Demb Flash Diffuser Pro Vs Lightsphere Cloud

I am a big fan of Gary Fong's lightsphere product, but I am searching for an alternative diffuser with better versatile that works in different situations (ceiling or no ceiling) and use less power.

I heard a lot of good things about Demb Flash Diffuser Pro and like to compare it with Gary Fong's Lightsphere Cloud.

Test photos are shot with D700 SB-900 manual and manual flash mode.

First Test: bounce with a 30 ft ceiling.





Second Test: bounce with a 10 ft ceiling.





I think Demb Flash Diffuser Pro does a better job on saving flash/battery power and offers more versatile in your camera bag. However, if location has a low ceiling then lightsphere will do a better job.

Happy Shooting.

In Search for a Better Diffuser (Part 1)

For years, I been a hardcore Gary Fong's Lightsphere users. I have the original cloud, Clear Lightsphere II, and Universal. I was happy with it, but after upgraded to Nikon SB-900, none of it fit even the universal. It draws too much power from the flash, and it is hard to carrry. None of it can fit it my camera bag.

So here I am searching for the best diffuser/reflector that I can easily pack and use it with or without a ceiling....

Here is some I found which is extremely useful (as good as lightsphere) and cost just a few penny.

The bubble wrap packaging solution!











I just purchased Demb Flash Diffuser Pro, I heard a lot of good things with it. So please just back for review.

Enjoy Shooting!

Miracle Does Exist

It was a tough week for expected parents that your OB Dr. told you that your baby would be 99% miscarriage and told us to hope for a miracle.

The hCG level was abnormal and it didn’t rises normally after a three blood tests. We were told by the OB Dr. that the chance of miscarriage would be 99%. There was a bunch of why questions but nothing got answered. We were confused and I was scared. It was going to be the second time of miscarriage and I started to have doubt in my manhood or Is it something wrong with me or Carrie. I never been that confused and scared and my anxiety weren’t helping Carrie at all. Neither that I was being not supportive nor facing this issue with Carrie. I was running away from the problem and feeling worthless. It was hurting our relationship but I know soon it will be recovered.

The real deal happened last night. Carrie had a bad cramps and abdominal pain when we were watching TV around 11pm. We were rushed to ER and I expected we would had a D&C perform that day. My anxiety was gone because I knew after this miscarriage we will start to rebuild our relationship and new hope. Most importantly Carrie will be safe in ER. I pray after she checked in and I asked GOD to give Carrie the courage and give us a safe journey in this process. I didn’t hope for a miracle to happen, I just don’t want to hope too much and be more disappointed.

After 3 hours or wait we finally got an official ultra sound done. I was watching the monitor and I did see something beating. Could it be our baby’s heart? I can’t hope too much because I don’t believe in “Miracle” nor miracle could happen to us.

The ER Dr (Chin) finally showed up and we told him the story that the OB Dr told us. Dr. Chin told us he has a different story (a good story) and he said there is a baby and it is a living baby.
The joy was indescribable and it was a truly miracle happened. Tears were in our eyes and it was and relieve.

This was a life experience and what a lesson to learn on how I did wrong and how to handle the situation better.

God, please let our baby be healthy and give me wisdom on how to comfort my wife and be a supportive husband.

Carrie:

"You are not alone, together we stand"
"I'll be by your side, you know I'll take your hand"
"And it feels like the end, there's no place to go"
"You know I won't give in"

"Keep holding on, cause you know we'll make it through, just stay strong"

Photoshop Eyeshadow & Eyelashes

I found some brushes for eyelash and eyeshadow. It is a very usually tools for edit head shot.
http://www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com/people.htm


Before:

After:

Photoshop Tutorial: Eye Make-up

This tutorial will show you how to add eyeshadow and eyeliner to your picture.


Step 1: Create a new layer then choose "color" as the blending mode for eyeliner

Step 2: Select a brush, for this tutorial I'm using Size 17 with Color "4c4912" for the eyeliner.

Step 3: Start a new layer then choose "Soft Light" as the blending mode for eyeshadow

Step 4: Select a brush, for this step I'm using Size 65 with Color "88952e" for the eyeshadow.

And the final result...

Short Lighting

Carrie #1, originally uploaded by snaperture.

Short light is type of studio lighting setup, where the face side which is further from the camera gets the main light. see the diagram for details. In this type of lighting setup, the side of the face which is toward the camera gets less light then the side facing away form the camera.

