part 4.

A few nice perfect female shape images I found:

Night fashion – Susan

Image by Fabiana Zonca
Carlo and I are organising a Workshop for next Saturday in London. It will be targeted to basic lighting and how to deal with models.
In Carlo’s first workshop, few months ago, he realised that he loves teaching, and that we have learned how to deal with lights and strobes pretty quickly. Shaping Lights will be the first of a series of different workshop we are going to hold in the coming months, but I do not want to spoil it any more.
Obviously we have learned a lot while preparing this one, some obvious and some more subtle. As we need to know that people are serious about commitments, we now reserve a place only after the payment of the small fee is done.
If you are interested in a Workshop, give us a shout, there are still some free slots

You know how to use a camera, but you feel that there is a barrier that you need to go through?
Do you look at your photos and see that there is "something" missing in comparison with the cover of Vogue?
Have you ever felt that the light is not exactly as you would like it to be in your frame?
Did you try to use your on-camera flash, without being remotely satisfied with the unflattering results?

If so you probably want to move your skills a little further and you might find a foundation course in lighting extremely useful!

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN FROM THIS WORKSHOP?
At the end of the "Shaping Lights" workshop you will be able to take your camera and use the light, available or through flashes, to take better photos. You will know how to move the flash away from your camera to give depth to your portraits, how to deal with models and how to set up the lights to obtain the portraits you want. While this workshop will cover primarily portraiture, you will be able to apply the same experience to every type of photography.
And it will be FUN!

WHAT DOES THE WORKSHOP COVER?
We believe that "Practice makes perfect", therefore we have structured our one day workshop in lighting foundation in two parts, one theoretical and one practical.
– Going Manual: how to control the camera 100%
– Light: understand flash
– Gears: how to make the most from the studio tools
– Gears-revisited: inexpensive tools to recreate studio lights
– People: how to light them
– People-revisited: how to deal with them
– Lights and Shadows: why both are important and how to use them
– Rules of Photography (and how to break them)

…if you want you can follow us on Twitter!

SceneTap – “facial detection” … Friday debut of SF bar-cams stirs sour reception (May 17, 2012) …item 4.. Dr. No – Original Trailer (1962) — SPECTRE …

Image by marsmet511
SceneTap is using facial detection software, which gathers 12 data points off an image, as opposed to facial recognition software, which grabs 36 data points, according to Nieman.

The data contains information related to facial characteristics and compares that to a data base of generic faces belonging to a wide range of anonymous people and looks for the closest match, he said.
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……..***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ……..
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… Image courtesy flickr.com/glennharper
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Quotes … Dr. No … www.mi6-hq.com … MI6 … The Home Of James Bond 007

— Quotes …

Waiter: One medium-dry vodka martini, mixed like you said, Sir, not stirred…
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— Quotes …

Dr. No: SPECTRE. Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Revenge and Extortion. The four great cornerstones of power, headed by the greatest brains in the world.

Bond: Correction, criminal brains.

Dr. No: The successful criminal brain is always superior. It has to be.

www.mi6-hq.com/sections/movies/dn_quotes.php3?t=mi6&s=dn
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… Dr. No (film) … From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia …

Upon waking they are escorted to dine with Dr. No. He reveals that he is a member of SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) and plans to disrupt the Project Mercury space launch from Cape Canaveral with his atomic-powered radio beam.

After dinner Honey is taken away and Bond is beaten by the guards.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._No_(film)
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…..item 1)…. CNET … news.cnet.com … CNET News Security & Privacy

Friday debut of SF bar-cams stirs sour reception
With a new service called SceneTap set to put video cameras in bars, privacy advocates warn that a red line’s about to get crossed.

by Elinor Mills May 17, 2012 9:29 AM PDT

news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57435903-83/friday-debut-of-sf-…

When San Francisco watering hole The Boardroom signed up last year to capture video at the bar and stream it live to the Web, manager Casey Gray liked the idea as a way to promote new business and remotely check in on what was going on.

So much for the best laid assumptions.

