When I was an undergraduate at university many years ago, my deep enjoyment and love for the works of William Shakespeare blossomed. I had the privilege of taking a Shakespearean class and then during one summer in my undergraduate years, I was able to travel through Europe inexpensively on a bike and a Europass to see the great sites. A memory I remember most is going to Stratford-upon-Avon and watching a William Shakespeare play. I don’t know where my passion and love for his plays comes from but it has been a deep part of my life. His writings have also taught me many things.

When I was in England many years ago for the first time, I was standing in the back of the audience watching the play ‘As You Like It’ that was performed not too far from the ... Read More »

The post What Shakespeare Can Teach Us About Enlightenment: All the world’s a stage appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.

The newspaper industry has faced a mighty challenge over the last few years. There is so much “free” content to complete with them. Newspaper revenue continues to plummet. Internet users are reluctant to pay for content. All the free content, supported by advertising revenue, has decimated the newspaper industry. The industry’s cousin, the magazine industry, is not far behind.

This trend can’t continue forever. Already, many people are asking themselves how much they can trust the information on the internet. The need for Reliability drives the demand for Snopes.com. How many “free” web sites can earn enough from advertising to pay all their bills? An effective industry answer to “free” may be forthcoming in the News Corp online newspaper called “The Daily.” The Daily will cover general news, sports, arts and opinion in a format dedicated to the Apple iPad. In addition to the written content, the product will carry high definition video and 360 degree photos. The same product will be available in a few months for the Android-based tablet computers.

The Daily will sell for $.99 a week, or $39.99 a year, a very low price compared to newspapers. With this model, the product receives revenues both from the subscribers and from advertisers. Subscribers have the Reliability benefit of knowing that the content producer cares about facts, accuracy and readable writing style. Advertisers pay for eyeballs that follow a Reliable product.

The Daily is what we call a Next Leader product. This is a product that offers much better than industry standard performance for a low price to a specific subset of industry customers. The Next Leader can offer the very low price because it has a much lower cost structure than is typical in the industry. There are two basic types of Next Leaders. The first are Reformer products. This type of Next Leader product reduces the benefits for the user (usually Function benefits) while increasing the benefits for the buyer (usually Reliability and Convenience benefits) compared to the industry Standard Leader product. The second of the two types of Next Leader products are Transformer products. These products increase the benefits of the user but offer, at least initially, fewer benefits to the buyer than the Standard Leader product offers. The Daily is a Reformer product. It offers the Convenience of formatting fit for a tablet computer so it provides easier access for a segment of the industry’s customers. Its low cost structure results from its elimination of printing presses and distribution costs.

If this new tablet-based product offers a quality read, it will hasten the day when virtually every newspaper and magazine is offered first online and only secondarily in hard copy. The online versions will come at a fraction of the cost of the hard copy versions. Readership is certain to grow.

The home appliance market has been a difficult place to compete during several periods over the last thirty years. It is tough again today. Sales of large appliances have fallen steadily since 2007. Competition is intensifying with the pressure of the South Korean competitors, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, on Whirlpool Corp and Electrolux AB. Whirlpool and Electrolux are suffering from rising costs for steel, copper, plastics and other raw materials. To offset these cost increases, the two companies plan price increases of 8% to 10% in the spring.

The problem: the Koreans aren’t playing ball. The two South Korean firms are pricing aggressively and have been doing so since Thanksgiving 2010.

The South Koreans are formidable competitors. At one time, LG was known as Lucky Goldstar, a seller of low-end, cheaply made, products. Today, it has a much better brand name and sells quality products. Samsung does as well. It is a leader in the large screen TV market. The products that the South Korean companies are pricing aggressively are not the low-end products. They are the mainstream, heart-of-the-market, products.

The domestic U.S. market is slow growing. So is the market in the rest of the world. The North American market is growing 2% to 3% a year. Europe is growing 2% to 4%, while Latin American and Asia grow in the 5% to 10% range. Large appliance companies will have no trouble supplying all the capacity the market needs at these demand growth rates. The industry is likely to have excess capacity for the foreseeable future.

If the two Western competitors institute their price increases without the two South Korean companies in a lock-step march, they will be in a Leader’s Trap. A Leader’s Trap occurs when one or more of the leading companies in an industry hold its prices high in the mistaken belief that customers will stay loyal despite the lower prices of competition. Leader’s Traps rarely end well. Either the Western competitors will lose market share or they will ultimately rescind their price premiums.

