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Hello Hesh,

I don't know if your photo skills are on the same level as your lutherie ones (I know for sure which are the most honed in my case) but I'll offer this : polas will indeed remove reflections from the surface of non-metallic objects and the effect is at its peak when the light strikes them at a given angle. Colors will appear, well, "more pure" if I may say. It decreases either side of this angle. That's why polas will render the sky with a darker blue patch that's fading on either side of it. Well, when you’re using extra-wide angle lenses anyway.

As they're ineffective on metal, this is one reason they are rarely used in studio shots and we have to control reflections by other means. I'll also add that removing reflections from a guitar top is a sure way to make it appear flat... you don’t want that for a Les Paul, fo example.

I have been a big fan of polas for a long time and used to keep one on all my lenses back in the 70s and 80s (Google Jay Maisel and you'll see where I'm coming from as influences go). I have learned to always buy the very best I can find so I got minimal image quality loss. So I don't know which Hoya you got, but they do have quality gradation in their lines of filters, so get the topmost one and you'll hardly get any degradation.

Nowadays, in this age of digital pictures, I find colors and in particular sky rendering to be much "poppier" than in my Ektachrome 64 days, so I'm using polas very much less so than I used to, although I still buy a new one for every new lens diameter I get. In my case, that's a lot of filters because my LBS is as strong as my GAS. ;-)

Water is an exception, as I almost always use one when shooting water.

Hope that's useful info. Nice shots BTW! Oh and BTW I have been heading a web team for the last 20 years of my official career before becoming retired and moving into my lifelong passion full-time (sound familiar to you?) so if I can be of any help with the new website, don’t hesitate to PM me. I'll be glad to pass along whatever knowledge might be useful to you.

Now if I only could apply this to my own website... but that would be going back to my old life, and I've had enough of it! ;-)

Have a nice day, and please stay safe!

The back portions of your shots are out of focus. You can play with the f-stop to increase your depth of field.

Smylight wrote:

Hello Hesh,

Hi Pierre and thanks a million my friend for your very valued sharing here. This is VERY helpful to me, very!

I'm a rank amateur photographer who enjoys the heck out of photography I just never really applied myself to learning all that much about it. So feel free to tell me what will improve my results and you will find a very interested student here.

The Hoya I thought was a bit junky and it was not what I ordered from Amazon (I complained and they took it off my bill) I ordered a Promaster. This lens is a 49 mm. But they didn't send me a Promaster and instead sent the Hoya....

Would you please comment on a really good circular polarizer please? I do a lot of orchid photography since I grow them too. So a CR is useful there too for the colors to pop. This was my first time out with this Hoya and I rotated it until the glare on black plastic parts went away.

Tuesday I'm picking up a Sony 100 - 400 mm super telephoto for my mirrorless A7 so I have LAS as well as GAS...

As I think you know Lutherie is my second career but it was baptism by fire with 50 something guitars built, a three year apprenticeship in a busy repair practice and our own business with this being our eighth year now and we service around 1,100 guitars, mandos and banjos annually. Our minimum service is a very comprehensive set-up and we do everything else as well but shy away from some things because they are either too much potential liability or not profitable.

My business partner is David Collins and he's considered by many to be one of the best there is. You would be very surprised at who calls us and asks for advice because Dave is there. We are always very happy to help.

So as you can see my pics suck because I'm a rank amateur at photography.

Let me know on the CR recommendation? My camera store friend has the Promaster in a 49 mm let me know if you like that one or what you do like and thanks again!!!

PS: Always happy to help you too with Lutherie stuff just PM me here my friend. I also hope that you and yours are staying safe and sound in these scary times. This is my 29th day self isolating in my home........ but I'm alive and the freezer is filled with good stuff. I also have toilet paper and I'm one of the reasons many here don't have toilet paper.

Hesh wrote:

Smylight wrote:

Hello again Hesh,

I know your background because you've helped me a couple of times in the past and I took the time to read your bio in the website or elsewhere. Might be in a post. Anyway I learned we have the exact same background, apart from the fact that I began dabbling in adjusting and repairing guitars from the day I got my first one, around age twelve. Had a lengthy carrer in communications, then retired and turned this old hobby into a full-time occupation. Now, I'm far from being were you are now, there's been no David in my life and I run a one-man shop. Not a builder of acoustics, probably never will, but I've been getting pretty good at what I did know how to do, and am learning a whole lot from folks like you, Bryan, Frank and Dan the man, starting with John Carruthers a very long time ago. Don't what this community would be like without you folks.

Anyway, enough thanks, on to photography. I have used the Pro1 CPL series from Hoya since they first came out. They are better than most others I've used (apart from some of the REALLY expensive ones maybe) and are very reasonably priced. Get a new lens, buy a CPL to go with it, never know when I'll need it. Fishing in my main filter bag to snap this pic, I was surprised to suddenly realize I must have bought every diameter known to man. Some I have never used. As I said, since we have gone digital, I find them far less useful. Maybe that also has to do with the fact that the newer lenses often are better performers than the older stuff. My film camera lenses are all from the 60s to early 80s era and occasionally still get some use on my digital bodies and I can plainly see a huge difference on some.

Here's what I use (mostly) :

Pierre

Thumbs up from here!