"At the time we didn’t have any security cameras here, so it provided a service to me. I could hop on the phone and see what the bar was doing," Gray said in a phone interview from The Boardroom, which straddles the city’s North Beach and Telegraph Hill neighborhoods. "I had 24-hour access, but the video might only show to the public for a few hours a day" on the Web. The service he was using was called BarSpace.

But after customers complained — including several male patrons who expressed concern that their girlfriends could check up on their activities via the video stream — The Boardroom turned off the camera after only a few months of operation.

"We stopped it because it was creepy and people didn’t like it," Gray said. "There was push back from a lot of different people."

In what must feel like a deja vu moment, Gray is letting another startup put video cameras in another bar called Tope, which he owns. Only this time there won’t be any streaming video of embarrassing or relationship-destroying bar room shenanigans.

Call it a sign of the times. Tope is one of about 20 bars launching a service called SceneTap in San Francisco on Friday. This may just be the start. SceneTap could conceivably prove useful for a variety of retail companies, providing data on when customers shop in stores, what items they browse, and other in-store behaviors and patterns. But it also raises expected hackles of privacy watchdogs who worry the data could be combined with a person’s online footprint to do what even Google can’t do right now — match your Internet activities with your offline world. (Oh wait, they could do that by using SceneTap in Google Street View cars!)

—–I left my personal data in San Francisco

SceneTap’s devices, located near the front entrance, keep track of the number of people who enter and exit a venue and use facial detection software on video feeds to figure out what gender and age customers appear to be. It provides that traffic and demographic information to bar owners who can design marketing and other promotions to target specific audiences, while users of the SceneTap app can see which bars in their area are "hopping."

That seems to be a far cry from sending live video to the Internet like the BarSpace service did, yet SceneTap has hit a a nerve in San Francisco, touching off a frenzy of criticism on blogs and social media sites.

"The people here care about our bars and clubs, we care about each other, and we take our privacy seriously around here," writes Violet Blue, a blogger at CNET sister site ZDNet. "We also know a lot about tech, so a startup that rolls in to carpetbag an invasive app space into clubbing is — in most ways — doomed to fail. There isn’t much SceneTap could have done to smooth over the idea of putting cameras into bars — in this city, anyway."

Managers of several bars in Chicago and Madison, Wis., where SceneTap has already launched, told CNET that they had not received any privacy complaints regarding the video cameras’ presence in the bars. The service is also operating in Austin, Athens, Ga., Bloomington, Ind., and Gainesville, Fla., according to the company’s Web site.

If SceneTap is getting this much heat before its San Francisco launch, how did BarSpace fare? Its domain is up for sale and the app is nowhere to be found.

BarSpace co-founder Michael Deignan told CNET that he and the other founders moved on to other ventures and shut down the service earlier this year. It had launched in 2009. "Up until we turned it off we had great traffic and a lot of customers," he said. "It made more sense to go over to a new company while it is hot and get it started. It’s a resource issue."

Asked if there had been privacy complaints or lawsuits filed over the streaming video, Deignan said:
"There were no lawsuits and no complaints. If there were, it’s nothing I heard about."

In fact, the startup got a spike in business following reports in The East Bay Express and the San Francisco Weekly last July that BarSpace was streaming from nearly 50 bars, he said. "It wasn’t anything like the shit storm SceneTap is dealing with."

Even though live video is perceived as more invasive, BarSpace’s video was taken of the whole room and not close up, and it was grainy with faces were blurred out, according to Deignan. Whereas, SceneTap appears to be doing data mining, he said, adding "Have you seen ‘Minority Report?’"

Related stories

…SceneTap: On-site cameras find happening bars
…Face-matching with Facebook profiles: How it was done
…Facebook facial recognition prompts EU privacy probe
…Police tapping iPhone for facial recognition

Andrew Nieman, director of business development at SceneTap, assured CNET that SceneTap is neither a reincarnation of BarSpace, nor a scene out of a scary sci-fi movie.

