Time for Food

It's holiday time and for lack of a better photo with something red and green, I am posting something that we all do in holidays...eat!

Food photography is one area I would love to explore especially because I like cooking, I like mini projects of setting up for my photography and I love food! Table top photography requires a lot of patience to set up the right kind of background and lighting and its a lot of fun.



For lack of space, right now my dining table is acting as my workshop and my source of lighting is a window to the side through which light streams in. Sometimes I add reflectors on the other side of the subject to compensate for the lack of light. Depending on the subject, a gold/silver reflector can be used. Here is some information on reflectors.



Both these photos were taken on my dining table, with tripod and I don't remember if I used reflectors. I also used a white sheet of paper as the background for both the photos. The background in the photo of the loaf of bread is exactly how it came out..not so white! If I had exposed for the white sheet, the bread would have been overexposed, so I had no choice. In the case of the apples, I actually used gimp and made the background white(r). Ya...I was using gimp then and have moved on to Lightroom 3 Beta version and sometime in future, hopefully someone will get the hint and gift me Adobe Photoshop!

Hooked!

As we cross hurdles...with your finger hooked into mine,
Come grow old with me, the best is yet to be!

Part of a swing at a playground. Taken as part of an online class with Carol. The theme was to photograph blue. I would have liked the shot better if the sun wasn't so harsh creating the highlights in the photograph. A diffuser can be used to solve this problem which basically just diffuses the light through a translucent material thus making the light more even all over the subject. Wasn't carrying one. A cheaper alternative: garbage bags can be used as a diffuser too.

Happiness

"One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he doesn't try to find out why"

This is Snuggle. I couldnt find another living thing that would greet me with more love and affection. His tail wags at a speed that will absolutely force you to fall in love with him. He is the center of all our attention over the weekend.

He is most adorable when he innocently tilts his head as though he understands every word you are saying to him.

Obviously he won't pose in front of a neat background for me, so photographing him is going to be a challenge. Will try capturing his actions over the coming weeks.

Madhyaana

...is "Afternoon".

“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.”

Lazy Saturday afternoon, warm sunlight filling the living room and a book. Surprisingly this combination reminds me of home. There's one thing missing....mom's filter coffee!

Ok...now its PERRRFECT!

komposisyon

...translates to "Composition".

The most important aspect of a photograph (keeping technicality aside).

Someone asked me to start a photo blog with my experience and findings so that others can learn. Me? I wanted to start this blog to tell the story behind every photograph. Neither has been accomplished yet, but I decided to post my experience (which I should mention isn't too vast) as a journal entry for my own reference. I am no expert, but if this helps you, I will be glad.

Will keep it simple (I always like explaining in points).

1. Rule of Thirds.
Something I am slowly learning to pay attention to. Composition of a shot through the view finder is hard for me. I miss out on what gets into corners of the frame and I have absolutely no patience when something so beautiful is in front of me ready to be captured. Maybe a camera with "Live View" might help.

2. For better composition - 1 word for you - TRIPOD.
Tripod is a blessing! Which I had always shunned using thinking it slows me down. But once you resign yourself to spending some time in setting up the whole thing, you might as well spend as much or even more time in composition. This helps a lot because it makes you visualize the grid, think, re-arrange, see, click?...no not yet, maybe a lil more re-arranging...and so on and the final result is just worth it.

3. Ok...2 words....PATIENCE.
Spending 5 minutes for one good shot vs clicking 5 average shots in one minute. Go figure!

4. Manual Focus.
You will love it once you start using it. Obviously, you cant be focusing manually while shooting people in a party...everything has its place. Portraits, Landscapes, table-top photography. Amazing amount of control...that's what this is all about.


[Will post more as and when I 'discover'].

Hima

...translates to "snow".

Its December and its snow time! Well, for Californians I guess its rain time.

I love snowfall, its the most beautiful thing to watch, but I like nothing about it two days later. I am glad it doesn't snow where I live.

Something to remind us all of the beautiful snow.

Not having access to real snow, used my woolen knit scarf and shallow DOF to create a bed of snow.

Ohjaamaan

"Ohjaamaan" translates to "Guide".

Someday when I have traveled far and beyond, I want to compile a photobook that showcases lighthouses around the world. But for now, I have two that I visited in the past few months and here are some shots.

Pigeon Point Lighthouse has great photo ops with multiple accessible sites to shoot from. Shot this while waiting for sunset.

Also tried an after sunset, long exposure shot from a different location of the same Lighthouse.

This is Point Bonita Lighthouse, personally not my favourite especially because you can't get close enough and also because this is the only spot from where you can shoot this.

Though I would agree that this shot is underexposed, I still like the overall gloomy effect in the picture.

What I learnt: Use Smaller apertures (large f-stop no) to get star patterns out of lights.

Raatri

“Raatri” means the night.

I am constantly fascinated with the night views of cities. Although I would any day prefer the natural starlit skies of the night; tall buildings, bridges and roads sparkling in the night charm me as much. I tried my hand at capturing some of these views near San Francisco.

This was shot from the marina under the Golden Gate Bridge at SFO. Don’t ask me how to get to this place. Someone drove me out there and I really should have noticed the way, as is obvious, I am not very good with directions!

This is probably the most photographed bridge in the world, the Golden Gate Bridge. My first try at photographing it in the night.

I discovered that the Palace of Fine Arts in SFO gets lit up in the night and it looks absolutely stunning across the lake. I haven’t visited the museum in the exploratorium yet, intend to do so during the xmas hols. The place during day time would make for a wonderful location to shoot portraits. Wedding photographers were galore in the area around late afternoon when I visited.

I think this one was my favourite shot of the lot. Along the columns of the Exploratorium was this tree that looks almost ghostly. To intensify the effect, zoomed out during the long exposure to get an eerie effect.

One thing I realized about night photography is the requirement of a sturdy good tripod (well, this applies to any outdoor shoot). The winds can knock a flimsy tripod down so very easily. Also, the night chill along with a cheap ball head that refuses to co-operate contributes to increase in impatience during composition of a shot! Trying this during summer nights is an option, but I love the clear winter night skies…