arre... O! Sambar... :-D

Funnel Cakes and The Ferris Wheel

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:28:00 +0000

...Completes the Carnival mood, Ain't it?

So I gave my attendance at the Indiana State Fair at Indianapolis on Saturday and this was one the few keepers from the shoot.

I really missed having a wider lens in the show.

Now that it has been a few months without getting a new “accessory” for my camera, I’m really starting to lose my patience. I think that I will pull the trigger (or should I say, shutter :P) on a 100 mm macro or a Sigma 10-22. But I don’t know if I can justify that purchase… Yet..

Rants apart, as usual – Comments and Criticism welcome…

Must View : On Black

Railroad…

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:01:00 +0000

I have always wanted to take nice pictures of railroads. But I realized how difficult is is to get a few nice pictures once I started out on this mission.

This place is pretty close by from where I used to live (In Reading, Massachusetts). There aren’t many trying plying in this road – so not much of a security concern. But the light was something that gave me a lot of problems… I had to fight hard to keep my tripod’s shadow out of the frame. Once I got this shot, I walked down almost a mile down in this direction in search of a bend to work on… After passing a few broken bottles and a bridge, I got to a spot which was workable. But unfortunately, those shots didn’t turn out as much as I hoped it would. At least, this was a keeper.

What do you think?

Sculptures on the Gopuram

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Pictured is a sculpture of Lord Dathathreya..

There is a story of "Incarnation" behind (almost) every Hindu God.

In The era gone by , the demonic
energies grew enormously in the gross and subtle forms Gods efforts
to vanquish them were unsuccessful. Then under orders for Lord Brahma
and listening to the prayers of Devas, Maha Vishnu took the form
of Datha. Incarnated at various places in different forms for spiritual
revival and destroyed the demons.

Information about the shot:
Camera:     Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Lens:        Canon 55-250mm f/4-5.6 EF-S IS
Exposure:     0.067 sec (1/15)
Aperture:     f/5.0
Focal Length:     109 mm
Exposure Bias:     +0.60
ISO Speed:     100
Flash:     Off
Handheld
Centerpoint AF
Evaluative Metering

Stepping out from the house...!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:09:00 +0000

Shot just outside my apartment in Reading, MA last week. It was Sunny that day and gawd, I miss it..!

No HDR. Just some white balance and minor adjustments in Lightroom. I swear! :-o)

More information about the shot:

Camera:     Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Lens:        Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-S IS
Exposure:     0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture:     f/5.6
Focal Length:     36 mm
ISO Speed:     100
Exposure Bias:     0 EV
Flash:     Off
Shot Handheld
Centerpoint AF / Av Mode

Cutie...

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:05:00 +0000

Cutie..., originally uploaded by me_ram.

I was out this evening trying to do some "serious" closeup photography when I saw this cute little kid playing in the lawns. Couldn't resist but to take a few shots of her while she was in a good mood...!

Unfortunately, the sun was hiding under the clouds (well, it has gone on a vacation for the past couple of days, I suppose :P) and there wasn't enough light. This was the best I could manage at the Highest Possible ISO and the Widest Aperture.

I like how it turned out. What do you think?

Pretty Tulips...!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:50:00 +0000

It has been another dull and lazy Sunday. Well, the sun chose to hide behind the clouds, but still...

Managed to get out to the nearby Lakeside cemetery in Wakefield, MA to shoot these pretty tulips. It was a bit cold and windy.But since I had a tripod at my disposal, I was able to get some pretty decent shots.

What do you think?

Though I have had this cool tripod with a "ball head" for a couple of months now, I haven't used it as much as I would have liked it to. Setting it up slows down things tremendously. But today, I took that gamble and I think that it paid off eventually. The amount of control that I could get on the composition was tremendous. More over, as things started to slow down, I had to put in more into the shot and took care of small things that I would conveniently neglect on a normal hand held shootout. I definitely struggled a bit to get things straight, but am very happy with how things came out. May be, I will venture out with the tripod more often. Let's see...

As usual, Comments and criticism about the shots are welcome...!

Nageswaran Kovil - South Entrance

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Sun, 03 May 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Nageswaran Kovil - South Entrance, originally uploaded by me_ram.

During the vacation, I managed to sneak out to Nagerwaran Kovil, a couple of miles from our house in Kumbakonam. It is one of the very many temples in Kumbakonam that were built by the Chola kings. Thought the cholas started building Huge temples like the Thanjavur Bhrahadeeswararar temple only in the 10th Century, this small (comparatively) temple was build in the Early Chola period (4th -9th Century CE).