"We are not a check-in aggregator. We don’t show you what people are doing there. It’s a snapshot of data. It’s like getting a text message from a friend" who is in a bar describing the scene, he said. "We don’t record anything. We don’t want to have the liability of having anything recorded and it would be expensive to store all the feeds in the cloud…Our system offers a lot more anonymity."

SceneTap is using facial detection software, which gathers 12 data points off an image, as opposed to facial recognition software, which grabs 36 data points, according to Nieman. The data contains information related to facial characteristics and compares that to a data base of generic faces belonging to a wide range of anonymous people and looks for the closest match, he said.

Just because SceneTap isn’t doing more advanced facial recognition, which is used to identify specific faces, and doesn’t store the data or stream it live now, does not mean it doesn’t have the ability to add those capabilities or won’t at some time in the future. Did anyone ever think Google circa 1999 would be so much more than just a search engine?

"I don’t see us needing to go to that level or wanting to," Nieman said. When pressed later for additional comment on criticisms that the company’s spectre could evolve, he provided this statement: "SceneTap has no intention to use any type of facial recognition technology. If facial recognition, not to be confused with facial detection, becomes mainstream in the future and widely used commercially across an array of industries, we will assess the situation at that point."

—–Smile for the camera

A big privacy concern with facial recognition is that it will be matched up with data in the cloud and thus identify you, and in many cases out you, depending on where you are or what you’re doing.
"Even if they are warned, it’s a bar. People’s expectations of privacy in a place like that are" high, said Sarah Downey, online privacy analyst at online privacy firm Abine.

Many bars have security cameras installed, and no one seems to mind those. But, so far, their use has been as a deterrent or to rewind for crime investigations. "This is not security," said Downey, who created a rundown on facial recognition technology. "This is people watching."
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img code photo … John Colins in San Francisco

asset3.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/05/17/Screen_sho…

John Colins is one of about 20 bars in San Francisco planning to go live with the SceneTap video camera-based service that has prompted privacy concerns.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

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In the rush to create innovative mobile apps and services, developers are failing to adequately understand the difference between activities and spaces that are public versus those that appear to be public but are considered private in context, said Jules Polonetsky, director of The Future of Privacy Forum. "We expect to be able to be obscure in public. We get that we are in a crowd, but we still don’t believe that everyone of us is such a celebrity that whenever we step out of the house it’s fair game for the app developer to use the data," he said. "Folks are trying to figure out what the lines are and it’s not clear. That’s why we see app developers pushing the envelope and causing a backlash."

The brouhaha over the privacy implications with SceneTap is causing at least one San Francisco bar owner to reconsider the decision to use the service.

"I’m almost about to yank the whole thing," said Colin O’Malley, owner of John Colins in the city’s South of Market district. "I didn’t think it was that big of a deal."

His plan has been to give it a shot for the three-month free trial and see if he’s really getting enough valuable information about customer demographics. But not if customers complain.

"If it’s too invasive for people, hey, I’m a man of the people and we’ll yank it out," he said. "If it starts to affect my business, it’s not worth it."

Topics:Privacy and data protection Tags:SceneTap, bars, privacy, BarSpace Elinor Mills

Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press.
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…..item 2)…. www.sync-blog.com … Home > Sync > Blog > Tech Trends > Mobile Apps

July 5, 2011 at 7:00 am
New app tracks male-to-female ratio at bars and clubs using “facial detection”

By Phil Tucker

www.sync-blog.com/sync/2011/07/new-app-tracks-male-to-fem…

SceneTap’s new location-based app tracks attendance, gender and more at bars and clubs in real-time.
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img code photo … “facial detection”

www.sync-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SceneTap_Fac…

Image courtesy flickr.com/glennharper

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Heading out for a night on the town? Chicago based startup SceneTap is looking to streamline the process of finding the perfect hotspot. Using “facial detection” software SceneTap tracks which bars and clubs have the most patrons and — more importantly — which have a favourable male-to-female ratio. Launching this month, SceneTap’s iOS and Android apps will provide users with real-time snapshot of what the demographics are at participating locations on any given night.

