Rant 96: My Dynamic Shift

It's hard to find ways to kill time sometimes, especially when you're unemployed (enforced). However, it gives ample time to experiment with different types of photography, as well as different types of post-processing.

On a very bright and sunny day.
Perhaps best to leave HDR for sunrise
or sunsets?

Now HDR, or High Dynamic Ranging, was something I had always shied away from. Not for the degree of difficulty, but for the insane amount of unrealism that has creeped into this school. Just google for HDR Photography and you almost feel like you're going through the storyboard for Avatar. Even the online tutorials on HDR make you feel like they're describing marmite, "you either love it, or you detest it".
But thanks to the magic of unemployment, I decided to take the plunge. It almost began on a lazy level, in that I simply crawled out into the backyard and attempted my first HDR composition. And while I wasn't exactly happy with the result (see left), I wasn't wholly disappointed with it either. Didn't look too bad for a first attempt. My next attempt, however, I hit upon a method that worked for me! The problem isn't how you take the picture in the field, but how you compose it in Photoshop later. Layer masks, paintbrush tool to begin with. Leaves and trees create their own challenges, one I solved by toning down the opacity of my paintbrush tool when painting (with Black) in certain areas of the respective mask. All in all, I ended up with a very appealing result, a picture taken literally 20 metres away from my house.
The bench (see right) provided a very nice division between the foreground grass and the sky in the background. It also provided the sense of isolation that I was feeling in the area. It's a place called the Howden marshes and is almost akin to a forest.
I got some really nice feedback off Facebook as well! Most importantly, though, I was given a second lesson in why the RAW format is king. For the simple reason that you can mess up maybe two out of your three frames, but if one is good enough, and it's in RAW, you've got a decent head start in doing your post-processing.
Speaking if Photoshop, I've used Adobe software for a number of years now. But I've been increasingly hearing of a software called Photomatix, which supposedly is good for HDR. I haven't tried it yet, mostly because I am quite comfortable with Photoshop. But who knows, all this experimenting on the field might just push me for experimentation off it!
Lastly, while HDR can be your friend on most occasions - the wow effect is simply addictive - it can be a harsh mistress as well. Use it wisely, else you may end up with an amateurish piece as I did with the one below, taken in a churchyard in Howden.

Rant 78: The not-so-great divide

Nowhere could the phrase "Getting in touch with nature" be more literal than at Ross Island - part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and erstwhile British East India capital for this archipelago.


Clearly, man is meant to go back to his roots here...as the Britishers' presbyterian church probably found out ages ago.

Rant 74: Steeped in Sepia

Next up for a bit of Post-Production mayhem...ladies and gents, I present to you, my friend Vinod!
This picture was taken - like this one - along the return journey during a trip to Chikmagalur.
Now the editing on this one is not done with the "quick-fix" method of pre-installed Filters that Photoshop provides. Instead, I've used Adjustment Layers (Hue/Saturation and Black/White) to get absolute control over which colours I want in their original state and which I want with the Sepia touch.
Sepia for me represents a sombre mood, and I'm trying to steer clear of using action shots for this kind of editing.
And if you want to see what a difference this method can make, I give you the original photo below.

Rant 73: One day to learn life

One day...that's all it takes to make you feel like new person. One day...that's all it takes for you to get perspective on your problems and frustrations. One day...that's all it took for me to realise life ain't all that much to lose my mind over.
One day and a 256 Kms round trip...that's exactly how long it took.
My buddy Yashpal and I hacked out a trip to Sakleshpur, a place in the Western Ghats, within 10 minutes on Saturday and the very next day at 5:30am, we were ready to go! "La Poderosa" (the Mighty One!) aka my motorcycle was ready and waiting.
True to our own tardy selves, though, we were only able to reach the highway proper by 6:30. However, we were still able to catch a glorious sunrise and the buildup towards a "bright" day.
A few kms outside of Mangalore city limits, we stopped at an elevated road to catch a glimpse of the image on your right. And some distance after that, the sight was akin to what religious nuts call heaven...I mean, it gave you the feeling that whether there actually is one or not, sights like these are good enough for humans to live in hope, which I concede is not a bad thing at all.
We got ourselves some breakfast and continued.
Despite the point of this trip being not the destination but the ride itself - meaning we made several pit stops for pictures and such - I think we made pretty good time.
Soon enough, we were coming towards our first glimpse of the proper Western Ghats, and this was as daunting a sight as I've ever seen. The hill, standing tall, telling you that "boss! you humans have fucked up the planet good, but you can't fuck with my species"
Sure enough, during the initial climb we were given a damn good example of why we should know our limits when tackling the hills. No doubt left in our minds as to how we should play this. If this huge hunk of metal fell prey to the dangers of the hill curves, then our two wheeler was at even greater risk.
It was not all gloom and doom though. The ghats here are famous for small and big waterfalls which provide a helpful respite from the day's wanderings and we too stopped for a breather.
The water was brilliant, cold and refreshing to the core. We also did the usual posing for pictures, while I also tried my hand at some slow-shutter speed snapping, trying to give the stream a smooth-flow effect.
Dunno how well that worked out but there you go.
Then began the real test of our trip. The really screwed up roads of Karnataka. All you people who've ever wished to walk on the moon (not the Michael Jackson style...the one with actual rockets), look no further than the ghat roads to practice your moon buggy tricks.
There aren't any potholes here, because they're all huge enough to be upgraded to the crater category!
Anyways, Yashpal came up with the brilliant analogy of how best to deal with the frustration of riding through the fucked up roads.
"Don't get frustrated, think of this entire trip as life itself. The initial stages were good, smooth roads, cool air, nice views. There will be bad stages in the middle, potholes, craters, but if you keep the ultimate goal in mind, i.e. destination then these holes will seem minor."
I don't care a lot about the destination that we reached (except they have these things being sold at various points of the entrance), but if the point of wading through all those craters was so that we could get the chance to see this, then I am willing to take up the offer of taking a moon buggy through these ghats any day of the week.
Pics below were seen on the return journey actually but well worth stopping amid heavy traffic on a curve with a slight drizzle falling.

Thanks babe!

Rant 71: The stuff of dreams

Continuing my foray into post-production, here's one I took at a place called Chikmaglur (around 4 hours drive away from Mangalore. Here's the post of that visit).
This random ghat area is on the way to the Mullayangiri hill, and having picked up a trick called the "dreamy / misty" effect, I knew I had to implement it on one of these photos. Best results emerge with photos of water/river taken with a high-end camera...still hunting around for such a shot on my comp, so posting of that will have to wait. But hope you enjoy this as well...kinda reminds me of the whole Pandora island effect!