While I have been recovering from May and June’s “events” I accepted the challenge of helping a friend put together a system for what he hopes will be a deeper dive into his photography. He hopes to be a generalist like me, and shoot nature, landscape, travel, Americana and some wildlife like birds and mammals.  He is not as old asI am but he’s not wanting to carry a massive amount of gear either.  So I went to work helping him assemble what I think will serve him best for what his photographic goals are!

 

My basic advice to anyone entering this kind of equipment search is to build a system around two bodies and a wide angle lens, medium zoom, and a mid and long telephoto zoom, throw in a macro lens for dong closeups and the needed accessories and you are ready to go!

 

He had a Fujifilm X-T3 and the XF 18-55 and XF 55-200 zooms, which was a great start!  He will add the new Fujifilm X-T5 to complete his two body set.  For the wide angle I suggested a Fujifilm’s XF16mm f 2.8 which is the equiv. of a 24mm.  The 24mm is wide enough for wide angle effect but not so wide that it is hard to compose with. I often find that giving someone a 14mm (21mm equiv.) is a little daunting until the photographer gains some more experience.  The old saying is true: give a beginner a super wide and he will struggle, give him a telephoto and will thrive!  Telephotos force us to confine what we compose and shoot, a very wide angle invites clutter.

 

18-55 Zoom

 

55-200 zoom @ around 100mm equiv.

 

Add a Nikon 5T diopter and you can shoot t his close with the 55-200!

 

His 18-55 (equiv. 27-84) and the 55-200 (equiv. 80-300) reply cover the bases for tight shooting.  Both of those lenses are very sharp and easy to use!  To get something long to deal with birds and wildlife I suggested the Fujifilm XF 100-400 (equiv. 160-600) It is tack sharp and can do birds especially with a 1.4 converter which stretches it out to 840!

 

 

This Puffin shot by Chris Klapeke with around a 600mm lens is what the 100-400 can do for  you!

 

For macro shooting he will get the Fujifilm  XF 60mm macro f 2.4 (equiv. 90mm)

 

XF 60mm Macro lens

 

Add to all that extra batteries, cleaning supplies, SD cards, a swiss army knife an ,multi tool, a mini tripod and LED light panel, iPhone bracket and he will be ready to cover almost anything he wishes to photograph!  Oh yes the bag, my personal favorite is th Guru Gear Kiboka 2.0 16+

 

 

I can’t wait for him to start enjoying his new gear!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the Pilgrim

 

 

 

Let me start by thanking all of you that have called written, texted and emailed to ask about how I’ve been doing!  The short answer is “Every day in every way I’m getting better and better”  (Quote from the Pink Panther movie!)  There have been challenge along the way but I’m healing up and feeling better all the time.  For anyone that wonders if prayer really works, I’m living proof of it!

 

For the last couple of weeks I’ve had a wound pump on to help heal up my largest incision and I think it is making enough progress that within a week I will be free of that!  Will be nice to not have to carry around a 5 pound pump and battery back everywhere.

 

Let me share some of the great things that have come out of this experience.

 

1.  More closeness and a greater appreciation for my bride, Sherelene.  She has given so much time and effort to help me recover while juggling a 12 hour a day job!  Her moral support and love have been my life line to hoping to get back to a normal life!

    2.    The support and prayers of so many friends and family members has made         all the difference!  I can never repay all of you!

 

3.   A wonderful new friendship with my Doctor,  Tony Rogers.  When I met my surgeon to review the procedure I was about to have, something incredible happened.  It turns out he had attended a meeting of the Lexington Camera Club on an evening that I was the guest speaker.  He had a great interest in photography and really enjoyed my talk, he remembered me and we struck up an immediate friendship over photography,  and as we got to know each other we found we had a number of similar interest, not the least of which was our total dedication to our savior Jesus Christ.  Getting to know Tony and his wife Donna has been a high point of May and June!

       4.   Learning to walk one day at a time, trusting in Him and knowing He, (My Heavenly Father), has it!  I’ve often been called a Comfort Junkie by my wife, and she is right, I don’t like discomfort of which I’ve had plenty over the past 6 weeks!  But through it all God has helped me take it one minute at a time stretching into hours, days and now weeks.  We can endure all things though Him who loves us! 

 

    5.    How much I miss going out with a camera and shooting!  I hope to be back at that soon and will have a new appreciation for my craft and the exercise of just seeing again!

