SHOOTING FOR GREAT COLORS

I was browsing Ken Rockwell's photography website after a long time to check out if he has written anything new recently. It turned out there is a lot of stuff that I haven't read.

In one of these new articles, he has written about how he manages to get great colors that is normally part of his images. He writes this one too in his usual humorous and merciless style. He says -

"Most people never see colors like this because they live indoors, work in an office, drive to and from work, and live in a house. These colors happen outdoors in nature... ....I take a long time to find colorful things at which to point my camera"

And further in the article, he shoots back at people who think all those colors are fake, while talking about all his hard work and passion about photography.

"I was getting these crazy colors long before Photoshop was invented... ...Photography is the power of observation, not the application of technology."

It is a good read that tells about the preciousness of the early morning and evening light and gives some idea on how to go about looking for great colors outdoors.

Mt. NANDA DEVI AT SUNSET

The Ski Lodge at Auli offers a good view of Nanda Devi. I walked out to have a look at the mountain in the evening, hoping to get the last rays of the sun falling on the mountain. Here is what I got.



Click to see a larger image.

Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 135mm, 1/45sec, f/4.5, ISO 100

SOME ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY

When I was skiing in Auli a couple of months back, I tried my hands on shooting some action there. I am pretty new to action photography and realized some of the difficulties involved in it. You need to be able to press the shutter at the right instant - a little early or later and you don't have an image. After some wasted efforts, I started anticipating the moment, kept myself ready and started pressing my finger a small moment before the actual action. That seemed to work a bit.

There was a rock surface between the snow where people would slide down and jump from. I settled myself a few meters below the rock, a little to the left of the snow boarder's path. After several failed attempts, here is one of the final images.



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 17-40L at 40mm, 1/250sec, f/9.5, ISO 100

SONY FINALLY ENTERS DSLR MARKET

In fact, I had always wondered if Sony had enough technical expertise to make SLR cameras. They did have technology to build cameras, but I think the same can not be said about lenses.

Sony is finally announcing their entry to DSLR market with a new brand name - Alpha. They have been known to be working with Konica Minolta on Digital SLR cameras for a while. While Konica Minolta has exited from digital camera business, the SLR cameras to be produced by Sony will have Alpha mount, which was used by Minolta's Maxxum SLRs. No details of the models are known yet, and the release is slated for this summer. See the press release on dpreview. Sony's official dslr website was not working when I tried to access it!

SUN RAYS

An image from Corbett National Park, India.



Click to see a larger image.

Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 180mm, 1/30sec, f/11, ISO 200

QUEST FOR THE BEST PICTURE

This is a thought that occurred to me a week ago when I was trying to shoot a Grey Tit. I did not have one of these birds in my collection and would have been happy just to get a decent image. The pair of Grey Tits that were in front of me were a friendly lot. I stayed with them for nearly 20 minutes and during this time, they occasionally came as close as 2 meters from me.

My initial goal was to get whatever picture I could get. It soon changed into an attempt to get the best shot when I saw that the birds were going to hang out for a while. That's when I realized how difficult it is to get that 'real good' shot with out any flaws in it. There were many things to consider. In the first few images, the bird occupied smaller-than-I-wanted area in the frame. As they came closer, by around 6 meters or so, I managed a couple of shots, which I thought were decent, but there were problems. I did not have a good background that would highlight my subject. Besides, the assortment of black and white colors in its body, and a non co-operative background made it difficult to get precise exposure. At this point of time, lighting was my enemy too. It was mid-day and overcast sky - two conditions where bird photography is nearly impossible. But the birds were in shadow, so I could still make an attempt. Besides, it is not everyday that I got to see a Grey Tit at such close distance.


One of the first image I took. I would have been happy with this image if the bird had not stayed on for a long time. And then I was not very happy with the background - the out-of-focus branches in the background do not gel well with the subject

I thought myself to be lucky when the birds got closer. I could fill the frame with the subject, but there were other difficulties - insufficient depth-of-field. As the bird was in shadow, I had to shoot wide open, and the tail always went out of focus in the first few shots. All I could do was pray that the Tit would sit in a position along the plane of focus. And with the bird so close, getting a good background was harder, and also, any exposure errors would become more obvious. Besides, my movement was now heavily restricted and slow - to ensure that I don't scare it away.