Pictured is the South Gopuram of the temple. Typically, these temples have 4 entrances in all the directions.

From Wikipedia:

A Gopuram or gopura, is a monumental tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of a temple, especially in Southern India. This is a prominent feature of Hindu temple architecture.It is topped with the sikhara's amalaka (a bulbous stone finial). They function as gateways through the walls that surround the temple complex.

The gopuram's origins can be traced back to early structures of the Pallavas and by the twelfth century under the Pandya rulers these gateways became a dominant feature of a temple's outer appearance, eventually overshadowing the inner sanctuary which became obscured from view by the gopuram's colossal size. It also dominated the inner sanctum in amount of ornamentation.

Information about the Shot

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Lens: Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-S IS
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 23 mm
Exposure Bias: +1/3 EV
ISO Speed: 100
Flash: Off

Tantalizing Tulips - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Spring has set in and it is lovely outside.. Lush green lawns and brightly colored flowers are the order of the day and how can the Cameras not point at these real beauties. Had to wait a few days to knock off all those jet lag, but finally managed to get the camera out on Friday to get some shots of these tantalizing tulips just outside my office at Edgewater, Wakefield. They are really beautiful, aren't they?

Information:

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel Xsi
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 EF
Focal Length: 50 mm
Exposure: 1/200
Aperture: f/4.0
ISO: 100
Flash: No
Handheld
AF Mode: Center Point Autofocus

Tantalizing Tulips…

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Spring has set in and it is lovely outside.. Lush green lawns and brightly colored flowers are the order of the day and how can the Cameras not point at these real beauties. Had to wait a few days to knock off all those jet lag, but finally managed to get the camera out on Friday to get some shots of these tantalizing tulips just outside my office at Edgewater, Wakefield. They are really beautiful, aren't they?

My tryst with Indoor Sports Photography - NCAA Basketball

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:05:00 +0000

A couple of days ago Digital Photography School, my favorite Photoblog posted a few tips and tricks about shooting Indoor Sports. Shooting Indoor Sports is a great challenge / assignment to budding PhotoG's. Especially at this time of the year when it is snowing every other day and the temperature always stays below the freezing point.

To start with, I would highly recommend reading that post to anyone who is interested in shooting sports. Here is a brief overview of what they recommend:

Watch for action and movement
Set your camera to a high ISO setting
Shoot with a fast shutter speed
Use a lens with the lowest aperture possible
Look for expression
Shoot in RAW

Last month, Brad (p0larbare in Flickr) from the Boston Photo Mob (a flickr Community of PhotoG's from the Boston Area) invited mobbers to the Regis College in Weston, MA for taking photographs at a NCAA Division III Basketball game. It proved to be a great learning experience for me given the fact that it is the first time I tried to shoot sports. Well, that is if you don't count a couple of attempts with a P&S when friends were playing volleyball in the beach!

So what did I learn from this experience? What more can I add to the original post? Here is my tryst with Indoor Sports Photography..!

1. Know thy sport: This is very very important and in a way it actually relates to the first point in the Original post too. When you know the sport it you can actually prepare for the action well in advance. Knowing how the players strategize helps you getinto position quickly and capture that momentum changing play in its full glory. This is where being a couch potato (like your's truly) helps...! Hmmm, finally some good for what I have been doing all this time, ain't it?

2. What ISO is High ISO? : The article mentions using ISO 600 or 800. Most of the time, Indoor Basketball courts / gyms are poorly lit that it is tough pretty tough to get proper exposures at these shutter speeds. My Canon Digital Rebel XSi does a pretty good job with Noise Reduction at ISO 1600. If you have a prosumer SLR like a 40D or a D300, you may even want to use the ISO 3200.

3. What Shutter speed is fast enough? : The reason why I would choose the Highest usable ISO setting on the camera is to get the maximum possible shutter speed. The original post recommends 1/200 and that is pretty much where I started with on that day. It served me well for a good part of the Women's game. But there was noticeable motion blur in quite a few shots. So I quickly realized that this would do no good in the mens game. I moved to 1/400 to as high as 1/640th of a Second.

