arre... O! Sambar

Thoughts on the new Flickr redesign...

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:49:00 +0000

If you are new to this piece of news - first go here: http://www.flickr.com/new

So, May 20th has come and gone and Flickr now offers 1 TB of free storage to "everyone". Yes, this does mean that the free users don't have the puny 200 photos total / 100 MB limitation anymore.

However, what does it mean for a photography enthusiast, like me?

a) this race towards who gives the maximum storage is cool indeed, but at what cost? Most of the current paying members (myself included) won't feel the need to pay for pro anymore. $49.99 is a steep proposition just to get out of ads (thanks adblock). The first thing that I did this morning was to cancel my pro. I see this as an opportunity missed compared to say, 500px or something who offer you portfolio management alongside. A company which pioneered personal web hosting (with GeoCities) should have definitely made some attempts in this area. Maybe, there is a conflict of interest on this photo-blogging space with Tumblr?

b) The main reason that I stuck around in Flickr was not the unlimited storage space - but the community. Not the individual users, but a "community". It is really sad that they haven't taken any steps in that area to control the farcical "Post 1, Award 100" things that Flickr has now become from the very good knowledge sharing, meetup friendly things that they were.

So in essence, once the wow factor of the 1TB thing goes away, I don't think that Flickr has done enough to survive. The ghostland - google+ - gives me about the same, if not better engagement most of the times.

Elgin Bridge on the Singapore River

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 08:43:00 +0000

As it is with every major city in the world, Singapore also has a river that flows through it and the river pretty much sculpted the way of life in it. The mouth of the Singapore River was the old Port of Singapore, being naturally sheltered by the southern islands. Historically, the city of Singapore initially grew around the port so the river mouth became the centre of trade, commerce and finance. To this day, area around the old Singapore River mouth, the Downtown Core, remains the most expensive and economically important piece of land in Singapore.

Whereas the original mouth of the Singapore River emptied into Singapore Straits and its southern islands before major land reclamation took place, the Singapore River now empties into Marina Bay - an area of water partially enclosed by the reclamation work.The Port of Singapore is now located to the west of the island, using most of the south-west coast, and passenger ships to Singapore now typically berth at the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront. Thus the Singapore River's economic role has shifted away from one that of trade, towards more a role accommodated for tourism and aesthetics for the commercial zone which encloses it.

And that leaves us with a ton of bumboats "cruising" along the river. Although I have never been a big fan of them, their streaks of light do add some aesthetics to my shot. So they aren't too bad after all :)

If you move around Singapore, the Elgin bridge is certainly of those "trademark" spots that you could identify the city state. It is probably the most historically significant bridge on the island.

Elgin Bridge is believed to have existed at its current location as an unnamed footbridge as early as 1819, the year Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles landed on Singapore. It was the only bridge across the Singapore River, linking the Chinese community on the southern side to the Indian merchants of High Street on the northern side.

The existing bridge was completed in 1929 and named after Lord Elgin, a former Governor-General of India from the previous century. As this was the first bridge across the river, the two roads leading to it were named North Bridge Road and South Bridge Road accordingly.

(Some text courtesy of Wikipedia)

Reflections - Central Business District - Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 01:56:00 +0000

It has been quite a while since I blogged - the last post is from the 24th of April. In yet another, but slightly different, attempt to resume blogging, I decided to revisit the archives from late April and here I present to you "Reflections - Central Business District - Singapore".

The Story:

Shot many moons ago - 22nd April 2012.

This one has a distinct story to it - as it is usual with most of my shots. However, it doesn't involve any adventures of sorts. However, there is a funny part to it though.

I very clearly remember the day that I made this shot. Unlike other Sunday Mornings when I sleep through without noticing daybreak, I had plans to attend a PhotoWalk conducted by the folks at ClubSnap (local discussion forum) who were celebrating their Anniversary. It was a street photography meetup - so I left my 24-105 L at home and packed only my 50mm and the 85mm 1.8 lenes. Also, I left my tripod at home, since I thought it was an overkill to lug around when doing street photography.

So my buddy @Jay Soni and I arrived at the venue that was proposed in the organizers - The Singapore Arts Museum about 10 minutes before the start of the walk (20 minutes late than the reporting time agreed before, but let us skip that part here!). Oddly enough, we didn't find a single photographer at the spot.

After a few minutes of curoiusly questioning passers by and quizzing anyone that remotely appeared to be a photographer, we came to realize the obvious mistake that we had made - We were at the Singapore ArtScience Museum and not the Singapore Arts Museum (SAM). What's even more funny is the fact that both of us came to the wrong spot, right on time!

@Jay left his camera at home because the organizers had promised that they had a few Fuji mirrorless cameras available for tests during the photowalk! So going our own ways was out of luck.

I shot this - a reflection of the CBD skyline on the lotus pool outside the ArtScience Museum - by putting my camera on the edge of the pool. It was so low and so close to the water to get the maximum reflection that one point some water touched the front element and ruined a couple of shots.

