Monday, October 29, 2007

Missed Moments

Bad TripodYesterday we drove out to Palisades Parkway in the search of autumn. It took us more then an hour to get there through Manhattan traffic and all the trees turned out to be still green. Instead we found amazing views of Hudson, George Washington Bridge and Manhattan in the background.

However I’m saddened to say that out of over a 100 shots that I took none are even close to resembling how beautiful things really looked. A lot of things are to blame. Sun position wasn’t optimal, a good polarizer would do wonders and a tripod that doesn’t shake when you breath on it would help a lot.

I think I should invest in a new tripod with a good head sooner than later. After listening to recommendations I’m pretty sure that I want to get Manfrotto 055X Pro B for a tripod. As for the head I’m considering Manfrotto 808RC4 3-Way Pan/Tilt Head, but I’m not 100% certain yet. Maybe I should get a ball head instead.

Also today I realized that I never gave a polarizer any serious thought. I really have no idea why, as it is one of the basic things that could dramatically improve the quality of photographs taken outdoors.

Time to start the “budget allocation program” for these things.
In: Photography   Tags: , , ,
Time: 22:27   Comments: 4 Comments   Post a Comment  
1
2
3
4

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Sunday, October 28, 2007

It Really Sucks!

Dyson Vacuum CleanerI’ve just finished vacuuming our rugs and I must say that I was yet again really impressed by the fact that this vacuum cleaner really sucks.

This means two things — that I probably don’t do this as often as I should (as in “must help Alena more often”) and that I really recommend this vacuum cleaner to anybody who needs one. I don’t remember who recommended to get it to us, but extra “thanks” go out to them. Was it Eldar?

This is a Dyson DC14 Vacuum cleaner. We got it several years ago at a local PC Richard & Son store for a very good price because they kept screwing up over and over and sending us to different locations to grab one (after we already paid for it) until a manager of one store finally gave up and just gave us a more expensive model — they just didn’t have the cheap one we paid for in stock anywhere. shock mrgreen
In: Gadgets & Gear   Tags: ,
Time: 15:08   Comments: 1 Comment   Post a Comment  
1

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Raining

Rainy NightIt’s been raining all evening yesterday, then it rained all night, and it’s still raining today. The streets look so unwelcoming today that you just want to stay inside and only glance at it from behind the closed windows covered in rain drops.

But then again, in order to appreciate the sun and blue skies you probably do need to have days like these.

The picture to the left is another HDR completed from a single shot taken in RAW format.
In: Life In General, Photography   Tags: , ,
Time: 15:11   Comments: 2 Comments   Post a Comment  
1
2

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Friday, October 26, 2007

One Shot HDR

Brooklyn View HDRAbove is a result of a small experiment I tried yesterday. Took a single shot from our window in RAW format. Put the file into Photoshop and saved 3 version of it — normal, underexposed and overexposed. After that I put them in Photomatix and generated an HDR image. Pretty good results for something as simple, I think.
In: Photography   Tags: , ,
Time: 13:11   Comments: No Comments   Post a Comment  

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon HikerA couple of weeks ago I was browsing through some old photos and I’ve stumbled upon this little gem. The photo was taken during our Phoenix, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas trip somewhere in October of 2005.

The hiker was just coming up from the bottom of Grand Canyon after a several day stay there. He said that after he’s been to the bottom once he fell in love with Grand Canyon all over again and has been doing this hike every year since.

To those of you who haven’t seen Grand Canyon — you just must. There is just nothing like it anywhere on this planet. One of these days we must look at it from the bottom ourselves as well.
In: Photography, Travel   Tags: , ,
Time: 12:05   Comments: No Comments   Post a Comment  

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Greek Gyro And Pocker

Greek GyroYesterday was a fun day. Well, apart from the visit to the ophthalmologist in order to figure out what’s going on with Danya’s eye (the diagnosis is “floaters”). sad

So after the 2-hours visit to the doctor, we met with Ignat, and took a D train to get to the Greek Gyro place located in Downtown Brooklyn. Now, if you know Danya personally, you probably heard him talking about that place. mrgreen It could’ve been something like “the best gyro I ever had”, or “nobody can make the white sauce like those guys”, or “Ooo, I would so eat that gyro from Greeks now”, or… Read more…
In: Food & Dining, Games & Sport, Life In General   Tags:
Time: 15:27   Comments: 8 Comments   Post a Comment  
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New Rubinary

Rubinary DesignAfter many more evenings and sleepless nights I’m actually very excited to introduce a new version of the blog design.

As you can see I’ve reused several elements from the design that I have decided to scrap, but everything else is brand new. I for one am very happy with the end result. It’s a far superior product compared to the one that I decided not to use.

I would very much like to hear your opinions about this. Things you like, things you don’t like, compliments and constructive criticism, if you notice some glitches or problems. Everything is welcome. I hope you’ll take a couple of moments and leave a comment.

On the tech side of things I want to say that this is my first site with no tables. Everything is done through CSS. Firefox is a great browser, and if you’re not using it yet, you should switch. IE on the other hand took hours upon hours to get right. Also not a single pixel was “borrowed” from somebody, 100% of work was done by me.

Anyhow, as I said, I’m very happy with the end result and I’m waiting for your comments!
In: Software   Tags: , ,
Time: 18:40   Comments: 11 Comments   Post a Comment  
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Chicken Kiev

Chicken KievThis recipe was also provided by one of the very talented housewives of kuking.net - Иша. I tried a couple of her other recipes, but this one is probably my favorite from her repertoire.

Chicnek Kiev Read more…
In: Food & Dining   Tags: , ,
Time: 19:41   Comments: No Comments   Post a Comment  

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Design That Will Never Be

Rubinary v1I spent all my nights and weekends of the past week or two on a new design for the site. I felt it was about the right time to refresh the blog style and make something with the new domain name in mind.

First I built a concept in Photoshop. After I was happy with it I cut the images and put down some code. I haven’t used a single table and did everything using CSS. Now that the site is pretty much done, with the exception of small details I find it that I’m liking it less and less.

I’ve been contemplating killing the redesign for the past 2 days, while trying to improve some of the things that I didn’t like. Now I’ve made the decision. The final product is not good enough. Not my kind of thing I guess.

I figured I’ll post the screenshot of whole thing anyway, considering how much time I spent on it.
In: Software   Tags: , ,
Time: 16:25   Comments: 1 Comment   Post a Comment  
1

Leave a comment

O.o teeth mrgreen neutral -) roll twisted evil crycry cry oops razz mad lol cool -? shock eek sad smile grin