I do what I do because it is what I want to do by choice. I don’t do it to inspire or encourage someone else, but if I do great. I do it to test and prepare myself. I like to do extreme things like walk the edge of a jagged mountain or cliff. I like to fight. I like to train harder than the average person and in dangerous enviroments with potentially dangerous methods because that is the only way to be fully in the moment and aware. Some choose to hide behind their excuses. I understand that what I do involves a level of risk and I accept that risk and take responsibility for for it. I understand that there is risk in stopping the bloodflow to my brain by being choked. I understand that a joint can be broken by submission and that a fall from a large rock might kill me. I also understand that being shot in a foreign land or beaten to death for not being properly prepared is a risk I take. I choose to face my fears. I do this not by hoping I’ll be okay, but by making sure and readying my body and mind for the next task whatever it may be. More below on the point of this and a comment I recieved…

http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=35 I decided to share this link because it not only talks about training related injuries that actors faced through doing an extremely rigerous and completely different fitness routine in a short period of time, but it also explains why they did what they did and works well with my point of why I do what I do. Yes it’s fun. Yes I could do other things. The fact of the matter is that I am held to elite physical standards through my work and am expected to do inhuman things when I’m placed in an intense scenario based on supreme confidence in training. My situation wasn’t giving me that and I am finding it on my own. Here is a quote from the article I am talking about…

“Butler commented that my idea of a workout is to “go until you are actually in fear of your life and then go further. Then, you do more.” He drew the connection between the physical and the psychological when he said, “It was preparation, too, for the mindset of King Leonidas. The Spartans were trained to be the best, and why be bashful about being the best? We, the Spartans, know who we are so completely that there’s no way an outsider can understand.” And, I suppose, this is more or less the way we described and prescribed the training for this project: the physical difficulties prepared the mind for the role…”

I hate to rant. I also hate drama. So when someone gets me mad I choose to not return fire and embarrass them for the most part. Rather than that I will use it to fuel a train of thought that would sway their point of view if they cared to listen to it with an open mind and without prejudice. The truth is that they will most likely never look at this post or do any real research on their own. At the same time I’ll listen to what they are saying and later try to forget it. The story is… I posted a few videos on here in a post entitled “Wednesday training and media”. You will see it a few days back. I then posted the videos on Facebook to show people on there what’s been going on with the club and asked friends to rate it even though I am usually pretty secretive about a lot of the stuff and share only what I feel like needs to be shared. Well secondhand I recieved a comment on my video that was something like this (I can’t quote him because I didn’t hear it directly and even if it was misinterpreted I will clear it up)…

‘I won’t comment his videos because he won’t like what I have to say. He is going to hurt himself or get someone else hurt with those jerky movements.’

First off… If you haven’t read this please do. http://aaifit.wordpress.com/disclaimer-rules-what-you-need-to-know/

Second…

Those “Jerky movements” are Olympic lifts and kettlebell work. Ever heard of a clean and jerk? I guess he hadn’t. Yes they are different and that is the point. Elite athletes use these tools to get physically fit. Elite doesn’t mean performing like everyone else. That also doesn’t mean someone can’t learn and practice the stuff on their own. Anyone who checks this site knows that the workouts and grappling done in the videos was not a recommendation to you, and was never posted as a workout or something you should do. It was left to the members only club and was clearly stated. I do this for a few reasons. One being that weak willed people may see what we do and think we are “overexerting ourselves” when we are training extreme endurance or hyperextending joints during movements or something similar. Another reason is that someone might get caught in the hype and destroy his body before understanding the work and conditioning himself for it. I haven’t been injured in a year of Kettlebell work, Olympic lifting, gymnastic training, endurance training and running, and haven’t seen any injuries from others doing the same. 1 year ago I was injured however on a mandatory 5 mile run which should have been easy because of lack of physical training and lack of rest. I have done all of my training on my own by teaching myself the techniques in my garage and have seen nothing but progress and quickly. I’ll admit that I did some stupid things early on. I rushed into the 300 workout not understanding fully what it was and not having done any of the movements before. See that here Those were the first deadlifts that I had ever done and my form was horrible. I had a sore back for a few days afterward. That was a year ago now. Looking at the big picture though isn’t there risk in everything? Imagine that a 15 year old is told to drive up the highway before he is taught to drive. Is that not a lot of risk? Now does that mean drive a car is too risky for anyone to do? Until you learn the proper way to pick up something or push it over your head and train it, there will be increased risk in doing it… THIS IS WHY WE DO IT REGULARLY! Risk decreases as training experience increases. So let’s say you are one of these guys that bench presses and eats all day because it’s safe and gets your muscles looking good (which is the concepts the commenter of my video follows) and suddenly you need to pick up some heavy boxes from the ground and stack them on shelves. Is it safer to do it not knowing how for the first time because it’s your job, or is it safer to train picking deadwieght up over and over in a controlled environment with a light load and over time increasing to a heavy one as your strength and power increase? We all know the answer. I can imagine that any little kid who walks across the road for the first time without holding a parents hand did so with an incredible amount of risk. That is why they do it in the first place and adults don’t need to. The more you do anything the better and safer you do it. Is this not common sense?… I won’t beat it with a dead horse (inside joke)

“If you always do what you’ve always done, than you will always get what you always got” -not sure who said it but I think that applies.

laws of functional strength. A guy that can do this… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFYo_ZrPDgU had to do a lot of training and take a LOT of risk to get there. Now that he is there though, it’s not so bad. Meanwhile you and I are left on the ground while he jumps across rooftops with ease and little risk compared to what we would have. I guess I did beat it with a dead horse. Oh well.

According to the chart below when I was trying to do some research the number 3 greatest injury risk in training is running/walking on a treadmill… Yes that’s right. Don’t ask me where they got their numbers but apparently that’s the case in some kind of study. Thinking about it I can image it true because a lot of people that run/walk on them do so for too long and do nothing else everyday with no rest in order to lose weight. All this does is put stress on your body, burn your mucles away, and put hard impact on your joints (the running). #6 is machines in a gym which which shocked me to beat out #7 freeweights. So not only are machines not safer, but they also don’t give you any core strength or stabilizer muscle strength and at the same time don’t strengthen joints since they take all of that work out of it. I know of five cases of Crossfiters getting Rhabdomyolosis and visits to the hospital and other than that injuries amount to sprains, sores, broken calluses, and similar. (here is the Crossfit Rhabdo article http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/38_05_cf_rhabdo.pdf ) All were new to the style but were previously in descent shape. The low weight, High Rep, High speed work that they jumped into with no easing into it caused the problems. I myself had an experience with Rhabdo and based on my knowledge took the time to post thorough knowledge on it and a full checklist for beginners in the “Beginners” column in order to avoid injury. If someone takes the workout I have posted without bothering to read all the warnings and knowledge I have put together for you guys first, that is not my problem. On the other hand I’ve heard of people being cured of years of sore backs from their jobs and things by building muscle in their core and many other positives that I won’t go into on this post to avoid tangents. Training the right way will do you know harm. Take a look at what this 48 year old is doing and has done with only few injuries in his years and years of rock climbing (including free climbing with no gear on renown difficult rocks and ice cliffs), biking and training in this style  http://www.gymjones.com/disciples.php?id=1 . Choose to be scared or choose to surpass it.

Here is the cold hard truth.

http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=34078

The first paragraph comes from…  http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/0123a-sport-injuries.htm Not sure what studies they did or where they came from but they had something different to say. Yes I myself was even surprised by numbers 3, 6, and 7.

