Thomas Varghese

@Rahimdad , @Gaurav we have an off road club and lens lovers club. I would suggest we start a forum for a training for new drivers, vehicle owners to properly take care of their machines. I have noticed that new gen drivers don't even know how to change a tire, let alone checking engine oils or other fluids. In fact they just dump their machines at a garage and pay whatever the garage demands. So many vehicle owners here doesn't know even the technical aspects or capabilities and limitations of their machines. I learned it in a hard way last week by damaging my front drive train and @Frederic had to explain to me why the drive train was damaged.

welcome @Islam Soliman for the friday fun in the sands.

@Ahab Shamaa you are right. People tend to forget. The car never forgets. Cars are considered as toys but in reality they are serious machines. Always read the manuals, understand & follow them before attempting sporting events like offroading in your car, I read the manual when I got the car but didn't give much importance while reading. After this incident to tell you the truth I went through the 4WD section and literally byhearted the whole so that next time I don't damage the car and cause injuries to myself, passengers or any other road user. The moment the sound and the vibration appeared while driving on high speeds on Emirates Road, this particular section of 4WD in the manual flashed in my mind and I knew something had happened. I still didn't realise the gravity of my actions until 2 days later when I got to check the same in a garage. I was shocked to see the axle almost come out like a broken bone when you break one. Immediately I realised what a fool I was for not checking the weird vibration earlier. Thank God it didn't cause any injuries to anyone including myself.

Its alright @Frederic. You only learn good lessons by paying. Hopefully the financial loss & the whole trouble will keep me on my toes not to forget about switching back to 2W after our drives henceforth. Thankfully I discovered the problem before it really ran into bigger accidents like toppling in the highway during a normal drive if the axle had completely jumped out of its housing. Thanks to God for making me go to the garage in the nick of time before bigger mishaps happened. The axle could have damaged more parts if it would have come out by smashing against other parts like engine and gearbox as they are made of Aluminium and would have cracked. It could have hit the road and made the car jump out of control. I remember the instructions you had given us to switch back to 2W after my absolute newbie drive with you. I didn't understand the importance at that time but now I do.

congrats @imranaasghar81

@Ahab Shamaa as per Nissan Xterra Manuals its ok to drive the car in 4H on tarmac provided you don't exceed 100km/hr. Once you cross 100km/hr the torsional forces developed in the axles and the differential causes the system to fail. The differential cannot cope up with the unbalance and will fail. I realised this painfully after the drive with @wrangled ended last friday and was cruising happily on Emirates road. Once I crossed the 100km/hr limit and cruised at 130km/hr sound started to develop and the car had a strange vibration. Suddenly I realised its not been shifted to 2H and I immediately did. Sadly the damage was already done. I wished the vibration and sound will go off once I shifted back to 2H. 2 days later I checked what was the damage in a garage and found the front left axle had almost come loose from the differential tearing its millings and the oil in the differential was too low as it was spilling outside. Infact I was lucky to have checked it soon as it may have caused a sudden stop very soon and I might have had to tow it if I escaped the accident it may have caused. AWD are designed with differentials which can keep all the wheels driven but a pure 4WD is not. Couple of thousands lost but a very valuable lesson learned. Poor but wiser. Thankfully I could source the same differential model with same gear ratios from Sajaa as again I found out different models of Xterra has different gear ratios and is not easy to match. 2 differentials had to be brought and checked by fixing and driving it to finally choose 1. (1) How 4WD (4x4 - Four Wheel Drive) Works - 2H, 4H, 4L, LSD, Centre Diff, Diff Locks, Traction Control. - YouTube 2008 Nissan Xterra Owner's Manual.pdf

The car is out from garage and ready for the cue from @Ale Vallecchi to take me anywhere he leads to. Drove from garage in Dubai to my home at Ajman and its even better than before. What a price I had to pay for for forgetting to switch back from 4HI to 2W after the drive. Lighter by a couple of thousands but wiser than before. The question to what will happen if we forget to switch back to 2W is answered.

super exciting @Ale Vallecchi. Hopefully my car will come out from garage today after front axle & differential change.

congrats @Pancho for the promotion

I have calibrize software but now not using it as it has made the whole screen color gone weird. Maybe I don't know how to actually calibrate with the software. Of course over saturation problem happens when your screen is not color calibrated properly. It looks perfect on own monitor but the moment its transferred to another it has a distinct color shade which looks totally different from what you intended. Shooting the picture in aperture mode or shutter priority mode is relatively easier than full manual mode. The challenge is correct post processing.

