More pics from my last trek to Yercaud, I was in two (actually three) minds whether to post these or not (or just post one of the pics) ... but finally did post both of them :) I'll try to be more selective from here onwards .... and that means the frequency may come down :(

The two girls on the left are twins and they actually posed for us, inspite of being quite shy. I had the 400mm attached to the camera and could not have got a group picture from close distance, hence sat there watching others clicking ... thats when the girls ran away from us and I clicked with whatever settings I had ... two clicks and the camera battery ran out of charge! The place is near a village called Vellakkadai, abt 10kms from Yercaud. For the record, its Av mode, f/5.6, ISO-100, 1/200s and in hindsight I should've used atleast ISO-200 :(

Now, the firewood lady, I had been following her from Kadukkamaram, about 4kms from Yercaud, but never got a decent shot with good lightings. I tried a few different settings this time, but finally have a grainy picture after all the effort :( For my defense, she was walking too fast and I was also in a hurry to get back to Yercaud, so that I can catch the next bus to Salem!

Once again, this is using the EF-L f/5.6 400mm, in Av mode, f/5.6 and ISO-800 for a 1/250s. At midnoon, the light was too uneven whenever she was in the sun and too low, with shade :( I tried both shots, but the pics in bright light is a mess and the ones in shade is grainy! This is the 2nd time, I ended up taking lifeless pictures of a lady carrying firewood and posting it in this blog (Previous attempt here: Scenes from Kanalpiruvu, Palakkad in Kerala).

These pics are again from Yercaud trek, which I did along with Chennai trekking club.

In the first pic Peter, the founder and soul of Chennai Trekking club, is trying to get friendly with a village kid we me @ Manjakkuttai view point. The pic is taken early morning, using the EF f/3.5L 180mm lens, in Av mode, f/3.5 with +1 Exposure Compensation and ISO-100, for a 1/640s exposure time.

Second pic is of Vivek near a well @ Sengalathupatti. EF f/3.5L 180mm lens in Av mode, f/5 and ISO-100, for a 1/125s exposure time.

The third one is of Nayantara, trying to play 'mommy' to a cute little girl @ Shevaroyan temple. I would have loved to get the expressive eyes of the kid as well, but some difficult conditions (low light and a long lens) blurred some other frames I got :( These pics are using the EF f/5.6L 400mm lens, Av mode, f/5.6, ISO-100 for a 1/50s. In hindsight, I feel I should have experimented with the ISO or used the tripod; but am actually surprised that I got a reasonably blurr-less pic at 1/50s from a 400mm non-IS lens, without a tripod :)

Some more pics randomly chosen non-people snaps from Yercaud Trek:

The first two pics are near Yercaud itself, on our way to Manjakkuttai village. Line of trees is actually a plantation, though it appears somewhat dense :) I used the EF-L f/5.6 400mm for the first pic (Av mode, f/5.6, 1/1000s) and the EF-L f/3.5 180mm for the second (Av mode, f/3.5, 1/160s), both pics @ ISO-800, since there was not enuf light - I cud have used a tripod, if not of laziness :)

The last pic is from a view point near Sengalathupatti village. The pic is deliberately under-exposed (-1 stops), with focus on the bench to the left, in Av mode, f/3.5 with the EF-L f/3.5 lens. @ ISO-100, I got 1/2000s for this pic.

I was getting bored, early morning @ Salem bus stand waiting for the rest of the gang, before heading for a trek to Yercaud and took out the camera and 400mm lens. Spotted these people - a bearded man in saffron cloths, an old lady and a potter who later helped us secure seats in the Yercaud bound bus - and used the EF-L f/5.6 400mm for the second time to take some candid shots (earlier trial here: Portraits from Puthiyappa Beach).

All three pics are ISO-400, f/5.6, Av mode, with the EF-L f/5.6 400mm lens.

Spotted this chirpy little Green Barbet bird ('Kutturuvan' in Malayalam) from office building. The pic was taken using the 400mm, handheld, Av mode, f/5.6, ISO-800 and 1/500s.

The next pic is taken a week later during a trek to Yercaud, while climbing down the Shevaroyan hill temple on 4th of May. I added the pic to this post, coz of obvious reasons - its the same kind of bird :)

This time, I used ISO-400 and f/6.3 for 1/2000s in Av mode, with the same EF-L f/5.6 400mm lens.

These pics were taken @ the entrance to Melkote temple, 32kms off Mandya:

All pics are using the EF-L 180mm lens, Av mode f/3.5 and ISO-100.

These pics are during a return journey from Kozhikode to Bengaluru. The first three sparrows are from Sulthan Bathery town and the langur is from the Bandipur national park.

The first pic was using the EF-L 180mm lens @ f/4.0 Av mode, ISO-200 and the remaining pics are using the EF-L 400mm lens @ f/5.6 Av mode, ISO-800.

These are some random snaps taken en route to Swargakkunnu, from Muthappanpuzha:

The first pic was actually a demo of the EF-L f/3.5 180mm macro lens to Josettan and that bee just happened to be there in the pic.  Av mode f/3.5, ISO-100 and 1/1000s exposure. The butterfly pic is also using the 180mm lens, but Av mode f/6.3 and 1/100s.

Snap of the rusted fence is taken using the EF-L f/5.6 400mm @ f/5.6 ISO-800 and 1/400s. This was also a trial shot to see the Depth of Focus @ 400mm :) But, I ended up liking the shades of the green in the background and the narrow DOF for the subject too.

People, this is my #100 and what better way to bring it in other than with the monument of luv :)

All these are archive pictures, which I saved for my 100th post :) Taken with the EF-S 18-55mm lens in Av mode, the first four are @ f/13 and the fifth is @ f/6.3.

To complete the series ... the last one is from the Agra red fort entrace. Since it was a li'l late in the evening, I went for a tripod mounted longer exposure pic (Av mode @ f/6.3, +1 exposure compensation and 2seconds using the 18-55mm). Can u see the people moving in and out of the fort :) The picture before that is from Fathepur Sikhri, again using the EF-S 18-55, Av mode @ f/3.5. Since, I'd set the camera for indoor shots with an ISO-800, the setting stayed and I ended up with a 1/2000s for this shot :)

The date of the post is set to April 14th, the Vishu day (Kerala new year) so that it indeed stays as the 100th post :) Infact, I wanted to post this on Vishu day itself, but was delayed. So, here it is ... my 100th post on Vishu day, with pics of Tajmahal :) Hope its a new beginning!

These are pics from the river side near my house @ Eranhikkal, Kozhikode, taken on a Vishu day:

The place had a lot of birds, all the way from Kingfishers to Eagles, and was a  perfect place to test my new EF-L f/5.6 400mm lens :) Its been tough ... without a tripod, this is indeed a hard lens to use. Even at broad day light, I ended up increasing the ISO, to make sure the pics were not shaken. Whenever the birds stayed still for a longer time, I used the tripod and the timer. Any other case, the only practical choice was to bump up the ISO.

The first of the 'Thoni' (wooden boat) and fisherman pic is also with the EF-L 400mm (@ Av mode f/9, tripod mounted), but the second one is a closer shot with the EF-S 18-55mm, again @ Av mode f/9.