Anyway, after a few minutes, we packed up and took a taxi to SAM, albeit with little hope of catching up with the main group only to realize that they had already started the walk. We took to the street ourselves and strolled along the Bugis Area before briefly bumping into some people from the ClubSnap forum. By then, we were hungry and no mood to shoot and hence we parted our ways and headed up for to indulge in a few helpings of some awesome Pongal/Vada and Rava dosas at one of Little India's very many restaurants.

The Shot:

3 exposures, lined up and hand-blended in Photoshop. No tripod, camera rested on the edge of pool. 50mm. f/8. ISO 200. Canon 5D Mark 2.

TL;DR : My friend and I ended up at the wrong place with little and no camera equipment respectively. I happily snapped away for sometime and did one thing that we were meant to that day - eat a heavy brunch!

The Indonesia Diaries : Prolog

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:46:00 +0000

Prolog:

So I did a whirlwind tour of Indonesia about 3 weeks ago - there was an extra day off on account of Good Friday. As it has been with almost all of the South-East Asia trips this was quite adventure filled as well.

We decided to do the trip one a couple of days before the holidays and didn't have a plan until the last minute. Heck, we didn't even have a plan even after we arrived in Jakarta. Unlike Malaysia or Thailand or even Batam / Bintan (Although I'd like to call them Singaporean colonies rather than parts of Indonesia), the common man in Jakarta doesn't speak or understand even bits and pieces of English. This proved to be a nightmare. Somehow we managed to beat all odds and successfully completed a 30 Hour long, 1300+ Km road trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta by the locals) amidst some of the worst, haphazard and dangerous traffic you could ever imaging. Pause for a moment and picture this phrase about traffic woes in a different country coming from an Indian.

Our main attractions were supposed to be in Jogja - Mount Merapi (an active volcano), Borabudhur (the largest buddhist temple complex in the world!) and last but not least the Prambanan Temple complex!

I will do detailed posts on the trip in its entirety an all these attractions separately, but to kick-start this series, here is a shot of Candi Prambanan.

Introduction:

The opening stanza of the Wikitravel article on Prambanan sets the tone for what is about to come:

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, in almost any other country a magnificent ancient monument on the scale of Prambanan would quickly be designated a national symbol. In Indonesia though it is somewhat overshadowed by the even more awe-inspiring nature of nearby Borobudur. The two sites are quite different in style with Hindu Prambanan being a collection of sharp, jaggedly sculpted towers in contrast to the vast horizontal bulk of Buddhist Borobudur.

This temple was built around 850 CE - to put it in perspective, the famous Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur was built in 1010 AD. The complex was built by the Hindu Sanjaya dynasty apparently to mark their return to central Java after the Buddhist Sailendra Dynasty.

Etymology:

Since we are getting started with just this series, let us start by understanding the name Prambanan. A quest for this might give us some very interesting insights.

The present name Prambanan, Wikipedia tells me, is probably a corrupted Javanese pronunciation of "Para Brahman" ("of the brahmins"). What do they have to do here, you may ask?

To understand that, we need to go back a little bit in history.

Unlike most of the Eurpoean colonialism that we have been used to from the Medieval ages, Hinduism (and surprisingly, Islam) did not land in Indonesia by force. They were influencers - whose culture and way of life attracted the local kingdoms during their trading relationships and was eventually embraced upon. Apparently, references to Java and Sumatra have been found in Sanskrit texts from as early as 200 BC and such Indianized empires are supposed to have thrived in the region until Buddhism arrived in the 8th century.

Not much of this information is present in the Indian history books other than customary references to Rajendra Chola's invasion of the region in 1025 AD. This not only weakened the Srivijaya empire but also eventually led to their fall and the rise of Islam over the next couple of centuries.

On a parallel topic, let us understand how the Prambanan temple is laid out. Originally there was total 240 temples stood in Prambanan. The Prambanan Temple Compound consist of:

3 Trimurti temples: three main temples dedicated to Shiva, Visnu, and Brahma
3 Vahana temples: three temples in front of Trimurti temples dedicated to the vahana of each gods; Nandi, Garuda, and Hamsa
2 Apit temples: two temples located between the rows of Trimurti and Vahana temples on north and south side
4 Kelir temples: four small shrines located on 4 cardinal directions right beyond the 4 main gates of inner zone
4 Patok temples: four small shrines located on 4 corners of inner zone
224 Pervara temples: hundreds of temples arranged in 4 concentric square rows; numbers of temples from inner row to outer row are: 44, 52, 60, and 68

We will go about how much of it has been restored and when it happened in a future post but for now, let us understand about the Pervara temples.

Apparently the 224 Pervara (Prahara?) temples served as a place of meditation for the temple priests! In addition to the structures in the complex, there is a HUGE park around it today. Originally, this was supposed to have been a priest's boarding school (Veda Pata sala). The supporting buildings for the temple complex were made from organic material; as a consequence no remains occur.