SceneTap will initially cover 50 bars in popular neighborhoods of Chicago, each of which will have a system installed with the ability to detect the number of patrons, their gender, age and more. This is accomplished using software which can detect human faces in video; many point-and-shoot digital cameras use similar algorithms in order to focus properly. Faces are then compared against a database in an attempt to determine the sex and age of the subject; are you a 25-year-old female? All of this valuable data is then combined and further analyzed to provide information such as the male-to-female ratio, the average age of patrons, who’s buying drinks and which bartender they prefer.

“This is going to change the way the bar industry runs” -Cole Harper, CEO, SceneTap

Even though it’s arriving hot on the heels of Facebook’s implementation of facial recognition, there’s a major difference between Facebook’s and SceneTap’s technology — SceneTap is anonymous. According to the company, there is no attempt to identify individuals (an activity known as “facial recognition”), but rather to discern gender, age and location within the establishment. These types of algorithms are referred to as “facial detection”, a subtle difference — but an important one. The distinction between these two terms revolves around identity; everything else about an individual is fair game as far as SceneTap is concerned.

For users the app is free; the company plans to make the bulk of its money via advertising and Groupon-like coupons. SceneTap will launch in Chicago in the middle of July and have partners in select cities across the U.S. shortly thereafter including New York, Boston, Miami, Austin, Columbus, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Diego and Las Vegas.

Slippery slopes and privacy concerns aside, I have to agree with the CEO — this is going to change the way the bar industry runs. The data this type of system could provide is unheard of in the industry. Aside from what’s already been mentioned, the potential is staggering — how many patrons left during a specific song? Or right after a particular promotion expired? How many patrons are dancing versus lounging? Are opposite sexes mingling? Are same sexes mingling? From an owner’s perspective adding a system like this seems like a no-brainer. For patrons there’s a new dilemma, do you head to the place where SceneTap says there’s a great gal-to-guy (or guy-to-gal) ratio or the opposite because everyone else is listening to SceneTap?

Do you think this use of facial detection will be beneficial or harmful to the public?

[Source: SceneTap, via Sync]
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…..item 3)…. Masable Business … mashable.com … Startup Helps You Scope Out The Scene By Putting Cameras In Bars

June 10, 2011 by Sarah Kessler

mashable.com/2011/06/10/scenetap/

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

—Name: SceneTap

—Quick Pitch: SceneTap tells you how crowded a bar is and what its gender ratio is in real time.

—Genius Idea: Relying on cameras instead of a checkin service to collect anonymous real-time data about a bar.
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img code photo … the scene

9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/the_scene.jpg

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Whether you’re looking for a bar where conversation is possible or the loudest, most crowded bar in the city, it’s hard to tell where to find it. SceneTap wants to simplify this process by incorporating a live count of how many people are in a bar, the range of their ages, and their gender ratio into an iPhone app.

Instead of relying on a checkin service that might give clues as to how crowded a bar is, what SceneTap CEO Cole Harper has in mind is an accurate tally of patrons — whether or not they use a particular service. He says about 50 bars have already agreed to install cameras at their doors that can identify the gender and approximate age of patrons as they enter.

When the cameras go live sometime next month, SceneTap users will be able to get a glimpse of what the current scene at those bars is like based on that data. They’ll also be able to chat with the bar and other SceneTap users (i.e. “Are there any tables available?”), see specials and purchase Groupon-like deals using the apps.

Harper hopes bars will pay to participate in exchange for detailed analytic information about their customer bases and a social, location-based marketing tool.
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img code photo … Male Female … Customers Entered

7.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SceneTap_1.jpg

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But there are two obvious and somewhat opposing risks in opting in: that the technology will creep people out and that it won’t be accurate enough to attract consumers.

“It’s less intrusive than scanning IDs,” Harper says about the former concern. “No personal data is obtained and nothing is recorded.”

The technology only notes a person’s gender and approximate age, he says. Some display advertising already uses a similar technology to record impressions, and you could argue that more data is collected about you during a Google search.

