Lens Capped! (aka writer's block for photographers...)

    Ok. Stewing on this for a bit, been thinking about posting something on it, wasn't ready to, but events of the last couple of days and comments I have gotten from friends kinda made it mandatory. Writers and anyone who knows anything about them, or has even watched a movie or TV show about writers, knows what writer's block is. You sit down, all prepared to write the great american novel, your history thesis, that book report, whatever. But nothing comes out. The words just aren't there. Turns out (via a quick google search) that there are equivalent terms for other artistic fields. But strangely enough, for a bunch of creative fields, they are not very creative. "Creative block," or "photographer's block." Lame. I am going to call it "feeling Lens Capped." That sounds better and has a source. Come on, you all know you have done it, you life the camera to your eye to take a perfect shot, only to wonder why it's all black.... crap. You left the lens cap on again. This is why, like most photographers, I almost never use lens caps, just throw on a UV filter and call it done. But you get the concept. I want to shoot, but the shot just isn't there.

   I feel like I am getting pretty good at shooting things that are already happening. Fringe Festival shows, Roller Derby bouts, Circus performances and fire dancers. Festivals, all that fun stuff. I enjoy doing that. But when it comes to creating something on my own, I got nothing. I look around and see lots of amazing stuff out there. A lot of it coming from friends, a lot of it from established names out there, some of it just from browsing sites like 500px or Model Society. I see all this amazing, creative stuff, but when I try to plan out a shoot in my head, I get nothing. So I just sponge off other people. Go to meet ups with photographers and models, trying to get more experience under my belt, even if the shoot is far from artistic. This afternoon I went to a meet up shoot, but all three scheduled models flaked, which prompted a snarky post on my Facebook profile. (wow, a link to FB which will later link to this post.... can the internet get stuck in an infinite link loop?) In response to that post, I got offers from some amazing friends to model for me. Earlier this week, a couple of other friends, one of whom is a very experienced and rather incredible model, offered to shoot with me. So why am I not taking advantage of these offers? Quite simple. I don't believe I have a shoot worth your time and effort. I have a bunch of sort of half baked ideas that I feel like are just riffs off things I have seen that I want to try myself, but even those ideas I don't feel like I can articulate well enough to let a makeup artist or stylist know what I want, or a model to give me. So, I have access to an awesome studio, beautiful and incredible models and awesome makeup artists and stylists. But I can't imagine asking all those people to spend a day having conversations like this:

MUA: What look to you want?
ME: Oh, I don't know, something awesome. You know... dark but not so goth I can't see her face through all the blackness.... but still cute... you know... Cirque du Nine Inch Nails...... or something.
MUA: .... uhhhhh....

or

Model: What do you want me to do...
Me: Uhm... some of that cool model posey stuff... can you pretend you are a the bastard love child of a victoria's secret model and a suicide girl (no, nevermind the improbability of that... you got Trent Reznor to be the sperm donor or something) who is acting out a Steampunk opera written and directed by Baz Lurhman but really it's all part of a new Cirque show opening in Vegas, so I am going to need you to stand on one finger while tying your body into double loop figure eight knot.... in ballet stilletos. Got all that?
Model: ....uhhhhhh.....

    And don't even get me started on costuming. Or lack thereof. That's another issue. Nudity. Is it necessary? Can I be an artist celebrating the beauty of the human form, something like The Acrobat Sublime? But is the nudity necessary? That book is one of my favorite photo books of all time, but can you celebrate the beauty of the human form without nudity? A freaking awesome collection like this one of ballet dancers moving through the mundane world would say yes. Then there is the whole debate about where the line between pornography and art lies. I don't have a good answer for that, but for what it's worth even as a teen age ball or hormones, I always preferred Playboy to Penthouse.

    But I digress. Sorry for that detour into the nudity discussion, but since the shoot this afternoon where the models flaked was supposed to be a lingerie/nude shoot the I got into the discussion with my GF on the porn vs art debate then I got distracted by acrobats and photographers... I have had the Acrobat Sublime book for a while now, didn't know there were behind the scenes videos until just now finding the link to post above. Even more impressed with it now. But one of the acrobats from the subway handstand shot says, when referring to dealing with the nasty floors of the subway platform, "when you believe in someone and their work..." that's sort of my point. Regardless of the clothing state of my models, is the vision I have worth their time, effort, and trust? Right now I simply don't feel like I have any idea that are.

