Road Trip to Mayapur

On 27th Dec, 2009 we embarked on a road trip to Mayapur. We started the journey from our residence at 6:30 AM in the morning, took VIP road to Dum Dum, then took Jessore Road to Barasat, and finally reached National Highway 34 which would take us to Mayapur. As usual, I enjoyed the ride, there was a nip in the air, and it was mist all over. My chauffer took care of the driving, while I relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of rural West Bengal. My wife and son chose to sleep.

First stop I made was after Ranaghat, to have a smoke. I took some snaps of the countryside. One of them is given below:

From mayapur

I also took a snap of busy NH34 in the morning, with my car parked in the side. You can also see my shadow, while taking the snap.

From mayapur

After a few more kilometers, after passing Krishnanagar, I stopped at the bridge over Jalangi river. The view was breathtaking, the morning mist still present and I am afraid I could not do justice to the view.

From mayapur

From mayapur

I also saw an industrial chimney polluting the serene countryside. Decided that it should be one of my subjects.

From mayapur

After a few more kilometers, we took a sharp left turn (Almost an U) towards Mayapur. Suddenly the road started to get crowded as we reached the temple village. I asked my driver to drive straight on towards the launch jetty, as I wanted to picture the point where river Jalangi meets river Ganga. The photography session was not that great though, as it was very misty and I was not getting clear views at high zoom.

From mayapur

The following picture is taken from Mayapur side of river Ganges, while women were bathing on the other side, a typical scene along the holy river in India

From mayapur

The following two pictures also show the rivers in various moods

From mayapur

From mayapur

Mayapur is a village of temples, and the following are two temple pictures I shot from a distance.

From mayapur

From mayapur

Then we went to the ISCON temple complex. Camera was not allowed in the temple and I did not want to leave my costly camera in the hands of others, so I stayed outside while my wife and son went inside and had a view of the museum. I loitered outside and took a couple of shots of the museum.
The following picture captures the whole museum (a little bit dark) as it was very sunny outside.

From mayapur

The following two pictures show statues in various poses of sankirtana.

From mayapur

From mayapur

After my wife and son came out of the museum, we spend some time basking in the afternoon sun. It was lunchtime for my kid, so we quickly bought a jar of ghee from the temple goshala (cow shed) and went back to our car which was parked almost half kilometer away. After my son's lunch was over, we went back to Krishnanagar to have our lunch at a road-side dhaba. We also bought sor-bhaja and sor-puria which are local speciality sweets. After our lunch, we took NH 34 again to come back home.

Slow Shutter Speed

I have not got the time to do any photography for the last few days, and hence my blog was dry for more than a month. I still do not have any new photos to show, so I decided to do a new article with some of my earlier shots.

Slow shutter speed can really make stunning effects on a photo. For example in the following shot, the slow shutter speed makes the lighted parts of the picture very fluid. Of course I used a tripod, to avoid camera shake.


Camera: Sony DSLR-A300 Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6) Aperture: f/4.5Focal Length: 75 mm ISO Speed: 800

The next photo also, on the similar lines, taken with my Olympus SP510UZ, with a very long exposure of 15 seconds. I had to choose 1/6 second in the previous one as there was some motion in the car which I did not want to get blurred, but in this one, since everything is very static, I had the luxury of a very long exposure.

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ISO: 100 Exposure: 15.0 sec Aperture: 8.0 Focal Length: 10.9mm

The third example is a waterfall. Shooting a water fall with a slow shutter speed, will blur the movement of the water, creating a nice visual effect.



Exposure: 0.167 sec (1/6) Aperture: f/8 Focal Length: 17.5 mm ISO Speed: 200

The fourth shot is the same waterfall. I handheld both shots as I was not carrying a tripod.

From Blog

ISO: 200 Exposure: 1/6 sec Aperture: 8.0 Focal Length: 6.3mm

One equipment that would have made the fourth shot better, but unfortunately I do not possess, is a graduated neutral density filter. You can see that the sky has blown out highlights. A graduated neutral density filter will have a gradient from gery to white, thus evening out the exposure where there is a zone with intense light while another is muted light.
Do try out taking long exposure shots. Let me know how it goes.

Portrait Project: Photographing my son

A couple of weeks back, my son was just learning to take the first few steps on his own, and I tried to capture some of the moods he was showing. It was very trying on the patience, as the moment you thought you were having a good composition, he would change it, before you could focus on him. He has also become very camera concious lately, and would wonder what his "Daddy" is up to, when I would point the camera at him. In the end I got a few shots, and I will post them here, for you to figure out, how I have fared.

