LSFTPC the heart of great looking Photographs:

After long I finally came across a photography book that covered exactly what I was looking for from quite some time. There are several books I have bought ever since I started earning, most have great pictures and some have certain aspect of composition covered, like the ‘rule of 3^rd’ etc. but for quite some time I have been looking for the ideal book that teaches me all the key aspect of composition in a way that my ‘left brain’ can now actively participate to my ‘right brain’ activities in trying to find and take better photographs.

I posted the book cover and link to amazon for the book above, just in case you get excited to buy it after reading my note.

So what is this LSFTPC all about and why am I so excited about it after reading that now I feel the need to even write in my blog about it? I guess it’s the joy of discovery and its best enjoyed once shared with likeminded people. So sorry if you are one of those who has not interest in photography and just happened to come across this while searching for something else.

LSFTPC, without any further delay is the short from for; Lines, Shapes, Form, Texture, Pattern and Color. It’s the key for composition for any visual art, either done knowingly by the masters who have studied and practiced it or amateurs like us, who just happened to trust there ‘right brain’ and went about doing ‘trial and error’ and sometimes hitting the jackpot. I have a strong suspicion that some of you who took up fine arts might have covered this and might be rolling you eyes about my ignorance, hehehe. But still, I am sure there are so many others like me, who might still be looking around the logical side of the fine art and this is my small effort to help them in their journey.

Lines are just lines cutting across the frame leading the eye of the viewer, they could be diagonal, and they could be converging or diverging for the desired effect. Shapes are usually like the silhouette that we see or a similar effect that draw our attention or becomes the subject. Form refers to the three dimensional objects compared to ‘shapes’ which are primarily two dimensional. Texture refers to the visual feel of a surface, rough, smooth, bumpy etc are all texture and relay their respective emotion to the viewers mind. Pattern on the other hand is created by grouping or repetition of anything. All of the above together or by itself creates certain impact on our mind when we view the output. The logic of what brings which effect is very well documented in the book along side with examples and very logical explanations. The most direct effect perhaps is caused by ‘color’ the last element. The warmer colors like orange, red, yellow and cooler ones like blue, green, cyan etc. has its desired impact obviously and subliminally. One aspect not touched is perhaps there is also a cultural and geographic effect on what certain color brings to mind of different viewers. It’s the neurological programming that stays with them for their life.

If I try to run you through each of the above elements and its various effects I might end up rewriting the book and definitely won’t be able to do as great a job. So I suggest anyone who is still reading this and want to know more, get a copy of this book and you will thank me forever. For now I am eagerly waiting for the chance to apply the learning to my future photographs, my ‘left brain’ is well feed and waiting to show-off to my right, stay tuned for the results.

Manila Intramuros: Ridiculous rules without implementation guidelines can hurt the point it’s suppose to protect:

This morning our photography club decide to do a trip of Manila Intrumuros to capture the wonderful old buildings and roads, thus helping our own learning on the subject of photography and indirectly promote one of Manilas proud tourist destination. So we woke up early on the Saturday morning and rushed to the parking of San Agustin Church to start our quest.

We started off from the front of the church and wanted to start with our primary objective for the day, Case de Manila, a beautifully preserved showcase of Fil-Spanish way of life and history. Started well with us taking a few photos of the road outside and then came this ‘tahoe-seller’, (bean curd with sweet tasting additives) and we had a nice round of warm tahoe breakfast. Then the trouble started.

There was this lady guard pointing some of the guard dressed in traditional ‘guardia civil’ uniform from a century ago towards us. In the beginning I though may be some of our people by mistake dropped there plastic glass after having Tahoe, and I tried looking and finding if we did something in that order; but no, they came towards us and told us that we can not take photo here without permit. Hum…. That got my attention, I tried to clarify if there is a mistake and they think we are making some kind of commercial project or documentary movie etc, I tried explaining that we are just photography enthusiasts and touring the fort city like any other tourists capturing the great views. That sort of made sense to that guard and he said, ah ok, then its fine and left.

Soon we were at the courtyard of the ‘case de manila’ a wonderfully preserved tourist venue, some how that lady guard was over eager and started to call all other guards and again came to announce that we can not take pictures and should go back apply officially and come back with a permit. We tried explaining the same thing to her and other guards again but it did not seem to work. They were determined to spoil our day on the name of following rules. The guards were respectful but insistent that we need to have a permit; on that I requested to verify why do they want permit that would take may be a few hours if not a day, while we are just a regular tourists and taking photos like anybody else and same as what I have done few times before without any issue from any one. There ridiculous explanation was because we seem to be carrying expensive looking camera and tripods we must be making something commercial and should get permission to enter. I thought it’s a matter of just clarifying it and requested to talk to their supervisor to clarify the matter, in this process after spending about 30 minutes and meeting there supervisor and another engineer, and trying in vain to explain this out was finally suggested to take this up with the Administrator of Intramuros. So Dead end, our day was wasted and I believe a bad example for tourism set, unintentionally implemented by the tourism promotion authority.

