Dreaming about you

We had a photo competition here in amdocs (the results are not yet out) and one of the categories was "dreams". I did a lot of research on the net for an idea and one of the photographs which i found (actually on a photoshop site) was that of a guy appearing transparent in a photograph titled dreamy. I liked the concept and wanted to get something similar done without photoshop, as the competition had strict guidelines about the use of photoshop. Vidhya came up with the idea of "Dreaming about you" wherein she is seated appearing to be asleep and i appear in the photograph like a ghost which will give the indication that she is dreaming.

This is the final photograph which we came up with ...

Of course, many questioned the validity of this photo, as it looked "pretty obviously" a photoshopped one! But, this is the photo straight out of the camera (converted to black and white). So, here are the steps to duplicate this photo

• This was taken in a totally dark room (absolutely dark)
• The camera was put in Shutter-Priority mode i.e. a mode where you can control the shutter speed and the camera handles everything else.
• I used a shutter speed of 10 seconds. This can be anything based on the effect you want.
• When the room is dark, Vidhya goes and sits on the sofa. Then, i click the shutter-release button (basically, take the photograph).
• Then, a light (preferably a powerful one located such that it doesnt put Vidhya in a shadow) is switched on for a fraction of a second and immediately switched off. Because of this action, the room (including Vidhya) are exposed on the camera.
• Then, i go into the frame, position myself. Then, the light is switched on and off (like the first time).
• Here is the logic behind the photo: Since i and the background behind me got exposed during the 2 times the light was on, i appear to be transparent in the photograph.
• Few things to get this photo right: Vidhya had to be dead-still during the 10 seconds. Otherwise, her changed position would get exposed when the light is switched on the second time. Get a background which can covey the transparency well.

We took a lot of attempts to get this right. First, Vidhya was not happy with my position in the photograph and complained a lot about my posing skills. Then, we moved around the props in the room till we were satisfied with the overall composition.

Sometimes the switching-on-and-off action was too fast resulting in a dark picture. In other cases, the switching on happened a little earlier than expected resulting in my movements getting exposed in the photograph.

At one point i got bored with the same pose i was giving and we wanted a different look to the picture. Lokesh and Sarvesh posed for us and it turned out to be a great photograph. We wanted to submit this photograph calling it "Nightmare". It was a tough call for us deciding which one to submit for the competition.

This technique can be used to produce some very interesting pictures if you think out-of-the-box! Look at the picture below where Lokesh posed and then i went into the scene with a keychain light and drew the horns on him.

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Quiz questions from a recent quiz event

Below are the questions from the pelims of a quiz contest recently conducted in amdocs. The questions were framed by Lokesh. Leave the answers in the comments. i shall publish the answers in a weeks time.

