Clip Hair Extensions

Hubby Dale and a guy friend sat on their boat knocking down a few beers and whiled away a lazy afternoon by listing body “ations”—urination, expectoration, perspiration, etc. I tried, but failed, to imagine doing the same with a girlfriend. We would identify the three most important “ations”—exfoliation, ovulation and menstruation, three these two geniuses missed—and then go shoe shopping.

Like it or not, “ations” are part of life. When you’re cheek by jowl it’s impossible to pretend, as you do in those early getting-to-know-each-other days, that you’re the only person on the planet who doesn’t experience them. At some point, one or the other of you will fart, belch, or leave the bathroom in need of fumigation. One bit of relaxed behavior leads to another and before you know it, you’re sharing—perhaps over-sharing—all those “ations.”

It’s not fair to stereotype but it seems to me that most guys never quite get over their middle-school fascination with body functions, especially flatulation and eructation (belching). There’s even a certain pride that some men take in “ations” as if the louder the belch or the more pungent the flatulence, the more manly they are. I. Do. Not. Get. It.

Okay, I admit it. I sometimes see the humor. Dale and I were at a Wednesday afternoon matinee, the favorite showing for folks from the retirement community. During a quiet moment Dale coughed so hard he ripped one. A really loud one. The elderly woman in front of Dale reached up and patted her head as if she feared the blast had dislodged her wig. We could not stop laughing and had to leave.

Then there’s grooming. In a perfect world, we’d all wake up as they do in the soaps—perfect hair, perfect make-up, no morning breath. You wouldn’t need to floss or brush your teeth, clip your toenails, exfoliate, mud pack, shave, or file your calluses. It’s soooooooooo not a perfect world.

I think most body functions and grooming should be done behind closed doors. Dale is more relaxed. I’m convinced he’d never seek privacy but for the fact that he reads on the john and doesn’t want to be disturbed. Oddly, the one thing that grosses him out is watching me put my contacts on. You may consider that as weird as I do, but it does demonstrate an important point. When it comes to body functions and grooming, it’s a good idea to know when you’re crossing your sweetie’s “that’s disgusting” line.

We all have our quirks. Kathy is grossed out by teeth flossing, Elijah by ear wax on Q-Tips. I need complete privacy to groom my feet. Nail clippings make Rebecca want to hurl. Respect your sweetheart’s quirks and avoid the gross out.

It may be impossible to maintain the same level of propriety you would around a total stranger, but remember this: In an intimate relationship, there are times when less is more.

Balloons, Butane, and Balls of Flame

This was a test, so I only filled the balloon about half full of butane. I ignited my long handled butane lighter, the kind you light barbecues with, and slowly advanced it to the balloon. I’m not sure if there was any sound or not, I was too fascinated by the ball of flame that engulfed my arm in a flash, then melted away leaving only the smell of burned hair, to hear it. Hmmm, I think maybe I should come up with a different way of igniting that butane filled balloon!

Slow Motion Video at 1000 Frames per Second

David Fischer, a friend of mine and long-time still photographer and motion director, and I, were in David’s studio in the middle of a slow motion video shoot. We were shooting footage using the Phantom HD High Speed video camera.

This amazing camera can capture HD footage at 1000 frames per second. When the video is played back at slower rates, say 30 frames per second, you have ultra slow motion video. We were also beta testing Grand Vitesse Systems software with the new user interface and the next generation hardware of the GVS9000 2XU 444 VTR which is due to be released in January 2010.

Flight of a Ladybug in HD

The combination of the Phantom and the GVS9000 VTR made shooting truly a breeze. The camera shoots in 4 second bursts (32 gigabytes of data) and captures continuously. This means you can set the capture time to actually start at up to, well, almost four seconds, before you hit the record button.

That is hugely important when shooting action that can be impossible to predict, such as the flight of a ladybug from a finger. Before you capture a scene you can set the frame rate from 24 fps to 1000 fps, or even much higher if you don’t need the HD resolution. Once you’ve captured your four seconds it only takes a couple of moments to play it back.

A simple slider allows you to set the play back speed, which is then color-corrected and converted to the desired codec, or format, on the fly. The whole process is incredibly simple and efficient and really allowed us to focus on the creative aspects of our shoot. Like figuring out how to ignite the gas-filled balloons with out injuring ourselves!

Phantom HD, GVS 9000, and Ease of Use

Using the Phantom with the GVS9000 2XU 444 VTR was incredibly easy. My experience with video prior to this shoot was limited to a Panasonic HVX-200. While I have been shooting still images professionally for over thirty years, I am still very new to motion. I found using the Phantom with the GVS9000 system to actually be easier than shooting with the Panasonic!

Custom Soft Boxes and Lots of Light

One challenging aspect of shooting ultra high-speed (slow motion) video is that of lighting. To shoot at such high frame rates requires a lot of light. Most of our clips were shot with 10,000 watts of tungsten light.