In order to understand what kind of person is entering a bar, SceneTap’s technology matches a person’s image with a database of faces to determine relative age. If the person matches a photo of someone in the database who is 27, for instance, that’s the age the camera will assign him or her.

To what degree of accuracy this method can label people — is a 23-year-old’s face shape much different than a 37-year-old’s face shape? — is something we’ll be able to test when the service actually goes live. For now, it’s just an interesting idea to consider as you start planning your Friday night.

Would you find a service like this useful for making plans? Are you bothered by the idea of a camera tallying your anonymous entrance to a bar? Let us know in the comments below.

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S. million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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…..item 4)…. youtube video … Dr No – Original Trailer … 3:30 minutes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=myoVLMnKw2M

Uploaded by ChocolateFrogPrince on Apr 4, 2008

The first of the James bond films, and most famous for that exit from the sea of Ursula Andress.

Category:
Film & Animation

License:
Standard YouTube License
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Night fashion – Rachael and Susan

Image by Fabiana Zonca
Carlo and I are organising a Workshop for next Saturday in London. It will be targeted to basic lighting and how to deal with models.
In Carlo’s first workshop, few months ago, he realised that he loves teaching, and that we have learned how to deal with lights and strobes pretty quickly. Shaping Lights will be the first of a series of different workshop we are going to hold in the coming months, but I do not want to spoil it any more.
Obviously we have learned a lot while preparing this one, some obvious and some more subtle. As we need to know that people are serious about commitments, we now reserve a place only after the payment of the small fee is done.
If you are interested in a Workshop, give us a shout, there are still some free slots

You know how to use a camera, but you feel that there is a barrier that you need to go through?
Do you look at your photos and see that there is "something" missing in comparison with the cover of Vogue?
Have you ever felt that the light is not exactly as you would like it to be in your frame?
Did you try to use your on-camera flash, without being remotely satisfied with the unflattering results?

If so you probably want to move your skills a little further and you might find a foundation course in lighting extremely useful!

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN FROM THIS WORKSHOP?
At the end of the "Shaping Lights" workshop you will be able to take your camera and use the light, available or through flashes, to take better photos. You will know how to move the flash away from your camera to give depth to your portraits, how to deal with models and how to set up the lights to obtain the portraits you want. While this workshop will cover primarily portraiture, you will be able to apply the same experience to every type of photography.
And it will be FUN!

WHAT DOES THE WORKSHOP COVER?
We believe that "Practice makes perfect", therefore we have structured our one day workshop in lighting foundation in two parts, one theoretical and one practical.
– Going Manual: how to control the camera 100%
– Light: understand flash
– Gears: how to make the most from the studio tools
– Gears-revisited: inexpensive tools to recreate studio lights
– People: how to light them
– People-revisited: how to deal with them
– Lights and Shadows: why both are important and how to use them
– Rules of Photography (and how to break them)

…if you want you can follow us on Twitter!

Philips HP6376/10 Philips Bikini Perfect, Opal/Aqua

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Trim, shape, or remove the hair down there with this fun, fabulous bikini trimmer. philips bikini perfect is a girl’s-best-friend grooming system with super-precise tools that makes it easy to give yourself a flawless bikini line with three precision attachments and up to 60 minutes of cordless creativity on one charge, you’re always bikini perfect.Trim, shape, or remove the hair down there with this fun, fabulous bikini trimmer. Philips Bikini Perfect is a girl’s-best-friend grooming system

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Some cool perfect female shape images:

The Making of Harry Potter 29-05-2012

Image by Karen Roe
Gryffindor Boys Dormitory
Up the spiral staircase from the common room, the Gryffindor boys dormitory was Harry and Ron’s escape from the stress of school and adventure.
This set was built in 2000 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The small, circular shape of the room was the designer’s way of creating a space in which Harry would finally feel at home.
Set decorator Stephanie McMillan used this Godin stove, from France, whilst working on the film Chocolat in 2000 and brought it back with her for the Harry Potter series.
As the boys grew up, the set decorators personalised the bedside tables in the dormitory; for example, they put posters and pennants of Ron’s favourite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons, up near his bed.
Although the cast quickly outgrew the dormitory, they stayed the same size in the later films. The boys legs hung off the ends of the 5′ 9” long beds, although due to the position of the camera, this wasn’t seen on-screen.
Set decorator Stephanie McMillan had planned to print an astrological pattern on fabric for the bed curtains. However, whilst walking through London she spotted the perfect fabric in a shop window.

