PM Team Outing in Leonia

Photographs from WinSE IDC PM team outing in Leonia on May 29th 2009. It turned out to be a fun filled day with lots of games, general chit-chat and good food.

Leonia Location

Map courtesy Leonia

All photographs below were taken with the Canon EOS 400D with either the Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 or the Canon EF-S 18-85 mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.

Jimson, my co-photographer for the event

Mujtaba, our guest of honor from Redmond

RajK, the "Taboo" guy

Srini looks happy

Adieu, Vinay

Chilling out by the pool side

Dhruv had enough energy to splash around in the pool after cycling 50 KM to Leonia!

He's obviously a champion swimmer ...

I'm lovin it!

That's my relaxed from the Spa look

Time for some water sports

You can pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!

A perfect pass

Come to papa!

The cold coffee was truly yummy, or is that an ice cream float?

Anoop in a pensive mood

The PM team, all rejuvenated

Sravanabelagola, Belur Trip with JCD

We went on a team outing to Sravanabelagola, Belur & Halebid on 5th Feb 2009 with Jean-Claude Ducrocq, the intent of the trip was to showcase some of the rich cultural heritages of Karnataka to JCD. Making him walk bare-foot over hot rocks was quite unintentional and had nothing what so ever to do with the outcome of the proposed sale of GGE.

At the end of the steep climb (500 steps) up to Sravanabelagola

Statue of Gomateswara, 50ft high and carved off a single block of granite

Details of the intricate stone work at Belur

Standing L to R: Ambresh, Gangji, Jean-Claude, Sendhil, Pradeep, Venkat

View of the temple gopura from within

The GGE SolDel BSP-MM team with JCD. L to R: Sendhil, Benson, Pradeep, Gangji, Vipul, Ambresh, Venkat, JCD (holding the wood carving we had gifted him) & me. The only team member missing is Naveen, who was elsewhere making history of his own.

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Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM at 85mm. Exposure of 1/60s @ F5.6, ISO 400.

Happy New Year!

Murals on Wall

Shot in Tende, France with Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM.

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Sunset at Shanghumugham beach, Kerala

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Returning fishermen in Kumarakom

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Patterns in the water

A water strider and its shadow taken during Kemmangundi trek with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. Exposure of 1/160s @ F/7.1 with ISO 400.

Photo of the Day

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens at 85mm. Exposure of 1/500s @ F/13, ISO 400.

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Friendly neighborhood spider

Shot during Kemmangundi trek near a stream. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens.

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Springside ferns

Trekking in Western Ghats is mostly through grasslands, but occasionally one has to cross verdant forest patches that spring up around small water bodies. There are lush with life - plant and animal.

Trek Report: Mullayangiri, Kemmangundi & Baba Budangiri

Photographs from a trek in Baba Budan hill range covering Mullayangiri, Baba Budangiri andother peaks close to Kemmangundi on 8th and 9th November, 2008. Kemmangundi is around 260 KM from Bangalore in Chikmangalore district of Karnataka and was the summer retreat of Krishnaraje Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore. The trek was led by Deepak & Prasanna, it was so amazing to see them trek casually through the rough terrain in slippers/flip-flops!

Mullayangiri is the tallest peak in Karnataka at over 6000 ft in height. We trekked in Mullayangiri & Baba Budangiri ranges on Saturday and Kemmangundi on Sunday. There are caves a little way down from the top of Mullayangiri, we also spent some time exploring them. Inside the caves it was narrow & damp, we had to bend and crawl through to cross several sections.

At night we stayed near Baba Budan's shrine, a cave considered holy by both Hindus and Muslims.

Water points are not plentiful along the way, typically small streams run through the forested regions along the way. Deepak was our guide and he was well aware of the water points having done the route multiple times.

We planned on trekking to Kalathi Falls also on Sunday, however dropped the plan when we realized that we were running behind schedule.

Majority of the trek route is composed of grasslands

Think forest patches dot the grasslands

Lush vegetation can be found within the forests around the springs

The trail with people ascending. In some sections the trail is well marked, in other sections it is not. So it is always preferable to take a guide along who knows the route well.

A ruined structure atop one of the peaks

All photographs with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. I will be uploading a few more photographs from the trek as individual posts over the next few weeks.

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Raindrops

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens at 64mm. Exposure of 1/125s @ F/8, ISO 400.

