Vietnamese Pinawa or Brown Rice Hand Mill

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM  8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Dr Felipe Briana of NCBA demonstrates an indigenous dehulling hand mill. The mill works on a rotary motion as the operator pushes the handle back and forth in continuous motion.  Paddy rice or palay is fed on the top and slowly goes down the wood block.  The hull which consists of 25 percent is separated at the junction of the moving block and the stationary stone block.  The recovered whole grain is called pinawa or brown rice.  It contains the bran which is rich in minerals and vitamins, oil and digestible fiber. Rice bran is traditionally used as animal and poultry feeds.

It is therefore recommended that rice should be "unpolished." However, white or "polished" rice is preferred in the market.  There is need to re-educate rice consumers the value of brown rice to fight malnutrition especially in marginal communities.  

During WW II, rice am was used for infants and nursing mothers in the lack or absence of milk.  Am is actually the thick soup of rice while it is being boiled. Am from brown rice is more nutritious than that of white rice. This milk-substitute was developed by Dr Manuel Zamora and was named tiki-tiki.  It was later commercialized as United Tiki-Tiki by a transnational pharmaceutical company.  

Modern rice mills use twin-rubber dehullers to separate the hull, then the brown rice undergoes a series of polishing, and the process produces bran in two or three grades. The fine grade is prepared like the original tiki-tiki, while the inferior grade is used as feed components. By the way, rice brokens or binlid is fermented into beer. This reduces the cost of local beer, otherwise original beer which is made from barley (which we don't produce here) would be very expensive. 

Make tiki-tiki at home  

Why don't you make your own tiki-tiki at home? Add water more than the usual when cooking rice.  Harvest the thick soup and make it as porridge or lugao, without the rice. Add a little milk and sugar, or just sugar, and serve it as milk supplement or substitute for weaning food for infants, and convalescents. 

Another pinawa hand mill made of bamboo basket lined with clay. Former Farmers' Museum, National Food Authority, Cabanatuan City.  In the picture is Dr. Romualdo M del Rosario, former deputy director National Museum, and a staff member of NFA.  

UST-AB Photography Review: Apply the Human Attributes and Multiple Intelligence through Photography

 UST-AB Photography Review: Apply the Human Attributes and Multiple Intelligence through Photography

Dr Abe V Rotor  

Living with Nature - School on Blog

                 

The Camera and the Computer revolutionized Photography, from an exclusive, sophisticated technology to a popular one. Almost anyone today – young and old, irrespective of educational attainment, creed, ideology, status in life, canhave access  virtually to these magic duo. The Cam-Comp however is a mechanical-electronic tool, a machine, complex as it may seem. Its potential efficiency still lies on the man behind the lens: the human person as thinker, builder, player – and as praying man. Who has the faculties in eight realms of intelligence. Photography requires man’s both  attributes and faculties, which guide him in the use of photography in communication and in arts.

ASSIGNEMT: UST Faculty of Arts and Letters

Photography

Identify what Human Attribute, and Realm/s of Intelligence, each of these photographs applies.  Explain. Give the sub-title of each photo. (printing the photos is optional)  (Handwritten on a short bond)  

(1) 

(2)

(3)

(4)

All of us are endowed with a wide range of intelligence which is divided into eight domains. It is not only IQ (intelligence quotient) or EQ(emotional quotient) or any single sweeping test that can determine our God-given faculties. Here in the exercise, we will explore these realms. With a piece of paper (1/4) score yourselves in each of these areas. Use Scale of 1 to 10, like the previous exercise

1. Interpersonal (human relations)

Sometimes this is referred to as social intelligence. Leaders, politicians excel in this field. “They exude natural warmth, they wear disarming smile,” to quote an expert on human relations. Name your favorite person. I choose Nelson Mandela, Condolezza Rice and Henry Kissinger.

2. Intrapersonal (inner vision self-reflection and meditation) Priests, nuns, poets, yogis, St. Francis of Assisi is a genius in this domain. Didn’t Beethoven compose music with his inner ear? Didn’t Helen Keller “see” from an inner vision?

