One of the goals of working under artificial light is to empower ourselves to harness our knowledge and creativity to produce predetermined results. It could be working with one or two small speedlights or a few inexpensive fluorescents. It could also be lighting a complex fashion set with thousands of watt-seconds of strobes, softboxes, reflectors and spots. Once we start to understand that the beauty of artificial light is that it can be carefully controlled, our results will soon match our vision. And a lighting setup can be a simple three light setup or dozens of strobes, with different kinds of light modifiers. The key is learning how to control light—any kind. If some of these terms or concepts are unknown to you at this point, don’t worry. We’ll soon sort them out.

What Are Your Needs and Budget?

In order to begin using controlled lighting, we have to decide what kind of lights we need. The number of photographic lighting choices today is mind-boggling. Tungsten. Small flashes. Big power packs. Monolights. HMI’s. Fluorescent. The number of offerings is enough to confuse even the most levelheaded photographer. So how do we make sense of all this?

The first question you should ask yourself is for what purpose are you going to use the lights? Still photography only, or video and stills? Portraits only? Large scenes like the inside of buildings or factories? Do you want to be completely mobile, away from electrical power (in which case you will need battery-powered strobes) or is it okay to be tied to the wall outlets?

If you are going to be doing both video and stills, you will need some kind of steady lighting. This can be simple tungsten lighting, or the more modern quartz variety or the latest fluorescent or LED technology. Obviously you can’t use flash for video but of course you can use constant lighting for stills. So the choice is easy and there are lots of individual lights as well as kits from which to choose.

A portrait setup is much simpler than a setup capable of interiors, industrial or more advanced needs. With portraits you can get by with one or two lights if necessary. Three or four are ideal. For interiors or location work it’s not uncommon for pros to use upwards of a dozen strobes.

Another consideration is cost. Very few photographers just starting with artificial light know what the future portends enough to plop down $10,000 or more for a professional photo lighting setup. A lot of this equipment is costly, so thinking ahead and planning carefully will prevent a lot of grief in the long run. Ideally, you should be able to add equipment over the coming years and not render anything useless. To wit, I have Norman 200b portable strobes that are 25 years old and work as well as they did leaving the factory. Talk about workhorses!

This guide is for beginners getting started with studio lighting. I go over various lighting kits on the market for photographers who want to start experimenting with studio lighting but don’t want to drop a lot of money on a kit. Future articles will go over more advanced and pro lighting kits.

On-Camera Flash versus Off-Camera Flash

So let’s take a look at some possible scenarios and then examine the most popular and well-proven photographic lighting equipment available. More than likely, you are at the stage where you feel limited by the camera’s built in flash. When subjects are near the camera, the background is pitch black. Things that are too close are wildly overexposed. People’s features, like high cheekbones, seem flat and lifeless. You wish you could just grab the flash and re-position it.

Well, you have the right idea but, as you know, the only way to do that is to buy a separate, shoe-mount flash. The ones made by your camera manufacturer are the best choice, especially when you’re looking for all the bells and whistles available today like TTL flash metering, remote power adjusting, extra battery options, etc. Most of them are in the $300-$500 range such as the Canon 580EX II or Nikon SB-900. If your budget is tight, however, there are a number of low-cost substitutes that will work just fine. The Vivitar 285HV is an excellent low-cost solution ($110), for example. So is the Sunpack PZ42XC. Make sure you get a photo “eye” (a remote sync device that triggers the second or more flashes) or radio sync system. We’ll discuss all this and more in detail further down in this article.

Video or Stills? Or both?

First question: stills, video or both? If your answer is both (lucky you, probably the proud owner of one of the new HDSLR’s) you need steady lighting, often called hot lighting. It’s traditionally been called hot lighting because the bulbs were, well, hot. Think about a 1,000-watt tungsten halogen bulb. Or a 2,000-watt floodlight. Even putting your hand near a 100-watt household bulb gives you an idea of how light equals heat with conventional tungsten lighting. This is okay if you have a big, air-conditioned studio in which to work but most of us can’t afford that luxury. Our studio is often a corner of the dining room or maybe an extra room off the garage. In a little space, the heat given off by tungsten light can be unbearable. However, thanks to fluorescent and LED technology, lights have been developed that achieve the same level of light output without cooking you and your subjects.