Very cool Pierre and thanks again for all of your help!

When we can come back out in the light of day again and this virus is history (wishful thinking here....) you have an open invitation to come visit our shop and hang out with us. We will put you to work too since you are already a pro in the trade and I think you will have a great time.

(…)

These days though we are sadly closed down and ordered by our governor to stay that way until further notice. I understand though and being 63 I'm not taking any chances.

(…)

I started working on guitars when I was around 12 too

. My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper.

Thanks again my friend, stay safe.

Hesh wrote:

. My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper.

Thanks again my friend, stay safe.

I'd love to drop by one of these days. I'd be a nice change from my habit of flying over or changing planes in Chicago en route to my favorite trekking spots in Utah!

Being 62 myself, and prone to pneumonia, I can relate to your feelings... I have closed shop over 3 weeks ago and dearly miss the daily interaction with guitar-loving people. Now I'm working on my own guitars, and being afflicted with GAS you can rest assured I won't be out of work for quite a few weeks more.

Now you won't believe this. I got my first electric, a cheap Raven LP Custom copy, then graduated a year or two later to an ES-330, then a couple of years after that got a '59 Les Paul... for all of 300$ CDN. This was in 74. Those were the guitars I teared apart to learn... including the LP. Now, thanks to Gruhn's columns and articles (this was even before Rare Bird) in GP, I was fully aware of what it was, and applied due reverence to it. But I did learn a lot working on this beauty. It was only fitting to have Mr. Gruhn do a full appraisal of it when I finally decided to sell it 20 years ago, full circle.

Here she is (she's definitely a "she", and is currently on sale somewhere in Germany):

Pic dates from '83. It's much more pale now, but that was what it looked like back then. This is a guitar that has played countless Cream riffs and Who and Zeppelin songs.

Now. How many guys do you know that got to hone their setup chops on a '59 Les Paul? ;-)

Pierre

Smylight wrote:

Hesh wrote:

. My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper.

Thanks again my friend, stay safe.

Pierre

OMG she's a beauty and very cool pic too!!! Wow and to have owned this one too very cool!!!

I've only had the opportunity to work on one 59 but I have had several on my bench and in my lap. Love the necks and of course the pups are the mother of all PAFs.

I had a 335 when I was 14 that I sold to get my dad the poet... a new fangled thing called a tape recorder so he could recite his stinkin poetry and listen to himself, his favorite pastime... :roll:

The 335 is the one I kick myself for selling and for a really unproductive reason, my Dad never used the tape recorder.... We live and learn, eh.

Anyway when we can move around again my friend remember you are always welcome at our place. BTW Dave Collins the real talent at our business is a very good photographer and he would enjoy the hell out of meeting you too.

rlrhett wrote:

Hey Hesh. Said with love and respect, but those photos are atrocious. Good news is you can fix it easily. It is not an equipment issue.

The problem is composition.

As a photographer (or more importantly, as a print maker) you need to look at the edges of the picture. For example, you have a toggle switch in the background that is JUST cut off. In another we can see ALMOST the front edge of the Guitar. Don’t cut something off unless you mean to cut it off. Try not to leave things visually hanging. The casual viewer is not looking at the edges, but issues like those cause a sense of unease and randomness that just comes off as amateurish. Most people could never tell you why.

Similarly the background fights the guitar. The contrast of beige carpet and black wall creates a horizontal element that is so strong it dominates. Worse, it doesn’t line up or flow with any of the guitar’s lines. The result, again is that it feels unsettled.

Make sure when you compose a print that you look at the whole print. You want the viewer to look at those cool pickups and the flawless finish. Make sure you aren’t creating visual noise to compete.

Hope that doesn’t come across as harsh. I think you and I have exchanged enough ideas on this forum that you know there is nothing mean spirited in what I said. Honest advice from some dude on a forum. Feel free to ignore.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Instead of ignoring your reply to me I'm going to share something with you that may surprise some and not so much others. I'm frequently encouraging here and complimentary of things that are clearly important to others in my efforts to encourage them, help them and not.... never... leave the place worse off than I found it. If something is important enough to me I may PM someone but usually, the vast majority of the time I recognize in advance, because I tend to care about other people.... that being overly critical and using words such as "atrocious" may do more harm than good. Words like this very well may shut someone down to me and then I lose my ability to do what I set out to do and that is be helpful to them as many were to me on this forum years ago.

None of these photos were about composition, that's off the mark. They were as stated to try out a circular polarizer and I used my work bench as a stage but it was not intended to be a studio set producing highly composed results.

I'm an amateur photographer who is just learning and I said that in subsequent replies to other replies here. This was a learning exercise for me with a focus... being on the use of a circular polarizer. Composition was never my intent as you so eloquently pointed out mincing no words.

I can't recall another time in the entire history of this forum that someone described someone else's work as "atrocious." That's not in my view why are we here and if that's what you have to offer please ignore my posts.

Thanks

Pierre thanks for that once again. She is a beauty in all respects and a very nice top on her too. This is the guitar that some of us like me dream about. Very cool.

I had the sincere pleasure of looking at your pics and particularly the Utah ones and they are absolutely stunning. So is the subject matter as well and you've done it proud with your pics. Wow!!

