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Michael [mahy-kuhl] – noun
1. A male given name. 2. A witty, charming professional wedding photographer who enjoys movies, exercise, romantic walks on the beach and large pepperoni pizzas.
Maven [may-ven] – noun
1. A connoisseur or trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass his knowledge onto others. 2. An intense gatherer of useful information. 3. An individual who demonstrates passion for learning and teaching a specific topic, particularly through a well connected social network.
Thank you for coming to my blog! I update it regularly, so if you ever want to know what I am up to, please come by and take a peek. Feel free to leave your comments below.
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Day 58 |
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Day 57 |
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Day 56 |
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Day 55 |
| Its the side of my car. :) |
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Canon 580ii vs 430ii |
Ever since I have announced the Canon 580ii / 430ii Speedlite Crash Course DVD, Ive been getting a lot of questions on which is a better buy and what the differences are. If you look around, you can find the 580ii for less than $400. Is the extra $70-100 worth it? In my opinion, ABSOLUTELY. If it means waiting a little longer, do it. Now, if you are someone that already owns a 430ii, let me say its a great little flash, and you are in luck, its completely compatible with the 580ii as a slave unit. If you are going to do any amount of professional work, you will need at minimum 2 flash units, (3 for good measure).
Here is a comparison of their features for your consideration: |
Model
Current Price (BH Photo)
Max Range
Top Recycle Time
Built in Transmitter
Built in Receiver
Battery Pack Terminal
PC Terminal (For Pocket Wizards)
Catch Light Panel
External Metering Sensor
Custom Settings
Strobscopic As Single Unit
External Flash Metering
Weight
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580ii Speedlite
$420
58m @ 105mm
.1s
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
14 w 32 settings
Yes
Yes
405g
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430ii
$330
43m @ 105mm
~3.0s (!!)
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
9 with 20 settings
No
No
320 g
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Day 54 |
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"You take care of you." |
I had just dropped out of college, 5 years into a PhD. It was an extremely nerve racking time for me. Surrendering the proof (think diploma) of a doctorate was career suicide in my field (Developmental Genetics). I was broke and wasn’t really sure where my life was going. all I knew was that I had several weddings booked and I was toying with an idea of making a free online photography school.
Summer started, and I began to notice, that my air conditioning wasn’t working correctly. I called the repair in, and the landlord sent out the AC repairman who informed me “the air conditioning unit is working at full capacity”, it was 92-94 degrees INSIDE my apartment, and such, was intolerable. I called the landlord again, but this time they said they weren’t going to do anything about it as the AC unit was working. (There is a big difference between something working and your apartment being tolerable). I felt really trapped because I had just signed a lease, couldn’t sleep at night and felt like I was locked into a hellish situation. The only way I could cool off was to take a cold shower every 2 hours, which got old.
I continued to try to call my landlord to resolve this in reasonable terms, to which they told me to never call them again (but not with such nice words).
Then, I did something bold and called the police to file a complaint with them. My strategy with this was to build up record evidence against my landlord, in the event we went to court. So that’s the short version of a long story to lead up to a great lesson I learned that night.
The cop came over, inspected the apartment, agreed it was miserable and invited me to come sit with him in his patrol car. He filled out the report, gave me a case number, then looked me in the eye and asked: “How old are you?” I told him. And then he said something I hope I never forget: “Michael, You take care of you.”
Now I know this might seem like a duh moment, but what I took this to mean was: “You are not at the mercy of your seemingly hopeless situation. You are a grown man. Do something about it. Don’t let these punk landlords push you around, if you don’t like something, if you are hurt, hungry, in this case hot, don’t go asking around for help, or calling the cops when you can solve your own problems. Get the heck out of here! The more you believe you are at the mercy of your situation, boss, employer, house payment, health condition, the more helpless you are. The more you believe you can solve your own problems, the more independent you will become.”
That was a really big turning point in my life and I started to realize, that I really did control where I was going, and if I didn’t like something about my life, it was my fault. I know this is a tough pill to swallow, but I honestly believe it applies to nearly all situations in life. Don’t listen to the lie that will come into your head, the excuse, the reason for not taking action. Most of the time all we need to do is change our attitudes.
If you don’t like something about your life. Change it. If you believe you cannot change it, then yes, you are stuck and you always will be until you get sick of it to the point of doing something about it.
(As a side note- If you decide to discuss this with me as a friend on a personal level, I will give you the same advice I am now, but I will secretly think you are wimpy even though I still love and care about you.)
There is a very specific reason I am saying this, but I wont mention it because I think if I am vague here, it will apply to more situations.
Don’t count on anyone to come save you. You are smart, capable and if you come up with a plan, you will be free.
You take care of you. (Be your own bailout!) |
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Day 53 |
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Day 52 |
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When did you get your first digital camera? What did you think? |
As I mentioned in another post, I had a chance to shoot some film this week (in the weirdest of ways) and I really enjoyed your comments. It got me thinking, when did you finally break down and get your first digital?
For me it was 1999. I had been using Photoshop 5.0 for a year, but was scanning film to create digital copies. I had started a new company called Brag Tags (custom college logo dog tags) and needed to get some images to my web designer. So, I did some research and bought my first digital camera: a Nikon Cool Pix 950. At the time it was cutting edge technology at a whopping 2.1 Mega Pixels! (my iphone does this now) and cost a barely affordable $700!! The memory card was HUGE, 8MB, but I found a 32MB card on ebay. It wasnt the first digital camera I used, that would be one of those Sony Mavica's, it shot directly to a 3.5" floppy disk at about .2 MP. Jeeez....times have changed.
The weird thing is...I used that Coolpix right up until 2004, when one of my MBA buddys asked me to shoot some engagement shots for him. By then, it was barely holding together (literally with tape). My friend was so happy he offered me $500 to shoot his wedding and I put it towards my second digital camera, a Canon 10D, hence...the beginning. :)
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