Doyle Dykes / Haley Dykes at Guitar Works - Evanston, IL 4/09/10

Doyle Dykes and his daughter Haley Dykes performed once again at Guitar Works in Evanston, IL on Friday, 4-09-10 to a standing room only audience.

My friends Jerry, Jeff and Andy were in attendance with me. An interesting thing about this was how all of us were connected through something that had to do with weddings. I was a groomsman at Jerry's wedding and sang at it too and he was a groomsman at my wedding, I photographed Jeff's son's wedding last June, Andy is a professional videographer and we've worked several weddings together and I photographed Doyle's daughter Holli's wedding back in June 2007.

Doyle and Haley drove in from the St. Louis area and made it to Evanston just in time to set up and do a quick sound check. Chicago's difficult traffic on Fridays really slowed down their travel. Luckily, the staff at Guitar Works had the sound system all set already, so all they needed to do was set up their own gear and plug into the house system.

As usual, Doyle amazed everyone at the show. There were quite a few people in attendance this time that had never seen Doyle play before. You can always tell because when you look into the audience, you can see how mezmorized these audience members are when they see and hear how fast Doyle can play guitar!

Haley played her mandolin and sang as usual, but she surprised us all with a new Weber Mandola this time! Wow! I really like the sound of a Mandola. It really compliments her voice. It's a larger instrument than a standard Mandolin, so it has a deeper tone to it. It's great!

After the show, Doyle, Haley, Jerry, Jeff and I had a late night dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Skokie. It's always nice to go out and catch up with what Doyle and Haley have been doing on the road since the last time we have seen them. I think the toughest part of their jobs is simply driving so much from gig to gig. Jerry suggested they really need to get a professional driver to drive them around. I agree. It would really ease a lot of the stress from the job. But we all joked that if that were to ever happen, that driver better be built with enough muscles to help move equipment around too! Have you ever tried lifting a Rivera amp? It's heavy!

Get out to see Doyle and Haley perform if they are ever in your town. I guarantee you'll walk out as a fan of these two! Be sure to click on each image to see a larger version.

4-1/2 Years of Blogging

My first blog post was on October 4, 2005. I never thought I'd still be at it! Encouraged by another photographer to start a blog, I did it and have been consistently doing it for four and a half years now.

Recently, I was talking to another photographer about blogging and we discussed what a blog should be like. Unlike other photographers, I adopted from the beginning that my blog would not simply be about photography or specifically wedding photography. There are plenty of those kinds of blogs around. Plus, can you really post anything more than just photos of recent weddings for four and a half years?

Because of the potential lack of new and interesting things to write about, I decided that if this blog were to be able to go on for years, it would have to be about things that just simply interested me. Hopefully my readers would find it interesting too. I didn't want to just post photos of brides every week. Besides, wedding photographers don't always work on new weddings every week! Bookings can vary... can you imagine how lucky we'd be if we could find a new client to book every single Saturday without overlap? Impossible really.

So here, you read about things I like. Guitars, fishing, forensics, photography, video reviews... whatever. It's kept me going for four and a half years, and on average, I'm writing about twice per week. If I'm lucky, I have photos to show you. If I don't have something new that I photographed, I try to find photos on the internet to support what I'm saying.

My blog statistics show me that many of my readers are not from the Chicago area. Many people find me by simply doing a search on Google looking for photos. I often wonder if they read the things that I write to support those photos. And, I wonder if they come back again too. I know I get a lot of viewers from across the world. It's always fun to see where people come from. I can tell you, it's all over the world.

I'll continue this blog for as long as there are interesting things to write about or interesting photos to show. There are weeks that I struggle to come up with things to discuss. Other times, it is really easy to find a topic.

Thanks for continuing to follow along and read about my interests!

Libraries

I am surprised that many people do not use their local libraries. I'm there all the time! I borrow DVD's (for free), books, books on CD and music CD's. I use their conference rooms, I go to free lectures and I even borrow their computers when I need to look something up quickly while I'm there.

I'm a "regular" at my local library. While not all of the librarians may know me by name, I'll bet they all know me by face. I am there several times a week. Sometimes, I'm there more than once per day!