These four giant large appliance competitors are peers of one another. The only way to stop the Koreans from discounting against the Western competitors is to have a cost structure that scares them out of the discounts. The discounting competitors have to see that their discounts will only cost them margins because the other peer competitors in the market will match their low prices since they have equally low cost structures.

In 2005, Amazon introduced its Prime Free Shipping program. This yearly subscription program promised free two-day shipping on any purchase the subscriber made from Amazon. Five years later, 13% of Amazon’s 130 million active users are Prime members. More significantly, 20% of the subscribers who purchased products from Amazon in the last twelve months are Prime subscribers. These Prime subscribers purchase two to three times as much as non-Prime subscribers over the course of a year. This Performance innovation removes an impediment to purchasing on Amazon. In fact, it increases the odds greatly that online purchases will be made on Amazon rather than on a competitive site. This has been a blockbuster innovation for Amazon. The innovation holds a special appeal to the larger customers in the market. The Prime subscribers may also offer Amazon an entry into a business that it has longed to gain, for several years, subscription video rentals. It appears that Amazon will introduce a streaming video product for its Prime subscribers. This new product will not cost the Prime subscribers any more than their normal subscription. Netflix’s Watch Instantly service cost about $96 a year so Amazon may have a price advantage on Netflix. Of course, Convenience and Price are only important provided Amazon offers equivalent Function, that is, streaming video content. We don’t know about that yet. Still, Amazon has proven to be an innovative company who can find ways to build a business in non-traditional ways. It continues to grab market share in the retail business.

More experimentation with image to video… now with AI audio experimentation too!

The post Unlocking The Sphinx appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

That’s all…

The post Curious Cats on the Catwalk appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

Lunch Break

By: Tim Ernst

I've been noticing a trend lately at my job of what people are eating for lunch. The people I've been noticing are people in their 20's who have very unhealthy eating habits. Most of these people are skinny guys that appear to be either lazy to eat right or trying to gain weight. I think that in their minds they think that by eating anything they want it will some how help them to gain weight or does it?

These guys are known as hard gainers. They can eat anything they want and not gain weight. What they don't realize is what their putting into their body's will eventually do more harm than good.

Just the other day while I was eating my lunch I saw a guy who looked pretty skinny throw down a whole box of twinkies and washed it down with a bottle of soda. I watched him eat one by one until he was finished. I thought if only he knew what he was doing to himself he might rethink what he was doing. He looked pale, skinny, and just unhealthy.

You see anything you put into your body, it has to break it down. So what happens when you put something unhealthy into your body? Your body needs certain nutrients to break down food so if you are eating unhealthy foods that do not have certain nutrients, your body has no choice but to pull those nutrients from somewhere.
Your body is going to pull those nutrients from either muscle or bones to break it down leaving you looking unhealthy, skinny, and pale.

So the next time you think that by eating a twinkie is going to somehow help with gaining weight, you might want to consider replacing those foods with more nutritious foods. Its like they say, "Garbage in Garbage Out".

Have questions? Post them here and I'll do my best to get back with you.

As you continuously approach your fitness goals, you eventually hit a plateau, which occurs when you've nearly reached your ideal fitness level. At this point, you're basically stuck at one level, but you can take it to the next level easier than you make think.

Everyone who does resistance training―from newbies to professional bodybuilders―will hit this point, but what's important is knowing how to increase your productivity and enhance your workout, and with these 21 facts, you can definitely reach your fitness goals faster.

1. Are you exactly the same as your neighbor, or for that matter, even your sibling? Since we'll assume you answered, “No,” you must understand that everyone is different and doesn't respond to the same muscle building techniques; therefore, you should alternate the speed of your repetitions for optimal results.

2. What your parents gave you doesn't have to determine your goals. You should achieve your fitness objectives despite any genetic barriers you may have―i.e. a high BMI.

3. Establish your goals on paper. Research indicates that when a person writes down detailed goals with deadlines to meet, that the individual has a specific path to follow and is more likely to be successful at achieving that goal.

4. Age is nothing but a number, so don't let your age be a factor in achieving your goals, especially since you can't change this number. Focus on what you can control, such as your sleeping patterns.

5. Find a workout buddy. When you have someone to push you, you'll work harder than you would alone.

6. Keep in mind the ratio 10:1, because you generally need to gain 10 lbs for every inch of girth you add to your arm size. For instance, a majority of people gaining 50 lbs during the course of five years will also gain five inches in their arms.

7. Prior to increasing speed or resistance, increase the range of motion first, meaning you should fully contract and stretch your muscles. If you don’t, you’ll only receive partial results.

