The digital camera age has sprouted some very interesting trends in photography. One of those trends is called the Camera Toss Photography or Kinetic Photography. This involves setting your camera to very low shutter speeds, maybe around 1 or 2 seconds, then throwing it in the air just as it’s about to take an exposure. Then you catch it before it hits the ground. Usually this is done at night near some sort of light source. The result is a fantastic array of colorful patterns that looks strangely Windows Screen Saverish.

Many critics are bewildered by the fact that someone would actually throw their cameras in the air and risk damaging their equipment. I personally would never use an expensive camera for this, but if you could pick up and inexpensive point and shoot, you should definitely give it a try. Also I highly recommend all my photography competitors to do some camera toss photography with their professional Cameras, in fact give it like 1000 tries.

The thing is that the camera toss photography is a huge phenomenon in the photography world. There are whole communities and websites dedicated to this art form. So if you don’t mind breaking your camera, and want to get some sweet shots that you can brag to your friends about, then I believe the camera toss photography is just for you.

Also please share your camera toss photography photos in the comments below.

I am truly touch by this photo. The little girl look so happy with her dog even though she lives in a slum located in Andong Village, Cambodia.  I don’t know if I would be able to produce such a beautiful smile like she does if I was in her situation.  This photo makes me want to go to Andong Village, Cambodia and help as many children as possible.

Please share your thoughts about the Girl From Andong Village, Cambodia

So as a any good developer should do, they should always back up the database in case anything horrible happens to the server. This is easy to accomplish using the export function in phpmyadmin. Now if your database has less than 16mb of data, importing that backed up information is simple through phpmyadmin. But what do you do when you have gigs of data to import? You definitely cannot use phpmyadmin to accomplish this as it will warn you of the size limit. In this article I’ll give a quick solution to this problem by using a mysql bulk upload, so lets start from the beginning.

1. login to phpmyadmin and choose a database

2. go to the export tab, make sure the ’save to file’ checkbox is on, then click the ‘Go’ button.

3. You now have a sql file downloaded to your computer.

4. Upload this file to a location on your web server, and keep a note of the location of the file.

5. open an SSH application, I use putty. Then place your host address, which is the same host address you use to connect to your server. Afterwords you connect, and you should get a command prompt type of interface.

*note you may have to ask your hosting company to activate ssh for you.

6. find the directory that your sql file is stored.
cd .. - goes back a directory
cd [folder name] - enter the folder
ls - displays all folders and files in the current directory

7. once you’re in the correct directory, then type in this command for a mysql bulk upload.

mysqldump -u [user name] -p [your password] [database name] > [File name].sql

*note that the information in the brackets means you need to fill in your own information.

So doing a mysql bulk upload is a simple process, but it definitely is not something you would know unless someone told you. I remember how frustrating it was to do a mysql bulk upload using the import function in phpmyadmin. I had to split my sql files into many different pieces in order to accomplish this. It was a monstrous task that took hours out of my life. So I hope my mysql bulk upload tutorial has helped enlighten you, and you are welcome to thank me monetarily by writing a check payable to John Kim.

so if you guys have any questions about the mysql bulk upload you can place a comment below.

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Graduation was coming up for Heidy Rodriguez, and she wanted to prepare some invitations with a nice graduation portrait of herself. Heidy had asked us about taking some photographs of her. This was actually the first time we had taken pictures of just one person, usually we’d be taking pictures of couples, or a family. So we had researched a lot of female poses to get inspiration for the project. We also thought it would be a good idea to get her in a 1930’s era style at a train station. Of course, because she was graduating we felt that a train station represented her new journey in life. I know, it’s really cliche, but it’s still a very creative and thoughtful cliche. Afterwords, we felt that her graduation portraits were some of the best work we’ve done.

Enjoy more of Heidy Rodriquez’s Graduation Portraits, and let us know what you think by submitting a comment below.

For those of you who don’t know me, or for those who know me but you feel too good to talk to me. First off screw you, and second off I’ve been a fan of Jackie Chan ever since the Barbara Walters interview of him back before Rumble in the Bronx was released. He was unlike any other celebrity and his bigger than life persona was only matched by his humility. I wasn’t only a fan of Jackie Chan, I wanted to be Jackie Chan. I remember going to my friends place and choreographing fight scenes, and practicing falls on my bed. I was a stuntman in the making, unfortunately I busted my knees which ended my short lived career as the next Jackie Chan.

What didn’t end was my admiration for this man, so I nearly lost my marbles when I heard that Jackie Chan has come out with his own DSLR camera. Can you imagine bringing my favorite Celebrity, and my favorite hobby all into one fantastic package? The camera is being released by Canon, and it’s basically a Canon Rebel with Jackie Chan’s Name all over it. Plus they give you a sweet carrying case with an official Jackie Chan Photo Album. I must admit that I’m not too fond of the Canon Rebel, but I am definitely fond of Jackie Chan. If I can get my hands on one of these babies I will keep it locked away in a safe.

Unfortunately Canon is only producing 2010 of these, and it’s only being sold in China. Life is so cruel!!!! Well my only chance of buying it will be on ebay and probably for triple the price. Sucks because I have a thing about paying more than market value, I guess that means that I’ll never have one. But if someone out there really likes me, and wants to make me very happy, you can get one for me as a gift. If you do that I might consider naming my first born child after you, just make sure your name doesn’t rhyme with fart or else the deal is off.

So what do you think of this awesome camera? Also leave me a comment if you want to donate me this camera, I will send you my mailing address or you can choose to hand it to me in person. If you do that you will be my new best friend, plus I might name my first born child after you.

On Memorial day someone asked us to do their graduation pictures but they never showed up. Unfortunately he texted us that he wasn’t showing up, but since we aren’t able to receive text messages we didn’t get it. So of course after setting up our studio and waiting all day, we finally realized that he wasn’t going to come and it would be a waste to just bring down the studio. That is when we decided to have some fun, and start working on the best couple picture in the world.

The image took a lot of trial and error to get our cheap lighting equipment to do exactly what we wanted. Plus getting that side kick took a lot of brain storming, and believe me, it wasn’t as easy at it looks. So I do a bit of Photoshop magic, and viola, The Best Couple Picture in the World. We are so proud with the results that we will print out copies to give to our friends and family so they can bask in the glory of the best couple picture in the world. Thanks ‘guy who didn’t show up for his own graduation pictures’, if it wasn’t for you flaking out this wouldn’t have been possible.

If you have any of your own couples pictures that can top our couples picture then please share. Otherwise we literally have the Best Couple Picture in the World.

AFTER

About a few months ago, the Director of E-commerce from Michael Stars was preparing for a interview by Internet Retailers. Internet Retailers requested a head shot that they could place in their magazine along with the interview. As he already has a relationship with Curiosity Media, he wanted us to take the pictures. So we came into the office, scouted out a good location and started our mini photo shoot. It only took a few minutes, but the real work was in the post processing to really bring out the image. So this week the issue from Internet Retailers finally comes out, and we were pleasantly surprised that our head shot of Mike made all the other head shots look like turd. In Curiosity Media, we never forget that with great power comes great responsibility to make our competition look like turd.

Here is a scan from Internet Retailers.

Let us know what you think, and contact us if you would like yourself immortalized forever in a publication.