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Tag Archives: Photography
5 Myths about Creativity a Photographer Should Bust
If I'm not a prodigy, it's too late.
Interests form very early in our lives. Sometimes they form from our preferences, like what happened to Gillian Lynne, one of the legendary choreographers in the dance world. Gillian was a kinesthetic learner, meaning she loved to express herself through movement. Her mother recognized this, and enrolled her in a dance school. Gillian said of this moment in Sir Ken Robinson's book The Element, "I walked into this room, and it was full of people like me. People who couldn't sit still. People who had to move to think.† We can't all be lucky like Gillian, whose parents helped her make a commitment to her creativity early in life.
But the wonderful thing is, it isn't until we commit to this interest that we find our means to be creative.
Commitment is something that we can make toward our interest at any point in our lives. So if you picked up a camera at an age beyond childhood, it doesn't mean you can't develop creatively in your photography. It's never too late to learn!
1. Creativity is something that happens in isolation.
Some people think that creativity is something that happens by itself, like to a writer who lives alone in the woods beside a pond. We think that person is creative because of the isolation, without distraction. Maybe the silence of living in the woods beside a still pond is great for processing thoughts, but silence and isolation in itself is not the basis for a creative response.
Many creative triggers people have responded to are made of social situations and connections. I read in this great book about director Enid Zentelis who made a film about people waiting in line because she was waiting in a food line one time, and it triggered a creative response in her. Watson and Crick collaborated on the model for DNA—their different insights connected into a product that was creative because they thought together. Ansel Adams was good friends with Georgia O'Keefe. Although they worked in different media, they shared a common concept—the idea of starkness and simplicity giving a sensuality to a composition.
Isolating ourselves thinking it will only increase our chances of creativity is a myth. Making connections between ideas we see other people having and our own ideas is a source of creativity. Paying attention to connections we could make between our concepts and what's around us can trigger a pretty creative response.
2. Pressure kills creativity.
By pressure we mean things that might limit what we can use to create. These could be things like having just one lens or going on a photowalk when the light is "bad.â€
But contrary to all the excuses, having a limiting factor in a situation where you have to create actually helps you be more creative. Sometimes having very little choice in your focal length is good for you. It forces you to move more; it distills your choices into how to compose rather than how to use equipment that you might have in abundance. This shift in decision making from what to use to how to use what you have is a situation that can trigger your creativity.
If you can respond with a solution to the situation, you have already begun to be creative.
3. Equipment makes you a better photographer.
This is one of those if onlys that photographers torture themselves. If only you had a better lens, if only you had a better camera like that guy with the 6800-dollar body, your photo would be sexier.
If onlys are a waste of time, and they actually kill creativity.
What promotes creativity is using what tools you have to think and see differently.
Part of creativity is inventiveness, a commitment to make something out of what you imagined. You don't need an upgrade of gear to do this. All the gear you need is in your head.
4. You need to go somewhere exotic to be creative.
Exotic places are great because they are full of new sights. These new sights might trigger a creative response.
But from a creative standpoint, sometimes you can see new sights with old eyes. That means you might be tempted to take the 'safe shot,' the one that has always worked for you in the past. If that happens, the creativity isn't there because you haven't invented a new way to express that new thing you saw.
On the other hand, you could be walking at a familiar place, seeing things you've seen before, but you put a twist into interpreting those familiar things with an unfamiliar composition.
That's creativity.
It's not going someplace you've never been. It's seeing something in a way you've never tried. You don't have to go away to do this. You can start right where you are, right now.
5. You need to have bursts of creativity when everything comes to you effortlessly.
Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was not a painting he created in a single moment of creativity. The Musée Picasso has the artist's notes on the creative process for this painting. It shows how he struggled to create the painting plane by plane, sketching and then eliminating one element, re-adding it, then changing again. In the revisions that he made, it is clear that even though Picasso had an idea of what he wanted to say in his painting, he had to go through a revision process to arrive at a final result.
Meaning comes to the artist in layers. Staying committed to an idea while the layers sort themselves out in a problem solving process is part of our growth as creative people.
Be open to the burst of inspiration. But don't forget that the rest of it is hard work, and patience.
Can you think of other myths about creativity that need busting?
Confessions of a Photoshop User
I just read this article over at the Fstoppers blog about how the UK's Advertising Standards Authority banned an ad by Lancome because Julia Robert's skin in it was Photoshopped too much and represented 'false advertising.'
The question raised on the blog was, how do retouchers and photographers feel about this ban by the Agency, and "How would it affect the way we do our jobs or how we look at things aesthetically, creatively and socially?â€
I use Photoshop. I use it for retouching photos of models for print ads on fashion magazines. But notice how many tutorials are out there for making sure retouching preserves skin texture, detail, and cautioning us against making the skin look like plastic. As of this writing, 49,700 tutorials online talk about how to retouch skin so that it looks like real skin. Like me, a lot of photographers are concerned about not making retouched skin look unreal in photographs.
An unretouched photo can look beautiful. The model's skin in the photo below was unretouched because I had virtually no Photoshop skills when I took it. But you know what? The model was 18 years old at the time the photo was taken; she had flawless skin, and besides, she had charming freckles.
But the truth of the matter is, if you're a photographer who wants to get an editorial commission, you use Photoshop. You use Photoshop because the industry standards for beautiful ask you to remove blemishes. You use Photoshop because no one wants to see a zit smack in the middle of a makeup ad. You use Photoshop because flawlessly retouched skin in your look book gets clients to call you and book you.
So like every struggling editorial photographer, I study Photoshop. I browse those thousands of tutorials and even made a tutorial of my workflow. I read Scott Kelby's books. And I use Photoshop because if I use it 10,000 times, each time I get a little bit better at making digitally enhanced skin in photos look like I didn't retouch it.
If it were your job, wouldn't you?
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If you like what's on the blog, let us know by commenting! Even if you don't like what's on the blog, leave a comment any way, but please keep it nice. 🙂 To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage. It would also be cool to be friends with you on Facebook, or connect with you on Twitter.
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10 Songs You and Your Camera can Hum Together
It's been a pretty serious week. We witnessed a media empire break open with more sparks than the explosion that demolished the Death Star. Olso suffered from terrorism attacks, and then Amy Winehouse died.
So to cheer up a bit, I decided to put together a playlist of songs this week. The playlist spans a few decades, so if you can recognize some of it, feel free to sing along. There's nothing like belting out a song to relax those shoulders and get ready for a week of shooting photographs. There's nothing like a workflow with a fabulous soundtrack to inspire great shots.
 1. Papparazi by Lady Gaga
You can start with that catchy chorus, "I'm your biggest fan I'll follow you until you love me.†Chase that shot until you've got the right one. Dog that light until it gives you magic.
2. Shiny Happy People by REM
Take the camera and "Put it in your hands/Take it take it/There's no time to cry/Happy happy…†Go to the park, shoot the lovers smiling. Throw a dog a Frisbee and catch it while it smiles with teeth all bright and shiny.
3. 3×5 by John Mayer
Unlike John, take your camera for a walk and you don't have to lament, "didn't have a camera by my side this time,†but don't forget to "see the world through both my eyes.†Open your other eye that's not peering through the viewfinder, and don't just tell the story, but experience it.
4. Girls on Film by Duran Duran
Cast some models, set up some lights, and catch some "Girls on film (two minutes later), girls on film/Girls on film (got your picture), girls on film….â€
5. Pictures of You by The Cure
Get some inspiration from some of your old shots, and count yourself lucky you have so many more photography opportunities to look forward to. Robert Smith darkly recites, "I've been living so long with my pictures of you that I almost believe that the pictures are all I can feel…,†but you know deep in your heart that if you were singing that song to your craft, you'd know feeling your photos isn't a bad thing.
6. Photograph by 10,000 Maniacs
You can do some documentary photography on the street. You can even experiment with your Monochrome camera setting. Maybe you'll find yourself telling stories like Dorothea Lange, or the Italian cinema masters. 10,000 Maniacs captured a great lyrical image in their song, "I found this photograph/underneath the broken picture glass/tender face of black and white/beautiful, a haunting sight.â€
7. Vogue by Madonna
Take some inspiration from Madonna and study some photos of those "Ladies with an attitude†and "Fellas that were in the mood.†Harlow, Dietrich, Garbo. Adopt the drama of yesteryears and try a pinup shoot. C'mon honey, "Don't just stand there, let's get to it. Strike a pose, there's nothing to it.â€
8. Photograph of You by Depeche Mode
"What good is a souvenir of something/you once had when all it ever does is/make me feel bad.†This song is great when you're editing bad pics out of the bunch. Delete. Sing. Delete.
9. Better Together by Jack Johnson
Get sentimental and try some sepia toning. There's nothing like that sentimental sepia that will save an image that had to be shot with iffy lighting. Take Jack's advice and feel that photos are like "Our dreams," and they are made of real things, like a shoebox of photographs and sepia toned loving.â€
10. Kodachrome by Simon and Garfunkel
Try some plugins in your processing and evoke the feel of "Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colors.†Shoot some landscapes and run the action, "They give us the greens of summers, makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah.†You'll be crooning like Simon and Garfunkel in no time.
If the past week's got you down and you need to pick up some inspiration for your photography, why not make your own playlist?
What are your favorite songs when shooting?
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
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Five Signs of Creative Burnout and Seven Ways to Combat it
Creativity is like a tap. You can turn it on if you know how, but sometimes, it can run out and trickle down to a drip.
Recently I had conversations with a couple of my students who have very successful photography businesses. They have built a living around photography, and they work some 12-16 hours a day, often more, shooting and preparing images and selling these to clients. Lately though, our conversations have centered on feeling overwhelmed by all the photography they do. The problem is probably not that they are shooting too much, but that they are shooting too much of the same thing. They're burned out, and what worries me is that they are talking about quitting and 'finding something else to do.'
Whenever a photographer I know tells me they're quitting, I get upset for several reasons. One, every single photographer I know did not start their journey in photography with the goal of making money. They started out with the wonder of arranging the chaos of their surroundings into beautiful harmonies. Two, photography, like everything creative, isn't a destination to reach but a journey to traverse and savor. Three, I believe that creativity isn't beyond anyone's reach, and it is one of the most enjoyable states of being. If you combine the joys of wonder, engagement and learning, you've got a heck of a potential for being happy doing what you do.
So how do you know that you're experiencing creative burnout? Here are some ways to tell.
1. You start thinking about your couch in the middle of a shoot.
If you are in the middle of something you supposedly love, and you begin to think of less interesting things like sitting on your couch doing nothing, it's time to step back a bit.
2. Your feet hurt, and a little voice tells you, you shouldn't have booked this one.
Working too much on the same repetitive tasks brings boredom. Your capacity for creativity ranges from the end where you are not challenged and you get bored, to the end where your skills are challenged beyond what you can handle, and you get frustrated.
3. Dramatic lighting leaves you going, Yeah Yeah.