Additionally, today’s DSLR’s are also much better performers with less light. This means instead of 1,000 watts of light you can do nicely with 300. It also means you can spend proportionately more money on accessories like light modifiers, stands, clamps, backgrounds, etc., etc.

Basic Lighting Kits: Hot Lights

My first choice would be a small lighting kit from Lowel Light Mfg. They have an extraordinary number of choices, from small camera-mounted LED lights to multiple large fluorescents as well as their well-known tungsten kits. Lowel has always been an innovator in hot lighting, and now they have continued that tradition in cold lighting as well. Prices start at $100-$300 for individual lights and $500 and above for complete kits. A three-light kit is minimum (main light, fill and hair, plus optional background light) for those interesting in making the best-looking imagery (or footage). The Lowel Rifa is a great general purpose light system, and their Tota is probably the best-known workhorse along with the DP Omni. My favorite is the DV Creator 44 Kit, which runs about $1100.00 but has everything you need—a very extensive list of heads, stands, frames, gels, etc. all packed into a handy case.

Other manufacturers with a good reputation for hot lights are Arri, Chimera, Cool-Lux, Dedolight, Elinchrome, Hensel, JTL, Norman, Interfit, Photoflex, Smith-Victor and Wescott. All are available from our partner Adorama. Many of them offer kits similar to Lowel, with a wide variety of models and power to choose from.

An excellent low-cost cool fluorescent light kit is available from Adorama for about $160. It comes complete with light stands, two kinds of umbrellas (shoot-through and silver reflective), standard reflector, bulbs and case. This is really a great choice for the beginner in terms of cost and value.

Smith Victor, a manufacturer known for high-quality but moderately priced gear, offers a great three-softbox kit including both tungsten as well as fluorescent bulbs, light stands, case and an excellent guide to lighting. About $600.

How Many Lights? What Accessories?

Whether it’s constant or strobe lighting, the basic kit should include one broad source of light, with an umbrella or softbox, a fill light (can be a shoot-through umbrella), a hair light with snoot or grid, and a general-purpose light for the background. You can start with one light (the main) and add to your collection over time as your budget allows.

The umbrella or soft box spreads the light over a wider source, giving softer shadows and a “wrap around” effect that is flattering and very elegant looking. The fill light can be used with another umbrella or can simply be reflected off a simple piece of white Foamcore™ at a 45-degree angle to the subject. The hair light and background light can be smaller units; the only requirement is that the hair light should have a snoot (cone that keeps stray light from hitting other areas) or grid (waffle-like device that does the same thing). The background light might have a filter frame so you can experiment with different colored filters or gels.

Remember that tungsten light, typically quartz, is 3200 degrees Kelvin. So if you are shooting a scene with daylight pouring in a window, you either have to cover the window with an orange gel, called a CTO, or cover the lights with a blue gel, called CTB. Which solution you use is usually a factor of which light is stronger. A large living room with half a dozen light fixtures is easier to match by gelling the window, for example. A good source for a lot of hot light accessories is The SetShop or MarkerTek).

Before leaving hot lights, we should note that there are two really inexpensive solutions to hot lights. One is at your local hardware store: aluminum reflectors with a 500-watt household tungsten bulb, $15 to $20. The other is through dealers like Adorama that now offer inexpensive fluorescent lighting fixtures and kits with the Flashpoint brand, starting at $35 for one light to $100 for a fixture that holds four bulbs. Cool! (Literally.)