3. Kinesthetics (athletics, sports, body language, dance, gymnastics)

Michael Jordan excels in this domain. Now think of your idol in the sportsworld, or in the art of dance. Lisa Macuja Elizalde is still the country’s top ballet dancer.

4. Languages or linguistics

There are people who are regarded walking encyclopedia and dictionary. The gift of tongue in the true sense is in being multilingual like Rizal.

 (5)

 (6)

 (7)

 (8)

 (9)

 (10)

 

 (11)

(12)
5. Logic (dialectics, Mathematics)

Marxism is based on dialectics which is a tool in studying and learning. Likewise, this realm includes the intelligence of numbers – math, accounting, actuarial science, etc. This is the key to IQ test. Einstein, Newton, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle are my choices.

6. Music (auditory art)

Mendelssohn, Mozart, Chopin, Abelardo, Cayabyab, Lea Salonga – name your favorite. Beethoven is one of the world’s great composer, yet he cannot dance. I like to listen to Pangkat Kawayan play Philippine music.

7. Spatial intelligence (drawing, and painting, sculpture, architecture, photography)

The great artist, Pablo Picasso, was robbed in his studio. Hog-tied, he carefully studied the robber, the way an artist studies his model. After the incident he sketched the face of the robber and gave it to the police. The police made a 100 arrests but never succeeded in pinpointing the culprit. The sculptor Rodin wanted his subject to look as if it is melting. What could be a better expression of poverty for his masterpiece, The Burghers of Calais?

8. Naturalism (Green Thumb, Relationship with the Natural World)

There are people who are said to have the “green thumb”. Their gardens are beautiful even with little care. There are those who can predict weather, and tell you if the fish bites, or it is a good hunting day. They pick the reddest watermelon, fullest macapuno nuts, just by feel and sound. Good doctors, I suppose have the green thumb too.

What are your top three? Can you see their relationships? Relate them with your strength. On the other hand, in what ways can you improve on the other realms?

Make full use of your strength. And remember there are early and late bloomers. Nothing is too late to be able to improve on one’s deficiencies.

Maybe you lack a good foundation to explore your talents in a certain domain. But why don’t you catch up? Do you recall late bloomers who succeeded in life? As you reflect on your scores I’ll play for you on the violin On Wings of Song by Felix Mendelssohn. Fly, fly high and be happy like the birds. Just don’t be Icarus.

Reflect on the following:

1. Your strength and you weakness

2. Your “idols” and models

3. Resolution and affirmations ~

(13)

(14)

(15)

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, author with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM  8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Chicken Soup is Best for Convalescent; If Dust Gets into Your Eyes, Blow Your Nose

Dr Abe V. Rotor

Author, Living with Nature in Our Times (Recipient, National Book Award)

 

 Author with family, Fr Vice-Rector, and Dean Sison (center) right photo

      Some time ago a good old friend asked me, Abe  how can you go back to nature? Are you going back to the farm.  Don’t you like to live anymore in the city? Are you selling your car.

     Yes, I answered.  No not my car, that’s my only car. Yes, I can live with nature. Oo nga naman.  We talked and talked, until we were back in our childhood – I mean, childhood.  This was when my father got sick.  And this is how I came to learn that chicken soup is good for one who is convalescing, yon’ galing sa sakit - nagpapagaling. 

 

     True. Totoo. Chicken soup is good for the convalescent. However, there are specifications of the kind of chicken to be served. First, it must be native chicken. Karurayan is the term in Ilocos for a pure white native chicken which does not bear any trace of color on its feathers. It is preferably a female, dumalaga or fryer, meaning it has not yet reached reproductive stage. It is neither fat nor thin. Usually the herbolario chooses one from recommended specimens. He then instructs and supervises the household in the way the karurayan is dressed, cut, cooked into tinola (stew) and served to the convalescent. He does not ask for any fee for his services, but then he takes home one or two of the specimens that did not pass the specifications. (The more affluent the patient is, the more chicken the herbolario takes.) 

