Understanding focal length: Testing 18-55mm and 70-300mm lenses
Welcome to the another digital photography school tutorial on understanding focal length.It's not so long away when I entered magical world of Digital SLR photography, until then I was using simple compact sized cameras and did with them a simple thing - photographed things.Well, things changed when I bought Canon EOS 1200D camera (Read: First Impressions Of Canon EOS 1200D Camera With 18-55mm Lens), then I started to improve my photography skills. Since the camera I bought came with a kit lenses (18mm-55mm) I was left with what I got. Those lenses are perfect, don't get me wrong, but I started to look for ways how to get a closer shots. I have heard other photographers…
Rhododendron Garden in Cirava (Latvia)
If you are heading to a remote Latvian village Cirava, you have few options to make your visit pleasant here, like there are very interesting but abandoned manor complex and a lovely church.However, local residents at Cirava has something else to offer for both local and foreign travelers - a rhododendron garden located in territory of cemetery.
Well, if you are hoping to see here something like Keukenhofs tulip gardens, then .. then go to the Netherlands, here in Cirava you will find a small (selected) selection of rhododendrons, it's about 150 plants here. Opened just back in 2010 this garden park has some bright future prospects of attracting travelers from neighboring…
365 Day Photo Challenge Project
In this post you will learn why I decided to take a personal 365 days photo project challenge and how I'm planing to complete it.
What is a 365 Project?
There are many different 365 projects, but they all share one goal in common: taking at least one photograph every single day, for a full year. Many photographers take that idea one step further to including taking, and posting, at least one photograph a day for an entire year. Some people start 365 projects on January 1st, but you can begin one at any time. Read more: Jumpstart Your Photography – Start a 365 Project
I like challenges and I really like to challenge myself. It was not so long ago, when at the start of October 2013, I…
Akhtala Monastery in Armenia
Akhtala monastery was our third and last stop during our short one day trip to Armenia, before returning to Tbilisi. Prior to Akhtala monastery we visited Haghpat monastery and Sanahin monastery. The truth is - our trip was made especially to visit Akhtala because of a barbeque festival was held here. I will cover some details (and photos) about that festival in some of the next blog posts, but today I decided to share some photography I captured here at Akhtala.
Just like Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries, Akhtala monastery is located in province of Lari in Armenia (close to Georgian border). However, unlike Haghpat and Sanahin which are plain Armenian Apostolic church elements,…
Sanahin Monastery in Armenia
Sanahin monastery is located in province of Lori in Armenia, close to Georgian border. Sanahin monastery was second site we visited during our short one day trip to Armenia, just shortly after we visited Haghpat monastery.
I was so eager to master a photography using my DSLR camera and a tripod (it's damn hard to use a tripod in 30 minutes sightseeing tour) so I didn't actually paid much attention on history a local guides were telling about this place. After all I prefer to do Wikipedia search after or before, but not on site.
So it's all about photography this time, for the first time I have used Adobe Lightroom to edit (fine tune) my images, but unfortunately I was not shooting in RAW…
How To Recover Lost Password on Linode Server (SSH, Putty)
Bad things happens time after time, and so did happened to me recently - after a longer pause I resumed work on a customers project, and I faced a problem - I had lost my password for accessing my Linode VPS. I must admit that I panicked a lot. Since this happened second time in a 3 years, I decided to wrap up a simple article to help me and others to quickly get connected back to our servers.
Interested in Linode VPS? You can actually have a Linode VPS starting as low as $10.00/mo
In this article you will learn how you can reset your password using Linode's dashboard, how to enter Lish Ajax Console for applying changes and how to change password using SSG for existing user…
Haghpat Monastery in Armenia
Haghpat monastery, together with Sanahin monastery, are placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1996.
At the start of September we booked a one day tour from Tbilisi to Armenia, and I had chance to visit both Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries. Since this time I was less into history, more into photography, that's what I exactly did - I photographed both places. Today I will start with photography of Haghpat Monastery in Lori province.
Landscape at Haghpat monastery
Look at the fog! I really enjoy days like this - it's green, there are mountains covered in lovely fog.
