#I know the photos are very grainy but I was using my iphone so give me some slack >:) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

destinygomezz-blog · 4 years

Text

D7 - Art Experience - Remix Culture

The freedom & fear, the empowerment & risks, of Internet Culture: We have a lot of freedom when it comes to using the internet. For my remix, I gathered photos of some of my favorite artists/singers and put them together into one photo. It was surprising how easy it was to do. I realized that anybody can do whatever they want with any photo, especially by using photo editing apps or programs. This lead me to think about all the risks that can happen when people have such easy access to your photos online. People can easily photoshop and use your photos with bad intentions. I remember seeing screenshots across social media of tweets from celebrities that were fake but edited to look real, as if the celebrity actually tweeted what the photos said. Situations like these can be very bad for the celebrities involved because it can give them a bad reputation. The freedom we have on the internet can be cool, but scary sometimes. On a brighter note, our freedom on the internet can be a great way to express ourselves and our artistic traits. I listen to these artists pretty often, so putting together a picture combining them was fun and satisfying to see after I finished the final product. I think this was probably one of my favorite activities to do this semester.

Your thoughts about Copyright- is it working as is? Should it be strengthened, weakened, or modified?: I believe copyright can be strengthened a bit more only because I know if I was a celebrity, I wouldn’t want people editing or using my photos with bad intentions whatsoever. It has become too easy to access anyone’s personal information online which can be dangerous, knowing that many people are tech-savvy nowadays. However, it makes me feel better that if in the case anything bad were to happen with your personal information online, you can simply report it online or in more serious cases, take it to court and resolve it there.

What license you’ve chosen for your work and why: For my license, I went with Public Domain because I wouldn’t mind other individuals who like the same artists I do adding onto it or modifying it.

Your experience of making your Remix piece. How did you do it? Did it come out as you expected? Were there surprises? Challenges? Insights?: For my remix piece, I simply put together different pictures of my favorite singers and made it look like they all took a photo together! I used photos of Jhene Aiko, Ari Lennox, 6lack, and Alina Baraz. Their music falls under the R&B genre and in my opinion, they all have beautiful yet unique voices. I used two apps on my iPhone including “Eraser” and “PicsArt”. I used “Eraser” to erase the backgrounds and only show the singer, almost like creating a sticker of them. I then went on the app “PicsArt” and there I was able to combine each of the stickers I made of the singers and put them all next to each other. I also added a grain filter for fun, and to make it look a bit more realistic as if they actually took the photo together! I didn’t think it would come out as good, but I think I did a good job at erasing and making them into “stickers”. It was a bit challenging because some photos were a bit darker than the others or some just had completely different lighting (like the very last photo of Alina Baraz). Therefore, I had to change the brightness and contrast of her photo in particular. Other than that, it was pretty simple to do and I think it came out great... I think the grainy filter added a nice touch, too!

0 notes

latestnews2018-blog · 6 years

Text

'Looking' Made Raúl Castillo A Sex Symbol. Sheer Force Made Him A Star.

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/looking-made-raul-castillo-a-sex-symbol-sheer-force-made-him-a-star/

'Looking' Made Raúl Castillo A Sex Symbol. Sheer Force Made Him A Star.

In New York, in the middle of July, if the fickle subway system allows it, you’d be wise to arrive at a destination 10 minutes early. You’ll need that time to let the sweat evaporate, to stamp out the damp spots that have betrayed your outfit.

Raúl Castillo forfeited his chance to cool down before shaking my hand at a Manhattan hotel restaurant on a sweltering Thursday morning. I didn’t mind. It was an honest mistake.

The “Looking” star was running slightly late and looking slightly frazzled when he bounded toward our table. He’d confused this hotel for another within walking distance where, the previous night, Castillo had attended a screening of the new Alexander McQueen documentary with his girlfriend, the costume designer Alexis Forte, who has the late fashion maverick’s biography at their Brooklyn apartment.

It’s cute to see celebrities frayed, even ones who are still building their marquee value. Castillo is the type who hasn’t yet abandoned public transportation when navigating the city, even though it’s becoming harder to do so without attracting strangers’ gazes. While trekking home from the “McQueen” event, a Latina teenager tapped him to say she loved “Atypical,” the Netflix series in which Castillo played a charismatic bartender sleeping with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s married character. The teenager’s mother loved “Seven Seconds,” the Netflix series in which Castillo played a narcotics detective tending to a racially charged investigation.

