| What type of Camera are you? Nikon You're a Nikonian and a true Professional. Forever the perfectionist who always wants the most from the equipment. You see the world in tiny details and a day job as "pixel peeper" would probably be a dream come true.
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Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Canon Vs Nikon
When I was buying my DSLR, a big step for me, I was torn between Nikon and Canon. Canon was by far the market leader and also, ahead of Nikon in terms of technology. Nikon has a long history of making great SLRs and one of close friends had bought an Nikon DSLR. Besides, I was more of an amateur than I am now, though still an amateur. I had to make an informed decision. I had to think about what I will do with the camera.
At that time, I never thought I would be buying any more lenses than what came with the camera. I tried Canon and Nikon, and I liked the intuitiveness of the Nikon camera. In the end, it was a simple decision for me. Technology wise, I guess Canon has been a step ahead but I was sure that Nikon will catch up and overtake Canon as it had made a lot of progress in a very short time.
Even though it took five years after Canon's 5D for Nikon to come up with its first full frame camera, I was never shaken with doubt about my choice. The lenses I get for Nikon are comparable to Canon's and the results from the camera are similar. Besides, it is the person behind the camera who matters and not the camera itself, right?
After seeing this, for the first time I am wondering whether I should have gone Canon...
The EOS 5D mark II seems to be an absolutely stunning camera. The reviews and the pre-release shots are unprecedented and I have a feeling that Canon has dealt a body blow to Nikon here. Or perhaps, I speak too soon. Only time will tell.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Experiments with a laundry bag..
Location: Shot at home!
This was shot with a very cheap close up lens. It is not as sharp as I would want it to be, mainly for two reasons, one, because the light was low and I had to shoot at slow shutter speed and two, the close up lens makes the depth of field incredibly low. It is very hard to keep things in focus... I will experiment more with these new attachments and will post the results on my flickr stream.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Bubble's up
Location: At home.
My first attempt with reverse macro. I did not have a reversing ring. So, I just held the lens tightly in front of the camera. Though I shot quite a bunch of pictures with this toy, this was the only one I liked. :)
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Street photography...
I guess street photography is one of those things that you get inspired to do at some point in time. Particularly, if you see the pictures of Bresson or Erwitt and find something great in them that appeals to you. Besides being an interesting topic, it is also very accessible to all of us. After all, we do live in civilisation and we often are in cities with streets bustling with activity. To go out there and take pictures is perhaps the easiest thing to do.
But there are several issues to deal with. How comfortable are you shooting strangers? I am not the most outgoing of persons and would classify myself as an introvert and consequently, I have a lot of trouble asking people whether I can take their picture. Also, I fear that they might not be very happy about me clicking their picture without their knowledge and that I might run into angry people who might want to know why I took their picture. This was the primary reason why I chose to use a zoom lens on my expeditions on the street. I did get a lot of candid pictures but more often than not, my subjects would be far off in the pictures or the pictures would be context-free portraits that kind of suck. Also, carrying a big lens is a pain particularly when you have to compose and click very fast. It also meant that people asked more questions regarding my purpose with the camera. With such a big lens, I think they assumed that I was a press photographer or something which is interesting. And I could not always explain my activities as art...
This is where the internet comes in. I started reading a lot on street photography and almost all of them suggest that my fears are unwarranted. And also, all of them say that one should use a non-descript camera, like a Leica (if you can afford one). Me, being a poor techie, who cannot imagine ever buying a rangefinder, though I do drool over them from time to time on amazon, have to settle with using an SLR with a petite lens. Using my D80 with an 50mm Ai lens, I have noticed a major difference in the way people react to my camera. They no more ask too many questions and more often than not, they are least bothered about my camera. I still would classify myself as a newbie in the street photography field but I discover something about myself and my skill doing it. Good practise, I would say...
