This is the final version of this photograph of lemon confit I did recently. It was lit with strobe lights, camera on tripod with a long shutter speed (1.5 sec.) to get the evening light outside the window. It’s been cropped and corrected in Photo Elements, which I will discuss next, but here is the lighting set-up: This photo was taken with my point and shoot with the strobe modeling lights left on so that I could show how the lights effected the subject. When I took the photo, I turned off the strobe modeling and room lights so that the only available light was the evening light out the window. The final photo I chose has a fill card in front to the right, but not too close, I like the contrast of the dark and bright salt areas—it looks more natural and less like a studio shot. Here are 3 uncorrected  versions: #1—no fill card; #2—fill card to the left about 1 foot away; #3—Fill card closer, just inches away from the bowl These 2 images above are from the same file. The first is the uncorrected file right out of my camera. The second is the file created in Photo Elements. The first thing I did was color correct the yellowish cast by using the “eliminate color cast” tool, reading an area in the salt to get a true white. I try and get the color balance right before shooting, but sometimes when mixing different temperatures of light, I get it wrong. Then when I cropped the image to my liking, I found the dark vertical bar on the far left and top distracting, so, using the “rubber stamp” tool, I copied some of the blue light areas pasting them to eliminate all the black from the window frame and some other glare spots on the window glass. Next I turned to the ” burn & dodge” tools to lighten and darken small areas. I love these and use them almost always. They remind me of my darkroom days and wish it had been this easy to do back then. I lightened the sky and jar base and darkened all of the glass areas where the glare made it look milky. I also darkened all around the jar base and corners, something I always do to keep the viewer’s eye focused on the subject. Finally, I corrected the lighting levels slightly and added just a little contrast. I think this shows best in the glass top  and salt areas where it gives the image a little POP (don’t know the technical term for “POP” but it’s what a little extra contrast does). What I didn’t do is touch the saturation levels. I recommend extreme restraint when it comes to increasing color saturation—we don’t want food that looks radioactive. In fact, as far as correcting photo files, you shouldn’t have to do a lot to them. You’ll get a better quality image if you spend more time on getting the original file as close as you can to being perfect, which of course nothing and no one is, so don’t be hard on yourself and have fun.

A list of sites we support and collaborate with:

VacaConnect
Africa Freak
Born Free USA
Olosokwan Adventures
Seventh Wave Leisure
Cheap Hotels
Discount Hotels
Online Hotels
Hotels Reservations
Placesonline.com: Travel Guides
Lose Weight Eating Pasta Low fat pasta Recipes

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We're socializing.  Memohotel uses the following sites and services and we're adding more every day.   Here's a list of of links to social websites where you can find us:
Facebook
Twitter
Blogged
Flickr
LinkedIn
YouTube
Digg
Zazzle
If there's a service you use that we haven't joined yet, let us know!
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1.  How do I register my hotel?
For more information on how to register your hotel, please watch the tutorial .
2.  I registered my hotel, now what?
Click on the link in the activation email we mailed you to activate your account.
Login to memohotel and click on the Change Your Info link in the top right-hand menu. From the Change Your Info page you can upload photos of your hotel and add descriptions of the amenities and services you offer in nine languages.
Now that you've finished creating your hotel profile it's time to ...

Memohotel registration is free for both guests & hotels until September 15th, 2009.
Begining on September 16th, hotel registration will cost just $99.00 for a year's subscription.
Memohotel will always be free for guests/travelers.
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Just  a quick heads up for those of you happening on to memohotel in what are its first few weeks of online existence.  You're probably thinking, "What IS memohotel?" 
And I don't blame  you.
Here's the deal:  in a few months (or a few years), all the hotels in the world will have a Memohotel link or button on their website.  If you're a traveler (or if you just like planning awesome trips to take the next time you win the lottery), you'll be able to search the web for cool hotels, click on their memohotel ...

A short video for travelers and trip planners that explains how to start organizing your trips with memohotel. You know you like to travel, but it's such a hassle keeping all your possible hotel choices in one place. Sure you could save them as a favorite, but how do you remember why you liked that particular hotel? And how can you find out what their current prices are without searching through the whole site, and possibly having to send a reservation request? And what if you're using a different computer ...

Calling all investors, business angels and venture capitalists! Here is a musical clip especially dedicated to you. We hope it will inspire you to be generous with investments with us and put you in a generally happy mood.

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Are you a hotel owner? Need help getting started with Memohotel? Here's a simple video that explains the entire registration process from start to finish.
 
Other Memohotel Tutorials:

Video for hotel owners:  What else can Memohotel do for you?
Video for travelers & trip planners:  How to use Memohotel

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The Zen of Todoist
Now is better than later.
Later is better than never.
Organized is better than messy.
Big things are composed by smaller things.
Smaller things are done by action.
Think like a person of action.
Act like a person of thought.
The beginning is half of every action.
The longest journey starts with the first step.
Everything should be made as simple as possible.
But not simpler.
Celebrate any progress.
Don't wait to get perfect.
Deadlines and stress are a part of life.
Throughout the creation of Memohotel, we've been using todoist to keep track of problems, goals and ideas.  It's been a ...