Truest, Most Real and Amazing Love of All

This is supposed to be my entry to Testify to Love: Get a chance to win Avalon’s “The Greatest Hits” at my friend's blog: Gannsdeen.com.


Sadly it's late now. I wasn't able to read the part where he says the deadline in Nov. 30th and today is unfortunately December 1st. Now, I'm sure all of you are now shouting and asking why I didn't do it before the deadline. To answer that, I didn't notice and I forgot. LOL! Enough of that, here's my post:


My post is all about the Love that every man is dying to have. It's more than a feeling or anything else. It can't be faked, in fact it's THE most real thing. A lot of us have run from there to here, from hurt to more hurt, from failed expectations to more failed expectations. It's almost a hopeless cycle.


I had a conversation with a friend who just broke up with his boyfriend. This friend of mine is a "HE" as well, making their relationship a homosexual one. If 10 years ago, this kind of relationship is a taboo. At this time though, it has become a "normal" thing especially that I'm working in a call center. (Disclaimer: I don't agree to this kind of relationship but I respect my friends who are engaged in it). So back to my conversation with him. I asked him, what really happened? Why did they break up after more than a year? He answered (hesitantly) it's because he no longer understands what his partner really wants and that he now had grown tired meeting the needs of the other while expecting his own needs be met as well. Actually, most of the relationships we see right now is of this nature. You agree or not. Everyone engages in a relationship because they need something from the other person. It maybe financial needs, emotional support, or just having someone to lean on. Don't take me wrong, these are why there are relationships. For our needs to be met. But when these "meeting of our needs" become the center of the relationship then that's when it crumbles. When each one starts to take and expect instead of freely giving without expecting in return, that's when relationships end.

Love, I've explained to him must be selfless. For relationships to work, one must be willing to give and give and just give. With this he replied, "Isn't that unfair?". Of course it is. That's what love really is. Even if the other one doesn't give back, it just continues to love no matter what. This kind of love is seldom found. Especially when people who are looking for it doesn't have it in the first place?

Where is this Love then?

It's in the Father, the GOD who created everything including love and the ability to love.

Here's what the Bible says from The Message version:

But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Rom. 5:8

And John 3:16 from The Message version still:

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

Now we were of no use whatever to him, but He still chose to love us. And he continues to love us no matter what. I mean, REALLY! It doesn't matter what you have done or what you are going to do, He'll continue to LOVE us.

When each partner has this Love then that's when relationships grow! Why? They're already filled with God's love that they just overflow without anymore taking.

Here's a song from Hillsong that would always tell me how Real, How TRUE and How Amazing God's Love is:

So You Would Come by Hillsong

God Bless you more and more!

b4 it was cool

Gadi Gilan Presented by ACL x Cole, Rood & Haan Co. from Michael Williams on Vimeo.

Generally, I cringe when I hear people talk about living in a certain part of L.A. , S.F. {insert city here} 'before it was cool'. {pretentious much?} But, all is forgiven here, at Gadi Gilan's vintage American industrial lighting shop, 'B4 it was cool' on Houston street in NYC. His stock had me viewing this video over and over, pausing often, to soak in the fantastic-ness of it all. He has some great vintage stools, chairs and educational models as well.

Choosing Big Lights: AlienBees

The last installment of the Big Lights series is a look at AlienBees, a very popular line of studio strobes available in the US -- and recently, in Australia/NZ. But before I get into them, I will preface the post with this:

Early this fall when it came time for me to pull the trigger, I was having a very difficult time deciding between the Elinchrom Quadras and the Profoto Acute line. So I decided to go with a very comprehensive set of AlienBees.

Confused? Lemme explain…
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An Inexpensive Way to Learn

Having spent a significant amount of time deciding on which line of flashes I was going to marry, I realized that my main unknown was not so much the gear itself but rather my not knowing what kind of a big lights photographer I was.

My experience with the bigger flashes falls mostly in the neighborhood of nuking large areas -- gyms, large interiors, etc. And that is not the kind of thing I want to do, going forward.

I had grown much more comfy with my SB's than I was with my WL 600s, and that scared me. Not from a standpoint of inexperience but from that of not knowing exactly how to distribute what would amount to a big chunk of cash when buying lights.

So I decided I would date the AlienBees before deciding which flash system I wanted to marry. And who knows, if the AlienBees proved sufficient my wallet would come through the process largely unscathed.

And not knowing what I wanted, I bought ... everything.


Cheaper by the Dozen

By themselves, the lights and modifiers are inexpensive. But there are also quantity discounts to be had. Buy four flashes, as I did, and you get 20% off of every accessory you purchase at the same time. Which almost makes them free to test drive.

