VampireS Sumo

As a writer, producer and director I’m always looking for ideas to develop into scripts then gather the talent to produce them. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes it’s a pain in the butt. The most important thing I have learned about movie making is that movie making is, in reality, problem solving. Nothing ever goes right once you get started; no matter how well you have it scripted or planned it.

So, why do I do it? Good question!

Like most of us in this business I have a passion for it. Where else could I contribute ten to sixteen hours of my day for very little money or sometimes no-pay at all. Then come back the next day and do it all over again. It has to be passion!

Putting a movie together these days, even without any cost, is a big endeavor. By the way, there is no such thing as no-cost movie. There’s always some negative cost involved; stock to purchase, location fees, gas to get there, and of course, you have to feed the crew. There’s always something coming up that you need to cover that you never did account for.

So, what drives us? Another good question!

To most of us it is the belief and that ever nagging question; “what if our little movie could make it?” The driving force behind every film is someone’s idea taken out of their head, written down on paper, visualized into a shooting script, produced and then shown to the masses. Most of us fail at the first step, getting it out of our heads. What we need to do is become better secretaries to our own minds. Write it down; get it out of your head, so that you can share it with the rest of us.

I watch the Independent Film Channel a lot because these are people just like me trying to make “The Little Movie That Could.” I also watch the big studio movies so that I can continue learning from the big guys. The beauty of this business is that it is un-ending. There’s always something to watch and learn from.

If you haven’t done it yet, join a local film makers group, start making your movies by helping others makes their movies. It’s a win-win situation, you learn from them and they learn from you.

Independent film making is about film makers coming together for the passion and love of the game; not for the pay check! But movies like these need to be supported because that’s where you see movies that are very close to people hearts. They have individuality and a perspective that you don’t usually see in movies coming out of Hollywood.

Indy films are where the actors wear their own clothes and their trailers are their cars. And still you’ll find the people on the set and everyone surrounding the film really pulling together for each other creating stories that are unique. Maybe the corporate bottom line wouldn’t tolerate or couldn’t find a way to support them. These little films are swimming up-stream and there’s plenty of energy and the feeling of freedom that surround each one of them.

So, if you’re a film maker and you have a story you’d like to have told, your script is your voice – let it be heard.

Fernando Rio is an independent producer with many years of experience in film and video production. In association with Key Howard, a retired actor of film and television, they both contribute and run anactorslifeforme.com anactorslifeforme.com where they publish a monthly ezine dedicated to actors coming into the business. Together, they represent over 50 years of expertise in the field and are willing to share their knowledge with all newcomers. Contact info: mailto:keyactors@bellsouth.net keyactors@bellsouth.net

This unique set of recordings documents a collection of ceremonial chants and Ayahuasca icaros on CD.

Tracks 1-3 San Pedro ceremony held in Puruchucu, at the head of the Rimac valley. The ruins of this sacred site or huaca date back to pre-Inca times and have been accurately reconstructed. Setting the scene for the ceremony, three musicians play replicas of pre-Hispanic instruments. Alonso del Rio says: ‘while keeping to their original tuning, we have explored the instruments musical possibilities to give an idea of what the music could have been like in pre-Colombian times. The melodies came to us through the ancestral memory evoked through medicinal plants like San Pedro and Ayahuasca’. Instruments: the ceramic notch flutes of the Chincha civilization, Nazca panpipes or ‘antaras’ with their special tuning similar to Oriental scales, and Nazca drums.

The Mesa Nortena is a particular ceremonial tradition best conserved in the region of ‘Las Huaringas’, high and remote sacred lakes in the northern Department of Piura.
There are probably only a few good maestros who continue this ancient tradition in Peru today. The rest simply work with the externalities of the mesa, while giving their clients minimal doses of the visionary San Pedro cactus. Originally more importance was given to the medicine, which must be in the organism of the participants as well as the maestro for the power to flow. The mesa then served to intensify the power of the plant.

An altered state is needed to enter the symbolic world of the objects on the mesa (the word refers to the altar as well as the ceremony itself). The abundance of macerated plants, perfumes and smells employed in the mesa function to move the feelings associated with one’s memories. At a deep level, sensations are translated into vibrations which the medicine brings to consciousness so that associated hurt and pain can be ‘re-membered’ again and a new attitude can emerge.

