Kancheepuram -- The Temple town of South

Here are the photos from our trip to Kancheepuram. It is a fascinating place and the architectural marvel of this place is something that needs to be seen to be appreciated. The Ekambareshwarar temple is where I usually find a lot of photographic subjects. The temple is so huge and you even get streaks of light if you go to the temple early in the morning.

Koyambedu Market -- Take Two

A few more shots from Koyambedu market.This person was aware that we were there with our cameras and I had to wait sometime before he could turn to face the camera. The rose flowers that he was selling, the soft light that was streaming through making him bathe in a rose light and the entire ambiance of the place was what made me click this shot. The red and green polythene covers in the right hand side corner not only blocked the harsh light but also helped in giving a balance to the composition. No post-processing (PP) has been done on this one except to resize the image for the blog.

Again, the light was the major factor why I clicked the shot. This seller was engrossed in a discussion with his fellow sellers and the silhouetted lady was busy buying some flowers. The scene seem to depict the mood of the place so well that I had to click it.

During PP, I first tried out a monochrome image and was quite satisfied with the way the light was brought on the face of the seller. Even after that, I kept playing in LightRoom and that is when I stumbled upon this idea of not completely de-saturating the image and adding just a small amount of color.

Koyambedu Market

Shot during my weekend photography trip to 'Koyambedu' market. It is a wonderful place for shooting pictures as there is excellent lighting that is available and the vendors there are so used to people taking photos of them that they almost ignore us.... (Well, if you don't consider the fact that some people do come and ask us to take their photos!!). Am planning to write a tour report but I am so lazy to do it.... Hopefully, I will get down to writing it this weekend.

Yelagiri Tour -- Photos

Pic #1: Hide the head competition

Pic #2: A back-lit plant & a few bokehs

Pic #3: Purple Sunbird Silhouette

Pic #4: Gateway to a red garden

Pic #5: Monkey tricks

That crazy thing called 'Bokeh'!!!

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur,in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens  designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— "good" or "bad" bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions. (Source:Wikipedia)

I have become crazy about bokehs ever since I learned what that term means. It is such a beautiful thing and I can go on & on about this wonderful element in photography.Here are a few images that stand out for the way in which the bokeh has been rendered. These are not the best images in terms of composition and I am presenting them here as an example for what a bokeh means.

How to: One of the easiest ways to create an image with a wonderful looking bokeh is to shoot with a wide open aperture. I have used the 50mm prime lens with aperture set at f1.8 to get this effect. A wide open aperture, a nearby object as the primary subject and light (Or water) at a reasonable distance of 1 meter would give you the perfect bokeh. I am yet to experiment with multi-colored artificial light bokehs but trust me when I say those days are not far!!!

Child Labor -- A sad state of affairs

Had been to Besant Nagar beach last weekend and when I started shooting, I got this idea of covering children working in the beach. Somehow this is one area which has greatly affected me and I wanted to bring out that mood in my pictures. Here are a couple of those pictures which I clicked there. 

Wayanad Pictures -- Part II

Picture #1: The Wayanad magic continues with some stunning images from the Meenmutty falls. This is one of my favorite compositions with the sun rays cleanly starting from the right side top corner and hitting the mountains perfectly on the forest. Incidentally, that spot is where the 'Golden Rule' of composition would have been put! 

 Picture #2: The clouds form a beautiful canopy encompassing the forests below and giving the scene a surrealistic atmosphere.