oOo - A photographer's eye

oOo, originally uploaded by Davide Cherubini.

If you read my last post, you'll remember about my photo-walk in Old Delhi with some photography enthusiasts. Well something happened.

I was loaded with the minimum in terms of equipment - Nikon D40x with kit lens (18-55 mm). Others had better lenses, or cameras, and one guy was even carrying a tripod (though he never used it). As expected talk turned to equipment once, with someone saying how Canon lenses are the best etc. I didn't contribute to the discussion, because even though discussing equipment and gadgets excites me a lot, photography is an expensive hobby, and I've even met someone once who had an annual budget of Rs 2,00,000 for photography stuff.

While all this talk was going around, I was still thinking about how bad I had fared in terms of good shots that day, and none of it was because I lacked good equipment (OK, a high aperture zoom lens would have been awesome, but mostly it was my inability to compose nicely). I was mentally arguing this person that when I see a photograph, I can never say "Oh this would have been better if it was shot with a Canon instead of Sigma lens".

And then I came across this photograph of parked bikes. Look at the entire photostream of Davide Cherubini, and watch how he can take so many creative shots of "just bikes". We exchanged comments, and in his words:

"...fully agree with you, eye and composition first equipment after."

This reinforced what I had been thinking. I am not limited in my capabilities because I carry around a kit lens. Nobody is. I can take really awesome shots like this one with the lens I carry - that's what I intend to do.

By the way, this photograph made it to Flickr's homepage. Way to go, Davide!

Rediscovering Delhi – Part 2: Chandni Chowk

Today I got my first shot at street photography during a photo-walk in Chandni Chowk (yup, Delhi-6). Someone at our online photography club suggested it, and early Sunday morning I headed to the nearest Metro Station on my bike.

I have to admit – street photography is not really my thing. Carrying a bag and a DSLR camera and shooting some beggar, I commanded so much attention I felt as if I’m some strange creature from outer space. I know I should have ignored them, but I couldn’t, and the result was a set of uninspiring photographs.

Uninviting view of the famous Gali Parathe Wali

On the other hand, I befriended a bunch of photography enthusiasts, and happened to finally walk around in Old Delhi after a long long gap.

Made in China: I can’t explain what that expression is.

Being early Sunday morning meant the markets were closed, but it certainly didn’t mean fewer people on the roads. Most of the activity stemmed from the religious buildings – the Gurudwara (Sheeshganj), temple and mosque (Jama Masjid). A huge queue of destitute men waited for the food distributed outside the Gurudwara, amusing themselves at our expense.

 With bag and baggage – did he miss the train?

The lanes so narrow that I collided with a hawker (on foot!), old houses in a variety of colours, the hit song “masakkali” playing in the air, it was overall a great experience. No wonder Puraani Dilli is the favourite muse of a lot of bloggers and travel writers.

Wired: Its scary how close the transmission wires are to the houses.

One thing is clear, I’ll be making at least one more such trip before it gets too hot to walk. Destination? Not decided. And next time maybe I’ll carry a point and shoot :)

“Are you from TV?” That’s what they all thought!

I understand the shots aren’t great, but comments on this post are most welcome.

Rediscovering Delhi – Part 1: Connaught Place

I had been away from Delhi a long long time, and a lot has changed in the past five years. With all the roads, flyovers and Delhi Metro construction activity, routes no longer look familiar.

I had a chance to visit Connaught Place yesterday, and it was awesome. I have never browsed so many books in a single day before! And I happened to carry a camera along as well, and there are a couple of photographs worth showing.

A hand-held panorama – PVR Plaza road

Hundreds of pigeons feeding on the sidewalk

I took another panoramic shot but I messed it up (overexposed with bad focus). CP is a heaven for shopping on a limited budget, specially for books. I got myself an Orhan Pamuk (he’s become popular even with footpath sellers) for the time being, since I was short on cash, but I’ll surely be making another visit soon enough (with lots of cash!). :)

Well, while the weather remains as good as it is, I’ll be doing a bit more Dilli Darshan (hence the “Part 1” in the title). So long!

My Photography Wishlist

Photography is a very expensive hobby for people like me on a tight budget (and in a country where stuff is up to two times as expensive as US).

Here's the list of top 3 items I'd like to have:

Gorillapod SLR Zoom - The light and cool mini-tripod that fits a lot of surfaces (and pockets too!)



Nikkor 50 mm AF f1.8D lens - The simplest, fastest, sharpest lens from Nikon with awesome bokeh!



Circular polarizer - For that zing in landscape shots, particularly skies and foliage. Check out this awesome photograph I came across when searching for "circular polarizer" in Flickr.



None of these three items are very expensive (combined $200-$220 at Amazon). And yes, posting these within a month of my upcoming birthday is just a coincidence ;)

P.S. The photographs are from Flickr searches. Also, this post is my first using the Flock browser (it has inbuilt blog, media bar and web clipboard features).

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Matheran: nature-lovers' delight

OK, first things first, this is about a weekend trip I did long long ago (September 2006). I guess I have some time to kill today so I'll blog about that trip. My close friend Anirudh was about to head to Australia to work, and so we decided the two of us should meet up once before he left. Since he was in Jaipur and I was in Hyderabad, I thought I'll pick something in the middle, and Matheran (none of us had heard about it then) happened.

A view of the hills - photograph (most probably) by Anirudh

Matheran is a popular tourist resort not too far from Mumbai. The most attractive part is that it is a "pedestrian hill station", which means except emergency vehicles, no vehicles are allowed there. So both of us reached Mumbai from our respective cities, got together and started towards Matheran.