TIP BTW, One of the key virtues for a good photographers is patience. You need to have patience in order to get the perfect shot!!!
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The shot was done in two parts, during the day, it was a wee bit of ambient light and most of the lighting is through my in-camera flash. In the evening, I used my wireless flash bounced off a white ceiling.


The first shot: In photographic grammer, this shot has a big mistake. My wife's legs are visible which is cluttering the frame. I like this shot very much though and decided to keep it in the post. I hope my readers will excuse me for the mistake.

From Mar08-09

Technical Data: ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 45mm Flash Used: In-camera

The second shot: Against the door

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/100 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 60mm Flash Used: In-camera

The third shot: Papa, see my acrobatics

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Technical data: ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 35mm Flash Used: In-camera

The fourth shot: Smile Please!!!

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Technical data: ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/125 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 70mm Flash Used: In-camera

The fifth shot: Cupboard is sooo good!!!

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 100, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5 Focal Length: 28mm Flash Used: In-camera

The second set was shot during his dinner, using an off-camera wireless flash bounced of a white ceiling.

The sixth shot: Making faces

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 28mm Flash Used: Off-camera, diffused using ceiling-bounce

The seventh shot: Why do I have to eat, mama?

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 60mm Flash Used: Off-camera, diffused using ceiling-bounce

The eighth shot: I guess dinner is over!!!

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 40mm Flash Used: Off-camera, diffused using ceiling-bounce

The ninth shot: Oh no!!! More food

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 70mm Flash Used: Off-camera, diffused using ceiling-bounce

The tenth shot: I hate eating!!!

From Mar08-09

Technical data: ISO: 400, Exposure: 1/60 sec Aperture: 5.6 Focal Length: 70mm Flash Used: Off-camera, diffused using ceiling-bounce

All shots taken with my Sony Alpha300. Let me know what do you think!!!

Shooting a photo frame by candlelight

This week, I undertook an abstract project. The electric power was off, so I had lit a candle and placed in front of a photo-frame, containing photo's of my family. The warm light of the candle created an interesting mood in the room, and the photo-frame, accentuated by the low light looked absolutely beautiful.
I was thinking about it for some time, but then my wife asked me to get the camera: and here are the results.

First: The candle



Second: The candle light falling on the framed picture of my son and me.

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Third: The whole assembly of the photo-frame and the candle-stand.

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The photos were shot in low light and the second and third with very high ISO settings, making it grainy. I am still very proud of these shots, as I re-live the ambience every time I look at them. Let me know how do you feel about them.

Shooting Flowers

Flower photography is probably the first step many people take, in their journey from becoming a trigger happy point and shoot, to an amateur photographer. Flowers are beautiful, and we can take stunning flower photographs quite easily. To have a good flower shoot, I would recommend using a camera with "aperture priority" (or full manual), so that you have more control on the depth of field.

Few small tips: however, be prepared to break them at your will.

• Use a shallow depth of field
  This will make your flower stand out from its background, and also create interesting bokeh in the background


• Take an unusual viewpoint
  If you shoot flowers at an angle in which we normally don't see them, it will create a stunning composition.


• Shoot on a black background
  Black background will make your flowers more vivid and powerful. For example, you can hold a black cardboard or cloth in the background. Being a purist though, I do not follow this tip myself: if a black background is not available naturally, I shoot with the available background


• Dew drops on flowers improve the beauty of the flower
  Again, though personally I have never created artificial dew, you can do it by spraying some water on the flower before you shoot
  

Now, some of my flower shots.

In this photo I have broken the convention that a flower should be shot in color. In the original shot, the flower was white on a green background. Converting it to black and white has created more impact I believe.



I have shot this one with a black background. I framed the flowers against a black water tank.



I have shot this one against an overexposed sky as background, turning it into white. The depth of field is not very shallow, so the leaves are also in partial focus.



This was taken with a prosumer "point and shoot" camera. Olympus SP510UZ, which I used before buying my Sony A300 SLR.

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This is a hibiscus flower shot in the warm evening sunlight during sunset.

