Macros......

The wonderfully beautiful world of insects and bugs..... Never expected the small world of insects would be so interesting! There are so many varieties of insects and each one of them have their own unique way of survival. The more I observe these wonderful creatures, the more fascinated I become by these mini-beauties :-)

Here is a collection of macro shots that I shot in the last 6 months. It would be great if someone could identify the names of these insects.

The first two shots are from the Theosophical society and the third one is from my trip to Coimbatore. For those who are interested in the gear and settings used, these were shot using a macro lens adapter called Raynox DCR-250. When mounted along with a zoom lens (I used a 75-300mm lens), this adapter gives some amazing magnification. The only flip side to this adapter is that you need to resort to complete manual focus and the shooting distance should be less than 10cm. Move a bit close or a bit far, the insects would no more be in focus. Getting this close to an insect almost always scares them away and hence a lot of patience is needed while using this combination.

Mylai Festival -- Take Two

When the night slowly started settling in and using the 18-55mm lens became a tough proposition, the 50mm prime came to my rescue. There is a definite sharpness to the shots clicked with a prime lens that the other lens surely lack. The 50mm really shines during these night times and it is no exaggeration that without this lens, all the below shots would have been impossible.

(Scroll down to my previous blog for more pictures from the 'Mylai Festival')

Yelagiri Tour -- Macro World! (Part II)

Some more clicks from Yelagiri.... Canon 100mm Macro lens at work here.

Yelagiri Tour -- Macro World!

Thanks a ton to Guru for lending his 100mm Macro lens to me.... I had one of the best times with this lens.

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.

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!!!