   I know on some level this is all whiney bullcrap. I mean, despite flirting with photography on and off for a couple of decades now, it has only been a year and change since I started really making a serious run at it. I shouldn't expect to be an awesome creative force of nature yet, I am comparing myself to people who have spend their entire lives doing this. I should be happy with the success I have had so far. I really am happy with most of what I am shooting. But I can't help seeing the gap between where i am and where I want to be. It's a recurring theme. I stop trying in my circus training because I can't throw a triple yet, or do a one arm handstand. Because there are people out there who are better than I ever will be. I don't get out into a fire circle and spin because there are so many spinners out there that are so much better than me. I don't try to set up shoots because I am not yet at the level of the photographers I admire. Even though I know those people throwing those triples, or doing the one arm handstands spend years working up to that. Those amazing spinners have been practicing for years. Hours a day, every day, to be able to do what they do. Until I have the training and experience I shouldn't expect to be able to do what they can. And although there are a few assholes out there, for the most part it's a safe space. Most of those people wouldn't judge or denigrate someone approaching their art with an honest desire to learn and get better. Most of them would stop what they were doing and help a beginner learn how to be better, because they know that helping others get better elevates the art as a whole. So, if the people I admire and want to emulate would encourage me and help me in my practice, in advancing my art, what stops me from taking those first hesitant steps? What stops me is FEAR. Plain and simple. I am afraid of looking stupid. I am afraid of not being good enough. I am afraid of a model thinking less of me because I wasted their time trying to do a shoot I didn't really know enough to be able to execute.

   I really admire my son. He is learning to walk, to climb, to eat, everything to be a human. He does get pissed when he can't do something he sees someone else do and knows he should be able to. But he doesn't quit trying. He just throws himself at it over and over again until he is able to climb that step, or whatever his particular challenge of the day is. And when he gets something new for the first time, he knows it's a milestone, you can see the huge smile as he realizes he just did something he has never done before, even it it is as simple as drinking from a straw without help. He's supposed to be learning from me, but I need to learn how to live a little from him, how to be fearless and not afraid to try something new, to fall on my ass over and over again and keep getting up and learning how to walk and run.

    I should expect some painful experiences while I learn what the hell I am doing. I should expect to find 999 ways to not invent the lightbulb before something finally shines. I need to start where I am... I don't need to be satisfied with where I am, but I do need to learn to cut myself some slack, and realize that other people probably aren't going to be be as hard on me as I am on myself. I need to just acknowledge that some of my first shoots are probably going to suck. But my friends will probably still talk to me afterwards, the experienced models will probably even tell me what worked and what didn't and how to make it better next time, take their paychecks and use me as an amusing anecdote later on. And who knows, maybe we'll get some great shots by accident.

   So, for all you wonderful, supportive friends who have put themselves out there to help me on this journey, the reason I haven't asked you to yet is that I have been a scaredy cat. I am going to come up with some ideas, even if they aren't the best ones out there. Gonna come up with something. I do have some ideas that I am going to try and get to a point where I can articulate them in some sort of understandable gibberish. Thank you all for your support and for forcing me to acknowledge my fears. I'll have some shoots for us to do soon, please remind me to take the damn lens cap off!



   

Photographing Roller Derby - the Second Jam...

     So, last weekend I finally was able to shoot another roller derby bout, this time with Excalibur and a full complement of pro glass to play with. This was a double header in the San Diego Derby Dolls new downtown home, the Doll House.

    The first bout was the SDDD Diego Rollers vs. the Orange County Roller Girls BlockWork Orange.

    The second bout was between two SD teams, the Swarm vs. the Hard Corps.

    The new venue was awesome, the only things Del Mar had over the current Doll House were beer and better lighting. I am not sure I could have shot much of anything with the 3200 in this location. Even with Excalibur the back corners were very dark due to some burned out lights. One of these days I will actually have to experiment with setting up strobes with remote triggers, which seemed to be the main technique for shooting derby when I did my initial research. Before I do that I would definitely want to talk to the girls, because I am worried about the strobes distracting them- and believe me, you don't want a group of pissed off Derby Dolls chasing you down. They are both fast and quite bad ass.