Raúl Castillo: a guy you can bring home to Mom, punctual or otherwise.

Eric Ogden for HuffPost

Photo shoot produced by Christy Havranek; Grooming by Claudia Lake; Clothing courtesy of Theory

It’s his voice that people recognize, the 40-year-old actor said, a modest notion considering his breakthrough role as the sensitive barber Richie on “Looking” made Castillo a veritable heartthrob, despite the HBO show’s modest ratings. But it’s true that his warm baritone gravel is a distinguishing trait. Earlier this year, when I saw “Unsane,” Steven Soderbergh’s scrappy iPhone thriller set inside a mental institution, I recognized Castillo’s intonation before his face appeared onscreen.

That’s a significant feat. Castillo mumbled so much as an adolescent that a teacher recommended he see a speech therapist. He refused, instead reminding himself to enunciate or else using the impediment as a defense mechanism. “I have all these things wrong with my voice,” Castillo said, though few today would agree.

Castillo’s cadence may be growing familiar, but fame hardly seems like his long game. This is, after all, a guy who studied playwriting ― hardly the creative pursuit that commands the brightest spotlight ― at Boston University, after which he paid about $300 a month to live in a garage in Austin and perform local Chicano theater. “We the Animals,” a Sundance indie opening this weekend, marks the first time Castillo is the one generating a project’s star power. He portrays the father of three tight-knit boys storming through a wooded town in upstate New York. The movie, adapted from Justin Torres’ autobiographical novel of the same name, combines elements of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Moonlight” to capture a domestic home life that’s equal parts tender and volatile, where abuse and affection are equally common.

Castillo’s enthusiasm about “We the Animals,” and about the possibly of again working with its director, Jeremiah Zagar (“Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart”), speaks to his ambivalence toward the celebrity ecosystem.

“He could be like Tom Cruise without the child slavery,” Zagar said, roasting the “Mission: Impossible” moneymaker’s Scientology association (and its alleged history of forced manual labor). “Raúl’s that kind of a dude. He’s a perfect-looking dude, and yet he’s incredibly real and honest and true. There’s never a false note. He’s also incredibly collaborative. As a director, that’s a wonderful thing. I didn’t know what I was doing, really, because I had never directed a narrative before, and Raúl had a way of making me feel comfortable and confident in my own beliefs and my own material. He’s so seasoned and so clear about what he needs to do to make a scene work and a character work and to elevate other people around him.”

Eric Ogden for HuffPost

It’s a small movie with grainy aesthetics and an impressionistic lyricism ― in no way the kind of thing that will make a killing at the box office. For someone who first fell in love with theater by discovering the plays of Puerto Rican and Mexican writers like Miguel Piñero and Luis Valdez in his high school library, playing the complicated patriarch of a mixed-race family feels like a destiny fulfilled. (Sheila Vand, star of the Iranian horror gem “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” plays Castillo’s wife.) At this point, opportunities to extend his commercial footprint ― guest spots as a cannibal on “Gotham” and a music teacher on “Riverdale,” for example ― will find Castillo one way or another.

“I’ve always felt that I was never cookie-cutter,” he said. “For as much as I tried to fit my square peg into round holes, constantly, my whole career, I could never do it. Whenever I read ‘We the Animals,’ I didn’t think I would be cast in that film. […] I felt viewed more as a Richie. People think I tend to find those roles easier than I do a role like this, ’cause it’s harsh. I knew that I could do it. I’m so grateful for both Jeremiah and Justin, who did see that in me.”

Born in McAllen, Texas, a midsize agricultural town that sits on the Mexican border, Castillo’s triumphs were born out of people believing in him at the exact right moments. He belongs to a first-generation immigrant family, even if home was a mere 10 miles down the road. Castillo didn’t feel othered, but his dual identity instilled a sort of anti-establishment fluster.

“I just saw a lot of bullshit in the structures that were established for me,” he said. “I found a lot of hypocrisies. People valued money, and I think when I was very young, I valued money and I didn’t have it. I think I hated myself for it.”

