Photo Journal: 2007

New Photographs uploaded

New Photographs Uploaded in Sunsets and Friendly Animals Section Today.

As a thumb rule, when photographing reflections, use the smallest aperture possible (the largest f value); unless you want to capture a blurred reflection. In this photograph, I did want to frame in the entire tree crown, but the water body imposed constrains in doing that. Here I have used a f/8 aperture the smallest possible with my Sony-H7. Since the image is a reflection and the smallest aperture was used;a slower shutter speed had to be used, and to prevent camera shake, I did use a tripod. Now Since the water was still, the image turned out to be sharp, in case of a moving water body, then the above settings may not give the best results. In that case either use a higher ISO or a little bigger aperture.

Rolling Out The Red Carpet

The clouds were moving in to cover the blue sky and the red rays of the setting sun were creating a riot of red in the sky. Perfect time for a long exposure photograph. Just long enough to create a silhouette of the landscape.
Shutter: 0.62 sec , F/2.7, ISO 80

Trails of Light

Trails of moth circling around a sodium vapor lamp. I never expected to photograph these moths, I was interested in photographing the beam of light and set my camera on a 2.5 sec exposure. Interestingly the movements of the moth was captured by the camera, and gave rise to the trails.

New Photographs uploaded in Animals Section and Black & white section

Check out for the New Photographs under the "More photographs" section and Pls do comment.
Click on the photographs for full size images.

Crude Dhow

The sun had just set and the sky was blood red, then from nowhere a dhow popped out. I had to quickly set my tripod and in the fading light photographed this rusty red panorama.
When framing a photograph like there it is a tendency in many to centre the boat and make the horizon divide the photograph into half. If you have been doing this then next time, photograph the scene, with sky occupying 2/3rd of the frame and land or water 1/3rd of it or vice versa.
I am sure the photograph looks much better if framed this way.
This is actually a thumb rule is photography and called the rule of thirds.According to the rule an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. In the above photograph the horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The dhow sits at the intersection of two lines i.e. The Lower horizontal and the right side vertical. Photographs clicked this way have a aesthetic appeal to them.

Moonlight and Coconut trees

Gibbous Moon

Two photographs of the moon clicked at the same time and place, The lower one with a wide angle lens and the upper one with a telephoto lens. The coconut trees were lit only by moonlight and I used a 30 second exposure and f/3.2 aperture to photograph this scene. The long exposure has however overexposed the moon and it looks more like sun on a cloudy day.
The moon above during its gibbous phase.

Casting The Net

It is always a delight to witness a scene like this and happiness manifolds when one can photograph it. I was following this boat for quite sometime, knowing for sure that the fisherman will cast off his net. With One eye in the viewfinder I kept following the boat for about 20 minutes and when I was about to give up, the net was cast and I was more than willing to click the shutter. Since the light was in the background I kept exposure on auto and pattern metering, knowing that it would underexpose the boat creating a Silhouette effect. Just like I wanted.

Awaiting Dusk

What amused me was the colour of the sky, pretty unnatural , more pinkish than red and it really looked cool.

Once in A Blue moon

Photographed this moon in Twilight with Light setting on Fluorescent.

Greased Lightning

Well, how did I manage this picture? First find a Dry location to keep the camera, cos Lighting and rain generally go hand in hand.Then Locate the Cumulonimbus cloud that creates the Bolts. Then focus the camera in that direction , keep the shutter open to the maximum duration possible with the camera (in this case 30 sec) and click, if a bolt hits at this time viola, u got a picture, Else try try and try again. Its Ideal to have a location far away from city lights , moonless night. In this case the picture was taken in the middle of the India ocean. Ideally suited for a shot like this.

Ride Into the Lightning- This was Photographed in the Malacca straits. The bright light is the stern of another ship, on close inspection you can see that she is being hit by one of the lightning Bolts

Ride the Lightning

These were captured off Minicoy Isalnd in the Lakshdweep.

City Lights Hong Kong

the lights of Hong Kong are masked by Smog or Mist and after 9Pm most of the lights are turned off as the offices close down. So i had a small window period to get this Picture. The mist dimmed the light and hence required longer exposure. But longer exposure created problems on a ship which was rolling slighty. The solution was to Boost the ISO levels , here I increased it to 200 and shuter speed of 1.2 sec

Blue Dusk

The Cyan effect was achieved by selecting the White Balance setting as Fluorescent light. The picture was taken While the Ship was Underway and hence could not increase the exposure level to create the flow effect of water. Exp 1/15 sec.

Industrial Light and Steam

Vopak terminal At Singapore. Exposure 5 sec. at iso 100. Although the exposure could have been reduced by boosting up the ISO level, I For some reason do it as a last resort.

The Above picture was made with a 8 sec exposure, The water body is purposely made to occupy 2/3rd of the image, just to do away with convention. The long exposure has given good flow to the dark waters.

Japanese Industrial Complex.

Petroleum Refinery in Korea

Discharging At Japan

Deck of my ship was actually Grey but the sodium lamps give it a green hue. I like the colours in this picture

Chill Out

These pictures were Shot with my old DSC-40 camera (point and shoot type). I focused on the can then with the shutter pressed half way down and reframed the image.

Peaking Up

The light was at the fag end of the twilight andi had to use a Shutter Speed of 1/40 sec and aperture f/3.5 to get the silhoutte. The peaks are of the Djibouti coast in the Rea Sea.

Wave Break

A large wave hit the bow of my ship, and created this big water splash. The whole ship stutters when such waves break on her.
Protecting the camera from sea water moisture becomes important in situations like this. The camera has to be kept ready and pre focused and a series of continuous snaps gave me a option of choosing the best in the Sequence.

Pair Trawlers in Action

These Two Trawlers created a good colour contrast with the cliffs of the Lamma Island in Hong-kong. The Picture was captured with Max focal lenght offered by my Sony DSC H-7 camera. The Colour saturation levels have come good.

Apartments on the Banks of the Lamma Channel

A visual treat when Crossing the Lamma Channel in Hong-kong Are these aparment blocks. The look so much like Lego blocks. I loved the Drive way on the Lower building.

Anchoring Machinery

This is a Silhoutte of the Ships anchoring machinery called the Windlass, I was interested in creating the flare through the small opening and achieved it.I have obsered that the best Flares are made when using the largest f-stop or smallest aperture. Here i used f/7.1 and small focal length. The small aperture additionally created the dark foreground.

Aircraft Carrier

Exposure 1/1000, f/6.8 ,ISO 80,

The Craft slowly sailed into the setting sun and Created the Top visual drama

Spotted this US Aircraft Carrier in the Malacca straits. The Weather was misty and hence the Saturation is not to the expected level

Moon set

Since I am presently sailing, I have no access to the net, I am greatful to a friend for keeping this site uptodate and for uploading the pictures and forwarding me all your comments, I will respond to them once I'm back. Also promise to come back with loads of pictures from the worlds ocean's.