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Firewood (Nemanwa)

It’s more like a tradition in most African countries, young girls like these they go to collect firewood either during school days (which will be on Sunday afternoon after church) or any day on school holidays. These girls they are friends at school and neighbours in the village.

This kind of responsibility is moulding mothers of tomorrow a responsibility of the African woman.

Rural Settlements (Garati)

Neat patterns are visible in the fields there especially the ploughing season in Zimbabwe. Arial views like this one are not common in flat lands, some folks would need a helicopter, but in these places what you need is the love for nature straws and such landscapes just fall in place.

Line cut (Masvingo)

One of the first locomotives used by the British when they came to Zimbabwe, now it is displayed outside municipal offices in Masvingo once named Fort Victoria by the British. Fort Victoria was the first town to be discovered by the colonial settlement and grew up around the encampment established in 1890 by the Pioneer Column en route their eventual destination, Salisbury now Harare.

Utunga hwatsvuka (Dusk) Charumbira)

A beautiful smooth black figure posing the end of another day. I made several shots before I got the apple of my eye. Passer-byes were astonished by what I was doing, they couldn’t just figure out exactly what I was up to.

Social Networking (Garati)

Blogs, tweeters, facebook for all your connections, but here we are looking at footpaths, from one homestead to another and another. Networking at its best. These three homesteads share a lot in common and life in the rural Zimbabwe is mainly socialising. In history these three could engage in marriages amongst their children.

Last man standing (Nemanwa)

Amazing weather patterns here, resembling the most popular balancing rocks in Zimbabwe. One cannot find such outstanding stones anywhere in the world except in Zimbabwe. This stone is not more than 2km away from the famous World Heritage site, Great Zimbabwe, so one can understand why Zimbabwe has such outstanding stones. The apple never falls away from the tree.

Digital Photography Glossary

Photography has a language like any other profession, so here is our language.

Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film. The captured image is then stored as a digital file ready for digital processing (colour correction, sizing, cropping, etc.), viewing or printing.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/digital-photography#ixzz1SA59fSwl

Aperture

A small, circular opening inside the lens that can change in diameter to control the amount of light reaching the camera's sensor as a picture is taken. The aperture diameter is expressed in f-stops; the lower the number, the larger the aperture. For instance, the aperture opening when set to f/2.8 is larger than at f/8. The aperture and shutter speed together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor. A larger aperture passes more light through to the sensor. Many cameras have an aperture priority mode that allows you to adjust the aperture to your own liking. See also shutter speed.

Barrel distortion

Image distortion produced when the position of the camera lens is at its widest angle. Lines you expect to appear perpendicular are not. It is most noticeable when you have a straight edge near the side of the frame, such as when taking a wide angle shot of a building. Barrel distortion causes the edges of an image to look curved or at a skewed angle. Most barrel distortion can be corrected using image editing software.

Bracketing

Take several shots of the same scene at different exposure settings to help ensure getting at least one well-exposed photo; bracket in difficult lighting situations. Some digital cameras have automatic bracketing (see exposure compensation).

Camera shake

Caused by even a slight movement of the camera as it records an image. Camera shake is the main cause of blurred images.

Compact digital camera

A digital camera that does not take interchangeable lenses (though some take converter lenses). Compact digital cameras range from simple point-and-shoot to ones with advanced settings and manual and semi-automatic control.

Continuous mode (Burst mode)

A camera mode that lets you take multiple photos in rapid sequence as you hold the shutter release button down. It is used to capture a series of images or to photograph a fast or unpredictably moving subject.

Converter lens

A lens that attaches to the front of a digital camera, usually requiring an adapter so it mounts correctly on the front of the camera.

Depth-of-field (DOF)

Refers to how much of a photo is in focus when the camera is focused on the main subject. Depth-of-field is controlled by a camera's aperture, in conjunction with the focal length of the lens. Deep (more) depth-of-field means that all or most of the picture is in focus from front to back. Shallow (less) depth-of-field means that a subject is in focus but objects in front and behind it appear out of focus.