The singado, or absorption of macerated tobacco juice through the nostrils involves another power medicine which is used to intensify the San Pedro at regular intervals. The instruction from the maestro to pour up the left or right nostril reflects the notion of duality found in shamanic disciplines all over the world: masculine and feminine, hot and cold, upper world and earth, expansion and contraction, flowing and stagnant. Illness arises from one of these polarities loosing equilibrium. The word singado comes from the Quechua word singa meaning nose and is perhaps an Andean notion of Pranayama!

Also audible in the following two mesas 4- 5 are the clicking of chontas, or black bamboo sticks used for cleansing people’s auras and the spraying from the maestro and assistants’ mouths, of perfumes and plant macerations over the participants.

The tendency to commercialise a tradition is inherent in urbanization and seeing things for their utility and business. For example mesas are sometimes held so that lawyers win legal battles. Piles of documents are laid on the mesa so that the power works on them and they win their case. In this way a shamanic ceremony is degraded to folklore. We can try to reconstruct the original tradition to how it was in pre-Colombian times and remove the images of Sarita Colonia and the other saints, crucifixes, photos etc., which have accumulated throughout the centuries and evolved the mesa into the mestizo tradition which survives today. Left behind are the ancient stones, magic plant brews and the enchanted waters of the lakes of Las Huaringas, being the original elements, which have survived underneath.

Track 4 Mesa with Alejandro Sanchez. Maestro Sanchez lives in Comas, a distant suburb of Lima which began in the 1960s as a shanty town. It is surrounded by impressive parched stony desert hills. The maestro’s house is at the end of a road near the cemetery and overlooks this immense settlement from where he draws his clients. Sanchez was born in Sondorillo near the legendary sacred lakes of Las Huaringas. At age 11, while still at school, he seemed to have perceptions and to be able foresee things accurately. His astonished teachers thought he was having hallucinations and called for maestro Florentin Garcia. Later Alejandro became his apprentice and learned from him the secrets of plants.

The strangeness of these ceremonies can be seen as part of the ‘trappings’ of rituals in general. Strangeness serves to trick the rational mind so that it will not interfere with the subtle processes taking place in the subconscious. When we are fully awake, things can indeed seem strange… ‘people are strange, when you’re a stranger…’ as the song by The Doors goes. A part of healing is recovering the lost gift of perception, the feeling of being alive again.

Track 5 Mesa with Leopoldo Vilela who was also born near the celebrated Las Huaringas in Radiopampa, an extremely cold place at 3,500 meters altitude. He was 90 years old and in very good health at the time of this mesa which was also held in the ruins of Puruchucu. At three years old he was sent outside to look for herbs for his mother who was suffering from a stomach ache; there he knew he would become a curandero. He used to watch his father who was clairvoyant and assisted people in his community to find their animals when they were lost. He used tarot cards and looked into bottles of aguardiente (firewater) with grains of corn of different colours at the bottom

Don Leopoldo improvises sessions for groups and individuals, which may continue for hours. These are full of idiosyncrasy, and characterized by warmth, dedication and playfulness, which is quite touching at times. The seemingly endless sequence of bottles of tastes and smells and other procedures are often extremely weird while his inadvertent remarks and caresses on his guitar (of his own manufacture) often provoke smiles and laughter in all present.

Human beings have an instinctive awareness of other people’s conscious states of mind. When another person, a shaman, is authentic and spontaneously creative in the moment, this has the power to focus the mind, stopping it from verbalizing and rationalizing. A sense of pure wonder is evoked.

Track 6 Closing calls. The conch shells or pututus, still used in Andean communities today, are handed down from the Incas who obtained them from the Caribbean. They are used for convening meetings and ceremonies.

Tracks 7-9 Shipibo icaros of Mateus Castro, a shaman living outside Pucullpa in Yarinacocha. The arts of the Shipibo, especially textile designs, are closely related to ayahuasca icaros. The words of the chants are symbolic stories telling of the ability of nature to heal itself. For example the crystalline waters from a stream wash the unwell person, while coloured flowers attract the hummingbirds whose delicate wings fan healing energies etc. You might see such things in your visions but the essence which cures you is perhaps more likely to be the understanding of what is happening in your life, allowing inner feelings to unblock so that bitterness and anger con change to ecstasy and love. To awaken from the ‘illusion of being alive’ is to experience life itself.