I will dwell into a little more interesting details / history in the future posts including how different is Hinduism that is practised in Indonesia from that we see close to home in India.

Stay tuned!

Light of the Merlion - iLight Marina Bay

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:57:00 +0000

The Scene:

As promised, here is another shot from the iLight Marina Bay Festival and this time we present to you the iconic Singapore Merlion.

This is one icon that is instantly associated with Singapore - it has kinda become the Eiffel Tower / Golden Gate / Opera House - you get the drift, right - for Singapore and every time you set foot in the Merlion Park, there are hundreds of tourists wielding their brand new cameras and capturing their "I was there" moments. While I have I've been in Singapore for about 9 months now, I shot the Merlion only once. It was the day I got my ND Grad filters and I ventured out early in the morning to get a few glimpses of the early morning rays and beat touristy crowd. I over-used the filters a little bit on that shoot and the fact that I didn't have a grey card handy in that shoot meant that I had to "color correct" my shots manually. If you have been following my posts all along, you must know by now on where this is going - Those set of shots never saw the Internet. The only frame that in which you can clearly identify the Merlion was one of my very first from Singapore - something that I grabbed while waiting for one of the National Day Parade rehearsals.

Given this back-story, there had to be something unique happening for me to get my lazy bum amidst the day-trippers and shoot the Merlion - What better than the fact that it was all dressed up colorfully for the iLights Festival. I convinced myself and headed back to the Merlion Park back on Sunday.

I was probably ill prepared for this shot since I sold my trusted Canon 10-22 when I upgraded to the 5D2 due to budgetary constraints. The original idea was to use the cash to fund a 17-40, however that never happened partly due to the fact that I read that the 17-40 was optically mediocre on a full frame cameras. I know that it is a very tough to use the word mediocre, but heck the 10-22 and the direct competition 16-35 f/2.8 L II are truly kick-ass lenses. With only my 24-105 L left - and that btw, is my ONLY zoom lens, and it caters for my widest and the most tele focal lengths! - I couldn't get any wider. So I had to settle for this composition instead of what I had originally in mind. I should probably get back there again and re-shoot it this weekend in a different composition.

The Art:

Its name combines "mer" meaning the sea and "lion". The fish body represents Singapore's origin as a fishing village when it was called Temasek, which means "sea town" in Javanese. The lion head represents Singapore's original name — Singapura — meaning "lion city" or "kota singa".

The credits for the Merlion itself goes to 2 people - Fraser Brunner who designed it as a logo and then by a Singaporean sculptor Lim Nang Seng who commissioned the statue in 1972. While this one is the original, there area a few more replicas around in Singapore - including one that is 4 times as big as this one!

As part of this festival, the statue was decorated by OCUBO, a Portuguese Art and Multimedia Studio.

The Shot:

Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-105 L @ 32mm | f/16 | ISO 100 | 30 sec

When the eyesore became the attraction!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:49:00 +0000

Prolog:

Hello, We are back after a hiatus. The last couple of months have been a little hectic and my computer has been acting up off late. Those are the lame excuses for not getting any shots out - There are a ton of shots piled up in the queue for me to process. So hopefully, I will get into posting something quite regularly in the days to come.

The Scene:

I've never been a fan of the ArtScience Museum. Okay, not the Museum per se (Oddly, I have never been in it, yet) but I'm just talking about the structure in itself.

I've briefly touched upon it in these posts: Marina Bay Sands. Helix Bridge.

While the structure is architecturally weird, I have my own reasons photographically as well on why I don't usually like it. The building is usually lit up 2-4 times brighter than the rest of the structures in that area. So it becomes a huge challenge to tackle it and get it in a single frame - One might usually have to resort to HDR techniques which is quite painstaking to get it right. I do shoot brackets every now and then but then, most of them end up being stowed away comfortably into my External Backup drive for eternity as I'm too lazy to process. There is however another way to attack this problem - refer the above links (in case you didn't already) and you will know what I'm talking about. :-o)

To redeem myself from this predicament - an opportunity presented itself : in the form of the iLight Marina Bay Festival.Not only did they turn off the regular, bright and shitty lights, they also projected some cool patterns onto it making it look beautiful - the eyesore did indeed become an attraction! I decided not to miss out this time and went there over the last weekend - twice actually, so a few more from the festival is lined up in the days to come. Stay tuned!

The Shot:

Canon 5D Mark II with the 24-105 L at f/11 | 30 sec | ISO 100 | 3 stop Hi-Tech GND

Happy Old Man..

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:33:00 +0000

Happy Old man in Orchard Road, Singapore with his Chinese Hula Hoops Routine.

Hong Kong (and Kowloon) from The Peak

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:35:00 +0000

It has already been more than 3 weeks since my Hong Kong Sojourn and this is my first shot from the trip. My SLAs are getting weirder by the day. Thanks to work!

