Saturday, August 23, 2008

Designing your Fitness

I've always struggled with finding ways to get fit that also work with my hectic lifestyle. I used to have an $80 per month gym membership a the New York Sports Club and that didn't work out for me because:

  • I hated spending that $80 per month.
  • I'm a bit shy about working out.
  • Every time I got in the zone I was interrupted by one of the personal trainers who wanted to sell me one of their overpriced one-on-one packages under the guise of wanting to help me out with my workout.
  • Although the showers appeared clean I was still icked out.
  • The whole process of packing a gym bag and going to the gym seemed to take up so much time.

I've also tried other ways to stay fit but each had their share of woes.

  • I could never seem to make it to my intramural volley ball games.
  • Running made my shins hurt.
  • I'm too much of a hedonist to diet.
Recently I've found a new tool to help me out that I love love love. I'm doing these downloaded audio podcasts from yogadownload.com. There are a lot to choose from with a wide range of difficulty and durations. They are also the right price at $1 - $5. Way better than what I was spending at the gym. They also have a nicely designed website which counts alot for me.

I like em blasting off my computer speakers but you could also put them on your ipod. Some of the poses are a bit confusing for me but the classes also come with pdfs of the poses in order. This helps but i think it would have been even better to integrate these into the class and have it like a movie. They should try editing some together with the pose guide.

Try their free trial class 20 Minutes of Power.

My favorite classes from them:

  • 8 Minute Abs I don't have time to mess around I need to hit the goods fast.
  • Dawnelles Hip Opening Flow #2 Shes got a super sexy voice and it focuses on spreading your legs wider. Not too bad for the love life.
Speaking of working out. I recently designed some flyers with tear offs for a personal trainer in Park Slope. I did this under the creative Direction of TankIndustries who also had previously designed their nice logo. See pics below. Click to view larger.






This was fun to do. The bottom part tears off and become like a business card style thing. The client was awesome and even allowed for a little 'white space'. They are super happy and these rack cards represent their fun energetic outlook and even fit in a regular envelope so they can mail them to prospective or defunct clients.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Soul Finger Sam



Fortunately I was invited to play with SoulFinger Sam next week at an art inspired party called family affair in Clinton Hill.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Against the Grain in Digital Photography

I'm trying to learn how to work my camera better. I have a canon power shot S3 IS.



I really like it a lot. It has an amazing zoom. But alas, I'm still looking for ways to further reduce my digital grain with what I thought was a mid-level camera (Currently on sale for $319.99 on Amazon). Am I asking for too much?


I use this camera for my graphic design product shots, chronicling my 'DJ career, and sometimes at personal events. Because of its design its easy to hold and great for those candid shots but I am struggling a bit trying to get really professional looking product shots. Things always come out a bit too grainy for my taste. With sort of a slight RGB glow to things on the edges. I've tried using external lighting (albeit not professional) and using a tri-pod but I'm still battling with it this. Maybe there is something I'm missing... How do you reduce grain in your semi-pro digital photography?

See an example of a shot I took below.

Photobucket