This is because, unlike your late-model digital camera which just lost $100 in value as you read this sentence, flashes hold their value very well. And new gear bought at a 20% discount will pretty much get you your money back on eBay whenever you are ready to sell. Which was my plan.

I bought three AB800s, an AB1600, stands, booms, strip boxes, a soft box, beauty dish, grids for the boxes and dish, tele reflectors -- pretty much everything that was for sale on the site, it seemed.

I did skip the remotes, as I am already full up on PocketWizards Plus II's. But when I was done I still had not managed to rack up a $3,000.00 total, as the 20% off added up to some pretty big savings.

And why not go crazy? My thinking was (and still is) that I could use them for months at almost no net cost. And if I liked them enough, I was done with my flash search.

It was a pretty heady day, getting the contents of a full studio delivered to the front porch by the UPS man. And over the last few months, I have learned a lot about AB's -- and about myself as a lighting photographer.


Likes, Dislikes

There is a lot to love about the ABs. At the top of the list, of course, is price.

You can get an AB800, with reflector, power cord and sync cord for $280.00. Which is about what it costs to see a movie in New York City. You can get the AB400 for $55 less, but that is a very small difference for one full f/stop. My advice is to skip it and go for the AB800.

This is ridiculous, silly cheap for a studio flash. So much so, in fact, that it has sort of blown the curve of what people think is an appropriate amount of money to spend on a big flash. Paul Buff sells direct only and manufactures by the boxcar load. He has created an entirely new business model in the industry.

Are they built like a Mercedes? No, they are not. But their service/repair policy is so generous that it does not really matter for many people. And they are sufficient for most uses, and that is what matters to their owners.

Buff also extends that "built good enough" ethic to his modifiers, with mixed results. Soft boxes, the dish, grids, and many other items I have found to be first rate and surprisingly heavy duty. The stands are serviceable, but are not what you would call confidence-inspiring. Also, his standard reflectors are ingeniously designed to accept a 7" grid without an accessory clip. But I would be happier if they were parabolic, rather than conic.

In short, the ABs allow you to jump in the pool for cheap. Try stuff -- heck, try it all -- and see what you end up using and/or liking. I especially like the Vagabond II, a $300 battery pack and pure sine wave inverter which will run (3) AC-powered AB800s on full power for 300 pops.

I bought two of them. I was like a shark in chummed waters -- I got that crazed look in my eyes that my wife gets when Ann Taylor has a 75% off sale at the mall.


What You Won't Hear

While I absolutely recommend experimenting in the shallow-priced AB waters, here is one thing you will not often hear said among AB owners:

"I just love the quality of the light..."

You hear that about Profoto, Elinchrom, Hensel, Broncolor, etc., But when AB/WL people start talking they usually come down to price and/or portability.

And you are not going to hear me rave about the gorgeous light quality either, because ABs do have a bit of quirkiness to them in that department. I can't quite put my finger on it or quantify it, other than to say that I am sometimes a little surprised by what I get from them.


So of course we did some testing. Here is a series, shot all of the way up and down the power range of a single AB800. They are not dead on, but neither are they grossly inconsistent. Maybe it's a UV thing? I really don't know.

And don't get me wrong -- I have been shooting assignments for months with these things with no complaints. And I still do not know if it is the lights themselves, or me not being fully used to them.

There are people (usually from expensive, prestigious photo schools) who turn up their noses and reject the AlienBees out of hand. That's ridiculous. They are the number one selling brand of studio flash, and for good reason. Similarly, there are people who are just as rabid in their support of the units.

I suspect that the truth lies in the middle somewhere. They are an amazing value, to be sure. But they are not the equivalent of a high-end Broncolor system, either.

And frankly, for the money I can live with a little quirkiness. I have some On Assignments coming up on which I used the AlienBees, so I will let you judge for yourself. It is a very subjective thing, light quality.


Want vs Need

What do I want? That's easy -- I want everything.

Which is pretty much what I bought. And exactly what I would not have been able to do with, say, Profoto. Not without knocking off a rich relative a commercial loan, anyway.

But what do I really need? That's a different story.

And that has been the most valuable part of my AlienBees experience -- learning what I need in a big light system as opposed to what I want.

Here's what I found out: Ninety percent of the time I shoot, I am going to be making a portrait and using two light sources. This is proving to be a transportable and predictable workflow from my speedlight shooting. Heck, it is probably because of my background working out of a waist pack that I have evolved that way.

Generally, it will be a restricted key and an on-axis fill of some kind -- ring, light off of a white wall behind me, umbrella behind the camera, whatever. Or maybe I will use ambient as a base and use one light as a key and other as a separator light. Usually as a rim light or a light on the background.

