Travel photography in Las Vegas

Travel photography in Las Vegas, is little tricky. The lighting condition changes so abruptly, it is hard to keep up with lighting. If photography is the sole purpose of the Las Vegas trip then I guess it is not all that difficult, but if you are are a travel photographer like me, lighting can be very challenging. Each place has its own different lighting situation. Sometimes the light seems superfluous, sometimes it feels like creepy. Here are some things I learned in my last Las Vegas trip:

Keep a small bounce flash. Bounce flash is very useful is Vegas. Chances are high that you are taking indoor photographs, in that case bounce flash is really useful. You can definitely carry a large flash but if you want to travel light, bounce flash works just fine. I used SB-400 in my last trip and it served well.

Keep a careful eye on ISO. ISO is really important in Vegas. Each lighting situation deserves different ISO setting. The other two things of the triangle is pretty important as well. Carrying a monopod could be useful, but I used available camera supports (nearest wall or glass) for my pictures. But I definitely recommend something light, like monopod.

If you can keep up with white balance well, then no problem; otherwise I strongly recommend shooting raw. So that you don't have to worry about white balance. Otherwise white balance is another thing to worry about. Each place has its very different light, some are warm some are cool. Fixing white balance on-the-fly requires significant skill. You may ruin your trip messing with your camera settings. Hence, my recommendation is: shoot raw and fix the white balance later.

Play with frame ratio. Square frame or full frame could be very interesting as well. The good thing about Vegas, you can find all kinds of pictures for all sorts of frame ratio. Composition is the most important part of travel photography, at least to me. Frame size plays key role in composition. Don't get scared of experimenting with frame ratio. Experimenting with frame ratio could be very rewarding.

Finally and most importantly, don't ruin your trip in photography. There are other ways of enjoying Vegas, not just taking stunning pictures. Most importantly have fun in Vegas, don't ruin your entire trip on just the photography. 

Skalds And Shadows

Would you believe in a night like this?

A night like this, when visions come true

Would you believe in a tale like this

A lay of bliss, we're praising the old lore

Come to the blazing fire and

See me in the shadows

See me in the shadows

Songs I will sing

Of runes and rings

Just hand me my harp

And this night turns into myth

Nothing seems real

You soon will feel

The world we live in is another skald's

Dream in the shadows

Dream in the shadows

Do you believe there is sense in it

Is it truth or myth

They're one in my rhymes

Nobody knows the meaning behind

The weaver's line

Well nobody else but the Norns can

See through the blazing fires of time and

All things will procede as the child of the hallowed

Will speak to you now

See me in the shadows

See me in the shadows

Songs I will sing of tribes and kings

The carrion bird and the hall of the slain

Nothing seems real

You soon will feel

The world we live in is another skald's

Dream in the shadows

Dream in the shadows

Do not fear for my reason

There's nothing to hide

How bitter your treason

How bitter the lie

Remember the runes and remember the light

All I ever want is to be at your side

We gladden the raven now I will

Run through the blazing fires

That's my choice

Cause things shall procede as foreseen

[Blind Guardian]

Going back from Vegas

Vegas is the ultimate fun place. My Vegas trip this year was a total disaster. We were is Vegas for three nights. First the hotel! I don't wanna talk about it. All I want to say, you are spending so much for the trip, do yourself a favor, don't pick super secret hotel from travelocity.

It would have been not that bad, if only the hotel is the problem. I feel like it is one of the worst trip I have ever had. From the very moment I saw lipa, I felt like I don't know her anymore. I was feeling like everything is a big dream and everything gonna go away once I awake. It was a terrible feeling. I didn't know I was missing her so much. Bit then once I met her, I felt like I didn't know her at all. I kept feeling like everything is temporary, part of a big dream. I did not know feeling something temporary could be so terrible.

And then most part of the trip I kept thinking that why I am feeling so bad. Finally, I realize it is the feeling, feeling something transient, that is bothering me so much. Finally, my plane is one and half hours late. I came here in the airport around 4:45 to see off zafar, parisa and lipa. My flight is still two hours from now. I am sitting here in Vegas airport, leaving behind a horrible trip and my sweet loving wife. Life is beautiful.

Mobile typing

I think people hate typing on mobile device, I wonder why? I think there is plenty room for innovation in this area. I guess industry also recognizes this problem. That's why we see so many different keyboards and prototypes floating around. Some people are trying to solve the problem from different angle like Google or apple is trying to come up with better voice command based system. I think there are people like me who are not willing to spend their words for device. There must be some other way? The purpose of keyboard is communicating with the device? What else I can do to communicate with my device. Eye tracking? Samsung is taking care of that. It's not working at all, and on the top of that it is very difficult to represent everything just by tracking eyes.

