hiligko

What is hiligko? Hiligko is actually 2 words which as follows: “hilig” is the term for “likes” or “hobbies” while “ko” refers to “my” or “mine”. But the phrase itself easily translates to “my hobbies” or “what i like” .

This digital box is maintained by Mamot Reyes. He is a enthusiast of a lot of crafts and always find something interesting with everything he sees. While being a full time programmer pays for the bills, he finds time playing video games, taking photos, shooting short clips, playing the guitar, listening to music, practicing sleight of hand, browsing social media sites to name a few.

Why apple won’t support flash

Ever wondered why iPhones and the iPad doesn’t support flash? Well CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, gives their reasons why it doesn’t fit the “mobile” platforms. Below is the official press release of Steve Jobs.

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

John & Marlen: save the date

This video is for a friend of mine, this was shot on 2 sites. First was on Bedok Reservoir Park and the next was on Sentosa.

I had the pleasure of working with 2 other photo enthusiast, Efren Delos Reyes and Kay Retaga. Click on their names to see more of their work.

Finally the video will surface the earth, see the vid below.

We also created the a website for the couple to show our photos of John and Marlen.

Visit: http://johnmarlen.wordpress.com

We Rule! – iPhone Game

Want t free game for your iPhone? Here’s one that would get you miles. This is a Kingdom simulation game more like the ones you see on Facebook.

We Rule has a simple goal – expand your kingdom (Level up). Expanding your kindom means you buy businesses, decorate your land, put roads on it, put trees, etc. So how do you expand your kingdom? There are 3 ways to do that

1. Farming – you start of with farms in which you can plant different crops. You need to grow the crop by waiting for its grow time like if the crop says 5 mins, then you can harvest it after 5mins. The only problem here is that the crop also gets spoiled after sometime. This is the fastest way to earn experience points and money.
2. Hiring your friend – When you are connected to your friends through Plus+ (an iPhone xbox live like service), they will show as other kingdoms in the main screen. you enter their kingdom and place an order on the business that are open.
3. Your friend hires you – Once you placed a lot of businesses in your kingdom, your friends can order from you the same way you did on the point above.

This  game is very addicting and would take considerably a lot of time and effort on your part to level up.

Again this is free but there are available in game purchases that could help you speed up. They are called mojos, these are used to pay for the time you need to wait to accomplish a task. Let’s say you planted an onion in which you normally need to wait 1 hr before you can harvest it, you can actually use a mojo so you dont have to wait for it to grow.

The good thing about this game is you can still earn mojos without paying anything.  Everytime you level up, you are rewarded with mojos.

This game is highly recommended as it is free!!! By the way, the game has a small banner add on the main screen but doesn’t get in the way when playing it.

Download it here

Final Fantasy XIII Freezing Problems on PS3

I bought this game on launch day (March 9, 2010) for my PS3. To my dismay it occasionally freezes in gameplay. I created a youtube video of it and it seems that I’m not the only one experiencing it. I’m actually quite lucky than others in which their PS3 lens were damaged.

So far i have found ways to go around the areas which freezes my console. I really like this game and hopefully I’d be able to finish it even if it has freezing problems.

Here’s the link to my vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHDPHhQYXBM

PS3 US Message board at http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/Fi…

PS3 US Message board at http://community.eu.playstation.com/t…

Dream Room

Wasn’t there a time when you were young and you wished you can have all that you wanted. I still remember the days when i cried at the mall because I didn’t get what i want. Well that’s just how things work specially if money is involved.

When i was in grade school and high school, there were only 2 things that really mattered to me. Toys and video games. I never really got a lot of toys, and i remember drooling for a Wolverine x-men action figure which till now never existed. Instead i have to build my own wolverine toy out of other generic toys by using candle’s flame to put them together. It’s quite neat in a way but a sad thought.

My favorite toy was my X-men Cable action figure which can launch rockets from its detachable rocket powered backpack. I was very creative on the way i play my toys. I usually play at our backyard in which plants and the ground stage as a forest. Using threads to create rope like bridges is my specialty. cable will have from a tree and slowly transcends the thread downward for a stunt. Boy how I’m thinking now if camera phones were around back then, i would probably have shot my stunts.

