벤츠 Benz S클레스,E클레스,C클레스,CLS, CL, CLK, SL, SLK

with wider fenders and slightly deeper dams this is sure to give your cls a subtle yet profound change to set you apart from the rest of your crew.

It took a while to get round to processing the pictures from a shoot during which I wasn’t thinking all that clearly. (See Doofus) I did have a very high discard rate but there were a few decent pictures as well, thank goodness.

The one of Mieke, above, is one that pleases me a lot. It was pretty chilly and the poor girl’s hands were turning blue, so I did what every self-respecting photographer would have done; I converted to black and white. 

There are already more pictures from that shoot in my Model Shoot Set on Flickr, and I will be adding a few more in the near future.

Recently I had bought a Nissin Di622 for strobing purpose from Mitmivec – Eric. To summarize it, the flash has a rather slow recharge speed. It is good to use for strobe, but not really for event covering. As usual, I still prefer to have the own party flashes to stay on the camera’s hot shoe. Else, it is fine to trigger via Radio Trigger or Optical trigger.

Other than that, to fullfill my needs, I had DIY some color film that can work as gel and to be used on the flash. That was how I create these two photos. By using the color films on the top of stofen. The ingredients are listed in the DIY GEL for flashes.

As usual, the setup will be shared. This time I had draw it into a pcs of paper and scan into computer. First it is easier to keep track on what I had did before, and also I may need similar setup in future. Here the setup for this round and please forgive my ugly drawing:

Note: Both flash doesn’t really direct flash to the Chivas. To avoid reflection, it is somehow the feather light hit on the chivas.

Since the gel is on top of stofen, there are still some white color flash to be produced. The reflector is to reflect some of these lights to fill some lights on the Chivas.

Please feel free to comment on the setup. You may have better idea and help me to do better. Thanks in advanced

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Nikon D300s + Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC at 50mm f/5.6 ISO200 1/30 Second, Post in LR3 Beta and Photoshop CS4

Until today (literally), I’ve tried my hardest to stay away from using Photoshop to edit my photographs. I’d open up the program and think “Oh man, what in the world do I do with all these tools….what’s this layer thingo? Agh, forget it,” and that’s as far as I’d get.

Today I had a lot of time on my hands. I’ve got a fever and sore throat that kept me away from work, so between naps and copious amounts of tea, I’ve begun studying how to use Photoshop CS4. The result is the image you see above. This one of Bridget’s favorite close-ups from our little impromptu shoot on Saturday evening (being out in the cold that evening is probably what made me sick!).  Most of the editing and retouch was actually done in Lightroom 3 Beta, including brightening the eyes and spot removing blemishes, as well as minor adjustments to color.

In Photoshop CS4, I quickly fell in love with the stamp tool, which allowed me to very easily remove lines on her face, particularly under her eyes, and bring out a little more detail in her hair. Here’s the shot straight out of the camera for reference:

Nikon D300s + Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC, same settings as above, SOOC

Huge difference here! (Bridget still looks very lovely of course). This image was a great catalyst for my beginnings in the world of Photoshop. In all, the entire process took only about 10-15 minutes from start to finish, showing how a little touch-up work can go a long way in portraiture. What really impressed me is how seamlessly Lightroom works with Photoshop. Once I was done with initial editing in Lightroom 3 Beta, a Command + E keystroke (Mac) opened the image in CS4. When I finished with CS4, I simply saved the image and closed the window, which brought me right back to Lightroom 3 Beta with the CS4 edits applied. Doesn’t get any easier than that!

Here's the touched-up version (top) right over the out-of-camera image for easier comparison

Her nose is a little red from the cold, but I’m sure that’ll be fixed as WordPress seems to desaturate my photos! What gives, WordPress?! They look how I want them too while I’m editing the HTML, but as soon as I publish the post, the colors look off. Different browsers seem to render the colors differently as well, so I’m really not sure what you’re seeing if you’re reading this! Oh well….

And so, with my fear of Photoshop gone, I’m going to hit the books and see if I can’t really see what this program can do. I’m excited!

