It occurred to me one fine day as I reflected on a few questions posed to me by my friends and followers. To be honest, until I came across a few queries that led me to document my process of what I do, why I do it, and how I do it, I never had the opportunity to reflect deeply on the photographic journey that I had embarked on several years ago.

The Little UmbrellasCloseup of leaf patterns. Example 1 : The Little Umbrellas 

Every time I come across an intriguing subject, I often see myself photographing colors, shapes, and patterns. This fascination for various hues, patterns, and shapes inspired me to explore a wide range of subjects including paper, fire, water, flowers, and architecture. My approach to photography is to make photographs by capturing what I can't see, and this further motivates me to explore and capture the hidden beauty. According to me the focus of art is creation rather than invention. The goal of invention is to discover something that has never existed before, whereas the goal of creation is to use what already exists to express your inner world. Creation emerges out of the way you look at things. The way you look at something has the potent to transform ordinary into extraordinary. Similarly when it comes to photography, how to present the most ordinary subjects is of paramount importance. The main supporting element of every creation is perspective. I can go beyond what the human eye typically sees by using photography and various perspectives, and I can use colour theory and creativity to manipulate the tones, hues, and colors of an object to show how I see it. To achieve the desired feel or mood in the photograph, I enjoy taking liberty in experimenting with white balance, light, and temperature.

Example 1 is a closeup of beautiful leaves that have been processed and visualized as tiny umbrellas. Example 2 shows a macro shot of colored papers that appear to have mystical curves or caves. A close-up shot of a weathered window in Example 3 explores texture and patterns.

Example 2 : Mystical Curves

1. If the subject has an excessive amount of contrast (high/low) compared to the average tone, I adjust the exposure value while I'm shooting. For instance, raise my EV to the higher side (+1, +2) if the overall exposure is lighter or to the lower side (-1, -2) if it is darker.

2. I always shoot in RAW. It gives me more freedom to experiment with the white balance and adjust highlight/shadow depth. The drawback is higher size, but I don't believe it to be a major issue given the affordability of storage devices today. If your camera has this option and you are not shooting in RAW, set your colour profile to Adobe RGB. But remember to change the colour profile to sRGB after processing and before uploading to the web.

3. I play around with white balance a lot until I get the tone I want for my image. Although it's a nice tool, one needs to be careful not to push it too far and lose the natural look of the image.

4. When I'm not satisfied with the results of white balance adjustments, I occasionally experiment with camera profiles in Lightroom.

5. In RAW processing, I experiment with exposure, contrast, and light adjustment. I also believe in finding your personal favorite settings by experimenting with it.

6. Instead of using Photoshop's Hue and saturation adjustment, I experiment with selective colors. It gives me more precise control over it compared to Hue/Sat adjustments.

Weathered WindowCloseup photograph of an old window showing interesting tyexture & patterns. © 2018 Nilesh J. Bhange Example 3 : Weathered Window

One has to know the rules to go beyond the rules. One must therefore discover and create their own style and workflow over time. The aforementioned procedure has been my guide throughout my photographic journey. But in the end, I think that each person must make their own decisions about when and where to stop the adjustment sliders because each image is different and there are no standard settings.

Images published in Daily Dozen & your shot assignment stories on NGM

About NGM Daily Dozen, Assignment & Story:

Under Daily Dozen, each weekday NGM editors showcase their top 12 submissions. Members vote on editors favorites, and the winners appear in the Editors' Spotlight and be featured on the @natgeoyourshot Instagram account.

Assignments are not contests. Assignments are designed to mimic the process of being a photographer on assignment for National Geographic magazine. The editor(s) have an idea for a story they want to publish. They give the assignment to a photographer, who then goes out in the field and shoots. The photographer often brings back 10,000-plus images, only a handful of which go into the story. Throughout the experience, the editor and photographer are working together to make sure the images that come back are in line with what the editor has in mind for the story. The final selection that gets published may not include what were technically the best photos, nor the ones that the photographer or other editors liked the most. Rather, they are the ones that the editor decided worked together to best tell the story. Editors make a subjective choice based on a lot of elements, including the technical quality, how an image portrays one aspect of a larger story, and even the layout that’s available on the page.

"Snowfall" Published in Daily Dozen in NGM Your shot on 29.09.2016

It came to my surprise that my recent shot "snowfall" was published in National geographic Your shot selection on 29.09.2016. I was surprized because it was relatively very simple shot of an ordinary subject straw in the garden. The shallow depth of field was giving interesting blur effect which I was visualising as snowfall because it appeared as small cute snowballs to me. For giving tint of cold I shifted white balance of the captured image in RAW during post processing.http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/daily-dozen/2012-02-13/

Snowfall_2

"Rush on Platform" Published in NGM "Built To Walk" story !     Date 13.02.2012

I was so happy to know that my photograph "Rush on Platform" was selected by editor of National Geographic (NG) your shot monthly assignment "Built To Walk". I feel getting noticed a image from more than 10,000 entries is itself a compliment which gets extended by having a editors note & published in the story on NG assignment.
I do participate in Your shot consistently & like to get feedback from all around.Moreover this shot has been earlier published on NG Daily Dozen on Feb13, 2012. Daily Dozen is collection of 12 curated images by the editors of NG from the weekly uploads. This shot was also shortlisted in top 50 images in Sony World Photography Organization 2013 international photo contest.

About the image:

This image was captured in my Betterphotography Magazines face off contest for better photographer of the year 2012. It was taken on Dadar railway station of Mumbai in morning before office hours elaborating the rush & hurry of people. The local train has became integral part of Mumbai & the peoples lifestyle.

 EXIF Data: 1.3 sec , f16, ISO 100, 17mm

Editors comment (Paul Salopek : Foreign Correspondent and National Geographic Fellow)

Fabulous. A diptych of human movement. There are so many balanced elements in this image of mass movement (light, space, symmetry) that the whole image is tensed--poised between calm and chaos. Bravo.

"Curves" Published in NGM "Create It" story !   Date:05.04.2015

I was so happy to know that my photograph "Curves" was selected by editor of NGM your shot monthly assignment "Create It". I feel getting noticed a image out of around 11k entries is itself a compliment which gets extended by having a editors note & published in the story on assignment. I do participate in Your shot consistently & like to get feedback from all around.

About the image:

I worked on the series of paper abstract quiet a long. This work includes getting closeup of color papers exploring interesting forms & colors. This all work was done using my macro lens. I simply get fascinated while doing this kind of work & can invest my hours while working on it. This image was created by using simple paper curves with a spotlight. The shape gives a feel like lady resting on a beach to me. Although everyone is free to interpret​ there own feelings in abstract photography.

Abstract by capturing closeup of papers.Abstract by capturing closeup of papers.

Editors comment:

Let there be light! The lines, contrasts, movements, lights, and use of colors. What is there not to like about this picture? The abstract feeling and the minimalistic approach. This picture is so aesthetic and beautiful. - Liz Andersen, guest editor for the Create It assignment

Earlier my image "Sky & Clouds" was picked up by editor with his note on assignment " Nature in Black and white" The image was captured from the corridor of my house presenting a view of sky through the frame. This was giving a illusion as reflection of cloud in a big mirror ? Whereas it is a straight view of sky from my balcony on a cloudy day.

