March 2009 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

Sunday, March 01, 2009

A channel of Shayok river in Nubra Valley, Ladakh.

Equipment Acquisition

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

There are some new gears on the block. I just happened to borrow a 70-200L f/2.8 lens and am totally thrilled about being able to carry one around. Next, I bought a 50mm f/1.8 lens this evening. Again, totally thrilled about being able to shoot at f/1.8. The fun of shallow depth of field is amazing.

I am heading out this week for a few days with all the gear, and can't wait to get shooting. Although I have been professionally shooting frequently and enjoying it quite a bit, nothing like shooting for fun and hobby.

February 2009 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

Saturday, January 31, 2009

This month's desktop calendar wallpaper is from Khuri Village, Rajasthan, India. Click on the image to get it in 1024x768

The End of JPG Magazine

Monday, January 12, 2009

A mail sent from JPG Magazine a few days ago announced that they are going to shut shop and go down. The email read -

We've spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we've reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but we just weren't able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.

JPG was an interesting experiment with a mix of social media and print publication in the field of photography. The site members of jpgmag.com submitted images. Member votes and editorial evaluation resulted in selection of images that would be published in a print magazine that came out bi-monthly. The biggest draw for the contributor - $100 for a published photograph. The model helped amateur photographers to showcase their work without having to go through entry barriers setup by other publishing houses. But unfortunately, it doesn't look like the model brought in much money.

But some recent developments indicate of positive developments at jpg mag. The mail declaring the demise had created lot of noise in blogosphere, and it seems to have attracted some interests. Another email from 8020 publications, the people behind the magazine arrived in my mailbox today:

We couldn't ask for a better community. In the week or so since our last email, the outpour of support has exceeded our wildest expectations. Your efforts, such as starting savejpg.com, writing blog posts, commenting on Twitter and Flickr, and generally making your voices heard, have provided exciting new opportunities for us.

We're thrilled to say that because of you, we have multiple credible buyers interested in giving JPG a home. We will be keeping the site up after all, and hope to have a final update in the next week or so on who the acquirer will be. Thank you for making all of this possible.

The email is vague and doesn't say much about what is cooking. But my guess is, there would be someone interested in the website, which has a large number of registered contributing photographers. This would be an excellent base for launching a photography based social media website, which is what an investor would be looking at.

Happy New Year + January 2009 Desktop Calendar Wallpaper

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Here is wishing all the readers of Digital Photography World a very happy new year. May the year be full of happiness and fruitful in terms of photography for you.

This month's desktop calendar wallpaper is an image from Ladakh, a lake on the way to Pangong Tso. Click on the image to get it in 1024x768

Canon EOS 5D Mark II in India

Saturday, December 20, 2008

I happened to meet my photography equipment dealer yesterday, and asked him about the price of the new EOS 5D Mark II out of curiosity. The 5D, it seems will be available at Rs.139,850.00. According to him, Canon has currently frozen distribution in India until the moment they resolve firmware issues with the camera. It might take up to a month before the camera becomes available.

For those who do not know, Canon EOS 5D Mark II is the new Canon Digital SLR camera with full frame sensor, live preview and HD video capabilities. Apparently they are running out of stock in the west, and some dealers are even selling them at a premium!

Food Photography

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I have been exploring new areas of photography in recent days, food photography being one of them. I have kept away from studio and indoor photography for many years and never thought it would be something I would like to try. Interacting with an established photographer in the last few weeks, I decided to work with him in some of the indoor assignments, and was pleasantly surprised to realize that I enjoy photographing indoors as much as I would outdoor. There is plenty of challengers involved, which include the choice of lights, lighting angles and understanding how final results really should be for each genre of photography.

