Mikhail Lukichev

15 hours ago, Rob Soughton said:

Hi,

was on absolute newbie drive this week and both I and another Prado driver faced traction control activating even though disabled by the button on the dash. Any advice for us how to fully disable from other Prado owners? Both of ours see 2015 models.

As advised already, you need to keep the button pressed for several seconds. Two off lights should appear on the dash. However, ABS will be still on (which is fine for me).

Thanks!

Hello @Ale Vallecchi!

Can't find myself in the convoy numbering could you please check?

Thanks! 

@Srikumar I'm terribly sorry but I cannot join you due to my faulty alarm. I overslept!

Sorry one more time! 

Hello! Long time no see!

Was out of the country for some time.

Perseids Meteor Shower should be nice! As you can see on the picture below, it peaks at 04:31AM 13Aug21 with 83 meteors per hour. That means, that you can see, well, one meteor every 5-10 minutes 😃 Because the rest are so small and fast that it is very hard to catch them by a naked eye.

At midnight you can expect 36 meteors/hour, at 02:00AM around 60 meteors/hour. So, definitely, you will see them!

Gray shape indicates a number of meteors per hour, gray line is elevation of Perseids, blue line is Moon.

It's a bit of a challenge to take a photo of meteors though. Even though meteors should come from azimuth 25-35deg and elevation 18-48deg, I can tell from my experience that you will notice them almost everywhere, all the directions and elevations. I believe that it is because we are located very close to equator (not sure though).

Anyway, to take a photo of them you need to have sterile conditions 😃 Set your tripod, camera, settings, enable time-lapse shooting for a few hours and wait. Refrain from touching the camera and using flashlights. At the end of the session, check your photos (could be around 100-300 photos) and try to find ones with meteors. You can find 5-10-15 shots with them, depends on your luck. Later, if you want, you can compile everything in one photo.

My best advise is to bring a comfy chair or a mattress, sit back and relax. Just enjoy the silence, stars and meteors (from time to time).

Unfortunately, this time I will no be able to join you as I work all these days. 

If some of you are missing this event, be sure to check Geminids Meteor Shower on 14th of December with 95 meteors/hour! It is even more bright and cool than Perseids.

Hope it helps a bit 😃

Well done @Veedooshee!

15 hours ago, Niki said:

All of my Nikon shots facing the well were sadly out of focus ... lessons learnt ready for the next trip

Here you have very close subject on the foreground and beautiful stars on the background. It's impossible to have both in focus, of course.

We can take two shots: focus on the stars and focus on the car. Then we can merge both in the Photoshop or similar software. Main thing here is not to move the camera and use the same settings. Actually, you can use different settings for the foreground and background. It's a bit more difficult for the post-processing but might provide better results 😃

Thanks everybody! You all did really great! Hope that some people liked night photography and will enjoy it in the wild on their own. There are lot of places for such meditation in the UAE.

Meanwhile, I just want to show you my snaps and comparison of RAW and edited photos. As I mentioned, taking the photo is only half of the process. The second half is editing. 

I swear, I have not drawn the stars 😃

Thanks!

11 hours ago, Gaurav said:

please check the homework and advise if I'm missing something.

Well done, @Gaurav! 

9 hours ago, Niki said:

my Nikon3300 doesn't allow custom kelvin setting for White Balance so I will stick to Auto as the presets they have seem not suited for night photography (Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade).  Do let me know if any of the presets are closer to the desired 3200-3500 range? 

Hi @Niki!

Not a problem, we can start with Direct Sunlight and try other options if it is not good enough 😃

@Frederic thanks a lot for your brilliant preparation work!

From my side, I just would like to add a few points.

It would be very nice if everybody participating in the session try to set below settings at home, so we can save our time a little bit and have more time for our shooting.

• select RAW mode
• decrease brightness of the screen to minimum
• disable long exposure noise reduction
• disable high ISO noise reduction
• select manual focus mode
• turn on live-view
• zoom in the picture in the live view mode
• select manual shooting mode (M)
• disable auto ISO
• set ISO to 3200
• set shutter speed to 15sec
• set aperture to minimum (f1.8 - F3.5)
• set manual white balance to 3200-3500K

If you know how to set all of the above, great! If you don't know, it is advised to google it before hand so we do not spend time on checking every camera's settings on the field.