     Chicken soup as a convalescent food is recognized in many parts of the world. Because of its popularity, chicken soup has become associated with healing, not only of the body – but the soul as well. In fact there is a series of books under the common title Chicken Soup -  for the Woman’s Soul, Surviving Soul, Mother’s Soul, Unsinkable Soul, Writer’s Soul, etc. Of course, this is exaggeration, but nonetheless it strengthens our faith that this lowly descendant of the dinosaurs that once walked the earth of its panacean magic. 

     Try chicken soup to perk you up in these trying times - with all the rush, tension, various ailments, and expensive medication. Ika nga, bawal ang magkasakit.  

    But first, be sure your chicken does not carry antibiotic residues, and should not be one that is genetically engineered (GMO). By the way, I was a participant in the rituals made by this good herbolario.  I was then a farmhand and I was tasked to get the karurayan.  Our flock failed the test, but I found two dumalaga with few colored feathers. I plucked out the colored feathers and presented the birds to Ka Pepito.  They passed the criteria. Three days after I asked my convalescing dad how he was doing. “I’m fine, I’m fine, now.” He assured me with a big smile. 

    Writing a book such as this needs advice.  This time I needed one outside of the farm, and away from the village.  There’s no one else to my mind but someone in the academe. I went to Dr. Lilian Sison, dean of the Graduate School of UST. Dean Sison went over the manuscript and after a few days, I went to see her again. In the message for the book she said the most beautiful things that encouraged me a lot to continue writing about Nature. She said, and I quote.

“Living with Nature in Our Times can be lumped up into one word - awareness.  For today’s trend in progress and development, spurred by science and technology, and spun by globalization cannot undermine the need to answer a basic question, “Quo vadis?” (Where are you going?) To where are we headed as a civilization?”

Dean Sison continued, “Living with Nature in Our Times gives us practical knowledge that elevates our awareness on three levels: that of our perception of the things around us by our senses, that of our perception of the inner stimuli that affect not only our physical being but our psyche and emotion, and the third which occupies the highest level of awareness – that which is beyond mere perception because it requires us to imagine, plan and anticipate the future.

“Living with Nature in Our Times cautions us while walking on the busy lane of change.  It reminds us to retrain our senses and to hone our sensitivity to better appreciate the best life can offer.  Only when we are close to nature are we able to truly appreciate its exquisitiveness; only when we heed the old folks’ good advice can we truly appreciate the beauty and bounty of nature.”

I could say no more, overwhelmed by Dean Sison’s message.  Then I realized.  Mataas nga ang expectation ng reader sa libro ko!  Did I write enough?  Am I understood as much as the listeners to my radio program, Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid do? Baka naman hindi ako maintindihan ni Ka Pepe at si Aling Maria.

It was a weekend and it was the tail end the monsoon – the best time to be on the farm.   I did the final editing of the book here – the farm where I grew up, where I got my stories, experiences I still remember, in a small town where I used to listen to old folks.  This time I am one of them.

 This same old good friend I told you earlier came to visit me. I took him out into the fields.  It was harvest time and a time of festivities of sort in the fields. The maya birds came by hordes, A gust of wind blew and my friend winked, apparently napuwing.  And he started rubbing his eyes.  Huwag, I said. Just blow you nose.  He laughed. 

“Just do it.” I said. He did once, twice, each for each nose, covering the other. Harder. He looked amazed.  The puwing is gone!  Success!  (You can try it later.)

My friend who grew up in the city complained again. “My tooth aches,” It’s  lunchtime.  Sayang.  We were going to have lunch, picnic style beside a farm pond we call alug.

“Sumasakit din ang aking ngipin,” I said, … “na hindi ko matikman lahat nito,” savoring the aroma of the food being cooked.  It’s like the proverbial grandmother’s pie.

“Hindi ako nagbibiro,” He said. 

 “Okay press the base of your jaw, like this,” and demonstrated how.  Open your mouth and feel the attachment of the jaw, it’s the hollow part. Press it long enough until the pain subsides.  He did it and held it there.

 “Okay ka na?”

 “Masakit pa rin.” 

 “Saan ba ang sumasakit?” Para akong dentista.

 “Doktor, nga si Dr. Rotor,” I heard a kindly old woman nearby.

