Back in October 2007 I made the decision to convert from PC (Windows) over to Mac (OSX).  At the same time I bought my first Apple computer (an iMac) I also bought the first model iPhone.  The terrible experience I had with HP’s “customer support” combined with what I saw the iPhone could do influenced my decision to convert.  Since my conversion I have come to appreciate Apple’s products a lot more.  My preference now has shifted towards Apple, but I prefer not to take part in the “Mac vs PC” or “iOS vs Android” debates.  They all have their merits and come down to personal preference.

Over these last four years I have come to love my iPhone.  Before the iPhone’s release I had phone, iPod for music, and PDA for appointments and (limited) internet – three separate devices that iPhone combined wonderfully into one device.  The iPhone has come a long way since then.  Apple has worked hard improving the hardware with each revision and the addition of Apps has greatly expanded the iPhone’s capabilities.

I decided to hold off on upgrading my iPhone these last four years.  Like I said, each revision has seen improvements to the hardware.  But I opted not to upgrade because my old iPhone was still getting job done for me.  That was until this year when 2 things occurred.  First, I saw what iOS 5 was bringing to the table.  Second, my iPhone began to reach the end of its life cycle.  iOS 5 was big thing for me because my iPhone hasn’t seen an update since iOS 3. My initial plan was to see what the new iPhone had to offer and if it was just some minor updates I would just go with the “last year’s model” – the iPhone 4.  But Apple would have none of that!!  When I saw the features of the iPhone 4S I knew I had to have one.  Main selling points for me was the improved camera and Siri assistant built in.

Of course my other assistant, the adorable Makise Kurisu, isn’t too keen on having competition.   She makes a point to show how displeased she is with this new arrangement.  Little does she know that she and Siri share something in common ~ both of them are tsundere….

The antics I have had with Siri are quite comical.  But that is a topic for another day.

A more detailed review of the device coming soon.  Until then, please enjoy these test photos with the improved camera in the 4S.  My initial impression on the new camera can be said in one word – “impressive”.

I frequently like to change up my desktops from time to time as I get tired of looking at the same thing all the time.  This is my current desktop, featureing Mu-12 from the video game BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.  Been told I have a lot of stuff in my dock.  That is probably true, but believe it or not these are the programs I find myself using most often.  What sort of programs do you keep handy for easy access?  I also try to keep the desktop tidy.  I find myself dropping lot of stuff on it from time to time, and when it gets to much I will group the items into folders.  Once I have had time to go through the folders I drop them in correct sub-directories in my home folder.

This is the original version of the wallpaper above featuring Mu-12 from the video game BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.  This is a wallpaper I threw together because I was bored and wanted a wallpaper of Mu-12.  Still feeling it was pretty decent wallpaper, I submitted it to Animepaper for download.  Guess they thought it was “decent” too because it was rated “D” ^^;  Using the suggestions from comments there I created the version above.  I actually like the revised version more!!

Those who watch my deviantART account noticed this version was actually up there for download first.  Plan on using my deviantART profile more in the future.  But Flickr will be number one place to see my photos.

Satellizer el Bridgett from Freezing was featured on my desktop starting 4-7-2011.  I was on a huge Freezing kick having been instantly hooked from episode 3.  Satellizer is on my list of awesome anime heroines.  I love her character ^o^

Emiya Kiritsugu and his servant Saber from Fate / Zero dominated the desktop war from 1-9-11 until Satellizer defeated them.  Anyone else excited about the Fate / Zero anime series coming in October?  After seeing this trailer I’m even more excited.  Cannot wait!!

Of course before Fate / Zero was gracing my desktop, I had Fate / Extra with Desktop 08-07-10 featuring the lovely Nero.  She’s not Arthuria but still cool…or considering who she is would that be hot…yes…hot indeed.

The Black King and the Immortal Witch graced my desktop back on 5-6-09.  I loved Code Geass.  The characters and story were top notch in my book.  And I loved the mecha too.  Even if it would lead to my eventual downfall, I would make a contract with C.C. in a heartbeat if it meant I could obtain a Geass.

