Neat Idea for an Engineering Project...

Hi Guys,

I had a really neat idea for a cool engineering project today... I got the idea from a post on Strobist's Flickr Discussion group...

It has to do with remote flashes and cameras and that's all i can say for now...but wow! I wish I had thought of this a long time ago :)

I think this could be a really popular item, if I could actually build them in quantity at an affordable price...

We shall see.

RMG

It's hard to get into a habit...

I started this blog over a month ago, and I have not made but the one post! Am I a lazy bum, not really...ok sort of :)

Actually I've been rather busy with work, and studying to take yet another certification exam I need for work, so my hobby stuff got put to the back burner.

Alas, I finally got a day off from life, and I decided to jump back into this and get a few things up on my new blog.

One of the things that has kept me from doing a lot of blogging is that I have spent a lot of time reading a bunch of other great blogs that interest me and pertain to my hobbies…

Therefore, I thought that it would not be altogether inappropriate to start my blog off with some links to some other blogs and sites that I regularly patrol for cool info and fun projects.

The category of sites for this entry pertains to one of my long time passions, Photography. Even though I make my living in the world of Video, I have always had a fascination with Still Photography, and I regularly spend an hour or more a day reading about this stuff or fiddling with a photography project (Much to my wife’s chagrin).

The first site I have really come to enjoy lately is a blog titled Strobist, written by photojournalist David Hobby, who lives in the Baltimore, MD area. This guy has elevated the concept of lighting with small strobes or speedlights to high art. He has managed to build a group of readers that number over 1 million all of whom are dedicated to the study of lighting. I

If you are a photography nut, you owe it to yourself to go here and check it out.

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The photography related second site I read quite often is another blog style site written by Ken Rockwell . Ken has an interesting and informative site covering all aspects of photography, though lately it has become mostly about testing old equipment and less about how to do stuff.

There are a lot of folks on the net that seem to hate on Ken for his sarcastic and quite bombastic writing style, but I say if you are going to be a writer you need to know your audience, and Ken does.

This site is squarely targeted at the photography amateur or avid enthusiast rather than the seasoned professional, though Ken is very technically knowledgeable. One of the things that you have to forgive Ken for when you are reading his essay’s is that many of them were written a while back, and so some of his assumptions about what is possible are not quite accurate.

Once you get accustomed to his writing style and thought process though, you will find that his site is chock full of useful information about DSLR Photography Equipment and Techniques plus good recommendations for what is suitable equipment for different classes of shooters.

If you own a D3 or a Medium Format Camera and are, shooting RAW most of the time Ken is probably not for you, but if you are an enthusiast shooting landscapes or your kids sporting events he will likely give you some great advice that will make you a better shooter and whet your appetite for more. I like to think about is site as breakfast… he gives you some great info, and gets you ready to have the right mindset to dig deeper into the study of photography if you choose to. Just remember that for all of the equipment reviews he seems to be doing lately that his overriding message is the photographer is more important than the equipment.

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The third site that I find myself visiting lately is authored by a well-known landscape photographer from Canada named Michael Reichmann, and his site is very focused on high quality landscape photography and camera to print workflow for the fine art photographer. Michael publishes in addition to his website, a video journal and several print tutorials, which can be bought, in his web store.

I find that this site like Ken’s has a giant backlog of rather dated equipment reviews and essays, but accept that as the nature of the beast when you maintain an enormous site with hundreds of articles spanning several years of work.

It is obvious that Michael targets an entirely different crowd of enthusiasts and professional photographers, those who tend toward high end DSLR’s and medium format digital backs or Large Format View Cameras. That being said, even though my budget does not allow an H2 with Digital Back; many of the discussions on this site are very useful to the type of photography I am doing, and I often find myself visiting here for information on printing techniques or workflow suggestions.

I would defiantly get more from the luminous landscape if I could afford some of the more expensive output devices that they discuss, but as long as I capture high quality images, I can always reprint them later.

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The fourth site that I often visit, though it does not get many updates lately, is found here, and is published by Thom Hogan a noted photography author and landscape photographer.

Thom is an authority on the Nikon 35mm and DSLR systems, and while many on the net accuse him of being in Nikon’s pocket, I do not think that it overly colors his reviews. From what I can tell, the man just writes about what he knows and uses… I do not think that he is anti Canon, just that he likes using Nikon gear. I try to keep an open mind about folks.

In any event, concerning the gear that I own, I have found his reviews to be accurate and spot-on, so I can only assume that Nikon is just is personal preference, and that sometimes as a journalist or a member of NPS (Nikon Professional Society) that Nikon may loan him some equipment or make him privy to some advance knowledge that is not posted on the web. I do not think that this makes him nearly the Nikon Fanboy that everyone makes him out to be.

My biggest problem with Thom’s site is that he is publishing less and less these days on his site and authoring more and more E-Books which he sells in his online store. While I cannot blame him for trying to make a buck (I try myself) I hope that he does not forget what made his site popular, and that is the great breadth of knowledge he has up there on the Nikon camera system… Come on Thom, keep pumping those articles out!

Other sites that I would recommend that you should visit and learn from in the photography world, but that I do not have a rant about for now are:

Nikonians.Org -- Another Great Reference site on the Nikon Camera System
Photo.Net -- IMHO the webs best photography forum to get useful
information about anything photographic.
Steve’s Digicams -- Great for a straight up equipment review of any Digicam.
ViewCamera.Com -- One of the best Resources/Publications on LF
Photography

Next time I get round to posting, I think that I will start talking about the sort of photography that I am doing, and what I’m doing it with on a daily basis… but for now that’s entry number two!

RMG

In The Beginning...

Hi All,

This being my first blog entry, I am not really sure where this is going to go... I guess over time we will see! I expect this forum will be fairly eclectic, seeing as I have an extremely wide gamut of interests and hobbies. Sometimes we will be talking photography, sometimes electronics, sometimes German Style Boardgames and sometimes just about the good life in general, or those that try to interfere with it :)

I hope you can join me often!

,RMG