cyloninthesky

Life Hacks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:21:00 +0700

The Transparent House In Japan (16 Pics)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 May 2012 22:07:00 +0700

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has come up with a unique design for a house in Tokyo, Japan. Made up almost completely of transparent glass, the house is made up of 21 ‘platforms’, each of which can serve as a working, resting, sleeping or living space. Based around the concept of a ‘tree’, each platform is linked to each other by movable or fixed stairs and ladders, making it seem like an enormous loft.

“The intriguing point of a tree is that these places are not hermetically isolated but are connected to one another in its unique relativity. To hear one’s voice from across and above, hopping over to another branch, a discussion taking place across branches by members from separate branches. These are some of the moments of richness encountered through such spatially dense living,” says Sou Fujimoto.

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19 Hilarious GIFs Of Animals Being Total Jerks

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 May 2012 00:36:00 +0700

Children’s Drawings Made Into Toys

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 12 May 2012 15:07:00 +0700

How recruiters look at your resume

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:44:00 +0700

How recruiters look at your resume:

In a study by TheLadders (of n equals 30), recruiters looked at resumes and make some judgments. During evaluations, eye tracking software was employed, and they found that the recruiters spent about six seconds on a resume looking for six main things: name, current company and title, previous company and title, previous position start and end dates, current position start and end dates, and education. After that, it was a crapshoot.

Beyond these six data points, recruiters did little more than scan for keywords to match the open position, which amounted to a very cursory "pattern matching" activity. Because decisions were based mostly on the six pieces of data listed above, an individual resume’s detail and explanatory copy became filler and had little to no impact on the initial decision making. In fact, the study’s eye tracking technology shows that recruiters spent about 6 seconds on their initial "fit/no fit" decision.

If I ever have to submit a resume, I'm just going to put those six things as bullets and then the rest will all be keywords in small, light print. It'll be like job search SEO.
Update: I've been told that TheLadder's reputation might be less than savory, and a quick search shows some in agreement, so it might be wise to sidestep the service. Instead, go with my awesome six-bullet advice and you're gold.
[via @alexlundry]

Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to get you Started with Photographing Children

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:43:00 +0700

Posing Guide: 21 Sample Poses to get you Started with Photographing Children:
A Guest Post by Kaspars Grinvalds from Posing App.
After our previous articles on posing female subjects and posing men, let’s look at some starting points with photographing children. Little ones are definitely fun and very positive subjects to photograph! Getting those real and authentic emotions and showing through your pictures the joy of a childhood is a very warm and sincere feeling.
However dealing with kids sometimes can be quite challenging. You have to be ready that they often have their own thoughts on their mind and you need to be very patient and adapt to their natural behavior. Don’t assume that they will listen carefully and follow your instructions exactly. That’s why you most probably won’t be able to use these samples as posing cheat sheet. Use them rather as a reference for ideas and different scenarios for you photo shoot.
1. When photographing children, remember to shoot from their eye level! Concerning poses, though, let them be “as they are” and try to capture their natural expressions, emotions and behavior.

2. A sweet pose for kids. Get your subject to lie down on the ground and shoot from a very low angle.

3. Just another variant if your subject is lying on the ground.

4. Very sweet pose for photographing babies. Place the baby in a bed and cover it with a blanket. For best results, make sure that the colors of all the bedclothes go well together. White works well.

5. To make kids more relaxed, try to get them hug or play with their favorite teddy bear or any other toy of their choice.

6. Try taking pictures of kids in their everyday environment, for example, playing their favorite games, doing homework or as in this example, painting with watercolors. Keeping them busy in a familiar setting is a good way to get them to cooperate and to make those special poses you want.

7. It really is a good idea to set everything up so that the kid is busy with his own “things” and not even noticing your actions. Looking at a favorite picture book is just one example of how to keep them “posing” for you.

8. Be attentive and don’t miss the kids heavy laughing or loud shouting. Such situations always produce very emotional and thus rewarding shots! But, please, no staged cheese smiles! Avoid fake emotions at all costs.

9. Use some delicious food items as props. You might be able to capture very interesting moments photographing children eating some sweets, ice-cream, fruits etc.