Slowly shedding the Catholic mysticism that once awed him, he took up bass and played in punk bands. When his friend Tanya Saracho, who would go on to write for “Looking” and “How to Get Away with Murder,” likened his GPA to a lifeline out of McAllen, Castillo decided to care about school. But in Boston, he was suddenly the minority. His “bad attitude” kept him out of second-year acting courses, until mentorship from a professor of color let Castillo understand that he shouldn’t punish himself for being subjected to an overwhelmingly white institution. And when he moved to New York in 2002, his pal Mando Alvarado, now a writer for “Greenleaf” and “Vida” (on which Castillo will soon appear), posited presentation as a mark of self-worth; if he didn’t put care into his résumé and headshot, why should anyone put care into hiring him?

Eric Ogden for HuffPost

Of course, when success takes years to manifest, it’s easy to forget the lessons you’ve learned. Living with four or five roommates at once, Castillo worked his way into the Labyrinth Theater Company, an experimental off-Broadway troupe founded by Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz. He still wanted to be a writer ― in high school, Castillo only ever acted to impress girls anyway ― but in 2006 he found himself starring in a Labyrinth production of “School of the Americas,” a play by “Motorcycle Diaries” scribe José Rivera. The acting bug stuck. In 2009, his play “Knives and Other Sharp Objects,” a multigenerational drama about class in Texas, opened off-Broadway, earning a mixed review from The New York Times.

Still, nothing quite lasted. The business side of things was grueling, and his coffee-shop gigs were getting old, even if he did count Lili Taylor and RuPaul as customers. An agent sent him on auditions for “huge” Hollywood movies ― which ones, Castillo wouldn’t say ― but dropped him after none proved fruitful. He was ready to give up altogether when “Looking” came around. Castillo had starred in the short film that became a prototype for the series. Its director, Michael Lannan, called him to audition for Richie (the character he’d initially played) and Augustin (a more prominent Latino character who worked as an artist’s assistant). He didn’t land either role, even though he’d originated one of them.

But by the time “Looking” was a week away from shooting, a Richie still hadn’t been cast. The producers called Castillo to read for Andrew Haigh, the gifted English director who shepherded the half-hour dramedy. Haigh had seen Castillo in an indie mystery called “Cold Weather” that gave him “street cred.” Crashing on John Ortiz’s couch in Hell’s Kitchen, wondering what else he could do with his life, Castillo was at a bar one night when he received an email with a contract attached. He had no representation to negotiate his salary, but it didn’t matter: After living check to check, he was on HBO.

“I was like, ‘Yes. Take my soul. I don’t care. Pay me. I need money,’” Castillo recalled. “I needed not just a paycheck but the affirmation. I needed something artistically that I could sink my teeth into that had value to it. Something that was substantial. Something that had a real point of view. I needed a character that gave me a platform to do what I do in a really great scale in the best way possible. And it ended up being that. That show was such a great gift to me.”

All of Castillo’s ensuing fortune can be linked to “Looking.” It made him a sex symbol, a love interest, a fan favorite, a rising star whose claim to fame meant a great deal to anyone hungry for frank depictions of queer intimacy. Richie was the good-natured, self-righteous ideal ― a perfect counterpoint for Patrick (Jonathan Groff), the series’ unsettled protagonist. It became gay viewers’ great disappointment when they learned that Castillo, their anointed hunk, was in fact straight.

“His inability to be fake as a person translates directly into his acting,” Groff said. “There is nothing extraneous or false about Raúl, and he brought a grounded, honest integrity to the character that absolutely no one else could have. He’s also just innately magic on screen and has that ‘it’ factor.”

Eric Ogden for HuffPost

Perhaps it was Castillo’s dual identity as a Mexican-American that helped him shine as a gay, blue-collar Californian who was sure of himself despite being rejected by his family. It’s certainly what lets him shine as the cash-strapped paterfamilias, caught between unremitting love for his kin and an inescapable pattern of violence, in “We the Animals.” This dyad comes at time when Castillo sees his identity splashed across the evening news.

McAllen houses the U.S. Border Patrol’s busiest hub for detaining immigrants suspected of entering the country illegally. While Castillo was vacationing in Europe and playing make-believe on sets, children were being ripped from their parents’ arms in his hometown.

