Bhagis Snaps

Red Bull X-Fighters Jams FMX show ,Colombo Sri lanka - 2011

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:29:00 +0000

A grand FMX show of Red Bull X-Fighters Jams happened in Srilanka on 30th July 2011,for the second time after 2010.These are few pictures from the Show.Please have look at my other profiles for more stunning photos and stories.New photos will be published within 24 hours.Stay tuned.If you want to purchase any images please contact sbhagiraj@gmail.com

Official Page - www.theasianpictures.com

Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhagisphotography/

--- Lipton’s Seat ---

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 01:27:00 +0000

The look-out point of true panoramic Beauty of Srilankan Highlands.

“Hey machan wake up..!! "

Friendly word and a tap from my friend woke me up from the deep sleep of 9 hours train journey.

I wiped the mist off the windows and looked around, its almost early morning, and I’m at Haputale railway station. We have traveled 195km through the highlands of Srilanka, from Colombo Fort railways station.

It was a long before plan to go to Haputale, one of the most spectacular towns in Srilanka.

It was a 2 days trip and our first plan is to go the Lipton seat, it is the highest point of the mountain ranges out there, which is named after the famous Tea planter of Ceylon, Sir Thomas Lipton, who used it as a look-out point when surveying the surrounding region of his tea plantations at Dambatenna Estate.

Soon after we get out of the station it is the haputale Town, quite a large town where you can buy anything. After the breakfast from a decent bakery, we a group of 6 hired a van at the nearby bus depot to go to Lipton seat.

We traveled almost like a snake ,hills after hills, turns after turns, and it is not an easily forgettable journey, we are completely surrounded by the misty mountain ranges, cool breeze, sounds of tall trees, lines of local tea plucking women carrying the basket on their shoulders, small groups of school children waving at us, sounds of birds, and the noise of the old vans engine. We didn’t talk with each other, cause we were busy admiring the true beauty of Haputale.We were lucky enough to get few local boys with us as guides along the journey who were explaining about the places we were passing.

30 minutes journey brought us to a small busy village which is entirely surrounded by the green mountain ranges and tea estates, which is situated just away from the main tea factory. The people are mostly Tamils and there are few Sinhalese also, and we could be able to see few tourists as well. Another 30 minutes travel along the hills and the gravel roads brought us straight to the Lipton’s seat, a world’s end point.

All we saw is hills after hills, around us. It is said that we can see the entire southern Srilanka which is until the coastal edge. But we could be able to see only a few stretches of lands as the place was covered fully by mist, the locals advised us to reach the place before 7 am, as after 8am the mist will really mess the clear view of the coastal line.

It is 11.30 am, “shall we cook machan?”, said one of our friends. The small morning breakfast didn’t satisfy our stomach. We quickly began preparing our lunch at a corner near the Lipton’s seat, finding water is almost impossible, so we had to go to nearby part of village to bring water where the people are very helpful and even let us charge our phones and use their toilets.

As I was the only one with a camera, i had the privilege of skipping the cooking part and documenting the trip, but i couldn’t resist the urge to go around the hills of Lipton’s seat and photograph the magnificent views which i have never seen in my life.

Time was ideal when i returned after a hour long shooting and my friends started to serve the food. Having a lunch prepared by us at one of the beautiful places in Srilanka and eating it enjoying the scenic beauty and cool breeze of the place is simply cannot be expressed by words. You have to go there and feel it by yourself.

The mist is all over even at the evening, the light slowly started to fade away. We began to setup our camps, out there but it was merely impossible to do so as it was extremely windy and the temperature went down so badly. We didn’t expect this sudden change which is usual at this place after around 5 pm.we decided to get back to a lower level, so we started to climb down the hills from Lipton seat along the gravel road which is almost completely covered by the mist, where it’s very difficult to see what is in front,it is a perfect example which every vehicle drivers should take care of.

We started to walk down, and a 15 mints walk through the windy mist brought us to a small building which is used by the locals to rest, and we decided to spend our night out there. Two kind locals also stayed with us throughout the night for a support in an unknown place, and we felt sorry that we didn’t bring our sweaters. What more, the night went down with a delicious BBQ, camp fire, songs, and friendly chat. Everyone was enjoying every bit of minutes out there, the Lipton’s place and the nature of haputale made us so.

Next day morning I’m the first to wake up, it was around 6.30 am, i don’t want the mist to disturb the view at Lipton seat as it did the last day. By the time we grab our bags and run through the bypass roads back to the lepton seat its almost 7.45 am, and the southern coastal line is already faded away, but we could be able to see more and more hills and river systems, roads and towns which we missed last day, I felt why the Great Sir Lipton choose this area as a lookout point,im pretty sure it’s not entirely the survey he did out there, but also he must have admired & enjoyed the panoramic view the place providing.

I would simply say, being out there in the middle of Heaven of Nature, is truly relaxing, a MEDITATION!..

The sun was bright that day. We spent few hours out there taking group snaps, and got ready to get down to haputale town. I really didn’t want to leave the place. It is truly a paradise for any nature lovers and Photographers. And it is a very romantic place as well.

The decent was not quite good, the mist is low, and the sun is up sky. And we got 7km to get down along the road and bypassing shortcut roads. Every bit lands we passed made us craving to visit the place again, we are almost halfway down, until we find a truck loaded with fresh vegetables grown in the nearby villages, and in few minutes it got loaded with us as well. In an hour we are in the bus to Bandarawela which is a large hill country town, where we can get a bus back to Colombo.

I didn’t stop with that. I have traveled few more different trips to different places after that. But I’m yet to find an equally interesting, mesmerizing, and unforgettable, lifetime journey like i had in Haputale.