8. You need at least eight hours of sleep per night to build muscles, so aim to get this many winks as much as possible. Remember, a few late nights won't hurt, but making it a habit will take a toll on your target fitness level.

9. Stay hydrated! Your body needs at least 1 gallon or 16 cups of water per day for proper muscle growth. The composition of your body is 70 percent water, and in order for your body to maintain an anabolic state, water is essential.

10. Consume raw vegetables whenever you can. Cooking veggies removes much of their nutritional value. In fact, boiling these healthy treats removes between 50 to 75 percent of their nutrients. You may steam them, if you can't eat them raw, but never boil them.

11. Eggs are an excellent source of protein and despite their bad reputation, they're one of the healthiest foods you can select, especially for bodybuilding.

12. If you don't have one already, go out and purchase a blender. The amount of calories that you must eat as a bodybuilder are much easier to consume in liquid form. This vital piece of equipment is definitely important if you have a busy lifestyle that doesn't allow you to eat every three to four hours.

13. When you go grocery stopping, stick to shopping in the outer aisles. These aisles are typically where the fresh dairy and meat are located. The inner portion of the grocery store consists of processed foods and canned goods that should be avoided if you want to build muscle fast.

14. Never use a supplement in place of a meal. You must put food before supplements, so that you're consuming all the nutrients you need for bodybuilding. The nutrition you receive from foods surpasses that of a supplement.

15. In regards to supplements, creatine stands out as the top bodybuilding supplement. Beginning in the 90s, creatine has been at the top of supplement charts and has not seen a decrease in popularity since. The daily dosage recommendations vary; however, the most common dosage schedule consists of taking 20-30 grams for the first 5-7 days, then reducing the amount to 3-5 grams per day.

16. Maybe you don't have enough energy to workout, or maybe you want to increase the amount of time you workout. If either of these scenarios are the case, you should choose coffee for a pick-me-up, since it contains a mild stimulant known as caffeine. Caffeine is an inexpensive and safe performance enhancer.

17. You wouldn't drive your car without warming it up on a cold day, so why would you exercise without getting your body warmed up? Get those muscles warm to avoid injury while working out. Complete at least five to 10 minutes of stretching, in addition to some light cardio before you begin heavy lifting.

18. You've heard before that cheaters never prosper, but in certain cases, this isn't true. Although cheating to finish a set quicker or to lift more weight isn't positive, cheating on the last few reps makes the weight feel easier. This stimulates more muscle fibers with greater intensity.

19. Play nice and take turns! The you-go, I-go concept leads to an intense workout, because after you do a set, your partner immediately does one after you, then before you know it, it’s your turn again. You both use the same weights, but you take turns without any rests in between, and you see who can do the most reps per set. Try this technique with your workout buddy when you do barbell curls or other simple exercises.

20. During the 1940s and 1950s, Reg Park and Vince Gironda made a super intense technique for bodybuilding popular, which consisted of doing 10 sets of 10. This old-school procedure may have a modern name of “German volume technique;” however, this has been a preferred method to build muscles for quite some time. It causes your muscles to grow rapidly. Basically, you should do 10 sets of 10 reps for one body part at a time. Then, you should superset at two different body parts each workout. Make sure you don’t rest for more than a minute in between each exercise. Use this regimen for three weeks, and then return to a more traditional approach.

21. Switch up your routine. After three weeks, you should change your program completely. Basically, it should be opposite of the original order you did the exercises in. For instance, if you worked on your chest first, you should do it last next time. If you worked on abs on Monday, you should do them on Friday next time. Change up the amount of sets you do, as well.

Vince Delmonte

Go here: http://vtaperphysique.com/stage-shredded-status

NOTE: The workout is a "GIANT" set or "Tri" set. You will do all three exercises together for quads for 3-5 circuits. When finished with quads move on to hamstrings

(QUADS)

Barbell Squat 6 reps
Bulgarian Split Squat (Dumbbell Lunge) 12 reps
Leg Extensions 25 reps

Rest for 2 minutes and repeat for 3-5 more circuits.

(HAMSTRINGS)

Deadlifts 6 reps
Lying Leg curl 12 reps
Hyper extensions 25 reps

rest for 2 minutes and repeat for 3-5 circuits.