The first desktop I shared features my absolutely favorite picture of my absolutely favorite anime heroine Saber.  But not just any picture of Saber…no…its Saber in a wedding dress!!  This is SSS+++ in my book!!!

Plan to share my desktops more often.  In fact, thought I was because been dropping them into set on Flickr, just forget to blog about them.  Plus as I mentioned in my Studiotaku about page, my first site was about sharing wallpapers I created.  In fact, can see some general audience wallpapers I created by checking out that page.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!  For those that were not aware 2010 was the year of the tiger.  But on February 3rd the tiger had to step aside for another, making 2011 the year of the rabbit…correction…the year of King Kazma!!  In a move similar to 2009, I figured this would be a good opportunity to post some teaser pics of the King Kazma figma by Max Factory.

Another great thing about 2011 and February is that on February 15th, Summer Wars will see a stateside release on Blu-ray and DVD thanks to FUNimation!  ^o^  So for those like me who have not seen the movie yet and we’ll have a great opportunity to own it in couple weeks!  Won a lot of awards and I have heard good things about it, so looking forward to its release.

And don’t think this is the last you have seen of King Kazma.  He will be seeing plenty of action in the coming months and he is taking all challengers head on!

Decided recently to try out Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 (Lightroom for short) after reading about some features and opinions on it online.  When Lightroom was first released, I disregarded it because I figured Photoshop could pretty much do what Lightroom could.  But Lightroom is far more than just another image editor.  Its also a way to manage and organize your images, plus is specially designed for photography whereas Photoshop is more about image manipulation.

Only been experimenting with Lightroom for about two weeks, so still learning what all it is capable of doing.  But I will say that Lightroom has streamlined my photography workflow.  Before I would use Bridge to add additional metadata into my images.  Then I would have to run image processor to turn RAW file into a JPEG.  Then would have to use batch jobs in Photoshop to resize images for web use and add site tagging to them.  A time consuming process.  Thanks to Lightroom’s custom preset feature and extensive export function, I was able to drastically streamline the process.  Export alone has replaced 3 long batch jobs into 1 short process.

I am a believer that all images could benefit from some post processing.  Which is why Lightroom appealed to me.  This may come from my brief experience doing some darkroom work when I took a photography class in college.  The professor would push us to think about not just the capturing of the image, but also the development of the image.  DSLR cameras give us control over a lot of what is captured and even an idea of what the final product will look like.  But I think that tweaking that final product is still important.

Which is leads me to another feature I like using in Lightroom – Lens Correction.  Basically a tool that helps fix the distortion caused by camera’s lens.  Lightroom is able to read image’s EXIF data and can offer a correction based on the lens profile programmed into the software.  And if your lens doesn’t have a profile built in, there are steps for adding it into the software.  Haven’t ran into this problem but certainly nice to have.

Of course I am not going to say that Lightroom is going to guarantee perfect photos.  I don’t consider myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  Photography is something I have done on and off over the years, but I am still learning.  But I think GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) even applies when photos are concerned.  Composition is very important.  If you take a bad photo, post processing can only do so much to help it .  But if you have a good image, a little post processing can help make it great.

As I have said before, photography has always been an interest of mine.  But it is also something I never given my full attention too.  Investing in things like Lightroom is my way of investing more attention into photography.  Like a lot of people I have passion for many things.  And I try to find overlap in these passions so that they can all continue to develop, and so that I can find ways to grow myself.  By wanting to share more and more of my dollfie passion with people, my passion for photography has once again be rekindled.  Which is why I have been focusing more time and resources into developing those skills.

When I look at photos I took a year ago of my girls compared to recently, I feel that certain aspects have approved.  And I feel others may also think so as I see more and more people responding positively to my new stuff when I upload it to my Flickr photostream.  Which also drives me to improve and develop my skills.

It is my hope that Lightroom along with my other tools will allow me to create a product that many people will enjoy.

Wanted to share a few pics of the setup I use when I do a lot of my indoor photos, namely when taking Dollfie Dream photos.  I got a couple of inquires about the lighting after I did the Sakura Matou post, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about my setup.  The main thing I want to show is that you can still achieve some pretty decent lighting conditions without spending a lot of money on fancy lighting equipment.  Plus this setup comes in handy if you are like me and don’t have a lot of room for a professional lighting setup.