*Cough Cough*

]]> http://acentaursjourney.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/a-fit-against-the-country/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:25:42 +0000 cmankowski http://acentaursjourney.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/a-fit-against-the-country/

One night on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, that fateful brownie night, Marry and I decided to become vegan. What at first seemed to be a fairly simple choice, thereafter became a constant state of vigilance. No chicken for the fajitas, no cheese for the crackers. Seems fairly simple. Well, sometimes no crackers. No bacon for the eggs, no bacon. No milk for the cereal, no meat for sandwiches, no bread for sandwiches. No bread? What do you mean no bread! It’s made out of wheat right? Well, and milk, lactose, egg whites, honey. To just buy some bread we could eat, or crackers, or margarine, or just about any processed food…  well, it became quite the adventure, especially when you often had people shopping for you. When all the food arrived and we couldn’t eat half of it, well, at first this was challenging. If you had been here you might have heard me moaning, “What do you mean the margarine has milk in it!!!” Maybe you’re saying, “come on, what are you whining about!” But when I have use food as such a source of pleasure and comfort, making a drastic switch like that was definitely more challenging than I thought it would be. But things changed quickly. I know longer have to get in a fist fight with Jordan if I want some rice cheese, or Tofurkey sausage. In fact, I think it is pretty amazing how we’ve all come together around food, even with our differences. Whether its creating meals that we can all eat together, or having meat on the side, or Tofurkey for that matter, we’ve found quite a supportive balance between meeting our individualistic interests and recognizing what we all have in common. It has also become less about what I am missing out on, and more about the values that I am continuing to recognize and affirm. Sometimes my heart and taste buds have some serious arguments:

“Yes! Peach Coblar! Yummmy yummy yu—”

“—Ohhhh no… Sorry. It has honey.”

“No. Nooooo. What the ****! It doesn’t need honey! Why’s it have honey?”

“I know it’s pretty stup—“

“—It just has a litttttttttle… Come on?”

“What… no… NO!”

“But it’s Nikki’s birthday”

“Hmmmm… well… Wait! She’s not even here!”

“Ahhh… so what? Paul MEANT to get vegan crust… and it’s only the crust?”

“Well, you are right—it was his intention. But… I don’t know…”

“Come on!”

Well, you get the idea. My taste buds actually won that particular battle. But you just gotta keep on keepin’ on. It’s one thing to make a slip like that, but what about when you find yourself at an amazing farmers market with… well… that’s another story.

//……………………………………………..

#include<stdio.h>

#include<windows.h>

void main()

{

int i;

for(i=1;i<101;i++)

{

printf(“Loading….%d”,i);

Sleep(100);

system(“CLS”);

}

printf(“Finish\n”);

}

//…………………………………………………

Notice:

1.Sleep(100);  休眠函数，注意S大写，否则不能被识别为函数

2.system(“CLS”); 清屏函数，类似于C语言中的Clrscr();

Nikon D300s + SB-900 (Camera Left) + Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 at 14mm f/5.6 ISO100 1/200 Second

Bridget and I attended a wedding today that was right across the street from the beach. I didn’t take any photos at the wedding, but I seeing as I always have my camera with me, I decided to take some photographs of my lovely wife after the event with a beautiful sky and ocean as a backdrop.

Nikon D300s + SB-900 (Camera Left) + Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 at 16mm f/9.0 ISO100 1/250 Second

The above shot reminded Bridget of a CD album cover. I really like the warmth in this photo, which gives it a very “golden sunset” appearance.

Nikon D300s + Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC at 17mm f/5.6 ISO200 1/20 Second

There’s a reason why Bridget is so bundled up here. It was really cold, no more than around 50 degrees. There were also lots of cold and annoying gusts of wind that kept threatening to topple over my lighting rig. I used a smaller shoot-through umbrella to prevent this, but as you can see, there were times when Bridget had to step in and save my SB-900 from falling into the dirt. I’d post all the pictures of Bridget making miserable faces due to the cold, but I’d rather spare her the embarrassment (more like spare my myself a butt kicking!).

