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Red Arrows displays a spectacular aerial show in kuwait

The Red Arrows displayed a spectacular aerial show at the Marina Crescent, Kuwait amid to the thousands of crowd who were spellbound and mesmerized as the Red Hawk with white and blue strips roared the sky and made formation sorties.

The air force aerobatic team of nine men lit up the sky displaying rolls, flying in formation and finally creating a smoke trails in the shape of a heart with an arrow piercing through it.

The Red Arrows currently flies BAE Systems’ Hawk aircraft, and comprises nine display pilots, all of whom are from front-line squadrons. Next year is the 50th display season for the Team, based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, UK and which, since formation, has performed more than 4,500 displays in 54 different countries.

It would have been great if the event would have been over the weekend as many could have attended. I thanked myself, skipping from work and reaching the venue almost in time. I’m not sure if the air show was reduced in time as the initial announcement was scheduled for a hour, but the event curtained in 40 minutes.

Check out the images below taken by Nikon D600 with Sigma 120-400mm f4.5-5.6 DG APO OS HSM

Update: You Tube video added.

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RAF Red Arrows Airshow in Kuwait

Red-Arrows-display The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows Air Show came to an end on Thursday 21st November, in Dubai as part of the major Middle East tour. The men clad in Red uniform performed during the recent concluded Dubai Air Show.

The air force aerobatic team of nine men lit up the sky around the iconic Burj Al Arab with a trail of smoke in the form of a heart, leaving the watching public all along the city in awe.

The team is also expected to perform at Al Ain and in Abu Dhabi, both in the United Arab Emirates and in Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.

The team will be performing tomorrow afternoon in Kuwait close to the Marina Crescent.

It is hoped thousands of people will watch the Red Arrows during the five-week tour of the region. Those at the displays will see the Team’s distinctive red jets perform a series of precision formations and dynamic loops and rolls.

Officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows represent the United Kingdom and have been thrilling crowds, at home and overseas, since the 1960’s.

Date: 26th November, 2013
Venue: Marina Crescent
Time: Between 3:00 – 4:00 pm

The provisional display schedule for the Red Arrows Middle East Tour 2013 as mentioned on their website is below – this is subject to change.

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Sigma announces 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM

Sigma announces 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM “Art” lens to the company’s Art series of lenses designed to offer high image quality. Based on Sigma Press release the SIGMA 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM meets these requirements and is the standard zoom lens offering stable and fine image quality from wide to mid-telephoto range. It has a combination of fixed aperture and a good zoom ratio that is kept as high as possible. Many simulations were carried out before achieving this goal, and made the specification compatible with 35mm full size image sensors. This lens incorporates the OS function and minimizes camera shake effectively.

Here are some of the main feature and specification

Lens Construction: 19 elements in 14 groups
Dimensions (Diameter x Length): 3.5in x 4.3in
Weight: 885g / 31.2oz
Minimum focusing distance: 45cm /17.7in
OS (Optical Stabilizer) functionality
Filter size: 82mm
Maximum magnification ratio: 1:4.6
Angle of view (35mm equivalent): 84.1°-23.3°
HSM delivers high AF speed and quiet performance
Offers F/4 brightness throughout the zoom range
Super Multi-Layer Coating reduces flare and ghosting
Rounded 9-blade diaphragm
Mount conversion service available
Sigma USB Dock compatible

The lens is set to hit the streets in November. The 24-105mm F4 DG OS HSM will be offered for Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Sigma cameras. Pricing has not yet been set.

Sigma has been lately producing some impressive lenses, the 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM “A” series is an award wining sharp lens, the 120-300mm F2.8 DG OS HSM “S” series has received good reviews.

It would be interesting to see how this lens perform against the Nikon AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR and the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 IS USM

Download the copy of the Press Release [here]

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Star Trail Photography

ShutterXpose organised Star Trail Photography and Steel Wool painting (one of the spectacular form of light painting) workshop for it’s members. The weather was perfect and we planned for a long stay at the desert followed by finger licking BBQ dinner arranged by our members. The whole experience was quite successful and lived upto its expectation.