4. The Big Question: Which Lens? : So it is quite obvious that we should be using the widest possible aperture. I do not have a super zoom lens as of today. So my choices were the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS kit lens and the Nifty Fifty EF 50mm f/1.8. Although the former would have given me a few good shots, I chose the latter. Also this lens tends to be a bit soft when wide open. So I pretty much shot everything that day at f/2.0.

But the biggest advantage with an SLR is the very fact that you can change your lesnes. So, if you have more than one lens that you consider usable in such a situation, don't hesitate to switch over.

5. Where to focus / aim at? Shooting sports calls for a lot of practice and anticipation since it involves fast action. Shooting with the lens wide open makes the job of the PhotoG even worse giving a very low margin for error. The focus has to be SPOT on for the images to be viewable.

For the whole shoot, I pretty much used Center point focus and had only one thumb rule. Get that focus point somewhere on the body of the subject.

In hinsight, I have a better theory that could have given men better results. Most of the shots that I got on that day were shot with the camera vertically oriented. So, If I had chosen the extreme right focus point, it would most likely end up where the subject's face is. This would make images look sharper and better. Wouldn't it?

5 b) Get a grip: This is not a tip by itself. But something that I would most certainly love to have. A Battery Grip. It would make it lovely and comfortable for holding the camera vertically and add a more professional look to the body.

6. What Auto Focusing Mode? : Having solved the problem of what to focus, our next challenge is to make sure that the Camera focuses this point quickly. This is where shooting with a D-SLR poses a special challenge. Traditionally, the One shot Autofocus which is the default focusing mechanism works on a 2 step process. The first press of the shutter button, infact a half-press, locks the focus and the second push actuates the shutter. But when we are dealing with FAST action, it is pretty much impossible to push the button twice within that short span of time. The fact that the subject is moving makes life more miserable. So what do we do?

AI-Servo to the rescue. It is THE perfect mode for this kind of situations. Well, with the subject moving you can me sure that it will lock and track the focus point most of the time. It did the trick for me, at least!

7. Continuous Shooting / Burst Mode: No doubt that you need to shoot in Continuous mode. It drastically increases the probablity of plays that you may want to keep on the end of the day. That said, a lot of cameras have slower RAW burst speeds when compared to the jpegs. So it is essentially a trade off that we are talking here. But jpegs aren't that bad. If you can get to the venue some time in advance, take a few shots and get the perfect WhiteBalance, there is no reason why you shouldn't be shooting jpegs. But my XSi shoots 3.5 fps in RAW and it is pretty good for me. So I ended up shooting RAW.

Hat Tip: Although XSi can shoot 3.5 fps, it won't be able to deliver that if the Hi-ISO Noise Reduction (the incamera custom fn.) is enabled. It took a long time for me to figure this out! :-o)

7b) What if I still can't get that Fast Shutter speeds? Safely ignore this tip if you aren't shooting RAW. When shooting RAW, the images contain unprocessed data. So a image editing software has uncompressed data to work with and here one clever way on how you can get some advantage out of it. If you shutter speeds are hovering around a third to half a stop below what you actually intend, underexpose your shot by that. This can be corrected at a very early stage in your editing workflow without that much of a loss of quality.

8. What focal length / where to shoot from? : The answer to this question is heavily dependent on your answer to question 5. I chose the 50 mm which isn't quite a tele. So, I had to shoot from a feet or two from the baseline to get most of my better looking shots of the day. Thanks to Brad, we had permission to shoot from anywhere we wanted on that day. But you may not have that advantage every day.

On the other hand, If you have a longer lens, say a 70-200 or even a 55-250 for that matter, you can drop further behind. The advantage of these would be to get cool and unique angles. From the stands. From a balcony if there is one. From the center of the court. These would add vareity when you sit back and review your shots at the end of the day.

But if you are shooting with a 50mm like me, there is only one mantra: Move around. Don't stay glued to that one sweet spot that you identify minutes after the game starts.

9. Take a breather: Don't try to catch everything. Take a breather now and then. Enjoy the game. Enjoy what you do! Happy Photographing..! :-o)

Here are few of my shots from that shootout. Comments and criticism are welcome.

[Hi-Speed Photography] - Strawberry Splash

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:10:00 +0000

One fine Sunday afternoon, When it was snowing Cats and Dogs I decided to do this little experiment with fast shutter speeds. By Fast, I mean really fast in the order of 1/400 to as high as 1/800 seconds.

For the lights, I opened up all the windows and had two 40 watt bulbs. The worst part of it was one was tungsten and the other was a White Halogen lamp. So had a tough time doing the White Balance in photoshop.