Light is a turn-on for a photog. If great light leaves you indifferent, it's definitely a sign that you're burned out.
4. You don't feel excited about carrying your camera around.
If you have the chance to carry your camera around and the thought itself makes you tired, you have creative burnout.
5. You scoff when people like me talk about passion.
We tend to push away the things that bore or frustrate us. If you are pushing away things that used to sound good to you, it is a sign that the photographer in you is in danger.
If you experience similar signs as the ones above, all of which involve boredom, frustration, or indifference, there are a few simple things you can do to rekindle your love for photography and combat creative burnout.
1. Leave your camera at home, and go to a place you like.
Seeing the world through a viewfinder sometimes gets in the way of experiencing it. This sounds trite, but sometimes a photographer can get so used to viewing everything through the lens that he or she forgets that the world is so much more than that rectangular space. Freeing yourself from the frame can sometimes reframe your perspective and give you the nudge to try to capture what you find beautiful, again.
2. Watch a movie without analyzing lighting and camera angles.
Someone who picks up a camera, sometime in the beginning of their journey, has seen something beautiful and wanted to take that beauty with them. Movies are made the same way. Watching a movie just because it's a great story can help you find a similar simple feeling, and this might be the spark that lights your fire for photography all over again.
3. Engage your imagination instead of your eyes.
The imagination is a powerful source of creative drive. Activating it by asking it to turn on by reading is a great way to open the mind. Opening your mind will help you to free associate, or float from one idea to another in a relaxed way. This free association is often the source of those insights that move you to produce something creative.
 4. Socialize with non-photographers who are creative.
Not just photographers, but musicians, painters, and others have to find their wellspring of inspiration in order to stay creative. Hanging out with creative people gives you a support system for your own creativity, and it also helps you tap into the enthusiasm and love that creative people have for their art. This support system is not essential, but it helps you keep fresh. Hanging out with artists not only is fun, but being in a creative atmosphere can spark imagination.
5. Watch a TED video.
I've been a great fan of TED for a long time, and what attracts me to the videos is the unconventional ways that the speakers think. TED videos open up connections between things that we may never have thought about, and are enjoyable to watch simply because the ideas that are discussed in them are interesting.
6. Get pampered.
Taking time to step back and slow down is something difficult to do these days. You're always connected to a huge community who want to talk to you and have you talk back. There's wi-fi everywhere now pretty much, so it seems you have the obligation to always stay on the grid. But the thing is, attention takes energy, and if you are constantly paying attention, all that concentration is going to wear you down. There is no reason why you can't rest. A little rest goes a long way to rejuvenate your spirit. Going for a foot massage or a facial is something I sometimes do, just to stay still and have someone take care of me. Similarly, if you're not in Asia where those things are very affordable, you can go out for a good meal or sit on a bench in the park and just breathe. There are endless possibilities for simple things you can do to feel pampered, and you can give your concentration abilities a rest for a while.
7. Experience life through your other senses.
With the rise of visual media it's hard not to use our sense of vision all the time, to engage with our world. But as visual authors, we tend to overuse and overwhelm our sense of vision, creating an imbalance. Balancing out our senses, and experiencing life through taste, touch, smells, and sounds might just be the trick to triggering a creative period. Go out for a great meal (or make one), go paragliding or swimming, play with your dog or take your kids out to the zoo, and find your balance through the sensory adventures that you experience.
Creative burnout is something that you might not be able to avoid when you are passionate and driven about photography. But there are signs to let you know when your drive has driven you to burnout. Knowing when to step back, give yourself a chance to rest and refresh your perspective can go a long way to combating creative burnout. Taking care of your creative self helps you to keep the sense of wonder and engagement you found through your photography, where you may find a lifetime of joy and beauty.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage. You might also like:
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Three Things to Love about the Canon 60D
That the 5DMkII's mirror came loose is a blessing.
The 60D this week proved to me that it is a great tool for travel photography. I had traveled with the 60D before, to Bhutan in the wintertime, and I noticed that it suffered a bit from condensation that happened when it was very cold outside—the viewfinder fogged up, and the photos came out with their very own involuntary blurring, which made focusing a challenge. The camera also feels very light in the hands. For someone used to the hefty Nikon D3 combined with the weight of a 24-70mm f/2.8 Nano lens, I didn't feel that the 60D was a solid machine in my hands.
But for the past two weeks in California, I've been using the 60D every day, and it has proven to be a great camera. Three things I have come to love about the 60D are its weight (yes!), the vari-angle LCD screen, and its compatibility with Canon's EF lenses.
Since this assignment requires me to bring three lenses, I've come to appreciate the lighter weight of the 60D. Roaming the countryside from sunup to sundown, the camera sits well in my favorite Crumpler 6 Billion Dollar Home with the 50mm f/1.2, the 16-35mm f/2.8, and the 70-200mm f/2.8. Also always in my bag are an Epson P-7000, extra camera batteries, a notebook, passport, iPod, a polarizing filter in its case, a screw-on ND filter in its case. Usually, the bag would bulge because with the rest of the inventory, I had to pack in the D3, and the bulk of its grip would hit into my hip constantly; the weight of course made my shoulder ache. With the 60D, the bag felt slim, kept its shape, and didn't have the bulging it usually experienced. I've been walking with this sling bag every day for at least 12 hours, I rarely put it down even when making long exposure sunset shots, and my shoulders are fine. The weight of the 60D is definitely a plus for an itinerant photographer.
The vari-angle LCD screen is something I dismissed the first time I used the 60D, but it has become the best part of the camera for me. You can flip the LCD screen so that the LCD is tucked into the camera back to protect it when traveling. When you need to use it to compose, it swivels out and flips 180 degrees. It really makes those low, low angles possible to compose in without putting out your back! I enjoyed this feature a lot since I didn't have to lie down on the cold ground in Yosemite to make low angle shots.
I also found the screen useful for an efficient composition workflow. I composed with the screen and looked at it while adjusting the tripod head, angle, and making decisions about orientation in the image. A great feature is the horizon helper—the horizon bar on the screen shows up green when it's straight, so you don't have to guess, especially if you've got horizon tilt bias, which I seem to have. After the adjustments, I just switch the camera back to the 'info' mode which displays all my settings on one screen, focus through the viewfinder, and then trigger the camera with the remote.
The third advantage of using a 60D is its compatibility with the lenses I use with the 5DMkII. The EF lenses I brought on this trip were bought because of their exemplary quality. These lenses are superb products, and if used well, focus accurately and produce sharp images with vibrant color. They are versatile and fast, useful for small-aperture landscapes as well as low-light portraiture. I don't own a lot of Canon lenses, and these lenses do a wide range of work. So for the lenses to fit the 60D is definitely a plus for the camera.
Honestly, I think the 60D is going to be a mainstay in my bag. And it won't just be a backup camera. It will be a valued tool that will not only help me make images, but help me travel well.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
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Summon Your Inner Gaga
Play is one of the best gifts we receive as children. Being able to play activates a lot of good things. The freedom of composing narrative at the point of utterance, making stories without rehearsal. Spontaneity. Making connections. Flow, and creativity.
Watch young children at play and you'll notice they concentrate so fully that they're oblivious to the confines of time and space.
This is what we can learn from Lady Gaga. She takes her work seriously, but she does it in the manner of play. Gaga's songs are like nursery rhymes, they have simple phrasing so are easy to remember, like those chants we used as kids when we jumped rope.
And seriously, appearing in a dress made of meat?
Critics might say Gaga's simplification of the issues and ideas she wears (the meat, the egg palanquin) might be, well, childish.
Childish is a term Adora Svitak reflected on in her TED talk, where she mentions what happens when children are asked to create. Kids were asked to draw designs in a program called Kids Design Glass at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. One of the designs was Bacon Boy, who has meat vision.
Kids have the audacity, when they play, to make ideas that are uninhibitedly creative.
Imagine what you could do if you approached your photography like a kid would, like Gaga would, in the manner of play.
You'd be free.
You'd be focused.
You'd be fearless.
And you'd have loads of fun.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
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Inspire Your Photos with Poetry
Poetry sometimes takes inspiration from the mundane. Billy Collins' poem "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July†takes its inspiration from the feeling you get when you are being creative. Billy says, "I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna or any river for that matter/to be perfectly honest.†He says he is "more likely to be found in a quiet room like this one…trying to manufacture the sensation of fishing on the Susquehanna.â€
Although poetry is sometimes something you might dislike or are indifferent to, you can take some inspiration from poetry just like the poet can take inspiration from a photograph. "Manufacturing the sensation†is something a photographer does: you create an imagined harmony from something as mundane as a boy with grazing buffalos beside a clear stream; you tell a story with an image. But this descriptiveness of photographs and poetry is just the surface of artistry. There are other poetic devices you can borrow from poetry to inspire your photography.
Poetry has an economy.
Because poems are shorter than say novels or short stories, poets have to pay attention to every word in a poem. Similarly, the economy of a photograph is to include what is essential in the frame, to tell the story. Extraneous stuff that is not essential is discarded, left out.
Poetry is not just sound, it's also silence.
When poets craft a poem, they pay attention to the space around the words—the silence. The silence, where the lines break and the poem pauses, have just as much meaning as the sounds of the words. A photograph has the same quality—there is the subject, and then there is the space you choose to put around your subject. Like a poet, make that space just as meaningful as the focal point.
Poetry uses symbols.
The imagery in poetry is crafted to be symbolic. Sometimes you find an image out of sheer luck, like a vulture hovering over prayer flags for the dead in a Bhutanese hillside. Other times, you have to manufacture the symbol, set up a shot. Crafting your shots so there is a deeper level of meaning in the imagery takes your photography from simple narrative to inspirational insight.
A poem uses repetition to create impact.
Repetition in poetry is never accidental. Poets use repetition to bring emphasis to a point they are trying to make. Photographs can use this same technique to create impact, too. Finding a subject that repeats itself has its own message, especially if the repetition is the message itself. A row of Burmese nuns speaks of the selflessness of their lives—all going in one direction, all looking the same, an absence of individuality.
Poetry has theme and variation.
Poems begin with imagery, but the imagery soon turns into a theme, a message or story. Around you are these same themes—beauty, joy, hope. Whether it is in the combination of elements you are fortunate to be able to capture with your camera or the ways you fill your frame, the themes you photograph have the unique stamp of your vision. They say that there is no new story under the sun, that we have the same stories told in different words. It may be the same with our photographs. It's the same theme, but you put a variation in it that's borne from your own personal vision.
Translating an image in your mind's eye into an image for the eye is what you do as a photographer. Like the poet, you "balanced a little egg of time†in front of people and places and other sources of beauty, and you capture it within a frame, timeless and ready to hatch into someone else's inspiration.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
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Light is the Thing
Make sizzling portraits tip # 4: Make a portrait in good light.