A view of sky from my balcony on a cloudy day.A view of sky from my balcony on a cloudy day.

Editors comment:

Nice idea of looking at nature from a man made structure. - Peter Essick (National Geographic Photographer)

I hope my images get noticed by the editors in future too :)

"Painter" in NGM Daily Dozon     Date: 20.06.2011

Dear friends during online surfing it took to me surprise that my image "painter" was shortlisted in National Geographic Daily Dozon for the 3rd week of May 2011. Unfortunately I didn't got any mail intimating that to me but seeing my image as a part of shortlisted group of images was nice experience.

For those who don't know about Daily Dozen NGM from the Daily Dozen, Photographer across the world post their images under the section "Your Shot". Images under these categories were shortlisted for the Daily Dozen. a selection of photos publishes in monthly National Geographic magazine if photograph gets qualified through voting machine.

National Geographic My Shot & Photowalk 2010 HM        Date 04.08.2010

I am happy to share with all of you that my photograph : "Apartment: Reflection" has been displayed on the home page of National geographic My Shot page on 4/8/2010.

This is my first time to get such an honor on this site. I hope to like repeat such success  in future also.

About The Image:
This shot was taken during photowalk 2010 in Indore near Bombay Hospital. I like the distorted reflection of the building forming in glasses of another building.  Unfortunately from the road I was only able to see a partial reflection. I realised that the view could be better from the upper floor. I requested the watchman of the building to allow me to get a shot from the required point of view. He not only allowed me to do so but also came with me & guided for the location. You can find me with a shadow of that watchman under center blue arch.

Apparrtment : ReflectionA typical find during having photowalk 2010 in Indore near Bombay Hospital. I like the distorted reflection of the building forming in glasses of another building. I realizedA typical find during having photowalk 2010 in Indore near Bombay Hospital. I like the distorted reflection of the building forming in glasses of another building. I realized that the view could be better from the upper floor & captured it. You can find me with a shadow of the watchman under blue arch in the center. that the view could be better from the upper floar & captured it. You can find me with a showdow of the watchman under blue arch in the center.

EXIF data

You can find other images taken during this photowalk at “My Photowalk 2010” & other interesting images taken with group members at "Indore Photographers".

Update 16/8/2010:

This Photograph has been selected in Top 10 images as "Honorable Mention" in Worldwide Photowalk 2010.

Details of participant & event is as given below:

Invitation

Image 1 : Invitation for the event & Participants

BEFORE EVENT

After a nearly three-year long break, I took part in a group art exhibition called "Emulsion," which featured photographers and sculptors. I find the processes of preparation, printing, mounting, framing, and display to be a little stressful. Because it seems difficult to store and maintain the work after the show, I'm hesitant to take part in exhibitions. This may be due to the fact that I began using a digital camera for photography (I started doing this after 2006) and that I posted the majority of my images online on my websites, Facebook, and photo-sharing websites.

My photography work had nearly ceased for about a year, except for maybe a few clicks here and there. It's difficult to restart a shooting career if interest wanes. During this time, one can start clicking, participate in art-related activities, visit exhibitions, or simply keep exploring the work of those you follow. But instead, I find myself avoiding all of these activities, particularly not visiting Facebook and other photo sharing sites. Time constraints brought on by hectic schedules and the tendency to only think about ideas without trying to put them into action are the main causes of work getting stuck. I think that such a phase doesn't need a good justification, but a new beginning does, in my opinion.

But once I got going, I realised that I was beginning to enjoy my working style. Because this exhibition was planned on such short notice, I was once more on the fence about taking part. However, senior photographer Mr. Tanveer Farooqui ji took the initiative and was charged with handling the issues that had previously prevented me from taking part. This left me with the task of choosing and getting the files ready for printing. This also occurred with similar assistance from senior photographer Mr. Upendra Upadhya ji for my most recent exhibition, "Photon," in 2013. I merely agreed to it because I believed it would help my photography work gain more momentum. This time, I was confident in showing off my most recent collection of macro photographs, which were taken over the past few months.

I've been working on everyday subjects for a few years now because I enjoy the process of discovering beauty in these ordinary subjects. I'd like to continue on that topic, hoping that long breaks will be limited in the future.

ABOUT THE DISPLAY

Subject of Displayed Work : Beauty in leaves.  

Img1 Beauty In LeavesMy 10 displayed images in this exhibition.

Image 2 : My Ten displayed images in the exhibition

About the theme: Certainly, flowers are beautiful, but that doesn't mean leaves aren't, either! It's my little way of trying to get your attention on the lovely things about leaves. I believe pearls are formed when an oyster receives a drop of rain or dew, but I have seen them glitter like a pearl on the leaves. I tried to capture and present the pure sound of "OM" in these leaves as well as the contours of butterflies, stars, and even butterflies.

DISPLAYED IMAGE

Since my previous exhibitions, I have been practicing the exercise of creating tiny thumbnails of the images to be displayed in order to finalize the arrangement for the final display. This saves a huge amount of time during gallery installation. Additionally, it prevents last-minute confusion about arrangements. Due to my liking the way they all complemented one another, I decided to mount ten images in two rows on the same wall.

DURING THE EVENT

Along with other well-known photographers from Indore, I participated, and I saw it as a learning opportunity. Although there are many tutorials on the internet and in books discussing technical aspects of photography, there are very few that explore aesthetics. This can be acquired by speaking with senior artists, photographers, and painters to understand their perspectives on the artwork that is on display. Seeing the different levels of reaction to the displayed art from a regular person to a senior artist also enriched my life.

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Event Images with Shriram Jog ji, Hemshankar Pathal ji & kirti pandya (Photo Courtesy Balwant Chouhan)

The most important aspect was interacting with the participants, other artists, and friends. I enjoy receiving feedback on my work, especially from painters, because I focus primarily on shapes, patterns, and colours. I'm pleased to report that I received a lot of positive feedback as well as insightful observations and recommendations.

Slideshow : Images from the event (Photo Courtesy Tanveer Farooqui ji & Balwant Chouhan)

The event's most interesting highlight was meeting renowned theatre artist Mr. Shriram Jog ji. I happened to see him perform in a Marathi drama called "Kahi Teri Kara Re" at Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in Indore. The owner of "Vaibhav Nursery," Kirti Pandya, paid a visit to the gallery, which was another highlight. With his gracious assistance, I have been photographing at his nursery for about 8 to 9 years as I have wished. It was very touching to see his acceptance that he had developed a new perspective on these plants after looking through the images that were on display.

A WORD ON PHOTOSHOP PROCESSING HYPE

The majority of viewers, I noticed, seemed preoccupied with evaluating how the effect was created or to what extent it was edited. Actually, I had the same thoughts earlier, but I stopped doing that. I think it takes the artistic vision of a creator to achieve the desired effect using any available tools, and according to me one should not impose any constraints on how you view things.  One ought to be allowed to approach a subject however he pleases if he is not aiming for scientific documentation. The subject's natural beauty must be preserved while keeping treatment to a minimum. When I see other people's work, I just ask myself if it's working for me or not, regardless of the method used to achieve the result.