People the world-over have been enchanted by the Harry Potter films for nearly a decade. The wonderful special effects and amazing creatures have made this iconic series beloved to both young and old – and now, for the first time, the doors are going to be opened for everyone at the studio where it first began. You’ll have the chance to go behind-the-scenes and see many things the camera never showed. From breathtakingly detailed sets to stunning costumes, props and animatronics, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides a unique showcase of the extraordinary British artistry, technology and talent that went into making the most successful film series of all time. Secrets will be revealed.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides an amazing new opportunity to explore the magic of the Harry Potter films – the most successful film series of all time. This unique walking tour takes you behind-the-scenes and showcases a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes and props. It also reveals some closely guarded secrets, including facts about the special effects and animatronics that made these films so hugely popular all over the world.

Here are just some of the things you can expect to see and do:
– Step inside and discover the actual Great Hall.
– Explore Dumbledore’s office and discover never-before-seen treasures.
– Step onto the famous cobbles of Diagon Alley, featuring the shop fronts of Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts, the Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and Eeylops Owl Emporium.
– See iconic props from the films, including Harry’s Nimbus 2000 and Hagrid’s motorcycle.
– Learn how creatures were brought to life with green screen effects, animatronics and life-sized models.
– Rediscover other memorable sets from the film series, including the Gryffindor common room, the boys’ dormitory, Hagrid’s hut, Potion’s classroom and Professor Umbridge’s office at the Ministry of Magic.

Located just 20 miles from the heart of London at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the very place where it all began and where all eight of the Harry Potter films were brought to life. The Studio Tour is accessible to everyone and promises to be a truly memorable experience – whether you’re an avid Harry Potter fan, an all-round movie buff or you just want to try something that’s a little bit different.

The tour is estimated to take approximately three hours (I was in there for 5 hours!), however, as the tour is mostly self guided, you are free to explore the attraction at your own pace. During this time you will be able to see many of the best-loved sets and exhibits from the films. Unique and precious items from the films will also be on display, alongside some exciting hands-on interactive exhibits that will make you feel like you’re actually there.

The magic also continues in the Gift Shop, which is full of exciting souvenirs and official merchandise, designed to create an everlasting memory of your day at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.

Hogwarts Castle Model – Get a 360 degree view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction that features within the Studio Tour. The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel of the Art Department having been built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.

The model, which sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films. To show off the lighting to full effect a day-to-night cycle will take place every four minutes so you can experience its full beauty.

An amazing amount of detail went into the making of the model: all the doors are hinged, real plants are used for landscaping and miniature birds are housed in the Owlery. To make the model appear even more realistic, artists rebuilt miniature versions of the courtyards from Alnwick Castle and Durham Cathedral, where scenes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone were shot.

The Making of Harry Potter 29-05-2012

Image by Karen Roe
Gryffindor Boys Dormitory
Up the spiral staircase from the common room, the Gryffindor boys dormitory was Harry and Ron’s escape from the stress of school and adventure.
This set was built in 2000 for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The small, circular shape of the room was the designer’s way of creating a space in which Harry would finally feel at home.
Set decorator Stephanie McMillan used this Godin stove, from France, whilst working on the film Chocolat in 2000 and brought it back with her for the Harry Potter series.
As the boys grew up, the set decorators personalised the bedside tables in the dormitory; for example, they put posters and pennants of Ron’s favourite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons, up near his bed.
Although the cast quickly outgrew the dormitory, they stayed the same size in the later films. The boys legs hung off the ends of the 5′ 9” long beds, although due to the position of the camera, this wasn’t seen on-screen.
Set decorator Stephanie McMillan had planned to print an astrological pattern on fabric for the bed curtains. However, whilst walking through London she spotted the perfect fabric in a shop window.