So our beginner’s tungsten or fluorescent lighting kit consists of:

• One main light
• One silver reflector umbrella
• One fill light (can be used reflecting into a white card)
• A hair light (a small light with a snoot or grid)
• A background light (any small fixture light will do)
• Four light stands stands
• Extension cords (hardware store)
• Gaffers tape
• Seamless paper background
• Extra bulbs (depends on fixture)
• Cloth work gloves if you are using hot tungsten lights (hardware store)
• An assortment of colored gels and diffusion material
• Clothespins for holding the gels

Small Speedlight Set

If you are only shooting stills, you can build your electronic flash system the same way. Start with one small extra speedlight, get some experience with it, then add a larger umbrella or softbox unit. Then add another small speedlight with grid for the hair light and finally a fourth light for background. You may find that you don’t need the hair and background lights for your particular style of photography. The four-light system is the traditional setup for studio or executive portraits, but you may find your interest lies in shooting babies or little children, where a two-light umbrella or softbox setup is enough.

A good small speedlight set includes:

• Three (3) small speedlights (see On-camera Flash vs. Off-Camera Flash)
• Three (3) lightweight stands
• Two small accessory shoe adapters (to hold umbrellas)
• One small (30-40 inch) silver reflector umbrella
• One small (20-30 inch) shoot-through umbrella
• Two smalll clamps
• Assorted filters
• Two (2) photo eye triggers
• One roll Gaffers tape

Note: Instead of umbrellas you can use some of the products that HonlPhoto offers. They have an amazing number of innovative small speedlight accessories that are inexpensive and very effective, such as small reflectors, gobos (to shield the light), filters and grids (to focus the light).

Monolights & Monolight Kits

Up one step from the shoe-mounted flash is a monolight, sometimes called a monobloc. This is a small AC-powered strobe that is completely self-contained. Reflector, power supply, umbrella and light stand holder and AC power cord are all built into one unit. They range in size from the proverbial loaf of bread to ones that are about the size of a toaster oven. The advantages are (in most cases): built-in modeling light, no need for a separate power generator, built-in photo eye or in some cases radio sync slave, adjustable power output, and ease of using light modifiers like umbrellas. They also provide some degree of redundancy for backup, that is if you have three or four of them and one fails, you’re usually not completely out of luck. If you’re using a generator-based system and the unit goes south, you need to have at least one for backup or be able to rent one nearby.

One of my favorites in the monobloc category is the compact Bowens Gemini 200. These are very well-made, reasonably priced ($375.00) professional quality units that have withstood the test of time over the years. Today, they can also be powered by a battery unit (about $600) which is essential for location solution. For the budding photographer who will eventually add to his or her kit when moving up, these are an excellent investment.

For budget-minded beginners, Adorama has a line of inexpensive monolites, starting at less than $100 for the Flashpoint-II. For $300 plus the cost of accessories like umbrellas and light stands, you have yourself a very inexpensive studio setup. You can even use them on location with the addition of their $125 battery pack.

Wescott offers a value-driven three monolight setup for less than $600, including three 150 watt-second monolights, stands, umbrellas, sync cord and floor positioning mat (a great learning tool) plus a complete lighting course on DVD

So, here’s our monolight kit:

• Three monolights, at least 150 watt-seconds each
• Three light stands
• Two smalll clamps
• One roll Gaffers tape
• One barn door
• One reflector kit
• One snoot
• Extension cords (hardware store)

The other alternative for low-cost beginner outfits is used equipment. If you check the classified section of Photo.net, you will often see an old Norman 200b or Bowens monolite or similar strobes for a very reasonable price. If they have been used continuously or at least from time to time, you’re more assured of getting a working unit. Older units that have been sitting around for many years often have dried up capacitors. Still, if the price is right, having them repaired can be a relatively inexpensive investment.

Radio Slaves

We mentioned the challenge of synchronizing all your lights. That is, they all have to go off at the same time. There are four ways of doing this. First is hard wiring, that is, all the flash units are plugged together by sync cords and extensions. This is the least desirable because it is prone to failure due to broken wires or other seemingly invisible factors. Even a slight bit of humidity and one or more of the strobes will undoubtedly fail to fire—and that will be the best expression on your subject’s face, of course. You also have the problem of running cables around doors and walls. So let’s look at the other, wireless, options.

