A Box of Chocolates

When we are taking photographs an you found out that it looks dull and dead, what will you attribute that to it? Probably, the number one culprit you will blame for is the poor lighting. What are various options for cheap photography lights?

Most photographs will look flat and dull if the lighting is not in the right mix and proper as per the background and theme of the photo. The professionalism in photography and the art of photography demands the perfect photo at the first instant of taking the photo, without any additive and supplements by photo editing software. One thing well accepted for this kind of perfection is good photography lights. Here are some options:

Sunset and Sunrise are two natural, but powerful lighting options in still photography. During these periods the natural colour combinations are very attractive and will suit to many themes for photography. No artificial photography lights are necessary during sunset and sunrise.

Clear sky and selection of location are always helped in getting better lighting for the photographs. If the theme of photograph wants a background of cloudy environment, do it in a cloudy season without any lights manipulation.

An innovative idea is to use reflectors to get more light by just using the Sunlight. Reflectors can reflect in multi-colours and the right colour combination can be achieved by using one of these. One can use different kinds of filters and shields to adjust the brightness of the Sunlight to get the proper combination of the colour mix.

Night photography requires you to go out in a full moon night with a clear sky. The photos will look pretty natural and professional. Simple cheap two monochromatic lightings may be required to get more effect.
There can be much such cheap photography light techniques by which one can get better pictures. One need not go for highly expensive lighting options if you have a theme in mind and some creative ideas. Just extract your resourcefulness inside of you and you can get what you want for less the price.

With all the celebrities we have right now, it would only be common that there are a lot of those celebrities who aren’t as admired as the most popular ones we have now. Popular ones are celebrities who we know of right away, the instant we hear theirname. They are the ones who makes a lot of noise, and who often make noise. But what about those hot underrated celebrities?, but who have the potential and sometimes,
even look much better than the already popular ones? Here are a few of examples I thought of (not in any order):

5. Laura Ramsey
Laura Ramsey was discovered by her manager while waitressing in a Los Angeles restaurant. And since then, she’s done quite a lot of movies such as The Covenant and she’s The Man. I wouldn’t consider her as one of the really famous celebrities since her name isn’t something you would hear all the time. But she is a celebrity, and I consider her really pretty.

4. David Schwimmer
He’s got a face that is probably taller than my leg and it’s something strange with his eyes, but he’s got charm, and most of all he’s got talent and that has taken him far. After playing Ross in the famous TV-show Friends he is one of the most popular actors in the U.S. and he’s been nominated for an Emmy award for that role as well.

3. Nicky Hilton
Paris little sister didn’t have the luck to be born with the same amount of beauty as her older sister. She’s got some class but her nose and her mouth is keeping her away from being a beauty. She doesn’t have to worry too much about that though, she’s got a lot more money than most of us have and she seems to be popular as well.

2. Steven Strait
This actor has done a lot of movies including The Covenant, Sky High and 10,000 B.C and also lands the hottest of roles. But his name still isn’t quite as popular as someone like Josh Hartnett’s. Although this is the case, this celebrity is a talented and a really hot actor, and would one day become really popular.

1. Kip Pardue
Compared to others, this actor isn’t as popular because he has very little movies. And only a few of those became popular, such as Driven and Remember the Titans. Although I’ve only seen him in Driven, I really found him hot, and I actually think that he has the potential to become famous, and in my opinion, would also be good as a model.

We all eat in restaurants and fast food chains because some of us do not have the luxury of time to make our own meals at home because we are very busy with our careers. Of course, our family need not suffer from the consequences of our choice that is why we dine out with them. The medium you get your food won’t matter as long as you eat food. There are only three times when it is bad to order food in a restaurant and dine there.

1.    Lunch time peak
As per my experience, when ordering in peak hours of the restaurant, the quality would more or less be the same but the quantity would not be. This would be applicable more if the restaurant that you went in to has little manpower to cook and serve you. If you notice they are already sporting their sweaty brows, I suggest you walk out from that place.

If the servers outside have sweaty brows, what more in the “hot” kitchen area? They might drip their sweaty brows in your salt-lacking food that is why it might taste not bad at all. Another thing, the serving size would sometimes be compromised because they are so busy. The good thing here is if you are the one who is served with a little extra.

2.    Opening time
Restaurant owners know all the rules. Never serve left over food from last night’s operation. But since most employees want to be efficient and effective, they re-cook some of last night’s food and serve them. This is the reason why ordering and eating when a restaurant opens is not a good idea. I am not saying this applies to all. Those are just my thoughts and I know somewhere some place, this is applicable.

3.    Closing time
They are also humans. If the restaurant’s closing time is 11pm, do not go in there at 10:55pm for God’s sake. They need rest to and they cannot drive away customers. Instead they will be forced to serve the late comers. I am pretty sure you know what happens if you are being forced to do what you do not want to do. Sometimes, things like the one I saw on a hidden camera show where the server touched his groin and smothered his hands all over the food happens. Talk about disgusting.

