October 31st 2013 - Fall is here and Winter is not far behind.

Saw the first frost last week in the morning. Beautiful fall colors are covering the paths. The leaves which have fallen from the trees are no longer with us but they have transformed the place into beautiful paintings.

This is my capture of the frost.

Shutter Speed - 1/20
ISO - 200

Love the Oak leaves. They have lots of curves and are bold in shape.

 
A path in the park will give you a good idea of what the fall in Michigan is like this year. This was taken in the evening at the time of the golden light.
Shutter Speed - 1/13
Aperture - F13
ISO - 100
This is a short post as I have been busy with kid's stuff. Not much accomplished in the field of photography this week. Just working on my other passion and that is web designing.

Hope to get some pictures for my next post. Wish you all a happy Festival season. From the place where I come, we have Diwali - festival of lights, which is a four to five days long festival. Wish you all a very Happy Diwali!!!!

October 18th 2013 - Animals are great subjects.

A photographer should literally have a backbone. How cheap can one sell? Jokes apart... I mean seriously, having a backbone is so very important for a photographer. I realized this when I fell yesterday, flat on the ground,  on my back, and now have a back pain, not a severe one just a nagging pain which won't let me bend and take pictures. I can sit for a bit and do some work on the computer, that's all. So here's a post with animal shots which I clicked last week. These guys were roaming everywhere in the Zoo.

Shutter speed -1/350 secs
ISO - 100

I have always known from my experience, that animals are the greatest posers and great subjects to take pictures of. So, I went to a Zoo, yes I do not live in a forest to capture wild life.

 I do not have any models that I know of, so I am not very good at people portraits, though, I would like a few models whom I can click occasionally.  Ha! Ha! My family doesn't even want themselves to be clicked. So I am just left with candid shots of them. Animals are my only chance.
 
Adjacent is a green Lizard.

Shutter Speed - 1/30 secs
ISO - 400

To the left is the King of the jungle - The Lion King. Lazing on a rock with no worries. Could hear an occasional call back to it's mate. This is the most powerful animal after Man I know of, you can see that in it's eyes. Man is even more powerful than any creature on Earth, I believe, not by muscle but by brain. This is why this great powerful beauty is in a Zoo and Man is not. Well, this is what I think, others may differ on this.

Shutter Speed - 1/45
ISO - 100

This is all for now. Hope everyone will stay safe and have a nice weekend.

October - 15-2013 - Another post on woods and Mushrooms.

It's something about Nature that it draws you to it. This is a trail at the back of my house. Don't you think it's inviting? The fresh green color and the breeze, with wet leaves fallen on the ground. It is this time of the year when dew drops are very common on leaves and trees. This year we are witnessing a very beautiful Autumn or Fall season. Love all the colored leaves. The play of light and shadow on the leaves makes it even more dramatic.

So this weekend I stepped out into the woods even deeper, looking for mushrooms as this is the season for mushrooms.

I saw this growing on the wood chips. Looked papery and the light falling from above gave this a lighted look.


Shutter Speed - 1/8 secs
ISO- 200

I love the way the bokeh has formed in the background by the shadow and light passing through the leaves of the woods.

Some of the fallen leaves. They can glow in moonlight. All the yellow leaves glow when there is moonlight. Looks beautiful even in the night.

Shutter 1/60 secs
ISO -  100






This is all for now. Have a nice week!

October-08-2013 - A walk in the woods.

As Autumn arrives, you see all the beautiful colors of goldens, reds, purples and browns. Another thing that crops up during this time of the year are Mushrooms. Yesterday, I went for a walk in the woods and found lots of different types of Mushrooms growing in the woods. As the plant world prepares itself for the winters by making an abscission layer in their leaves and shedding them, here are some living things which grow like it were Spring.

Above is an Elegant Stinkhorn -Mutinus caninus, said to be having antibiotic properties. These beautiful pink things are pretty to look at but have an awful smell.

These are the delicate Parasol mushrooms. If you touch with your finger they might fall apart. There was little sunshine and therefore couldn't take any dramatic pictures of them and I was short on my gear.

This was a giant one sitting next to my kid's playset and was so camouflaged with the surrounding fallen leaves that I could've stepped over it.
I loved the sturdy look it gave. Nature has got so many beautiful things that never a day passes by when you do not get amazed by it.

