Tricks With Photography
With the advent of mobile cameras, photography has become one of the fastest growing hobbies. You are now just a click away from a moment that can be savored for the rest of your life. With Apps such as Instagram, you can make your pictures look like a professional’s work but what you can’t really achieve that a professional can is – Trick Photography. The spectacular imagery just seems beyond your grasp. Isn’t it..Well good news… Tricks with photography can look very imaginative and stimulating, but is not very technical and heavy on your pocket. It is basically the combination of your creativity and basic tools of a camera. Digital cameras are all automated to aim and shoot. However if you switch to its manual mode, it opens up the gate to innumerable possibilities that can be created from a simple DLSR camera. Simple manipulations with exposure and shutter speed create magical results. Forced perspectives give rise to many incredible pictures which doesn’t need big money to produce such results.• Perspective effects: Perspective photography means cheating with the foreground and background subjects to create some interesting compositions. The merging of both the subjects create some interesting funny pictures for e.g. A little baby playing with the real Eiffel Tower or a man blowing white clouds in the sky from his mouth. High millimeter lenses diminish the depth between the foreground and background forcing the perspective producing flat 2 D imagery. Bokehs are also very popular perspective tricks.• Exposure Techniques: It basically means the exposure to light to the camera sensor while shooting the subject. It is also related to the time the shutter is open. Here the nature of light is very important. Long and short exposures produce different results. Add to that the different shutter speeds, the permutations become endless. A very common and effective effect is the light trail. Light trail happens when you expose it for a longer period and move your light randomly in any direction. The results are fantastic like graphic designs. Here the imagination is the key as the possibilities are infinite.• Locking the Camera: Lock the camera and start clicking various pictures of the subject and different depths and angles. Then with the help of Photoshop, merge the masked layers of the subjects in each shot thus producing Multiplicity effect. Same technique goes with the Levitating Effect, Flying Effect. Again here the options are endless.• HDR and Infra Red Photography: High Dynamic Range photography is the in thing today. The HDR images carry a great range of brightness and contrast levels. One can mix the images of the same scene shot at various exposure levels. The images look rich and is actually impossible to shoot with a single shot keeping the exposure levels nearly same at all spots of the picture like the sky and the foreground. Infra red Photography is the another technique which produce surreal dreamlike images. Here a filter is used to block the visible light. DSLR’s come with infra red blockers. But with filters one can achieve magical results.• Special Effects with Photoshop: I personally don’t consider this segment as trick photography as it is a technique used after shooting the picture. This is more of a post production work. However today mostly all the photographs are manipulated, composited and enhanced using Photoshop. This makes trick photography very affordable as one can almost produce dynamic result sitting on his home desktop.Tricks with photography are no longer beyond ones reach. With just some imagination and practice one can attain magical results. So go ahead. Flash your best photobooks with your tricky mindboggling photos and some brownies.
Are You a Whining Project Manager or a Problem Solver?
It seems like some project managers (at least a vocal minority) like to whine about perceived shortcomings. It seems like some are more interested in identifying problems instead of solving them.
Baseline.com examined the issue in a story called “Top Challenges Facing Project Managers.” It raised a variety of issues that project managers feel challenged by.
“So what factors contribute to these issues? The top culprit appears to be giving project teams work that has nothing to do with the project itself, according to a recent survey from Janco Associates,” said author Dennis McCafferty.
According to McCafferty, 180 project managers with at least one year’s experience took part in the Janco survey. ” …. there are an assortment of unrealistic expectations, time pressures, staffing shortfalls and inadequate tech resources, findings reveal. Clearly, IT projects need leadership that combines technology savvy with effective business-focused oversight to successfully navigate these hurdles,” he said.
A top challenge for project managers is budget issues. (After all, what manager wishes he or she wasn’t constrained by corporate finances?) There’s also the issue of administrative overhead, too.
The survey equates being overworked with toiling in a sweatshop. That’s a little extreme when one thinks of children working in clothing factories in Bangladesh. That kind of dramatic thinking could also explain why 51 percent of the project managers also feel understaffed. Here’s a tip. Don’t use words like “sweatshop” and you might get a more sympathetic hearing for more staff.
This statement also isn’t helping their cause: “47% of the project managers think they deal with too many fluctuations in tech specifications.” Flexibility is one of the keys of being a good project manager. Some 42 percent of the project managers also say change requests come in too fast.