The least expensive way is with small light-sensitive triggers that plug into the sync cord connection of your speedlight. Wein was a pioneer in this field and continue to dominate it with new and improved products every day. They range in price from $15 for the basic 100-foot range model to $100 for a super-sensitive 1000-foot model. There are a number of other manufacturers making light-sensitive triggers, including Adorama, Morris, Metz, Nikon, Norman, Photogenic, Sunpack and Speedotron. All work pretty well indoors, but outdoors in bright sunlight is another matter. Some of them will tolerate a certain amount of sunlight; others will not tolerate any at all.

The same problem is with infrared triggers. They work fine as long as you have indoor line-of-sight conditions but outdoors they can be problematic. The most popular and reliable device is the radio slave. These range in price from very cheap ones you find on eBay to the professional’s favorite—the PocketWizard. In addition to triggering the strobes, PW’s can trigger the camera as well. At the Kentucky Derby or Olympics it’s not uncommon to see 20 or 30 cameras set up for remote firing, all dressed up with PocketWizards.

A couple of companies—PocketWizard, Radiopopper, Cactus, Quantum—are now making radio slaves that work in the TTL mode. That is, you set your camera and strobe to TTL (through-the-lens) and the flash units puts out only enough light based on what you have set the camera’s ISO. As an example, I took my Canon DSLR out in the sunlight, put two Canon 430EX II’s on light stands, put a PW MiniTT1 on the camera and a PW FlexTT5 on each strobe, and started shooting. Perfectly exposed images right off the bat! Totally amazing, foolproof and flexible. You can also shoot in what’s called the high-speed sync mode, enabling f/2.8 shots outdoors in bright sunlight to put the background beautifully out of focus. What’s nice about the PocketWizard system is that any upgrades are easily incorporated via downloaded firmware.

Conclusion

There are lights and kits for every budget and purpose. Don’t let the myth that lighting is expensive keep you from enjoying this critical aspect of photography. Start small and expand as you get the feel of it. However you acquire your lights, the most important advice is to use them. Practice setting up one, two or more lights. Bounce them off umbrellas, foam core reflector boards, or the walls and ceilings. Practice using hair and background lights, or mixing artificial light with daylight. You’ll soon find that even the simplest lighting setups can produce dramatic images.

Look at photographs made with artificial light and analyze how they were lit. What are the qualities of the light (soft, hard, edge, etc.)? How does the lighting convey the mood and intent of the photograph? In a portrait, what does lighting contribute to the viewer’s perception of the subject?

Don’t just put up your lights one way and then after your session take them down and put them away. Experiment. Use a slow shutter speed to let the background burn in. Use motion to add intrigue. Put the lights up high, down low, to the right and to the left. The only way you will maximize your investment in lighting gear is to practice using it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lighting forum on Photo.net. There’s a ton of useful information you can glean by subscribing to these threads. There are also a ton of books out there. Some of my favorites are Minimalist Lighting by Kirk Tuck, Basic Studio Lighting by Tony Corbell and The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally. Creative Light, maker of lighting accessories, has an assortment of terrific videos to inspire and trach, as does Sekonic.

In subsequent articles we will discuss intermediate and professional lighting kits. We’ll also talk about advanced techniques and how to get the most out of your gear. Stay tuned!

Until Friday, the tallest building in the world was Taipei 101 with 508 meters. On saturday (July 21st.) Burj Dubai became officially the tallest building in the world with 512.1 meters. (1.680 feet) What´s really cool is that Burj Dubai is still under construction, and it will be 807.7 meters high in June 2008.