Portraits resonate more with a photography audience because people seem to prefer looking at photos of people, and also because most people alive these days are visual learners. That means we prefer to see things to make sense of them.
A long time ago, when radio was the most common mode of entertainment, most people preferred to learn by listening. Now with more than half a century of television, the advent of the internet and our ability to produce multimedia, we've reached an age of visual references. But with this new profile of the average audience member, photographers also have a new challenge. With the countless choices to look at or watch online, the photograph has to really stand out for it to be noticed.
We could start with content, by making a portrait that has interesting elements.
But content will only go so far; after all, there are sites online which trap attention by titillating their audience. What the photographer needs is great content and fantastic light.
Light is still the thing when it comes to photography. Without dramatic lighting, a photograph doesn't achieve as much impact.
Here are five tips for achieving great lighting in a photograph without it costing too much.
1. Shoot at the right time.
Sunlight remains the most beautiful lighting a photographer can get, and it's free! Scheduling a shoot in the early morning or the late afternoon can do wonders for your portraits.
2. Use a reflector to fill in shadows.
I've talked about how side-lighting makes a portrait dynamic. But at the times of day when the light is best, it also has intensity in one direction, and positioning the subject so he or she is lit from one side produces strong shadows on the other side. Placing a reflector in the shadow side can fill in these shadows and bring out detail.
3. Control the light indoors using a window.
Indoor portraits are great because you can do these any time during the day. Even though the sunlight has become harsh in the later part of the morning, during midday or the early afternoon, you can control window light by positioning your model at the right spot near a window. If you really feel that the light is still too contrasty and the shadows are too deep, you can diffuse the light simply by covering the window with a white sheet. This in effect makes the window into a huge softbox, softening the light and the shadows on your subject.
4. Control the light outdoors using a shelter overhead.
When shooting outdoors, especially when the soft light of early morning has been replaced by the harsh light of midday, you can still shoot some amazing portraits. Looking for something that you can use to shelter the model—a roof, a tree or awning. You can even use a hoodie or a hat. As long as the model's face is in the shade and you are in the light, what you will get is a shooting situation where you can control the light on your subject. (You can even act as a reflector by wearing white to the shoot.)
5. Learn how direction and intensity affect your images.
With a lot of practice, you too can spot good lighting for a portrait by paying attention to direction and intensity, and how these affect your photos. Starting with the basic lighting situations, you can then move on to experimenting with tough lighting, such as high-contrast lighting and backlighting.
Light still reigns as the most important ingredient in a portrait. Without good lighting, a portrait is just a photograph of a person. Using the right lighting, you can make a beautiful photograph that stands out.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
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Take Risks and Improve Your Photography
Someone once said that disequilibrium is a sign of learning.
Defined as an unbalance, disequilibrium hits a photographer when there are new skills demanded by a shoot. Often, it's scary to face something that you have never photographed before, and you scroll through your head looking for something familiar, but those familiar things you find only serve to produce shots you've done before.
How do you make images that are new?
The answer might rest in deliberately putting yourself in a new situation, shooting something you have never before tried.
As an autodidact, a self taught person, I have found that the best times to learn something new is when a shoot stretches me. I purposefully, when time permits, try to set up a shoot that has a skill set different from what I normally shoot. Making images with new challenges brings new scaffolding that you have to scale, pushing you to the limits of your old knowledge and giving you opportunities to gain new knowledge.
I learned how to light portraits. I'm most comfortable lighting people. When I hang out in coffee shops, I even automatically start looking for good light for people's faces, and I'm constantly on the lookout for good portrait lighting in natural settings.
But sticking to one kind of photography, especially when it becomes second nature, is setting yourself up for being stagnant and not growing. If you want to improve by learning new skills, you've got to take a risk and stretch yourself.
So I tried to light and photograph small things. Granted, there is something 'old' in the challenge: I already know the basics of how to light something for a photograph. But there is a fundamental difference in the way you think when you're lighting a person versus lighting a small object. The ratio of subject size to light source is different. When you're lighting stuff, the small things, the light source is much bigger than the subjects. So you're going to have to learn new ways of controlling the light to make some good images.
When I made these images, I learned some fundamental things about how to use light shapers. I used white A4 paper to diffuse the light from the flash units. I relearned how distance affects the intensity of the light on the objects. And one of the most interesting things I learned is how the angle of the light can create unwanted hotspots in the objects.
The images don't really excite me. I mean, there must be a lot of people out there who can light jewelry and watches better than I can. But that isn't really the point. The point of the whole exercise was the process of learning. By taking a risk and shooting something I had never shot before, I learned a lot about lighting.
David duChemin talked about taking risks, and apart from how it applies to how we approach life, I think it also applies simply to how we get better at something. Without taking an extra step toward what we don't know, we may never know. And being able to know might be a risk worth taking.
What about you? What risk will you take with your camera this week?
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
See How Easily Your Photos Can Create Impact
Making Expressive Portraits
Five Variations on a Theme: Shooting Silhouettes
10 Things a Photog Can Learn from Golfers
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer
Cut the CRAP–Just Take Pictures
See How Easily Your Photos Can Create Impact
A peculiar vocabulary exists that photographers use to describe photos. "Moody,†"bright and happy,†"cheerful,†and once, I even saw "brooding.â€
That the vocabulary exists means that there's a certain feeling we get from an image. Looking at some of the words we use to talk about imagery we look at suggests that maybe there is something we can do while we're making images that creates the emotional effect in our audience. If we can do this, we achieve what we always want every time we click that shutter: to create a memorable, impactful image.
Creating an impact with your image begins with the concept you're after. Rules aside, what do you want your image to make us feel? Often, the conceptualization is where you can distinguish your images from someone else's.
I've written before about creating impact with decisions about color, or by design and composition, or using shadows and light. I've also mentioned what I call subjective exposure—an exposure that is made because that's how I feel rather than following a technical process for getting a correct exposure.
Subjective exposures can be creative, and they involve the heart rather than the head.
If I want to give you a sense of winter in a shot, I'll use Auto white balance since it produces images that are less warm than say, Cloudy white balance. Then, I might overexpose a lot using exposure compensation in Aperture mode. This is a simple way of creating a high key image, an image that is overexposed but artfully so.
Some people will say this is bad because you lose a lot of detail in the shot. But what if that was the effect you wanted? What if you wanted beauty to float in a cloud of nothingness?
Similarly, you could underexpose the heck out of an image for effect.
The Balinese make offerings to spirits daily. For those of us who are not Balinese nor scholars of their culture, seeing the intimate act of communing with spirits that live amongst the trees and flowers of Bali feels like a sort of intrusion. But the Balinese make their offerings because they believe it is part of the balance of life. They really don't mind the photographer with the telephoto lens, especially if you are far away.
I underexposed the photo to give it the mystery I felt while documenting the offering this woman was making to the spirits. The underexposure cut out the distracting background, and it also accentuated the light that fell on her face as she prayed.
Sometimes, when you let go of the rules that tell you what a good exposure is, you discover something about making images that create impact. You might make photos that don't look like everyone else's.
Now, wouldn't that be something.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
Making Expressive Portraits
Five Variations on a Theme: Shooting Silhouettes
10 Things a Photog Can Learn from Golfers
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer
Cut the CRAP–Just Take Pictures
Five Variations on a Theme: Shooting Silhouettes
One of the favorite themes of shooters is the silhouette. Silhouettes are the result of exposing for bright light behind a subject. The camera underexposes anything that is in front of the bright light, resulting in a photo that features a darkened shape—the silhouette.
Silhouettes are one of the creative ways to interpret a scene. With some basic techniques, you can create stunning silhouettes.
1. Look for familiar shapes against a brilliant sky.
This photo is of one of the most recognizable bridges in Burma, the U Bein Bridge. It is a long bridge made of teak wood, and in the evenings, you can see locals cross it, walking their bikes. The sunset was brilliant on this day, so I decided to include a lot of the amazing sky by using a very wide lens. It's important to wait until the people in your frame are separate shapes, not 'stuck together' because they are passing each other, like in the right side of the image where there is a crowd of people watching the sun set. If they are parts of the same shadow, you will get some unrecognizable lumps in your image which are, needless to say, confusing for the audience.
2. Shoot silhouettes in naturally occurring frames.
If you are indoors, you can use doorways and windows to provide back light for your silhouettes, adding a geometric frame to your image. This image in Burma was taken at a temple, and the man and woman who were passing one another looked dynamic framed within the graceful arches of the temple entrance.
3. Stack elements in the image.
If you are faced with a landscape of hills overlapping with some structures in front, like in this sunset photo of a temple on Inle Lake in Burma, you can create an image that has scale. I also waited for some light rays to show up when clouds obscured part of the streams of strong light coming from the setting sun, giving the image added drama. Stacking elements in the image works only if there is a gradation in the silhouetted shapes, or that some shapes are lighter than others, and some are darker. With the different intensities of shadows in the silhouette, the image becomes more dramatic because the gradation adds depth to the photo.
4. Partial silhouettes work, too.
This partial silhouette of an archer against a brilliant sunset sky in Bhutan is dramatic because even though his identity is obscured by shadow, we see the color of the ribbons of winning archery shots he's made that day, and the ends of his arrows.
Also notice that I had a low viewpoint. I actually noticed the sky, and then immediately crouched with my camera almost resting on the ground, tilting it at an angle so it would catch the archer and the beautiful sky behind him. Getting a shot from a low angle gives you more brilliant light behind your subject, and makes it easier to create a silhouette.
5. Same principle, opposite effect. Or, breaking the rule.
Most silhouettes are dark shapes against bright light. What if we reversed the exposure and underexposed on the background? The result is that the exposure on the sliver of light on a person can outline them against a very dark background—sort of a reverse silhouette. This is called 'rim light' because it traces the rim of a subject.
In this photo, I decided to create a 'reverse silhouette' because the rim light and smoke made for an interesting graphic composition. It's a ridiculously underexposed image, but I like it.
So there you are, four basic techniques for making silhouettes, and one rule breaker. If you're looking for an outdoor project that you can do for a couple hours after work but will get your creative juices flowing, why not try a silhouette or two this week?
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
10 Things a Photog Can Learn from Golfers
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer
Cut the CRAP–Just Take Pictures
Let the Shadows Speak
Going to Burma
Shoot Themes When You Travel
Spice up your travel photography tip # 5: Use themes to shoot your travel stories!
Travel photography is about telling stories about places through your photos. Usually, a photographer travels somewhere and tells the story of the place they are visiting using some common themes, like landscapes, portraits, documentary, night, and wildlife. The variety of images that you can shoot to show what a place is like is as wide as the range of human activity in any country. But how can you avoid shooting the same scene, over and over, only in a different place?
