SIMPLE PHOTOGRAPHY EQUALS GREAT PICTURES

It seems like yesterday that I was photographing portraits and weddings. I got started by photographing my sister-in-law's wedding, then it was my new brother-in-law's cousin, then another relative then friends of theirs. It just snowballed and after 9 years I finally decided I'd had enough. I made enough money to buy equipment, lighting systems, filters, extra lenses and photography gadgets. I had all this good stuff but no desire to photograph another wedding. So, for a while, I walked away. It had become a job.
Then something happened at work. My photography skills became part of my day job. The company photographer retired and so they started calling me to take pictures for the company magazine. I had lots of covers and almost every picture in the book was shot by me. I traveled all over North Louisiana and East Texas shooting everything from welding shops, natural gas cars to chicken houses. All the while doing my regular job. Then things changed again and the company downsized and I was out of work. So, I put my equipment away and just shot for my family and church school. I shot football games for 8 or 9 years and after my sons graduated I slowly got out of that and put away my cameras again.
During all that time, I learned how to shoot individual portraits, group shots, small product close ups, landscapes, and anything that came my way. I learned how to make my own reflectors and soft boxes. I used silver and white umbrellas with studio flash units to handheld units. I made some of my gadgets myself and got some great results for just a small amount of money. I suppose I bought every photo book that was on the market and read them with a white hot passion for photography. I had lighting books, posing books, close up books, fashion books, advertising books, and tons of magazines about photography.
So, what am I doing with all this knowledge now? NOTHING. That's sad isn't it? So, I'm thinking I might feature some how to articles here on the Stroope blog and if I get enough response I'll start another blog about using your point and shoot digital camera to make professional pictures using inexpensive lighting and backgrounds. If you're interested check back from time to time for the next photo article.
Take care for now and Happy Forth of July.

Stroope

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Stroope

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A LETTER FROM MY FRIEND SCOTT MITCHELL

Below I've posted an email from my friend Scott Mitchell concerning a story I told about Tom Mann on a recent podcast. Tom and his friends decided to air up a dog with a bicycle pump and then his little brother. Little did he realize that he could have killed the dog and his brother. Scott's email tells of a similar story that ended with the death of a child. I should have mentioned in my podcast that what Tom did was extremely dangerous and not to be taken lightly. Although it was funny at the moment, Tom did say in his book that it was a big mistake and included a warning. Which I failed to do. Thank you Scott for bringing that to my attention.

Hello Ron,

On a recent podcast you were talking about this book you were reading
about country boys in the past. You read a story where this guy put a
gopher up the butt of a donkey and then later pumped up a donkey butt
with an air pump. Later you said the same thing was done by one
brother onto another. What book was this? Who were these people?

You seemed to have kind of a ha ha nudge wink wink attitude towards
how things were in the old country days.

When you told this story I was taken back to my high school days. I
had a shop teacher... Mr. Littlefield. He was a grumpy and small wirey
guy that took no crap from anyone. On one day he got the class
together and laid out the rules of shop classs. He made it clear that
anyone fooling around in the LEAST... even just cracking jokes would
be ejected from the class perhaps permanently. As he was saying this
we all wondered what was this old fart's problem. Next he told a story
and he got real serious. A number of years before he said he was
running shop class and some boys got to horsing around. Ha ha wink
wink. They had a compressed air tank and a hose and one boy grabbed
the hose and put it up to the butt of a kid there and pressed the
lever. A blast of high compressed air came out and inflated the boys
intestine and it exploded. Before they could get the boy to the
hospital for emergency surgery he was dead from the poisons in his
intestine spilling out into the rest of his body and massive bleeding.
He never forgot it and became a strict task master. I respected that.

When I heard this story I was reminded of this. You probably never
gave it any thought. You might want to mention to never try something
like that for any reason and that it is not funny at all. I would hate
to think of someone trying that thinking it was funny. Also in this
day and age that would definitely be sexual assault akin to these
preachers that sodomize kids and the person doing it would have a
record as a sexual predator for the rest of their life. Now we take
such things VERY seriously. I am pretty glad things are different now
than in the good old days.

I know you adore kids and I am sure you were just not thinking about
it. I only thought I would mention it to make you aware of it as
kindly as I can.

