Photography Basics
"Camera Settings"

Having a point and shoot and a a SLR Digital cameras.

I found out they have many of the same settings.
Understanding these setting and how they work is one of the fundamentals of photography.
I'm learning that without of this knowledge I will never be able to take my shots to the next level that custom setting offer, one of my critical mistake a made a the beginning was use the auto modes on my cameras of course I learned it is fine for simple snapshots, actual photography requires much more than that.

The Art of photography

Photography is the Art science and practice of creating pictures by recording radiation using mediums such as photography film, and electronic image sensors

Point of View in Photography

Point of view in photography simply means the position from which the camera sees the scene. Are you looking down or up on the subject? How close are you to the subject? Is there anything between you and the subject? Every decision you make about point of view will change how your viewer sees the photo.

Juxtaposition
Regardless of what point of view you chose when taking a photo, remember the power of juxtaposition. Shooting a subject from an "unexpected" angle will have more impact than the viewing angle encountered in every day life. For example, looking up at an ant will have much more visual impact than looking down on an ant. Or an eye-level shot of a bird is much more powerful than looking up a bird in a tree.

Becoming the Subject
A powerful point of view is becoming the subject. This means that you shoot the photo from the angle of the subject. For example, a shot of surgery shown as though you were looking through the surgeon's eyes (patient and surgeon's hands visible but not the surgeon's face/body). These shots allow the viewer to feel like they are experiencing the event first hand.

Shooting From Eye Level
Shooting a photo from eye level of the subject is the quickest way to help your viewers connect emotionally with a photo subject. By literally putting the subject on "their level" you create an instinctual response because usually only other people of the same age are at roughly eye level with a person. This means that our instinctual response to a subject of eye level is to personify that subject even if it is not human.

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Photography 101

Although I am not a professional photographer; I love take picture when ever I have free time to be a turist in the city, I do really enjoy taking pictures, would like to share some of my personal notes, little photography knowledge.
Photography is a great hobby for a person of any age, background or ability. With Today's technology, all you need to get started is a basic digital camera. Although I would recommend a minimum of 6 mega pixels.

After purchasing your camera it is important to thoroughly read the enclosed manual as many times you needed and understand the basic controls and the camera's capabilities, very important to learn your cam's controls. Now, you are to start taking pictures.

First step as a photographer should be to check camera settings. Next, decide on your subject matter. start visualizing your composition. Figure out how to bring all the components together to take a good picture.

Photographers specialize in several different areas; such as landscapes, marinescapes, wildlife and portrait work. The lighting and camera controls will be slightly different for each of these. First I would recommend playing with composition. There are several rules in taking a good picture.

Basic camera controls

A brief overview of all the major digital camera controls,
recommendations about which settings to use in various shooting scenarios. May want to have your camera manual handy so that you can confirm whether your camera offers a particular option, and if so, how you activate that feature.

Image Resolution

The resolution control determines the number of pixels that your camera uses to produce a picture. Some digicams offer tree or more options.
The term megapixel means one million pixels. if you multiply 2288×1712 pixels, you get roughly 3.9 million pixels, or 3.9 megapixels which can round up to 4 megapixels.

Compression
Compression is a bit of software manipulation done to reduce the file size of a digital image.
Compression enables you to fit more pictures into your available camera memory. Be aware, however, that the more compression you apply, the more you sacrifice image quality.
As is the case with a low-resolution image, a highly compressed image may appear only slightly degraded if printed at a small size and on uncoated paper stock.

Creative Impact
With film imagine, you know that the larger the film negative, the more you can enlarge the photo without losing sharpness and detail.
You can make a similar connection between pixel count and print size. The more pixels you capture, the larger you can print your photo without a noticeable loss of quality.

Manual exposure controls.
When you take a picture, three camera components affect exposure:

Aperture:
The aperture is an iris in the lens that can be adjusted in size to control how muh light enters through the lens. Aperture size is represented by f-numbers and written with the letter f followed by a slash and the f-number–for example, f/2.8 The higher the f-number, the smaller the aperture size. The aperture settings themselves are referred to as f-stops.

Shutter speed,:
The shutter is like a window shade behind the camera lens. When you take a picture, the shutter opens briefly to allow light to enter through the lens and strike the camera’s image sensor. Shutter speed refers to how long the shutter remains open. The slower the shutter speed, the more light the sensor soaks up.

ISO rating:
ISO ratings are used to indicate the light sensitivity of the image sensor. The higher the ISO number, the greater the light sensitivity, and the less light is required to expose the image.

The Winter Sky: Planets, Stars and Cool Shapes

The Cold sky

New York's Architecture Series:

International Plaza

International Plaza:
A World Class Office Tower
Premier Location, Located steps from Park Avenue in Manhattan's Plaza District.