Nikon D300s + Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 VC at 50mm f/5.6 ISO500 1/13 Second

This shot (above) was the last one for the evening, and I was running out of light fast at this point. I started having to nudge my ISO up to avoid shutter speeds I couldn’t hand hold. Plus, at this point, we were freezing! I love the coat Bridget is wearing here too. I actually picked it out and bought it for her at a store in Ginza, a large and beautiful shopping district in Tokyo.

Nikon D300s + Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 at 11mm f/5.6 ISO200 1/30 Second

Can you tell I’ve been experimenting with hot shoe flashes? I thought I’d finish this post with this goofy shot I took of Bridget in our home last night. She has this great umbrella that we got at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. It has a blue sky with white cloud design on the inside. I lit Bridget with an SB-900 on camera left and kicked some light into the umbrella from behind her with my SB-800, both fired wirelessly using the built in flash on my D300s as a commander. Please excuse the mess in our living room! (it was a very impromptu shoot)

We’ve already started planning for our sponsor bikeride 2010! Our previous bikeride was such a success that we decided to make it an annual event.

The Sponsor Bikeride 2010 will take place in September and we will cycle from Arnhem (NL) to Hamburg (GE). That’s approximately 530km!

More details will be posted here or on our website as soon as they come available.

So remember the locker incident?? WELL! I went back to the lockers today and this time stood in front of MY locker and MY LOCK IS GONE!

I’m really trying to figure out what happened. So in the summer, they had us reserve lockers over our intranet thing. I really thought I picked locker #348. Then I never put a lock on the locker. Then I kept getting a bunch of harassing emails telling me that if I didn’t put a lock on the locker, they’d assign it to somebody else. So I got a combination lock and slapped it on the locker. Then I ignored it for weeks. Last week I went to put a book in my locker and found locker #348 with a tiny padlock on it! And I’m standing there staring at the thing being all wtf, who stole my locker!

Then I came here and blogged about it.

Then I checked the intranet and discovered I’m actually assigned to locker #346.

So then today! I went to my locker, my real locker, and my lock IS gone! Someone took my lock off my locker!!! What the hell!

I never use it and there was nothing in it so there’s no big loss there. But still. They hounded me to put a lock on the damn thing, then I do it, and then they pull my lock off!

…..Although…..

Is it possible that I put my lock on #348 and the real owner of that locker reported it to whoever takes care of the locker situation and they cut my lock off because I put it on the wrong locker?

FML.

BMW M GmbH prezintă un nou performer cu adevărat remarcabil, ideal şi pentru evenimentele Clubsport Racing. BMW M3 GTS este dezvoltat pe baza modelului BMW M3 Coupé, construit manual printr-un pachet de modificări realizate individual de specialiştii M GmbH. Cu accent clar spre motorsport, modificările privesc atât sistemul de transmisie, suspensia şi caroseria, cât şi interiorul.Lansarea pe piaţă a viitorului BMW M3 GTS va avea loc în primăvara anului 2010 … (mai mult)

last week after much planning and re-con..checking on water and trail closures we headed up the north side of Mt Lemmon. A 14 mile day w/ over 6,000 of elevation gain in the hot southern arizona sun was a spectacular but intense introduction to the sky island mountains. Steep loose talus and narrow trails was a perfect warm up for the challenge that lay ahead. After only a few hours the terrain was steep enough and the ponies all breathing hard enough that the whole group was walking. Transitioning through various life zones as we climbed from Saguaros to Ponderosa Pines was puncuated by bear tracks in the dust, amazing colors, and views that seemed to go on forewver across rugged mountains. Even with a relentless pace it was just after dark when we walked in to camp exhausted but exhilerated by the accomplishmnet. A short day across the top of the mountain set us up for an epic journey down past Romero pass, Hutches pool and out to the old Honour Prison camp Campground. Even though we had been told the trail was passable by equines, the section down past Romero pass is not an place I would ever want to return w/ horses. Steep boulder gardens w/ challenging step downs, and narrow exposed moments on steep side slopes made for an even more challenging day than our climb of the north side. Fortunately everyone did a great job w/ their mounts and the ponies were exceptional in both their willingnes and ability to safely accompany their partners to the amazing little camp perched by Hutch’s pool. Humbled by our amazing equine partners and feeling thoroughly worked by the mountain it was time to just stop, catch our breath, and re-assesses not only what we are ready for, but what lessons matter most and how we can create an ending for this amazing journey that has challenged and blessed each of us in ways we are only just startting to understand. Dose anyone have justa simple glass of lemonade?