This is one view that any tourist to Hong Kong should not miss – unless you have a stormy day (or night) and there is absolutely no visibility, the very conveniently named “The Peak” (considering Tim Tsa Tsui, Tsing Yi etc.,) offers majestic view of both the Hong Kong Island (near end of the Bank) and the Kowloon Bay (across the water, far end). Words can’t describe how mammoth these structures are - You need to get up there to realize it! This is by far the biggest concrete jungle that I ‘ve ever seen – Chicago and Manhattan are dwarfs if you compare it in size.

This shot almost didn’t happen. I wanted to get down to this place in the morning essentially to shoot when the air is clean without all the smog and haze caused by pollution. I also read that the Sunrises are more majestic out here. But a hectic shopping schedule that took us well past 1AM every day didn’t help. The Weather wasn’t kind enough to us during the entirety of our trip either - It was too cold and windy for comfort, especially considering that I was only wearing a hooded jacket over my normal T-Shirt, and aptly I fell sick with cold and fever within a few hours of touchdown in Singapore. I would love to be here again, at Sunrise on a bright and clear summer morning.

This is also one of my first few shots with which I realized the power of the 5D Mark 2. In fact, this shot could’ve never happened without without it (i.e., on my Rebel XSi that is). The Super clean ISO 800 files are definitely godsend enabling me to shoot this scene handheld (providing me ample time to brace the cold). In fact, I do have a few other shots from my Rebel at the same scene and I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t have posted this very shot from it. I would probably have set shop with my tripod and shot a longer exposure going for the traditional look. As I said in my 5D2 Hello World post, these are exciting times and I hope that this shot marks a step in the right direction.

To validate this, here is a sample:

The first shot is the same as the above. Just a panoramic crop (I couldn't decide which of these two would work better, so went ahead with both)

Canon 24-105L at 24 mm on the Canon 5D Mark 2 | f/7.1 | 3 shot HDR | ISO 800 |

The Second is from the Rebel.

Canon 10-22 at 12mm on the Canon Rebel XSi (450D) | f/5.6 | 3 shot HDR | ISO 800 |

Both are post processed. Alright. I may not have spent exactly the same amount of time repeating the same brush stroke that I had on the 5D version on the Rebel one, but they are pretty similar for you to get the idea. #You Decide!

A better resolution from 500px: http://500px.com/photo/4907847

Screw the Rules

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:41:00 +0000

(At least) 2 rules were harmed in the making of this photo. Full brownie points to those who identify both. Sugar or Cane for breaking the rules? #YoutTell.

Lower Pierce Reservoir, Singapore. Saturday evening photowalk with Chris Combe and Jay Soni. Still early days with my 5D2. I'm still a bit slow with my controls and haven't setup any customization at all yet. But I'm loving the fact that not even an iota of noise shows up even after putting it through tone-mapping.

ISO 100 | 24mm on a 24-105 L mounted on 5D2 | f/14 | 3 shot HDR - 10 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec | 3 stop Hi-Tech ND filter.

Hello World!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:22:00 +0000

Says my new 5D Mark 2.

There is a whole stock of shots from Hong Kong and Macau that is waiting to be processed. But I chose this for my 5D2 to say Hello World!

It is a view of the Central Business District – the financial Hub of Singapore overlooking the Marina Bay. Also visible, if you manage to see the High Resolution are the iconic Fullerton Hotel and the Merlion.

This is one frame that I wanted to get ever since I moved to Singapore. I must have gone to this place a zillion times now but I didn’t manage to get this shot. In fact, I once went there specifically on purpose – a photowalk if you will to shoot night shots - but I forgot the quick release plate on my tripod and promptly got home after a eating somewhere close by.

But at a different level, posting this shot now gives it a totally different meaning – I will now be able to get what I wouldn’t have been able to get away with my previous gear. With an awesome sensor that provides nearly perfect, super clean shots even at high ISOs and HUGE files good enough to make A2 (or larger) prints, I hope to take my photography to a whole new level in the days to come. The transition will be smooth – so don’t expect a drastic change. I’m still struggling to find the controls without seeing them, something that is now a reflex action on my Rebel XSi.

This shot also incorporates a new Post Processing work-flow introduced to me by my friend Manu Murthy. I have various techniques so far for dodging and burning my shots – starting with graduated filters and brushes in Lightroom to very crude masking in Lightroom. But this new workflow involves Luminosity Painting, a technique perfected by Tony Kuyper. It produces tremendous outputs with marked improvement over what I’ve been doing so far in Photoshop. This is the reason why the purples in the sky (yes, it was purple this day) stands out amidst the bright buildings. My eyes saw them and I’m glad that I was able to reproduce it. Now that I know how awesome Tony’s techniques are, I hope to understand how they work and master them.

Hopefully, Let’s kick some ass.

And then, at nightfall…

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:48:00 +0000

I made this postcard.

When you might ask? Right after I lifted my lazy bum out of the bed on a Sunday evening in spite of the incessant rain over the course of the day and headed out into the city to make this shot.

