Enjoying the Moment

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Bala

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page

- St. Augustine

Travel photography is something that I love and loathe! Its a fine balance between enjoying the moment and capturing it.

Capturing the Moment

Although you need to know your fstops, ISOs, dof geekery to make good images – enjoying the moment is the ultimate recipe for great images. As an amateur photographer I don’t travel to acquire good photographs, the images that I get are by-products of my travel. Now that might seem obvious but when I got into photography my travels were incomplete without photographs that moved me (i.e. atleast a couple of 3 star images – with a rating of 1 (ok) to 5 (excellent), in Lightroom). No matter how many images that I made and how many places that I visited, my 3 star images were just a handful!(4 & 5 are rarities).

On one fateful trip, I ended up without my digital SLR! My friends were stupefied by the disappointment they saw on my face…” just for forgetting your camera?” was the thought that was running through their mind, which ofcourse they never shared! Life had to go on and so I trodded on behind the group. After a couple of minutes I totally got over the disappointment (well not really..but I just felt better) and having fun with friends and taking in the sights and scenes of the place. We stopped here and there to take the proverbial tourist shot with a point & shoot (pplease!) and totally had fun. I was actually feeling guilty that I wasn’t missing my camera as much as I should have! weird.. (now that tells something about me doesn’t it?..). Going through the images in my library, I actually liked several of the shots that I had taken with the point and shoot (give it 2.5 stars or close to 3). Mulling over, I realized that I actually felt good about a higher percentage of the shots from the point and shoot than from the images that I got from my SLR from other trips.

Enjoying the moment

The only reason that I could come up with was that on the trip without my SLR I had spent less time seeing from behind the camera (yeah..point & shoot) and was actually taking in the “atmosphere” around me and letting the environment wash over me. Boiling it down, “it seems that one actually needs to have a sense of taste and appreciation for the locale, before you can get good travel photographs” – geez! what a discovery! Now I no longer hunt for the best place to setup my tripod, look for the light..and all that mumbo jumbo – I just go and hang around the place for atleast and hour or so (if you’re traveling with company you need to convince them to hang around as well ) and finally make my images when I think I’m ready to move on. Enjoying the moment (and or place) is actually more important than capturing it! (well, its not if you’re on the job) As an amateur (travel) photographer you can afford to lose the moment from your camera but identify & enjoy it with your eyes and it definitely will make you a better photographer. Now if that seems really counter intuitive, it is – unless you try it! Not everybody is a Cartier Bresson, you need to enjoy and lose enough “decisive moments” to actually capture one later.Let me know if you had a similar epiphany.

PS: Sorry if point & shoot photographers felt bad, actually that was then – now I completely get it, the camera doesn’t make good pictures, photographers do!

Six Tips for Taking Better Travel Photos with Your Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera (locationindependentprofessionals.com)
Cartier-Bresson exhibit tells stories in decisive moments (reuters.com)

A Frame of Freedom

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Bala

Blogadda is conducting a photography contest with the theme, Freedom. Here’s my entry;

A frame of Freedom

Well, I know using a bird to denote freedom is so cliche, (seriously, how many lone bird(s) and eagle(s) soaring high do we need to visualize freedom?) but freedom is not about being alone or flying alone. This image depicts my visual cue of freedom, being among peers – yet having one’s own ideas and views – sharing a common space with understanding and acceptance (of your neighbor’s freedom). Flight is freedom, its more enjoyable when you can fly at your pace, style and most of all with your peers.

For Photo Geeks:

Shot with a Nikon D40 / (Nikon 70-300 VR) 180mm /f5.3/ ISO 800 – 1/125th shutter. processed in Adobe Lightroom.

Low light photography – On the Phone

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Bala

As they say,

“the best camera is the one that you always have with you”

Ok, I believe I’ve heard that before Chase Jarvis came out with his book of iPhone photographs – which is why I’m not citing him as the source of the above fact! Anyway the point is, try taking pictures with your mobile phone. No, everybody cannot have an iPhone – go around taking pictures, quickly procesing them with apps and posting them online. The iPhone is cool device to capture quick images and do some snazzy edits and publish them, but you can still learn something from your non-iphone (crappy) images. I shot the above images with my Samsung Soul U900 (Samsung just doesn’t get mobile phone cameras!) which does “ok” in good lighting but is pathetic in low light. The above images were shot under seriously low light conditions which allowed me to think more on the lines of light ofcourse but as well as shape, composition and dozen other things which I never would have thought about had I carried my SLR along with me.

Shooting images with a very limiting device lets you brainstorm concepts you know and think about those you’ve never given much thought to, that’s what matters when you’re looking to get better images. Features and choice tend to lead you on a different path of creativity which is good! but keeps you off “the road not taken” or less taken. Try it and you’ll know what I mean. I have no illusion that the above images show skill and creative thinking – but hey, they helped my though process about photography itself!

Indeed if you’re looking for something that demonstrates skill and creativity using a “not so good” camera then check out the iPhone Fashion Photoshoot by Lee Morris below.

A Professional Fashion Shoot With an iPhone 3GS [Photography] (gizmodo.com)

The Best Pocket Cameras

Posted on May 5, 2010 by Bala

Dennis Stock by Andreas Feininger

Gone are the days when compact cameras or pocket cameras were just the domain of casual photographers. As every professional photographer that I respect says, the only way to make good photographs is to keep constantly honing your craft! keep shooting at every opportunity since great photographs are not shot only with professional SLRs but rather being at the right place at the right time with a decent enough camera in hand.It seems that finally Camera manufacturers have woken up to the fact that just adding more MP (megapixels) is not good enough anymore and that more functionality and control is what people are looking in cameras these days.

I know that “the Best” does not come cheap, even when talking about pocket cameras. The initial market for feature rich and powerful compact cameras will always be photography enthusiasts (like yours truly) and professional photographers who have come to expect a certain level of control from any camera obscura that they get their hands on. So if you are among the photography enthusiasts or just a guy or girl who likes to make memorable images from your camera, here are the best compact or pocket cameras that you can lay your hands on.

Canon Powershot S90
Canon Powershot G11
Panansonic Lumix GF1
Panasonic LX3
Olympus PEN E-P1

Ofcourse I have a detailed post here as to the reasons why the above mentioned cameras could be considered the best pocket cameras for the professional as well as any photography enthusiast. Keep in mind though great performance,features in a small package means it is going to be expensive! Then again, you get what you pay for

Please note that I’m not a Nikon hater or a Canon lover! the noticeable absence of Nikon from this list reflects (my)reality (unfortunately!)

PS: If you’re curious about the featured image for this post.. Here’s some help!