1. Name the project developed by a Stanford Univ. graduate, during his free time given officially by his employer. The name is an old Turkish word, meaning “city of happiness, pleasure, joy, luck”. >> Orkut
2. ___________is the country named after Lord Jesus, referring him as “The Saviour” in their native language. >> El Salvador
3. Hotmail --> Microsoft :: PeopleSoft --> Oracle :: Cramer --> Amdocs :: TimesTen --> ________. >> Oracle
4. ___________, a famous American Actor spent a great time on impressions, than his academics. His future was put into jeopardy, when he was nearly expelled for assaulting a Teacher in school, as the teacher referred him as a “caveman”. He has now surpassed the earning power of all other famous Hollywood Stars , with grosses as a leading man that total over US$3.35 billion. >> Eddie Murphy
5. In a pack of playing cards, “A” (Ace) had the least value, whereas “K” the most valued. But, after the _______, “A” is considered to have more value than “K” (King), depicting that the common civilians are more powerful than the King. >> The French Revolution
6. Identify the brand names for the following tag lines
   a. The Passionate Pursuit of Perfection. – ____________________ >> Lexus
   b. Like.no.other – ___________________________ >> Sony
   c. Sense and Simplicity – ____________________ >> Philips
   d. Ideas for life - ________________________ >>Panasonic
7. Connect the following cities: Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Rotterdam, Antwerp, New York. >> World's busiest Sea Ports and Commercial Centers
8. Whenever, we write the name of this famous website’s brand name, we generally end up in writing the name, which was trademarked by another company (manufacturer barbecue sauce and knives). What is the name of the website ? >> Yahoo!
9. Identify the Hollywood movie released in November 1980:
   The movie is the real-life story of an unlovable, stubborn middle-weight boxing champion as he struggles to be champion. The director of this movie even though was not recognized by Oscar, the applause for the movie was so much encouraging, and finally he hit the OSCAR Award for his recent movie. >> The Raging Bull
10. What is the name of the company, started in 1982, less than 25 years old and their couple of software products, combined are installed on more than 700 million connected PCs and devices worldwide. _________. >>Adobe
    What are the names of the software products ?? _______and ______>> Acrobat Reader and Flash Player
11. Dennis Gabor (1900–1979), a Hungarian physicist, received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1971, for his invention in 1947. His invention added a new dimension in consumer products labeling technology. What did he invent? _______ >> Holography
12. Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K , a company established in Nihonbashi after the Second World war, had its brand name as “Totsuko”. In Jan 1958, they chose a new brand name, because their customers of other nationalities were finding difficult to pronounce the brand name. This company is now called as ______>> Sony
13. The "CE" Mark, labeled on Toys, machinery, electrical and electronic items , has no meaning as an abbreviation in English, but the marking is done as an indication of _______.>> European Conformity (for safety) - Conformitte Europeane (in French)
14. VIACOM (a group which owns Paramount Pictures), started a chain of seafood restaurants, with the first restaurant in Cannery Row, CA. , inspired by __________, the movie they produced. The restaurant gained fame for its unique paging system consisting of two license plates on the tables. STOP & RUN. (Clue: Movie released in 1994 & a winner of 6 Oscars). >> Forrest Gump
15. i, i*j, i*j*j, i*j*j*j, …. where j is the common ratio and i is the scale factor. In mathematics the above sequence of numbers are termed as ________ .>> Geometric Progression
16. _____________, is the term used in Software Engineering to describe a dying project which has little by little become too complex to be understood even by its own developers.>> Software Peter Principle
17. Connect the words: Smart, Hero, Fire, Eight O’ Clock, Lift, Coke, Real Gold, Signature.>>Branded Drinks of Coca Cola Company
18. Admired by the philanthropic efforts by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, this multifaceted artist, declared that, when he dies he would donate half of his assets to charity to help the needy. (Clue : His birth name literally means “born in Hong Kong”). He is known to us as _______ >> Jackie Chan
19. B . C = Before Christ (Ex., 5th Century B.C)
    A . D = _________ (Ex. 20th Century A.D) >> Anno Domini
20. Expand the following acronyms. (0.5 x 4 = 2 Points)
    i. B M W - ______________ (Category :Automobile) >> Bayerische Motoren Werke
    ii. J V C - ________________ (Category: Electronics) >> Japan Victor Company
    iii. H S B C - _______________ (Category: Banking) >> Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation
    iv. N C R - ________________ (Category: ATMs , Technology) >> National Cash Register
21. On July 17, 2007, an Airbus A320 (Passenger Airliner), during its landing, slipped, overran the runway of Cogonhas Airport in Sao Paulo (Brazil), crashing into a warehouse. This is the deadliest air crash in Latin America, with no survivors on board. The plane was operated by __________ airlines. >>TAM Airlines
22. ______ , a famous Greek Mathematician, is “The Father of Geometry”. His unique way of solving the theorems, by logical reasoning and a set of accepted first principles, still serves as the backbone of mathematics. (Clue : He is from a city, which is not a part of Europe) >>Euclid
23. This song is considered to be the one hit wonders of all time. Brazilian Air Force used this song in its advertisement in the second half of the '80s, in the Brazilian TV network and was also played at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Identify the song.>> The Final Countdown
24. The Tennis Championships at Worple Road, Wimbledon, London has been started since 1877. Who is the youngest-ever winner of Men’s singles title @ Wimbledon ? >> Boris Becker
25. Hollywood star _______, sued the owners of the Florida airport, where he’s looking to land his jumbo jet, claiming that the airport owners falsified their 2006 records to show that the landing field could not accommodate large planes. >> John Travolta
26. The following Internet domain extensions are assigned to countries that are from the same continent. Identify the countries for the following extensions. (Ex., *.cy – Cyprus)
    i. .ng : _______________________ >> Nigeria
    ii. .za : _______________________ >> South Africa
    iii. .zm : _______________________ >> Zambia
    iv. .zw : ________________________>> Zimbabwe
27. Ethanethiol which gives a pungent and repulsive odour, is added to natural gas (used as fuel), for easy identification of the fuel leakage and its disaster. This additive is popularly known as _______________ >> Marcaptans
28. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), distributed ________, free of cost, to the people in city of HamBurg in USA, asking them to accept for changing their city’s name, during its campaign against cruelty to animals. >> Veggie Burger
29. Airbags deployed in cars, is a marvelous invention in the field of crash science & safety engineering. In cars its denoted as SRS Airbag, where SRS refers to _________. >> Supplementary Restraint System
30. The US Federal Government signed a law in July,2002 in response to the major scandals in corporate accounting. (Companies : Tyco, Enron etc.,) President George W. Bush signed it and stating it included “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices, since the time of Franklin. D. Roosevelt”. This world famous US corporate law is named after its sponsors and is known to as ________. >> Sarbanes-Oxley Act or SOX
31. In 1892, two major electric companies, Edison General Electric Company and its business rival Thomson-Houston Electric company, merged to form the General Electric Company (GE). The merger was arranged by __________, a famous financier in US. >> J.P.Morgan
32. A five year, intercontinental project of study of human anthropology, worth US$40m is sponsored by the National Geographic Channel, IBM and Waitt family foundation. This is referred as “moon shot of anthropology”. The name of the project is _______. >> The Genographic Project
33. Which is the home country of third largest film industry in the world next to US (Hollywood) and India (Bollywood) ? >> Nigeria
34. In which country, it is illegal to chew gum, as it causes a uncontrollable public nuisance ? >> Singapore
35. After winning the World War II, United States fought a battle with Japan to re-capture this territory. (Clue : The motto of this territory is “Where America’s Day Begins”)
    i. What is the name of the territory ? ____________ Guam
    ii. what is the name of the battle ? ____________ Battle of Guam

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I came, I saw, I blogged

This was the slogan which won me the creative blogging t-shirt slogan prize at Blogging Expertise. The prize is a copy of the Color Schemer Studio from Color Schemer. I haven't checked in detail about the software, but it looks colorful! I am sure that it would be useful to me for my website design and work in photoshop.

It has been a long time since i have won anything online. The last time i won something was 6 years back. But those were the glorious days of the dot com where sites competed with each other to give away goodies. I have won items like a pair of rayban glasses, a Palm top worth 400 USD, 100 dollars in cash and even silly things like a pen. But, its a good feeling this time since its been long.

Thanks to Blogging Expertise for organising this competition.

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