High resolution panoramic photo the beach close to Costanoa in California. Shot with a Nikon D3, manual exposure settings, 22000px wide.

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This shot was another HDR that was shot on a Nikon D3, no tripod. Just around the corner from the beach town of Costanoa in California.

The resort was great — friendly staff, nice rooms (with Aveda products) with comfortable beds (no TVs in the rooms, nice plus), breakfast was good. Highly recommend Costanoa for a weekend trip.

Another shot, shot on a backup camera (Nikon D200) while in China. This is Chuxiong’s pagoda, which is about 8-9 stories high and allows one to view a 360° panoramic view of the city, nestled in the mountains of Yunnan.

Here is a shot of the famous lighthouse right up the road from Costanoa on the California coast. It was shot with a Nikon D3, again, using HDR by using three photos. No tripod was used, but because it can shoot up to nine NEF (raw format) pictures per second, shots like these turn out okay.

Used Photomatrix Pro to HDR merge the levels, using a Nikon D3 — I think we shot five NEFs, bracketing the exposure by .3 to .5 each stop — so that would take about 1/2 a second to shoot five photos.

via wiki as of today.

Here is a sunrise shot we took at a secret location in Yunnan.

Also, look for a very special follow-up video soon.

I brought his passport, a photo, a copy of his flight reservation, and the VISA application.Apparently, China tightened down on the rules. That’s an understatement.

I was told (in Chinese, btw) that I needed his birth certificate, the hotel he is staying at, and a written letter explaining his relationship to every that he will encounter in China. Allow me to focus on one part of that. We own two houses in China, so when I told them that there is no need for a hotel, she said, “Lemme see your house deed.”

ME: “Can I fax it?”

HER: “No.”

ME: “Can I call a hotel now and make a reser–”

HER: “No. Step aside, too many people!”

So. Just thought I’d write a little “what to expect” at the Consulate. Not to mention that this is my seventh time going to China, and all other times I barely filled out the form with no questions asked. Oh, and the fee for a VISA is now $160 USD (used to be $40 a few years ago.)

In short — everything on the VISA form will be scrutinized, so make sure it is all accurate and bring more information than you think you need.

Update:  Seems to oscillate between 8 and 11…

Enjoy!

Read Huffinton Post Article

Read Head Butler

As I sit here in my hotel room in Guangzhou, anticipating our interview at the American Embassy just down the street in about four hours, I’m contemplating whether or not to go back to Du Zhuan and visit the Su family to see how Little Longhorn is doing.

Review: First look at Youtube Adsense Video Units

First impression: It looks… bad. The player is packed full of features, but at first glance the whole package is reminiscent of some Windows app from 1999 (”bigger is better”, fat bordered, bloated mess).

The background gradient fade reminds me of that tank game from ‘93 where you had to guess the angle and velocity of your shot to blow up your opponent.

And what’s up with the 42px of whitespace on the bottom of the player? Fixed!

And there is obviously no design standard for the for the graphic ads that are crammed on the top.

IMO, in order for Youtube Adsense Video Units to be effective, it has to be subtle — get people’s attention with a little video player. Don’t blow out half of their screen real estate. By setting the minimum dimensions to 400×415px, one must ask the question, where the hell are were we supposed to put this thing? How will it ever gracefully fit into a page of content?

Will people use it? Probably, because it’s Google, but I’ll bet there will be many revisions in the near future.

So I see this as a first step, especially with the improved content targeting, but I think it would benefit Google if they make some modifications:

• Redesign the player, get rid of the gradient background, make a hairline border with rounded edges (or at least an option for that) — in short, make it look lightweight
• Provide options for smaller players, say 200px wide (there are tons of ads that are already this size and are effective)
• Allow custom colors, and not just the themes (see below)
• Review the “graphic ad” designs, possibly invent an “color sniffer” to see what color the ad is and match it to the particular color theme
• Find a way to remove the 42px of whitespace at the bottom of the player

Technical details for the new Youtube Adsense video player

Youtube Adsense Video Unit Dimensions

• 400×415
• 500×510
• 780×560

Color themes (skin) for the Adsense Video Unit player

Light Grey
#666666 (darker)
#efefef (lighter)

Dark Grey Theme
#3a3a3a (darker)
#999999 (lighter)

Dark Blue Theme
#2b405b (darke)
#6b8ab6 (lighter)

Light Blue Theme
#006699 (darker)
#54abd6 (lighter)

Green Theme
#234900 (darker)
#4e9e00 (lighter)

Orange Theme
#e1600f (darker)
#febd01 (lighter)

Pink Theme
#cc2550 (darker)
#e87a9f (lighter)

Purple Theme
#402061 (darker)
#9461ca (lighter)

Red Theme
#5d1719 (darker)
#cd311b (lighter)

Improved Content targeting

There are two ways to target revelant content on the ad:

1. Automated content. Similar to how Adsense current works by targeting the content on your page, but you can now use “hints” (or tags) to help refine the targeting.
2. Chooose a category. You can choose your ad content by category or provider (ie, autos, comedy, music, etc).

Technical Note for Wordpress Users: If you want to place ads in Wordpress (like this post), this design company posted a solution.

CLICK HERE: Learn how to Hold Chopsticks - Video

Hold the bowl in your palm, and study this video to learn how to hold chopsticks. The Chinese hold foreigners in high esteem if they can propery hold and use chopsticks.

There is no other way to learn than to practice, so watch, pause, study, and re-watch!