While sometimes I will use a third source, that is surprisingly rare. But having the third source gives you backup on the first two, which is very important. Any system you design should leave you without a single point of failure. Which is one reason I gravitate to monoblocs over pack-and-heads. And why six SB-800s in a small bag are more useful to me than one or two big monos.

Occasionally, I throw a lot of light sources at something. Just once in the last three months, shooting social media headshots for a local financial company, I used five sources. (But that was 3 AB800s, an AB ring flash and an SB800.) So maybe if I went with more expensive lights, I might have to miss out on an occasional job. Or just have to shoot differently. Or rent.

As an aside, the shot above was done using the three lights visible in the frame, and two more. The center light lit the background. The side lights lit each other. There was on-axis light from a ring. And an SB-800 on the ground shot a little up-light kicker to define the lights.

I may stay with the ABs, and I may not. But for less than the price of a single Profoto Magnum reflector, I have essentially been able to sort of "rent" a huge set of lights, stands and mods for months. That rental fee (net buying/reselling costs) was recouped many timed over on my first assignment with them. Which is why I am so pleased to have used them to discover how I want to light.


Learning from the Experience

Using what I learned from my drunken AlienBees gear orgy, I could now estimate with more confidence what I would need to buy should I decide to go with, say, Profoto.

I would want an AC pack, three lights (two regular heads, one ring) some pretty specific mods, and battery-powered packs to power at least two heads. And with the year-end specials Profoto is running, I am actually giving serious thought to pulling the trigger. If that seems strange, remember that I bought the ABs a while back, and that part of my reason in getting them was to evaluate both them and myself as a lighting photographer.

Here is the 40th Anniversary deal that is making me drool for Profotos: If you buy an Acute 600B (battery unit) or an AC-powered value kit, they throw in $1000.00 worth of accessories. Different countries have slightly different rules on the promo, so check if yo are interested.

This bonus appears to be stackable, too. So I could get two 600B packs, and an Acute 1200 value kit. For under $8k USD, that would give me two heads and the ability to run them on AC or battery power. My only single point of failure is the AC pack, and that is covered by the battery units.

And with the $3k USD in free accessories, I could get extra battery modules, a ring light head, a soft ring reflector (working with the Moon Unit has made that a must) grid reflectors and a Magnum reflector. I could get by with my ratty, 20-yr old White Lightning 7" grids that are pictured above. That is a setup I could live with for a long time. And I never would have been able to know that with any confidence without using a wide variety of AlienBees gear for several months.

Would I drop $8k for that? Absolutely.

And I am less concerned about the up-front price than I am about really knowing what gear I want to settle into. This is long-haul stuff -- a marriage. And I still have a month to decide before the special expires.

(Curse you, Profoto, for making the deal last up to the last minute of tax-spending season. That was evil. It's like a month-long test of fortitude, taunting me until New Year's Day.)


Back to the Bees

Do I regret jumping on the AlienBees? Not for a second. They have been very serviceable (not to say inspiring on all counts) and have provided some very valuable clarity for essentially no net cost should I decide to change horses. And I very well may stick with them for the long haul. I haven't decided yet.

If you have access to them (the AU/NZ distributorship is selling to surrounding Asian/Pacific countries, it appears) you can hardly go wrong as an entré into bigger lights. And given that they all have built-in slaves, they will definitely play nicely with your existing speedlights. (AB becomes main light, speedlights become fill/rim/background, etc.)


[UPDATE: The AU distributor of AlienBees confirmed that they are shipping to different countries, which will be good news for some of you who are outside the US.]


They are just so deliciously inexpensive. And with the (upcoming) "Einstein" versions, ABs get even more interesting as the light color issues are supposedly vastly improved. A lot of other improvements coming, too. I'll be keeping tabs on that.


Getting off of the Couch

Yeesh, I feel like I just went through a therapy session. And believe me when I say that is an honest a look as I can give you into my thought process on buying personal lights. And six months after I started, I am both well-equipped and yet strangely in limbo as to what I will do next.

So in some twisted way, I hope that this has been of at least some help. Hell, it probably just left some of you more confused. I am a little conflicted in that I now know enough to have prompted some questions I did not know to ask at the start of the process.

And I hope you AB/WL owners will sound off as to your experiences in the comments, good or bad. This is too important a decision to go on just one person's say so. Your opinions certainly will help others make better decisions.

Please share them with us.

He'll Put Your Lives Together

Colossians 1:22 (The Message)

But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God's side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.

Lately, I have been experiencing failures and disappointments in the 3 most important (if not the only) areas of my life. 

