"Great Plains~America's lingering wild" by Michael Forsberg

Always be joyful. Never stop praying.

Be thankful in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for

you who belong

to Christ Jesus.

~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NLT

Happy Birthday Mike!

A nature and conservation photographer ~ Mike Forsberg, with the help of many people, has created a masterpiece for all of America!

The picture book is titled "Great Plains ~ America's Lingering Wild". The effort took over 3 years, and more than 100,000 miles to accomplish.

With text and content help from Dan O'Brien, David Wishart, and Ted Kooser, Mike has put together stunning photographs and field notes from the prairie lands that are sure to enlighten us all.

Don't just look at the pictures, for if you do, you will miss what his passion is! He wants to bring awareness to the fact that man has forever changed, and in some cases eliminated part of the Great Plains. When we moved west, and settled the country west of the Missouri River, we interrupted habitat, and plant and animal species, and moved the Native Americans from their home land.

People like Mike Forsberg , and friend and nature photographer Joel Sartore, have a passion that I share. We may just be our own greatest enemies when it comes to disruption and conservation of our most valuable asset: the environment and earth we live on.

Pick up the book, and study each page. Help do your part. As Mike says "time is short".

Happy birthday Mike! Congratulations on the book.

Love to all, Norm

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Our National Parks ~ America's best Idea!

For God is working in you,

giving you the desire

and the power to do

what pleases him.

~ Philippians 2:13, NLT

"Our National parks

~ America's best idea."

If you have not taken the time to watch some of the PBS special by Ken Burns, you are missing a wonderful opportunity! Episode 6, my favorite to date, is currently airing on Public Television. I think there will be a total of twelve episodes. My what a moving masterpiece this is. Such a gift to the American people!

We owe so much to the dedicated conservationists who had the foresight to assure the preservation of land dedicated to National Park transformation. From the work of these people came the conservation and environmental preservation efforts that will last for all generations to come.

Men like Adolf Murie, and John Muir, who studied the land and wildlife, with such passion. Subjects such as giant Sequoia trees, and wolves. Many more people, pioneered efforts to keep commercialization out of lands that needed protection.

People in government like Stuart Udall, and His brother Maurice, along with the brave efforts of people like Janita Greene, and Lancelot Jones who knew in their hearts that this land had to be protected. And President Jimmy Carter, who used the "Antiquities Act" in Alaska.

Park rangers like John Cook, a 4th generation Park Ranger for 40+ years, passing the badge to his daughter Kacie Cook Collins, who in turn, may have a son (now age 5) to become a park ranger for a 5th generation of dedication!

As one person said during tonight's episode: "I may never make it to Alaska to see Denali, but at least I know it is there!" "One last chance to get it right!"

For all, I am glad that America is glad that they had the desire to do what pleases God! Tune in and watch ~ you might just learn! I have.

For now, Love to all, Norm

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Opportunities to improve

"Ask and it will be given to you,

seek and you will find,

knock and the door

will be opened to you."

~Matthew 7:7 NIV

Back to basics:

What does ISO really mean?

I get a lot of questions about this "photo stuff", so here are a few tips.
The letters ISO can scare a beginner off! Thus begins the challenge to learn. Along with the learning, comes the opportunity to really improve the quality of your photography. I have found in my experience that the same principle applies to digital as well as my old film camera. That seems to be the best way of understanding ISO to me. Just think of ISO as "film speed". In the digital camera then ISO is your camera sensors' sensitivity to light and how it affects your images.

Keep it simple:
If I have my camera set for ISO 100, simply put, I have 100 opportunities or possibilities to gather light. When I change the ISO setting to 200 I now have 200 opportunities to capture light. The sensor can now gather the light that comes through the lens twice as easy, and make an image.

If we continue to compare ISO 100 and ISO 200, with the lens aperture (opening size) set at f/5.6, the same volume of light will be coming through my lens at each setting, but at the ISO setting of 200, I will record the image the quickest, since I have have twice as many opportunities to gather the light. So, the more I need light, I can compensate for the need with a higher ISO setting.

Then shutter speed comes into play! Why is shutter speed important? If I am trying to photograph a mushroom on a cloudy, overcast day: With a setting of ISO 200, 1/250 sec. is pretty close, but for ISO 100, I will need more time, or 1/125 sec. ~ a longer exposure is needed to capture more light.

You can do a simple learning exercise by writing down the indicated shutter speeds required at different settings. Try setting your ISO to 200, and your aperture to f/8. Focus at a subject and adjust your shutter speed until a correct exposure is indicated. (Usually the indicator lights stop blinking!) Write down the shutter speed. Next adjust up to ISO 400, keeping the aperture at f/8, and point the camera at the same subject. Now your light meter is indicating a different shutter speed for a correct exposure. Write it down. Do the same procedure at ISO 800 and again for 1600.

What have you noticed? When you change from ISO 100 to ISO 200 your shutter speed changed: from 1/125 second to 1/250 second or perhaps something like from 1/160 sec. to 1/320 sec. See the pattern? Each shutter speed is close to, if not exactly half as much as the one before it.

So, changing from 1/125 sec. to 1/250 sec. is half as long the exposure time. When you set the ISO to 400, you went from 1/125 sec to 1/500 sec.

Just as each halving of the shutter speed is called 1 stop, each change from ISO 100 to ISO 200 to ISO 400 is considered a 1-stop increase (an increase of opportunities to gather light).

You can do this same exercise by leaving the shutter speed the same, for instance at 1/125 sec., and changing the aperture until a correct exposure is indicated in the viewfinder; or, if you choose to stay in auto exposure mode, select shutter-priority, set a shutter speed of 1/125 sec., and the camera will set the correct aperture for you.

