Ever since I discovered it during a my first trip to Goa in November 2004, Palolem is one of my favourite beaches ever. I revisited the place during a Mumbai trip in October 2005 and a Dudhsagar trek in July 2006. With golden sand, clear blue waters and beautiful sunsets / sunrises, it is ideal to spend a weekend. So, when we wanted to hit the beaches, this is the first place that I could think of.

Our plan this time was to spend the weekend lazing around the beach. I was soon roaming around with the camera (Canon EOS 7D, mounted with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II), when I saw this paddle boat.

The pic comes at 70mm, Av mode, f/5.6, auto-ISO for a 1/1600s, ISO-100 picture. In hindsight, I should have used a higher DoF, but what can you expect from a lazy photographer, lazing in a beach - a lazy photo :)

With the second photo, I corrected the problem, using a manual mode, f/13, 1/400s, auto-ISO setting for a ISO-100 shot. But, this time, the shot is at the telephoto end - at 200mm. Lets say, I was lazy to go closer to the boat :)

One of the best experiences during our trip to Jaipur - Udaipur, was the evening we spent around Lake Pichola in Udaipur. This is a beautiful lake right next to the city palace and we took an hour long boat ride around the lake.

We were inside one of the boats and this other boat apparoached us. It was about 4.30 and sun was quite bright - so I opted for a silhouette shot. The pic is taken using the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L wide angle zoom lens, handheld in Manual mode. I used a f/9 aperture, 1/800s shutter and ISO-100.

I had spent the last two weeks in front of the camera more than behind it. For those who dont know why, check out this Little Nothings! Anyways, on our way back to Bengaluru after the wedding, We had the camera with us and saw this family @ Gundulpet:

We were not sure if they would like us taking their pictures and used the Canon 400mm EF f/5.6L telephoto lens to keep the distance. Av mode, handheld, 1/400s, f/5.6 and ISO-100 - lets say there was enough light and not much shadows!

During the few days around Onam, I could spend some time at the 7th floor apartment in Kozhikode (which was occupied till recently), watching the sun going down in the Arabian sea. Ofcourse, I had my camera and couple of lenses with me ... and how can I not take pictures :)

As the sun was going down, the sea sparkled along a line all the way from the horizon till the shore and these fishermen were crossing that 'light line'. I used the EF f/5.6L 400mm for a handheld shot against the bright sunlight. Av mode, ISO-100 and f/5.6 for a 1/2000s exposure.

The 2nd picture is taken the next day, with the sun almost setting and turning the sea in to a cauldron of gold. This picture is using the EF f/3.5L 180mm, again handheld and Av mode ISO-100. But, this time I used a -2 step under exposure for a 1/2500s.

I wish I could sit here everyday in the evening staring into the sea ... watching people and boats cross over ... and ofcourse ... clicking more pictures. Hopefully some other time :(

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.

These are pics from a visit to Muthappanpuzha, near Anakkampoyil, in Kozhikode, Kerala.

The first pic is of Josettan and his daughter Josna. f/2.5 was enough DOF for this pic in Av Mode (1/160s). A few other pics I took were spoiled because the DOF wasn't enough and I was about to (wrongly) conclude that f/2.5 is not good enough for group pics :-) Even tried using values like f/10 for portraits (see the 'Scenes from Kanalpiruvu, Palakkad in Kerala' post of 12th Dec 2007) which was obviously a wrong choice! Guess, I should stick to f/2.5 or may be a touch less, say upto f/3.5, and make sure my frames and angles are right! Time to experiment with the A-Dep mode once again :(

Second is a hanging bridge across Iruvanjippuzha.

Canon has a very useful mode of operation called A-Dep, where the camera will choose the 'f' value small enough to make sure all the nine AF points are in focus (and subsequently an exposure time suitable for this 'f'). This mode can give a fair idea of Depth of Focus when u r in doubt.

It may be desirable to try different values around the camera suggested 'f' value to get the optimal results. But, A-Dep gives a way to quickly approximate the required 'f' value.

One thing to remember here is that, if any of the AF points fall out of the subject (lets say to a far away object), the calculation can go really wrong. If this happens, most of the times, camera will end up with something like f/32 or flash saying, it could not find any proper 'f' value. Result may be a pic with a lot of distractions and / or blurring due to higher exposure value.

All three pics were taken with A-Dep or in Av using an 'f' value close to the one suggested. First flower pic had f/5.6, the 'yogini' pic had f/7.1 and the aster and bee pic had f/18.