10. Soap bubbles are simply a must-have accessory for children photography. First of all, children just love them and are really happy to blow some bubbles. Secondly, you can work creatively and find an accurate lighting settings to get beautifully illuminated bubbles as an outstanding visual hook in your photos.

11. When photographing outdoors, you can involve your subject in a hiding (actually reappearing) game. Get her to hide behind some object – a big tree for instance – and ask her to peek out of the hide-out. This is a nice moment to take a picture.

12. Playing in the sand is a very nice setting for photographing children. They can play and keep themselves busy while you just observe and take your shots while not disturbing them even one bit.

13. Try some action shots. Give your subjects a ball to play with. Then aim for an interesting perspective: Shoot from ground level while introducing the ball as a dominant foreground object.

14. When shooting children and family photos, never forget that pets are also family members. Involve them into your shots and you will notice how much joy and emotions that will create.

15. Children’s playground is a very good place for some outdoor shots, it provides endless variations for action shots.

16. If a boy or a girl is into some sports (basketball, football, tennis etc.) you can take a very special portrait of him or her with the corresponding props.

17. A very nice mother and baby pose. Mother laying on the ground with a kid on the chest. Alternatively, if the kid is still a toddler, she could hold him or her in both hands above her. And just a remark on this one and the following samples with a mother – in all of these samples the parent might as well be a father, a gender used here is only for an illustration purposes. And, of course, do involve both parents in a photo shoot, in any sample here one or both parents are more than welcome to “join into” the composition.

18. Very simple and natural pose: Mother holding her kid on the hip. Try different head positions.

19. A really touching pose. Just ask the child to hug its mother. Capture their natural emotions for a priceless photo.

20. An engaging, fun and easy pose, which is nevertheless rather uncommon and original. Ask the mother to lie down on the ground, then make the kid to sit on and hold on to the mother’s back.

21. This setting is absolutely beautiful for family portraits. Might be arranged indoors in a bed as well outdoors on the ground. Works very well in different combinations and with different numbers of subjects, adults or kids.

And on a final note, first and foremost thing to keep in mind – kids move around very fast! It’s not only the physical movement in space, but also the head, eye direction and face expressions – everything changes constantly and instantly! That means you have to choose fast enough shutter speeds in order to avoid motion blurred images. Consider forcing one or two ISO stops above “normal” to gain faster shutter speeds. And always shoot in continuous shooting mode, taking several frames in a row. The blink of an eye just takes the blink of an eye. Secure the moments before and after, too. In the age of digital cameras this costs nothing, but it can be critical for securing the best shots.

Sand Paintings by Andres Amador

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:41:00 +0700

Just some days after we posted an article about Snow Drawings by Sonja Hinrichsen, it’s time to return with another beautiful set patterns and drawings made on sand from the San Francisco based landscape and movement artist Andres Amador. Pretty much like the snow patterns, this geometric and organic shapes only lasts some moments before they are slowly engulfed by the encroaching tide. “My dream is to do my artwork in locations around the world and to bring more people into the creative act with me.” Give it a look at Andre’s website for more of his beautiful work.

Awesome Miniature Food Art

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:08:00 +0700

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10 Lessons From Einstein

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:08:00 +0700

10 Lessons From Einstein:

1. Follow Your Curiosity “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
2. Perseverance is Priceless “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
3. Focus on the Present “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
4. The Imagination is Powerful “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
5. Make Mistakes “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
6. Live in the Moment “I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”
7. Create Value “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
8. Don’t be repetitive “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”
10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
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Graffiti Stencil Art by Street Artist C215

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:10:00 +0700

C215, Christian Guémy, is a French street artist hailing from Paris who has been described as “France’s answer to Banksy“. As you will notice below, C215 primarily uses stencils to produce his art. His work consists mainly of close up portraits of people such as beggars, homeless people, refugees, street kids and the elderly. The rationale behind this choice of subject is to draw attention to those that society has forgotten about.

See the rest here!

Superheroes’ Cities and Pop Culture Cars

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:19:00 +0700

If you love the look of retro posters, check out these by Justin Van Genderen. The Chicago-based illustrator has created a set he calls Comic Travel Locations that show places like Gotham and Metropolis in stunning style.