“…A variety of other sports are ranked below, with the number of injuries per 1000 hours of activity in parentheses (‘Injuries in Recreational Adult Fitness Activities,’ The American Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 21 (3), pp. 461-467, 1993).

1. Alpine skiing (8)
2. Rowing machine exercise (6)
3. Treadmill walking or jogging (6)
4. Tennis (5)
5. Dancing classes (5)
6. Resistance training with weight machines (4)
7. Resistance training with free weights (4)
8. Outdoor cycling (3.5)
9. Stationary cycle exercise (2)
10. Stair climbing (2)
11. Walking (2)
Of course, injuries in sports such as rugby and lacrosse are often the result of impacts with other players – or with other players’ equipment, as in squash. Such injuries are often very difficult to avoid. Your body may be strong, flexible, and injury-resistant, but if another player’s racket catches you in the eye, you’re going to be hurt, no matter how well prepared you are.”

Facts below from www.americansportsdata.com

“Sports injury research is an intensely practical component of the sports participation knowledge base, and the mere existence of a sub-discipline called “sports injury epidemiology” (in this context, roughly the descriptive quantification of injuries deriving from sports participation) suggests a great abundance of vital and compelling data. But nothing could be further from reality: THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A MAJOR NATIONAL PUBLIC SURVEY OF SPORTS INJURIES IN THE U.S. — at least not since the 1970’s! Given the considerable number and variety of groups that stand to benefit from such a research initiative, this is indeed a curious state of affairs. Governing medical bodies, federal agencies, professional associations, educational institutions, municipalities and a host of other sports venues should be natural evangelists for such an effort…

…At the very least, we would expect that arbiters of sports medicine — the de facto medical policemen who oversee research, publish journals, issue safety guidelines and other proclamations to the sports and fitness industries, might — at some point or other — have commisioned a national study on the very subject of their expertise. But not a single professional organization has made this effort!”

-http://www.americansportsdata.com/sports_injury1.asp

ARM : EL BRAZO

armpit : la axila :: elbow : el codo :: forearm : el antebrazo

HAND : LA MANO

wrist : la muñeca :: palm : la palma :: fist : el puño

FINGER : EL DEDO

fingernail : la uña :: knuckle : el nudillo :: thumb : el pulgar/el dedo gordo :: index finger : el dedo índice :: middle finger : el dedo medio/el dedo corazón :: ring finger : el dedo anular :: little finger : el dedo meñique

LEG : LA PIERNA

thigh : el muslo :: knee : la rodilla :: ankle : el tobillo :: calf : la pantorrilla

FOOT : EL PIE

bottom of the foot : la planta del pie :: heel : el talón :: arch el arco :: toe : el dedo del pie :: big toe : el dedo grande del pie

Now that you’re starting to get some fantastic photos (and I know you are), you want to share them with your family and friends.

You could innudate everyone in your address book with daily email updates. This can be annoying to some people. Especially if they don’t get the rusty bolt you shot in black and white because you think it’s artistic.

They can even get sick of looking at 50 photos of the new baby because you can’t bear to delete a single one.

If you’re going to go that route be selective and send photos that will appeal to everyone. You know what I mean. Really cute ones that make everyone say “awww” or a beautiful sunsets or selective photos of your family.

For example, you may have noticed I shoot a lot of photos of deer. This is because they’re very prolific here and I use them as focal points for otherwise ordinary scenes.

If I emailed everyone in my address book with every deer photo I take, many of which aren’t even worth keeping, they would probably write back “Get over the deer and take me out of your address book.”

I might just pick one to send that I really like. Like this 6 point buck.

Since it’s hunting season here and that’s like a national holiday and everyone takes a week off work or school, they would probably like this one.

They would want to know where I saw it but I’m not telling. This was one of the few photos Aunt Sally liked and she insisted we go find it. Granted she can fix venison. With supervision so she doesn’t forget she’s cooking and start a fire.

Another way to share your photos is to upload them to a photo hosting site. That way you just send a link to your family and friends and they can check them out when they want.

You can also get comments from other photographers who might really like your BW rusty bolt and they will post comments like “Nice find. Love it in BW” and then people who thought it was bizarre will see that it is really a great photo and rethink their critique.

As for critiques, on a photo hosting site, if you ask for them you will get them. More accomplished photographers will tell you how you can improve your photos.

You may not agree or you may try what they suggest.

As in the above photo, someone might say “I think it would look better if you cropped it a little tighter.” Or they may say “Another photo of a deer?” So if you do want criticism, be open to it.

When you post on a photo hosting site realize there are thousands of people there and yours might never be seen unless you interact with other photographers.

Comment on their photos, join forums if they have them, enter contest or challenges if they offer them. Most will reciprocate by looking at your photos. I don’t care how fantastic a photo you get if you aren’t an active participant, it will probably get lost in the shuffle.

Don’t upload every photo you take. Only upload the ones you’re especially pleased with.

For example, I wouldn’t upload this photo I took of the pin they make me wear at work so people will buy lottery tickets. I was just experimenting to see if I could capture the flashing lights.

This is a very large pin about three inches across. To convey the size I would have had to _____(fill in the blank.) That’s right. Shoot macro mode or zoom in. But then I would have had_____(fill in the blank.) Shallow DOF.  Which I didn’t want for this test run.

In fact, I gave it to Aunt Sally and told them I forgot to take it off my vest and it went through the washer and is officially dead now. She loves it. She wants to wear to church on Christmas Day. I have to work on that one.

I did save this photo because I did capture the flashing lights and I need it to check the exif for shooting Christmas lights. But that doesn’t mean I’m putting it on my photo site.

To start on a photo site, you want to only use your best photos.  Less is more. You will get more hits and comments if people don’t have to wade through 50 photos of your Christmas tree.

I am going to list some popular photo hosting sites. I am not recommending any of them.  Some allow free hosting up to a certain limit of usage. Others allow trial memberships for a certain period of time and then you have to pay a fee to join.

With some sites you can order or sell prints and other items like mugs, Tshirts, greeting cards, mouse pads, etc with your photos on them.

One way to get the feel of a photo hosting site and whether the people using it like it or not is to read their forums. This is also a useful place to get any questions you may have answered.

Pbase.

SmugMug.

Zenfolio.

Flickr.

Photobucket.

Kodak Gallery .

Photo Camel .

I know I’m missing some but this should get you started.

Here’s Karen with the weather. Yep, it’s a deer.

Later.

Last night was my final night of teaching bellydance classes in 2009. Both were lovely – the beginners’ class was quite quiet but that allowed those who came to have the lesson really tailored to what they wanted (which turned out to be learning to join moves together and dancing the class choreography several times).

The intermediate class was a different kind of lovely with two of the students dancing for the class (this is something I like to encourage for the last week of term). It was a bit touch-and-go because I’d left my speakers at home, but my lovely husband came to the rescue and appeared with them part-way into the class. It split the lesson nicely as it meant we used the venue’s CD player to play my standby CD for the warm-up and practice part of the lesson and then had my mp3 player and speakers by the time we were ready for the performances.

The student performances were lovely – one danced to “Şımarık” by Tarkan (‘Kiss Kiss’)

and the other to “Unicorn” by Gojira.

Very different pieces of music and very different performances, both beautiful. I’m really, really happy that my students are able to develop their own style, rather than be dominated by mine.

I also danced for the class. It’s so different dancing for people who know something about bellydance! I spotted the look of recognition of the various moves on their faces and quite a different look of appreciation to those who don’t know/study it. I think for a teacher and/or pro dancer it’s a more demanding and challenging audience but for a student it has the potential to be a much more supportive and nurturing environment, partly because your peers know exactly how hard those moves are and can sympathise.