Yes, new opportunities exist. Try "knocking on the door" of a new way of doing photography ~ you will just be as amazed as I have been! Maybe we will discuss this basic stuff again! My best advice: try it, and don't quit. It soon will become second nature to you!

For now ~ Love to all, Norm

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are copyrighted. Please do not copy
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The right Light

"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place

where it will be hidden, or under a bowl.

Instead, he puts it on it's stand,

so that those who come in

may see the light."

~Luke 11:33 NIV

He is the light.

The amazing truth parallel here is the fact that photography is all about light! Most professional photographers will readily agree that the exact right light will make all the difference in any situation.

If I have a hard time seeing my subject clearly, I must step back, and check my focus, or make sure nothing is blocking my lens, or vision.

The sermon by our pastor today focused on this subject. I think it is amazing sometimes, as a photographer, that not always am I in the right frame of mind to capture all the beauty that was intended for each shoot. Sometimes there can be things that block my view, and cloud over the "light".

I know, the same applies to our lives. As pastor said, we need to not focus on the stresses and ugly things in our lives, or that will be all that we are able to see.

Try this: do a back yard, or other, photo shoot with your mind focused on the "proper light", and you will be as amazed as I am in the difference it will make. Do the same thing when we go out into the world each day, and see how His light will shine the way!

Love to all, Norm

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"Then you will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free."

~ John 8:32 NIV

The character of a man.

This doorway to the building that housed several of the classes that I took in collage had this inscription above every head that passed through it. Although I admit, I passed through several times without noticing, or looking up, this has become one of my favorite verses.

I take strength in knowing, as I did in my long passed school days, that these words mean what they say. He died for me and no matter what I am going through, His truth remains for me, and anyone who keeps the faith.

It has got to be hard for us to keep walking the path He has set for us, but just knowing that if, or more accurately, when we stumble or get off course, that truth will remain.

Character is our signature. What we do and say does matter. The people we touch, or that touch us in some way, will become a part of us. Our best asset in life is that signature we wear. That part of us that knows the good truth about our Savior will guide us through those tough times.

Help someone to realize the "truth", and you have helped the world.

Love to all, Norm

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Each man should give

what he has decided in his heart to give,

not reluctantly or under compulsion,

for God loves a cheerful giver.

-2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV

Giving back!

       I am not sure why, but I love to help those who have a real need.  I guess it makes us feel really good inside to know that we have said the right thing at the right time, or been there to just listen when they needed to tell someone about their "life lesson" moment.

          She was an elderly lady - mid 70"s most likely.  She was very pleasant as I walked up to the cash register where she was about to check out my small load of purchases at the local store.  As checkers do, she asked if I found everything ok, as I proceeded to pile everything from my shopping cart to the check-out moving treadmill.  I replied that all I needed to find yet today was a little more time.  You see, it was almost ready to rain outside, and I was wanting to get home to do some painting.

          She said: "you and I have them all allright"!  I thought she was referring to my small boatload of purchases.  But then she said: "yes sir you have all 24 of them"!  She was referring to all 24 hours, when I finally understood what she was meaning!   I said; "actually, I need more time before the rain starts to do some painting outdoors".  "Oh well", I said, "we always need the rain".

          Then her face got very sad looking, and she told me that sometimes she did not like the rain any more.  She related how it was raining the night her husband died in her arms at home.  She had to listen to the driving hard rain storm as she waited for the ambulance to arrive.  She just knew that it was too late, and it seemed like a very long time before the rescue unit came.

          That will always remind her of the saddest time in her life, and all I could do was listen.  Several people had piled up behind me in the check out line, and all of them were watching me listen to a sad story that brought tears to an elderly lady, as she released some needed tension to a total stranger!  No one said a word, and I was very aware by then, that they all were beginning to almost tear-up too.

http://nicholsonphotoimages.com/site/#/gallery/clouds/016/

          I then finished up my purchases, and gave her a small hug, and a pat on the shoulder, as I said "I will say a special prayer for you".  She said "thank you for listening to me, and I want you to know the next week for his funeral, it stopped raining.  He even sent His rainbow to remind me that He would always be there for me!  You know, today was his birthday".

          I am thankful for the lesson he gave us in the check out line that day!  It could have been different.  People behind me could have complained.  I could have rushed on home to paint.  I could have missed His rainbow "life lesson"!

Love to all, Norm

http://www.nicholsonphotoimages.com/

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Thank you.

I am praying to you because

I know you will answer,

O God. Bend down

and listen as I pray.

~ Psalm 17:6, NLT
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First time!

Along time ago, my Dad taught me to use a hammer! 

There is a certain nack to it.  You remember the first time

you tried it, don't you?  First, as I remember it, I was not very old,

and the hammer was ment for an adult.  He taught me to pick

the right tool for the job, and the correct manner

to hold the hammer. 

I know now that it must have taken alot

of patience for him to watch

me do it wrong so many times,

and not say much. 

I flash back to that lesson now when ever I

pick up a hammer, and remember, sometimes

after I hit my thumb, the correct way

to drive a nail, and the proper swing

to use that will produce the best results!

Practice helps, and if you are like me,

and don't drive nails every day, you need to

get the hang of it, and then get into the groove

before you make much progress. 

Prayer must be like that too.

God is so patient with us.  Sometimes he must

just laugh at us in anguish, as we think

we have it all under control.

All we need to do is ask our Father for a little help!

Love to all, Norm

http://www.nicholsonphotoimages.com/

The content and pictures of this blog are copyrighted

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Thank you.