Tracks 10-16 Dona Cotrina Valles was born in Agua Blanca, Department of San Martin. She apprenticed herself to a maestro in 1979 and later came to live in Iquitos with her husband. Today she lives alone with her children. It is very unusual for a woman to be a shaman in urban situations although they do exist amongst indigenous peoples. Amongst other limiting beliefs, it is thought that women break taboos as they are unable to take dieting seriously because of demands from their husbands and that when they go shopping in the market they will have contact with menstruating women or people who are mal dormida, (ie. a person who has been making love all night).

The diet is a vexed question in the city as the temptations of rich spicy food as well as sex are greater than in the rainforest. As all shamans will tell you, Dona too, says that sex is bad. The ‘mother plant’ loves you and if you make love to another person, you are being unfaithful to her. For this reason it is often said that Ayahuasca is jealous, and if you do not respect her, she makes you ill instead of healing you. You will also not be able to see any visions. The ill effects from not respecting the diet are called cutipa and range from a sense of trauma and stress to skin problems.

Dona’s chants are sung in Spanish and Quechua, as also are the chants of Javier Arevalo which follow. Both Dona and Javier are mestizo shamans, that is to say their ancestors moved to the Amazon from the Andes, rather than being indigenous to the Amazon as the Shipibo are. The melodies of mestizo icaros have an Andean structure and are sung partly in Quechua, a language of the Andes.

Track 17Despacho to Pachamama in the ruins of Pisaq. A despacho is an offering to the Earth Goddess, Pachamama, which nurtures all life on earth. The ceremony symbolizes the reciprocity of nature and speaks back to her saying ‘we understand the message and we have the same attitude’. The word despacho was mistakenly translated into Spanish after the Conquest as pago, meaning payment, to imply a satanic pact with dark forces.

As each participant made their contribution to the despacho convened by the Shamaness Doris Rivera Lenz ‘La Gringa’, Kike Pinto, played pre-Colombian instruments. The first piece is a Harawi from the Department of Cusco played on a quena, or notch flute, made from the wing bone of a condor. This little melody has been handed down from Inca times, thanks to its incorporation into Catholic mass in Colonial times. The second piece is a Haylli from San Pedro de Castas, Department of Lima, played on a ch’iriqway, or antara (panpipes), made from condor feathers. The melody also has pre-Hispanic roots and has survived in a form played on the chirisuya, kind of oboe, of probable Moorish origin. This track is ended with some calls on the putu, or conch shell.

Kike Pinto is a lifetime musician and researcher of traditional Andean music. He has recorded several CDs and is curator of his own Museum of Andean Music in Hatunrumiyoq, Cusco.

Tracks 18-26 Javier Arevalo comes from Nuevo Progreso, a community of 50 families on the Rio Napo. Many generations of his family before him were shamans and already at 17 years old he knew this was his future. However when he was 20 his father died from a virote (poisoned dart in the spiritual world), sent by a jealous and malicious brujo (sorcerer) in his community. Soon after he began his two-year retreat in the rainforest with his maestro grandfather, dieting many plants, later to become his ‘doctors’. During his time in the wilderness he realised that it was better to leave God to punish the brujo who killed his father, and he decided to be a healer not a sorcerer.

There are several different kinds of icaros, at the beginning of the session. Their purpose is to provoke the mareacion or effects, and, in the words of Javier, ‘to render the mind susceptible for visions to penetrate, then the curtains can open for the start of the theatre’. Other Icaros call the spirit of Ayahuasca to open visions ‘as though exposing the optic nerve to light’. Alternatively, if the visions are too strong, the same spirit can be made to fly away in order to bring the person back to normality.

There are icaros for calling the ‘doctors’, or plant spirits, for healing, while other icaros call animal spirits, which protect and rid patients of spells. Healing icaros may be for specific conditions like manchare which a child may suffer when it gets a fright. The spirit of a child is not so fixed in its body as that of an adult, therefore a small fall can easily cause it to fly. Manchare is a common reason for taking children to ayahuasca sessions.

