Tag: 50mm f1.8

Mandarin Oak’s Noodle Class

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Faaso’s inviting me to a Noodle Making class. It was straightforward, if I wanted to join in, I was to fill out a form and be at the said location that Saturday. I was not ready to give up on an invitation to free lunch :p

Off course, I had my camera with me while I attended the class, and I was not disappointed by my subjects at all.
Behold, snapshots from the amazing noodle making class.

Our trainer for the day was Ms. Nidhi J, who is an amazing lady, a chef and a mompreneur. 

The class ended with us gorging on momos (dimsums), chicken fried rice, chilly chicken and iced tea hosted by the Mandarin Oak. Perks of moonlighting as a reviewer on Zomato 🙂

Next post, should be one about a trip to a beach! 

Cheers!!

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AtoZ Challenge: N – Normal Lens

A normal lens is one which produces images corresponding to the normal viewing span of a human eye. Generally this focal length is taken as 35-50mm. So, photos taken at focal lengths beyond the range are termed to be wide or telephoto and hence the wide and telephoto lenses.

The 18-55 mm kit lens, despite popular disregard, is one the most versatile lenses out there and can be used for shooting landscapes to portraits with ease and still produce quite amazing results.

Bandra Worli Sealink, 18 mm

Bandra Worli Sealink, 55 mm

The photos above have been shot at 18mm and 55mm respectively from almost similar viewpoints.

Comparing the results against dedicated lenses for the same is not a fair game though. The dedicated lens, such as a 35mm or a 50mm F1.8/1.4 are meant to be high performance and have immense light gathering power, but they lack the versatility of a zoom.

The photo of Laxmi here shows why it is worth investing in a prime lens, despite whatever limitations it may have.

Portrait, 50mm

All said and done, a normal lens is not fit for shooting landscape while I would go about shooting portraits on a normal lens all day long happily! Tell me what do you think about the judgments in the comments.

Last time, N was for Noise Reduction.

Cheers!!

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The Pre-PetFed Get together

A week or so back, I found myself at the first floor bar, the Zoobar, cuddling puppies and taking photographs. That was the Pre PetFed get together, being organized as a ramp up to the PetFed 2017 to be held on 16 and 17 of December, 2017.

I met some familiar faces there, from the previous PetFed meet, The Pupper Party, while there were some new ones too.

Siberian Husky, Dog

Border Collie, Dog

Small Pocket Dog

Cocker Spaniel, Dog, Cute, Fluffy, Obedient

Shi Tzu, Dog, Furry, Cute

Shi Tzu, Dog, Furry, Cute

Cute, Fluffy, Dog

Cute, Fluffy, Dog, Shih Tzu

There were games and treats were to be won. We could see dogs battling it out to be the cutest out there. What was amazing is that so many dogs at a place, and most of them got along quite well.

Cocker Spaniel, Dog, Fluffy

Shih Tzu, owner, cute, fluffy

Labrador, Cute, Dog, Owner

Shih Tzu, Cute, Fluffy, Owner

Shih Tzu, Cute, Fluffy, Owner

Shih Tzu, Cute, Fluffy, Owner

Shih Tzu, Cute, Fluffy, Owner

It was amazing to work with fellow photogs Sarah, Simran, Rohan and Dolly! Judging by all the enthusiastic dogs and their owners, it is evident that the PetFed 2017, is going to be one superb event.  Hope to see you there, my dear readers!

Let me know which dog you find the cutest of all in the comments below 🙂

Cheers!!

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Bokehs and Starbursts!

There are some amazing things one can shoot during night. Long exposure shots of light trails, amazing bokehs, starbursts, star trails, and much more.
Tonight, like many before, I was at office past sundown, and I had camera with me. Had a concept to try out too. So, off I went to the terrace to try out the shot.

Western Express Highway at night, bokehs of the lights

While I was up there, the Mahim bay glittered and tempted me to take the long exposure shot. Looks damn nice, right? Worth climbing up to the terrace for a peek!

Long Exposure shot of the Mahim Bay, Bandra Worli Sea Link in background

Something I noticed, while processing the photos, if you suspect that there may be some dirt on your lens, shoot a bokeh at night, the dirt ll show up as a shadow in the orb!

Guess I need to clean the prime!

Cheers!!

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F8 at Infinity -1

Hi there readers,

Agreeing to the fact that my posts have been few, of late, you ll be glad to know, that it has not been only work and no play. I did manage to get some time to go shoot too.

When you use a DSLR, taking one handed shots are not what you predict yourself to be doing. But what if, you were to use just one hand to shoot? What would be your go to settings?? I am working on a series ” F8 at Infinity” to test just that. Here, the shots shall be one handed, aperture set at F8, focus at Infinity, 50 mm lens, Nikon D3100 body. The shutter speed and ISO shall be variable. Might even use the Aperture Priority mode for the same.

Here goes, the first one!

Railway tracks littered with human waste

Shot somewhere between Andheri and Dadar, in Mumbai, India from the daily suburban train I travel in! Shows a grim picture of the cleanliness front. We are not perfect, still getting there!

Follow for the future posts. Let me know what you think of the this series in the comments, I will love to hear from you.

Cheers!!