You can go to haputale by train or bus, but going by train will give you the chance to see the scenic view of Srilankan highlands. Go to www.railway.gov.lk to view the train schedule.

You can always hire a private vehicle to the Lipton seat at the Haputale bus depot for a really good fare.Or you can take bus from Haputale (town) up to Dambetenna (Tea Factory) and walk from there, which will be around 7km to the Lipton’s seat.

Get the help of a professional guide or a local to go around the place, you also can ask from the tea factory for the instructions.

Bring enough food and water, don’t rely on the water found in the local villages, at unavoidable circumstances BOIL the water!

Bring umbrella or raincoat, the rain suddenly pours from nowhere!

Locals are very friendly and helpful, if necessary don’t hesitate to get some help from them.

If you want to see the complete panoramic view of the south coastal line from the Lipton’s seat, then be at the place before 7.30 AM.

Avoid being there after 5-6pm,as the temperature drops very rapidly, there will be so much of wind, and more than all the mist will merely hide the road from the view, which is very dangerous to the vehicles.

Haputale is not only about Lipton’s seat, you can also visit St. Catherine’s Seat, another look-out point, and few waterfalls nearby.

Don’t forget to admire the beauty of Tea estates, activities, local villages, and the tea factory itself.

Smugmug

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 02:51:00 +0000

After extensive use of Smugmug ,all i can say is WOW !!!!!..the news follows as this,
Ive started my own photographic site with smugmug, one of the best site to offer unlimited uploads of photos,which is very cost effective.and it is one of the most secured site for you to transfer and share family,event photos only among your family,and friends all over the world.
Here is the link,

http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=rjvbSrc0x2Mh2

And an added advantage of using this particular link is,you will get 5-50$ of discount to open the account when you use this link.

Thank You

Bhagi

What is HDR photography-Tutorial by Bhagi

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 07:51:00 +0000

My recent gallery "A journey to Pungudutivu-Jaffna ",which i have uploaded in Facebook,in the following common link HERE , and the High Resolution Photos in SMUGMUG have not only brought me 130 new visitors in just one day,but also made a lot of people to wonder what this guy (me),referring to as " High Dynamic Range Photography (or in lay language high definition photography) ".I do understand that a photographer's true passion should be not only giving images to entertain, but also providing some necessary technical information regarding the pictures that have been showcased.

So i thought to give you some basic details about High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR Photos).To understand HDR ,you must know how a camera differ from a human eye.They both see the common things in the world.But there is a major difference in how they perceive what they see.There where the term Dynamic Range come in.I would say a "Dynamic Range",is simply a range of light that is little to much or very darker to very brighter.

Digital Camera sensors or Film camera sensor have a fixed Dynamic Range,where they can record only a fixed amount of contrast .They cannot change them self according to the changing patterns of light.But our human eyes do not have a fixed Dynamic range,where according to the lighting pattern we can change our range of contrast recordings,thus giving a resultant picture perceived and produced by our brain.So you can now understand why in photography we use the most important two terms "over-exposed", and "under-exposed".,where we never say oh my eyes see the world over exposed and under exposed.

So when photographing we consider the darker areas,and lighter areas in the frame.If we do not want to overexpose a subject for example a sunset sky,then we get reading of the sky,where intentionally we make the subject below sky,darker than usual.If we want to take a picture of a person where the sun at background,then to prevent that person face getting darker,we take the reading of the persons face,and most of the time will end up in a well exposed face and over exposed sky.But it is not a problem to our eye,where our eye can see the clear face and at the same time a blue sky with sun.Because practically camera sensor is not sophisticated as our brain.So we give the camera a chance to record Dynamic ranges of lights.Which are Darker ,Neutral, and Lighter.

What are we doing here?.Simply rather than sticking to just one photo we are taking 3 or 5 differently exposed photos(as far as i know no camera currently record more than 5 differently exposed photos).Lets take it as 3 photos,it is the limit my camera Canon 50D can capture.We snap one over exposed photo,one neutrally exposed photo,and one under exposed photo.We call it as Exposure Bracketing.Relatively we are now getting closer to the human eyes,where we have now almost covered light range from darker to lighter,which is meant by the term Dynamic Range in photography.

So what is next.Now we have some serious post processing to do.We have to convert all those three photos into a single High Dynamic Range Photo,where now it will have all the details of darker areas and lighter areas.For this we have to use specialized HDR softwares like Photomatrix, which is the one i use.These softwares will automatically measure the details and produce us a final image which is what we call HDR photo.simple isn't it.
For those who are going to try this technique, remember,

1)Use a camera which has ability to Exposure compensate,and Exposure bracket all SLR cameras do have these functions.
2)Use a tripod if you do not have steady hands,as all photos should be perfectly aligned.
3)Bracket the shot according to the situation.
4)Dont change the aperture value or ISO value,as these will ruin all your efforts,in HDR photography you must change only the shutter value,where it will be done automatically when you use exposure bracketing.
5)Do not always try to make HDR photos,even though they will produce the best exposure,because you will stop learning the tough parts of photography,like exposure compensations,and exposure metering.

Here i have attached some HDR photos ive used in my new gallery" A journey to Pungudutivu-Jaffna "..Click on the pictures for a larger view.

Which White Balance to select when Photographing almost Anything !!! -Tutorial By Bhagi

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:25:00 +0000

White Balance !!!..Heard of ?..yes everybody did.But as I'm photographing for last 4 years,i saw this is the most avoided feature in photography by most people,including myself,but once.
Here im not going to talk about Physics.I'm just trying to make you photographers life easy,and creative.This world is full of color spectrum.Fortunately we humans can perceive a light wave as it is.We can see a white as white and red as red.But cameras don't !!.,well most of the time.