You know my personal plan is to work at Ann Arbor Guitars until I'm 66 and four months which is a little less than three years from now. Then I've getting in my steering assisted, active cruise control Honda and headed to Utah as well. I've been planning on doing this with visiting these parks and taking photos the goal. Small world. I'll be continuing to my ole stomping grounds to see friends who are other Luthiers in California and then returning home stopping at Yellowstone also to take pics. Then I'm getting a dog and staying close to home.

Thanks again for helping me out Pierre very much appreciated.

Hesh wrote:

rlrhett wrote:

I’m sorry. I thought you were asking about marketing material, not a passionate hobby. That seemed to be your premise in the first post. Clearly I misunderstood your intentions.

I’ll delete my posts, despite the likes from others, because it clearly hurt your feelings. That was not my intention.

Enjoy your new passion. No doubt it will be as rewarding a journey as guitar building has been.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Author:	Hesh [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:29 am ]
Post subject:	Guitar Porn
Our web site is eight years old now and I'm wanting to build a new one and incorporate what we've learned about our business, market, and trade. One of my goals is all new pics and as such I'm tooling up with photography stuff to get the job done. Or, in other words what I did on my Coronavirus vacation.... I'm playing with a circular polarizer this morning to see how it takes down glare and deepens colors which it does indeed seem to do with perhaps a trade off of some detail and sharpness but I'm not sure on this. Sony A7R IV Sigma 70 mm macro w/manual focus Hoya circular polarizer Thanks for looking

Author:	doncaparker [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 7:08 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Www.guitarpornhub.com is not yet spoken for. You should register it!

Author:	Smylight [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 7:53 am ]
Post subject:	Guitar Porn
Hello Hesh, I don't know if your photo skills are on the same level as your lutherie ones (I know for sure which are the most honed in my case) but I'll offer this : polas will indeed remove reflections from the surface of non-metallic objects and the effect is at its peak when the light strikes them at a given angle. Colors will appear, well, "more pure" if I may say. It decreases either side of this angle. That's why polas will render the sky with a darker blue patch that's fading on either side of it. Well, when you’re using extra-wide angle lenses anyway. As they're ineffective on metal, this is one reason they are rarely used in studio shots and we have to control reflections by other means. I'll also add that removing reflections from a guitar top is a sure way to make it appear flat... you don’t want that for a Les Paul, fo example. I have been a big fan of polas for a long time and used to keep one on all my lenses back in the 70s and 80s (Google Jay Maisel and you'll see where I'm coming from as influences go). I have learned to always buy the very best I can find so I got minimal image quality loss. So I don't know which Hoya you got, but they do have quality gradation in their lines of filters, so get the topmost one and you'll hardly get any degradation. Nowadays, in this age of digital pictures, I find colors and in particular sky rendering to be much "poppier" than in my Ektachrome 64 days, so I'm using polas very much less so than I used to, although I still buy a new one for every new lens diameter I get. In my case, that's a lot of filters because my LBS is as strong as my GAS. Water is an exception, as I almost always use one when shooting water. Hope that's useful info. Nice shots BTW! Oh and BTW I have been heading a web team for the last 20 years of my official career before becoming retired and moving into my lifelong passion full-time (sound familiar to you?) so if I can be of any help with the new website, don’t hesitate to PM me. I'll be glad to pass along whatever knowledge might be useful to you. Now if I only could apply this to my own website... but that would be going back to my old life, and I've had enough of it! Have a nice day, and please stay safe!

Author:	Barry Daniels [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 8:28 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
The back portions of your shots are out of focus. You can play with the f-stop to increase your depth of field.

