The Savvy Marketplace

Every digital image has a secret identity.

The big difference between your digital photos and a CIA operative is that it’s pretty easy to discover the secret identity of a digital photo.

This not-so-secret information is called EXIF data, and it’s encoded in every photo that you take with your digital camera.

Think of it like a barcode on a package: in the same way that the barcode uniquely identifies the product, EXIF data uniquely identifies an image.

But how can EXIF data improve your photography? Let’s find out.

Common Camera Settings

There are two principal actors in the photos that you take: aperture and shutter speed.

Aperture is a measure of how wide your lens opens, and shutter speed is how long your camera’s shutter stays open to expose the digital sensor to light.

All digital SLR cameras and some compacts let you manually control aperture and shutter speed.

The best way to learn what impact these two features have on your photos is to tweak the settings and see the effects.

With film, there is no way to tell what the aperture and shutter speed are set to for any given image. If you want to keep track, you have to write down the numbers on a notepad for every shot you take.

Not exactly convenient.

On a digital camera, the EXIF data takes care of this for you.

Permanent Setting Storage

Every time you take a photo with a digital camera, the camera automatically saves the aperture, shutter speed, and a variety of other settings.

This EXIF data is permanently attached to the photo, so even when you transfer it from camera to computer the data is not lost.

Once you open the photo in your image editor of choice, you can choose to view this EXIF data any time you want (even a year later).

Here’s why this is such a powerful learning tool: you can easily review all of your camera settings for every photo you take.

Learning From EXIF

Example one: you take what you think is a great photo of your daughter playing in the living room. You check the photo on the computer and the entire shot is blurry.

Why? Check the EXIF data and note the shutter speed. It was probably too slow to get a clear shot of your daughter in motion.

Example two: you take a photo of your friend in front of a fountain. It looks like the water is spouting from the top of his head.

The EXIF data shows that your aperture was set to f/11. This aperture ensures that both the friend and the fountain are in clear focus. A different aperture setting would have kept your friend in focus but blurred the background.

While you can learn a lot from mistakes like these, pay special attention to photos that are successful.

Check the EXIF data often for photos that you love, and you might find some camera settings in common.

In the future, you can manually set your camera to your “favorite” settings and capture more photos that are keepers.

There you have it.

EXIF data just helped to improve your photography.

Chris Roberts dispenses practical plain-English advice and information about digital SLR cameras at the Digital SLR Guide. His 5-week ecourse in digital SLR technique helps beginners get the most out of their digital SLR cameras.

Be aware of scams/fraud from people that say they have a client or they represent a potential buyer. They usually have a email from a free email host such as Yahoo or Hotmail or the like. The scammers are usually from Western Europe and Africa but many are right here in the U.S. What to watch out for:

* Do not buy or sell any vehicles outside the U.S. Usually anything to do with shipping across the ocean means a scam.

* Do not accept a cashiers check without contacting the phone number of the issuing bank. Once you contact the bank, make sure to validate its authenticity and have your bank verify it too. It may be a foreign or out-of-state cashiers check that looks extremely real.

* Then you must wait at least 3-4 weeks for the check to clear the bank and then you may release the vehicle. In todays world, anyone can print a cashiers check using a phony bank name, while the banking system has no way of validating the check quickly or efficiently.

* Do Not Refund an Overpayment. If a buyer proposes to buy your vehicle, whether it is a car, motorhome, classic car, motorcycle, or boat, and sends you a check for MORE than the asking price to pay for the shipping of the vehicle. They request that you refund the balance or extra amount. There have been cases whereas the seller sent off their car and lost it and the money for the shipping.

* Do Not Give Out Personal Information. Identity theft is rampant in todays world especially when it comes to credit cards.

Please take every precaution to protect your identity. Never release any of your personal information. Everyone has heard the old saying, “If it seems to good to be true, it probably is!”

These scams occur to people that are not only selling cars, motorhomes, classic cars, motorcycles and boats. The list is much more extensive. If these scammers can make even a few dollars, it’s worth it to them. Especially if they come from an impoverished country.