I had to fight quite a bit to get the previous one right – about 6 stops of ND filters, 3 shots and an hour or so on the computer fiddling with different settings and what not. But this one is my bread and butter. One shot. Mostly get it right on camera and standard post processing by playing with Lightroom Adjustments. Finally some Photoshop for contrast and sharpening. The only thing out of my ordinary sequence of steps here is to tinker with the blue palette a bit to get the blue hour feel. There was a little bit too much gray for my liking.

Compositionally, I like this one better than the previous as it puts the attention on the Cityscape. A postcard from Singapore ought to emphasize that, right? Actually, this is what I had in mind when I set out to make shots, but suddenly with all the drama happening in the clouds in that previous frame, I promptly zoomed out to get it all in and put the focus on the clouds. In hindsight, I guess that I’m happy with the decision. The 10-22 with its Ultra Wide PoV unusually dramatizes even normal skies – More so on special occasions like that!

ISO 100. 21mm. f/14. 30 sec.

Brahminy Kite

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:20:00 +0000

The Brahminy Kite or the Red-backed Sea-eagle.

Fellow Indians may recognize it as as the Garuda, the vahana of Lord Vishnu. But did you also know that this is the National Symbol of Indonesia, Thailand and Mongolia?

The Singapore Skyline and Nature’s own way of rewarding un-laziness!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:22:00 +0000

The Story:

I have been wanting to get this shot for about 6 months now and it happened on the most unlikeliest of days. Almost every time I planned this, I got lazy and decided not to do . So, I had this carefully planned for a Saturday evening a week ago and as you might expect, the day turned out to be a damp squib – It was raining the whole day and sun never really bothered coming out. I was still lazing around at half past four in the evening when I should really have gone out and start scouting for the best location if I were to shoot. Instead, I was calling shoot buddies and cancelling the plans.

But amongst them, Jay was determined. Probably just because he was already out and waiting for me to join him for the shoot. So he pushed me to come and we agreed to have a rain-check (literally) in another 30 minutes. Things did seem to clear up in that time, so off I went to our meeting point and setup shop at nice little vantage point.

The sky was still dull and grayish and it wasn’t a promising shoot. I was hoping to get a nice little blue hour shot at least if it didn’t rain for the next hour or so. But what happened about 15-20 minutes before sunset seemed nothing short of magical. The fast moving clouds opened up a vast playground for the evening sunlight and what more can a photographer ask – It was pure delight. I’m really really happy that I moved my lazy bum out of my bed that day and I think that it is nature’s own way of rewarding us.

The Scene:

This is one view of Singapore that I haven’t been used to because I live in the other part of the city. Also, Singapore Flyer, the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world, is in a corner of sorts and doesn’t really fit into other Skyline views of the City. So, that was definitely something that I wanted to include in my shot. Also, the new Garden’s by the Bay domes have curious shapes too. Funny how this particular “mid-ground” here – the Gardens By the Bay, the Sands, the Arts Museum, the double helix bridge and the Flyer have only evolved in the last 2 years or so yet have become very strong symbols of Singapore! Comparing this to, say Rome – where I was last year - photographing Julius Ceasar’s palace, the Coliseum and Saturn’s temples in the middle of the city makes this a very different experience and reminds us how fast the world is moving! (and the lazy bums that we have got)

The Shot:

[3 shot HDR, (+ 1.6s, 3.2s, 0.8s) . f/16.0 . ISO 100 . 10 mm]

Jet Skiers!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:54:00 +0000

Actually, water scooterers! Or Personal Watercrafters, perhaps.

Because the name Jet Ski is apparently trademarked by Kawasaki Heavy Industries for its own brand of Water Scooters and is often used as the generic name to any make of these crafters. Whatever it is, this is one activity that I have come to enjoy. On this day, the clear skies and low waves on the Andaman Sea set up an awesome stage for me to take one of these Yamaha scooters for a nice little spin. I shot these cute little girls who were brave enough to venture into the waters without adult supervision as the child in me was waiting impatiently for some others to return back to the shore.

Khai Nok Island and being at the mercy of the waves!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

This will be one of those frames that will be etched in memories for a long time to come. Not so much for the shot or the scene it portrays in itself, but the story behind it. A few of my friends who I have been able to talk to over the course of the last 2 weeks already know this part of the story, here it is for the rest of you:

So I visited Phuket, Thailand for a slightly extended weekend trip during the Christmas holidays. As it always turned out, we had a really packed itinerary, something where the word “rest” never finds a place. Day 1 was spent on a big ferry of sorts - where we did island hopping and sight seeing, we spent day 2 doing White Water rafting and racing on ATVs – things that were supposed to be the high point of the trip. As a matter of fact, it was an experience that we liked so very much that we made up our mind to upgrade our rafting trip straightaway from a 5 KM Class 1 rapid to a 7 KM Class 3 rapid before we could finish the first part. But little did we realize that there was something even better (or worse) in-store for us the next day!