Now for video games, I was that my dad has interest in it. We had an Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Sega, Playstation 1 and Sega Saturn for video consoles. We also had Gameboy (B&W) and Sega Game gear back for portables in which we really didn’t use it as a protable gadget as we always plug it.

Now looking back at everything i really wanted, it changed quite a bit. Have you ever dream of a dream room. First think of it as a big room that has all the following gadgets and toys:

Gaming and Movie section

1. the room is sound proof, nothing goes out, nothing goes in.
2. A big LED TV around 60″ or bigger with 3d capabilities and mounted to a wall. If there is actually a very very high quality projector then that’s more like it.
3. Lazy boy couch with a built in massager.
4. A universal touch screen remote control or even a voice enabled control to control every multimedia gadget.
5. Dolby Surround with true HD sounds that would blow your mind because all the sound details are clearly distinct.
6. All the current Gaming consoles (ps3, 360, wii) and unlimited supply of all the current triple A games or whatever games you want. and all the accessories you can find for the consoles like guitar hero instruments dj hero etc.

Computer section:

1. iPad, iPhone, Macbook Pro
2. Fastest iMac with all photography/cinematography applications installed
3. Fastest Desktop PC you can get for HD gaming
4. A very nice customised table for the mac and PC
5. computer chair with massager

Photography section:

1. Nikon D300s
2. A photography Studio with all the softbox and lighting gear you could imagine
3. A very light and stable tripod
4. All top of the line nikkor lenses

Toy Section

1. Well all the toys that you ever wanted.

Well there you go, this is the geekiest dream room you can imagine.

TrueHDR – iPhone HDR

TrueHDR is a little nifty iPhone App which gives the user the ability to create HDR  (High Dynamic Range) images from 2 images capture from your iPhone.

The main idea of HDR is to combine multiple exposures from 2 or more images to properly expose a scene.

For example, here’s a picture of a scene that has some parts that have parts that were underexposed. Well as you can see (or you can’t see) there’s actually a field below the clouds. Normally on an iPhone, you need to touch the area of the scene were you want your photo to adjust its exposure to.

Here’s another photo of the same location, this time i focused on the fields so the iPhone Camera app should adjust the exposure of the photo to properly expose the fields. But just look at the clouds. Actually where are the clouds?

Now HDR would help you fix this problem, well technically it’s not a problem, its a hardware limitation of cameras. TrueHDR will let you combine these two photos. It’s going to assume which sections of the photo should it use from photo 1 and photo 2 or which sections should it combine photo 1 and photo 2.

Now TrueHDR cannot let you tone map but you’ll be surprised how well it works. Lets see the final image.

Now can you take a look at that. Isn’t it amazing that your iPhone can do HDR photos. Now the limitations of TrueHDR is that it can only use 2 photos at a time to create an HDR image. Normally you would use 3 or more images but hey, its an iPhone app and really handy on certain situations. It also doesn’t have any settings for you to adjust tones after it combines the 2 images. Sometimes i have problems with it as you will get dark images from time to time.

So Iphone HDR photography at its best. Click here to buy the app.

Playing to iPhone’s Camera Strengths

iPhone 3Gs isn’t really known for its camera. As a matter of fact, it is inferior to most of the current gen smartphones out there.

It shoots 3 megapixels of a bit of ok to good quality of photos. It doesn’t a have a flash which is why isn’t useful on low light situations. It has a tap to focus feature which is really handy and compensates very well for exposures of sections that you tap on screen.

It can record VGA up to 30fps and sure is very handy.

The geotagging is really nice as you can use it along with your main camera if you want to geotag photos later.

So what can iPhone’s camera offer that would be superior to other smartphone cameras? megapixel? nope. flash? nope. very detailed quality photos? nope. high quality videos? nope. geotagging? yep. 3rd party support? you got it baby!!!