So, remember, dining at home is healthy and dining out is the least healthy food option. You do now know what unhealthy ingredients they use out there. Some ingredients may be out of this world and you wouldn’t want to know what alien stuffs they put in.  This is not applicable to all restaurants and fast food chains out there but, this has a possibility to take place.

Illusions are things or images that we see, but are processed differently by our brains that they become come out different. When we see these things, we can also say that our brain is playing tricks on us! Here are some well-known companies in the world who has the best logos with hidden symbols.

1. Amazon.com Logo
They sell almost everything from apparels, books, music, software, videos and more. Now, try and take a look at their logo. What do you notice? If you still can’t see anything, look again. See how the arrow points from A to Z? yes! They made their logo like that to let the people know, they have everything from A to Z.

2. FedEx Logo
“It’s just letters!” No, look harder. I bet you can see something else when you use your creative right side of the brain. If you still don’t get it, look at the letter E and X and find the arrow formed below them. Creative, isn’t it?

3. Toblerone Logo
You think that is the Swiss Alps? It might be. Toblerone originated in Bern, Switzerland - A city whose name is rumored to mean, “City of bears”. Now, look at the logo again and look for the bear in the logo. Incredibly surprising that we eat it but we never noticed it, right?

Simply explained, our eyes use tricks to take the image they see and make it into a 3 dimensional map of reality. But our eyes themselves can be tricked in the process.

This is a nice advertising of Berlitz language school.

Funny Images

In other words, none of our conceptions and perceptions are quite adequate, but fortunately most of them are satisfactory for practical purposes. Only a part of what is perceived comes through the senses from the object; the remainder always comes from within. In fact, it is the visual sense or the intellect which is responsible for optical illusions of the various types to be discussed in the following chapters. Our past experiences, associations, desires, demands, imaginings, and other more or less obscure influences create optical illusions.”
- Matthew Luckiesh

Bar Pub or Tavern. Whatever you call it, this is a heaven for people who socializes and heavy drinkers alike not to forget people who wants to doze off forgetting what has happened. We all have our own favorite bars and some offer more services than another. Floor shows, magic shows, sports shows or this one show that you can equate to going to a circus, Flair tending.

Flair tending is known as extreme bar tending. It is an act where you are entertained while the bar tender is mixing your drinks. This is also when your tip is larger than the price of the curious drink you ordered. Also, it is better when there is someone like a basketball/ Horse race announcer around announcing the flair tender moves. You will be amazed on what some of their moves are called. While watching one live made me find videos about it, I compiled here some of the best flair tending videos I found on the net.

Mike “Sushi” Doetzer is one of the most famous and original flair bartenders in Europe. He can also be considered as the best active flair tender in Germany.

Lovro Vukadin, one of the well-known Flair Tenders alive. (Or in Youtube, at least)

2nd international flair tending held in Switzerland

Who said only males excel in flair tending? This cutie performs her tricks in the spotlight and boy, is she good! Good moves and flexibility!

One TGI Fridays bartender with his awesome moves!

By the way, it’s now time to close your jaws.

With photography being the new ‘in’ thing nowadays, it is only natural that we see all these cameras being sold everywhere! I’ve noticed that even companies who don’t even specialize in photography or cameras have already started investing in it and started selling them in the market as well. With all the different camera brands in the market today who would claim to have more or less similar features, it has become difficult for some people to decide which camera to purchase. In this light, here are the top 5 point and shoot cameras to buy.

1. Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS
This has great image quality, minimal shutter lag and performs speedily with optical image stabilizer that delivers impressive image quality. The only bad thing with this one is this one has no manual exposure controls and slow flash recycle time.

2. Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS
This one has face detection, which automatically focuses on faces. The optical image stabilization is becoming a standard feature in Canon cameras now. This one though, has no optical view finder but still captures superb images with its 3.8x optical zoom. This is why it is among the top ranking in compact cameras.

3. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX36
The 25mm wide-angled lens quality photo it takes puts this in one of the top point and shoot cameras. Aside from its elegant design, this compact powerhouse is capable of delivering HD quality videos. The bad thing here is, focusing is a bit tad slow.

4. Fujifilm FinePix F100fd
The high ISO density of 12,800 with 5x optical zoom and 28mm wide angle lens is joined with a short shutter lag with intuitive face detection. These are notable features of the Fujifilm FinePix F100fd. The problem lies on its weight and awkward positioning of the lens because it can be easily covered by the fingers.

5. Sony Cyber-shot DSC- T70
This is one of the slimmest and thinnest point and shoot cameras available. Don’t look down on it because it has an excellent macro photo taking mode. The battery life is not long and the touch screen is not a plus because buttons are easily pressed accidentally. Even though there are a lot of issues in this model, Cybershot performs just fine is you do not demand a lot from your point and shoot camera.

Now, Go and take your winning creative shots!

Just as an additional FYI, these are the most famous brands when it comes to cameras.

Image from the Digital Photography School

Adults, not only play with toys but they also have activities that make them feel child at heart. Everyone wants to cherish their childish moments but circumstances do not allow so for some. But this one activity for sure, can be done by literally anyone, even if you are the CEO of the company, manager of a large corporation or someone who is looked up upon. That activity, is watching animations and cartoons. Here are top three 3d animations that can make you feel child at heart.

