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.

Hampi - Poetry in Stone

Photographs from Hampi trip - August 15 to 17, 2008.

Hampi, located approximately 350 KM from Bangalore in Karnataka, India, was the capital of the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rainy season is the best time to visit Hampi, otherwise the site is literally too hot to handle. The weather gods were very obliging we had only light drizzles to trouble us.

Map courtsey hampi.in. We stayed at Priyadarshini hotel in Hospet, the biggest town near to Hampi and in 3 days, covered Hampi, Tungabadra Dam & Chitradurga Fort.

Virupaksha Temple

Temple Elephant

A tricolor flag to celebrate Independence Day

Sasive Kalu Ganesha

Watching a resplendent Tungabhadra River

Chariot at Vitthala Temple

Detail from the Chariot Wheel

Lotus Mahal

Elephant Stable

Chitradurga Fort

Web Links:

• http://www.hampi.in/
• Wikipedia on Hampi
  
• Wikipedia on Chitradurga
  

Photo of the Day

Small World

Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM, 85mm

1/2500s @ F/5.6, ISO 400

Ants on a flower shot while I was trekking up to Via Ferrata at Tende, France. I did not realize that the trekking path led up to Via Ferrata, just saw a path from Tende town and started walking without having any idea where it went.

Via Ferrata is a mountain climbing route that is equipped with fixed cables & ladders. They seem to be quite popular in Europe, though I first came to know about them when I stumbled across one while exploring Tende. I could not attempt it because I did not have safety harness etc and the signs were very clear reagarding usage of safety equipment, nor were there anyone around to assist me.

Bookmark: Great Circle Mapper

BLR-FRA-SFO Path with ETOPS 120 min rule time

Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.

Ever wondered why airplanes take weird paths from one city to another? There are multiple reasons, the primary one being that Earth is not flat and is more of an "oblate spheroid" or "ellipsoid" in shape. So the shortest distance between two points on Earth is not a straight line like in planar geometry and is a "Great Circle" (if considered a spherical) or a geodesic path. The other reasons include regulations stating that twin engined aircraft have to be able to fly to an alternative airport on failure of one of the engines within a specified period of time, taking advantage of tail wind etc.

See the ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) page in Wikipedia for more information on regulations governing flight paths for twin engine commercial aircraft.

Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II

The Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II is the smallest, lightest & cheapest lens available from Canon. Although I was not a big fan of this lens on film as I did not find the 50mm focal length very exciting, I am very impressed with the performance of this lens on a digital SLR with 1.6X FOVCF. Mounted on my EOS 400D, for example, this lens becomes a 90mm F/1.8 lens which is perfect for portrait and low light photography.

Rathi @ Krip & Pari's engagement party
Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 II
1/20s @ F/1.8, ISO 400, Fill-in flash

Although there has been negative reviews about the poor bokeh (image quality of out of focus areas) of this lens due to usage of five non-rounded aperture blades, I found the bokeh of this lens to be quite satisfying. In the shots taken at Krip & Pari's engagement party, the tiny bulbs illuminating the surrounding were rended as nice, rounded, out of focus highlights that formed a nice pattern on all the portrait shots.

The Image Quality (IQ) of this lens is one of the best, and belies its rather modest price. This is currently my preferred portrait lens, with its sharpness, fast aperture, good low light performance and nice background blur possible with F/1.8. I just wish it had better macro capability rather than the uninspiring .15X maximum magnification at a closest focusing distance of 1.5 ft (.45m).

Photo of the Day

Flower in Tende

Canon EOS 400D, Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM, 85mm
1/500s @ F/5.6, ISO 400

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!

Photo of the Day

Flowers in Tende, France

Canon EOS400D, Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM, 136mm
1/125 @ F/6.3, ISO 400

Bookmark - Tag Galaxy

A 2008 diploma thesis by project by Steven Wood, Tag Galaxy helps you search and view photographs from Flickr by visually representing them as a star with tag planets around it. You start off with an initial tag entered into a text box and then successively narrow down your search by selecting more tags associated with the photograph. Once you're done with tag selection, all photos matching the tags are layered on a 3D sun that can be rotated using your mouse.

For example, an initial tag of "India" resulted in close to 2 million photographs, with 8 other tags shown to narrow it down including Rajasthan, Women, Children & Kerala.

I head about Tag Galaxy from Digital Pro Talk.