As much as I love my house I have to admit that I was not so excited when I saw all the light fixtures. There not much beauty in the cheapest lights ever ( and I mean like $4 at the Home Depot kind of cheap) that a bank-owned foreclosed house has. I love lighting shops, but the prices there are a bit out of my reach. So I did the next best thing… an Ikea hack! Here is before and after:

This is a closeup of before (so glad this is gone!):

Here is my new beauty. I took a rice paper lamp shade from a table lamp, made it a bit shorter and cut out a diffuser made out of a piece of scrapbooking paper.

Oh, a thing of beauty:

I have more of Ikea hacks up my sleeves so stay tuned!

This morning I saw the terrible news from Japan (earthquake + tsunami if this is your only news source). While most people are trying to figure out how to rescue victims, I figured out how to help the country recover: exploitation of snow monkeys.

They were featured recently in a GE commercial adjusting the temperature of their hot spring. When I was there, I didn’t see any temperature gauge so that commercial was obviously staged. GE, an American leader, showed us a working model of how to exploit the snow monkeys.

Other possible exploitation:

1. Create a game about getting to the monkeys
It’s not as simple as hail a taxi outside your Tokyo hotel and you’re there in twenty minutes. My experience was more like descend through the 7 levels of the Tokyo subway, ride 3 bullet trains (the first 2 were the wrong ones), ask for directions from the old lady with no teeth (bonus points if she understands you and you her), ride the rickety bus, guess where along the 30 km route is the best stop (minus 1 point per km you were wrong), and hike through the enchanted forest (bonus points if you successfully dodge the rival dung throwing monkeys).

2. Snow Monkeys can provide personal services
Their specialties include:

Dietitian – They’ll keep you on your diet by stealing any food you try to put in mouth and realizing you’ve fallen off the wagon, they’ll rummage through your backpack and “confiscate” anything you may have hidden there.

Photography Assistant – it always seems to be snowing near the snow monkeys (duh right?), so your camera lens needs to be wiped continually. The monkeys already “clean” your $6000 lens with their bare hands. They should change for prompt on site service like that.

3. Make a Boot Camp for Bullies
Drop your wayward child there and the first thing he’ll do is look one in the eye and maybe give it a little shove. In no time your child will learn his lesson since it confrontational to look monkeys in the eye and they are super territorial. With about 100 monkeys to one wayward child there is no way he will be the “big ape” and will learn humility on the bottom of the totem pole during poop clean up duty.

In all, I wish Japan a speedy recovery and hope you all can go be financially exploited by the exploited snow monkeys. Maybe one day, they’ll overthrow “Hello Kitty!” as the symbol of Japanese cuteness.

“Happy moment”

“Angry birds or facebook”

“Someone is comfortable”

“Not my baby”

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In the beginning of December I was fortunate enough to visit Japan on a business/tourist trip. I am fascinated by this country; by how different the culture is from the Western world; and by how enchanting and stunning simple everyday objects can become.


I have visited the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto – it’s my favorite historical structure in Japan as of now. It is hard to get a bad picture there; the whole complex is a symbol of landscape design perfection.

I also went back to Odaiba, the most modern part of Tokyo. I am not really sure why there is a small Statue of Liberty there, but it’s a very popular spot to take pictures as a couple. Maybe it’s a symbol of love here…

And then, of course, I had to go back to Nagano and visit the snow monkeys again. They were cute as ever until of of them with a very innocent face tried to steal my camera bag. I have visited them on a weekday and there were only a few other people in the park and literally a few hundred monkeys around us. Snow monkey park is not a zoo, there are not cages or any barrier between you and the beasts.

After returning from the park I have read that these monkeys are actually pretty dangerous and even a smaller ones can hurt a person really bad. I am glad I have survived a visit to these “cute monsters” only to be planning my next visit to Japan in the future.

I don’t consider myself a car fanatic, i.e. I skip car commercials on my Tivo, don’t know what a good mileage is and don’t plan on buying a car just based on looks (unless it’s a Smart or IQ car and I get it for free.) However, there is something magical about beautifully restored old cars. Maybe it’s the perfect reflection of the blue sky above.


Or the attention to the details where all the parts are not simply functional, they are pleasing to the eye.

Such a beautiful car can almost take you back in time!


Bon Voyage, Albert!

It’s easy to fall in love with New Zealand; after all, the travel magazines and blogs, movies and other media portrait it as a wonderful lush piece of heaven on Earth where anyone can find an adventure of their lifetime.

If I was a men I would say New Zealand is a “girl next door” who can easily be a supermodel… If I was a wine enthusiast, I would say that New Zealand is like a well aged wine that doesn’t need a flashy label and a celebrity advertising it. I am neither of those, so I will say that for me New Zealand is a mixture of all the good things from any place I have lived in, a place that makes you consider buying a vacation timeshare or opening a bed and breakfast and herding sheep.

This place can remind you so much of home, that is feels like you are coming back after a long time away.

And yet it seems like a different “out of this world” place; you are suddenly compelled to join any environmentalists that are trying to preserve this beauty.

Especially, the lush green hills…

and the sandy white beaches …

and the “movie star” mountains…

and the ever present silver ferns…

When you are here you can forget any loyalty to your favorite animal because of how adorable all the sheep are. If my cat could read this she would probably be so mad and jealous, that she would chew my passport to pieces. I did on multiple occasions considered getting her a new pet sheep.

