![\"\"](\"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Leaf-pattern-top.jpg\" "\\"Leaf")
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The single greatest gift I’ve ever gotten as a photographer is the inspiration to want to learn more! \u00a0From John Shaw and the late John Netherton who set the bar so very high, to Scott Kelby, and Jim Begley who showed me just how much more there is to learn, each of these people and many many more have shown me just how much vision can be stretched! \u00a0Tony Sweet showed me how to see with “better” more artistic eyes. Chuck Summers taught me how working very hard and never stopping or giving up, can make your work infinitely better! \u00a0Freeman Patterson and Bryan Peterson taught me how to see the same things everyone else sees, and ignores, and find an image in them. \u00a0My students have taught me that no matter how much you think you know, you’re, at best, only getting started! \u00a0Sam Garcia and Jay Maisel have mentored me in learning how to see the extraordinary in the ordinary! \u00a0Scott Diussa showed me how to travel with eyes wide open, Fred Sisson taught me to be curious! \u00a0Jim Sugar and Joe McNally \u00a0showed me that even a single flash can breath magic into an image. \u00a0Jim Haverstock and Raymond Jabola showed me how having a gentle spirit transaltes to gentle, and profound images. \u00a0Arthur Rothstien taught me that one camera and two lenses is more than enough! \u00a0Ansel Adams taught me that it’s o.k. to manipulate a print!!! \u00a0The folks at Nik and Topaz software taught me that no file is ever finished until you imagine the possibilities! \u00a0The list could, and should, \u00a0go on, but you get the point. \u00a0Learning is addictive and necessary if you want to get better every day!<\/p>\n
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I thank God for those friends that have shown me how to see the world differently, and feel more deeply for my subjects. I thank God for waking up every morning wanting to hold a camera in my hand. \u00a0I thank God that everywhere I walk I see countless things that can be a photograph. \u00a0So this mornings exercise is to walk around the building I’m staying in in St. Thomas and shoot whatever I see that interests me, “photographically”. \u00a0I will push the publish button when I have a few keepers!<\/p>\n
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Today’s Prayer: \u00a0Father thank you for all those mentors, countless in number, that you have allowed me to meet, and learn from their vast experience and kind tolerance of my great visual hunger. \u00a0Thank you for giving me that hunger, to want to learn more, experience all you have allowed me to live out in these 66 years! \u00a0Thank you Father for opening my eyes!<\/p>\n
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the pilgrim<\/p>\n
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The single greatest gift I’ve ever gotten as a photographer is the inspiration to want to learn more! \u00a0From John Shaw and the late John Netherton who set the bar so very high, to Scott Kelby, and Jim Begley who showed me just how much more there is to learn, each of these […]<\/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-4799","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\/4799","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=4799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4806,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4799\/revisions\/4806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"