TTL : Kelwa Beach

It has been months since the last post and a lot has happened in my life since then. It is time that the posts must continue, once more!

Let me take you all to Kelwa Beach at Palghar, Maharashtra.
About 100 km out of Mumbai is this beach on the western coast of the country. The route is quite scenic and both the driver and the rider would enjoy the route. Some twists and turns along the road, a wide road and some natural beauty to keep one company. Following the route using Google Maps is easy and hassle-free.
The place is quite amazing for a one-day trip with friends. Come, have a look!

As with all beaches, do not forget to carry loads of water and sunscreen. Have a beach ball along and you shall be having quite a nice time out there.
The beach is frequented by locals mostly and is generally peaceful.

Go on, have a good time! Until the next post..
Cheers!!

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!!

TTL: Sassoon Docks

I had become quite restless at the lack of what I perceived as apt content for a blog post and it was making me jittery. A text out of the blue from dear old Subhanjana asking about Sassoon Docks was the best thing that happened a couple of days back. I realized that it had been more than a year, here in Mumbai, and I was yet to pay one of the largest fish market of the place and the first wet dock of Mumbai a visit. I called up Haldar if she would be interested to join in, and she was. So, Sunday was the planned day.

Information was that one must get to the docks as early as first light to get the fishing trawlers coming in and fishes being unloaded. Since, we had to travel by train and cab to the docks, we were late, and did not get those shots.

What we got were shots of the fishing auctions and the market, with all the chaos and hustle bustle. Enjoy.

Fish Auction in Progress, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Fishes being readied for auctions, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Fishes being readied for auctions, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Fishing Trawlers in the dock, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Fishing Trawlers in the dock, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Fishes for sale in the market, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Basket transfer in progress , Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

As we were walking about taking photos, this lady in the following photos took interest in showing off her merchandises. She also showcased the octopuses. Live octopuses. We were quite excited 🙂

Lady holds up a fish for display, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Lady holds up octopus for display, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Sassoon Docks is also famous for the street art one can find in the location. It was the site for a street art exhibition in November, 2017. There is an art exhibition centre at the docks, which were not open when we were there, so, we shot the walls.

Wall art at Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Wall art at Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Wall art at Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Wall art at Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

Haldar posing in front of a wall art, Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, India

As we walked out of the place, I noticed a crow, flying with a fish in its mouth. Lens cap was off already. In one fluid motion, the camera was switched on, tracked the crow and let the continuous high mode fire.
Behold the result:

Flying crow with a fish in mouth, Mumbai

I am mighty impressed by the auto focus system of the Nikon D7200. Am yet to fully understand and use the 3D focussing system properly on the camera.

As we got to Churchgate station, a piece of art caught my eye.

Mural at Churchgate Station, Mumbai, India

Apparently similar installations shall be done in other stations too. That shall be something to look forward to.

A sequel of this post shall follow soon with Haldar’s shots!

Cheers!

The Elephant Parade : Mumbai 2018

With the novel objective of raising awareness for elephant corridors across the country, The Elephant Parade India arrived at Mumbai this month.
Along came exquisitely designed and painted elephant replicas, each having an interesting story to its own. Apart from being an awareness raising tool, it is also an amazing means to showcase the artist’s expertise and talent. I met with the following elephants at the Phoenix Marketcity at Lower Parel. The elephants shall be on display in various locations within the city and details can be found here.

Iridescent Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Black Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Blue Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Black Shiny Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Brown Exotic Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Green Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Black Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

Forest Elephant from Elephant Parade, Mumbai

These beautiful elephants are also available for sale using the website mentioned earlier. It is my recommendation that you go and have a look at these elephants as and when possible.

As a note to my readers who may be in Mumbai from 14-18 March, a set of these exquisite elephants shall be at the Bandra Fort during the above mentioned days. The opportunity to capture stunning photos is quite an unique one.

A trick to reduce the influence of crowds on the photo is to have a long exposure. The elephants being stable are sharp while the crowd fades away due to them moving swiftly. In case there are posey people in front of the elephants, they shall show up.  There shall be ghosting, for sure. This is the minimum hassle method to obtain a clear picture. Drawback being it can be used only when you can shoot a long exposure, meaning, day time shots are not possible. For the daytime shots, you can set your tripod and take a series of shots and then use the “Median” command in Photoshop to eliminate the crowd. Ghosting shall be minimal.

Go have fun, use a different technique and share your results in the comments below.

Cheers!!

 

Long Exposure : Demystified

Time and again, I have had requests and queries on how to take the amazing “trails” photos, today, I shall try to demystify them.

Long Exposure, Trails, Diwali Night, Marine Drive
The technique is called Long Exposure. As the name suggests, we make the photo’s exposure long. In doing so, any light source, or lit up object, that is incident on the sensor, shall be registered by it. In technical terms, we extend the time the shutter stays open, by decreasing the shutter speed. This causes the exposure to be “long”.

Here’s an example:

Long Exposure, Queens Necklace, Marine Drive, Mumbai

Now, to achieve this, we need to have a shutter speed that is low enough to form the light trails, while the aperture has to be such that the photo does not wash out, all the while maintaining the ISO at a level where there is not a lot of noise.
We can get to this unique combination by fiddling in the Manual mode:

Nikon D7200, Manual Mode setting

Or, by setting the camera in the Aperture Priority mode (AV mode in Canon).