Tracks 18 Llamada de mareacion in which the spirits of various healing plants are called, here the huacapurana, a tall tree with hard wood, whose bark is used for arthritis. Huacapurana is also used as an arcana, or spirit to protect the body. Also the remocaspi whose bark is used to reduce fever and cure malaria.

Howard G. Charing, is an accomplished international workshop leader on shamanism. He has worked some of the most respected and extraordinary shamans & healers in the Andes, the Amazon Rainforest, and the Philippines. He organises specialist retreats to the Amazon Rainforest at the dedicated centre located in the Mishana nature reserve. He is the author of the best selling book, Plant Spirit Shamanism (Destiny Books USA), and has published numerous articles about plant medicines. He was baptised into the Shipibo tribe of the Upper Amazon, and initiated into the lineage of the shamans of the Rio Napo. Howard is also an artist who’s paintings have featured in major exhibitions in London and elsewhere. His artwork has also been featured on book covers.

His website: shamanism.co.uk shamanism.co.uk
email contact: mailto:eagleswing@shamanism.co.uk eagleswing@shamanism.co.uk

For sports betting enthusiasts there is nothing more exciting then to bet on March madness. This month long free for all matchers the best college basketball teams in the country against each other in the NCAA tournament. It is often a time of surprises with some top seeds being knocked out early and long shots coming out of nowhere to advance in the tournament. It is often a real challenge to bet on March madness games and to pick the ultimate winner. This is due to the fact that often the teams have not played each other in the regular season so it’s hard to pick a winner.

Therefore to successfully bet on March madness you want to get the best information available about the teams and the match ups. This includes much more than just looking at team records and stats. You’ll want to know if there are any injuries to key players on a team and if there are how it might affect the performance of both the player and the team. If you do your betting at a good Internet sportsbook you’ll have access to this type of information and much more. The sportsbook has top experts who will analyze every aspect of the games and help you bet on March madness games with confidence.

The hollywoodsportsbook.com/ sportsbook will give you the best betting odds anywhere and the experts will make recommendations to help you know which teams to bet on and how much to bet. You can eliminate much of the guess work this way and enjoy your betting more than ever. Give it a try and bet on March madness with confidence.

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Since 1997, Hollywood Sportsbook has provided millions of internet sports betting enthusiasts with a secure internet sportsbook experience.

After you have had some tournament experience with at least some success, I highly recommend playing the low buy-in re-buy tournaments at party poker, where you will find a lot of weak opponents, excellent blind structure, and decent prize pools for final table play.

The 3 and 6 dollar tourneys are a little deceiving because virtually nobody does just a single buy-in. It is not unusual to see 3 to 1 ratio of re-buys to entries. So going into a 6 dollar tourney is like a 15 or 20 dollar tournament in terms of the prize pool. That is how you should look at it as well. Go into these things with the idea of spending at least 6 to 10 rebuys. Think of it this way; You are in a regular poker tournaments. Rebuy as soon as you sit at the table. You are allowed to add one if your stack is 3000 or less. Add a rebuy every time you go all in on a hand, while the hand is in play, and every time your stack happens to dip below the 3000 chip level.

During the first 15 minutes you should be seeing most flops, calling or raising it doesnt matter. The idea is to see a flop with potential, and push all in while doing the rebuy. You may lose, but as soon as you win one you are up to 12000 (minimum) in chips quite fast. 12,000? Yes. This is how it works. Your original stack of 3000 plus a rebuy brings you to 6000. You go all in against a player that has 3000 and while you are winning his stack, you add another rebuy of 3000.

Now once you get to 12,000 in chips, you want to pick your all-ins more carefully in regards to who you are playing against. With marginal and drawing hands, push all in against single stacks of 3000 only. When you have a real power hand then you want to be up against other stacks your size or even larger.

Now as the rebuy hour winds down, you should be moving into protection mode here, because you just wont be able to rebuild in the last few minutes as easily. Further, your goal is to head into the second hour as one of the chip leaders so you want to be extra careful in giving away your advantage in the last minute. This means essentially, staying far away from the other big stacks. Attack the rocks, attack the small stacks, be heads up, if at all when you are big stack.