The Doll House- in Wide Angle

    For starters, I have to say, Excalibur rocked it. I was able to shoot the whole thing with ambient light, ISO 12,800 using anywhere from 1/320-1/500 second shutter and f2.8-f5.6 apertures. So able to freeze the motion easily and even get a little better than wide open on all three pro zooms. I played with shooting the 24-70mm, 70-200mm and even brought out the 14-24mm to play a bit. Have to say though, the sweet spot for Derby seems to be right in between the 24-70 and the 70-200. I wish someone made a 35-150 F2.8 or something close to that. The 24-70 was great in the near corners, but not quite enough reach when they were rounding the far corners. The 70-200 was awesome for the far corners but couldn't open up enough for the near corners. 

    Gear aside, I am getting a bit better at following the Jams and catching good moments. Learning to anticipate and lead the action a bit. There is a maxim I heard that keeps coming up- "if you see it through the viewfinder, you missed the shot. " Well, I am seeing less through the viewfinder. 

   Other things I try to remember no matter what I am shooting it to not get totally focused on the main event, there are also lots of great stories happening around the periphery. In Derby, the skaters are obviously the main event. But the Refs and Officials are also important participants in the event and worthy of shooting. 

   And where would the crowd be without the ever important announcers.....

   

It isn't always just about the hits....

There can be good shots to be had in the still moments between the Jams. 

  Who am I kidding? It's all about the hits.....

   So what did I learn from this second evening of shooting Derby? A couple of things. One- the 14-24 is an awesome lens, and I could get some neat perspectives with it, 

but really there was only a microsecond or two on each lap where they were close enough to really use it, and if I was close enough to take advantage of the wide angle fun there was a good chance that the lens (and photographer) would wind up getting clocked by a flying roller girl. I think overall that I got the most keepers using the 70-200mm. Even with the high ISO capabilities of the D4, shooting that high ISO at 16mp doesn't give the resolution room to crop in later on, have to be close from the get go, so on balance it was better to be too close in than too wide. 

    Things to try next time- maybe some remote strobes, and either a small ladder or maybe even wearing stilts, so I can shoot over the rail instead of being stuck shooting under it, change up the perspective a bit. Overall though I am happier with this set than my first outing, so hopefully I can keep shooting Derby and keep getting better. 

    Full Gallery is viewable on my newly redesigned web site.

What is the best camera? Today's lesson in photography.

    There is probably no more frequently asked questions by budding photographers than "what camera should I get?" or "which camera is the best." So, strap in folks, today I will not only wade into those questions, but also definitively answer the second of the two. 

    Let's start with the first part. Which camera should I get. The answer is simple in concept, but incredibly difficult in detail. The camera you should get is the one that 

1- Meets your needs, 

2- you will actually use, and 

3- you can afford. 

   What the means will change as you grow into your photography. They already have for me. For a while, I didn't need anything more than a point and shoot. Then when it came time for fatherhood, I felt like I was going to need something more to capture my son growing up. I had been out of the serious photography game for a while, and I didn't have much money to spend, so the D3200 was perfect. Low cost re-entry into the higher end camera game and a lot of room to grow. That was the camera I needed to get for where I was. As I started shooting more circus and performance, it became clear that I needed better high ISO and speed than the D3200, hence Excalibur became the right camera for me to get. So which camera is better for you? Why not just go for the D4 right out of the gate if you have the money? Well, you may not want to lug a three pound beast the size of a kids' lunchbox around with you every day just to take pictures of your kid on the playground. You may not want to be walking around with an incredibly obvious and expensive camera on vacation to a less than safe area. There are as many scenarios and right answers to the "what camera should I get" question as there are photographers. If you start following the pros, you'll see that they often have a collection, and use different cameras for different purposes. 

    So, now we move on to part two- Which Camera is the Best? Again, there are as many answers as there are photography web sites out there. Nikon/Cannon/Sony/Minolta/etc...... which has the most pixels, best high ISO performance, best low ISO performance, greatest dynamic range, most video features, best control layout..... so what is my answer? If you have been playing along at home as this blog has developed, you may think you know what I am going to say. The logical guess would be that I am going to bring up Excalibur, the Nikon D4 I have been raving about since I got it. And that would be a great guess, but in this case wrong. None of the images in this post were taken with Excalibur. Hell, they weren't even taken with my D3200. But they were all taken with what I have come to believe is the ultimate answer to the question of "which camera is best."

   Drum roll please.....

 

    The Best Camera is..... the one you have with you when you see the shot. 