More artworks here

More artworks here

More artworks here

Just A Random Collection Of Awesome Things

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:09:00 +0700

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Magnificent Geometric Snow Art by Simon Beck

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:11:00 +0700

Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Using snow as his playground he wears raquettes (snowshoes) and creates awesome artworks. If you jaw has not dropped yet, just think of it this way. He literally works 5-9 hours a day walking in order to create his pieces. Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days mapping out the ideas.

Each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields, if not more. His main focus is on mathematical geometric forms which usually create a stunning 3D like effect when viewed from high altitudes. As you might have guessed, the survival of his work solely depends on the weather. Beck tries to redesigns the patterns as new snow falls. Sometime luck does not go his way and he is often unable to finish a piece. But that doesn’t get him down, the main reason of his art is exercise:

The main reason for making them was because I can no longer run properly due to problems with my feet, so plodding about on level snow is the least painful way of getting exercise. Gradually, the reason has become photographing them, and I am considering buying a better camera. - Simon Beck

Apart from creating snow art, some of Back’s personal interests are orienteering, bell ringing, walking, skiing, mountain biking, running, and surveying. We really think Simon’s work is inspirational and unique. We would love yo hear your opinion, so please don’t forget to comment below!

We hope you enjoyed this collection as much as we did!

Infographics for Web Designers: Information You Ought to Know

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:18:00 +0700

Infographic is a great way to turn the most boring data into the most comforting graphic, which is much easier for reader to digest. As web designers have to deal with pixels and code almost everyday, it would be overwhelming to look at more data and references which are filled with hypnotic words and numbers.

We understand how your eyes feel when they are suffering from sleep induction, and this leads us to compile 43 informative infographics that are relevant to web designers. While some of them are data like current state of the internet or social media, others contain useful knowledge which can also be used as a great reference sheet. So come take a glimpse, enjoy them and grab them! Digesting data and knowledge has never been so fun with infographics!

Hongkiat Exclusive

Freelance to Freedom

An epic infographic that applies well to both web designer and graphic designer. Really scared me as it plotted down all my freelancing experience, and I hope you reached the last stage.

Colors

Color is deadly essential to a website as it not only defines the focus of a web page but evokes the emotion of the site, and in most cases it even represents the branding of a company’s website. Here we collected 6 infographics for you to know about color theory, how color affect purchases, colors of the top web brands, etc.

Color Theory

Basic color theories summed up in 1 infographic, which can be a handy reference sheet.

How Do Colors Affect Purchases?

Color is crucial factor to generate a good amount of sales, and this infographic shows you why.

Color Of The Year 2010

Beautifully designed infographic that presents the favorite color for year 2010, picked by 1000 people from 137 countries.

Colors Of The Top 100 Web Brands

A detailed infographic that reveals powerful colors of the web which are colors implemented by major internet companies in their branding.

Colors Of The Social World (Wide Web)

Based on the data provided by Themeleon, this infographic shows the color preference of Twitter users when it comes to their profile design.

Colours in Cultures

Color usage for 84 subjects from different cultures such as American, Chinese or Japanese, plotted in one comprehensive infographic.

Decision Making

A decision can decide whether you work for client for free and suffer like hell, or not. Being able to make correct decision is vital to a web designer’s success and infographics below can help you carve out the path of the success.

Do You Need A New Logo?

Do you need a new logo? This infographic can help you get the answer.

How Would You Like Your Graphic Design

Extremely truthful infographic to show your client what their design would be with their (mostly impossible) needs.

Should I Work For Free

A perfect guide for designer and freelancer to decide which project you should work for free, just follow it and you are free from trouble.

So You Need A Typeface

Here’s a helpful guide for you to choose a suitable typeface for your current project.

General Survey

General survey is a collection of useful infographics that either entertain or assist you in certain decision. You can either check out the difference between web designer and web developer to determine which species you belong to or perhaps consider to raise your charge by hour based on the data from the survey, ‘All You Need To Know About Web Designers’.

State Of The Internet: Summing Up 2010

Well designed infographic revealing the current state of the gigantic internet.