First for my family, when I returned last weekend I was planning to witness and tell them that Jesus loves them and died for them. I wasn’t able to which hurts me so bad because I know how important it is.

Second, in my job I haven’t been hitting targets and expectations even how much I tried for the past few weeks now plus bad impressions on my leadership are starting to appear hurting me really bad. 

Thirdly, my dear roommate who I’ve been with for approximately 9 years now is leaving for AbuDhabi to pursue a career there. Aside from the fact that I’ll be missing him so much, at the same time it does hurt my heart as well which makes me re-think my future in comparison to him. I asked myself “Why is there something happening to him and he’s starting to be successful while I am stucked in this little Call Center Company for 4 years now?"

So many disappointments. So many failures. So many frustrations.

Really. They were, for me OVERWHELMING.

They say these things should push you closer to God and make you stronger in your spiritual life. 

I don’t think that’s what’s happening to me. I started to be broken and messed up. I started to be doing things on my own and GIVE UP.

Praise the Lord for He came to my rescue (as always)! 

He reminded me of my faith and trust in Him. 

He reminded me that what’s happening right now is just plainly part of the GREAT and WONDERFUL plan for my life.

He reminded me that there’ll be time for everything.

He reminded me that things will just take place in it's right time.

He reminded me of His promises and that he’s faithful to fulfill them.

He reminded me that there's always HOPE in Him and that when I do what HE wants me to do, there'll be no room for frustrations, hurts, failures and disappointments.

He will surely put my life together.

Amen!

Say Sorry Now

Colossians 1:21 (The Message)

You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got.

I’m not sure about you but the first verse describes me at times. It in fact describes me right now. I am just a “rebellious” boy doing bad things, failing God and giving him trouble every chance i got.

Is that true to you as well?

How many times did we choose to shut up and stand up for our faith when we were expected to?

How many times did we say yes to bar-hopping and partying thinking it’s just for the occasion?

How many times did we engage in gossip and ungodly conversations just for us to be “IN”?

How many times did we choose to sleep instead of waking up to attend that scheduled prayer meeting?

How many times right after the service did we start lying again and going back to our old selves?

How many times had we turned our eyes to that pretty woman?

How many times did we fail GOD?

I’m guilty.

If you’re not, you’re worth commendable! I encourage you to continue and keep on.

As for me and for others out there, it’s time to make the 360-degree turn.

It’s time to ask forgiveness, go back to God and start becoming a good boy once again.

Praise the Lord for He is a God of second chances and even third or fourth or fifth chances!

He said in His Word that He is faithful and just to forgive us if we confess our sins before him. (1 John 1:9)

Without asking forgiveness, we can never be truly happy and rewards God had prepared will no longer come.

Let’s go now to our own closet rooms or wherever you are right now, please say you’re sorry NOW.

On Assignment: Planes and Arrows

As part of a long-term project I am working on with a local school, I popped into the gym after school recently to shoot archery practice. And it brought to mind a quickie tip for lighting big spaces.

A gym is a big-volume place, full of ugly light. You can't hope to light the whole thing very effectively with a few speedlights. But you can light selective planes and create the illusion that large, 3-D areas are lit -- even if you can only place lights at the periphery, lest your lights get skewered.
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Always start with a first look at the ambient. That's what I always do when assessing an area to light. A quick shot on auto exposure and daylight balance lets me know how much ambient there is, and what color it is.

Answer: Not much, and puke green. Perfect.

The auto-ambient is 1/15th of a sec at f/5 at 200 ISO -- pretty dark. And honestly, the darker a big room is (within reason) the better as far as I am concerned. With big areas, I want to give myself a friendly aperture to be able to hit with strobe when I build it back up.


Step two, is to knock out that ambient while leaving myself as much ability to light as possible. So, go to my sync speed (1/250th) and close down the aperture just until the bad things go away. 1/250th at f/6.3 is plenty dark. In fact, I probably still have a stop or so of leeway, in case I need to adjust my strobes' exposure by remote control by just tweaking my aperture setting later.

Just enough, but not too much on your new, ambient-killing exposure. I could easily nuke ambient with f/16 at 1/250th, but then I would have to light it to that level. Not an easy thing to do with speedlights at distance. Make life as easy on yourself as possible.
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The trick to working with speedlights in a volume this big is to realize that you do not have to light that whole volume. Just light the planes you are going to shoot -- be they walls, targets, people or whatever.


Case in point: Strobes #1 and #2 are lighting my shooters. Not much -- just enough to give them a little wrap detail and keep them from being a sillo. And you could easily light this whole thing with just two flashes if you were cool with the shooters going black. That's a pick 'em, or an easy out of you did not have enough flashes.

