Twisted Indifference

This was never meant to be a personal blog nor do I write sappy testimonials. My website and my blog mean the world to me. Due to reasons best left alone my hosting account was deleted today. A disaster of mind numbing proportions (to me anyway) was averted due to the presence of mind of a friend to whom I am already indebted to life several times over.

So yes, while this is not a personal blog I would like to take the time to thank Vivek who has not only ensured the uptime of my computers over the past eight years but also ensured that the website and the blog have backups. I could not have asked for a better friend or system administrator.

I realize that the above text reads like a bloody official letter of recognition but I don’t do sappy.

I figured I start out with this since the photographs required are already edited and uploaded on Flickr. Remnants of lethargy on account of being absent from blogging for so long. Hopefully it should be gone soon.

This is a pretty old snap, I had never put it up on the blog. It has been shot on film and I was using a Canon EOS 300 at that time. I am extremely fond of this shot since it started my love affair with concept art and the fact that this snap alone got me a lot of attention. If you are wondering why this shot is in a post clearly titled “Interiors and Food”, this was one of the shots I took while shooting for Oxford Properties in Pune.

The next couple of shots are part of a restaurant shoot I had done last year.

Just goes to show how much fun can be had with RAW processing. I should add here that shooting in RAW does not automatically make for a brilliant shot. If you are going to muck around with tonal ranges there should actually be a distinct tonal range.

Given that in the earlier post for this shot I spoke about specular highlights, I will summarize it briefly. Your best option in such a case is to diffuse the light. This is not a hard and fast rule and could always depend on the situation and the source of light. Another option that can be considered is to compensate for the highlights but you stand to lose data in the shadows.

I never had to resubmit assignments at school, the first attempts were always good enough for the teachers. Pointing out the obvious but that was definitely a good thing. I am not putting up the posts that the MySQL backup did not restore. For a simple reason. It is excruciatingly boring. It is only a copy paste job from the text file back up that I have but it’s like setting up and shooting the same bloody photo. What I will be doing is putting up the earlier shots in a different post. More showcase less tutorial-esque. Will start work on it tomorrow.

Random Fact: I hate taking U-Turns while driving since it involves going back down the same road and I try and avoid it as much as I can. Sometimes I tend to leave a carbon footprint that would put a sasquatch to shame.

Drum roll please…

Making his debut (again) on the Twisted Indifference Studios Blog, the furry nemesis of pillows, couches and car seats, the master of the ‘puppy dog looks’, my best friend and favourite model;

Edison.

Readers who read the posts on this blog before my MySql database decided to vanish suddenly might remember the photo below.

Edison turned 6 in January. In dog years that makes him 42. That, as everyone who have read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams would know is the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything Else. If you haven’t read the book, I suggest you stop reading this and go buy the book first. A lot of websites that I referenced disagree with the 1 human year = 7 in dog years conversion but then these are the people who still think that digital watches are a good idea. Trust me you will love the book.

Moving on to the actual purpose of this post. First up, the opening photo.

Source of light: The setting Sun.

Location: Hills behind the ILS Law College in Pune, India.

The first aspect you need to notice is the ‘bokeh’ or background blur. Out of focus backgrounds are generally used in photography to minimize the emphasis of the background so that eye is immediately drawn to the actual subject of the photograph. This is seen often in Portrait Photography and Macro Photography. Usually while shooting landscapes the objective is to ensure that the sharpness extends to the background as well.

This is what depth of field (DOF) is all about. DOF is controlled mainly by the aperture. The other aspects that affect DOF are focal length of the lens and the distance of the subject. Larger the opening of the aperture (smaller f stop), shallower the depth of field. Smaller the opening of the aperture (larger f stop), sharper the depth of field.