Made a couple of usable impacts. But this is what I liked the best!

There is another version of this shot here in my Flickr Photostream...

Thankyou for Smoking!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Caught this guy lighting up a cigarette when we were waiting for the Chinese New Year Parade / Festivities to start at Chinatown, Boston. This is the best that I could get with the 50mm f/1.8 lens that I mostly used on that day. BPMer Joe has got a better shot of the same guy in his photostream.

Best View : On Black

A few thoughts...

I love meetups. It is certainly a pleasure doing something that is close to your heart with people who are at the same wavelength. I love to see how people see things differently than you do and get newer and better ideas. This is what creativity is all about, isn't it?

Technical Details:

Single RAW Exposure
f=50mm, f/2.2 and 1/640 sec at ISO 100
Shot Handheld in Aperture Priority Mode
With a Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Mounted with a 50mm f/1.8 EF Prime Lens
In Center Point Autofocus
With Evaluative Metering

Some Curves, Photo Filter and Saturation Adjustments in Photoshop.

The Lions!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:59:00 +0000

As we already saw in in this post , the Chinese New Year parades are annual traditions in many cities with significant Chinese populations. The Lion dance is a major part of these celebrations and there is a belief that this brings in good luck through the rest of the year. Accompanied with loud music, these dancers mimic the movements of a lion. Given that this is Chinese culture, there is a close connection with the martial arts especially Kung Fu.

I hope that this shot does justice to the athleticism of the dancers!

Technical Details:

Single RAW Exposure
f=50mm, f/2 and 1/1600 sec at ISO 100
Shot Handheld in Aperture Priority Mode
With a Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Mounted with a 50mm f/1.8 EF Prime Lens
In Center Point Autofocus
With Evaluative Metering

HDRed using Dynamic-Photo HDR
and some Noise Reduction, Curves, Photo Filter and Saturation Adjustments in Photoshop.

Balloon walah!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Balloon walah!, originally uploaded by me_ram.

A balloon walah spotted in Chinatown, Boston during the Chinese New Year Parade Photowalk.

Who doesn't love balloons? This scene brought out the child in me and I contemplated getting one myself for a long time!! :-o)

Btw, Do check out this article on Balloon Modelling at Wikipedia!

Technical Details:

f=50mm, f/2 and 1/1000 sec at ISO 400
Shot Handheld in Aperture Priority Mode
With a Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Mounted with a 50mm f/1.8 EF Prime Lens
In Center Point Autofocus
With Evaluative Metering

HDRed using Dynamic-Photo HDR
and some Curves, Photo Filter and Saturation Adjustments in Photoshop.

Welcome to Chinatown...!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Welcome to Chinatown...!, originally uploaded by me_ram.

Welcome to Chinatown! The Paifang , a traditional Chinese architectural form like an archway at the Entrance of Chinatown, Boston. These Neighborhood markers are the trademark of every major Chinatown across the world.

A few Technical Details:

f=50 mm, f/11 and 1/50 sec @ ISO 100, Shot Handheld.

Tonemapped Pseudo HDR from a Single RAW exposure.

A little Cropping, Curves and Saturation tweaking in Photoshop.

Chinese Graffiti

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:38:00 +0000

Chinese Graffiti, originally uploaded by me_ram.

Graffiti has become a part and parcel of the Urban life. It is interesting and eye catching too. Here is one such masterpiece from Chinatown, Boston.

A few Technical Details:

f=30mm, f/11 and 1/80 sec @ ISO 100.

Tonemapped Pseudo HDR from a Single RAW exposure.

A little Cropping, Curves and Saturation tweaking in Photoshop.

The Lion Parade...

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:37:00 +0000

The Lion Parade, originally uploaded by me_ram.

The Chinese New Year parades are annual traditions in many cities with significant Chinese populations. The Lion dance is a major part of these celebrations and there is a belief that this brings in good luck through the rest of the year. Accompanied with loud music, these dancers mimic the movements of a lion. Given that this is Chinese culture, there is a close connection with the martial arts especially Kung Fu.

A few Technical Details:

f=50mm, f/2.0 and 1/1600 sec @ ISO 100.

A little Curves and Saturation tweaking in Photoshop.

Customer Service, Done right...!

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:32:00 +0000

Not everyday you are happy with a business for doing that customer service thingy right. But yesterday was one of those days.

