Category Archives: Featured

Nocturnus Lightroom Preset

I usually take photos in low light conditions, especially at night. And the places I like the most are usually very dark streets, with just a small light lighting up the scene.. just give a look to the photoblog to get what I mean..

Anyway, I’ve decided to release a Lightroom preset I use for this kind of shots (very dark shot with just a light): Nocturnus.

I’ve just used this preset for my last photo on ReallyJapan.com, and I can assure you it works pretty well, just apply the preset on dark street shots!

How to install presets on Lightroom?

Click on Preferences, select Presets tab and click on Show Lightroom Presets Folder… button.Uncompress the ZIP file, move the folder in the Lightroom Presets Folder/Develop Presets and relaunch Lightroom.

Download Nocturnus for Lightroom

Photo manipulations from Russia

Ok, I can’t read Russian and I’m not really sure who’s this guy (if it’s only one one), but his images are, technically speaking, impressive.
And I like his creativity, the atmosphere, the mood in his photos, and the weird characters populating them.. also he’s experimenting with 3D photos using small animations.. Anyway, check tebe-interesno out!

Source: Toxel.com

Drunk Japanese Minister

When the world economy is going to rack and ruin and a lot of people have been laid off, I’m wondering.. what’s the solution?
Well, the Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa has great advice to give: get drunk!
During the G7 meeting of finance ministers in Rome few days ago, Nakagawa was seen to be slurring his words and exhibiting other odd behavior, which some attributed to alcohol.However, he stated that the reason for his drowsiness and slurred speech was that he had taken too much cold medicine before the meeting.
Some points about this guy:

Nakagawa is known as a heavy drinker (although he has announced attempts to quit drinking on several occasions).
After winning an election in 2000, he famously painted a black “teardrop” on a daruma doll as he was too drunk to paint the eye in correctly.
In April 2004, it was revealed that he had not been paying into the national pension plan for 21 years (yeah, who cares, I’m a minister!)
On January 6, 2007, in an interview with a reporter from the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Nakagawa stated “Women have their proper place: they should be womanly…They have their own abilities and these should be fully exercised, for example in flower arranging, sewing, or cooking. It’s not a matter of good or bad, but we need to accept reality that men and women are genetically different“

However, Nakagawa san is in good company!
Nakagawa’s party colleagues Yoshiro Mori found the performance – where the minister was representing Japan on the international stage – less than amusing and immediately concluded that Nakagawa’s stupor was alcohol-induced.

But Mori himself has more his own brushes with embarrassment. During his short tenure as prime minister from 2001 to 2003, he suggested that childless women should be barred from receiving social security payments once they retired.

And a former public health minister once referred to women as “birth machines.”

Even current Prime Minister Taro Aso once insulted pensioners when he accused them of constantly visiting their physicians instead of keeping themselves fit and healthy.

Aso’s Government is definitely a mess..

Anyway, he resigned yesterday..

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdyJrZonX_A