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.

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.

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.