In this post, I would discuss on Star Trail Photography. I plan to post on Steel Wool photography soon.

Photographing a Star Trail is highly rewarding as well a challenge, but with bit of patience the whole experience would be fascinating. The challenge here is you don’t know exactly what the photograph will look especially if you are an amateur and have no previous experience shooting in the dark. The streaks of light which you see in the image here is the light left behind on the sensor from the stars as it travels across the sky with a camera on long exposure. The images which you capture are stationary stars and the rotation of the earth that makes them spin.

If you are planning for star trail photography, you need to find a place typically at the outskirts of the city, so as to be away from the city lights and smoke pollution. Check the calendar to find a day with a moonless night, you can use several smartphone apps like Moon Free or Moon Calendar to help you around.

There are two different approaches to do Star Trail Photography.

One method is to have a single shot, where you mount the camera on a Tripod, compose the shot, dial the shutter to the Bulb mode and keep the shutter open for almost an hour so that the stars create a trail as the earth rotates on its own axis. However the biggest concern is the digital noise due to high ISO and certain cases sensor heat-up in lower end camera models.

The second method is to take multiple frames and “Stack” them later using computer application, which is my preferred method.

Mount the camera on a sturdy tripod, compose the shot, dial the shutter to 20-30 second duration and capture as many as 100 or 150 or even more frames by using a Remote Shutter Release cable so as to avoid any shake, if you have a Mirror-up option in the camera you may use this option so as to capture almost sharp images. Shooting short exposures means less noise, you can shoot with a wide aperture and a faster ISO so that you will be able to capture more stars than the previous method. It is advisable to know the limitation of your camera to handle noise.

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Knowledge Base / Photo Shoots & Workshop 2

Red Bull Car Park Drift – 2013

CPD_KV_FLAGS The Red Bull Car Park Drift is back following the tremendous success of the past three years, you shall be entertained to the one-of-a-kind drifting spectacle and exhilarating performances. Come out and see who will be crowned the Kuwaiti King of Drift in one of the most amazing motor sport spectacles that the region has ever seen.

The competition which is taking place at Parking Lot 4 of the Kuwait International Fair is sponsored by Chevrolet and Bridgestone and in collaboration with the “Quarter Mile” club in Kuwait. It returns once again to provide motor sport lovers in addition to the thrilling show performances, a chance to experience high speed and utmost suspense.

This would be a great opportunity for photographer to capture high speed action. The last I attended was in 2011

Venue: Kuwait International Fair (Parking Lot 4), Mishref

Date: 04th October, 2013

Time: 03:00 pm – 05:00 pm

For more information you can visit their website [Here]

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Celebrate World Photography Day

World Photography Day is all about celebrating photography. Whether you see yourself as an Amateur, Hobbyist or Professional, August 19th is a day to embrace your love of photography.

In 2009, Korske Ara, a passionate young photographer from Australia launched the World Photography Day Project. At 21 years old, Korske had the dream to unite local and global communities in a worldwide celebration of photography.

On August 19th 2010, World Photography Day hosted it’s first global online gallery. With 270 photographs shared and website visitors from over 100 countries, World Photography Day was born.

This history of celebration demonstrates that the passion behind photography is the true foundation of World Photography Day. This website and the project Korske started is igniting and inspiring that existing passion of photographers across the globe.

You can get connected to other photographers or read more about World Photography Day [here] as well as join the growing community at their Facebook page [link]

Picture Credit: Prashanth Shetty Agari Photograph during ShutterXpose Portrait Workshop.

My sincere gratitude to ShutterXpose members and their continuous support. Keep clicking !!!

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Lightroom Workshop

Lightroom Workshop This workshop is for beginers and intermediate user who usually shy away from shooting RAW and using Post Processing tools, the workshops aims at enhancing your knowledge of RAW processing using the Develop Module in Lightroom 4. LR4 powerful process engine improves your images straight from the camera to a more professional feel and sharp image.