And now it’s time for a break from teaching until Jan 17th!

Once your doctor approves your fitness plan and goals, your next step is to purchase a good pair of walking shoes. Depending on where you will be walking you may want to consider purchasing a pair of hiking shoes, especially if you plan to continue walking outdoors in an area that receives snow fall. Walking outdoors in the winter can be quite invigorating.

However, the beauty of walking is you can walk indoors too. Purchase a treadmill or join a gym during the winter months if you do not want to walk outdoors in the cold.

If you are watching your budget, check with a local college. Many have an indoor track or gymnasium you can use for little or no cost provided a class is not training in it. The physical education instructor can provide you with a schedule for the current semester. Once you know the schedule of availability, you can use the space as your time permits.

Whether you decide to walk to lose weight, tone & strengthen muscle or to achieve overall fitness, the benefits can last a lifetime.

Walking promotes weight loss through caloric burn. The more you walk the more calories you will burn and the more weight you will lose.

Walking also promotes a healthy heart and lungs. Through walking you will develop a stronger cardiovascular system.

To attain better aerobic fitness, pick up the pace by walking faster. If you have the ability, you may intermittently jog and walk.

All fitness programs have three basic components.

The warm-up is the first part of a fitness routine. Gentle stretches is an excellent warm-up and many books offer diagrams of the appropriate techniques. It warms the body in preparation for the more intense paced main activity of your program.

The main body of your fitness routine is where the real activity occurs. Start with physical walking for 15 minutes, 3 times a week. You can also add upper body calisthenics for toning muscles in that area.

End your workout with a cool down. Walk less aggressively to ease the pumping of your heart and slow your blood flow. Stretching can also be performed again and is a great way to prevent muscle stiffness.

When you realize the benefits of walking and fitness improves, you can gradually add 5 minutes to your routine. You can also add another day of walking into your week. As you continue to look and feel better, increase the amount of time you walk until you are performing your fitness routine 30-60 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week.

Tags : New Balance Running Shoes

Being properly outfitted and knowing the golfing terms associated with golf will help give your confidence on your very first day on the golf course!

Never underestimate the power of dressing correctly for any activity where you wish to excel. Sure you can go to the course dressed in jeans and a decorated tee shirt and you can also feel totally out of place, which is not good for your score. You can also adapt the “I don’t give a damn” attitude as well, but you will probably always be a beginner golfer.

It’s not too hard to be perceived as an “experienced” golfer, just wear a nice pair of khakis and a knit shirt with a collar. Okay we know Tiger can get away with a shirt with no collar, but you’re not exactly in that category of golfer – yet. Plus don’t forget the proper golf shoes and today that usually means ones without cleats (many golf courses only permit shoes without cleats). If you are just into your first attempts at playing golf you can usually rent shoes and clubs for that matter and not make a huge initial investment. Once you find you love the game – then start shopping.

Many municipal courses do not have a dress code for golf, but why not dress the part right from the start? Golf started as a “gentlemen’s” game and still is considered such. There are golf rules and golfing terms you will want to learn as well, and proper clothing goes right along with the whole game of golf.

Many beginner golfers first try golf on their vacation, which may be at some resort with a golf course you have heard or read about, but your khakis and knit shirt will do just fine even there.

Ah! And let’s not forget the ladies. Ladies golf dress code is similar to the men’s, inasmuch as you must have a collar on your shirt and the old, old rule of shorts at least 3 dollar bills in length. Of course we usually don’t worry too much about how the gals will dress as they have probably boned up on it and have already bought a substantial golf wardrobe.

And don’t think dress codes are different for golfing spots around the world. Probably the U.S.A. is the most lax, but they all require the minimum of what we mentioned above. We get a lot of requests about the dress code for Myrtle Beach golf courses and yeh, you got it, and they have the same dress codes plus regulations about golf shoes without cleats.

We want you to succeed at the game of golf, for your sake and also for ours, because when you get to looking good and feeling good about your game, you’ll be looking for golf packages and golf vacations…and guess what? That is what we do!

So check out golfnvacation.com – you’ll find the golfing terms you need to know, some important golf rules and other beginner golf tips on how to get the most from your golf lesson, etc. and you can ask us about beginner golf vacations as well. So stop by and get going on that game, we’re waiting for you to book those upcoming golf vacations with your new golfing buddies!

Visit : Shoes Golf

I’ve been putting together a long list of body part words in Spanish. I thought I’d share with the group. This will be the first of several; we’ll work our way down from head to toe.

HEAD : LA CABEZA

forehead : la frente :: face : la cara :: cheek : la mejilla :: chin : la barbilla/el mentón :: beard : la barba :: skin : la piel :: complexion : el cutis :: freckle : la peca :: ear : la oreja/el oído :: hair : el pelo/el cabello

EYE : EL OJO

eyebrow : la ceja :: eyelash : la pestaña :: eyelid : el párpado :: pupil : la pupila :: iris : el iris

MOUTH : LA BOCA

lip : el labio :: mustache : el bigote :: tooth : el diente :: tongue : la lengua :: nose : la nariz

NECK : EL CUELLO

nape (back of the neck) : la nuca :: throat : la garganta

TORSO : EL TORSO

body : el cuerpo :: chest : el pecho :: nipple : el pezón :: back : la espalda :: backbone : la columna vertebral :: shoulder : el hombro :: shoulder blade : el omoplato

ABDOMEN : EL ABDOMEN/EL VIENTRE

belly : la barriga/el vientre :: navel : el ombligo :: waist : la cintura :: hip : la cadera :: groin : la ingle :: buttocks : las nalgas

WOD:
“Lynne Lite” = Three Bars of a Slight Concussion
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of
Deadlift, 75lbs
Chest press, 65lbs
Hang power clean, 55lbs

This workout was one of those things that stamped a big bone head sticker on my forehead. I let my ego take over as usual, and attempted this workout as prescribed with:

1.5x bodyweight deadlift ~225lbs
1.0x chest press ~150lbs
0.75x clean ~115lbs

What resulted after the third round was a complete catastrophic failure aka I had literally tweaked the living crud out of my lower back. This was way too much weight for what I was capable of at the time. I was fatigued from overloading my previous workouts and I was not taking rest days seriously. This caused me to surrender my form on the last fateful deadlift and it ended up taking me out of my training for a good 2-3 weeks. With the help of my wife, it took about a week for me to help guide her in relocating my lower back tendons into place. And after some foam roller rehab, everything eventually popped back and I was able to walk upright again at work without pain. We all do stupid things, but this was definitely a lesson in trying to keep those stupid things to a minimum.

I’ll be teaching two sets of classes on Wednesday evenings at The Yoga Room: Beginners from 7.30pm and Intermediates from 8.30pm. My Thursday evening beginners classes at Out Of The Blue will continue at 7.30pm. All classes cost £36 (£32 concession) for an 8 week block (Jan 20th/21st – Mar 17th/18th, skipping Feb 24th/25th). I’ve decided that since I’m running 2 sets of beginners’ classes, for those who are super keen they can buy both sets of classes for £65 (£60). How nice am I? J

AND to kick off the term I’ve got a beginners workshop running on the Sunday before, Sunday 17th January 2010, from 11am-1pm at Out Of The Blue. Workshop costs £10 (£9).

Like last term I’ve got paypal set up so you can go to my site http://www.shelleyskipper.com/classes.html to book all classes and/or workshops there. And if you don’t fancy paypal cheques, bank transfer and cash are all fine.

I’m working on an article about the various online Bible study tools, but I’m not ready to post it yet. However, I recently discovered Twitter Bible, and I think it’s something everyone needs to see.

The Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/WWGT (What would God tweet). The writer’s moniker is Holy Ghostwriter, and the location is listed as “heaven.”  The Twitter page shows a link to an article on a Web site named Not the LA Times. Huh? And, God Himself is supposed to be the writer.

The writer attempts to craft Bible verses in the latest modern language while keeping it under the 140-character per-tweet limit. Spiced with humor, the writing is very creative.  On the Twitter venue, the writer is sure to reach some people who don’t know or have lost interest in the Bible.

Check out this example of the Twitter “translation.”

“Jesus foresees Twitter, shortens 10 Commandments to under 140 characters: Love God 110%, love neighbor like self. (Mark 12.30-31)”

OK, so I should have called it a paraphrase instead of a translation. I’m going to follow WWGT for a while and see where it goes. Check back next week for my article on the online Bible study tools.

I posted on a couple photo sites asking for other photographers to share their work on my blog.

I mentioned in another post that the only reason I am only using my own photos is that I had emailed some photographers whose work I liked and they never responded.

Really, I’m not egocentric or think I’m the world’s best photographer.

Without their permission, I couldn’t link to them or show their photos.

I am starting to get some responses so for today, I will post the links I’ve gotten and a couple of photos to go along with them.

These are ones I like. All these photographers have a larger body of very nice work and my favorite may not be your favorite so check out the links.

For the purposes of this blog, I tried to pick ones that were not  heavily post processed although those are simply wonderful too.

Since this is for beginners who may be using the photo editing software that came with their cameras, it might be hard to create the same effects.

There are whole books and blogs and tutorials on editing digital photographs and it is something you’re going to want to do at some point so take a look at those photos too.

I will add to this post as I get more so check back.

And definitely check out the links and look at these wonderful artists’ work. You can learn a lot about photography and your own point of view by browsing through them and deciding what you like and what you would like to imitate.

There is nothing wrong with imitating someone else’s style. It will still turn out to be your own in the end because every person is different and that will come through.

A word about EXIF. What is it? Not something Aunt Sally screams when she wants me to let her drive to the store and I won’t.

It’s the information about a photo that is embedded in the image and yes, it’s in yours too. It shows what kind of camera, mode of shooting, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, etc. You can use it to see your settings when you captured a photo exactly the way you wanted.

You didn’t really think I remembered every setting I posted for my photographs, did you? I looked at the exif.

Some editing programs will show it and others won’t.

Here is a free program called Exifer which will show you the data in your photos if your software doesn’t. Exifer has been discontinued and there are some links to other programs as well. You can still download Exifer if you want.

Many of these photos have the exif below them so you can see how the photographer captured what he did. Technically. With art it’s more than just the tools and how they’re used but also the vision of the artist.

You can view the photos full size by clicking on their titles.

The first photographer is from Canada. His name is Mike Stobbs. His galleries can be seen here. They are also for sale. If you’re interested click on “profile” in the header for information.

Double Start

The Pickle Shot.

Walter Koenig lives in California. His Pbase galleries are here. His web page is here.

June 26

December 16

Doug J is an American living in Singapore. His photo galleries can be seen here.

2 Smiles

Bellows

I’ve given you a lot of information and it may seem overwhelming at this point. By looking at really great photographers you can see what can be done with a camera with time, practice and experience.

The more you practice, the faster you’ll be able to achieve what you want whatever that may be even if it’s just taking super family photos.

Don’t be afraid to try new things. They might not work but then again they could turn out to be some of the best photos you’ve taken.

Here’s Karen with the weather.

Later.

We came accross a series of slideshare presentations that deal with everything from designing with the beginner in mind to complete design for PowerPoint. Below you will see 4 links to the entire series

Principles of Presentation Design:

The Beginners Mind

Crafting A Story

Developing Your Message

Designing in PowerPoint

Here is a simple interval training treadmill workout routine for beginners.

Just watch the video and follow along.

Time for more advice on GMing a RPG at a convention! In previous installments I talked about figuring out what you want to get out of it and coming up with titles for your events. This post will cover writing the blurbs that will describe your games in the convention’s program book.  I’ll use the ones I did for Anonycon as examples, and then try to extract some general guidelines for good blurb-writing – which will also start to cover advice about the content of the adventures you’ll run, since that’s what the blurbs describe.

First up is the blurb for Hidden Secrets of Tamoachan:

Your band of adventurers accidentally destroyed the world. So far, only you know that in a few days everyone on the planet will die horribly. Your hasty research into ancient lore suggests that an escape route may be found in the depths of the legendary pyramid of Tamoachan. Can you fight your way through a dungeon full of poison gas and the relics of ancient civilizations, or will you die a little ahead of everyone else?

NOTE: The story of this adventure is loosely connected to “Swords and Star-Tribes,” “Battlefield Oerth”, and “War for the Starship Warden.” Players are welcome to sign up for all of these events, or just enjoy this one on its own.

6 players, AD&D 1e. Characters will be provided. No rules knowledge necessary.

Start with a bang. A good blurb will catch the reader’s attention within the first sentence. It doesn’t have to be as literal a bang as the destruction of the world, but it should be surprising, exciting, and quickly get across the essence of  the game – in this case, high-powered, light-hearted wahoo adventure.

Offer a unique experience. A long-form RPG campaign allows for lots of things like character development and sandbox world-building that you can’t do in a convention game where you’ll only see the players for a handful of hours.  Your adventure should take advantage of the things you wouldn’t do in a regular campaign, like destroying the game world! Some of my favorite unique possibilities of a con game, like designing the pregen characters’ Vancian magic to exactly dovetail with the challenges of the adventure, or making their individual goals into a shaped charge set to self-destruct at the end of the session, can’t be advertised in a blurb without giving it away. But you can and should say right up front that the PCs are going to be rulers of warring magocracies , or waking up naked in prison, or whatever other scenario that would be awesome to play once but too difficult to manuever campaign PCs into or unwieldy to sustain in regular play.

Is this game part of a series? Most convention games are one-shot affairs.  If that’s not true and you’re running a multiple-round tournament or a series of tightly-linked games where it’s important that players who were in one session come back for another, be sure to let people know so they can schedule accordingly! Many cons will have a pull-down menu or something you can use to say “this is a tournament,” but it’s still a good idea to explain the details of what you expect in your blurb. The loosely linked series I describe in this note is something I haven’t tried before. The idea is to let people who like one event come back for more, without turning away people who can’t schedule them all (a problem that often keeps me from playing in tournaments). We’ll see how it works!

What do players need to play? Most cons will ask you to specify whether all levels of experience with the game system are welcome and if players need to bring anything, and some will ask whether it’s suitable for all ages. It’s a good idea to provide that info even if the con doesn’t ask for it, because players want to know if they qualify for an event and you want to have people show up who are ready to enjoy the game the way you want to play it. You generally don’t need to specify that players need dice, pencils, and paper (although you should bring extra of each just in case). Even if your blurb says that players should bring their own characters, it’s a good idea to have some pre-generated ones available. Personally I’d say that unless you’re playing a game where group interaction is necessary to the character-making process, your limited time at the convention is better spent on playing than making the PCs you’ll need to play. I have already self-administered the censure necessary for disagreeing with Gygax on this point. I also think that it’s better to run events that are open to newbies, because it’s fun and worthy, but you should be sure that you actually are ready to help people who don’t know what they’re doing & aren’t trying to achieve something like playing a mechanically complex system or a conceptually sophisticated scenario where inexpertise would be disruptive.