    I know that seems like a cop out answer, but it really isn't and a quick glance at Google shows that I am far from the first or only photographer to have this revelation. I have close to $20,000 worth of cameras, lenses, strobes and modifiers on my gear shelf. But none of it would have gotten me the three shots attached to this post, because I didn't have any of it with me. Why not? Well, it isn't always convenient to carry around a DSLR, even one as small and light as the D3200. I am still full time Navy, and since I have had things stolen from my stateroom before I don't really like to bring the gear I am hoping to use as a retirement plan in to work with me every day. Also, since I am now doing an Engineering tour, there are days on the ship I never see daylight. But my point and shoot lives in a small, readily accessible strap pocket of the daypack I bring to work with me every day, and without it I would not have been able to capture the sunset image I opened this post with. Would the shot have been better if I had the D4 and the 14-24mm ready to go? Of course it would have. But those were 45 miles away from me at the time. So in that moment, the best camera was the point and shoot (Olympus Stylus Tough 8000, if you must know. It's old and there is a newer and better model, so I probably won't review it, but it's 12mp, waterproof and tough as nails. For documenting aerial classes, snowboarding trips, and fun in the pool or ocean with the family, it is awesome. It always lives in my bag and it takes a beating without having to worry about it.)

    But I don't always have my bag with me. So the point and shoot isn't always the best camera either. Enter the iphone. Nowhere near a top of the line camera. But it's my lifeline to the world, I almost always have my phone with me. So, when my kid is really tired and dad misses the signs in time to get him down for a mid-morning nap before he melts down, and I have to grab the stroller, keys and phone to get him out for a calming walk, chances are I won't be thinking clearly enough to toss one of the DSLRs or even the point and shoot into a pocket, especially if I am still in my sunday pajamas. So the best camera when I saw the morning dew still trapped in a spider web in some bushes next to the sidewalk as I pushed him along, the iPhone camera became the best camera ever. Could I have gotten a much better image if I had the 24mp D3200 with a dedicated macro lens and a ring flash? Of course. But by the time I got my son to sleep and home, and mom got back to stay with him, the morning dew was long gone. 

    Getting the picture? Although I am seriously considering leaving the D3200 in the car 24/7 just in case, it isn't always practical to carry the heavy artillery around. But you never know when life is going to throw something in front of you that you want to try to capture. Maybe it's a moment of beauty that will be gone before you know it. Maybe it's a silhouette of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on a building. 

(All Hail his noodly appendage- RAMEN!)

    Maybe it's your kid doing something silly and/or cute while you both wait for mom to run an errand...

   Yeah, I can take all those shots apart and go on for days about technical ways that they could have been better. In fact, this post coalesced in my mind while I was editing the dew covered spider web trying to make it look as good as I could and mentally kicking my own butt for not grabbing one of the DSLRs before heading out the door. But if I hadn't had the camera I had with me, these moments would have only lived on in my memory, and I wouldn't have been able to share them with people that I knew would enjoy them, like his mom, or other Pastafarians. 

  Just to end on a slightly different note, sometimes the best camera for the moment is none at all. Don't forget as life goes along that sometimes it is better to put the camera away and just experience the moment, let your eyes and memory be your only camera, because getting the shot would take you out of the moment. That's why I don't have any pictures of my son actually being born. And I don't regret that for a moment. And really, no one needs to see pictures of every salad, burger or other meal you eat, or the aftermath of that bowel movement (yes- that last was a FB post by someone on my friends list. You know who you are) To reinforce that point, I leave you with this video... which is only funny because it's true. 

    

Gear Review: Mefoto Backpacker Tripod.

    A few months ago when I found myself in Rhode Island for July 4th and hadn't packed properly, I had to make an emergency tripod purchase. I went to a local camera shop and came out with a MeFoto Backpacker tripod. (of course, as anyone who knows me will have already guessed, I went for the red and black one) Having used it for a bit now, I think I can finally give it a decent review. I will start by saying this isn't ever going to be your main studio tripod. It isn't a heavy duty beast of a tripod. But- spoiler alert- for the price ($139 most places) and more importantly, SIZE (or lack thereof) it simply cannot be beaten.

   This is a travel tripod, pure and simple, so size and weight are key. This thing is small and light, even though it isn't super spiffy carbon fiber. Lots of reviews on this tripod list the stats, but here is a better way to get a feel for it.