The answer to this question may rest not in the exotic and most far away place you can afford and access. It may not rest in the type of equipment you own and can lug around when you travel. Maybe the answer rests in how you approach the image making.
The way you think about what you are shooting could be the most important set of decisions you could make to spice up your travel photos.
Going out on different days intending to shoot different themes is a way I've spiced up my travel photography. While I am open to opportunity and do not let the day's theme limit what I capture, I try to keep the theme in mind as I walk about, and attempt to tell the story through the theme, throughout the day.
In Vietnam recently, I spent a day photographing how Vietnamese transport things from one place to another.
In Burma, I looked at how the Burmese work.
And in Bali, it was a natural choice to look for the Balinese sense of balance.
Looking for images that follow a theme can be a creative way to look at cultures from a novel perspective. With a bit of forethought, you can spice up your travel photography and maybe even understand a little more about the place and people you're visiting.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
Eat Lots of Colors!
Keep Your Camera in Motion
Playing with Monochrome Picture Mode
Don't Put Away Your Camera Away After Sunset
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer
Let the Light Inspire You
Playing with Monochrome Picture Mode
Spice up your travel photography tip # 2: Play with Monochrome Picture Mode
Sometimes, I get too serious.
I mean, walking around in a place I haven't been, enthralled by all the new things I see, I sometimes forget that the best thing to do with my camera is play. That's right, play: that state of experimental joy that feels good in itself because it's relaxed and holds no pressure.
Walking around in Hoi An in the middle of the day, it is hot. The shadows are sharp, the light is harsh. The common response is, put the camera away, have a superb Vietnamese coffee, and practice portraits by people watching, take a nap in the air-conditioned hotel room until the light softens and turns a warmer color in the late afternoon.
Or, keep walking with the camera on Monochrome Picture Mode and make some monochrome images.
I decided to play with this feature of the 7D and learned some new things.
Shoot in RAW + JPG
Most dSLRs now allow you to choose both RAW and JPG as the output files when you shoot. RAW isn't really a picture file per se; it's a composite of all the information the camera gets when you take a photo. So if you choose Monochrome Picture Mode and shoot in RAW, you're still taking all the good stuff from the scene you captured even though the image shows up monochromatic in your LCD display. Shooting the extra JPG file gives you a 'true' monochrome image, processed in camera.
Play with Exposure Compensation
Shooting JPGs will allow you to hone your skills in shooting black and whites. The fun part of shooting black and white is getting to use and learn about exposure compensation. This is the 'plus' and 'minus' calibration line you see on the top display of the camera. Plus on a Canon means you compensate by 'adding' more light or overexpose, and minus on a Canon means you compensate by 'subtracting' light or underexposing. What do these pluses and minuses do? They actually allow you to make images darker (minus) or brighter (plus). (And you can use exposure compensation even when you shoot in color.)
Make Subjective Exposures
Black and whites need pronounced blacks and glowing whites, so you can use exposure compensation to make what I call a subjective exposure—an image that looks like what I have in mind. This means you can underexpose or overexpose to taste, and play with the amount of light you let in the camera when you capture the image.
Playing with the Monochrome Picture Mode on your camera while traveling can help you have fun and learn something new about controlling how you make images.
Up next: Spice up your travel photography by shooting motion, right here on Imagine That!
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
Don't Put Away Your Camera Away After Sunset
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer
Let the Shadows Speak
All You Need is a Window
Let the Light Inspire You
The Beginner's Guide to Photography's Holy Trinity
11 Ways to Build a Better Photo
It's Fun to be an Amateur
The other day I heard someone say about a friend, "Oh, he's an amateur," with a little pout accompanying the statement. The term sounded belittling.
But the origins of the word amateur suggest that the term means someone else entirely. From the French for "lover of," and the Italian "lover," the original denotation of amateur gives us the picture of someone who so loves the idea of something that he or she pursues it, enamored, obsessed, breathlessly in love.
Sometimes, it's more fun to be an amateur. In photography, it's the distinction between making money for taking photographs or doing it for free. For some reason, this is the most commonly understood distinction. But whether or not you are paid to take photographs, there are some qualities of an amateur that it would be to our advantage never to abandon.
Amateurs are in love with their craft.
You know that old saying that when something finally becomes a "job," it becomes tedious? An amateur never feels bored. He will shoot every day if he could. I remember back in the day when I assisted for a well-known photographer, when he and I were both working at the same place. We would clock in every day at work and whenever we got the chance to get out of the workplace, we would just shoot. Weekends were special because they were times when there was nothing else except photoshoots to do. Long holidays were even better; they meant days and days of getting up early, shooting all day until the sun went down, and then lingering over dinner talking about images, about camera settings, workflow, anything and everything to do with photography.
Amateurs hold their photography like something precious and turn it this way and that way, admiring the wonderful qualities of it, and making themselves happy as a result.
Yearning for a shoot session sometimes gets to be too much. Like missing a lover, the amateur misses their craft.
Obsession develops a love affair in the initial stages. There is always a honeymoon stage, when the lover cannot get enough of their beloved. Because there is so much to learn in photography, it's like what someone said about falling in love with the world: "If we listened to a work of Mozart every day, we would be happy for a hundred years!" An amateur pays attention to details. No detail is small enough to notice. This sort of attentiveness fuels more energy: when you pay attention, you learn more and get better. So the improved results will inspire the amateur to get better and better.
Amateurs are not motivated financially. Being a freelancer and having income coming in from writing, teaching in addition to photography makes it easy for me to have the attitude of an amateur. The best part is not having to take jobs that I don't like, for instance, weddings, unless it's in Goa, India or Kathmandu, Nepal, or Langkawi, Malaysia and I can combine it with some travel. I can still do personal projects, ones that do not have any remuneration but are interesting and that stretch me creatively or technically. I think it's really important to have time for these projects because these are where you truly experiment and learn new things.
Learning new things is exciting to an amateur. With all the workshops that so many people are offering now, it's hard not to come across one that might teach you something new, that could take your photography into a whole other level. It's very important not to think that you know it all and that no one else can teach you something new. I constantly learn from everyone I meet–whether on Twitter or someone's blog, or reading a book, magazine, or watching a Youtube video. One of the best qualities of the amateur in my opinion is the lack of formal training. Sure, it might take you longer to reach technical proficiency on your own. But you also have an enjoyable lifelong challenge of learning so much, and if you paced yourself right, it could become one of the more pleasurable things about your status as an amateur.
One of the best things about amateurs is that you are not in a box, the box of your formal training. Instead of this being a disadvantage (you don't have a paper that says you are a "certified photographer"), it could be a great advantage. You're open-minded to what is out there, and you will experiment. Experimentation fuels creativity and inspiration, and in the best-case scenario, you might discover something that makes your work even more dynamic.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer
Let the Shadows Speak
All You Need is a Window
Let the Light Inspire You
The Beginner's Guide to Photography's Holy Trinity
11 Ways to Build a Better Photo
How to Make the Most of Your Photographer
Some of photoshoots require more time invested, yet they remain the most memorable and successful.
Investing time, thought and effort into a project pays dividends for the client. You not only get your money's worth from all the people you've hired, but you also build strong relationships that can only enhance your brand. Giving time, thought and energy into a collaborative effort can create win-win situations that serve as fertile ground for growth, be it for the client or the creative team.
Here are some tips from a photographer's point of view.
1. Communicate ideas as much as possible.
Time spent in planning a photoshoot is time wisely invested. For a photographer, information about the concepts the client has in mind, the colors and shapes and textures of the products she is shooting will help in the creative decisions. For example, light reflecting off a smooth surface behaves differently from light reflecting off a rough surface. If your photographer knows what materials you used to make your product, he or she can decide what sort of lighting suits that product. Similarly, a concept cannot be translated into an image unless the photographer has all the information necessary to 'form a picture' of what the client has in mind. Guessing or leaving this thinking process to the last minute can greatly impair the photoshoot's effectiveness from lack of time to think through the concept and the added pressure of reconciling a lot of novel elements in the process.
2. Give the photographer a lot of chances to make good decisions.
A lot of considerations go into a photo session. One of the most important ones is lighting, especially when there are models involved in the shoot. Different facial structures require different lighting set ups to either hide or show certain features. Introducing your photographer to your models before the shoot can help the photographer to think of the lighting decisions for each model's facial structure and build. Allowing for this to happen by investing time in a meeting between the models and photographer can benefit your brand because the photographer is given more chances to succeed in making images that are interesting and propel the ideas behind your brand.
3. Organize the materials for the shoot.
Photographers pack with great care. A lot of photogs clean their equipment, follow long packing lists, and prepare a lot of small items that can make a difference between a good shot and a great shot. A good photog knows that preparation saves a lot of time; knowing where to reach in the bag when needing something is efficient and good practice.
In the same way, organizing the clothing or accessories can help a photoshoot move along smoothly. For example, organizing the clothes into sets and labeling them clearly with models' names in the order of the shoot can really speed up the work. Because some shoots require a lot of moving and changing of lighting equipment, being ready with the clothing and accessories gives the creative people in your team more time to take so they can create their magic for you.
4. Trust the creativity of your team
You hired the makeup artist whom you thought would interpret the concept well and has great skills to execute it in makeup or hair. You hired the photographer whose vision and images match your brand's beauty.
You must trust their creativity, skill and vision, right? You hired them, not someone else.
In a moment of creativity, the creative person is drawn into flow, a state of seemingly effortless innovation. Trusting this process, for many, have produced great leaps in executing a vision. Interrupting it will stilt the creativity and 'burst the bubble' of concentration, and it is a difficult thing to re-enter at will. If you had planning sessions and every one in the team is conscious of the time you have to make the magic happen, trust that what the creators do, in their own separate domains of skill, are geared toward making beauty for your brand.
5. Respect talent and skill.
If everyone could do what any one else could do, all images would look the same. We would not have any moments when we look at a photo and our breath catches because it is just so what we wanted to say.
The creative world is wonderful because each photographer, each makeup artist, pushes him or her self to do better, to learn something else. If you took this energy and passion and channeled it into your brand, you would have power indeed—power to distinguish your product from the others of the same kind, and power to make people look at your ad twice, catching their breath.
Welcome back and thanks for reading Imagine That! To keep updated with new posts, subscribe to Imagine That! by clicking on the RSS Feed button on the upper right of the Homepage.
You might also like:
Develop a Creative Vision
Change the Way You See
Be a Photographer, Not a Lens Changer