If you take the photo with Edison and the Coffee Mug, you will notice a much shallower depth of field. The lenses used in both cases were different. In the opening photo I used the Nikkor 18mm - 200mm. The maximum opening of the aperture at 18mm is f/3.5. This photo was taken 60mm and the aperture was stopped down to f/5. In the second image, I used my Nikkor 50mm Prime Lens. Primes are the babes of the optical world. 50mm is a fixed focal length but the aperture opens up all the way up to f/1.4. These lenses are also called fast lenses. They will give you high shutter speeds even in low light conditions.

Please note: This is an older post that I have put up again since this blog was restored from a back up after another crash that did not contain the more recent posts. If you think this sentence structure is bad, think how bad I must have felt having to live through it.

As made public at yesterday’s blog camp by Tarun, this blog had been down for a while. Sumit had been pestering me for the past couple of months to fix it and I have been slacking. After all, I am only a poor and unpaid “Chief Take-The-Blame Officer”. Yesterday’s events finally prompted Sumit to offer me what I have been asking for as payment. A bottomless mug of beer.

Root Cause Analysis: - The MySQL database was FUBAR.

How the database got corrupted is still a mystery. I had to restore from an old backup which is missing a few posts. Sumit will be posting them again soon.

Photo Courtesy: master chong

16 Kilograms of Glass!

There comes a time when even in Photography you have to make that annoying decision. Passing up the really sexy piece of glass and concentrating available funds on a more practical purpose. So when confronted with this Sigma Lens that opens up all the way to f/2.8 at 500, all I can do is add it to my wishlist. If any of you did not get the innuendo in the second sentence, you are missing out on a lot.

Filler Post

I am currently shirking blogging responsibilities because the gentleman in the image below is keeping me busy.

Image Courtesy: Official Website

It has been a while since I played a really good game. The last one was Need For Speed: Most Wanted. I had bought a copy of Need For Speed: Pro Street too, but while the graphics in Pro Street are distinctly better, the gameplay and the adrenaline levels in Most Wanted are much more to my liking.

I shall of course be posting photography related articles, news pieces etc. in the meantime. If you do have anything specific that you have in mind (photography related) do let me know. I will do my best to to create a post around the topic that you suggest.

(Insert statement here that is synonymous with the catch line of a certain Gubernatorial Action Hero)

From graffiti to flames to the downright eye-poppers; the artists had managed to create them all. Having spent a considerable amount of time as a photographer for an automotive magazine in India, an intense love affair with cars tricked out in custom paint jobs is inevitable. Of course covering an every inch of an Ambassador in white fur might be overkill. Even the interiors weren’t spared.

The graffiti art was on a Maruti Suzuki Swift. This car without the custom paint job can makes me want to get in behind the wheel and floor the throttle. Especially the diesel version. The throttle response is brilliant. But then this blog is about photography not cars.

The Royal Enfield, a motorcycle owned by those who dare to be different (and also love pushing the bike to the nearest garage at frequent intervals.) This bike has an undying affinity towards proving Murphy right. Given the new technological breakthroughs that the company has now adopted I guess things should be different.

Flames were largely popular with the Yamaha RX series in its heyday. So putting solid colours on a bike that is coveted for its acres of chrome is I guess keeping with what the bike stands for. Being different.

I just might be prejudiced in my opinion of the art work on the Swift. Apart from the fact that he used a car I really like, the canvas (body) is my favourite colour. Black. Narcisstic, the way the artist’s name is emblazoned on the car panels but it is acceptable. I am the last one who should point out to people marking their territory as far as their creations are concerned. I cannot really use protection of my intellectual property as an excuse.

Now we come to the reason why I spent almost an entire day working on this post. I was saving the best for the last. I do not claim to be any kind of expert with Photoshop. Whatever I do know about it is through watching a colleague of mine. He is a graphic designer and we worked together briefly. That and a little credit to online tutorials. I, however, do know what different techniques were applied when shooting on film. The one emulated here in photoshop is called cross processing. In photoshop, cross processing is done using the Curves function. Stick to non-destructive editing and use a Curves layer. Makes life much simpler. Adobe has certainly made mine easier by adding the Cross Processing action as a Preset.