Lyla Duke is an online poker player at Party Poker. She writes for PokerstrategyArticles.com PokerstrategyArticles.com and PokerBookReport.com PokerBookReport.com

It’s not just aspiring singers and songwriters that travel to Nashville seeking fame and fortune in the music business. A new generation of aspiring music management professionals are moving to Music City for a crack at the kinds of music management jobs that can lead them to lucrative careers.

Like most behind the scenes jobs in the music business, music management jobs require a lot of hard work, a passion for entertainment, and powerful people skills. Although a growing number of music business degree programs have popped up – most notably, at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University – experienced music managers can tell you that music management jobs require the kind of real world experience that you can’t find in a classroom.

Music management jobs in Nashville require a willingness to work hard and the courage to use whatever connections you have to get in on the ground floor. Entry level music management jobs require long hours, handling routine chores like handling fan correspondence and monitoring online bulletin boards and blogs for fan activity. Few music management jobs in Nashville are ever posted publicly – most music management companies fill open positions by recruiting from their pools of eager interns.

You don’t have to wait for a music management job in Nashville to open up for you to build experience in the music business, however. Most of the music industry’s most influential managers had little or no direct experience with the entertainment business before working with acts that would become superstars. Working directly with a client can give you the specific experience you need to grow your own music management career.

Whether you build your own music management agency on the foundation of your work with a young and hungry client, or you prefer to punch the clock at a larger, established agency as an intern, direct experience is the path to the very best music management jobs in Nashville.

Joe Taylor Jr. has written four books about the music business for aspiring musicians, including Music Management for the Rest of Us. You can learn more about music management jobs in Nashville at: musicmanagementfortherestofus.com/jobs/ musicmanagementfortherestofus.com/jobs/

Have you noticed that sometimes your images have a funny colour cast over them? Was this something that was not present at the time you took your shot?

If so, then you need to think of colour balance (often known as white balance).

It sounds technical, and it can be very complex, but basically, each scene you shoot has colour characteristics depending on how it is lit.

In this way, morning and evening sunlit scenes will be lit by orange light, midday scenes by bluish light and flash scenes by high intensity flash light. If the weather is overcast or you are shooting by light indoors, then the ambient light will change accordingly.

This means that the camera is presented with different “ambient″ light which it can see but the human eye can’t (the brain compensates to think of the scene as a uniform one in all lit conditions).

What does this mean for you and your camera?

Many cameras have an “automatic white balance″ (AWB) setting. This is fine as far as it goes and it will detect the overall colour of the scene and automatically compensate. Thus, with flash, the camera detects, via AWB, the flashlight and averages out the colour rendition to an “average″ acceptable to the human eye.

The trouble is, the average may not be suitable.

Consider a sunset. The sky is a range of deep oranges, yellows and pinks. Beautiful. You capture this on camera but your AWB setting averages out the “excessively orange” scene to a murky and dull hue. Your photo will look good but not spectacular.

This can happen in all situations where the overall light is “different” to what the camera considers to be “average″.

The way around this is first of all to be aware of the issue and secondly, to switch to “manual white balance”. On manual you can set the camera for daylight, cloud, flash, indoor light etc. By selecting the correct setting you will get he most pleasing and intense result which will mirror the scene you visualised.

But be careful!! - if you set the wrong custom setting (for example daylight when you should be switching to flash) then you will get an artificial and unattractive colour cast.

Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site theshutter.co.uk theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at thephotographysite.blogspot.com thephotographysite.blogspot.com

Most of us have stood in line at a theater at some point in our lives waiting to buy tickets for a show we are desperate to see only to be disappointed when we are informed that they have sold out. Or perhaps we have planned a last minute trip and would like to catch a show when we are in town. The good news is that although the box office may have no tickets left it does not mean that they are not obtainable

There are many reasons we may want to pick up tickets at the last moment. If you are going away for a weekend trip you have an important client that you have to entertain you have a date that you want to impress. Or what if you want the best tickets in the house, but all they have left are seats at the back of the theater? Whatever the reason for the last minute scramble, when you want to buy tickets at the last moment you should be able to find them online at a ticket brokers.