Loading... ]]> http://www.jlescobedo.com/blog/2007/07/burj-dubai-tallest-building-in-the-world/feed/ 0 http://www.jlescobedo.com/blog/2007/06/speed-painting-evangeline-lilly-aka-kate-sexy-photoshop-painting/ http://www.jlescobedo.com/blog/2007/06/speed-painting-evangeline-lilly-aka-kate-sexy-photoshop-painting/#comments Sat, 09 Jun 2007 20:05:43 +0000 José Luis Escobedo http://www.jlescobedo.com/blog/2007/06/speed-painting-evangeline-lilly-aka-kate-sexy-photoshop-painting/ Amazing!!! And way to sexy!!!

More on http://www.mohafoto.hu

WHAT IS THE MOVIE ABOUT?
It’s about our lives. Being alone in a city, wanting to be in a relationship but feeling there are no good ways to start a connection and then breaking out of a rut, jumping feet first into something deeper and crazier than either of us expected.

Special thanks to Spout, YouTube, Bside for launching our Internet release. Bside.com is the site that is selling our digital downloads and taking orders and shipping our DVDs. Any filmmaker who would like to distribute their films the way we are should join bside.com.

What a day for Apple investors. The stock started off strong today on a lot of pre-market buying, despite news that Amazon will finally start competing on sales of DRM-free music.

Then, whoops, at 11:49 AM EST Engadget posted saying that the iPhone and Leopard operating system launches would be seriously delayed. They based the story on an internal Apple email that was forwarded to them. The original post:

This one doesn’t bode well for Mac fans and the iPhone-hopeful: we have it on authority that as of today, the iPhone launch is being pushed back from June to… October (!), and Leopard is again seeing a delay, this time being pushed all the way back to January. Of 2008. The latest WWDC Leopard beta will still be handed out, but it looks like Apple-quality takes time, and we’re sure Jobs would remind everyone that it’s not always about “writing a check”, but just how much time are these two products really going to take?

Apple’s stock promptly tanked on massive selling, going from $107.89 to $103.42 in six minutes (11:56 – 12:02). This wiped just over $4 billion off of Apple’s market capitalization. A lot of people lost a lot of money very quickly.

Well, it turns out that the email was a hoax. In an update, Engadget said that the email was in fact sent from Apple’s internal email system, but that it was not accurate. Apple quickly notified Engadget of the error, saying “This communication is fake and did not come from Apple. Apple is on track to ship iPhone in late June and Mac OS X Leopard in October.”

By 12:22 Apple stock had mostly recovered and it ended the day down just $1.40/share, or $1.25 billion in market cap.

Let the lawsuits and criminal investigations commence (although to be clear, I do not believe Engadget will have any liability here. Apple may, if the email did originate from its servers).

I’ve written previously on the topic of curiosity because I’m convinced that it is an essential skill to build as a blogger. Learning to ask ‘why’, ‘what if’ and ‘I wonder…’ are great questions t build into your life if you want to be a more creative person.

2. Seeing Problems as Interesting and Acceptable

One of the problems of the Western mindset is that we often see problems or obstacles in life as unacceptable parts of life. We avoid pain or suppress it when it comes and in doing so don’t often see and feel symptoms that are there to tell us something important. Creative people see problems as a natural and normal part of life – in fact they often have a fascination with problems and are drawn to them.

3. Confronting Challenge

Many of the most creative ideas through out history have come from people facing a challenge or crisis and rather than running from it asking ‘how can I overcome this’?

4. Constructive Discontent

Creative people often have an acute awareness of what’s wrong with the world around them – however they are constructive about this awareness and won’t allow themselves to get bogged down in grumbling about it – they take their discontent and let it be a motivation to doing something constructive.

5. Optimism

Creative people generally have a deeply held belief that most (if not all) problems can be solved. No challenge is too big to be overcome and no problem cannot be solved (this doesn’t mean they’re always happy or never depressed – but they don’t generally get stumped by a challenge).

6. Suspending Judgment

The ability to hold off on judging or critiquing an idea is important in the process of creativity. Often great ideas start as crazy ones – if critique is applied too early the idea will be killed and never developed into something useful and useable. (note – this doesn’t mean there is never a time for critique or judgement in the creative process – it’s actually key – but there is a time and place for it).