If you still don't know how to set something, that's ok. We will find out!

Thanks a lot and see you soon!

@samamara awesome pics! Well done! 

On 4/26/2021 at 10:45 AM, Lakshmi Narasimhan said:

@ frederic, @Mikhail LukichevWhich camera would be best to invest with 2500 Aed budget

nikon 5600 or canon eos 800D or Nikon COOLPIX P950 or any other best option

Hello! 

In my opinion, it is totally up to you to choose Nikon or Canon, both are good. I can advise to buy popular DSLR with popular lens mount so you can find lots of new and used lenses on the market.

So, Nikon 5600 or Canon eos 800D should be fine.

Thanks for a wonderful drive, guys! 

It was challenging for me at times, but it was full of learning too! 

We had a great mix of criss-crosses, a few stucks, shoveling, tugging and even a pop-out! @Kailas managed the drive very well, fantastic job! 

The whole convoy managed very well too! I had a feeling that I was the slowest driver at night, the rest drove like they had night-vision goggles! I was struggling because I did not have enough light to the sides of the driving direction.

Thanks!

Dear all, thanks a lot for a wonderful drive!

As you mentioned, stunning Sweihan Desert is totally worth all the hassle of long drive from Dubai! Love this place!

Thanks to lead skills of @Chaitanya D, we all had a chance to learn and admire outdoors in a very safe yet thrilling environment. It goes without saying that @Craig Finlayson was a perfect sweep, always ready to help in just a few seconds after a refusal or stuck.

Generally, the whole convoy managed the area very well! We had just enough little stucks to have fun and to be over stressed.

Hope to see you all in the sands soon!

1 hour ago, Chaitanya D said:

@Mikhail Lukichev please can you clear if here is fog prediction tomorrow between 4 to 7 am around Al Ain airport.

 

@Chaitanya D as of now, no fog is predicted forAl Ain airport tomorrow. 

Being an aviation professional, I love to use airport weather reports.

For Al Ain airport (OMAL), 08th of April was almost clear. 07th was foggy till 0800LT (0400Z), 06th was clear.

OMAL 080400Z 36003KT 310V040 6000 NSC 21/16 Q1013 NOSIG
OMAL 080331Z 33002KT 5000 HZ NSC 19/16 Q1013 BECMG 7000 NSW
OMAL 080301Z 29005KT 4500 HZ NSC 18/16 Q1013 NOSIG
OMAL 080300Z VRB02KT 6000 NSC 19/16 Q1013 NOSIG
OMAL 080200Z 12002KT 5000 HZ NSC 18/16 Q1012 BECMG 3000
OMAL 080100Z 01007KT 7000 NSC 20/16 Q1012 BECMG 4000 HZ

OMAL 070500Z 02005KT CAVOK 23/17 Q1016 NOSIG
OMAL 070426Z 01005KT 340V040 6000 NSC 21/18 Q1016 NOSIG
OMAL 070407Z 05004KT 4000 BR NSC 19/19 Q1015 BECMG 6000 NSW
OMAL 070400Z 03004KT 360V080 1500 R01/0900V1400N R19/0450V0700N BR SCT001 17/17 Q1015 BECMG 3000 BKN008
OMAL 070300Z 05006KT 0300 R01/0250N R19/0375N FG VV001 17/17 Q1015 NOSIG
OMAL 070200Z 35005KT 0400 R01/0600V0900D R19/0275N FG VV001 17/17 Q1014 NOSIG
OMAL 070117Z 35005KT 0800 R01/0750V1600N R19/0400D FG BKN001 18/17 Q1014 TEMPO 0500
OMAL 070100Z 35006KT 1200 R01/1000V2000U R19/0700V1400U BR BKN001 18/17 Q1013 TEMPO 0500 FG
OMAL 070000Z 36011KT 1200 0600N R01/0800V1500U R19/0550N BCFG BKN001 18/18 Q1013 BECMG 0200 FG VV///

For Abu Dhabi, it was worse. 07th was foggy till 0900LT (0500Z). 06th was foggy till 0800LT (0400Z).