Topics covered

Day 01 (31st May, 2013)

* Importing & Organizing Image

* Learning the Menu, Shortcuts, Toolbar feautres

* Developing and Editing Image

– White Balance – Exposure – Tones – Sharpening – B/W Conversions – Image correction –

* Slideshow & Printing

Day 02 (07th June, 2013)

* In-depth on Library Module

* In-depth on Developing & Editing Image

* Using Presets

* External Editing using Plugins (Potraiture, Color Efex, Photo Ninja, Photoshop)

* In-depth Exporting

What to bring:

* Your own Laptop (fully charged for the session)

* Make sure you have installed LR 4 (demo can be downloaded via http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index … oshop_li...)

This course doesn’t cover in-depth knowledge on any of the above mentioned plugin, however steps to export to different plugin application and basic steps of tweaking in different filter shall be covered.

Venue: Better Books Library, Hall 1 – Basement. Near to Gulf Mart (earlier Sanbouk Supermarket), Salmiya

Time: 09:30 am – 12:00 noon

Workshop Fee (both session inclusive): Members (Kd. 15), Non-Members (Kd. 20)

How to Register:

* Shutterxpose members can confirm their attendance in Flickr Group. Payement to be done on or before 31st May, 2013

* Non-Members can Register by sending a confirmation email to admin@shutterxpose.com. Payement to be done on or before 24th May, 2013

* No Refund on No show

Enquires

* For any further enquires, Please send an email to admin@shutterxpose.com

Photo Shoots & Workshop 2

Camera Lens Abbreviations Explained

Camera-Lenses Every Camera lens manufacturers use general acronyms, abbreviations and terminology to best identify lens characteristics and its overall performance. At times they are confusing and as an amateur photographer you would have a daunting task to choose from.

I’ve listed below few lens brands with their native abbreviations and a short description. Hope this helps.

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Knowledge Base 6

Earth Hour 2013 – Kuwait

Kuwait Team 4 Global Warning over the last few years have successfully organized Earth Hour event in the State of Kuwait. Earth Hour has grown from a one-city initiative in 2007 to the world’s largest campaign for the planet, uniting hundreds of millions of people across 7001 cities and towns in 152 countries and territories and is still growing.

Earth Hour is held on 23rd March, 2013 at the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed International Stadium. This would be a full day event with the organizers going in for the countdown with the preparation and other activities to make the event success, although the focus of attention would be at 8:30 pm, when the event would be marked, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for 1 hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

ShutterXpose team were part of the event last year and will be participating this year too as a part of our self commitment to Earth Hour.

Here’s the Official Video of Earth Hour 2013

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Nikon D7100 DX Camera Announced

Nikon has just announced the Nikon D7100, an update to the existing Nikon D7000 DSLR camera. Many DX users were anticipating for the high-end line up in the form of a D400 which was quite actively rumored to be on the horizon, but now seems to be just a rumor.

The new D7100 boost of 24.1 MP DX-format CMOS sensor without an OLPF (AA) filter, better ISO Range, EXPEED 3 image processor same as on the D4, D800 and D600 Full Frame Camera, High speed 6 frames per second, 2,016-pixel RGB (3D Color Matrix) metering sensor, 3.2-inch LCD display that is accompanied by an OLED display within the viewfinder itself and the Twin SD, SDHC, SDXC memory card compatibility.

If you intend to continue using DX body or if you are a new photographer looking for a DX camera, the D7100 is worth a buy in terms of specs, also note the earlier Pro-DX body has never had any updates in the last 4-5 years and the chances for a Pro-DX body release (if there has to be one) looks quite in the distant. The D7100 is available for Pre-order with Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR DX Lens for $1599 and the body alone for $1199.

Check Nikon Press Release [link]

Download Nikon D7100 Brochure in PDF format [here]

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