Some other keyboard layout? Maybe? We have already seen couple of layouts. None of them really got any traction. Predictive keyboard? Well that's not working very well. Sure things like swiftkey is very popular but I feel like it is a temporary solution. We need some kind of input mechanism that would make typing even more effortless. Let's think out of the box, instead of making keyboard layout more convenient for people can we eliminate the necessity of keyboard altogether? What ever it is, it has to be fast, and it can be translated into plaintext pretty easily. 

Tablet usecases?

I guess I want little more than bigger screen from my tablet compare to my phone. I am not sure whether my tablet really offer anything else other than bigger screen! What is the use case of a tablet? Just the convenience of having bigger screen? I am curious is there anything that I can do in my tablet but not in phone? In this age of high resolution super phones, pretty much everything is convenient on the phone. Then, why would I carry two different devices with exactly same functionality? Especially when they are exactly identical. I do agree that having larger screen is sometimes convenient for some tasks. But most of the time portability supersedes that convenience. On the top of that, phone has a 'must have' reason that tablet is missing. Then my question is what is the strongest usecase for a tablet?

Chronicle of a Mundane Life!

My poor blog, it feels like I ditched you. Somehow, I feel like I am loosing my ability to write anything. I was never been a great writer but I used to post a few every month. I was super infrequent in last month. I feel like I cannot write anymore. I know it is a practice; the more I would do, the better I would become in posting. Am I too busy? Not really. I have plenty of spare time but it became increasingly difficult to get something done in those spare time. I have started couple of books and stopped in the middle of all of those. I have some ideas to work on, but could not make enough time to concentrate on those. I have one more paper to finish but hard to write even a single word. I think I should take control of everything again! I think Lipa's absence is pronounced in every steps in my life. I guess she has way more influence on me than I can think of. I should get her here in Seattle as soon as possible.

Sunday morning

I am sitting in my patio in this beautiful Sunday morning. Everything is so calm and quiet. Westlake is not a busy neighborhood. People live in this area are very quiet. I have little bit of lake view and gentle breeze coming from the lake. The water also looks calm and quiet. Everything together makes the perfect tranquil Sunday morning.

Sundays are always notable to me. Back home it was a lazy day. I remember we always ran out of work on Sundays. When I first moved in Norman, Sundays were horrible. It always comes with the empty feeling and homesickness. Then I moved with lipa, Sundays were our personal time. We spend most of time watching movie or entirely doing nothing. And now after five days of work, Saturdays are usually taken care of some exotic plan. That left the Sundays for relaxing. The tranquility of Westlake added little more spice to that. I am enjoying this beautiful Sunday morning.

Nikon E 50mm

I got a Nikon E 50mm. After reading all the good things about it by Kenrockwell, I decided to get one. I think this lens takes great pictures but focusing is a pain though. If focused correctly, this lens is capable of taking very good picture. The pictures came out really sharp and crisp. But I had to throw away eighty percent of my pictures because of soft focus. Again, bad focusing is entirely my fault, the lens is perfect. My version was okay, no visible dust and issue. This is a thirty years old, so I should not expect too much. Here are some sample pics.

November Rain

When I look into your eyes

I can see a love restrained

But darling, when I hold you

Don't you know I feel the same?

'Cause nothing lasts forever

And we both know hearts can change

And it's hard to hold a candle

In the cold November rain

We've been through this such a long, long time

Just trying to kill the pain, ooh yeah

But lovers always come and lovers always go

And no one's really sure who's letting go today, walking away

If we could take the time to lay it on the line

I could rest my head just knowing that you were mine, all mine

So if you want to love me

Then darling, don't refrain

Or I'll just end up walking

In the cold November rain

Do you need some time on your own?

Do you need some time all alone?

Ooooh, everybody needs some time on their own

Ooooh, don't you know you need some time all alone?

I know it's hard to keep an open heart

When even friends seem out to harm you

But if you could heal a broken heart

Wouldn't time be out to charm you?

Oooo, Oooo, Ooooh! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sometimes I need some time on my own

Sometimes I need some time all alone

Everybody needs some time on their own

Don't you know you need some time all alone?

And when your fears subside

And shadows still remain

I know that you can love me

When there's no one left to blame

So never mind the darkness

We still can find a way

'Cause nothing lasts forever

Even cold November rain

Chorus,

[Don't you think that you need somebody?

Don't you think that you need someone?

Everybody needs somebody

You're not the only one

You're not the only one]

[Guns N' Roses]

Summer Solstice Parade

I went to the Fremont Solstice Parade yesterday. Something new, something interesting. How it is different from other parades I have attended before; mainly costumes and probably this is first time I am attending any parade during the daylight. I don't remember if we had any parade in Oklahoma in daylight. Since, it is a day time event, it is a superb opportunity for photography. It is so colorful. My only complain is, not all participants are up to mark. But I was amazed to learn that, they deliberately avoid any kind of advertisement or sponsorship. That's kind of big deal :) And of course the solstice cyclist! They were new and interesting.