In film era, photographers would record information such as shutter speed and aperture based on events and type of photography. Today this typical information is stored digitally in the form of Metadata, a term for descriptive information embedded inside an image or other type of files. Metadata are quite important in this age of digital photography, as information are stored with the file and are portable and convenient.
Metadata captured by your camera is called EXIF Data, which stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. Every modern digital camera has the capability to record this information and almost most digital photo software can display EXIF information. EXIF Data contains a range of setting such as Image ID, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, focal length, metering mode, Exposure bias, camera model, lens make and much more.
EXIF data is a great tool for beginners and other level of photographers to find out settings of image they admire from other photographers. EXIF information can be read only from JPEG format images. For RAW, GIF and PNG files, the image needs to be converted to JPEG.
Some photographers choose to strip EXIF Data from their images. Photo software’s including the best online photo management applications like “Flickr” provides users the ability to switch on/off EXIF Data. To read EXIF data on PC, right click on the image and select properties, on the image dialog box select the Details tab. To read EXIF Data with free viewers like Irfanview, open the image, click the Image menu and select Information, go down to the bottom of the dialog box and select EXIF info at the left and select OK. There are many other free viewers as well as browser add-on available to read EXIF Data.
The Shot Lounge is organizing the biggest photography event “fototalks 2012” in Kuwait. fototalks is an annual event that sheds lights on photographers from Kuwait, Gulf Region, Middle East and the world, that worth to be noticed and recognized. In its maiden event, fototalks will include seminars, workshops and photo challenge over a 2 days program on the 16th & 17th of April,2012 at the GUST Auditorium (W6 500), West Mishref Campus.
fototalks mission is to empower photographers and expose them to be known and give them the chance to share the messages they capture through their eyes with others. The seminar and workshops will be conducted by professional photographers with their expertise in Wild Life, Sports, Children & Portrait, Commercial, Photojournalism and Food photography. The program also includes workshop on Timelapse and Post Processing.
The program is conducted in the evening from 05:00 – 10:00 pm, this makes it ideal for all intrested photographers, videographers, media persons as well others to join the event after office hours. For more information on the schedule of the program, cost of ticket and to register follow the link to their website [here]
Inspired by the first Earth Hour in Sydney, in 2008 a group of engineering students at Kuwait University aspired to spread awareness about global warming and to take action on climate change. Living in an oil-producing country is a great economic privilege, however, it raises important concerns about the amounts of carbon emissions. The Kuwaiti Team for Global Warming was established to encourage the people of Kuwait to embrace environmental change in order to balance the effects of oil production. Their aim was to organise Earth Hour in Kuwait and to motivate the people of Kuwait to engage in this global contribution of reducing carbon emissions.
In 2009, the team introduced the idea of Earth Hour to the public by organising an event in a public area overlying Kuwait Towers. The significance of reducing electricity consumption for only an hour was explained by the team members to authorised individuals of the main landmarks of Kuwait – these include Kuwait Towers, Liberation Tower, The Scientific Center as well as over twenty-six malls, embassies, hotels, companies and professional associations. Several non-profit organisations and societies participated in the event to educate people about other environmental aspects and the importance of volunteer work. The team’s work is not only exclusive to organising Earth Hour, they also believe in the concept of reducing carbon emissions beyond the hour. The team contributes towards educating the youth about global warming and climate change by giving lectures and seminars at schools and universities. Furthermore, the members of the team engage in various environmental exhibitions and conferences as well as beach clean-ups. The Kuwaiti Team for Global Warming has also inspired organisations to adopt the idea of Earth Hour and has supported its application in the State of Kuwait during Environmental Day, which took place on February 27th 2012, naming it the Environmental Hour.
Kuwait Motor Racing Club (K.M.R.C) is organizing the 4th Round of Kuwait Rally Championship 2012 on Saturday 24th March in Julaia’a, behind Bnaider Mosque. This should be a great opportunity for photographers to capture yet another sporting action after the recently held Kuwait International Motocross Challenge 2012. If you missed the earlier action, it’s time to catch some action thrills now. To know more on the program detail, click [here]
Organiser Facebook page, click [link]
Photo source: Dherar Al Rshoud, Kuwait Motorsport
My first ever visit to an International Motocross Bike Race was with mixed emotion of happiness and pride. Sure you judged the reason for my happiness, but the pride was for a simple reason of having an Indian rider “Jinan Chellikkattil Dasan” representing my country at an International Level and the final icing with a win in the 4th place. Jinan who represented the Liberty Kawasaki team from UAE, hails from Thrissur in Kerala. A total of 22 countries featuring 45 contestants participated in this tournament including teams from US, France, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, South Africa, Switzerland and Belgium.
The day as forecasted turned dusty with strong winds by noon, with my commitment back to office I packed my camera gears, only after witnessing few spectacular moments of passion, speed, control and power. The event was well organized and witnessed by more of photographers from Media, Groups, as well as Individuals and Blogger’s, but lacked the general spectators. The reason could be the unpredictable weather…. (as usual over the weekends).
Overall, I did have a good time and also had the opportunity to meet few fellow photographers.
Winners:
1st place – Chris Moakley, Switzerland (MX1 Class), Mohammad Jaffar, Kuwait (MX2 Class) and Sulaiman Al-Mislem, Kuwait (ClubMan Class)
For photos of the event you can visit my Flickr set [here]