7. Seeing Hurdles as leading to improvements and solutions

This relates to some of the above – but by ‘hurdles’ I mean problems and mistakes in the creative process itself. Sometimes it’s on the journey of developing an idea that the real magic happens and it’s often out of the little problems or mistakes that the idea is actually improved.

8. Perseverance

Creative people who actually see their ideas come to fruition have the ability to stick with their ideas and see them through – even when the going gets tough. This is what sets apart the great from the good in this whole sphere. Stick-ability is key.

9. Flexible Imagination

I love watching a truly creative person at work when they’re ‘on fire’. They have this amazing ability to see a problem or challenge and it’s many potential solutions simultaneously and they have an intuitive knack at being able to bring previously disconnected ideas together in flashes of brilliance that seem so simple – yet which are so impossible to dream up for the average person.

Is Creativity tied to Personality Type or Can it be Learned?

As I read through this list of traits of creative people – the question that I find myself asking is whether creativity is tied to personality type or whether it can be learned.

My own uneducated answer to this question is – ‘yes’.

Some people are just creative – they don’t train themselves to think like they do and they often don’t even know that they are any different from the rest of us – it’s just who they are.

However I believe that we can all enhance our ability to be creative over time.

Via:  problogger

What happened?

Schools have crushed creativity. We were told to color within the lines. We were taught to follow instructions. The goal in
school is to get the “right” answer. Unfortunately, if you’re afraid to be wrong, you’ll never be creative or original.

The job of education is to produce employees who follow instructions. And to this endeavor, they are doing a
very good job. However, in terms of creativity, they are falling terribly short.

This is one of the most unfortunate realities in our current education system.

To undo this, we must continuallyexercise our creative juices. That’s why I have put together 6 tips for expanding your creativity.

1. Keep a Notebook and Pencil on hand at all times.

Ideas are like in-laws, you never know when they’re coming over to visit. By keeping a notebook around, you will always
be able to capture your ideas at any time of the day.

Leonardo da Vinci was well known for keeping a journal of his ideas. His notebooks are now prized possessions that hold
the many creative and genius thoughts of this master thinker, painter, and inventor.

His notebooks were filled with plans for flying machines, a parachute, a helicopter, the extendable ladder, the bicycle,
folding furniture, and a number of automated tools for increasing productivity.

Yes, I am happy to say that Leonardo da Vinci was a productivity junkie.

A blank page is an open invitation for the creative and curious mind. The simple act of writing gets you into a
creative flow that can last for hours.

The free-flowing, exploratory practice of keeping a journal encourages freedom of thought and expanded perspectives.

2. The second key to creativity is to ask questions.

Questions are the root of all knowledge and creativity. By continually asking questions about the world around us, we
fuel our creative fire.

Great minds are those that have asked the greatest questions.

Leonardo da Vinci asked such questions as:

“Why does the thunder last a longer time than that which causes it?” and “Why is the sky blue?”

Socrates asked such questions as:

* “What is wisdom?”
* “What is piety?”
* “What is beauty?”

As a young boy, Albert Einstein asked himself, “What would it be like to run beside a light beam at the speed of
light?”

A number of inventions have been created by asking one simple question…

“What if…..?”

By asking questions we increase our level of consciousness and our perspective of the world.

3. To become a creative genius, you must also be a voracious reader.

Reading enhances your mental ability and lets you experience the world from a brand new perspective.

When we read a book, we let go of our own perspectives and experience the world from the characters that have been crafted by the author.

I have found in my own life that the more I read, the more I want to know. Reading becomes an insatiable desire and an unquenchable thirst.

4. Seek out new experiences.

Our minds are much like a garden. Without proper care, the weeds will take over. Nothing sparks the mind like learning something new.