How do cameras measure a light ?.Simply by color temperatures.Each colors has specific color temperatures.Camera sensors measure the temperature and give a resultant ,which has 50-50 % chances to produce accurate colors.So any changes in temperature calculations by camera will affect the photographs significantly.For example you will shoot one old white romantic couple on a bench and come up with a jaundiced couple (or patients!).Yes what else you need to ruin your once in a lifetime photo other than that.Then what is the option you got ?.Answer is Balance your Colors.Bring them to neutral as your eyes see them. How ?

Most digital camera nowadays has white balance settings.Normal snapshot camera models like my old Sony W50 has preset white balances ( Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash ) and Professional Digital SLR camera like my Canon 50D has Shade,Custom color balance,and Color temperature modes in additionally.Presets are very handy,and you don't need to worry about anything,except the scene.But custom color and color temperature modes are really something.Ill briefly tell what they are before i really jump into the tutorial." What !!!!..you didn't start it yet !!! ".Well i thought of giving some explanations about white balance to people who have never tried it.

In custom white balance you show the camera a white sheet or a 18% Grey card and tell it, "This is the base color or a neutral color you should start off with ".The camera will then record the best color available,and it is the white balance setting used by most portrait photographers and even other professional photographers.Next mode is color temperature mode,where there are color temperatures in kelvins ( From 2500 K to 10,000 K ).2500K is more cooler like midday dark blue sky,and 10,000K is more warmer like evening sunsets.According to the scene you can change the color temperature to produce accurate colors.This is most commonly used in a creative way.

Auto white balance.!!!.I'm not going to tell about this,cause in here the camera decides everything.If you are in a hurry to take a fast moving subject or lazy to deal with other white balance modes then use this.It wont let you down,even though i rarely use this mode.But do you want to become a good photographer?.Then forget about the Auto color balance mode.

I'm not going to explain every modes and presets anymore.Instead ill show you the images i took with different White balance settings.So you can see the dramatic impact they can put on your photos.If you have specific questions or comments about certain mode,please write them below.

This is a seascape photo in the late cloudy afternoon,which i took with my Canon 50D.The white balance settings and the color temperatures are captioned in the Images.A small exercise for you,select a white balance you like most,and state in the comments.So we can a select a best white balance most people like for a evening seascape view.My favorite is Fluorescent.

Click on the image for a larger view
Saw the difference?.White balance is not a colorful feature of a camera.But its a must feature of photography.Be creative.Have a good day.
Questions and comments are welcomed.!!

Im Back

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:16:00 +0000

After one year of long pause,im now returning to my photography blog.This one year was remarkable for me in aspects of photography.I bought the famous Canon 50D Dslr,i opened a stock photography site,i became a freelance photographer,i wrote for magazines as a travel photographer,and did various photography trips and yeah i forgot to mention,that i also found my angel..:).who is supporting me a lot in this field,well i mean she is tolerating my non stop talks about photography.

When she gave me a site as a gift,and after it was completely organized,i got a remarkable 300 visits in 10 days,5000 page visits in one month,and more than 100 external links to my site (Google analytic).

Few people who went through my site asked me of some specific shots,and wanted me to tell them how i did that.Well my answer was I Had Time to Spend !!..Yes,i know its not satisfactory,so i thought to relaunch my once famous Blog,which has received alexa ranking 4 and was in the top ten photography blogs list(Ranked by an independant ranking site of Philippines Photography Bloggers,even though im in Srilanka), however my blog is nowhere in the search results right now.

Enough jabbering,ill jump into the point.

Ive decided to start photography tutorial lessons of how i take certain photos,click here for my previous tutorials which ive done before a year.This posts are not created by a professional photographer,im not one.So i seek for experiences and information that readers could share,so it will be helpful for most people and me too.

These lessons are not standard basement to rooftop tutorials.Here only thing im going to do is ill show you a photo,and ill tell how i shoot that.However in middle of these i will lightly touch on some technical aspects to produce good images,which most people forget to think of.

So,lets begin.

Start your own Photography site

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:36:00 +0000

Ive started my own photographic site with smugmug, one of the best site to offer unlimited uploads of photos,which is very cost effective.Here is the link,

http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=rjvbSrc0x2Mh2

And an added advantage is,you will get 5-50$ of discount to open the account when you use this link.

Thank You

Bhagi

My New Photography Site

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:06:00 +0000

Hi finally Ive managed to create a photo site,You can access it via

Site

or directly to the gallery via

Gallery

You also can create your own galleries in worlds best photo site,www.smugmug.com
All you need to do is using my smugmug code for a great discount of 14 days (will be extended to another 14 days) free trial,and 5-50% discount when you buy a cheap profile in the site.

code : rjvbSrc0x2Mh2

Thank you

Wasgamuwa National Park

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:49:00 +0000

History has it that Wasgamuwa woodlands have been occupied by man during the ancient Sinhala kingdoms before the birth of Christ. With a tremendous history this woodland was declared as a national park in 1984 especially for their wildlife nature. This woodland covers about 39,300 hectares in central and north- central provinces of Srilanka in the districts of Matale and Polonnaruwa.and can be reached from Matala or Hettipola. This National park is open to visitors from 6.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. The best period to reach the park is from the January to March.

In a simple one line sentence, we went “nature” treasure hunting at Wasgamuwa. It was filled with wild lives, strange looking plants, weird bugs and dramatic changes as riverine forest , grasslands and wetlands .There was a moment where all of us were running wild along with all the wild animals.