Our primary light source was a custom built soft box with five 2000-watt lights mounted inside. Depending on the shot, we would sometimes throw an additional 4000 to 6000 watts of light onto the background and or add some 1000-watt lights back on the subject for a rim light or highlight effect.

Monitor Calibration and Exposure Confidence

An important consideration is monitor calibration. The GVS 9000VTR software provides a histogram, Waveform, Vectorscope and many more options to facilitate accurate exposures. It even offers the ability to capture RAW to compressed format to see a visual difference in quality before you save your shots.

Because we were using a dual monitor set up and did not go through the calibration process, the result was a rather large discrepancy between our two monitors, and resulted in a less than comfortable confidence in our exposures.

It needs to be mentioned that exposure is very important when shooting with the Phantom and frequent white balancing is a good idea. Fortunately both white and black balancing are simple to execute.

 Vast Storage Capability

Another feature of the GVS9000 VTR that really helped our production efficiency is the vast storage capability in such a compact and portable unit. We were able to shoot RAW all day without interruption and without fear of running out of hard drive space. The configuration we were using featured a storage capacity of 4,000 gigabytes with hot-swappable drives and RAID level 5 protection. The GVS solution can transfer massive amounts of data at incredible speeds.

The Extraordinary In the Ordinary

Shooting with the Phantom was truly a case of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. In one case we decided to shoot tumbling dice. I dropped a single die, from two or three inches high, onto a marble surface. I had to drop them from a low height because if the die moved an inch closer or further from the camera, we would lose our focus.

The die clattered about for just an instant and stopped. David and I looked at each other, agreed that there wasn’t anything exciting about that particular bit of action, but decided to play it back anyway to check focus. It was mesmerizing! The die hit the marble surface, rose up and almost out of the frame, came down with a slow, lazy spin, hit the marble popped up, and just hung there spinning for what seemed like forever. Totally cool!

Water Balloons and Woman’s Hair

Whether it was a water balloon bursting and leaving a teardrop shaped body of water hanging, seemingly frozen in the air, a cat twisting to land on its feet, or a woman’s hair undulating in the wind, the Phantom allowed us to see things as we had never seen them before. The GVS9000 VTR gave us the capability to quickly see our captures and make adjustments without interruption in our flow. It is hard to stress how important that is for both our creative process and the bottom line.

This slow motion experience is a great example of my approach to stock video. Shooting video for stock makes sense if you have passion for what your shooting, and/or you can take advantage of an appropriate still shoot by adding video, or as in this case, an unusual opportunity presents itself.

Why does everyone have great long hair? It seems like it grows overnight. The downside of human hair extensions is that are usually much more expensive then the synthetic ones. Human hair extensions tend to be the preferred kind of hair extensions because they look and feel a lot more natural then the synthetic kind. For most people who come to the salons for a hair extension treatment, they usually opt to have the human hair extensions in order to achieve a natural look as compared to the synthetic type of hair extensions that actually has a different texture. Synthetic hair, on the other hand, is colored and styled before application and cannot be changed. These hair extensions can be either synthetic or natural. Synthetic hair costs much less than human hair. Many of today’s methods have been adapted from African-American stylists that weave human or synthetic hair into corn rows for a long, flowing and natural look. First, hair for extensions can be either synthetic or real human hair. The hair that is used can be synthetic or human and varies in price and quality. Hair extensions involve the attachment of human or synthetic hair to your existing hair to create a more full or long look immediately.
Hair extensions are hairpieces that can be attached to your natural hair or scalp; they enhance the thickness of your hair or the length. The natural hair of Caucasians is different from that of Asians or Afro-Americans and you should choose an extension that will match your own hair. This will result in tension and additional stress at the scalp, resulting in scalp soreness and possibly your natural hair falling out. Many of today’s methods are much faster and can cause less damage to the natural hair. Human hair is very heavy and the extra added weight to already damaged hair can cause the natural hair to fall out—even causing permanent hair loss. Clip-in extensions are suitable for people whose natural hair is shoulder length or longer. If you have a short haircut, but are dying for long locks, buy a wig that is similar in color to your natural hair. Hair extensions are actually highly in demand hair treatments at the salons nowadays wherein a lot of their clients all want to have some hair extensions added to their natural mane in order to look sophisticated and even a bit sexy. With fusion hair extensions, the extensions should be indistinguishable from your natural hair. Hair extensions can be added to your own natural hair to add length, volume, and body. The problem here is that most of the attachment methods require coating your natural hair with rather unfriendly chemicals.
With human hair extensions, wearers are not locked into a particular color or style. Such a wide variety of human hair extensions are available that stylists can easily match the color and texture of your own hair with. Hair extensions offer a simple solution to fine hair and can add a little pizzazz to thick, curly or wavy hair in any color or style.