   This is the folded Backpacker next to a Nikon 70-200mm/F2.8 VR1 lens. Pretty much the same size, and the tripod is actually lighter by almost a pound. (lens is 3.24lbs, tripod is 2.6lbs) So if you have a slot in your camera bag that can take a 70-200 with the hood on, you can slip this tripod in. If you don't feel like making room for it in your camera bag, that's ok, it comes with its' own pretty convenient carry case.

    I keep the shoulder strap cinched pretty tight and just carabiner it to my bag when I don't have space to slip the tripod in.

    Getting the picture yet? It's small, light and I cannot imagine a more portable tripod setup. Despite being so miniscule, it extends up to a hair over 51 inches tall in the high position. Which brings me to the next feature. The way it gets so small is that the legs fold up 180 degrees in the stow position. There is a small tab that you pop out to unlock for leg rotation, pop it in to lock it in position.

    When you unfold the tripod for use, they lock in one of two positions. There is full height, with a pretty narrow base, and a low/wide position that leaves the head a couple feet off the ground. Good for macro shots or more stability if you need it, but I didn't really use the low position for anything because it never came up (or in this case down).

  The head is another nice surprise. It's Arca-Swiss, so there is a good chance you already have plates on a lot of your gear that will slide into the supplied ball head with no issue. The head alone is worth the price of admission. It isn't a high end head by any means, but a similar level head would set you back close to $200 on its' own, even without the rest of the tripod. (note- I haven't used the RRS BH-30, so maybe it is light years ahead of this head, but this is the closest visual comparison I have seen) It even has a built in level.

  So. Lots of value for the price, really light and portable. But how well does it perform? As long as you use it the way it meant to be used for, it is flawless. It isn't rock solid, but it holds up really well. For a point and shoot it is more than sufficient. I would have no problems throwing any smaller bodied DSLR on it with almost any lens you would be likely to use with a prosumer level body. I didn't even think twice about throwing the D3200 on it with a 17-55mm/2.8 for some remote release family vacation shots (hand in the pocket has remote....)

   But how well does it play with the big boys? The first time I used it, for shooting the fireworks, it held up just fine with the D4 and a 24-70/2.8 mounted on it. The specs say it is rated for 8.8lbs. That really is lightweight when it comes to tripod stats. Pro level tripods are rated more than three times that or greater. So, just for review purposes, I decided to go heavy on the tripod and see what it could hold. The pictures below are pretty much the heaviest configuration I normally shoot with in the wild, the D4 with a 70-200/2.8 with the SB910 mounted on top. When I did the math this combo only comes out to 6.76lbs (that was a surprise to me, it sure feels heavier than that after an 8 hour day of festival shooting...) so would the backpacker take it and hold it? See for yourself.

    No problem. Held the setup just fine, didn't slip, rock, anything.

 Not just level balanced either. Put a tilt in to see if the head would hold, and it did, just fine.

 This isn't a setup I would recommend as a regular use for this tripod. The legs weren't bowing from the weight, but with the full height setup the legs are fairly close together, and a gentle bump would easily overbalance the rig and tip it over. If you had a remote trigger though, this tripod would be stable enough even in moderate winds with this heavy of a load.

    So, there you have it. It won't replace a full size tripod for regular use, or for hard core landscape shooters, or heavy setups in windy or crowded locations. But for those times when you are travelling light and think you may want a tripod but don't feel like carrying your huge Manfrotto around town or through the airport, the backpacker will certainly get you through. Hell, this thing will fit into the water bottle carrier on your backpack without missing a beat.

   Ok, technically that is the tripod pocket on my Think Tank Airport Accelerator, but you get the idea. For the record, until this tripod came along, that pocket only saw use as a water bottle pocket. 

  

   Conclusion- this tripod isn't a replacement for a full size tripod. But for $139 bucks, you can't beat it for a backup or travel tripod. MeFoto also makes two bigger brothers for the backpacker, the Road Trip and the Globe Trotter. Both of those have the cool option of transforming from tripods to monopods in around sixty seconds as well as offering a significantly more robust build. I haven't had the chance to play with them, but when it comes time to replace my main tripod I am definitely going to give the globetrotter a look. But if you are looking for a small, light, portable tripod to throw into your pack for a trip, this is your tripod. Also, for what it's worth, this (and it's slightly larger brother the Road Trip) are the only tripods around that come in something other than your basic, boring black/grey, if you want to throw a little color into your world. 

