All posts in Technology

Pinterest

By On April 22, 2012 In Site, Technology With No Comments Permanent Link to PinterestPermalink

There are numerous sites that are well designed, but most of time those are in the categories of personal blogs or portfolio. I recently stumbled across a site called Pinterest, and it instantly became my new addiction. Pinterest is suppose to serve as your virtual bulletin board that you can pin the stuff across the web onto the site. I been using tumblr for a while, but Pinterest has a much more offer in the stuff i wanna do. I basically wanted a site that I can save cool inspirations I stumble across the web and save it all onto one single site. Just like Twiiter, you follow people and they can follow you back. Mostly of people I fellow are my close friends, but they are some who post very interesting materials.

When you first visit Pinterest, it feels like you are visiting a woman’s walk-in closet, since most of the users on Pinterest are females.  Pinterest is actually still in beta phase, so you need a friend or request to get an account. Once you activated your site you can start making Boards based on you interest, and also start following people who share the same interest as you. After that, you will have to add a “Pin it” button on you bookmark bar on your browser, so the next time when you find something that interest you, you can simply just click that bookmark and add it to your boards.

This site does a great job for Graphic Designers, in which I can create a board just for one project and throw all the inspirations i found onto the  board. It helps gather my concentration in the area I am trying to go for, and also helps to my thoughts into a visual representation. Beside that, I find that it’s great way to bookmark the things I like on the web, since I always tend to lose my bookmarks.

Above all, I really glad I stumble across this site. It gonna be a big help in my future projects.
If you have a pinterest account, follow me at http://pinterest.com/noppie/

S494 Print Shop

By On April 8, 2012 In Camera, Personal, Photography, Technology With No Comments Permanent Link to S494 Print ShopPermalink

In this digital age we are slowly forgetting about traditional prints, and more focus on just sharing photos on the web. During last few years, I been wanting to set up a home print shop, in which I can start to sell some of my work if people are interested.  Mostly, I wanted to get to know the different types of paper and printing techniques, the goal is to get excellent quality prints every single time. The first step towards my print shop is find a decent printer at a manageable price, after numerous suggestions I went with Epson.

I purchased the Epson Stylus Photo R2000, a wide format printer, that does extremely GOOD prints for both matte and glossy paper for its price. I did some testing with an initial batch of prints and was very satisfy with the result. The color on the fine art matte paper was extremely accurate and the blacks really pops. The photo really shine when I tested the glossy paper, it serious look like studio quality prints. I excited now that I get to print up to 13in x 19in, that well really help to cover up those white walls in my room.

I still need more testing to make sure of the color accuracy between my monitor and the printer matches. Hopefully I will get the shop up and running by the end of next month. My plan is starting to sell prints from 4X6 to 8×11, anything bigger might need special arrangements. The price should ranger from to 5 to 10 dollars depend on the size of the print.

I will keep updating the progress of the shop, and should announce a opening date soon!

Have a great Easter!

 

iPad 3 Initial Reaction

By On March 19, 2012 In Design, Personal, Technology With No Comments Permanent Link to iPad 3 Initial ReactionPermalink

When the iPad announced back in March of 2010 it was thought of just a “bigger” iphone, that it was useless and seem unnecessary. Time has serious changed during the past two years, that we got to see just how powerful the iPad can be, and the rich experience that it brings. My iphone 4 came out in the summer of 2010 and one of it’s main feature was retina display, at the time and apparently still the highest resolution ever made on a mobile phone, and I know that Apple will bring the retina display to the iPad, the problem is when? iPad 2 announced last year, but didn’t came with a retina display, make sense since the screen at that size take more time and money to produce.

Last month, Apple finally announced this year iPad, and without hesitation the number one big feature was the retina display. The main reason I waited the screen update was for the resolution, especially now I view my photo way beyond the 1080p. The native screen on the iPad 3 is 2048 x 1536 at 264 ppi, thats higher then my Apple cinema display!

The iPad came out last friday, I went to best buy early in the morning to see if there still more left since the preorder has been sold out days before. Luckily due the storm not that many people came out or they all could be waiting at the Apple Store, so I got my hand on a White model at 32GB. I was very much like a little kid at the candy store, very excited since this will be my first iPad. Once I turned on the screen I was blown away by the clarity of the screen, it’s better then “real life” the icon look so crispy it almost feel like it’s 3D.

The speed of this new iPad is just unbelievable fast, everything seem so smooth and that there’s no lag at all! The graphic chipset must be pretty powerful to able handle everything at this high resolution. One of the first App I download was Flipboard, one of my favorite app on the iPhone, and I was flabbergasted of the experience on a iPad. I am still trying to get use to the typing, but above my first reaction to the new iPad has been nothing but 100% satisfaction!