If you have any questions, feel free to visit http://www.Trader4Less.com and go to our contact us page. We will try to answer any questions that you may have.

This article was provided by Manny Ahles, the owner of Trader4Less.com. At Trader4Less you can buy your next motorized vehicle or sell your existing vehicle. Mr. Ahles specializes in writing articles in the fields of Automotive, Recreational Vehicles, Motorcycles, Classic Cars, and Boats.

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Many people avoid artificial colours in their foods, but don’t check out the colours in cosmetics and personal care products. It is only in recent years that cosmetics have started to carry a full list of ingredients on their packaging.

Making sense of the ingredients can be difficult for the lay person. This is particularly true for colourings, which often go under the guise of numbers rather than names.

In many countries colours in cosmetics are listed as colour index numbers. C.I. numbers are allocated by the Society of Dyers and Colourists. The scheme covers colours used in food, personal care products, cosmetics, household products and fabric dyeing. So, for example you will not normally see ‘tartrazine’ listed in your lipstick ingredients, but it may be there listed as C.I. 19140. Erythrosine will be listed as C.I. 45430, and so on.

The USA uses a different system: the FD & C colors have been categorised by the American Food & Drink Administration for use in foods, drugs and cosmetics. So in this system tartrazine is FD & C yellow 5, and amaranth is FD & C red 2.

The ‘E Number’ system is used by the European Community (EC). This is a system of giving code numbers to food additives, some of which are also used in cosmetics and personal care products. This system is also used in some other countries but without the E prefix, so E102 becomes simply colour ‘102′.

All this confusion for the average consumer would not be important, but for the fact that some of these colours are known to cause problems in susceptible individuals. For example, tartrazine (also known as FD & C Yellow 5, CI 1914 and EI02) can cause migraines, itching, rhinitis and agitation in susceptible individuals. Many individuals avoid its use in food, but do not realise how extensively it is used in cosmetics, such as lipstick, and personal care products.

The big worries in terms of colours in cosmetics and personal care products are lipstick, coloured lip balms, lip gloss and lip pencils, because anyone who uses these regularly ‘eats’ a fair quantity over their life time, but these colours also appear in skin cream, foundation, mascara and so on too. (Remember also that these colours can also be in ‘natural’ cosmetics and skin care products.)

Another worry is that even the ‘experts’ cannot agree on an international ’safe’ list of colours, so that a colour may be allowed in one country, but banned elsewhere. For example, quinoline yellow is allowed within the European Community and in some other countries, but is banned in Japan, Norway and the United States.

As ever, the advice is: keep yourself informed and read the label. Here is a list of the different names and numbers that common colourings go under:

Tartrazine: E102 or FD & C Yellow 5 or C.I. 19140
Quinoline yellow or E104 or C.I. 47005
Sunset yellow or E110 or FD & C Yellow 6 or C.I. 15985
Amaranth or E123 or FD & C Red 2 or C.I. 16185
Ponceau 4R or E124 or C.I. 16255
Erythrosine or E127 or FD & C Red 3 or C.I. 45430
Red 2G or E128 or C.I. 18050
Allura red AC or E129 or FD & C Red 40 or C.I. 16035
Patent blue V or E131 or C.I. 42051
Indigo carmine or E132 or FD & C Blue 2 or C.I. 73015
Brilliant blue FCF or FD & C Blue 1 or C.I. 42090
Fast green FCF or FD & C Green 3 or C.I. 42053
Green S or E142 or C.I. 44090

Jane Thurnell-Read researches and writes on health and well-being. Visit her site www.healthandgoodness.com for well-researched articles on a whole range of topics. She’s not trying to sell you anything - this is an information web site. the most common unsolicited comment from people who surf this site is “brilliant”.

Pubic hair shave is not a taboo any more. It seems like all women are shaving pubic hair. It is not an unusual phenomenon which is attributed only to models and athletes any more. Find out why pubic hair shave is so popular and what the hot pubic hair shave fashion is nowadays.

So why is pubic hair shave so popular?

