Twisted Indifference

Photo credit: Nikon.

Within 10 months of the launch of the D40x, Nikon has come out with a suspected successor. The Nikon D60. Utilizing Nikon’s proprietory EXPEED technology to maximize image quality and processing speed and an integrated dust reduction system. Nikon’s exclusive Airflow Control System channels dust out of the image path and a vibrating, self-cleaning sensor unit shakes off any remaining dust from the camera’s optics. As Nikon claims in its press release, “The Nikon D60 is designed to simplify camera operation and allow the photographer to concentrate on taking pictures”.

With the launch of this camera Nikon is making sure that even the photographers with smaller budgets have no reason to be disheartened. What needs to be seen of course is it’s compatibility with the older Nikkor lenses, an aspect that worked desperately against the Nikon D40.

View the complete Press Release for details and specifications.

To cite one of the biggest clichés, digital cameras did revolutionize photography. Major advantages are, of course evident but it is hard to ignore the few disadvantages that it brought along. I am not aware of intricate market conditions elsewhere but in India people who claim to be photographers are a dime a dozen. People even with modest budgets set up tiny make-shift studios with a typical three light setup. Install a gaudy banner outside advertising wedding photography and portraits. Almost everything on that banner is misspelled.

So what does that have to do with Digital Cameras? These people were present even when film cameras reigned right? True; but considering the fact that developing costs are nil and the ‘instant feedback’ aspect experimentation is on the rise. That should be good right? Wrong! Unfortunately, expensive cameras do not make for great images. I think this is the day for clichés. Moving on…

I see so many people, some who run tiny studios and some amateurs/hobbyists still shooting the same old stuff the same old way. To give an example, I am yet to see one the aforementioned people shoot a sunset in angles other than head on. Then they crowd around brandishing their work of ‘art’. No I am not being elitist here (though that word does appear on my business card) it is a simple dislike for the ignorant claiming to be all knowing. If you say you are a hobbyist or someone who is in process of going pro I can understand but please excuse me if I refuse to share in your deep sighing enthusiasm over a photograph that is say a close up of the flowers most commonly found in the city.

I do not even want to start with the local wedding photographers. I have seen many using the on camera video lights (on top of a video camera obviously) to light up the bride. One is bad enough but 3 of them right in her face? Forget melting the make up, you are going to fry her face! Combine that with the most boring of poses that are clichés bigger than any mentioned here. No sense of composition, lighting, no sense of style or pose or mood, everything more lit up than in a Bollywood movie…that is not photography.

While I love Nikon for all the technological advances they have in their cameras and while I would not have them any other way, I still wonder how it would be if people could actually grasp the fact that holding a digital camera does not make you a photographer.

Additional Links:

Nikon D60 Special Site
Link to the D60 Brochure (PDF)

This post will be a photo feature of the Tata Nano. As I had mentioned earlier. It failed to impress me. POV of a photographer of course. Economic aspects, I leave it to the experts.

Being at the launch of the Tata Nano was a brilliant feeling though. The split second after Mr. Ratan Tata said “…..because a promise is, a Promise” I knew the crowd was going to go wild and that he had just delivered the next day’s headlines for all the newspapers.

Regardless of what I might think about the car, the pure charisma and stage presence that Mr. Ratan Tata exuded was worth the jostling crowds and hordes of other photographers scrambling for a steady space to shoot from.

Sarcasm, wit and a much deserved reason to cock a snook at all his detractors. This of course following in the wake of the Tata Indica reaching sales of over a million cars.

Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.

I am appalled. I wanted to put up a snap of mine for this post, similar to this. I wanted this to be an editorial post. So what is the problem? I am so busy shooting everyone else, I have very few snaps of myself. I could not find a single snap of mine that I liked. I guess I need to rectify that soon.

I will be in Bombay over the weekend. I would have already been in Bombay but with the pre-weekend rush I was unable to get an empty seat on a bus. I will be catching the earliest one out tomorrow. The next installment on the Auto Expo 2008 should go up late evening on Monday. There is a lot more to come. We got Volvo, KTM and Hyundai to name a few. I did not shoot Daimler, nothing new on display but I do have a certain other German TreaT in store. Here’s wishing that I manage to get a decent shot of myself in Bombay. See you Monday!

Glitzy, Glamourous and easy on the environment. That was the Honda booth. Apart from the cars, even Asimo was present to ensure everyone who walked in to the Honda booth did not walk out. I was unable to get a snap as he garnered more attention than the vehicles. The sheer number of people shoving each other to get a glimpse and the fact that I love my camera too much prevented me from getting close enough to shoot. What was worse was that I entered the display around the same time that the booth babes went for a break.

Shooting cars was easier than trucks. At least as far as the Auto Expo was concerned. Honda made it even easier. The cars were on display on turntables. It makes my job a little easier. I can shoot all angles without having to move. Just make sure you avoid motion blur. The speed of the turntable might be real slow but the low light conditions don’t exactly allow for a high shutter speed either. Unless of course you already own a lens that allows an aperture value of 2.8 across the entire zoom range. I was carrying a 50mm prime that opens up all the way to 1.4 but expecting a fixed spot at all locations would be nothing short of expecting miracles.

One thing you need to consider in these cases is the colour of the vehicle. Ok, so no one would consider using the photos shot here on a poster or an advertising billboard but paying attention to colour is still important. Why? Exposure. As I had mentioned in the earlier post, the light setup was more to attract than to photograph. Now red is a colour you need to be careful about. If you ever look at the histogram displays on your camera, you will know what I am talking about. I was still on Matrix metering mode but I made sure I shot to the right. I usually do that with darker colours in conditions where the light is not under my control.