“I would always have to explain where McAllen was, and now it’s this name you’re seeing constantly in the news for all these reasons that represent, for me, everything that’s wrong with this country,” Castillo said. “It was paralyzing. I was sitting in a beach in Europe, wondering why I deserved to be there. My parents had access to this country in ways that people who are coming from longer distances don’t. We had the great gift of citizenship, which is an incredible privilege. But my parents were immigrants, and they navigated that dynamic our entire lives. I saw my mom and my dad deal with all the insecurities and all the precarious nature of what being an immigrant in this country is. […] Having grown up going back and forth across the border throughout my whole life, it’s disheartening and upsetting to see what’s happening. And then to think about this particular movie that deals with children, who are especially in that age when their minds are being formed and their view of the world is taking shape, to think about [the ones] locked in cages is enraging.”

Castillo may be miles from that crisis now, but he’s done more to better the world for brown people than he can know. His goal hasn’t been to diversity Hollywood roles written for white ensembles; it’s been to find work that naturally accentuates the grooves of his Latino heritage. He saw almost no Chicano role models in popular culture growing up, and now he is writing and starring in artistic endeavors that paint all shades of the human experience ― gay, poor, brown, cannibalistic, whatever ― with a dynamic brush.

Eric Ogden for HuffPost

Which isn’t to say everything’s gotten easy. He was slated to play the lead in “Mix Tape” (a musical drama set in Los Angeles) and appear on “One Day at a Time” (the Norman Lear reboot), but has since exited both series and would rather not disclose why. I got the sense, during our two-hour breakfast, that Castillo is still protective of how he is perceived. Maybe he always will be. He’s comfortable reflecting on his upbringing and his relationship with race ― concepts he’s spent his whole life processing ― but being candid about recent setbacks, as routinely asked of celebrities in interviews, does not yet come easy.

It’s the “ego business bullshit” that still eats at him. It’s what eats at most of us. But when someone makes a name for himself, that burden slowly fades to the periphery, replaced by a newfound comfort, even power. The man who once served RuPaul coffee now shares an agent with the drag dignitary.

“For so long, it was all feast or famine,” Castillo said. “I just took work when I could take it. And at this point, I’m in a new place where I want to be more thoughtful about the roles that I take on from here on out. The projects, the roles, the people. I’ve learned so much in the journey that now I want to apply all that and also honor my experience, because at this point I want to work with people who challenge me in all the right ways and push me to become a better actor and a better artist.”

Photography by Eric Ogden. Photo shoot produced by Christy Havranek. Grooming by Claudia Lake. Clothing courtesy of Theory.

0 notes

mikebrackett · 6 years

Text

Virtual Tours: Are They Worth It?

Everything is going online, and so are your potential buyers. Virtual tours are a convenient way for real estate shoppers to see the houses they’re interested in from the comfort of their living room couches, meaning they can spend less time physically going from house to house and can pre-screen any houses that fit their criteria, so they’re only visiting houses they’re truly interested in.

For a real estate agent, this is good news and bad news. The upside of this is that you’ll likely be showing your homes to clients who are seriously considering them, saving everyone valuable time. The downside, however, is that if your listings don’t have a great online presence, you’ll be missing out on a big chunk of potential buyers, as 51% of buyers now find their home online.

This means your success with selling homes will often be tied to how good a home’s online profile is. So, what exactly goes into an effective virtual property tour, and how can you create an online experience that will wow potential buyers and convince them to schedule a viewing?

Do I Really Need a Virtual Tour?

In its 2017 survey, “Real Estate in a Digital Age,” the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) found that the vast majority of potential home buyers are using the internet to find houses, with 99% of millennials – the largest group of home buyers – using websites to aid their search. NAR also found that of respondents who used the internet in their search, 89% found photos to be very useful and 50% found virtual tours to be very useful.

“Of course, you can still sell your home without a virtual tour, but more and more consumers are not even visiting listings that do not have a virtual tour available,” Brenda Di Bari, a Manhattan-based real estate broker at Halstead Realty, says.

The necessity of good online visual tools isn’t something that should be overlooked if you want to keep up with constantly-evolving technology, something cited by NAR as one of the biggest challenges facing real estate firms. With more and more buyers starting their searches on laptops, tablets and cell phones, sellers who want their listings to stand out need to provide a complete online experience of their homes for a potential buyer to even consider them.

