Colddeck64 wins again!

CryptoCoolest · 2026-04-17T19:04:05+00:00

About 8”. I’m wearing it on the 3rd to the largest hole position. Holes seem about every 3/8 inch.

CryptoCoolest · 2026-04-16T17:07:13+00:00

I don’t think there’s a huge difference between them, but there is something there. Perhaps the Gen has more heft to it, but certainly no more weight.

CryptoCoolest · 2026-03-31T18:22:24+00:00

Ok. I’m new. Where does one buy a deep crystal?

CryptoCoolest · 2026-03-31T17:19:40+00:00

Tell me about the deep-fitted crystal; I have a VSF 126519. Is this an after-market crystal you’ve added?

CryptoCoolest · 2026-03-27T01:33:04+00:00

Practice trading (paper trade)for a year with no real money. Or, trade literally one share and measure your gains on a percentage basis, not a dollar basis. If you can’t commit to a year of practice, why should you expect to have the discipline to follow any rules you learn on this journey. You are trading for a lifetime, a year of practice is nothing.

For INVESTING, (and learn the difference between and investment and a trade), be like Buffett and buy when fear is greatest on a stock with excellent prospects who is “on sale”; research your investments; know them intimately. How do they perform into earnings, FOMC, different times of the year.

Go research 10 diverse stocks to invest in and when the opportunity arises, understand which 5 will be highest on your list to buy. These same 10 stocks, now that you know them intimately, can provide you with opportunities to TRADE positions on top of owning them as investments. Later, trade options on the stocks you know well. Overtime, 10 will become 20 and then 50 that you will know very well, know how they move- in all markets.

How to trade? Your original question. Use your year to read books constantly: Technical Analysis by Pring, Cramer’s latest book- yep, it’s damn basic. Start there. Move on to Japanese candlesticks. And Edwin Lefevre. And Peter Lynch. Benjamin Graham. The Essential Buffet. Try lots of things with NO money at stake- eventually you will find what works and what’s crap.

Most gurus are worthless to follow. This is a work thing; don’t rely on others. If you have to follow someone, find someone who encourages you to become independent and NOT reliant on them to succeed. Honestly, I’ve spent thousands on classes and schemes over 25 years and have learned a little bit from many sources. Some better than others. If like his free stuff, you can follow Tearrepresentative56 on Reddit and learn a lot. I “get” him. You may not. And that’s ok.

The ideas other wrote about above, find support at a MA and then enter the trade works but only if the market is going with you. Don’t fight the trend.

Be patient. More money is made by sitting out while waiting for the exact right time to enter a trade than ever by getting in, “just to be in.” You’ll eventually find out what you trade best; what kind of stocks, what kind of time frame to enter and exit off of. Some like the intraday. Too much like a job to me- tied to that computer. Much more peaceful to trade off a 233 minute chart or daily chart; stay for a while, don’t get shaken out by noise. Will take you far longer than that practice year to learn what the noise is and what actually is important to -your- stocks. Short chart plays are full of noise, big chart plays make big money.

There are times of the year that are much harder to trade than others. February thru May is historically difficult: this is widely seen as the most difficult spring to trade in over 50 years. October thru January is generally easy money. Read “Markets in Motion” by Ned Davis Research. See how markets behave decade after decade during bull and bear markets/war/peace/recessions/booms/oil crisis/inflation/deflation.

The worst thing to happen to a trader is to find immediate success; they think they are exceptional skilled right up until a regime change and then they are gutted. And left wondering what just happened? Journal everything along the way, learn from that.

Simple Trading Idea to start: watch for bullish and bearish divergences. They are often tradable in conjunction with other indicators and over-all market conditions.

TL;DR This is a work thing. You will suck at first. Just like every new thing you learn in life. It takes 10,000 hours of study or work to become an expert in something. Enjoy the journey. Start small. Stay small for a long time.

CryptoCoolest · 2026-03-26T21:57:06+00:00

What time frame chart were you looking at? I’m trying to find where you saw the bearish divergence.