So the iPhone’s camera wasn’t really designed as a replacement to any compacts or DSLRs but it can be used for everytday use where you dont actually have your compacts/DSLRs with you. One of the advantage of having 3rd party support are as follows:

• Easily upload to
  • Social network – facebook anyone? Twitter. – add me @hiligko
  • blogs – wordpress, tumblr, blogger, etc
  • photo sharing sites – flickr, picassa, etc
  • Messengers – Yahoo Messenger, MSN, etc
• Post Processing
  • HDRs – True HD, Pro HDR, etc.
  • Color correction/enhancement – Photogene, Photoshop Mobile, Night Camera, etc.
  • Lens correction – Tilt shift generator, Lenses, etc.
  • Create Panoramics – VideoPano, etc.
  • Effects – Lomo, Iron Camera, Lego Photo, etc.
  • Stylistic Post – Photo Tropedielic, iStalin, etc.
  • Video Editors – Real Director

So, as you can see, you cannot get more 3rd party support on other smart phones than what AppStore has to offer.

iPhone maybe short in terms of hardware functionalities but they have an overwhelming range of Photography Apps available for our consumption to fill in our creative juices.

jQuery Form Manipulation

Here’s a good site to start using jQuery on form manipulations and validations.

It’s splitted it into four parts:

1. http://www.myphpetc.com/2009/10/using-jquery-with-forms-part-1.html
2. http://www.myphpetc.com/2009/11/using-jquery-with-forms-part-2-core.html
3. http://www.myphpetc.com/2009/11/using-jquery-with-forms-part-3_01.html
4. http://www.myphpetc.com/2009/12/using-jquery-with-forms-part-4.html

jQuery makes it easy for us to use javascript.

For more information about jquery, click here.

Download jQuery 1.4.1 here.

Pinoy Signs Gone Bad

I saw this website that posts signs, pictures, billboards from the Philippines that are very funny. All of the images are from http://pinoyfunnypictures.blogspot.com.

Apple unvails iPad

iPad, the newest addition to Apples luxury items to have, has been unvailed earlier today. It looks like a very big iPod Touch.

Home Screen

It does all that an iPod Touch does  plus more. It now has iBooks which i think would change the game of journalism medium big time. It can launch all the Apps that are available in the AppStore and resize it to fit the 9.7″ screen display.

Apple launches their 3rd online store, iBook Store

The design of it really does resemble a really big iPod Touch and of course looks gorgeous. Dimension of 7.47 x 9.56 x 0.5 inches  and a weight of 1.5 to 1.6 pounds (depending on the type of iPad), this piece of gear does really scream Apple design at its finest.

As thin as 0.5 inch

Dimension of 7.47 x 9.56 x 0.5 inches and a weight of 1.5 to 1.6 pounds (depending on the type of iPad)

There will also be 2 version available based on connectivity. A WiFi enabled and a 3G enabled version. The 3g enabled version will cost more but will still have the WiFi built into it. Sadly, it has the limitations of the iPod Touch’s flash storage so it will only be available at 16, 32 and 64 GB.

Apple iPad

This really isn’t the rumored tablet that everyone was talking about. The features are more mobile than a full featured Mac OS X on Mac Books and iMacs. It’s still a good addition specially if you are using an iPod Touch at home and wants a more powerfull and bigger version of it.

For more information visit apple.com/iPad

1st Shoot Aftermath

We already had our 2nd shoot with John and Marlen for their Pre-Nuptial photoshoot. I didn’t expect it to be very exhausting. The experience was entirely beautiful, it was really fun taking pictures specially if it is something that you know someone will deeply appreciate.

Things i have learned  about the shoot:

1. ISO is something to worry about.
2. Play with smaller apertures even if your glass is fast.
3. Direct sunlight doesn’t mean bad pictures, it seems to hit hard on subjects but not that hard on the photo itself.
4. Take details of things like holding hands, embracing, kissing up close.
5. Be very careful when video panning
6. Use tripod when taking video stills
7. Be brave to take the initiative to achieve your vision
8. make a connection with the subject and the subject will connect with your art
9. White outfit means that light will reflect from it therefore adding to the exposure
10. Make sure your Auto Focus is on the right setting, which is AFS on my case
11. Make sure your are on your correct program like Manual or Apperture priority
12. Move around the subject, don’t stay in one angle
13. Closer means clearer picture
14. You would have more sharpness and faster AF with a  Nikkon Glass than a 3rd party glass (if you have a nikon body of course)
15. Post Processing is a pain

Here’s one of the shot s that is overly exposed becuase i forgot to change my setting from Manual to Aperture priority therefore overly exposing my shot.  I changed the exposure in lightroom by -4 and converted it to black and white. Still neat in a way.