One of my first jobs ever was when I was 16 years old. I worked at the Niles Public Library in Niles, IL. I was assigned to work the circulation counter. I checked out library materials for patrons and checked them back in as well. I didn't have to shelve books though... that was a job given to the girls who worked there! I suppose the logic was that they wanted a male to handle the front desk to keep some kind of "order" to the library. I had keys to open and close the library and it was my responsibility to do that. I had to walk the entire library to make sure nobody was hiding somewhere before we officially closed the doors. It was a huge responsibiity for a 16 year old boy! Before working at the Niles Public Library, I was a library aide at my former grade school. I shelved books there and also helped keep the library organized.

While in high school, I would study at the school library all the time. Well, I actully didn't study all the time... I often went to the library annex section to check out magazines to read. Now you may think I'd be checking out Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal or The Chicago Tribune, right? Wrong! I usually asked for "Black Belt" magazine or "Mad" magazine! Yeah, I was a real library genius in high school!

In college, I used the library as well, but surprisingly less than any other time in my life. Most of my studies could be done simply with the text books I had to buy.

My wife and daughter go to the library often too. As my daughter was growing up, we'd take a lot of books out for her to read. I think that made a huge difference in her education. She was reading at a very early age and she loved getting new books to read all the time too. Today, she and my wife continue to do a lot of reading... although it seems most of their reading are fiction books.

For me, I really only like to read technically oriented books or other non-fiction books. I will take out computer books, books on photography, sports books, music books, fishing books, and other non-fiction books. I like biographies too, but I only like that on "books on CD" so that someone else reads it to me.

But what I take out most are DVD's. This is really the only form of entertainment I have that involves a television. I rarely watch TV shows anymore. And I get most of my news from the internet now too.

Here's an interesting thing... I've never seen an episode of Monk on TV... but I've seen every episode of Monk. How can that be? Well, I've seen them all on DVD's borrowed from my local library!

I really like Monk. It's a fun show. I would not say Monk uses the most technologically advanced methods of forensic science to solve cases, but his powers of observation is what helps him solve crimes. I love all the main characters on the show too. In fact, Ted Levine who plays Captain Leland Stottlemeyer on the show is a dead ringer for a supervisor I had for one of my past jobs! They could pass as brothers!

If you have never watched Monk, I'd highly encourage it. It's funny and entertaining. It ran for eight seasons, so there are lots of episodes to watch. Can't afford buying all those DVD's? You don't have to! Go to your local library and borrow them! (Image borrowed from the internet.)

Another Focus Group Session

In December 2008, I participated in a Focus Group that discussed toilets which I wrote about on my blog. Yesterday, I was asked to participate in a group that discussed soft drinks!

A major soft drink manufacturer wanted to know what people thought about their packaging for a new product they hope to introduce to the market. While I don't think I should divulge the product here, I will tell you a little about what we talked about. Maybe after the product is introduced, I'll let you know what the product was at that time.

We were shown various cans of the soft drink and asked what our impressions were of them. They had different colors schemes, different fonts for the name of the product and different designs. We were also asked which cans made the most sense based on the way the product will be marketed.

Surprisingly of the 7 people we had testing the product, we all changed our minds on which can design worked best after we heard about the marketing concept. We did not like the design when we simply had to choose which design looked best to us not having heard the concept. But after hearing the marketing concept, our intitial choices did not seem to match what they were trying to portray with the marketing! Interesting!

We all did not like the color scheme of our final selection initially. It just did not do anything for us. But after considering how the product was going to be marketed and also after taste-testing the product, we all agreed that our "loser" choice made the most sense for the product! It was a 180 degree turnaround!

The product itself was actually very good. It did not taste too sweet nor did it taste like a diet drink. It did not leave as much of an after-taste like a diet drink does. It has more calories than a diet drink, but substantially less than a non-diet drink. Overall, we all thought the product was a winner and we could see ourselves buying the product in the future.

It will be interesting to see the product finally on store shelves to see if what we picked is what the company finally choses to package the product.

I enjoy participating in focus groups. You get to see new products before they hit the market and you get to express your thoughts about it which could change the way a product is presented to the marketplace. And, they pay you for it too! That's always a plus!

