Departing DC
Last time when I was in DC back in 2005, my cousin took me to a fine Afghan restaurant, where they served great-tasting kebabs that resembled our Uzbek kebabs from back home. The place was so good, that I persuaded my friend Mukhsim to go there for a dinner. The kebabs were so good, that we ended up going there multiple times!
Mount Vernon
After checking out the Great Falls, Mukhsim and I took the advice of my friend Dmitriy and went to Mount Vernon - George Washington's plantation and place of residence in Alexandria, VA.
It was a cold and windy day and the crappy images coming out of my camera were making the day look even worse. I took a few pictures here and there, after which we took off to a nearby Afghan restaurant (more on that later).
Anyway, here is the main view of the house:
RAW vs JPEG
What is RAW format in digital photography? What are the advantages and disadvantages of RAW versus JPEG and why? Should you shoot in RAW or JPEG? Will shooting in RAW complicate your post-production and workflow? These are some of the most common questions that people ask after they buy their first DSLR camera and go through the camera options. Having a thorough understanding of advantages and disadvantages is essential for photographers to make the right decision on whether to use RAW format for their work.
Sand Dunes - Shot in RAW
I remember my first time going through the camera options and reading the Nikon D80 manual, wondering about what RAW does and why I should consider using it. JPEG is a no-brainer - it's the default image format that is used in most point and shoot cameras and we all got used to it and know it very well, seeing and sharing JPEG images online and downloading/uploading them from and to our mobile devices. But there was something about RAW that I wanted to find out about immediately. Maybe it was the word "raw" that sounded intriguing, maybe it was the immediate desire to get the sharpest, highest quality and best pictures ever without knowing much about the camera...whatever it was, I went ahead and changed my camera settings to RAW and tried to take a picture. The first thing I noticed, was how small all of a sudden my memory card became. Wait a second! How come the number of pictures went down from over 700 to under 200? The image looked exactly the same on the LCD and yet it consumed more than three times more memory? Bummer. Then, I took the memory card and inserted it into my laptop. To my surprise, I couldn't even open the darn thing! Worthless, I thought and changed my camera settings back to JPEG.
DNG vs RAW
Should you use DNG or RAW format? This is one of the most important questions that you as a photographer need to ask yourself, because it will definitely affect your digital photography workflow. Every photographer has their own say on whether to use DNG or RAW, but it is important to know the key differences between the two, along with their advantages and disadvantages. In this article, I will provide as much information as I can about both formats, in addition to my opinion and workflow. If you are looking for more information about how RAW images compare to JPEG images, then please read my "RAW vs JPEG" article.
1) What is RAW?
RAW images, also known as "digital negatives" are truly "raw", meaning they are almost unprocessed data coming directly from the camera sensor. Unlike JPEG files that can be easily opened, viewed and printed by most image-viewing/editing programs, RAW is a proprietary format that is tied to the camera manufacturer and sensor, and therefore is not supported by all software products. RAW files preserve the most amount of information about an image and generally contain more colors and dynamic range than other formats.
How to Organize Pictures
I wrote this basic "how to organize pictures" guide for those, who occasionally take pictures with digital cameras and who are looking for ways to organize their photographs on their computers. This is NOT a guide for serious photographers with large catalogs of photographs. If you are a photographer looking for ways to organize your photo library, please see my "how to organize pictures in Lightroom" guide written specifically for serious photography work.
During the last 10 years, all kinds of digital cameras have flooded both traditional and online stores. Today, the market is over-saturated with a wide array of digital cameras for personal and professional use and tough competition among the manufacturers pushed the prices so low, that most US households now own one or more digital cameras. Digital cameras have gotten so popular, that they made their way into our phones and other electronic devices as well. With such a wide array of sources where pictures come from, how do we keep them organized?
Most people do not even bother organizing pictures. They take pictures, leave them on their cameras and mobile devices and use them when needed - to share a picture via Facebook or to send the latest pic to their friends and family. As a result, many pictures get lost and memories are gone forever. So, what should you do to keep your pictures organized and saved?
1) First, find all of your photographs
Start with your computer and try to locate every single picture. Common places to look for photographs are in your "My Documents" or "My Pictures" folders, but you might have pictures in other folders as well. Just search your computer for all files with "JPG" extension and see what it finds. Create a local folder on your desktop and move all your pictures there. If you have other computers/laptops at home, perform the same search and try to find every single picture. Next, go through your mobile devices (iPhone, iPod, Zune, etc) and see if you have any pictures stored there too. Copy them all to your main PC, into the same folder that you created earlier.
How to photograph textures
Texture Photography can sometimes be challenging, since composition, light and depth work differently than in, for example, landscape photography. In texture photography, it's all about patterns, colors and depth, and every single detail of a texture plays a significant role in the overall perception of the photograph. The combination of these intricate details, interesting patterns, vibrant colors and a good depth - all contribute to a beautiful texture.
Water and Stone Texture
A couple of shots from Vegas
I didn't have much time to explore the strip, so there is nothing spectacular, just some architectural stuff. There is a lot to explore in Vegas and there are definitely plenty of opportunities for very interesting shots, so I will definitely plan on exploring Vegas next time I go there.
Couldn't resist to visit the famous Bellagio fountains:
Bellagio Fountains
October snow in Colorado
It is cold outside and it has been snowing for the last three days now, almost non-stop. I went out after 9 PM today to see if I could get some interesting shots, but came back with bad shots, which I decided to post anyway :)
All images were taken without any flash, using available ambient light.