1. More and more women are exposed to the issue of pubic hair shave. Every body’s talking about pubic hair shaving - Pubic hair shaving stories and guides are being published on the media.

2. Models, actress and other celebrities which are serving as role models are shaving their pubic hair and speak of it publicly.

3. Pubic hair shave has become more accessible - Pubic shavers and accessories can be found in most of the department and cosmetic stores and on fair prices.

4. Pubic hair shave is easier, faster and causes less pain than ever. The modern shavers have been developed for years to apply the most effective pubic shaving.

5. Pubic hair shave provides a great feeling of freedom and helps you feel better with your body. It is one of a wide selection of cosmetic treatments that have become popular in the last couple of years like teeth whitening, sunless tanning etc.

What is hottest pubic hair shave fashion?

There are two trends that are definitely the most popular of all pubic female shaving styles.

The first one is the Brazilian Bikini wax. In this pubic hair shaving method all the pubic hair is being shaved. It is recommended to have a professional to Brazilian Bikini waxing you. You could find a Brazilian Bikini Wax in any big city. Gwyneth Platrow and Naomi Campbell have done it. What about you?

The second hot pubic hair shaving trend is the different pubic hair cuts. A few samples would be the star, the arrow, the heart, the butterfly or the traditional downward or upward triangle. Many women make a pleasant surprise for their boy friend / husband with a new pubic haircut each time.

You are welcome to join the club of pubic hair shaving.

911 corp. has made a research on the issue of pubic hair shave - find the best methods and shavers only on Pubic hair shave center. www.911stophairloss.com - Your home for hair issues

Lock picking is the activity that opens a lock without the proper key. When we are thinking of it, usually we are associating it with illegal activities. But that isn’t always the case!

Let’s think for example what we can do if we have lost the house key or if we have locked ourselves outdoors. If we live on the ground floor we could jump through the window (if it’s not open we can easily break it with a stone). But if we are not, we either unlock the door or… break it (which is not a cheap solution). With a bit of talent and an unsophisticated lock, we can manage to unlock it ourselves. Though the reality is not quite like in the movies (when a door is unlocked in a couple of minutes, just in time for the hero to save the heroine). The best solution is to call for a professional locksmith, who is trained to deal with these situations.

When picking a lock, a locking tools kit is needed. The simplest kit contains a tension wrench (a screwdriver for example) and a lock pin (a long, thin piece of metal, curved at the end). In an emergency situation, a lock pin is successfully replaced with a hair pin. A professional kit will have a lot of tension wrenches (in different sizes and shapes) and a lot of dimensions for the lock pins. Or it could have a pick gun (contains many metal pieces, that vibrate and push all the lock pins up at once).

First step is to insert the tension wrench in the keyhole and turn the cylinder like a normal key would do. Then we can insert the lock pin and carefully start to lift the pins up. When they reach the normal position we will hear a slight click and the lock is unlocked.

Along with “picking” there is another technique called “racking”. It presents a lower level of precision. We need a special pick called a “rake”. This will be inserted until it hits the back of the cylinder (not slowly like a pick) and it will be pulled out quickly in order to hit all the pins up on its way out. In the meantime the cylinder is turned with the tension wrench.

Master locks are one of the hardest locks to be picked! They are not infallible, but they do have an excellent protection system. They were invented in 1921, by Henry Soref, who thought of producing the padlocks in laminated layers of steel. While the Master locks in padlocks have the same picking system as the other locks, Master locks in combined formats require a patient and skillful locksmith.

There are a lot of lock picking books, which teach us the techniques of lock picking step by step. Sometimes they are accompanied by a video or CD for a better illustration. Some of the books are written for professional locksmiths, but there are also many others directed to people that simply want to know more about the subject. Sometimes the books show the history of locks and lock picking or how a person can become a locksmith!

When buying a lock, we have to keep in mind the value of what we intend to protect! Most locks can be picked, but buying a good one increases our security and safeness!

