ExpertDabbler

Another from Fujichrome days. My 10th standard days. Appo dhaan PC Sreeram parka arambicha neram  

Chumma… early morning scenery… Film - 20 rupees Fujichrome :)) Not very different from Vivek’s five rupees Kakka briyani but a good one though…
 

My Friend by name Shaiju. Whats so special? Well..nothing except the only lightsource for this photograph was one Tungsten head in the emergency lamp at home. And it was hand-held.
Shutter speed was 1/4 or thereabouts. Got this with minimal hand-shake after wasting 3/4 photos.
Needless to say, his mom did not like it one bit.
“Ayye, enna orey irutta irukku? Shaiju mogame theriyalai” was her exact feedback…
Again, Mani Ratnam hangover :))

Rain drops in a TV Antennae. Early Morning photograph  

Amma. This picture was taken a good 15 years back:) as Amma was watching TV in a relaxed manner
Film - Fujichrome. Scanned in the year 2000 using an expensive slide scanner after it got so many scratches that it was almost bleeding  

Came across this in Popular Photography website.

12 essential facts, formulas, and photographic rules

What happens when your systems go belly-up, when all of that cutting-edge technology dies and you must rely on (gasp!) your own knowledge? It pays to have these basics in your head. They can get you out of a jam and help you get good shots when nothing else will.

1. Sunny 16 rule
The basic exposure for an average scene taken on a bright, sunny day is f/16 at a shutter speed equivalent to one over the ISO setting—that is, f/16 at 1/100 sec at ISO 100. From this you can interpolate, and try f/22 at the beach, f/11 on a cloudy-bright day, etc.

2. Moony 11, 8, and 5.6 rules
There are many different rules that work well when shooting the moon. One favorite for a proper exposure of a full moon is f/11 at one over the ISO setting. For pictures of a half moon, use the same shutter speed at f/8, and for a quarter moon, use the same shutter speed at f/5.6.

3. Camera shake rule
The slowest shutter speed at which you can safely handhold a camera is one over the focal length of the lens in use. As shutter speeds get slower, camera shake is likely to result in an increasing loss of sharpness. So, if you’re using a 50mm lens, shoot at 1/60 sec or faster. Not enough light? Use a flash, tripod, or brace your camera against a solid object.

4. Anatomical gray card
Metering off an 18-percent neutral gray card is a good way to get a midtone reading that will give you a good overall exposure of a scene. Forgot your gray card? Hold your open hand up so it’s facing the light, take a reading off your palm, open up one stop, and shoot. (Various skin tones rarely account for even a full-stop difference.)

5. Depth of field rules
When focusing on a deep subject, focus on a point about a third of the way into the picture to maximize depth of field, because the depth-of-field zone behind that point is about twice as deep as the depth-of-field zone in front of it. This works for all apertures and focal lengths, but the smaller the aperture and the shorter the focal length, and the greater the distance you shoot at, the greater the depth of field.

6. Largest digital print rule
To calculate in inches the largest photo-quality print you can make with a digital camera, divide the vertical and horizontal pixel counts (see your manual) by 200. For critical applications, or if you want exhibition-quality prints, divide the pixel counts by 250.

7. Exposure rules
The classic advice is, “Expose for the highlights, and let the shadows take care of themselves.” This works with slide film and digital. But with negative film, especially color negative, you’re better off overexposing by one stop.

8. Quick flash-fill rule
When using an automatic flash unit that doesn’t provide auto flash-fill ratios, set the flash’s ISO dial to twice the ISO you’re using. Meter the scene, select an f-stop, set the autoflash aperture to the same f-stop, and shoot. The resulting 2:1 flash-fill ratio will produce filled shadows one stop darker than the main subject.

9. Flash range rule
Want to know how much extra flash range you get by going to a faster ISO? The rule is, “Double the distance, four times the speed.” For example: If your flash is good to 20 feet at ISO 100 (film or digital), it will be good to 40 feet at ISO 400.

10. Megapixel multiplier rule
To double the resolution in a digital camera, you must increase the number of megapixels by a factor of four—not two. Why? The number of pixels in both the vertical and horizontal dimensions must be doubled to double the pixel density across the image sensor.

11. Action-stopping rules
To stop action moving across the frame that’s perpendicular to the lens axis, you need shutter speeds two stops faster than action moving toward or away from you. For action moving at a 45-degree angle to the lens axis, you can use a shutter speed one stop slower. For example: If a person running toward you at moderate speed can be stopped at 1/125 sec, you’ll need a shutter speed of 1/500 sec to stop the subject moving across the frame, and a shutter speed of 1/250 sec to stop him if moving obliquely with respect to the camera.

