Wanted to try out some high speed tests using a sound trigger to pop the strobes and these are the test files. Last one is a screen grab from 100% which shows that there is no blur at all going on in those drops. I was really wailing on the cymbal as well. Fun stuff.
Wanted to get some practice in today since it's slow. Used a Beauty dish and one back strobe on the white table. The full shot of the knife looks better, but does not work as well conceptually. So I get to show off my lighting less, oh well. The text is just a general rule of thumb.
Been messing around with Painter some more and worked up something from the Yee Rustic that I took back in 2001.
Just finally got around to updating the mainDanklife Artisan Retouching portfolio site. Added ten projects there from the past year that I thought were fun to show the work. Enjoy.
Hookipa beach from the lookout point right above it. Amazing view and a beautiful day. Pano shot on a 5d.
Just got back from a life nourishing vacation and here is one of my iPhone snaps from the trip. The camera on that sure is a lot of fun now a days. Hawaii if a pretty amazing place. More pics to come soon.
Winter rolls on here at pixelrust and slowly I am getting out of my winter funk / work busy period. Starting to feel the creative itch again. Set up a new bay for table top shooting so I no longer have to break it down to shoot green screen work related stuff. That means I have an area I can leave up and tinker with without work getting in the way. Excited about that. One of the things I always wanted was a table top zone I could just build things in. Here is something from almost 20 years ago I dug up while upgrading to Lightroom 3.
So fun stuff like this is in order I think. Don't have as much crap laying around as I did back then though... lol!
Wikileaks gets suspended and Anon takes up the ball as a free speech issue. Visa and Mastercard taken down and Pay Pal releases all funds. Facebook and Twitter delete Anon's accounts. Get some popcorn.
Had some lovely fog here the other morning and I took a few of these which I thought worked really well together.
Been very busy as of late with work so being able to escape and get some shooting done this past weekend was very relaxing. I am exploring what it is like to shoot the same place time and time again. I believe that the only way to get to know an area, to truly photograph it, you have to spend a lot of time there so you can see it throughout the seasons and how it changes. On this hike there were 3-4 seasonal falls that were not there just 3 weeks before. I find that amazing myself. Speaking of, I have another series from here I shot in October which I am working on the editing now. Since this is later in the year I want to keep the groups separate. This one has a lot more fall colors in it and I think it is a bit stronger. The other one has more macro work in it though which is interesting to explore.
Click the thumbnails to make them bigger.
Enjoy.
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The Tax Haven That's Saving Google Billions - BusinessWeek
The heart of Google's (GOOG) international operations is a silvery glass office building in central Dublin, a block from the city's Grand Canal. In 2009 the office, which houses roughly 2,000 Google employees, was credited with 88 percent of the search juggernaut's $12.5 billion in sales outside the U.S. Most of the profits, however, went to the tax haven of Bermuda.To reduce its overseas tax bill, Google uses a complicated legal structure that has saved it $3.1 billion since 2007 and boosted last year's overall earnings by 26 percent. While many multinationals use similar structures, Google has managed to lower its overseas tax rate more than its peers in the technology sector. Its rate since 2007 has been 2.4 percent.
When shooting landscapes what I enjoy is that to do it right you have to frame up your shot then breath for about 15 seconds to take it in. See what else will show itself to you in the frame. Maybe it will change a bit and be better and maybe not. But it's a great time to stand still for 15 seconds and just take it all in none the less.
Punk Pioneer Steve Albini on Music Festivals, The Future of Radio and Why He Wants GQ To Fail
The parallels between that and the Internet are quite obvious. Everyone said that radio would kill live music and kill the existing music industry because people wouldn't leave their houses because radio would bring the ballroom to them. It had exactly the opposite effect—it made people much more interested in music. The same thing happened with the Internet—people said access to music on the Internet was going to kill the music industry. What it killed was the record industry. The music industry—bands, concerts, things like that are doing great. The live concert experience is a valuable thing now.
Vital Signs - A Good Massage Brings Biological Changes, Too - NYTimes.com
Does a good massage do more than just relax your muscles?Volunteers who received Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can lead to increases in cortisol. They also had increases in the number of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system.
Volunteers who had the light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin, a hormone associated with contentment, than the Swedish massage group, and bigger decreases in adrenal corticotropin hormone, which stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol.
Which reminds me....
