Messages

46

Computer & Technology / Re: What do you guys think of the "new" iPhone (6 and 6 Plus)?

« on: September 11, 2014, 10:44:01 PM »

iphone 6 = fail

47

Computer & Technology / Re: random restarts when playing games

« on: July 12, 2014, 12:58:31 AM »

when restarts happen, i check these in this order

1. heat!
2. drivers
3. power supply
4. RAM
5. motherboard+cpu.

48

Arts & Photography / Re: Are some photographers really that shady?

« on: July 01, 2014, 08:13:43 PM »

It's not just the Hmong photographers.  It's pretty much everyone and it's not just photography but everything else.  I frequent photo bloggers sites (non Hmong) and they don't reveal anything either.  The ones who do are trying to sell you something and will only share so that you return to their blog/store and they usually don't share the details.  It may appear rude but it's not.  I mean, how much are you willing to share what you know?

If you want to really learn photography (only if you think you don't know enough yet), you will have to take a class or classes, online or onsite.

personally, taking courses on photography is a waste in my opinion. photography can be self taught and easily learn from reading books and watching videos on youtube.

in facebook, there is a page that sells photoshop actions to to enhance photos for like $50-100. i wrote a few tutorials on the page comment section but all got deleted. one day, i will duplicate all those actions and let people have them for FREE!

nobody should have to pay for some silly actions that are similiar to instagram photo filters. i know i sound like a hater. i've received many free tutorials from others and i think others should receive simple preset actions for free too.

49

Arts & Photography / Re: Are some photographers really that shady?

« on: July 01, 2014, 08:12:32 PM »

I C.  I guess the question is, what do you know that others can benefit from?  Do you know things everyone already knows or do you know new things that others can learn from?

new, secret or no secret, there are many out there who do not know and i don't see what the problem is with sharing. some people aren't even willing to share some common techniques ..

50

Arts & Photography / Re: Are some photographers really that shady?

« on: June 21, 2014, 08:59:10 PM »

I think that holds true to most other things as well.  I know nothing about photography, but volleyball is another thing.  There are some people who are genuine and will share, discuss things.  Then there are those who are just as you described.

Then again, you might have to wonder that some people just stumble upon things by accident so they can't tell you a thing.

agreed, but i am sure if that person stumbled upon those things by accident, others  surely have been there before. personally, i'll share/teach others whatever i know if asked. Most just want me to do the work though and don't wanna learn..      And those who wanna learn always seem to cross path with shady individuals who will not share a thing. 

51

Arts & Photography / Re: Are some photographers really that shady?

« on: June 21, 2014, 08:55:03 PM »

Soulless, I've seen some of your posts on that group and laugh along with you bro! 

What I cringe the most at are the ones that are getting paid for shoots and still asking simple business questions like "how much should I charge?" or "can I do this for this package or should I charge more?"  Almost everyone is an amateur on that page, they don't command $8k wedding packages or $1k headshots yet!  Be happy you're getting paid $100 for a senior photo shoot.  And if a client asks for something extra, why not do it for the learning experience and gain more exposure for yourself at the same time?  Everyone wins.  But the FB group tells them to sell the client another package just on principles.  LOL!

I keep it a hobby, because as soon as I make it a business it'll ruin the fun and creative aspect of photography for me. 

i remember responding to that post. I had more to say, but didn't wanna sound like i was hating, so i stopped. Besides, most probably looked down on my comments and figured a noob like me wouldn't understand or know anything.  But yeah, i was thinking, "seriously, sell the client another package? really?" 

i would never be able to make photography as a business because i will almost always go fishing given the day is perfect for both activities. lol.

52

Arts & Photography / Re: Are some photographers really that shady?

« on: June 16, 2014, 09:19:00 PM »

But hey, between the two, it doesn't get as bad as the Hmong Couponers page!

is it that bad? no one wants to share? lol.. hahahaha i need to check it out for kicks.

53

Arts & Photography / Are some photographers really that shady?

« on: June 16, 2014, 09:04:16 PM »

I visit a few photography forums and is also part of the hmong photographers group on FB. I realized that when  newbies come in and see other photographers work and asked how the look was achieved, the photographers/people who posted the images would completely ignore the newbies, but respond to others. Seen it quite a few times and i'm starting to think those photographers are shady and afraid of others surpassing them.

We all learned from someone else, so why so shady? Most questions  asked are related to photoshop and many are just so silent about their post process steps. I would always purposely throw a tutorial in the author's thread exactly how his/her post process was done to achieve his final look. I bet this pisses them off.. 

when i see stuff like this, i always think to myself like, "whatever.. your post processing steps aren't a secret. I'll spilled your steps right in your own thread."  A MOD actually deleted a few of my replies. the MOD PM'ed me and said, "You should respect the original poster if he/she doesn't want to reveal his/her secrets to others. You shouldn't spilled his/her secrets.." LOL!

some are so shady that if others asked what equipments they have/used, they will not say a word...

54

Arts & Photography / Re: The Critique thread

« on: April 23, 2014, 07:51:48 PM »

Critique is important in any art form, whether starting out or professional. You need to know how to take critiques as well as how to give them. Of course not all critiques are equal, so take what you like and leave the rest.