Skunked Again At Waukegan Harbor

My friends Dan, AJ and I went out to Waukegan Harbor this morning at 5:30 AM. It was cold and windy and we were freezing! Just the walk from the car to the pier had my fingers totally frozen! I wear gloves that have the fingertips exposed, but I think it might be best to wear full gloves in conditions like this. I also had on athletic running shoes (I like them because they are light in weight) but that was a mistake as well. Wind goes right through that nylon material and my toes were freezing too!

We did our best as the wind was relentlessly battling us. AJ had to leave early because he wasn't feeling all that well from his previous outing there and the cold just added to the miserable feeling. Dan and I stayed on longer, but eventually decided it wasn't going to be productive. So he took me on base at the Naval Station Great Lakes. While I would have liked to catch a fish, getting on base was a nice substitute. I had never been on base before and really wanted to see it from the inside.

In the past, I had been on base at Miramar in San Diego when it was part of the Navy still. I learned from Dan that in the early or mid 1990's the base was given to the Marines. I recall seeing F15 fighter jets constantly circling the I-15 freeway while they practiced their manuevers.

I went to Miramar (where they filmed the movie Top Gun) because I was working for the DA's Office in San Diego at the time and we had a case involving a Naval Officer. I was impressed how large it was. While Naval Station Great Lakes is not quite as large, it was cool to see Navy boats in their harbor and large guns on the lawn in front of some of the buildings. Dan pointed out the new combat uniforms that they now wear and I was surprised at the color of them. I won't give it away here... you'll have to see them for yourself.

We will head out again in the future to fish, but I think I'm going to wait until the weather cooperates more. Taking a beating by the wind and cold temperatures just takes a lot of the fun out of fishing. I think even if it is windy, but not cold, I can handle that. But the combination of the two is a killer!

The two photos of me were taken by Dan. Thanks again Dan! Be sure to click on each photo for a closer look.

Is It Thursday Already?!

Time is really flying by it seems.

I've been busy working on business for Balanced Exposure (my photographic post production company) and haven't had a whole lot of time for anything else. But, I am happy to say that I will be going out fishing this Saturday with Dan and AJ (both met on various fishing forums) once again at Waukegan Harbor / Lake Michigan.

Both report huge waves which will drench you due to high winds. Well, I don't own rain gear (only for my cameras!) so it will be interesting to see how wet I get on Saturday. But somehow, I have a feeling this might be the first day of actually catching either a Salmon or Brown Trout. I'm totally ready for this as each time I've gone to fish for these species, I've gotten nothing.

AJ reported that the last time he was out at Lake Michigan, he saw others catching fish. Unfortunately like me, he hasn't been lucky yet either. Dan on the otherhand has been lucky in the past. But it seems he has more experience than both AJ and me, so we'll give him that. :)

Should either of us catch a big fish, I'll post it here by late Saturday or sometime on Sunday. I'm ready to catch one and keep it as it seems many of the Lake Michigan anglers bring their catch home for dinner. Hopefully I'll be able to do the same on Saturday. Wish me luck!

Fishing Finally Pays Off

Back on March 7 and 9, I posted about my trip to Lake Michigan and how a guy named Dan who was fishing next to me took a photo of me fishing and holding my camera at the same time.

Well, after posting our images on various fishing forums online, Dan found out that I was a wedding photographer and we started emailing each other about the possibilities of me photographing his wedding. While his budget was under what my typical weddings go for, I was interested in talking to Dan and his fiancé Jané to see what could be done. Dan was a fun guy to be fishing next to that morning and I figured he might be a good client as well.

We met at my office today to discuss their wedding and now he and his fiancé Jané are one of my new clients for 2010! So finally, fishing has actually "paid off" for me! I may not have been the luckiest guy catching a fish that day, but I did reel in some business from being out there! I can now say to my wife, "See! Fishing actually MAKES me money... not COSTS me money! :)

I'm happy that we were able to work things out so that Dan and Jané could become one of my clients. They are both serving our nation in the Navy and I've always been happy photographing our service people. I started out photographing weddings in San Diego and we have plenty of military personnel out there. Some of my happiest memories from photographing weddings were from photographing Navy weddings in San Diego.

