When small is big

Looking at some closeup shots of flowers and insects, can excite any one. I could relate to all the botanical parts that I had studied. And incests never looked so much easier to understand. If only all colleges used this way to teach, teaching and learning will be more fun.

Macro Photography, I did not have the required lens for it, but still I was very eager to try it. It is not easy, but with my 18-200, all of a sudden everything around me looked small and every object around me a macro subject. wow..how interesting, and when you start seeing the world around you in different view, everything from flowers to grasshoppers looks fantastic.

Patience is one thing that I learnt in the garden. Observing the movement of the insect, and predicting the next flower it might hop onto and being ready. I had learnt a few things about light by now. And my perspective of photography had changed ever since i learnt a little about light.

I tired hard with my lens to get as close as possible to the subject, but then i had to realize its limitations.

I was still avoiding photoshop, and all the little editing that was required, i preferred to do in the camera. It had its limitations, but I was averse to photoshop. (maybe because I did not want to learn, or felt it was complex).
However this thought me a very important lesson, "Get the photo right when you click". It was a hard lesson, I had to delete tons of photographs, because they were not good enough. I could have easily rectified all of those in photoshop, if i knew photoshop. But this was a hard learning curve. It paid rich dividends later on.

Yes i was completely missing on one of the most important aspects of photography "COMPOSITION", I was soo much absorbed in appreciating my work, I never bothered to think about composition. I started playing with light, the background, and subject, but never on composition. It took me a while to learn composition, and im still trying to master that.
So my experiments with macro photography continued...

Shutter's my new pal

I was eager to take more snaps, so i just went about clicking. Traveled  in and around Bangalore. I went about reading articles on the net. I was amazed about how beautiful the pics on the net looked. I was surprised on how simple they made it look. And some had even added some details on how they achieved the amazing work of art. When I first started out with my camera, I first experimented will all the modes on my Nikon  including A,S,P,M. Most of the pictures in the 4 manual modes bought me more bad pics than good ones (I missed out completely how to use them, I wihtout much luck tried reading the manual over and over again for any more hints than they had already given). So I felt Auto mode is best suited for me and started clicking in that mode. When I looked at the pictures, they looked wonderful. I told to myself, why worry about those 4 letters, when i can get some great snaps with Auto mode. But then when i looked at certain snaps, i was so much tempted to try that out. That meant venturing to the dreaded settings.

Nice Road Bangalore

While some of the photos turned out good, some were horrible. But i felt the only times i had to use those 4 modes were to take some special pictures and for all purposes the auto mode is the best suited. After some experimenting I was more friendly with the shutter priority mode. I did not have a tripod, so I used to shoot either by hand held or looking for some wall near by to place the pics. And somehow I got the feeling that feeling of being friendly was mutual.

Brindavan Gardens Mysore

But then barring some occasions, when I switched to Shutter mode,  I could really not understand the need for other modes i.e. A,P,M.  In the mean time i started reading about photoshop.

I always felt photoshop is a very touchy subject, I have had very heated discussion about the use of photoshop with my friends. I personally am against using photoshop, use of photoshop I feel must be restricted only to crop the subject, and just some fine touches like brightness, contrast and color and nothing beyond. May be because i felt it hard to understand the features like cloning, burning and all. I always felt that the photo must be created on the field and not on the computer.
Even to this day, I try to stick to that photoshop philosophy.

I did at times try to do some cropping and zooming on the comp. It did look pretty, but that was the line I would not cross.. The reading on the net sure was helping me, and i felt the shutter priority mode can yeild amazingly interesting photos, and i was very eager to try them out.

They were indeed very interesting to try them. I also continued some clicks in my Auto mode  (as i was still of the impression that this is the best mode, and the 4 other modes were only for special purposes).

There are different genres of photography each with its own challenges. I was not sure what should I concentrate more on. I knew I had just started and i was very curious to try out all possible combinations.

Chamundi hills mysore

Traveling in and around Bangalore, I started trying out different types, while some street photography at chamundi hills Mysore worked, at the zoo again, tried capturing animals.
I found that at the zoo the animals somehow looked to be in the same mood, and always kept walking in their enclosures. At times i just used to pity the animal for suffering so much. Everytime in the zoo, I failed to see that sparkle in the animals face. But time and again I was drawn to the zoo, trying to capture animals in different mood. Though i failed, thats one place i frequented the most often. May be it was telling of sorts of what genre of photography I was being drawn to unknowingly.

At mysore zoo

Some night photography was a challenge of sorts, while some I clicked in shutter priority mode, but still I stuck to auto mode.

Mysore Palace

Looking back I still wonder was that the good thing to happen, that I was only shooting in auto mode?

Let there be camera...!!!!

It looked too cool and was a must have gadget in my list. And boy-o-boy was I mesmerized, this new small device did not need the film, like the rest of them. It could keep clicking, and you could zoom with just a click of button, wow!!! I remember it very clearly, it was a canon point and shoot digital camera. And I knew I needed that one. And I was very eager to click photos, and went about the day just clicking anything and everything without thinking much. I did not know anything about composition or any thing technical. But just went about clicking till the memory card could hold no more. I was around 14 years then, and began my love for photography.

It was not until another 12 years later when I could afford a camera of my own. And this time I bought a Nikon point and shoot (Damn i dont remember the model, its a N1 or D1). It looked sleek, small and was supposed to be top of the line in the recent launched category.  I was very happy, but then the happiness lasted for a very short time. I was probably the only person who had bought that camera. Nikon felt they needed to make me really feel privileged, and discontinued the model exactly 2 months after i bought it. And it had lots of issues, to begin with, battery was horrible, charging was bad, optical zoom was 3x and digital was around 10x. Pictures were not sharp, and it needed flash almost always. But then Nikon made me feel privileged. But this camera thought me thing or two about ISO. But it was during these days, I learnt about various types of camera, jargon like lens-kit and similar things. Now I knew what i wanted, but then which one should i buy? The prices were all looking northwards, and my budget was no where close to the equator. Then as luck would have it, I found Nikon D60. And thus started my crawl into the world of DSLR. The first lens that I got was 18-55mm that was shipped along with the body. Those were the days when I began learning and explored more, about photography, from ISO to shutter speed. I thought I knew it all or did I?

I thought 18-55 is an useless lens and got myself an 18-200mm lens, after reading all the reviews I told myself, this is the much better lens than 18-55mm and now I can take all those beautiful pics, just by pressing one small button.

So began my experiment with elements and trying out new techniques of photography. Yes I was learning, but I still was not satisfied. I was not getting that required DOF, my ISO was way off, the photos lacked the sharpness. I bought books, read online tutorials, and did everything that I "thought" was right, but still was not satisfied. I thought i needed to keep clicking more clicks, but it did not really help

Well i thought let me try something in a controlled environment. So it took me to BNP (Bannerghatta National Park). I was with my Nikon D60, and 18-200mm lens. And backing me was my so called "know-all-just-go-click" knowledge.

But then these were in the controlled environment in the zoo. Satisfied with my effort I thought of trying my luck in the wild. I thought "I-KNEW-IT-ALL". And i was impressed with my lens in the controlled environment. All that was needed was going to the wild, and vola i will have some amazing captures.

Well the journey had truley began and there was no looking back.