32" x 40" Softbox
20 Degree Honey Comb Grid
42" White Circular Reflector

ISO 200, 1/80 F7.1

Here is the diagram:

Photoshop Tutorial: Smooth Skin Foundation

Before



After


Here are the steps to smooth skin / apply foundation:

Create a new layer.
Use Filter Highpass and set 9.0 (Filter, Other)
Use Filter Gaussian Blur 3.0
Invert the Image (Image, Adjustment)
Change the blending mode to Overlay.
Add layer mask fill with black.
Select skin use Magic Wand Tool and fill it with White.
(you can also use brush and paint the mask white on the skin area)

Make sure don't select hair, lip, and eyes beacause you want those area to be sharp.

Season of Love

DSC_3373, originally uploaded by snaperture.

In most of my past relationships I through it was true love but in fact it’s not. If that wasn’t love than what it is? Maybe just infatuation and after the lover’s phase I felt we were nothing in common and sometimes we didn’t even know what to talk with each other. After a while our connection and communication closed and we no longer shared our life. I felt like we were apart in fact we were sleep on the same bed. Love ended and something we were confused was I in love. When time goes by, we have forgotten the feeling of love.

But than what does real love feels like? Maybe it’s when two people seem to know each other for ages. Their conversation never lacks of topics and never gets dull. People don’t have to say anything because they understand each other without words. And those silence and boring moments never feels uncomfortable. True love is when two people complete one another and putting partner in the first place. The most important things are action and communication. Love is a verb, not a noun. It requires actions and not how times you said to a person.

I know this time is "true love" because I never love one person that much before us, and I know I will never love in the same way after us. Therefore I know she is the one and my last one.
She is my best friend who I can share my thoughts, wisdom, and life with. When she is around everything feels better, everything tastes better, everything sounds better, everything smells better, and everything looks brighter.

Feels Like Home

My Family Room #2, originally uploaded by snaperture.

I have been living in my house for 2 and a half years and I never felt like home before. It was a place to get my work done and sleep. I had no purpose and desire to stay this empty big house. It felt like I was staying in someone else’s house.

When she was present this big cold house no long cold and empty but as my home. The three days she was there gave me the purpose to come home because I knew there was someone special was waiting for me. She didn’t just change my house but she re-defined, she made this house feels like home to me.

I got back from Hawaii last night and I saw her stuffs in my bathroom it warms my heart. Suddenly I can smell her present and I felt I was not alone anymore. I just can’t put it in word to describe how much this moment means to me. It feels like home to me….

I have always felt lucky for all the wonderful things and people I have in my life, but last night I felt extra blessed because of her little things in the bathroom. I wish we can make a lot of wonderful memories here in the house I finally call home now.

Turning Point

Lean On Him (for Carrie), originally uploaded by snaperture.

“Hi, I heard a lot of good things about you. Just want to drop you a line to say "HI"

We started with a smile in friendster and our course of life has been changed. It was a minor simple greet when the simple message sent, but it was a huge turning point in our life. My intention was simple, I was in the process of networking people, and I assumed the more people you meet the greater chance you can find someone that match what you are looking for. We started the conversations back and fore in friendster and email. I invited her to my white water rafting trip on 07/07/07 and no doubt it was the luckiest day in my life. The real feelings started on the following Wednesday which I asked her to go salsa lesson with me in Café Cocomo. After the first dance I never want to dance with anyone else but her. All I can hear was my heart beat when we were dance because I was nervous and couldn’t breathe. The next day we went to Chez Panisse for dinner, I bought her sun flowers and took our first picture. The weekend was the beginning of our relationship. I took her to Sausalito for breakfast and hiking in Muir Woods. It was peaceful and felt everything was so right. There was a moment that I felt everything has been written by GOD and it required no explanation. And I realize all my fail relationships were a learning curve and preparation for this one. Life is a learning process and I learn how love feels the first time.

"Give your heart and soul to me and life will always be La vie en rose"

Some Kind of Illness

It is 2:30am.

I just woke up from a dream and can’t go back to sleep. I recently met a woman she is so perfect and I can’t even spot any flaws in her. It is unbelievable and I knew it from the start because she is the one I am waiting for. Love is a wonderful amazing thing, when the least suspected and when you about to give up hope then someone walk into your life and you are alive again.

It does feel like a spring time and the feeling is too strange and illogical. I am suffering from splashes of emotions. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t breathe, and I dance the wrong steps. It feels like some kind of illness (mentally and physically) or doping. Maybe this is call "falling in love" and looks like I am falling fast and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I hope someone will catch me otherwise this is going to be hurt.

I know I am not going to give up this time and I am not afraid anymore because this time I have nothing to lose other than woke up from a sweetest dream I ever dreamt before.

However, I do enjoy this kind of illness....

La Vie En Rose

PINK092 Cypress W, originally uploaded by snaperture.

