The Magic of the Cities.

Zen promotes the rediscovery of the obvious, which is so often lost in its familiarity and simplicity. It sees the miraculous in the common and magic in our everyday surroundings. When we are not rushed, and our minds are unclouded by conceptualizations, a veil will sometimes drop, introducing the viewer to a world unseen since childhood. ~ John Greer

Showing posts with label Mexico City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico City. Show all posts

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Thoughts

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think,
all the walks I want to take,
all the books I want to read,
and all the friends I want to see.
John Burroughs 


music+image
Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Tones for Joan






7 Reasons to Shoot RAW by Luis Argerich
1. To store the most from each photo.
This is my #1 reason why photographers should shoot RAW even if they don’t know how to process a RAW file. A RAW contains all the information the camera sensor recorded from the scene; if in the future we learn how to edit our photos better or new applications are created to edit photos, the only way to be able to use these new tools and knowledge in our photos is to keep the RAWs. Even if you don’t do anything with them just store them, disk space is cheap and if you ever need them, then you have them. Imagine a new tool that can do something great to photos but needs a RAW file as the input…
2. To be able to fix White Balance
The camera Auto-WB setting is good but it is never perfect and for some scenes it can go badly wrong. In a previous article I discussed some tools to improve the white balance of your photos. It’s very hard to get a perfect WB in the camera but it’s easy to do it in post-processing. And you can try several different color temperatures and find something you didn’t consider in the shoot. To correct the WB without destroying information you need to shoot RAW.
3. To extend the Dynamic Range
There are several tools and utilities to create HDR images from a single RAW. The explanation is very simple: A RAW contains all the exposure information the camera sensor could capture and that’s more than what a single JPG can represent. So a good piece of software can use that exposure information in the RAW to create a photo with more dynamic range compared to the default JPG that the camera creates.
4. To improve our processing options
There’re several good tools to develop RAW files. Many of those applications can fix distortion, correct chromatic aberration, correct lens softness and do many, many interesting things. They are not a complete solution for a photo-editing workflow but they are a great first step before editing with Photoshop or something else. DxO optics for example can create an image from a RAW file that is far better than a default in-camera JPG.
5. To reduce noise
There are two big advantages about shooting RAW in terms of noise. The first advantage is that you can expose to the right maximizing the signal that the camera gets and thus improving the signal to noise ratio. If you expose to the right you need to shoot RAW to be able to fix the exposure of the shot to something you like. The second advantage is that the RAW processor can apply a first instance of noise-reduction to the RAW file with results that are not as destructive as a noise reduction applied to a JPG. If you shoot frequently in twilight or at night RAW is mandatory to improve your shots.
6. To improve prints
This is as simple as “real pixels are better than software created pixels” when you shoot a photo as you will probably need to do many things before printing. Leveling the shot a little, cropping, changing colors to match the printer profile and of course sharpening. If you do all these things over a JPG you will be editing and modifying a file that is not intended for editing. JPGs are the final step in any workflow, so if you start with a JPG you can’t do anything and we all know that no photo is perfect for printing straight from the camera.
7. Why not?
I left another strong but simple reason for the end. Unless you really need to shoot JPG because you need a certain burst speed or you have a small memory card, there’s really no reason against shooting RAW. You can even shoot RAW + JPG if you want and use the JPG storing the RAW for the future. Shooting JPG is like using a polaroid camera, you lose your negatives and what you get is the final representation of your photo, it has little flexibility.

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Into Oblivion




Zen and the Art of Photography

Wayne Rowe California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Driven by a passion for photography and a fascination with the Zen Buddhist philosophy,
the author conceptually and experientially examines the relationship between Zen Buddhism 
and the art of photography.
Among the subjects discussed:
What is the relationship between haiku and photography?
What is the relationship between the mind of the photographer while creating a photograph and the Zen concept of the Empty Mind?
What role does intuition and feeling play in photography?
In Zen?
Through examination of these concepts and relationships,
the author explains the heightened awareness, joy, and enlightenment he has experienced
through photography and suggests ways that others may share in the creative process.


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Getting Wet 2






Life, like all other games, becomes fun when one realizes that it’s just a game.

Nerijus Stasiulis

music+image
 
Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Inner Colors



Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
Albert Einstein

⇓   

Background Music:
Kenji Ozawa: Sleepers Awake / Mathrimba


Dedicated to Sophia


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Morning Blink



Happy Sunday!

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Clown



Do anything, but let it produce joy.
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Luciernagas / Fireflies



“What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
~Crowfoot


music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Fine Arts Palace



Art

I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.
::: Mark Rothko :::

O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.
::: Jim Morrison :::

There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.
::: Henry Moore ::: 

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
::: 
John Lennon ::: 

To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.
::: Giorgio de Chirico ::: 

I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso.
::: Diego Rivera ::: 

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.
::: Eckhart Tolle :::


Happy Light Day!

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Fire From Within



If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.
~Buddha

music+image

Thanks for visiting, please be sure that I read each and every one of your kind comments, I appreciate them all. Stay tuned.