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We had an awesome day yesterday. Shannon Plummer who is a wildlife photographer of some repute came to our place to shoot our reptiles. She was kind enough to let me mimic her setup and get plenty of good shots. I didn’t get a picture of the whole setup unfortunately so I have added a drawing below.

The background is a white sheet lit from below the table with my flash on full power. She used two more flashes on stands over the table to left and right through umbrellas. I used a single flash higher up and pointing down from slightly behind and to the right of the camera.

The table top itself was covered in a white cloth and then a white sheet of perspex (acrylic) with a glossy surface placed on top.

Clearing the browser from all the links to cool tools and content for today.

Microsoft Stuff

• Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 BETA – Includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers
• Seadragon.com – Convert Any Image On The Web Into A Deep Zoom Image
• Deep Zoom Composer Updated To Fix An Export Related Bug
• Streaming Media in Windows 7 – Streaming your collection over the Internet – unfortunately this doesn’t work if your Windows 7 machine is joined to a domain
• Sneak peek of what’s coming in Windows Live Movie Maker
• Live Video Streaming: Guide To The Best Broadcast Services To Stream Your Video In Real-Time
• What's new in Windows 7: Tour Windows 7
• Get a Live-Updating Bing Wallpaper Windows 7 Theme – i did this it worked really easily
• Megawoosh Slide for Microsoft Project – this is a funny little video that has gone viral in Europe. Heads up from Duncan’s blog.

Office twenty-ten (the correct way of saying it) has some awesome new features over Office 2003 and 2007.

The following links highlight some of the amazing things that are going on and I must say I am pretty impressed so far.

Joseph Chirilov has been busy writing (and geting guest writers to write) articles about both the upcoming changes in Excel 2010 as well as a series on using sparklines in Excel 2007 and 2010. Sparklines are mini in-line charts that can graphically display data in a very small space.

The night before I usually dream of playing football. I take marks, kick the ball and play awesomely. It is great visualisation stuff and I always wake early and raring to go.

The time before I leave the house is taken up with collecting my gear, double checking I have everything in my bag and making sure I leave on time. I am always early. Today I arrived 3rd to the ground, taking Miranda with me. Its cold and there is a chilly wind blowing, though the sunshine is warm. I feel old, cold and very fragile at this point. Doubts swirl in my head about my ability to perform.

I get a ball into my hand and go and kick a few shots – barefoot. I make all but one of them so feel very happy about my ability to kick goals, though I probably will play in the back line.