Author:	Hesh [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:16 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Smylight wrote: Hello Hesh, I don't know if your photo skills are on the same level as your lutherie ones (I know for sure which are the most honed in my case) but I'll offer this : polas will indeed remove reflections from the surface of non-metallic objects and the effect is at its peak when the light strikes them at a given angle. Colors will appear, well, "more pure" if I may say. It decreases either side of this angle. That's why polas will render the sky with a darker blue patch that's fading on either side of it. Well, when you’re using extra-wide angle lenses anyway. As they're ineffective on metal, this is one reason they are rarely used in studio shots and we have to control reflections by other means. I'll also add that removing reflections from a guitar top is a sure way to make it appear flat... you don’t want that for a Les Paul, fo example. I have been a big fan of polas for a long time and used to keep one on all my lenses back in the 70s and 80s (Google Jay Maisel and you'll see where I'm coming from as influences go). I have learned to always buy the very best I can find so I got minimal image quality loss. So I don't know which Hoya you got, but they do have quality gradation in their lines of filters, so get the topmost one and you'll hardly get any degradation. Nowadays, in this age of digital pictures, I find colors and in particular sky rendering to be much "poppier" than in my Ektachrome 64 days, so I'm using polas very much less so than I used to, although I still buy a new one for every new lens diameter I get. In my case, that's a lot of filters because my LBS is as strong as my GAS. Water is an exception, as I almost always use one when shooting water. Hope that's useful info. Nice shots BTW! Oh and BTW I have been heading a web team for the last 20 years of my official career before becoming retired and moving into my lifelong passion full-time (sound familiar to you?) so if I can be of any help with the new website, don’t hesitate to PM me. I'll be glad to pass along whatever knowledge might be useful to you. Now if I only could apply this to my own website... but that would be going back to my old life, and I've had enough of it! Have a nice day, and please stay safe! Hi Pierre and thanks a million my friend for your very valued sharing here. This is VERY helpful to me, very! I'm a rank amateur photographer who enjoys the heck out of photography I just never really applied myself to learning all that much about it. So feel free to tell me what will improve my results and you will find a very interested student here. The Hoya I thought was a bit junky and it was not what I ordered from Amazon (I complained and they took it off my bill) I ordered a Promaster. This lens is a 49 mm. But they didn't send me a Promaster and instead sent the Hoya.... Would you please comment on a really good circular polarizer please? I do a lot of orchid photography since I grow them too. So a CR is useful there too for the colors to pop. This was my first time out with this Hoya and I rotated it until the glare on black plastic parts went away. Tuesday I'm picking up a Sony 100 - 400 mm super telephoto for my mirrorless A7 so I have LAS as well as GAS... As I think you know Lutherie is my second career but it was baptism by fire with 50 something guitars built, a three year apprenticeship in a busy repair practice and our own business with this being our eighth year now and we service around 1,100 guitars, mandos and banjos annually. Our minimum service is a very comprehensive set-up and we do everything else as well but shy away from some things because they are either too much potential liability or not profitable. My business partner is David Collins and he's considered by many to be one of the best there is. You would be very surprised at who calls us and asks for advice because Dave is there. We are always very happy to help. So as you can see my pics suck because I'm a rank amateur at photography. Let me know on the CR recommendation? My camera store friend has the Promaster in a 49 mm let me know if you like that one or what you do like and thanks again!!! PS: Always happy to help you too with Lutherie stuff just PM me here my friend. I also hope that you and yours are staying safe and sound in these scary times. This is my 29th day self isolating in my home........ but I'm alive and the freezer is filled with good stuff. I also have toilet paper and I'm one of the reasons many here don't have toilet paper.

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Author:	Hesh [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 9:20 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Barry Daniels wrote: The back portions of your shots are out of focus. You can play with the f-stop to increase your depth of field. Hey Barry I hope that you are doing well too in these crazy times. Yes my focus needs work. These were taken on aperture priority with it set at F8 and a manual focus. Because this is a Prime lens with no magnification I'm pretty close to the subject and since I'm shooting across the top of the guitars my depth of field needs to be a lot deeper. I'll be messing around with that too to see what works best in this set-up. Thanks again and again I hope that you are doing great considering what's happening out there. Michigan is now losing over 200 people a day.... Very sad.

Author:	Smylight [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:02 am ]
Post subject:	Guitar Porn
Hesh wrote: Smylight wrote: Hello Hesh, Hi Pierre and thanks a million my friend for your very valued sharing here. This is VERY helpful to me, very! I'm a rank amateur photographer who enjoys the heck out of photography I just never really applied myself to learning all that much about it. So feel free to tell me what will improve my results and you will find a very interested student here. The Hoya I thought was a bit junky and it was not what I ordered from Amazon (I complained and they took it off my bill) I ordered a Promaster. This lens is a 49 mm. But they didn't send me a Promaster and instead sent the Hoya.... Would you please comment on a really good circular polarizer please? I do a lot of orchid photography since I grow them too. So a CR is useful there too for the colors to pop. This was my first time out with this Hoya and I rotated it until the glare on black plastic parts went away. Tuesday I'm picking up a Sony 100 - 400 mm super telephoto for my mirrorless A7 so I have LAS as well as GAS... As I think you know Lutherie is my second career but it was baptism by fire with 50 something guitars built, a three year apprenticeship in a busy repair practice and our own business with this being our eighth year now and we service around 1,100 guitars, mandos and banjos annually. Our minimum service is a very comprehensive set-up and we do everything else as well but shy away from some things because they are either too much potential liability or not profitable. My business partner is David Collins and he's considered by many to be one of the best there is. You would be very surprised at who calls us and asks for advice because Dave is there. We are always very happy to help. So as you can see my pics suck because I'm a rank amateur at photography. Let me know on the CR recommendation? My camera store friend has the Promaster in a 49 mm let me know if you like that one or what you do like and thanks again!!! PS: Always happy to help you too with Lutherie stuff just PM me here my friend. I also hope that you and yours are staying safe and sound in these scary times. This is my 29th day self isolating in my home........ but I'm alive and the freezer is filled with good stuff. I also have toilet paper and I'm one of the reasons many here don't have toilet paper. Hello again Hesh, I know your background because you've helped me a couple of times in the past and I took the time to read your bio in the website or elsewhere. Might be in a post. Anyway I learned we have the exact same background, apart from the fact that I began dabbling in adjusting and repairing guitars from the day I got my first one, around age twelve. Had a lengthy carrer in communications, then retired and turned this old hobby into a full-time occupation. Now, I'm far from being were you are now, there's been no David in my life and I run a one-man shop. Not a builder of acoustics, probably never will, but I've been getting pretty good at what I did know how to do, and am learning a whole lot from folks like you, Bryan, Frank and Dan the man, starting with John Carruthers a very long time ago. Don't what this community would be like without you folks. Anyway, enough thanks, on to photography. I have used the Pro1 CPL series from Hoya since they first came out. They are better than most others I've used (apart from some of the REALLY expensive ones maybe) and are very reasonably priced. Get a new lens, buy a CPL to go with it, never know when I'll need it. Fishing in my main filter bag to snap this pic, I was surprised to suddenly realize I must have bought every diameter known to man. Some I have never used. As I said, since we have gone digital, I find them far less useful. Maybe that also has to do with the fact that the newer lenses often are better performers than the older stuff. My film camera lenses are all from the 60s to early 80s era and occasionally still get some use on my digital bodies and I can plainly see a huge difference on some. Here's what I use (mostly) : Pierre