Jeff King is a technologist who writes on many consumer topics.
There’s more about locks and safes at
Safe’n'Locked

Writing for your business is unavoidable. Unless you have a staff to do it for you, you’ll have to answer customer email, and write sales letters, as well as promotional materials.

If you sell affiliate programs, you can avoid a lot of the customer service tasks involved, but in order to be successful with affiliate programs, you need to differentiate yourself from the other affiliates in a program. This means writing articles, product reviews, press releases, and other forms of communication that provide value to your potential customers.

There are ways to market though, and they’re all free, that can cut the amount of writing that you do, build your credibility, help you find ideas for products, and help your potential customers find what they’re looking for.

Below are four:

1. Networking

Networking is a way to connect with business associates, and sometimes, your potential customers. This is normally done through sites that allow you to do searches for those you want to meet.

Normally networking sites allow you to exchange messages, blog, exchange messages on forums or groups, and start conversations with others who are interested in your area of expertise.

This is the easiest way for you to find joint venture partners that can help you sell your products and services.

Examples of networks are:

http://www.myspace.com
http://www.ecademy.com
http://www.ryze.com

2. Forums

Forums are very similar to network sites. However, unlike networking sites, where you’re looking for business partners, or to sell business to business, with forums, you’re looking directly for your market. You can find out what others are shopping for by reading about what they’re actually talking about.

Studying the forums is what finally made me decide to create a blog on how to market on the internet for free. I kept seeing the same question over and over: “I’ve just built a website, but I don’t have any money. How do I market it?”

Forums will allow you to answer the questions of others and build your credibility in your aread of expertise. You can also find product ideas from what others are discussing.

To promote yourself, you can answer questions. If you’re passionate about your topic, and you consider yourself an expert, you should be able to easily answer questions. Give the potential customer enough information to be helpful, but give him/her a reason to visit your site.

If you don’t know what to say, ask questions. This will allow you to build links and learn your area of expertise better. It will also help you build relationships.

To find forums on your topic, do a search in a search engine and combine your topic with the word forums.

3. Free Classifieds

Although classified advertising isn’t as popular as it used to be, and most don’t use these sites, classified advertising can still be effective.

What you want to look for in free classified advertising are sites that rank high and get a lot of traffic.

Sites like Yahoo, MSN, and Google have groups where you can exchange messages and promote your products and services.

Unlike a lot of free classified ad sites, the messages on these groups do get read.

If you want to easily learn how to write good classifieds, study the small ads in magazines and newspapers. The ads you see repeated are making money. If they weren’t, the ad writer wouldn’t continue to run the same ads over and over.

4. Search Engine Optimization

If you market online, search engine optimization is a task you can’t afford to ignore. It’s amazing the number of sites on the internet that aren’t even in the search engines.

You’ll have a tough time being found online if you don’t optimize and then submit your site.

The easiest way to do this is to get a tool that will tell you how to optimize your site. Software like Web CEO, http://www.webceo.com, will help take you through the process of optimizing your site by helping you find keywords, as well as analyze your site to tell you how you can improve your search engine optimization to raise your rankings.

With search engine optimization, you optimize each page for a specific set of keywords. What’s important here is to know what keywords you want to be found for, who your competition is, as well as how much competition you have. Optimize your site and then make sure that you submit it to the search engines.

Although you may not like to write, and most people don’t, you can cut your writing tasks down by choosing marketing methods that don’t require you to do a lot of writing. Write in a conversational tone and help your site visitors and potential customers find the solutions to their problems. This will increase your sales and website conversions.

Jinger Jarrett is the “Internet Marketing for Free” lady. She will show you how to market your business on the internet and do it for free. You’ll get thousands of dollars in free internet marketing tools when you visit her blog at Internet Marketing for Free.

Most people allow their cameras to stay in the drawer for most of the year. They may see the light of day during a vacation or some celebration or festivity.

If that describes your camera, then it’s OK. You are a “snapshot” photographer and most images are taken by people like yourself. That’s great and if that’s what you want, then carry on.

