Portrait - Akshitha

Akshitha

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 lens, 1/100s at f/1.8, ISO 100. This lens is Canon's cheapest, but from an image quality perspective a really good one, not to mention extremely fast at f/1.8. On a 1.6X FOV crop sensor like the one on 400D, the 50mm standard becomes a great 80mm portrait lens.

Photo of the Day

Akshita in a pensive mood on her third birthday

Portraits from PM Team Outing

Portraits from PM team outing on 21st October, 2009.

That's Hanuman, the great monkey god of Hinduism.

He was not a PM (although his commitments included lifting mountains, fighting wars with an army of monkeys and having his tail on fire for extended periods).

Ranajoy

Dhruv

Manoj

Rahul, the Mafia look

Kanav

Nitu

Aarthi

Suresh - eyes set on Frisbee world championship

All photographs with Canon EOS 400D and Tamron 28-200mm XR Lens.

Achu & Ammu

Achu & Ammu - my nephew & niece.

Photographing kids is such a huge challenge, but also so rewarding! Given time & patience, one can get photographs that will be treasured forever. And they grow up so fast, so don't wait...

Brother and sister ...

Ammu, isn't she a naughty one!

Study time!

Is this a nice pose?

Sooo happy in my new dress!

In a rare, quiet moment...

Such nice round eyes she has!

Pretty in Pink

Nice light from the big glass windows at Kumarakom Lakesong Resort, shadow side filled in by flash.

Achu with his favorite Power Ranger's toy

Photo of the Day

Shot during Hampi trip near Royal Elephant Stables with EOS 400D and Tamron 70-300mm lens I had borrowed from Kiran. Framed tightly using the long zoom to show the smooth texture of the dog's coat.

Photo of the Day - Prachi

Prachi at Krip & Pari's engagement party. She is extremely shy (at least with me), and with so many people around, she ensured that she stayed close to Raghu or Vaishali all the time.

Canon EOS 400D with EF 50mm F/1.8 lens and built in flash

Love the nice, rounded highlights formed by the out of focus bulbs in the background and the bright catch light from the flash in Prachi's eyes - overall a very dreamly looking photograph of Prachi. Converted to monochrome to give emphasis to the child's face and eyes and avoid color as a distracting element in the picture.

Portraits at Hampi

Although I was concentrating more on capturing the monuments and landscape at Hampi, I did manage to sneak in a few candid portrait shots.

Rathi amongst the ruins

The below two pictures were shot with the Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom lens that I borrowed from Kiran. I borrowed the lens with the intent to shoot Parakeets, but they proved quite fast and elusive - so I decided to aim at more sedentary targets, albeit a lot less colorful.

Kiran at Hampi

The 300mm (480mm with 1.6X FOVC) has a sufficiently long reach for a candid head and shoulders portrait shot from afar with nice out of focus background wide open at F/5.6.

Rathi at Hampi

The lack of image stabilization at this focal range makes photography tricky without a tripod. The day was overcast with diffused light avoiding harsh shadows, but with adequate light for me to shoot hand-held in shutter priority at 1/500s with ISO upped to 800 to avoid blur.

Unfortunately, I could not try the 1:2 Macro capability of this lens.

Krip & Pari Engagement Party

More photos from Krip & Pari's engagement party. Shot all pictures in RAW and converted to B&W in Canon DPP and added Sepia tone for an old world charm Also added a Green filter to lighten the green and darken the red in their floral garland.

The B&W Sepia toned pictures remind me so much of the old photo albums from my parents wedding that my mother is very fond of pulling out and showing to us. B&W is also very useful medium to focusing attention on the couple and not on their bright costume that is a prerequisite for any Indian function.

Krip & Pari had invited some kids from a children home they are associated with and the kids had a gala time dancing and showing off their moves. The kids added a very special warmth to the wonderful occasion.

All photographs taken with a Canon EOS400D with Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 lens shot wide open assisted by the camera's built in flash at ISO 400, 800 or 1600.

Photo of the Day

Pari & Krip

Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF 30mm F/1.8, 50mm
1/60s @ F/1.8, ISO 400, In built flash

Today was the engagement party of Pari & Krip, one of the sweetest couples I have the pleasure of knowing. I met them on the Hamta pass trek in May 2007 and subsequenty trekked with them to Bandajje falls in Feb 2008. Here's wishing both of them a very happy and fulfilling married life!