Author:	Chris Pile [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 11:32 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Thumbs up from here!

Author:	Hesh [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 1:55 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Smylight wrote: Hesh wrote: Smylight wrote: Hello Hesh, Hi Pierre and thanks a million my friend for your very valued sharing here. This is VERY helpful to me, very! I'm a rank amateur photographer who enjoys the heck out of photography I just never really applied myself to learning all that much about it. So feel free to tell me what will improve my results and you will find a very interested student here. The Hoya I thought was a bit junky and it was not what I ordered from Amazon (I complained and they took it off my bill) I ordered a Promaster. This lens is a 49 mm. But they didn't send me a Promaster and instead sent the Hoya.... Would you please comment on a really good circular polarizer please? I do a lot of orchid photography since I grow them too. So a CR is useful there too for the colors to pop. This was my first time out with this Hoya and I rotated it until the glare on black plastic parts went away. Tuesday I'm picking up a Sony 100 - 400 mm super telephoto for my mirrorless A7 so I have LAS as well as GAS... As I think you know Lutherie is my second career but it was baptism by fire with 50 something guitars built, a three year apprenticeship in a busy repair practice and our own business with this being our eighth year now and we service around 1,100 guitars, mandos and banjos annually. Our minimum service is a very comprehensive set-up and we do everything else as well but shy away from some things because they are either too much potential liability or not profitable. My business partner is David Collins and he's considered by many to be one of the best there is. You would be very surprised at who calls us and asks for advice because Dave is there. We are always very happy to help. So as you can see my pics suck because I'm a rank amateur at photography. Let me know on the CR recommendation? My camera store friend has the Promaster in a 49 mm let me know if you like that one or what you do like and thanks again!!! PS: Always happy to help you too with Lutherie stuff just PM me here my friend. I also hope that you and yours are staying safe and sound in these scary times. This is my 29th day self isolating in my home........ but I'm alive and the freezer is filled with good stuff. I also have toilet paper and I'm one of the reasons many here don't have toilet paper. Hello again Hesh, I know your background because you've helped me a couple of times in the past and I took the time to read your bio in the website or elsewhere. Might be in a post. Anyway I learned we have the exact same background, apart from the fact that I began dabbling in adjusting and repairing guitars from the day I got my first one, around age twelve. Had a lengthy carrer in communications, then retired and turned this old hobby into a full-time occupation. Now, I'm far from being were you are now, there's been no David in my life and I run a one-man shop. Not a builder of acoustics, probably never will, but I've been getting pretty good at what I did know how to do, and am learning a whole lot from folks like you, Bryan, Frank and Dan the man, starting with John Carruthers a very long time ago. Don't what this community would be like without you folks. Anyway, enough thanks, on to photography. I have used the Pro1 CPL series from Hoya since they first came out. They are better than most others I've used (apart from some of the REALLY expensive ones maybe) and are very reasonably priced. Get a new lens, buy a CPL to go with it, never know when I'll need it. Fishing in my main filter bag to snap this pic, I was surprised to suddenly realize I must have bought every diameter known to man. Some I have never used. As I said, since we have gone digital, I find them far less useful. Maybe that also has to do with the fact that the newer lenses often are better performers than the older stuff. My film camera lenses are all from the 60s to early 80s era and occasionally still get some use on my digital bodies and I can plainly see a huge difference on some. Here's what I use (mostly) : Pierre Very cool Pierre and thanks again for all of your help! When we can come back out in the light of day again and this virus is history (wishful thinking here....) you have an open invitation to come visit our shop and hang out with us. We will put you to work too since you are already a pro in the trade and I think you will have a great time. We do a very high volume of repair work and we have to to make the livings that we want to make but I still find that I have at least 25% of the time to do whatever I want. These days though we are sadly closed down and ordered by our governor to stay that way until further notice. I understand though and being 63 I'm not taking any chances. I started working on guitars when I was around 12 too . My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper. The first guitar I ever built was a Stew Mac drad kit that I had shipped to the Residence Inn that I lived at in Sunnyvale California while I still worked for General Electric. I was one of their senior mergers and acquisitions guys on the West Coast assigned to what my boss Jack Welch RIP called "that God ** vaporware economy with valuations 32 times earnings that will never amount to **." Look at where GE is now and where Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc are.... . Jack was not always right. Anyway I brought in bandsaws and drill presses and more to my hotel suite and built my first there. I once asked the hotel manager if he minded if I made sawdust and he replied that if I had any idea how some people leave rooms and what they did in them I was a real pleasure to have living there for the year or so I was there. Who knew. Thanks again my friend, stay safe.

