Incredible India

[zoossh]

P57

This was a wild-goose chase as I tweak my itinerary to make sure I coincide with the archery contest and boy was it a waste of time but the subsequent portraits made up for it.

P58

When I first caught glimpse of them walking to the festivals.

P59

P60

Many people at this event was trying to capture the picture of the little girl but she wasn't cooperative, I didn't even try. But as I sat myself nearby and was looking to photograph another group of people then when I turned around I noticed her smiling, so i waved back then I took the picture. Got it!

the archer shot is very classical... ok, that may sound good or can be misunderstood by others as cliche, but i mean it is good.

the women's traditional costume is what we really wanted to shoot during our trip in june, but we couldn't get it. they dun wear this during normal days.

 

[Shuttergraphy]

the archer shot is very classical... ok, that may sound good or can be misunderstood by others as cliche, but i mean it is good.

Thanks. Because it's bows and arrows they were carrying, I suppose that it was going to be quite obvious the moment you silhouttte them. And at that hour with relatively noon sun, I would always be looking for a silhoutte pictures if there are any shadows that are very identifyable. In this case, it was and if any, I would have wanted to move closer.

the women's traditional costume is what we really wanted to shoot during our trip in june, but we couldn't get it. they dun wear this during normal days.

I only saw them traditionally dress like that for few celebrations e.g. this small festival and waiting for Karmapa.

 

[Shuttergraphy]

Allright, I'm seriously getting jaded of my India pictures already and I haven't got the 100 mark but I would get there as I think I was more productive on this trip than others or maybe my portrait lens provide a whole new photo opportunities with portraits. Well, I realised that I must have used my 50mm lens 50% of the time while on this trip, AND it happens to be my first prime lens I've ever used. Abit extreme and no wonder I only had TWO frames on my panaromic film camera that I had to throw away that entire role.

P69

P70

Back to some wide-angle goodness. My guide / driver and his schoolfriend who is a teacher at the monastery, he invited us for tea.

I cropped this real-tight with some distortion from my super-wide, does it work for you? It does give me the feeling of being RIGHT THERE a meter in front of them (which i was).

P71

This is were all the latest high ISO would triumph over mine, it was tough to get a decent picture under this challenging lights. An evening puja at the nunnery we stopped by.

P72

Bihar men starting their day in "office", they were so crucial in making the roadsystem work for where we're travelling under such a harsh working environment. Well, you can see what I was trying to do here, them and also the backdrop. Placed camera on ground with wide angle and shooting blind upwards as they walk past, they must be wondering what I was doing.

I kinda like the outcome, not sure if it works for you?

 

[Pokka]

Placing camera on the ground does provides a fresh perspective no doubt. But becareful wait scratch the bottom of ur camera and the bottom of ur lens. Painful.

 

[zoossh]

Well, I realised that I must have used my 50mm lens 50% of the time while on this trip, AND it happens to be my first prime lens I've ever used.

that was my only prime too.

P70

Back to some wide-angle goodness. My guide / driver and his schoolfriend who is a teacher at the monastery, he invited us for tea.

I cropped this real-tight with some distortion from my super-wide, does it work for you? It does give me the feeling of being RIGHT THERE a meter in front of them (which i was).

i think if there are certain features you want to enlarge and make more prominent, such as faces and hands, wide angle can work in that manner. otherwise, i may go for slightly less distorted wide angles.

P71

This is were all the latest high ISO would triumph over mine, it was tough to get a decent picture under this challenging lights. An evening puja at the nunnery we stopped by.[/B]

although u didn't ask if this works for others, well i think it works without question. high iso not that visible at least to me.

P72

Bihar men starting their day in "office", they were so crucial in making the roadsystem work for where we're travelling under such a harsh working environment. Well, you can see what I was trying to do here, them and also the backdrop. Placed camera on ground with wide angle and shooting blind upwards as they walk past, they must be wondering what I was doing.

I kinda like the outcome, not sure if it works for you?

it works for me, probably along the same line u r thinking. although i still think maybe it works slightly better with a little more space on the top.

 

[Shuttergraphy]

Placing camera on the ground does provides a fresh perspective no doubt. But becareful wait scratch the bottom of ur camera and the bottom of ur lens. Painful.

Thanks, I'm always trying to find fresh perspective to photography but for me to lie down on ground, is abit too much unless it's really, really worth it. Scratch-wise, I never really find that to be a problem as I think my camera and lens seem so solidly built. When you do rock climbing outdoor and trying to grab a picture while at it, now that is risky to your camera and lens, but i still do it.

i think if there are certain features you want to enlarge and make more prominent, such as faces and hands, wide angle can work in that manner. otherwise, i may go for slightly less distorted wide angles.

it works for me, probably along the same line u r thinking. although i still think maybe it works slightly better with a little more space on the top.

