I'm back!

So I'm finally done with my exams, now have about a month or so before I get the results, and holidays have started.

I wanted to publish this photo right after I took it during diwali but unfortunately I didn't get around to doing it until now. I was experimenting with blurry photos and the diwali lights, and this one's my favorite. Tell me what you think of it.

Some Stop-Motion

Yesterday Morning, I decided I needed a break from my studies. I thought I might do something a little creative, something like a short stop-motion clip. Half an hour later, after getting busy with my D-SLR and PC, I had this.

Bookstuff from Abhishek M on Vimeo.

Exam time again.

Well, I won't be able to post any thing for a while now, since my (sigh) exams are coming up again. So it's time for me to hit the books again... I'll try to post a picture or two, but I doubt it'll happen.

See you all in about a month or two. :)

Looking Down

This is the (pretty bad) view from the first floor of our apartment building. Not much of a view, but maybe a decent picture?

Again, I had to edit the photo, since it was taken on my Mobile Phone...

Run.

So, I took this one the other day, on my way back home. It was sort of an accident -the composition, at least. I like the way the empty space actually makes the photo more interesting.

I barely edited this one, because I liked the original outcome so much. Just a little noise removal here and there. 

Use me not.

So, we have mobile pictures at last! I took this one this evening, on the way back home from my part-time job. I just couldn't help but notice that while one garbage bin was completely overflowing another one, just a few feet away, was lying upside-down and useless... Or more importantly, empty.

As usual with my mobile pictures, I had to edit it a bit. Mostly because of the (ridiculous) amount of noise it generates. But I don't mind all that much, because then I get to tweak it a little here and there (and it's another reason to sit at the computer!).

Got no Camera...

Hmm... It goes like this, 

My family (Father, Mother, and both Brothers) have gone for a sort of outing to Chandigarh for a couple of weeks. Leaving me here at home, (actually I kinda volunteered to stay home) because my class X exams are coming up. Not a big deal.

Or so I thought... 

At the last minute (literally) my younger brother decides he wants to take the camera, he goes to ask my father, who thinks it's a great idea. And just like that. Poof. It's gone.

So, now I'm back to the good old mobile camera (which, I admit, was ignored these few months). Now I'm all used to the D-SLR and I don't like the fact that I don't have all that much control over how the photo comes out. But I've got no choice now. And it would be good for me to see if I can take decent photos with a not-so-great camera.

I took this one a few days back. Before I got sick. It was really spur of the moment, I was feeling really, really bored then, and badly wanted something to do. So after prowling around the house for a bit I spotted our dog, Ruby, lying under the dining table. :)

Checking the photos a few days later saw that the focus isn't spot on. Oh well, I can't remember if it was on auto or manual...

Been out of it...

Hi there, It's just that I've been down with a viral infection this past week. That's why I haven't been able to post recently. But I'm feeling a little better now. And should post something soon. :)

It rained...

Yeah, it rained, and I got stuck in the mud. Nothing much more to say about that. Except that I was stuck outside our house until I cleaned up, giving me a chance to take the picture.

I had to flip the photo, since I had to bend over to take it, didn''t know any other way to do it...

Beating the heat...

Nothing like a good cup of home made mango juice to help a guy cool down in this (Preposterous, :)) heat. I guess I'm a bit lucky...
Anyway, I think the composition isn't that great, with the cup sort of off center, it might have been better a little more to the left, or on the right side.

P.S Amazing what a little Brightness/Contrast can do to a digital photo, eh?

Weight.

I took this one last night while trying to pass some free time. I took it out on our terrace using the D-SLR and our tri-pod. It was a bit difficult focusing in the low light, and I think it's not spot-on, though I think the outcome is not too bad (I could be wrong).

I think I should be taking more day shots...

Lights Out!

Well, first of all today there was some sort of electrical malfunctioning in the... Electrical stuff... Whatever. The main thing is that we didn't have power in our house for a full seven hours. Sure I've been through seven our power cuts before, but this was especially bad. For one, it's summer here in Jaipur, not so good even if there is power. But the heat (40 degrees Celsius, anyone? Plus an unusual onslaught of humidity.) was just deadly today. On top of that, I had a headache from staring at a computer screen for too long, working on a particularly difficult job. Not a day to remember so far.But things got better. As evening came, the temperature cooled down, and so did my head ache. But the power was still off. And as it got darker, every one in the family went out to sit on the terrace, since it was so much more cooler outside. That's where I got inspired, there was no electrical light, so I wanted to see how I could change it up to work for me. So I set the D-SLR to 15 something seconds, and used the torch to create some light. I tried a few things, and I think I might have annoyed a couple of people. I can imagine it now, "What's with this crazy teen? Walking a around in circles with that torch. And shining it on us, too!" Well, I managed to get a couple of descent pictures. I hope.