Virtual tours can be even more vital in areas with a lot of out-of-state buyers, like popular vacation spots. Travel is expensive, and people want to have a good idea of what they’re going to be looking at before they purchase a plane ticket.

Roman Debotch, owner of Finally Real Estate, a real estate photography and videography company in Los Angeles, advises that more immersive video tours should be done in areas that are highly competitive, but for some houses, a simpler tour using pictures or video clips will work just fine.

“In my opinion, every house does not need a virtual tour. In some locations, it would be overkill if you already have good photography,” Debotch says.

You Don’t Need to Be Super Tech-Savvy

When you think of a virtual tour, what are you picturing? A couple photos of a house’s interior? A video walkthrough? Or a complete 360-degree experience with interactive floor plans and a 3D walkthrough?

“Virtual tours can be video, photo or an interactive walkthrough that showcases the property and attempts to simulate actually being there. Generally in the industry, though, when people talk about virtual tours they’re talking about the interactive walkthrough,” Ian Dangerfield, a community support admin for Alliance Residential Company, says.

While there are a lot of companies and software out there that can help you create the most technologically-advanced virtual tour on the market, your main objective should be to create an online experience that is easy to navigate and does a good job showing off your home. Whether that means having a full-blown 3D walkthrough or a simple photo tour is up to your discretion (and budget), but there’s no need to employ technology for technology’s sake.

Dangerfield only recommends professional virtual walkthrough tours for luxury properties or if a home’s audience consists of a lot of out-of-state buyers.

There are a lot of vendors out there who will work with you to create virtual tours for your listings. Some will even create interactive floor plans or give your potential buyers a dollhouse-style overview of the home that allows them to click through the rooms at their leisure.

Today’s technologies make creating your own professional-grade virtual tour easier than ever. Zillow recently launched a tool that allows agents and sellers to easily create their own 360-degree virtual tour from an iPhone.

With this tool, all you have to do is capture each room of the house using the Zillow 3D Home app, which utilizes the panoramic camera on your phone. The resulting virtual tour works similar to Google Maps Street View, so users can click and drag their way through a home.

When it comes down to it, people viewing your listings aren’t looking to be amazed by state-of-the-art home-imaging technology. They just want to see what the house looks like so they can determine if they’d like living in it. Whether you use third-party software or your own smartphone, you need to meet that need. To do that, you’ll want to make sure your tour does a few basic things.

The Keys to a Good Virtual Tour

Picture or video quality is going to be your top priority. Grainy or badly lit images will turn off potential buyers and make them less likely to give a house a second look. No matter what means you’re using to create your virtual tour, if you’re shooting the images yourself, make sure you’re aware of photography and videography basics beforehand.

Make sure your staging is good. Don’t show buyers empty rooms. You want the space to look livable, so they can easily picture themselves living there. Add in some décor that gives the space a cozy, welcoming ambiance, but be sure that the area is also neat and doesn’t look cluttered. Try to keep the décor neutral if you can, as people can have a hard time overlooking a design scheme that isn’t their style.

“Before you begin making your virtual tour, take a walk through your property to decide which angles and views are most important. Make sure you have good lighting and that the property is clean and free of clutter. If you have a lot of decorations and furniture, consider moving things out of the way for the photos,” Di Bari says.

Think through the path a person walking through the home would take, and mimic that with your tour. Where would they naturally stop to admire the crown molding? What would they want a closer look at? If you’re doing a more basic photo tour, take wide shots as well as close-ups, and when you post them, order them in a way that makes sense and feels organic.

Give Yourself a Quick Photography Lesson

It can’t be overstated: The quality of your images is paramount. Unless you’re hiring a professional, you should familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of photography and videography.

If you have great lighting, it’s possible to take pretty good pictures and video using your smartphone. However, if you plan on doing most of your own photography for your listings, you might want to consider investing in a higher-quality camera.

Take time to learn some basics. You don’t need to become the next Ansel Adams, but knowing how to properly frame a picture or light a video will go a long way in improving the quality of your images. Here are some basic photography and videography tips to get you started:

Let there be light. Turn on all the lights or bring your own if the house doesn’t have a lot. Open curtains and shutters to let in as much natural light as possible. Do your shooting on a sunny day. Unless you’re shooting outdoors in direct sunlight, it’s hard to have too much light, especially when shooting inside a home.