Nikon D7200, Aperture Priority Mode setting

The objective should be to have an optimal exposure, despite the slow shutter speed.

Nikon D7200, Aperture Priority Mode setting

With enough practice, taking stunning photos shall not be difficult at all.
Long Exposure is amazing for smoothening out ripples in water, or giving the water a milky flowy look. Do try them out.

Long Exposure, Smootheing of Lake, Bangla Sahib, New Delhi

Slowing down water flow, Elephant Falls, Meghalaya

It is also useful to take photos in low light environments such as this dimly lit monument at the Lodhi Gardens, New Delhi.

Long Exposure, Lodhi Gardens, New Delhi

I shall conclude by stating that unless you practice, you shall not be perfect. Go out there, and explore the amazing world of long exposure.

Cheers!!

AtoZ Challenge: U – Urban Landscape

Urban Landscape

Today, in every major city, the common thread that links all of them is that there is development in the real estate sector. The  landscape of the city, the skyline, is constantly changing and evolving. From a beautiful vantage point, to shoot the urban landscape, is quite a joy.
Below are some of my examples of Mumbai’s concrete(land)scape.

Mumbai Cityscape at night, Sea Link

High Rise buildings at Mumbai

Clouds form on the Sewri Mudflats

Tell us about your favourite spots for shooting urban landscapes.

In the previous series, U was for Underexposure.

Cheers!!

AtoZ Challenge: L – Latitude

Latitude

This is here is a term which is used to describe a range. Common usage being, a certain camera provides more/less latitude than another one. The range in question is the exposure range, over which one can produce acceptable results.

Mumbai Skyline, Clouds, Sun

The above photo is “As shot” +2 exposure value, while the one below is -1.

Mumbai Skyline, Clouds, Sun, Silhouette

So, one can say that the latitude from -1 to +2 for the camera. The definition is subjective and shall vary from person to person and on their opinion on what acceptable means to them.
Latitude is not the same as Dynamic Range. DR is the range in which, either in highlights or in shadows, details can be obtained before they white or black out, respectively. They are instead related in the manner that, a sensor with a higher dynamic range shall produce photos which have a wider latitude. I had covered basics of High Dynamic Range photos earlier, here!

Last time, L was for Lens Distortion.

Go ahead and produce some amazing photos, and let us all know about it.

Cheers!!

AtoZ Challenge: G – Ghosting

Ghosting

Ghosting is a phenomenon that is observed if there is strong light directly incident on the lens and it reflects off the various lens elements, the diaphragms and even the sensor, and causes multiple translucent artefacts to be created. This often causes the photo quality to degrade. One of the ways past this is to use a lens hood, or to use polarizer filters.

Ghosting, Marine Drive, Mumbai, Light Trails. Long Exposure

The above photo shows examples of ghosting.

Tell me, how do you deal with this?

Last time, it G was for Grain.

AtoZ Challenge: E – EXIF Data

EXIF Data

It is a condensed form of Exchange Image File format which is basically a standard format set to report the various parameters of a photograph. The data that are captured mostly include the make of the camera, shutter speed, focal length, the aperture, ISO. When suitably available, location coordinates are also available in the EXIF data. Extra information as to whether the flash fired or not, or the shutter count of a camera can also be found by studying the data.

Long Exposure photo, Fire works, Cars, Lighttrails, Mumbai

The EXIF Data for the above photo is shown here below as a screenshot from my phone.

Exif Data of the photo

This data is immensely useful if someone is trying to learn and take cues from other photographers as to what settings to be used in particular situations.

Do you check the exif data of other photogs?? Let me know!

Last time, it was Exposure Bracketing.

Cheers!!

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!!

Diwali Night – 2017

This Diwali, I was at Mumbai. Had just a day of holiday, so it was out of the question to go home then. Instead, I came to office that night, went to the terrace, which is on the 42nd floor for a view. Looked quite nice, I must say, the photos didn’t come out to be that amazing though.

But, I wanted good photos, so, I went to the Marine Drive to watch the fireworks. With the rounded curve of the road, it is always amazing to watch the light trails. The glow from the lights add to the beauty, and the occasional police van on a patrol, makes it an interesting picture.

Fire works on Diwali Night at Marine Drive Mumbai
Fire works on Diwali Night at Marine Drive Mumbai

This, here is a composite image of 5 to 6 photos, each of 30 seconds exposure, and then stacked on photoshop. While I am not very deft at photo manipulation, it does help to know bit of retouching.

A bit of advise dear readers, always use a tripod and remote while shooting long exposures for stacking. No matter how stable the surface is, each time you press the button, the position shifts just a tiny bit, and that shows up blurred in the final stacked image.

Cheers!!

The face of God

The phrase, seeing is believing holds true for the majority of the population. To believe, one needs to have an image, a face to relate it to.

To the thousands, who visited the Lokhandwala Pandal during the Durga Puja this year, god looked like this.

Idol of Durga vanquishing Asura

DSC_1017-8-01

Next up shall be one about a break from the daily grind and a breath of fresh air.

Cheers!!