Greetings!

Today is a big day for me and the studio. I have successfully worked my strobe lights almost to death. They still work but are exhausted and not as quick on the trigger as they once were. They were the best you could buy without selling a body part. Let’s see. 808 shoots are on my drive, covering the last ten years. The life of the lights so far, at least. I probably average 800 shots per shoot. That would be 646k flashes, or over a half million. The problem is that they don’t always flash for me now, especially near the end of a 2 or 3-hour shoot.

If you are a photographer and would like a good deal on some old lights, I think they would do well for someone who doesn’t push them like I have. The pair of Paul Buff Einstiens with the modifiers I typically use and probably a spare bulb or two, as well as a handful of triggers, for $300 is a really good deal.

My new lights are Flashpoint 600 pro lights and one hand-held 100-watt light. They are 100% battery, so I can take larger lights on location if I need to, although I’ve never found a need. They should do fine for me. I’ve actually used an earlier version of them and still have one of them, so I’ll have three. Mixing up the lights for me is a welcome challenge.

I have a couple of fine shoots over the last two days. Nikki is pumping up for a competition, and her shot in the chair here is breathtaking. Then I shot with Griffin and Todd for an article he’s writing for a magazine, and their shots really rock!! Unfortunately, I have to hold those back until they are published. Two were so good they are headed for my wall. The prints look amazing.

Meanwhile, my account on BlueSky is growing. By the time you read this, I should have around 300 followers, and it is increasing by about 50 per day now. I love being able to post my art without censoring. Seeing other photographers/artists ’ work is very inspirational. It has the potential to be as good as 500px was. We shall see. If you aren’t on it, it seems like a nice change of pace. It was created by the original Twitter brainchild but had some nice, well-thought-through features with more to come. It’s not jammed up with ads, and I get to see everything by those I follow, and they get exposed to everything I post, assuming they choose to. It sure beats being begged for money to let more people see the content I created. Like they say, if something on the internet is free, YOU are the product.

I’m kind of done with Facebook. Did you know the origins of Facebook? Some colleges created a place to put pictures of all of the coeds and let the males rate them. Yep! Sleazier would be hard to get to. Then, it spread to more colleges and eventually became a money maker. They didn’t leave the sleazy behind, unfortunately. I’ll continue to post there once a day, but the clock is ticking on my interest in them.

Of course, as I’ve said all along, this Museletter is my nose-thumbing to those so-so media sites that always control the direction of the content and sell everything about us they can.

Well, that’s it for this week. In a couple of weeks, we head to Bonita for a quiet holiday until next year.

“Be curious, not judgemental” - Walt Whittman

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