the Qutub Minar

Prokudin Gorskii

The photographs of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of a lost world - the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming revolution.
Born in St. Petersburg and educated as a chemist, Prokudin-Gorskii devoted his career to the advancement of photography. In the early 1900s, he developed an ingenious technique of taking colour photographs. The same object was captured in black and white on glass plate negatives, using red, green and blue filters. He then presented these images in colour in slide lectures using a light-projection system involving the same three filters.
Around 1907 Prokudin-Gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advancements that had been made in colour photography to systematically document the Russian Empire. Through such an ambitious project, his ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his "optical colour projections" of the vast and diverse history, culture, and modernization of the empire. The plan won the support of Tsar Nicholas II. Between 1909-1912, and again in 1915, Prokudin-Gorskii completed surveys of eleven regions, traveling in a specially equipped railroad car provided by the Ministry of Transportation. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia's diverse population.

In 1918, having lost all his money and property during the revolution, Prokudin-Gorskii went into exile, taking with him only his collection of nearly 2,000 glass-plate negatives and his photograph albums. The collection was purchased by the Library of Congress (LOC) in 1948 from his heirs.

In 2001, the number of glass plates have been scanned and, through an innovative process known as digichromatography, brilliant colour images have been produced. Virtual exhibition The Empire that Was Russia attracted millions of people throughout the world.

Please note that these images are NOT colorized black and white photographs. They were actually taken in colour about hundred years ago!

Because of many years of negligent storing, most of the negatives are in very poor condition, and it takes me hours of scrupulous work to restore their original brilliance. It is just the beginning of the work and I am going to continue. Hundreds of unique colour images of the past are still waiting to be returned back to life.

An Explanation of the Color Rendering Process, “Digichromatography”

There is no known replica or illustration of the camera that Prokudin-Gorskii used. It was a view camera of his own design, perhaps similar to a model [left] designed about 1906 by Dr. Adolf Miethe, whom Prokudin-Gorskii had met previously in Germany.

We know that Prokudin-Gorskii intended his photographic images to be viewed in color because he developed an ingenious photographic technique in order for these images to be captured in black and white on glass plate negatives, using red, green and blue filters. He then presented these images in color in slide lectures using a light-projection system [right] involving the same three filters.

A single, narrow glass plate about 3 inches wide by 9 inches long was placed vertically into the camera by Prokudin-Gorskii . He then photographed the same scene three times in a fairly rapid sequence using a red filter, a green filter and a blue filter.
When viewed through Prokudin-Gorskii’s camera, the scene being photographed would have appeared upside down and reversed from its actual orientation.

For the digital process, the original tri-part glass negative is scanned with an overhead digital camera in grayscale mode. Image-editing software converts the scan of the entire plate from negative to positive form. The scan is inverted to represent the original physical orientation.

The entire plate is then reduced to 8-bit grayscale mode. Under magnification, the quality of each image on the plate is reviewed for contrast, degree of color separation, extent of damage to the emulsion, and any other details that might affect the final color composite.

An electronic file is created for each image from the cropped tri-part plate forming three separate “layers” from which the final color composite will be generated. The layers are labeled by color.

the red(R), blue(B), and green(G) layers are aligned forming the “RGB” color composite.

The cropped color composite is adjusted overall to create the proper contrast,
appropriate highlight and shadow detail, and optimal color balance.

Final adjustments may be applied to specific, localized areas of the composite color image to minimize defects associated with over or underexposure, development, or aging of the emulsion of Prokudin-Gorskii’s original glass plate.
The completed color composite is retouched to minimize defects associated with age and incidental damage.

63 years , india still sucks

Music Review - Nightmare Avenged sevenfold

"Nightmare" is Avenged Sevenfold's fifth studio album.This album is dedicated to their late drummer "Jimmy  'the rev' sulliven".The lyrics are all about loss and death.heavy guitar riffs and scream vocals the album more similar to metallica and queensyringe . M shadows continually amazes with his vocal acrobatics,throught the album.Drums by Mike portnoy of the dream theater did one of the best performance for this album.

The album debuted no.1 in billboard hot 200. The chart is finally releived from Hiphop and kiddish pop songs.