 “Dito sa left.”  My friend opened his jaw. “Mali ang pinipisil mo, eh. Ang pinipisil mo as ang kanan mong jaw.”

A whole banana leaf was laid before us. We sat on the grass.  A tabo of water was passed on to each of us to wash his fingers before eating.  Then, like the old faithful Genie had arrived, we were partaking in a banquet no five-star hotel could match.

 There were hito, martiniko, broiled medium rare on uling, pesang dalag (mudfish stewed with green saba and a lot of tomato and onion, and kuhol with tanglad. Rice is newly harvested upland Milagrosa!  Miracle talaga sa bango at sarap. Everyone was quiet.  How could you with your mouth full? Now and then a dog would come from behind begging, licking.      

“How you eat this kuhol, my friend asked.  Ganito  lips-to-lips,” Matunog.  It tells your host you like the food very much. “Ayaw, eh” Pukpukin mo muna ang puit.”  Paano? Kumain ka lang. Then we had  ulang  (river crayfish). Hindi ba masakit kumagat yan?  He whispered. 

“Hindi naman alimango yan, eh. At patay na.  Sigue kumain ka lang.”  

With or without toothache, we had our fill.

Masakit pa ba ?

Ow.. Ouch.. Ow..  This time tiyan naman niya ang sumasakit.

Oo nga naman.  Pag meron kang kaibigan na katulad nito. Either you want to live long or … forget him. 

Living with nature is fun, live life best – it’s more than The Good Life. It is Renaissance Part 2. It is Postmodern Renaissance. It is Living with Nature in Our Times.

x     x     x

Response Book Launching

August 30, 2007

Creative Photography

Matthew Marlo R Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

Vortex in the Sky, Sony Cyberspot digital camera, 2009

A night owl is hidden among the leaves of a narra tree. It is motionless, but it is aware of the movement of its prey, small mouse playing on the ground below. The photographer had just set up his special infrared camera with automatic electronic flash. He himself is hidden in camouflage. The owl stirs, then swoops down on its victim, its powerful claws clamped in a deadly squeeze. The shutter releases: one. two, three shots in succession. The flash makes detail images of the bird's plumage and watchful eyes, and the victim's writhing in hopeless struggle. You could almost hear the pitious cry of the prey. Result: these three photographs are among the final entries in a national photo art contest on nature.

A photographer suspects four men who entered a bank one afternoon to be robbers. Using a telephoto, he trains the lens at the scene. Just as he had made a good position where he cannot be seen, the photographer waits for action. The robbers move. There is pandemonium, shots ring, people run for their lives. Policemen arrive and exchange fire. The photographer gathers courage. Result: six photographs documented the daring bank robbery. These photos were published in the newspapers, and helped the police apprehend the culprits.

These are two dramatic cases whereby photography is used to capture and present subjects and events which are of special human interest. The events however, are contrasting in emotional appeal and theme, even if the common subject is conflict. Here conflict is shown as biological and social phenomena. One spells survival, the other depicts irrational social struggle.

Setting aside the philosophical aspects of these two sets of photographs, I wish to convey the message that photography is a tool, one for the arts, and the other, for documentation. Photography is used to express the creativity of a person behind the lens. Creativity is the very essence of art. The night owl photos are an expression of that creativity. On the other hand the bank robbery photos are documents, and they have no direct value as work of art in spite of their significant and practical importance.

What then make photography an art? Like a painting, a photograph may be considered an art if it possesses the following attributes:

1. Subject - What is it about? What particular topic does it show? Convey? This leads us to the theme.

2. Theme - What does the photo mean? What is its underlying meaning? What is the interpretation of the viewer? In short, what is the message.

3. Message - With the subject and theme provided, what does the artist wish to convey? Does it tell a story, or just present a situation or scene? Is the message concrete or is it abstract?

4. Perspective - The eye moves and searches. Where is the focal point? Where do the lines converge? Is the vantage point at the foreground or background? Is the perspective

diagonal, inverted V-shape, X-shape, parallel? To fully appreciate the perspective, take note of contrast - light and shadow, and contrast among colors.

