Refreshed

It has been one long month since I wrote the last post. As usual, was in deep waters in the work front and lazy during the breaks. In the mean time, the main pastime was surfing the occasional articles. During such a break, I found the following article which was a little bit different from the typical articles that come out every other day:

Composition

The approach to composition in this one is quite different from what one would expect when you see the title. No rules discussed, not breaking the rules discussed, but a logical narrative of what a master considers his technique is. In the midst of "Photography in X days" type of tutorials, it is refreshing to read such articles which are backed by clear simple logic.

Art of post processing

With the advent of Digital photography one of the hot topics that has come up is about post processing. In the context of post processing, lots of discussions have happened starting from whether it is OK to post process to can you make a photo instead of taking! Each photographer (whether digital or film) has his own opinion on this. Pro-Post processing team argues that processing has always been a part even in film days, now the only difference is that it is done by everyone at home in a PC. Anti-Post processing team (who were also present before digital, but now has grown much more in number due to digital era) says a photo should depict what is out there.
OK, I am not going to take sides here, but will only give one interesting read here on post processing:

http://www.naturelyrics.com/articles/process_feelings/process_feel.html

Personally, I do feel that given an option to change my image (irrespective of film/digital) I would go for it if I feel that the modifications result in a better picture for me. If my mood is right, I wont restrict myself from generating an abstract out of a bird picture! Its upto you to decide how much time before computer is considered the right time :-)

Enjoy shooting and processing...

An interesting link for Nature photographers

With the spread of the "Web", it has become very easy to get lots of information which in the olden world was somewhere buried in some bookshop. Many world famous photographers now have their own websites through which they are spreading the knowledge and experience that they have gained over the years. The photographs and articles that are being produced are excellent resources for any beginner to get an insight into this exciting world. Here is one such site of a National Geographic photographer where he has shared a few articles on various topics which are not directly teaching photography, but related to photography.

http://michaelnicknichols.com/article/

Have a nice read and check out how much u can learn and adapt. There is lot more to learn than just techniques...

Exposure

Exposure - the most important word in photography? And I think to some extent people have made it so complex by discussing it over and over in n different ways and "compensating" in all possible ways! And a poor guy who starts with exposure is bombarded with fundas like exposure, compensation, histograms, color clipping, highlights, lowlights, exposing to the right/left, exposure correction during RAW processing etc, etc. By the time one reads through all such topics and digest something out of it, you would have forgotten shooting!
And I had already tried a bit of it while waiting for my camera. Hence once I got my camera, I never bothered about all these theories and started shooting based on live view on my LCD, compensating + or - as and when I felt it enhanced the shot to my liking.
And now when I look back, I feel that what I have done was the best possible thing as I have realized that personally for me, it is the impact of the final shot that matters, and if a shot can get the impact that I want, it should not matter whether I have underexposed or overexposed. The only criteria I now have for my pictures is whether I like it that way or not. And digital do help in this regard to shoot with different settings and then choose the best later once you start post processing...

Back again

I am back after a "No Computer" weekend where I decided to shut myself out of the web world for the weekend! I find it interesting to take such short breaks and indulge in other creative activities (like eating, sleeping, playing with my daughter etc! :-)... And today, when I login, I feel refreshed and ready to go racing!

Ok, we'll get back to the story again... Once I had my Minolta Dimage Z1, I really started experimenting in the real sense! Now I had a camera where I don't need to spend for experimenting! WoW, that was a real bonus with the digital. I just took lots and lots of shots of a juice can in all possible angles and modes just for the heck of it! And I was never tired or bored. Though learning was not proportional to the number of snaps I took, it still was worth it as I was now fully comfortable with the camera, could operate it blindfolded. And the more I used it, dearer the camera felt. To tell the truth, Dimage Z1 is a really responsive camera (except in low light conditions where focus lock was tricky). Otherwise, I was able to lock the focus quickly and shutter lag was pretty acceptable. And it offered me almost all controls I wanted. Though I had to go to menus to set some options, I felt OK as I got used to this mode very soon. And then I started taking my camera out into nature which was the whole purpose of getting a ultra-zoom...

Amazing link on Bird photography

Today, I will not bore you with my own story, but will give you a link which has lots of inputs that are relevant to a budding nature photographer.

http://vijaycavale.blogspot.com/2007/08/photographing-birds.html

The article gives you in simple terms how you can approach bird photography. Though based on Indian experiences, I am sure this is going to benefit any beginner who is trying his luck in bird photography. And if you read through the article, one major point that clearly comes out is "Know your subject/field" well. This is such an important message in every case, from portrait photography to bird photography. And I think this is the first thing to learn after basic photography, before delving into the intricacies of your gear and future gears!

First digital impressions

The switch from film to digital was an amazing transition in terms of user experience, the best part being the immediate feedback that u get after clicking. It was so nice to check whether everything is as per your wish and if not, swoosh... 2 button press and u can take the shot again with required changes! And another big advantage was the LCD screen. It was so easy to use both for composing and reviewing the results. The bigger viewfinder also meant that your settings are also visible prominently. And the camera being much smaller and lighter than EOS300, I enjoyed carrying and using it most of the time as opposed to my old bulky camera bag.
OK, there were disadvantages like not able to choose my lens, tendency to overshoot, lack of proper manual focus etc. but I liked the overall digital experience...

