You must, must start making mistakes!

I screw up! I do it all the time; I'm good at it.
So why am I so afraid to make mistakes?

When Michael Jordan was asked why he was so successful he answered:

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

I want everything just right. I wait until I have all the information before I move on anything. So, consequently, I am often paralyzed by fear.

It's like that with my photography as well, I'll read and read about a certain topic, but when it comes time to put that info into action, I'm afraid! Afraid to fail; afraid to look silly, or stupid, or worse... Look like I don't know what I'm doing.

Of course I don't know what I'm doing, I've never done this before!!!

I say all this to tell you about something I purchased a while ago, but I just recently read; it was a couple of eBooks called "The Inspired Eye" volumes 1 & 2, by David duChemin and they're only 5 bucks each. Yes, you heard right, 5 bucks each for a photography book.

What a great set of eBooks! The big thing I took away from volume 1 was the need to make more mistakes. That means I need to get off my duff and start doing something; anything, but specifically there are some things that I've been meaning to do but was... well... afraid. More on that later as I am actually going to get off my duff and do something pretty cool (I think!).

To get these, as well as other eBooks, head on over to http://www.craftandvision.com/
I know you will not be disappointed.

TTFN,
Muggs

Old Barney

Barnegat_Lighthouse-1.jpg
Originally uploaded by Muggs828

Well, just got back from the annual LBI vacation and thought I would do a quick post just to let everyone (who cares) that I'm still around.

Lighten up and Shoot website

Well if you know me at all you know I love the Lightenupandshoot guys, Mike(mikey) and Andy. These are two of the COOLEST guys I know. OK I don't actually know them; you know what I mean.
If you haven't followed them on their old site (http://lightenupandshoot.blogspot.com/), or if you've never heard of them at all (is that even possible?), then truck on over to the NEW sit at:
http://www.lightenupandshoot.net/, sign up and get involved in the forums.

And for goodness sake, lighten up and shoot!

Stay tuned for a DIY Beauty dish.

Muggs

Huge announcement today for Photography buffs!

Chase Jarvis announced today that he will be starting an educational internet channel called creativelive.com !

There will be/are some top name Photographer/Teachers there.

Lets see; there's something else... Oh Yeah, IT'S FREE!!!!!



Thank you Chase! Way to give back.

DIY Hotshoe-to-1/8" jack flash adaptor

Hello All,

Well to today I have a little DIY project for you.

I had a few Nikon SC-17's that were literally collecting dust.

After purchasing some Cybersyncs I thought "why not turn them into something useful"?

OK, before we go any farther; I have no responsibility if you cut your finger with an Xacto knife or burn it on the soldering iron or Blah Blah Blah!



OK, Cutting up a perfectly good SC-17 is the hard part! The first thing you need to do is cut off the female hotshoe end leaving about 1/2" of the gray cord.

There! Now it's ruined, so you might as well make something that you can use.



After removing the 4 screws from the bottom of the case, separate the case halves to expose the "innards". You can nip off the wires that are on those side connectors, but save the connectors.
If the case halves don't come apart easily don't force it! Get a bigger hammer.



OK, remove the two screws shown and set that half aside for now.


Now remove the 4 screws that hold down that brass plate. These screws also hold on the metal part of the shoe on the outside, but don't worry it can only go back on one way.
Also, nip off all the wires from the pins in this side of the case.


This is what you should have at this point.


Grasp all the wires on the strain relief side of the sheathing (make sure to grab the stranded shielding wire as well) and pull/twist them out of the sheathing.


Very good. You're doing great! Hey I figure everyone can use a little encouragement.


Cut off the two remaining wires from the brass plate and toss that jumbled bunch of wires.


OK, now cut in half a perfectly good 1/8" audio jack cable, and strip the ends.


Slip the cut end through the cord/strain relief,and knot the end to prevent tugging on the solder joints.


Solder one lead to the brass plate and the other to the center pin. It doesn't matter which wire goes where, you're just completing a circuit.
OK, I'm assuming you can solder here, but if not ask your dad; he's a lot brighter than you probably give him credit for.