5. Contrast - Here light and shadow show contrast. So with cool and warm colors. If the lines are bold the figures appear distinct. Are the lines parallel and repetitious? Or, do they cross? What time of the day was the photo taken?

6. Colors - The use of colors in today's photography is important. Seldom is black-and-white used now. As a rule, the clearer and distinct the colors are, the better is the photograph. But there should be harmony.

7. Harmony - This means unity of parts. Every part is integral to the whole photo. As a result the photo exudes - like music - a fine tune of colors and lines, shade and light, and finally, balance.

8. Balance - Be sure the photo is not heavy or light at any side. The eye is not trained at a particular part. Symmetry is the key. Even assymtrical subjects can show balance. Imagine an enlarged amoeba, a shapeless one-celled creature.

Photography sessions under an expert are a must for those who engage in photography as a hobby. Workshop with modern photography tools and equipm,ent are likewise a must. It taps talent and hones it with the touch of art. In the process he becomes trained as an artist-photographer - and subsequently, and artist himself.

Art lies in the person behind the camera - not the camera per se even how modern and sophisticated it may be. State-of-the-art in photography still lies on the person.

Today, film cameras are very seldom used. They have been replaced by digital cameras. And the uses of the camera have tremendously expanded from micro photography for microorganisms, scanning electron microscopy, nano photography, to satellite imaging, heat-sensitive imaging. Telezoom cameras are a thousand times more sensitive than they were a decade before. Hidden cameras are everywhere. And anyone today can operate a camera. Just point-and-shoot, then edit the photo with the computer. And the computer is equipped with scanner, enlarger, and transmitter to any desired destination through the Internet.

In spite of all these developments, the basic rules of creative photography remain the same. ~

UST-AB A Test in Photography (True or False)

Dr Abe V Rotor
___1. For best results there is no substitute to having a manual camera with semi-automatic system for photographic art – kahit digital camera pa.