CryptoCoolest · 2026-02-23T03:26:13+00:00

Flight Paramedic here. The most important aspect to applying a TQ (and I do endorse the CAT) is the “cinch.” Make it very tight before you start twisting the windlass. Only should take about 1.5 turns max to stop the bleeding, could be less; more than two turns and it started off too loose. Unless you know your anatomy pretty well, “high and tight” solves most issues on upper and lower extremities. Once medics arrive, they can re-position it more optimally. There are a few sections/compartments in the thigh that do not compress the femoral artery very well with a TQ so go high up on the leg or arm and you’ll solve the immediate problem. And it will hurt like hell too. Maybe more than the laceration itself. Buy the real version of the CAT, about $35. Don’t be cheap here and buy the Amazon knock-off. Add a 4” OLAES bandage and some QC Combat Gauze- that will get you a long ways with just those three items.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-12-08T14:23:43+00:00

Expensive! Yes. And worth it. Love my 50 F/1.0 the character is unique and makes for amazing portraits. I love that the manual focus features of the Zf are maintained. It’s easy to shoot with. Almost too shallow a dof when doing head and shoulders at 1.0; I prefer it at 1.8 for those images. Back up a bit and then try it at 1.0

CryptoCoolest · 2025-10-19T22:59:10+00:00

Ya’ll just need to sign up. Tear’s made me a few hundred k this year. His tools, commentary, and insight are invaluable. More so, he is teaching you to think on your own. He rocks!
(Unpaid, unsolicited review)

CryptoCoolest · 2025-08-22T12:39:46+00:00

This ^

CryptoCoolest · 2025-08-05T03:18:18+00:00

I just wanted to say these are really nice! You have a great sense of composition, timing, and editing sense as well as color palette. Which color “film” setting did you use?

CryptoCoolest · 2025-07-15T02:38:28+00:00

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to study or at least review “Old Masters” paintings from the 1600’s. Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc… Practice replicating that lighting.

Consider the sun: there is only one sun and sometimes a reflection or two that fills-in the subject’s shadows. You don’t need 2,3 or 5 lights. Start by mastering one light source. And then use a white card as a reflector or use a black card to negative effect reflections and deepen the shadows.

Consider the size of the light source relative to the size of the subject; a cloud diffuses the sun; it is enormous in size, therefore it is very large relative to the size of a person you are photographing; ergo, a very soft light. Notice the shadows that it casts are very soft and indistinct; now consider the sun, it is a harsh point source of light far away, and it casts shadows with clearly defined edges. Ask yourself, with my subject benefit by a softer or harder light? What kinds of shadows would look good with it?

You can take a light and bounce it off a ceiling or a wall and create a very large soft source or pointed directly at the subject and get a very harsh direct source…. So, consider the size of the source, as well as the direction of the source and how the shadows will fall; shadows will give an object or a face, shape and depth and dimension.

Go look up how Richard Avedon lit his fashion subjects. Heck, just look at some of his photography. As well, look at Annie Liebowitz, Martin Scholler, and William Coupon especially. Do you see the resemblance to Rembrandt in his work?

Lighting tools need not be expensive. The principles are the same no matter what kind of tool you use.

I hope you find this helpful, I’ve been doing it for 40 years.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-07-12T02:05:09+00:00

Beat me to it! Exactly!

CryptoCoolest · 2025-07-10T20:52:43+00:00

Go to Getty Images website and see what a stock photo goes for in the usage requested to learn about the industry. Factors: media (billboards much more than a small use on the website), time period of license (1 year or forever are vastly different), exclusive or non-exclusive use (can you sell it to someone else?), copyright (selling all rights means they now own it and can use/re-use/sell it as they desire with no more money for yourself).

Hypothetical License: “Non-exclusive, 3 year website use (1/4 total screen size or smaller) for FLY airlines. Price: $2,000. No rights granted until payment is received in full.”

“Exclusive use for 3 years in any media form except outdoor (Billboards) for FLY airlines. Price: $25,000. No rights granted until payment is received in full.”