Next blurb, for Swords and Star-tribes:

You are the Captains of the Crossed Swords, and your might, mutations, and wits have conquered all the lands you know. But the hawkoids from the vent in the sky-vault tell of new conquests. You have long suspected that there are many other lands layered above and below. And you’ve heard heretics whisper that your world is truly a vast ship traveling from one ball of gas to another. But what does it mean that “the Warden has landed”?

Playing this game will let you be a... Part of the appeal of RPGs is trying out new and exciting roles, and one reason to go to conventions is to experience characters and situations you wouldn’t normally. A good blurb quickly gets across to the reader who they’d be if they played this game, and hopefully makes it sound appealing. For traditional party-based games, I like to get across the idea that the PCs will be part of a cohesive unit; it saves time at the table explaining “your guys have  already been on many adventures together.”  Company of the Crossed Swords isn’t all that attractive (I was stuck thinking of a party name and so stole one from the Glantri campaign ) but who doesn’t want to be a conqueror possessed of might, mutations, and wits? I like to flatter the players with blurbs of the “your awesomeness will crush stars under your heel” variety. However, James’ famous line “This is the story of a gang of insanely greedy, stupid, merciless cowards trying to bullshit their way to a wholly undeserved victory” would also be a great blurb because it tells you right there who you’re going to be, and if it doesn’t sound like fun you’re probably not the player for that event!

End with a challenge!? The idea here is that the last sentence of the blurb is a personal call to action. Will your superior playing skills prevail, or will this infamous dungeon TPK another lot of pathetic losers? I dare you to preregister for this game and find out! Using all that dramatic punctuation is kind of a cheap trick, but I do it all the time anyway. Subtle refinement and RPGs don’t mix.

Next blurb,  Battlefield Oerth:

Your fellowship of heroes were the only ones to escape the hideous fate that befell your world. But do you have what it takes to survive an environment where metal walls talk and pigs can fly? In the spirit of D&D classics like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, in this adventure you’ll pit your swords and spells against robots and ray-guns. The future of more species than your own is yours to decide!

“It’s like Jaws, in space”. A blurb is like a high-concept movie pitch. You’re trying to sell someone on an unknown quantity. Pointing out how it’s like something they already know and love (e.g. Barrier Peaks) can help get your idea across. I think I used this technique for this blurb because I was insecure about how the fantasy/science fiction hybrid and wanted to point out its Gygaxian pedigree.

Highlight the cool. If your game has swords, spells, rockets, and rayguns, put that in the blurb! (Contrariwise, if the title of your event seems to promise something you won’t really deliver, this is your place to set people straight.) I’ve talked a lot about attracting players to your event, but ultimately you don’t want just any players. Getting the ones who’ll dig the kind of game you want to play also means repelling the ones who won’t. One accepted way to do this by specifying that players are required to have experience with the game system, because that way you can filter out the ones who don’t know yet that they won’t like the kinds of thing that system aims to deliver. Other than that, though, I think that if you try to use your blurb to describe the kinds of people who shouldn’t sign up for your event you’ll just look like an asshole. Highlighting the cool helps get the right players in both directions. The more I express my enthusiasm for mixing swords and rockets, the more people who think that’s lame will know not to sign up. If I don’t mention this central awesomeness, I’ll both fail to attract people who like that kind of thing and run the risk that some of the people who do show up will be dismayed when I spring it on them.

Last blurb, War for the Starship Warden:

Defend your home against invaders from Oerth! As long as you have charges left in your disruptor pistols, robots at your command, and the mental ability to drain energy from living organisms, the outsiders don’t stand a chance. This free-wheeling adventure uses the framework of the 4E rules to create a high energy mashup of the world’s first fantasy and science-fiction RPGs. Will it be you or your enemy who sets the next destination for the Warden?

Set the stakes. Even if they’ll only actually play in your world once, players want to feel that their actions will have lasting consequences. Unless you’re  in an organized play league like the RPGA, a one-shot convention game can’t provide the usual markers of change over time in a campaign like the steady accumulation of experience points (although I’m always surprised how often players nevertheless ask “How many XP did we get?” at the end of a con session). What it can offer is the freedom to set up a scenario where every outcome will involve dramatic sweeping changes that would totally screw up an ongoing campaign. One year at Princecon we were dealing with entire branches falling off the Tree of Life – although that’s maybe not the best example because the events of each Princecon do build on each other in a unique AFAIK kind of ongoing campaign stretching back to 1976, and I think next year the races that we failed to graft back on were no longer available as PCs.

Know what the action of your event will be. You’ll often write your blurbs before you actually put together the adventure they describe. This is Not Recommended! I didn’t really have it clear in my mind what would happen in this event when I wrote the blurb. I’d like to say that’s because I was avoiding having a foregone conclusion and letting the events of this one be shaped by player actions in the previous games in the series. In fact, I’m much more enthusiastic about having the GM lay rails to the action when it comes to convention games (although Zak provides good advice on how to do this in a sandbox style in this post at Playing D&D with Porn Stars). Really, I was just counting on procrastination to make me figure out what I was going to do right before the con, which may or may not yet happen in the four days remaining, and it kind of shows in this blurb.

Planning to run a convention game and want ideas for your blurb or feedback on the one you’ve drafted? Post in the comments and the Mule mass-mind will provide. It’d also be cool to have folks write blurbs for games they want to play in, instead of run; perhaps someone will take up that gauntlet!

Lesson 14.

I haven’t mentioned this very important type of  photography until now because most people want to see their photographs in colors. In fact, the more vivid, the better.

In a way this is back to basics because black and white photography teaches you form, composition and graphical viewpoints in a way that color can’t.

Black and white is more forgiving of over exposure than color. Very dark shadows can be interesting instead of distracting. There are many times it actually works better than color.

A few of us older folks started photography using black and white film because we could develop it ourselves the way we wanted it to look. I really don’t miss smelling those toxic chemicals. And digital cameras have a black and white function so I don’t have to use a darkroom again.

So go into your camera’s menu and select black and white. You can also convert color photos to black and white (BW) with editing but this will be easier and produce good results.

Shoot a few practice shots of whatever you want to see how different things look in BW. Some will work. Some won’t.

This is one time you can use point and shoot. I can’t because I’m a control freak and I don’t mean I like to fiddle with the controls on the camera. I mean I like to control the exposure.

I wouldn’t make you do anything I’m not willing to do myself and I haven’t shot BW in a long time. I may have converted a few color images but it’s just not the same because it’s after the fact and I’m not shooting for BW.  So I’m rusty at it. I’ll admit it.

I shot these few with my Olympus C5050Z digicam just going outside and walking around for five minutes. In fact all the photos were taken with the Olympus.

In this one, I’m playing with light and shadow and form.

Okay, it won’t win any awards but it’s a start.

Next I saw this rusted lock which would just look mundane in color. You may think it’s not a whole lot better in BW and that I have a thing for peeling paint. Which I do.

Another graphical image. I really liked the way the tones came out on this one. Remember, you’re learning and I’m learning so maybe these all aren’t going to be “keepers”  but we’re seeing what works and what doesn’t.

Bear in mind I’m only showing the ones I kept. There were quite a few that ended up in the recycle bin.

I had to take my car to the garage because of an electrical malfunction which makes it think the trunk lid is always open even when it’s not.

My car is old and it keeps developing new and interesting symptoms all the time. Aunt Sally measure car years in people years by a multiple of four and she insists my car is only 48 years old and not ready for the junk yard yet.

She also loves BW photos except for the “weird” ones but that’s because she is so old it was all they had when she was growing up.

In fact, most people like BW photos if they’re done right.

There is a point to this whole digression. Another exercise that will improve your skills is to pick a place and shoot all your photos in that place. It could be the woods, a McDonald’s, your workplace, one block in a street. Whatever you choose. I chose the garage.

