Friday, March 23, 2012

Happiest Day of my life...

Finally the day came for which I was eagerly waiting since so long, the happiest moment of my life. I bought my first DSLR yesterday :)

I wanted to share with you all on the day I ordered my Nikon D7000 but the first order got cancelled and I thought I should not jinx it :)

I can't tell you guys how much happy I am . Not only this is my first DSLR, its something for which I was waiting since last many years and something which will give the much needed purpose to my life.

Before I write further , I will like to thank my sister and parents for letting me buy such an expensive equipment. Especially my sister, if my parent brought me to this world, you have given me my life Didibhai. 

Upgrading from a Point & Shoot to a DSLR in itself should be a major improvement and that being D7000 itself takes me to a different world. (Its a mid level DSLR costing round 62K with lens)

I ordered it on Wednesday and was supposed to pick it by Saturday but could not stop myself and went there Thursday itself :) 

Just sharing some initial thoughts. I am yet to take it out in daylight as I picked it at around 7:30 in the evening yesterday . But I already took 300 shots while travelling back from store to my home(around one n half hour trip).

So since I have only shot at night and that too from a moving car with my less than novice technique, I din't have much keepers out of those 300. 

I bought it with 18-55 kit lens as any other lens was out of my budget and anyways the reviews of this kit lens were quite good. 

1. The first shot that I took after the shopkeeper handed me the cam was the below potrait of my dad and now when I checked on my laptop ,its something I could never take with my P&S, a potrait with just the person and rest all blurred.  (The below photo is the cropped version of that.)


2. After that I shot while travelling and that too in low light condition. Since I have never used a cam that could give me any kind of control on Aperture or Shutter , I shot first in Auto mode, which popped out the flash the moment I tried to click. 
Don't take it as a negative comment but I found it hunting a lot with me missing some shots. Actually the P&S would have clicked those irrespective of whether it could lock focus properly or not. I am not comparing the quality here, I am just saying that since it has way more IQ then a P&S, it is more choosy :). 

P&S would have clicked it irrespective of whether anything is in focus or anything is sharp or not. But the few keepers I had itself gave me the idea that if I had played around with the camera or had been stationary, it would have locked many more shots in near perfect way. 


3. Then I switched to Aperture mode and owing to lack of knowledge when I reduced the aperture to say till f22 it increased the shutter speed by quite a few seconds and owing to my constant motion and novice techniques all of them had blurred (although I could still see some interesting light patterns due to its long exposure :)) 

4. So next I moved to Shutter priority, and again due to my stupidity , I clicked it at fastest possible speed initially and as expected they all were blacked out. Then I reduced the speed and I clicked a series of photos where I can see the scene illuminating as I slowed the shutter. 

5. The Viewfinder is AWESOME. Man I din't even checked the live view till I reviewd my shutter priority mode photos and found them blacked out. The Viewfinder is something to die for and I don't think I am going to use live view ever when I have such an amazing view finder. 

6. The Camera is heavy but I found it quite sturdy and grip was amazing. 

7. Coming from a Canon P&S and with Canon being quite user friendly as far as button layouts is concerned, I found the buttons quite easy to use. And there are so many buttons at the back that I was just wondering if I am ever going to use them :-D 

8. Then I shot in without flash mode and man I was hugely impressed. The shots have come too good at times without flash in low light. By good I don't mean keepers but in that low light I never expected it to lock and capture so well and once my technique improves I think there will be many keepers. 


Below is my first attempt at Bokeh (about which I will definitely write a post once I get more hang of it)


If I have to summarize in one line then it will definitely be I'm Loving It :)

Since my Di is not here so the only muses that I have at present are my helpless Mom and Dad , who are going to be most frequent subject of my photography.

 



I just loved the above pic that I took of my Dad.


So guys be ready to start this new journey with me :)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Delhi Zoo ....

Last Month I went to Delhi Zoo with my family..... 
Like with my earlier recent visit to various places , this too was primarily to fulfill my desire to click some photographs but apart from that I am also an ardent animal lover and with my increased interest in photography that love too has increased manifolds..

Although I clicked scores of pictures but overall I was not satisfied with the final output. And together with the Qutub Minar photos (which I am yet to share), that too were clicked in similar evening , low light condition (evening and early morning are considered ideal for photography),  makes me ponder that I have a lot to learn as far as dusk light photography is concerned.

