Framed

My photograph has been selected for display at Bangalore Photography Club's Fifth annual photography exhibition, Frames of Mind - 2010.

If you are in Bangalore on the Oct 22-24 weekend, do come and check out the photographs in the exhibition. There are interesting photography sessions as part of Fotocamp. Meet you there!

Here is the selected entry. This was shot from the 6th floor of Novell's office. If you look closely, you'd see the reflection.

Lalbagh Flower Show

Was visiting my friends place in Bangalore a week back, also knew there was a flower show happening at Lalbagh. Somehow managed to loop in Srihari and his Aunt for the photo shoot on Sunday morning. We reached there early and walked around the park. When the gates opened we had a good 45 mins shoot in the flower show in spite of the crowd and police whistling to move fast. It was a colorful shoot.

For convenience I have uploaded to

• Flickr set
• Facebook album

Let me know your comments.
Happy Clicking!

Photography Day

You know when you're ready

The Art & Science of Photography - Kalyan Varma

Last weekend I did a trip to Bengaluru to attend a workshop conducted by Kalyan Varma (Kalyan Varma is a well known wildlife photographer.) - The Art & Science of Photography. It was a two day workshop covering a wide spectrum of topics. Both the days were well structured that one could learn and also test the skills learnt. Course content was chosen such that it would neither intimidate someone who is very new to Photography nor bore anyone who was skilled relatively.

Day 1:
The first session was about the Science of Photography. Like the school days physics classes, it was on fundamentals, fundamentals and fundamentals. Kalyan gave a very good perspective and understanding on the topics. Even after all the reading I have done on these jargon, I can say, "I have never understood them better than now!". Immediate hands-on in the classroom for some of the concepts were the highlights.

Second session of day 1 was on Art of Photography. It was very crucial to understand the art side of photography. Kalyan handled it well with the approach of "learn by example". He talked about composition of pictures. In the later half of the first session, he spoke about camera gear including body, lens, tripods, flash and bags.

Day 2:
Ah! Saw 6 am in my clock after several months. :) Got up and headed to Lalbagh for a photoshoot with Kalyan and others. It was interesting to have a hands on at Lalbagh with the various subjects present there: people, rocks, dogs and flowers. After a portrait session, we headed back to the classroom where we had a session on post processing. We had an interesting session as to what should be done in the name of post-processing and what should not be, as learning post-processing will give you a total control of your photographs.

Post lunch, we had a critique session where various shots taken by us over the morning photo shoot was discussed and critiqued. Finally we had to call it a day with a conclusion speech by Kalyan, I have a lot to take from the workshop. 

Highlights:
- Kalyan's command on the subject and the ability to carry on for two full days without boring the trainees :-)
- Ganesh and Harsha, who were part of Kalyan's team in conducting the workshop. Along with Kalyan they helped out folks in the classroom as well as the photo shoot. Special thanks to Ganesh for the ride to lalbagh in the bullet.
- "Food" - serious kudos to Casa de Bengluru who fed us some yummy food :-)

More on the workshop here.

Photos from the workshop in Flickr

Instant miniature studio - How To

Two weeks down the Nikon D90, its so tempting to keep it down and she hates it. :-) Last weekend I got a Shrek toy as part of the Happy Meal. Soon after coming home, I wanted to take few snaps of it. So quickly thought of home studio lighting setup to take photos.

All you need is

- A note book, preferably plain white sheets in them.

- Alternate source of light, like table lamp.

- Tripod (preferred)

Nikon D90 on the tripod + table lamp + note book with 50mm lens as the subject

Place the note book like a slanting 'L', this gives white flooring and white background (laptop and few white sheets will also do). It would be nice to slide a paper over the edge, so that there are no sharp curves on the background. Make sure there is no folds in the paper that's used (since it will caste shadow). Set the tripod in front of the notebook with the camera mounted. Now place the table lamb between the tripod and notebook, such that it does come inside the frame of the camera. Also make sure the table lamp does not flare the lens. No place the subject in the tip of the paper that stands sliding and start shooting.

Keep the light at different angles to the subject to get various effect on the subject and control how the shadow is cast. Prefer using the timer shutter to avoid any chance of camera shake. 

Here are some samples and more photos at flickr

Go ahead and comment your feedback and questions.

To vijesh, as per your wife's orders

From: Revathi Priya <...@gmail.com>	Wed, May 26, 2010 at 1:46 PM
To: Vijesh K <...@gmail.com>, Abirami Rajendran <...@gmail.com>
Rava dosa recipe Ingredients1: 1tsp of oil Mustard seeds Cumin seeds Dry red chillies(broken into small pieces) Asafoetida/Hing Salt Heat oil in a large pan(you end up making the batter in this one). Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, broken dry red chillies and asafoetida and let it splutter a bit and then switch off the gas immediately. Measure out equal proportions of Semolina/rava and Rice flour(with one normal sized cup, you can make upto 8 dosas). Mix them both with the seasonings that is already there in the pan(Make sure the gas is turned off).  Add 1 cup of butter milk(or diluted curd) to it and keep mixing. Add about 2 glasses of water(approx) until you get a really watery consistency.  Now comes the fun part. Add 2 large tbsp(15 mls approx) of Diet-Coke to it. One that has a lot of fizz. This helps to set the batter quick. Keep it aside for 10-15 mins. Diet-Coke Rava Dosa Heat the tava real well. And pour the batter on it. Since this batter is very very watery, you are not going to get a perfect circle and the batter wont spread well like normal dosa-batter. So when you pour it will form small holes on the surface, which is okay. Pour more batter and lift and move the tava to spread the batter(DO NOT trying spreading it using the laddle that you use to pour the batter coz that wont work. It will form lumps. So spreading the batter is only by pouring more batter and shaking the tava itself). Let it cook for a good 3-4 mins and turn it when you notice that it has browned. Enjoy :) I was given the sample photo that needs to be kept as bench mark. Such is life! Diet Coke Rava Dosa recipe rights: Revathi Priya

Nikon D90

After pressing the shutter release button ~13,000 times, I was strongly convinced that it was time for an upgrade.

Why did I need to upgrade? - Simply the point & shoot was not fulfilling my need. The need of total control over the composition of the picture and the lens focal rings were not doing what I wanted them to do. A need for bigger and better sensor. Less grains on a low light photo even after cropping. Options for variety of shots from wide angle to telephoto.

Firstly I was aligned with Canon or Nikon, because they were the top two brands and nothing outside it pleased me. Second I needed to carefully list down my needs, so that I can pick the right camera. This was a long process. Finally shortlisted these camera bodies,

• Canon 50D
• Canon 7D 
• Nikon D90
• Nikon 300s

My wedding photographs were a deciding factor in selecting the brand, body and the series of lens that I would go for. The photographer we hired had a Nikon D300, Nikon D700, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon 50D and a whole lot of lens. But after carefully studying the output, I totally fell in love with Nikon.

Finally I got a Nikon D90 body and 18-105 kit lens. This camera had all features that I was looking for including 12.4 megapixel, well built body, controls and video capabilities. Nikon 300s and 18-200 lens pair was over shooting the budget and the learning curve is pretty steep. So far I'm pretty happy with the output and the performance. 

Thanks to my wife for this.She has started to love the sound of the shutter. 
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