so many parts of this expedition were set-up to be supported by switches…by that I mean technology that requires electricity or satelite connectivity in order to work. From the start each one of them has been a challnege. It startted with a desire to share our experiences and learning as we went along. Solar panels, satellite dish, computers, gps enabled phones, cell phones and satelite phone back ups all lined up to fuel the website w/ information and images. Connecions to family, friends, schools and students was our goal. Aside from the difficult schedule of the trip, and long full days, working with and using the technology itself has been a huge learning curve on systems and the tenuous nature of technology to deliver the powerful information network many of us have come to rely on in normal daily life. Even at this late date in the expedition at the last few layover camps we have had where we were able to set up our satelite system the solar power inverter would only power our computers for a short time before the whole system would crash. Hopefully a pinched wire that may have been creating a short that was finally diagnosed today will make a difference and we will be back to trying, even if at a very limitted level to be saring some stories and images w/ all of you who are supporting this amazing journey. And as most of you already knew long before we set out on this trip, switches…or atleast our dependance on them is greatly over-rated….

travel well and do good work

Observers of the United States Supreme Court are noting the unusually-long scrutiny the justices are giving to Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the case where the University of California-Hastings (in San Francisco) denied permission to the Christian Legal Society to meet on campus because it ran afoul of its nondiscrimination policy, as ADF has seen on other university campuses.  Specifically, CLS requires its leadership to agree with the Christian group’s statement of faith in Christ and to obey the Bible’s teachings to abstain from sexual relations outside of marriage, defined as one man and one woman.  UC-Hastings claims CLS engages in “religious discrimination” because atheists and Buddhists cannot become leaders of the Christian Legal Society.  Of course, environmentalist groups or other ideological student groups are free to require that potential officers or members agree with the viewpoints they advocate in order to join.  UC-Hastings also views CLS’s views on sexual purity before marriage as “sexual orientation” discrimination. 

The Christian Legal Society sued, claiming that UC-Hastings was violating its First Amendment right to expressive association.  The federal district court ruled against CLS.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit also earlier this year ruled against the Christian Legal Society, in a decision shorter than a haiku.  The decision, in its entirety, states:

The parties stipulate that Hastings imposes an open membership rule on all student groups—all groups must accept all comers as voting members even if those individuals disagree with the mission of the group.  The conditions on recognition are therefore viewpoint neutral and reasonable.  Truth v. Kent Sch. Dist., 542 F.3d 634, 649–50 (9th Cir. 2008).

So CLS appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The respected SCOTUSblog highlighted this case as an important one to watch at the Supreme Court.  According to the schedule, everyone expected the Supreme Court to decide whether to take the case by late September.  But no one imagined that by mid-November we would still be waiting for the Supreme Court to act.  Normally, when a case is appealed to the Supreme Court, it is set for conference (a meeting of the nine justices).  A few days later, the Supreme Court issues an orders list from that conference, stating whether the high court will agree to hear the cases considered at that conference or not.

However, the Supreme Court has now delayed deciding what to do with the case for six conferences.  This is so unusual that it has caught the eye of veteran Supreme Court observer Tony Mauro who wondered Thursday in his law.com blog about what is going on with the case.

The Supreme Court has now set the case for its sixth conference for Friday, November 13, after calling for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to send up the record in the case.  Calling for the record is also an odd and unusual step for the justices to take.  What is going on here?  Are the justices agonizing over some issue or fact?  Are they struggling to reach a consensus on what to do with the case?

For what it’s worth, here is my speculation.  We know for sure that at least one or more justice is interested in the case because it takes a conscious, affirmative act by the justices to pull a case off the orders list, especially when it happens six times in a row.