Welcome aboard Dan and Jané! :)

Roundtable Discussions on March 21

I'll be hosting yet another Roundtable Discussions at my office for area wedding photographers. We'll be meeting tomorrow from 5 PM to 8 PM.

I try to host at least one of these events every year so that we can all get a better idea of what the wedding industry is currently doing. This year, we meet following the WPPI convention which was held in Las Vegas recently. It will be good to hear what people learned at WPPI and what they saw as new trends for the market.

Image Corrections - Before and After

Fellow angler D.J. Allen graciously gave me permission to show some "before and after" work of color and exposure balancing that I did on one of his fishing images. This is one of the largest bass that he's caught while fishing over the years, but the image was plagued by poor color.

I did this correction for him and also cropped the image to a more pleasing vertical orientation.

If you ever need help in fixing images you have taken personally, just contact me at www.balancedexposure.com and I can help! Don't waste a perfectly good photo when it can be fixed professionally.

Monster Pike From Sunday's Fishing Outing!!

While I was not lucky to catch anything this past Sunday on my outing to Lake Michigan, angler Chris Morehead caught a very impressive 34", 13 lb. Northern Pike!

I was only able to stay out at Johnson Pier until 9 AM, but Chris and his friend Craig Talley stayed much longer. Chris caught this huge fish at around 3 PM. Talk about toughing it out and sticking with it! Well, it paid off for him. I believe he says this is the largest catch he has had yet and it's a beauty! Craig took the photo and both have given me their permission to post this here on my blog.

So while Lake Michigan was iced over that morning, persistence paid off! The fish was released after the photo was taken. Click on the photo for a closer look.

Fishing and Taking Photos At The Same Time

This image of me while fishing and taking photos was taken at Johnson Pier at Waukegan Harbor on Sunday. While I was busy trying to figure out how to hold my camera and also not lose my fishing rod into Lake Michigan at the same time, Dan Roloff who was fishing next to me took this shot of me.

You can see a couple of photos of Dan on my 3-07-10 post. Dan is the guy with the glasses.

Thanks to Dan for allowing me to post this photo of me. Usually photographers don't have their photo taken often because we are too busy taking photos of other people!

No Fish! Again...

I went fishing at Waukegan Harbor this morning, but no luck once again! Actually, during the time I was out there, nobody had any luck. Perhaps it was because most of Lake Michigan still had ice!

I went to learn some salmon/trout fishing techniques from a seasoned angler name "Finman" on the various Chicago fishing forums as he was gracious enough to share his secrets for catching fish along the shoreline. A lot of people were there watching intently as he explained the best way to rig up your bait for this type of fishing.

Unfortunately, the area we had hoped to fish was totally iced-over and so we could not fish there. Luckily, another area called Johnson Pier had a possibility of having open water, so many of us borrowed some bait from Finman (Gary) and headed over to that area. To our surprise, most of this area also had ice as well. Luckily, one side of the pier had open water, but some of it was just beginning to freeze. We tried anyway.

I only had the opportunity to fish for perhaps 1-1/2 hours at most, but I was not lucky. Neither were the others. Still we all had a good time joking and laughing about the situation. In fact, two of the guys actually slipped on the thin ice on the pier and we worried that they might fall into the Lake! Fortunately, that did not happen.

The weather was cold, but wasn't bad at all. The forecast for the day was rain, but that did not happen as we were out there. In fact, we had overcast sun and no wind. It was great!

Many thanks to Finman for teaching us willing students how to rig up our rods and reels. While I did not catch anything today, I'm positive that by using this new technique (at least new to me), it is just a matter of time before I do catch my first salmon or brown trout! But since I did not bring home any fish from my outing, you can see what I had to resort to on the top photo. Pitiful, huh? Be sure to click on each photo for a closer look.

Nothing New To Report - But I'm Going Fishing On Sunday!

Not much to report this week, but I'm headed out fishing on Sunday!