I completely understand the human desire to understand the process, but I find it utterly unconvincing to make judgments solely based on how something is processed. It should be remembered that in the past, when using film cameras, a photographer would process the images in a darkroom to get the desired result.

In photography, the word "editing" seems to have a lot of different meanings. When someone asks or says, "Edit kiya hain kya?," it appears that they are already convinced that processing tools can accomplish anything, including automatically turning a mediocre photo into an exceptional one. As opposed to that, I consider these tools to be enhancing already beautiful images. Editing process can be subdivided into basic, advanced, and creative.

Basic: Adjustment brightness, contrast, colors, cropping & rotation.

Advanced: Adjustment by basic editing + cloning small areas, dodging, burning etc.

Creative: Advanced editing + merging different images, adding elements not present in original frame.

Most of the time, simple or sophisticated editing is sufficient for my style of photography. Anyhow, this subject is endless and somewhat debatable. I also believe that occasionally the processing tools have lost a little bit of respect due to overuse (resulting in an unnatural look).

It will be more beneficial for them if they try to understand the viewpoint of an artist rather than concentrating on technical questions at such an event, which is my kind advice to beginning photographers.

CONCLUSION

The event ran from 3 to 8 p.m., and since I didn't want to miss a single piece of feedback, I made an effort to spend as much time as I could in the gallery. I was fortunate to receive insightful comments from viewers about the differences between printing on canvas and paper, the fine composition improvements in the images that were displayed, compliments on colour schemes, and information about plants that was genuinely fascinating.

I'd also like to thank everyone who participated, especially the seniors, for giving me a chance to exhibit my work alongside theirs. Throughout the event, I also look to them for advice. It's impossible to list every single detail because the event lasted almost five days. I sincerely appreciate everyone's kind comments and admiration for the work that was on display. This involvement will undoubtedly fuel my continued interest in photography.

Because this event was planned on such short notice, it's possible that I didn't get to invite many of you. We made every effort to invite people via Facebook, Whatsapp, email, and text messages. In such a case, I ask for forgiveness because I made a human error. I'd also like to thank all of our friends, followers, and visitors for spending time with us and providing encouraging feedback. I'd also like to thank those who were unable to attend this event; I completely understand their personal reasons. I am already overwhelmed by the response and hope that they will continue to show their support for my work.

Today this website completes the first year. Last year I started this website basically to keep backup of my files & simultaneously to display in user friendly way to the viewers having interest to explore my photography work. I was really happy to receive overwhelming response & love. Over 6000 unique visitors visited this website & around 40 visitors taken effort to mention their valuable feedback & words of appreciation in the guestbook. I sincerely appreciate their feedback & expresses lot of thanks for loving my work !

The interesting data for me was there is some percent of serious fans who can stay on this website more than 20 minutes to hour. That's really encouraging to know.

Visit lengths statistics

I was planning to display a new set of work on this day but unfortunately due to busy schedule from some months I was not able to work on it. I regret for that but also hope very soon I will start sharing new work.

The experience with Zenfolio (the service provider) was really good. Regular updates were being added giving new features & templates. Though I have preferred the first designed template minor changes were added to the site like addition of new logo & watermark to the images. Your valuable feedback will be welcomed for adding any correction/features to the site.

Thanks to all of you & keep loving!!

'FOTO CIRCLE SOCIETY' is an organisation formed by a group of enthusiastic and active photographers in 1998, with motto - 'Together we progress'. They have started publishing online annual magazine FA FOTOCHA ( F for Fotography) exploring the artist mind instead of usual technical details we found every\where in other articles.

My Article " Me & My Photography" was published in online Magazine.

In this article I tried to open my mind as a photographer, my understanding towards Abstract photography & thought as well as some confused mind as openly as possible.

I hope you like it. Since it's in Marathi I am sorry for non-Marathi friends. Maybe someday I will translate in English on my blog. For this article after a long gap it inspired me to write down on paper in Marathi language. The electronic media really cut down my habit of writing letters/ diary..may be my lazy nature is more responsible than the electronic media.

This show Photon-2013 was organised by Indian Society of Lighting Engineers, M.P. State Centre along with Knowledge Partner SGSITS, Indore, is organizing a mega Lighting & Allied Products Show in Central India. Various latest technologies in lighting were displayed in the show. For adding more interest to visitor a photography exhibition was planned based on the theme of Lighting. The participant photographers were

Participant

• Devdutta Barskar jee
• Nilesh J. Bhange
• Pravin Rawat jee
• Tanveer Farooqui jee
• Upendra Upadhyay jee

This was the first time I exhibited my 10 photographs of print size (18"x24"). Earlier I was participated in Pratibimb-2010 & Pratibimb-2011 photo exhibition displaying 4 photographs each. All photographs in this exhibition were prepared on canvas except mine. I preferred glossy prints with matte lamination since I was not having experience of canvas prints & I was not sure how it will result. Due to restriction of time I didn't had time to experiment also.

_MG_0464-Edit

The response to the exhibition was spectacular & the exhibition resulted as a surprise to the visitors in the crowd of technical stalls & people were enjoying to invest there time to have a look towards the displayed work. The exciting feedback & appreciating words was  overwhelming coming from the senior artists as well as a common man. Similarly I have seen most of the visitors getting confused in guessing whether all the exhibited images were original photographs or paintings? Lot of audience was also curious to know more about the media on which prints were made, framed etc. rather than simply enjoying the work displayed.

A photography contest was also conducted on the subject of capturing interesting images of the event of sky lantern launching (small hot air balloon made of paper, with an opening at the bottom where a small fire is suspended). It was fun to shoot for that event even though I was not supposed to participate considering myself as a member of judging panel.

Meeting a renowned painter Shri Akshya Ameria jee was a wonderful experience. I was planning to meet him far before but it didn't worked out. I am great fan of his sketches of "Innocent Ganesh". Having a chat with all the senior colleagues through out this event was also a learning experience.

Though it was encouraging to receive nice feedback but it was disturbing to see some typical visitors doubting about the originality of the photographs. I always think one should see the vision of artist instead of what media he has used. Well everybody is right from his point of view being this topic is completely subjective.

देखा छायाचित्रों की प्रदर्शनी में हर एक को उसे टच करते हुएं |
क्यां करे आज कल टच स्क्रीन की आदत सी जो हो गईं हैं |

था कई को शक हैं ये चित्र या छायाचित्र, बगैर लेने के मजा उनका|
क्या करे आज कल मन हमारे प्रदूषित से जो हो गए हैं |

कहते हैं आज कल समाचारों में शोर शराबा कुछ ज्यादा सा हो गया हैं |
क्यां करे आज कल इंसानों को सुनायीं देना जो कम सा हो गया हैं  |

I will also like to express my sincere thanks to all the senior colleagues for allowing me to exhibit with them & my friends from IPC (Indore photographers community) for extending their help for displaying the images in the exhibition.