Possibly, the justices want to examine the record to see what exactly is UC-Hastings’ policy.  UC-Hastings has shifted between two positions on what its policy is.  At times in the litigation, the University has claimed that it singled out CLS for exclusion from campus becasue CLS was “guilty” of religious and “sexual orientation” discrimination by the way it limits its membership to conform with its beliefs.  At other times, UC-Hastings has stated (as the Ninth Circuit’s decision reflects) that its policy was to require all student organizations to accept any students as members.  So the vegetarian club would have to accept deer hunters and steak lovers as members, the Socialist club would have to accept free market libertarians as members, etc.

The latter policy (all groups must accept any student as a member) is massively overbroad and shockingly unconstitutional.  The University cannot possibly justify a policy that prohibits all students from forming any group limited to like-minded individuals.  If the Supreme Court accepts the case for review and addresses that policy, we might have a 9–0 reversal of the Ninth Circuit.  But is that the policy UC-Hastings has or not?  Maybe that is why the high court has called for the record from the lower courts.

ADF has other cases in the pipeline that the Supreme Court could take to address the more limited question of how the nondiscrimination policy banning religious and “sexual orientation” discrimination apply to private student groups meeting on a public university campus.  The Supreme Court does not necessarily need to address that question in the UC-Hastings case.

So, what will happen?  Will the Supreme Court grant review and hear oral arguments?  Will it summarily reverse and reject the horribly unconstitutional policy of UC-Hastings requiring all student groups to accept any student?  Will it simply deny review after examining the case for weeks?  And when will that happen?  We simply don’t know, so the speculation mounts.  Maybe we will get some clarity from the Supreme Court on Monday, but who knows?  Stay tuned.

Busan malam weekend kat rumah ni..ketis apa saja. Main dengan CLS with SB600, Ultra Softbox Lumiquest made in China…trigger by Phottix…hm..LAYAN KAN AJE!!

Ranjausilau[RS] Photography

I rejoined the group in Oracle a week ago. They trailered from Pine to Oracle to skip several impassable sections. This has re-opened the option of making it to Mexico by December which has given us a destination-goal again. I think this will provide the group with the motivation that seemed to be missing when I was last with them. PC has the motto “It’s about the journey, not the destination”, however, I think we’ve discovered that when you completely take out the destination, it all falls apart. Like most things in life, a balance is necessary. Committing to one or the other has not been helpful. This, of course, complicates everything. It would be so easy to simply pick one idea or goal to work towards. Since that method has been discovered to be lacking, we have been trying to figure out a balance between all the different things that are important to this diverse group. It’s difficult. And we never hit it quite right. We’re always discussing and modifying decisions. I believe this will be a constant practice until we head back to Prescott.

It’s great to be back with the group. I was gone for nearly 2 weeks. I am okay to ride and carry on with the group. I am not allowed to lift more than 10 lbs for 6 weeks! This means I will be relying on the support of my peers. It’s good to see Churro again. He’s very fuzzy with his new winter coat. I feel fortunate for the opportunity to step back from this experience to gain a fresh perspective. I am extremely optimistic for the remaining portion of this trip. I feel at home now that we have dropped into the desert. Mt. Lemmon was an extremely challenging experience, however, it’s still one of the most beautiful places I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Update Map (10/29/09)

November is quickly filling up with obligations. And now, the career services office is hounding us about researching job opportunities and getting our applications together and mock interviews and resume reviews and…gah. Every week is slightly more awful than the last as far as STUFF goes. I just realized that last Friday I had FOUR more weeks of class left. FOUR WEEKS! It’s unbelievable to me. Classes end December 4 and then we have a week of reading period. My torts exam is December 11, civ pro is December 16, and contracts is December 21. I’ve only just started outlining. I’m in a study group for torts now and my contribution to the collective outline is due this Friday. We’re really getting down to the wire now. I don’t know why this is just hitting me now. I guess it’s because I have the first five days of December written into my November calendar and I have LAST DAY OF CLASS!!! staring at me in the lower right corner.