If you want to know more about Vince Delmonte's training programs he as a FREE video of an awesome presentation on how he got his pro card at the WBFF and went on to be a pro fitness model. He takes you behind the scenes at a rare look of what it takes to get super RIPPED and Shredded, just in time for summer! This video will not be up for VERY LONG!!!
Go here: http://vtaperphysique.com/stage-shredded-status

Skinny Guy Training

By:  Vince Delmonte

Remember, never fix something that isn’t broken, so if you’re a beginner bodybuilder and you like to select body parts to train based on how sore they are and it works, stick with what you’re doing. On the contrary, if you’re skinny and looking for a plan that works for you, then this is an ideal place for you to be. Here, you can find a wonderful resource for constructing your weekly training routine and a body part combination program that meets your needs. This information is based on my own experience.  If you’re more into academia and research than experience-based information, then you’re still in the right place, because much of this information is based upon detailed studies.
You’re probably familiar with the saying, if you try to chase two rabbits, both are sure to escape. This also applies to training and how it should be split up. Keep in mind, each day that you wake is a new start and a new opportunity to morph your so-so, skinny fame into a hunky, beastly body that will surely earn you some respect from other men and get you noticed by the ladies.

You should invest your time each day into working out at a gym, not just spending time there. After you begin doing this, you can have the body that shows you’re in control of your physique and your destiny. You HAVE the power to get the body and whatever else, for that matter, that you want out of life.

Discontinue your current routine of going to the gym and wasting your time. In other words, stop working on multiple body parts when the muscle groups that are assisting these parts aren’t fully recovered yet. Is it really practical to expect your muscles to develop, when you don’t set them up to excel and train to their maximum capacity?
Your weekly training needs to consist of a well-planned workout that is based on your previous workout, as well as the workout to follow. This is much easier when it’s just on paper, but one workout split isn’t the only method to break up your workout routine. In fact, it’s just an instance where you can have a nearly perfect split. Mainly, this article is to help you understand that success relies on what you do today, what you did yesterday and what you’ll do tomorrow.

• Let’s say you trained your chest yesterday, and you’re still sore from it the following day. When you’re at the gym, this pain will put a damper on your leg training.
• Now, it’s arm day. Your biceps are swollen and you’re experiencing some tightness, because of the chin-ups you did yesterday. You obviously are in no condition to train your back today.
• Your triceps are sore from the supersets you did on them yesterday. Since today is chest day, how are you going to bench press?

Maybe this sounds like something you’ve grown accustomed to; however, it’s an indication that there’s not any planning involved in your training. During this article, I’ll give you an example of how a seven-day routine should look. It might sound like an overabundance of work, but if you’re serious about getting in shape, then it’s a necessity.

1. Remember that Big Muscle Groups Should Not be Near the Small Muscle Groups.
Let’s say you start by training your arms on Monday. The advantages of this include your arms being fresh when you’re training other body parts like your back, shoulders or chest. Therefore, your arms need to be away from these parts when you create your plan, since your large muscle groups will suffer from working your arms the day before. Additionally, science states that partnering antagonist muscle groups with agonist muscle groups consequently leads to a boost in the second group of muscles to be trained. Thus, it’s vital to alternate how you train your arms on every Monday. For example, if you begin working on your biceps this week, you’ll want your arm workout next Monday to start with your triceps.

2. Make Your Legs Special.
Your legs should have their own day. So now that it’s Tuesday, you should train your legs, due to the fact that skinny guys need to particularly focus on the leg muscles. Large muscles groups like those within your legs stress your heart and the rest of your body. Your arms are basically useless anyways when you’re leg training, so in all actuality it doesn’t matter if they’re sore. In addition, the energy you use training your legs should take all your energy. You should not be able to train a second body part on the same day you’re doing your legs. Finally, after your leg training, you should definitely have worked up an appetite. This will assist you in maintaining your high calorie diet. This is a vital aspect of growing your arms and allowing them to recover from the day before.

3. Always Follow the Two Day Off, One Day On Rule.
Skinny guys are in luck with this rule, since it’s most likely the most effective muscle building split for their body type. A person’s glycogen reserve diminishes as a consequence of two days of continual training, at least that’s what I’ve found to be true. Moreover, strategically scheduling your rest days aids in the prevention of your glycogen reserve becoming low, which means you can train fresher on your workout days. This method helps to guarantee you won’t have nervous system or hormonal fatigue throughout your workout on Thursday or Friday. When you have that extra day on the weekend, it will ward off fatigue caused by your weekly training.

4. Chest and Shoulders Need to Learn to Share!
This is my personal favorite for body part combinations. They might both be large muscle groups that comprise your upper body; however, you haven’t centered your training on the arms since Monday. You know what that means? Your shoulders and arms are well rested, so you can go until they can’t take any more. Because of the location of the chest and shoulders, there’s a lot of overlap when it comes to muscle groups. They both require pressing motions, and your shoulder’s anterior head is used a great deal when you’re exercising your chest. Personally, I work my upper traps on this day, as well. Working your shoulders has a direct effect on your traps.