When I self analyse the phases of a photographer from my experience I can see a initial phase where photographer has a thrust of producing quality images which are at least good looking better enough to get acknowledged & praised. He is in the process to prove that he can also take good photographs. In later phase he strives to discover his style of work irrespective of proving something. He shoots to really enjoy by presenting his ideas.

In initial phase he tries to shoot a lot which is good thing actually. In that process he understands his equipments and availability of the subjects to an extent. I have tried to categorize the different things required in the process of developing a novice photographer into a good photographer to the limit I know. This is just to share my feelings & in a hope it addresses some of the questions I often being asked.

In first reading they may look very basic but believe me no magic exists which can turn overnight into interesting image maker. The more you follow these tips with trust & self belief more they are going to help you.

1. Know your Gears.

Don’t you like to complain that you don’t have pro gears to capture the quality shots like whom you follow? If your answer is NO then chances are you are lying. I agree every gear has its own limitations but at this stage your target is to understand basics, isn’t it? You can work on basics with any camera including cell phones. It’s a process of understanding what you see, what you capture & what you get. If you are not getting what you see then you should take efforts to trace the applicable reasons for it. For that you should give sufficient time to analyse your work.

Most of the time we are unaware of full capabilities of the gears which we use. If you feel you better understand your equipments then my immediate suggestion will be you need to go through the manual of the device again. You will definitely find something new. I have updated my gears only after finding its features are limiting me in some way.

I Love Fairytales! 2. Keep on reading.

There is so much to understand & practice on technical aspects. Fortunately there is huge information available to read to the limit how much time do you have to invest? You can get it on internet, ebooks or help from your friend. So I am not rewriting again on various aspects like basics of composition, exposure etc. I agree art can not be bound in the rule set of composition but I strongly believe one need to know & understand what they tell us about. They have been developed after lot of analysis & understanding psychology of visual reading. Understanding exposure is necessary since camera is a machine & can not identify your subject, its tonal range. Practicing on getting proper focus, sharpness, understanding importance of tripod, using shutter speed creatively, observing the light, importance of external lighting & their arrangement (I am still not clear on this), the importance of colors, understanding when color photographs works, how to process your images complimenting the mood of images,  the character of various lenses … a never ending list.

Image 1: My daughter Mansi posing while reading.

3. Observe a lot.

Once you start going through basics, understanding technical aspects you can analyse the work you came across. In this phase you have to restrict your instinct of passing on critiques to others work because that is supposed to happen knowingly/unknowingly. I am telling you based on my experience. I always share with my friends that observing good work of others is very important. It develops our vision towards photography. Further try to self analyse why you liked a work? The more you ask, to self, analyse the more you get. The good thing is that for observing we don’t have to do anything extra. Only we have to keep our eyes open & override our habit of not to see which we develop with the age. The things we observe can be work of our favorite photographers, images published in magazines, newspapers, advertise banners, daily life, nature, objects so many.

In the nature see how the shapes of clouds forms, how drops of rain refreshes the leaves, forms waves on water, after rain how sunlight shines through it, how beautifully the sky is reflected in the calm water & how it got interesting distorted effect when it was subtly pinched. The more we observe the more we find interesting enough to capture.

Photographer's sunrise Image 2 : Landscape of Machal Lake in Indore, India while a photographer shooting sunrise.

4. Keep on shooting.

After reading, understanding & observing you will definitely get itching for shooting. If no then you might have skipped the above paragraphs. Don’t restrict the desire to shoot. Shoot as much possible & invest your time with your camera as much you can. Don’t think the subject you are shooting is outstanding or not. You need to observe & practice as much you can stretch yourself. But don’t share your all work. Keep it to yourself. You are shooting just for practicing & getting command over the gears you have. Try to keep attention on all corners of viewfinder. Try to avoid tilting of horizon unless needed. The angle may change the rhythmic relation of lines in the frame. Try to avoid distractions, keep attention on backgrounds. These small things may save your lot of frustration afterwards & processing time too.

5. Be self critic

You shoot, import, process & upload for sharing with your friends, isn’t it? Nothing wrong actually we all do it. But how it will be if you start to self critique?  I mean if we start to reject our images & process only those which are unique in some way? I know it’s difficult at least initially but you have to make efforts for developing this kind of habit. The more interesting shot you share more followers you can get. When you will go through the rejected images, you may find out where the scope for improvement in your photography skill is. You can work on those too. I have observed most of the time when I import images I like my average images too but not later. So it’s better to review them after some time. If you are pretty sure you really liked it then only consider them worth to share. I agree it’s a difficult to control, even I struggle over it ;)

6. Don’t Justify.

You get hurt when someone passes bad critiques on your images, isn’t it? It’s natural because you are pleased too when somebody praises your work. There is a strong probability that you may feel somebody has passed that just to pull your leg. If he is doing that then it’s his/her mistake you have to overlook it. You have to restrict yourself of doing another mistake of wasting your time on justifying it. During shooting there may be some practical problems which is not known to the commenter because of which you were not able to capture as you were willing to. If you noticed that problem in the image earlier then you were in hurry to publish it, better option was to re-shoot (if possible) again & published only after your satisfaction. If you didn’t noticed that earlier of criticised then the feedback is constructive for you, which should be welcomed. You should respect the commenter because he is putting some valuable time to leave a feedback, isn’t it?

 I know it’s easy to suggest but equally difficult to suppress the itch of pressing your fingers on keyboard for justification. I have too also done such mistakes. If you are sure you wish to improve your skills then you have to learn from my mistakes. The reason for this is once you started throwing justifications you might be blocking way of hope coming towards you for improvement. So if you agree with the received critique then better to thank & try to improve on the suggestion. If you don’t agree then be brave to forgive him (if the comment was from her chances are you already accepted the suggestion ;)).

7. Follow your favorite photographers.

You should not be ashamed of following your favorite photographers with due credit to him whenever possible. I don’t see there is nothing wrong to achieve something similar which you liked. But this should be limited only to develop your skills. We must restrict our instinct to share duplicate work created by inspiration of others work. Because if it is done then it’s only for proving that you can do similar to that but remember it’s not your original creation. You are actually pirating others concepts. But in this process there is always a possibility to discover something new & unique which is purely yours which must be shared. Try to be as much honest with yourself as possible.

Image 3: Closeup shot of papers forming similar to abstract of sand dunes.

8. Discover your way.

Now it’s time to understand the real reason why you are loving photography. Too late I know. But in initial phase you ask this then you may answer some typical answers like you like to share, you like to represent your vision, it’s like meditation, it connects to you with nature etc. I don’t doubt your honesty, it may not be fake and but somewhere I believe everybody has something unique way to represent his work. We all need to discover it. I am still in this process. Unfortunately there is so less to read on developing aesthetic side of photography in contrast to the availability on technical aspect of photography.