Haghpat Monastery complex
The location of Haghpat Monastery was chosen so that it…
Gardenia Shevardnadze - Flower Garden in Tbilisi
Gardenia Shevardnadze is a lovely garden of ornamental plants, located close to the Tbilisi Sea, where you can buy seedlings for your yard, balcony, terrace, home, or office. Or just enjoy a tranquil afternoon.
I first discovered Gardenia Shevardnadze back in 2014 while Cycling to Tbilisi sea and back
We have been returning to this place ever since. Sometimes with a tripod, sometimes not. Sometimes for macro photography, sometimes just to enjoy a good cup of coffee at the onsite cafeteria. If you are into photography, then you will enjoy Gardenia Shevernadze just as I did.
Little Cafe at Gardenia Shevardnadze
Although this is a place where some can buy plants, it'…
Cirava Evangelic Lutheran Church
Cirava Evangelic Lutheran Church is located in historical region of Courland in Latvia. Cirava church is closely located to Cirava manor complex, those of you traveling to Latvia and especially to Courland, it's woth to pay a visit to Cirava as well.
Cirava Church
This massive church has been built in 1780-1781, and had been rebuilt in 1876 and 1888. The church is known for its exquisite Rococo altar, pulpit and organ. Read more (In Latvian)
Architectural monument
Cirava church
View to Cirava church from distance
Abandoned Manor Complex in Cirava (Latvia)
Now, this was a quite interesting experience discovering a small village in western Latvia (region of Courland) - Cirava.I was so fascinated about this place that I decided to make two separate articles - one for the manor complex and the second for the church. Today I will write about the manor complex which actually seemed abandoned for me, but as it turns out it's actually sold to some Italian investor for about EUR 700 000 back in 2014. So seems this is money you should have in your pockets to acquire a badly managed manor complex in Latvia.Cirava manor complex in LatviaOriginally built for blue blood German barons - rulers of lands which now are part…
Monument to the Sailors and Fishermen Perished in the Sea (Liepāja)
Although this monument in Liepaja (in seaside park) is dedicated to the sailors and fishermen perished in the sea I decided to add this place in military heritage category, because for me it kinda reminds something from Soviet military. Well actually this is a great example of Latvian architecture, as it turns out it's designed by local Latvian designers Alberts Terpilovskis and Gunārs Asaris.
Anyway - once in Liepaja, this place is a worth of visit.in case you are heading for a lazy walk on seaside park you will definitely notice this monument and hopefully enjoy views from its stairs.
View to the monument form park
Not the best picture I managed to capture here, too much light…
Practicing Photography: Doing Night Shots - Tbilisi By Night
Tonight was one, a really great evening, it was the first time I started to understand how ISO actually works. I took my DSLR camera, a tripod and a friend of mine and we headed to Zaarbrucken Square (Dry Bridge) in Tbilisi.
At start I was planing to make some photos at Rose Garden (I actually did) but latter, when post-processed, I understood they don't look so interesting as images attached bellow.
Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi by night
This is a pretty interesting picture, I got using a 30 second exposure, a tripod and kit 18-55 mm lenses. I believe from this vantage point it would be lovely to attach some other lenses as well. I enjoy two things in above picture - the…
How To Fix "Server has a weak ephemeral Dillie-Heffman public key" For Jboss Server
A few days ago a customer of mine experienced an error by not being able to access his management system on intranet I built a few years ago. The error we got was following:
"Server has a weak ephemeral Dillie-Heffman public key" or ERR_SSL_WEAK_EPHEMERAL_DH_KEY
What basically means:
If you see this error, it means that a secure connection can't be established because of outdated security code on the website. Chrome protects your privacy by preventing you from connecting to these sites. You won't be able to visit this page using Chrome.
I spent some time to figure out what all is about, and since the software we were running on intranet was installed with just a few clicks (…
Liepāja Seaside Park and Blue Flag Beach
I'm continuing my Latvia travel guide notes I have taken (photographed) at start of the June 2015. This time I visited a lovely Liepaja Seaside Park and Blue Flag Beach.
Map of the Liepaja seaside park
According to the official Latvia Travel guide - This is the Latvia's largest dendrological park, now extending for about 50 ha, was gradually developed from 1870 to the early 20th century. The park boasts more than 140 different species of trees and shrubs.