Although Humayun's tomb too were clicked in similar cloudy condition but luckily they have come out well, may be because I had more liberty of space while clicking them.

Nevertheless sharing some animals and birds that I was able to click... I have done some post processing and cropping in order for the subject to be highlighted properly.

Duck


ANTELOPES

BABOON

BaraSinghaS...

Posing for the Camera... BarahSinghaS...

CROCODILE...

ELEPHANT

Indian Ghariyal

GORILLA..

Don't know what it is ... but was quite cute

King Of The Jungle ... LION

One Horned Rhinos....

These two Rhinos were the star of the Zoo... they were so playful ..were all the time busy chasing each other... I even have a Video of these two running around but have to find ways to compress them so that I can post them on blogger....


Finally these two settled down and decided to  cool off in the pond ....
Then came these colorful Parrots...


Haven't seen a Parrot before ????

There were many animals who were at their playful fighting best.... Apart from the rhinos there were some Antelopes who too were busy fighting but I only shoot a videos of those as I find their fighting and sudden attack strategy quite amusing....

Below are two Sambars (Huge species of Deer) who were busy demonstrating their strengths to the onlookers...


Sambars...

Siberian Cranes ....

Above is a shot from the pond that was there in the center of the Zoo, in which herds of Siberian Cranes and many more big birds were seen perching .... They were quite large in numbers and worth watching...

As the wait for a DSLR is intching closer to an end.... I am looking forward to clicking many more animals and birds in flight :)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Phool - III

Some more flower shots from my society garden....

Cockscumb Crested

Marigold I
Marigold Close up


Marigold II




Loved this shot...

The gardener has planted some sunflowers and they have now blossomed as spring is approaching....


Sunflower II
Sun Flower I




Another unknown flower that is growing in small pots in the garden...




And finally I got the name of this flower which I shared in my last post on flower which I liked a lot... This is Poppy and right now its growing in large number in my society and I plan to shoot more of it pretty soon.....

Poppy I

Poppy II

Poppy III

Poppy IV

To be continued ... :)

Friday, February 10, 2012

Some Macro shot of Show pieces..

Well I just tried few Macro shots at home of the various show pieces that were lying around , so just sharing those... 

Some small pottery jugs..


In case you are wondering what Macro Photography is then just to mention in layman terms , Macro photography is one in which you are quite close to the subject i.e. when the focal distance of the subject is quite less (less than 10mm). By close it does not always physically close, has you do have certain lenses which let you zoom in to an object far of and then magnify them just like macro.

This kind of photography is generally done for insects or tiny objects in order to magnify them. And also for flowers when you like to very closely show their pattern.

Needless to say, as you guys already know , its one of my favorite kind of photography ; mainly because it provides me the most sharpest photos that are possible from my camera and also because of the low depth of field which provides a blurry effect to the objects other then on which I am focusing.


My Sister has got some dolls as present which provide as quiet an interesting subjects for Macro photography










Below is a very cute couple and I have called them Simran and Raj aka Kajol & Sharukh Khan of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaenge  as the guy depicts SRK playing the Mandolin....



You can see that in the left pic only the couple are in focus , rest all is kind of blurred. 






 


if you thought the above pic looked kind of creepy (at least it seems to me ) . check this macro of an insect..


This guy was quite a patient poser...he gave me ample opportunities to click it but somehow this was the best I could manage :(. If you enlarge then you can even see the hair or spikes on its leg..

As you got to know that I love this mode of photography so be prepared to see a lot more of these kind of photos from me...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

On the brink!!!

Rest In Peace..


As I stand on the brink,
ready to take a plunge to my afterlife,
I give a last thought to the stuffs,
 I am leaving behind.

Have I done a bit,
to help my folks give life a try.
Or for some souls,
to drop a tear of cry.

Now its the time to fly,
to let go of the earth that still try to hold.
To meet the earth beneath,
that will take me on journey to abode.

As I leave the brink,
and began the free fall.
A voice tells me.
you could still have done few things for people who deserved more.

No, now its done.
I cannot change a thing.
I cannot take a step back,
nor can I make another beginning.

Jump Jump Jump!!! A voice inside me yells.
There is no one coming to stop you.
Let go of the land,

As the gravity pulls me down,
I scroll through the history of my wretched soul.
I thank God for being kind to my wants,
and for not giving me what I din't deserve at all.

As I tear through the thin air on my descent down,
I feel light like a feather.
In few seconds I will be free of my miseries