The proud new MARSHAL @Vanessa8580

Congrats @Vanessa8580. Its a deserved promotion. Would you mind if I will post a picture of yours sitting proudly in your car which I took last time you assisted us for the drive with @Frederic?

@Frederic can you recommend any monitor calibration tool? Unfortunately whatever work you do in the software it will be rendered useless if the computer monitor is not calibrated properly for color rendering. It will look great in own computer screen but the moment you view the same in another screen the image will appear weird because of calibration issues with the screen.

@Frederic this is not that easy as it uses Adobe Photoshop and layers. Much easier is to use Adobe Light room. Most of the workflow in Adobe Photoshop is made simplified in Lightroom.

congrats @Baskaran P.R. Looking forward to join you for a fewbie drive in the near future

@Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader I have joined the coming friday drive with @Ale Vallecchi. Thanks for your kind words and considering me as your friend. I was at the garage with my Xterra when the RSVP opened. Unfortunately my car's axle came loose from the front differential and has destroyed the axle as well as the differential. Fortunately we got a replacement from Sajaa and it will come out of the garage tomorrow. Since the time I found out that the axle has come out from the differential I'm wondering how it happened. Any body in our forum can answer me on this? My conclusion is that the axle was already weak - possible as the car had done 600000 kms till date and I have no idea if the previous owner changed it before. Another possibility is I had forgotten to switch back from 4HI to 2H when the drive got over and I damaged the axle and differential by driving in 4HI on tarmac with speeds exceeding 130kms/hr. As per the manual I found that 4HI can be used on tarmac's but speed shouldn't exceed 100km/hr. It can create torsional forces more than what the axle can tolerate. There was a moment in the last friday's drive with @Wrangeld when the front hit the ground hard while coming down after a ridge crossing and from that moment I suspected something may have got damaged. The shock of the hard hit to the ground may have caused the axle to get dislodged from the differential slightly and my forgetting to switch from 4HI to 2H after the drive may have aggravated the injury already caused to the system. Or all 3 contributed to the damage. My advise to all of you after spending couple of thousands and looking like an idiot - PLEASE REVERT BACK TO 2H AS SOON AS THE DRIVE IS OVER.

I'm in it too

There are no good photographers or bad photographers. Please get this notion out of your mind that you are the worst photographer. The only thing which matters is if you got the exposure correct so that other people or you yourself can make out what you shot with the camera. What is the point in showing a perfectly black or white picture to anyone? Sometimes you deliberately change the exposure to contribute your personal artistic touch to the picture. Other than these instances its like driving an automatic geared car. Like the car deciding which gear it should keep going the camera decides what will be the shutter speed, aperture and ISO if you shoot in Auto Mode. Once you switch to the professional mode like a driver shifts from automatic to manual the creativity starts to improve. The camera is like our cars. Whatever commands we give both of them executes it without fail. You cannot decide if I'm a better driver than you just because I drive a better car. What good is it if I don't know how to drive the better car? Scenery choices and type of photography is entirely your wish.

@Mohamed Seidam there are many training videos in you tube to acquaint yourself with the tools you have in your camera. Richard Bradbury - YouTube This guy is good in his training.

Flash Freezes Motion Better Than Shutter Speed - YouTube Very interesting. I hope @Frederic got a solution to his learnings with motion blur when photographing

To tell you the truth @Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader I love driving with all the marshals in carnity. Each 1 is different and has a different lesson to offer. We sure had fun today. I'm sure you also had. Missed you & @Danish Mohammad.

Dear @Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader good to know you all had fun today's drive with @Pancho & @Rahimdad. Missed you all today. Nonetheless we had great fun at Qudra with @Wrangled, @Mohamad seidam & @janarthan. Will see you soon in the sands. Dear @Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader good to know you all had fun today's drive with @Pancho & @Rahimdad. Missed you all today. Nonetheless we had great fun at Qudra with @Wrangled, @Mohamad seidam & @janarthan. Will see you soon in the sands.