My Little “Corner”

By On February 12, 2012 In Design, Personal, Technology With No Comments Permanent Link to My Little “Corner”Permalink

Everyone has their own work space with its own unique style. Sometime a work space can be the key aspect of a person work flow. The atmosphere helps them to get motivated and be inspired, as for me, it’s the warmth of the sun that gets my imagination running. So in this blog post I am going to share with y’all my little workspace I called “The Corner”.

I did some house cleaning before I took these pics, since most of time you can’t even see the keyboard when its cover with ocean of papers.

Here’s a little rundown of my gears
-Macbook Pro (Late 2008)
-Tron Razer Mouse / Apple Keyboard
-27′in Apple Cinema Display
-4TB of Backup Space

The table itself was from Office Max ages ago and little shelf on the side was part of my old TV set.  There two drawers below the desk in which where I kept my Wacom Tablet and bunch of useless junk or better term “Memories”.

My favorite time during the day is in the late afternoon. You can see from the windows the sun is slowly setting on the horizon . I normally pour my self of cup of tea and enjoy some classic from the Beatles.

Heres my four little treasures that I got as gifts from my good friends..except Danbo; that took me nearly 6 months to find. Danboard was a huge hit on the photo sharing community Flickr that nearly everyone I know got one and they all took extremely creative picture with it.   The little Goku was a farewell gift my good pal when I visited Japan in the summer of 2010,  and it also reminds me of how bad I wanna go back and visit Tokyo. The little golden cup is probably the only trophy I ever get in my life, and its from my friend’s Harry Potter party. The party was simply amazing and I was sorted into the Hufflepuff house. And lastly the black figuring is Tron AKA my obsession with the new film, the gift was also from a good friend of my.

So that’s it folks, hope you enjoy this little peak into my work follow.

 

The Nikon D800

By On February 10, 2012 In Camera, Technology With No Comments Permanent Link to The Nikon D800Permalink

On tuesday, Nikon has finally announced their successor to the D700, which was their entry level FX camera. It’s called the D800, and it has an unbelievable 36.3 megapixels sensor. I been waiting for this camera ever since I wanted to upgrade to a full frame from my current camera. My trusty old Nikon D80 has been with me for the past four years and has treated me well over the course of time. In result, I felt that I have pushed this camera to it’s limit and now it’s slow dying away. The rumors for the D800 was expected to be releasing mid of last year, but  due to the flooding of Thailand the manufacture came to  a complete stop.

Before I give my opinion for the camera here some of the listed specs

36.3 megapixel, full-frame sensor (FX)…. MOTHER OF GOD 
up to 5fps still image shooting (FX mode is 4fps)
1080pHD video 24 or 30fps
ISO Range 100-6400 (extendable from 25,600)
Two card slots: CF and SD

My old D80 only had a 10.2 Megapixels CCD sensor and shots about 3fps in RAW, so if I am gonna upgrade to the new D800 it’s gonna be huge leap for me. At 36.2 megapixels the RAW files gonna be at least 70mb to 80mb big and when its converted to a TIFF files it can easily go over 200mb. At my current work flow any files over 50mb is already taking up a lot of my backup hard disc space, so at 200mb I will defiantly needs to invest in new drives to store all those images. Another problems I see from having such large files is that I don’t think my late 2008 Macbook Pro can handle the processing power, especially when it’s already connected to a 27in Cinema Display. Hopefully I will get a chance to download a sample RAW file and play around with it to see if my computer can handle such large files. Above all, I am very excited for this camera in term of the video option it offers; Nikon has finally an answer to the Canon’s 5DMII. I haven’t done any video on DSLR but I am excited that now we have option to use our own lens for video capturing.

There’s two model of the D800 one comes with AA filter and one doesn’t, I am not really sure on the matter of AA filter, but for me the regular version at $2999 will suit me just fine . The camera doesn’t expect to ship till late March and seem from difference sources pre-order has already seem to be filling up. Thought I am in no hurry  of getting the camera since my D80 still works pretty good. Once my local camera shop has one I will indeed test out the camera myself and see if its the right upgrade for me. One thing does bother me is that FPS went down from the D700, but I guess it’s due to the large sensor. I have hoped for a faster frame rate, since my friend’s Sony Alpha 850 can go up to 9FPS in JPEG.  I don’t do any sports photography so I think FPS won’t matter to me as much.

Most of my work consist of Landscape and Still Life, so the large sensor will defiantly benefit me in term of image quality. The current reviews says that the dynamic range is excellent in this camera, which really help for landscape photographers. I am really up for a upgrade this year to a full-frame camera, and I do hope that this D800 will be my savior.