The two lights nearer to the camera (#3 and #4) are lighting the targets. I aimed the left flash at the right target area and vice versa, for even coverage.

Setting my flashes on 1/4 power at a 105mm throw, I can easily light up the targets at a significant distance. Ditto for my archers.

Another consideration here is that my lights are lighting both shooters and targets without being in the line of fire. I thought about placing them between the shooting alleys near the arrows' flight paths. Then I watched some of the shooters warm up. Ummm… No.

(They aren't making SB-800s anymore.)

And not that this light is anything major special, either. But remember the sickly pea soup we were in a few minutes ago -- it is that difference that is important to me.


Once we have lit the two planes, I can use the same setup to grab a detail shot, too. And it looks completely different with a longer lens -- almost as if that (now visually compressed) space is not even there.

If I want to adjust the exposure (liking this one a little more saturated) that's an easy fix by varying the aperture. No need to adjust the actual lights, as the whole thing is built on flash.

Your aperture is now your volume control.
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Same Principle, Different Approach

This project is activity-driven as far as subject matter goes. But the important part to me is producing a series of portraits of middle schoolers who are mastering their environment. The project will ultimately be aimed at incoming 6th graders, who are looking at middle school with mixture of garden-variety fear, and total, unadulterated fear.

So after the practice, I grabbed a portrait of the best archer in the group. And just like the above photos, this one is built with lighting on planes -- albeit in a different sense.

Their gear is pretty spartan, with nylon reusable targets and arrows of rather dubious fletching. We used three of the better arrows, and posed our archer against the target. There were only a couple of minutes to shoot, as class was ending and he had to go.

The target is much lighter in tone (especially at the edges) than is the archer, and I wanted to switch that relationship around, to place emphasis on him.

In the same way we can light planes, we can choose to exclude them -- even if they are practically adjacent. The target is lit by an on-axis (or nearly so) umbrella placed behind the camera. By lighting him to two stops down, we provide fill on his face and take the target down to saturate the faded colors while taming the white edges.

Two birds killed with one stone, we light the face next.


As you can see above, even though his face is right next to the target, we can light both planes separately by using a grid on his face and feathering it away from the target.

The important thing to remember is not to aim it at his face, but rather in front of his face. Just skim him to the front, and you can use the edge of the gridded beam to light his face without hitting the target.

(You could also gobo off the light to get this effect, with slightly different results. But I like the way the edge of the beam looks on a face.)

So, we are lighting a face on a completely different plane that is the lighting on the target which is just a few inches away. This means we can gel the face but not the target, which is exactly what is done here. A 1/4 CTO warmed up the flesh tones just a tad, without coloring the background at all.


Plane and Simple

By thinking of your lighting zones as planes, you can bypass large amounts of unneeded dead space. Or you can also be picky about just where your light goes and where it doesn't.

And the efficiency of lighting on planes helps you to easily overcome yucky ambient in large, dark spaces.
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Next: Prep Quarterback

pie

don your elastic waist bands,

dig in

and have a peaceful day of gratitude.

i'm thankful for

each

of you.

xoxo
*M

Giving Thanks in a Tangible Way

For those of you outside of the US, today is the day we celebrate Thanksgiving. It's a time to pause and be thankful -- and increasingly, to stuff our faces with turkey and watch some football.

So we're taking the day off. This post was even written in advance. There is a new On Assignment coming tomorrow, but for today, it's turkey and football.


Pay it Forward

If you are feeling extra thankful this year and would like a way to express that in a very concrete and photographic way, might I suggest participating in the Help Portrait project, which happening is two weeks from this Saturday. I think it is a fantastic idea, and have already made plans to contribute.

As always, I continue to be thankful for all of the new friends I have met via this site, and for all of the wonderful experiences that have happened as a result.

Many thanks to all of you for that, and a safe and happy Thanksgiving to all.
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(Traditional Strobist T-Day Demolition shot by Paul Morton.)

-30-

visually delicious

One of each please......

I'm too cheap to pay the monthly membership fee over on Taigan's online shopping site, but it's a great looking site, filled with great window shopping from some of the finest boutiques around.

Test of True Christianity

I've been reading through blog posts today and I'm blown away with how real the "TRUE CHRISTIANITY" in the lives of these people.


The first one I read from Joshua Harris site. It's a story about a missionary named Paton.


Here's the story:

[When Paton declared his intention to take the gospel to the New Hebrides islands] a Mr. Dickson exploded, "The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!" The memory of Williams and Harris on Erromanga was only 19 years old.

But to this Paton responded:

Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.