After all, cameras were designed to take images. There was no predefined usage pattern prescribed for any model of camera and there will be nobody checking up on you and for what purposes you use your camera for.

It is a little unfortunate, though, that you are not using your camera to its fullest potential. In fact, if you are a snapshot photographer, you are probably not using more than 10 or 20 percent of the functionality that was built in to the camera.

Modern digital cameras are not only easy to use but they come with a whole host of added functions. Things like shutter speed selection and aperture control. There are also ISO setting, fill flash and anti red eye features. Most cameras have the ability to vary focal length and to allow mounting on a tripod. Many will allow short videos to be taken and a great number allow additional add-on lenses. If you look in your instruction book, you might find that you camera has a self timer mechanism and full manual control options.

All of these features, and more if your camera has them, can enhance your photographs in many ways. If the functions are unfamiliar to you then you need to read around a bit and experiment.

But, utilising these functions in the correct way (and it’s easy to do) will bring added life and sparkle to your snapshots. Who knows what might follow after that?

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com

A customer recently emailed us about his job search success.

“After landing a job in just 2 weeks, I realize now that finding a job is really a very simple process. You just have to realize that someone is out there with a job, waiting for you to come along. All I had to do was to get the two of us together.”

Knowing there’s a job out there just waiting for you sounds great. Unless you’re TWISTNG IN THE WIND because you can’t get hooked up with the right position.

Maybe you’ve been fired and you’re getting desperate. Maybe you’re jammed up in your current job with no moves left. Or you’ve faithfully followed a lot of traditional job search advice and nothing works.

There are few of us who don’t worry about our job. And with good reason. It provides the fuel that fires what’s important to us in life.

A job is not just “what we do.” In many ways it’s who we are. Much of our life is defined by how we make a living.

So when the time comes to make a move, we prefer to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible. We don’t want to be twisting in the winds for weeks, even months at a time hoping against hope that the right situation will drop in our laps.

That’s the desperate way to look for a job.

Making a career move can and should be a dynamic and enthusiastic acknowledgement of our ability to grow . . . to be successful. Most of all it should show us that we can be in control of our destiny rather than a victim of it. And that means we can’t be a wimp about our job search.

So don’t let yourself twist in the wind. Get yourself an assertive plan of action that guarantees you fast and lucrative results!

Most brides-to-be start dreaming about the ideal wedding dress long before they are even engaged. Choosing the ideal wedding dress is crucial because it is perhaps the only day that all eyes will be looking at you. A dress that is beautiful whilst remaining tasteful and also flattering to your figure will ensure that you look your best on your wedding day. With so many style, color and fabric options available, choosing the ideal wedding dress can be a daunting task. However, most brides simply know when they have found the ideal wedding dress. From the moment they put on the dress, they instinctively know that this is the ideal wedding dress for them.

The most important thing when searching for the ideal wedding dress is to begin looking at least six months before your wedding date. Finding the ideal dress will most likely take quite some time and once you find the dress, it could take up to four months for the dress to be ordered and shipped to the store. Once the dress arrives in the store you most likely will require several fittings to ensure that the dress fits absolutely perfectly. You should take your time and enjoy looking for your wedding dress so it is crucial that you begin the process in good time to avoid feeling rushed and overwhelmed.

Another useful piece of advice for finding the ideal wedding dress is to try on many different styles of dresses. Even though you may be certain that you want a particular style you may find that the style that looks so appealing in magazines does not suit your body type. You may also find that a style that you would have never have considered before can be flattering to your figure. For this reason it is important to try on a wide variety of styles before dismissing a particular style. The old adage “you won’t know unless you try it,” holds perfectly true for wedding dresses. There have been numerous brides who have found that their ideal wedding dress turned out to be totally different from the one they had envisaged.

Although it may not be what you expect, the color of the wedding dress is an important thing to take into account when choosing the ideal wedding dress. The concensus seems to be that the only acceptable color for a wedding dress is a pure white. However if you keep an open mind, you may find yourself with a wedding dress that is far more flattering to your skin tone than a pure white dress. Wedding dresses come in a wide variety of colors including ivory, cream and even subtle beiges. If you are happy to consider these options it is important to try on dresses in these colors to see how they work with your complexion.

