New Handbag!

Those who know me, know that I don't like small handbags mainly because I'm the type of person who likes carrying a lot of stuff! (iPhone, Bluetooth, wallet, USB key, security pass, cards, notebook, two pens, sunglasses, make-up etc.)

Anyway, I needed a new handbag so I finally got out and bought myself a new handbag. Wait, let me rephrase that: I needed to buy shoes last week so I went out to buy them, only I came back home with shoes AND a handbag. Okay, that sounds more like it. Anyway, I got myself a Nine West handbag from Style Sense (pictured above). I don't know why, but for some reason I have a tendency to gravitate toward Nine West handbags (this is my fourth one!). I never really plan on buying it, it just happens! Has that ever happened to you?

Anyway, I have to say it's a nice bag! Lots of room to carry my stuff! I can also fit my Nikon D90 in here as well but am afraid I will hurt it because there isn't any padding to protect it. Other than that, I think I will stick to this one for awhile before I purchase another one :)

Hello New Addiction!

So I finally tried the Starbucks' Caramel Brulee Latte. I know this is going to be my new addiction! Probably not for very long as I understand this is probably one of those hot beverages that are only available during a certain season (I might be wrong, in fact I hope I am wrong!).

Anyway, it is delicious! Not too strong and not too sweet. I also love the coffee cup! Naturally, I had to take a photo of the cup, my family thinks I'm crazy when I do stuff like this but I can't help it!

I had to take several shots of this cup before I was happy with it. The photo was taken with a Nikkor AF-S 50mm 1.4g lens which I mainly use for closeup shots like these. I processed this photo a bit in Adobe Lightroom.

I wanted to try my hand at adding texture to my images so I came up with another variation of this photo. I would love to hear your thoughts on the textured photos, available here.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday!!

Food Talk

Just recently, my family and I decided to have dinner at this Persian restaurant we heard so much about. It's called Safraan (in Toronto). I tried looking them up on the Internet but can't seem to find a website for some reason.

Anyway, they had a lot of choices, Persian dishes as well as pastas and pizzas. I ordered the Koobideh kabab dinner. Comes with a chicken and veal kabab, served with rice (that yellow stuff is called Saffron. It also came with a roasted tomato, which was really nice! It's probably a Persian thing! Anyway, it cost about $19 for the plate and was an okay meal. I didn't really like the veal kabab, the chicken one was really good though, much like Pakistani style kababs! The decor was nice but really noisy! I guess it was noisy because of this one group that was hosting there office holiday party there (they did a secret Santa thing and someone won a Wii...how cool is that!).

I'm back!

That's right. I am finally back after a long hiatus. I realized that trying to blog twice or thrice a week was becoming a bit of a challenge for me given my 'other' work was taking so much of my time. Of course I get paid to do that so I had to choose that over this.

Anyway, what made me start blogging again? A month ago I decided to replace my Nikon D40 with a Nikon D90. I thought why not start an online album or something to showcase my photos - even if they're not the best.

So, I finally revived my Flickr account and started uploading my photos. While doing that I came across many Flickr users who also have a blog. I especially like how Curiousillusion links her Flickr account to her blog and vice versa and am hoping to do something similar =)

I have to say photography is something that I am passionate about so I would hate to not do this. So, the two things I thought about doing today were 1) start blogging and 2) start taking photos daily to improve my photography. At first I thought about doing one of those Take one photo a day for a year project i.e. Project 365. But I feel like I will be setting myself up for failure if I start that.

So I'm thinking of doing Project 52 instead, where you take a photo every week for 52 weeks instead of every day =)

Wish me luck!

Fonts and Copyright Issues???

Okay, so I have heard that using a font or an illustration (that was not designed by yourself) in a logo design can lead to copyright issues.

Based on this knowledge, I have been going around in circles trying to find answers but have not had any luck. I have come across a few websites but they too, do not really explain that well - or may be it's just me. So I thought, why not blog and ask and see if someone can answer my question.