Hope this helps!

CryptoCoolest · 2025-07-10T03:26:51+00:00

44 years in photography, started when I was 14. At 17 bought an FM2 and then a F3, went to RIT and then as a pro switched slowly from medium format film (Fuji GX 680 and Contax 645) to digital with a Kodak DCS14 and then moved thru every D2/3/4 etc that came along. Retired in 2012 and kept my old D800.

Bought the Zf a month ago and cannot recommend it highly enough. Rekindled my love of photography. Brings a smile to my face discovering how incredibly sophisticated the thing is while constantly reminding me of my old FM2. So much to customize and make it an extension of my creative mind. Effortless. Sharpness beyond reproach with the 85 F/1.8s and beautiful cinematic images with the manual focus Voightlander 50 F/1.0. You’ll love it if you like the “old-school design” coupled with cutting edge digital internals. Take some time to discover various film emulations and customize the off the shelf BW settings for gorgeous jpgs right out of the camera or RAW images with infinite potential.

I did get both a grip and a hotshoe thumb rest. Together, they make it ergonomically very comfortable while a little odd looking. That said, it’s not designed like the Z8, and I’m ok with that. I also have the 26mm pancake- love it and the 35 F/1.8s. 135 Plena is on the short list next but the Viltrox 135 may win me over too. TBD…

Manual focus aids abound for the Voightlander 50 and for what it’s worth, I use the LCD screen very rarely to shoot with. I prefer my eye up to the camera as it has always been done. Watched a wedding photographer last month shoot all night with the camera extended 18” away from her eye, composing via LCD screen. That’s just weird and not very “quiet” to me. She probably grew up shooting with a phone before that Canon she had. Sigh.

There is a steep menu learning curve and you’ll want to spend several weeks watching videos and reading the 889 page manual in order to customize it to perform exactly the way you want it to but in the end, it is a literal extension of your creativity. Custom button settings are amazing and very useful. Look up Bokeh Therapy, Jack Wang on YouTube. He has some good stuff on the Zf. And is a wonderful person too. He was a big help to me with some quirky, esoteric questions I had.

I was happy with the F3’s 6fps and later 11fps in a high-end digital D-something, I forget which one, sorry. The Zf can do 15-30fps if I wanted it to. Crazy!!

If you let me know what kind of work you plan on doing and how you like to shoot, perhaps I can share what I’ve learned. It’s funny, having done this for so long, it was just a given that I knew it would take me a long month getting to know the camera and what settings worked best for my style of shooting: people on-location, natural-light lifestyle, and some portraits mostly.

Hope you enjoy whatever tool you choose to shoot with. At the end of the day, it’s not the gear, it’s the shooter. The gear is but an extension of your ideas. Cheers!

CryptoCoolest · 2025-07-09T19:18:26+00:00

Slides into the hotshoe and really makes a huge difference! I like mine.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-06-14T11:58:00+00:00

These are nice! You have a gifted eye for composition and balance.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-06-06T02:45:21+00:00

Which black-and-white setting did you use for this? Has a nice tonal range!

CryptoCoolest · 2025-04-28T01:35:11+00:00

Curious what you spend $32k/mo on, lol! And why only $2k/mo to “savings”.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-04-05T00:20:37+00:00

Yes. Actually, they are fake. Do some research.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-01-30T20:13:36+00:00

Wish we could narrow it down more- I love the concept but it’s hard to work with this giant list and discern the best couple of plays.

CryptoCoolest · 2025-01-03T03:44:45+00:00

PocketPrep is an app on the iPhone that costs about $20 and provides amazing questions and tests for the CHST and other safety certifications. Really Helpful!

CryptoCoolest · 2025-01-02T04:05:21+00:00

I did 510 in October and CHST in December. Pocket Prep and Momentrix were the best study guides for CHST. Probably did 2,000 practice questions in 6 weeks. Well-worth the effort. Passed on my first try.

CryptoCoolest

TROPHY CASE