If you want to expand your creativity, then learn a new skill. It can be anything you choose. Learn a new language.
Learn to water ski. Learn to play an instrument. Pick up photography or even try a new sport.

All of these activities get your mind working outside of its regular patterns.

5. Become a whole-brain thinker.

There are generally two-types of people in this world: left-brained and right-brained.

In most cases, people are either analytical thinkers who enjoy math, science, and logic or they are highly
imaginative and creative individuals who focus on the big-picture.

Unfortunately, our school systems generally cater to those who are left-brained analytical thinkers. This has created
a world of employees who are very good at following directions but are not so good at developing new ideas.

To break the mold, we must become whole-brain, holistic thinkers.

You can do this by using a powerful method known as mind mapping.

Mind mapping has been used by some of history’s greatest brains, including Michelangelo, Mark Twain, and Leonardo da
Vinci.

Mind mapping is a whole-brain activity that will awaken your creative side as well as your analytical side.

Mind mapping will also help you to generate new ideas when needed. It doesn’t matter whether you’re using it for
personal goal setting, problem solving, or simply to become a more creative, whole-brain thinker.

Our mind works in pictures, associating one idea to the next. Mind mapping allows you to continue this natural
thought process on paper.

Mind mapping is one of the most powerful tools for awakening your creativity.

For a detailed explanation of mind mapping, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

6. The final tool for developing your creativity is imaginary dialogue.

Yes, I know, it may sound silly at first, but this technique can be an extremely powerful tool for developing your
creativity.

This technique was first introduced in the best-selling book by Napoleon Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”.

Before achieving his success, Napoleon Hill was first meeting with an imaginary mastermind each night. He would
close his eyes and visualize a table occupied by such great men as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Napoleon
Bonaparte, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Elbert Hubbard.

Napoleon Hill would then speak to the members of his imaginary mastermind in the following manner:

“Mr. Lincoln: I desire to build in my own character those qualities of patience and fairness toward all mankind and
the keen sense of humor which were your outstanding characteristics.”

“Mr. Washington: I desire to build in my own character those qualities of patriotism and self-sacrifice and leadership which were your outstanding characteristics.”

“Mr. Hubbard: I desire to develop the ability to equal and even to excel the ability that you possessed with which to express yourself in clear, concise and forceful language.”

After meeting with his mastermind group for several months, he found that he had developed each of their desired
characteristics into his own personality.

Napoleon also went to his imaginary mastermind to help solve any problem he was facing.

The imaginary mastermind is a master tool for finding new perspectives and looking at your problem from a different angle.

For example, let’s say that you own a business. Why not develop an imaginary mastermind of the greatest business
minds in history? You can call to your table such names as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Ray
Kroc, and Sam Walton.

Call on them daily for advice and you will begin to see your problems in a new light. As once said by Albert Einstein,

“You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

You can have even more creative fun by imagining a discussion between two different well-known people.
Some examples to get you started include:

* Bill Gates Vs. Steve Jobs
* Leonardo da Vinci vs. Albert Einstein
* William Shakespeare vs. Maya Angelou

Let your mind wander and you will be surprised at all of the connections you begin to make.

Via: LifeHack

What exactly is this man doing?  Communicating with his neighbors using his new Toilet Phone?  Blowing up his Inflatable Toilet?  Or is he simple blowing bubbles?  Well the correct answer is None of the Above.  This guy is using the new breath easy, Toilet Snorkel, formulated to provide a fresh air source during fires in high rise buildings.

In most fires, it’s the smoke that will get you, and a source of fresh air can be a life saver.  So our inventor designed a way to snake a snorkel through the zigs and zags of your toilet, so you can breath sewer air instead of smoke.  Here’s our question… couldn’t he have, just as easily, invented the Faucet Snorkel instead?

