Anyone care to comment on what they see in this pic...is it early release as I suspect or are my shafts to stiff or too flexible.

Hey  just thought i'd ask...and hopelfully some of you actually know what you are talking about ;)  .  It seems to me that Im having a casting issue but I just wanted to be sure it wasn't something deeper as far as shaft stiffness ect.

Secondly, you need to be behind the tee markers.. :)  just kidding of course... I know you were just taking photos

You don't need stiffer shafts.  You aren't even loading those properly.  Hit a golf ball from your knees.  You'll notice that your swing looks exactly the same.  The reason is you aren't properly engaging your lower body in the right sequence.  But don't try to start using your legs just yet without getting into a proper setup and turn, otherwise it will just frustrate you for entirely different reasons.  I suggest getting some lessons to start building a solid foundation for a golf swing.

YOur grip is wrong !

you are also droping your shoulder rather than turning it do you shots start straght then go to the right ?  Seamjs you are all shoulders, just like me !

You suspect correctly.  You are casting.  It's alright to admit it.  I only care because I, like everyone on the planet, went through the same thing once.  Take this picture of me on my downswing, ignore obvious faults which I assure you are there and are being worked on and focus on the lag, shoulders, and hips:

Note that you can see my hips as if they are pointing at you, but my shoulders are turned to my right.  That is because the shift and rotation of my hips pulled them into that position.  I didn't freeze my legs and swing at the ball with my shoulders and arms.

Now compare your photo, I think it's from your downswing, but if you sent me a still, I would think it was a takeaway:

The yellow line represents the openness of your shoulders, the orange the openness of your hips.  The lines on the right are somewhere around where you need to be to maintain lag.  Since you start your swing with an early rotation of the shoulders, the club must release according to the laws of physics.

It's an unnatural move to start doing.  The first thing you need to do is actually turn properly on your backswing.  You are just sort of tilting right now without any spine-neutral tension.  Once you do that, maintain the tension on the way down.  That's pretty much all there is to it, but it's easier said than done.  Like I said, I recommend getting a good instructor.  Work two jobs if you have to.  You'll save time and frustration in the long run if you are going to enjoy this game and blow it past your buddies.  Good luck.

Wow...thanks guys...

thats really interesting about how the camera reads the image.

Hard to say what my normal shot shape is becuase up until this year i would tend to miss right.  Came out fresh this year and 8 rounds in to the season all misses are pulls or slight hooks which i prefer to a slice ...but still.

and yes i'm all shoulders and body at least thats what i'm told...

I'm certain some lessons would help I think I've gotten as far as I can as a self taught golfer.

Just have to find an affordable way to get that done in the KC area!

Bunker putt

I know exactly what you mean at least I think I do... and I have been freezing my hips.  I found my loaded swing very long but so unpredictable.  Length isn't my problem and I don't care about it like i did when i first started.  I just want the consistency of my short game to extend to my long irons and driver.

I believe that one of my problems is listening to to many tips I find it way to easy to change what i've been doing all along at the drop of a hat (which i suppose wont hurt if I get some help from a pro) and constantly changing to many aspects when I really dont have the fundamentals yet.

These responses are awesome.  I've really got to get some time with an instructor.

i would say your overrotating a bit for me, shorten that up a bit and you might see better contact.

Based on the angle of the marker on the left (the one that's in the picture), I can guess where the right marker is. I think he's positioned fine.

Anyway, I need to go and google "casting" but in the meantime, that takeway looks very uppy-downy and not enough back-and-aroundy. Sorry for the technical jargon.

backy - and - aroundy....i like it!

getting the t-shirts made up now.  ;)

Yep.  Get with a good pro.  If he doesn't have you hitting with lag in a couple of weeks, dump him and find a new one.  I could write a bunch of stuff here to work on, but at this point I think it would do more harm than good without understanding the principles involved.