Wasgamuwa is famous for elephants who are known to be less habituated to people and more wildish. Along with these wild elephants that always have a habit of wandering in the woods in a bunch, we were blessed to see sloth bear, leopard, sambhur, spotted and barking deer, wild boar, wild buffalo and many other animals.

Arriving at Wasgamuwa after 6 hours of journey from Colombo which is about 225 km away from Wasgamuwa, we had a task to do before the sun sets. It was a matter of sleeping without a tent under the bright and beautiful moon. Of course that thought intrigued me and wouldn’t have been a bad idea after all. Yet, with all the effort of taking a camping tent with us all the way from Colombo to Wasgamuwa, we setup the tents and had a place with roof to sleep. What an experience it was, sleeping in the in the mid of jungle with no basic facilities and with mahavali and Amban rivers drawing boundaries from the outside world. Though we had a tour guide with us all the time, each and every one of us started to explore the land with a help of torch light. It was a tremendous experience. Knowing that there is an elephant just few meters away from you while you are at sleep is something I cannot explain. You have to feel it yourself.

Having had a thrilling night, we started the next day early with our cameras on safari trip. Of the 428 species of birds reported to be found in Sri Lanka, 143 species are found in this park and while we were travelling on the jeep, the engine sound was drowned in by the sound of birds.

With huge old trees towering you, it is hard not to be impressed by the jungle which is also with ancient tanks, several other ruins and historical religious sites. Among them what attracted me the most is Yadanganapitiya where the armies camped during the battle of kings Dutugemunu and Elara. The atmosphere of chattering birds, wild animals, and harmless small butterflies circling your head is simply mesmerising.

One thing we could see any where we went was elephants. They were doing their job without any fuss as we were doing ours, as in following them and taking photos. After the exciting and breathtaking safari trip we headed back to the camp to have yet another peaceful sleep.

The next day morning was mostly spent on swimming at Mahavali river and marvelling over bizarre looking plants. By noon, we had to make our way back to Colombo to lead our day to day life. But All in all my camping, safari experience at the Wasgamuwa has been one of the highlights of my trip.Yes Wasgamuwa the true beauty of Srilanka, is also the paradise for the Photographers and Bird watchers.

How to Expose the Texture of a Leaf Using Sunlight- How I Did This Tutorial 7

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:54:00 +0000

Here a quick and simple tutorial,How to expose the texture of a leaf...

There are different types of leafs,different colors of leafs,everyday..everywhere we see there are trees and leaves.How many of us really interested and photographed it,many!...but how many of them really know they also can shoot a leaf exposing its texture and veins..which is difficult to notice by the naked eyes.This tutorial is to make it easy.At the end of the tutorial you might thnink oh!everyone know know this.Im asking,why didnt you try then...??

Many professional photographers give alomost the same priority to the leafs as flowers.Cause they may give a different flavour.Even though im a amateur photographer i thought to taste that different flavour,and the result is..now the flavour is in my desktop wallpaper.:)..

Here is the photo i took last week.

Now How I Did This...

1) Phoographing leafs is bit easy than flowers,because they are mostly green,they are large,and their usually dont fool us.So now go and select any leaf you like.

2) Take your camera,here even your mobile phone camera will work.Do necessary setting as you wish.If your camera has a filter settings you can change it to green or other colors.

3) Select high aperture number for better depth of field,this high number will not affect the exposure of the photo because we are going to use sunlight here.

4) Now the trick,you can use Flash or Sunlight.Try with both.

5) When you are trying to use flash,you have to have a dark background,because you are going to photograph not just a leaf,but a leaf with its veins.So hold the leaf against the background and shoot it.More photos the better,cause you are holding the leafs ,which can blur the photo.

6) Or do as i did.Take the leaf and hole the leaf directly against the sunlight.Turn off the flash.Now take the photos.The results are far better than using a flash...

7) I recommend you to use young leafs,where you can see the veins clearly.

Have a nice day.

Honey Moon Revealed

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Hey finally i have captured the ultimate Honey Moon adventure.Click here to view my long hidden post....

How To Create Panoramas - How I Did This Tutorial 6

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:18:00 +0000

What is Panorama?,Wikipedia states its "any wide view of a physical space",or simply its a wide angle representation of a location.But what is the role of panorama in photography,is it essential?.I would say "yes,somehow", to that question.Normaly there are two entities of photos,one is wide angle,other one is zoomed photo.As you all know abut zoom,lets take the wide angle photos.We use wide angle method to photo an entire location,for example a mountain side,in landscape photography.But do we acheive that specific 'entire' location.The answer is most of the time No.Why?..

We all know there are special lenses to take wide angle photos.Yes they can cover a lot of space laterally,than the normal lens.But they do have a limit for that.The result would be a photo which is somewhat wide that the view is now expanded.But what if we want a photo that is very wide,and which cannot accompalished by wide angle lenses.Here comes the Panoramas.

Now to the lesson...

Example 1 -Haputale Mountain s..(Sample Photos-Click on the photos to enlarge)
Example 2 (Sample Photos)

In panoramas we are going to take several photos covering an entire location and then digitally redesign it to form a big wide photo.Ill explain it with examples..

1) You need a series of photos that can overlap.So capturing the images at the same level is recommended.So try to use a tripod.But in my example i didnt use a tripod.:)

2) Take much photos with overlaping edges, covering all the angles of the scene you like.

3) Now thats all in photography aspect.Now come to the Digital manipulation.

4) There are lots of softwares to create Panorama photos.But as most people use Photoshop as an editing tool.Ill explain using photoshop CS3.