All You Need To Know About Web Designers

Distribution of age, gender, education, charge per hour rate or probably all you need to know about web designers.

Web Designers Vs. Web Developers

An interesting infographic that puts web designer and web developer into comparison, with a sense of humor.

Search Engine Optimization

The content is indeed the key component to top search engine indexing, yet Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the catalyst that speeds up your success. Infographics collected below will show you what SEO is, and how to do it effectively.

A Visual Guide To SEO

A great reference for those who just started to dive more into SEO.

Understanding Google PageRank

Google PageRank is an ever-changing algorithm, yet we can find some of its traits from this infographic.

The Essential Do It Yourself Guide To Successful Linkbait

As most results of linkbaiting are often less satisfying, this infographic teaches some essential steps to achieve effective linkbait.

Article Optimization

Instructional infographic with step by step guide on optimizing an article for search engine indexing.

Typography

Same with the color, typography is one of the most important aspect to web design, especially for this year as it is predicted by most famous web designers to have a big influence to web design. ‘Periodic Table of Typefaces’ and ‘Most Common Fonts by Operating System’ act as helpful references for your typograhy related studies and works.

Periodic Table of Typefaces

Carefully designed with the same categorizing concept of traditional periodic table, this masterpiece lists out 100 of the most popular and influential typefaces nowadays.

Most Common Fonts By Operating System

A pretty long list showing most popular fonts by operating system which is a good reference for setting fallback fonts for your website or projects.

User Experience

Although User Experience cannot be considered as ‘design’, it plays a vital role on smoothing your site visitor’s experience thus avoiding them slipping away. ‘Good Information Design’ and ‘Fastest Ways To Lose Customers’ are insightful infographics that explore this field.

Good Information Design

As there are lots of different views for good information design, this infographic explores the key components to form a good information design.

Fastest Ways To Lose Customers

Probably everything you need to know to avoid losing potential customers.

Web Technology

Web technology has evolved a lot since last year with the introduction of HTML 5, H.264 video format, WordPress 3 and plenty more web browser updates. Since it would be overwhelming to know them all by documentations with full of terms and words, infographics below can help you to understand these technologies in a more visual and comfortable way.

HTML 5

Detailed introduction about HTML5, with a few comparison to Flash.

Semantic Web

Semantic is a term that often confuse web designer, this infographic explains the concept of the semantic web effectively with comparison method.

The Anatomy Of A Perfect Landing Page

A must-see infographic for web designers to build an effective landing web page that actually attracts users.

Performance Comparison Of Web Browsers

As different web browser has different capabilities, this infographic acts as a good reference on showing the difference of capabilities for major browsers, which are also rarely mentioned in common web articles.

Apple, Flash and H.264

A full introduction about the famous issue, Apple drops Flash and embraces H.264 video format.

How Cookies Work On The Web

Still can’t understand how cookies work? Here’s an infogprahic with relaxing images to tell you what web cookies are, and how they work.

[Freebie] “BiZ” Business Website PSD Templates

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:14:00 +0700

This exclusive freebie is a pack of 5-page business website templates in Photoshop format. The design uses a clean, slick and professional look throughout the templates especially designed for website selling products/services. The design is also ideal for your business or corporate needs.

The design comes in 5 templates: Home Page, About Us page, Services page, Portfolio page, Image Pop-up page and Contact page. All the pages are fully-layered PSD files, and are neatly organized in folders for easy identification and necessary editing of logo, text and graphics.

Since the templates are all ready for slicing, you can get them coded with appropriate modifications to fit your business needs.

These business website PSD templates are created by GraphicsFuel and released exclusively for Hongkiat readers, so you can use them for your personal or commercial purposes. Redistribution without permission is prohibited.

Preview of “BiZ”

Let’s take a look at what’re included:

Home Page:

About Us Page:

Services Page:

Portfolio Page:

Image Pop-up Page:

Contact Page:

Download

All 5 Photoshop PSD files are included in the following single zip file.

Download “BiZ” Business Website PSD templates (45.3Mb)

6 Simple & Effective Ways to Speed Up Your Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:13:00 +0700

We are all impressed with the smooth running of the Apple Mac OS X as we compare with the contemporary Windows OS like Vista or Windows 7. However, there are times when your Mac might be slowing down as you put in more stuffs in your hard drive and work the system hard. That is perhaps a good time to evaluate where the bottleneck could be and clear it.