Find your angles. When taking pictures of rooms, you typically want to shoot from the doorway looking in. Make sure to include the floor in your shots and as little ceiling as possible. Pay attention to how you frame your shots; anything extraneous or unsightly (piles of clutter, garbage bins, etc.) should be left out. When you’re taking a picture of the house from the front, try to take it at a slight angle, to show the depth of the house.

Take more than you need. Take a lot of photos and do multiple takes of your videos. If you have a lot of options, you get to be choosy and only present your best work. Having too few could mean you’re stuck if one of your images turns out to be blurry.

Minimize camera tilt. When you tilt your camera up to get a shot of a room, the vertical lines on the wall can end up looking distorted. Try to keep the camera level and move your body, not the camera, to better capture a wide shot.

Don’t use flash. If you opt to hire a professional, they may bring their own external flash to light their shots. If you’re taking your own, however, don’t use your camera’s built-in flash, as it can make subjects look unnatural and add glare to your pictures. If you find yourself needing flash, bring in more external light sources. Even a cheap floor lamp can help better light your shots.

Keep a steady hand. You might want to invest in a tripod. Tripods can be useful if the house you’re shooting doesn’t get a lot of light, as you can lengthen the exposure without graininess or blur. If you’re recording video, make sure your tripod can be rotated with the camera on it, so you can get smooth, sweeping shots of a room. If you need to get a moving shot, make slow, easy movements. Nobody wants to watch a shaky video.

Don’t skip post-production. Your photos will likely need some touching up, as colors can warp in a photo and make the picture look different than the actual thing. There are a lot of low-cost or even free editing programs that will allow you to do basic touch-ups, like toning down overly-bright areas or balancing pictures with orange tints to them. Check your photos to see if they need to be cropped as well. Cropping to only include important elements is an easy way to improve your pictures.

Aim for a Multimedia Presentation

Utilizing multiple formats for your listings will allow you to present a more holistic view of the home than if you were using a single medium, especially if you’re not using a 3D presentation. Give potential buyers as much context as possible.

For example, if you’re filming a video walkthrough of a house, include photos of each room that zoom in on any interesting details. Make the experience complete by providing the house’s floor plan and indicating where on the floor plan each part of the tour takes place, to help orient viewers.

Your virtual tour doesn’t have to be limited to what you can do on your website, either. If you’re active on social media, consider utilizing Facebook’s 360-degree camera feature to quickly show off a beautiful room to your followers. Using multiple mediums and platforms will increase the number of potential buyers you’re reaching.

Don’t Just Include the House

Is there a beautiful scenic trail that runs near the neighborhood, or a nice big pond in the backyard? A short video or high-quality picture of the area’s natural amenities can get buyers excited in a way that fifteen pictures of the same hardwood floor can’t.

Make the most of the more visually attractive aspects of your listings by including them in your virtual tour. Keep in mind factors like lighting and time of day to make sure you’re getting the best possible pictures. If the view from the back porch is to die for, visit the house at sunset and snap a pic. You don’t just want to show what the house looks like, you want to show why buyers should want to live there.

“Remember to include outside shots as well, including front yard or building entrance, backyard if applicable, common space (such as roof decks) and community/building amenities,” Di Bari says.

Do you have experience with virtual tours and have some ideas on what works (and what doesn’t)? Let us know in the comments! For more real estate news you can use, check out more of our real estate agent content at RealEstate.QuickenLoans.com

The post Virtual Tours: Are They Worth It? appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/virtual-tours-worth

0 notes

aaltjebarisca · 6 years

Text

Virtual Tours: Are They Worth It?

Do I Really Need a Virtual Tour?

“In my opinion, every house does not need a virtual tour. In some locations, it would be overkill if you already have good photography,” Debotch says.

You Don’t Need to Be Super Tech-Savvy

Dangerfield only recommends professional virtual walkthrough tours for luxury properties or if a home’s audience consists of a lot of out-of-state buyers.

The Keys to a Good Virtual Tour

Give Yourself a Quick Photography Lesson

It can’t be overstated: The quality of your images is paramount. Unless you’re hiring a professional, you should familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of photography and videography.

Aim for a Multimedia Presentation

Don’t Just Include the House

“Remember to include outside shots as well, including front yard or building entrance, backyard if applicable, common space (such as roof decks) and community/building amenities,” Di Bari says.