Thanks for your feedback, I actually prefer the distortion so wanted to know if others think it's too much.

I was thinking of you when I said I was jaded, and how you reach the 100s of postings within your threads. I still have somemore to go but really don't wanna look at India anymore for the moment, anyhow, off to Bali for the weekend for paragliding.

P73

Our driver / guide tells us this is moonland, as the locals call it because of the unique terrain that looked like the moon.

P74

We trekked up a little to get this view of the monastery, not sure if we had alternative angles for it but it seem like the only angle we could work with in the morning sun.

P75

Playing with depth of field to put the focus on him, effect was better than i expected. From this pic, you can see that i do pretty much frame my pictures square on camera which is about 95% accurate then crop it.

P76

Moment I saw the strong lightings on him, I wanted to try this but didn't exactly get the impact I wanted. Maybe it's the distraction at the background or maybe it would have been better with lightings from a more pornounced angle. I'm not quite sure but certainly would like to try again.

 

[zoossh]

Thanks for your feedback, I actually prefer the distortion so wanted to know if others think it's too much.

i see. i do prefer less distortion here, but nope, i dun think the distortion is too much to me either.

I was thinking of you when I said I was jaded, and how you reach the 100s of postings within your threads.

becos i'm less stringent with my selection. i'm sure many others have that output too.

 

[zoossh]

P76

Moment I saw the strong lightings on him, I wanted to try this but didn't exactly get the impact I wanted. Maybe it's the distraction at the background or maybe it would have been better with lightings from a more pornounced angle. I'm not quite sure but certainly would like to try again.

compositionally, i'm thinking that distributed pattern over the whole background or elements that runs diagonally across at the top right corner may resonate with the outline along the bottom left. i have tried side profiles also, and thought that rim lighting may not work too well with side profiles becos too much is in shadow and does not add well to the picture.

colors wise, those gloomy colors at the bottom dun really works well with dusty brown in my opinion.

 

[Shuttergraphy]

Oh well, if first you don't succeed. Try again so here goes...

P77

But this was completely different. I wanted a low-key effect that the studio guys do but i have to look for that picture again some other circumstances.

P78

This was posed, I told him what I wanted in the limited communication we could have. His head didn't turn but his eyes rolled instead. What was I thinking? I have no idea, I just knew I was having way too many frontshots of lamas, so since I had opportunity to communicate with him, I was desperate to try something different.

 

[zoossh]

Oh well, if first you don't succeed. Try again so here goes...

P77

But this was completely different. I wanted a low-key effect that the studio guys do but i have to look for that picture again some other circumstances.

yah, that is what i think works better than the previous portrait.

 

[Shuttergraphy]

P79

P80

P81

P82

 

[Shuttergraphy]

P83

P84

P85

P86

Thats all from Leh, just a selection from the 981 pictures that I took from Manali to (and around) Leh, hope you'll start planning to go there because it is quite simply a really awesome place.

Next up would be Delhi.

 

[Pokka]

Read about the turmoil in mumbai.. u take care there...

 

[Shuttergraphy]

Read about the turmoil in mumbai.. u take care there...

What I meant was posting up Delhi pictures, I've been back from India since end September. Having said that, not sure if I did mention this earlier but I was in the vicinity at Cannaught Place walking around looking for dinner the night before the Delhi bombing. When the bombing occurred (around dinner time), I was already in Agra. These things you never know but I'm not really going to let it stop my plans if I have any, anyway. Thank you so much for your concern and my hearts go out to all the victims.

 

[Shuttergraphy]

New Delhi
Back from Ladakh and into Delhi for a few days with stopover at Agra, now that i'm trying to get back into the mood of taking pictures again. Here are teh rest of Delhi.

P87

Just trying to figure out a different perspective to what would have been a shot-to-death postcard picture.

P88

Think in this case, eye contact wasn't that necessary although most other times if i don't get eye-contact, i won't press the shutter. If you've been to the main mosque, you'd know that not being surrounded by 10 people is quite a feat.

P89

Super-wide coming into play, stacked onto my bag for stability although I got the stare from most others as i await them to clear up.

P90

 

[zoossh]

what place is #85?

 

[Shuttergraphy]

what place is #85?

Now that you've highlighted it, i've replaced it with another. Got my driver / guide to get into a prayer position for me to shoot this. Hmm.. location? Likir Monastery I think.

P85b

 

[NineEleven]

Incredible India indeed. Many beautiful pictures to digest here & thanks for taking time to share with us.