Day 308 - Did You Observe Earth Hour?

I did!  I turned off the lights promptly at 8:30 pm and everything besides my refrigerator and stove were unplugged (and that's only because the plugs are way at the back and I couldn't get to them even after a couple of tries).

I lit a lot of candles, turned up the music on my iPod and picked up my camera.  Then, all I did was practise hand-holding my camera on a slow shutter.  I challenged myself to go as slow as I could and I hit 0.7s without any visible camera shake.  I was really elated, but unfortunately, the composition turned out pretty poor.  I deleted the shot, finally.

The following shot was taken at 0.3s and the ones after at 1/4s.

Day 258 - I'm Back!

I had an intense three days starting with a project deadline, prepping for the cooking class, and then the cooking class itself.  The class went off really well, and one of the ladies is going to return for a second one!  That's a 33% success rate, since I had 3 students in the class this time.

Anyway, despite being dead beat, I knew I had to pick up the camera and feel it in my hands again.... Sheesh!  Did I just say that aloud?   Ok, never mind, I did - but that's the truth.  I feel that I'm missing something when I don't do my shot of the day, despite all the challenges I have of actually doing it.  It's like I'm cheating myself out of some great pleasure.  And often, it's a narrow hit-or-miss, thanks to my low energy levels.

'Nuff said about that.  This shot is part of a "Red" series that I want to do for a contest.  I'm not sure whether this would be appropriate since it does have a lot of yellow as well.  Let me know what you think. Would love to hear your take on "Red".

And I haven't forgotten to complete learning my alphabet.  I still have to do "K"  and "U".  I don't want to resort to anything obvious - I've been doing that a lot lately (out of sheer laziness).  Will have to scratch my head a little, and would welcome your ideas as well (although I can't promise to deliver :=P).

This shot has minimal post-processing.  The only thing I've done is increased the sharpness a couple of notches.  The flash was powered down to 1/64 at 50 mm, pointed directly at the candle from right of frame.

Day 208 - Unintentional

This was taken yesterday, although I didn't get a chance to post it until now.

I was chilling after a day's fun and laughter with some good friends over pretty good food (although I say so even though I was the cook), and had no intention of doing any photography.  But the camera was lying right there on the ottoman, under my nose, and I decided to pick it up and play with it.  I took 3 shots of this piece of the wreath illuminated by a burning candle.

This shot was taken with the camera resting on the couch, and is straight out of the camera except for a crop and watermark added in post.  If you're wondering why I even bothered to post such a careless shot, it's because I didn't want to miss another day.  I am now over the 200 mark, and want to see this project through with as little disruptions as possible.

But come to think of it, the light isn't bad, although the image could have definitely been better composed.  Ah, well!  Not everything that comes out of the cameras of the masters is a masterpiece, so I can't expect that to happen to me either (although I would really love it to be that way!) and I keep telling myself that so I don't lose heart.

250 mm, f/5.6, 10s, ISO 100, Manual Mode, AWB

Day 187 - Happy Diwali

It's the Indian Festival of Lights and although I don't really celebrate it anymore, I still feel nostalgic about the times I did.  It's been over a decade since I've been in India to celebrate this festival, but each year I do remember to set out some lamps.

In our community, it's a custom to light thirteen lamps and scatter them around different areas of the house.  Light conquers darkness, and is a symbolic triumph of good over evil.  It's got a long history, and is part of Indian mythology.  If you are interested in finding out more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali.

So, commemorating the occasion, this was the most obvious subject for this evening.

Looks like I have run out of storage!  I can't believe I have to go back and compress some photos so I can make more room! :(