To make up for all my blabbering, I think I'll put up two photos in stead of just one like normal. :) Hope they're ok.

Another Sunset

Ok, so it's been about 21 days since I last posted here. Sorry about that, but I just didn't make time for myself to work on my blog. But blog or no blog, I'll still take photos. Here's one from yesterday evening. Well, it's a sunset photo, again. Though thanks to the 200 mm lense I could get a frame that would otherwise be quite impossible. I didn't do any sort of editing on the picture, except make it a bit smaller, to see if the image quaity impoves in the blog page.

The Wind.

I took this one on the same day I took the photo of my brother and our dog. As you can see, my youngest brother is- You know what? I'll let the photo do the talking.

The Dog. The Boy. And my New Toy

Ok, first about my new toy. A couple of days back, I found an 80-200 mm Canon lens in our D-SLR camera bag, I was pretty confused at first, wondering if it was really our camera bag that I was holding. I went over to ask my father about it, he gave me a sort of sheepish/happy look and said that he procured it from somewhere. Whatever, it was a great surprise for me, and I'm eager to try it out.

And this is what I tried out. It was a very windy day, and every one was out enjoying the cool breeze. My younger brother likes to skateboard a lot, and is probbly one of the few who skate in India. He was pretty tired after finishing that day. But Ruby, our dog, just wanted to play some more. He was a bit annoyed by it, but let her chew on his shoe for a bit, playing along with her. The extreme blue tint came from all the cloud cover that evening, and the 80-200 mm (!) lens was probably not the best choice, but I really wanted to try it. And I managed to get a couple of decent pictures.

Shoes Again.

After about three weeks of sitting around in my free time. Not really knowing what to do, or just not willing to do what I knew I should have done, I finally got inspired to take photos. It happened right after I just washed my shoes, which were starting to look quite worn out, since the white was more brown, and the brown was mostly black. Well, I finished right about the time the sun was starting to set and the clouds gave of this really nice diffused light effect, as you can see. It was a very welcome change from the harsh heat of the past few days. And I just couldn't resist taking a few shots of my shoes, this one of the better ones. Though I'm not sure it's the best, I like it the most so I guess it qualifies.

The Gate.

Sorry for the long post-drought, been a bit busy. And actually, for once in my life, not too keen to go out and take photos. I hope it's just a phase.

I took this one while out to shoot something else (again). I placed the camera on the wall next to the gate to take the picture since I didn't have a tripod at hand. It was about eight in the evening, so I'm pretty happy with the results. A little editing with GIMP, to adjust colour a bit, and I got this. I would have liked the background to be a bit more blurry, but I couldn't do more with the "normal" lens of the camera. And I don't like to tamper with my photos too much.

Broken Phone Nomore!

Well, today my phone was repaired, so now I can start using it again, yay!! I haven't taken any photos yet, but I just had to share the good news. :)

Late Night-Ling

I took this one just a couple minutes ago while waiting for my mother (Happy Mothers DAY!!) to finish with the computer. There was a lightning storm going on, and I couldn't resist the urge to go out and try my luck with the D-SLR. And after some trial and (A lot of) error. I managed to get this one of the lightning behind one of my mothers plants. The rain is poring down now, so I was just in time. I particularly liked the silhouette effect over the plant. Hope it's the same for you. :)

Late Night Reader

I took this photo a few weeks ago, when the cooler in me and my brothers room broke down. A cooler is a sort of fan, in a box with grass windows. A pump wets the grass, making the air that is blown out of the fan vert cool and refreshing. Much nicer than a normal fan. Unfortunately, ours broke down a few weeks back. So, me and my brothers decided to move into our parents room, since they have an air-conditioner. I mean, it works, right? So why should we suffer unnecessarily? My parents were (thankfully) willing to let us spend a couple nights in their room, so long as we didn't too much noise.

