Imre Z. Balint, BSc, MPM, MBA

I have to say that I'm quite happy with Episode 14 ; new look, much better sound quality too. And indeed, Thank You to all of you wonderful viewers! It's quite the sight to see over 10,000 total upload views and I certainly hope I'll one day see over 100,000. Now this video was essentially done in two parts, starting with a demonstration of flash sync speed. I would like to add that if you're using a camera/flash combo that works well together (e.i. the two devices are compatible and can "talk" to each other; generally the same manufacturer) then you may find that the equipment puts limits on what you can do. I must admit that I was a bit surprised to find that I could not set my Olympus E-3 above 1/250th of a sec shutter speed with the FL-50 flash attached. To get that "bad" photo in the video with the shutter (second curtain) partially covering the sensor, I resorted to using my dad's old manual flash hooked up to the camera via PC cable. Onl...

As usual, it's quite late and I gotta hurry up so I don't miss SNL after it comes back after a commercial break. Episode 14 is live on YouTube, do check it out. This is the second part of the flash mini-series I'm doing. Tomorrow I'll write up the supplemental blog post and until then, please subscribe and check me out on Facebook (become a Fan!) TTYL!

Well I'm happy to say that I'm still really enjoying my mandolin and after playing around with it for fun one day I accidentally stumbled upon La Cucaracha! So after a week of practicing the tune I decided to create a video of it . Now please do keep in mind that there may be other versions of it, so this may not be "proper" so-to-speak. But as far as notes go, it sounds just fine to me. For my next mandolin video I'll be playing Fur Elise, a beautiful composition by none other than Beethoven; a little trickier than the Mexican song, but practice will help snag perfection. So do have fun practicing the tune. Also, please subscribe and check me out on Facebook (become a Fan! Fans are cool!). Web Resources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cucaracha

*sigh* I wanted to have this done yesterday but I got caught up in a few things and well here is today. Ahh, close enough. The first part of my flash mini-series is quite straight forward, but I do have a few points to mention. First up I'll quickly mention the links that I scrounged up. If you're the tinkering type you might like the first couple of links on how flashes actually work. Then I've included some URLs to websites that explain the guide number in more detail. Now as mentioned in my video, unless you really enjoy doing math in your head or are using manual flashes for your work, the majority of digital SLRs and electronic flashes today do all that good stuff for you. Thus, you can just point and shoot and in most cases get an adequate exposure when using a flash. Second up is in regard to getting the right flash for your camera. Sometimes mixing brands are not a good idea as the camera body may not be able to properly communicate with the flash. For examp...

Finally! I managed to assemble Episode 13 of my Photography Series introducing flashes and the guide number. And if you've watched the video then you've probably noticed that there will indeed be several more episodes to come that will nicely round out all the other wonderful things flashes can do and be used for. The next episode in particular will be on what the flash sync speed is and the episode after that... well you'll just have to wait to find out! Oh and guess what? That's right! It's once again too late for me to write up my supplemental blog post for this video tonight, so yup, check back tomorrow evening and I should be done by then. If you enjoy my videos, please do subscribe and you can also check me out on Facebook (become a Fan!). L8r!

Last time I looked inside my E-P2 I shot some high speed video of its shutter in action . This time around I decided to check out its image stabilizer in action . What drew me to do this was that strange and brief sound I kept hearing every time I turned the camera off and the IS was enabled... buzz, buzz, buzzzz. So I setup my Casio EX-F1 to record the video, removed the lens of the E-P2, turned on my studio light, and started recording. Then I simply turned off the camera and there it was, the sensor dance. I have to admit that I was quite surprised to not only see the sensor in motion, but how much movement it was capable of doing! Since the action wasn't very fast, my video starts off with an HD quality clip of this and then right after comes the 300 frame per second segment. The third and final clip in the video demonstrates the camera's image stabilizer at work when an exposure (or photograph) is being taken. I set the shutter speed to two seconds and then nudged the ...

Alright, time to finish the supplemental post to my video on tuning a mandolin . First of all I'll start with saying that the method I use to tune my mandolin is the way I like to do it. I'm pretty certain there is nothing really wrong with starting at the G strings and working my way through to the E's using an electronic chromatic tuner, and then going through again by fretting the strings at the seventh fret and tuning the next pair (since a mandolin is tuned in fifths, fretting a pair of strings at the seventh fret will have the same note as the next higher pitched pair of strings; e.g. fret a G at the seventh fret and you get an D, which is the same note as the next set of strings played open). But I've read about other tactics such as tuning your A string first using either an electronic tuner or another instrument (usually a piano) and then tuning the rest of the strings to that nicely tuned A string. My ultimate recommendation is as usual, do a little research...

Not exactly photography... or at all, but for all you music lovers out there, this one is for you... and I'll probably come up with more too. So, if you've never played a mandolin yet or are thinking of getting one, you might find my video useful about how to tune one. You can watch it below or click the previous link to view it in HD. And I detect a pattern... I tend to stay up far too late, which means that I'll be writing the "real" supplemental mandolin tuning blog post tomorrow evening and I'll be sure to include those links to websites that have some chord charts and scales. Remember to subscribe , check me out on Facebook (become a Fan!), and I'll cya l8r!