ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY.....post no.(180)

Choosing lens: Finding out or using a perfecting camera can be daunting for many photographers...In case of ABSTRACT, it can be more so.

ABSTRACT photography does not limit itself to the different cameras or tools.........however it certainly favours 50mm prime lens....The lens can be available as an extra accessory, which is more beneficial in abstract photography. It is compact, lightweight and easy to carry. in ur camera bag.....They are low cost and extremely sharp e.g. at f1.8, it is considered one of the sharpest and fastest prime lens.........It is finest in rendering bokeh, yea 'bokey master'.....Bokeh is an aesthetic blur that can be used and create abstract effects.

The 50mm gives great control over DOF.....IT ALLOWS U  to photograph objects closer to u with great sharpness. Besides u can use the manual focus while shooting at aperture priority and keep a shallow DOF fixing attention on the object........................................................to continue

Sunset at 300mm of Sigma lens. (post no.179).

THE STOCK AGENCIES make a mention that pl. do not upload sunset or flower photographs...My meaning to say this is that these two subjects are more photographed and agencies have plenty of them....Anyhow my concern here is to show u sunset in a different perspective, because most sunset photographs are shot keeping the sun direct in the camera, and if a lake is there, the reflection within it, beautifying otherwise the monotonous sunset. Here with the above picture in mind, my intention was to shoot the sun in confinement, with reflection in the lake. Moreover a good addition in sunset photographs are clouds, which were absent when I shot this. There were so many trees around and it was a joy to take as many sunsets as possible, which I did...Yes here I am...I was some 1 kilometer from the sun on a road with 300mm lens on my DCAM...I found good silhouettes of plants, trees when viewed through viewfinder. So here is one picture I caught when we started in the car and I was at rear seat, as the scene came around, I clicked a second beforehand in Aperture priority mode and luckily I got sun correctly placed with horizon too in good position. I liked the multiple of branches and leaves on the tree,making a good silhouette...so it was a good moment for me and may be for you too, when you go to shoot more of sunsets.

FOTO FAIR 2015 Held recently in our town.That was a good Sunday.(post no.178)

------------Stage photos of PHOTO FAIR recently held in our town. First pic is a long view of the stage.....different companies from Mumbai, Delhi and Bhopal showcased their products....In second, organizer Mr Pahuja is entertaining the audience......we had discussed a lot as on one occasion close friends gathered at one place....STALLS FROM VARIOUS PLACES WERE ALSO MADE A PART OF THE FAIR.....ACTUALLY I WAS MORE BUSY IN MEETING people after a long time so less exposed the more photographs.....it is good to have some platform like this, in a year....but shop owners hardly take risk. ..shot by D3000.

MANNEQUINS---THE HEROINS OF THE DAY...(post no.176).

They are real stars ........Do u feel? Mannequins.......Yes they r the stars of the shop. You cannot pass in the shop without having a look at them.....When I first saw these, I was enamoured, as though they are really standing before me. However.......I said 'Hello' and had few minutes chatting with them.....The shopkeeper and the ladies around felt amused, when I clicked them...Now they understood, why I was talking to them. ......For their light, hairs, their curves, it was all attracting.

---FIRST is a  frontal portrait, lighted very nicely with diffused light from the inside window....This is side lighting enhancing her right features.....This light we obtain in studio from the soft box, which I did hundreds of times by self or demand of the ladies, after viewing other portraits. .....
.------Her face is half oval...that is her beauty....however in lighting terms, it is broad light, making her face a bit more wide. The short light suited her best, but that needed change of angle slightly.She is conscious and has silent emotions........An obedient girl.

2. Here comes the heroine......she has normal face, with side lighting enhancing her feature....This is short lighting making her face more charming.....I love her more than her cousin sister above.She has that grandeur, which makes her apart from normal women......This is her dress too. The color is 100% suiting to her personality, with her calm face........The bust level suited to her photograph....I wish she had life in her. The garlands makes her more live as though she is in a party.....envy of other women.....The beauty level on her face is no less than a star, who commands photographers to her flashing hundreds of lights.............................................to continue.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY....a preview....(post no.175)

WHAT can we presume here......yes STREET PHOTOGRAPHY.....one of the difficult tasks, though there is no dearth of pictures, but without emotions and treating it as a piece of art, there needs to be some qualities worthy of Street photography.

