Anyone, who has visited the ghats of Varanasi, during the sunrise and the early morning, they might have seen the colony of gulls swimming flying and frolicking about. For the ones, who haven’t had the opportunity yet, have a look here.
Whats amazing is that these gulls respond to being called at for food. For more shots of Varanasi, including some amazing evening Arati shots, click here.
With exams approaching at speeds faster than I would like them to, its time for me to scale back on the blogging and get studying….but not before I post the most recent trip I had to Lonavala. Night shots, shooting stars, blinking aeroplane lights and some more. Stay tuned.
There is something about music that manages to change our mood in a jiffy, no questions about that, and I dare speculate, that there is something about that DJ’s board, the headphones and the mixer, that manages to bring out the curiosity, every single time we see it. Here’s to curiosity, here’s to music.
Eyes, are one of the most amazing of the many god gifted instruments to the mortals. And since we human beings are the curious and innovative kind, its just too much for us to not try making our own mechanical copies of it.
The original one
The mechanical one
The copy may not ever be better than the real one, but it sure as hell comes close to it 🙂
In the era of 5” plus sizes of screen of smartphones, having a screen guard is very common. Putting a tempered glass cover is also catching up steadily.
In the group of people, who use tempered glass, there are two kinds…
One, who throw the cover away when it breaks. Other, who do this….
Everything, when viewed under correct light, appears beautiful, even a shattered glass sheet.
Cheers!!
We come here every single day to eat, chat, chatter. Sometimes with our friends, or maybe solo. It’s always full and buzzing. This hall sees us more than our classrooms and maybe knows us better too. Calm, serene and all absorbing, the mess hall.
The calm mess hall
I feel, a mess hall is an apt example of change in progress. Year after year, batch after batch, they come as students, and depart as business professional. That, is some change.
Photographs are generally classified on terms of locations, themes, stories they depict, subjects they focus on, so on and so forth. As the multitude of classifications exist, so are the personal favourites. My favourite is portrait.
The main objective of the portrait from my point of view is to portray certain emotion, or a certain feeling through the photo. My model should be the point of focus, and the emotions felt, the expressions emitted should be captured in the best of possibilities. If I manage to show to my audience, what my subject felt while the shot was taken, I feel, its a good portrait.
Today, I shall put down certain points which I feel are important while taking portraits. I keep these points in my mind while shooting and so far, they have served me well.
1. Focus on the eyes: The first rule, by me, is the focus should be on the eyes. Not on the nose, not on the lips, the EYES. Why? Because consciously or not, that’s the first thing that catches our eye in the photo. So, a sharply focused eye of the model, makes the photo likable immediately.
Sharp focus is on the eyes
2. Let the eyes see: I ll explain this, in simpler terms. I mean, let the photo be such that the model has some place to look to, that the viewer also looks towards the way the model is watching. Let the curiosity be there. If the model is looking towards left, leave some space in the left, and vice versa.
She looks to her left, so thats where the space should be
3. Change the angles and point of views: All shots need not be taken right from the eye level. Go up, go down or maybe, just take a step back. They all work wonderfully.
Take a step back, and let her beauty fill the frameMake her look up to youIf needed, get down on the ground too
4. Anticipate Movements: While shooting at an event, you shall come across conditions where your model is in motion. Observe the patterns and anticipate the movements, be ready and press the shutter at the right moment. With a bit of practice, sharp shots of moving people will not be difficult.
Anticipate the patternPrefocus, be ready and shoot!
5. Go Candid: Here, you just need to be on the prowl. Keep your eyes peeled for subjects to be shot. Sometimes they notice you and the expression changes, the objective is to shoot before the expression changes. But be advised, the shots may not be as you would have wanted them to be, but then, sometimes, gems emerge too.
6. Bokeh to the rescue: If you have a background which has distractions, or maybe you just dont want the background, open the aperture wide and let the background fade.
The tip of the finger is all I am interested in, rest all should fadeTo isolate the model from the distracting background, use a wide aperture
7. Use Flash: When shooting in the dark, or poorly lit conditions, use the flash as a last resort. With a few test shots, gauge what strength and what shutter speed you need to do justice to your model. Once found, fire away.
The flash gives the adequate light and also helps freeze the motionCombination of Flash and wide aperture helps isolate the model and also provide proper lighting
8. Get close: Often to capture the expression, you must get very close to your model. But be advised, do not disturb the natural surroundings in the process.