People the world-over have been enchanted by the Harry Potter films for nearly a decade. The wonderful special effects and amazing creatures have made this iconic series beloved to both young and old – and now, for the first time, the doors are going to be opened for everyone at the studio where it first began. You’ll have the chance to go behind-the-scenes and see many things the camera never showed. From breathtakingly detailed sets to stunning costumes, props and animatronics, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides a unique showcase of the extraordinary British artistry, technology and talent that went into making the most successful film series of all time. Secrets will be revealed.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London provides an amazing new opportunity to explore the magic of the Harry Potter films – the most successful film series of all time. This unique walking tour takes you behind-the-scenes and showcases a huge array of beautiful sets, costumes and props. It also reveals some closely guarded secrets, including facts about the special effects and animatronics that made these films so hugely popular all over the world.

Here are just some of the things you can expect to see and do:
– Step inside and discover the actual Great Hall.
– Explore Dumbledore’s office and discover never-before-seen treasures.
– Step onto the famous cobbles of Diagon Alley, featuring the shop fronts of Ollivanders wand shop, Flourish and Blotts, the Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, Gringotts Wizarding Bank and Eeylops Owl Emporium.
– See iconic props from the films, including Harry’s Nimbus 2000 and Hagrid’s motorcycle.
– Learn how creatures were brought to life with green screen effects, animatronics and life-sized models.
– Rediscover other memorable sets from the film series, including the Gryffindor common room, the boys’ dormitory, Hagrid’s hut, Potion’s classroom and Professor Umbridge’s office at the Ministry of Magic.

Located just 20 miles from the heart of London at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the very place where it all began and where all eight of the Harry Potter films were brought to life. The Studio Tour is accessible to everyone and promises to be a truly memorable experience – whether you’re an avid Harry Potter fan, an all-round movie buff or you just want to try something that’s a little bit different.

The tour is estimated to take approximately three hours (I was in there for 5 hours!), however, as the tour is mostly self guided, you are free to explore the attraction at your own pace. During this time you will be able to see many of the best-loved sets and exhibits from the films. Unique and precious items from the films will also be on display, alongside some exciting hands-on interactive exhibits that will make you feel like you’re actually there.

The magic also continues in the Gift Shop, which is full of exciting souvenirs and official merchandise, designed to create an everlasting memory of your day at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London.

Hogwarts Castle Model – Get a 360 degree view of the incredible, hand sculpted 1:24 scale construction that features within the Studio Tour. The Hogwarts castle model is the jewel of the Art Department having been built for the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It took 86 artists and crew members to construct the first version which was then rebuilt and altered many times over for the next seven films. The work was so extensive that if one was to add all the man hours that have gone into building and reworking the model, it would come to over 74 years. The model was used for aerial photography, and was digitally scanned for CGI scenes.

The model, which sits at nearly 50 feet in diameter, has over 2,500 fibre optic lights that simulate lanterns and torches and even gave the illusion of students passing through hallways in the films. To show off the lighting to full effect a day-to-night cycle will take place every four minutes so you can experience its full beauty.

An amazing amount of detail went into the making of the model: all the doors are hinged, real plants are used for landscaping and miniature birds are housed in the Owlery. To make the model appear even more realistic, artists rebuilt miniature versions of the courtyards from Alnwick Castle and Durham Cathedral, where scenes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone were shot.

Vagina-like Tree

Image by GetHiroshima
On a hike on Oahu on Tantalus I saw some amazing trees and this one seems perfect in honor of V-day

Adonis Golden Ratio Program: http://tinyurl.com/Best-Adonis-Golden-Ratio-Systems click the link to learn what the Adonis Golden ratio is and how it naturally…