UPDATE: 

Ok, having used this tripod for a while now, there are a couple more things I have to add. This is still my go to travel tripod, I still love it for what it is, but for full disclosure I have to note a couple of small things I have found after more use:

1- Pay attention when you extend the legs. It is is really easy to get distracted and not tighten the leg segment twist locks all the way down. This isn't a failing of the tripod as much as f the photographer, but it is easy to leave one segment a bit loose and have a leg start to collapse on you if you aren't paying attention. 

2- There is a little play in the ball head. Ironically, it is harder to notice with a massive load like the 70-200 setup pictured above in the review because it actually balances pretty well with the tripod mount on the lens foot. But when you are mounting the camera body onto the tripod, there will be a millimeter or two of sag after you tighten the ball head down. It isn't anything you can't compensate for, it's just a minor droop so you have to remember to lock it a little above the point you want it to ultimately rest at. 

Neither of these factors really changes my conclusions in the initial review. Not the first choice for a main tripod, but the minor issues are more than made up for by the convenience of having this along just in case you need it. If you do decide to buy one- please consider buying from one of the links in this blog, so I can get a little bit back. 

The Numbers Lie... the agony and ecstasy of contest results, reader counts and Stat Vampires

    First off, let me say a quick and heartfelt THANK YOU! to all three of you who are regular readers of this blog. I say that only half jokingly. I have monitored the stats ever since I started this blog earlier this year. At first, I felt pretty good about the numbers, mostly because I hadn't learned to properly interpret them. Right now, just based on hit count, which was really all I understood at first, nearly four thousand people have at least clicked into a post of mine to see what's up. 4000 people. Small potatoes compared to the total population of the internet, but for someone just starting out with only 207 likes on my FB page I was pretty happy with that number. Then I started looking a little harder. Turns out that almost the second a new post gets blogged, it is picked up by rebloggers and a new form of scam I had not heard of, signified by such wonderful sites we vampirestat. Exactly what it sounds like- it sucks. Apparently the game is to get people who look at their stats to click on the link and wind up with god only knows what, and they also get some financial benefit anytime someone clicks on them. But it definitely bloats the stat count. I have a few regular readers and I get a small but steady stream of hits from various google searches, but nowhere near the massive throng of readership suggested by the initial number.

    So that was my first bit of fun with numbers. The second was finally getting the results back from the first photo competition I entered. I entered 4 images, they scored 73-76 (out of 100). According to the scale on the competition web site, this is the "above average" category. So, pretty stoked that 4 out of 4 images I submitted were judged above average. Maybe the lesson I need to learn is to take the initial good news and not dig deeper, but my inquiring mind wanted to know how far I really was above the average, which meant I needed to know what the average score was. So I scanned all the results. The lowest published score was a 71. So unless they only list scores >70 on the results page, above average doesn't mean quite what you would think it means. Which kinda sucks. On the good side, each image had a multimedia critique from one of the judges that went into very specific detail on what they liked and didn't like about my images. This was a mixed bag. They pointed out a lot of things I didn't even know to look for, and some I should have but missed. There was one common implication in all the critiques that made me really happy. Each of the four shots I submitted was something I shot as found- two of them were scenic shots and two of them were images from live festival performances. The judges all treated them, and therefore seemed to think, that these were all posed shots I had taken a great amount of time and care to set up, control the lighting, pose the models, etc. In other words, what I shot on the fly looked good enough to be mistaken for studio work. That part makes me very happy. On the other hand, there was one criticism common to all four images that really pissed me off a bit. I was told that each of my images would have scored higher and possibly merited if I had added a keyline border to the submission. So- if anyone else is reading this that submits to photo contests, is it an understood thing that digital only submissions still basically need to be framed? News to me. If it is required for the competition, maybe that should be outlined in the image submission guidelines somewhere? 4 out of 4 images getting points taken off for not having it sure makes it seem like it's a requirement......

  Overall, even though the numbers do not really stack up as well after a deep dive as they do on an initial look, I am pretty happy overall with where I am at. Have been at this for roughly a year now, and while I am not wildly successful and gracing magazine covers the world over, I am learning a lot. I have some good images. Maybe even a few great ones. They are getting better overall, and the percentage of good shots coming out each time I pick up the camera is going up. So I am making progress and learning from mistakes. I still have a couple of years before I really need to worry about making this a full time retirement plan, so I may not be where I want to be, but I am where I need to be and moving steadlily in the right direction.

   So again, for those few of you who are actual readers, not just random spam-bots, thanks for playing along with the home game!