With any luck, perhaps I'll have a photo of a fish to show by Monday. If there is no luck, then I'll have photos of other anglers trying to catch a fish at least! That's the nature of fishing. Sometimes you get one, sometimes you don't.

I'm headed out Salmon / Trout fishing at Waukegan Harbor on Sunday. Weather reports possible rain and snow. That should make it just that much more challenging, right?

With my luck, I'll probably just catch a cold. :) Image borrowed from the internet.

Is There Still Value In Professional Photography?

A lot of people are asking this question... whether they verbalize it or not. "Is there still value in professional photography?"

Let's face it. Many years ago when we were all still shooting film, if you didn't know what you were doing, you could end up with a really bad photo. Dark exposures, color shifts, poor composition... You just could not see your end result until it was too late. You'd take a picture, hope for the best and then bring your film to the print lab and cross your fingers that you had a good photo. Sometimes you did, sometimes you didn't. You just didn't know until it was too late.

A professional photographer knows about lighting and knows about cameras to get consistently decent photos. He knows how to creatively get good depth of field or to lower the depth of field to get a dramatic shot. The pro photographer also knows how to compose the photo so it looked nice and people's heads are not cut off on the frame. You didn't have to worry because you knew that his/her exposures were going to be technically correct because he knows lighting.

Today? Well, if you take a shot with a digital camera, just look at the back of your camera and check it out. If it is not good, take it again. Keep taking it until it looks right. Trial and error. Make a few control changes here and there. Eventually, it will look like a photo similar to the professional. So who needs a pro?

Well, this can work if you think about it. Do it often enough, and you don't really need a professional. You don't even need to know much about photography. If you keep changing one or two parameters, the photo will continue to change until you finally end up with the right exposure and the right composition. Perfect! No cost to you by hiring a professional! :)

This works sometimes, but not all the time. Think about a situation like weddings. You can hire a professional and pay thousands of dollars, or you can do exactly as I describe above and ask a friend to shoot the wedding with his new digital camera. Eventually, he's going to end up with some good photos and you would have saved a lot of money. But, do you have the time to stand around waiting while he figures out which buttons to push to get that right exposure? Can he capture the "Kiss" shot at the wedding fast enough by trial and error? Will he be able to shoot the bouquet toss fast enough by doing trial and error? Does he know how to pose people so that they look good in the photos? Does he have "people skills" so that he doesn't offend your Aunt Martha by saying or doing something wrong?

Really, if you want things done fast and right... there is still value in professional photography, especially if you don't have the luxury of time, like at a wedding. Besides, what kind of camera is your friend going to use at something like a wedding? A $200 point and shoot camera with a cheap built-in lens and flash? Or is he using a new low priced digital SLR camera with a kit lens? Can he shoot well in low light and not have grainy and noisy looking pictures?

A professional photographer is going to use top of the line equipment that costs thousands of dollars. He's going to be insured for errors and omissions and liability. He's going to bring backup cameras in case something happens to one camera. He's going to know how to take a good picture consistently and quickly and will have the right people skills so as not to offend your guests. And yes, he's going to cost you some money... but it's worth it.

There is still value in professional photography. You just have to think about it to realize it and to appreciate it.

Hersey Orchesis - February 24-27

Once again, John Hersey High School's Orchesis Dance Team is doing their annual show from February 25-27 and I was asked to photograph the show.

These images are but a few of the hundreds that I shot for them. The girls put on a great show each year and they also dance at various school events as well. Go check out their show this weekend if you have time!

More Ice Fishing Pics

Here are a few more images of yesterday's ice fishing event.

Windy City Fishing Classic On Ice II - Ice Fishing!

Well I finally got to walk on water today! Hard water, that is... ICE!

I've never been out ice fishing until today. Well, I didn't actually do any fishing, but I watched while other members of the WindyCityFishing.com forum fished. And of course, I took photos with my Fuji S5 Pro camera and a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens. I haven't used the S5 in quite some time and it felt good to use it in the cold weather. Using custom white balance with the help of a PhotoVision Digital Calibration Target, the photos came out remarkably well. Be sure to click on each image for a closer look.