My own .com

Finally, after months and months of thinking wheather to get my own domain name, i’ve finally decided.

hiligko.com was still available so i grabbed it. So what pushed me to get it? Well since i have been all over the web like wordpress, twitter, flickr, and others more, I wanted to consolodate it and personalized my web presense.

A slice of that attributes as well to my first ever pre nuptial shoot. I was with my ever talented friends Katrina and Efren. We are still working on our colaboration and i say its going pretty well.

So i welcome everyone to my own virtual box:

hiligko.com

Here’s a pic from our last shoot.

From left to right: Mamot, Nat, John, Marlen, Katrina, Efren

Check out my other links which you can shoot at the right nav as well.

• Photo Blog
• Photos
• Slight of Hand
• Twitter
• Videos

(500) Days of Summer

“This is a story about a boy meets girl. This is not a love story. This is a story about love.”

Wow, this movie is really refreshing. Instead of getting into the story itself, I’d like to mention why this movie is great. Click here for the trailer.

The Characters

Starred by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This is the first time i saw them and they were fantastic.  I won’t spoil it but soon enough you would know why the movie is titled (500) days of summer. I really like the characters in the movie. I think they protrayed it very well. The girl looks is gorgeous and the guy looks really nerdyly wasted.

They are very lovable and you’d be hook on their chemistry. Their moments are just great specially how they talk and look at each other. You won’t believe how insensitive the girl is, which makes it really interesting.

The Story Telling

The way the story was told was really brilliant. In fact you already know most of the story just by the title but it still has surprises. It amazed me that for a moment the story is at day 300 then after that it goes back to day 10 and  just goes back and forth which in a way a bit hard to graspe but it hooks you to pay attention on what happens.

There was also a very funny scene there, where the Screen is split into 2 parts, on the right is the “expectation” of what the guy was hoping to be happening, and the one on the left is “reality” which is what really is happening. I think that was very comical as it shows the present events of what is happening and what’s the guy was expecting to happen in his mind.

Presentation

There aren’t any special effects involve in the movie. The setting is city scape so its like sweet november or serendipity style of presentation. For me it was a mix of old and modern feel.

Sound Track

It’s very good, really fits the setting.  you can preview the soundtrack by clicking here.

Verdict

Everyone should watch it.

Camera Concept 001: Exposure definition

What is exposure, to make it simple enough lets get to its root word.

EXPOSE – “to make known, disclose, or reveal”

So exposing something means you are trying to show it. Now exposure then is the way you actually show the thing you want to show, in this case your images.

So if your image is very dark then you are not showing much, if your image is bright, then you are showing a lot. Which brings us to the variations of exposure which are:

• Over exposed: You exposed too much of your subject, which the camera cannot handle. When your images show brightness to much in which the details of the subject are not shown anymore they are called overexposed. An example of this would be the image below where in the details of the car aren’t  there anymore because it’s too bright.
  
• Under exposed:  You didn’t expose much of your subject. When your images show too much shadows or its very dark on areas that should have not been.
  
• Good Exposure: When your image just have enough highlights and enough shadows to show all the details you want to show.
  

There’s nothing wrong in the variations on exposures, this are tools which you can use  in your images. That in mind, i would like to try and get nice photos of  over exposed and under exposed photos.

Sharp Portraits – Indoor without tripod

Since i got my camera, i have always wanted to take sharp portraits. In a months time, here are the things i have learned to produce sharp portraits.

First you need to know your lighting conditions. Most of the portraits that i take are taken indoors which means that lighting is really poor. Florescent light seems bright to the eyes cause we can easily adjust but the camera meters it as a low light. You also need to check where all the light will be coming from. You also need to take note that indoor lighting will vary during the day when you can get more light from windows.

Let’s start with low light portrait situations like indoor settings.

