Want to get more out of your pop-up flash? Here are two designs, one deflector, one diffusor that I made for $0, which really improve the quality of your flash photography.

The first one is made by cutting out a diffusor out of a milk jug. Works very well. Originally I wanted to make something like this fellow here (the diffusor slips underneath the popped-up flash), but the hot shoe on the Nikon D3100 is not accessible from the front. So I had to go up and around the pop-up flash. Works very well.

TIP: If you make one yourself, make a cardboard version first, then zoom out all the way, snap a flash photo of your wall, and see if the light spills in on the edges. This will prevent your from making the diffusor too small.

Second one: a little Lego contraption, BONUS: I’ve got a director on set with me. The kids love it. This diffusor solved the issue that when I taped a business card to the camera, the light would be deflected towards the side, when snapping a portrait photo. I used this diffusor for my daughters birthday party recently, and I got some great results.

The following is an example of using the Lego deflector at the afore mentioned birthday party (sorry, the really good shots can’t be posted here, because I don’t have permission to use them), you can see that there is a very soft shadow from the bounce down from the ceiling underneath her elbow. The lighting in the art studio, the location of the party, was all fluorescent lighting, so choosing the right white balance wasn’t easy.

Riding bikes all life long, I recently became fascinated with classy bicycles, especially being able to ride a bike and still not looking like a pennyless student, maybe even in a suite. Inspired by Velorbis, but still with the budget of a pennyless student, I made out looking for a used Holland bike here in Canada. Not a very easy task. I was lucky when I found a used 80′s Gazelle Primeur Special on kijiji.

This bike didn’t really help my cause of looking classy at first, it needed a very thorough make-over. I would have loved to give this bike the Idealist-Realist-treatment, but that wasn’t in my budget, and I wanted to keep a bit more traditional as well.

I gave the frame and all other parts (including the plastic chain cover) a new coat of paint (oil paint, by hand, it is actually possible given the right technique to put on a very clean finish using just a brush and some oil paint) as well as updating many parts (new handle bar, new brake levers, new bell, antique brooks saddle – a gift from my father, new pedals, new bottom bracket, new bars on the fenders etc.). I also ended up ditching the original chrome light, for one that is much smaller and brighter than the original one. I love the look of the original headlight (and tail light for that matter, but that had been changed before my time), but the new one is much more practical. Most of the spare parts came from Germany, where you don’t need to take out a second mortgage in order to by them. After a few winter months, this is what came of it:

I updated the rear light with some electronics that keep the light on, when stopping at an intersection (nothing special in Europe, in North America my friends keep on reminding me that I left the lights on).

Front drum brake. Both front and rear drum brakes work well. Some of the chrome on the hubs was somewhat damaged, I ended up painting parts of it.

This bike is by no means perfect, and still has lots of dings and rust, but I love the detail like all the little red gazelle logos. Gives it so much character.

Tacky 80′s front fender detail fin.

These Holland bikes are mechanical neightmares. Just trying the change a tire, is quite the ordeal. I love the ride though. The smooth cruisers under the bicycles.

The three speed hub is made by Sturmey-Archer, and is still holding up fine.

I still want to ad a wooden crate on the front, it will make the runs to the market so much easier. Eventually, the tiny head light will go under that crate.

I found a great review of “MBA in a Book – Mastering Business with Attitude” by Joel Kurtzman, with Glen Rifkin and Victoria Griffith on Amazon. In my opinion a total gem and worth much more attention than just being tucked away somewhere on Amazon (let’s not kid myself, it won’t get much more attention here either). It actually covers three “MBA-overview” books. See for yourself.

Title of the review: Essential Business Information & Diversity of Perspectives
(Jun 1 2004 By Robert Morris)
In recent years, there have been several excellent books which cover much of the same material found in this volume. For example, Steven Silbiger’s The Ten-Day MBA: A Step-By-Step Guide To Mastering The Skills Taught In America’s Top Business Schools and Milo Sobel’s 12 Hour MBA Program. (Both Silbiger and Sobel know it’s impossible to gain the knowledge-equivalent of an MBA degree in 10-12 months, much less in 12 hours or even in ten days.) Each of the their books is worthy of consideration as is this book. In fact, at least to business students and to relatively inexperienced executives, I presume to suggest that all three be purchased and then kept near at hand for frequent consultation.
Throughout history, all of the the most effective people were/are life-long learners. They fully appreciate the importance of knowing what they need to know; also the importance of knowing what they think they know…but don’t. As a result of all manner of new/better technologies, we now have access to more information than ever before…and both the quantity and quality of that information seem certain to increase faster than ever before. What we know as well as knowing what we don’t know are critically important. I am reminded of Derek Bok’s response to irate parents after a tuition increase at Harvard: “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

In collaboration with Glenn Rifkin and Victoria Griffith, Kurtzman takes a different approach to various subjects than do Silbiger and Sobel. They provide a specific course of self-directed sequential study whereas Kurtzman provides a series of separate but related chapters, each of which focuses on fewer specific subjects but in greater depth and from several different perspectives. Although I recommend that Kurtzman’s book be read sequentially the first time, its greater value may derive — for many readers — from its discrete coverage of those subjects of most immediate relevance. Obviously, completing an M.B.A. degree program requires a much greater investment of time, concentration, energy, and (yes) money than does reading one or even several books. Even an excellent volume such as Kurtzman’s cannot replace that program, nor does he assert or even imply such a claim.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Silbiger’s and Sobel’s books as well as Business: the Ultimate Resource, Stuart Crainer’s The Management Century as well as his The Ultimate Business Library: The Greatest Books That Made Management, Des Dearlove’s The Ultimate Book of Business Thinking: Harnessing the Power of the World’s Greatest Business Ideas, Daniel A. Wren and Ronald G. Greenwood’s Management Innovators: The People and Ideas That Have Shaped Modern Business, Daniel A. Wren’s The Evolution of Management Thought, (4th Edition), and The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages (Thomas Wren, (Editor). In fact, every organization should have an in-house lending and/or reference library and these are among the titles which should be included.