5) Go to File ->Scripts->Load files into stack and choose the photos you want to make panoramas with.Alternately you also can use File->Automate->Photomerge..(But i like the first one because i find its easy)

6) Select the top image and Shift-Select the bottom image then press OK.The photos will auto load into your workspace.You can see your photos in the layer pallette.

7) Now select all layers using the Shift key,as you selected before.

Example 1 (Auto Alignment)
Example 2 (Auto Alignment)

8) Go to Edit->Auto-Align Layers..then select Auto.(Try to practice with other modes also).Now the photoshop automatically resize and overlap your photos into large wide frame.This process will take some time depending on the speed of your PC and size of photos.

9) Now you can see all the photos aligned overlaping the edges,but still you can see their edges.So now go to Edit->Auto-Blend Layers.Now you can see your photos are nicely overlapped with no borders in between.

10 ) Now use your cropping tool and crop the photo as you wish.

11) Thats all now you have a very wide photo as wanted..

Example 1 (Result)

Example 2(Result)

You dont need to go to a hilltop or beach to get panoramas.Simply take your camera and try at your home photographing outside.See you soon....

Photo Hunt : Blue

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:43:00 +0000

This Photo i took in a Hillside of Haputale,Srilanka.Thought to post it for this weeks Photo Hunt photo submission.It was very hard to take this snap in the moring with mist and all.Hope you all like it.
Stay tuned for an exclusive Haputale(One of the Best Tourist spots in Srilanka), travel guide in coming Weeks

Hibiscus Flower - An Overview and How to Photograph It Tutorial 5

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:34:00 +0000

Hibiscus - Mystic Pink
You all have seen Hibiscus or Shoe Flower or Rose mallow.This flower is a large trumpet- shaped with five or sometimes more petals which comes in red,yellow, pink, orange colors and sometimes in colors and shapes we don't even imagine.This flowers are common in Asian countries.And its the national flower of South Korea and Malaysia.In many parts of the world it has been used in different ways.Mexicans,Sudan and Egyptians use this as a herbal tea,for its property as a natural diuretic,its called as Jamaican Tea in Mexico.It is also used for paper making,as vegetable,and in ayurvedic preparations.Its petals also has anti fungal,emollient.

Hibiscus - ApricotBrandy
It is widely used in Hindu worship, mainly as an offering to the goddess Kali and Lord Ganesha.It also used as an important custom in Hawaiian people.Hawaiian women wear this flower behind the ear to indicate that they are available for marriage.!.Hibiscus tattoo is now common in tattooing community all over the world.
There are about 200 species of Hibiscus.And there are more unknown hibiscus flowers,due to extreme genetic variations in them.
Care for Hibiscus flower should be done in warm temperature.Steady watering is necessary, and always remember overflooding can kill the plant.
As i am a photographer ,photographing the hibiscus is the worst part of my job.Because these flowers come in very bright color.So when photographing them,their texture of petals will definitely go off.So we here we should take the advantages of natural lighting and manual camera settings.Here i have put some photos of some rare Shoe flowers,all from my home made garden.

Hibiscus - RosaDouble
When photographing shoe flowers always reduce your contrast levels and keep the exposure levels normal.For certain colors of hibiscus flowers you might need shady area,for some flowers you need color backgrounds,for example a white board as i used in Greeting Card Tutorial .
And i prefer not to use flashes,because they will overexpose the photo,where you cant see the actual hibiscus texture.You also can compose your Hibiscus Photos in different ways,because anyone would like to see the photographs of hibiscus,and everyone like to photograph it.

Hibiscus - Pride of Hankins

Extremely Easy Way to Earn Money From Internet

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:56:00 +0000

Hi,yesterday was the day i will never forget.Yes,i got my first payment of 200$ after i joined with a worlds best internet marketing company SFI affiliate.I joined with this company before one and a half month.At that time i thought it can be just an internet marketing company like many other spamming company.Anyhow i just registered there for FREE.And instantly for a day i got about 1000 affiliates under me.and in one month period over 25,000 affiliates.You know what has happened.When ever those people under me purchase anything or sell anything i will get a commision.You dont need to spend hours.I spent only a hour per day to make my own internet selling.And ended up in 200$ for a month.If i spent more time i might have earned over 1000$ i think.

Why im writing it in a photography site.I thought to share my feelings with you.If i can earn something why cant you earn the same or more amounts.I went to youtube and some forums and checked about the company and the programme.There were no failure stories,only success stories.Amazing is it.Ill give you the link here.You register with them.Its very easy.And absolutly FREE.Ill see you soon.

http://www.quickinfo247.com/10395721/FREE

How to Photograph Waterfalls - How I Did This Tutorial 4

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Once again im welcoming you to my Tutorial series,How I Did This.Today the tutorial 4,we are going to discuss an interesting subject.The Waterfalls,yes today the tutorial is on How to photograph a waterfall.Photos here were i took in Neluwa.

Waterfall photography is bit challenging to a photographer.Because even if you are an expert the light and exposure will definitly fool you.So im going to tell you how to overcome this problem.Normally the waterfalls resides in a forest setup.But they also can be found in an open place.Waterfalls are moving subject.So photographing them need extra ability,however they are not like ordinary moving subjects.For an example you are photographing a racing car.If you miss the timing you will miss the car and very often you will end up with only the back of the car photographed.

But the waterfall have the continuous movement of water.So here you are not going to miss the scene.But you might miss the quality of the photo.Basically you can photograph the waterfall in two different ways.

a) Freeze the movement of the waterfall.

b) Blur the movement of the waterfall,which will give you a dynamic photo.

Ill explain the basic settings you can follow to take photos in both categories.

a) How to freeze the waterfall.