The track list is 

1.	"Nightmare"	6:14
2.	"Welcome to the Family"	4:06
3.	"Danger Line"	5:28
4.	"Buried Alive"	6:44
5.	"Natural Born Killer"	5:15
6.	"So Far Away"	5:27
7.	"God Hates Us"	5:19
8.	"Victim"	7:30
9.	"Tonight the World Dies"	4:41
10.	"Fiction"	5:13
11.	"Save Me"	10:56

1) Nightmare :  M shadows vocals and the drum beats are the best parts of this song   rating 6/10
2)Welcome to the Family : Heavy metal song with the happiest lyrics of the album   rating5/10
3) Danger Line : A power ballad.Listen it for the guitar part .Good lyrics  rating 9/10
4)Buried alive : Vocals and lyrics rating6/10
5) Natural born killer:What a high speed song!! heavy metal piece Drums and lyrics rating9/10
6)So far away:punk rock styled rating7/10
7)God hates us:Total nightmare !!!! reminds of metallica  rating 9/10
8)Victim:Soft rock song rating 7/10
9)Tonight the world dies:starts with marlyn manson style and progress to soft rock.listen for the guitar notes.Rating 7/10
10)Fiction:A track originally called “Death” when written by The Rev. The title was changed to honor the band’s fallen brother and to reflect his belief that his life was like a book of fiction; it would be the final song he ever wrote.Piano gives the song a different feel rating 8/10
11)Save me:The last song of the album 11minutes with multimetalgeners .its an epic song  rating 9/10



 Overall rating 7/10

great movies -A simple plan

A Simple Plan (1998) -Directed by Sam Raimi  based on the by Scott Smith is one of the most gripping movies i ve seen.It is wonderfully shot in Minesota and Winconsin winter time.it has the complex storyline with lot of suspense. A must watch for the thriller fans.Bridget Fonda's 'Lady Macbeth' charector is worth a mention.But the real show stealer is Billy Bob Thornton's charectoe jacob.the retarded brother of the hero who knows more bitter truths than his brother do.Billy Bob Thornton got a academy award nomination for this charector whose sacrifice for his brother goes in vain in the climax.
For me the movie is more like Macbeth.

I hate (other) alpha male

'Alpha Male' is generally used to describe the dominant leader among the closely living social animals including humans.They often express the leadership characters which normally the other members defers.

In human societies alpha males are those who seems most at ease with women and can essentially get those of his choice. In this sense the alpha male is often of high socioeconomic status, good-looking,and a great build.Generally the alpha male (or a group of alpha males) are the cutest guys, usually muscle-bound and rich. while beta males may be less assured around females and may participate in less “male” activities.

Alpha males are more about exhibiting traits that are essentially masculine or “macho.” Many attractive males are beta to the core when it comes to relating with people.

In work settings, the alpha male may be a natural leader, exuding confidence. But he also may be contentious, demanding and difficult to work with. This is thought to be in part due to the alpha male attempting to retain his stature, however unconsciously, as alpha. Being the top salesperson, the quickest worker, the most aggressive boss may contribute to remaining at the top, and the alpha male has a tendency to respond aggressively to any attempts by others to outshine him.

This is true in non-human settings too. The alpha male is continually being tested to see if he remains dominant and may need to stage pitched fights with upcoming males in a group to remain “top dog.” In the human setting, the alpha male usually doesn’t fight physically, but instead acts with language, brusque or dismissive behavior, or with other tactics to remain at the top.

Though leaders in a company are excellent to have, alpha male characteristics in the workplace may not always be seen as positive. Aggression and disregard for others are not necessarily inspiring. Some people better lead by being “beta” and having good communication skills, sensitivity toward others, and downplaying their strengths so they can showcase the strengths of others.

In adult social settings, alpha males again may be judged not so much by aggression, but by their ability to get the most attractive women as mates. This is the primary reason for alpha behavior in other animals.

The alpha male in adult society is likely to be confident, attractive, and wealthy. Questions remain as to whether the alpha male can retain mates, since relationships often require ability to compromise, to discuss feelings and to be sensitive. Some alpha males have these characteristics typically thought of as beta, but many of them lack such traits. You can certainly point to prominent alpha males in our society who seem to have poor track records with women, either involving themselves in a succession of failed relationships or marrying one woman after another, with no marriage lasting for very long.