Red vented bulbul - My first bird shoot

This Sunday, I woke up to the 8'o'clock sun filling the room. I was at my aunt's place at Trichy. Coming out of the house in a sombre mood, I gazed at the hibiscus blooms in the corner of the garden. Chirp chirp ... and three or four red vented bulbuls perched on the tree opposite to their house. My aunt was swift in fetching my camera and we both started watching them . The drooping bunch of yellow flowers fluttered by the bulbuls hopping between the fragile branches.

Two of them flew and perched on the fence wall. Earlier when I spotted these birds few months ago at Auroville-Pondicherry, I loved their shiny eyes and their colour. Today I consider myself lucky shooting these birds on my new camera.



PS: I got my new dslr camera last week ...canon eos-550d

The lost 8th mile...

A stretch covered by tamarind trees on both side of the road, a canal accompanies you for a couple of kilometers and banana plantations on the other side of the canal. Such a place is the 8th-mile canal bridge on the Trichy-Karur road. What I like so much about this place is the early morning mist during non-summer season. The mist engulfs the moving water and is motionless compared to the water flow. The water surface seems to be a slate of green glass before it plunges another foot deep after the bridge. The way the mist touches the flowing water is a good sight to see, slightly swirling at the edges

Usually this place, the 8th-mile canal bridge goes un-noticed when you are on the wheels and as the name goes, the inundation canal bridge is on the 8th mile towards Trichy from Kulithalai, a small town on the banks of river Kaveri. The canal swells with water during the monsoon / winter season and goes completely dry in summer.

Though the road in this section of the highway is bumpy, I eagerly look forward driving this section in the early morning hours for the sight of the 8th mile canal bridge. Ten days ago, while driving down, I thought, I missed this place, but later got to know that the whole section is now newly laid bypassing this place as a part of road-widening-project. I felt really sad missing this place this time. But I vow that the next time, I shall take the previous intersection in the highway, see this place before proceeding on. The 8th-mile might be out of the current highway, but not from my memories.

Some of my previous photo shoots @ this place are listed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck_selvam/2162304184/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck_selvam/2783479438/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ck_selvam/2161486461/

Changes

Changes
Originally uploaded by Ms Ladyred

I liked what was written below the photograph...

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies..."

It was soothing as I am experiencing my first dash of job-change...

Swelling in silence...

Nicely composed and timed, this frame is the recent portrait that I relished on. Be it the costumes, backdrop, lighting or the mood imparted by the actors is dazzling. Light yellow, grey and caramel-white and red on a dark wood backdrop is simply amazing. Side lighting gives reality to the frame. In a moving film, we tend to miss the finer details like the white sweater or the simple satin necklace.

This frame is a still photo frozen in time, yet it speaks...it speaks what the director wanted to convey. Kudos to the camera-team and the actors. I am not sure if this frame found a place in the movie 'Vinnai thandi varuvaaya', yet this expresses that one can communicate a lot in still photography. In a different perspective, a lot can be privately communicated in silence. (The path to silence)

PS: The make-up team could have put little more attention. The girls nail-colors were little bit out of sync not only in this frame but in the entire movie. The guy's make-up was a little bit heavy and the girl's make-up was very light and soggy in certain places and it felt in close-up shots; the movie deals with a lot with close-up-shots.

Gold on green...observations

I am posting my observations from 'Gold on green'.

Correct me if I am wrong...

1. More exposure needs to be set for yellow lighting when compared to white-fluorescent lighting.
2. The gold gets more predominant in yellow lighting.
3. So, if we are taking portraits, it is better to maintain fluorescent lighting
4. And in case of jewelery advertisements, it is good to give a yellow lighting like in GRT's ad (Golden girl)

I kept the exposure at f/2.6, macro-mode throughout the exercise.

P.S. Thank you friends for pointing out that observations should also be shared...

Gold on green...an experiment with photography

I shot few frames last week: the subjects were few bangles and a ring that my mom usually wears.

I considered two set of lighting for the shots.First, I considered white lighting and switched on all the fluorescent tune lights in the hall. For the yellow lighting, I switched on the lamps in the hall.