But what I understood is we initially work to prove that we can take good photos. But in this phase you are shooting not to prove but rather represent your own idea/ feel/ thought. Once you develop your skills to produce beautiful photographs try to experiment. Try to work for your self, limit your habit of producing the work just to impress your friends. Try to experiment, don’t hesitate. In fact for generating something with novelty you are supposed to experiment. This search for something "new" is, most of the times, an "accidental" process. That is why most artists or painters feel that the success that their work of art achieves is actually still to be received. And that is why artists reject praise.

Happy clicking ! Enjoy your photography!!

Basically I am not a wildlife photographer so I started about thinking what equipments I should carry on this trip? I am currently using canon 5D mark II. Though a crop body camera like 7D might be more suitable I was not feeling comfortable with handling two bodies & that too by borrowing. I exchanged my Canon 70-200mm f/4 IS with Canon 100-400mm f/4-5.6 & Canon 17-40mm f/4 with Canon 24-105 f/4 with my friends. I also kept Canon 50mm f/1.8 + extension tubes with me.

The Journey started on 11.5.2013. I reached to Mumbai & got familiar with the colleagues. We all had gone through Yellow Fever vaccination which is mandatory for the travelers to Kenya. we came to know that one guy is going to miss the tour since his bag was stolen & he lost his passport. It was really unfortunate & we all felt sorry for him.

The Preparation

I was a bit worried about missing some important accessories/documents which I was to carry. I made checklist & kept copies of it with me. I also made three set of copies of important documents. one was kept at home for reference. One was in my Cabin bag & one was with me in handbag/camera bag. All the scanned documents were also kept on my skydrive for online access, if needed in emergency.

Following were essential documents which I carried:

1. Passport + Copies

2. Flight Tickets + Copies

3. Travel Insurance + Copies

4. Visa Application Form + Copies

2. Yellow Fever Vaccination Certificate

Following equipments other than standard camera & lenses were most useful which I carried in this trip:

1. Universal adapter (Mains plug type is bit different) + Small Extension board

2. CF Card Reader + USB drive + Laptop

What I missed in this trip:

1. I was having 3 cards (8GB) + 1 card (4GB). Though it looked sufficient but in RAW burst mode the memory cards may fall short. one 16GB/32GB card gives you plenty of room & avoids changing of cards during shoot.

2. Macro lens. I missed it especially to take beautiful shots of flora/insects available in the lawn of our restaurants.

Day 1: Nairobi

We landed at Nairobi & after going through getting routine procedure like getting on-arrival visa, currency exchange & immigration forms started towards our stay in  Sarova Stanley.  After arrival we had our breakfast followed by briefing session about the contest.

We were supposed to work on two themes. Theme 1: Magical Kenya was about submitting total 48 photographs (5 per day mandatory) & Theme 2: Mobile Diary shooting 60 images (10 images per day) & 18 Video clips (3 clips per day). These 60 images & 18 clips need to be presented in a sequence like making a movie telling a story. Hmm... it was really tough than all of us we were expecting. Mostly we were going to travel together & even though producing images not only unique but also interesting was another challenge.  After 30 minutes of break we started & visited various places in Nairobi like Railway Museum, Kenyatta International Conference Centre etc. We all were warming up by handling with our gears in this new city. Everybody must be thinking on contest themes though were busy in shooting.

Flights

We all visited a shopping mall & got our new local SIM cards. Unfortunately due to some misunderstanding I was left out in shopping mall & when I reached parking lot nobody was there. Due to new changed numbers I was unable to contact our colleagues. I left my message to collect me at the reception center of our hotel & waited for that. But after waiting a long I realized that it was not going to help me. I took help of a local gentleman who guided me for traveling in local bus. Traveling through mini local bus was similar kind of experience as traveling at my hometown local buses. People enjoying the country music busy with their everyday work & activities.

Day 2: Departure for Bagoria Lake

We visited to Bagoria lake in the morning. The soda waters of the lake attract massive flocks of Flamingo, and the lake is often carpeted with pink. The 32 sq km lake (34 km long by 3.5 km wide) is still volcanically active, and the Western shore is lined with spouting geysers, spurting steam and bubbling geothermal pools. Fresh water springs at the lake edge attract an abundance of birds and wildlife.

There are many Fish Eagles, which often prey on the local flamingos. The shores are always lined with Gazelle, Zebra, Baboons and this is one of the best places to see Greater Kudu.

The main attraction here was the sight of millions of flamingos, hot springs & beautiful landscapes. The lake is spread along south - north direction followed by mountain facing towards west. The sunset light falling on the mountains was enhancing it's beauty.

Day 3 : Departure for Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a large trench that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues northward into Ethiopia. The valley contains the Cherangani Hills and a chain of volcanoes, some of which are still active. The climate is mild, with temperatures usually below 28 °C.

This long drive offered beautiful viewpoint

s of valleys with plenty of opportunities to shoot landscapes but due to limited time we were not able to take frequent halts & mostly busy with observing the views only. We had our packed lunch at the viewpoint. We started for Lake bagoria after a group photo session. The evening at lake Bagoria was exotic. I had taken some landscapes from the viewpoint & near hot spring points.

Day 4 : Departure for Naivasha Lake

Lake Naivasha is a beautiful freshwater lake, fringed by thick papyrus. The lake is almost 13kms across, but its waters are shallow with an average depth of five meters. Apart from transient streams, the lake is fed by the perennial Malewa and Gilgil rivers. There is no visible outlet, but since the lake water is relatively fresh it is assumed to have an underground outflow.

The beautiful views of lake, pure white pelicans, storks was wonderful visual treat to the eyes. Pelicans are a genus of large water birds comprising the family Pelecanidae. They are characterised by a long beak and large throat pouch used in catching prey and draining water from the scooped up contents before swallowing.

Day 5 : Departure for Masai Mara

The Maasai Mara National Reserve  is a large game reserve in Narok County, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Mara Region, Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people and their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara", which is Maa (Maasai language) for "spotted," an apt description for the circles of trees, scrub, savanna, and cloud shadows that mark the area. It is globally famous for its exceptional population of lions, leopards and cheetahs, and the annual migration of zebra, Thomson's gazelle, and wildebeest to and from the Serengeti every year from July to October, known as the Great Migration.

Well this trip might be not complete without visiting this place. We spotted various wild animals like black spotted Hyena, Elephants, Zebra, Giraffe, Lions with cubs, Wildebeest,  gazelles, impalas, rhino etc here along with beautiful birds like crested crane, Secretary bird, Ostrich, Marabou Stork, Southern Ground Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller etc.

Day 6 : Departure to Nairobi

Flying from Mara Serenas local airstrips by charter flight to Nariobi's Wilson Airport was fun. No check-in procedures putting our luggage by self in the cabin & sitting just behind the pilot & having aerial view of Masai-mara was all together a very different experience. We were having flight from Nairobi to Mumbai. Most of us all were busy with their laptops in selecting final images for submitting to the contest. Though we were given 2-3 days for processing the images & submitting online we were supposed to give them final file selections before we leave from Mumbai.