Being born in a city that is over 1400 years old makes one a “historical snob” – what really can be considered old in the US? I was humbled here, next to the ancient culture that not only has been preserved in museums and architecture, but so greatly interwoven into the canvas of everyday life.

I am sure the excitement of visiting a new place will eventually wear off, and the fun memories will slightly fade, but I think there always be a part of me that would long to go back to New Zealand. Has there been a place like this in your life or it is just me?

There is a Russian proverb that says “It’s better to have a hundred friends then a $100.” Even though it seems like there is always a new photography gadget that I could spend a $100 on, I tend to agree with this saying.

Good friends will not only hang out with you to have fun, but they also will hang around when times are tough. I feel that I have been lucky to have a number of friends that help brighten my days not only in a social way, but also artistically. I am not necessarily taking about friends at work that are truly artistically blessed; my other friends are talented in music, photography, design, quilting, woodworking, different crafts, electronic arts, floral design, good taste in clothing, sports and cooking. All of these people are my “friends with benefits,” most of them probably don’t even realize how much inspiration they give me. I love to observe and to soak in the talents they have, bounce my creative ideas from them and get feedback.

Although it takes guts I admire my friends that pursue their passions. It’s sometimes scary to compete with the established industry professionals when you are starting out (talking from a personal experience here). It’s very encouraging to have a person to talk to that is facing the same challenges as you do.

My friend Luanne is starting out her own business “Dinner for Two” where she teaches couples and friends to cook a delicious three course meal using “simple but proven” cooking techniques. It is more than a demonstration on how to make something, but it’s also a relaxing way to improve your skills without having to enroll in a fancy culinary school. I love coming to the “Dinner for Two” classes and seeing all the misenplaces carefully laid out on my table – this is how I would love to always cook in my kitchen at home if I had more time.

We always have a good time, good conversations and good food. Luanne always has a useful tip that I can use to astonish my coworkers and carry on a heritage of a good Ukrainian wife. I also love documenting our Dinner for Two classes – what can be better than a picture of a perfectly round tomato with a shallow depth of field?

I am glad to have Luanne as my “friend with benefits”, I get inspired by the look and the taste of her creations. And I wouldn’t in a million of years trade this friendship for $100 or a
Nikon 18 mm – 200 mm F/3.5-5.6 lens.

My dear friend D. had asked me to write a few basic photography tutorials about things that might be useful for a beginner to know. This is the first installment in the series “I wish I knew this 5 years ago” when I first got a decent digital camera and started to demand perfect pictures every time.

I often get asked while shooting an event about what camera I have. I respond that I have Nikon d50 trying to emphasize that the exact model of your gear is not as important as how much you know about it. And I say that from a personal experience – for years I have been shooting in “Auto” mode on my point-and-shoot camera. I was getting a few good pictures, but mostly something was often off in them. I have been secretly jealous of my friends that had SLR cameras… And thought that only the amount of money I am willing to spend on a piece of equipment separates me from those great pictures I have envisioned in my head. I would borrow my friends’ SLR cameras and play with them and then take the same pictures with my point-and-shoot, but the second images were always worse – even in the almighty AUTO mode. Only the steep price and the bulkiness of most SLR kept me from purchasing one.

That wasn’t until I took my first “real” photography class at Piedmont Adult School, where the teacher had ordered all the students to READ their camera’s manual, things started to become more clear. Who would have thought that the little white pocket book that is included with your camera has something useful in it? Most people don’t even hold on to them – I was lucky enough to have a spouse that made me keep such a “useless” book.

As a good student I eagerly went home to do my “homework.” I was sincerely surprised that the manual wasn’t that hard to comprehend and that it had images to help you. That was a defining moment in my photographic “career”, I was determined to study the manual from cover to cover and see what I could squeeze out of my unappreciated point-and-shoot camera.

The first most important thing that has improved my pictures was learning about White Balance. This feature is adjustable in most respectable point-and-shoot cameras and in all SLRs.

But what is White Balance and why do we need to tweak it to get better pictures? So here is the deal – different light sources (such as the sun, regular light bulbs, fluorescent bulbs, etc.) shine lights of different color. That is why when you go from the outside on a very sunny day to a brightly lit room everything seems a bit yellow at first. Our eyes are great at adjusting the way we see color, so that the white object still look white to us under different colored light. Let’s look at the same object taken with different White Balance settings:

You can see that all of the settings produce different results. I would say that the Flash and Auto settings were the closest to the truth.

It is awesome if your camera is smart enough to correctly calculate the White Balance for every picture, but sometimes even the most expensive SLRs have a problem with that. That’s exactly why when comparing my point-and-shoot images they often looked wrong. One way to fix that is, of course, to buy a smarter camera, but a cheaper approach is to set your White Balance to an appropriate setting before you shoot.

So here it is, friend D., the tutorial you have been waiting for. Now, go find a manual for your camera and see how to set White Balance on it. I would love to see any pictures you might take of your adventures.

I hope you take it for what it is – my friendly advice to everyone who wanted to know how improve their pictures but was shy enough to ask. I wish someone had gave me this advice 5 years ago.