Online ticket brokers can offer you the best seats and tickets for sold out shows. Ticket brokers buy tickets and then resell them. In other words they do the standing in line for you. Therefore you do have to pay them for this service. However if you really want the tickets then it is worth it. Ticket brokers often provide a higher level of service than found at traditional ticket distributors.

Brokers are not scalpers. Scalpers are generally individuals, and not legal businesses, who sell tickets on the day of the event, at the venue, for whatever price they can negotiate at the time. Ticket brokers are legal businesses, do not negotiate prices and adhere to a code of ethics. They sell only legitimate tickets and post refund and cancellation policies.

Respectable ticket brokers have ticket selections for a variety of events. When choosing a broker make sure that they are fully compliant with the law, and licensed in the state that they operate in if it is required. Take a look at their website and make sure you feel comfortable with the broker and that they are operating a legitimate business. Explore the delivery options for your tickets or whether they offer you the option of e-tickets. Look for a ticket broker that will provide you with top notch customer service. Shop around before deciding on the ticket broker that is right for you.

Although you may have left it to the last minute it does not mean that it is too late to obtain the tickets for the event of your choice. Do your research and find a ticket broker that you are comfortable with. These brokers know that good service brings the customer back for more. Therefore you should expect the highest levels of service from your ticket broker.

George McEwan writes for sold-out-theater-tickets.com sold-out-theater-tickets.com a supplier of brokered theater tickets.

Many tattoo enthusiasts would really love to have free tattoo patterns. This is so because people would just prefer them to those to those that you need to pay.

So if you have been looking for great looking free tattoo patterns, don’t worry now. You can get your hands on 4 popular places where you can find these patterns.

1. Photos

Photos are excellent tattoo sources. People rarely see photos as a source of finding free tattoo patterns. People often forget about that these are truly the best source of tattoo patterns but they may just think that they are too plain and cannot give much satisfaction to those extreme tattoo enthusiasts. But these photos can sometimes inspire new tattoo patterns in you and best of all, it’s free.

2. Libraries

People often forget about this huge resource that they have at their disposal. Go to any community library, find those books and get your free tattoo patterns. Don’t forget about the magazines too. These are excellent resources that are free to you.

2. Other Enthusiasts

You can get to know other tattoo enthusiasts by hanging around long enough in those tattoo shops. If you are comfortable about striking up conversations with strangers, then you can go up to anyone with tattoos and compliment him or her about that design. I’m sure they will have lots of tattoo ideas and designs to share with you. This is especially so if you start sharing some of your designs first and ask them what they think about it. You′ll be surprised at how great the people respond your requests.

4. Websites

Sometimes it is just quite hard to find free tattoo patterns websites as they seems to blend into those paid search results that your search engines always display. But if you happen to find one, stick to it as it is quite hard to come across.

But if you want to really search for free tattoo patterns without all the hassles of searching for inspirations through photos, traveling to local libraries, chat up with people and you want it readily compiled for you maybe in a website so that you can easily print it out if you like it. Then I do have a great resource that has helped me all along these years. But I′m sure you can also find them on your own but you just need to search more thoroughly in the internet.

Get your hands on a collection of bestinfonews.com/tattoodesigns thousands of gorgeous high quality tattoo designs all viewable from your comforts of your home and you can print out for your favourite tattoo artist. Remember to get your special FREE Gift: bestinfonews.com/tattoodesigns ‘You And Your Tattoo’

Once you have decided on a theme for your party it is easy to think of fun game ideas, but if you get stuck, free party game ideas are easy to find online. Of course the type of games you will play depends on the type of party, the age of the players, where the party is held, and other factors. Party games and activities add excitement and prevent boredom at parties. Party games and activities include puzzles, physical games, crafts, and brain teasers. Whether it is an adult party, a theme party, birthday, anniversary, wedding, bridal, or baby shower, games will add entertainment to any kind of party.

Party games, especially free party games and activities, are particularly effective when they are set to a certain theme or music, and are especially important at children’s parties where elimination games (such as musical chairs) are played. There should always be fun, quiet games at children’s parties, so if a child is “out” they have something to occupy themselves with, such as free party game theme coloring sheets copied, printed, and made available in a special “quiet” party section. Quiet activities are even needed at outdoor parties such as pool parties.