 

I hope to get back busy posting something that has nothing to do with health concerns soon!  Till then, thanks again for hanging in there with me!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim

 

 

 

Recently a new Beta Version of Lightroom was introduced that had an amazing AI based tool for changing backgrounds, it was earth shaking, what it could do.  I watched carefully as the reactions rolled in, and as you would expect they were all over the place.  “This is the most amazing and most positive thing to ever happen to photography!”  ” This is the end of photography, we will never ever again be able to trust anything we see!”  They were probably both right!

 

I have thought long and hard about this and I have a suggestion I would like to throw out to all my fellow photographers.  First, if you are a professing Christian, if you claim to answer to your God and wish to serve Him in everything you say and do, this advice is or you!  

 

Let me set this  up properly.  I started photography in 1969, yep that was a long time ago.  In that era of photography we shot film, and mostly Black & White film and slide film, transparency film.  Learning how to get correct exposure in those days was a process and it did not come easy, we struggled with it and it took time and shooting a lot of film to get it right!  We were quite proud of ourselves when we got it right!  That accounts for why so many of us in our seventies today may have more than a little chip on our shoulders about how much easier it has gotten with digital photography today.  Yes, in many way we are stuck in the mud of the film era!

 

As post processing has advanced and many magical things can be done to images, we have resisted and drug our feet in the sand!  Now let me share about why as a Christian, I have to look at this and approach it in a different way.  As a believer my greatest concern must be with sin and being kind to others.  First of all, even though I have resisted, replacing a sky in a photograph is not a sin!  It’ s a choice, it may not be a choice I am comfortable with, but for someone who is comfortable with it, they have not sinned!  So Let’s say my friend Paul made the image at the top of this entry, and I see it and I know he has replaced the sky, (actually I did it!),  as a Christian, how should I react too his image?  First of all I should not “react” at all, if I like the photograph I should say so, if I don’t I should not feel compelled to be unkind.  If I think he should not have replaced the sky what right do I have to be critical of him?  As the photographer and artist he has every right to process his images as he wishes, frankly it’s none of my business!  I found myself in the situation when I replaced the sky in this image  I felt guilty about it and did not show it for the longest time.

 

 

This is the original image.  I love the lighthouse and love the back lit and furrowing flag, but the sky is awful, so the image failed, I think you will admit the image with a  replaced sky is much nicer, but is it reality?  So what is wrong with adding a sky?  It is not what was actually there at that time!  Coming from my background as a photojournalist, doing something like that is a cardinal sin, but if I was a commercial photo illustrator, that kind of stuff is done all the time.  You might say that it is only wrong if the intent of the images was to depict reality.  As a Christian when is it the right thing to do, to make someone feel bad about the post processing images they make?  Never, you can express your opinion if done in a considerate way, but beyond that it’s the choice of the photographer.

 

let’s take the concept of appropriate ways of dealing with others as a Christian to some other examples!

 

Say our friend Larry is a Georgia Bulldogs fan, you’re a Alabama fan, can you say the Bulldogs suck, I hope they loose every game!  Sure, if  you want to act that way, but as a Christian what does that accomplish?  It sure doesn’t cement your witness for Christ!

 

Your friend Mike only listens to classical music, but you like 50’s -60’s Rock n’ Roll, he says the music you like is horrible, in fact it’s not really music at all!  It’s fine for him to feel tat way but what good does it do to make that pronouncement to you?

 

 

The photograph above was shot in the UP of Michigan on a calm morning while we were shooting fall color reflecting in the still water as boat started up toward us, my first thought was it would disturb the water, which it did, but then I realized it might be a great shot as it turned to go back out of the slough we were shooting in.  This was an unplanned circumstance that turned out to be kind of neat, and the water settled back down in a few minutes and we were able to continue shooting the reflections.  As photographers we need to roll with the punches!  Those that want  to use these new creative tools to “enhance their mages” should be left alone and allowed to do photography as they see fit, and those of us that might would rather not, should learn to be a little less judgmental about it.

 

Here is  my bottom line;  When I gave my life to Christ He required of me to lead others to Him,  I can’t do that if I am judging everyone else for things they may do, that I don’t want to do or agree with, how welcoming and loving is that?  I can still feel strongly about such things, I just can’t beat people up from my position.

 

I would love to know what you think!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the pilgrim