Here you are going to take a photo of a waterfall at a certain time fraction of a second.The photo will come like pouring the water from a hill.Freezing means you stop the motion at a specif time.To photograph this your camera should have facility to increase the shutter speed.I recommend you to turn your camera to shutter priority mode,which will auto adjust your aperture value.If the waterfall is in a open place you are safe.But if it is in a dark place dont increase the shutter speed too much.And dont use high ISO if your camera is not a professional SLR,because it will increase the noise.

Use a shutter speed of 1/500 to 1/1000 seconds without flash.If you are working in manual mode use a aperture value of 2.7 to 5.6.And you will end up with a photo like this.

Example of Freezing..You can see even the drops.

b) How to blur the waterfall

Here you are going to do a dynamic photography.You have to take it in a almost realtime situation.To make a silky apperance of the falls you have to reduce the shutter speed.1/4 to 3 seconds is enough.Waterfalls are bright objects.So when you expose them for more than 3 or 4 seconds,you will get a very overexposed photo with no streaks of water or quality of the water.At the same time to reduce overexposure you can use a high aperture valure.Here you must reduce the ISO speed to very low levels.And always use a tripod when you are using low shutter speeds.

Blurring..Silky appearance

Photographing the waterfall alone is not very attractive,use any frames that are available,for an exmple tree lines at the sites.At the sites of waterfall you might see small water ponds,an rocks where water falls from above.These are the places you might somtimes get good photos.So always look for that spots.I have put a photo at the top as an example of this spots.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial.Please add your comments,and suggestions which inturn can help me to develop myself and the readers of my future posts.Ill see you next time.

How to Photograph the Moon - How I Did This Tutorial 3

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Welcome to my How i Did this Tutorial 3.Today as i have promised earlier im not going to tell about macro photography.Sorry for that.But today im going to discuss another interesting and difficult photography method.Lunar Photography or Moon Photography.What is moon photography,simply it is taking photographs of a moon.But How.Since moon is the biggest and brightest object in our night sky.It is always difficult to photograph a bright object.

There are lots of sites writing about moon photography.Those are often very advanced topics.Here im going to give you some simple ideas which those sites gave in pages.

Recently i bought a Sony DSC H50,which is a semi SLR,with a 15x zoom,it is now priced about 350$.Hey it is just a simple fact.Back to tutorial..

The only problem you will face here is if you use a P&S camera with about 3 or 4x zoom,you will get a tiny white dot.So i recommend you to use a zoom lens either on a SLR or a Semi SLr.

I took the picture above at digital zoom which is 30x.Because i used digital zoom to make the moon bigger i lost the quality of the photo.:(..Anyhow,How to take this photo...,

Here im going to explain just what are the setting you need to make,not explanation for each settings.

1) You need a tripod,to prevent bluring the subject when using low shutter speeds and for your own comfortable.If you dont have a tripod you can use a self timer in your camera which can reduce blurring due to camera shake.

2) Mount the camera to the tripod.

3) As i explained before the moon is very bright.So if you use high ISO(Which sometime cause high noise in P&S cameras.And if you reduce the ISO level below 100 then your photo will look dark.So try to use a standard 200 or 400 ISO speed.

This photo below was taken in a 81X VGA zoom,which reduces the quality very much,but anyhow gives a good view of the moon.

4)Next the shutter speed.The moon is not moving very fasr.So you can use low shutter speed.But if you use very low shutter speed there can be blur(If you dont have a tripod),or the moon will look very bright,and you cant see its texture.So Try to use a shutter speed which ranges from 1/1000 to about 1/60.If you are trying to use very low shutter speed then reduce the ISO level.

5) Put the aperture value to 5.6.Coz when you use this there will be a good depth of field,and you wont unnessasarily make the photo dark.

6) I recommend you to change this parameters as you wish and try to experiment with the results.When changing this parameters you may somtimes notice there are significant but attrative colour changes of the moon.

7) If you are using the P&S cameras try to use auto mode.Dont use flash.:)

8) If possible and your camera allows focus your camera to infinity.If you got auto focus,then no problem.

9) Most people dont like to see a just a full moon.So try to use different stages of moon like for example a crescent moon.,or relate the moon or frame it with someother objects you are having near to you.That will make it more interesting.Because i dont have much time,i just took two photos of moon for this tutorial purpose.

10) If you have any comments please submit.

Ill see you all in my next tutorial.Meantime enjoy my other posts.

Create your own Deepavali Greeting card - How I Did This Tutorial 2

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:54:00 +0000

Welcome to my How I Did This Tutorial 2.Today im going to show you how i took a photo to create a greeting card for the "Festivel of Lights",the Deepavali.Click here to see the greeting card.

This is an easy step to step guide that all of you can practice.I have posted the one of the greeting card in my last post.This time ill show you another photo.

Many people are thinking that being fundamental is the right way to do something.One aspect of that fundamentalism in photography is being "Natural",

yes i agree we should follow that,but for a certain extent.I can take a photo like this one below which is natural,It shows everything what should be there.But the thing is everyone know it before,they have seen it before.These days people want something different.

So keeping that in my mind i took another photo,

Now you can see the different.I would not say this is artificial,but its different.When we create greeting card or other things which we are going to share with a community,we have to make it unique.Because others also try to do so.That is my principle.Dont mind your time,because festivels come only once per year :).

Okey back to tutorial.You dont need to follow exactly what im telling,but take this as a guide.

1) Here the main concern is to create darkness which was lightened, as Deepavali implies uplifting spritual darkness.The theme differs with festivels

2) You can use even a P&S camera,but use it in the auto mode,turn off your flash.I used a semi SLR here.

3) Take a lamp,or somthing related to that which can be lighted.