Last week, I have been doing some food photography where the prime challenges are to bring alive the textures on the food, make it look tempting, and juicy where applicable. The first few shoots were not surprisingly disaster. But some on site guidance from the person I work with, and tips from Michal Ray's website have been helping me get better by the day. Here is one of the images I shot yesterday. Does it bring out the textures on the food well? Does the arrangement successfully show the depth and create the third dimension or appears like flat two dimensional object? Does it tempt you to pick it up for desserts or at least make you curious to figure what is this and where can it be procured from? Or is it just a boring image to let go? Do tell me what you think.

Aftermath of Mumbai + Taking Camera around freely

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I was denied entry to a mall yesterday because of my camera!

After the shootouts in Mumbai that left nearly 200 people killed, there is tightened security in all places where lot of people hangout. Bangalore is no exception. I gave a visit to Forum Mall, one of the well known hangouts in the city to buy something. Unlike the usual days when a security person standing at the gates would quickly let people pass after a superficial check, there were elaborate inspections and a long queue for security check.

My turn came after ten minutes of wait. I was frisked like everyone else is, and was directed to another person to have my bag checked. This man opened my bag, which had a laptop, a 17-40 lens and a rather large 100-400 lens attached to the camera. He looked at the 17-40 and could not figure out what equipment is it, but continued his search and found the camera.

"This is a camera?" he asked me, "do you have some photography program inside?"

I said no, and he asked me if I am coming here to shop. I nodded in affirmative. He then checked with this superior if cameras can be allowed inside. This guy quickly had a look at my bag and said 'professional cameras' are not allowed.

On a normal day, I would talk to him, try to explain how harmless a thing this is and why it is foolish not to let me in with the camera. I would have probably demanded to see the manager too and would try to prove my point. But now I get the feel that it would be better to make small sacrifices to ensure smooth security operations than obstruct their work and waste their time and mine. May be the time has arrived when we have to make small sacrifices for national security. I had to give in and go to another place to buy what I wanted, and the shops inside will have to do without my business. So I returned without saying a word and headed to another place.

On the way back, I found two policeman standing, and asked them if they do not allow cameras inside. They shrugged, indicating that it is up to the (private) security guards, but helpfully suggested that there is a luggage room which I could use. But I had no intent to leave all those expensive equipment in a luggage room, and decided to move on.

Looking out for a new Camera

Sunday, December 07, 2008

It has been three years since I have thought of any equipment upgrades. The camera I have - EOS 350D works just fine and keeps me happy. The picture quality that comes out from the sensor is reasonable, and 8mp is more than enough to make center spread images for a magazine (Not that I have magazines begging me for images every day).

But of late, though I am still content with my camera, I am beginning to think of an upgrade. The reasons are many, the most important being, if the cameras you now get in the market do a better job, why not go for them?

My thoughts for a new camera was first triggered when I saw a stock agency expecting images to be shot from at least a 11mp camera. It simply ruled out my chances of applying with them. And then there are a few things that I can't do today, that I can do by buying a new camera. A 14 to 15mp sensor would allow me to do some cropping and still get reasonably good sized images. The next thing to look forward to is noise levels in higher ISO. The EOS 350D is not much of use at ISO above 400, but I am told that today's cameras can do a good job even at ISO above 1000. It would be of great use to shoot in low light and indoors.

An additional fillip to upgrade was given by a technician who saw me mount my 100-400L over 350D and simply said - 'it is a cheap camera'!

I don't have money for an upgrade at the moment. And even when I do have extra money, I would not feel too nice to be investing it on a camera than a lens. But I think this is one upgrade I should consider.

For what I can afford in near future, I can only look up to buying a 50D. I wish I can wait longer and hope to buy a camera with a full frame sensor. But it would take really long time to gather $2500, cost of a EOS 5D Mark II.

Writing for Brighthub

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Starting this week, I will be writing for brighthub.com's Digital Photography Channel. Bright Hub is a technology focused article repository, with many more channels such as computing, internet, environment, and more.

You can see all my articles here.

This blog will continue to exist, there will be no change or whatsoever here owing to my joining brighthub.