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A recent survey by Assocham's Social Development Foundation has highlighted a significant 25% dip in the country's foreign tourist inflows over the last three months. Several reasons can be cited for this. While the global economic slowdown has certainly impacted the tourism industry in general, the horrific Delhi gangrape in December last — followed by other cases where foreign female tourists were sexually assaulted — has severely dented India's image as a safe tourist haven. It is telling that women foreign tourist arrivals in India have dipped by as much as 35% in recent times.
There's no denying that law and order is a pre-requisite to any tourism marketing strategy. If tourists do not feel safe, no fancy Incredible !ndia campaign can change their minds about visiting the country. As things stand, it is incredible that people still want to consider India as their possible holiday destination. Of course, this is not to belittle India's tremendous tourism potential, bolstered by cultural diversity, picturesque mountains, sandy beaches, amazing architecture, jungle safaris, etc. However, you also have poor tourism infrastructure and unscrupulous touts who will take you to the cleaners.
Unfortunately, India's tourism policy is neither scientific nor can it boast of an inviolable strength. If things continue the way they are, we will continue to lose foreign tourists to other Asian destinations that offer exotic locales at affordable prices. Take Thailand for example. One of the main reasons why the Southeast Asian nation is doing well as a tourist destination — no, this has little to do with Thailand's commercial sex industry — is that it offers something for every kind of traveler. It has been able to achieve this by making concerted investments in its tourism infrastructure — roads and other forms of connectivity, tourism police, financial services, hotels, etc.
As a result, when one arrives in Thailand you have a wide array of options to choose from. You could choose to stay in a budget hotel or a luxury villa, but rest assured that you will be getting amazing value for your money. Meanwhile, stakeholders in the Thai tourism industry also understand that competition might provide more choices, but growing the business requires teamwork. At the micro-level this works out in happy ways. On a recent visit to Thailand, this author found that while foreign tourists were expected to bargain, the failure to strike a deal wouldn't be held against you. Taxi drivers were often willing to direct you to a cheaper mode of transportation in case their fares were beyond your budget.
Such a cordial tourism atmosphere can only come from a well-thought-out tourism policy, with government agencies working diligently with private players. This is one area where India really needs to work hard. Understanding the interconnectedness of the tourism business with other infrastructure issues is the key. If you want more tourist inflows, you need to develop your airports. If you want foreign visitors to experience India's cultural heritage, you need to maintain, restore and renovate your historic monuments. If you want travelers to sample India's eclectic street food, you must enforce minimum hygiene standards for street vendors.
We are far behind countries like Taiwan that have incorporated scientific concepts such as culture marketing — whereby modern products are embedded with indigenous cultural design elements — in their tourism/ manufacturing policies. If we are to leverage tourism as a precursor to trade and investment, and double our foreign exchange earnings by 2016, we must get the basics right. Raising a dedicated tourist police force would be a good beginning.