Now this was time to switch over to RAW instead of shooting JPEGs but the sheer volume of the snaps and the editing that would be required made me think twice about it. Given the photo’s end usage I guess sticking with JPEGs was fine. I might have chosen other options altogether if I had been hired by the car manufacturers themselves for the shoot. End usage is something you need to consider even before you begin the shoot. Needless to say, your equipment has to match what you are planning on shooting. I would have loved to have a Nikkor 70mm-200mm f/2.8 VR but since I cannot afford to buy at this point, I chose to improvise. The VR in my 18mm-200mm VR comes in very handy. I have always been very steady with the camera. There have been exceptions but then that was not the case here. Combined that with the VR capabilities and I can shoot at ISO equiv. 100 even in such low light conditions. Sharp images even at 1/20 shutter speeds.

This concludes the Honda segment of the Auto Expo 2008. I did not shoot all the Honda cars but I will put up the links as soon as I find someone who shot them. I missed the following exhibits, BMW, Volkswagen and Skoda. I would like to invite those who have visited those displays to do a guest post on this blog. Please let me know what cars or bikes you have shot and if it would be possible for you write a little something about your photography. I can be contacted at sumit@twistedindifference.com.

There is a lot to be learned even from the politicians. No I am being serious. What else could have pushed Sumit to create a post titled Chief ‘Take the Blame’ Officer. This is a honourary position. That means I do not get paid to take the blame even if the problem exists between keyboard and chair (PEBKAC). I don’t get any money, might as well have some fun at Sumit’s expense.

In today’s case, the culprit behind the hideously misaligned posts was YouTube. As a precursor to an upcoming post, Sumit had embedded a video using the original HTML code from the site that for some unknown reasons misaligned the margins.

The blog is back to it’s original state sans the YouTube video. Sumit will post it at a later date after sanitizing the HTML code.

We are currently experiencing major technical difficulties. The alignment tags seem to be on vacation. We will be fixing this shortly. Please check back around 2100 hrs IST. We hope to be fine by then.

We apologize for this inconvenience and request your extended support. Please do check back soon.

Thank You,

Sumit Jagdale,

Proprietor/Photographer

Twisted Indifference Studios.

In this post we will be looking at the commercial vehicle segment. It will be from the photography angle not from the angle of a automotive journalist. I look at the colours and the angles of the vehicles. I look for aerodynamics but only because streamlining is an aspect any photographer would admire. You wouldn’t want to shoot a woman with all the curves in the wrong places now would you?

Tata and Ashok Leyland have dominated Indian highways for a long time now. The market has however been flooded with a multitude of Commercial Vehicle manufacturers for the past few years. Volvo came in with their Behemoth; trucks in the 400 - 500 horsepower range. They towered over the trucks on the highway then, looking down with disdain. Times have changed.

I have been an avid truck lover for a long time now. My love story started with the Mack trucks. Passion and online research led me to Volvo. That was a long time ago and I never would have imagined being able to shoot these monsters so soon. I got the opportunity a little less than a year ago. The Volvo plant in Bangalore. I’ll get to that soon.

I had no complaints with what was displayed at the expo but I had plenty about the way they were displayed. What you will notice in most of the photos is either the lack of proper lighting or irregular lighting. I can understand every manufacturer would like to have the sexiest looking booth but please realize the photographs are what will remind people what the display was like.

More than the lights, my major headache was the lack of space. It is a given that at an event of this magnitude hordes of people will be inevitable but when you have to take each and every shot at 18mm it starts getting on your nerves. I mean wide angles are fun but when used judiciously not when used as the only option. You still have a job to do and you do your best to get a good shot but yes the ‘I could have done better’ thought lingers in your mind on the way out.

Regardless, you cannot be in love with automobiles and not have fun at the Expo. The truck displays alone were enough to put me at risk of getting a whiplash. So yes, Ashok Leyland has done good work, I loved their designs and the fact that they did not forget one important point, the fairing along the sides. Not everyone here remembers that. AMW was the first amongst the Indian manufacturers.

The next post will be on the Honda cars. Their hybrid models and what they may or may not decide to bring into India. I am sure you would like to see something about the Tata Nano too, but it failed to impress me. I will of course be still putting it up soon. Make sure you check back!

I got off my lazy ass and finally did something about the fact that I had misplaced my data cable while in Delhi for the Auto Expo and I did not have a card reader. I went out and bought one. It is a temporary one, I wanted a SanDisk Card Reader but I could find anyone in Pune who stocks them. My Bombay trip is still a few days away and I could not wait that long to put up the shots for the auto expo. I am sure everyone of you out there is waiting for a glimpse of the photos that all the auto magazines will be carrying in their February issue. This is not an attempt to out-scoop them, this is just my take on the Auto Expo 2008.

That said, given the number of snaps that I took, I obviously am not going to upload each and every one of them, nor is it something I can do in one day. So you guys need to check back, for over the next week I will be giving a lot of shots and in some cases detailed articles about the cars, the bikes and the trucks. So swing by often, or make it easy and subscribe to the feed; for the photos you see here were exclusively shot for Twisted Indifference Studios. The teaser above might just push you to do that!

This is going to be a photo feature, there is nothing much to write about here. What I would like you take a look at would be the choice of light, the warm golden glow on her face is the result of the light from the setting sun. One of the other things to take into consideration here would be the obvious play on the depth of field. This was again a last minute shoot and no one lets me book a studio at an hour’s notice.

The images can be viewed a relatively larger size on my Flickr Page. Below are the respective links in order from left to right.

Photo 01
Photo 02
Photo 03

The image on the extreme right is somewhat out of place here. In a portfolio shoot, the face is not supposed to be covered. There are some glam concepts that can be shot but then model coordinators and ad agencies have a few standard shots in mind that they ask of all applicants. All models have the same good side. Nice way to sneak in some sarcasm? Really?