This is the courage and zeal each one us must have! A courage that no circumstance, no situation or problem can pull us back and prevent us from fulfilling what God wants to do through us. A courage that believes that if God leads, God will surely provide.
The second one is from Dan Lacich of Provocative Christian Living. It's a story about the blogger's friend.


Here's an excerpt from his post:


On November 8, 2009 in South Asia, I and two other pastors from The Austin Stone, were robbed and attacked by a small gang of South Asian youth. Unexpectedly, one of these youth sliced my left cheek with a straight razor. The wound was 5 inches long and an inch deep. It spanned from about my left sideburn to the left corner of my mouth. Fortunately, the two other men with me were physically unharmed. We ran for safety in the middle of the city, pleaded with locals for help, and finally ended up in the emergency room at a local hospital where a doctor stitched up my face with three layers of stitches.


Even though he suffered these, here's what he has to say:

Our suffering in South Asia was a "gracious thing" inthe sight of God! It was a gift of grace! Listen to the profound message of 1 Peter 2:19-21: "For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps."


I don't want to waste a good moment of suffering. The legacy that I want to leave on this earth and to my family is a heap of stories of radical, simple devotion to Jesus! I am learning that the Calvary Road is not a path merely to endure; rather, the Calvary Roadis to be embraced with joy and hope! The Calvary Road is a "gracious" road! That straight razor may be the greatest blessing of the year for my family and I as it leads me one step further on the Calvary Road - the Road that my Lord embraced on his way to die for thugs like me and the South Asian man who knifed me.

Read the whole post here: http://www.austinstone.org/current/god_gospel_mission/lessons_from_a_razor/


Such an amazing MEN of GOD! Such are True Christians!
Let's all desire to be just like them! Same Zeal! Same Enthusiasm! Same faith!
Praise the Lord!

alessandra branca interview on the skirted round table

If you think interior designers are gray hairs in self tie foulard blouses and pant suits, wafting l'air du temp, as they toddle past you, suggesting untouchable rooms, you haven't tuned in to The Skirted Round Table.

When we started this podcast, we thought wouldn't it be great if we could get some of our favorite designers to come on? And like with anything in life, you just have to ask. To our amazement and excitement, we've been filling up a roster of true design greats, creative individuals who not only inspire us but seem to celebrate life and manifest it all through creating beautiful interiors with soul. No, narely a bossy old lady in bad clothes, in the group, just talented and humble, men and woman that you want to sit with for hours in hopes that some of it will rub off on you.

This week is no different. We have yet another one of the major talents of our time, Alessandra Branca.

Roman born, she has the knowledge and genetic aesthetic that becomes clear as she discusses beautiful spaces that are meant to enhance a family's life, to be lived in. Her approach to design is full of life, color, texture and strength and the outcome is reflective of this. Enough of my going on and on..... listen for yourself.

And then go buy her beautiful new book not only because it's a treasure trove packed with glorious images and informative writing, but because ALL of the proceeds go to Inner City children's programs around the country. That's right %100 of the sales from the book go to helping children. Buy the book here.

The Skirted Round Table

Choosing Big Lights: Profoto

If you are shopping for Big Guns, you cannot help but lust after consider Profoto. Among high-end pro shooters, Profoto is near ubiquitous. And there is usually a reason for that.

Several good reasons come to mind in favor of choosing Profoto, actually. And one pretty big reason not to -- inside.
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"The Light Shaping Company"


Those four words define a corporate philosophy that sets Profoto apart from many other strobe companies. They sell a bewildering array of light modifiers. And you have to respect a company that puts that much effort into trying to deliver such a wide range of light shaping tools.

The quality of light pushed into those tools is legendary, too. Which is one of the main reasons pros around the world seem to so often go for Profoto when it comes to choosing lights.

But another reason is the rental network. Profoto was very smart in engineering wide availability of their gear for traveling shooters via rental houses around the world. So you can rent what you need on location, or augment the specific Profoto tools you need for a shoot but do not yet own.

It is a powerful triple whammy: Quality light, shaped well and available everywhere. So what's not to like? Let's all just load up on Profoto and be done with it, right?

Not so fast, bucko. There is one little problem:


Profoto is Expensive.

Even the entry level battery pack and head is gonna set up back over three grand, absent special deals. And the fun just starts there. The packs are expensive. The heads are expensive. And then there are those beautiful modifiers.

The modifiers are as insidious as they are wonderful. They reach waaaay into your wallet, grab it by the short hairs and ask, "What kind of beautiful light would you like to make today, Dave?"

And that's a problem -- because you say, "Well, of course I want make alllll of the different kinds of pretty light today, Profoto!"