Check out this link if you have time:
http://www.beyondphototips.com/2008/08/17/obvious-street-photography-tips/
But there are several issues to deal with. How comfortable are you shooting strangers? I am not the most outgoing of persons and would classify myself as an introvert and consequently, I have a lot of trouble asking people whether I can take their picture. Also, I fear that they might not be very happy about me clicking their picture without their knowledge and that I might run into angry people who might want to know why I took their picture. This was the primary reason why I chose to use a zoom lens on my expeditions on the street. I did get a lot of candid pictures but more often than not, my subjects would be far off in the pictures or the pictures would be context-free portraits that kind of suck. Also, carrying a big lens is a pain particularly when you have to compose and click very fast. It also meant that people asked more questions regarding my purpose with the camera. With such a big lens, I think they assumed that I was a press photographer or something which is interesting. And I could not always explain my activities as art...
This is where the internet comes in. I started reading a lot on street photography and almost all of them suggest that my fears are unwarranted. And also, all of them say that one should use a non-descript camera, like a Leica (if you can afford one). Me, being a poor techie, who cannot imagine ever buying a rangefinder, though I do drool over them from time to time on amazon, have to settle with using an SLR with a petite lens. Using my D80 with an 50mm Ai lens, I have noticed a major difference in the way people react to my camera. They no more ask too many questions and more often than not, they are least bothered about my camera. I still would classify myself as a newbie in the street photography field but I discover something about myself and my skill doing it. Good practise, I would say...
Check out this link if you have time:
http://www.beyondphototips.com/2008/08/17/obvious-street-photography-tips/
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Film or digital?
When I started learning photography, I convinced my dad to part with his old film camera of East German make. It was a manual camera which means that everything had to be set manually - focus, aperture, shutter speed. It had a light meter in it but it hadn't functioned in years which meant that I had to learn exposure the hard way. I was in college at that time and I had no money nor did I have a father with deep pockets. Which meant that films were expensive to me. But it was fun learning about the camera. The numerous mistakes made it all the more exciting and I think I really got good at exposure using that camera. That is, till I got a digital camera and it ruined everything!
I was sceptical about the whole digital phenomenon but was surprised by the amazing range of options that even a simple digital PnS offers. The different modes, the instant review, the ability to change ISO according the lighting situation (something that I will later discover can be done in medium format film cameras), the low cost of taking pictures and the fact that they are readily in the digital formats that makes it easier to share in the digital world, all these drew me almost immediately into the digital camera world. I got a DSLR very soon and I have been playing around with it for the last 18 months and I must say that I have improved from a novice to a pretty decent photographer in that time.
Flickr has played a very huge part in all of this. I have learned a lot from the flickr photographers and the groups are an absolute treasure trove of information. I learned how to use photoshop, why shooting in RAW was the smart thing to do and made a lot of friends who were really into this art form. If you divide the pictures in my stream in two groups - posted this year and everything else, you will notice a big difference. It is not that there aren't any good pictures in my older collections but I think I am a much improved photographer this year. The reason has primarily been an conscious choice that I made last year to concentrate on photography and it is something that I have stuck to since then. And I have been hugely aided because of the digital camera.
The digital camera has made it possible for anybody to be a photographer and it has made it easier for people to enter the field and experiment very, very cheaply (at virtually no cost). It brought an elitist field to the grasp of the common man. Well, not the common man. Let's just say that it has made photography more accessible and capturing memories cheaper. Also, a digital PnS takes much better picture than a film PnS most of the time. The medium has completely changed and celluloid has become archaic in this new digitised world. When Polaroid announced earlier this year that they are going to stop the production of the films, it is a sign of the changing times. But is film photography dead? I think that it is premature to announce that. For a lot of reasons, film is still better than digital (maybe I will discuss this in detail in another post) and this is why, film is still preferred over digital in commercial photography. Of course, this is changing quite rapidly. But celluloid is definitely on the way out but to rule it out completely would be foolish.
Currently, I own two SLRs and one DSLR. I prefer Nikon to Canon (another post, perhaps?) and I shoot digital most of the time. I dabble a little in films sometimes and I am considering returning to black and white film photography just for kicks.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Dog chases crow
I happened to catch this dog chasing an injured crow that seemed to have one of its wings broken. I am not sure if the dog was the cause of the injury but the dog was definitely trying to do more damage. After a few minutes of hide and seek, the crow hopped across the busy street and the dog gave up the chase.
Location: CMH Road, Indiranagar, BangaloreSunday, March 2, 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
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