The first day was gloomy with that occasional drizzle and the second day was mostly cloudy and dull. But the sun came out blazing and it was supposed to be the perfect treat for our eyes – the best weather day in our trip and we had visits to 3 exotic islands lined up plus about 3 hours of snorkeling. That set our expectations pretty high.

As it was on the other days, a mini-van arrived to pick us up to the ferry terminal from where we were supposed to take a “speed boat” to Phi Phi Islands. On our way, we were supposed to make stops on Khai Island and then move to Phi Phi Ley and Phi Phi Don Islands (Remember that beautiful lagoon surrounded by mountains in the movie The Beach? That was Phi Phi).

As it is with everything in Thailand, this was over crowded as well. I’m fairly certain that the tour company overbooked our boat today and as usual, my friends and I were late in queuing up to board. As the last people in the group, 3 of us were left to sit at a little bench like structure in the nose. We sat there bracing ourselves for the bumpy ride ahead.

5 minutes in to the journey it all started. No amount of prep talk could have told warned you onto what lied ahead. The next 45 minutes was as if it were hell broke loose. With 3 people falling off their seats and hurting themselves real bad one of our friends getting the worst sea sickness that anyone could possibly get, it was not a pleasurable experience. But, boy o boy, we did enjoy the cheap thrills.

Arriving at the Khai Islands, we were greeted by white sands and the blue sky. The emerald waters were glittering as if there weren’t anything wrong at all. Our not so friendly guide went on a rant at fellow passengers that another boat that set out for Phi Phi that day had capsized and people were now floating in the water. I’m not sure if I truly believe that statement for we couldn’t find any information about it on the papers or on the Internet. But in the end, it was decided that it was best not to head further into the sea for safety reasons. I just had to laze around the beach and get back without seeing the “paradise” – although I have my inhibitions on if it would be even remotely close to one with tourists thronging to that place day in, day out for the last few years.

Looking back at this, a few things come out striking. “Adventures”, unlike the west where they are carefully orchestrated, are true to their literal meaning in this part of the world. Safety sometimes comes as an afterthought to economic gains. This is especially true at least about Thailand where we were not even forced to wear life jackets for this truly horrendous ride. This could have easily been a mishap. It reminds to to be a little more careful in choosing such day trips.

Parting with Pearls of Wisdom [Phuket, Thailand]

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:52:00 +0000

EXIF: 1/160s . f/6.3 . ISO 400 . 28 mm

A wise man once said that the mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. That is exactly what I saw when I made this shot just past Sunset, greeted by a fiery Orange sky over the Andaman Sea in Phuket, Thailand. The kid, like everyone his age was running around crabs and collecting shells around the beach while his mother walked by patiently, without losing her calm and patiently answering the zillion questions that the kid would continue to pile up on her. I was looking at this scene so earnestly that I was a bit late in setting up myself for ths shot. Suddenly,I realized that there was one here to make and ran a few paces back to snap this up. All fine but I erred a wee bit in leaving the ISO high up (at 400, my entry level rebel begins to show a teeny bit of noise! Now, that is how I convince myself that I need an upgrade, you see :P).

I'd normally have passed up on a shot like this. I have a ton of shots lying around my hard drive somewhere that would make awesome frames with a little bit of work, but I loved this moment so much that I had to get onto it right away, even if it meant spending that time. In then end, I really like the output. Do you?

Your feedback is welcome!

Happy New Year | 2012 - Singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 08:36:00 +0000

Wish you all a Happy New Year 2012.

Standing up for the lonely..

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 10:50:00 +0000

Here are a couple of shots from the Gardens by the bay domes in Singapore.

200 and a floral abstract!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:27:00 +0000

First things first. I just realized that I hit up 200 posts on this blog. I sent the first Hello World post out on the 24th of November 2005 and the 200th post was on the 22nd of November 2011. I'd have planned an anniversary of some sort had I known. Hopefully, I will continue to go on with this and have a few more so that we could celebrate something next year!

Here's a flowery take - a floral abstract from the Domes @ Gardens By the Bay, which were open for a week during the course of the World Orchid Show. I've only gotten to downloading these images from the computer a couple of days ago; so be prepared for more flora in the days to come!

Nostalgia Yasin Bungalow, Trikora Beach, Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 03:39:00 +0000

This was shot around Sunrise at Nostalgia Yasin Bungalow, a resort in the North Eastern part of the Island of Bintan, Rhiu Province, Indonesia.

But what you see is not what I experienced. Curious? Read on..

A little bit of history:

Until around 2000, the only tourist activity along Bintan's east coast was at Trikora Beach, a popular hang-out for local visitors from Tanjung Pinang as well as foreign back-packers. Since then, the back-packer scene has largely given way to larger developments and other tourist destinations that have popped up along the east coast (see below). For local day-trippers, Trikora remains a popular day trip though. Trikora is actually quite a long stretch of separate beaches, with beaches numbered from south to north as one to four (satu, dua, tiga, empat in Indonesian).