Personally, I have had to go through the pain of calling and waiting and arguing with more than one Multinational company who supposedly provide "the best customer service experience" possible to their clientele. I have even heard horror stories about $$ spent and hours lost just like that in this rigmarole. I was starting to worry if this was a start of yet another episode like that when Comcast screwed up my monthly statement for my Internet and Cable.

When I opted for the Service, I got it at a promotional price valid for the first 6 months. After that it said that it would be at the normal price. Everything was going on fine till I received this months bill. Instead of finding the usual 67 odd bucks, I found that I had been billed for ~150 bucks. Whatever be the normal price, this was too steep for whatever that I was using and so I wasn't prepared to give in.

So I started it off by calling Customer Service around midnight. After the usual wait times and explaining what had happened, the rep explained to me that there was an error in my previous billing cycle and so the system didn't identify that my promotion had ended in the last billing cycle itself! So the System caught this during the audit process and had corrected it for this period and hence this error. Now, for no fault of mine, I'm supposed to pay two and a half times what I usually pay for my connection. I argued with the rep, but with no luck. I know that is what I signed for, but had they told this last month, I could have acted on it then and not now after using a month of service at the regular rates. Going one step further, I even asked her if she could put me into the same plan again as the website still announces that this promotion is applicable for eligible existing customers. But the rep shrugged off and said she couldn't help me. She didn't see a combo with just 2 services and wanted me to upgrade and get a phone connecton too! So the only option that I had was to rant, close that connection and pay off what was due. That was one unsatisfied customer almost ready to turn on the back vowing never to come back again.

But then I remembered that this was the same company which boasts of having a open ear to the customers and brags about Caring for the customers and all that. In fact, I have seen for myself, Frank Eliason - the Director at Digital Care for Comcast on twitter (and I follow him too!). So I decided to email his team about the billing dispcrepancy and my situation. In the next few minutes I sent that email.

I checked my email a couple of times in the morning and then other meaner realworld issues at work took over. So I promply forgot it. Around noon, I found that there was a voice mesage from a Comcast representative from the Executive Office giving out her extension and asking me to call her back. Now this wasnt just any agent just checking on me. She had given her name and number and that would mean less wait time for me and more importantly I dont have to go on and explain my case to every Tom, Dick and Harry who upon hearing my long sorry tale would decide on who to pass the call onto.

So far so good. So I called her only to find out that her line was ringing on and she wan't answering. So left I message and got engrossed with work for the next few hours.

Now this time, I was there to answer when she called. The rep explained why she was calling and straight away apologized for not answering my call right away. Impressive, again. Now when I thought that we might have to start our arguments and negotiations, she quickly jumped in and told me that they were sorry for the billing mistake and as a one time courtesy they would offer me the same promotional plan for the next 12 months. Hmmm. I was flattered.

I write this not just because I struck deal with them. This customer service team did so much right and they retained me, a customer who was almost ready to shut the door behind and walk off. Little things like this done the right way matters a lot! Thank you comcast. This is one case of Customer Service, done right. Appreciate it!

P.S: I'm not sure if I would have got the same kind of response if I had gone the regular route of calling the 1-800 number again to deal with the Account Management reps. I might have been the same old ordeal of starting from square one again. I might have gotten lucky with this case. But to hell with it. I was served good and I'm happy with what I got! Thanks!

Faneuil Hall on Christmas Eve

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Faneuil Hall on Christmas Eve, originally uploaded by me_ram.

Pictured above is the the ever crowded Faneuil Hall Marketplace , deserted on Christmas Eve...! As viewed from the stairs leading to Boston City Hall. The city is usually dressed up in bright colors this time of the year. But the sad thing is that the weather doesn't permit one to venture out more often and take pictures. However, me and a group of friends decided to brave it and come here only to be greeted with the deserted streets and closed businesses. But afterall, it is Christmas and something that is meant to be celebrated with the family, isn't it?

I had blogged about the . Well that is when the sun was out! Unfortunately the winter has been quite harsh this year even on the New Englanders who 've been born and brought up in this kind of climate.

Another thing to note here is the fact how this place is deserted right on a festival eve. Had it been India, it would have been thronged by people with their last minute preparations for the festivities. Planning and Preparations. Look who's blogging about it!!

A few technical details
One Raw shot
Shot with the EFS 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
Mounted on a Canon Digital Rebel XSi
at f-18mm, f/3.5 and 1/10 sec
Handheld

Post Processing includes
Pseudo-HDR processing using Dynamic-HDR Photo
and a bit of Photoshop tweaking
and a bit of cropping.

