Subscribe To My New YouTube Channel!

Well after years of being asked if I will ever make a YouTube Channel, I have finally done it!

Please visit my new channel by clicking here!

The channel is called, "Russ Is Right" - because I am always right, except for when I am wrong.  :)

Seriously, I'm not always right, but I thought it was a catchy name for the channel.  But I'll do my best to be right in the things I share with you!

As a new YouTube Channel, I need your help desperately to view the videos and to Like them and to PLEASE subscribe to my channel!  I need at least 1000 subscribers before YouTube will take it seriously and at least 4000 hours of people viewing the channel!  Yikes!  That's a lot.  But it can be done with your help.  Already a number of my students have subscribed.  Thanks!

I have thousands of students, and I hope I was influential in teaching you photography and that you'd like to learn more from me for FREE on YouTube!  But to keep the channel going, I need each of you to please help me get to the minimum of 1000 subscribers!  It doesn't cost anything, but if you have a gmail email address or if you have a YouTube account (which is free from Google), you can help by clicking on Subscribe button and also clicking on the little Bell icon next to subscribe to get email notifications whenever a new video is uploaded to the channel.  I've learned that the YouTube lingo for this is called, "Dropping a new video"... yeah, I have a hard time getting used to that terminology!

Anyway, I hope to try to do a short 5 minute video daily and perhaps one or two longer videos per week.  Yes, that's ambitious, but at least for now, I'm going to try to do it.  I want to grow this channel fast!

I hope to talk daily about things that I like and things that I don't like.  Photography of course, music, guitars, cooking, fishing, you name it!  Like my blog (which you can see by clicking here), I won't limit the content to just photography.  I have more interests than just that.  Plus I know you do too!  So, let's just say the channel will have a variety of content that I hope you will be interested in.  And please leave me a comment in the comment section of the videos.  I would appreciate that too.  Tell me what you like, what you don't like and tell me what other kinds of videos you think would be good for me to do!

I truly appreciate each and every one of my students and hope you will like this new free service I will be offering to you.  Watch the videos often and please let your friends know on Facebook, Instagram, via email, whatever!  With your help, I know I can grow the channel quickly.

See you all on the Tube!  There are two brand new videos "dropped" today and a few in the past couple of days!  More to come!  Hopefully daily!

Thanks!!

Russ

Closeup of a Stylus In A Record Groove

I was challenged by one of my photography students to take a close up shot of the stylus of a cartridge on the groove of the record. Here it is.

The focus is placed on the stylus (not the logo of the cartridge). Lighting was done with an external flash (Nikon SB-800) with oblique lighting using a flash cord. The light was slightly higher than the cartridge and to the left of the turntable.

The lens was a Nikon 60mm f2.8 Micro lens (Nikon calls macro lenses, micro lenses) set at f8.0. The shutter speed was 1/200 second. TTL Flash was used to set the exposure. The camera was a Nikon D850 set at 45.7 MP and shot in RAW and processed in Adobe Lightroom. The close up images are cropped versions of the wider image. The widest image of the record and the tone arm and cartridge was taken with my point and shoot Canon G7xMkII camera.

The images were taken rather quickly. Had I spent more time and adjusted focus and the lighting better, I'm sure the results would have been better.

This is where a high megapixel camera pays off. Close up shooting with even closer cropping of the image.

Not that it matters, but the tracking force of the cartridge was set at 1.7 grams.

Rearranging My Audio Gear

I got lucky and was able to get an old Technics FM/AM Tuner on Facebook Marketplace for only $10!  It is in perhaps 85% new condition and works perfectly!  Because of this, I decided I would rearrange some of my audio gear to a couple of shelves closer to me so that I could more easily adjust the sound.

Not all of the gear are hooked up however.  Only the amp, the DAC, and the tuner are wired up.

I seem to be getting back into my audio gear.  It's about time.  I really miss listening to music.  Since starting my photography school, most of my concentration has been on photography and I've neglected playing my guitar and listening to music.  That is changing now and that's a good thing!

Spinning Some Vinyl on the Luxman PD375 Turntable

Forty years ago, my family owned and operated a stereo store in Skokie, IL called "Component Stereo".  We sold a variety of audio equipment of which this Luxman PD375 vacuum pump turntable was one of the items available.  It still works great and sounds great too!

I have an Ortofon VMS 30 Mk II cartridge mounted on it.  We sold that too.

The vacuum platter sucks all the air out from between the platter and the record adhering the record to the metal platter with a rubber gasket on the outer edge of the platter.  The idea was to make the record really flat and to essentially make the disc really heavy.  This helps dampen any vibrations that might be picked up and smear the sound through the speakers when played loudly.

The album I'm listening to is "Tower of Power Direct" - a Sheffield direct to disk recording.  Very powerful!  I haven't played this album in a little over 30 years!  Still sounds terrific!

I'm enjoying the old albums we used to use to demo our equipment at the store all those years ago.  Vinyl records are gaining popularity once again... something that some audio manufacturers thought would not happen after the CD was invented.  Well, they were wrong.  Analog lives on!

I'm excited to attend this year's AXPONA show in Schaumburg, IL in April.  It's been a while since I've been to one of these kind of shows.  I'm looking forward to seeing what is new in high-end audio!