In this post I’ll be sharing tips I found useful in speeding up the Mac. While most of the tips do not cost you extra bucks, they also help you to clean up your Mac to not only make it run fast like cheetah, but also keep it as powerful as lion. So spend some time to get really well with these tips, then you’ll be smiling happily as you run your Mac smoothly!

If you are not only looking to optimize your Mac but also seeking to optimize your workflow in Mac, below we’ve got posts with 200 useful applications introduced to you!

Mac: 100 Free Useful Applications (Part I)

Mac: 100 More Useful Applications (Part II)

And you can discover more about Mac in Hongkiat!

1. Clearing Your Desktop

Your desktop plays a part in how long it takes for you to boot the system because it’s the first screen that it has to load up. As much as possible, try to keep it simple by minimizing the number of icons from the dock and clearing up the amount of files you can see. You can either delete them or put them into folders so that the operating system doesn’t have to waste additional resources to load them upon starting your computer.

Doing this will take the toil away from your memory, especially if you’re using an older Mac system. This will not only ensure that your boot time will be shortened, but also improve the performance of your Mac in general.

2. Managing Startup Items

When you install some applications, they automatically configured your startup setting such that these applications would be loaded up when you boot up your Mac. Depending on your usage, such a setting can either make it convenient for you (if the first thing you want to do when you boot up is to use that application), or slow down the booting time with no additional convenience for yourself.

Leaving such applications can also draw some valuable resources away from your Mac such that it slows down the system. As much as possible, try to remove those which you rarely use. For Mac OS X Lion’s user, all you need to do is go to System Preferences > System > Users & Groups > Login Items, and uncheck the application(s) you want off from the startup.

3. Cleaning Up the Hard Drive

Mac operating system actually utilizes whatever free space you have on your hard drive as ‘virtual memory’, which plays a significant role in the performance. In other words, the more data you have in your hard drive, the lesser the amount of memory you would have for the smooth running of your applications. The obvious solution to a slow-running Mac operating system is to free up hard drive space to make room for the ‘virtual memory’.

I’m sure you know where to begin when you’re cleaning up your hard drive, such as emptying your Trash, removing rarely used applications, etc. Alternatively, you can also remove languages that you don’t use through programs like Monolingual. This would save at least several hundred megabytes of disk space. It may not be much, but why waste resources?

4. Monitor Your Activity Monitor

Sometimes you wouldn’t know what’s taxing your memory and slowing down the system in the process. This is where the Apple’s Activity Monitor comes in handy. You get to see the CPU usage, Random Access Memory (RAM) and virtual memory usage from the monitor, which the info will help greatly in optimizing your Mac!

When you notice that there’s a spike when you use certain applications, you can infer that these are the ones which are draining away your memory and making your system sluggish. That way, you can either choose to minimize your usage on these applications or make room in your memory like closing down other applications when you’re going to use them.

On top of that, the monitor lists down in details all the applications which are currently in use. You can see how much each application is eating up your CPU, real & virtual memory. You may choose to quit those that are consuming an awful lot of your system’s resources to speed things up.

If you need more explanations on the Activity Monitor, do check out this comprehensive guide.

5. Embrace Cleaning Utility Tools

Perhaps the most straightforward way to optimize your system’s performance is to run multifunction utility tool like OnyX. What it basically does is that it conducts system maintenance and cleaning functions to smoothen the running of your system. Temporary files stored as caches are cleared so that they don’t ‘jam’ up the performance of your system.

If your goal is to sustain a top-notch performing Mac, then such utility tools can be programmed to run as scheduled routines. This way, unnecessary files and browser history or any other cache files are regularly removed from your system so that it will run at its best most of the time. In fact, it is highly recommended that all Mac users do such consistent maintenance.

If OnyX doesn’t seem to cater to your maintenance needs, you can also try out others like CleanMyMac and MacKeeper.

