yoga55936

A digital sports photography article would have been fairly brief as recently as a couple of years ago. In essence, it would have stated that digital cameras have unacceptable shutter lag, and cannot yet achieve the frame rates of their film cousins. End of story.

Well, that particular story has in fact ended. These days the focus is on digital cameras finally reaching the level of film cameras, and being widely used with great effect in digital sports photography. The aim nowadays is to point out the clear benefits offered by the digital route.

In fact, a number of excellent books have appeared on digital sports photography, confirming that this type of photography has finally become an acceptable mainstream digital activity.

In 'Digital sports Photography', G. newman Lowrance offers a wealth of information on the techniques and equipment you will need for successful digital sports photography - either as an aspiring professional, or taking shots at the local basketball game.

Lowrance has many years' experience of digital sports photography, and his pictures have been widely published in official super Bowl and Pro Bowl game magazines, NFL videos and calendars, NFL Insider Magazine, and elsewhere.

He doesn't hold back, and gives you a lot of information from some excellent sports photographers and editors. Issues such as color management, camera setup, and equipment options are covered. You will discover all the ins and outs of the unique techniques applied to shooting for baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, and tennis.

Lowrance also uses his own experiences in digital sports photography, and gives true, autobiographical examples of how to get started and how to succeed as a professional.

His book features many eye-catching sports action photographs that will generate excitement and inspiration. The informative content will motivate you to become familiar with new aspects of the technology, stimulating a keen interest and involvement in this aspect of photography.

In short, 'Digital Sports Photography' will give you the help and guidance you need to make your photos stand out from the crowd!

Another book that illustrates how far digital sports photography has come, is 'Digital Sports Photography: Take Winning Shots Every Time', by Serge Timacheff and david Karlins.

This book helps you to take great shots by overcoming obstacles like rain and crowds, bad lighting, fast-moving athletes, flash limitations, and other challenges.

The authors give advice on how to shoot a wide range of sports: extreme, outdoor, indoor, competitive, recreational, and more. The book provides many full-color examples illustrating professional tips and techniques, and shows how to tackle skilled digital sports photography with any kind of digital camera, from point-and-shoot to SLR.

And the bottom line for many aspiring digital sports photographers is that this book will also teach you how to actually sell your images!

One of the advantages of digital sports photography highlighted, is that once you have the equipment, including enough batteries and memory cards, it doesn't cost anything to snap away at that baseball game...

For more information visit Best-Digital-Photography.com

Every once in a while I will meet a veteran yoga teacher who is disgruntled over difficult students. The complaining yoga student, the student who has not washed for days, the student who harasses other students, and the student who believes you should teach yoga for free, can all challenge your purpose in life. So what can you do to get through to difficult yoga students?

Firstly, you must go back to the Law of Karma, which states that for every action, there is an equal reaction. With a difficult student, it may appear as though he or she selected you, and now you are the victim. This is absolutely wrong. Due to your personality, or the atmosphere of your yoga class, the student has detected something magnetic.

In fact, you or your center, attracted all of the students you had, presently have, and will have, in the future. You must look at what draws students into your yoga classes. It may not be obvious to you, so it will require some research, and you may need some objective opinions.

Here is a good example: Bikram Choudhurys schools and style exude discipline. When you enter one of Bikram Choudhurys yoga studios, you do not have to guess what the rules are. You know the rules. You can complain, but you will be escorted to the exit in short time. You would not show up late, leave your cell phone on, avoid taking a bath for a month, or whine about the temperature.

Copyright 2007 Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. http://www.riyoga.com He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995.

To receive a Free yoga e-book: "Yoga in practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

If I asked students who take my golf lessons how critical good rhythm is to a good swing, most would agree that it's important, but not the most important factor. many weekend golfers would probably agree with this assessment. But a new device developed by a professor at Yale reveals that good rhythm is more important to chopping strokes off your golf handicap than many think.

bob Grober, a professor of applied physics at Yale University-and a one-handicapper- recently invented a device for translating the rhythm of a swing into sound. Here's how it works: A small wireless transmitter inserted into the butt end of a club detects the club's movement. The signal produced is transmitted to an iPod-sized unit attached to the player's waist. The auditory signal is relayed to a set of lightweight headphones and the sound manifests itself as a pleasing organ-like tone when the player swings.

If your clubhead is decelerating through impact, your transition from backswing to downswing is too abrupt, or your mechanics are way out of sync, Grober's device tells you through sound. The faster the club travels, the louder the volume and the pitch. The idea is to make the loudest sound at impact, not before. Grober's device also registers how fast the club is moving on the downswing, and gives you a start-to-finish speed profile. It's a handy tool for serious golfers.