The post Virtual Tours: Are They Worth It? appeared first on ZING Blog by Quicken Loans.

from Updates About Loans https://www.quickenloans.com/blog/virtual-tours-worth

0 notes

abiteofnat · 7 years

Photo

BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH THE CALCULATED FEASTING AT TASTE OF CHICAGO...

Because when your goal is to eat as much as possible, it becomes a game of food Sudoko. You have to manage salty with sweet, not tire yourself out with only fried foods, make sure there’s some kind of green in there, and the most important part- finding never-been-tasted tastes! After going 2-3 times a year for the past four years, it’s become difficult to find booths with new options that are both vegetarian and something I actually want to spend my golden tickets on.

In that case, you would think going to the Taste that much would get old! But it has remained so the opposite. I see it as my Six Flags, my Lollapalooza part 1, my... DARE I SAY... Hunger Games. (HA). It’s the one weekend every year that entirely dedicates itself to food with music on the side, instead of the other way around, and brings in thousands upon thousands of people. It’s kind of cool to see people of every part of Chicago together at this f r e e festival along Columbus, with restaurants from all over offering new cuisines and experiences for every attendee. People are gnawing into turkey legs, sticking forks into three different types of cheese fries at once, and just enjoying a day out with the fam in the middle of this amazing city. Pretty cool! Even when I’m sweating like a cold beer on a hot day and little children who are not mine and covered in ~sticky~ are stuck to my legs, it’s the best thing ever. I LOVE THE TASTE.

As per usual I ate a large amount of things and could have easily eaten soooo much more, however it was pretty clear they boosted the # of tickets per item at each booth. Usually it’s about 3-5 tickets for a “taste” of something versus the full item, but this year it was 4-6 tickets. I call BS. But, that’s why it becomes a fun game of arcade-prize selecting with the tickets! Before we dig into the meat of this photo essay style post, I want to give a giant shoutout to my new DSLR camera that has revolutionized the way I take photos for this blog. While iPhones do a great job taking people photos, the iPhone 6 that I own has taken quite a beating in my possession and has become a grainy disaster when focusing on anything detailed. Taking photos for the-hungry-sloth has now become my absolute favorite thing in the world, and photographing food is seriously tooooooooooo much of a passion for me because I get a HIGH from the crumb details you’re about to witness. Like, seriously, get ready to lose your shit because of how high-def this food looks. (I am so late to the professional game, y’all).

I didn’t post everything I ate, but these are the highlights!

Stop #1: PUNKY’S Pizza & Pasta

You know when you’re a kid and if you behave super well at the doctor’s office you get to choose a treat after? Like ice cream from your favorite place or McNuggets from McDonald’s? Fried ravioli at the Taste is my post-doctor treat. I wait for it, crave it, dream of it for 364 days and then the first morning of the Taste I wake up like it’s Christmas because I know it’s RAV DAY. I AM READY TO ZOOM ON THE BACK OF A PASSING PLANE DOWNTOWN BECAUSE HOT DAMN, THERE ARE TOASTY RAVIOLIS WAITING FOR ME.

My dear friends were rearing to go see local band Twin Peaks at the bandshell area where you can bring a blanket and get real cozy under the sun and Chicago’s skyline, however I needed a carbo boost or else they would get “hangry” Nat and not “calmly enjoying the free music” Nat. Usually I get the toasted ravioli from Tuscany’s tent, however this year we past by a new, checkerboard-clad tent that caught my eye and the smell of marinara sauce overwhelmed me and before I could stop myself my hands were throwing tickets like confetti at the nice young man behind the counter and THEY WERE M I N E.

These ravioli were breaded to perfection, fried evenly and not dried out at all, allowed the pasta to stay moist and not tough, and had the IDEAL cheese-pull once bitten into. The sauce was sweet, robust, but not too chunky and therefore got rid of the fear of dripping on my very ~girly~ skirt. I was in a cheese-y, saucy, fried-crumbs-errywhere blackout for a solid two minutes and then came back to earth a better person. Fried ravioli are always worth the ticket.

All smiles on the lawn, patiently waiting for Twin Peaks to start and enjoying the shade this fence attempted to give us. That twinkle in my eye? The afterglow of fried cheese.