So one night, while I was waiting for my turn on the laptop, twiddling my thumbs. I noticed the light cast by the lamp on my mother. As usual I had my phone with me, and I tried to take a few photos of her. My phone has only two aperture settings that can be manually adjusted, a 'normal' mode, and a 'night' mode. So I was a bit disappointed at first, and soon forgot that I ever took them. A couple days back I happened too see them , and noticed that they weren't too bad. A little editing to fix some of the noise, and I got this. Actually quit surprised by the outcome.

Bad News

So, in case your wondering why I haven't posted in while... A few days ago, my phone gave me a little problem. It decided that it would stop working, and would reject my SIM card, too. So I've been left without my main means of taking photos. I would take photos with the family camera, but it gets inconvenient to carry it around with me all over the place, especially after getting used to my camera being my phone. So picture taking was put on the sidelines- not done with completely, just not near as much as before.
But that's not all, last night my mother noticed a large blood spot on my upper left eye. I don't know how it happened, though a few suspects are the searing desert heat of Jaipur, a blow to my eye (I wouldn't know when that happened...) or a particularly heavy sneeze. And now, after a checkup at the hospital, I was told to take some rest, and not to strain my eyes for a few days. So now photography is out the window completely. I was only allowed to use the computer to write this after plenty of pleading on my part, and my time is running out fast as it is...

So, maybe in about a week, I'll be able to post again.

The Bug Brick

After a while, I was finally able to make time to finish my project. I call it the Bug Brick. It's, well, a brick, that sprouts legs and antenna, and sort of crawls off. It is, however, only about six seconds long, and not exactly amazing... But I think for a first try, It's not too bad.
Tell me what you think about it!

Back to blogging

Ok, I just finished writing my class X exams, so I can now get back to maintaining this blog. All projects were put on hold, and I had very little time to do anything other than study. So, now I have a holiday of sorts, and can finish whatever I had been working on before. Namely that short Video I was working on. Untill then, this is my mom, relaxing with a cup of tea one evening. She likes to just sit out, watch the sunset, and let time take its own course. All while dinner simmers on the stove.

A test

I was inspired by These Guys to try out something different. So, a few nights ago I took out the camera, set it up on the tripod. (Did I ever mention how lucky I am to be able to use professional equipment? It helps that your dad is in the business, I guess) Set the shutter speed to - I forgot... but it was more than ten seconds. And made a short stop-motion scene. What you see here is just one frame, out of about fifty. It's the first time I've tried something like this, so don't expect much.
I'll post the finished video in a few days, after I figure out how to turn a bunch of photos into a moving picture. Apart from scrolling down to page to see each frame at a time...

The Circle

This is Statue Circle, it's one the many circles in Jaipur, but probably the biggest. Many people come here in the evenings and relax. They sit on the grass, walk along the path, bring food and drinks, and generally have a good time. But they litter, and sometimes disturb the peace. But all together, it is an nice place to be. The statue in the middle is of Maharajah Sawai Man Singh, the founder of the City. If you want to know more, look him up on google. :) I can't really remember the details... The reason it's all slanted is because I kept the camera on the car to keep the photo from going all blurry. But I don't mind it all that much.

A few days ago, it rained. Totally random and out of the blue. And as custom goes, the power was cut from our area. I took the opportunity to get out and take a few shots, unfortunately not one of the photos of the rain turned out good (or even decent). And all I was left with was this. A measly stair case. It's not even the one that we usually use. Anyway, I took the picture, and I have to admit, am getting a bit fond of the green tint that my phone-camera gives when I take photos in low light. And, thanks to a very help full tip from Miikka, I was able to get rid of most of the noise, too!

My Flickr...

I have a bit of a confession to make, 'Random Shutterbugger' is not the first time that I've "show cased" my work. If you want to call it that.
Anyway, I have been uploading photos to my Flickr account for a while now. Though I don't upload photos all that often, it's more dump photos randomly whenever I remember. Most of the photos here are not on Flickr, so if you want to, and if you like the photos that you see here (I hope you do). Feel free to check it out. :)

> My Flickr Page

The Night Car

I took this one while me and a couple of colleges from work were on a night shoot. We were at a fort called Amber (pronounced 'Amer'). Usually the fort is lit up by lights, making it a very nice sight. But, as luck would have it, shortly after we arrived, the lights went out; because of a sound and light show that is played each night. So while we waited for the show to finish, I, being my proactive self, started taking pictures of other things. Like our car.
Leaning against a wall, I was able to get a fairly clear shot. Though it wouldn't stand up to scrutiny. I like to take photos at night, it's sort of a different feeling that I get when a photo comes out good. I mean, I like it when I manage to take good photos in other conditions, but to me night photos are different somehow.
I took this one on a D-SLR, and glad to have the opportunity.