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The Cat Cafe Studio – Part 2

In the previous part, you saw what makes the Cat Cafe Studio special and stand out of the crowd. This part is a special post dedicated to a couple of kittens who waged a war against each other for a toy. They stalked, pounced, bared their teeth and tumbled together in the fight. The winner, you may ask… lets find out!!

Without further ado, lets become spectators as two mighty warriors fight it out!

In the beginning, this was the one happy with the toy..
Kitten playing with a toy

And Then….someone else spotted it!

Kitten looking seriously at another kitten
And Stalked the target

Kitten ready to pounce
Pounce…and the battle began

Kittens fighting
 
Kittens fighting
Success!

Kitten with a toy
Scoping for revenge…

Kitten ready to attack
Attack!!!

Kittens fighting
Kittens fighting
Kittens fighting
Kittens contemplating truce
 Kittens reconcile

I feel, in the end, they kinda decided to reconcile and chew each end of the toy! We hoomans ought to learn a few things on sharing from these kittens!!

Let me know in the comments below what you found interesting and what you would like to see more!

Till then,
Cheers!!

 

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Surprise Surprise!!

A week back, I was at Pune for my post graduation convocation ceremony. As a rule, I had my camera along with me. After all was over, as we were packing our bags to return, I notice this kitten, sleeping soundly. Approached her a bit and stroked her fur, she purred contently. I pulled out my camera, fired off a few shots, and she was surprised at the sound, a bit curious too I guess! Loved the expression on the face 🙂

Kitten sleeping

Kitten awake and curious

Kitten surprised

My schedule has restricted me to shooting quite occasionally. The stream of posts has become shallow but by no means dry! New post shall be up soon!
Cheers!!

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Macro Shots

Today, as I sit to type down this post, my bags are packed and ready to leave. I leave NICMAR, Pune in less than 6 hours and will be on my way to my home first, then to much bigger adventures. Last night while packing, I stumbled across two very prized possessions of mine, my self made reverse lens adapter and a pair o kerosene lighters.
Flipped it open, spun the wheel, the sparks erupted, felt good.
At around 0100h, I felt a tiny bit creative. So, here is what I did, past mid night, using the reverse lens adapter. Lens used, my trusted Nikon 50mm F1.8D, and the camera, Nikon D3100.

macro of tanks made on a zippo lighter

macro shot of a SDHC card

macro close up of a diamond ring

macro close up of the wick of a zippo lighter

macro close up of the striking wheel of a zippo lighter

macro close up of the hinge of a zippo lighter

The following images are shot using the Tamron 70-300mm F4-5.6 macro lens, in the macro mode as control shots.

macro close up of the stalk of a flower

macro close up of a stalk of a flower

I ll infer that unless one is dedicated to shooting macros, the need for a macro lens, is quite limited. Often, a reverse mounted lens shall do the trick. Adding on, it is always much easier to use a full manual lens for reverse mounting because you can control the aperture ring and decide on the depth of field.

With this, I sign off from NICMAR, Pune. I shall be travelling for the next few days and shall also be visiting Delhi for almost a week, so that should make for a nice post.

Till then,
Cheers!!

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The ones that didn’t win – II

The minute you put a face in a photograph, you put a story to the photo. One must, maybe for just that one instance of the shutter click, relate to the face on the other side, know that person, know the story; this is my opinion while making portraits.

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This old lady said shes been in business for the past 30 years and is quite happy with the income. She isn’t camera shy, just dedicated to her work. We managed to have a conversation in two different languages, she cant speak Hindi, and I, Gujarati, so the conversation was quite animated. Just out of frame is, who appeared to be her grand daughter, helping her with the rest of the vegetables. Oh yes, before I left, she gifted me a carrot 🙂
-Ahmedabad, 12/2016

This is a part of an ongoing series, posts of which can be viewed here.

Till the next story..
Cheers!!

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The ones that didn’t win – I

I have, till date, taken part in quite a few photography competition. Some I have won, some I haven’t. The ones in which I won, or at least got the photos exhibited, those photos got some of the limelight that I would have wanted them to get. But what about the ones that didn’t win? When I made those photos, I made them as dearly as the ones who won, so why should they not be shared ? They ought to be.
With this thought in mind, here begins another series of photos. One photo per post. Let me know dear readers about your take on the photos.

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This photo here is of a man working on the kite strings. He has been in the profession since he was 16 years old and now he’s close to 50. What do his kids do? The daughter goes to school, and the son helps him with the business – Ahmedabad, 12/2016.

 

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Look Up Beautiful!

We were having our freshers’ party and this lady here  was being dolled up by a friend of hers.

DSC_4942-10

I went up close, and asked her to look up. She did, and the shot came into being!

DSC_4944-11

Prerna, you are beautiful 🙂

 

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Glimpses of Mumbai – Nana Chowk, Grant Road

In my previous post, I mentioned that I take a tiny hop to a place to shoot a very particular signal, well, this is the one. Whats so special about it, you may ask, well, it was a pre decided and pre conceived shot. I knew the angles, knew the locations, just went in and took the shot.

Here are the results.

DSC_3884-1

DSC_3919-3

The first photo is a product of a merging of 4 photos shot in quick succession from the same location, settings unchanged and then merged in Photoshop.

The next post, is one that is long overdue. I climbed the top floor of the site of my work, with the camera and shot Mumbai. The results, shall form the next post. Keep an eye out.

Cheers!!

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