6. Getting Hardware Upgrade

Worse comes to worse, if the above tips didn’t significantly improve your Mac’s performance to your liking, you can always consider purchasing hardware that would more or less guarantee a speed boost. This would, however, require you to throw money to resolve the issue, as compared to the previous tips which are all free.

Upgrading your RAM is probably the simplest way to ensure a faster computer. As compared to upgrading your processor, it is also much cheaper. If you only have one piece of RAM attached in your Mac, consider getting another one.

At the very least, your Mac should have a 2 GB RAM minimum, and 4 GB RAM is recommended for web designer who run premium graphic editor like Adobe Photoshop which eats up a lot of memory and hard drive space. If you are using 2GB/4GB ram and still finds it running slow, consider getting an additional 2 GB RAM that would logically speed up the performance by 50%. Of course, this depends on how much memory your Mac can support, so ask the professionals before you proceed.

Another alternative is to get a faster hard drive or use a Solid State Drive (SSD), but they don’t come cheap. One way is to get the SSD to run only your operating system and other applications, while leaving the other data on your old hard disk. Here is a good site on how to set up a SSD drive.

That’s all from us! What’s your personal secret to speeding up your Mac?

Futuristic 3D Glass Portraits of Celebrities

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:11:00 +0700

Combining modern technology with more traditional art techniques is an interesting symbiosis that can produce magnificent results. A Miami-based Indian-American artist, NFN Kalyan, took his hand drawn artwork and used a laser etching device commonly employed to make holograms; the result was spectacular 3D sculptures that wow everyone who views them.

If you’ve seen The Cell (Jennifer Lopez’s ambitious acting attempt), you must remember the scene with the horse getting sliced into pieces. The method used for these sculptures is pretty similar. There are several drawings that have no meaning on their own. They need to be combined with the others present layers of a complex structure. With the right lighting, over 20 glass panels with drawings engraved on them using the laser become one picture, creating a realistic human face.

Kalyan’s choice of models is quite colorful, from famous NBA player Lebron James, to the Dalai Lama, to Barack Obama. The exhibition, entitled “Nature of the Beast,” portrays people that Kalyan finds interesting in some way.

While choosing the first African-American president of the United States or the Nobel Peace Prize winner seems quite obvious, some celebrities like Lebron James have intrigued the artist in a different way. The realistic effect of these portraits is truly astounding. When you’re in the same room with them, you almost feel like you’re standing face to face with a real person. If you love cool portraits, check out these colorful mosaic portraits created from old junkmail.

Encouraging Words for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:10:00 +0700

Back in the summer of 2009, Portland, Oregon-based designer and creative director Ian Coyle decided that he would print a daily thought for 73 days straight. Using his 1950′s letterpress, he printed and inked by hand these messages that seem to take on new meaning as we begin this new year.

See more at My Modern Met.

10 Quick iPhone Photography Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:08:00 +0700

Before I got my iPhone I had a Nokia phone with a pretty good camera on it… apparently… but I never really used it much because it had such a long lag on it from clicking the shutter to the picture making it to the phone that it irritated the willies out of me… talk about a way to make you not inspired to shoot with a phone!

Since I moved into the world of Apple though, a whole new world of photography opened up to me… my photos in the beginning with it were pretty dire… now I am right in the swing of it and loving the results.

First of all the best thing about phone photos over fancy DSLR shots is quite purely and simply, ease, accessibility and weight. In my world with 3 kiddos and generally being busy a lot of the time, I don’t have time, although I must say I certainly have the inclination, to get out my big camera, start fiddling around with what lens to use, start playing around with the settings, yadda, yadda, yadda… it’s heavy and bulky and means that I have to have an ugly camera bag with me.

Phone cameras change all that – and having that little baby in my pocket has taken me on another journey with photography, one I certainly did not see coming or expect and one I am enjoying immensely.

Phone photography for me means freedom and capturing moments with my family and things about Australia that I am inspired by that otherwise I would miss.

It was tricky at first to get a good shot though.