2. There is a classical style which is always associated with an era gone by. In 1960, earlier and a bit later the period was treated to be a golden time when a lot of photographers documented street cultures around the world. For example photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and William Eggleston who captured American life in the mid 20th century, hv come to be regarded as the founders of street photography today.

3. Their style was largely documentary and characterized by striking a balance between form and subject, using camera as a way to document the social conditions of that time. 

4. There are styles defining street photography e.g. going close, depends upon ur subject's importance rather than more powerful bg.  Besides striking realism, there are chances to experiment producing truth in the form of blurs, shadows, silhouettes and reflections. It moves away from other documentary styles of photography that strive to be objective.

5. It may include various aspects, which u hv to take in consideration like abstracts, graphic style, patterns, structures, shadows, tones, textures, color, b&w. Angles do play a good role to achieve a good street photograph.....It depends mostly on the subject and ur satisfaction to  have a demanding effect. Exploring distinct cultures will give opportunity to have varieties to choose and shoot....................

6 The above shot is a good example of man's earning so moving on road, the items, the guy in curiosity and the movement of vehicles and other objects.

 Exposure under sun 1/80, f5.9, and ISO100......from my Canon.........................keep up and listen more......to come.

''Fast'' food....food u take when u observe fast..post.no.174

We Indians, however modern we look, think, still, there are lots of festivals and other important days, like Ekadashi, teej and many more days when our men and women folk observe fast, eating once in a day and generally i.e. evening. Besides there r bigger festivals like Deepawali, DUSSEHRA NAVRATR., Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi etc. So I think, our India is the country of fasting day, small and big festivals when the ''fasts'' are observed.............

Naturally, the days, festivals are very important and dear to India, and Indians keep the flag high in abroad observing these fasts and festivals, making Indians a different community, still at core of heart, they are Indians, may be American, Russian, Canadian, Australian etc................ So come the special food, as regular meal are prohibited, as being breaking of the sanctity of the fast......So in homes, hotels special food is prepared, from Singhada, Rajgira, Potato, other fruits which checks THE REGULAR DIET ENTRY on the day of fast........This is small history, I put forth before u in support of my dish above, where the ''Vadas'' are made of Saboodana, Potato 'Halva' and chatney.....

I generally shoot food pictures in natural light supported or coming from doors and windows.or in Verandahs where good shadowed light well illuminates ur subjects and changing the subjects' position, some light and shadow is created easily......since we are after the ultimate result, which observe the norms of good lighting of studio and other areas. ........The exposure has to be changed and a tripod is must as there are less movements and u can adjust camera for proper lighting..............................

The exposure above is using ISO 800, Aperture of f8 and shutter speed of 1/15. ......I do not stay here but keep changing exposures according to light and depth of field...............................................

Shooting against light...most enchanting part of photography.(post no.176)

Shooting against light brings out the subject from the background and make it stand on its own strength.....i.e. separation from bg is easy and powerful......You will hve to be on the knees, since the flower plants are small except few like sunflower, stand like king in flowers....THE IMP.ASPECT OF AGAINST LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY IS THAT THE SUBJECT MAY BE UNDEREXPOSED.......SO INCREASE APERTURE OF ONE TO TWO STOPS TO GET DETAILS IN all areas of the subject, until and unless u need to tone down part of it for some special effect.

Giving or using bigger aperture will help to diffuse the background......The most important benefit u get while shooting against light is the easy transparency of details in flowers and in many objects.................................................Here I used shutter speed of 1/200, aperturef8 and ISO200.

U can go on my back posts on many subjects as I viewed the subject  and  wrote on it.

Flower Photography-Easy Steps...post no.175.

I have not seen my previous titles in this blog...As I continue posting, there are chances of repetition of photo headings......like flower here.
----I consider it the best angle for flowers if taken sideways......the flower has good contrast with its counterparts i.e. green leave, while the flower shows its pink tone......There is a good framing support to the main flower from top to below right, the it is well framed within the frame. Yes the other growing flowers may be bodyguards. 

The camera focused on flower and there were no distractions behind except some wall portion, which has become diffused because of some distance from the flower. 

The diffusion of background depends upon the aperture u are using in the camera. As is understood, the wider the aperture the more diffused is the background so vice-versa, the narrow is the aperture the more prominent will be the background. 

