Remember !

What I Learned: When you don't feel like doing it, just do it!

Hi:),
This is one of the rarest time of the day, when I am making a post.Not that it's an odd hour to do so, but it's kinda unusual for me to sit quite(read being patient, while being at home:p) and write. But as you can see am doing that. Last night I came late from work, with the plans of continuing with it at the earliest possible. Well....came to room, switched on the notebook, was on fb for a while...Until 10:30 didn't realized the delivery guy has forgotten to deliver my dinner. Called up, but was not in a mood to have that, so cancelled it. I know it's nothing to talk about, but thats how it went:p(You can skip this, if your life runs in a similar way!). Got a stuffed chicken roll parceled and a bar of chocolate:) That was my dinner. Then surfed the net till 5:30 in the morning. Yep you read it right, didn't realize it was so late. Finally went to bed with a book. Before I could go beyond the first page, I was down. So what you read so far is the reason why this post is made at this hour of the day:) (not justifying or anything, it's.just.so.!)

So there's a fest in my college(http://www.dayanandasagar.edu/) and am invited by reen, who's managing the event along with other team members. Seeing the guest list( Vishal n Shekhar, Pooja Gandhi n many more. John turned down the offer in the last minute. Gawwsh!!!), it's hard to miss, but my work commitment is on high priority at the moment. I don't think I'll be going today evening. Well there's a power cut(now a days very frequent in Bangalore) and can't think of anything interesting to do at the moment. So picked up my cam and thought of capturing something in the house. These are few pics I took.....

1/50 F4.2 ISO100 26mm

1/8 F5.6 ISO200 34mm

1/2 F3.5 ISO180 18mm

1/2 F3.8 IS100 20mm

1/50 F3.5 ISO125 18mm

1/15 F3.8 ISO100 20mm

Macro 1/60 F5.6 ISO200 40mm

(^this one I had taken earlier, saw it while archiving, so posted)

1/50 F4.2 ISO100 26mm

Well whats special(and common) about these photographs is....all are taken in complete manual mode. This is what I learned today. Yupppeeee:) If I wouldn't have picked up my cam today, I wouldn't have experimented with manual override, wouldn't have known how much creative freedom it provides:)! Glad I did, what I did !!! Definitely I'll be using this new found skill more and more to take good pictures. For your reference I am providing the EXIF(SS,AP,ISO,FL) details.

Cheers!!!!!!
Sid

New Posts will be in Picasa Web Album

Hi ,
After updating the Mumbai album, my Flickr account has reached it's limit. Am not sure whether I'll upgrade to Pro, till the time I make up my mind, am using Picasa Web Album (http://picasaweb.google.com/das.sidharth)
So if you are interested to view my latest captures, straight away head towards the picasa page as mentioned above. If and when I upgrade my Flickr account, I'll inform you guys/girls through this blog.

Thats it!

Keep Capturing Moments..

Loadza Luv,
Sid

Falling in Love with the Beautiful Species

D3000 Mini Review - The Purchase

Hi Readers/Photographers/Friends,
I was just going through CNet product video-review of Canon S90, before recommending to a friend, when I felt like checking D3000 review video(which I had seen many times earlier before
purchasing the cam). It is quite mediocre in terms of reviewer interest(may be thats what they call as professionalism i.e. doing things to the point that you loose interest and people look at you with high respect. Good if that's what you wanted:p). I thought of posting a short reader review in order to guide potential buyers like me, who could get an idea of the post purchase experience. Well I did post a review. As am going to write the review anyways, why not share it with my beloved reader here as well.....

