Lit Your Food Subjects Nicely With Little Budget

When you are doing food photography at home, you have two choices for lighting your food subjects.  Either you use natural light or artificial light.  Using natural light means you need to set your food subjects near the window so that the sunlight can actually shine on the subjects.  That isn't always an option if your window is far away from the food subjects.  For me, my dining table is far away from the only window in the living room so I cannot use natural light on my food subjects.

The only other choice left for me is to use artificial light.  There are many options but I opted for an option with relatively little money.  I got a photography softbox set for about US$37.  It comes with a halogen light bulb (5500K), a stand and a softbox.

The halogen light bulb is big and it is rated to provide 5500K color temperature:

There is a cover on the softbox and I can remove the cover if desired:

Here is a picture with the light bulb on:

Here is a picture with the cover on:

This thing is called a softbox because the kit looks like a box is designed to soften the light.

This picture was shot without the softbox lighting:

This picture was shot with the softbox lighting:

The difference is quite big.  A softbox kit is relatively inexpensive and can provide the necessary artificial lighting at home.  Another good thing about this kit is that it is portable and can be disassembled and stored easily.  This kit is highly recommended.

Number 1 Myth of Entrepreneurship Debunked: Be a Loner to Succeed

Last year I decided that I could no longer work for anyone.  I keep realizing that I don't like to answer to anyone especially my superiors, and I don't like the work I am doing at any company that I work for.  Therefore after my contract ended with my last company, I left without any hesitation.

I have always wanted to start my own company.  Back in 2003 I quit my job at Oracle in the USA and came to Hong Kong to start my first company.  It was a SaaS (Software As A Service) company also known as an application service provider (ASP) at that time.  I spent one year building the technology by myself.  Towards the end of the first 12 months, I had an epiphany which was the fact that I was lacking the fundamental skills in marketing that prevented me from finding paying and non-paying customers.  So I went back to school and spent two years to get my Master degree in Marketing.  Here I am again, thinking that marketing can provide part of the solution to my business problems.  I am ready to take the leap of faith and try the entrepreneur thing again.

A Master degree in Marketing only changes the way I think.  Our professors often like to say: these marketing concepts are going to be difficult for you to understand and you may never understand them.  While I may not be smart enough to understand everything there is to understand, but now I understand that at the startup stage, my company has to offer value to a very small group of people.  Marketing needs to target these evangelists: find them, partner with them, pay them to use my services etc.  Do whatever necessary to turn them into paying or non-paying customers.

For the last few months, when I tried to turn my friends into these very small groups of customers, I keep getting the same reaction.  Whenever I tell them about my advertising business and ask them for help, they will say yes but there is no action.  Sometimes I even offer money and hope that in return I get some help from them.  None whatsoever.  Perhaps the money is not enough to motivate people.  On one occasion when I offered money to a friend in exchange for some nice-looking food photos, she kept saying that the money wasn't enough.  Eventually she just told me to get the pictures from her facebook photo albums and pay her.  Sometimes I think that I just ain't a good enough friend to them that they are willing to give up their time and energy just to help me out.  Sometimes I think it's a cultural thing for the Chinese: don't do this unless it gives you something in return that is worthy.

We entrepreneurs keep hearing the myth that an entrepreneur who is a loner is destined to fail.  I think it is wrong.  If anyone can survive in business as a loner, he or she will excel as an entrepreneur.  Think about it.  Most companies are founded by a few friends, but in the end it is always left with one single founder.  Great musical groups or bands break up because the founding members always have different agendas or goals at some point in time.  When we entrepreneurs go for outside help, nobody is going to help unless you are ready to offer lots of money with no guaranteed return, just like gambling.  If you ask your friends for help, they will make you wait forever, because they just say they are happy to help but not really act to help.  When we small companies want to work with larger companies, they never respond to our proposals or inquiries.  Mr. Li Ka-Shing, one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, remembers what his father taught him: it is always better to ask yourself for help than to ask somebody else for help (求人不如求己).