subset: commoncrawl


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Muschamp hires veteran NFL coach to be defensive coordinator
Dan Quinn, a 17-year coaching veteran who has spent the past 10 seasons in the NFL has been named Florida's new defensive coordinator, head coach Will Muschamp announced.
Muschamp and Quinn worked together on Nick Saban's Miami Dolphins staff.
Quinn has spent the past two seasons with the Seattle Seahawks as defensive line coach, and each of the previous eight NFL seasons he has been a defensive line coach including with the New York Jets (2007-08), Dolphins (2005-06 and San Francisco (2003-04).
Muschamp has now filled eight of his nine vacant coaching positions.


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What's on in York: "Viking Life in York" with Tom Gibson at Bedern Hall
Created by Steve Galloway on Wed, 20 Sep 2017
Resizes to fit all devices. Laptops, desktops, tablets and phones.
Tailor your site to your needs and available time. Use it to it's full blogging potential, or simply as a business card in an online space.
Choose between design themes, with more to come
Jackie Porter
A great picture, making the most of the space in this theme. Regular stories keeping site up to date. Full range of contact details for local residents. Well done Jackie!
Works as a personal site or ward site shared with colleagues
Read the latest from across the country. With the My Councillor feed.


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The Office for iPad debacle has been the subject of much navel gazing here at Eyeful Towers. The latest solution to the conundrum has come from some very clever people who have been gazing in a definitively more meteorological direction (see what we did there?).
There are technical reasons why the iPad cannot support Office but most of the obstacles on this path have been of the legal/financial/proprietorial variety. With both parties unwilling to open the front door and let the other one in, a stalemate remains.
Outside of the main protagonists there have been huge efforts made to bring iPad and the Office suite together. Lots of great ideas have fallen under the mighty wrath of corporate jousting but some, like our friends at SlideShark, have come up with ingenious systems that really work.
Another of these clever little 'get rounds' is just emerging from beta testing and can be accessed at a cloud near you right now.
InstallFree Nexus are the latest people to bring the unwilling together and the secret of their offering is based on the good old theory of neutral territory. InstallFree Nexus utilises cloud computing to bring iPad and Office together ethereally. By logging into their site and linking to your (pre-existing) cloud storage account you can access and use the Office suite of programmes.
A free account will give you access to limited functionality and a subscription will give you full functionality. They have also cleverly inserted the 'full version' icon into the ribbon; allowing you to find it easily when frustrated and giving a whiff of Microsoft collaboration to the gossip mongers amongst us!
So here they are; iPad and Office in sweet harmony, touch screen responsiveness and full functionality. Enjoy the moment – there's a 'but' coming….
The whole kit and caboodle can only be used to author, edit and present when you are online. It's not a deal breaker, but if you want to use it for sales presentations on the move you'll need to make sure that the internet is available, accessible and reliable wherever you may be.
After all, even a beautifully optimised presentation is no good if no-one can see it!
Tags: Apple, Eyeful Presentations, Microsoft, PowerPoint, Presentation Technology, Presentation Tools, Sales, Slideshark


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Anarchy Enterprises Protection: Steam
Ripped: -
Lock and Load! It's time to Kick Ass. Grab your machine-gun, flamethrower, rocket launcher and grenades. Assault the enemy base and free commandos to join your team while you destroy everything in sight. Make your way through enemy bunkers to rescue your comrades, and kill everyone else you encounter!


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THERE was a day of celebrations yesterday at Kingsmead Care Home in Eastcott as three residents celebrated landmark birthdays.
Michael Coomer turned 70 and Sissy Melton enjoyed her 90th while Freda Comer turns 103 today.
Staff at the home put on a joint party for the trio where they all enjoyed a piece of specially made cake alongside family members.
At 103, Freda remains full of life and has her heart set on getting another telegram from the Queen.
She said: "I got a card from the Queen when I was 100 but she doesn't send another until people turn 105 so I have another two years to wait.
"It is lovely to be able to celebrate here with friends and family. I have had a wonderful time."
Born in Cricklade, the mother of two has lived in the Swindon area for much of her life, spending many years working on the family farm in Highworth.
She said: "When I turned 14 I moved to London to go into service because there were not many opportunities for girls back in those days.
"I worked as a maid for a number of years. I lived in Sussex for a few years with my husband."
When the war broke out the family moved to Highworth, where she worked on the farm. While it was hard work, she says it provided the key to her long and enjoyable life.
"I worked with my brothers and sisters on the farm for many years and while it was tough we were always laughing and had a smile on our faces. We had to do all kinds of jobs in the field but the whole family had fun. That is the secret. To make sure you have fun and enjoy yourself."
Before moving into Kingsmead, Freda lived in Upper Stratton and remained active, still going fishing at the age of 97.
It is the first time the home has had such a collection of landmark birthdays at the same time so the manager felt it was important to celebrate it.
Manager Nicky Poole said: "It is quite an occasion to turn 103 and with the other two birthdays we had to do something to mark the event."


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Luny Tunes
- Not to be confused with Looney Tunes, an American animation franchise.
|Luny Tunes
|Dominican Republic
|Years active
|Mas Flow Inc.
Universal Music Latino
|Associated acts
|Noriega, Tainy, Erre XI, DJ Nelson
|Francisco Saldaña (Luny)
Víctor Cabrera (Tunes)
|Notable instruments
|Drum Machine
Fl Studio
Electric guitar
Electric keyboard
Luny Tunes are a Dominican reggaeton singers and production duo consisting of Francisco Saldaña (Luny) and Víctor Cabrera (Tunes) who have been known for creating unique musical rhythms for some of the most popular reggaeton artists since the early 2000s.
- 1 Biography
- 2 Musical career
- 3 Discography
- 4 Awards
- 5 See also
- 6 References
- 7 External links
Francisco Saldaña was born on June 23, 1979, and Víctor Cabrera was born on April 12, 1981. Originally from Lynn, Massachusetts and native to the Dominican Republic,[1] they originally started working at the Leverett House dining hall at Harvard University before their commercial success as reggaeton producers.[2]
Musical career[edit]
2000–2003: The early years[edit]
Luny Tunes was reggaeton's first major hitmaking production team, cranking out an assembly line of hit singles, club anthems, and CD mixtapes, all the while collaborating with many of the style's top vocalists. Ivy Queen was the first person to work Luny Tunes when they produced her single "Quiero Saber", as she trusted their talent.[3][4] Luny Tunes were given their big break by DJ Nelson, a reggaeton pioneer who recognized their production talents, which had been well showcased on Hector & Tito's A La Reconquista (2002), and signed them to his Flow Music label.[1] Luny Tunes in turn made their major-label debut, alongside another promising young production talent, Noriega, on Mas Flow (2003). The CD mixtape featured most of reggaeton's top vocalists of the time (Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Tego Calderón, Wisin & Yandel, Hector & Tito, Zion & Lennox, Baby Ranks, Nicky Jam, Trebol Clan, and many more) and firmly established the duo as a go-to production team. The CD was a huge commercial success in Latin America and was one of the top Latin albums in the United States.
2004–2007: Rise to international fame[edit]
The following year Luny Tunes continued to further their reputation, establishing themselves as hitmakers when "Gasolina," one of their numerous productions featured on Daddy Yankee's Barrio Fino (2004), became a worldwide hit and club anthem. In addition to Barrio Fino, Luny Tunes also contributed productions to acclaimed albums by Don Omar (The Last Don, 2003) and Tego Calderón (El Abayarde, 2003), as well as albums by Eddie Dee (Los 12 Discípulos, 2004), Ivy Queen (Diva, 2004), Zion & Lennox (Motivando a la Yal, 2004), Nicky Jam (Vida Escante, 2004), and Trebol Clan (Los Bacatranes, 2004) — all of this within a two-year span. Their instrumentals and musical styles were creating a new standard in reggaeton in general.
In 2005, Luny Tunes released Mas Flow, Vol. 2, their first all-new album since the previous volume, and in 2006 they released a third, Mas Flow: Los Benjamins, along with a second compilation of previously released material, Reggaeton Hits, which had been preceded by a prior best-of collection, La Trayectoria (2004). Luny Tunes then remixed Janet Jackson's hit single "Call on Me", which featured Nelly.[5] The next mixtape dropped in 2007, Los Benjamins: La Continuacion, not long after the duo's second volume in the Kings of the Beats instrumental series. By this point, Luny Tunes were employing various assistant producers and artist: Producers (Tainy, Jose M. Gomez, Nely "El Arma Secreta", Doble A & Nales "Los Presidentes", Mr. G and many more), who were employed as part of the Mas Flow Inc. production factory. As of 2007, they have produced more than 500 songs.
Luny Tunes are also known for bringing up new producers in the genre such as Nesty "La Mente Maestra", Naldo, Tainy, Nely "El Arma Secreta", Bones "The Musical chemist", Thilo "La Navaja de Doble Filo", Miki "La Mano Bionica", Madmusick (Yan & Yon)"
In 2008, Luny Tunes got back on their signed duo Erre XI to Mas Flow. After their signing, the duo released their full-length debut album titled Luny Tunes Presents: Erre XI which spawned the single "Carita Bonita" featuring Pee Wee of Kumbia All Starz.
In 2009, Luny Tunes signed Dyland & Lenny to Mas Flow. They started their career in late 2009 with "Nadie Te Amará Como Yo". Then they were featured on the Luny Tunes produced track "Rompiendo Cadenas" by Latin Grammy recording artist Ana Bárbara. In 2010 they released their debut album My World. Their biggest hits from the album are "Nadie Te Amará Como Yo", "Quiere Pa' Que Te Quieran" and "Caliente" Produced by Madmusick (Yan & Yon).
In 2010, the duo produced work for Ivy Queen on her seventh studio album Drama Queen including "La Vida Es Así", "Cosas De La Vida", and "Aya Aya". As well as on her eighth studio album Musa, later in 2012.
In 2012 they produced a song for Farruko's album The Most Powerful Rookie. Among other albums they worked on was Daddy Yankee's Prestige. Luny Tunes released the coverart for the third edition of the Mas Flow series, Mas Flow 3. The album will feature Don Omar, Wisin & Yandel, Alexis & Fido, Zion & Lennox, Plan B, Jowell & Randy and among others.[citation needed]
Luny Tunes currently reside in Puerto Rico where they own a studio estimated to be worth around US$3.5 million.[6] On September 25, 2007 it was announced that Luny Tunes entered a five year production agreement with Fuego Entertainment.
Main albums[edit]
- 2003: Mas Flow
- 2005: Mas Flow 2
- 2006: Mas Flow: Los Benjamins
- 2017: Mas Flow 3- El Disco Que Nunca Saldra
Compilation albums[edit]
- 2004: La Trayectoria
- 2004: Luny Tunes Presents La Mision 4: The Take Over
- 2006: Reggaeton Hits
- 2007: 20 #1's Now
- 2007: 20 #1's Then
Instrumental albums[edit]
- 2004: The Kings of the Beats
- 2006: The Kings of the Beats 2
Re-release albums[edit]
- 2004: Mas Flow: Platinum Edition
- 2006: Mas Flow 2.5
- 2007: Mas Flow: Gold Series
- 2007: Los Benjamins: La Continuación
Production discography[edit]
- For further information see Luny Tunes production discography.
- Latin Billboard Awards 2004: Más flow - "Tropical Album of the Year / Duo or Group"
- Latin Billboard Awards 2004: Más flow - "Tropical Album of the Year / New Generation"
- Reggaeton People's Choice Awards 2004: Luny Tunes - "Producer of the Year"
- Latin Grammy Awards 2005: Barrio Fino - "Best Album of the Year / Urban" (as Producers)
- Reggaeton People's Choice Awards 2005: Luny Tunes - "Producer of the Year"
- Reggaeton People's Choice Awards 2005: Mayor Que Yo - "Best Song of the Year"
- Reggaeton People's Choice Awards 2005: Mas Flow 2 - Best Album of the Year"
- Latin Billboard Awards 2006: Luny Tunes - "Producer of the Year"
- Premios Lo Nuestro Awards 2006: Mas Flow 2 - "Best Album of the Year / Urban Category"
- Furia Musical 2007: Luny Tunes - "Reggaeton Producers of the year".
- BMI Latin Awards 2007: Luny - "Songwriter of The Year".[7]
See also[edit]
- ^ a b Reggaetonline.com - Luny Tunes Biography
- ^ The Harvard Crimson :: Arts :: Cooking with "Gasolina";
- ^ "Funnu Business: How Luny Tunes Animated Reggaeton". Vibe. March 2006. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
- ^ "Luny Tunes y sus artistas". Terra Networks. Telefónica. 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2013-02-26.
- ^ Janet Jackson & Nelly - Call on Me (Luny Tunes Mix)
- ^ YouTube - Broadcast Yourself
- ^ [BMI's 2007 Awards]http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/534664