Sorry, Tuscany tent, I’ll catch you next year.

Stop #2: La Mexicana

These paletas are the ROCKSTAR of the Taste! It’s hard to pass by anyone not holding a brightly-colored fruity refreshment, flavors ranging from watermelon (my pick) to strawberry to lemon-lime. They offer a much needed pick me up amidst all the “real food” options, or are the best sweet treat to use your final 3 tickets on at the end! Made with real fruit and a lot of love, these tastes or full size paletas are not something to miss. And super fun to slurp, which will become necessary after they begin to melt.

Stop #3: I’M THE WORST I DON’T REMEMBER?! If anyone knows where these tots were from, let me know! My friend got them had I h a d to photograph them, because if this isn’t #foodporn nothing is. Ugh. Tater heaven.

Stop #4: Brightwok Kitchen

I’m going to be honest, this did not initially catch my eye. As someone who uses the Taste to try a bunch of unhealthy food I would never order for a meal in real life, I avoid most healthy looking items. However, I am also so very anemic, and nothing there is protein/iron packed unless you eat copious amounts of meat... so I saw tofu and vegetarian friendly symbols and headed over. I was proved WRONG for being skeptical because this little bowl of goodness was sooo yummy! I got the taste of salad topped with tofu, edamame, carrots, sesame seeds, and a miso-ginger dressing that was surprisingly refreshing on a hot summer day. This place is located downtown by DePaul’s Loop campus, and I will for sure make a point to stop by there on my way to evening classes come the fall.

Stop #5: ONE OF THE SO MANY ITALIAN ICE BOOTHS. Can’t go wrong with a palate cleanser, and check out Ivana’s fantastic nails. She doesn’t even need a spoon to scoop some up!

Stop #6: Star of Siam

My foodie partner Erin RAN to this booth the minute we got to the Taste, as these potstickers are her version of my fried ravioli. They are very full of meat so I did not eat them, however I was enamored by their smell and enjoyed the pad thai as per usual. Not pretty to photograph though, it literally just looks like noodles.

Stop #6: Oak Street Beach Cafe

THESE SHRIMP BLOW BY MIND EVERY TIME. The garlic potatoes? Unreal. They are literally halves of whole potatoes cooked so perfectly and saturated with garlic, butter, and toasted on the outside to a delicious french fry consistency. OH my LORD. Me and Erin shared this full ticket price plate of wonderful, and I am still thinking about it.

Stop #7: O’Briens Restaurant and Pub

OK so this corn was the surprise of my life. As someone with a messed up jaw and a terrible fear of biting into an earn of corn due to past trauma, I was weary of Ivana’s desperate search for the corn. It was late in the afternoon, we were all sweaty, and I was already dreaming up the double scoop of Elephant Tracks ice cream I would force my dad to drive me to once I got back to Linden. HOWEVER. I counted my tickets, 6 left exactly, and we found the corn at a busy intersection filled with buttery people eating bright yellow, shining corn that just called to me. I just knew it would be so juicy, so salty, so *scrumptious* that I ordered one as well and said “to heck with my jaw!”

They pulled fresh ears, still in husks, out of the basket of corn carcass and then shucked them right there, revealing the most DANK ear of corn I’ve ever seen. Then, they were dunked in a vat of steaming butter, twisted with a napkin ‘round the bottom, and then handed over like a newborn baby. Y’all. We doused these things in salt like an arsonist and a very old wooden house, and they were FIRE. The corn was soft but ripe, sweet, so juicy, and literally- I’m so sorry for using this word- squirted when you bit into it. It was straight up porn. Right there in the streets of Chicago.

I am still in awe.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, CHECK OUT THIS FUNNEL CAKE. IT’S FROM THE FUNNEL CAKE PLACE, AND IT SMELLS LIKE ALL YOUR BEST MEMORIES PUT ON A PLATE.

I am already counting down the days until the next Taste of Chicago (360 days) and hopefully will have more time, $100 dollars to spend, and couple new vegetarian options in the lineup! FOOD IS THE BEST. So are friends. This was a great marriage of the both.

Until next time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie

#foodblog #chicago #tasteofchicago #tasteofchicago2017 #city #vegetarian #snacks #lunch #dinner #bites #foodporn #funnelcake #fried #lit #bloggers #fresh

0 notes