ghisler.com

Great little application primarly for FTP, but also great for copying across network drivers or locally.

WinDirStat

windirstat.info

Alongside of wondering where all the time went is wondering where all the space went on my hard drives. This little application shows what is taking up all the space and displays it all nice and pretty.

Johns Background Changer

johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher

I’m one of these people who needs things to change and change regularly otherwise I get bored. The fact that this program switches over your background wallpaper is nothing new, even Windows 7 has that standard now, it’s that it will pull in images from just about anywhere. Your local hard drives, Flickr, Facebook etc.

VLC

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/http://www.apple.com/safari/

The video player of video players, yet to find a video that it won’t play.

Chrome, Firefox and Safari

In order of preference, an alternative browser is not only for web dev stuff but Google Chrome is easily my default browser of choice.

Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome/

Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/

Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari/

WinRar

www.rarlab.com

Alternative for zipping files, the rar format kicks butt over zip! This program will handle both among others.

Speedfan

almico.com/speedfan.php

Heat is one of the biggest causes of PC damage and often contributes to poor performance, so running without Speedfan is like driving without a speedo. Gives you the temperature of your core components.

Sizer

brianapps.net/sizer

Resizes any window to set sizes, great for large screens. Right click on the max/min/close buttons and select a size.

IETester

www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

This one is just for the web dev, cross browser testing for multiple IE version.

Rainmeter

rainmeter.net/RainCMS/

The ultimate in desktop customising, I love this program. It doesn’t have much of a UI and to be honest I prefer to edit the ini files directly as it is intended, but it certainly makes your desktop look like a masterpiece.

I had been getting a couple of shots on the grid and once the cars started their warm up lap I quickly ran around the back of the pits and jumped up in the grandstand to get some shots of the start. Still had it in manual mode from the grid and just had a second to set my levels and the race started, initially shooting the leaders as they launched and then seconds later felt this huge hit of heat on the side of my face, looked to my right and this was the first shot I got off;

Just kept smashing the shutter button without even checking levels, they were slightly under exposed but I think that actually worked out better for most of them considering the light coming from the fire ball. You can see the twirl of air as the heat of the explosion headed upwards.

I didn’t see Steve get out of his car, but he got out first. Karl took some time getting out which left everyone holding their breath.

Crews from all over the place jumped the pit wall and started attacking the fire with any extinguishes they could get their hands on.

The fire itself was out pretty quick, first shot 10:39:24, last shot was 10:39:58.

Video here and the in-car shot;

V8 Fujitsu Development Series

V8 Utes

Full Set

V8 Supercars: http://randompics.com.au/nmd/portfolio/types/V8SC_2010_Townsville_Sat
V8 Fujitsu Series: http://randompics.com.au/nmd/portfolio/types/V8FS_2010_Townsville_Sat
V8 Utes: http://randompics.com.au/nmd/portfolio/types/V8utes_2010_Townsville_Sun

So only a few weeks after it had joined it’s new owners, we took it camping in the Barrington Top in NSW, where there just happened to be a mountain to climb.

I got this shot from the top, where funnily enough there is an old caravan that someone dragged up there.

I made sure I got the light levels right for the sky so that I could get in the sky and clouds and then after a bit of low level light adjustments and a bit of vignetting this is what we came out with.

Reminds me of that typical Top Gear style shot.

I love shooting this car!

The orange is so heavy on any contrasting colours and you can really push orange.

Of course the lower light meant running the ISO a little high and dropping to a fairly low shutter speed, really need a bigger lens!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norrgard/sets/72157623300000583/

http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5060682-5007150-13,00.html

And for the white balance, no colour correction here!!