Yesterday 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.

1

Alex says:
October 30, 2007 @ 17:35

Just so you know, Manfrotto and Velbon are the same company. And the best place to get those is probably B&H.

2

Alex says:
October 30, 2007 @ 17:41

Wait… I think i meant Bogen. And I see now those links are from B&H. Yeah, so… pretty much ignore what i said.

3

Alex says:
October 30, 2007 @ 17:50

Ok, here’s a better tip… The next time they shoot a movie in Manhattan (they do it fairly often near Union Square, you’ll notice a shed or two with piles… hunreds of very nice tripods. And there’s hardly anyone there. So just grab one and run:) They’re usually neatly arranged by size, so be sure to grab the right one:)

4

Daniel says:
October 30, 2007 @ 22:51

Thanks.

Actually Bogen is a distributer for Manfrotto products in the U.S.

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

I’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.

1

Таня says:
November 7, 2007 @ 13:40

Хорошее название топика : ))) Я его увидела в списке до того, как увидела картинку : )

Я уже рассказывала, у нас в метро одно время висела реклама одного пылесоса повсюду: “Сосу за копейки”. Но уж не знаю, как он sucks

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

It’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.

1

Таня says:
November 7, 2007 @ 13:51

А по фотографии и не скажешь, что так уж и не уютно…

2

Rainy Day » Rubinary Blog says:
May 9, 2008 @ 17:54

[…] another photograph from my favorite series it seems. It’s been a rainy day, but unlike usually rainy days this one doesn’t seem […]

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

Above 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.

A 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.

Yesterday 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”).

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. 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…

1

Alex says:
October 22, 2007 @ 00:28

Shh… Ahem… To all FBI agents who read this, she was only kidding about the “real money” part. Heh, heh. *nervous laughter*

2

Mike says:
October 22, 2007 @ 15:36

Gyro tam xoroshoe. V starit vremena mi tyda na mashine za gyrom ecdili. Etot place ctoit $7 kak ya pomnu.

3

Daniel says:
October 22, 2007 @ 15:47

Уже $8.50 с Snapple. Инфляция.

4

Alex says:
October 22, 2007 @ 16:04

Btw, about that diagnosis… Floaters is the symptom, not the cause. It’s like going to a doctor and complaining that your leg hurts, and the doctor would say “well what you got there is leg pain”. I find it very strange when doctors say stuff like that, but I guess I’m not really surprised. I’ve been told by doctors that my chipped tooth will grow back, and that “it’s not acne, it’s pimples”.

5

Daniel says:
October 22, 2007 @ 18:35

I’m going to try to see another doctor tomorrow. She checked my eyes and said that she doesn’t see anything serious like “retinal detachment”, but I better make sure, even though I do have 2 eyes.

6

Alex says:
October 22, 2007 @ 19:33

Nah, I’m sure she’s right that it’s nothing serious. Unless it gets worse, stick with that. I just don’t understand why they give the name of the symptom as diagnosis. Maybe “floaters” sounds less scary than something like “posterior vitreous detachment”.

7

Victoria says:
October 23, 2007 @ 15:40

You had a nice Sunday! I wish I had been there…

8

Jury Duty » Rubinary Blog says:
May 22, 2008 @ 17:29

[…] something to do — until the battery dies. Update: At lunch I ended up going to my favorite gyro place in New York, which means that the day didn’t uselessly go by. Then an hour after the lunch […]

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

After 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!

1

Artem says:
October 18, 2007 @ 20:18

Hey man! Congrats with release, looks pretty neat!

2

Daniel says:
October 18, 2007 @ 20:23

Thanks, I tried. Try turning off CSS. Or click on the photo of Alena and I on the top.

3

Ufly says:
October 19, 2007 @ 09:29

New design looks really nice. I like it.

I see that you have discarded Snapple and replaced it with can

4

Daniel says:
October 19, 2007 @ 12:35

Wow, какие люди!

Yeah, people didn’t understand why Snapple was there Geoff mentioned that somebody’s brand was too prominently shown next to our own logo.

The can is that of a Red Bull. Much cooler then Snapple.

5

Alex says:
October 19, 2007 @ 12:35

You discarded a Snapple bottle?! NooooooooOOOo!

Nice touch on the comment boxes. Very cool.

6

Alex says:
October 19, 2007 @ 12:36

Makes me wonder… what if the number of comments shoots over 99999999? Well, only one way to find out.

7

Daniel says:
October 19, 2007 @ 12:38

Yeah, not going to happen!

By the way, this comment design was what made me discard the first attempt. It came out too cool looking, and everything else started looking “not so hot”.

8