Then pretty soon you and your Chase Visa card are best buds. And shortly after that your kids are eating the dry, generic cat food because you can no longer afford to feed them the premium canned stuff.

Which of course would make this an easy "nossir, Profoto," except for then they start to work on your brain from the "logical" side.



"But my reflectors zoom, Dave. So each one is like having, say, three different reflectors."

So then you start to divide the price by three, and that oh-so-versatile "Magnum" reflector which costs like three hundred bucks or something starts to magically look like a mere $100 reflector. And now a hundred bucks for a reflector sounds positively frugal, like when you slow down to 70MPH from 100MPH and it feels like you can get out and walk.

And then who wouldn't want to belly up to the photo bar and buy one?

(What kind of reflector would you like to buy, sir? Oh, I'll be needing a *Magnum* reflector, please…)

And then there is the other value-added thing that starts to creep into your brain: The light mods work on all of the heads. Which makes this an investment into your long-term future, of course.


Know Thyself

So here's the thing. I am not exactly sure what light mods I am gonna be using most often, because I am only now starting to think more frequently in terms of big lights.

And if you do not know which light mods you will need, Profoto is a very expensive place to find out. With these prices, you need to have a conservative, go-slow approach to building a system. And even then, you are gonna have to have a plan.

My strategy if choosing Profoto would be to start with two basic light sources, small (zoom, remember) reflectors, and a Magnum. (Oh, and some gum, to not look too obvious when buying the magnum.)

Maybe grab two 7" grid reflectors, which presumably will take standard 7" grids. So the Magnum is your only real flyer here.


But What Pack and Heads?

Here, you have some choices. If you want to slide in bare bones and discover Profoto one light mod at a time, one relatively pain-free way is to grab some of the few remaining Compact-series moonlights. They can be had very reasonably -- especially in kit form. They are plug-in only, but some people have successfully powered them with Vagabond II's from Paul Buff.

But most important, you are in the door for not a lot. (The first hit of meth is always free or cheap…)

Your mods will continue to be useful as you get deeper into the system. And you have made a commitment to a system that is very much into non-obsolescence, which means that those dollars could be amortized over many, many years. Which means that your system could be a good value -- or downright cheap if you do not require a large number of mods or light sources.

(I know -- rationalizing…)


The Compacts are being replaced by the D1 system, which are smaller, more feature-ladened monos and are priced very attractively. They have great controls, and you can configure them with built-in remote systems for remote manual control, etc.

On a recent overseas trip, I met with a Profoto rep and asked him about battery power for the D1's. He basically winked and said that this is not something they have ruled out. Which means that there either is most definitely a battery coming out soon, or that he was blowing smoke up my skirt. Who knows.

But they are reasonably priced, and get you into the exquisite mod system with low damages. There is only one thing that bugs me about them: They have a recessed tube, with a small, "built-in" reflector.

I am sure they have their reasons, but this just seems counterintuitive to all of the advantages of the zoom light mods. I just don't get it. If you are already using D1's and can give us your thoughts, please educate us in the comments.


Acute Anxiety



But the choices don't stop there.

Besides the going-extinct Compacts and the new D1's, the other entry point into the system is the Acute system, which features a sweet, 600WS battery unit and AC packs whose prices won't give you a heart attack unless you actually stick your finger in a flash socket.

And they frequently run specials (there is one on now, until the end of 2009) wherein you can get a pretty good deal all told (free mods this time, free head other years.) So definitely cruise the specials if you are in the market.

If you want to go batts and AC, skip the smaller AcuteB head, and get the Acute/D4 head, which ships with the better reflector and can be used either battery or AC Acute packs. Then you can go for a 600B pack first and add an AC Acute pack later.

If you plan to use them heavily and for a long time, I would submit that there is excellent value in the Profoto system. If you choose to move up to the If-You-Have-To-Ask price levels of the 7B or other pro series gear, you can eBay your Acute stuff and all of your mods transfer. You could also use the two flash systems alongside each other, but they will not plug and play together.

The stuff holds its value very well, so think of it as rental fees over time and it starts to look palatable. See, I can rationalize with the best of 'em.


Head for the Light, Carol Anne…

I'll confess to having a major Jones for the Profoto stuff. The light quality, the mods, the longevity, the rugged build quality -- I'm getting' a little woozy just thinking about it.

The rental availability is not a huge draw for me, as I am almost always working local enough to drive whatever gear I need when shooting with big lights. But it matters to many others.

Going with Profoto for me would mean exercising some serious gear restraint at first. Not my strong suit, but it might be good for me for a change. Maybe two 600B value kits, and load up on free light mods with the special. I'd be in for about $6k.