Drums in Liepaja
Liepaja is famous of being a Rock Capital of Latvia, and there is no surprise of seeing a huge monument of... drums.
Wooden boardwalk heading to sea in Liepaja
Blue skies and letters of…
Asus X552M Laptop Review
For a long time I have been making laptop reviews, since yesterday I bought a brand new ASUS X552M laptop on a local Georgian Carrefour shop I decided to describe my first impressions and a few photos of my new best buddy. This model I believe is only available in Europe, for North American customers I believe there is an ASUS D550MAV or something.
I could probably buy this one or even a better one for even a cheaper price on Amazon (and that's the thing I'm actually recommending to others) but since I just returned to Georgia I needed a quick solution, and by saying quick I mean - right now!
So I went to a local shopping place - Tbilisi Mall and bought the…
How To Display Username In URL For Drupal Site
I know for some experienced Drupal developers such question might sound bizarre, because - hey..it's a piece of cake...
I have been subscribed to the LinkedIn Drupal group and exactly such question arise here:
hey guys is there any way to display username in URL when user logged in like example www.example.com/username
was asked by one of the group members
I added my solution for this question on that post already and I decided to share it on my blog as well since other Drupal users might ask such question as well.
Solution: How to display username in URL
At first you will need to have pathauto module to be enabled on your Drupal site and all the…
New Orleans - Most Unique in United States
I'm continuing to summarize my memories from my latest trip to US back in Summer of 2013. Finally we have arrived at the city I probably like a lot - New Orleans. City of alternative cuisine, Jazz birthplace a lot of Voodoo and ... most interesting emotions from US.
Although we spent some week or even more here, we actually settled in a another much smaller and much quiet town of Gretna. We did spent our nights at Gretna while our days were spent in New Orleans.
Palm Tree in New Orleans
I know it's like comparing apples with oranges, but if I might ad my fifty cents - New Orleans reminds me a Georgian seaside resort town of Batumi.
Downtown New Orleans
Author of this blog…
Lux Express - One Of The Best Options To Travel Between Riga and Tallinn
At the start of this August I traveled to Estonian capital city Tallinn from Riga (Latvia) to celebrate my birthday and I had a few options to choose on how to actually get there - like, car, coach (bus) or plane (I believe there is a rail connection as well, but I also believe it takes some 12 hours to travel a short ~ 300 km distance)
The fact is as I believe it will be even cheaper or about the same to fly between those two Baltic Capital cities, rather to use a bus. But since I'm sick and tired of all these airport procedures, I decided we will use a bus leaving Riga International Bus Station.
Waiting for our coach at Riga Coach Station
Riga - Tallinn coach also goes through city of…
Gretna - Small Town Close To New Orleans, Louisiana
We arrived at Gretna, Louisiana back in Summer 2013, just before the July 4th celebrations, and we actually stayed at this small town close to New Orleans a week or something, just for one plain reason - accommodation here is much cheaper than in New Orleans. We spent our nights here at Gretna, while our days passed in New Orleans.
To get to New Orleans we used public transport - bus, we had a bus stop just right next to our motel. All the other "normal" people use SUV cars here for getting around.
I wouldn't say Gretna is a very tourist popular spot, but here in some grocery store, I met a salesperson who sang a very popular Russian song - Миллион Алых Роз (Million Alyh Roz)…
Walking Around Downtown Atlanta, GA
We enjoyed our stay in Downtown Atlanta for some 3 days (nights) back in Summer 2013. During our short 3 days stay here we visited World of Coca Cola Museum and CNN Center and did a lot of walking around city.
As well I took a few pictures in Downtown Atlanta.
Downtown Atlanta, GA
Author of this blog captured at Rest in Downtown Atlanta
Cyclists in Downtown Atlanta
Seems Atlanta is cyclist friendly city and that is a good reason to return here.
Hard Rock cafe in Downtown Atlanta
Skyscraper in Downtown Atlanta
Hard Rock Cafe in Downtown Atlanta
Downtown Atlanta
Georgia Power
A lovely reminder of Georgia from our motel room - Georgia Power - A Southern Company
About Downtown…