Few shots are listed below:
Exposure was set for 8 seconds for the first shot, 2.5 seconds for the next 2 shots and 5 seconds for the last 4 shots.

The golden girl...

Recently this ad caught my attention in one of the Tamil magazines. I liked this photo for its composition, lighting, mood and the dark colors. The deep crimson red amidst a yellow lighting, and the dark oily green blouse, all give emphasis to the subject. I liked the model's pose flaunting an immense joy in her smile.

The only better thing that could have been done is the position of the hand bangles...the current position makes her wrist look thinner.

Golden vines...intertwined with her thoughts

Golden vines intertwined with her thoughts...

I loved this still in the recent Tamil movie 'Sarvam'. I liked the lighting, background, her poise, costumes...amazing.
Kudos to the cameraman and costume designer.
Overall the background music score by Yuvanshankar was good.
Camera at most places was the bokeh type shots where the focus is on the subject with the background fading; this was a little annoying to me. And the next major was silhouette shots mostly with blue or red backgrounds. One shot was with the sun in the horizon...
The sets and lighting of the hospital shots in the first half were too exposed and swallowed the subjects unless the costumes were dark colored. In one shot, the same white color costume in the above picture amidst the hospital white background was too bland.

Watching the weaver

Weaver
Originally uploaded by Puneeth B C

I was delighted by the sight of a dozen weaver bird nests...They were deserted. Late after few minutes I planned to hide myself and hid nearby amidst tall grass bushes. This is the place where I watched their entire behavior pattern from close quarters...about 5 feet from their nests.
The weavers hopped from branch to branch, each time inching towards their nest and each time surveying their territory. Most of the time they were holding long stalk of grass in their tiny beaks. These yellow crested weavers land straight on top of their nest and with the help of their feet and pointed beaks weave the grass stalk into the existing structure. This was at the end of 15 minutes an now I wanted to call Puneeth so that they can be shot through our lenses.
I and Puneeth scrambled on our knees and positioned ourselves but the weavers sensed some risk...they came closer to their nest and again retreat back. Now we resolved to lying on our chest...he with his camera and I with my friend's binoculars. This time we ended up with some good shots. All the muted conversations and sign languages helped us. This was at the end of sixty minutes.

Watching the weaver, we lost our sense of time...We got to know how many minutes passed only when we were returning back from the small stream near which the weaver's colony were...

Spotting the Bee-Eater

Bee-Eater
Originally uploaded by Puneeth B C

Puneeth called me last Thursday and asked if I can join them for the trip to sight the flock of bee eaters that had arrived somewhere on the outskirts of Mysore adjoining the Kaveri river banks. We started late evening and reached there around 10.30 pm...the whole village was asleep except for few who were returning from the city. Our enquiries about the directions to the river banks arouse suspicion of the villagers...we were noted and tracked... Finally we went to the shores and surveyed the site. The moon was shadowed by the clouds then. With the help of two local villagers we camped on the outskirts of the village. Seeing the starry sky and those flickering fireflies made me feel heaven.
Sighting the flocks of bee eaters perching everywhere...it was a sight that defies expression. The intricate colors on the bee eaters neck and the body was awesome through the binoculars. Along with the flock we spotted a pied kingfisher, brown hornbill, white throated kingfisher and a family of weaverbirds. The weaverbirds caught my attention and it calls for separate attention in my blog as well. See you soon with the post on weaver bird...

This photo was taken by Puneeth...

Sandesh Kadur's quest for 'Pogeyan'...

It was a sort of immersion into nature…I witnessed the short film by Sandesh Kadur on Western ghats. Thanks to my colleague Puneet with whom I went to watch the film at the British council in Bangalore. Sandesh has been photographing wildlife in Western ghats for close to a decade. His quest for ‘Pogeyan’ or the ‘Misty’ Indian cat is quite interesting; he spotted this member of the cat family few years back and now wants to spot it again as it is not classified / identified yet…He shared his adventure stories in his quest for ‘Pogeyan’. He said that living in the rainforests of the ghats is far safer than crossing the road in Bangalore… 

If you really admire nature and an ardent lover of it, then Sandesh Kadur’s adventures are online for you at http://www.sandeshkadur.com/