text:
GRANT 181-14 Formula 4 Steering Wheel 14" Dia. Black/SilverProduct images may differ from actual product appearance.
GRANT 181-14 Formula 4 Steering Wheel 14" Dia. Black/Silver
Optimization is essential to achieving a quality look and feel that a performance? Driven customer is looking for. The Formula Series is the gateway to the enhanced driving experience. Featuring a comfort grip molded with Grant's exclusively formulated polyurethane that meets OEM standards for color fastness and outdoor marine use, the quality design and dependability ensures that this wheel is not only built to last, but built to satisfy. Slightly larger in diameter and more modest in ergonomic design, this four-spoke model offers a more distinctive cruising characteristic, which coordinates well with open helm and larger cockpit area applications. The larger, 14" diameter and spoke arrangement allows more open space in the bottom center of the wheel for additional hand rest positions. The silver anodized spoke matched with subtle.


text:
BaseCamp is designed to make competent campers and climbers out of those with little or no experience. Inside our facility, campers will become prepared for a two-day, overnight hike-camp-climb which takes place on the last two days of the session.
Advanced BaseCamp is a high-adventure camp for kids ages 12 to 16. These campers are expected to have the skills taught at BaseCamp. Campers will spend just one day in the gym, preparing for the next 5 days, which they'll spend on the trail and at the crags. We will hike in, setup a primitive campsite, climb, swim, and go caving just outside of Chattanooga.
Faculty Information:
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text:
Supporting our team members with great healthcare and wellness programs is a strong component of our culture.
(PRWEB) September 16, 2013
Secure-24 Inc. - a leading provider of IT operations, application outsourcing and cloud computing– has been designated as one of Michigan's Best and Brightest in Wellness™, an honor that recognizes companies that have high quality and excellence in worksite health promotion.
Secure-24 will be honored among other winning companies at a breakfast celebration and symposium on October 3, 2013 at the VisTaTech Conference Center in Livonia. The symposium and awards gals is presented by the Michigan Business and Professional Association, Wellco, CORP! magazine and the Michigan Food and Beverage Association. The Best and Brightest in Wellness(TM) winners were evaluated by using the WellCompanies™ assessment, created and administered by Wellco, the nation's leading wellness systems firm.
"Supporting our team members with great healthcare and wellness programs is a strong component of our culture," said Mike Jennings, Chief Executive Officer of Secure-24. "A healthy workplace boosts productivity, inspires innovation, and increases engagement, so we can provide clients with the best IT solutions."
For the past 12 years, Secure-24 has grown significantly, driven by the increased demand for IT outsourcing and critical application hosting. Through partnerships with global leaders such as SAP, Oracle, EMC, Cisco, VMware, and many others, Secure-24 enables organizations to transform their IT into a strategic business driver with cost-effective technology. These management solutions are targeted at helping companies improve system performance, while being able to do more with less.
The company actively recruits from Michigan-based colleges for top IT talent, providing over 400 jobs in Metro Detroit alone. In addition to competitive compensation packages, healthcare benefits and training, Secure-24 employees enjoy holiday parties, picnics, tickets to sporting events, company sports teams (softball, flag football and hockey), happy hours, catered lunches, free Starbucks service, treadmill workstations, game rooms and free gym access. There also annual awards given to team members for outstanding performance.
In keeping with Secure-24 culture that values each team member's ideas and input, everyone has direct access to senior executives in a company-wide open door policy, which remains an important cornerstone of the organization.
Interested job candidates may visit Secure-24's online job site to learn more about the company's culture and review open positions. Candidates can also learn more information by emailing the Secure-24 recruitment team at jobs(at)secure-24(dot)com.
Life at Secure-24
Headquartered in the Detroit Metro area, Secure-24 is a privately held company delivering managed IT operations, ERP application hosting and cloud computing services from state-of-the-art data centers in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. The company manages complex IT landscapes and business critical applications for mid-market and Fortune 500 organizations that operate globally. Secure-24 is a SAP Certified Hosting and Cloud Provider with a broad SAP Basis Competency Center, and an Oracle Gold Partner hosting Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) solutions, such as Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Hyperion. Secure-24's other alliances include Cisco Premier Partner, Gold EMC Velocity™ Service Provider, VMWare vCloud Powered, Silver Citrix, and RedHat Ready Hosting Partner.


text:
Research Topics
Amy B Pedersen
Affiliation: University of Georgia
Country: USA
Detail Information
- Emphasizing the ecology in parasite community ecologyAmy B Pedersen
Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30605, USA
Trends Ecol Evol 22:133-9. 2007..We discuss insights offered by this mechanistic approach that will be crucial for predicting the impact on wildlife and human health of disease control measures, climate change or novel parasite species introductions...
- Host plant species affects virulence in monarch butterfly parasitesJacobus C de Roode
Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 2202, USA
J Anim Ecol 77:120-6. 2008..5. Our results demonstrate that host ecology importantly affects parasite virulence, with implications for host-parasite dynamics in natural populations...
- Differential sources of host species heterogeneity influence the transmission and control of multihost parasitesDaniel G Streicker
Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Ecol Lett 16:975-84. 2013..Identifying and tailoring interventions to a specific type of key host may therefore enable more effective management of multihost parasites. ..
- Infectious diseases and extinction risk in wild mammalsAmy B Pedersen
Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Conserv Biol 21:1269-79. 2007....
- Patterns of host specificity and transmission among parasites of wild primatesAmy B Pedersen
Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 22904, USA
Int J Parasitol 35:647-57. 2005..Furthermore, nearly all viruses that were reported to infect both humans and non-human primates were classified as emerging in humans...
- Phylogeny and geography predict pathogen community similarity in wild primates and humansT Jonathan Davies
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA
Proc Biol Sci 275:1695-701. 2008..For humans, this means we share a higher proportion of pathogens with the great apes, including chimpanzees and gorillas, because these species are our closest relatives...
- Community epidemiology framework for classifying disease threatsAndy Fenton
Institute of Zoology, London, United Kingdom
Emerg Infect Dis 11:1815-21. 2005....
- Acorn mast drives long-term dynamics of rodent and songbird populationsEthan D Clotfelter
Department of Biology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, USA
Oecologia 154:493-503. 2007..Our results improve our understanding of the complex ecological interactions in oak-dominated forests by illustrating the importance of abiotic and biotic factors at different trophic levels...
- The interaction of parasites and resources cause crashes in a wild mouse populationAmy B Pedersen
Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
J Anim Ecol 77:370-7. 2008....


text:
History of the Businessman [Infographic]
By nowsourcing on January 31, 2012
This infographic from Business MBA takes a look back at how the businessman has evolved over time. The clever concept begins with the caveman, whose business was surviving, and leads you through the renaissance, the depression, and finally to the businessman of today. Source: BusinessMBA.org
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged business, business mba, businessman, career, company, internet, job | Leave a response


