June 2007 Desktop Wallpaper Calendar

June 2007 desktop calendar wallpaper is ready for download. To get the image in 1024x768, click on the picture below.



About the image

This is the view from Thadiyandamol, one of the peaks in the Western Ghats in South India. The image was made in the second week of May 2007.

I now have a smugmug account

I had been toying with opening a smugmug account, but was never sure if it was worth it at USD150. But last week when someone asked me for prints of some of my images from Varanasi, and I did not really have anyway to deliver them, I finally decided to signup with smugmug. I have now uploaded 20 images so far, and may add another 5-10 more images in the days to come. See my smugmug gallery.

Image: Morning on the hill - 3

One more image from last week's hike.



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 70-200L at 87mm, 1/5sec, f/16, ISO 100, tripod mounted.

Digital Photography World is 2 year old

It has been more than two years since the inception of this blog, and I did not even notice that it's second birthday has passed! DPW was initiated when I migrated from film to digital and bought my digital SLR. It started as a place to make notes of all my learnings on digital photography and image processing, and has grown into a place to post varied information about Photography. The first post was made on May 9th, 2005.

Happy Birthday to Digital Photography World!

Equipment matters - Hiking with heavy gear

Much has been talked about whether equipment really matters when you shoot. Although I used to lean towards a case which said equipment doesn't matter, I have now changed my mind. Let me present my case, stating that equipment matters, considerably.

Disclaimer: Buying truck loads of equipment still doesn't help if you no nothing about making a good composition and assessing the light.

When I went hiking last week, I decided I will take my Monfrotto tripod despite the fact that it was very heavy. I had to drag my camping gear which is a decent amount of weight by itself, tripod and other equipment, food and other stuff you need for a day's camping. And we were climbing up a hill with fairly decent slopes. Because I thought it is too much, I decided to leave my 100-400L behind.


An image from my last hiking trip, made possible with adequate equipment

The only time we had good views and good light was early in the morning, when we made almost all our pictures. The results were satisfying and I have to say it is one of the rare occasions when I came back happy about the photographs I made. We were shooting in an open grassland in low light(pre-dawn) and we had too much wind, and without a good tripod, there was no question of getting good images.

When I was up there, I realized not carrying the 100-400L was a terrible idea. My only lens - 17-40L was too wide make good compositions. Luckily my friend carried a 70-200L which I could borrow to make most of the images I made in the morning. Without a suitable lens, I would have had to come back empty handed. And naturally if I was shooting P&S, I would have no choice of lens and would have to resort to whatever is available.

There are other factors that often bother me about not having the right equipment. Since the days that world has gone digital, the sensor plays an important role in image quality, and hence, which camera are you going to choose is going to be all the more important than film days. If you need a sharp image with faithful reproduction of colors, your lens has to be top-class, and you can't really expect this from tiny zoom lenses in point and shoot cameras.

Image: Morning on the hill - 2

Another image from my the hike I went on last week. Early morning views were amazing.



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 70-200L at 122mm, 1/80sec, f/16, ISO 100, tripod mounted.

Amazon buys dpreview

This one came unexpected. dpreview is probably the web's most well known resource for anything related to digital photography, especially for comprehensive camera reviews. Looks like Phil and the current team will continue to work with dpreview. The press release says

Leading online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced it has acquired www.dpreview.com, the web’s most comprehensive site for digital camera information and reviews. Founded in 1998 by Phil Askey, dpreview.com provides unbiased reviews and original content regarding the latest in digital cameras, and offers a host of features and forums designed to make it easy for consumers to find the camera that’s right for them. With its unique voice and in-depth technical reviews, dpreview.com draws millions of unique visitors each month.

and Phil mentions on the site:

"Today marks an exciting milestone in the history of dpreview.com, everyone here is very much looking forward to being able to do more with Amazon's help. We're aiming to expand our product coverage and deliver new site features for our readers and our daily community."

See more of it on dpreview.

Image: Morning on the hill

An image I made during my hike in the wilderness three days ago. It was just after sunrise and the views were awesome. Sun was directly ahead, a little above the horizon and there was some risk of flare. Shot with a 70-200 lens borrowed from a friend :)



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 70-200L at 200mm, f/16, 1/200sec, ISO 100, tripod mounted

Flickr's way of implementing captchas

A friend had asked to identify some birds he had shot and posted on flickr. I logged in yesterday and started leaving comments for each of the images. After a few quick comments in succession, I realized that one of the comments was not accepted. Flickr had sensed that there are too many comments coming from one place and had then enabled a captcha like verification. It was much simpler than reading those painful captchas. See the screen shot below to see how it worked. Did you encounter this before? I liked that idea of waiting till a few comments were left by me instead of having to enter a captcha for each of my comments.It is much convenient. See the screenshot below.

Some Photo Tours on the Cards

I haven't done much photography in nearly a year's time. Although I did go to some photo-shoots in the town and travelled a bit with camera, it is much less than I would have wanted. I have some free time with me this month and next month and hope to use it well.

The first one I am planning is a hike in the wilderness of South India. Though I have done many hikes in the region, I have never really done serious photography. Most of these hikes used to be with non-photographers and photography was limited to shoot-and-go type. Even this rarely happened in the early mornings and late evenings - the crucial time for taking pictures. This time, it is going to be different. I am going with a fellow photographer and we are going to carry heavy tripods with us. We will be camping for a night and hope to make good use of morning hours. I am familiar with the territory I am going to, which is another small advantage. But weather is going to play a crucial role and I hope things work out. See the images I made in my last two trips to the place, where I made some casual images in bad weather.

Another trip on the cards is to the mighty Himalayas for two weeks in the beginning of June. I plan to head to the mountain state of Himachal Pradesh in North India, hire a motor bike and ride through the roads in the high ranges for a week. Although I have visited the Himalayas before, this is the first time I will be trying some serious photography.

A Digg Clone Exclusively on Photography

I read via photocritic.org about this new Digg like website - photographyvoter.com that focuses exclusively on photography. I am happy! Now there is a much easier way to find new and good stuff about photography on the web. I occasionally used to search Digg too on photography topics, but was frustrated, since the topic is not well represented in Digg. Neither do they have a separate topic on photography. Say why don't we all spread the word with fellow photographers, and also through our weblogs and websites about this site? So we will have more people submitting, voting and reading, helping photo-enthusiasts to find good content.