__ 2 . When taking pictures, the rule is that the source of light must be at the back of the photographer.
___3. The lens of a camera is like the pupil of the human eye.
___4. Single lens reflex (SLR) means you are looking at the subject through the lens of the camera. 
__ 5. Satellite imaging can detect weather disturbances, pollution; it can predict crop yield levels, and in fact even hideouts of terrorists.
___6. Satellite imaging is used in cartography, that is, the science of mapping the features of the earth.
__ 7. Deeper interpretation of contrast is in the subject of the photo, rather than interplay of light and shadow, colors and lines.
__ 8. The larger the lens opening the better is the depth of field.
__ 9. If the background is bright and your subjects are posed against it, what you can do to counteract glare is to use flash.
__10. Filters emphasize outlines, increases contrast of light and shadow, warm and cool and colors. It is also used in silhouette photography.
__11. The opening of a flower bud step by step is recorded by means of time lapse photography, a technique that compresses time to enable the eye to witness the event in a short time frame.
__12. Buildings appear in concentric circle converging at the top if you use fisheye lens.
__13.When using a wide angle lens for a group photo, those on the sides appear to be very thin while those at the center are fat. (F, it is the opposite).
__14. Telezoom lenses extend the view, compressing distance, thus they are used in war zones.
__15.Allow the pupil of the eye to narrow down by sending a series of faint flashes before the real flash is made. This is to prevent red eye in the photograph.
_ 16. With the state-of-the-art digital photography, a poorly taken photo can be edited anyway - so, why worry?
__17. Black and white photos are simpler to process and print than color photographs.
__18. The computer is equipped with a software to correct blurred, burned, incomplete and misaligned photos to appear normal.
__ 19. As a rule do not retouch a historical documentary photos; they are more authentic in their original state.
__ 20. It is easier to photograph emotions rather than features, because they come naturally, while you have to do a lot of script in the latter.
__21. A famous photograph – a naked young girl, her body burned by napalm (Orange Agent) running along a highway with other children, while soldiers simply didn’t mind, was taken during the recent Iraq war.
__22. A lone man standing in front of a column of tanks was taken during the Vietnam war. The photo freezes the action as if the man succeeded in his suicidal act.
__23. Today, photography – from shooting to printing - can be done in a home studio, and therefore offers a good business opportunity. In fact documentaries and short movies can be done.
__24. Composition is the key to telling a story, be it a painting, a poem, a novel – or a photograph.
__25. The elements of art – are also the elements of photography.
__26. Foreshortened effect is shown on traffic signs written on the highway.
__27. 400 ASA/ISO/DIN film is more sensitive than 100 ASA/ISO/DIN film, in the same way as 4 megapixels is more sensitive than say, 2 megapixels.
__28. As the number increases - 30, 60, 100, 250, 500, 1000 – it means the shutter mechanism proportionately slows down or decreases speed.
__29. Here are three ways to improve your photo when lighting is poor: use tripod, use flash, increase ASA or DIN – in any combination, or all of them at the same time.
__30. You can get multiple exposures in a single shot of fireworks even without a tripod.
__31. Adjust shutter to B and mount camera on tripod when shooting night scenes – a busy street, Christmas lights, stars, constellation, etc.
__32. Today’s digital camera is more versatile, relatively cheaper, easier to operate – but not necessarily superior in quality - to film camera.
__33. Some digital cameras can used the lenses of film cameras, particularly SLRs.
__34. The most advanced digital cameras are made by Kodak.
__35.When a close up of flower is blurred, the subject is too close.
__36. Basketball player in air totally blurred – shutter speed is too slow.
__37. Sunny outdoor view is rough, with dot matrix like in “pointillism.” – ASA value too high.
__38. Photo is too light all over, no accent, clarity poor – insufficient light, lens opening too small, or both
__39. When having your picture taken, relax your shoulder and your face muscles will also relax.
__40. “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” and “Micro Safari” have one in common – micro photography.
__41. Light microscope reveals the world of microorganisms – countless of them in a single drop of water.
__42. Electron microscopy produces photographs of extremely small objects up to 50,000 times in a myriad of colors like a rainbow.
__43. Radio telescope enables the human eye to see very far objects like stars using the same principle of lens telescope.
__44. One area of photography that enables us to see fast moving objects normally invisible to the eye is through slow motion photography.
__45. The aura emitted by our body is visible through photography.
__46. Photography brings to the eyes of the world good things to appreciate, and evil things to correct.
__47. Photojournalism is a risky profession, like other media men, they risk their lives. In fact the Philippines has the most number of fatalities among media men, second to Iraq.
__48. War is the arena of photography – war against poverty, graft and corruption, environmental degradation, diseases, ignorance, terrorism, and the like.
__49. Yet photography offers the newest, most modern, technologically advanced, now popularized to be enjoyed by millions of people everyday.
__50. Photography is the extension of our eyes and other senses, in fact our intellect, our feeling and our soul.

USTAB Digital Photography Test Questions (for class discussion)

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Simple to complex models 

Until the advent of digital technology, photography used photographic film to create  images which could be made visible by photographic processing. Digital images can be displayed, printed, stored, manipulated, transmitted, and archived using digital and computer. Digital photography is one of several forms of digital imaging. Digital images are also created by non-photographic equipment such as computer tomography scanners and radio telescopes. Digital images can also be made by scanning conventional photographic images.

Multi-functionality and connectivity: Digital memory device is usually used for storing images, which may then be transferred to a computer later. Digital cameras can take pictures, and may also record sound and video. Some can be used as webcams, some can be connected to a printer without using a computer, and some can display pictures directly on a television set. Similarly, many camcorders can take still photographs, and store them on videotapes or on flash memory cards with the same functionality as digital cameras.

Part 1. True or False

1. Of growing concern for both archivists and historians is the relative non-permanence or transitory nature of digital media. We may be losing digitalized information and create a void in history.

2. Lighting, optics, sensors, processing, storage, and display, with software weaving them together, are all advancing.

3. Digital photos are convenient, allow you to see the results instantly, don't require the costs of film and developing, and are suitable for software editing and uploading to the Internet.

4. The basic attribute of a digital camera that determines image quality is its megapixel rating. This number refers to the amount of information that the camera sensor can capture in a single photograph.