OMAA 080505Z 17006KT 130V210 2000 0900E BCFG BKN010 20/20 Q1013 BECMG 4000 HZ
OMAA 080500Z 17005KT 140V200 0800 R31L/0750 FG BKN006 20/19 Q1013 BECMG 2000 BR
OMAA 080444Z 16006KT 130V200 0500 R31L/0325 FG VV003 20/19 Q1013 BECMG 2000 BR
OMAA 080400Z 15003KT 110V190 0100 R31L/0150N FG VV001 18/18 Q1012 NOSIG
OMAA 080300Z 17004KT 0200 R31L/0125 FG VV001 18/17 Q1011 NOSIG
OMAA 080219Z 18005KT 0200 R31L/0200 FG VV001 17/16 Q1011 NOSIG
OMAA 080209Z 19004KT 0200 R31L/P2000N FG VV001 17/16 Q1011 NOSIG
OMAA 080204Z 19005KT 2000 0600SW BCFG SCT008 17/16 Q1011 BECMG 0200 FG VV///

OMAA 070416Z 19005KT 3000 BR SCT004 21/20 Q1014 BECMG 6000 NSW NSC
OMAA 070405Z 19004KT 150V210 2000 0800SE R31L/0900 BCFG BKN004 20/19 Q1014 BECMG 3000 BR
OMAA 070400Z 18004KT 0700 R31L/0400D FG BKN002 20/19 Q1014 BECMG 1500 BR BKN008
OMAA 070326Z 17005KT 1200 0400SE R31L/0250N BCFG BKN002 20/19 Q1014 TEMPO 0150 FG VV///
OMAA 070314Z 11005KT 2000 0800NE R31L/0225 BCFG BKN002 20/19 Q1014 TEMPO 0150 FG VV///
OMAA 070302Z 11005KT 3000 0800E R31L/0400 BCFG SCT002 20/18 Q1013 TEMPO 0300 FG VV001
OMAA 070300Z 12005KT 3500 1200NE BCFG SCT002 20/18 Q1013 TEMPO 0300 FG VV001

As I know from experience, it is very hard to predict fog. If certain atmosphere conditions are present, fog can materialize literally from nowhere. And vice versa.

In any case, pls note that speed limit on all Dubai - Abu Dhabi / Al Ain roads is 80 km/h during fog.

Thanks!

Yesterday and today we have had thick fog in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The same is forecasted for tomorrow. 

@Chaitanya D you might want to revise the start time to avoid waiting in the desert. Thanks! 

Dear all, thanks a lot for a wonderful drive!

@Chaitanya D appreciate your guidance, care and tips! Especially liked your timely feedback, it made some things waaay more clear for me!

@Foxtrot Oscar thanks for inflating my tire so quickly! It would take considerably more time for me to do it myself.

Hope to see you all next time soon!

Dear all,

sorry but I will not be able to join the drive tomorrow.

Hopefully, my place can be taken by somebody else.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Hello! Kindly waitlist me for the drive. Thanks!

Update: Disregard, now I have some work to do on Tuesday 🙄

@Pacific Well done! 

Thanks everyone who attended the meetup session and those who tried their best but could not!

Everybody managed their cameras really well! It was superb to see amateur photographers with very bright ideas and newbies eager to learn and practice!

I was pleased to have this opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with you. I hope that now you feel more confident with the star photos and you will go to the wild on your own to enjoy the starry nights and practice your skills!

As promised, I post my RAW and Lightroom-processed photo here. As you can see, photoshoot itself is only half of the process, post-processing is very important too!

There are a lot of post-processing tutorial in the internet, you can check it on your own. It is important to remember that you can make a good photo great using the post-processing tools. However you cannot make a bad photo good! That's why, basic skills are fundamental and cannot be replaced with the computer power.

My RAW photo (Nikon D7200, Samyang 16mm F2.0, ISO 3200, 15sec):

After Lightroom processing:

Feel free to post you photos here and in the gallery! It does not matter if it is good or bad, we all are learning!

Thanks!

Hello everybody! 

Excited to see you all tomorrow evening! 

I would like to remind you to check if you have a red light head lamp. It is tiny but very important detail for the successful event. 

Besides of all your  photo gear, feel free to bring your camping chairs to feel extra comfortable! Operating a camera on the tripod sitting in a chair is so easy

Thanks! 

44 minutes ago, MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ said:

@Frederic Confirmed 👍🏼
 

@Mikhail Lukichev, here’s my camera gear:

- Nikon D5300

- 18-55mm 

- 55-200mm 

- Basic but sturdy tripod

Excellent! See you soon!