It was wonderful experience, I made new talented friends each one blessed with special skills. While reviewing images database I found that I just shoot like a kid trying to capture whatever possible I came across just like a novice photographer. May be I was just too excited by seeing so many opportunities & being bit nervous on the issue of my inexperience in wildlife photography. I missed many shots due to my poor skills in this genre of photography, inexperience with handling canon 100-400 etc. but no complaints. I learned a lot & I am sure it is going to help me!!

You can watch all images in my album : Magical Kenya I will recommend you to watch with the option of slideshow (button top right side) for getting big size previews.

The good news is that in the annual photography contest "Better photographer of the year 2012" conducted by India's leading photography magazine I have been selected as category winner of the "Portraiture:Face" contest. As reported in magazine ( Better Photography June 2013 ) total 72864 entries were received including print & online entries. These images initially shortlisted by BP Team and then 16 renowned photographers were given the task of shortlisting the nominees.

The Pure Joy !

Image 1: My Winner photograph in Portrait category of BPOY 2012

That photograph is portrait of my son "Manas" when he was about 6 months old. This shot was taken just after his bath wrapped in a towel on the bed. I was having fun with him taking photograph making some funny faces. The manual flash was bounced from the wall in manual exposure overexposing the image slightly. But the RAW shooting helped me to overcome the exposure in post processing, in fact it helped me to wash out the details of bed sheet surrounding & I cloned out minute details around him. No key elements were digitally disturbed of the original capture. The editing mostly is around adjusting white balance, healing minute dust particles, scratches around eye & color-contrast adjustments.

About the composition  irrespective of bright background & centered subject the portrait stands out because of his expressions complemented by visual lines of towel & his arms. The bright white color adds the feel of purity also. The arcs of towels goes in rhythm adding visual interest.

Another outcome of this honor is that I am invited to attend the face-Off contest along with other seven category winners in Kenya ! I am excited for it especially considering my first foreign tour in which I can invest my time for photography as much as possible.

Update : 7.7.2013

An event was organised at "Taj Land's End" on 4th July 2013 by betterphotography to reward the category winner awards & declare overall winner for BPOY 2012 (Better Photographer of the year) & WPOY 2012 (Wedding Photographer of the year). Bangalore based photographer Senthil kumar was the winner for BPOY 2012 & I missed trophy this year too. But honestly I don't have regrets since I was knowing he was deserving it completely. Here is the certificate & trophy for category winner:

Image 2: My certificate & Trophy

Image 3: Receiving Trophy From renowned photographer Ashok Salian

Image 4: The Category winners & POY2012

Here is telecast of the show on CNBC for those who missed it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUhMH8O0Kjs&feature=share

My sincere thanks for your love & affection towards my work. It helps me a lot !!

I have also been asked this question many times. The funny thing was that some times I have been called when the buyer is holding a camera in his hand in a shop & asking me about it's performance before paying for it expecting me to answer in few seconds ! It's really difficult to keep updated with new cameras & their specification especially for a hobby photographer like me. Unfortunately sometimes I even felt the buyer is asking the question just for testing my knowledge & showing me how better he knows about the new cameras, that's really irritating & waste of time.

I will like to write down a checklist for a new buyer so that he can himself analyse the answer & can get some help over taking a better decision for purchasing a new camera. First you will need to identify in which type of camera do you need?  Following flowchart may help you for taking the decision. However if you find more confused than getting help then go to the description given below the image:

The summary of the flowchart is if you are novice user & looking for low cost & everyday use then simply go for a penny pincher point & shoot one. If you wish to add more sturdiness considering your naughty kids probability of giving considerable threats to camera then go for better build quality point & shoot with waterproof, shock proof features. For a bit advanced user higher zoom & manual feature SLR like medium cameras can be better choice. If you are sure you need better than this then SLR/PEN camera will be final choice.

So your answer is giving you following options:

1. A Penny Pincher Camera : Compact point & shoot (Optical zoom may be upto 5x)

2. Sturdy but good camera : Waterproof, shock proof compacts

3. Happy Medium Camera : Medium zoom to tele (upto 20x) with manual features

4. Professional SLR : Professional full frame D-SLR or higher

5. Top-Notch Entry level Camera : Mirrorless SLR / D-SLR

Then go to a website camera buying guide which is my personal favorite i.e. DPreview

You can compare side by side 20(max) cameras at a time & this is very helpful feature on this DPreview website : Compare Cameras

Here you can search for your camera by providing features you will like to have. You can also find the top cameras by the reviews given which will help you to pick the best one out of latest cameras.

Instead of mentioning all specifications details which you can find anywhere on net I will simply like to list some tips:

1. Don't go for only high megapixels. You may not need more than 10Mega Pixel.

2. Don't go for digital zoom numbers. Optical zoom matters for better picture quality.

3. Lithium ion batteries give better performance & small size in lieu of higher cost against Ni-MH batteries.

4. Go for lighter/small cameras unless you are very sure you need big one so that you don't miss it when you really need it. Many smart phones are now available with good picture quality now - days.

5. If you are going for D-SLR then have a look for mirrorless SLR/PEN cameras. They are becoming popular due to compact size.

6. If you are very sure you need professional D-SLR then save some money for quality lenses. Quality is not only about great camera body. Moreover body can be changed but not the lenses very easily.

Hope this helps you for choosing you new camera & me for the guiding the new camera buyers in better way :)

Update 10.01.2018

Here is a link declaring some best cameras in 2018 in each category.

                 H               appy Valentine's day to all of you & here is my gift to you on this special occassion !!  

Dear friends I am extremely happy to welcome you all on my new website. I hope you all find it interesting & easy to surf through the images displayed. I was busy from almost month & half for putting it to work.  Though the interface provided by Zenfolio is easy & I don't have to go through any coding but I was having zero knowledge about getting a custom domain & a website. I was mostly busy in customizing, understanding the tools provided & most important selecting, sorting, metadata editing, re-touching (for a few) & uploading images.

Many of you might have a question in your mind "Why I needed a website now?" I can understand that because I asked that question to myself many times before. As most of you know I share my images on Flickr /  Facebook  & 500px. Unfortunately I have gone through image library data corruption 3-4 months back. More on that may be in different blog. That accident gifted me some sleepless nights under the fear how secured my favorite images are? I was so much frustrated when I came to know the PC was having some serious problem & corrupting my backup drive when connected for restoring the images. In that process sometimes I felt it will be better even if I can get my full size images in JPG format in lieu of RAW images. I thought of using some paid cloud services like dropbox, Gmail drive etc. Later I thought instead of putting the images simply online why not to display on a website?

Gerbera in Hands

I am not comfortable uploading full size images on flickr/facebook/500px & even if I decided to do it I have to put permanent watermark on it. Many sites compress the images. Zenfolio offers to put a virtual watermark so that in case of need I can have access to my original file from anywhere & I can share it in case of need. There can be a debate on do photographers really need a watermark? Because having it doesn't make sure it is fully protected. I was interested to have it just for a reason if anybody shares the images it can leave the main source of image if the person doesn't take effort to mention it. I have experienced some of my non-watermarked images floating on net without wrong intentions of the person who is sharing.