Digital zoom

A simulated zoom. The physical length of the lens does not change. The camera pre-crops the central portion of an image and reduces its resolution giving an appearance of zooming in. Image quality is degraded and contains increased noise (see optical zoom).

Dynamic range

The range of tones in a digital photo, from lightest to darkest. The greater the dynamic range, the more detail appears in both shadow and highlight areas. Generally, a DSLR has more dynamic range than a compact digital camera.

EXIF

Exchangeable Image File - Data that is stored in jpeg and TIFF image files, such as shutter speed, date and time, focal length, exposure compensation, metering pattern and if a flash was used a the time a photo was taken. EXIF data can be read by applications which support JPEG including web browsers, image editing programs and some printer software drivers

Exposure compensation

Increase or decrease the exposure an image from the exposure automatically selected by a camera metering system (see bracketing).

Exposure meter

Built-in digital camera meter that measures the amount of light when framing a photo and determines the best exposure. Matrix (Evaluative), Spot and Center-weighted are the main metering types; some digital cameras have all three.

Exposure values (EV)

Exposure Values are numbers that refer to various combinations of lens aperture and shutter speed. When bracketing a photo, decrease the EV if a scene will appear too light (over-exposed). Increase the value if a scene will look too dark (under-exposed).

Fill-in flash

Forces a flash to go off even in bright light; often used outside to soften dark areas or shadows. The camera will expose for the background first, then add enough fill-flash to illuminate your subject. Fill-in flash is also known as forced flash or flash on.

Flash exposure compensation

Digital camera control that lets you adjust the amount of output from the flash. Increase or decrease the amount to lighten or darken the effect of the flash.

FPS

Frames per second - the rate a digital camera or camcorder produce still images one right after another.

ISO (Sensitivity)

The number indicating the camera sensors sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure (see noise).

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

Monitor on back of a digital camera that shows 100% of the view through the camera lens. Like a viewfinder, it can be used to preview a scene before taking a photo. The LCD also displays camera settings and can be used to review photos and videos saved to a memory card.

Megapixel

A megapixel is equal to one million pixels (picture elements). Digital images are made up of thousands of these tiny, tile-like picture elements.

Metering system

Measures the amount of light when framing a photo and determines the best exposure. The main digital camera metering types are: Matrix (Evaluative), Spot and Center-weighted.

Noise

Randomly-spaced speckles (pixels) that can appear in digital images shot at high ISO numbers. Noise results in a reduction of photo detail and clarity, though it can be reduced with special noise reduction software. Noise is most visible when photos are shot at ISO 200 and above with a consumer digital camera. Some digital cameras have a Super CCD where photos taken at higher ISO numbers (eg. ISO 1600) have little, if any, visible noise.

Optical zoom

A true zoom. The focal length of the lens extends and retracts so an image is magnified by the lens itself. Whatever the focal length of the lens, image resolution stays the same. Optical zooms produce the best photo quality (see digital zoom)

Overexposure

Improper exposure causing an image to look too light. There is a loss of detail in bright areas.

PictBridge

A standardized technology that lets you print images from a memory card in a digital camera directly to a printer regardless of brand. No computer is necessary.

Saturation

The intensity, or vividness, of a color. Increasing saturation makes colors in photos look richer. The amount of saturation can be adjusted in some cameras. It can also be increased or decreased with image editing software.

Shutter lag

The delay that takes place between pressing the shutter-release button and the time a photo is actually taken. Shutter lag times vary from digital camera to digital camera.

Shutter-release button

the shutter-release button on a digital camera must be pressed in two steps to lock exposure and focus and to help prevent camera shake

Sunny 16 rule

The “Sunny 16” rule suggests that on a sunny day, you manually set your aperture to f16 and your shutter speed to the reciprocal of your ISO value. This can improve exposure and help prevent clipped highlights.

Underexposure

Improper exposure causing an image to look too dark. There is a loss of detail in dark areas.

White balance

Adjusts the brightest part of a scene so it appears white. How a digital camera records color is affected by the source of light