Hope you like it!

Edgewater Silhouette...

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Edgewater Silhouette, originally uploaded by me_ram.

I love silhouettes. It is one form of photography I would love to do more often. But the tricky part is that it is pretty tough to get everything right in there.

Here is one of my "publishable" shots. Shot sometime last October just outside my office building at Edgewater, Wakefield, MA . Actually, I was a few seconds late and missed the sunset. So, decided to go for the Silhouette instead and got this!

A few Technical Details
f/6.3, 1/200 sec @ ISO 200
Using a Canon Digital Rebel XSi
Mounted on a EF-S 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
At focal Length 18mm

Slightly tweaked using Dynamic-Photo HDR and Photoshop.

Neanderthal Pepsi Cola Sign..

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:56:00 +0000

Neanderthal Pepsi Cola Sign.., originally uploaded by me_ram.

This Neanderthal Pepsi Logo display in Brooklyn really caught my eye during a trip to NYC last summer. Framed from Pier 17 / Near the Manhattan bridge, New York CIty.

A few Technical Details about the photo
Pseudo HDR
Made from 1 Jpg exposure
Using Dynamic-Photo HDR
Noise Reduction using Noise Ninja
and a bit of Photoshop Tweaking.

Side note:
Staying on the topic of Pepsi Logos, I must say that I HATE the new Pepsi Globe that they recently changed to. Until the 2008 redesign, the Pepsi Globe resembled the Taegeuk symbol widely used in South Korea and it was pretty cool. The new version which uses an all lowercase setting on a rounded font doesn't really appeal me. I think that I will have to wait for the next redesign to happen.

Makeover...

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:19:00 +0000

This website has got a huge makeover today.

First I must admit that choosing blogger over wordpress was a mistake. But what makes it even more horrible is the fact that it continues to haunt me everytime I see some cool feature in wordpress. Some features in Blogger are still neanderthal. Themes for instance. Although blogger adopted an xml based theme ages ago, their set of default themes are very few. The quality of the themes that are available around the web for blogger aren't upto the mark.

One of the things that irks me the most as a photographer who blogs is the fact that all the themes were designed for 800x600 resolution which is pretty much defunct in this widescreen era. Especially with the sidebars and stuff, the total width of the photos that one can post limits to a measley 400 px wide. So the new theme that I have updated to a 1024 px wide theme which has become the defacto standard for websites.

It will allow me to post images to a max of 800 px wide - double the size as before. I have removed quite a few widgets that I no longer use. More importantly, there are no more Google Ads. Only time will tell if it is a good move or not and it is certainly debateable. For now, I would like to be as-is.

Further, I decided to make the background black (from white) to make it more pleasing to view the photos. I hope that the other colors that I have chosen goes in well with the overall theme /look and feel.

So, what do you think of it? Do let me know!

If you are one of those feedreader addicts, do take a moment to click through to the actual post and give me your comments and criticism!

Under the bridge..

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Under the bridge.., originally uploaded by me_ram.

Actually, it is Under the fishing pier at the St. Augustine Beach, FL. The pilars seems to be as old as the city itself. Nevertheless, at 80F it was a heaven last spring!

Technical Details:

1 RAW image taken with a Canon Powershot S5 IS.

Tonemapped HDR using Photomatrix and some minor adjustments using Photoshop.

The Sunset at Cambridge Common

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:30:00 +0000

The Sunset at Cambridge Common, originally uploaded by me_ram.

Okay. When it comes to getting the sun in the frame, I'm biased. There are a helluva lot of challenges and every attempt of mine has one shortcoming or another. But, I will overcome it all someday!!

View on Black

Technical Details

1 RAW image taken with a EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens mounted on a Canon Digital Rebel XSi.

Tonemapped HDR using Photomatrix and some minor adjustments using Photoshop.

Presentation on a few basics of Photography...

noreply@blogger.com (Maharajapuram Ramchandran) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:41:00 +0000

A few of my colleagues who share the same passion as I do for Photography are running a Camera Club at our office. Our monthly meeting is tomorrow and I'm talking about the Effect of Aperture on Depth of Field, Effect of ISO on Exposure and the Practical trade offs between A, S and ISO.

Here is the presentation that I'm going to be using tomorrow. Comments and Criticism welcome. And btw, Wish me luck!

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