4) Light it in several places,here i have lighted in three spots.

5) now take a piece of white paper,an A4 sheet is enough here.Keep the lamp on it.

6) Take a white cardboard keep it as a background,here you should not distract the viewers by keeping something else.

7) Turn off any light sources in your room.

8) You can also design it further.Here i have put a flower garland,which is artificial. ;)

9) Design the garland as you wish.

10) Now turn off the flash,increase the exposure.

11) In non P&S camera do the settings as i followed.

12) ISO - 100, F number 2.7, shutter speed 1/40 to 1/60 seconds.

13) Take much photos you could take in different angles,because have of your photos get blured because of darkness.I took about 40 photos,only about 10 came in excellent quality.

14) Take photos when the flame is straight up,beacause it will look nice.

15) Now you can put your own greetings on the photo using any photo editor.I used Photoshop.

16) You can practice the same white carboard and white A4 sheet method in other occasions too when taking commercial photographs.

Share your photos with me.Ill see you soon in my third tutorial,in which im going to explain Macro Photogaphy,where you can take photos of things which are even smaller than 1cm.

Happy Deepavali.

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:37:00 +0000

Deepavali or Divali is a major indian festivel.But now it becomes major festivel of globe,where today there are no countries without Hindus,sikhs,and jains.People of Nepal also celebrating this, the Festivel of Lights.

There are many legends saying how Deepavali festivel came as a part of life.One story says it was the day when Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura.Some other legends say it was the day when the people of Ayodya(Indian ancient city) celebrated with Rows of Lamps(Avali+Deepa) when their King Rama returned from the forest after 14 years.It is celebrated on the first new moon day of kartika month.

Deepavali festivel Marks the victory over evil, and uplifting of spritual darkness.It is the new year of luck and wealth.It is the day, people celebrate with new cloths, snacks, sweet, and yes..Fire Crackers.

Lets celebrate this festivel which makes our dreams and aspirations come true with humanity and unity.

I wish you all Happy Deepavali.

(Stay tuned with me for a tutorial ,How did i take this photo?)

Center focus an Object in your photograph- How I did this Tutorial 1

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:24:00 +0000

Welcome to my brand new tutorial series How I Did This.Here im going to explain the situations where i came across some of the main photographic problems,and how i overcome it.Since im an amateur photographer,being a professional sometimes,I came across lot of situations where the bsic photographic theories did not help me,or may be i didnt understand them very well.

So i created my own basics.These are not the facts which are said to be,"You have to Photograph like This" like photographic theories.Okey, lets start our tutorial.And one more thing, the quality of my future tutorials would be in your hands and comments.Make it as a discussion.

Here i have put a photo of a rose,which is in my garden.You can clearly see the rose is center focused,rest of the picture is outfocused.Not only that,the rose is very bright comparing the periphery.So how i did this ?

1) To do this you should have a pop up flash in your camera or a external flash unit,so normal P&S wont help.(I didnt try on them yet.

2) Now you should have a dark place,I prefer Night for these photos,but you also can move the rose in this example to some closed place,such as your room.

3) Okey now set your camera to any mode you like,as far as you can control the ISO level.I prefer the manual mode

4) Now make the aperture value to about 2.7 - 5.6 in manual mode,or leave it.

5) Turn on the flash and macro settings in your camera.

6) Now the trick, take a cardboard,or a thich piece of paper.

7) Roll it as a cone.

8) then fix the wide base of the cone to your pop up flash,or hold it in the flash,your flash unit should be inside the cone.

9) Now take the photo,while directing the cone directly to the object.

10) very thin paper may highly diffuse the flash light,so using a thick paper will diffuse the flash little,and the main part of the flash light will center the object through the narrow part of the base.

11) now you got a photo like above,even better i hope.

Use Copyright Watermarks in your photos

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:32:00 +0000

One of the boring task of putting a watermark on my photos, finally came to an end.Until now to put watermarks i just open my photo in Adobe Photoshop and then typing my name over the photo.

After a lot search i have released my very first photo with a professional watermark id.

Here i am going to explain how i did.Throughout this small and simple tutorial you will learn how to put watermark in photos.

1)First of all Get some Photos.:)

2)Then download Adobe lightroom 2.0 Photo editing software from the adobe site, or you can download it in other ways,that you know.

3)Install it.

4)Go to http://timothyarmes.com/lrmogrify.php?sec=main

and download LR/Mogrify and extract it somewhere.

5)Then go to http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php#windows

and download the file Imagemagick-6.4.5.0-Q16-windows-dll.exe file

6)Install it.

7)Now the hard part,go to http://timothyarmes.com/lrmogrify.php?sec=install,

follow the instructions there.

8)Now go to http://timothyarmes.com/lrmogrify.php?sec=quickguide and follow their tutorial.

9) Try to use a font size of about 100 to 120, otherwise your watermarks will look small.

10)Thats all,Now you are an owner of the professionally modified photo.

Hot Dog

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:18:00 +0000

Hot Dog,Which was invented in 1480s,now becoming an important component of food in western countries.Hey,whats the point writing about its history in a photography site.But its jst a fact.Before i send this whole piece into my stomach, i thought why cant i take a photo of it.Those are the days i came into commercial photography.I took photos of all i eat ,see ,etc...

A tip for beginners( Me too :P ),While taking commercial photographs it is essential to note some key points.Some of them are Depth of Field, Saturation, Exposure and yes the quality.This photo is only an example,of where you have to improve.:)And to make the photo attractive you can modify certain things before you take the photo.For example here i have put a design over the hot dog,with sauce.

And another fact,do you know how hot dog got its name,Its because sausage makers used dog meat in their products date to at least 1845.