Here’s what I have learnt over the last few months:

The Beach Cottage Top 10 Tips to Phone Photos

1. Hold the phone like you would a camera

When I first got my iPhone and discovered the camera I was holding it with just one hand and almost gliding it around… now I hold the ‘camera’ in two hands and with my right hand I ‘click’ the shutter as you would a regular camera…

I also imagine my camera screen as the viewfinder on my big camera – when I first started iPhoneology I was holding the phone out in front of me at a ridiculous angle and doing some strange straight-armed, head back movement, robot style. Now I hold the phone in front of me with both hands and ‘look’ through the screen to what I am taking a photo of as I would with the other camera rather than kinda looking past the phone… I hope that makes sense?

2. Don’t zoom in with the zoom on the camera, zoom in with your feet

If you want to take something close up actually walk up to it, get close and click. Mmy iPhone loses heaps of quality even with a tiny bit of zooming and it becomes really grainy and pizelated. So I never move the zoom in. Moving from a telephoto lens on a Canon 50D to no zoom on a phone is a big difference and has been great for teaching me about light and my composition comfort zone has been seriously jolted… ahem, still learning here!

3. Shoot the same thing a few times

The great thing about digital photography is it allows for a lot of attempts and a lot of mistakes. Add to that benefit, the speed and ease of a camera phone and you have the opportunity to take a few shots so one of them will be good. You can just take multiple shots of the same thing and one of them will be vastly better than the others.

I love shooting at the beach with my phone, as you might have gathered and I will sit, with a coffee or on a walk and take a bundle of shots, upload ‘em when I get home and poof delete them right off. Too easy!

But don’t delete those shots you think are no good when you are out and about because often when you get home the things you think looked rubbish on your phone screen actually turn into interesting things on your computer monitor. The first time I got sun flare on my iPhone I was on the ferry to the city and shooting like mad with my iPhone. Checking the images I was a bit disappointed on the quality – they looked really over-exposed, too bright and patchy. When I got them uploaded to the computer later I realised that the elusive fingers of God were all over my pictures.

4. Light

Light with camera phones is important – the lower the light the more grainy and bad quality it becomes – unless you are taking photos of the sun and the sea keep the light behind you and your subject well lit.

But don’t lose those dark and night time opportunities. Shoot with your phone at night and dusk and see what it produces. I am doing this all the time lately and learning a lot along the way. I love shooting the sky at night – results have been a real mixed bag but are inspiring me to get out there with my real camera and have a go like a big girl.

5. Check out the resolution and picture quality settings – and set them on high

6. Keep the camera as still as you can because the jitters will make your picture blurred. To keep it still look for something to lean your arm/hand/camera on – this makes a big difference to camera jitters and my phone photos. Keep your hand there for a second after you ‘click’ too just to make sure, in case your phone has a big shutter lag.

7. Move around and get in different positions

The thing I love about my phone is that it is small and easy and you can get get down low and dirty with it or you can point it up and high really easily. Tou can move right on in to a shell or a flower and you can get it into awkward places and positions that a regular camera it would be more tricky with. So move it in bundles of different angles to see what you get – it doesn’t cost a penny.

Also move the angle of the phone as you take the pictur – I have experimented with this a lot with the horizon and the sea… haven’t posted any of the images yet ‘cos it actually looks like I was drunk when I took the photos, ahem maybe there was the odd Limoncello involved in some of them actually… but the shots are really interesting in my own personal photo-taking journey.

8. Clean the lens… duh!

I didn’t do this for ages and I don’t do it enough now still. My phone is in my bag, in my pocket, floating about in the car and ultimately has grubby little kiddo fingers all over tit so cleaning it makes a difference to the resulting shot.

9. Process!

All of my phone pictures are processed. I think that is the beauty of phonology, you have the ability to whip that baby out and capture something amazing you see, even though the quality and look might not be what you wanted. Then wham bam thank you mam, technology and a lil bit of foofing gives you a pretty nice shot…

I usually use Windows Live to tweak the contrast, light and saturation etc. It’s normally the light that makes the big difference in shots. I turn the highlights and brightness and often exposure right up. A real photographer would probably shudder at my processing, but the look I like, and hey that’s who I’m doing this for, is overly bright photos.

I also nearly always turn the temperature down. I like my photos on the err of blue and you would never have guessed but I like ‘em pretty white too. You can also do this with an app if you have an iPhone. Qhen I first got mine I went on a serious iPhone frenzy and got a lot of phone camera apps but really none have them have honestly floated my boat that much. Nowadays I just take the photo with the regular phone camera and do the foofing later.

