{"id":3644,"date":"2011-11-05T14:11:41","date_gmt":"2011-11-05T14:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2011-11-05T16:06:44","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T16:06:44","slug":"catch-up-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=3644","title":{"rendered":"Catch Up Saturday…….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I needed to share a number of things that fall into different categories so let me take this morning to bring you up to speed on a number of things! \u00a0I get lots of emails asking questions that I think others may also want addressed as well, so today let me talk about some of those things.<\/p>\n

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1. Yesterday’s blog entry on Bob Krist.<\/span> \u00a0I’ve received numerous emails from people that admire Bob as much as I do and wanting to share my enthusiasm for the man! \u00a0I am so sorry that they could not have seen by everyone as posts to the blog!!! \u00a0Please believe me I’m working on it, I just need a little help to push the right buttons to make it happen. \u00a0I want the blogs (all four) to have a comments section that appears as soon as you post a comment, or i make a reply. \u00a0Trust me I will be home Monday after three straight weeks on the road and after I do my Nikon reports that is issue Number One to be addressed. \u00a0thanks for your patience, I promise a solution is coming……<\/p>\n

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2. \u00a0The comment sectio<\/span>n.<\/span> \u00a0Delt with that above!!!!<\/p>\n

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3. \u00a0I’ve had a lot of emails from people that liked and were used to the old blog, \u00a0asking why I changed everything to this site, and it deserves an answer.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Apple is no longer supporting iWeb which is the software program used to maintain the older Mobile.Me site. \u00a0I’m not sure what will happen to Mobile.Me as well since the cloud is coming, maybe is already here, wouldn’t know without a weather report!! \u00a0That was a joke, I’m not the most technically savvy guy in the\u00a0world when it comes to the computer world. \u00a0Also I’m going to to be doing more commerical activities in the future like workshops and ebooks, etc, etc. \u00a0A .com site was the most reasonable way to do that. \u00a0Word Press will also allow a lot of great options for future things like video, and slide shows. \u00a0Once I learn better how to use this program I will add more and more interesting content!<\/p>\n

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4. The new Macro Part 2 class on Kelby Training.<\/span> \u00a0I have received a lot of emails saying kind things about the latest and previous classes. \u00a0Please let me thank all of you at once, (though I do answer every email I get with a personal reply). \u00a0You will never know how much I appreciate your kind words and encouragement. \u00a0When Scott asked me several years ago to join his Kelby Training Team, I turned him down mostly because I was afraid I would be awful at standing in front of the camera teaching. \u00a0I became a photographer so I could stand on the other side of the camera!!! \u00a0I am not at all nervous about teaching 300 people in an auditorium from a stage, but standing in front of a video camera is not my favorite thing to do! \u00a0I have to share with you that after I did my first class, the one on equipment for field use, I was sure it would never air. \u00a0I was shocked when it was very successful!! \u00a0Thanks to you guys, that have no taste, (just kidding), it was a success. \u00a0After that I started teaching to Adam, he is the lead videographer for Kelby Training. \u00a0He has now had to endure 5 classes of me teaching directly to him!!!! \u00a0I am looking forward to, hopefully, sharing many more subjects with you in the future, I have some great ideas and we will see if they agree. \u00a0I’ve already been asked for more close-up stuff in the field, and I would love to do that, so we will see if they want to do that class. \u00a0 The next class which is already taped and in editing is, I think, the most important one I’ve ever done, “Learning to See Photographically!” \u00a0I would expect it will be out by the end of the year or early next year. \u00a0Thanks so much for watching my classes and please tell your friends to come on board with us! \u00a0Joining up with Kelby Training has been one of the best things I’ve ever done, I’m really enjoying it!<\/p>\n

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5. \u00a0Requests for camera test reports<\/span>. \u00a0This is a sticky one. \u00a0I work for Nikon and I’m sure they wouldn’t want me evaluating our products, pointing out all the good and not so good things that might be said. \u00a0I’m even more sure they wouldn’t like me evaluating the products of competing companies. \u00a0 So since I would like to stay employed until I retire, I will put that off for now. \u00a0I do think that an honest evaluation of products based on there effectiveness in field use is something I would love to do in the future. \u00a0 I think that is something we can look for down the road. \u00a0This does give me an opportunity to rant just a little. \u00a0I really don’t like, quote: “test reports” that focus on the tiny details, pixels, frame rates, pixel density, etc etc. \u00a0I’m a photographer, and I use cameras to make photographs. \u00a0If a camera makes incredible image capture possible, I could care less about all the specs. \u00a0When specs matter in capturing the image, I care, but in many cases, they don’t matter as much as some people may think. \u00a0My good friend, Rod Planck, one of the very best nature photographers out there today, always taught in classes we did together, “Great technique beats equipment, every time…..” \u00a0He is right, learn how to use your camera, lenses, flash, \u00a0and tripod and you will greatly improve your work. \u00a0Once you are using all the potential of what you own, get even better equipment!<\/p>\n