It was a great day to be out fishing at Deep Lake in Lake Villa, IL. The weather was around 34 degrees with slight snow flurries and very little wind. The ice was about 12 inches thick, so no fear of falling into the water. With my heavy down jacket and hood along with a ski mask, gloves and thick soled shoes, I didn't feel cold at all.

We had about 13 forum members out fishing today and while some of them caught some perch, they were too far away from the area I was at. Nobody in our area caught anything, but a couple of nibbles were felt by one of the members.

While there was very little action happening, I enjoyed talking to everyone about fishing and learning about ice fishing. Some of the guys had electronics with them which tells them where the fish are and also one of them had an underwater camera as well. Fishing has gone high tech, that's for sure!

After fishing, we all went to Jack & Lidia's Resort for a great lunch.

Thanks goes to WCF site administrator Jason Norris for putting the event together!

Photoshop Manipulation

I found this "before and after" image of Faith Hill on the internet. It clearly shows what can be done to an image with Photoshop.

While Ms. Hill doesn't look all that bad without manipulation, it is obvious how much nicer she looks after a little bit of work. Look at the slimming of her left arm, the slimming of her body and shoulder, the addition of a right arm, the removal of the bags under her eyes, the reshaping of her lips, the softening of her smile lines, the addition of some eye makeup, the color work on her hair, the removal of extra skin by her back near her dress, the slimming of her waistline, the softening of her collar bone, and the smoothing of her skintone. Be sure to click on the image for a closer look.

Often I will get someone jokingly ask whether I can make them look slimmer in a photo... or if I can make them look better than they are. Sure, I can... but it takes time and effort to do it.

To make someone slimmer within Photoshop isn't too difficult if you just want a simple size reduction of a few pounds, but taking someone extremely out of shape and making that person "skinny" is another story. Knowing how far to go to enhance but not overly distort an image is the key to success.

Other computer programs besides Photoshop also give me the power to improve things like complexion. Taking out acne and other blemishes from the face isn't all that difficult, but again, it does take time and effort.

Another Beatles Bobble Head Figurine Found

My sister found a Beatles bobble head figurine at a music store in the Little Italy section of San Francisco, took a cell phone photo of it and sent it to me. She immediately remembered my own bobble head figurine that I had gotten on my birthday cake when I was a young boy. I wrote about that figurine on this blog on November 6, 2006. To read that post, click here. Her newly discovered Beatle is the top image and mine is the bottom one.

I still have my Beatles figurine. I think it looks like George Harrison. This newly found one looks like John Lennon to me. What do you think?

It's great to see that there is another similar bobble head out there! Obviously these came from the same run of figurines... just look at the gold base! (By the way, I think that must be "Nipper" the RCA dog next to the Beatles figurine!)

Snowblowers

Years ago, I inherited an electric snow thrower that my dad used to own. He had given it to my aunt after he moved to Florida. But when I returned to the Chicago area, my aunt gave it to me. It has served me well for many years, but it was always a little difficult to work with since it had small wheels that always iced up making it hard to roll. Being a small snow thrower, its small width required more passes to finish the driveway. Also, its narrow snow chute always clogged up with snow. And let's not forget the hassle of dragging around a 100' extension cord!

This year, my sister-in-law gave me a two-stage gas snowblower. It has made life a lot easier. No more clogged wheels, but on occasion, it would have a clogged snow chute if the snow was especially wet.

This week we had a huge amount of snowfall and it was so easy to deal with by using the new blower. The only major problem I have is smelling like the oil and gas exhaust from the blower. Regardless of how hard I try to avoid the gas fumes, I still smell of gas when I'm done snowblowing.

We have a very long driveway and so the use of a snowblower is essential. I've just been lucky to have been given snowblowers instead of having to buy them for myself. The blower images pictured above were borrowed from the internet.

Humidifiers

Images Borrowed From Aprilaire and Dampit Websites

Acoustic Guitar enthusiasts all know that you must maintain a relative humidity (RH) of approximately 47% RH to safeguard the guitar. Too dry and the wood can crack. Too damp and the wood can swell.

Taylor Guitars has a series of videos which address the issue of humidity far better than I can describe here. I encourage all guitarists to watch these. Click here. A tech sheet can be downloaded by clicking here.

