{"id":4833,"date":"2012-03-01T20:17:22","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T20:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4833"},"modified":"2012-03-02T11:48:02","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T11:48:02","slug":"im-thankful-for-the-freedom-to-be-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=4833","title":{"rendered":"I’m thankful for the freedom to be myself….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Opening lyrics from the song, Somebody Else, from the movie Crazy Heart<\/p>\n

I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else<\/span><\/p>\n

I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else<\/span><\/p>\n

Who’m might be tomorrow is anybody’s guess……\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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I used to be somebody else too. \u00a0I used to be \u00a0a lot of somebody else’s. \u00a0I couldn’t decide who I was. \u00a0Over the last several years I’ve discovered who I am, and I love not guessing anymore! \u00a0I used to want to be somebody special, then I found out I was, because Jesus died for me! \u00a0I wanted to be loved, then I discovered I was loved by my God, my family, and a few friends. \u00a0I wanted to be admired, I got over it. \u00a0I wanted to be recognized, then I discovered I would rather not be noticed at all. \u00a0I wanted to be famous, and then discovered that was the last thing I wanted! \u00a0I wanted to be considered a gifted photographer, then I discovered I’d rather just have fun being a photographer, there’s enough gifted photographers anyway!<\/p>\n

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What happened? \u00a0Well in a word, I started to grow up, I got a life, and a good one! \u00a0The changes have been coming on for a long time, but the most change has been in the last two years, since I started posting in the Pilgrim’s Chronicles. \u00a0I get emails from people that share how much, what is posted here, means to them, and I appreciate those nice words of encouragement, but the person being ministered to the most, \u00a0is me. \u00a0God has used this time each day to speak to my heart about His and my relationship. \u00a0 He teaches me, encourages me, corrects me, informs me, loves me, accepts me, shows me His love, forgiveness, and grace! \u00a0I know that what He shares here is touching people’s lives, but it starts with His touching my life. \u00a0This is my daily, deep, connection with Him, a time for me to listen, and to be obedient, to first learn, then share.<\/p>\n

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I also used to be a different photographer. \u00a0I was way, way, to concerned about how others saw me, and my work. \u00a0I was a slave to convention. \u00a0I did things in certain ways because it had led to success for others. \u00a0Two photographers helped me change my way of seeing, and photographing; Jim Begley and Tony Sweet. \u00a0They both saw the world through different glasses than mine. \u00a0At first I was afraid to look through those glasses, they were so different from the ones I had worn all my life, but once I slipped them on, I started to enjoy what I was seeing, and then, I embraced it. \u00a0I lost the fear of what others would think! \u00a0I started to learn to feel what I was seeing, and trust that I was creating something that pleased me, only me, not intended to please anyone else, just to be personally satisfying! \u00a0Do I want others to like my work? \u00a0 Sure, but that is not the first goal, anymore.<\/p>\n

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I’ve taken a few of the images I’ve shot this week, straight images, very little processing, and now I will share some new ways of seeing the same scene. You are not under any pressure to like any of these, I like them, and that’s the only expectation I have. \u00a0If you do like them, great, but it’s o.k. if you don’t! \u00a0I will love you and forgive you! \u00a0In your own work, feel the freedom to be yourself, it’s o.k., all the rest of us are somebody else anyway……..<\/p>\n

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All image processing done with the following programs, Topaz Adjust 4 & 5, Nik Color Efex Filters Pro 3 & 4, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. \u00a0No HDR used. I was shooting with point and shoot compact cameras!<\/p>\n

This is Friday’s post, will be away for the day with my bride on St. John.<\/p>\n

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O.K. with being me, and loving Christ,<\/p>\n

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

  Opening lyrics from the song, Somebody Else, from the movie Crazy Heart I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else I used to be somebody but now I am somebody else Who’m might be tomorrow is anybody’s guess……\u00a0   I used to be somebody else too. \u00a0I used to be \u00a0a […]<\/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-4833","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\/4833","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=4833"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4852,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4833\/revisions\/4852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}