All I had to do after selecting it from a drop down menu was to apply a little fine tuning. In this photo and in the photo that is used as the opening image in this post, the Dodge and Burn tool have been my best friends. I wish I could have taken a better angle for the car, I would love to do something similar maybe with a wide angle, taking in the rear three quarters of the car with the Gothic Revival Buildings in the background and then apply a similar effect. I think I will take someone along with me who has a thorough knowledge of the buildings and the architectural style.

This should do it for Art in the Financial Capital. Bid adieu to the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, let’s hope I can spend more time there the next time. The next few posts will be about the photos from the Auto Expo 2008 again. I am going to try and put up as much of it as I can by the week-end since I would like to start with something new next week.

I was done with the photography workshop by 1400 hrs. A cola and a smoke and then a cab down to Jehangir Art Gallery. The street was already filled up with the artists setting up their exhibits. I met up with fellow bloggers for lunch, including celebrity bloggers like Sakshi and a blogger that churns out ideas by the dozen.

Now down to the photography. The photograph used at the top of this post was clicked with the intention of putting it as the opening photo. When I saw the sculpture of the paint cans hanging on the stand, I knew this was what I would want to open this post with. Confession time, I agree this is a clichéd snap. I believe a lot of people will have attempted a similar snap. With the plethora of photographers around I doubt that it would not have been attempted. Always fun to play with Depth of Field (DOF). Even though the aperture was stopped down till 5.6, which is not really something that would support a clear DOF in say a landscape shot but it was more than adequate here. You can still see the slight gaussian blur after the 5th can.

The correct DOF can make or break a good photograph. I believe that a proper tutorial on DOF would make a great post. That however would have to be kept for later. I have another post to make for the Kala Ghoda Art festival and I still have to feature the remaining vehicles shot at the Auto Expo 2008. I have a feeling that I am going to end up updating everyday this week.

Another couple of snaps that I clicked at the fest.

Like it? Love it? Share!

Even the best laid plans can be rendered ineffective. Especially if you happen to be me. The trip down to Bombay for the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival was not an easy one for this photographer. After sleeping only for an hour the earlier night, I get ready and step out to make my way to Pune Station. The first shock of the day, ATM card had expired a day before. I love my bank to death but it tends overlook these tiny details.

So with the little cash that I did have in my wallet I set out for Bombay in a cab, thinking I could attend the photography workshop and then borrow money from a friend for the ride back. Great plan, except that the cab I was in decided to break down in front of the sign that said Expressway Ends - 500m. After a long and painfull process (I’ll spare you the details) I reached the workshop an hour late.

David Desouza is brilliant at what he does. He is a great photographer. Older than me by at least a couple of decades, his mannerisms reflect the eccentricies of the profession. Definitely the mark of a photographer. His vehement disregard for boundaries was further illustrated by his insistance that if necessary even spitting betel juice can be used as a form of expression. ‘Paan Thook‘ reverberated through the auditorium everytime he wanted to make a point about breaking boundaries.

The workshop continues tomorrow, although the Kala Ghoda Association website says otherwise. I hope I can make it but the lack of an ATM card might just put a damper on those plans. So do go check it out if you can, the experience is definitely worth it.

The last time I missed the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival due to lack of planning on my part. This time it is not too different. I made sure that I registered myself this time for the photography workshop I wanted to attend. I am however, still wide awake and writing this post regardless of the fact that I have to make my way to Bombay early in the morning. The venue is roughly 4-4 1/2 hours away from here with a change in the mode of transport in between. I should hopefully get a couple of hours of sleep after I am done with this post and the off to catch whatever motorised transport I can find.

The fact that it is freezing out here is not helping. The temperature is threatening to fall lower than 9 degrees as the night progresses.

I tend to add the important stuff last at times. So here’s the deal, I will be there at Kala Ghoda from 0930 hrs to 1300 hrs at least. So here’s lookin’ forward to some brilliant photos. It should be up on the blog soon even though there are a lot of Auto Expo 2008 images that still have to go up.