text:
Around the Majors: Piazza returns
1) The Mets activated 1B-C Mike Piazza from the DL, called up P Heath Bell, placed P Mike DeJean on the 15 day DL, retroactive to Saturday, and designated OF Brian Buchanan for assignment.
After 17 RCAA/.903 OPS and 7 RCAA/.860 OPS seasons, Piazza is hitting .474 SLG, .371 OBA, .845 OPS, 12 RCAA in his first 101 games. He has a .952 career OPS, compared to his league average of .771, and 445 RCAA in 1562 games.
Bell has a 6.75 ERA/-1 RSAA in his first 2 career games.
After 3.12 ERA/7 RSAA and 4.68 ERA/-3 RSAA seasons, DeJean is off to a 4.57 ERA/1 RSAA start in his first 54 games (first 37 with the Orioles). He has a 4.30 career ERA, compared to his league average of 4.35, and 39 RSAA in 497 games.
2) The Whitesox released P Mike Jackson and called up P Felix Diaz.
After missing the 2003 season, Jackson is off to a 5.01 ERA/0 RSAA start in his first 45 games. He has a 3.42 career ERA, compared to his league average of 4.23, and 115 RSAA in 1005 games.
Diaz has a 9.00 ERA/-12 RSAA in his first 5 career starts (7 games).
3) The Indians sent OF Grady Sizemore to the minors and will call up OF Ryan Ludwick today.
Sizemore is off to a .326 SLG, .301 OBA, .627 OPS, -3 RCAA start in his first 30 career games.
Ludwick has -8 RCAA/.705 OPS in 70 career games.
4) Mets CF Mike Cameron has been out of the lineup for the past 2 games, due to a viral infection.
After 13 RCAA/.782 OPS and 3 RCAA/.774 OPS seasons, Cameron is hitting .496 SLG, .331 OBA, .828 OPS, 11 RCAA in his first 119 games. He has a .783 career OPS, compared to his league average of .775, and 52 RCAA in 1171 games.
5) The Brewers called up P Ben Hendrickson and sent P Travis Phelps to the minors.
Hendrickson is off to a 7.66 ERA/-9 RSAA start in his first 5 career starts (6 games).
Phelps has a 4.34 ERA/2 RSAA in 78 career games, including a 13.50 ERA/-4 RSAA in 3 games in 2004.
6) According to the LA Times, Dodgers 3B Robin Ventura is considering retiring at the end of the season, but the Dodgers want him to return.
After 14 RCAA/.826 OPS and -3 RCAA/.741 OPS seasons, Ventura is hitting .333 SLG, .326 OBA, .659 OPS, -4 RCAA in his first 78 games. He has a .805 career OPS, compared to his league average of .762, and 115 RCAA in 2055 games.
7) Cubs 3B Aramis Ramirez has been out of the lineup for the past 2 games, due to a strained left groin.
After -31 RCAA/.666 OPS and -4 RCAA/.788 OPS seasons, Ramirez is hitting .577 SLG, .364 OBA, .941 OPS, 20 RCAA in his first 115 games. He has a .783 career OPS, compared to his league average of .776, and -21 RCAA in 737 games.
8) The Twins called up OF Jason Kubel and sent P Jesse Crain to the minors.
Crain was stay with the team and will be recalled when the rosters expand tomorrow. He has a 2.45 ERA/3 RSAA in his first 9 career games.
9) Royals OF Ruben Mateo became a free agent when he refused the team's assignment to the minors. Mateo had been removed from the 25 and 40 man rosters when he was designated for assignment on August 22.
10) The Mariners will be mathematically eliminated from winning the division title if (1) they lose to the BlueJays or (2) at least 2 out of the A's, Angels and Rangers win.
11) The Padres passed the Giants into sole possession of 2nd place in the NL West.
12) Mike Piazza tied Carlton Fisk for 56th place on the all time HR list, with 376.
According to Peter Gammons, "There is no greater baseball tool than Lee Sinins' Baseball Sabermetric Encyclopedia. Get thee to Baseball Immortals and order the disc, haste post haste." The product Jayson Stark called "the best invention since the toaster oven!" has gotten even more powerful.
If you enjoy the ATM reports and want to support them, check out my other creation–the sabermetric baseball encyclopedia. It's powerful, yet extremely easy to use. Features extensive sorting, stat display options, and features that are not available in online and printed sources. Order the deluxe package and get a free player comments book. For more information, see
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text:
Turkey: Government scraps virginity tests
The Turkish Government has rescinded a controversial law that allowed school girls suspected of having pre-marital sex to be given virginity tests.
The BBC reports on this development. Also see the call for action which was disseminated last year when Health Minister Osman Durmus, a member of the far-right Nationalist Action Party, called for girls who were not virgins to be expelled from government-run nursing high schools and barred from enrolling in other state-run schools.
Submitted on Thu, 02/28/2002 - 01:00
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- Iraq: Women Suffer Under ISIS: For Sunnis, Lives Curtailed; for Yezidis, New Accounts of Brutal Rapes
- The case of Saba Qaiser and the film-maker determined to put an end to 'honour' killings
- #February6th: The International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (#FGM): Celebrating Victories
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- Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
- Addendum to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences


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The son-father team of Gustavo Vildosola Jr. and Sr. made off-road racing history over the weekend when they became the first Mexican national team to win the overall title of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road race.
Gustavo Jr., 28, and his 57-year-old father teamed in a Ford F-150 TrophyTruck to cover the 1,061.7-mile course in 19 hours and four seconds to defeat NASCAR driver Robby Gordon by 22 minutes and 18 seconds to win both the featured overall four-wheel and TrophyTruck titles.
San Diego's Roger Norman finished third overall in the four-wheel divisions, giving him a first, second and third overall in the past three years.
The Honda factory team of Kendall Norman and Cody Quinn won the overall motorcycle title with a run of 19:22:22 for an average speed of 54.87 mph. It was the fifth overall career win for Norman and his fourth straight. It was also Honda's 14th straight motorcycle win and 21st overall in the 43rd running of off-road racing's greatest race.
The Vildosola team averaged 55.67 mph, marking the first time since 1973 that a four-wheel vehicle posted a faster time than the motorcycles.
"This means so much to us as the only Mexican team running in the TrophyTruck division," said Gustavo Jr. The Vildosolas, who reside in Mexicali, finished second overall in the 2007 race.
Gustavo Jr. started the race in Ensenada and also drove the final leg into the finish at La Paz. Gustavo Sr. drove a technically demanding middle section.
"I was second off the line and we were basically going to see what Norman's pace was going to be and what his plan was for the day and then go from there," said Gustavo Jr. "Roger had a pretty aggressive pace off the line and we just decided to sit back and pressure him. Roger got a flat a little south of San Felipe and we were able to get around him there and really never looked back."
The race had 197 finishers out of 292 starters.
Five-time overall champion Mark McMillin teamed with Escondido's Chuck Hovey to finish 11th overall. The Santee tandem of Robbie Pierce and Mike Julson finished 12th overall and Daniel McMillin, Steve Sourapas and Gary Arnold drove a Chevy-powered open-class buggy to 14th overall.
San Diego's Kevin Carr won the open Baja Bug title.


text:
I have just had the following conversation with ds (19 months)(86 Posts)
Miaou Wed 14-Mar-07 14:38:05
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feetheart Thu 22-Mar-07 22:59:49
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losty Thu 22-Mar-07 22:45:01
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Time to step up and file
To the Editor:
Do you have the willingness and ability to serve in public office? Now is the time to step up and file!
The 2012 election season officially got under way on Tuesday, May 22 with the opening of filings for offices that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot. Candidates can continue to file for office through 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5.
This filing period is for those offices for which there will be a primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 14.
Offices for this filing period include all Minnesota Senate and House seats, five of the six seats on the Anoka County Board of Commissioners, three of five district supervisor positions on the Anoka County Soil and Water Conservation District, offices in local cities that have a primary system, judicial offices, and all U.S. Senate and Congressional seats.
For city and county offices, check with your respective local offices for further candidate filing information.
For state, federal and judicial offices, information is available from the Minnesota Secretary of State's office.
The Secretary of State's office is also hosting a statewide candidate filing page at http://www.sos.state.mn.us/
As the election season progresses, the local ABC League of Women Voters will schedule nonpartisan candidate forums so voters can listen, ask questions and compare candidates' stands on issues.
We encourage all candidates to participate in these forums and we ask citizens, as well, to encourage the participation of their candidates.
To keep these candidate forums fair, at least two candidates for any given office must be present at a scheduled forum in order for the forum to take place.
In the last election cycle, two forums had to be canceled because not all candidates participated. Democracy is better served when voters are informed.
Please join us in these goals of involved citizenship and informed voters.
Arlene Gillett and Geri Nelson
Voter service co-chairpersons, LWV ABC
Societal prejudices
To the Editor:
How will Janet and Angela, a loving, committed couple for 12 years, be impacted if the marriage amendment is written into Minnesota's constitution? I'm really concerned about the inaccuracies and hurtful claims which have been put forth as reasons to vote for the amendment. I believe Minnesotans want and deserve accurate information.
Scientific research has led the medical and psychological community to recognize that gay, lesbian and bisexual orientations are normal sexual orientations. Aside from the pain and stress of discrimination, gay, lesbian and bisexual citizens of Minnesota lead productive, healthy and happy lives. Just as heterosexuals do.
They can form healthy, satisfying and committed relationships with another person of the same sex. My uncle Tom and uncle Jim recently celebrated 27 years of a steadfast and committed relationship.
Committed relationships between same-sex partners are similar in other ways to marriages between heterosexual partners. Studies consistently show that "the development, adjustment and well-being of children of lesbian and gay parents do not differ markedly from that of children with heterosexual parents" (American Psychological Association).
Like other minority groups, gay and lesbian people are often subject to discrimination and violence, including bullying in schools and social media. Damage from the stigma can cause the same stress and resulting physical and psychological issues that are somewhat higher in most minority groups.
Denying civil marriage to our gay, lesbian and bisexual citizens reinforces outdated societal prejudices. It can hurt people who just want to love each other and live in the same way heterosexual spouses love and live. Lack of access to marriage even produces an average economic disadvantage of more than $400,000 for a family.
In a pluralistic democracy, religious authorities have every right to perform or deny religious marriage ceremonies as they choose. But denying civil marriage to citizens, based strictly on sexual orientation, imposes the religious views of some onto each and every citizen; whether a citizen adheres to Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or no religion. I can't look my uncles in the eye and tell them they are inferior and second class citizens because I know better. Lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens are good, bad and in between just like any slice of Minnesotans. If you take the time to get to know them, I can guarantee you will learn the same.
Many inaccurate and inflammatory claims have been spread on this important issue. I believe we deserve accurate information in order to make informed public decisions.
Minnesota already has an unjust law against same-sex marriage. Let's not put that discrimination in our Constitution too!
Dan Rebek