Free party games often are products of busy imaginations, or creative minds, but don’t feel bad if you need a little help with ideas from books, magazines, or online sources. There are so many fun, free party ideas available, and most of the props needed for the games cost very little or use items readily available in your home. Cutting masks for a Mardi Gras theme part, from black construction paper, and using left over fabrics, beads, sequins, glitter or glue, cost practically nothing, are limited only by the imaginations of the guests.

Cutting party hats for New Years Eve parties, from construction paper and using items you have at home, and white glue to decorate, can be great ideas for the children in your family. New Years celebrations are not only for adults and free party games and crafts can make all the difference, whatever type party you have in mind!

Mrs. Party… Gail Leino is the internet’s leading authority on selecting the best possible partysupplieshut.com party supplies ( partysupplieshut.com partysupplieshut.com), using proper etiquette and manners while also teaching organizational skills and fun facts. The Party Supplies Hut has a huge selection of free party games, coloring pages, word find, word scramble, printable baby and bridal shower activities. Tons of party-games-etc.com Free Party Games (Party-Games-etc.com) for every occasion, birthday, holiday and party theme including free printable games and activities. Plus, over 1,000 free baby shower games, bridal shower games, birthday party games and printable party games for kids parties. All the games have easy instructions. Also, printable activities for kids parties, baby showers, holiday celebrations and bridal showers.

The Canon IXUS 800 IS presents a very stylish look. It has a metal body and the build quality of the camera appears to be good. In terms of features the camera is quite straightforward and is basically a point and shoot camera in a smart shell. In terms of size the IXUS 800 IS will fit into a good sized pocket, but it is just a little on the large size for me to consider it to be a true pocket sized camera. This is a six megapixel model.

Optical image stabilisation is the key feature. This is the first Canon IXUS model to include stabilisation. One of the reasons why image stabilisation is useful in a digital camera is because of the way these cameras are typically held when taking a picture. People tend to use the LCD screen to line up a shot. This causes them to hold the camera away from the body. It is much harder to keep the camera rock steady and the resultant movement can lead to blurred pictures. Image stabilisation can also come in handy for lowlight photos.

The camera has a 4x optical zoom lens. This is a step up from the 3x that is standard for this range. In my opinion when it comes to zoom every little helps.

Other noteworthy features include a large 2.5” LCD screen. The IXUS 800 IS is also one of the decreasing numbers of digital cameras to offer a viewfinder as an alternative method of lining up a shot. There are also a wide range of colour options. These include being able to swap colours and to show a single colour in an otherwise black and white photo.

The IXUS 800 IS also has an advanced movie mode. As well as being able to produce the standard TV quality movies there is also a special second mode. This allows you to take short one minute movies, but with a very fast frames per second speed. The fast recording speed then allows you to playback the movie in slow motion. This feature is popular with people who wish to analyze something like a golf swing.

As with other cameras in the Canon range I do not consider the IXUS 800 IS to be one of the easiest digital cameras to get to know. It can be used in fully automatic mode. Therefore you should have no problem clicking away and taking photos. If you want to dig deeper into the camera it takes a bit longer to find your way around then with other more simple brands such as Sony and Panasonic. It is worth it in the end though.

In terms of picture quality I was impressed with the test shots I managed to take. I regularly find that the images taken with Canon cameras are sharper than with other brands. The IXUS 800 IS confirms this and it is possible to take crisp photos with the camera. It also performed well indoors when the light was not so good. These conditions can cause digital cameras to struggle, but I consider the IXUS 800 IS to be one of the better bets in lowlight. I should point out though that I did have a problem with red eye in portrait shots when I needed to use the flash.

If you are looking for a good quality camera then I am happy to recommend the Canon IXUS 800 IS. In my view it is a clear step up from many of its rivals. It does not come cheap though and it sells at a premium to just about every other digital camera in its class.

This article was provided by Andy Needham of cameras.co.uk/ cameras.co.uk/. Cameras.co.uk provides digital camera reviews, price comparisons and general help for buying digital cameras. There is also a special section where you can ask a question if you would like further help.

For a more detailed review of the camera and to see some sample images please visit cameras.co.uk/camera-reviews/canon-ixus-800-is.cfm cameras.co.uk/camera-reviews/canon-ixus-800-is.cfm