Best Regards
Scott Mitchell

Common man Uncommon thoughts
Step outside the box
Politics, Technology, Philosophy, & a slice of my life.
Shorten your commute by listening.
http://www.scottpodcast.com

HO AGENDA

HO AGENDA is a podcast that Tom Wiles and I do at least once a month. Tom, known as Trucker Tom, also has a podcast called the TruckerTom Podcast and has a tremendous following. When Tom and I call each other it's usually to talk about some issue in the news or something we've found to be interesting and most conversations end up being about 2 hours long. We got to thinking that we should make a podcast out of our conversations since at the time no one else was doing that. But, Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak had the same idea and beat us to the punch. However, that challenged us to get our show going and now 22 shows later we're still at it. That's almost 2 years of a monthly show. Since Tom is traveling and usually home only once a month we try to record when he gets a few minutes away from family and friends. Last night we didn't get together until 9:30 and due to problems it was probably 10:30 or 11:00 before we started recording. Around 1:00 A.M. we decided it was time to wrap up the show. We had a lot of fun on this episode talking about some funny subjects. We stayed away from politics for the most part and talked about everyday things like, hog traps. Yep, hog traps. It seems the country is being taken over by an over abundance of wild hogs. So, I informed him of what I knew about it. Then the subjects of water wells, rocks, rock houses, alligators, turkeys and a bit of technology creeped into the conversation. This is probably one Ho Agenda I'll actually listen to again just for a laugh. If you're interested, I'll include a link below to click on. Episode 22 in being edited and will be available in a couple of days. Here's the link: http://hoagenda.mevio.com or http://www.truckertompodcast.com . Enjoy.

Stroope

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SITTING BY THE POOL

At the moment I'm sitting by the pool watching my grandkids swim and play pool basketball. Peyton, Caitlyn and Parker are enjoying a week of vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with their parents, Chris and Brandi. They invited us to spend the week with them so A.J. and I packed our bags and here we are. So far, we've been to Magic Springs Amusement and Water Park twice and they've been three times. We visited an alligator farm and petting zoo too. I know what you're thinking, no we didn't pet the alligators. The second day we visited a business that sells all sorts of beautiful rocks and crystals. These places seem to be everywhere. There's even a mining company that allows you to go through their 100 foot trough to find semi-precious jewels. Of course, there's an admission fee but you are guarenteed to take home at least 20 of these jewels. Does semi-precious mean precious to the owner but actually worthless? Well, that's my take on it. At the moment, that's out of the question. We are considering going to the putt-putt course later but rain is in the forecast so that's on hold. Currently the sun is shining and I'm seeing blue skies and a few wimpy white clouds. Call me Mr. Weather, but I think the rain is likely to not show up until we're in the middle of our putt-putt game.
Regarless of the weather, I'm just enjoying hanging out and taking it easy sitting here by the pool watching the kids.

Stroope

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Stroope

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Trip

I'm going to use utterli or at least try to send out mini-podcasts when I'm on the road.

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More Books About Golf and History

Yesterday was Mother's Day but I went to visit my Mom on Saturday since we expected our kids to come by on Sunday. They did and after their visit, we went shopping. My mom gave me a check, an early birthday present, and it was burning my pocket so we went to Dick's Sporting Goods and looked around at the golf equipment, balls, clubs, putters, bags, and all the related items to golf. They had lots of good sales going on but I was more interested in a particular golf book by Hank Haney called "Hank Haney's Essentials of the Swing". I didn't find it there so went went down the street to the local Barnes and Nobels bookstore. I knew they'd have the book and sure enough, I went straight to it. My golf swing is not too good so it's something I wanted and needed to get some good knowledge about from the best golf trainer of them all. He's the man who guides Tiger Woods so I know I'll learn something if I apply the principles of his book. Some of the chapters are: The Grip, Stance, Posture and Alignment,and The Backswing. You get the idea. So far, I've read chapter one I've already learned quite a bit. I'd recommend this book if asked. Well, I think I just did.
Next, as I was strolling through the bargain section, I came across the book "Einstein" by Walter Isaacson, a great writer. Only 9.95...what a bargin and it's the hardback edition. I watch this section because I love hardbacks. You can get them for a fraction of the orginal cost. The down side is that you might have to wait a year or two to get one. Then I found a book about Abe Lincoln by Michael Lind, "What Lincoln Believed". I can't wait to get into this one.

So, on the bright side, my wife and I had a great Mother's Day.

THE INNOCENCE OF A CHILD

I enjoy spending time with my grand kids. I believe that to a child "TIME = LOVE". That's something I read a while back in an article I got in an email promoting a book. I only wish I'd thought of it myself. If we are going to change the world, I think it has to start with the children. I'm not talking about being in their presence but talking to them, and relating on their level. Listening to what they have to say is important. They are full of questions and even though we give them answers it seems our answers only fuel more questions. That's a good thing to me. In a coversation my wife had with our eleven year old grandson, he asked her why we ( the United States ) didn't get all the hungry people of the world and bring them to the USA and feed them. That was a tough question from a young boy whose heart is still innocent. It's a shame that crops of food are grown and plowed under because farmers can't get "the right price" they want. I call that GREED. We have more then enough to feed the world.