5. Exposure is the amount of light hitting the camera's sensor when you take a photo. Generally, you will want the exposure set so that the image captured by the camera's sensor closely matches what you see with your eyes.

6. A person in the foreground and the cars 20 feet behind her could all be in focus with a small enough aperture. A larger aperture results in a shallow depth of field, which you normally use for close-up shots and portraits.

7. You will need to bring your own camera, it doesn’t matter if it’s a basic point and shoot or an advanced DSLR, the fundamentals apply to them all.

8. Prime Lenses have fixed focal length, so there’s no need or provision of zooming in and out. For a prime lens you will get a single f number, whereas a zoom lens may give you a range of f numbers.

9. What makes a lens a good one is first, and most importantly, its optical quality. It produces better color in your images, and will reduce the chance of getting a nasty lens flare in your image. Also it is one that is able to focus on the subject quickly.

10. Always comply with the Rule of the Thirds - and position subject more off center and lower down. To include more or less the sky or grass is of secondary consideration.  

11. Sometimes it is better to find a larger focal point for the image - or make the image, say a tree, larger in the frame? But you still consider the Rule of the Thirds.

12. Aperture priority is key to depth of field to get the widest scene from foreground to background. But to capture the grass as sharp as possible, you need a fast enough shutter speed to avoid too much blur caused by the wind.

13. The quality of a digital image is the sum of various factors, many of which are similar to film cameras. Pixel count (typically listed in megapixels, millions of pixels) is only one of the major factors,

14.  Pixel count metrics were created by the marketing organizations of digital camera manufacturers because consumers can use it to easily compare camera capabilities. It is not, however, the major factor in evaluating a digital camera.

15. The processing system inside the camera that turns the raw data into a color-balanced and pleasing photograph is the most critical, which is why some 4+ megapixel cameras perform better than higher-end cameras.

16. Resolution provides an indication of the amount of detail that is captured in the photograph.

17. The resolutions of cameras are simply based on the number of pixels produced by the image sensor.

18. Highlights of the subject which are too bright will be rendered as white, with no detail; shadows which are too dark will be rendered as black. The loss of detail is not abrupt with film, or in dark shadows with digital sensors: some detail is retained as brightness moves out of the dynamic range.

19. "Highlight burn-out" of digital sensors, however, can be abrupt, and highlight detail may be lost. And as the sensor elements for different colors saturate in turn, there can be gross hue or saturation shift in burnt-out highlights.

20. Some commercial photographers, and some amateurs interested in artistic photography, have been resistant to using digital rather than film cameras because they believe that the image quality available from a digital camera is still inferior to that available from a film camera.

21. Digital photography has also been adopted by many amateur snapshots photographers, who take advantage of the convenience of the form when sending images by email, placing them on the www,  or displaying them in digital picture frames.

22. Digital cameras have also been integrated into many cell phones, although, because of the small, poor quality lenses and sensors in most of these phones, the quality of these pictures makes them unsuitable for making even moderate size prints.

23. Digital cameras also tend to be much more sensitive to moisture and extreme cold. For this reason, photographers who work in remote areas may favor film SLR cameras.

24. Digital photography was used in astronomy long before its use by the general public and had almost completely displaced photographic plates by the early 1980s.

25. CCDs are more sensitive to light than plates, and they have a much more uniform and predictable response, and the information can be downloaded onto a computer for data analysis.

26. The CCDs used in astronomy are similar to those used by the general public, but are generally monochrome and cooled with liquid nitrogen as to reduce the noise caused by heat.

27. Full-frame digital SLRs - those with sensor size matching a frame of 35mm film (or more),  include today’s models of Canon, Kodak, Contax, Mamiya, Hasselblad, Sony, Nikon, Pentax. Konica, Minolta, Olympus, and others.

28. Black and White photography has reached its end and will be sooner or later phased out completely in the mrket.

29. Through a process of collecting the light of the moon and stars in the dark the camera, assisted by the computer, can make intelligible images to the point of detailed clarity.

30. Images from outer space are created by the differential emission of varying temperatures, the nature of the gases and compounds of the object under study, and conversion of radio waves into visual images.