International Plaza is an outstanding world-class office and retail tower designed by world renowned architect Helmut Jahn. Situated across the street from Bloomingdales and Bloomberg's new world headquarters, International Plaza is steps away from a vast number of world class points of interest, hotels, restaurants, and elegant shops.

The main lobby, entered on East 59th Street, is a powerful composition of glass, marble and granite. Staffed by round-the-clock security personnel, it is a striking 30' high area, topped by a backlit atrium. 8 elevators serve the 31 floors.

Offering unparalleled security, state-of-the-art mechanical systems, and all of the first-class amenities imaginable, International Plaza is a rare business environment in a class by itself.

New York Architecture' Series:

Astor Place Tower

Pictures and a brieg history of some of buildings in New York City. There are many interesting buildings in the city. These are some of the ones i really like. I would like to continue with
The Astor Place Tower
This residential condominium tower is one of the most distinctive in the city.
Built in 2006
39 Apartments
21 Floors

Located in the heart of one of downtown's most eclectic and culturally enriched neighborhoods, amid landmarks that include The Public Theater and The Cooper Union, Astor Place at 445 Lafayette Street is an unprecedented Sculpture for Living designed by two of America's most renowned modern architects, Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel.

Urban life in 1st century Roman cities

Two thousand years ago, at the dawn of the first century, the world was ruled from Rome.
From England to Africa and from Syria to Spain, one in every four people on earth lived and died under Roman law.


Roman cities Roman city is basically composed by a number of identical components, were planned with two major streets running East –West and North-South intersecting at the forum, which was the center of commerce in the city
The forum was made with two Insular put together. There are a few temples in the Forum. They are the temples of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The other side of the forum was a place to meet for people.
Urban design of Roman cities The Romans achieved originality in building very late in their existence; for the whole of the republican period, Roman architecture was a nearly exact copy of that of Greece, aside from the Etruscan contribution of the arch, and its later three-dimensional counterpart, the dome Many European cities still bear reminders of the power of ancient Rome, and throughout the western world the influence of Roman power is still manifest. Architecture was crucial to the success of Rome.

New York's Architecture Series:

Flatiron Building

Pictures and a brief history of some of buildings in New York City. There are many interesting buildings in the city. These are some of the ones i really like. I would like to start with The Fuller Building known as Flatiron Building
Will try to post good pics.

Flatiron Building



The Fuller Building or as it is better known, the Flatiron Building, is in the borough of Manhattan, and was one of the tallest buildings in New York City upon its completion in 1902. The building, at 175 Fifth Avenue, sits on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, facing Madison Square.

New "Wonders Of The World"

Interesting enough, we have New Wonders of the world...The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan and Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer are among the modern-day seven wonders of the world chosen in a poll of 100 million online voters, organizers said on Saturday.

Enjoy the Photo gallary
learn

Access 2.0 Accesible Digital Life

I found a blog may be helpfull to you. Check it out?
Is your digital life limited by bad web access? Gizmos, gadgets, toys and bad interne experience tinclusivity Paul Crichton has a blog you need to see it for yourself.
Gizmos, Gadgets and toys

On the same note, i have found other sites can be useful to you, worth while to visit them:

Accessify
ww.W3
Molly.com
Box of Chocalates

Neutron Stars Spew Like Black Holes

Wow, very interesting finding! Read more about Neutron Stars
Image: NASA/CXC/U. of Wisc/S. Heinz et al.

Physics promises wireless power

Here is something, really caught my attention.
The tangle of cables and plugs I've in my work station, it is way to messy, I really fix up every week. Somehow it must be done every week. All my machinery wouldn't work with out all these cables and plugs needed to recharge today's electronic gadgets that i have in my station. Could soon be a thing of the past. It would very awesome!
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Maximizing Survival Time Inside the Event Horizon of a Black Hole

image credit to NASA
Think about it

image by
Nasa
Chinese space technology is threatening United States space superiority.
Here it is another interesting article about space
Who will win?

What We Don't Know

Very interesting what it is that we don't know?
What We Don't Know

Astronomers Create 3D Map of Dark Matter

As you know one of my favorite subjects is the universe. This new advance exploration of the universe had accomplished the mapping of the black matter. It is very intriguing

Astronomers have mapped the positions of vast, invisible isles of dark matter in the sky, within which normal "bright" matter galaxies are embedded like glittering gems. The three-dimensional map[image] spans not only space, but also time, and stretches back to when the universe was only about half its present age.

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Will space save the race?

A follow up story of professor Hawking, Professor Hawking sparks debate on humans' future on Earth.

COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE



Professor Hawking

Pluto's Newest Moons Named Hydra and Nix

-- Pluto's Newest Moons
Hydra and Nix

Hydra and Nix

Human Colonization of Other Planets...

Professor Hawking " The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe". Wow, what a statement, very interesting for Stephen Hawking to say we need to find housing on other planets such Mars, not to memtioned next door The Moon.



Stephen Hawking