Concentration….captured
9. Ask the model to smile: This trick, never gets old. Ask your model to relax and take a seat. Bring out your gear and show them how to take a shot, and when they have relaxed, ask them to smile….voila! You have a genuine and happy smile,
Effortlessly beautiful
10. Try Monochrome: For a lot of shots, the monochrome version appears to be of more depth. Try it out, but dont overdo it.
Beauty as I know best
So, there you go. 10 simple tips to get you going on your next portrait shooting trip. Go on, have fun and shoot some wonderful portraits.
Thanks a lot to the wonderful models here: Nikhila, Gowri, Rishika, Shruti, Soma, Mayukh, Shweta, Parthivi, Aakash, Anushree, Yogi and my muse, Tuhina. You all are simply wonderful 🙂
“…I got headlights to guide me thru the night
I got the window down and the radio playing
It makes me feel alive…”
-Open Road, Bryan Adams
Being a car enthusiast too, driving feels like a very comforting and soothing thing to do. Whenever I have jarred nerves, a drive is all I need to calm myself down.
This is my third entry for the Three Quotes, Three Days Challenge. Rules are as follows: 1. Post 3 of your favorite quotes each per day for 3 recurrent days. The quotes can be of any other people or it may come straight from your own heart. 2. Nominate 3 bloggers with each post to challenge them. 3. Don’t forget to utter a thankful word to the person who nominated you.
This post shall be the last one from home. Because in less than 24 hours from now, I shall be on my way to my college to begin classes for my masters. New town, new environment, new people and back to studies; it should be fun.
“That long cold black cloud is coming down
I’m feelin’ like I’m knocking on Heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knocking on Heaven’s door”
– Bob Dylan
This song has been stuck in my head since time immemorial and even though it has an immensely dark tone to it, somehow, it still feels comforting. Maybe am just a bit weird, but then, that’s just me.
Thanks to Magdalena for nominating me for the Three Days, Three Quotes challenge. The rules are simple:
1. Post 3 of your favorite quotes each per day for 3 recurrent days. The quotes can be of any other people or it may come straight from your own heart. 2. Nominate 3 bloggers with each post to challenge them. 3. Don’t forget to utter a thankful word to the person who nominated you.
It has happened to me before, and I know it shall happen again. The feeling that I have had enough of taking photos and now its time to throw in the towel and give up, but then, my muse keeps me ticking.
Muse, when used as a noun is defined as a person, especially a lady, who inspires creative talent. If I go by that, then this is that lady right here.
But then, extrapolating the definition a bit more, the extraordinary sights during my travel, maybe they make me creative, so, these too are my muse.
Creativity may not always be original, it may be a tiny trick for the eyes. My muse is inspiring awe.
My muses belong from far and wide. I met her again recently at Delhi, and the views followed too at Delhi, Jaisalmer and Shankarpur. And the rest, I found near to home. A proof of concept and a bit of patience, they helped me muse my muse. Have a look at what others muse right here.
By the time you read this, I shall be far away from my hometown, with a backpack and my camera gear, somewhere in Rajasthan for a week long trip. Long live scheduling of posts in the blog. Now, enough hype about the upcoming Delhi-Rajasthan trip, Shankarpur photos galore!
From Shillong city, we went to the Shillong viewpoint, which is located within the Air Force Base. The route was dense with fog, and the visibility was rather limited. From the view point, only a few pine trees and their cones were visible.
As we came to lower altitude, the weather cleared and we got an amazing view of green fields, dark mountains and blue sky specked with clouds.
Before turning towards Elephant Falls, our driver, made one last detour. This time, into a pine forest.
Next stop, was the Elephant falls. I ll be honest, this was just the way I had thought it would be, and was prepared. I had lugged my tripod, for just this kind of a shot, and I got it.
There are 3 stages of this falls, rest two were pretty, but this one, the stage 1, was the best, by me!
Next, we turned towards the once wettest place on earth, Cherrapunji or as locally known as, Sohra.
The route is nothing short of majestic and in every turn, you feel like stopping for a shot.
At Cherrapunji, we met up with more dense fog and by the time we went to the tallest plunge waterfall of India, the Nokalikhai Falls, the cliff was blanketed in fog, and nothing, absolutely nothing was visible. We turned back, a little disappointed that we missed the view.
But then, we were excited too. We were off to Kaziranga the next day! Rhinos…coming up shortly 🙂
The TPTC Blog!! 