[NOTE: The deal seems to vary a bit by region as to what purchases are required and how much free loot you get. Check with your home country dealers for best info.]


And I could always grab a few Profoto soft box adapters (which, um, cost as much as my soft boxes did) and transition in with some of my existing soft boxes. JoeyL did that, essentially sticking his 7B head into Paul Buff soft boxes. I am pretty sure someone in Sweden had an aneurysm over that one, but Joey liked the results.

Eventually, I might migrate to the "stimulus money" -priced neighborhood of the "pro" stuff. I must say it'd be a tad off-putting to drop $6k on the Acute and not get a "pro" label. My pro Flickr account cost me $25.00. Just sayin'.

Or I might be happy forever with Acute. Who can know for sure?

Either way, going Profoto for me would be a trip down the rabbit hole -- drugs priced separately, of course.

If you use Profoto and have sage words of advice for other readers, sound off in the comments. And if you have Q's, maybe you'll get some answers there, too.

Next week, we head back over to the cheaper side of the tracks.

Stop Complaining

I receive this email last night and it made my day.


I was about to complain how hard and difficult my job is. I was starting to complain about how I look, how I speak and how my life is going. 


Until I receive this email...

If you think you are unhappy, look at them!

If you think your salary is low, how about her?

If you think you don't have many friends..

When you feel like giving up, think of this man

If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much as he does?

If you complain about your transport system, how about them?

If your society is unfair to you, how about her? 

Enjoy life how it is and as it comes
Things are worse for others and is a lot better for us!

Stop Complaining! Start Helping!

God Bless you more and may you always learn to extend this blessing to others. :-)

vevet & linen's Brickmaker's table give away - cast your vote!

For the past couple of weeks or so, designer/blogger, Brooke Giannetti of Velvet and Linen, has been holding a contest in which 3 Brickmaker's tables {generously donated by Bobo Intriguing Objects } will be given to as many, fortunate winners.

The contest developed from a post she did regarding the use of catalog pieces in your home and posing the question,"Can you create your own design style even if you buy some pieces from a catalogue?".

The response was huge. With 170 entries, Brooke called upon some of us, fellow design bloggers, to weigh in and give our vote.

Not easy. With such a wide variety of entries, the competition was stiff.

above:: 3 of the 10 finalists chosen

So, photo after photo, my top 5 kept changing. But finally I settled on five. After all of the submissions, Brooke created the list of the Top 10 choices.

She has now opened the voting up to readers. You can enter your top 3 picks until November 29th. To see more of the final picks and cast your vote go here. Good Luck to those of you who entered!

it was colonol mustard and professor plum

.....or maybe it was the framed fabric from Donghia, that started the color trend in Emily Walker's 900 sq ft living space.

No matter, this is a great example of how using a consistent palette can bring continuity to a small space.

Using one wall as an accent as well as a great transitional color into the dining room helps create the flow. I love this dining table paired with the painted gray shield back chairs. Painting the chairs this flat gray, and adding the simple pop of color suddenly transforms them into modern art. table: La Merceria wall color: similar to Benjamin Moore's 'Nightfall-CC-38'

The bedroom is a great example of using color and oversized graphic design to create personality and bluff character in a room. Throughout the space, there are both high-end details {such as the Madeline Weinrib carpet } mixed with dumpster dive or Ikea scores, painted yellow or white. Coverlet, sheets, House & Home; throw, Lucca; side tables, drapes, Ikea; lampshades, Eye Spy; bowl, Waterford Wedgwood; carpet, Madeline Weinrib; pillow, The Cross; wall colour, Iron Mountain (2134-30), Benjamin Moore.

The stripe wallpaper creates a column-like element drawing the eye up and over, the wall/ceiling deliniation creating a sense of space in this narrow room. I find it interesting that the art is kept low and propped rather than hung on the yellow anchor piece in the room. Love the lampshade ceiling fixture. Wallpaper, Farrow & Ball; sofa, Bliss Interior Design; art, desk chair, Hollace Cluny; light fixture, Ikea.

great t.v. and open shelving in the galley kitchen.
Countertop, Sticks & Stones; white dishes, House & Home; black china, Wedgwood; vase, bird, Quasi Modo; art, Canvas Gallery; TV, Festoon; rug, Madeline Weinrib.

The charming wallpaper creates the perfect backdrop for the Telegramme prints. A tiny powder room is the best place to go all out and add major personality.

Wallpaper, Telio; toiletries, Teatro Verde; art, Telegramme Prints; sconce, Alico; mirror (painted), Ikea; vase, Bungalow.

Photography: Donna Griffith

Room design: Stacey Smithers
From Candian House and Home