The idea behind this setup was inspired by the Figure on Cheap Lighting tutorial written by super rats and reading from my old photography text regarding lighting.  Pretty sure the updated edition contains a lot of the same information, as the info is basic photography knowledge.  Certainly a recommended read for anyone looking to improve their fundamentals.

For my light source, I use Ott-lite branded lights.  I like Ott-lite because the light appears whiter than with other bulbs I have used and seems to bring out a truer color.  Just my opinion as I am not a light expert, but it works for me.  I primarily use the floor lamp as my overhead light source.  The clip on lamp is one I use as needed, though at the moment the bulb in it is a bit too strong for this lamp.  So I try not to use it to use it too often.

I have a large piece of foil used as reflector.  Can also achieve the same result using white poster board.  Pretty much want something to bounce light into shadow areas.

Blurry photo is blurry.  On the right I have a small desk lamp that serves as primary light source.  I use a box with some tracing paper taped on it as a diffuser screen.  A diffuser is used in front of a light to soften it and make shadows less distinct.

Of course you can move things around to achieve the results you desire.  The key is to play around with it and find the configuration that works for what you are trying to accomplish.

I connect my camera to my computer to enable remote shooting.  I like using this method as I can review photos as I take them and tweak different things before moving forward.  Also use the live viewfinder on camera so I can see the frame on the LCD screen.  Both remote shooting and live viewfinder drain battery life quickly, which would cut shoots short even when using two batteries.  To counter this, I decided to get AC Adapter Kit for my camera.  Nice to be able to take photos now without worrying about battery life.

What does that have to do with lighting?  Nothing I suppose, but it helps me adjust lighting as needed without worrying about killing battery life on the camera while experimenting.  Plus I don’t like to stop shooting while wait for batteries to charge after I finally get everything set up.

Shot using natural light coming in from window.  No artificial lighting used at all.

Same shot with the lighting on.  I’ll leave you to look at the rest of the pics of the lovely Fate Sisters, Rin and Sakura.  Expect to see more of them soon enough.

Found some old pictures of my computer set up from back in 2006, when I was an avid supporter of Windows (or what you may call “a PC”).

In 2007 I made the switch from PC to Mac.  Before then, I was an avid supporter of PC and pretty much disregarded Mac as something used for ‘artsy’ projects.

During this I utilized a dual computer set up.  The one on the left was a system I had bought from Best Buy.  It was actually the first desktop I bought on my own.  I named this computer Mitsurugi.  My mom also bought a computer at the same time, which I named Hiten.  They were named after the sword style used by Kenshin Himura in the anime Rurouni Kenshin – Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

The system on the left was one had custom built from HP.  It had top of the line specs for computer of that time, including dual hard drives and LightScribe DVD burner.  I named this machine Wirbelwind.  At the time I was watching the anime Kiddy Grade and this was the name of the AI that controlled The La Muse, the spacescraft of the main characters Éclair and Lumière.

I have been a Fate / Stay Night fan for many, many years.   This was one of my favorite images because it featured my three favorite Fate girls – Rin, Saber, and Sakura.  I regularly rotate Fate desktops even to this day.

I can’t recall what this character’s name is or what series she is from.  I liked this image though because of the pose and because it was a bit ecchi.

Before the iPhone I had a PDA.  Truth be told I don’t understand why, as I certainly didn’t use it a lot.  Have to say that iPhone really changed the mobile device market.  After all, how many PDA devices do you really see now?  I like to name my devices, even PDAs and mobile phones.  This one was named Yumiko after Yumiko Readman from Read or Die.  In that series, she is known as “The Paper” because she is a Papermaster (someone who can manipulate paper) and this device in essence was like ‘digital paper’ to me.

