The Latest Developments...

It's been very long since I have updated any of the blog posts... Today I got some time and thought that I would keep myself busy watching movies all the day. :) But it never happens the way I plan. So, here comes another blog post on My Photography.

To get started with... I found a fabulous tool... Picasaweb Album slide show... You can see it running in this blog on the left hand corner. This slide show presents the latest snaps I took with my all new "Canon 40D" the king Camera that I have owned till date. I have the old good wine like "Tamron 28-300mm Lens" with the UV Filter. I also own the National Geographic Tundra Tripod and a National Geographic Tripod bag! I am very proud to own these products because I feel as if I am a part of the very famous National Geographic's adventure team.

The snaps presented in the slide show were taken at very beautiful and very scenic "Washington Arboretum" (Arboretum means a place where an extensive variety of woody plants are cultivated for scientific, educational, and ornamental purposes). That whole day was so exciting. I got up and was dreaming of my dream camera as it was gonna come true that day. In the afternoon Me and my friend who recently got his first camera accompanied me to the place where the deal was going to happen! Yes, the deal that I got was from the seattle.craigslist.com! the first ever in my life. This is something that I really like about USA.

After getting the all new Canon 40D, i attached my oldie goldie tamron lens and had a couple of shots. After that we realized that we had all the things but the compact flash memory card! Hence we went back home and got the memory card. By the time both of us got hungry and rushed to the "Taj Palace - Indian Cuisine". After full stomach we decided to move to some good place for photography... You can understand the new enthu after getting a new thing in your hands... So we searched all over the GPS in my car and finally decided not to go far away but to the WA arboretum.

Any ways, I talked a lot about the journey than photography. I could not resist myself from sharing this experience! after all it was my another great deal... I mean cost and excitement wise. I always get nervous when I do this kinda deals. My all good friends know this. :) So, coming back to photography... You can feel free to visit the picasaweb album of Washington Arboretum here. The snaps taken were really experimental and I was not expecting them to come so crisp and clear as I was all the way taking trials of the new features of the new camera. But all the experiments were satisfactory except a few. The Camera has a "Live view" feature which was criticized by many but you can really be very innovative with it as it gives the glimpses of the composition that you are about to shoot. I liked the super fast 6.5 FPS capacity of the camera which will be required when I am going to shoot in sports mode. Many more features including the processor and memory speed are fascinating.

If I keep on listing all the features, the blog will turn out to be a Camera review blog than my experience sharing. Many of you must have opened the side windows with "Canon 40D" as search criteria in the Google window! Any ways, happy searching and surfing. I'll wind this up here only. Keep visiting my blogs on notifications. Keep sending me the feedbacks and critics. Wish you a nice time and Happy photography...

Some more Tips and Tricks from Workshop

This is a second part of "Creative Eye" workshop notes...

I'll start directly with the tips.

• People Photography: Success in people photography depends less on gear and equipment and more on psychology and conversation
• See the so called "Rules of design" in photography as guidelines that provide opportunities for experimentation
• A very convincing way to add a sense of dynamism to your work is to incorporate complimentaries(opposites) within the same frame. E.g near/far, dark/light, small/large, oblique/straight, stillness/movement. negative/positive space etc.
• I(Author) prefer cameras that feature built in 'spot meters'. However, what ever metering your camera has, is more that up to the task. One just has to know it's limitations. When bracketing exposures, I recommend bracketing in full stops OR 2/3rds of a stop on overcast days. And on sunny days 1/2 stops or in 1/3rd stop increments.
• In doing photography of the night sky on a clear evening divide the #600 by the focal length of a lens to determine how how long and exposure can be used befire stars begin to show trailing (e.g. 500 mm lens will yield a 12 second exposure, a 20 mm lens can go for 30 seconds before trails show up.) Also when doing star trails I recommend using Kodachrome 64 to give a nice blue black sky for those still shooting films.

Will continue with more lecture notes in next posts...

Till then... Have a nice time. Take care and happy shooting...

- Pranav Sahasrabudhe

Some more links to Photography Tips

I am back again...

I found a nice blog on photography recently... Chek this out...
10 Tips to shoot better landscape:
http://zulfadhliphotography.com/blog/10-tips-to-shoot-better-landscape.html

Other topics are here: (From the same blog)
http://zulfadhliphotography.com/blog

Take care,
Happy shooting.
Pranav

My Latest Photography links

http://picasaweb.google.com/pranav.sahasrabudhe/Macro_Photography

http://picasaweb.google.com/pranav.sahasrabudhe/BremertonPointNoPointBainbridgeIslandTrip

Please let me know if you like my Photography :)

- Pranav Sahasrabudhe

The Begining of serious Photography

Wish you a warm welcome to this blog... It's been a while since I have posted any blog. Now I am all set with new series of blogs on my latest developments... Many of you must have already guessed it! Right.. It's about My Digital Photography. In this blog I'll keep some of my own work as well as some work by other renowned photographers, mentors, teachers etc.

Let's start with some Photography tips from the Digital Photography Workshop - "Creative Eye", I attended at ShoreLine Community College, WA, United States. This workshop was held by Mr. Robert Stahl. He has over 31 years of experience in photography. More about him can found at his web page: www.digitalrailroad.net/robertstahl Courtesy of this Post of Blog: Robert Stahl.

• Tripod is a necessary accessory for serious photographers.
• When using tripod, find your composition off the tripod first for a greater range of compositional options before setting the camera in it's final position. A ball head with a quick release feature is my preferred way of working in this regard.
• The longer I have been involved with Photography the fewer filters I find myself using. The polarizing filter is one. However, that I still use along with a split field neutral density filter on occasion for nature scenes that need to have the contrast range reduced.
• In photography there is no such thing as 'correct' exposure. What is important is to find the exposure that fields an image the way you want it to be.
• When composing travel scenics I suggest minimizing the sky unless there is something dramatic or dynamic it can add.
• At times selective focus can create a greater sense of depth (psychologically) that the technique of using a large F-number such as F-22
• Utilize the power of suggestion in your work to create a sense of mystery and intrigue. One doesn't always have to spell things out.
• Your body of work is a looking glass that shows the world what it is you praise and celebrate. Let it assume its own natural shape over time.
• When dramatic light is not present, there is a greater need to have a dynamic composition to make an image compelling.
• In composition as small highlighted area can informally balance a much larger patch of darkness.
• In putting together a composition through an SLR view finder I will often de-focus the image so as to better assess the proportion of the tones within the frame. This approach is also useful in metering a scene.

I will keep posting on the same lines... Till then bye, take care and have a nice time! :)