New look and a new link...

Too much of photography? OK, so this post just updates you about the new look I have introduced for the blog. The following are the major changes:
1) Font colors have been changed
2) Bookmark me has been added
3) RSS feed link has been added on the top
4) Layout has been updated
Please let me know if you like it or hate it!

And here comes a nice article to ponder over

http://www.naturelyrics.com/articles/art_of_seeing.html

I liked it because it is different! No babbling about equipments, technology etc, but directly goes to the heart of the matter - the photographer's heart and mind! Enjoy...

Putting things to work

After a wait for few days, I got my pack along with a 256MB memory card. And I was thrilled to handle a camera again, and that too a digital one. Even though the camera was a point and shoot, it had nice (to some extent) SLR type shape and nice look. And it supported almost all manual options which I was eagerly waiting for.
Once the initial excitement was over, I remembered my first camera experience and decided that this time, I should not make the same mistakes again. So as the first step, I put the batteries for charging and took the manual in hand. Few sections were read and re-read with camera in hand and checking the options real time. Within a few days, I was quite at ease with the camera and was comfortable handling the camera like a small point and shoot with one hand, still managing to play around with most options. And I was ready to go....

Feeling like a Soap Opera going on and on? OK. So here comes one of the first images I tried out with my camera. (Cropped for composition)

Helping Hand

Do let me know your comments. Also, experts please let me know your comments and areas of improvements, which I plan to consolidate for everyone's benefit. Waiting for your inputs....

My first digital camera

Once I decided to go for a camera, the choice whether to go digital or film was a no-brainer. The only question was which digital camera I should buy. During that time, the prices of digital cameras were still not as low as it is today, and hence buying a digital SLR was somewhat out of question (You know, I was married by then :) Hence I had to go for a Point and Shoot. Since I was itnerested in nature and birds in specific, the long zoom catergaroy was obviously the focus. Now started the next research as happens when you decide to go for a camera. The specs were read and re-read many times, various forums were visited very often, reviews scrutinized heavily, excel sheets were filled with all possible feature comparisons, and at the end, putting all this research aside, I went for the cheapest one at that time - Minolta Dimage Z1.

And the camera has not disappointed me and with time, I fell in love with my "cheap" ultra-zoom. And I also learned that camera brand really may not matter much, but the man behind matters,... yes, that really matters!

From an SLR to nothing

As mentioned, after buying a camera, I never wanted to "waste" my time and hence just went out and started clicking without even reading the camera manual. And as the number of blurred shots increased, slowly I also started to worry more now as each blurred shot was costing me money on top of the big amount which I had already put in. But I pulled along in the same way, still not going to the basics.
And GOD knows for good or bad, it happened - My SLR was stolen! It was a shock of a lifetime and it took some time to recover from the state and slowly I got adjusted to the reality. And that was the time when I realized my original state. This realization that I am a zero in photography though I had an SLR with me pushed me to start everything from the beginning. And with a vast reource like web at hand, there was no shortage of materials. The difficulty was to find the right resources. And browsing through many forums and websites, I slowly learned some of the basics in photography like light, exposure and composition. And slowly I felt that the right time has come to make the next important decision - To buy the camera....

My entry into photography

Befor touching upon other things, let me tell you my (short!) story in photography. I got caught in this exciting (but expensive!) hobby during my bird watching sessions. I used to admire those friends who were lugging around big tele lenses during the outings, while I will be going around with a bulky old binocular. Then with all my courage (to part with a big sum), I decided that I will jump into the photography bandwagon directly with an SLR (Mistake #1 ?). And I had CANON EOS300 with a basic double lens kit soon, and a big drop in my bank balance. With the initial enthusiasm, I started going around with the gear. Unfortunately, I started without any basics, and never had the courage to venture beyond the Auto mode most of the time. Another mistake I did was to try manual focussing most of the time instead of trusting the Auto focussing capabilities of my camera.

End result: Blurred pcitures most of the time, and very few which could even count as good snapshots!

This start, partly, is an inspiration to this blog which I hope can help atleast a few who are about to start this hobby, but has not checked the background realities.

Will continue this story in the next post...

Where to begin?

Every budding photographer goes through this phase! And there is no one correct answer. On the contrary, there are lots of correct answers! In the current e-world, the first choice for any such task is Google! And the google search will give you a huge number of links related to photography or nature-photography. To choose the best among them is really an impossible task.

But do we really need the best one? I assume anyone who ventures to photography does so with a lots of enthusiasm and energy. Just a few leads in the right direction should be sufficient for most to get started and then with the iterative process of practical experience which accumulates, one should be able to define their own growth path.

And here is on which I really found useful in this regard -

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php?lesson=1

What I liked in this is the simplicity and practicality of the lessons. Check it out. And enjoy snapping!

End of the first day...

And the first day has come to an end... The excitement of starting a blog is still there... Hence signing off the blog just before I am going to bed... Good night... C u all tomorrow...

Start

Really am I a budding nature photographer? Who knows? May be I am? Anyway, assuming that I can be called one, I will start to blog here my experiences to share with u the good (and sometimes bad too!) things that i am learning, finding and experiencing.