After being consultant for some time with the Philippines Tourism Authority and also consulting in development of Resort and Tourism for some years before starting off in the IT industry that I am now; this came as a very interesting contradiction to what I believe the Tourism ministry want to achieve, and in general how things are done in this friendly and democratic country. This got me thinking; Can’t help but remember the stories what happened in China after the earthquake earlier this year when bringing in cameras were prohibited for tourist, for some reason.

So let me put the missing piece of notice board for Intramuros Tourist spots:

“Prohibited to take photos if you are local tourist with nice camera and tripods without formal permissions from the authorities.”

Please keep in mind before you plan on visiting.

Selection and Hiring process of a Capable PM:

From the comment of ‘PM Hut’ I realized probably need to write up a bit more to tackle the issue of hiring a Capable PM. To start with I would like to acknowledge that it has been a bit of ‘hit and miss’ for me over the years and I am still trying to find the right answer to this question. My take on how to identify a good PM would be by seeing them in action, through either and all of the below:

a. observe their performance in another ongoing project if you can.

b. give them a chance to handle small project/assignment to get a better feel of the person as a PM.

c. conduct a elaborate selection process to include Group Discussion, activity etc, ala Trump’s Apprentice minus the drama, provided they are ready to go through it for joining you.

Somehow I have found it very hard to identify a good PM from not so good one, purely through interview. You can probably check certain aspects of the person, primarily on the Knowledge aspect, but the three key success driver for PM I talked about before would be very hard to assess, just through talking and discussions.

• Plan & control
  
• Implement what you plan through evolved Task management skill
  
• Manage client and stakeholders through constant liaison
  

If we do a good round of interview, through ‘blink’ aspect you can probably make out the soft skill side of the person, but that would leave all the other aspects open to future evaluation. In my previous article when I talked about the ‘feel’ aspect of choosing a person who would be a good PM or not would be suitable for the process of choosing PM trainees, not professional PM who you would put to handle your million dollar project. Once the trainee meets the people skill criterion and is eager to go through the training you subject them to, over the training and mentoring period you can make out if the person has the rest of the attributes we talked about. Of course knowledge areas, admittedly very important are easier to instill in a person through a series of classroom training along with some practice exercise.

So for now my formula for putting together a team of great PMs would be, get them young with the right fundamentals and take them through a process of learning and practicing to find out who shines out and who washes out. Along the way, try out some of the seasoned ones from the market on smaller projects and if they prove themselves and seems to have the key PM ingredients invite them to join your team.

The people aspect of Project Management:

In my list this is the third leg of the table; one of the key things that makes any project manager successful. Some experts call it ‘communication’ and claim since project manager spends about 90% plus of the time in different modes of communication, including written, oral, formal and informal, they have to be good at it. I would like to go one step further in saying it’s ‘he or she is good with people’ aspect that makes the difference; because you can have a person who is very formal and impersonal in communication, both written and oral with team and clients and even though saying the right thing can alienate them and not get the vital support needed to make the project successful.

This aspect is bit difficult to train in a classroom. It takes long time and life experience for someone to be good with people and it’s the most tricky aspect, tip the balance and you have a ‘bleeding heart’ who says yes to all and will never end up finishing anything, because fact of life is you cannot make everyone happy for long by just giving in to there every wish. As a manager you need to be able to manage all this towards the goal and objectives assigned to you while being true and genuine.

One major factor everyone wants to see in a PM is self confidence, positivity. This is the leadership aspect, or leadership style, as all projects go, sometime you are ahead and sometimes you are behind, what you don’t want to see is your PM uncertain about things and breaking down before the end. Its beyond the ‘bean counting’ and charts, everyone from client to team members to company management has handed the PM responsibility to steer the ship from point A to point B, they also expect him to be fully knowledgeable about the endeavor and appease everyone’s nerves when the waters are rough. Imagine being in a ship where the Captain is panicking on a rocky sea or if he gives out the ‘vibe’ of being scared and uncertain instead of being stable and someone you can draw your confidence from; you definitely don’t want to be in that boat no matter how stable it is.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a about being foolhardy either and being untrue or hiding reality about the situation, but by being transparent of the real problems and opportunity and providing strategy and guidance on how to navigate them successfully you earn the respect and confidence. I had project managers who tried to hide everything about the project by just giving ‘it’s ok’, ‘it’s managed’ kind of inputs and being very protective of their territory and information, ultimately making all stakeholders very nervous and clients demanding meetings and full reports assuming something is very wrong, and in this situations even a small item can get magnified several times since the PM did not get everyone on board by keeping it transparent.