——————

¿Alguna vez se habían imaginado algo como ésto?. El hombre de la figura no está enfermo ni se ha vuelto loco; no está haciendo burbujas con el agua del retrete ni mucho menos. De hecho, éste es un invento que ha sido registrado ante la oficina de patentes de Estados Unidos, en el año de 1982. Éste snorkel para sanitarios tiene una función más importante de lo que parece. El invento fue diseñado para que el extremo de la manguera (27) siga hasta el compartimiento (25) a través de los clásicos zig-zag del retrete.

El objetivo de ésto, es obtener aire fresco en caso de un incendio en un edificio alto, en donde el humo es altamente tóxico y puede causar la muerte. Ojalá que alguna persona con malestar estomacal no haya usado el baño antes de que intentes tomar una bocanada de aire fresco con ésto.

Via: bitperbit & Totally Absurd

What happened after December? Well, Google stopped giving almost every Google Checkout user twenty dollars just for shopping. Like I said before, if you have to pay users to use your service, then it doesn’t deserve to succeed, and shoppers are agreeing. I don’t understand why Google Checkout needs to exist on websites like Buy.com, that have no problem processing credit card orders normally, and Google needs to find an excuse for their system. At least PayPal has a bank account.

Via: Inside Google

Apart from the most obvious things like better design, usability along with standards there are 7 things about the way a website just looks and feels different now because of most of the below annoyances that have been phased out by better designers. Here’s the breakdown -

Best Viewed In – Remember that phrase, you would see it everywhere! This site is “Best viewed in IE 5.5 or Netscape 6″ coupled with the screen resolution also being stated. This warning was enough for me to just leave the site and never never return. The only sites that still use that wording are the ones that haven’t updated their sites in years, or still employ the same people who run Win 98 SE on their computers. Hello! People it’s 2007…see we have this thing called Firefox, you can even see it from the sky. In fact here is a community message from Pizza Hut.

Get Flash Player - I’m so glad that Web 2.0 sites don’t have splash pages that say please download AJAX and CSS before proceeding to view our site. That would be a sweet parody though for whoever has time to kill.

But yeah, Web 2.0 has done away with giving you instructions on how to download it due to the fact that everybody put those get flash player badges on their sites, so we don’t need to see it anymore. 98% of the internet population has flash installed.

Tables - With the advent of CSS the web just got more cleaner. There are still some people who refuse to give up using tables to design a web layout, and then there are those that you are just left asking yourself – Why? Pixel perfect positioning with a lightweight web page are just some of the benefits of using CSS to build your websites.

Click here to Enter/Launch – The dreaded splash page that had all the first two requirements was not bad enough – they had to add another click to the experience. One click too many for me. When people visit your site they want to see, read and experience not told to do a bunch of things before they can view your site.

That’s like going to a restaurant and the chef tells you to cut the potatoes so he can fry them and then serve it to you. A great many sites still do practice this evil and they are mostly in the shopping, fashion segment.

The only good thing about a splash page, in the example of fashion, is the language redirection of the visitor.

Flash Intros – Oy! Yay! Yay! I’ll admit I’m guilty of this too. Making those swishy swashy flash intros to please clients of some zippipty chappada pad pa in their sites was a requirement. I have only one company/man to solely blame for this trend. Eric Jordan of 2Advanced.com which brings me to the next one…

Loading please wait…Sigh! Flash you seem to dominate this post. Waiting forever on those 56K modems a couple of years ago was AGONY! Not only that but then sometimes the designer would get creative and break the flash apart and give the files various loading sequences and name them like so – getting navigation…navigation done…getting sound…sound done…finalizing layout…layout created…oh shut the heck up! Exit…

Resizing Browsers – Imagine if you went to digg and they would automatically resize your browser and then you jumped over to delicious and they would do the same, then CNN and so on and on. The chances of you ever visiting those sites again would drop to 0 in a heartbeat.

I could go on and on about more stuff but I want to encourage you to comment and tell me the stuff that I have missed or didn’t think about.

• animated 3D gif’s { flames also highly missed…or not }
• blinking text
• Frames
• Marquee’s
• Hit Counters
• Please sign my guestbook

Via: everybodygoto.com