1. Rate this product:

2. One-line summary:
Commendable Beginner's Nikon (Sturdy enough for my adventure trips)

3. Pros:

• Build quality(Sturdy and feels perfect in hand)
• 11 point AF system (cool to track moving objects)
• Ownership Feel/Brand Reputation(No worries for compatibility with 3rd party accessory/lenses)
• Nikkor 18-55 Kit lens (picture quality is good)
• VR (though it's built into the kit lens) allows shooting low light scenes without a tripod(as am new and don't carry a tripod most of the time:P)

4. Cons:

• Lack of dedicated buttons to alter settings on the fly(i.e. without getting into menu! psst..it's usually found in high-end DSLRs)
• No exposure bracketing(haven't used it yet)
• Nikkor lenses/accessories are expensive(compared to Canon)
• Live view (personally I never felt the need)
• Camera's picture saving time is slow(when 'Active D-lighting' is ON, so in order to have a faster response switch this feature off, when not required!)

Bottom-line summary:

Hi,
Am Sidharth, 25yrs old, a software engineer by profession. I love taking photographs and have mostly used point and shoot. I decided to go for my first SLR in december 2009 and after a lot of research/hands on, I zeroed in, on the D3000. I had 2 options(out of the recommended brands):
a) Canon 1000D(a yr old model but feature rich)
b) Nikon D3000, latest offering, but with less frills
My requirements which lead me to Nikon's this model are as follows:
1. I do long motorcycle rides(http://iluvriding.blogspot.com), and these are the times I would be capturing the places, experiences,etc.. so my cam needs to be reliable and sturdy, so that I can carry it without much fuss/extra attention
2. I wanted to carry it all the time, so the one I feel most comfortable(out of the 2), would be my choice, and it was D3000, the weight, size and sturdiness got me hooked.
3. During my early stint with photography , I have read many books and knew enough concepts/theory that most professionals should be aware of, so all I needed was a reliable(dependable) device with manual mode. Frills(live view, video,etc) doesn't impress me much anyways, at least not at the cost of build quality.
4. I liked the brand Nikon, since I was a kid
5. I had read in a site the advantage of having a Nikon(or Canon) is on special situations an accessory can be rented(i.e no compatibility issues), in any corner of the world

The End

Hope you found it useful, and my experience will support you in making a decision for your first DSLR. Last but not the least, O'ways (read it with li'l British accent) remember:

"It's never the paint brush, but the artist who creates a masterpiece!"
- Sid:)

Set #2 Shuffled Postcards...

Hi there,
In this post am sharing few pictures which are part of my learning in the last three weeks. I explored few interesting subjects and was amazed at the beauty of things, which we don't usually see with our very own eyes. This time I stepped into the territory of S(Shutter Priority) and A(Aperture Priority) modes and enjoyed the ride. While taking few pictures, I realized that it's very difficult to hold the cam steady, especially in night shots and when you keep the shutter open for almost a second or so. This set of pictures mostly include my attempts at understanding lighting, composition, Macro photography and Night shots. As the title for this post says, pictures are in no particular order. I was out at a friend's place for quite late(as it's 4am, monday already:p) and quickly uploading the pics before I forget. Got a lot of work to finish at office as well, so may be next weekend I will take out some time to explore my creative side. Till then have a pleasant stay and enjoy the photographs. Do share how you find them and of course tips are highly appreciated:)



































NOTE: None of the above pics have undergone any post processing, as I have decided to stay away from it, till am happy with the raw creations. I'll provide the cam settings for the above displayed pics soon, so keep visiting..

Definition of Stock Photography

Stock photography is what images that photographers take and then they'll put into a database somewhere perhaps like istockphoto.com and it's a place where ad agencies or any one else needing a particular image can go and sort through and look for the image that they want. This is a way that you don't need to hire a photographer to get a image that is preexisting out there. So, you could type in whatever your keyword is you know if you want red apple, you can type in red apple and it will show you a lot of images with a red apple in it and for relatively small amount anywhere from a couple of bucks all the way up to a couple of thousands of dollars, you can buy the image and use it for whatever your purpose is. So, if you want a smaller image you know to go on a postcard or just on a little website or even just you know to get an idea to show someone this is the kine of image I want, you can probably pay two bucks and get it and use it and not be able to really sell it or print it anywhere. The higher end stuff could be images that you know an advertising agency wants to use for a campaign or something better like that and that's what stock photography is."

[ Courtesy: http://www.ehow.com/video_4874514_definition-stock-photography.html ]