I think government buildings are off limits though. It might not be perceived as an innocent photography lesson even if it is. Especially if you decide the heating vent has interesting lines and start photographing it.

I’ve taken photos in government buildings without any problems but I don’t know the law regarding this so I’m not recommending it.

Besides Aunt Sally is now banned from all federal buildings because she refused to give her pocket knife to the guard at the Social Security office. In fact, she caused a scene and I think the clincher was when she told him to “Bring it on.” Anyway, I’d err on the side of caution.

With the photos you take try to capture the essence of the place you are photographing so that someone who looks at the photos knows where you were and can feel what it was like to be there.

I’ve been out of school for many years but this is still something I do occasionally.

First some atmospheric photos of the garage.

The Garage Wall.

Car Engine

Some Kind of Tool

Coat Hanging by the Coal Stove.

One of the most effective use of BW is in people photography. With color, we notice skin tone, blemishes and uneven shading more.

The mechanics at this garage where I’ve been going for years are used to my camera. That does not mean they will stop working and pose for me.  You work with what you got.

This is Doug, the owner of the garage.

This girl wandered in. She is somebody’s daughter.  She didn’t seem to mind being photographed.

You may be saying, “Well, that’s real nice that you got your old beat up vehicle working again so it doesn’t beep, beep, beep at you when your key’s in the ignition because it thought the trunk lid was open but I don’t get it.”

I doubt publishers will be beating down my door to be the first to print “Two Hours in the Garage.” Aunt Sally looked at them and asked if it was too early to have a beer. It was.

With photography, you have to keep challenging yourself and trying new things. You always keep learning. You file what you’ve learned in some part of your brain that remembers it without consciously doing so.

That’s because you’re using the right side of your brain which is more intuitive and visual. You don’t have to make up weird acronyms to memorize anything like “scafie” for shutter speed, composition, aperture, focus, iso, exposure. Besides that’s not even a real word and you’d never remember it.

Plus standing in a noisy garage is boring unless you’re a mechanic and have some idea what is going on. Photography is always entertaining for boring errands.

You wouldn’t believe how quickly I get called back to an exam room when I pull out my camera in a doctor’s office.

Now, here’s Karen with the weather.

And, of course, in BW although this was converted in Photoshop not shot that way.

WOD:
“Joshie Lite”
AMRAP in 15min of:
15 jumps
15 sit ups
15 back extensions

Mann = 3 rounds + 10 jumps

Always seems easier in writing doesn’t?

Lesson 12.

I’ve talked about aperture and how it relates to shutter speed and effects DOF.

Shutter speed is very important to photography too. With shutter speed you can freeze motion or do the opposite and blur it. The faster the shutter speed the more the motion of any moving object is frozen and the slower the shutter speed the more a moving object is blurred.

First you can learn how to freeze motion because it’s easier and more predictable.

There is another related technique called panning which I will also cover.

Of course, there has to be strong enough light to get a fast shutter speed. Sometimes you can stop up the lowest aperture and still not achieve it. Or you can bump up the ISO. I like to avoid that because it usually produces noise which is a digital kind of film grain that never really looks as good as film grain.

Adding to the confusion, shutter speed is relative to how fast the object is going. The faster it’s moving, the higher the shutter speed you need to freeze it.

Here is an example of freezing motion using a shutter speed of 1/1000 with an aperture of f6.3. I had a lot of light despite the fog. In fact, the fog may have helped by reflecting the light back at the camera.

This deer is running fast so I needed a very fast shutter speed.

And yes, I know I shoot a lot of deer photos. They’re there and they’re pretty and they’re challenging and great for practicing because they hate cameras. Maybe they think they’re guns. They’re not rocket scientists but they know when an object is pointed at them it might not end well.

Here is one that didn’t require as fast a shutter speed because this man is just strolling out of the store. He didn’t see me and I’m glad because he looks the type who would pour the hot coffee on your head if he did.

I should make another point here about photographing people in public. The way I understand it if you’re in a public place no photo release is required. Think about it. If a newspaper photographer shot a crowd of people, he couldn’t possibly get photo releases from everyone.

Having said that keep in mind that the vast majority of people do not want you to take their photo. Some will get ugly if they see you.

Practice stealth photography so you don’t have to explain it to them.They usually don’t want to hear it and unless Aunt Sally is riding shotgun with her crowbar you can end up having to buy a new camera.

I shot this from inside my car with my digicam which isn’t very large and noticeable like my DLSR.

This was shot using f 2.8 and 1/200 shutter speed.

Here is another man who didn’t see me for the obvious reason he was so hung over he was sitting on a curb on a busy road which is something you do only when you’ve had a very long night and your judgment is impaired. And he had his back to me.

You will notice some motion blur here despite using a shutter speed of 1/640 because the car is going fast.

Here is a final example of water in motion. This is not to be confused with the creamy effect that is oh so popular. I will show you next how to do that. You use a very slow shutter speed.

I know it doesn’t make sense unless you think about it. In essence you are not freezing the motion with a slow shutter speed but blurring it. Here you are freezing it despite it looking more like it’s moving. And now, I’ve even confused myself.

There are times when you want to blur motion by using a slow shutter speed. I mentioned the oh so popular creamy effect. You’ve seen it. You love it. Admit it.

To do this, you need a slow shutter speed. This is one time you might need a tripod. Lacking that you can set up your camera up first and then sit it on something and set the timer.

First stop down to a small aperture (high number) until you can get a very slow shutter speed. Hand held, usually 1/10 is the lowest number you can get to without camera movement interfering with shot.

Here is a creamy falls photo shot at 1/8.

Here is another shot from the very top of this waterfall where the light was better although it’s not a very good photo. Even I admit that. It’s all about practice and you can never do that enough.

However, it illustrates the slower the shutter speed, the creamier the effect. This was shot at 1/6.

Here is another example of using a slow shutter speed for selective blur. The flag was the only thing moving besides me and Aunt Sally in this place. And she was busy looking for her great uncle who isn’t buried there so I knew I’d have time to get as many shots as I wanted until I got it right.

I was finally satisfied with this one. You may like it. You may hate it. In the end if you don’t learn how to do it then you can’t.

Shot at 1/10.

This is just fun to do and you don’t have a lot of choice when shooting moving cars at night. It would be much more interesting on a busy road with a lot of cars and if the power pole wasn’t blocking the car  but I wasn’t on a busy road and it was cold and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time waiting for another car.

1/15.

To end there is one other way to capture a fast moving object and that is called panning. Panning means moving the camera in sync with the subject. It causes everything but the object to blur because as you’ve learned camera motion causes blur. This is one time you don’t care.

Often  it’s done with a tripod with a very smooth moving ball head. I do it hand held. I do everything possible hand held or improvise because I don’t like lugging a tripod around. That’s just me.

It requires a lot of practice and a lot of failed efforts. You have to do it until it becomes almost Zen like and you don’t even think about it. In fact, a lot times because the object is moving you don’t have time to think about it.

You want to focus fast and move your camera to a spot where the subject will be when you press the shutter and press it. This happens in a second. You can practice on joggers, people on bicycles and moving cars.

Here is a pick up truck going about 35 mph.

And I’ll end with another deer photo  because I’ve practiced a lot on them.

This is actually fun stuff to do so practice.

Here’s Karen with the weather.

Later.

There’s been a lot of talk about the literary antecedents of Dungeons & Dragons, and TV shows reflecting the eclectic design ethos of the early days.  But (to my knowledge) there’s been relatively little talk about that other medium influencing and reflecting early Dungeons & Dragons play: interactive fiction, a/k/a “text adventures” like Zork, Wishbringer and A Mind Forever Voyaging.