Swing Profiles

Using this device, Grober was able to isolate three distinct speed profiles among golfers. Golfers with high golf handicaps (20+) are cursed with lousy rhythm. They're like dancers who have two left feet, always tripping over themselves. Golfers with golf handicaps from 20 to 5-intermediate golfers- tend to complete their swings too quickly. The loudest sound comes just before impact.

Then there are golfers with golf handicaps below 5. Let's call them tour players. They also tend to rush their swings but to a much lesser degree than intermediate golfers. Like the intermediate golfers, these players create the loudest sounds just before impact, but they do it much less often than with the intermediate golfers. More often than not, their loudest sound comes right at impact, which explains why they hit the ball so well.

Improving Rhythm

The best swing according to Grober contains a brief period when the club is hardly moving at all while the lower body begins to clear out. Unfortunately, weekend golfers tend to hurry the transition from backswing to downswing. That disrupts the player's rhythm and throws off his or her swing at impact. So the loudest sound comes just before, not at, impact.

The professor's device doesn't tell us anything new about swinging a golf club. It just reaffirms what we've suspected all along regarding the rhythm of the swing: That it's one of the keys to hitting a ball well, if not the key. So how can you take advantage of this information?

First, relax your hands at address. If they're tense or tight, the rest of your body will be tense. Whenever Johnny Bench, the great baseball player, wanted to hit the ball for distance, the first thing he did was lighten up on his grip. That relaxed his hands and his arms and body.

second, work on swinging to a beat. Pace yourself when you practice. Think of your swing as a one-two motion. One is your backswing. two is your downswing. You can even say something like "one-two" during the swing. "Back and through," "low and slow," or "turn and turn" also work.

Third, practice swinging with your eyes closed. By swinging with your eyes closed, you can feel the weight of the club and sense its speed gradually accelerating from the top of your swing all the way through to a controlled finish. Once you've mastered that, re-create the swing on the course. If successful, you'll see your consistency improve and your bad shots diminish.

Most golf instruction sessions focus on the mechanics of the swing, not the "intangibles," like rhythm and tempo. But as professor Grober's device reveals through analysis of sound, the intangibles are just important as good mechanics, if not more important. If you want to become more consistent and cut your golf handicap down to size, focus on improving both the mechanics and the intangibles.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

Imagine paying for things with your cell phone. The Wireless Wallet is an idea that is picking up steam again, after the initial hype during the dot.com bubble fizzled along with everyones stock portfolio. As usual, Asia and Europe are ahead of the United States in the introduction and use of new technologies using wireless data networks. In places other than the US, consumers are buying soda pop, paying for songs on jukeboxes, purchasing their groceries, and going to soccer games just by waving their cell phones at a machine!

In Sweden and the British Isles, drivers are sending text messages to the parking meter to pay for their parking, instead of stuffing it with coins. Think of the savings of time and trouble of not having to race the meter maid out to your car, to plunk in more change, you could simply send a message from across town! The Japanese are probably the most advanced at this technology, right now. They are using phones with embedded debit card chips that allow them to shop at restaurants and grocery stores and pay with their phones. The service is available in around 20,000 stores.

US companies often look to DoCoMo company in Japan for inspiration and innovation, and they are watching the Japanese begin to use the phone as a replacement for train tickets. All of our wireless providers and phone manufacturers are currently involved in projects bringing this technology to our shores. Last year in Dallas, Texas, Motorola and Mastercard had a trial run of a few hundred consumers using the wave and pay system at stores and gas stations. The technology is called near field communications and works when the device is about 8 inches from the sensor, similar to the check out scanner in supermarkets.

Wireless companies are convinced the wireless wallet is worth developing because consumers in the US spent over 220 million dollars on ringtones in 2004. J. P. Morgan Chase is testing the similar idea of cards that can be swiped to pay for things. They are involved with McDonalds and the 7-Eleven convenience store chain at implementing this in over 5000 stores. The idea is to then embed the contactless cards into phones. Some are still not convinced that this is a tenable idea, but Major League Baseball is intrigued by the technology, because they see it as an efficient way to get large numbers of fans into the baseball parks in a short amount of time. I can just imagine a promotion where your phone is singing the tune: Take me out to the ball game

As ubiquitous computing emerges, I think we will see our phones become TVs, music players, organizers, video arcades, internet surfing devices, and more. And yes, it looks like they are well on their way to becoming wallets. The next time someone asks you for spare change, you can say, sorry, I left my phone at home!

A leader in technology reporting, Julia Hall has published articles about the latest digital devices and gadgets for over ten years. After graduating from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering, Julia turned down huge salaries from some of the most recognized fortune 500 companies in the world to pursue her dream of becoming a leading consumer advocate. Julia uses her expertise to cut through the too good to be true deals offered by high tech companies to reveal the real steals and the real duds that we're bombarded with daily. If you enjoy staying on the cutting edge of technology, whether for business or pleasure, but find yourself occasionally confused by the overwhelming information out there let Julia be your guide.