Distance also plays its part.....if the camera with bigger aperture is used, the background --say a distance of one feet will be more diffused in comparision of the small aperture with same distance, there may be some details in the back ground. This u have to decide, if u want a sharper bg or a diffused bg......Sometimes there may be some useful elements connecting with the subject, using small aperture will be a good idea. The smaller the aperture, the more depth of field and more the background objects gets clearer.

------------Here in this picture I used SS of 1/80, aperture f2.8 and ISO200......................jUST CHECK THESE BEFORE U START TAKING PICTURES.

ONCE, I BECAME PREY OF ABOVE HABIT OF NOT CHECKING THE CAMERA SETTINGS BEFORE ENTERING INTO THE ARENA SHOOTING FOR SELF........I started clicking, irrecspective of knowing the settings.......In half way, I found out in the viewfinder that I am a bit more engaged in objects, thus forgetting the settings....Then I awarely shot rest of the pictures and the previous picture, being at wider aperture gave more of the DOF than needed so I lost some of my best shots.....u cannot help TIME GONE CANNOT BE STRETCHED BACK......U CAN ASK any queries.

Prayer Wheel in Laddakh. (post no.174).

This is the PRAYER WHEEL situated in Laddakh......the pic is shot from a museum.
Preserving the legacy thru camera is most important a subject........this help people in their studies......below is the close up of the wheel, that will help to understand the dimention of the subject. That is nearly 4 feet in height.

Macro of stamens of a flower........

When chance applies, I like to shoot macros.......as I hv earlier mentioned....this time a great pink comes in camera.
.............................Camera Canon compact....(compacts work well with macros as their closeup distance is 1cm to 3cm).....................1/200, f2.8, ISO80...diffused sky.

Star-trails by Bartosz W.....a real hard work.(post no.173)

We value other photographers' great work....This is one of them.....Just read yourself.....

“Star trails over Observatorio del Teide” by Bartosz Wojczyński. (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

Photographer Bartosz Wojczyński took the photographs at Teide Observeratory, which is located on Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands. The observatory’s prime location (close to the equator) and clear, dark night skies offer stargazers and astrophotographers full views of the northern hemisphere. Here, Wojczyński was able to position Polaris, the North Star, at the center of his star trail rings.

He used a Nikon D5100 camera with a Samyang AE 10mm lens at f/4.8 and ISO 1600 on a Baader Astro & Nature tripod.

MOST memorable BENEFITS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.(post no.172)

MOST MEMORABLE BENEFITS OF PHOTOGRAPHY......

1. Photography affords immortality.

2. Photography documents your journey thru life.

3. Photography is a wonderful stress reliever.

4. Photography inspires your imagination.

5. Photography as a career is possible for anyone.

6. Photography is a wonderful, safe and natural self-esteem booster.

7. Photography brings closure to ur spirituality.

8. Photography helps the things that you may never notice otherwise.

9. Photography preserve old and new memories.

10. Photography helps you to have Camera as your best friend in happiness & sorrow.

Macro/closeup photography......(post no.171)

The only magic of MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY lies in usual objects appearing unusual....Such stamens will be found in different shapes in different flowers....but bringing them closure has its own charm, as we never see all flowers from stamen point of view, but in general looks.

I have already mentioned somewhere in other post about the gear used....However here I will take this as shot from a reversal ring......the kit lens attached to the ring from front. This allows going near to the objects.

Though macro photography looks extremely tough, requiring better technical knowledge., it makes us wonder anew. It brings out an exceptional level of detail and makes it easily visible, thus letting the viewer feel texture. Natural elements that have rhythmical and beautiful lines often help create lyrical emotion in this genre of photography......Macro photography has more human touch as the photographer remains in close contact with the object, using various angles constantly.

Being feeling close, observe the subject and ask urself what fascinates u. Isolate the most interesting aspect and find ways to highlight it. To the thing u are attracted, will certainly attract a viewer as well.

Remember, being closure the focusing may becomes difficult  Use tripod, some sturdy supports, beanbags to steady your camera, while shooting macros......If u hv an SLR, USE YOUR CAMERA'S MIRROR LOCK UP FUNCTION AND a shutter release cable  or self timer to prevent shake/blurs resulted by camera movement.

It is always better to use manual focus as it offers precision over which area of ur subject is in focus. Besides, manual focus system works quicker than auto focus system.............

Kathal's surface makes good patterned image. (one inch area of a Kathal fruit). Can be used as a pattern on a fabric.