Update: I found that the picture you see is slightly cropped at the ends. To see the full image, just click on it. I don't like to say this, and I hope it's not too paranoid to you, but please don't copy the image. :)

This was taken at the office where I work part time. (Yes, I do have a job, apart from school) A friend at work wanted to know more about my phone, the conversation want something like this. "What's the camera quality like?" She asked me. "I dunno, pretty ok I guess..."
"How many megapixels?"
"Er... 1.3, I think."
"Oh, at least it's not like some phone cameras you get these days, that have point something of a medapixel." She sounded a bit disappointed.
"Yeah, if you want a camera in your phone, at least get a decent one. Or buy a real camera."
"Take a pic, so I can see how good it is." She asked me.
"What, now?" We were in my bosses office, waiting for him.
"Yeah, just snap a quick one of anything" So I just snapped a quick one of anything, and then showed it to her.
"Actually, it's quite good." She said just before my boss came in. And later when I looked at it, it was quite good.

Talk about random...

The Dark Office

I took this on at a TV studio I go to sometimes. Like many places in India, we get a lot of power cuts, and this day was no exception. I was at the far side of the office, facing the door, and the woman is the photo was on her phone, casting a faint light on her face. I only had my mobile phone at the time, so I didn't get the photo I was trying to get. But this one turned out pretty good too. And after a bit (not much) of work in photo shop, it looked a bit better.

Update: I know the quality is pretty bad, I was trying to get as much detail on the face as possible. But I just got a whole lot of grain. Any hints?

Not enough time...

I am very sad to say, that even though I love photography and take as much as I can, I just can't seem to find time to do so (read: school, chores, work). So, I am still continuing this blog, I will still take as many pictures as I can, and post the good (and sometimes not-so-good) ones. It just won't be happening as often.

All I can say is thanks for even taking the time to read this.

The car at the show.

This was taken at a car show in the city this Sunday. After going through all the other cars, I saw that no one was really paying much attention to this one. I had all ready taken this picture, but I wished that it would have gotten a little more attention. At first I thought it was a Fiat 500, but now I am thinking otherwise. Any ideas? I took this picture at an angle, but I can't remember why... Is it better or worse for it? I took this one with the D-SLR.

It's not working!

I don't know why, but for some reason I can't upload any photos. The button just does not work. So, please wait with me. As soon as it starts to work again, I'll post.

Thanks for the patience!

The noise thingy...

This photo was taken on our terrace. My mother likes to hang... I forgot what they're called. But she hangs these thing which make noise when the wind blows. I actually was taking a photo of something else, when I happened to walk right under this particular one. I looked up and, for the first time looked at it from this angle. I then took a quick snap and it turned out pretty OK. I took this one on the D-SLR.

The Dog at the Bird Sanctuary.

This was taken on a trip to a bird sanctuary. I don't know if the the dog was following us, or just going the same way. But it was with us for a few kilometers, and since I did not see any birds around, I just snapped a quick photo of the pup. The thing on the left side of the frame is my Dad's arm. I only noticed it back at home. The two girls a little ahead are some friends who came along with us. And this photo, was taken on my D-SLR.

These, are my shoes. My converse. The photo is a result of boredom. But the method was with maximum focus. I like my shoes, they're my second pair of converse in a row. Though not my second pair of converse. Once again, this photo was taken with my mobile camera. Unfortunately, allot of the time, my camera is safe at home. And therefore, my randomness is badly stunted by the limits of my mobile phone camera.

I hate it...

This, is me... In front of an Apple Cinema Display. Ok, I like technology, and I couldn't resist the temptation. I took it with my Mobile Camera, since that was all I had at the time. And then edited it in photoshop later. If you know the 'rules' of photography, you'll see that I got the composition pretty much off... going by the rule of thirds, at least. Anyway, going by randomness, it's pretty good.

Intro Thingy... (why I started this)

I Like to take photos. And most of it is very random, I see something and then I just shoot it. Very often, the photo does not turn out too well. But occasionally, I get a photo that I think is not too bad. So, Let's see what you all think about that...