Toua, I'm not a professional photog, but I know basic stuff. From looking at your pictures, there's an easy way for you to improve quickly, and that is with framing. Since it seems you're into human/portrait photog, here are some pretty simple rules for how to frame people. Give it a try:

http://petapixel.com/2011/09/29/crop-guidelines-for-portrait-photography/

These are just basic rules. You should also Google "head room" and "nose room" (or aka "look room").

thanks for link. bookmarked. i have to admit, my framing sucks balls.. lol..

55

Computer & Technology / Re: OSX Mavericks

« on: April 10, 2014, 05:04:26 PM »

i don't use mac's, but have you checked your view/display settings? might have been set to like 150% zoom in by default.

56

Computer & Technology / Re: time for a new rig!

« on: April 10, 2014, 04:57:10 PM »

i don't play games that require high FPS...mostly RPG and strategy

and i'm just darned curious to see what diff an SSD makes in performance

for games esp MMO's, your CPU is priority and GPU second. For all others, your GPU is priority and CPU second.

only performance you will see with an SSD is a decrease in load time. As far as with the actual in game performance, you will see very little gain ,if nothing at all. if your system got like 1-4G or ram, the SSD will provide a significant boost since the read/write to the page file/temperory ram will be faster.

16G isn't overkill. i have 3 monitors hooked up. i run game on one monitor, photoshop/multimedia software on one, and other stuff on the 3rd monitor.  couldn't have done that efficiently with 8G. my mobo supports up to 64G. Now that's overkill...

SSD is definitely good if you do a lot of back ups/transfers/read/write.

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Arts & Photography / Re: created a new website for Hmong Photographers. need beta testers

« on: April 03, 2014, 10:56:15 PM »

hi toua,

great start to your website.

here's some honest critique. take it with a grain of salt.

i don't like your logo. it feels little too generic with the font, colors and the shutter.
i am not a big fan of (literal) filling system for images. tell us a story with images. you certainly have enough images to tell us a story. DO IT!!!!

I also think that 8v10un makes a great point about pushing your talent. you're really good at making images and using photoshop. set yourself apart from other photographers, first hmong, then just others.

i'm a huge believer in turning a hobby into a living and also thinking about art critically just not formally.

totally agreed with my logo and everything you said.. yeah, it's generic and my GF have said that too. i actually hate the page layout and template, but decided to throw something quick from scratch. i have been looking at some random photographers website and my layout looks more like a photo sharing or photobucket type website vs a professional website..

i'm gonna redo it this weekend. Deciding if i should use a CMS like wordpress or do it from scratch again.

i've never actually gone deep into my hobbies. Another thing is, i have too many damn hobbies.  I might actually take photography more seriously vs my other hobbies. I'm actually booked to shoot 2 weddings. 1 this summer and 1 next spring. The first wedding will probably be for free, but the 2nd wedding is paying me like $800. not bad i guess.

if things turn out well, i may keep pushing it. The image story telling part.... Never actually thought about it. I just click click and click. I will keep that in mind next time when i take pictures and post them up..

thanks for the critique. greatly appreciated. still a noob here. 

58

Arts & Photography / Re: created a new website for Hmong Photographers. need beta testers

« on: April 03, 2014, 10:45:31 PM »

Toua a way to generate revenue is ad revenue by product review like Ken Rockwell.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/

Otherwise, you use social media to drum redirect to your website for business.

You have a lot of talent.  My advice and I give this same advice to everyone I talk to...Stick to one subject matter and be the best you can be...and you'll always be successful.

I know a lot of people who are more capable than I am but their flaw is that they give up a subject matter too early and they never truly become an world class expert to command a large salary.  You have a lot of talent but you don't showcase and communicate it right.  I recall back in high school you had a forum going competing right along HOL...damn that was PIMP of you...you know we had a lot of talent but nobody to help us mold that talent to something useful...if we were rich white kids...we'll be like Zuckerberg and Gates.  Now that we are older, my advice is like I said, stick to something and try to be world class at it...never give up...in addition, I would avoid doing what every Hmong is doing too...it's usually saturated...bu t if you are world class, it doesn't matter.

agreed. thanks. Problem with me is i don't really get deep deep into my talents or hobbies.  It's kind of like whatever goes, goes.. lol hmongphotograp hers.com crashed, so redirected it to my personal page for the time being. Gotta fix the mySQL database.

I actually thought about creating something like twitter/facebook, but the cost to maintain it would be so out of my budget. yeah, if only we were rich...

59

Computer & Technology / Re: time for a new rig!

« on: March 25, 2014, 07:09:10 PM »

personally, i think spending $$$ on SSD's just to have the OS and games on that drive load several seconds faster is a waste..

it takes my rig about a minute or min and a half to load windows and all start ups the moment the windows logo appears. SSD isn't gonna improve your FPS in games..

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Arts & Photography / Re: The Critique thread

« on: March 04, 2014, 05:36:55 PM »

thanks for the critiques guys.. appreciated.