Showing off the Fate girls one last time.  If I ever get DD Saber, I may be able to recreate this desktop >=D

I mentioned before these photos were taken in 2006.  A year later I would switch over to Mac after terrible experience with HP and their “customer service” department.  Won’t go into great detail, but the experience was enough for me to make the change.  I had to retire Mitsurugi last year due to serious hardware failure, but I do still have Wirbelwind and use it on occasion for testing some Windows stuff.  That being said, have nothing against people who prefer their Windows machine (still use one daily at my job).  Personally, just find using Mac to be a better experience which is why I now say “I was a PC”

After a bit of a wait, it finally arrived.  My copy of Fate / Extra Type-Moon Box for Playstation Portable.  Also came with an unexpected bonus item, a mock magazine called Fate / the Fact.

Rin side of box with Fate / the Fact.  Lovely Rin is lovely =D

Back of the box.  This was the Limited Edition of the game, which came with some extra bonus items.  These items included a mini artbook, limited OST, and the main reason I wanted this bundle – Saber Extra figma!!

Caster side of the box.  Basic premise of the game is this:

Fate / Extra is a Japanese dungeon role-playing game.   At the start of the game, the player may choose to play as either a male or female character, as well as selecting one of three Servants.  Players spend one ingame “week” interacting with other characters, viewing scenes that advance the game’s story, talking to their Servant in their room, and gathering clues to the identity of the enemy Servant. At the end of each day, they enter the Arena, a dungeon in which they can battle monsters to gain experience points and strengthen their Servant.  Servants’ stats are raised manually using skill points gained upon levelling up. At the end of each week is a decisive battle against the enemy Servant and Master, after which the player progresses to the next round of the tournament-style war.

The game’s battle system is comparable to rock-paper-scissors — “Attack” overpowers “Break”, Break overpowers “Guard”, and Guard overpowers Attack. During battle, both the player and the opponent line up six such moves at the beginning of each turn. Landing three successful hits allows use of an “extra attack” that cannot be countered. Most types of enemies have their own distinctive attack patterns, and memorizing these allows the player Servant to deal high amounts of damage while receiving minimal damage in return.

Peek inside Fate / the Fact.  Little mini magazine on one side and a special disc on the other.  I would share the contents of the disc, but then I would have to kill you ^^

On a side note, I love this alternate version of Rin Tohsaka.  Very nice.

Cover of the Fate / Extra visual works book.  Lovely Saber Extra.  Originally thought that this Saber was related to the Saber of Fate / Stay Night.  Mainly, thought she was Mordred.  But in fact, this Saber is a completely different character not related to the original aside from being the same class.  By now, many know true identity of this Saber.  But if you don’t, I will talk more about her when I review Saber Extra figma in a later post.

Inside cover and soundtrack.  One of the key design differences between Saber Extra and the original Saber is that this version of Saber is a bit more revealing with her attire.  Not only is the back of the dress revealing…

but the skirt is also revealing.  Can see right through it ^^

Also like how the player character and Saber meeting is (imaginary wise) the same as when Saber and Shiro first met in Fate / Stay Night.  Very familiar scene to fans of the series.

Revealing Saber is revealing =D

In this version of Fate, Rin’s servant is Lancer and not Archer.  Instead, Archer becomes one of servants you can chose to join you.

Rani VIII.  I believe she is the Master to Servant Caster in the game.

Rin and Rani doing something.  Pretty cool looking at least lol

Saber – clue to her true identity is obviously in this image.

Game and bonus books

And Saber Extra waiting to be set free.  Review coming soon!

If you haven’t already, still a chance for you pick up a copy of Fate / Extra at following retailers.

Fate / Extra (Limited Edition)

Play Asia
Amazon
Amazon JP

Fate / Extra (Regular Edition)

Play Asia
Amazon
Amazon JP

Be advised that may need to use proxy / deputy service if you want to order game from Amazon Japan.  I believe they don’t sell software outside of Japan.

Saber Extra also currently featured on my desktop.  I really love this image of her.  Funny note, twitter comrade @maridahcosplay had the following to say about my dock.  Believe it or not I use most of programs often so try to keep them handy =D

This last Saturday was July 4th, which for those in the United States means Independence Day.  It was nice as I got to enjoy a lovely three-day weekend from work (July 5th federal offices were closed).  Relaxed, at some BBQ, and caught a bit of fireworks – about the extent of my 4th activities.

