{"id":7179,"date":"2012-12-28T13:57:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T13:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7179"},"modified":"2012-12-29T01:27:18","modified_gmt":"2012-12-29T01:27:18","slug":"a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=7179","title":{"rendered":"A little of this…. a little of that….Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As we come down to the end of 2012 I have a bunch of unrelated things I wanted to share, so let’s just call this “a little of this…a little of that…Friday!”<\/p>\n

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A big thanks….<\/strong><\/span><\/em> \u00a0I want to thank “Snake” Barrett for doing so much to help the His Light Workshops this year! \u00a0He built our new website, you need to check it out, he is doing as great job as it continues to grow! \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/hislightworkshops.com\/<\/span> \u00a0 He also led the way in teaching night photography and time lapse. \u00a0He is always there when we need to know what phase the moon will be in, or what angle the sun will be on the arches, if it’s technical, he is our man! \u00a0Snake is a pleasure to work with, a joy to fellowship with and always is laughing about something, Jim and I are thrilled to have him on our team!<\/p>\n

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The dream continues to come true…..<\/strong><\/em><\/span> \u00a0When Jim and I met in my office, and talked about this idea of making His Light become a reality, and then prayed that it would be what God wanted it to be, we never dreamed He would do such fantastic things. \u00a0Not that we didn’t know that God can do anything He pleases, it’s just as humans we seldom see just how magnificant His plan is, until we find ourselves standing in the middle of them! \u00a0Now, a couple of years later we see everyday how He is changing lives, and we get to be there to see it happen! \u00a0Not a day goes by that I don’t receive emails and calls from someone telling me \u00a0just how much what happens there and on the blog is changing their lives! \u00a0Listen, seriously, please listen carefully, I’m just a guy who lives in rural Kentucky, \u00a0there is nothing whatsoever special about me, except that I love the Lord with all my heart and I really and truly try to be obedient to Him. \u00a0All this that is happening is because of Him! \u00a0….and Him alone. \u00a0It was my dream, a dream I dared to dream, but He has made it a reality….<\/p>\n

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Another thanks……<\/span><\/em><\/strong> \u00a0Jim Begely has been a great partner in the workshops, a wonderful friend, and a rock in our spiritual growth. I can’t tell you how many times we wrestle with big decisions about what direction we are to take our little company, and Jim always takes it back to where it belongs, at the foot of the cross! \u00a0His life is an example of taking God’s word, and living it. As a man I can’t think of a more valuable asset in life than this kind of friend and brother!<\/p>\n

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The last big thank you, and it’s a big one…..<\/span><\/strong><\/em> \u00a0Over the holidays as I got to love on all my family, I couldn’t help but think about a simple little wooden sign our kids got us several years ago. \u00a0it sits is in the middle of our countless family photographs, it simply says \u00a0“all of this, because two people fell in love…” <\/span><\/strong><\/em>Did I ever, and 44 years later I’m still madly in love! \u00a0I love you Sherelene.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Camera wars……….<\/strong><\/em><\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0I work for Nikon and I love my job, but I’m mad at Nikon! \u00a0They have made it way to hard for me to decide what camera or cameras I want! \u00a0In the last 40 years I’ve always owned the F camera or in the digital age the D single digit pro body! \u00a0I’ve owned F’s, F2s, F3s, F4s, F5.s and a F6 (O.K. I never owned the F6 but I had one of Nikon’s for \u00a0a while) \u00a0I’ve had D1s. D2s, D3s and now I have a D4 (in my consignment) \u00a0All have been state of the art for their period, but now it’s not so easy, with the monster resolving D800 and 800e, and now the very reasonably priced D600 which is the second highest resolving camera on the market in a 35mm body size form factor,what is a man to do???!!! \u00a0I’ve been doing a ton of tests, which is part of my job, but also a labor of love, and I’ve come up with a simple answer…you can’t go wrong with any of them. \u00a0It all comes down to your budget, your needs, how much weight you are willing to carry, and what you need to do with the resulting files. \u00a0Once you figure that out, if you can keep your emotions out of the decision, you will know what is the camera for you. \u00a0Only one factor remains, what is coming next!!!!!!<\/p>\n

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A lazy man’s HDR formula!<\/strong><\/em><\/span> \u00a0I greatly admire Jim Begley’s HDR images, and R.C.’s, Raymond Jabola’s, and a number of others that do very protracted things to get just the right image! \u00a0I’m not that guy, I work fast and don’t have the patience to work through layers, masks, and such, but for those that are \u00a0like me, I’ve got something you should try! \u00a0I am giving an example below, take a shot you would like to appear as an HDR, a straight one frame image. \u00a0Then go into NIK Color Efex Pro 4 and apply Tonal Contrast filter, use the sliders on the top right to \u00a0get the level of HDR effect you want. \u00a0It should look a little gritty. \u00a0Now apply Glamour Glow in the same Nik program, Wow, pretty good for something that takes less than a minute!<\/p>\n

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I did Tonal Contrast twice, yes you can layer them to increase the affect! \u00a0One more thing the original shot was made with a \u00a0point and shoot camera! \u00a0What did I say about testing and worrying about which camera!! \u00a0Yes, the image at the top was done the same way!<\/p>\n

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Breaking His Light news…….<\/span><\/strong><\/em> \u00a0We are in the process of finalizing plans for a great workshop in October of 2013. \u00a0We will be bringing Dave Black to His Light \u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.daveblackphotography.com\/\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dave is one of America’s premier sports photogprahers and also a master of light painting, his class in Shaker Village will be a light painting workshop, and until you’ve studied with Dave, you haven’t seen great light painting technique. \u00a0This will be a very hands on workshop with both outdoor large scale light painting, and small scale studio type light painting. \u00a0Strictly limited to 14 participants! \u00a0It will be late October when the Kentucky fall foliage should be spectacular in Shaker Village. \u00a0The workshop is expected to be $899. \u00a0Contact us as soon as possible if you want to join us, I expect this one to fill up very fast! \u00a0Yes, Dave Black is an amazing brother too!<\/p>\n

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A new Point and shoot I love!<\/span><\/em><\/strong> \u00a0Nikon’s new P7700 is a great point and shoot! \u00a0It has a very well made with a good heft, but still small enough to stash away in a coat pocket. \u00a0It is a 12.2 mega pixel sensor compact with a great zoom lens, 28-200 f 2.8 to f4 lens that is very sharp! \u00a0It has a fold out \u00a0LCD panel\u00a0which makes shooting from low and high much easier, it does not have \u00a0a viewfinder, which I miss, but the LCD panel works great and is very contrasty and sharp. It shoots RAW and has a usable ISO range from 80 to 1600. \u00a0It also shoots Full HD, \u00a01080p movies with stereo sound! \u00a0I took it down to the local antique shop the other day and made a few image handheld, (it has great vibration reduction built in!) \u00a0I was impressed, take a peak!<\/p>\n

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Pretty nice work from a camera you can put in your pocket!!!!<\/p>\n

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Haver a great New Years weekend, I will be spending it with my grandchildren, Cade and Cassidy, see you Monday, God Bless!<\/p>\n

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In Him,<\/p>\n

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

As we come down to the end of 2012 I have a bunch of unrelated things I wanted to share, so let’s just call this “a little of this…a little of that…Friday!”   A big thanks…. \u00a0I want to thank “Snake” Barrett for doing so much to help the His Light Workshops this year! \u00a0He […]<\/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":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","category-learning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179","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=7179"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7188,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions\/7188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}