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6. \u00a0Quote form email; “I miss all the info on the old website about you, your family and things like the lists, the quotes and other stuff.”<\/span> \u00a0I hope\u00a0to,\u00a0\u00a0in the future, \u00a0restore some of those things, but honestly I started the new website with a concentrated effort to place the emphasis on you the reader, and on my Heavenly Father. \u00a0I will, as time permits, consider adding relevant content, just bare with me. \u00a0My life is still well over 200 days a year on the road, and working hard for Nikon, so blog time still has to be shoe horned in when I can. \u00a0Thanks for your interest though!<\/p>\n

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7. \u00a0When will information be available about 2012 His Light Workshops? \u00a0I will be back in the home office November 7th.<\/span> \u00a0I will start working on setting firm dates and make announcements in mid November about next years offerings. \u00a0Some really great stuff is planned!<\/p>\n

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8. \u00a0Do you ever sell used equipment and how would I find out about it, I missed the stuff you sold for the wife of your friend! \u00a0<\/span>Actually I have been thinking about having a category on the website for that, I do, from time to time sell items and I will work on getting that up on th site.<\/p>\n

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9. \u00a0Are you available to speak for clubs or in churches?<\/span> \u00a0Yes, and no, my schedule for Nikon is very tight and I have limited vacation time, but sometimes if the group size is large enough Nikon will send me, and if the travel distance is not to great, I do sometimes do these talks on my own time. \u00a0I have done one day seminars for camera clubs in the past, but, because of scheduling problems these have to be arranged well in advance. \u00a0Feel free to email me with any requests, \u00a0billfortney@erthlink.net \u00a0 Once again someday, in the future, after retirement, I hope to do more of all the above!<\/p>\n

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10. How did you get into photography professionally?<\/span> \u00a0I was a high school teacher and football coach. \u00a0My first year of coaching my freshman team not only didn’t win a game, they never even scored in an entire season!!! \u00a0I knew I needed to do something else! \u00a0While that is true, it really wasn’t what got me into photography. \u00a0I was right out of college and I had always wanted town a nice camera so I bought one,\u00a0(a Nikkormat FTN with a 50mm f2 lens and a 105mm f2.5 lens [still have the 105!!!!] ) and started trying to learn how to use it. \u00a0In those days there was no guarantee that when you got your box of slides back that there would be anything on them! \u00a0I started studying, reading, and asking other photographers for help and after a while I knew it was what I wanted to do for my whole life! \u00a0I left teaching to become a newspaper photographer, from that to being a PR person doing lots of photography in that job, I worked in underground coal mines, did aerial photography, shot weddings and portraits, then medical photography, and eventually became a magazine photojournalist and writer. After meeting John Shaw and Larry West (two of the giants of nature photography of my era), I started shooting nature work, and eventually started a business called, The Great American Photography Weekends, it lasted for 17 years and at one time was the highest rated Nature Photography \u00a0Workshop Company in America! \u00a0It was dedicated to God on the day it was formed, and I believe to this day that is why it has so much success! \u00a0 We served almost ten thousand customers over those 17 years. \u00a0I left that company and went to work for Nikon a little over nine years ago. \u00a0Many years ago I met a man named John Netherton. \u00a0John had just published his first book on Radnor Lake in the Nashville area. \u00a0I wanted so badly to be like John and publish books and be a “well known photographer…” \u00a0God has richly blessed me with more success than I had any right to expect. \u00a0I’ve now had five books published and all have been very successful, three runaway best sellers! \u00a0I never became a famous photographer though, because there is no such thing! \u00a0I have had a blast, met thousands of great people, made lots of wonderful friends, shot in incredible places all over the world, and have had a life that I never dreamed I could have. \u00a0I count it all, as a great blessing from my Heavenly Father………. \u00a0 “It’s so much better to receive what He wants to give you, than to get what you deserve………………”<\/p>\n

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

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