Since my last blog post on the simple action items to help mother nature, how many of you actually made the change? The need to start the small yet simple adjustment has been long delayed and it is up to us human to make the difference before it’s too late. It is not the government, your neighbors, your friends, ‘ROI’ etc but YOU. START by as simple as saying ‘No’ to plastic bags or at least minimize the usage or bring your own bags!

If the reasons are not obvious yet, observe the videos below…

So … is it important now?

This has to be the most hilarious site ever! Ever wondered how you would look like from the latest fashion of the yester years from 1950 to 2000. I uploaded my photo up and I was laughing away. Ah hem … nope I am not posting my picture here (I’ll probably do it in facebook or something). Anyway do try it out, it would be very kind of you to share it with me.

Year book yourself now at http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

I just had my dinner at Secret recipe yesterday evening, feeling a little adventurous I decided to try the durian cake. When it was served … it looks a bit dry, maybe it’s the design or something. Well, on the first bite … my face had an instant transformation – a sourly awful looking face. I told my mom, “I think this cake has gone bad”. My mom replied, “not you think, it is bad”. Well that was the first and the last bite, the waiter defended a little that durian cake actually taste that way (by default I guess what he means), I just don’t think durian cake should taste sour-ish. Nevertheless they exchanged with a new cake – thankfully it still taste ‘ok’. Next come the main course, I had the Irish stew. It wasn’t all that fantastic compared to what I had a few years ago when Secret Recipe first started. I can’t complain much though except the ‘supposed’ whipped potato. I am assuming (probably I am wrong) that whipped potato should be fluffy not hard or old, as if it was regenerated / ‘resurrected’ for a zillion times.

That’s not the end of the story … YET. I did some grocery shopping after dinner. My stomach started to churn a little from time to time and massive gasses was ‘produced’, it was not chronic yet and I could still wait till I reach home. As soon as I unload my grocery at home, I had to sprint to the toilet. It was mini diarrhea, I guess for that one mini bite of the cake. Although it was just a mini relieve, it is very very toxic and polluted the air in my room. Ok ok enough for the details.

I don’t know about you, but personally I am going to stay away from Secret Recipe for a while.

A friend of mine asked me, how do you create the radial / zoom in effect on a particular subject. I am guessing a lot of Photoshop user have a similar question (I asked myself the same thing too previously), hence this would make a good topic in my blog for photography. I am not sure what the industry calls it but I name it the star-burst effect. This effect gives the image a sense of motion, making it feels like it is moving and ‘alive’ rather than a static image. The subject or the eye (if it’s a human) needs to be sharp though, an un-sharp subject steals the thunder away, making it dull and lifeless. Get the oxymoron here?

Let’s start off with this extremely easy step by step guide on how to create motion blur. Try this over the weekend with various types of images.

1. You need Adobe Photoshop, without that … please read my other blogs ~ kidding!. Alrighty, pick an image, try one that has a human as the subject. Can’t find one? Download the image used in this tutorial.

Right click on the picture and select save as.

2. In Photoshop, click on Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Well you can use Gaussian Blur or Motion Blur but in this case I am using Radial Blur.

3. Try not to overdo it, the key here is to create a smooth and realistic effect on your picture. However, you can still test it out to see how wacky it can get! You may get a creative composition depending on your subject. I use 3 in this case.

4. Under Blur Center, try to put the ‘center’ on the subject or the eye area.

5. Once that is done, you will notice that the whole picture is in a radial blur motion. Even the eyes are blurred. We are not done yet!

6. Next in the Layer’s channel, duplicate the background copy.

7. In the duplicated copy click on layer mask. Layer mask is the third icon from left in the action icon list below (that is what I call it, not officially)

8. With the layer mask selected, click on gradient paint tool.

9. Please make sure that the foreground color is black.

10. Once the gradient tool is selected. Select the center gradient icon (second icon from left) at the task bar area (located on the top edge of your screen).

11. Click and drag your cursor across the face of the subject, you can try both ways either diagonally or horizontally.

12. You will notice in your mask layer, there is a black dot in it. The area that is painted black is the section that you created sort of a gradient transparent section to the layer image below (the background layer).

13. Once all of that is done, voila … your radial blur effect on the photo is completed.

Click for a bigger view

Did this technique helped you? Do let me know!

Ladies and Gentlemen … may I have a short attention of yours, PLEASE. A buddy of mine just started her brand new blog entitled “My waking thoughts, My whispering thoughts”. I am guessing that its going to be a fusion between photography and day to day encounter as a Malaysian. Ming please correct me!!!

Anyway just to rally some support, do check out her website and drop a couple of comments!

Check out the weblog (that is how Ming calls it) at http://mingtze.wordpress.com/

If you have not see the latest browser in the market … check out Google Chrome!

View this particular video … doesn’t this feels like someday Google will develop an operating software on its own in the future??? Perhaps an online base OS! The one that you don’t even have to install and works the same on every PC that you logged on! Isn’t the software revolution awesome with the invention of the internet!!! Ok … a sudden day dreaming from my hectic day!

Crash Control!

Wonder why Google build Chrome!

My current favorite is still Firefox version 3. I wonder how would this be revolutionizing the way I use browser in order to make me switch to Google Chrome … emmmm. The initial installation is taking forever though… (more reviews later, if it installs properly)

Sounds too good to be true … try it at http://www.google.com/chrome/

So what’s your take!!!

A pet assignment that I took up for fun … portrait photography … A friend of mine needed a set of good portrait pictures of her team for presentation purposes. Well … not much experience on my end but thank god they did not complain HAHAHAHA. Nothing to wow about but it’s a good practice for me …

View the photo now! *Password protected

Honestly I made quite a fair bit of mistake in this assignment … most of which I am not going to discuss here HAHAHA. But I did learn some cool and QUICK portrait touch up, perhaps I will create a short tutorial of it later when I have time on my side.