Louis Armstrong - La Vie En Rose (Life in Pink)

Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose

When you kiss me heaven sighs
And tho I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

When you press me to your heart
I'm in a world apartA world where roses bloom
And when you speak...angels sing from above
Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose

Our Dance of Love

I been trying to search good poem about love and dance. This is the first one I come across.

Our Dance of Loveby Ann Marquette

We danced through our lives to different tunes, different steps.

We searched for a long time for someone special, our one true love, to share our lives.

The paths we walked were varied, sometimes far and wide, at times close and parallel to each other, without our knowing. Until one day…

Our paths crossed and we met. We began a shared dance, sometimes together sometimes separately, but always back together again.

Our hearts, our souls, heard the same music, the same tune. We found we could no longer dance through our lives without each other.

Our steps may not always match, and times may find us stumbling over or against each other. But, our souls will always hear the same heartbeat, the same music.

Our love, and God’s love in us, will keep us dancing the same path the rest of our days.

In community with our Families and Friends, with God’s grace and blessings, we share this our Wedding Day, Our Dance of Love.

Asshole driven development

This is too funny and I have to repost this.

The software industry might be the world’s greatest breeding ground for new systems of management. From Agile, to Extreme Programming , to Test Driven Development (TDD), the acronyms and frameworks keep piling up. Why?
Some say it’s immaturity: that software is still a young industry and all the change is the path to some true fundamentals. Others say it’s because software people like making things up and can’t help themselves. Well I say this: if we’re going to have dozens of models we may as well have some that are honest, however cynical, to what’s really going on much of the time.
(There is a happy list of these I’m sure, but this is the cynical one).

Asshole Driven development (ADD) - Any team where the biggest jerk makes all the big decisions is asshole driven development. All wisdom, logic or process goes out the window when Mr. Asshole is in the room, doing whatever idiotic, selfish thing he thinks is best. There may rules and processes, but Mr. A breaks them and people follow anyway.

My Japanese Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom (back view), originally uploaded by snaperture.

In both Japanese and Chinese cultures the cherry blossom is full of symbolic meaning and significance. In Chinese the cherry blossom is often the symbol of love, in contrast Japanese represents the transience of life. This concept ties in very deeply with the fundamental teachings of Buddhism that state all life is suffering and transitory.

It means both to me, I chose a Japanese style pattern, a bur smoky pattern with sharp edge cherry blossom. I knew the design is very feminine therefore I added the smoky and dark pattern as a background to make it more muscular. This is not something was gotten because a bunch of friends were getting one. This is a piece of art that I envision and it means something more than a tattoo, it is a devotion to art and my culture.

Sorry Mom I got this during Mother’s day, I know my mom won’t like it but she should loves me as who I am.

I got to EddieTattoo around 3pm and I was more ready than the last one. This time was a lot bigger than the last one and I know it would be painful and I can’t tolerate the pain. After I told Eddie what I wanted, he started to hand free drew it on my arm to make sure the design was according to my idea. When he started I regretted because it was 4 times more painful than last time. When he needled around the collar bone and armpit around I scream so hard. My hand was holding tight and I can’t breathe right because of the intense pain. The three hours seems to be forever and it was the most pain act that I ever committed. But after it was completed, there was a moment of joy and it was indescribable. It was all worth it!

It will be one more piece to complete this arm. It will be done when I forgot the pain, but now “no way Jose!”

more photos

KaBoom 2007

DSC_0538, originally uploaded by snaperture.

This was the 16th annual KaBoom music festival held from radio station KFOG. According to my friend it used to be free and this was the first year they charged $10 online and $15 by the door. Thanks for Gavin Newsom Administration for doubled the fees on KaBoom.

We got there in Pier 30 by 7:30pm and the concert is almost over, but there were more special in this concert. It is famous for the state-of-the-art fireworks, a digitally-fired, and synchronized to a World Class Rock soundtrack. When darkness falls around 9:10pm the staff turned off the light and the fireworks start. It was amazing they can slow down the firework when they played a slow track. It was the most amazing fireworks show I ever seen. It was a cold night and luckily I brought sleep bag so we won’t catch a cold. But when the firework started nothing really matters. I am sure I will grab a better site next year.

more photos

Love at First Sight, "The Alchemist"

I am reading "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, it is a bestseller that was first published in Brazil in 1988. It is a symbolic story that urges its readers to follower their dreams.

I love the story of Santiago who encountered love at first sight.

At that moment, it seemed to him that time stood still, and the Soul of the World surged within him. When he looked into her dark eyes, and saw that her lips were poised between a laugh and silence, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke—the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well. She smiled and that was certainly an omen—the omen he had been awaiting, without even knowing he was, for all his life. The omen he had sought to find with his sheep and in his book, in the crystals and in the silence of the desert.

