Week #2 of 52

 During the second week, my wife found a gift that she had with her as the subject for the 'Project 52' shoot. It was a bottle with a glass ship inside. The carving was so beautiful and I immediately knew that it would make a very good subject. We tried shooting it with the normal tube light illumination but the image that we got were very flat and did not impress us. Again my wife came with the brilliant idea of using candle lights for the lighting. It turned out to be a great choice and the resulting photos were pleasing for both us. The photo that I posted had the right amount of lights and shadows and hence made it to flickr.

The harder part of course was on making the choice for the posting. There were at least a couple of images that were good and the one above is something I loved a lot. The composition was spot on with the candle lights being placed in the corner showing the source of the lights and the shadows were also good. The reflection on the wall of the flame was the sore point and I felt it was distracting. Even Post Processing (PP) would not save those bokehs and hence the reason to reject this image.

Landscape Photography -- Tips & Tricks (Part #1)

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer; and often the supreme disappointment – Ansel Adams

When Ansel Adams, The Master of landscape photography, talks about landscape photography in this fashion, it makes sense for all of us to take care of some basic aspects when taking landscape photos. Thankfully, taking care of a few aspects would make sure that the photos that we take are visually pleasing and compositionally brilliant. In the coming articles, we will look at these techniques to take small but significant steps towards becoming better landscape photographers.

Tip #1: Scout the spot for different angles

Our first instinct when we come across a picturesque location would be to start shooting without actually looking around for the perfect angle & composition. We would be better off if we can hold off our instincts for sometime to find an ideal location; a location where we can use the angle of light, patterns or textures, lines or curves for making our composition even better.

Tip #2: Make use of the golden hour

Early mornings (½ hour before sunrise & 1 hour after sunrise) and late evenings (1 hour before & ½ hour after) are the best times to capture the mood of the place. The light is not too harsh and offers great play of lights to be captured.

Tip #3: Always use a polarizer

Polarizers help in cutting down reflections and enhancing the colors. Sky colors are darkened and dark skies offer a great background for landscape shots. The usage of a polarizer filter is different from the other filters and the important point is that it needs to rotated, the frame checked for color enhancement and then the picture clicked. Not rotating the filter would leave the possibility of getting enhanced colors entirely to chance and not choice!

Tip #4: Carry a tripod around

The pains of carrying a tripod will vanish the moment you capture a stunning picture which would have been impossible to take without a tripod at hand. It is not only useful for taking photos without shake but also to expand the creative possibilities like slow shutter speed shots, panoramic shots or multiple exposure shots that are used in generating vibrant looking HDR’s.

Chennai Sangamam

 The chennai sangamam 2009 proved to be a great success not just for the organizers and the people participating in it but also for photographers like me. There was a whole bunch of opportunities for people photography in the parks where these events were being organized and I came back with some images that I was very pleased with. My Canon 50mm lens provided very handy in these low light conditions and the only thing that I regretted is about attending just 2 days of the celebration. I have decided to make much more use of the chance presented in Chennai Sangamam from the next year onwards.

Many of these shots would have found its way into my flickr account if not for my decision to post only nature photographs in my stream going forward. There will be people in my shot but they would be there to add value to the shot & not as the main subject. This left me with the option of posting those candid shots (which I click occasionaly) in my blog here.

These are unedited shots(except for resizing).

Click #1: A kid enjoying the show (He is sitting on the shoulders of a person!)

Click #2: A family enthralled by Kadri Gopalnath wield his saxophone like a magical wand

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.