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For this xdrive photo lesson Raj introduces the reader to raw photography as well as explores the advantages and disadvantages of setting the camera to raw.

Some of the disadvantages of using raw are:

  1. size of files and required storage space
  2. requires editing
  3. sluggish burst mode
  4. software required to process files and convert to jpg
  5. sharing images while traveling

On the positive side, raw images allow the photographer to:

  1. recover areas in the image that may be over or under exposed.
  2. easily adjust white balance.
  3. make use of high-end image editing software
  4. ensure that original raw images are not destroyed during the editing process.

Nikon D750   f/7.1   1/400s   35 mm   ISO 400

EmptyName 5
sample of raw image
rawadjusweb2a
raw adjusted image
softwareeditweb
edited image in Nik’s Color Effects

The second set of images were created using:

Nikon D750   f/6.3   1/6s   40 mm   ISO 400

rawtojpgweb2
sample of raw image
rawadjweb2
raw adjusted image
EmptyName-203_HDR
3 raw images edited using Nik’s HDR software

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RAJ’s photo lesson about close ups and macros, encouraged me to create images with my camera set to manual focus, “Remember, only you know the story you are trying to tell, not the camera!”

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Nikon D750  f/6.3 40mm  1/4s  100 ISO

This initial exploration with manual focus brought to mind the summer between the 4th and 5th grade, when I put on my first pair of glasses (Cat Eyes). I can still recall the visual experience of seeing for the first time individualized leaves on trees and multiple shapes and colors of gravel stone…the world, sharpened and focused, was a moment of awe.  Corrective lenses was a means of normalization; yet, there are no words to describe and there are no photographs that can replicate the amazing bokeh of Christmas lights created by astigmatism and myopia.

Nikon D750  f/5  40mm  0.2s  100 ISO

The ease of using auto focus–a reliance upon technology–to create images that satisfy a self-imposed standard has me question if the advancements in genetic, genomic, and reproductive technologies, identified by a UC Berkeley sociologist Troy Duster as a back door to eugenics, to lessen human suffering will also nudge us into a world absent of human uniqueness.

 

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Unable to sleep,

I gaze at the flowers of the bush clover,

as the dew forms on them from the long night,

till suddenly before dawn

they are scattered by the wind.

~Ise Tayu (K Rexroth & I Atsumi, The Burning Heart)

scatteredtayu

 

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May that lady live one thousand years who guards the flowers!

My sleeves are wet with thankful tears

As though I had been working

In a garden of dewy chrysanthemums.

~Murasaki Shikibu (Trans: A Omori & K Doi, Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan)

springrain

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“What is the cause of everything? …everything relies on everything else in order to manifest. A flower has to rely on non-flower elements in order to manifest. If you look deeply into the flower, you can recognize non-flower elements.  Looking into the flower, you recognize the element sunshine; that is a non-flower element. Without sunshine, a flower cannot manifest. Looking at the flower, you recognize the element cloud; that is a non-flower element. Without clouds, the flower cannot manifest. Other elements are essential, such as minerals, soil, the farmer and so on; a multitude of non-flower elects has come together in order to help the flower manifest.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh, No Fear, No Death

springrain2