It was the pure Language of the World. It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it’s easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it’s in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainly that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one’s dreams would have no meaning.

How wonderful it is to meet someone you love before you knew her/him.

My First Indoor Rock Climbing

DSC_0402, originally uploaded by snaperture.

This was my first experience of indoor rock climbing in Mission Cliffs, San Francisco. This was a first time ever so we had to attend a safety course in order to allow climbing. I didn’t know that you actually need someone to belay you and it was hard to trust some newbie because my life was depended on him/her. Anyway… Luckily, staff working at the gym was happy to literally show us the ropes and the safety procedures. After the safety course we got our permit to climb. After a couple beginner routes I was tired. We had lunch in Boston Market and came back for some more climbing.
After a good lunch I tried 5.8 (still a beginner route but much harder). I was in the middle of it, so tired, my fingers clung the rock above me with my feet balanced precariously on the edge. I was just hung there without any energy to move on. I told my belay partner “I am done put the break on and I am coming down. “ I sighed. It was tougher than I thought, and my upper body muscle didn’t help me much at all. Even the first time girl was a lot better than me.
Oh well, I have to do it again sometime. Challenge is good for me.

more photos

Margarita Friday

Margarita Friday, originally uploaded by snaperture.

Today is a “Margarita Friday”, and our company serves margarita for Cinco De Mayo. Just in time I can show off my salsa move that I learned from the class to the co-workers. I was dancing with my co-worker Jamie and shown off what we had learn from the class last night. I also brought some Latin music to make it a better atmosphere. I am still drinking my second glass of margarita and I think I need to stop now.

Why What You Have Is Never Enough

This is an article from Wall Street Journal.

We may have life and liberty. But the pursuit of happiness isn't going so well.
As a country, we are richer than ever. Yet surveys show that Americans are no happier than they were 30 years ago. The key problem: We aren't very good at figuring out what will make us happy.

We constantly hanker after fancier cars and fatter paychecks -- and, initially, such things boost our happiness. But the glow of satisfaction quickly fades and soon we're yearning for something else.

Similarly, we tell our friends that our kids are our greatest joy. Research, however, suggests the arrival of children lowers parents' reported happiness, as they struggle with the daily stresses involved.

Which raises the obvious question: Why do we keep striving after these things? Experts offer two explanations.

We aren't built to be happy. Rather, we are built to survive and reproduce. We wouldn't be here today if our ancestors didn't struggle mightily to protect and feed their families. The promise of happiness, meanwhile, is just a trick to jolly us along.

"This is an incentive scheme for the benefit of our genes," argues Boston money manager Terry Burnham, co-author of "Mean Genes." "It's a very fundamental trick that's played on us, this lure of perpetual bliss."

Don't like the idea that we're hoodwinked by some hard-wired set of ancient instincts? Blame it, instead, on societal beliefs.

Working hard and raising children may not make us happier. But these beliefs keep society functioning -- and those who embrace them prosper and end up passing these values onto their children.

We're bad at forecasting. Consider a study by academics Daniel Kahneman and David Schkade.
They asked university students in the Midwest and Southern California where they thought someone like themselves would be happier -- and both groups picked California, in large part because of the better weather. Yet, when asked how satisfied they were with their own lives, both groups were equally happy.

"When you're thinking about moving to California, you're thinking about the beaches and the weather," says Mr. Schkade, a management professor at the University of California at San Diego. "But you aren't thinking about the fact that you'll still be spending a lot of time in the grocery store or doing chores. People emphasize differences that are easy to observe ahead of time and forget about the similarities."

When we predict what will make us happy, we're also influenced by how we feel today. If we buy the weekly groceries just after we've had lunch, we will shop much more selectively. The downside: A few days later, we will be staring unhappily into an empty refrigerator.
Maybe most important, we fail to anticipate how quickly we will adapt to improvements in our lives. We think everything will be wonderful when we move into the bigger house. We don't realize that, after a few months, we will take the extra space for granted.
Experience should help us avoid repeating such mistakes. But it doesn't, in part because we don't accurately recall how we really felt, says Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness."

One example: We work devilishly hard to get that next promotion, because we're sure it will leave us elated. We forget that, when we last got promoted, it was a bit of a letdown.
With any luck, just knowing we are susceptible to these pitfalls will help.
But you might also try a reality check, Prof. Gilbert says. Suppose you think you will be happier if you move to a small rural town, adopt a child, or quit your job and become a high-school math teacher.

Don't rely on the opinions of people who live in small towns, have adopted kids or become teachers. Instead, spend some time observing these folks -- and see whether they're happy.
Becoming a teacher "sounds quite romantic," Prof. Gilbert says. "But hanging around high-school math teachers may quickly disabuse you of that notion."