Found these three men at a farm, near Mandya. They were ploughing the farm and getting the field ready for the next crop:

Caught the first one taking a break from ploughing to smoke a 'beedi'. The pic is taken using the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L telephoto lens, handheld in Av mode, f/6.3, ISO-400 for a 1/1000s exposure.

Soon, the second guy stopped for his break and 'beedi'. This pic also comes from the same lens, Av mode, ISO-400, f/6.3 for a 1/1250s exposure.

The 3rd musketeer headed for his lunch break soon after and I had my third shot too :) This pic is also with the 400mm telephoto lens, handheld, Av mode, f/6.3, ISO-400 for a 1/640s exposure.

Preethu and Manu were back in Bangalore last week and days are more interesting now :)

The pic is taken with the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L (macro) lens, mounted on a Manfrotto 728B digi tripod. I used a Vivitar 285HV strobe to provide the required light. The camera was set in manual mode with a 1/200s exposure, f/5 and ISO-200. The black background comes from a dark brown cloth which was the backdrop for this shot. Finally, I used GIMP to adjust the curves a little bit to completely wipe out the background.

This is also the 200th post in the blog. Thanks for all the readers to keep it alive.

KR market in Bangalore is a bustling place early morning and I'd been planning to visit the place some day early morning for a long time now. But it never happened! Instead, on my way back from Mandya, on a cloudy noon, I got down from the bus at the Mysore road flyover and walked down towards the KR market bus stop. The ramp to the flyover going up from the KR Market did give me a good perspective for some pictures:

The place has so many colorful spectacles and one of the things that caught my attention was these bags of snacks - apparently called Boti (the cylindrical ones) and Sandige (all the other shapes :)), according to a Kannadiga colleague of mine. These have to be fried in oil before being served as crunchy snacks or along with pappad for meals. The pic is taken with the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L (macro) lens, handheld, set in Av mode, f/5.6 and ISO-400 for a 1/200s exposure.

The 2nd shot is also taken with the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L (macro) lens, again handheld in Av mode, at f/5, ISO-400 and a 1/100s exposure.

The towers in UB city (owned by the UB group of Mr. Vijay Mallia) is one of the most prominent sights of today's Bangalore skyline. I first noticed it all light up while driving along the cubbon road and asked people 'which building is that?' Subsequently I have roamed around the area to get better views of the towers.

On a visit to the HDFC bank, I figured that the view of one of the towers from the bank complexis not so bad, especially on a sunny day with those white clouds for the background:

This pic was shot using the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L wide angle zoom lens, set at 35mm, in Av mode, f/8, ISO-100 for a 1/160s exposure. I wish I had a tripod at that time so that I could take three different exposures and do an HDR merge (see 'HDR image from Golden Temple, Bylakuppe' for a 'HowTo' on HDR). I never got a chance again, since the sky was mostly dark and cloudy soon after that!

The second tower had to be shot in the night because of its lighting, which makes it stand out in the night even from a good distance - like say Cubbon road or the Mysore road flyover. I took my gear on a weekend evening and drove towards UB city. On my way back, I stopped at Kasturba road for this shot:

This time I had a tripod and a managed to get a few shots for the HDR merge. All of them were shot with the Canon EF 16-35 mm f/2.8L wide angle zoom lens, at 35mm, full manual mode, ISO-100 and f/8. The base image was shot at 1.6s and the others at 0.8s and 3.2s. I dont think the HDR made much difference to the final result, but a little perspective correction and tilting using GIMP may have :)

Apparently, the building's design was inspired by the Empire State's building in Newyork. Even though, its much smaller in comparison, TOI already refers to these towers as Bangalore's Empire State's building ... and rightly so, dont u think?

During a week-long break at home, Eranhikkal, Kozhikode, Kerala, I had a lot of time to enjoy the flora and the fauna - the greenery around the garden and the little visitors there. Here is a couple of pics from the garden:

The pics are shot using the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L macro lens, handheld. For the first pic, I used manual mode, ISO-800, f/5.6 and a 1/200s exposure.

The second is shot in Av mode, ISO-400, f/3.5 for a 1/250s exposure.