The Tit was very close to me now, the background was better. But see that the tail has gone out of focus

With all this, I ended up shooting nearly 100 frames. I must admit I did find some pictures good, but never the less, not one of the whole lot appeared like that 'one special image' that I would be happy with. I realized how difficult it is to get to make one of those amazing images I would have seen and thought - 'sigh! If only I could shoot one such image!' But I guess it is a process of evolving and some day I would get there. And an exercise like this helps learning and improving, as we realize about all the things to consider when taking an image. Besides all this - most important - it was fun doing all that, and was a nice moment spent with the Tits. So finally, though my special image is yet to come, it was still worth the effort.


This is the last image I made before it flew away - a much better one at it.

THE EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL CAMERA TECHNOLOGY

I still distinctly remember ad hoardings of Sony Mavica cameras that I used to see on the way back from work a few years ago. I used to think - 'Ah! This is great!! I should really buy one of these'. The concept and convenience of an image captured into the floppy disc appeared incredible then.

I did not buy one of them, but that gave me an impression that digital camera technology was born in Sony's labs. Its only today that I know that the first digital sensor was developed at Kodak, thanks to a detailed, well written and well researched article on Evolution of Digital Camera Technologies at theage.com

The first digital camera prototype was built by one Steven Sasson at Kodak, says the article, but the Sony Mavica was indeed the first commercially available digicam. It goes on to mention about closing of Agfa, job cuts in Kodak, Konica Minolta's exit from camera business, Nikon winding up production of most of its film bodies and much more. There are some interesting facts - such as - Canon's first DSLR - D30 used to cost a whopping $4000! The story is well worth reading for every digital photography enthusiast.

TRYING TO STRETCH IMAGE STABILIZATION

How much can you stretch image stabilization? Or what is the lowest shutter speed at which you can get a good image with IS on your lens?

I had once mentioned about managing a sharp image of my cat at 1/6 seconds using the 100-400L. But it was a situation where the subject was in control and I could take the best position and best support for my hands.

I got into an occasion where I badly wanted some images of a daily ritual which happen in the evenings. I usually detest taking photos beyond ISO 200(though I go up to 400 sometimes), so I decided to see how much I can stretch the IS.

To my surprise, I made acceptably sharp image at 1/20 and 1/15 seconds. But I was not consistent at it and my success rate was somewhere near 25%.



Image taken at a Shutter Speed of 1/10 sec and ISO 800



Image taken at a Shutter Speed of 1/20 sec and ISO 200


I made some more observations and realized that I usually get stable images at around 1/60, and almost never fail to get it right at speeds more thatn 1/125. Before I had my lens with image stabilization, I think these numbers would have to be multiplied by nearly four times to achive the same results.

Also: Read more about the ritual of Ganga Aarti at Rishikesh, India in my travel blog

IMPORTANCE OF IMAGE BACKGROUND

We all know in theory that a proper background helps improve the image. But when we are out in the field, we may forget to assess the background most of the time. It may be because we have so many other factors on our minds and we may forget the background, or we may never realize how much important is the background for the subject we are shooting. Or sometimes, the subject and the conditions may not give you enough chance to compose a good background.

A few days back when I was shooting Golden Langurs in Guwahati, India, this happened to me. I made a portrait of the Langur, and when I reviewed on LCD, I realized that all is not right with the picture. The Golden Langurs looked bright and distinct to my eyes, but the image on the LCD did not match up to it. It took me a couple of seconds before I realized what is wrong. Fortunately, the friendly Langur remained in front of me. I looked around a bit and composed another picture with the trunk of a tree in the background, which blocked all the light from backside. That seemed much better!



The image with an unsuitable background. The hair strands merge with the background which is undesirable.



The contrasting background improves the image considerably

BLOG TROUBLE?

I am not sure if there was any problems with loading this page for a last few days. I am currently travelling(and will be out for another 4-5 days), and when I logged in from an internet center, I noticed that this page was not loading. I logged into my publishing engine and re-published the pages, and it seemed to be fine now, so I guess there indeed was some problem.

Anyway, I am having a good time travelling in the North East States of India and now sitting in my CF card are some images of some endemic birds of the region and pretty landscapes of snowy regions of Tawang. This blog shall be back to slightly more frequent updates from next week, and shall get much more regular from next month when I finish my sabbatical, and settle down to more sedentary life of 9 to 5 work and not much of travelling!