Even though I’m starting to research jobs I want for the summer, I’m not yet allowing myself to start freaking out about funding my activities this summer. I guess I’m just hoping I’ll have enough from my student loan award left over that when it’s coupled with the $4,200 guaranteed summer funding from Columbia, I’ll be able to get through those three months without having to resort to food stamps.

Worst case scenario I might have to sublet my apartment, move to New Jersey, get a job with the Division of Law, and commute to Trenton every day with my mom. I don’t even want to think about subletting and moving yet again. Although it wouldn’t be so bad to work in state government in New Jersey (at least, not now that Corzine is gone). But whatever. I can’t worry about that right now. Too much to do.

Oh! I have a bit of good news. We got our Legal Methods exams back and as I was waiting in line to receive mine, my classmates were all congregated trying to decipher the prof’s scrawlings on their exams. Most people had long paragraphs of comments at the end telling them what they missed and what needed more work and where they went wrong. Every now and then someone would exclaim, “I got a ‘fine’!” or “I got an ‘OK’!” When I got mine, I flipped immediately to the back and at the bottom all it said was, “Well done!” I was filled with glee for the rest of the day. I haven’t read through the model answer yet, but I intend to at some point when I have more time (read: when I’m dead). So that was a good shot of confidence that I’ll definitely need to power through to the end of classes (FOUR WEEKS!!!).

Well, tomorrow is my exam (probably my hardest paper ever). so just thought of doing a black and white shot to portray my current state.

This is also the first time i put the Nikon CLS system to test. I am quite happy with the results.. Comments are welcome =)

Exif Info
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Apeture: F11
Focal Length: 35mm
Flash Fired: Yes
Flash Power: 1/40

Well, what do you know…i received a package today from Nationwide Express…and with closer inspection, its from Terengganu…

The packaging is really nice…once the outer layer is peeled away, there is a bubble wrap over it to give extra protection…

once that is out of the way…Woola!! here it is! =) Nikon SB-800 Speedlight…

A closer look at the front….

and back…

Finally, my first ever CLS attempt =)

Nikon D300s + Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 VC at 50mm f/5.6 ISO640 1/30 Second, SB-800 + SB-900

Here’s Suki sittin on her favorite spot in the house: a large leather chair in the living room (she doesn’t know it’s not hers, but we’ll let her keep assuming it is). Her ears seem to have minds of their own. They orient in so many different ways depending on what she’s doing. We call the position above “hikouki,” which in Japanese means airplane, because she gets them almost completely flat across the top of her head, like airplane wings. She’s such a funny girl.

For this shot, I had very little ambient light in the room. I used an SB-900 on a light stand behind me, aimed up at a spot on the far wall in back of me, camera right. I triggered it using a camera mounted SB-800 with it’s head oriented backwards to get the commander signal to the SB-900. A -1.0EV input in the camera made sure the dark areas of the frame stayed dark, while a +0.7EV setting on the flash made sure Suki was properly lit.

Próximo CLS deve chegar em 2011(Imagens: Motor Authority.com)

A Mercedes-Benz assombrou o mundo quando lançou o CLS em 2004. O carro inaugurou um segmento na industria automobilística, a do cupê esportivo de quatro portas. Somente agora a concorrência consegue lançar concorrentes de peso, como o Porsche Panamera e Aston Martin Rapide.

O sucesso imediato ajudou a mudar a imagem da marca alemã de tradicional, mas antiquada, para uma mais moderna e dinâmica.

Passados cinco anos, a Mercedes já trabalha na segunda geração do modelo. E sabe que a responsabilidade será grande.

O carro que chega em 2011, mas podemos ter uma ideia do que vem por ai com as ilustrações deste post. Eles foram feitos a partir dos flagrantes do modelo (alguns já postados aqui).

O carro terá uma cara semelhante a da adotada recentemente no novo Classe E. Porém com identidade própria. A linha lateral acentuada em direção à traseira foi mantida.

Assim como o aspecto esportivo. Uma das possiveis novidades será a adoção de um teto de vidro, entre os opcionais.

Pelas imagens, a próxima geração do CLS tem tudo para voltar a ser copiado no resto do mundo.