But figured I should post something even if I didn’t do much.  And of course Heroman came to mind, especially when I remembered seeing the image above.  Really like that image, maybe I’m sentimental but really like the flag background.  Just looks patriotic to me ^^;

I hope everyone had a safe holiday.  As for me, its back to work after a rather nice three-day weekend.  I rather enjoyed it, even if I didn’t do much.  Always enjoy extended weekends.

I couldn’t resist adding this.   What better way to end this post than with Lina David in her ‘patriotic’ attire.  As a hot-blooded (American) male, obviously don’t mind adding a bit of fanservice.

Last night I was checking referral data for my site the last few days.  Noticed two search terms that were leading to increased referrals were “DD Sakura” and “Dollfie Dream Sakura” – so being the curious person I am decided to Google those to see where I fell in the search results.

I pull up Google homepage, and to my surprise I noticed that now a background appears.  It also looked like you had the option to change the background to some approved images as well.  But what really caught my attention was the option to upload your own backgrounds.  So I decided to play around with it using an image of my Rin Tohsaka Dollfie Dream =3

As far as the decision to include background images, the move seems a bit…Bing-ish…to me, but certainly nice feature.  I am interested to see if this feature will be a permanent addition to Google or if its just a test.

Have you tried it out yet?  What do you think of it?  Do you like it or not?  And please, feel free to share links to your custom Google homepages.  Interested to see what others are doing too!

If you would like this wonderful pic of Rin for your Google homepage, its available for download here.

This first picture is of my dad.  Ran up and took this pic when he was heading off somewhere or another.  May be why he has that funny look on his face ^^;;

I took photography course for two reasons.  First was I have always had an interest in photography growing up.  My mom gave me an old Pentax camera when I was young and I would use it whenever I had the money to buy a roll of film.  I actually used that Pentax camera to take these photos.  That camera has served me well through the years.

Second reason was I was hoping that taking a photography class would get me out of art history, one of the required courses for my undergraduate degree.  Sadly though, it did not and I had no choice but to take art history the next semester.

But I am still glad I took the class because it was a great experience.  Class covered a lot of the basics of photography regarding lighting and composing the shot.  The class also gave us experience using a dark room, as we were required to use ‘analog’ SLR cameras and not digital.  Working in the darkroom alone was well worth taking the course as I learned a lot about processing film.  Though it could be a bit crowded when you have a lot of people all trying to make prints at the same time -.-

I wonder if they still teach darkroom these days, as many people have digital cameras.  Maybe they substitute that time teaching how to accomplish the same techniques in Photoshop?  That would be nice, since a  ‘digital darkroom’ can be more accessible to people.

Over the course of that semester I took hundreds of photos.  The number of assignments escapes me, but I think it was four.  From that we had to make contact sheets, which is basically a print of our developed negatives lined up so can see the entire roll.  We would then chose which ten photos we felt were our best from that assignment and develop a print.  We would then have our prints critiqued by the teacher and classmates.

Our final portfolio consisted of eight prints, chosen from the forty prints that we previously made.  We had to chose our best two shots from each assignment.

We were given the option to use our critiques to try and improve on the prints if we wished.  But sometimes, you actually make it worst – I notice that this print has a lot of dust spots.  Dust is the worst enemy when working in a dark room, especially when it has a lot of traffic going through it.  A problem don’t have to worry about in a digital environment ^^;

On a side note, this was my professor’s favorite photograph from my set.  He liked how the light cut through on the pillar.  Truth be told, I just took this photo just to get to end of my film and didn’t think much of it.

We were also required to mat frame our prints as they were going to put up on display in the art building as part of their student showcases.  On the back of each print we were to put our name, professor’s name, course and time so that they could be returned to us.  I never went back to pick up my prints, mainly because I had these scans of them.

This was my from my first assignment and is my favorite.  Loved the intersecting lines the branches made and the light / dark areas made from the sun shining through the limbs.

Hope you enjoyed the photos.  I have another cache of photos I found plan on sharing next time.