Reflections from the Journey

It has been nearly 3 years since I took my first steps towards fulfilling the mission that I believe (sometimes firmly, sometimes not so much) that God has given me. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently and just re-read my older blog posts. I have to say that I am a bit (OK, a LOT) disappointed in myself, but still hopeful. (You can read them here, here, and here.)

Somewhere down the trail I got distracted and veered off onto a side trail. This is one of the difficulties with hiking seldom used trails and my lack of attention lead me away from where I wanted to be. I should have been looking harder for the blazes that are there for me to see, but easy to miss when I’m not looking forward.  The path I veered onto was clearly marked and very scenic. I even met some great people out on that trail, but it wasn’t the path for me. Thankfully, I looked up to see that I was down the wrong path before I got too far away from my intended trail.

All metaphor aside, I opened up a retail gallery/studio downtown Greenville. While it was great getting immersed in the Greenville art scene, I ended up focusing more on me and my individual success and less on honoring God through the talents He gave me.  There wasn’t anything wrong with me opening up a gallery, but I allowed it to keep me from moving toward the bigger mission.

So here I am on back on the trail at the point where I 1st veered off. Thankfully, though I lost some time, I did gain some wisdom. And who knows, maybe some of the folks I met will end up joining me on this journey at some point.

Before moving forward toward the next blaze I see off in the distance, let me update you on where I am on this journey:

I now live with my family on about 6 acres of land just north of Travelers Rest, SC.

We now have 3 apple trees, 4 blueberry bushes, 4 blackberry canes, and 2 raspberry canes established. I planted more but the deer and drought took their toll.

We have 2 decent barns on the property. 1 which will be usable for livestock and 1 that I will be converting into studio & teaching workspace and a gallery.

Our gardens last year on the new property didn’t do very well, but we learned a l0t that will lead to improvements this upcoming growing season.

In my next post I will lay out some of  refinements of my original ideas and also talk about how YOU can get involved.

Created & Creative by God’s Design,

Rich Nicoloff

2010 was quite a trip for my family and I.  We navigated a lot of switchbacks, water crossings, and scary drop offs on our way to a nice gain in elevation.

The year started with us wondering just how long Kristie would continue to have a job as an Interior Designer at Gresham, Smith & Partners.  The Charlotte, NC office where she worked had already dwindled from around 2o employees to just 5.  While we knew that she had projects to work on we also knew that those wouldn’t last until the end of the year.  It wasn’t a good start.

The upside to Kristie’s precarious job situation is that it forced her to be serious about finding a new job which is something I had been pestering her about for over a year.  My heart and mind was in the mountains and living in Charlotte/Pineville was killing me inside.   I knew I didn’t belong there, but for some reason God had us staying put.  We (or maybe, just I) still had some lessons to learn.

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A picture may tell a 1,000 words but it still never tells the whole story.  I’m going to take you on a journey back through the lens and out the viewfinder to tell you the story of the making of the image.

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So last night I got you up to speed a bit on what has happened since I 1st told you about the vision/mission  God has given me.  I realized as I was composing that post that I really haven’t given a very clear picture of my vision.  That is what I hope to rectify now.

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Well, it’s been a little over 8 months since I wrote about my dream for the future so I thought I would post an update on what’s been going on.

While I have been learning a LOT, the whole process feels like taking baby steps.  You know the shaky, unsure, off balance kind of steps I’m talking about.  They are cute and part of the learning process, but they don’t cover much distance.   Here is a sampling of some of the baby steps I (along with my family) have taken:

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A picture may tell a 1,000 words but it still never tells the whole story.  I’m going to take you on a journey back through the lens and out the viewfinder to tell you the story of the making of the image.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday and today I have been printing some photos onto some beautiful 100% cotton canvas and then stretching them onto wooden frames (a.k.a. gallery wrapped).  It is a pretty time consuming process that has my fingers aching, but it is soooooo  worth it.  I like the way they look much more than when framed under glass.   There is something about a photograph on canvas that really makes it special.

As I took a break to drink a tasty cup of Organic, Fair Trade coffee I thought about why I prefer gallery wrapped canvas prints over framed prints.   Not surprisingly the realization that I came to spilled over into thoughts of religion and faith as well.  If you have read any of my previous posts you no doubt have seen that EVERYTHING about my life and my photography is bound up in faith and this is what I call my Journey.

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Getting up early and going to bed late caught up with me.  I had wanted to get up early to get more sunrise image but I woke up with a splitting headache.  I couldn’t seem to shake it even after going back to sleep for an hour.  I almost packed everything up and head home, but I new that I should go out and shoot here while I could.  Headache or not I was in the mountains and that is better than being in Charlotte.

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After getting back to my camp at Roan Mt. State Park in TN, cooked myself a VERY tasty omelette and tried to decide on where to shoot next.  The combination of my early rising, hiking with a 30-ish pound pack, and full belly, however, made me quite sleepy so I opted to take a nap before making any decisions.  Yep, that’s just what I needed, a nice relaxing nap.

Ever try taking a nap in a campground in the middle of the day?

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Day 2 of my trip to Roan Mt.  came really early.  4:00am is not the time that I generally enjoy getting up in the morning, but the sun (& the other CNPA members) weren’t going to wait.   Wisely, I had laid out all my clothes and gear the night before, so I was out of my tent and ready to roll within minutes.

It’s a good thing I had those extra minutes, because I spotted a few deer as I was leaving the campground & slowed down a bit for safety’s sake.  Let me just say that driving in the dark at 4 in the morning on a strange winding road is difficult enough without the prospect of  deer in the road adding to it.  Anyway, I got to Carver’s Gap met up with my fellow nature photographers and headed up the Appalachian Trail toward Round Bald.

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