There are a few apps for processing too but I find it fiddly and too small to try and see what’s going on on the small screen of my phone, I much prefer getting them uploaded and doing it on the big screen.

10. Clutter

Don’t have too much going on in your photo. One of the reasons, in my humble little opinion, some of my phone photos are still fairly good even though they are pretty grainy and not even in the same league in sharpness and quality as my DSLR camera shots is that there is not too much going on in the photos. This allows you to get away with a lot.

Keeping one main subject and a scene where you want all/most of it in focus are best. As you can see in the photo above, the quality is average to poor and pretty grainy (when viewed at full size) but hey I LOVE the pink sunflare, I love the clouds, I love the sea and baby I captured it… bingo… and that’s what photography is all about for me!

That’s how I take photos with my iPhone, hope these ten tips for phone photography might help you too… main thing though… just shoot ‘em up baby!

Sarah is a busy mum blogging from the beaches of Sydney about her sea-change from the grey skies of London to Australia, she logs the renovation of an old cottage and life by the sea, since picking up an old Powershot that had seen better days when she first started her blog, she began on an unexpected journey with, and new found love for, photography…slowly moving up the camera ranks, she replaced the Powershot with a Canon G10 and soon moved onto a Canon 50d…and nowadays also uses her iPhone when she’s down the beach to capture it all….

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

30 Free Photoshop Actions Which Never Fails To Amaze

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:04:00 +0700

Photoshop actions can speed up the workflow for designers, artists and photographers by containing commonly desired effects in a prepacked file.

Check the full collection of Free Photoshop Actions here: creativefan.com/free-photoshop-actions/

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 21:15:00 +0700

Apple Inc.‘s Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is shown in this combination of file photographs dating (top row L to R) 2000, 2003, 2005,(bottom row L to R) 2006, 2008 and 2009. Jobs has resigned his position as CEO of Apple,and recommended that COO Tim Cook replace him, the company announced August 24. (Reuters)

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs (L) stands beneath a photograph of him and Apple-co founder Steve Wozniak from the early days of Apple during the launch of Apple’s new «iPad» tablet computing device in San Francisco, California, in this January 27, 2010 file photograph. Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple, the company announced August 24. Tim Cook, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, who has been standing in for Jobs during his medical leave, has been named the new CEO, with Jobs becoming Chairman. (Kimberly White / Reuters)

American businessman and engineer Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer Inc, at the first West Coast Computer Faire, where the Apple II computer was debuted, in Brooks Hall, San Francisco, California, April 16th or 17th, 1977. (Tom Munnecke / Getty Images)

The Idol-makers of Kumartoli, India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:55:00 +0700

An artisan works on semi-finished clay statues of Hindu deities in Kumartoli, the idol-makers’ village of Kolkata, India, on August 22. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

An artisan at work in Kumartoli. Ongoing monsoon rain has made it difficult for the artisans to finish their idols on schedule, with the recent economic slowdown and high inflation adding to the difficulties of the idol-makers ahead of the festive season. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

Artisans work on clay statues of the Hindu goddess Durga. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

An artisan works on a statue of the Hindu goddess Durga. (Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP — Getty Images)

The Incredible Digital Paintings of Serge Birault

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:36:00 +0700

Amazing Cathedral Of Salt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 09:36:00 +0700

New Advent links to a story about an underground cathedral built entirely of salt by devout Polish salt miners. Simply astounding!!

It may feel like you are in the middle of a Jules Verne adventure as you descend in to the depths of the world. After a one hundred and fifty meter climb down wooden stairs the visitor to the salt mine will see some amazing sites. About the most astounding in terms of its sheer size and audacity is the Chapel of Saint Kinga. The Polish people have for many centuries been devout Catholics and this was more than just a long term hobby to relieve the boredom of being underground. This was an act of worship.

Amazingly, even the chandeliers are made of salt. An act of worship indeed.

How Different Age Groups Are Interacting Online

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 2 Aug 2011 18:26:00 +0700

via news.community102.com