Choosing the ideal wedding dress often requires getting a few second opinions. Having a few close friends or family members that you trust come dress shopping with you can help you find the dress of your dreams. They can offer opinions on each dress that you try on and can also scour the countless racks of dresses available and choose dresses for you to try on. Many brides instantly know that they have chosen the ideal wedding dress the moment they put it on but having trusted friends and family members with you can confirm this feeling. When you first step out of the dressing room and show them the dress you are wearing you may see reassuring confirmation that you have made the perfect choice. The reactions of your assistants will indicate that you have indeed found the perfect dress.

When you have chosen the ideal wedding dress, now is also the time to buy the it. Nothing is more important than your gut feeling and the reactions of the friends and family that accompanied you so if you know you have the ideal dress in your hands, don’t risk losing it by opting to think about it for a few days before you make your purchase. There is always the chance that the last available dress will be sold or that the company will discontinue that particular style so do not allow yourself to miss out on buying the ideal wedding dress by not buying it the moment you realize it is the dress for you.

The wedding dress is one of the most critical elements of a wedding. It is what makes a bride truly stand out and it is important for her to ensure that she has chosen the ideal wedding dress. The minute a bride-to-be steps into a wedding dress she will know instantly whether or not it is the ideal dress. It’s important to trust this gut reaction and act accordingly in choosing the ideal wedding dress.

Most people do not notice what a purse says about one’s personality. If you start to analyze the different aspects of the purse, you would find that it tells much about that person. So you can check one’s personality by looking at their purseonality. Some examples to illustrate my point are what you would find inside the purse as well as the purse itself. You might look inside for different hints to one’s organization or items of importance to the individual. The style, shape, and color also reflect much about a person.

If you look inside someone’s purse, you could tell if that person is organized or not. You could also tell if they are conscious about looks or more about other things. Think about what you have in your purse. Do you have only the essentials such as identification, money, and keys? Most likely you have some personal items that identify you. You might have pictures of your family, you might have makeup, you might have candy or toys for small childrenyou might even have all of these and more. Whatever you carry in your purse defines which things that are important to you to have with you at all times. You may not have given it much thoughtbut think about the things you move from one purse to another and you will understand my point. There are always things that you feel you must have in your purse. You also look for purses that allow you to carry the things that you need or want with you.

There are many purses on the market and new ones are designed daily. Why would their need to be so many different purses just to carry basic essentials? Most women carry them for more reasons than just to carry their things.

Another reason for buying a particular purse is to match their own personal taste. This allows people to express their personality by color, style and perhaps even designer. In a survey performed on college students, it was found that 86 percent of the students felt that one purse was not enough. In fact, 62 percent have five or more purses. The reason for different purses was generally for different occasions. Some change purses as often as they change outfits. However, there were some students that felt that one purse was sufficient for their needs.

When talking to one student, she said that when she looks for a purse, she looks for something small with a lot of compartments to hold money. “Without a purse, change would get lost at the bottom of my backpack and you just need somewhere to put your change,” she said. “I bought my purse because it’s small, like a wallet on a string.”

We talked to another student that told us that she only carried specific designer purses such as Dooney & Bourke, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci. She said, “I just feel more glamours when I have one of my designer purses with me.”

Several students expressed that color was the most important aspect of the purse. They wanted purses to match their favorite color or their outfit. Some chose colors because it reminded them of other things. One student said “I have a bright green one that says I am fun and outgoing.” Another said, “I have a blue purse because I love the ocean.” Yet another said, “I change purses daily depending on my mood.”

Whether you have basic tastes in purses and carry only your essential belongings or if you prefer to make extravagant statements with your purse and carry everything possible, purses will always be a fun and easy way to express yourself.

Ernie and Mary Helen Sanders are current retailers of purses for the last 3 years. They spend numerous hours researching trends and styles for women. You can find the perfect purse for you at their website: www.igotyourbag.com