This place, Nostalgia Yasin Bungalow is at the 38km mark from Tanjung Pinang. It is Bintan Agro's rustic budget alternative to their more expensive resort 2km away (which caters plainly to Singaporeans!). While we did multiple trips between Yasin and Agro for watersports and what not, I kinda liked Yasin better. It was far less crowded with a decent shoreline and white sands!

Mercy of the tides:

Everything in this area is at the mercy of the tides. What was a sparking ferry pickup point in the morning when we left for snorkeling turned into a mudflat by the time we returned. The boatman dropped us off about half a kilometer away in knee deep water making us walk all the way over to the shore. In another 2 hours, the water was back up again paving way for watersports.

The Deception:

The previous morning I was all geared up to capture the sunrise. But a early morning thunderstorm just around the right time played spoilsport too my plans. I shot this while waiting at the resort for a taxi to pick us up very early the next morning. The mood when I shot this nothing close to the serenity that one would normally associate with this picture. We were about an hour away from the Ferry Terminal where we would have to pass through Customs and Emigration checks and board a ferry in less than 2 hours. All this after a whole night spent playing cards! As we waited around furiously shooting profanities at the resort for not being organized, I wandered away into the beach to capture this one!

Exif:

f/10 | 30 sec | ISO 100 | 10mm @ Canon 10-22

The Pink Dragonfly

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:19:00 +0000

The Species:

Common Name: Crimson Marsh Glider

Scientific Name: Trithemis aurora

It is a medium sized dragonfly that is commonly found in weedy tanks and ponds, marshes, channels, and slow flowing streams and rivers in the lowlands and mid-hills. It breeds in streams, rivers, canals, ponds and tanks. It is found commonly and widely distributed in the Oriental region throughout the year.

The Shot:

It has been about a month since I did any macro photography. So I headed over to the Singapore Botanical Gardens with fellow photographer Arun D. I was initially planning on doing some floral photography but I resorted to photographing dragon flies.

This is the result of a 12 shot composite stack. I'm still learning to master Focus stacking (here is a previous attempt) so this one took a while to process. My aging computer didn't help the cause either. Anyways, I loaded up all the shots on Photoshop and chose to Auto Align. Then Auto Blended. Once the shot came out, I applied a slight lens blur on the wings to take away some distracting details that had crept in. After that it was just a matter of a slight curves, levels and sharpening adjustments alone. In case you are new to Focus stacking, this youtube video would help a lot!

EXIF:

ISO 400 | f/3.5 | 1/100 sec | Canon 100mm 2.8 USM with 68mm of tubes | about 12 shots stacked on PS

When the sun goes down.. - Trigora Beach, Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:10:00 +0000

The Story:

This installment comes to you from Trigora Beach, a lovely shoreline on the eastern shore of the Island of Bintan in the Rhiu Province of Indonesia. The Islands of Batam and Bintan are favorite weekend getaways for many Singaporeans both because of the close proximity and the fact that things are much cheaper here than the Island nation. Commercialism has kicked-in over the past few years and it is now easier than ever to get to these islands with a lot of ferries plying to different "jettys" across the two islands at very frequent intervals.

While we are on the topic of Indonesia being relatively inexpensive, did you know that I actually spent about 2 million bucks for that trip? The high point of the trip was, aside from the snorkeling and the watersports that we did, handing out a tip of about 70,000 bucks to our taxi driver (a tout who hung onto us from the moment we left the ferry terminal actually) after about half-a-day of sight seeing. In case you didn't get it it, you will have to head over to this Wikipedia article.

As usual, this trip was put together at the last minute - in about 24 hours actually. I wanted to take the not so beaten path into the country and so instead of heading over to the Singapore-centric Bintan Resorts area (which according to internet sources seem to be a colony of Singapore for all practical purposes), we headed over to Batham and take the road less traveled.

After a day of navigating blindfolded through what looked like a hegde maze albeit with a lot of resources, we reached our resort - Yasin Bungalows, a beach front property at the Trigora Beach, about 40 KM from the main port of Tanjung Pinang in Bintan. After a few minutes of resting, we headed over to check out the backwaters of the South China Sea.

The Scene:

As I said on the opening line of this blog post, Trigora beach is at the eastern shore of Bintan and here I have a sunset shot from there. Ironical, ain't it?

This is one of the biggest take-aways that I got from this trip. When the sun goes down, don't forget to look away. When we arrived at this beach, I wasn't planning to shoot landscapes. In fact, the idea was to shoot a few portraits for my friends who I had traveled with. However as the sun was quickly setting behind us, the sky towards the North threw up some amazing oranges. I scrambled to put together my typical WideAngle setup and got a few shots to register that moment. Some wise man once said "Always have a backup plan when you go out to shoot something". I think that we should add that we should be prepared to shoot that unexpected moment that mother nature can throw at us anytime, especially if you are a landscape photographer.