“Miiiiiine…!”
Kung Fu Panda
This is one of the movies that adults won’t be disappointed to watch. The 3d animation was superb and needless to say, the voice acting of Jack Black fits Po the panda bear. Not only the Panda did well but also, the other furious five! Aside from all the funny scenes where Po is mostly included, lessons have also been learned here. Po was obviously not capable of being the Kung Fu master but someone with authority, Oogway (Means turtle in the Mandarin language), told him that he is, thus, Po the Panda building confidence and I won’t spoil the story anymore. Just watch it.

*Pause*
Ratatouille
Not only for those who love underdogs and watch people, err.. rats cooking but for anyone who wants some of their funny bone tickled. This is an animation where love, courage, and hope are depicted clearly. Of course, fate joined them together thus creating a clownish clumsy combo which. Remy the rat discovered his passion for cooking and that made their combo successful.

Where is Nemo?
Finding Nemo
This tells the story of a young fish, which characterizes young kids, who wants to discover and is very curious about everything in the environment and ends up being caught by a human and stuck in an aquarium with weird companions. One of the first high quality 3d computer animations I saw and this sure attracted a lot of attention because of the CGI and humorous plot.

I don’t know about you girls out there but, isn’t learning something new everyday make our growth faster? When you stop learning, you grow old. Do not ever believe in the saying that old dogs can’t learn new tricks. It is the determination inside of you that will determine if you really can’t learn anymore. Willingness and determination can beat science.

I’ve subscribed to this online dictionary thing. it’s from dictionary.com. Everyday, that website sends out new vocabulary for the day. You can also opt to just visit their website to check out the word for the day. It appears like something like this.

cogent \KOH-juhnt\, adjective:

Having the power to compel conviction; appealing to the mind or to reason; convincing.

One woman, Adrian Pomerantz, was so intelligent that the professors always lit up when Adrian spoke; her eloquent, cogent analyses forced them not to be lazy, not to repeat themselves.
– Meg Wolitzer, Surrender, Dorothy

It has the word for the day, the meaning of it and some samples. try it. This will increase the dictionary in you!

“When you lose, don’t lose the lesson”. This is a very powerful phrase I got from the writings of the Dalai Lama. As a restaurant receptionist, I’m a front liner of the company and that phrase is what I always keep in mind. People come and go. You make good impressions that make people come back and you accidentally create bad ones and that drives customers away.

A follow up lesson from the Dalai Lama in connection with the first one is, “When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.” Your mistakes make or break you. A mistake should be taken as a lesson and not as a punishment.

Yesterday was a hard day for me. I accidentally entertained a guest that came in later and the earlier guest who was in line got mad. He said he’s never to come back again. I apologized a lot though but the milk was already spilled. Oh well. I’m taking it as my lesson for the day.

A friend of mine just got divorced after waiting for 2 gruelling years. And now she wants to get her groove back. But well it’s really not that easy to do. You’ve been out of the loop for sometime, you’re friends are most probably married still so you have no network to work with. Thank God for the internet!!!

Ok some of you may think, “Gross,” “Never,” “What are you thinking of?” Yes, but although these things seem so remote, love happens over the net and happiness can be found online.

I mean with the number of people doing blogs now, how far-fetched can an online romance be? So what do you do?

1. Put up your best picture. Impressions are important. I believe this is a no-brainer. I mean, if you out up your worst picture, no one would even give you the time of day, send you a wink or even try to e-mail you. Of course, the same way that in the real world women wear make-up, concealers and extensions, you can fix your picture up a bit. Photoshop it maybe (not too much though) or even upload a picture of you 5-10 years ago.

2. Be honest. Yes, this may seem like a contradictory statement but no. You can fix up your look but be honest about everything else. About you, your likes, dislikes and what have you. Remember, the whole point of this net thing is just to get exposed and to find someone. Eventually, you’ll meet up and it will be hard for you to keep a lie when you’re face-to-face. Besides which, once they do find out you lied, you’re OUT! Be honest. Yes, this may seem like a contradictory statement but no. You can fix up your look but be honest about everything else. About you, your likes, dislikes and what have you. Remember, the whole point of this net thing is just to get exposed and to find someone. Eventually, you’ll meet up and it will be hard for you to keep a lie when you’re face-to-face. Besides which, once they do find out you lied, you’re OUT!

3. Do not judge. There is no doubt in my mind that there are a thousand and one weirdoes and perverts out there in online dating sites. But try not to judge until you’ve eyeballed.

4. Submit your profile in about 5 or more sites. The concept is the same as going out. How can you meet someone if you don’t go out to the right places? In the virtual world, the places to be are the dating sites and the more your presence is felt in this society the better it is for you.

Now remember we were talking about getting your groove back? Well this is the best way to start. I can assure you as the winks and e-mail come in you’ll be more confident, more sure of yourself again and get your groove back. Sometimes the only thing that’s needed to get your groove is the knowledge that you’re still attractive and I bet you are. You wouldn’t have been married anyway if you weren’t.