Let me know if you liked this post. Show me some of your own flower shots

Using bokeh as a background element

"Bokeh" is a fancy term for blur!!! As defined by Wikipedia, bokeh refers to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field
In an image we want our subject to stand out from its surroundings. Hence a bokeh will remove distracting backgrounds from claiming attention in photos. Many creative photographers will use bokeh as the main subject, but in this post I will stick to examples where I have used it as background element.

First one to start with is a portrait of my wife. The background is busy, but I have blurred it out to keep the attention on my subject.

From Blog

The second is an extreme example of a Bokeh. The entire background is made completely blurred with the subject in focus. This is one shot I am very proud of: (View it in large in my Flickr photo album)


The third one is also a flower shot with small bokeh in foreground and a larger more out of focus bokeh in background.



The last in today's series is a planned treatment of mine. The bokeh is not very asthetically pleasing, but I believe it blends well with the subject and my treatment.

Let me know how you feel about these photos and show me yours.

Photographing the perfect sunset

Sunset has been the favorite subject of photography, due to the rich, warm tones cast by the slanting rays. Every sunset we see, stirs something within us, and when we look back at them, we re-live the memories that happened at that particular date/time. However, the viewers of the photo, who was not there with us and who has seen a lot of sunset photos may not find them as interesting as we seem to see it.

I have shot many sunset scenes, but there was only one shoot which I feel have enough substance to justify being a post in my photographic blog. It had all the elements to create a spectacular sunset portfolio.

So what makes a sunset photo interesting. As quoted by some professional photographers, the sunset should be complimented by a interesting backdrop and a perfectly still water in front to create a stunning reflection.

I will post here four images, shot at the catskill mountains. The peaks provide the backdrop, while the Ashokan Reservoir gives that perfectly still water reflections. Do judge them and tell me what you think.

Interestingly, I was without a camera during the shoot, so my friend's wife kindly let me have her Panasonic Lumix "point and shoot" to do my "own stuff". My friend on the other hand was using his Nikon D80 and at my insistance was using RAW mode for the shoot.

Ok ... here goes the first one ... shot by my friend Sumit Mishra with his D80. Converted to JPG and post processing by me.

From Blog

The second one was also shot by my friend in his D80. Converted to JPG and post processing by me. I have converted it to Black and White as I feel in a proper sunset shot, BW removes the warm color, and your tonal ranges stand out. Let me know what you think.

From Blog

The third and fourth was shot by me with a Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot. You can see for yourself that the results are comparable to the Nikon D80. This firmly asserts my conviction that great photos depend more on the ambience and the photographer and less on the equipment. By the way, I felt that Panasonic Lumix cameras are the best point-and-shoot I have ever seen, so if you are thinking of buying a point and shoot, do evaluate these as your options.

In both the photos, I have silhouetted my friends in foreground to give another dimention to the photo. Let me know if you like them (or not)

From Blog

From Blog

Photographing the abstract

This is the one of the most debated aspect of photography. I might photograph something abstract and it might be of great interest to me, but it may not appeal to the general viewer.
The reason for abstract photography : well in my case, living in a jungle of concrete, I don't get enough chance to shoot nature, so after a time, I get bored with shooting whatever I do, and dwell in the realm of abstract. Judge for yourself, if you can identify and enjoy some of the images posted here.

The first one I will start with is a shadow picture. I have a dancing girl statue, which was lit with bedroom lighting. The two lights cast directional shadows on the wall, and I decided to shoot the line-up. Taken with my point-and-shoot Olympus SP510UZ.


The next one is a great favorite of mine. I shot this in the corridor of our apartment complex during my short trip to USA. I like the composition because of the guiding lines, the minimalism and the tones, making it very simple. Taken with my point-and-shoot Olympus SP510UZ. (At that time I only owned one camera).


This one is first of my two shots, which made to explore. This won't be properly visible in a monitor with high contrast, so in case you don't see this properly, please pardon me. I use an IBM R series laptop and the soft variations of tone are visible in my monitor.


The fourth one (and the fifth) I am showing here are the photos of the same object. I have a CFL (Compact fluoroscent Lamp) in my bedroom, and sometimes I make it the subject of my photographs.



the same lamp, in a different orientation ... makes another interesting composition.

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The last photo in today's set is a picture of a toy plastic tumbler with LEDs fitted. The LEDs has cast a strange glow making it a strange composition.



I hope you like some of the results posted above. Let me know how you feel of these. Show me your abstract photos. I have some more which I will post in a future article.