Have you ever played with fire? Stupid question right! You would say it is dangerous but think about it. Have you ever witnessed a situation where you had wanted to capture fire in your lens? Photographing fire can be fun and also very tricky. Let me share some tips on basic digital photography for capturing fire and getting better photographs.Light is the main element of a photograph. If I have to describe it in one word it would be ‘Heart’. There are two main sources of light sun and the artificial lights. But have you ever thought about fire as the primary source of light? Fire coming out of a candle or a raging inferno, are these some great moments that you really wish to capture. You can explore a new side to your creativity. Fire can take a lot of forms and each form spells out a different meaning to life. You can describe power, subtlety, warmth and heat from its different forms. There are two basic forms of fire that I have described below. You can experiment with these two forms and bring out your own meaning to life.The first form of fire is a single flame. Now, there isn’t mush problem in shooting a single flame right? It really is simple. But when you attempt capturing the flame on the camera, you would come to know how difficult can it be. Now for this experiment you just require a single candle, a dark place, tripod or a strong surface to hold the camera. Here it is best to shift to manual focus, and keep your focus at the end of the wick. The flame will not be in super focus because it is producing light and is also a 3D object. That means the intensity and the point of focus on it will vary.If your camera has spot meters then use it and take the reading of the flame. The image you will get to see will be darker than normal, slow down the shutter speed and overexpose the frame a little. If you want the photo to have the flame straight then ensure that there are no drafts around to move the flame. When you have figured out the basic digital photography techniques and the shutter speed, you can play around a little by blowing gently and capture the dancing.The next form of fire is the campfires; these are the easiest form of image that you can take. But the main point when you take the photo is to get the shutter speed dialed in. The best way to take the photograph is to go for a longer shutter speed, this will help in blurring the fire and also give the sparks a chance to leave a trail. The shot of a campfire always spreads warmth and a playful attitude of the fire. This is an important point of the basic digital photography. If you leave the shutter open for a long time the fire would turn out to be very bright and you will in turn lose the mood.Always remember that fire carries with a lot of impact and variety.
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Home Improvement Loan – Some Steps to Obtain It More Easily
If you have lived in your home for several years, now this is probably the right time for you to make some improvements. Minor or major improvement is usually needed to make your time at home more enjoyable. Besides, improvement will also add the value of your beloved home.
When improving some parts of your home, the budget that you own plays an important role. The amount of your money determines the coverage of your home improvement and surely the building quality. Commonly, people need much money when it comes to home improvement and it triggers them to obtain loan. If you plan to conduct the improvement but you don’t have a special budget to fund it, it is a good idea to consider obtaining home improvement loan. This type of loan makes your home improvement financing gets easier and gives you the peace of mind.
To help you obtain the loan in an easier way, here are some steps that you can do:
1. Determine the amount of money that you need for the project. The way you determine the budget that you might need is very easy, all you need to do is just checking the parts that you need to improve. After that, you can get help from a contractor to estimate the budget. Seeking help from professional helps you know the needed fund without wasting the time.
2. Once you have determined the amount of money that you want to borrow; now this is the time to find the right lender. Nowadays, there are many lenders offer home improvement loan as more people need a simpler financing option. When searching for a lender, make sure that you check the most reputable ones. Loan types, interest rates, and closing costs are some things that you should also check when searching for a lender. You can make use of the internet to view lenders’ profile and the service that they offer. This may take some times but the information that you get will make you decide easier.
3. Finally, you come to the last step of obtaining the loan. After choosing a lender who fits your need, now this is the time for you to apply for the loan. Mostly, lenders will require you to deal with the paperwork and then submit it to them. Applying for home improvement loan can also be done online today to save your time.
It is easy, isn’t it? Obtaining home improvement loan can be much easier today as lenders are trying to improve their service to the prospective borrowers. If you don’t have any experience in obtaining the loan, it is a good idea to seek assistance from the professional.