I will use the following scenario and try to keep it really simple. Say, I am a freelance designer and have been approached by a company who wants me to create a logo for them.

Using Adobe Illustrator, I create a logo using an illustration I designed (freehand) with a pen tablet. Then I use the default font - Times New Roman font and type the title. I create outlines of the font and export as JPEG and then sell that JPEG to the company.

Here are my questions (I apologize in advance if they are too confusing):

1. Can I legally (in Canada), sell this JPEG file to the company?

2. If not, why?

3. Do I have to "buy" the copyrights for using Times New Roman font??

4. If so, how do I do that? Also, if I am buying the "copyrights", would I bill the customer?

5. Could you provide all the steps that I should/need to take to ensure the logo I design is legal and is sold in a legal manner?

These are only some of the questions I have. I am hoping I can find some answers as this issue is really confusing!

Thank you all in advance!!!

Do You Think Before You Tweet?

This article in the Globe and Mail warns tweeters to be careful what they tweet about. You never know who is reading and what the consequences might be, should you tweet without thinking.

I'm new to the world of Twitter but have caught on pretty quickly. Quite frankly, I didn't understand the concept of Twitter at first but after jumping on the bandwagon, I have to say I have become addicted! I even downloaded a Twitter application called Tweetie on my iPhone. The concept of Twitter does sound silly at first but once you start, you can't stop tweeting *tweet*!

Unfortunately, I have not had much luck convincing my friends to join Twitter. They feel they already have a hard time trying to keep up with Facebook, and adding another social networking tool to their social plates will be way more than what they can handle. As a result, I have met some new tweeters. Some of them are complete strangers whose lives I'm following. Why? I don't know. Or maybe I do. Perhaps because each person has a little something in common with me. Some of my fellow tweeters are from my hometown, some have similar interests and some just have a more interesting life than I do! The privacy levels compared to Facebook are less strict. I think Facebook at least does a better job of protecting your privacy (even with their recent privacy policy brouhaha).

I personally do have a rule around how much information I disclose and I especially do not talk about work or my job. This rule applies not only to Tweeting but to blogging as well. Although the cyber world can be a great place to meet new people, it can be a scary place as well. So, I always advise folks to practice safe tweeting. Think of who is/will be reading your blog or tweets.

If you're not using Twitter or are new, here's a Newbie's Guide to Twitter to get you started. Want to follow me on Twitter? Follow Techy Girl here.

Happy Tweeting everyone!

The Dominant Eye

The other day I was taking some photos with my DSLR camera and realized something rather odd yet interesting.

First of all, those of you who are aware, the Nikon D40's LCD screen does not allow you to view the image like you would in some cameras (mainly point and shoots). So as a photographer, you are forced to view through the tiny viewfinder. I'm glad it is that way because to be honest, taking photos based on what you see in the LCD is not always a great practice. I find images do not turn out exactly how you view it in the LCD (sometimes they will turn out blurry or out of focus).

Anyway, I will talk more about that in another post but going back to the point...while taking some photos I noticed that I use my left eye to view through the viewfinder. So I did some research and found out that there actually is something called "Ocular dominance" (or eye dominance). Being a right hand dominant, I took the "Mile's test", a test used to determine your dominant eye. It was interesting to know that I am actually a 'leftie' (crossed dominance) when it comes to taking photos or taking a shot at getting the paper ball in the bin perhaps!

See which one of your eyes is dominant, here's a visual example showing you how to take the test.

On a side note, while reading up on this stuff I realized that the dominant eye and hand in most people are usually the same e.g. right hand, right eye dominance. I know I have tried using the camera with my right eye but it just seems so awkward. Not only that, viewing through the viewfinder with your right eye means only half of your forehead is rested against the camera (which introduces camera shake i.e blurry pictures in my opinion). Using my left eye allows me to rest my forehead against the camera to steady it and produce better photos.

So, whether you have a DSLR or point and shoot camera, skip the LCD viewing business next time and try taking the photo through the camera's viewfinder and notice the difference in your images.