Archives for April 2015

TIP: Adjust Light in Smartphone Photos

April 24, 2015 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

As a serious photographer, I am amazed at how iPhone and other smart phones take snapshots. They adjust the light and focus well most of the time. There are photo contests that are limited to iPhone cameras only. The results are outstanding. There are a few things you can do to increase the range of what you can do with the camera on a smartphone.

Taking pictures when it is relatively dark

Only use the flash if you are less than two meters/yards from the subject when taking evening or night pictures. At concerts or other situations when subjects are further away … using the camera flash does not work. Flash actually limits the camera’s ability to take the picture. Turn off the flash and hold the camera as still as possible. A tripod or a wall to stabilize is helpful.

On the right is a picture at a Paul McCartney outdoor concert holding the iPhone over my head. With no flash, the camera tries to collect enough light for a picture. Most hand-held pictures are too blurry due to movement of the camera. If you take several pictures, you may get lucky.

Manual light adjustment when there is more light

There will be times when using the smartphone that the resulting picture is too bright or too dark. The camera has a manual adjustment you can use to change the brightness of the picture. In the iPhone photos below, the left picture is what the camera thinks is the correct light, but is too dark.

Tapping the screen on the focal point of the picture creates a yellow frame telling the camera which area of light you want to measure. (The center picture below and call-out picture bubble.) To adjust brightness, there is a yellow “sun” next to the yellow box. (The black arrow points to the “sun”.) Slide the “sun” up to make the picture lighter or down to make it darker. In the example below, making the picture lighter resulted in the picture on the right below.

This is very helpful if there is a bright background (like sunshine or water) and the subject is too dark or against a dark background causing the camera to make the subject too light.

Tell me more about the “or else …”

April 20, 2015 By Change Masters Academy Leave a Comment

If you can’t influence others, the fallback is positional power, and that doesn’t work long term.

You need your most valuable people more than they need you. They also do not like seeing their peers treated poorly.

How to Raise a Bully

April 20, 2015 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

A Washington Post article describes the parenting behaviors that add to the chances of your child becoming a bully:

Gossiping.
Being too busy to show you care.
Exuding the “I hate” attitude.
Fostering the mini-me syndrome.
Over-scheduling activities.
Inconsistent rule enforcement.
The triple play: wincing, waiting, watching.
Forcing your kids to share.

Many things that well-intentioned parents do are actually contributors to bully behavior; for example treating their children like adults before they are ready; not allowing enough unstructured time; and being distracted by work when at home. See more specifics from the article 8 ways you may be encouraging your child to be a bully

Difficult Choices

April 16, 2015 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

Choices in life require trade-offs. Those trade-offs will have consequences for you and others, and not everyone will like their consequences. Some may not like you as a result. You need to be thoughtful about how others may react, but how you deal with that reaction needs to be a separate decision.

If you need to fire someone or lay them off after clear and careful consideration, it can be very difficult. Fear of how someone will react is wise. How you deal with someone’s reaction is a separate decision. One of my more painful decisions to fire someone is still very vivid in my mind.

The choice …

I took over an organization where a major project was a disaster in many ways. Week after week, Dan would tell the CEO he would solve the problems in a week and could reduce the number of contractors on the project. It was a lie. Dan was leading a team that was working as hard as they possibly could. Personally, Dan was working 80 to 100 hours per week.

Unfortunately, the culture of the group was that leaders would say what people wanted to hear and not the truth. Credibility was zero. Dan was now my subordinate. He was incredibly likeable. He was running the biggest project.

I had coached Dan for several weeks not to lie to the CEO. We would meet with the CEO and he would lie again. Finally, I told him he could say whatever he needed to say in the meeting, but if he said, “We will solve the problems in a week and cut the number of contractors.” he would be fired.

We were meeting again with the CEO regarding this high-profile project. Dan was doing well. At the end, the CEO asked, “When will these problems be solved so we can reduce our spending?” Dan responded with, “By the end of the week.”

I could not believe my ears. We walked across the hall to my office and closed the door. “Dan, do you want me to start processing the paperwork or would you like to resign?”

“I’ll have the letter to you this afternoon.”

I felt terrible and he felt terrible. It was still a good decision. Not only did he make a bad choice in the face of a clear contingency, but I needed to communicate to the entire organization that lies were not acceptable.

When I followed up with Dan the next week to see how he was doing, it did not help my frame of mind. His seventeen year-old daughter ran away from home and his father had died. I felt terrible that I had added another rock to his pile of tragedies. I prayed that he would have the strength to handle the setbacks.

Dan found another job fairly quickly that was a better fit for him. His daughter returned home. He was doing as well as could be expected a few weeks later. Often the short-term pain is followed by gain … but you never know that when you make the decision. Fortunately, that was true for Dan in terms of his job.

Looking back …

The “do not lie” message was received by the organization. People chose to be more honest. The new leader of the project got it under control and completed with honesty. The credibility of the organization increased significantly. Mission accomplished!

It is very tempting to delay a decision or to modify a decision because you fear the other person’s reaction; or you do not want to hurt that person’s feelings. I liked Dan and I preferred that he liked me. Others in the department also liked him. Separating the decision from the reaction; to deal with them separately; is the best long-term solution. In this example, the decision was clear and the consequences ultimately positive.

When the decision is less clear or is a personal decision with a loved one, it can be even more difficult. It is just as important … or likely more important. That is another topic.