To aid in giving more moisture to a guitar, I recommend using a Dampit. I actually use two with my Taylor GS guitar. It is a simple device made of a rubber tube which has holes in it to allow moisture to escape from a wet sponge inside the tube. I hang two moistened(not dripping) dampits between the 2nd and 3rd strings and the 4th and 5th strings. My guitar always goes back into the guitar case and is closed until I'm ready to play the guitar again. And, I make sure the dampits are moist by re-wetting them at least once per week. Sometimes more.

Recently, we had a whole-house humidifier installed on our new furnace. After 19 years of service, our furnace finally gave out and we needed to replace it. So as an add-on to the new furnace, we added an Aprilaire Series 600 automatic humidifier to the furnace. With this new humidifier, we will be able to maintain a relative humidity that should help both our wood furniture, my guitars and also our bodies. The effects of being too dry in a home can dry out woods as well as skin. How often do you wake up with a dry or bloody nose or dry cracking skin? Well that's from low humidity in your home.

I encourage everyone to consider their RH levels in their homes and adding a whole-house humidfier if you need it. If you are an acoustic guitarist, always humidify your guitars with a dampit or two during the winter months.

Acoustic Guitar Forum

I've been a member of the Acoustic Guitar Forum since September 2003. The forum has been online since around 2000. Back then the AGF was known as the Taylor Guitar Forum. But years ago, the TGF was asked to change its name and it became the Acoustic Guitar Forum, allowing more than just Taylor Guitars to be discussed.

The Acoustic Guitar Forum is the internet's largest online guitar forum for acoustic guitars. Several years ago, I was made a "moderator" of the forum too. I also produced the AGF's first guitar CD called Acoustic Guitar Forum 1. I am known as "Forensicguy" on the forum.

Over the years, the forum has grown tremendously. As of this post, we currently have 42,377 registered members. As a moderator of the forum (we are all volunteers) we review the various postings from other members and remove any posts that do not meet the forum's rules.

One of the highlights of the AGF is that we maintain a family-oriented forum. The main rule of the forum is "Be Nice." While most of our members do that, some do not and it is the moderator's job to do something about that when they are not "being nice." Nobody likes to be moderated by having their posts removed or having other disciplinary action taken, but it is necessary at times so that all other members can enjoy a better online experience.

Sometimes things get personal between members while discussing various topics and the moderators have to step in to put an end to it. Usually when that happens, the members who violate the rules object to our actions. While the moderators are fully aware that they may not be happy with some decisions that we make, we do what we do to keep the peace on the forum.

Being an AGF moderator does take time. Since none of the moderators are paid for their efforts, people often wonder why we do it. Well, we do it because we love guitars and like talking about them and we want others to enjoy it too. Personally, I enjoy a nice forum rather than one where people are not nice and post remarks that are derogatory. I think most people would agree with that. But at times, some members step over the line and that's when the moderators do their job to point that out.

If you are a guitar player, check out the forum. I think you will find it a fun place to be.

Energizer 6 LED Trailfinder Headlight

Images Borrowed From The Internet

I just bought one of these Energizer Trailfinder headlight at Walmart to use for fishing at night or pre-dawn hours.

I have seen these types of headlights for sale at various retailers but some were too expensive in my opinion for essentially what amounts to an LED flashlight. Would you pay $50 or more for something like this? Not me. But at under $15, I thought it was worth a try.

To my amazement, the 6 LED version light is actually a lot brighter than I thought it might be! The light has spot, flood, spot + flood and night vision (red LED) settings. It is powered by 3 AAA-sized batteries (included) and will run for 20 hours (with four LEDs on at once), 50 hours (with two LEDs on) or 75 hours (red LEDs.) And when worn on your head, it's actually quite comfortable. The elastic strap holds the lightweight light easily against your forehead.

While other brands and models may be built better and more waterproof, for under $15, this isn't too bad. With its adjustable headstrap and tilting feature, you can aim the light right where you need it. Go buy one if you need to have a light and keep your hands free. Great for emergency use in case of a blackout too! An excellent long-term use review can be found by clicking here.