On the other hand, there are those who are too ‘truthful’ and transparent, or so they think. It’s bit hairy territory to discuss this with them as they make you feel like a person of lower moral value and trying to tell them to lie. It’s not about lying but about managing the delivery and impact of the information in the right light and also providing the PM point of view on it with a positive light about possibilities. They might not understand it’s actually part of their job to manage the negativity of setbacks so people don’t lose heart and give up before a solid fight which always can change the fate of the battle; because all of us know it from experience that there are only few things in life that are 100% certain, rest are half chances and possibilities both positive or negative and right mindset and some luck has changed totally doomed looking situations to glorifying victory.

There is also this aspect of being likable and someone you would want to depend on; it’s one of those X factor that includes all the above aspects and more. In movie or soap casting there is this aspect of choosing who you want to be the ‘hero’ and ‘heroine’ or the leading characters and those you want to be the supporting roles. Sometimes on those B movies when some rich person becomes the leading figure because he or she funded the movie you can tell the miss match in the first 5 minute, that’s the aspect I am talking about. It’s not the story or the dialogue they are asked to say, but the ‘feel’ factor that makes someone fit the role of being the lead. This is why Ed Harris is one of the best actor in supporting roles rather than the lead, unless for specific movies where he fitted the role. Those who have seen ‘Bollywood’ movies would know the type casting of certain roles to certain actors or actresses; there have been few actresses who always have acted the role of ‘mother of the hero’ or the ‘sister of the hero’ in scores of movies, I am sure you would by now know what I am talking about in your own context. So bottom line, there are some who naturally fits the ‘role’ of Project Manager, when you present them to your client to your team and anyone else, while others don’t even if they have gotten a PMP certification or knows everything about the job.

The above point has been hard for me to objectively explain to aspiring PM’s who we did not agree to give a try in being trained to become a PM. I don’t claim to be correct all the time in selecting a person who will surely be successful as a PM, but there are certain aspects that I can tell, within a ‘BLINK’ as defined in the bestseller book of Malcolm Gladwell about the those who may lack the X factor that I tried to define above.

Melbourne one of the most populated city closest to South Pole:

 

 

Humm…… what do I remember of the city, from top of my mind:

-         cold winds: hard to keep your hands out while on the road, can feel it coming up from the pole

-         trams: all over the place, quite fast and convenient but not cheap

-         hook turns: some kind of unique rule for cars to accommodate the trams

-         lamb roll called kabob: Australian version of shawarma roll

-         fruit juice stands and special preparation called ‘liver cleanser’: carrot, ginger and celery mixed into a interesting drink

-         taxi strike: don’t think it happens often, was something we saw when there as one of them got stabbed and they wanted city to subsidize the fiberglass between drive and passenger

-         large number of students everywhere you go

 

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Those are the highlights from my two day trip to Melbourne last week of April 2008. It was a business trip to attend a seminar so took a place close to the city center so as to avoid the need to travel much for the official work in the early morning. I stayed at a place smack at the center of the city shopping district and called “The Mall”.

 

Its quite a spread out city with looks clean and friendly. Somehow have a feel of a small town while being a metro. Quite well connected with several means of transportation, from trams, to trains to water way transportations, though every thing is quite expensive considering the exchange rate of AU$ that you get in Australia. It was quite a surprise when I gave a US$100 note at the money exchange at the airport and got back only AU$92, humm.. seems like they have decided to set there own exchange rate over and above what the world forex exchange does.

 

Despite the cold winds, its quite a living city streets. Lots of outdoor sitting with those lamp post kind heating arrangements, there are also those invisible black heaters fitted into the outdoor shades. It was quite fun actually to have the couple of beers sitting outside at the sun down, there were quite a bunch of beer types and the one I chose was nice and smooth. There were several international food choices around from Chinese to Vietnamese to Indian, Greek etc. Spread around are small video casinos with slot machines and people drinking around or enjoying some cold sandwiches. On the street you find lot of fruit and flower sellers also this nuts sellers who sells this quite expensive kind of roasted chest nuts I suppose. Main street areas are also filled with stuff of interest to travelers, from day trips to gold coast and around, souvenir shops to even expensively decorated gem stones found around there area.

 

Enjoyed the lunch at a food court at some mall come rail station/terminal kind of place, this huge stuffed roll of roasted lamb, vegetable and bunch of other things. This alone is worth going back to the city again, guess that explains how easy its to please me.

 

Life seems to have a different pace at this city, good for them; at least they get to smell the rose while trying to live the regular life. There are lots of street performers in the evening from musicians to artist etc all over the city. Its quite nice to take a stroll along the main street or the river side where there are lots of different restaurants and a very large casino.

 

 

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Welcome!

Welcome to myself in the world of blogging. Have been into publishing photos online but not much into writing in blogs, this is about to change now.