Author:	Hesh [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 1:57 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Chris Pile wrote: Thumbs up from here! Thanks Buddy and I hope that you are doing great too. I miss working on guitars..... it's what I do to relax. Hopefully something will change soon. Happy Easter to you and your's too Chris.

Author:	DanKirkland [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 2:07 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
I like them! I don't mind the blurry backgrounds honestly. If you look at ANY of the major manufacturers with social media/advertising they all use photos with the blurred backgrounds. Heritage has done a fantastic job of using social media to promote their guitars. Pretty much all of their photos are the "artsy fartsy" types. But they do sell guitars so there's a positive to it

Author:	Smylight [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:55 pm ]
Post subject:	Guitar Porn
Hesh wrote: Very cool Pierre and thanks again for all of your help! When we can come back out in the light of day again and this virus is history (wishful thinking here....) you have an open invitation to come visit our shop and hang out with us. We will put you to work too since you are already a pro in the trade and I think you will have a great time. (…) These days though we are sadly closed down and ordered by our governor to stay that way until further notice. I understand though and being 63 I'm not taking any chances. (…) I started working on guitars when I was around 12 too . My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper. Thanks again my friend, stay safe. I'd love to drop by one of these days. I'd be a nice change from my habit of flying over or changing planes in Chicago en route to my favorite trekking spots in Utah! Being 62 myself, and prone to pneumonia, I can relate to your feelings... I have closed shop over 3 weeks ago and dearly miss the daily interaction with guitar-loving people. Now I'm working on my own guitars, and being afflicted with GAS you can rest assured I won't be out of work for quite a few weeks more. Now you won't believe this. I got my first electric, a cheap Raven LP Custom copy, then graduated a year or two later to an ES-330, then a couple of years after that got a '59 Les Paul... for all of 300$ CDN. This was in 74. Those were the guitars I teared apart to learn... including the LP. Now, thanks to Gruhn's columns and articles (this was even before Rare Bird) in GP, I was fully aware of what it was, and applied due reverence to it. But I did learn a lot working on this beauty. It was only fitting to have Mr. Gruhn do a full appraisal of it when I finally decided to sell it 20 years ago, full circle. Here she is (she's definitely a "she", and is currently on sale somewhere in Germany): Pic dates from '83. It's much more pale now, but that was what it looked like back then. This is a guitar that has played countless Cream riffs and Who and Zeppelin songs. Now. How many guys do you know that got to hone their setup chops on a '59 Les Paul? Pierre

Author:	rlrhett [ Sat Apr 11, 2020 10:57 pm ]
Post subject:	Guitar Porn

Author:	Hesh [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:30 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Here's some shots of some of my orchids that I just took. Still learning, always learning.... Thanks for looking!

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Author:	Hesh [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:39 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Smylight wrote: Hesh wrote: Very cool Pierre and thanks again for all of your help! When we can come back out in the light of day again and this virus is history (wishful thinking here....) you have an open invitation to come visit our shop and hang out with us. We will put you to work too since you are already a pro in the trade and I think you will have a great time. (…) These days though we are sadly closed down and ordered by our governor to stay that way until further notice. I understand though and being 63 I'm not taking any chances. (…) I started working on guitars when I was around 12 too . My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper. Thanks again my friend, stay safe. I'd love to drop by one of these days. I'd be a nice change from my habit of flying over or changing planes in Chicago en route to my favorite trekking spots in Utah! Being 62 myself, and prone to pneumonia, I can relate to your feelings... I have closed shop over 3 weeks ago and dearly miss the daily interaction with guitar-loving people. Now I'm working on my own guitars, and being afflicted with GAS you can rest assured I won't be out of work for quite a few weeks more. Now you won't believe this. I got my first electric, a cheap Raven LP Custom copy, then graduated a year or two later to an ES-330, then a couple of years after that got a '59 Les Paul... for all of 300$ CDN. This was in 74. Those were the guitars I teared apart to learn... including the LP. Now, thanks to Gruhn's columns and articles (this was even before Rare Bird) in GP, I was fully aware of what it was, and applied due reverence to it. But I did learn a lot working on this beauty. It was only fitting to have Mr. Gruhn do a full appraisal of it when I finally decided to sell it 20 years ago, full circle. Here she is (she's definitely a "she", and is currently on sale somewhere in Germany): Pic dates from '83. It's much more pale now, but that was what it looked like back then. This is a guitar that has played countless Cream riffs and Who and Zeppelin songs. Now. How many guys do you know that got to hone their setup chops on a '59 Les Paul? Pierre OMG she's a beauty and very cool pic too!!! Wow and to have owned this one too very cool!!! I've only had the opportunity to work on one 59 but I have had several on my bench and in my lap. Love the necks and of course the pups are the mother of all PAFs. I had a 335 when I was 14 that I sold to get my dad the poet... a new fangled thing called a tape recorder so he could recite his stinkin poetry and listen to himself, his favorite pastime... The 335 is the one I kick myself for selling and for a really unproductive reason, my Dad never used the tape recorder.... We live and learn, eh. Anyway when we can move around again my friend remember you are always welcome at our place. BTW Dave Collins the real talent at our business is a very good photographer and he would enjoy the hell out of meeting you too.