This greatest myth of entrepreneurship must be debunked right here right now: be a loner and you are better off doing the entrepreneur thing all by yourself.  You may ask: those Venture Capitalists look at the team behind a startup, not at an individual.  Then I say to you: don't even bother with Venture Capitalists.  Some of the greatest startups survived and grew exponentially after all of the Venture Capitalists told them NO.  You may ask: I don't know everything and I must get help from someone.  Sorry to break the news to you: you need to do everything by yourself.  I am not a web designer or any designer for that matter, but I have to do it for my website.  I don't want to do the programming but I get more scared if I pay someone else to do it because there are so many cheating freelancers and outsourcing firms out there.  I am not a photographer but I need great looking food photos for my advertising business.  A professional photographer offered me the pictures for an amount I couldn't afford.  I have no choice but to learn how to take professional looking food photos because this is the most cost-effective.  Over the years I keep doing the "impossible" and find that it can progressively become easier to overcome the next "impossible" task.  I have learned how to systematically acquire the knowledge necessary to complete each task.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from being an entrepreneur.  However, if you are ready to become one or are already one, try not to have any partners or ask your friends to help out (as a favor).  Learn to do everything by yourself.  When your business takes off, pay your non-friends (or sometimes friends) as regular employees/contractors to do the work that you don't have time for.  Remember that you are the only person who is willing to run your company for free.  Nobody else (including your friends) is willing to work for free or for very little money.  Before you can afford to pay someone, do it by yourself.  It is going to be difficult, but the "training" will make you prepare for the even more difficult problems (which very likely you have to face by yourself) in the future.

Fresh Made Burgers: the End of McDonald's?

Here in Hong Kong, there are many burger joints which offer fresh made burgers: Monster Burger, BLT Burger, MOS Burger etc.  These joints offer a different kind of service than the traditional burger joints such as McDonald's or Burger King.  The moment when you order a burger, the shop will make it from scratch.  Therefore these burgers are fresher and hotter.

One good example of fresh burger joint is the famous MOS Burger from Japan.  It is the second largest fast food franchise in Japan with shops in many Asian countries.  At the time of this blog post, there are 15 MOS Burger joints around Hong Kong.

After you order a burger, and if you decide to eat inside the shop, you pick a seat and wait for your order.  After your burger meal is made, it will be delivered to you by a waiter or waitress.  The following picture shows a fish burger at MOS Burger:

The burger was really hot and it is the way I like it.  Of course, the service offered by MOS Burger comes with a price.  A fish burger meal is about HK$37 whereas a fillet-o-fish meal at McDonald's is about HK$24.  So customers are paying more than 50% premium for MOS Burger's service.

There are way more variety of burgers at MOS Burger than McDonald's.  At the same time, the number of seats is a lot smaller.  What customers get is a comfortable (that is, not crowded) place to enjoy an expensive burger meal with relatively good customer service.  The question is: are customers willing to pay this price?

The answer is an astounding yes.  Life is short.  Take your time and enjoy your food.

A Brief Review of the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC Food and Travel Lens

I am a Nikon D3000 user and I have never owned any Tamron lens before.  Last week when I went to Northeastern China, I had to take a travel lens (that is, one single lens for all purposes) with me for food and travel photography.  Before the trip, I got the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.6-6.3 Di II VC lens.  Although the lens covers a wide focal length range, to my surprise it is a relatively light lens.

For daytime landscape shots, it is a lens that exhibits extremely good clarity.  With VC (Vibration Compensation) turned on, it compensates shaky hands at the long range:

In low light situations such as inside a Buddhist museum as shown, the lens can capture vibrant colors with little loss in details:

For closeup food shots at restaurants (usually with low lights), I was able to shoot at much shorter focal lengths with all the details in the food subjects being maintained:

For anyone who needs a versatile lens for food and travel purposes, I highly recommend the Tamron 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC lens.

The Marketing of Art

The city of Shanghai turned a giant steel factory in the heart of the city into a huge art producing facility called the Shanghai Sculpture Space (紅坊).  If you walk around the outskirt of the facility, you can see some truly amazing work by the artists.