5. Your Back, Need I Say More?
Light headedness is oftentimes symptomatic of a back workout. Working on your back entails using a lot of your energy reserve; hence, you must have optimal energy and you shouldn’t be experiencing any tightness in your legs and lower back. And of course, your biceps must have already recovered to allow you to receive the most beneficial workout from weighted chin-ups and heavy rows.

6. Make One Day of the Weekend an Active Day.
Designate Saturday as your active day. Work on your cardio, calves and abs. Do a little cardio, but don’t exceed more than 40 minutes of it. Then, you should work on your legs and calves. Generally, these body parts don’t have a correlation with other muscle groups. Sunday can be your day off to relax, but make sure you rest and eat on this day. What a life, huh? You get an entire day to take it easy and chow down!

Like all workout plans, there are imperfections. But, I would continue a regimen for about four to six weeks. My other books and videos note that training a muscle only once a week has a negative impact on a workout routine, but this concept related directly to body part optimization. Ask yourself if there are changes you can make to the routine you currently implement. I chalk up my success as a body builder to a well-coordinated schedule that leaves me without any doubt of what I’m going to work on each day. My time and energy at the gym is not squandered on thinking about if this program is right for me. I can be reassured when I walk into the gym that it’s effective because I planned accordingly by using these six rules.

The Facts You Need To Know About Supplements that have proprietary blends.

Nearly 75% of the world population takes some type of supplement each day. There are literally thousands of brands and millions of products to choose from. Is there really a difference between them?

The FDA allows questionable fillers and binders such as; cork by products, chemical FD&C dyes, sodium benzoate, dextrose, ethycellulose, and propylene glycol to name only a few. Although these ingredients may be legal, what are the nutritional benefits? Reports have indicate that some of these ingredients can be toxic at certain levels with prolong use.
The FDA does not monitor the contents or purity of a supplement nor the source of a nutritional ingredient.

Purity: What does it really mean? ---Defined: The quality or state of being pure or unmixed with any other element.

In most cases, Impure ingredients are used by many companies. The FDA does not require manufacturers to list these ingredients (on the nutritional labels) if they are not added when making the final dosage form. Many times the raw materials may contain only 90% or less of the listed ingredients along with 10% or more corn starch and lactose. Lactose and corn are known allergens for some people. These items have been known to cause digestive disturbances and weaken the immune system. A conscientious company will not compromise the integrity of a product with such raw materials.  There are 3 types of grades but, we are going to talk about 1 here for the purpose of this article.

1.  Pharmaceutical Grade supplements meet exacting pharmaceutical production standards.
Pharmaceutical Grade supplements are manufactured to a very high standards of potency, purity, dissolution, and a higher degree of bioavailability – the degree at which the vitamin is absorbed into a living system.The term pharmaceutical grade was originally taken from the standard of certification of the facilities in which pharmaceutical grade supplements were made.  Pharmaceutical grade also refers to the ingredients in the supplement. Pharmaceutical grade vitamins meet the highest standards for purity and concentration.

Finally, pharmaceutical grade supplements have a high bioavailability. This means that when you take a pharmaceutical grade products, your body absorbs an optimal amount of nutrients. Better nutrient absorption means greater health benefits.

If you want to know what supplements to buy, look for the "GMP" or "CPMG" stamps on the container.  These two stamps indicate that they were manufactured in a pharmaceutical company.  Be careful with products that have proprietary blends.  Proprietary blends have ingredients that are not listed on the container so you really don't know what you are consuming.

choose-health.org 
pharmanutrients.com 2009
healingedge.net 2012

UODATE: The bike sold, quickly, for the full asking price to the first person who showed up. Which was cool. And even better, the guy was like, "Who did the pictures? They jumped out at me."

(Tiny speedlights FTW...)



Have you tried to buy a new bike lately? Or even a used bike?

The coronavirus pandemic has made them very tough to find. Between homebound people snapping them up and all of the various broken supply chains, most of the bike inventory — other than very pricey specialty bikes — has pretty much vanished.

Which means that if you have a functional bike in your garage that you don't need, it will likely never be worth more than it is right now.

My daughter Emily has an unneeded bike in the garage. It's a Trek 7100, which is decent hybrid. She rode it to middle school. But she's just graduated college and won't be bringing it to her new job.

But right now it should fetch a nice price in the Craigslist Bicycle Hunger Games. Especially if it is photographed and presented well.