To make a long post somewhat shorter, here are two points I want to raise:

1. Back in the day, these sorts of adventure games were about as good as CRPG’s got, and they were a significant part of the Geek-geist, at least among those of us who began playing D&D with the B/X or BECMI stuff of the early 1980’s.  I think the feedback between tabletop RPG’s and these sorts of zany adventure games–primitive gaming tech that nevertheless required you to “imagine the hell out of it” or face sadistic peril–isn’t sufficiently acknowledged in the Old School Renaissance.
2. This may reveal my shameful ignorance, but interactive fiction has been subject to an Old School Renaissance of its own!  These guys are still going strong: 25 years after these sorts of games ceased to be commercially viable, there is a thriving interactive fiction fan & writing scene!  They’ve got several contests, guidelines for how to write this stuff, and many of them are trying their best to push the limits of the form.  Obviously they’re doing very well for themselves and don’t need validation from the likes of us, but I had no idea they even existed and am very pleased that they’re keeping the genre alive.

If you’re curious about interactive fiction, either because you are a young whippersnapper or, like me, weren’t paying attention for the last twenty years, here are some of the ones that get a lot of critical acclaim:

• Treasures of a Slaver’s Kingdom, by S. John Ross.  If you’re brand-new to this, like I am, this is a decent place to start as it’s based on an Old School Role-Playing Game (Encounter Critical).  The full version costs $9.95 but there’s a free demo.  This is perhaps the funniest game I’ve played in ages.  If you ever ask yourself, “What’s it like to play with the New York Red Boxers?” the tone of this game comes very, very close, particularly to Tavis’s White Sandbox shenanigans.  (My score is 457 points in 1724 turns.  I imagine others can do better–but I scoff at your efforts all the same, poltroon!)
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Steve Meretzky and Douglas Adams – one of the classic titles from the heyday of IF, snazzed up in 2005 with graphics as part of a movie tie-in.
• Anchorhead by Michael S. Gentry – a Cthulhu Mythos-inspired piece of interactive fiction.  Its appearance in 1998 seems to have reenergized the IF community.
• The King of Shreds and Patches, by Jimmy Maher – an interactive fiction adaptation of a classic Call of Cthulhu module.
• The Metamorphoses, by the prolific Emily Short, is a brief adventure game involving a wizard’s apprentice, notable for its evocative, dream-like imagery.
• Galatea, another game by Emily Short, is more experimental: a very brief, dialogue-driven game with an exceptionally well-done NPC.

I’ve dabbled in these ever so slightly, but they’re every bit as retro, and as under-appreciated, as Old Timey RPG’s, and if you like one you might well enjoy the other.

One of the best Spanish learning sites I’ve ever tooled around on is the BBC’s interactive language program Mi Vida Loca. Truly multimedia, it’s part film, part grammar and vocabulary text, and part video game. And it’s free! The storyline is that you’ve been given the keys to a friend’s flat in Madrid, only to discover that her sister Merche is crashing there already. Merche comes off as an oddball at first—extremely paranoid, but also extremely friendly. And in order to challenge your language skills, she speaks no English. Luckily, you have a virtual friend who pops up on occasion to act as your dictionary, cultural reference, and pronunciation guide.

You quickly come to find out that Merche is a journalist working on a big story about environmental concerns with tourist developments in the Canary Islands. Her research has landed her on the wrong side of some very dangerous people, which explains her paranoia. It’s also reason enough for her to drag you around different parts of Spain. All the while, you’re put into useful situations: ordering at a restaurant, asking for directions, booking a room, renting a car, and even getting some help at a drug store (gulp!). You also sit in on a Spanish class run by one of Merche’s friends (portrayed by the BBC employee who helped develop the program), try your luck at crossword puzzles and other language games, and finish up the series with a skills exam to see how far you’ve come. And trust me, by the time you get to the end, you’ll have picked up quite a bit of Spanish. For that reason, the series is particularly good for folks preparing for a trip.

Screenshot of Merche thinking about bopping you with a frying pan.

Since the film takes place mostly in central Spain, castellano is generally used throughout. So expect to hear some “th” sounds and vosotros forms—though you do get a taste of español de Canarias in the last few episodes. And just as American and British English vary in vocabulary occasionally, the same is true for Castilian and Latin American Spanish: billete instead of boleto for instance. But that shouldn’t stop you from using this fantastic program. You’re bound to meet and speak with a Spaniard at some point in your life. Better yet, just start planning a trip to Spain! That’ll justify this course for sure.

Lesson 11.

That depends on you. What are your area of interests? Do you want to think outside the box?

The subjects you can photo are endless. Kind of like the last twenty minutes I spent trying to convince Aunt Sally that no, she could not go trim the apple trees with a chain saw.

I am using my photos to illustrate this blog. I am not an egomaniac who thinks I am the world’s best and only photographer. That would not only be some serious grandiosity, it would also be wrong.

I have emailed other photographers for permission to use some of their photos but they have not responded so I can’t.

Photos are copyrighted by the person who takes them when they take them. Remember that. You don’t need to do anything else. They’re yours and if you put them on the internet and someone else uses them without your permission, they’re stealing them.

These were taken with either a Pentax K10D, Olympus C5050Z or Panasonic FZ5. One is a DSLR, the others are digicams.

With any photograph, the first thing you must do is please yourself. You have to like your photos.

Some of the most famous photographers, those who changed the entire perspective of photography, were at first not critically acclaimed. In fact, some were given terrible reviews.

Case in point is Edward Ruscha who was a painter as well as a photographer. He said “Art has to be something that makes you scratch your head.”

He published a book called “Twenty Six Gas Stations.” It’s what it says it is. A book of photographs of twenty six gas stations.

At first, it was not received well at all. Then as people looked at it they began to see all different kinds of meaning in these photographs. Now, a signed copy sells for $35,000.

So what’s my point? That you take photos of what pleases you unless someone is paying you to take photos of a specific subject and even then you can put your own imprint on it.

The majority of people reading these posts are just trying to learn to use a camera for the usual reasons that people take photos which is to share their life with family and friends not publish a ground breaking book.

I am just saying that to do that well you need to have a point of view which is uniquely your own or a good imitation of somebody else’s.

You develop a point of view by photographing everything that looks interesting to you until you find your voice or what it is that appeals to you the most and the way you express yourself with your camera.

Photographs can be of anything you want them to be. They can tell a story. They can convey an emotion. They can simply be pretty. They can be recognizable for what they are or they can be something the viewer can’t really quite figure out (abstract).

You do not have to be technically perfect to take a wonderful photo. You do have to have a basic understanding of how a camera works.

In the beginning you should follow the rules because they do make a photo more interesting and pleasing. Once you learn them, you can break them.

You should always remember that lighting is key in photography. Using light to your advantage can make memorable photographs with simple subjects.

Here is one photo where the sun came out during a brief interlude in the endless rain we had this fall. Every autumn I try to capture the fall colors. Who doesn’t? This year, it was very dreary so when I saw this I got it because in the end I didn’t get a whole lot else.

In this snapshot and yes, it is just a snapshot, the sun was directly behind me.

Here is an example of using light in the opposite way or back lighting. More on this later. With this kind of photo you have the light coming directly at you. In this case you end up with a silhouette.

Here is an example of using light to convey a mood. Aunt Sally told me I should take a gun when I go hiking not a camera. But then again, we have to search her before we take her anywhere because she thinks guns are always appropriate for any situation.

Moving on. Everyone wants to photograph people. Not just their own family but interesting people they see on the street, in a restaurant, the grocery store, wherever.