This is a Mercedes Benz made with bricks:

This is a steel sculpture of Albert Einstein:

This is a steel sculpture of Deng Xiaoping:

Here is a collection of feet:

Here is a steel knight:

Here is an instrument made with a laptop and an abacus:

This robotic animal looks scary:

While most people cannot buy these sculptures and put them in their homes, what does such an art facility do to help the artists?  

This place has become a tourist attraction spot in Shanghai.  Tourists are usually compelled to look at everything in a tourist attraction spot in detail because they know that they may not come back to these places in the near future.  Unlike an art gallery or show where people may need to pay to get in, these open art facilities create a superb channel to connect the general public to the art world.

A tourist attraction spot is often a place for people to appreciate beautiful things.  Art is beautiful even though for non-artists like myself, I cannot describe why a piece of art is beautiful.  Just by look at beautiful things, I feel happy.  By combining art and tourism, it is a perfect strategy to market art without doing it in-your-face.

The Myth of Green Tea

We have all heard that green tea is good for our health.  But what exactly does it do to help us improve our health?

In Hangzhou, China, there is a lake called the West Lake (西湖).  Near this lake, there are many farmers who make a living growing and selling Longjing/Dragon well green tea (龍井), which is known by many as the best kind of green tea. The tea leaves are required to be hand-fried (that is, use the bare hands to fry the green tea leaves) with a hot wok before packaging.  Below is a picture of a master who has been doing this for over 60 years:

In addition to drinking the tea, these tea leaves can be eaten as well.  Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher came to Hangzhou and tried the green tea.  She was told by the Chinese president Deng Xiaoping to eat the tea leaves.  Hesitated at first, Ms. Thatcher eventually ate the tea leaves and found them to be quite tasty.

Green tea leaves can help clean the intestines, thus having the effect of detoxification of the human body.  Therefore in addition to drinking green tea, eating the leaves is also recommended.

Making green tea is quite easy.  Just grab the green tea leaves with 3 fingers into a glass.  Pour hot water at around 50 degree Celcius into the glass.  The first glass is the best with the most powerful taste.  2 additional glasses of green tea can be made with the same tea leaves.  Afterwards, throw away the tea leaves and make another glass with new green tea leaves if desired.

A Beauty Pageant Contestant's Success Story

Here is a startup company story you don't hear every day.

Erica Yuen was a beauty pageant contestant.  She started blogging as a way to tell her relatives what's going on in the pageant.  Shortly after she won the 5th place in a beauty pageant contest, she thought she could be a star and be good at it.  Unfortunately things didn't turn out as expected.  The media pictured her as a fiery person who liked to make enemies with other female stars.

She continued to blog and somehow the media exposed her blog to the public.  Her fans started to read her blog regularly.  Occasionally she would write about a certain beauty product she used and things got interesting when she asked if anyone wanted to buy the same product.  She would bulk order the product from the USA.  She got over 300 requests through email.

Erica saw a business opportunity.  In the beginning, she would hang out at Starbucks and distribute the products to her new found customers.  But doing this was very time consuming.  She thought she needed some kind of e-commerce website that could handle the orders better.

She didn't know how to build a website.  She knew that those web design companies would rip her off.  She was wary of freelancers.  Finally she struck a deal with elle.com.hk.  Erica was a guest blogger on elle.com.hk before, so she asked elle.com.hk to build a website for her and in return, her e-commerce website would provide elle.com.hk with a few banner ads.  Her website was up in a couple of months.

Erica uses a lot of web tools to help with the marketing of her new business.  She has a Youtube channel.  She interacts with her customers through her own blog, her blog in elle.com.hk and her facebook page.  She monitors the comments in her blogs, facebook and other forums very closely to make sure that there are no unhappy customers.  Since business was so successful, she opened two brick-and-mortar stores to sell her products.  Her business has now acquired over 10,000 customers within a few months.

Erica knew in her heart that she wanted to take control of her life and be her own boss.  Her beauty pageant fame might have helped her get a head start, but it is the relentless pursuit of her goals that keeps her business moving forward.