Twisted Indifference

I was planning on putting up the post on Night Photography today but I guess that will have to wait a while. Flickr is currently under maintenance and the functioning is pretty slow as of now. Not all of the snaps that are already being used in posts here are visible on the Flickr page though they are visible in the posts.

The reason for deferring the posts is simply because I will not be able to ascertain whether the images will be visible to everyone. I cleared my cache a few times and each time a different image was being affected. It is safer that I wait for Flickr to finish their troubleshooting. Or at least till the images load uniformly.

I do apologize for the delay. I will try and come up with a way around it as soon as possible. Incidentally to people with good memories who will undeniably end up questioning about the Ferrari event, trust me on this one, the less I say about that fiasco the better.

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.

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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.

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.

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!

I am aware that there should have been a post on conceptual art photography even before the one on Negative Space but then I have been very lazy about wading through my backup archives. I do have stuff that has been shot recently but somehow the photos I have in mind are exactly what I want to post up here since it is was shot to a very relevant extreme. I doubt that that photo can be used as general stock shot anywhere else.

Since my lethargy is keeping me from doing that, I am putting up a portfolio that I had done recently. The shoot was supposed to be done outdoors but when I went to her place to pick her up I found the one of the rooms done up way to brilliant not to shoot there.

The original plan was to shoot outdoors so I had my reflectors but no lights. Luckily, the Nikon D200 and the SB-800 are killer combos. I mean how cool is it to trigger the flash wirelessly? Especially when it comes to people who still expect wires as far as dedicated flash is concerned. I am talking about people in general not directed towards anyone in particular.

I am trying to figure out how exactly to explain the lighting setup. I mean it was very basic, the on camera flash that triggered the speedlight wirelessly. What I had done was cross lighting. The subject is in the center with the two light sources roughly at 45 and 135 degrees from the model. Simple yet effective and plus you have the model’s friend to act as a tripod since you forgot to pack one while leaving. Understandably the epitome of being unprofessional but desperate times, desperate measures.

In this shot, the main source of light was sunlight filtering through an open window (not visible in the shot, obviously!). Now while for normal shoots, the one’s that I do for the magazines and tabloids Auto White Balance is good enough, when you have the opportunity to roam, ROAM! I switched over to the Daylight setting since the colour temperature AWB rendered in this case was a little too tame. This was actually a test shot of sorts, it just came out so good that I had to use it. While testing I shoot JPEGs. Agreed, while shooting RAW, White Balance (WB) hardly matters but for me getting everything right as much as possible on the camera matters the most. That and the fact that post-processing involves me sitting still. I need a tutorial on how to do that.

This was just phase one. We still planned on going out but when I reached my usual salon for her make-up, I was shown the door since the make-up artist was down with all possible ailments that make-up artists are susceptible to. A major part of the shoot was scrapped thought I did still manage to shoot off a few rounds. I did a few shots outdoors a few days from then, they should also be up soon.

There have been certain changes that have increased my already saturated workload. Too bad batch processing does not exist for real life. Where is photoshop when you need it the most? I already have the next post planned but putting it up here will take time.

A recent development at the studio would be the arrival of the new computer. Well I cannibalized some parts of the old one. I retained the monitor, the keyboard and mouse and the sound card. I shall be changing the sound card a little later. The rest of course will get changed as time passes. The photos of the new machine will also be put up soon enough.

The next tutorial that I am planning on putting up will be about conceptual photography. Concept Art is something that I enjoy doing the most. It is the genre where I have maximum control over the shoot. It will be a two photo feature that I had shot for a local tabloid a long time back. As I have always maintained, creativity cannot be taught. Technique can. Creativity or rather a part of it, would be how you apply the technique. No one can teach you that, you either have it or you don’t.

I wish I could put that tutorial up sooner but since I cannot, I will try and put up a few other shots that I had taken while shooting this.

If you would like to hire my services for any photography related assignment, you can check the main site for my Showcase Portfolio. My contact details can be found there too. Please get in touch with me if there are any specific shots that you would like to see.