Friday, March 11, 2011 at 10:53PM The woman of the 1950 uses technology to wash dishes.
The woman of today uses technology to build technology. Meet Polina -- software engineer and a woman of today.
If you have any funny photos of the women in the 1950s, I'd love to see them.
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 12:46AM In case you are like 99% of people, you like puppies. Without furtuer ado, here is your dose of puppy cuteness for today. All three work at Google, amongs other smart Google doggies.
This is Fluffy, a 15 year old lady from San Diego. She likes to sleep, eat caviar, bananas, berries, and turkey. She works on Gmail:
This is Ada, a two year old girl from San Francisco. She is grumpy most of the time. When she is not grumpy, she sleeps. She works on Chrome OS:
This is George, a two year old boy from Sunnyvale. When he gets excited, he jumps very high. He also likes to play search. Very appropriate for a Google dog. George works on AdWords.
I hope that you feel more bublibicious after seeing these puppies. May the warm and fuzzy feeling last all day!
Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 12:15AM I met Meena in my car today. She jumped in as a cop watched me pull over next to a "no stopping" sign. There were plenty of assets in my car by then to work our way out of the ticket, but (fortunately) we did not have to use them. Meena had her make-up done by a professional, and was about to change into a nice dress. By the time her fiancee Evan jumped in, she was wearing the dress like she put it on in the morning.
Few one-way streets later we were on San Francisco Bay Bridge heading towards Oakland. But we never got there. We weren't planning to.
We took the first exit at Yerba Buena Island and scouted for the best spot for their shoot. I checked it out on Google Maps ahead of time, and had a rough idea how to get there. But nobody was ready expecting to see this:
Not bad for a location, huh?
I asked everyone to help me set up my lighting gear because we were hurrying against the sunset. Tessa was a human lightstand and saved my SB900 from crashing to the ground. She also acted as a laugh-inducer/bully, saying outragous things that made Evan and Meena laugh. She was great a that!
Once we were set up, we created these wonderful shots:
The Sun went down pretty fast, and Meena was freezing by now. We found our way out of the island and headed back to San Francisco for a dinner at Samovar Tea Lounge.
On the way from the restaurant, by-passers were doing double takes at Meena and Evan. You know, not many people walk around town with paparazzo flashing at them while they walk.
This is the last shot from tonight, in the hallway. While we were setting up, a Thai food delivery lady walked by wondering what we were up to.
This shoot almost did not happen. The weather was bad all week and I did not want Meena to freeze in her dresses. But she pulled it off and I hope they both enjoyed our time together.
I had hard time picking the best shots, since I like so many. Which are you faves?
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 11:00PM Which of the below photos is the most flattering? Why? Is there a right and wrong angle when it gets to photographing faces? Ooooh yeaaaah.
All that camera does is capturing light waves. It is up to the photographer to ensure they are coming from the right places and in the right amounts. In the below image, the right places are the various surfaces on my face. The position of the light source helps me control the amounts.
If you want to see how giant my nose is, check out the top-left image. If you want to see how pretty my eyes are, check out the bottom-center. If you want to see my smile wrinkles, they are in the bottom-right. I think you got the idea.
If you are in a close proximity of a fashion magazine, go ahead and grab it. Open it. Look for some ads for a lipstick, or a mascara (you know, those where the model stares at you like she just had a lobotomy). You will most likely see a photo taken with two sources of light from two sides of a face. (you need to look for two bright dots in the model's eyes, those are the reflections of the light sources that reveal the lighting setup). Such setup fills most wrinkles and leaves nothing but smooth character-less face. Perfect for lipstick ad, isn't it?
What? You don't do lipstick ads? Well, perhaps you get some kind photo taken every now and then. If you ever have to pose in a place with a sharp top light source (a Sun or a ceiling light for instance), your best bet is to lift your chin and try to get the light hit your face like you see in the bottom-center photo.
Was this helpful? Or do you prefer the scary flashlight face instead?
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 8:27PM Here is one of my favorite photos taken by Jan Cechovsky. It was taken at Orava Castle last May on the day I married my wonderful Bradfordik. Yes, the mystery bride is me. The non-white dress dress is made by Jin Wang who has a bridal salon at San Francisco Union Square. She made the head pouf after I described what it should look like. I said that it must be at least as big as my head... and Jin gladly obliged. If you are curious what it looked like from the front, peek here.
I cherish the memories of my special day, and hope that everyone will have a chance to experience a day like that.