Dew drops - photographed by me using Anirudh's awesome telephoto lens (don't remember which, I don't know much about Canon gear)

If you have visited some of the popular places in Western Ghats you would know how beautiful they look post monsoons. It was the same for Matheran. Anirudh and I both love to walk a lot, so we walked a lot. A lot. No horses or rickshaws for us, we just walked. (The hundred year old chuk-chuk train ride the ideal way to reach the top, but it doesn't run during monsoons so we walked).

We sat on one side of the hill and saw the sun set behind clouds and then into the Arabian sea visible far far away. Again photograph most likely by Anirudh (I kept borrowing his camera because it was a digital SLR with an awesome telephoto lens :) hence the scope for confusion).

Good thing we got to spend Friday there, because on Saturday and Sunday there's a mad rush. There are human beings everywhere, and the charm of being secluded in beautiful hills without being overrun by tourists is lost completely.

Cute native girl

Why the blog more than two years later? Well it was triggered by the sight of some permanent red stains of that soil on my jeans :) . If you go to Matheran your shoes and jeans/trousers will get permanent red coloration from the soil there. So be prepared. What else to be prepared for? Monkeys. I got to witness a brave primate trying to get away with Anirudh's precious bag (with the camera and lens) while Anirudh held on to the other end! Eventually a foreigner (I think she was a doctor) scared the monkey away with her cane. It was hilarious and scary at the same time. I mean, if the monkey had gotten away with the bag, it would have been really tragic.

Red soil, bags and a photographer inches away from the edge.

To conclude, Matheran is highly recommended for people who like to call themselves "nature lovers". As I mentioned before, go for weekdays rather than weekend. And carry a stick for scaring monkeys if you can :) .

P.S. I think I've not used so many smileys in a blog before!

Udaipur - "Grand" is the word

I visited Udaipur for a couple of days. Well whatever travel blogs say about Rajasthan in general and Udaipur in specific is very true. Udaipur (formerly kingdom of Mewar) is rightly Venice of the East with its lakes, and like other destinations in Rajasthan it is very colourful.

Of course, if you actually want to experience the royal lifestyle of Mewar kings, like stay in Lake Palace or dine in the great Durbar hall with the "grandest" chandeliers you can ever hope to see, you should have a lot of money.

A hand-held panorama of Udaipur from City Palace.

Without sounding too critical, it is worth noting that you won't love the lakes if they're dry. So if the rains have been good, the lakes are nice and the fountains have water. If the rains have been scanty, the lakes dry up and don't look so good.

View of the ghats behind Jagdish temple from Lake Pichola

Udaipur is a small city, it won't take too long to go from one end to another. Due to time constraints I couldn't visit too many places. Plus I was careless enough to run out of battery on day two! Check out the Picasa slideshow below for the entire album:

Nature Islands in Hyderabad - Part 1

Part 1 of ? I don't know, but such a title makes it easy to add similar posts in future. :)

In spite of all the traffic and pollution in this city, there are still unexpected "islands" of considerable natural beauty. There's one called Lotus Pond in Jubilee Hills. I've been there only once and managed to get a couple of decent shots. (Check out the link, this place has its page on Wikipedia!).



It has a beautiful pond teeming with fishes and ducks (and some other birds that are probably not ducks, but I don't know much about ducks!), and of course, lotuses. There is a nice walkway among thick green flora. And if you're not so much into nature, the pond is surrounded by awe inspiring bungalows sitting pretty on top of hillocks. :)

Credits

Ashok - wildlife photography and travel enthusiast, who shared some photographs of this place and introduced me to it. You can see some of his jewels here.

Ajay - My friend who stayed up all night on a Saturday, accompanied me to Lotus Pond early Sunday morning and watched me trying to get some shots, wondering how someone could be photographing plants and leaves instead of him!

A trip to God's own country: a photo essay

Kerala is marketed to tourists as "God's own country", and rightly so. I happened to spend a week on the backwaters of Kochi and Alleppey, and am sharing a selected few photographs that I took. My weapon - Nikon D40x (with the kit lens).

Kochi had a historical importance in ancient India's ties with the west. Here are a series of photographs from around Kochi - mainly Fort Kochi which has the original burial place of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. Jew Town was the other historically important place - it is one of the oldest Jewish establishment in this part of the world, though only 13 Jews live in this town today.


The fine yet strong Chinese fishing nets have been serving the local fishermen for years at Fort Kochi.



A fishing boat lies abandoned at Fort Kochi.



An antique shop in Jew town.



The colourful street market of Jew Town.


Here are a few photographs from Alleppey. It is no wonder that the backwaters here are amongst the top tourist destinations of the world. This place gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "lose yourself".


The sun rising over the placid waters of Alleppey.



Visitors do not seem to bother these birds inhabiting a secluded island.



The sun peeking from behind coconut trees at dawn.



A boat "parked" on the canal, exaggerating the calmness of the scene.



Coconut trees stand tall on a thin strip of land separating two channels.



Just another day in the life of the fishing folks in Alleppey.



A fisherman at his job.

The beach at Alleppey was a surprise hit - we never knew it was so good! Here are some shots to prove it.


A traveller leaves his footprints in the spotless sand at the beach in Alleppey.



Sea, sky and sand in perfect harmony.



Men and birds alike soak themselves in the breath-taking scene.