iStand alone. :)

Everything I'm not, made me everything I am. :)

Life's too short to be anything,

The Word L I F E, Describes it all.

I am strong, because I am weak.

I am beautiful, because I know my flaws.

I am a lover, because I am a fighter.

I am fearless, because I have been afraid.

I am wise, because I have been foolish.

And I can laugh, because I've known sadness..

Eyes! That says it all.

My First try on HDR.

My 1st HDR Image.

The Smoke!

Smoking is really injurious to health!! Save your L I F E!

Everyone knows the ill effects of smoking. From kids to adults, all are aware of the health hazards that smoking causes. Yet people addicted to smoking find it hard to give up this habit. This is probably because of nicotine, the addictive substance found in cigarettes. The ill effects of smoking are numerous; thus, one must adopt a planned method to quit smoking. Here are some tips that can help you to quit smoking.

1.First, make up your mind. Honor your commitment and get yourself registered in a smoke-quitting program or visit a counselor or hypnotherapist.

2.Make a list of the reasons why you want to quit smoking and go through it every time you crave a cigarette.

3.Write ten good things about smoking and ten bad things about smoking. You will notice the difference in the good and the bad. This really helps.

4.Buy yourself a nicotine inhaler or Zyban. This will make it a bit easier to give up smoking.

5.Get audiotapes and books related to quit smoking. Read through them and enlighten yourself about all the ill effects of smoking.

6.Consult your doctor if you face seizures or any other complications.

7. Get your friends and family to support you and help you give up smoking.

8.Try to eat fruits, chewing gum, lollipops, hard candy or cinnamon sticks if urge for smoking arises. Try replacing nicotine with other non-addictive stuff.

9.Keep your mind occupied with creative activities such as knitting, embroidery or carpentry. Take a brisk walk, go for a swim or some other physical activity. This will help to keep your mind off smoking.

10.You may gain some weight while trying to quit smoking. This is because one tends to feel hungry when initially trying to give up smoking. However, this minor problem can be easily handled through regular exercise.

11.In the first few days after quitting, drink plenty of water. This washes away the nicotine and other harmful toxins from your body.

12.Give up coffee and other carbonated drinks when trying to quit smoking.

13.Ask people around you to stop smoking along with you. This will not only help you to deal with the craving for a cigarette, but give you somebody to talk to about how hard quitting is.

14.Take long deep breaths every time you feel like smoking. When you slowly inhale, feel the fresh air reach deep inside you. While exhaling, feel all the stress and tensions leave your body. Let your chin rest on your chest and relax.

15.Remember, all cravings last only five minutes. If you succeed in diverting your mind for five minutes, you can easily give up smoking.

You will not die if you do not smoke. So never give up when you badly feel like smoking. Make it happen, give up cigarettes and live a long and healthy life.

Vignetting plays a Vital role on your Portraits.

Its all about Vignetting.

In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center. The word vignette, from the same root as vine, originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a photographic portrait which is clear in the center, and fades off at the edges. A similar effect occurs when filming projected images or movies off a projection screen. The resulting so-called "hotspot" effect defines a cheap home-movie look where no proper telecine is used.

Vignetting is often an unintended and undesired effect caused by camera settings or lens limitations. However, it is sometimes purposely introduced for creative effect, such as to draw attention to the center of the frame. A photographer may deliberately choose a lens which is known to produce vignetting to obtain the effect, or it may be introduced with the use of special filters or post-processing procedures.

Causes

There are several causes of vignetting.

    * Mechanical vignetting
    * Optical vignetting
    * Natural vignetting

A fourth cause is unique to digital imaging:

    * Pixel vignetting

Mechanical vignetting

Mechanical vignetting occurs when light beams emanating from object points located off-axis are partially blocked by external objects such as thick or stacked filters, secondary lenses, and improper lens hoods. This has the effect of changing the entrance pupil shape as a function of angle. The darkening can be gradual or abrupt, depending on the lens aperture. The smaller the aperture, the more abrupt the vignetting as a function of angle. Complete blackening is possible with mechanical vignetting (when the corner of the image is essentially imaging the inside of the lens hood or filter holder).

Optical vignetting

This type of vignetting is caused by the physical dimensions of a multiple element lens. Rear elements are shaded by elements in front of them, which reduces the effective lens opening for off-axis incident light. The result is a gradual decrease in light intensity towards the image periphery. Optical vignetting is sensitive to the lens aperture and can be completely cured by a reduction in aperture of 2–3 stops. (An increase in the F-number.)

Natural vignetting

Unlike the previous types, natural vignetting (also known as natural illumination falloff) is not due to the blocking of light rays. The falloff is approximated by the cos4 or "cosine fourth" law of illumination falloff. Here, the light falloff is proportional to the fourth power of the cosine of the angle at which the light impinges on the film or sensor array. Wideangle rangefinder designs and the lens designs used in compact cameras are particularly prone to natural vignetting. Telephoto lenses, retrofocus wideangle lenses used on SLR cameras, and telecentric designs in general are less troubled by natural vignetting. A gradual grey filter or postprocessing techniques may be used to compensate for natural vignetting, as it cannot be cured by stopping down the lens. Some modern lenses are specifically designed so that the light strikes the imager parallel or nearly so, eliminating or greatly reducing vignetting. Almost all lenses designed for the Four Thirds system are of this type, as telecentricity is a stated design goal.

Pixel vignetting

Pixel vignetting only affects digital cameras and is caused by angle-dependence of the digital sensors. Light incident on the sensor at a right angle produces a stronger signal than light hitting it at an oblique angle. Most digital cameras use built-in image processing to compensate for optical vignetting and pixel vignetting when converting raw sensor data to standard image formats such as JPEG or TIFF. The use of microlenses over the image sensor can also reduce the effect of pixel vignetting.

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