So that's exactly what we are going to do today: photograph a bike with a basic two speedlight kit.Read more »

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to lighting. One is to light your subject in a way that is not grounded in reality but merely looks cool. And the other is to use lighting to translate the way your eye sees light into a way that your camera can better understand it. 

That latter choice is the option we'll be exploring today in a walk-through of a sunset portrait of artist Wendy Ng for the Howard County Conservancy. 

Read more »

The Paul C. Buff Link monobloc studio strobe ($895.95) delivers 800ws of portable power, and deserves consideration from anyone in the United States who is considering a big gun for use on location.

Please note: This is not a full review.

There have been several thorough examples already published — most notably this one by Mike McGee. There are many others, from the usual suspects, a Google search away.

Rather, this is a quick write-up of some first-hand impressions, thoughts and features I have not seen much mention of elsewhere.
Read more »

In 2006 I started a lighting blog while working full-time as a staffer at The Baltimore Sun. By early 2007, it became obvious that I didn't have the personal resources to give 100% to both Strobist and my job at the newspaper.

That’s exactly the position I find myself in today. For the past year I have been working on a new project. It is photography-based, and will be as unique to the photo space as Strobist was back in 2006.

But, as I found with Strobist in 2007, this project will require all of my focus. So I am shifting Strobist into archive mode to allow myself the time and mental space to do that.

If I had more available brain cells/hours in the day, I would be happy to do both. Alas, I do not. So I am choosing the one I think can make a bigger difference to photographers. When the new project launches, I’ll do my best to make sure you hear about it. So please, stay tuned!

For those of you who are interested in our in-person lighting workshops and/or our X-Peditions trips (both of which are currently on pause during the pandemic) we absolutely are planning to restart them once the coast is clear. Please make sure you are on the relevant notification list(s) by clicking through to the links above.

Finally, I want to take this moment to say thank you to the countless people I have met, and new friendships made, as a result of publishing Strobist over the past 15 years. It is impossible to express how much you all have enriched my life, and that of my family.


Thank you so much,
David

Hey gang, it’s David. It’s been a while!

In 2021, I archived Strobist as a completed project. I can’t honestly say that I’ve missed the breakneck pace of running a solo site. But I’ve definitely missed interacting with so many cool people all of the time.

That said, I am still teaching. X-Peditions gives me the twin advantages much smaller class sizes, plus being in Hanoi every fall. And that’s been wonderful.

Better yet, my new schedule has given me the breathing room to be able build my current project. Like Strobist, this project is designed for photographers. But unlike this website, it has nothing at all to do with flash.



Today I’m introducing my new book, The Traveling Photographer’s Manifesto. It aspires to be for traveling photographers what Strobist always tried to be for lighting photographers.

The premise of the book is that your camera can, and should, be much more than just a pricey recording device when you travel. It can also serve as a passport, opening up new connections and possibilities that otherwise might not have happened.

Using a photo trip to Southeast Asia as a framework, the book walks through many things that you can do to help this to happen.

I have uploaded three documents to help you to know if TTPM might be suited for you:


1. A 5-minute summary: This will quickly give you a feel for the book.

2. A 27-page supplement: Only a small portion of the book, which is unillustrated, is about camera operation. This visual supplement is available for readers who are more visual learners. And it will give you a quick skim of parts 4 and 5.

3. A sample chapter: How to become more comfortable meeting and engaging with people as a photographer.


As you'll see from the summary, most of the book is not about camera operation at all. It’s more about the countless little things that working photojournalists do while on assignment that an enthusiast might not think of.

These little habits, taken together, can start to form the impression of a photographer being consistently, conspicuously lucky. When in reality, luck had very little to do with it.

So, if this is the sort of thing that interests you, I hope you’ll give the book a spin. It is available now, on Amazon.com worldwide.

Just as with Strobist, I welcome your feedback from this project as well. My email is listed on the copyright page and elsewhere. And of course, I will read and take to heart every Amazon review. Because my goal is for the project to continue to evolve and improve over time, just as the material on this website did.

Thanks for your interest, and for your readership of Strobist. As always, please say hi at any time on Twitter at @Strobist.


Cheers,
David


The Traveling Photographer’s Manifesto (Amazon.com)

Last weekend I had a lively discussion with a friend about Pagans she has met who don’t condone or accept the LGBT community, especially as it is intermingled with Paganism.  She has met some of this ilk (I have not) and described how they do not condone non-straight sexuality when it is expressed in Paganism, and how this type also has a limited view of what should be expressed as Paganism, and other expressions are wrong.