Here is a fallen leaf to end the post whichever way you want to put it, you can say it's the end or just freedom, it's for you to decide. Hope you all are having a nice week. Enjoy all the colors that life has to offer.

28th September 2013 - Art Prize

This weekend I went to Art Prize - The Art of ArtPrizing - Every year, artists from all over the world fill hundreds of venues all around the city -Grand rapids, with their artwork. The work of most of the Artists was stunning. Here are some of the Photographs I took of the artwork and the city.


This artwork is called Myth Or Logic. It is made of Bamboo pieces, suspended on lines. This was jaw dropping.

A chandelier in the Amway Hotel. Loved the way light shines in the night, each little lamp and each little glass piece throwing light in all directions. I clicked a few of them. This shot is one of the few.

This is a sculpture of Einstien named - "Between Theorems" by Montana artist Jim Dolan. Created from welded steel and powder-coated in gold, this is an exemplary piece of artwork of one of the greatest scientists we've had till now. 

"Between Theorems" shows Professor Einstein throwing a frisbee, taking a moment for light-hearted joy amidst his important work.

This was in the exhibit for 2012 and now placed in Grand Rapids, Downtown. I loved it.

I've visited the Downtown several times and everytime I see a new face. The Grand river passing through the tall buildings and the clouds and sunset give it a pleasant look. 


This picture is of Downtown and the Grand river in the evening with another artwork called the - "Silk waves in the Grand" by AI & Laurie Roberts. These are the rapid waves of silk feathers that fly in the Grand River.

Lucky Dog by artist Ritch Branstrom
is made by 4 Cedar trees, a boat and license plates as siding which are re-recycled license plates of 1930s .

Wish we could get these kinds of things in shops. Would be a nice piece of garden decoration.

A tie collection that was started over 55 years ago, was the inspiration for Gravy Stains.  How creative people can get? You have no idea!

Grand Rapids at night with camera without a tripod and slow shutter speed - the last one in this blog. This is all for this week. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

September 25th 1013

This week I mostly worked on  two websites and the rest of the time was spent taking indoor pictures and editing some of the them.

As Summer is working it's way to Fall, these greens will turn into yellows, browns and oranges. Will have to wait for 5-6 months to see them green again. So I clicked a few. These leaves are from the giant Oak trees we have here.

ISO - 100
Aperture- F 8
Shutter - 1/30 secs

I had Photoshop since quite some time but have not been using it for heavy editing. I like to enhance the image rather than create composites.  Digital Photography and Editing cannot be separated.  Some photo purists are strong believers that Photoshopping should remain separate from Photography. I stand in the middle and believe that taking a picture from your camera is 85% of the job and the rest is enhancing your work to make it  more appealing. This is the edit I did this week. I have given the Daisies a rustic look. I am not sure what you think of it. I like it.
ISO - 200
Aperture -22
Shutter - 1/8 secs

This is a hairy leaf which had a shiny look to it. I edited it to some extent .

ISO - 200
Aperture - F16
Shutter - 1/180 secs








This is all for today. Comments are welcome! Hope you all are having a nice week.

September 19th 2013

I haven't been blogging for some time. Lots of things were going on including flu. Anyway, now I am back. Here is a shot from a Botanical garden.
If anyone could ID this flower, I'll be highly grateful.

• ISO - 100
• Shutter Speed - 1/320 secs
• Aperture -4.5

The very attractive Water Lilies. I have not been able to do justice to these flowers as there was a railing and I could not get closer than this. These flowers are super beautiful.

ISO -100
Shutter Speed -1/125 secs
Aperture - F16

One of the most cute shots in this post is this macro shot which I had not planned but this visitor came to me as a surprise in a flower which grew in my backyard. Looks like it's saying - Mirror Mirror on the wall , who's the cutest of them all.

ISO- 400
Shutter Speed - 1/90 secs
Aperture -  3.5
Hope you all will have a nice weekend!

ISO - 100

Shutter Speed - 1/30

F number -9.5

ISO - 100

Shutter Speed - 1/30

F number -9.5

ISO - 100

Shutter Speed - 1/30

F number -9.5