12. Sunset rule
To get a properly exposed sunset, meter the area directly above the sun (without including the sun). If you want the scene to look like it’s a half-hour later, stop down by one f-stop, or set exposure compensation to minus one.

Thought this would be useful for every budding photographer
Article Link

I am as close to technology as Goundamani is to Gwyneth Paltrow. So I hardly write about it. But this XAML thingie sure caught my eye. XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) is an XML based Markup language developed by Microsoft.

XAML along with WPF will herald a new era in UI design and development in the Microsoft platform.
Going forward, this declarative language will be used for developing UI in both desktop and web applications. Due to its versatility in being applied to both environments, it will ultimately eliminate the need for programmers to learn HTML, Flash, and PDF.

Some features of XAML

2D animation like SVG does, but it also has extensive ‘Absolute’ and ‘Relative’ storyboard timeline elements for controlling animation.

3D Objects, camera, lighting types, materials and 3D animation via Markup.

Any 2D/3D XAML animation and video can be ‘played on any other 2D or 3D object.

For logically challenged guys like me, Microsoft is coming up with a new tool called “Sparkle” under the Expressions suite of tools.

http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/default.aspx

As is always the case with Microsoft, Bill Gates will not just give the banana. He will peel the skin, bring it closer to your mouth, will politely ask you to open your mouth and then… thats the extent Microsoft backs developers working on its platform.

Technology engeyo poitirukku. Naama SJ Suryah pathi eludhittu irukkom. Velangina madhiri dhaan……

The only SJ Suryah movie i have seen till date is “Kushi”.
I did not watch his much talked about first film “Vaali”, nor the “New” and now “Ah…Aah”. I have no intention to - thats a different matter.

There are two aspects to it in my opinion. One is what the audience would have felt on seeing his “New” which was a new high in dirty jokes when they would have gone expecting something like “Kushi”. Maybe the audience would have gone to the theatres with their families and their feelings are understandable.
But even then, there are a host of reviews available. No magazine ever wrote “New” was a clean family entertainer.

But once having realised the kind of movies he makes, whats the big deal in kicking his ass all the time? I think its high time, the media and the people be clear in what they want and do well to see movies which are digestable to their tastes rather than banging Suryah left right and middle and giving sermons about culture,panpaadu, kalachaaram etc.

We all know the number of Aids patients in India. We also know that not all got it through Blood Tranfusion. So i think its high time we at least try to be less pretentious than what we are now.

Soft-porn…well thats debatable, assuming its soft-porn what compells people to watch? If you feel a soft-porn is a no-no then maybe better stay away from such movies. Why should it be done with such a hue and cry and make Suryah look like a burglar?
why not a soft-porn movie for a soft-porn seeking audience?
Why is that all movies should be watchable by the whole family all the time?
You don’t watch “Basic Instinct” with your family, do you?

Having said that, i did not like the way he handled the censor issue. He side-stepped the law and went ahead and exhibited footage cut by the censor board and assaulted the Censor board lady. That was cheap.

Now things are taking a political turn as Mr. Natarajan - Sasikala’s husband wants to support and protect Suryah since they belong to the same community. Apparently such open guestures would always go down well with the Tamil Panpaadu, kalachaaram. No media would ever take on natarajan for obvious reasons.

Nobody would dare to question him now. Vaazhga thamizhar veeram!

Once upon a time, when Doordarshan was popular and when PK managed to take shelter in schools durng rainy days, there used to be a program called The World This week by Prannoy Roy.

Now, i am not sure if a program of such calibre will come through in any other channel leave alone DD. It captured the main events of the week across the globe quite succintly and crisply.

But blogger folks, if ever you miss your morning newspapers, dont you worry, we still have Kaps.

This man is a news agency. I wonder how he manages to track so many news sites, portal, bloggers all at the same time.

There is hardly anything available about him online. Only those who have seen him can tell. But he has done a great service to bloggers. If i feel i am not following my newspapers regualarly, i know a visit to sambharmafia will get me upto speed.

Hats off kaps.

In Czechoslovakia, there is a church that has a chandelier made of human bones.

There is a town name called “F**king in Austria - ada nijamaa makkaley!
(So, the next time you use that word in frustration and if someone frowns, just say its a town :D)

55 per cent of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn. Reading about yawning makes most people yawn.

The word “listen” contains the same letters as the word “silent”.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places.

The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.

When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a “portmanteau.”

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321.

GOLF means ‘Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden’.

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.o?= Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month we know today as the honeymoon.

Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what their birthplace.

The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000

(There are actually 13 thukkadas. But then one thukkada fact comes free as a thukkada for every dozen)