Again, you can do this in different ways.

Literal. You just point your camera at the person and hope they don’t look like you’re torturing them.

I like this version better because I think the woman in the background adds something to it. I’m not sure what but it seems more dynamic to me.

Which brings me to another point. Always take multiple photos of the same thing using different exposures, different angles and different framing.

Here is another candid (informal portrait) which uses the environment to enhance it and add meaning to it.

This is one of my personal favorites because it worked exactly the way I wanted it to. That is not always the case.

This is a man with advanced dementia. He would stand and shave for an hour if you let him. So that made it easy to take a lot of photos of him.

I wanted to evoke the feeling of living in some twilight world so I focused on his reflection in the shower door and framed it for shallow DOF in the foreground so he is bluured and his mirror image is sharp.

You may like it or you might think it’s weird. Aunt Sally thinks its her father. It’s not. But I like it and that’s what matters and that’s what I want you to do. Take photos you like.

Moving on to another popular photo subject. Pets.

Again, you can be creative. Pets are very photogenic because they do interesting things and have such expressive faces. Yes, even cats.

And shooting pets can help you practice for shooting people although people have skin not fur and skin is harder because it reflects light and skin color has a lot of variation that is hard to tone properly. Especially without proper lighting and since none of us carry lighting equipment we have to work with natural and artificial indoor light.

At any rate, pets are at least animate and don’t like to pose just like people so you can get some practice with them.

A literal photo of a cat.

Same cat moving in closer.

And of course, they can always provide a little humor.

And let’s not forget our canine friends.

I could go on and on. Flowers, birds, wildlife, scenics, etc. I’m not going to because each requires different methods and you can learn them by shooting interesting things you see everyday.

Hopefully, I’ve showed you different ways to use light and how to shoot effective candids. Portraiture is usually the most important aspect of photography for most people. Light is an integral part of any photo and can’t be emphasized enough. Composition will come with practice.

I will end with three very different photos that I just happened upon. Things that caught my eye and show that photo ops are everywhere in daily life and can be serious, odd, humorous, or whatever you want them to be. You’re holding the camera. Just frame it when you see it and push the button.

I’ve titled these and categorized them. Writing titles can be fun or hard. I usually find it hard.

“Which Way?”

Graphical and abstract.

“More than a Bandaid”

I’d call this  photojournalism.

“Does a Bear…”

Humor. This is not staged. I actually saw this deep in the woods.

Next up will be using shutter speed for different effects and panning which is a technique in which you move the camera with a moving object to freeze it and blur the rest of the photograph.

Now here’s Karen with the weather.

Later.

warmup of 400m dash x5

then…

Deadlift x1, 1, 1, 1, 1 reps

then with a continuously running clock do 1 pullup the first minute, two pullups the second, three the third and so on until you fail to finish the pullups for one minute. Post your max on both in comments.

If you can’t do a pullup then replace it with finding your max on a lat pulldown.

This video has an excellent message Choose Not to Fall

“If you’re afraid to fall, then you will fall because you’re afraid”

Recently I was looking for something to help my reading skills when I snagged ¡Así leemos! off my wife’s shelf of old Spanish textbooks. It’s a graduated Spanish reader separated into three sections: a short story, a short history of Mexico, and an adaptation of the medieval Spanish novella Lazarillo de Tormes. Each section gets progressively more difficult, in terms of grammar and vocabulary. The first section, which is the story of two high school students at the fictional Colegio Glenview, is split into six sections, each with four to six “chapters” (for lack of a better term). There are thirty chapters in total for section one, and I’m about 3/4 of the way through them.

The offending text.

The book couldn’t start off much easier; it is clearly aimed at someone who has only had a week or so of Spanish. The first sentences: “Enrique y María son amigos. Enrique es de España. Él es español.” The questions that follow the chapter are equally a breeze: “¿De qué nacionalidad es Enrique, español o estadounidense?” Er, let me see, I think he’s… But the text quickly moves forward into slightly more challenging work, though rarely departs from the present tense. Each chapter is then followed by a series of reading-comprehension questions, and every five or six chapters end in a review text and a crossword puzzle (crucigrama), which is a nice way to break up the reading.

This has nothing to do with the book. I just think it's funny: Tell me the truth, have I lost my power over men?

Now while the book has given me some practice with basic reading skills and has contributed to my vocabulary a bit, I’m looking forward to moving on to the next two sections of the book because the first story can be dreadful at times. It follows Enrique (who’s a Spaniard, if you didn’t catch that before) and his friend María, a white-bred chick who is a star in the high school Spanish program. Their friendship, of course, blossoms into more. All the while, I roll my eyes and ask myself why I picked this thing up in the first place. Masochism? The stuff that goes down at this high school is truly unbelievable. First of all, Enrique is the captain of the football team. And I’m talking American football here. Is that really possible? Do Americans studying in the UK generally excel at cricket? Are French students in Texas rodeo stars? Why couldn’t the author of this let Colegio Glenview have a soccer team instead? Enrique as the captain of that team I could see.

The colegio also has a Spanish club, Los aventureros, which is made up of native Spanish speakers (who seem to be everywhere in this town) and advanced Spanish students like María. One of their meeting places is the local Mexican restaurant El Taco. Couldn’t they have spiced that name up a little bit? How about El Taco Loco or El Gran Taco or something. Anyway, the non-native-Spanish-speaking members of the club always take part in a poetry festival that the town is famous for. Each contestant memorizes a Spanish-language poem for recitation and presents it in front of a panel of judges. Each high school that competes has its own qualification round in this way. And then the best of the best compete for the city championship. To put it another way, the small, seemingly very WASPy town of Glenview has an annual Spanish poetry recitation festival that’s the bomb. Because you know, small town America just loves the Spanish language and Spanish speakers. Oh, and you’ll never guess who wins this year. I’ll give you a hint. Her name starts with “m” and she does a beautiful rendition of José de Espronceda’s “La canción del pirata” (“Song of the Pirate”).

José de Espronceda

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, the book is clearly meant for high school students (maybe even younger?). And for all the sloggishness of the story, I am getting something out of it. But don’t high students deserve a little better? Well, here’s hoping that they get it in sections two and three of the book. I’ll report back later.

Anyone that wants to skydive for the first time trying to became an experienced skydiver have to first understand the basic rules and all the risks that exist in skydiving. Doing it, the level of risks in this sport will be greatly reduced.

Like all extreme sports, this one has an age restriction too, set at 18 years. Not even a parent can’t sign documents in order for a minor to jump. 18 years or older, no exceptions here. In order to be 100% sure that your landing will not bring up any problems, you must weight not more than 250 pounds.

You need to be in good health even if skydiving is not very demanding from this point of view. If you can pull your chute line, you can skydive at it’s best, and this was never a problem for people.

Some teachers could let you do your first jump all alone if you want. Usually you can make your first jump after 5 to 6 hours of ground training. You can do your ground training and your first jump in the same day.

You should never wear clothes that will limit your moves, sandals or open toed shoes. You should always wear clothes you best feel in and running shoes. You can also bring with you glasses or contacts, the goggles you will be provided with, will fit over with no problem. Your skydiving jump will consist of 30 seconds of free fall and 30 second to land.

Most people feel the free falling like a great flying experience.

Even if skydiving as a sport, envolves risks, if you are good trained you can call skydiving a very safe sport because bad injures and death are unlikely.

You will just have to learn learn and learn all you can about this great extreme sport and you will do great. Discuss every aspect of this sport with your friends, family or any other experienced skydiver and you will grow in knowledge, you will develop your skills and in the same time you will be more secure of yourself.