James Bentham makes that point at Business2Community.com. He says, “Ask any experienced project manager and the first thing he will tell you is to plan for things to go wrong. Fluctuations, errors, bad planning judgment and incorrect assumptions about what is needed all come to play when the implementation process occurs.”
Bentham also says, “If the planning and budgeting phases did not account for contingencies or additional, unplanned needs, a project manager will then have to find other efficiencies in the project to make up the difference. This is where a good, seasoned manager becomes apparent because he will see the problem, adjust for it, and keep the project moving to completion.”
This next complaint sounds like a communications problem. (Then again most of these issues sound like communication problems.) About 40 percent of project managers say the lack of agreed-upon deadlines is a constant problem.
There are basically two types of projects: those done in partnership and those done for upper management. Partnerships should have agreed upon deadlines or it’s not a partnership. Nothing can be done when upper management changes deadlines. That’s just a fact of corporate life.
Slightly more than one in five project managers struggles with outdated technology. That circles back to the issue of budget in some cases. But it also goes full circle back to communications. Failing to express concerns about outdated technology and making a case for its replacement falls on the project manager.
Finally, somewhat surprisingly only one in 10 project managers feel hampered by staff turnover. That’s one benefit of ongoing slow expansion of business. There are less opportunities for staff, even highly trained IT staff, to move onwards and upwards to new employers.
As discussed in an earlier blog post, “5 Good Tips for New Project Managers,” listening to your team might reduce turnover. “Genuine listening has become a rare gift—the gift of time. It helps build relationships, solve problems, ensure understanding, resolve conflicts, and improve accuracy. At work, effective listening means fewer errors and less wasted time,” the article says.
How to start a business after you retire?
Retirement sounds good after hard working years and in the beginning, it’s a wonderful experience. But a lot of people find that everlasting rest is a little boring so if you are part of this group, you must be seeking something to keep yourself busy with.
As such, starting a business after retirement is more common than you might think. The National Bureau of Economic Research claims that 68% of people between 75 and 79 years old are self-employed, and 46% from 65 to 69 years old. It’s safe to say that if you decide on this path, you are not alone.
To make this happen, many tools can help you to build a second career, from business ideas to merchant cash advance models can give you purpose and a base to start. But how to even begin to think about it?
Suggested article: What Is a Merchant Cash Advance?
Finding your new employment
Your way back into work doesn’t need to be super time-consuming, and it also can be something you enjoy and you can merge with your newfound time for yourself. These are some ideas to get you started.
Do what you are passionate about
If you loved your previous job, you can find a way to exploit your knowledge, contacts, and expertise like turning into a teacher or opening up a consultant. If you don’t, this is the right time to do something that makes you completely happy, it doesn’t matter if it’s walking dogs or selling handmade soap. Do what you love.
Buy a franchise
A relatively easy way to start a business is buying an already established one. There are so many models, sectors, brands, and prices out there that no doubt you will find the one that makes you happy and you can afford. And you’d be running your team, learning something new, and managing your own time. Exciting, right?
Take advantage of your resources
You don’t have to buy or rent a big office to start a business, you can begin with a home office or even a kitchen office, your laptop, and your coffee pod. This will ensure that, the. The money you require to get your business up and running will be less. In case you need to have initial inventory, you can always use a merchant cash advance or other kinds of financing to keep business and personal finances separate.
Build a client base
It’s not as hard as you think. Just think about the people you know that would benefit from your product or service and go out and sell them. Build a digital database with these possible clients, make some phone calls and let go of fear and ask them for references to other possible clients. You know, friends of your friends. And so it goes until you are selling someone you’ve never met before.
The basics to starting your own business
Before you open the doors of your brand new business, you need to have a little structure. Remember to have:
A business plan where you can map out everything you want to achieve and the way you are going to do it.
Financing. Knock on all the doors you need to get the right amount if you are planning to use external financing.
Clean bookkeeping so you can keep track of all the money that comes and goes, file taxes, and build up your empire.
Proper scheduling so you won’t be consumed and you can keep a part of your newly gained independence.
Help for the things you can’t or don’t know how to do.
Training to learn new skills.
It’s not just about making more money, your new job will be key to keep yourself busy, remain sharp and fulfill a dream that you didn’t before. Enjoy your new project and make the best of your best years. Are you ready to start?