money, sure everyone would, but happiness peace, and joy are not determined by that.<\/p>\n
Last night I had the exceptional pleasure of having dinner with a group of great friends. In the picture at the top, left to right, J.D. Cuban, staff photographer for Golf Digest, Takayuki Abe, our senior repair tech from the New York office, Dom Furore, Senior staff photographer for Golf Digest, and Brien Aho, our newest NPS tech rep based in Maryland. You couldn\u2019t find a better group of men to have dinner with. The evening was filled with great stories from around the table and the reliving of lots of great memories from a group that has had a lot of great experiences to share. I\u2019ve worked many events with Abe and he is always a joy to work with, he\u2019s also a great technician and magician with difficult repairs. Brien is our latest hire and what a great hire he is.
\nBrien is fresh out of 20 years in the Navy as a Combat Camera member. His work is absolutely stunning, and he is really nice guy, and hard worker, he is going to do great at Nikon. J.D. and Dom have been dear friends for a number of years, I met both of them about eight years ago at the Masters and every April, the highlight of my spring is to get to visit with both of them again. Both J.D. and Dom are as good a photographers as you will find in the sports world. Even more important to me, they are truly wonderful people and great friends.<\/p>\n
Abe took us to his
\nfavorite Japanese
\nrestaurant close
\nto the hotel. The
\nvariety of food was
\npretty amazing. I\u2019m
\nnot a huge fan of this
\nkind of food, but
\nthe fellowship more
\nthan made up for
\nthat. If I had to eat
\nall my meals with
\nchop sticks, I\u2019d
\nstarve. <\/p>\n
Back to the talk on
\nthe bus. If I had
\nwon the lottery
\nten years ago, I would have never met, Dom, J.D., Brien, or Abe. While being a millionaire might
\nbe kinda cool, not knowing these guys would be a tragedy. I would venture to say that if I drove
\na Bentley, flew on a private jet, wore thousand dollar suits, and owned a hundred thousand dollar watch, but didn\u2019t know these guys, I\u2019d have been short changed. Enjoy what God has already given you, and get on with living the life you already have. And while you\u2019re at it, be thankful for the countless blessing that are already yours!<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Prayer; Father thank you for the life you\u2019ve given me, my family, my friends, and the craft I love to practice, so much. I know I don\u2019t deserve any of this, but thank you Father for your grace, gifts, and forgiveness. Please help me to be the man You want me to be, and please be patient with me as I try to follow Your ways. Amen.
\n<\/i>
\nBlessings,<\/p>\n
the pilgrim<\/p>\n
For the golf fans, below, Brien shooting in the interview room, and my shot of Tiger in the same press conference. Great work if you can get it.<\/p>\n
\nPhoto Notes: First two shots Nikon Coolpix P300, shot of Brien and Tiger Woods, D7000
\nand 200-400 AF-S VR lens. Last two shots ISO 1600.<\/p>\n
Sorry Homer, Phil is not doing an interview, but I asked Brien to shoot him teeing off this morning,
\nshould have those soon!
\n<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning while sitting on the 24 passenger mini-bus that takes us from the Marriott to the Media Center, I overheard a conversation between a few guys sitting two rows in front of me. It\u2019s not like I was ease dropping, the conversation was pretty loud, as it often is on the morning bus ride. […]<\/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-2098","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\/2098","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=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2745,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions\/2745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}