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EXIF Data

EXIF DataIn 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.

fototalks 2012 – Kuwait

fototalks 2012KWThe 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]

Earth Hour 2012 – Kuwait

Kuwait Earth Hour-2012Inspired 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.

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Kuwait Rally Championship 2012

Kuwait Rally Championship 2012Kuwait 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

Visit to Kuwait International Motocross Challenge 2012

Kuwait International Motorcross Challenge 2012My 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]

Mega Deal on Sigma Lens

Mega Deal on SigmaAAB International Photographic Co. is a photography specialized company with an array of exceptional showrooms distributed throughout the state of Kuwait. They have over 30 years of experience catering to the photographic needs.  AAB has recently acquired the SIGMA product agency here in Kuwait, other than other famous brand which the company already owns. The company vision is impressive and their slogan is quite inspirational “We Rule the Photography World”.

AAB are official distributors for Nikon and Canon Products, Agents for Sigma Lenses, Orkio Bags, Integral Memory Cards, Phottix photo accessories, Praktica Camera, Rollei Cameras. They also sell all types of accessories including battery Grips, Filters, Bags, Tripods, Batteries, Lens caps, Flashes, Flash Triggers, Memory Cards, etc. In addition the Services department, that has all kinds of photo finishing services, digital prints, enlargements, mounting, Converting VHS to DVD their Photo gifts department assist you to print picture on Mugs, Tshirts, plate, pillow, puzzle, calendars. These whole streamline of products make AAB an official Photographic store.

AAB is planning for a real market capture, offering the best deals on all SIGMA product as well on other camera brands and accessories. Their latest 1 day (15th March, 2012 ) deal on Sigma products shall offer almost competitive price to the Amazon store. Mr. Ahmed Burghul, Business Development Manager at AAB is quite positive and feels the initiative taken by the company shall offer photographers the value for their money and in a way assist to continue their hobby. He further goes on to inform that AAB will soon release the Nikon D800 in Kuwait which was recently announced by Nikon.

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Kuwait International Motocross Challenge 2012

The Kuwait International Motocross Challenge 2012 is taking place on Saturday 17th March. This event is organized by Kuwait Quarter Mile Auto & Motorcycle Club and will be held at the recently built racing circuit course in Wafra off the King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Motorway.  The length of the course track is 1600m with a minimum width of 7m. The event is open to all nationalities and is categorized in different classes. This will be a great opportunity for Photo enthusiastic to shoot fast sporting action.

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Adobe LR 4 Released

"Lightroom 4 Release"Adobe team has officially released  “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4” photo management software.  The company had very recently this year released a beta version of the software and now has rolled the final version. I’ve have used Lightroom 3 (LR 3) for my Post Processing and been quite happy with its extensive image management tool which lets you easily import, view, edit  and organize your photographs. Adobe is offering the full version with all its features and future updates for less than $150. You can actually download a full-featured 30 day trial and try before you buy.

Here’s a quick peep on the new features of Lightroom 4 (LR 4) compared to the LR 3, and why you should consider upgrading to LR 4.

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Kuwait MET Department Photography Contest

Kuwait Directorate General of Civil AviationThe Meteorological Department at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Kuwait is pleased to announce its photography contest which will be held as one of the activities celebrating the World Meteorological Day (March 23rd, 2012). The aim of the photography contest is to document the meteorological phenomena occurring in Kuwait and to encourage effective and productive communication between the department and the public.

To participate, your picture must be about a meteorological phenomenon in Kuwait. The last date for submission is March 15, 2012. The winning photos will be sent to the World Metrological Organization. First place winner will receive 100 KD, second place: 75 KD, and third place: 50 KD. Fourth to tenth place will receive 30 KD.

To participate and check the rule and regulation for the contest, check their official photography contest page [here]

Nikon Storms Photo-World with D800/D800E

Nikon D800/D800EAfter months of rumors, Nikon has finally announced the D800 and D800E to their latest DSLR lineup. Both these cameras with Nikon FX-format CMOS sensor can deliver an unbelievable 36.3 effective megapixel. The World’s highest (as of 07th Feb, 2012) in terms of effective megapixels. Nikon claims you can enlarge the image as big as A1 poster-sized prints (59.4 x 841.1 cm/23.4 x33.1 inch) at 200 dpi, or crop aggressively to reach the composition you desire all without sacrificing the detail and tonal range of the original.

Nikon D800 has optimized low-pass filter which reduces false color and moiré when compared to the Nikon D800E, which incorporates an optical filter with all the anti-aliasing properties removed in order to facilitate the sharpest images possible.. This is the only one difference (as claimed by Nikon) between the 2 cameras and perhaps the reason for difference in price too.

The D800/D800E set a new benchmark for high-resolution D-SLR cameras, with crisp clean images across a wide ISO range. Flexibility like this opens up new imaging opportunities for both still photographers and cinematographers alike during the “magic hour”, the time just before dawn or at dusk when available light is often beautiful but scarce. Even at high ISO settings, the camera’s intelligent noise reduction systems manage noise without sacrificing fine details, giving the D800/D800E the edge. High image quality at higher ISOs also means that you can shoot still images handheld more confidently, knowing that fast shutter speeds will reduce blur.

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