I gave her the impression I was surprised to hear this, but it was not surprise, but shock.  I knew intellectually that this type exists (since all types of everything exist,) but this was the first I had heard of actual encounters with such thinking.

We followers of Earth-based spirituality are persecuted and ridiculed enough with us doing it to ourselves.  Think of how Christine O’Donnell (who has no business holding public office, but that is another story) was openly ridiculed when an old clip of her surfaced where she stated she dabbled in witchcraft.  It tanked whatever chances she had in her Senatorial race, and was it because she was the wrong picture to put on the pagan community?  No, it was because any inference that one is a practicing pagan is social suicide in most parts of the United States.

We pagans need to be accepting of each other, and open to the great cosmos that is all of us.  There is no “right” or “wrong” way to be a pagan.

Those who think otherwise are suffering from cognitive dissonance.

And don't just say "Because I'm not Christian".... I would like to see you fully explore how your beliefs fit with those typical of other Pagans. What is it about you and your life that made you associate with the label of "Pagan"?

I was raised Lutheran. I attended church every Sunday with my family. I also remember attending Sunday school and I even went through Confirmation. Through all this I never really felt the connection to the Christian faith. I have read the bible, not cover to cover but how many actually have? The whole doctrine seemed a bunch of bull, to me at least. Now that was many years ago; I don’t doubt that there is an undeniable energy in the Christian faith. I have experienced it first hand by sitting with my family again at the church I grew up with, but I still am not Christian. Oops, I said it didn’t I?

Why do I call myself Pagan? I have thought about this before but I have never written about it. I think that I was destined to follow this path. That would explain my aversion to Christianity. I always liked the thought of magick even before I knew what it was. I flirted with an eastern religion while I was in high school but never kept with it. I think because I didn’t completely understand it and no one was around to explain it. I know that if I had found the trail head of my current path back then I would have been traveling it a lot longer than I have been.

I didn’t think of myself as Pagan at first. When I started down my path a few years ago I was working with Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and his online school, The Grey School. I labeled myself as a wizard. I worked on my studies and surrounded myself with all the trappings of what I thought it meant to be a wizard. I didn’t realize that some of these items were also associated with being Pagan. I bought the candles, athame, chalice, and other stuff. A conversation with a person at a spiritual retreat had me questioning exactly what path I was on and what it meant to me. After that retreat and experiencing the rituals there and talking to other people I realized that the label I had chosen, wizard, was not correct and that Pagan was more appropriate.

I began to explore what it is to be Pagan. I related to many of the aspects. I believed in the existence in multiple gods. I believed that we are all connected to nature and that we should respect it and honor it. I believe in the power of the Moon on us and her aspects.

After my first retreat and the revelations that came from it, I returned to the retreat and became involved in guiding young men through the coming of age ritual offered. This allowed me to explore my beliefs even further and realize that while I enjoyed being solitary for a time I needed something more and sought out a local coven. While working with the people in the coven I found my patron deities. Lady Hecate made herself known to me and I continue to honor her. Lord Cernunnos/Herne has made himself known to me but I believe he has always been with me in some sense since I have always loved all out of doors activities. I also have an affinity for herbs and their uses. I have sewn two robes, one white and one black. I have acquired a couple staffs, one given me by the forest the other found me at a local flea market. I have setup my sacred space and consecrated it with ritual. I try to live my life as a Pagan. I even take the title of Witch now and practice the craft of the witch. I celebrate the Sabbats and the Esbats. I welcome the Faeries in to my house and leave them gifts.

I am Pagan, I am Witch, and I am happy.

Blessed Be!

Being a relatively visible public Witch, I get plenty of requests for spells, which I politely decline to do. I tell people two things: One is that it's best to create one's own spells rather than have someone else cast them. The other is a caution against performing any magic that would interfere with the free will of another. The exception to that would be a binding of someone else, making them unable to do further harm.

If you believe someone has put a negative spell on you (usually called a hex), here are a few things you can do to protect yourself, and possibly reverse the spell.

First, purify your person. Take a shower, or better yet, soak for a while in hot water containing sea salt, bath salts, or Epsom salts. Allow the salt and water to neutralize any negativity within yourself; think of this as you soak. Let any contamination be washed away with the water spiraling down the drain, out of your house and out of your life. Drink lots of water to wash out your insides. Wash your hair, brush your teeth, put on clean clothes. You may also wish to drink mint tea or another tea that you find refreshing.