Author:	Hesh [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 8:02 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Deleted

Author:	Smylight [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 8:17 am ]
Post subject:	Guitar Porn
Hesh wrote: Smylight wrote: Hesh wrote: Very cool Pierre and thanks again for all of your help! When we can come back out in the light of day again and this virus is history (wishful thinking here....) you have an open invitation to come visit our shop and hang out with us. We will put you to work too since you are already a pro in the trade and I think you will have a great time. (…) These days though we are sadly closed down and ordered by our governor to stay that way until further notice. I understand though and being 63 I'm not taking any chances. (…) I started working on guitars when I was around 12 too . My first real guitar was a Fender Mustang that I took apart, painted and put back together and then learned "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper. Thanks again my friend, stay safe. I'd love to drop by one of these days. I'd be a nice change from my habit of flying over or changing planes in Chicago en route to my favorite trekking spots in Utah! Being 62 myself, and prone to pneumonia, I can relate to your feelings... I have closed shop over 3 weeks ago and dearly miss the daily interaction with guitar-loving people. Now I'm working on my own guitars, and being afflicted with GAS you can rest assured I won't be out of work for quite a few weeks more. Now you won't believe this. I got my first electric, a cheap Raven LP Custom copy, then graduated a year or two later to an ES-330, then a couple of years after that got a '59 Les Paul... for all of 300$ CDN. This was in 74. Those were the guitars I teared apart to learn... including the LP. Now, thanks to Gruhn's columns and articles (this was even before Rare Bird) in GP, I was fully aware of what it was, and applied due reverence to it. But I did learn a lot working on this beauty. It was only fitting to have Mr. Gruhn do a full appraisal of it when I finally decided to sell it 20 years ago, full circle. Here she is (she's definitely a "she", and is currently on sale somewhere in Germany): Pic dates from '83. It's much more pale now, but that was what it looked like back then. This is a guitar that has played countless Cream riffs and Who and Zeppelin songs. Now. How many guys do you know that got to hone their setup chops on a '59 Les Paul? Pierre OMG she's a beauty and very cool pic too!!! Wow and to have owned this one too very cool!!! I've only had the opportunity to work on one 59 but I have had several on my bench and in my lap. Love the necks and of course the pups are the mother of all PAFs. I had a 335 when I was 14 that I sold to get my dad the poet... a new fangled thing called a tape recorder so he could recite his stinkin poetry and listen to himself, his favorite pastime... The 335 is the one I kick myself for selling and for a really unproductive reason, my Dad never used the tape recorder.... We live and learn, eh. Anyway when we can move around again my friend remember you are always welcome at our place. BTW Dave Collins the real talent at our business is a very good photographer and he would enjoy the hell out of meeting you too. Well, maybe one of these days we'll have the pleasure to meet. Ann Arbor looks like a great place with a lot of interesting people living there. I'll make sure to drop by! Here's one other pic I took of my 59. Must be around '95. You can see how it had faded over the years. And well, as we share an interest in photography, I might as well direct you to some pics of mine. Be sure to have a look at the Utah ones, maybe you've been there as well. http://www.pierrecastonguay.com/koken/sujets/voyages/ Pierre

Author:	Hesh [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 9:38 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Pierre thanks for that once again. She is a beauty in all respects and a very nice top on her too. This is the guitar that some of us like me dream about. Very cool. I had the sincere pleasure of looking at your pics and particularly the Utah ones and they are absolutely stunning. So is the subject matter as well and you've done it proud with your pics. Wow!! You know my personal plan is to work at Ann Arbor Guitars until I'm 66 and four months which is a little less than three years from now. Then I've getting in my steering assisted, active cruise control Honda and headed to Utah as well. I've been planning on doing this with visiting these parks and taking photos the goal. Small world. I'll be continuing to my ole stomping grounds to see friends who are other Luthiers in California and then returning home stopping at Yellowstone also to take pics. Then I'm getting a dog and staying close to home. Thanks again for helping me out Pierre very much appreciated.