Now put the strain relief in place along with the two pin jack things on either side and reassemble the case halves.


Put back the four long black screws. Notice that two are longer than the others.


And your done.


Voila!


So now what am I going to do with these?
Any ideas?

What is it about water?

I don't know about you, but I love water. All kinds; lakes, rivers, oceans, creeks, ponds, it really doesn't matter, I love to be around water. For me I think it's mostly about the sounds; the pounding of the waves on the beach, the wind whipping across a lake, the slight "gurgling" sound that a small stream makes. They are just so peaceful.



It's at those times that I can hear myself the best. It's also the time I make my best images, you may disagree, but I don't mean award winning images, I mean images that "speak to me". I know that's an overused phrase, but it fits here, you see the images I make at these times are more than just a few seconds from a life, but a place, a smell, maybe even a wet foot or a skinned knee. A memory!



So... I encourage you to go out and not just take some pictures, but make some memories.

Did you ever wonder...

Did you ever wonder what went on at those Meetup groups? Well I did, so last week I decided to go to one and see what went on.

When I arrived I was warmly greeted, and entered into a conversation with the Bucks County Photography Meetup Group's creator, Jess Grave. She is a very interesting woman as well as the owner of Jess Graves Designs (http://jessgravesdesigns.com/) which makes custom cabinetry. She is also a very good photographer. This Meetup was unique (I think) in that two Meetup groups met together, the BCPMG and the TIPS group(Tri-State Imaging and Photography Society)headed up by Rex Alfes.

My thoughts: As meetings of this sort often go, the itinerary was a bit ambitious for the amount of time that was allowed. We broke into two groups, "How to Use Rear Curtain Sync" & "Sports Photography." I went with the Rear Curtain Sync crowd led by Rex, and it was very informative, as this was the first time I had my flash mounted atop my D90.

After about 25 minutes or so the two groups got back together for refreshments, and almost an hour later, people were still "shootin' the breeze" as my father used to say.
So, not knowing if the itinerary would pick back up, I decided to take the bull by the horns and put my very modest lighting setup together and shoot the two models that very graciously showed up to "sit" for us.

Colleen and AnnMarie are Model/Actresses, and apparently show up quite often to the Meetups. They were a blast to shoot! I have ZERO experience with shooting people let alone models, and they couldn't have been more accommodating. I felt quite at ease with them both and got, what I think, are some very nice shots.

So... If you have any inclination toward going to a Meetup, I would certainly encourage you to just do it.

Muggs

"Hello World"

I'm going to be brutally honest from the start; I'm not really sure I have anything to say.

I mean I thought it might be interesting to put pen to paper (so to speak) about my transition from film to pixels. You see I've been taking photographs literally since I can remember, and developing and printing negatives since I was 14 years old in my friend Buddy's basement. I fell in love with the smells and actions of processing the Kodak 126 film. I'll never forget the first time I cracked open the Instamatic film cartridge and, after picking up the film off of the floor, loading it into the stainless steel film reel.

I transitioned into 35mm, 2 1/4 Sq., 4x5, and 8x10, and at age 52 I decided to leave the world of silver halide and join the digital revolution. So... I sold all of my film "stuff" and bought a Nikon D90 DSLR. Now I'm a pretty tech savvy guy, by day I masquerade as a product designer using a CAD package called SolidWorks, but this thing has more bells and whistles than I've ever seen in a plastic box before in my life. But after playing, reading, playing, more reading, I finally made what I think is a decent photograph. In other words, it looks like film to me.

It was a cold day at Tohickan park and being down at the creek (crick) brought back many memories. I used to camp there with a friend and his family in the summers, and my family had our yearly Memorial Day picnic there every year. I was there about 4 hours. What bliss, just being out photographing and freezing my A__ off (it grew back).

I probably have some other photos from the trip worth printing as well but this was the first to catch my eye, and so it is the first to show up here. I hope this will be a place where I can document my digital growth.

I look forward to hearing what you think.

Muggs