Now a days the dropping rates of LCD/LED monitors most of the people are using big screens on which traditional web size image of longest pixel length as 640, 800 or even 1000 might not be big enough to leave the impression it has. These website visitors can enjoy the big size previews & explore the details as much possible. I don't wish to take away that fun from my fans in the fear of image thefts.

I have tried trial period account on smugmug & Zenfolio for 15 days. After playing with all the features I decided to go with Zenfolio. I found the interface more user friendly, easy integration of my blogs & windows file explorer kind of file management. I put hard efforts for customizing the available template suitable for my taste. I created a menu such that visitors can switch to any category of images from any page. I also added some custom pages giving information about my equipments etc.

I make a wish all results well giving a nice gift to my fans. Please don't be shy to point out any mistakes & suggestions for better improvement. I will put my sincere efforts for all practically possible modifications. I will also request you to share this website with your friends if you liked it.

 In case you wish to create your own website on Zenfolio you can use my referral code for getting some discount which can also help me to get few reward points. The referral code is 139-F15-3QZ 

You can also get 20% discount on domain purchase from Go-Daddy by using referral code : WOW000

Dear friends my article on creating abstracts using paper has been published in the UK based magazine of photography "Digital SLR Photography".
 

It's nice to see their interest in my paper abstract work & imitative for publishing the tips & techniques about this work in the magazine along with my other images in the new year issue of Jan 2013. I am really privileged for this providing this platform to me to the Jordan Butters (Features Writer) &  Caroline Wilkinson ( Features Editor) of this magazine.

I will like to thank you all for you kind support & appreciating my images on Flickr, Facebook & elsewhere.

Exif Data

I am really excited to share with you all that I was selected as category winner for Still Life: The obvious Things in the annual photo contest conducted by India's leading photography Magazine "Better photography".


My attached image Paper Swan was selected as winner in the still life. In the category "Joy of color" another image "Rainbow Twirl" was nominated in final 6 whereas "Paper Waveform was shortlisted in top 20 images.

It was overwhelming to see my work on paper abstract being appreciated so highly especially considering around 70,000 entries from all over India.
The eight category winners were invited to Mumbai & were offered the challenge to photo shoot in Mumbai on the theme of "Spirit of Mumbai". I was supposed to shoot for 4 days & submit 10 individual images & 8-12 images in series for photo essay. Though I didn't able to turn that for grabbing overall winner award among 8 I was happy enough to get opportunity to shoot the Mumbai for 4 days.

I just can't express in words the thrill & feel of the overall face-off session, sleepless nights, endless opportunity to shoot in Mumbai ..!

Nilesh Bhange accepts the Canon-Better Photography Photographer of the Year 2011 award for the category 'Still Life: Obvious Things' from photographers Ian Pereira, Girish Mistry and Vikesh Ramchandani, Asst Director, National Retail Division, Canon India. 

Image 1:The Story of Big Eyes was selected as finalist & winner in "Details & Macro" category whereas Image 2: Pink Lotus were selected as finalist in the "Flowers" category. Total 17500 entries were received & 882 finalist were shortlisted in overall 10 categories.

The Story of Big Eyes

Image 1 : The Story of Big Eyes
EXIF Info:
Camera Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

About The Image:
Image taken with canon 100mm/F2.8 macro + 36mm extension tube & external flash with a diffuser.
Dragonflies (and bees) have the largest compound eyes of any insect; each containing up to 30,000 facets, and the eyes cover most of the insect's head, resembling a motorcycle helmet. In contrast to a human eye, each facet within the compound eye points in a slightly different direction and perceives light emanating from only one particular direction in space, creating a mosaic of partially overlapping images.
Dragonflies can also detect the plane of polarization of light, which humans cannot do without the aid of sunglasses. The advantages of this capability are unknown for dragonflies, but other insects are known to use polarized light as a sort of "sky compass" by which they navigate.
Pink Lotus Image 2: The Pink Lotus
EXIF Info:
Camera Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposure 0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

About The Image:
Botanically, lotus and water lily are different plants. Waterlilies have lily pads that float on the surface; lotuses have leaves that are held above the water, and blooms that are much larger than water lilies, and most often pink.

Category : People

Tired Of Life

Intense A portrait of a innocent child of a farm worker. I loved the intensity of hopes expressed in his eyes.

Old King

orchid

This image was taken while I have to take the shelter of this beautiful tree from rainfall. I found the mountains view from trees perspective the light was beautiful & I didn't missed the opportunity to press the shutter button :)

1. Look along all the corners & frame of your viewfinder & think once is it all ok?
2. Whatever being seen in viewfinder is really needed in the frame or not?
3. Is any change in angle is going to avoid background distractions?
4. Is any change is going to avoid exposure problems like bright sky?
5. Is any change is going to give you more contrast with subject?

.... & much more can be asked. It comes with practice & practice. A beginner may ask like how can I see all that in one second? It comes with practice & until then you can breath more before clicking :)

Flower Seller Girl

But what if you didn't able to shoot as you were planning? In such cases cropping is the key. I am very particular about cropping the images & expects everyone should be. There are number of reasons for cropping your images like:

Yogesh There are number of rules suggesting how to crop or not. But don't hesitate to break such rules unless your composition is strong enough. You may see in my number of images I cropped out chin in my portrait shots & I don't think I have done anything wrong with the subjects. It helps me to place my subject engaged with viewers until they forget about cropped chin. The images in this blog are showing such examples. Hope you like the images & small tips about framing & cropping. I will like to add more about cropping may be in next blog. Enjoy shooting & cropping :)

The Holy Man

I have submitted the image taken in my trip to Maheshwar on 3rd Jan 2010. On that morning at Narmada ghat I found this interesting charachter & I requested to allow me to take his portrait. He was humble enough to allow me for that. The morning sunlight & the breeze helped me for adding in the image.I really want to thank him for resulting in nice portrait & giving me a winner shot.

Camera settings:
This shot was taken with my telephoto lens Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS. The light was nice to get nice aperture setting as f/8.0 with high shutter speed like 1/640 sec. I even though increased my ISO to 200 because I was not with tripod & didn't want to miss the shot. He was having far distance from the stairs in the background & I was shooting with the focal length of around 90mm so the f/8.0 allowed me to take sharp image with shallow background adding only colors in the background helping for the image.

About the contest details:

Submission Dates:
Dec 30 2009 - Jan 5 2010
Voting Dates:
Jan 6 2010 - Jan 12 2010
Submissions: 99
Disqualifications: 0
Votes: 21,245
Comments: 569

Woophy stands for WOrld Of PHotographY, a website founded by a Dutch collective of photo aficionados and internet designers who believe navigation on internet can be more visual, logical and associative.

Biker

We started around 6:15 from Indore. It was nice fresh morning the sigh of relief was there were no signs of getting rain.

I was thrilled to have fun with photography as it was my first experience to shoot while having a ride on bike. I have tried motion panning considering nothing can be better than this time to work on that. I kept wide open aperture to get slow shutter speeds & keeping image stabilization on of my canon 18-55mm IS lens. Some shots turned out really well. It’s really difficult to get very sharp images but I got some images with acceptable quality. I was also interested in taking some people portraits as always.