Author:	rlrhett [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 10:32 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Hesh wrote: rlrhett wrote: Hey Hesh. Said with love and respect, but those photos are atrocious. Good news is you can fix it easily. It is not an equipment issue. The problem is composition. As a photographer (or more importantly, as a print maker) you need to look at the edges of the picture. For example, you have a toggle switch in the background that is JUST cut off. In another we can see ALMOST the front edge of the Guitar. Don’t cut something off unless you mean to cut it off. Try not to leave things visually hanging. The casual viewer is not looking at the edges, but issues like those cause a sense of unease and randomness that just comes off as amateurish. Most people could never tell you why. Similarly the background fights the guitar. The contrast of beige carpet and black wall creates a horizontal element that is so strong it dominates. Worse, it doesn’t line up or flow with any of the guitar’s lines. The result, again is that it feels unsettled. Make sure when you compose a print that you look at the whole print. You want the viewer to look at those cool pickups and the flawless finish. Make sure you aren’t creating visual noise to compete. Hope that doesn’t come across as harsh. I think you and I have exchanged enough ideas on this forum that you know there is nothing mean spirited in what I said. Honest advice from some dude on a forum. Feel free to ignore. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Instead of ignoring your reply to me I'm going to share something with you that may surprise some and not so much others. I'm frequently encouraging here and complimentary of things that are clearly important to others in my efforts to encourage them, help them and not.... never... leave the place worse off than I found it. If something is important enough to me I may PM someone but usually, the vast majority of the time I recognize in advance, because I tend to care about other people.... that being overly critical and using words such as "atrocious" may do more harm than good. Words like this very well may shut someone down to me and then I lose my ability to do what I set out to do and that is be helpful to them as many were to me on this forum years ago. None of these photos were about composition, that's off the mark. They were as stated to try out a circular polarizer and I used my work bench as a stage but it was not intended to be a studio set producing highly composed results. I'm an amateur photographer who is just learning and I said that in subsequent replies to other replies here. This was a learning exercise for me with a focus... being on the use of a circular polarizer. Composition was never my intent as you so eloquently pointed out mincing no words. I can't recall another time in the entire history of this forum that someone described someone else's work as "atrocious." That's not in my view why are we here and if that's what you have to offer please ignore my posts. Thanks I’m sorry. I thought you were asking about marketing material, not a passionate hobby. That seemed to be your premise in the first post. Clearly I misunderstood your intentions. I’ll delete my posts, despite the likes from others, because it clearly hurt your feelings. That was not my intention. Enjoy your new passion. No doubt it will be as rewarding a journey as guitar building has been. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Author:	Smylight [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 11:24 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
Hesh wrote: Pierre thanks for that once again. She is a beauty in all respects and a very nice top on her too. This is the guitar that some of us like me dream about. Very cool. I had the sincere pleasure of looking at your pics and particularly the Utah ones and they are absolutely stunning. So is the subject matter as well and you've done it proud with your pics. Wow!! You know my personal plan is to work at Ann Arbor Guitars until I'm 66 and four months which is a little less than three years from now. Then I've getting in my steering assisted, active cruise control Honda and headed to Utah as well. I've been planning on doing this with visiting these parks and taking photos the goal. Small world. I'll be continuing to my ole stomping grounds to see friends who are other Luthiers in California and then returning home stopping at Yellowstone also to take pics. Then I'm getting a dog and staying close to home. Thanks again for helping me out Pierre very much appreciated. Thanks for the kind words on the pics. Be sure to have a look at those from Provence and Québec as well... Pierre

Author:	Hesh [ Sun Apr 12, 2020 12:57 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Guitar Porn
rlrhett wrote: Hesh wrote: rlrhett wrote: Hey Hesh. Said with love and respect, but those photos are atrocious. Good news is you can fix it easily. It is not an equipment issue. The problem is composition. As a photographer (or more importantly, as a print maker) you need to look at the edges of the picture. For example, you have a toggle switch in the background that is JUST cut off. In another we can see ALMOST the front edge of the Guitar. Don’t cut something off unless you mean to cut it off. Try not to leave things visually hanging. The casual viewer is not looking at the edges, but issues like those cause a sense of unease and randomness that just comes off as amateurish. Most people could never tell you why. Similarly the background fights the guitar. The contrast of beige carpet and black wall creates a horizontal element that is so strong it dominates. Worse, it doesn’t line up or flow with any of the guitar’s lines. The result, again is that it feels unsettled. Make sure when you compose a print that you look at the whole print. You want the viewer to look at those cool pickups and the flawless finish. Make sure you aren’t creating visual noise to compete. Hope that doesn’t come across as harsh. I think you and I have exchanged enough ideas on this forum that you know there is nothing mean spirited in what I said. Honest advice from some dude on a forum. Feel free to ignore. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Instead of ignoring your reply to me I'm going to share something with you that may surprise some and not so much others. I'm frequently encouraging here and complimentary of things that are clearly important to others in my efforts to encourage them, help them and not.... never... leave the place worse off than I found it. If something is important enough to me I may PM someone but usually, the vast majority of the time I recognize in advance, because I tend to care about other people.... that being overly critical and using words such as "atrocious" may do more harm than good. Words like this very well may shut someone down to me and then I lose my ability to do what I set out to do and that is be helpful to them as many were to me on this forum years ago. None of these photos were about composition, that's off the mark. They were as stated to try out a circular polarizer and I used my work bench as a stage but it was not intended to be a studio set producing highly composed results. I'm an amateur photographer who is just learning and I said that in subsequent replies to other replies here. This was a learning exercise for me with a focus... being on the use of a circular polarizer. Composition was never my intent as you so eloquently pointed out mincing no words. I can't recall another time in the entire history of this forum that someone described someone else's work as "atrocious." That's not in my view why are we here and if that's what you have to offer please ignore my posts. Thanks I’m sorry. I thought you were asking about marketing material, not a passionate hobby. That seemed to be your premise in the first post. Clearly I misunderstood your intentions. I’ll delete my posts, despite the likes from others, because it clearly hurt your feelings. That was not my intention. Enjoy your new passion. No doubt it will be as rewarding a journey as guitar building has been. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Thank You and I deleted my post as well. Happy Holiday to You.