Albino Cobras in Dehiwela Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:29:00 +0000

These are some of the rare albino cobras.This is my first video im posting.I hope you would like this video.Click here for the ultimate Colombo Zoo Guide.

Self Portrait Photography

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:07:00 +0000

Portrait photography is the most common type of photography.It is very simple to understand and make yourself a portrait photographer.Portrait photography simply means photographing somebody for some purpose. This is an interesting aspect of photography which involves dedication,concentration and timing.This post is not a tutorail, but an encouragement for you.

This post will not going to deal with the common Portrait photography issues.But im going to take you to a completely different way of portraiting.After reading this i hope you wont ask some others to snap you.Yes,y cant you take a photograph of yourself.Ill show some of the photos of me which are taken only by me.You can come up with different ideas regarding this subject.But the only reason of this post is to make you think,and become a creative Portrait photographer.

There are many ways to take self portraits.You can get a beautiful background behind you,or at your side or you can use the blend of night.Using dark backgrounds will give a boost to your photos,and it centers you.

To take this photo mount the camera on a tripod or keep it on a high object.Set the camera timer on for 10 seconds.And thats all.Simple.This is my first ever portrait photograph.Amazingly i took it with my Sony W50 camera which is a cheap P&S type of camera.

This photo was taken at the same location of the previous photo.I used self timer of 10 seconds,with flash.Dont always show yourself straight to the camera.photos in angle will be artistic.If you like post process your photo in a old custom colour.

This photo was taken in Haputale.Photos taken with a scenary at the back will be very attractive(Im not telling about this photo),But when choosing the loacation and camera setting,always mind where the sunlight is directed.

I took this photo with the same w50.This time i had the camera in my hand and took the photo.You can use flash to make this type of background.It will be fine if you sweat a bit.:)

The Colombo Zoo...( Camera - Critters #30 )

noreply@blogger.com (S.Bhagiraj) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:11:00 +0000

Dehiwela,Srilanka,it is where it resides,one of the finest zoo in Asia.It is known officially as National Zoological Gardens,and Colombo zoo or Dehiwela Zoo.It was rebuilt as the national Zoo,after it has taken over by the government in 1936 from John Hargenberg who maintained this zoo to hold the animals before trade.

As you come along south from Galle Face, passing the finest hotels in colombo,after about 12 km you will pass a bridge which borders Colombo from Dehiwela.From the junction the zoo lies in about 1-2 km distance.

Map of the Zoo (As in official site)

At the entrance you have to get the tickets for a good rate which depends whether you are a local or foreign citizen.The zoo opens to public from 8.30 Am to 6 PM everyday and it is also opened on poyadays.Inside the zoo,everywhere you look there is an animal,everytime you hear strange sounds,that is also from the animals.This 25 acres of pure biological facility holds over 3000 animals of 353 species.Welcome to the Biological Paradise of entertainment,conservation,animal welfare,breeding,research and education.

I usually go there to photograph animals.Most of the place have narrow pathways where you get lost if you dont follow the correct road numbers.And more than getting lost you will loose some of the rarest animals from your eyes.If you are a photographer,if it is your sole intention of this trip,i recommend you to go there in weekdays. Click here to view a video.
Aquarium..
You journey starts with fishes.The aqarium of the zoo holds lots of freshwater and marine fishes,corals,molluscans.You can witness their habitat behavioural petterns here.Worlds' largest freshwater fish directly from amazon rivers(as far as i remeber) also available here.
Sea Turtle..
After that you encounter many bird species like owls,eagles,macaws,etc and etc.To make you go crazy there is an artificially made exotic bird aviary.There,birds fly over your head,sit infront of you,walk with you,eat while you watching them,i would say it is a great spot for a good photo shoot.
Owl..
Macaw..
Inside the aviary..
Then you can view all sort of primates,especially an orang-utan who lives there for a long time.There are some of the cat species in cages.Kangaroo,giraffe,hippo,camel are the some of other attractions.

Another interesting site which is the goal for some people who visit the zoo is the Herpitarium or Reptalium.Here You can see crocodiles and tortoises riding on them.Some of the dangerous snakes like python,cobra,vipers,kraits,mamba and yes the anaconda also available here.The Anaconda delivered 23 baby anacondas this year and you can see some of them in another cage.All these snakes are kept in well secured hard glass partitions.So dont even dream of a python swollowing you.
Cunning Crocodile..
Some of the other main features of the zoo to be noted are waterfall and swan island, Butterfly Garden,Free living elephant area,elephant arena,Pony riding area,Lion island,Childrens corner,Education centreand,yes,the animals.There are lots of places to get some rest after a long walk.There is a large main restaurent accompanied with small coffee shops,and snack bars where things are bit expensive.
Tiger..
Lion..
Another attraction of the zoo is the animal shows and rides.There are Elephant show,Sea lion show,and Chimpanzee show.Also you can ride on an elephant and a pony.Sometimes you can also feed pelicans.
Elephant Dance..
Giraffe...
The zoo not only holds animals but also botanical gardens with large trees,medicinal plants,flower trees and shady pathways which make you feel like walking in a paradise.You can even buy some plants to have them at your home.
Pair of Deers..
Bear..
At the end of the long walking there is a section Carnivorous animals where you can see well fed, lions,bears,tigers,and cheetahs.You can see them torning the meat into pieces.
A Cheetah..
Here you can basically end your trip after seeing few zebras.If you want to go for another round,you are welcome,but please before 6 PM.A well planned journey inside the zoo will only take maximum of 4 hours.Im sure it will be one of the finest memories you will alwayes remember for your lifetime.