Devi Parvathi (isnt it a big name for a small girl? I guess, Malu suits hers better!), was too busy easting chocolate, when I clicked, but the moment I did, she came running to me and checked up how she looked through the camera! A young model in the making ... dont you think?

She is the same girl in one of my earlier posts (see Kids @ Padinharayil, 2009). I used the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L (macro) lens for this shot, handheld in full manual mode, f/3.5, 1/320s and ISO-200. I also had the Vivitar 285HV strobe mounted on the camera, bouncing off the ceiling, without which I cant get this shot from the light available indoor.

The only processing I did with this pic was to increase the saturation by a whisker. Otherwise, the pic is as it is from the camera, without even a crop.

Saw this stack of bangles @ an exhibition in Mysore:

The pic is shot with the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L (macro) lens, handheld in Av mode, f/3.5L, ISO-400 with a -1 Ev exposure compensation for a 1/200s exposure. The light shining on the bangles and a very hardly lit background allowed me to get a dark backdrop for the stack.

Well ... its not me who was playing hide and seek, but the evening light!

The portions on the left side of this picture is almost pitch dark, when viewed from a little away or at an angle. Its clear only when you come closer to the screen. Infact, when I shot this, I was fooled to think that I had a very clear black background :)

The pic is shot at the Channakeshava temple of Somnathpur, near Bannur in Mandya, Karnataka. I took a small ride to Somnathpur on a sunday afternoon and came back mesmerized with the beautiful intricate carvings around the temple - and ofcourse, with loads of picture. Could not help sharing a couple of them :)

I used the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L (macro) lens for this shot, handheld in Manual mode, f/3.5, 1/250s and ISO-400 exposure. The exposure is abt 3 stops darker than what the camera suggested.

The second shot is inside the temple complex, where it was very dark. A tripod could not be taken inside without special permission and I had to shoot this (also) handheld. This was shot with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L wide angle zoom lens. The camera was set to Av mode, ISO-400, f/2.8 and -1 step exposure compensation for a 1/25s exposure.

Brindavan gardens in Mysore is a beautiful place, especially once the lights are turned on. I was there recently with some of my relatives and had a gala time shooting the lights and fountains:

I used the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L wide angle zoom lens for this shot, mounted on my Manfrotto 728B digi tripod. I've noticed that the camera meter usually does not give the optimum exposure for these long exposure shots. So, I started of with the Av mode and then ended up adding an exposure bias of -2 steps. This pic comes at f/10, ISO-100 for a 3.2s exposure.

The same settings were retained for the second pic as well, but this time, the exposure time was 8s. I also cropped the lower portion of the image to remove some over exposed regions of the image.

Note: Thought I'll add some notes seeing the first two comments querying about tripod, trigger mode ... etc

1. Tripod is a must for long exposure shots.
2. Even with tripod you need to be very careful to avoid motion / blur.
3. I usually use timer or remote trigger for long exposure shots
4. Remote is suited even for telephoto action/candid shots since there is no time lag and there is almost zero movement. A Canon RC1 is good enough for most Canon entry level SLRs.
5. ISO-100 or lower is best for long exposure. Noise gets accumulated with long exposure and with higher ISO, this can reach unacceptable levels.
6. A not-too-wide shutter is better for night / long exposure shots, since its tough to get the focus right in dark. I usually opt for something like f/10 - f/16, not too thin to allow diffration to reduce the sharpness.
7. For exposure times higher than the camera allows, use the Bulb mode. In Canon SLRs, set to Manual mode and increase the exposure time until the camera settings show 'BULB'. In this mode the shutter will stay open as long as you keep the button pressed. For practical usage, use Canon RC1 or a cable release for both opening and closing the shutter.

Hope the notes helped :)

Wishing everybody a wonderful Dasara celebrations and weekend:

The pic is taken with the Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L macro lens, back in my hands after suffering a small dent in the front element and spending four months at the Canon service centre. I used Av mode, with the camera mounted on a Manfrotto 728B digi tripod and timer triggered. ISO-200, f/6.3 with a -1 step exposure compensation for a 1/3s exposure.