Guindy Children's Park -- Teaser trailer

Couple of our photography friends had gone to Guindy park for a photo shoot during the weekend and there were this beautiful ducklings that were present in one of the cages. It was a  treat to watch them always walk around their mother following her wherever she went and within a distance of 5 inches. 

Stay tuned! More photos are on the way.

The great 'Miss'!

There is nothing more irritating than finding that a photo which could have easily become a great shot turning into a damp squib for the simple reason that you failed to hold the camera steady. There could be 'N' number of reasons on why I could not hold the camera steady at the moment I pressed the trigger but those does not qualify as consolations for missing out on a great shot. The photo given below was taken at Vaitheeswaran Temple and the streak of light was so good to be missed. We were running late in terms of completing the darshan of all the important deities and so I had to be very swift when taking this photo. Unfortunately, I failed miserably and I still rue about the missed shot.

Starburst -- How to?

Even though there is Photoshop to give us a perfect starburst effect for light sources, one of the chance discoveries that I made when shooting against the sun is that we get the same star burst effect when we have a smaller aperture value. An aperture value of F11 or above somehow always gives me a star burst effect. Given below is one such photo where I got a decent star burst effect with the above technique. If there are other ways, please let me know and I would be greatly interested in trying.

Week 1 of 52

 

The first 2 weeks of any new project are the toughest. It is almost impossible to decide on what to shoot and there is also the nagging doubt of whether we are good enough for doing such a thing. The trick is to begin and hope that you will get the inspiration to continue. Believe it or not, the moment you commit to something, things seem to naturally fall in place.

I was forced to shoot tabletop photos because of the tight schedule at office which made me frantically search for subjects at home. This watch belongs to my wife & this was something that I really liked the moment I saw it. I had not considered it as a 'Subject' at that time but when I started searching for subjects at home, this was the second subject that caught my attention. Wait a second. Did I just say  it as the second thing that caught my attention? Yes indeed. The first thing that caught my attention is a 'Tanjore Doll' that was given to us during the 'Nalanku Ceremony' of our marriage. I used this doll with a background of our window screen to shoot a whole lot of pictures and some of these pictures came out real good. I always like to have choices and hence decided to shoot this watch as well just in case the pictures of the doll did not turn out to that good in the computer.

For this setup, I closed our window with a brown screen and allowed only a little bit of sunshine to pour in. The placement of the watch was tricky for it was never able to stand on its own and I had to struggle with it before it could be setup like this. The reflections were the ones that I really concentrated on and getting the focus right turned out to be a bit of a problem for the glass and the silver color of the watch frame made it tough to find a focus point.

Given below is the picture of the 'Tanjore Doll' that did not make the cut in flickr for Week #1. The color of the doll's face always gave it a soft feel and that left me a bit unsatisfied with the result. Also, a comparison with the watch picture made us (Myself & my best half) to decide it in favor of the watch. 

For a new beginning

Photography has completely taken me by storm and there is not a day when I don't think of photography or editing or the place to which I need to go for the next photo shoot. There is always something that I keep learning about photography every day and I intend to use this blog to share what I learn during this fascinating trip. To expect to learn a lot from this website would be mere foolishness for I am a novice myself and all that I intend to do is share my 'WOW' moments with you all.

The second thing that I want to use this blog is as a place holder for the 'Project 52' photos. Behind every project 52 that I post in flickr, there are a whole lot of photos that I clicked during that week that did not make it to flickr. The reasons could be several:

1) A composition that is of lesser appeal than the one posted 

2) Did not find it to be the best for that week. 

3) Did not fit the criteria that I might have set to myself for that week.

 I intend to post those photos here to get your comments and feedbacks. This would be one of the primary objectives of this blog.

Last but not the least, to post the photos that I loved taking to only realize later(After seeing the picture in the PC)  that I had messed up something with my camera settings. The settings could be a slow shutter speed that created a camera shake or a high ISO to produce undesired amount of noise or an overexposed picture that could not be redeemed by PP.

Let the journey begin....

Shot Ready, Action, Camera!!!