1. Make sure you are in manual mode (refer to your camera’s manual)
2. Set your metering to spot metering
3. Look at your viewfinder and look at your exposure metering.
   It looks something like the one below. take note of the rectangle at the bottom of the circle in the middle, this is your exposure meter. This tells you if you will get a normal lit image, dark lit image, or over lit image. Basically exposure is the total measure of light that your camera will capture.

   Normal Exposure – this will normally give you a normal lit image:
   
   Over Exposed – the more the meter goes to where the “+” sign is, the  brighter the image will be
   
   Under Exposed – the more the meter goes to where the “-” sign is, the darker the image will be
   
   Well this doesn’t always work specially if your are pointing the camera to a subject with a very very bright background but usually it does.

4. Now make sure your exposure meter is over exposed a bit like the one above.
   To put your exposure meter  to overexposed, you can do the following:
   Aperture – select your cameras widest aperture, f1.4 is wider than f1.8; f1.8 is wider than f2.8;
   Now you need to play with ISO and shutter speed:
   ISO – Use higher ISO sensitivity, make sure you know how high you can put your cameras ISO  but still retain the quality of the picture and have less noise. I use d90 and i find it i always use ISO640 and maximum of ISO 1000 at home.  While playing with the ISO sensitivity, you should already see your exposure meter change.
   Shutter Speed – the slower the shutter speed the brighter your images will be. But take note that to take descent sharp picture in low light, you need to have at least a shutter speed of 1/30 and your subject shoudn’t be moving to much.  if you are already on 1/20 and still doesn’t get an over exposed meter, try to use a higher ISO sensitivity
   Shutter speed will greatly affect the sharpness of your photo specially when it is a moving object.
5. You are almost there, make sure you are positioned not blocking the light and your camera is not shacking while clicking the shutter.
6. Most important is that you focus on the eyes.

Disney Pixar’s Cars

Earlier i tried taking a picture of my son’s collection of Disney Pixar’s Cars. We have been collecting it since 2006 when the movie was released and boy its a pain to collect all of them. So far we only let our son open some major characters on the film. Here’s the image i took with a bit of editing invovled. Click the image to see the enlarged view.

Lantern Festival

I actually do not know anything about lantern festival as it wasn’t celebrated in my country of origin. Here, in Singapore, they have this lantern festival.

Yesterday on my way home, i found people gathering in our park just outside our house. Well its wasn’t really different from last year. There was a stage there and i think they are celebrating lantern festivals. Food was all around, and the stage has a lot of singers. It’s actually a pain to watch TV last night bec the event was to loud, even though it is 500 meters away from our house, we can still hear it.

Then i thought of trying to get pictures from the event. I have never tried taking photos of stage with lights and my photo buddies always wonder if stage have high amount of light.

So i tried to go there and tried to take pictures of stage and performers. I can’t post them bec the stage was to far from where I’m taking them. But what i found out is that stage have high amount of lights so that i can actually take shots using f2.8 with fast shutter speeds.

Here are some of the photos i took from there:

Changing Lenses Tip

My friend visited me last saturday and he showed me his Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 lens. Wow, its big and heavy. I wanted to try it so i got my d90 out and started to release my lens. Then my friend gave me a tip, he said that when changing lens, i should point my camera downwards before i take my lens out. This would lessen the change of dust getting in my camera mirrors.

Ok so basically the tip is that when changing lens, make sure the camera is pointed downwards. Release the lens, then just point the camera downwards until you replace the other lens.

Being Appreciated

i recently tried to browse my first website and see if things are still working on it. To my surprise when i looked at the guestbook, it is still working and the last entry was back in 2002. I browsed the guestbook and found a very interesting link.

http://www.geocities.com/nw_tambayan/

Well to make it simple, i laughed when i saw that this website has a Flash intro. To make it more hilarious, the intro was actually almost the same of of what i have on my first website

http://mamotz.tripod.com

I guess it’s just me, but seeing your work was copied or maybe it wasn’t intentionally makes me laugh. The coolest thing is that the fact that i saw his work 9 years after i actually created the website. OK to be honest my first website doesn’t live up to date but its my personal treasure.

This just makes me feel that my work is being appreciated even a bit.