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Red Vented Bulbul

 

Thanks to Ravi for helping me identify this bird. Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens & Tamron 1.4X TC.

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Music Band Member at Lal Bagh

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens @ 80mm. 1/500s @ F/5.6, ISO 400.

Selective highlights ...

Selectively highlighting subjects or elements in the photograph can help in focusing attention to them.

Other techniques to direct attention to various elements in the picture include selective focusing (using depth of field) and using composition techniques like framing, colors, leading lines etc.

The key is to ensure detail in the highlight areas as well as relevant shadow areas. Given the limited exposure latitude, this is a tough challenge. Taking the photo at the right time of the day will ensure adequate exposure to capture details in highlights & shadows.

Backlighting plus selective highlights can bring out the details in leaves and flowers and draw the viewers eye to them.

All photographs with Canon EOS400D and Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens.

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Cote D'Azur, Nice

Canon EOS 400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. Exposure of 1/400s at F/11, ISO 400.

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Sunset at Kumarakom

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

Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM Lens

The photos below are taken with the Canon EF 70-200 F/4 L IS USM Lens, the second photo was taken using the lens combined with a Tamron SP AF 1.4X Teleconverter.

Long Shadows

The 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM is my first Canon "L" series lens, the coveted breed of Canon lenses that are the best technology can produce at this day and age. Although I did not see an order of magnitude difference in my photographs with this lens and my non "L" series lenses, I could definitely make out where all the hype is coming from. Perhaps the lack of major differentiation could be coming from my abilities as a photographer too, a more experienced photographer might put the lens to better use.

That said, the lens was a pleasure to handle and use. A bit on the heavier side, but with excellent build quality, the lens feels solid in the hand and balances well. It would no doubt handle better on the 40D or one of the more professional Canon SLRs than my 400D. With up to 4 stop image stabilization, one can hand hold the "heavy" lens and get sharp photographs under most circumstances with sufficient light.

Flower & Ants

Photograph taken with Canon EOS 400D and Canon EF 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM combined with Tamron SP AF 1.4X TC. One can make out the details captured and the sharpness of the lens even at 1.4X magnification from 200 mm, especially in the ants on the stem. The equivalent focal length in 35 mm is 200mm * 1.6X (FOVC) * 1.4X = 448 mm. Having a 448 mm with F/5.6 (the 1.4X TC reduces max aperture by one stop) max aperture and Image Stabilization is quite good. The reach is not sufficient for wildlife/bird photography, but is a handy zoom with 112 - 320mm without the TC and 157 - 448mm with the 1.4X TC.

There are 4 variations of the 70-200 focal range zoom in Canon's line up, in the increasing order of price, they are:

1. Canon EF 70-200 F/4 L USM
2. Canon EF 70-200 F/4 L IS USM
3. Canon EF 70-200 F/2.8 L USM
4. Canon EF 70-200 F/2.8 L IS USM

After quite a bit of research and deliberation, I settled on the 70-200 F/4 L IS USM due to various factors listed below:

• At this focal range (or any other for that matter), IS is quite mandatory & extremely useful
• The F/2.8 lenses are quite bigger and heavier
• The 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM was the best compromise - it had IS and was much cheaper and lighter than the 70-200 F/2.8 L IS USM
• The 70-200mm F/4 L IS USM and 70-200mm F/2.8 L USM are available for almost the same price, but I prefer IS to having a one stop max aperture advantage. For those who want to stop motion and need shorter depth of field, the F/2.8 is a good choice. Note that IS will help with camera shake, but not with subject motion

More information

• Review of Canon EF 70-200 F/4 L IS USM at The-Digital-Picture
• Review of Canon EF 70-200 F/2.8 L IS USM at DPReview

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Kick off

Canon EOS400D with Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM Lens. Exposure of 1/640s @ F/5.6, ISO 400.

I had to spend some time selectively cropping to include all the visual elements of the picture in the correct composition. These include:

• The soccer ball (of course)
• The water spray above the ball at a diagonal
  
• The water/white power spray coming out of frame on bottom left
• The two white diagonal lines on top right and bottom left mirroring each other
  
• The player's legs in follow through
  

Not a great photograph, but I like it due to the geometric arrangements of the various elements - lines, circles (spheres), diagonals, legs.