Second, purify your dwelling. Dust, sweep, vacuum, tidy up, polish. Air out the rooms. Wash the windows with a mild solution of vinegar and water. This allows purifying sunlight and moonlight to illuminate the room as well as making the glass more reflective to deflect unwanted energies.[1]

Circulate through the rooms where you live with sage or other purifying incense, making sure to fumigate everywhere -- stairways, closets, underneath stairways, basement, attic, garage if attached. If your dwelling is one that you can circumnavigate, you may wish to walk all around the outside of the building wafting this smoke.

Then mix salt and water and sprinkle it around the house. As with the incense, do this around the outside of the home, too, if you can. Be sure to cense and sprinkle all openings to the outside -- doors and windows, of course, but also skylights, electrical outlets, heating vents, chimneys, ventilator hoods, toilets, and sink, tub and shower drains. Also do this to mirrors.

While you're doing these things, speak the words, "With Earth and Water I purify this space," and "with Fire and Air I consecrate this space," because that's exactly what you're doing.[2]

Third, ward your space. If you're the witchy sort, trace a protective pentacle with the salt water on all doors, windows and mirrors. Rosemary grows in abundance where I live, so I like to use a sprig of it to sprinkle the salt water. Then I like to leave rosemary sprigs on all the window sills.

When you've done all these things, take a step back, be very quiet, look around, listen and note how different your space feels to you now.

You may also wish to perform these acts at other places where you spend a lot of time, such as work, if you can.

One last thing you may want to do, although it's not as easy and practical as the rest. You may wish to hang little mirrors in the windows or on the outside of the building to reflect away negativity. The mirrors aren't really necessary; they're just extra insurance, if you will. You should be fine just doing the other things I've recommended.

Now envision yourself within a bubble. Project this bubble around you and around your home. Nothing can pass through the membrane that has not been invited by you. Anything unwelcome bounces off the bubble. Build a strong image of this bubble in your mind. If you have a small object, maybe a clear quartz crystal or a piece of rosemary, that reminds you of this visualization, carry it in your pocket or keep it someplace handy. You can't be expected to hold this image in your consciousness all the time. But if you have this object, then at times when the image has faded and you feel you need to reinforce your working, take it out and look at it and touch it to reawaken your sense of your protective bubble.

As with all magic spells, you needn't stick with the formula offered here. If other ingredients call to you or other actions spring from you, trust your intuition and go with them.

These are my recommendations. For another approach, here's a Lemon UncrossingSpell (to break a curse). I have never tried this so I can offer no assurance of its efficacy.

[1] For a super-duper heavy cleansing of a home, say if you're just moving in after someone else has been living there, and if you have the time, get some dragon's blood incense and burn it on a piece of charcoal in a container left in the bathtub or shower. As soon as you light it, leave and let it fumigate the entire house. You don't want to breathe much of this stuff. Then return a few hours later and open all the windows to let out the dragon's blood fumes.

[2] Some additional things you can do to cleanse a new or dirty home: Walk throughout the rooms with noisemakers, rattles, a drum to frighten off unwanted spirits. Do this before censing and sprinkling. After censing and sprinkling, ring a little bell at the windows and mirrors.

Please visit In Memoriam: Janet Reid for more about the late great Shark. 

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Just two more sleeps until The Spellshop comes out and book tour begins! Over the next week and a half, I'm headed to Vermont, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Phoenix, Knoxville, and Chapel Hill! I'm so excited I could burst! Please come join me!

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/appearances.htm

When you call home from book tour and find out which family member misses you most.....

THE SPELLSHOP IS A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER (#7), A USA TODAY BESTSELLER (#13), AND AN INDIE BESTSELLER (#10)!!!!!!!! I’M SOBBING!!!! Thank you so much to everyone at Bramble/Tor/Macmillan who made my dreams come true, including the incredible Ali Fisher, Dianna Vega, Caro Perny, and Julia Bergen! Thank you so much to my amazing agent Andrea Somberg who has been with me for 18 years and 28 books! And thank you to the wonderful booksellers and readers who made this possible!!!! I love you all so much!!!

Proof I didn't dream it. https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2024/07/28/hardcover-fiction/

I had an absolutely fantastic time on book tour for THE SPELLSHOP!!! Loved meeting so many wonderful readers and amazing booksellers! Thank you all so much! Just wanted to share some of my favorite pics from:

Fable Hollow Coffee & Bookshoppe in Knoxville, TN
Phoenix Books in Essex, VT, with Katherine Arden
Charis Books & More in Decatur, GA, with Kimberly Lemming
The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn, NY, with Naomi Novik
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ, with Rebecca Thorne
Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with T. Kingfisher

Next up: San Diego Comic Con!