Here is a bit more information about this place:

History Of Mandu:
Mandu was founded as a fortress and retreat in the 10th century by Raja Bhoj.It was conquered by the Muslim rulers of Delhi in 1304. After the victory of Mughals in the early 16th century on Delhi, Mandu came under the administration of Afghan Dilawar Khan, the Governor of Malwa. Hoshang Shah, son of Dilawar Khan, transferred his capital to Mandu. Until 1561, it remained under the Afghans when Akbar defeated Baz Bahadur, one of the Afghan chieftains ruling a part of central India. Baz Bahadur fled Mandu instead of facing the Mughal army. During the administration of Marathas, the capital of Malwa was shifted back to Dhar and Mandu became a ghost city for some time.

Best Time To Visit:
Mandu enjoys an extreme climate. The best season to visit this place is during the monsoon, that is, from July to September. While other places in Madhya Pradesh and most of the north and peninsular India are closed for tourism during monsoon, Mandu is more of a monsoon resort than anything else. The natural surroundings are in full bloom during this time. The monsoon is to end in India so everything is with lush green & beautiful atmosphere. We were able to mage our visiting in the best period :)

Places:
Rupmati's Pavilion is a very beautiful piece of architecture & I got some very nice images of arches in symmetry along with there reflections in water. I also like to take picture of beautiful caves with good light & shadows. The Rupmati's Pavilion is situated on the very edge of Mandu Fort. It is a very romantic building, a perfect setting for fairytale romance. Nevertheless, unfortunately, the love story of Baz Bahadur and Rupmati had a tragic end. It is said that Akbar attacked Mandu for the sake of Rupmati and Baz Bahadur fled Mandu leaving Rupmati to poison herself. We all enjoyed the beautiful view of lush green fields, mountains & atmosphere with dramatic fog. I have taken snaps with my wide angle(18-55) & medium telephoto(55-250).



 

Slideshow of images in this trip & after

WOW! I finally got it!

It was one of my dream to get a blue (1^st place ) on Dpchallenge contest, which come true today. I really struggled hard to make this happen. I tried hard, sometimes got frustrated & lost hope that I can ever make this.

Congratulations! You have placed as a finalist in this month's BetterPhoto Contest! Over 19500 photos were entered into the competition; it is an honorto have your image selected among the top 516 finalist photos.

Your finalist photo: r e d (#8368766)

red

Your finalist photo: p e a s (#8296908)

Hope they will do better further & at least one image may be nominated as winner.

4.

Layer Both layers copied into new layer again blending mode set to lighten. I am showing individual layers but You will see a different image in photoshop.

Photographer : Manuel Librodo

The best thing which I liked is his work is how beautifully he has captured the emotions! He is master in creating good lighting & post processing. In some image He has created such a magical work one almost gets the 3D effect in the two dimensional photograph. I will definitely like to link the two images with such effect & which are VEIL & INTENSITY

I like most of his work with the children. I always believed the children give most natural expressions because of there innocence. The other thing which I experienced in my street photography work how rich the poor peoples are really! I can sense the warmth of their soul. I felt the sense of happiness when they came to know that somebody is interested to photograph them. I think they can deliver very natural expressions.

Image 1 Image 2

Image2: A image showing sound waves illustration representing smoke as sound waves. In actual photograph the smoke was from behind the speaker & only top wave. In processing it has been duplicated & shown coming from speaker. No external elements have been added in the image.

My few tips & techniques for capturing such images are as given below:
SOURCE: The source for smoke can be cigar, incense sticks etc. I prefer incense sticks considering long time needed for working on such shots. It is not harmful for health also & pleasant to work with.

PLACE: You will need a clean place with minimum dust & good ventilation. Insure it is with enough isolating atmosphere, not disturbing the smoke frequently. Small place will get filled with smoke & you will not able to work after some time.

BACKGROUND: Use a black background for getting good contrast with the smoke color. The another advantage is that during post processing when you invert image you can get isolated white background very easily. Some images looks good against black (Image 2) & other against white (Image3 & 4).

Tango Image 3 Image 4

Image4: Do you see a couple in tango? This was original shot & I didn't duplicated layers here to achieve these figures.

SHUTTER SPEED: Use higher shutter speed like greater than 1/160 Sec. This will help for getting sharp images.Use tripod even if you are shooting with higher speed. Sometimes you can get beautiful soft smooth effects images with slightly slower speeds. Handholding camera may help you to tracking faster the various portions of the smoke but you need steady hands.

APERTURE: Use higher aperture like f/12..f/18. Since you don't know the exact area for focusing it is preferable to use higher aperture values.

ISO: Use lower ISO if possible to get noise free images.It is quiet likely to get noisy images with this kind of subject & higher light requirement.

LIGHT: For getting high speed & higher aperture values light should be sufficient enough. For using lower ISO one needs good amount of light for that strobes really helps. Use one or two off camera flash such that light will not hit background. If possible use diffused light. If you don't have strobes here is old technique which I was using earlier. I was using sunlight illuminating only the smoke without falling on background, with some limitation on settings one can get nice images without flash. The on camera flash will not be useful because it will throw light . Using snoots (object like rectangular box) on external flash will help for illuminating smoke & isolating light from background. As shown in setup image those flashes were used in manual mode. The power is adjusted after taking some trial shots. Usually I prefer to handhold camera for getting interesting compositions. Since I am shooting at 1/200 sec (maximum sync speed of my camera) I have fewer reasons to worry about getting blurry images.

FOCUS: Last but important use manual focus. Don't move tripod aft
er focusing. You can focus on source of smoke & since you are using higher aperture it is quite likely to get the smoke with tack sharp details. Auto focus may trouble you to get shot in time & the focusing timings may irritate you. Macro lens may help you to get tack sharp images.

Image 5 Image 6

smoke Art Maori Tiki In post processing adjust levels to make background pure black & remove unwanted portion of smoke if needed. You can play with hue/sat adjustment for coloring the smoke. You can us multiple layers with masking to get multicolored smoke shots. In post processing one can use mirror image of the original image to get symmetrical abstracts. Most of the time they can turn into really good abstracts as shown in Images 5 & 6.

For getting some interesting shapes use other layers with main subject snapping horizontally & vertically. Blend this layers with darken, lighten etc. for getting different shapes. Sometimes you need to clean out some unwanted smoke.

The multi color effect can easily be obtained by applying color gradients, but use this layer by blending in color mode. You can get number of possibilities by using different layers with various blending & masking. No limit to creativity. The example is shown in Image 3 & 6.

Few days before I was experimenting on such shots & realised that the music can be very helpful for getting variations in smoke shapes. I played my favorite musicians A.R.Rahman songs & got some really interesting images, some of them are uploaded today & other I will upload very soon. Enjoy your favorite music & smoke photography. The only thing you will need is lot of time, patience, people with no allergy of smoke & if married a super calm wife :)

If interested here are view my more work on smoke shots: My Smoke Photography
If anybody feels this article useful I will be very happy. Love you all Keep shooting... :)