When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. ~Nora Ephron
A wedding is a very special event not only for the couple to be, but for the two families, relatives and friends. And if its an Indian wedding, well, its an event like no other 
. The wedding rituals in India are just as diverse as its rich and vibrant culture. Capturing it all in camera is fun and challenge at the same time.
Ashwini and Shantanu’s wedding was my first shoot. I had just got my Canon 7D and couldnt wait to use it. With the superb EF 85 f1.8 and the super-wide EF-S 10-22, I believed I was covered for all situations. The wedding was to take place in a wedding hall with a huge open lawn attached to it for the evening’s reception. I had not planned on using any flashes (though I had a 580 EXII) and I fully depended on the fast 85mm for almost all my pictures except the group shots. Wedding halls are well lit not only by the electrical lighting inside but also by video lights. The video lights though are a bit too ‘hot’ for my taste casting harsh shadows and blowing away my white balance and with it, the skin tones. Challenges nevertheless but I knew it’d be fun.
And it turned out just that– fun.. With the photos made, they have to be presented. I was quite bored of seeing the same type of wedding albums with endless photos of the couple, parents, relatives.. There is seldom a cohesion between the photos and someone who wasnt in there gets bored by the time they reach page 16/60. So my album had to be different, concise and also had to tell a story.
I had closely looked at the techniques and layout schemes of the best wedding photographers like Marcus Bell, Jerry Ghionis, Yervant, David Becksted and was thrilled by the way they transformed wedding photography and ofcourse the presentation of the images. I liked Yervant’s ‘modern’ looks to his albums and referenced some of his layouts from his albums for mine own.
Posted here are a few ‘spreads’ out of the album. I would be uploading the complete album on my site – just the way it looks in print.
Heres the inside cover. I have used contrasting colors on adjacent pages just.
Front (inside cover and page 1)
A couple of months back I joined the facebook group Lighting Essentials Workshops for Photographers . It was a facebook search that lead me to them.
They are very good to say the least. Their articles are posted generally once a week and are very informative for anyone who wishes to be serious with photography. They have quite a bit there – lighting setup diagrams, shooting techniques, business discussions, other photographer’s interviews and even some plain fun articles. All in all a great place to check out.
Heres their website: Lighting Essentials.
Highly Recommended.
~Niraj
Very happy to see the counter touch 1014 this morning. Its exactly 3 months today and its going really good. I will definitely work to make this a lot more interesting with more variety. I would love to know what you liked and especially what you didnt to further improve what I do.
Thanx to all you folks for taking the time to visit. And yes, please do keep coming back…
~Niraj
Spend a few hours doing some table top stuff. The first subjects were a crystal vase and a small glass. Both being highly reflective. The important thing was to avoid any of their surfaces from reflecting any objects (including the light source) and giving away the shoot.
I got a large white mounting paper sheet for the ‘white seamless’ background and added another one at the base. The table was of rubber-wood which has a natural yellowish brown texture. Added 2 black sheets on either sides for negative fill (I could have added white sheets as well but after exprement, that wasnt working to my taste).
Canon 7D. EF 85 1.8 at f2.5, 1/125
I was at Lalbag last Sunday morning. The sole purpose was to shoot enough pics with the EFS 10-22 to demonstrate its field of view. All this for folks interested in buying my lens and had asked me for some pictures. Since I had few pics with it, I decided more were needed…
The weather was utterly overcast with just occasional streaks of light trickling through the thick cloud cover. I had to spend time waiting to get even the bare minimum light.
Took a path over the rock and got a ‘wide’ perspective of the temple atop it.
Temple
I have always been fascinated by paintings. While sifting thru the pictures of some of my contacts on flickr, I came across some who paint on photos. Photo-painting is what I am talking about.
There is a distinction between a picture and a painting and all these years I honored that. But then art is all about experimenting with new ideas. So I gave it a try.
Frankly I was quite amazed at what can be done. Its intricate work – unlike post-processing a picture. And it takes a lot of time. When I say ‘lot’ I mean ‘lot’. With a mouse it its all the more difficult and hand-numbing. I wish I had a pen-tablet. But then these arent bad for a first.
This is a vertical handheld panorama from atop the rock at Ramanagram (Ramghad of Sholey)
Ramanagram panorama
ALU Family day was held on 29th May at Manipal County resort off Hosur road.. These are a few random pics from the event. Well this is about portraiture and not about the event as such. I spent most of that day helping Ganesh set up the photo exhibition and there was very little time for photography. Had borrowed the EF 70-200 f2.8 from Sudhir Shivram for the excellent range it provided. And not to mention it lived up to its reputation.
Most folks had got their families along and kids were having a great time.
Catch me if u can!
I visited Tadoba tiger reserve, this February. I have visited Tadoba so many times before that I lost the count. Its less than 200Km from Nagpur where I grew up. What was ‘first’ about this visit was that I spotted not one but four tigers.
My uncle is a conservator of forests posted at Tadoba and is pretty much the boss around here . So the accommodation and open jeep safari was taken care of. We (my cousins, uncle and me) stayed at the Tadoba guest house, nestled halfway around the dense jungles overlooking the breathtaking Tadoba lake.
Tadoba Lake
Up there!
Welcome back,
I sat down with some of the pics that I had posted here before and experimented with a different workflow/processing. A bit of Rarindra Prakasa effect.
Daddy and his buddy
Am back again.
Had been to Bannerghatta park last december with my mother and son Pranav. This was his first visit to a zoo. He was as excited as ever. The park is fairly large and we expected to see his favorite critters – elephants were on the top of his must-see list.
(these wonderful textures are by: Texture 1 and Texture 2).
Am here...!
. Now they were left to try multiple tricks to get them both down.. Gave me a great opportunity to capture these simple but wonderful moments.
Daddy and his buddy