The Art of Managing People
Managing people has always been a challenge everywhere. This is because people are difficult to manage and most managers too lack the skill of effective people management. This is why we are X-raying this book entitled “The Art of Managing People”. It is co-written by Dr. Phillip Hunsaker and Dr.Anthony Alessandra, two brilliant management experts.Hunsaker is a professor of management and director of management programmes, School of Business Administration at the University of San Diego. He is a renowned consultant, speaker and author of many best-selling books on management. As for Alessandra, he is a highly-respected sales, marketing and management consultant as well as an award-winning public speaker. He has written more than 100 articles.According to Hunsaker and Alessandra, the art of managing people productively and effectively is a dynamic process that is ever changing and evolving, and many of the managerial concepts proposed only a few years ago cannot and will not work in today’s environment. These experts ascribe this development to the fact that people, business environment, government and world have changed, while scarcity of resources has worsened, especially the valuable resource of skilled labour.Hunsaker and Alessandra submit that attracting, training, motivating and keeping employees have become much more difficult and expensive, adding that these will even get worse in the future. They submit that this text has been written to overcome many of the traditional manager-employee relationship problems. According to these authors, when a manager establishes a friendly yet productive working atmosphere, the benefits to the whole organisation are substantial.These authors assert that the text offers you practical strategies, guidelines and techniques for developing interpersonal skills critical to the improvement of relations with employees; how to understand differences among people and behave accordingly; assessing and improving current working situations; creating trust between managers and employees, etc.Hunsaker and Alessandra say person-to-person skills are central to the development of an effective team of satisfied and energetic workers. They educate that allowing your workers to express their own personalities and maximise their potential will reduce stress within the workforce, create a positive spirit throughout the company and increase the organisation’s productivity and profitability.This text is segmented into three parts of 19 chapters. Part one has a generic subject matter of building productive managerial relationships, and covers the first five chapters. Chapter one is entitled “Adjusting effectively to personal style differences”. According to Hunsaker and Alessandra here, interactive management is a process of dealing with people as individuals in order to build trust, openness and honesty in the manager-employee relationship, thereby improving productivity in the organisational set-up. In their words, “To treat your employees as unique individuals, you as the manager must understand what makes them different from one another. With this knowledge, you can go about managing your employees as unique individuals with unique personalities, problems, and needs. This ‘custom-tailored’ approach to managing employees in an organisational setting is one of the major thrusts of interactive management.”Chapter two is entitled “Learning how to learn”. These authors say here that successful managers in today’s rapidly-changing world are distinguished not so much by a set of technical skills as by their ability to learn and adapt to the fluctuating demands of their careers. They stress that continuing success requires the ability to explore new opportunities and learn from past successes and failures.Hunsaker and Alessandra say one purpose for studying the learning process is to understand how people go about generating concepts, rules and principles from their experiences as guides for their future behaviour, and how they modify these concepts to improve their effectiveness in new situations.In chapters three to five, these authors discuss concepts such as doing unto others; deciding how to decide; and analysing transactional styles.Part two is summarily woven together as “Interactive communication skills” and contains eight chapters, that is, chapters six to 13. Chapter six is entitled “The art of questioning”. Here, Hunsaker and Alessandra educate that one of the most critical and valuable tools in the manager’s arsenal of communication skills, is the art of questioning.They add that the ability of the manager to ask the right questions at the right time to help his or her employees best is an essential and integral part of interactive management. “Skilful questioning simplifies the manager’s job because it gets employees to ‘open up’. The employee feels free to reveal inner feelings, motives, needs, current situations, goals, and desires. With this knowledge, the manager is in a much better position to guide the employee to the ultimate achievement of personal, professional, and organisational goals,” assert Hunsaker and Alessandra.In chapters seven to 13, they beam their analytical searchlight on concepts such as the power of listening; projecting the appropriate image; communicating through voice tones; using body language effectively; spatial arrangements saying things; how your use of time talks; and making sure with feedback.Part three, the last part has a general subject matter of interactive problem-solving and covers the last six chapters, that is, chapters 14 to 19. Chapter 14 is entitled “Problem-solving together”. Hunsaker and Alessandra educate that when managers are asked how they make decisions and solve problems, the typical response is usually something like “I don’t know. I just do what has to be done”. In the words of these authors, “Although they may not be able to specify what steps they take or what rules they apply, all would probably agree that making ‘good’ decisions and effectively solving problems are the essence of good management.”In chapters 15 to 19, Hunsaker and Alessandra discuss concepts such as defining the problem; developing action plans; implementing action; following through; and what to do with what you have learnt.As far as style is concerned, this text is on the high rung of the ladder. For instance, the language of the text is simple while the organisation of concepts is okay. The authors use graphical embroidery for visual reinforcement of readers’ understanding. What’s more, the title is short but assertive.However, grammatical errors are noticed in the text. One of these is, “Letting your workers express their own personalities and maximise their potentials…” (outside back cover), instead of “Letting your workers express their own personalities and maximise their potential…” Note that “Potential” is an uncountable noun and therefore does not structurally take an “S”). Another error is that of structural redundancy, that is, “Much more difficult and much more expensive” (page xi) instead of the elliptical version “Much more difficult and expensive”.In spite of these errors, this text still passes for a masterpiece. It is a must-read and the tips must-apply for anybody that wants to become well educated in the art of management in the New Year.