The Shot:

ISO 100 | f/16 | 1 sec | Canon 10-22 @ 10mm | Canon Rebel XSi

The Malaysia Journals #6 - Beyond the Horizon

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:39:00 +0000

In case you are new to following our Malaysian Journals, head over to these posts to catch some shots and background information from the first leg of our tour at the Perhentian Islands.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

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For the second leg, we switched on the "classic tourist" mode and headed over to Langkawi. After a customary visit to the Sky Bridge which is built on top of a 800m high peak on one edge of the island, we checked into our hotel. We were pleasantly surprised since the backpackers hotel that we chose turned out to be on a prime location with a lot of activity. Joseph and I decided to do some Jet Skiing and by the time we made up our minds and got into the water, it was already sun down.

It was a huge dilemma for me. One one hand, my heart craved for the extra bit of adventure in riding a Jet Ski into the sunset, something that I haven't done so far. The other half of me wanted to stay back on the shores and capture what would turn out to be the perfect sunset in the whole of our trip. The adventurous part won over and I'm actually quite pleased that I did it.

We returned a few minutes past sunset and as we entered the "blue hour". Suresh, the model pictured here had already brought my gear onto the shore and I setup my tripod and hurried away to make a few shots. I had time to shoot exactly 2 shots before darkness engulfed the beach and here is one of them.

This isn't one of my perfect attempts - especially the part where Suresh's head turned out blurry could well have been avoided if only I had not been in such a hurry. It is a lesson well learnt.

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When I downloaded this shot onto my computer, I got into thinking what could I possibly write with this shot and the first thing that came to my mind was this situation song from Bob Dylan.

Beyond the horizon, behind the sun
At the end of the rainbow life has only begun
In the long hours of twilight 'neath the stardust above
Beyond the horizon it is easy to love

I'm touched with desire
What don't I do?
Through flame and through fire
I'll build my world around you

Beyond the horizon, in the Springtime or Fall
Love waits forever, for one and for all

Beyond the horizon, across the divide
'Round about midnight, we'll be on the same side
Down in the valley the water runs cold
Beyond the horizon someone prayed for your soul

My wretched heart is pounding
I felt an angel's kiss
My memories are drowning
In mortal bliss

Beyond the horizon, at the end of the game
Every step that you take, I'm walking the same

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EXIF Information:

f/14 | 8 seconds | Canon 10-22 @ 15 mm on the Canon Rebel XSi

The Malaysia Journals #5 - Waiting for Dawn

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:33:00 +0000

The background:

On Day One, We landed on a Virgin tropical island replete with beaches full of White Sand, emerald green waters, deep blue skies and a lot of serenity. Joseph and I got out onto the beach early in the morning to catch what wasn't supposed to be a glorious sunrise. What more? Read on..

The Anticipation:

They say that pictures tell a thousand words. Or somewhere close. But what happens when the person in the picture sets the tone. You tend to set up an unexpected mood and associate a story around the scene. Here's something for you. A beautiful poem - Waiting for dawn by Joseph Samraj (Pictured) to go with my shot. Thanks Soosai for this!

A thousand miles I travelled to see you

Seeking to forget myself in you

Guided by hope, and a bit of madness

I knew you were stormy, yet I took my chances

The moment I saw you, you took my breath away

The closer I got to you, the more you toyed with me

Moody one moment, bright the next

I didn’t know what to expect from you

I reached your heart and slept dreaming of a bright sunrise

I woke up to see my hopes in tatters

So close yet so far, I couldn’t give up on you

I’ll wait - for the winds of time to blow away your clouds

I’ll wait - as long as it takes for you to smile at me.

The Shot:

ISO 200 | f/14 | 1/5 sec | 10mm on the Canon 10-22 | Run of the mill post processing.

The Malaysia Journals #4 - The Sunrise that wasn't

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:38:00 +0000

The Series so far:

I went to a Virgin tropical island replete with beaches full of White Sand, emerald green waters, deep blue skies and a lot of serenity. And that was just Day One.

The plan to catch the Sun rise:

I do this in every one of my trips. The plan that is, not the actual execution. This time, since it was just the beginning of the trip and the fact that we lived in close proximity to the location of the sunrise shoot, I quickly jumped off the bed, (Ok - after snoozing the alarm 3 different times, alright!) and headed over to the location that I had identified the night before. Soosai was a sport and decided to accompany me.

As we stepped out, it instantly dawned upon us that the Sunrise wasn't meant to be what we had imagined. With dark clouds looming over the horizon, the only thing imminent was a thunderstorm, not glorious shades or purple and orange. However, without losing hope, we trekked our way downhill to the shores and set shop. A few minutes later, a tint of Orange appeared near the mainland far far away and that was all.

However, the stormy weather did provide some interesting drama to this shot. I must admit.

The Shot:

This is a Pseudo-HDR - a single exposure that's processed in Photoshop to add some punch to the sky. I'm usually too lazy to do anything in PS, however I think that this situation warranted something. I hope that I haven't gone overboard on it.

+ 1s . f/14.0 . ISO 400 . 10 mm on the Canon 10-22