Fireworks in the sky!

I guess this is my first work on fireworks. This photo was taken during the Paryaya, a festival of my native town, Udupi. To shoot some pictures on this auspicious day, I had gone to the Sri Krishna Temple with my camera. The temple's premises was crowded, and I had no experience shooting in the middle of such a huge gathering.

As I finished shooting the pictures of the nearby temples, I saw fireworks on the sky. The patterns they made on the sky seemed soothing. And the best way to capture the moment was by setting my camera to continuous mode. Then, I just held my shutter button at the sky and my camera went into burst mode, clicking images one after other. Soon, I was left with 100s of frames on my memory card! Later that day, I came back home and selected some of the best ones, and deleted the rest. And that's how I got this one. Hope you liked it. Btw, stay tuned for more of my photos. Bye!

The new SLR in town - the Canon EOS 1200D

Image Source: Canon India

Canon has put itself into a challenge by bringing out this baby DSLR into the market. With its rivals, Nikon bringing out fully loaded entry level SLRs like D3200, D5200, will Canon live upto their customers' expectations? And this one is considered to be an update to the Canon EOS 1100D. But the question is, is the new Canon EOS 1200D a worth buy SLR for beginners? Let's take a look. 

This entry level DSLR comes in 2 different kit combinations - Kit I (with Canon 18-55) and Kit II (with Canon 18-55 and 55-250). Most of the customers remarked this Canon product as highly priced, with the body itself costing you Rs 30k! Moreover, beginners are into investing less on their first camera and that's one draw-back of this entry level DSLR.

The most striking feature I found is that this camera is app-enabled. The app gives you the complete guide on using your first SLR and also has pretty good challenges for you. The app is available to iOS and Android users.

Image Source: Flickr

You can capture sharp images with the 18 megapixel APS-C size CMOS sensor. The Canon 1200D comes with a 3-inch screen which is not touch-responsive and is stationary, no swirling. Shooting in low-light has been brilliant with this one as you have an ISO range from 100-6400 (expandable to 12,800). It comes with an in-built flash, which can come in handy for beginners. The focusing has been decent but is a bit slow. 

Unlike, the Nikon entry level SLRs, this one lacks has only 5 creative filters, has got 9 AF points, and there's no mic feature for shooting videos. That puts the 1200D aka Rebel T5 one step below the Nikon SLRs. Though with Canon's wide lens-range, you can make most out of this one. 

I think the 1200D is ideal for shooting nature, landscape, macro, portraits and not fit for sports and action photography. Infact, the ratings for this product has been pretty low. If you have your budget fitted to buy this SLR with expensive lenses, then go for it! And one more thing. Instead of buying this one, with the same budget you can get better processor, faster burst-rate, larger screen, by buying the Canon EOS 100D. You can even look out for the Nikon SLRs. Also, take a look at the below video!

Going HDR!

I'm a kind of person who cannot sit idle even for a minute and the worst part is that I have got nothing to do during my vacations. I had to do something to strike off my boredom. But how? That was one thought I had in my mind for the last few days. The best one out of the thousands of ideas I had in mind was to learn Photoshop CS6. I know a bit of basics,  that I learnt during my last vacations but wanted to try professional editing. 

So, I gave it a shot!

I have heard a lot on HDR (High-dynamic-range imaging), maybe on the web, maybe on some of the photography magazines or other sources. Moreover, the HDR Images on 500px fantasized me, they were remarkable.  I had to learn this one! And the best part of HDR, is the way it transforms the sky in the frame.

According to me, HDR best suits on photos of the categories - nature, landscape, architecture. So, I picked this photo. You can check out the original version of it, here. So, I went to YouTube, and searched for videos containing Photoshop HDR Effect Tutorial, and I ended up watching the below video. 




That's how I learnt the HDR effect! It was fun learning HDR. This tutorial was a bit simple one. There's some more professional and complicated ones. Need to go through those as well to master HDR and I have lots of time trying it out. That's all in this post folks, but I will be up with some more of my Adobe Photoshop CS6 edits! Till then, bye!

What are you looking at?

"Photographing children is totally different from photographing adults. 

Children unlike adults tend to show varied expressions at the lens."

I haven't been much into taking portraits, but there are some photographs which I have taken experimenting on portraits. This is one of them. The main and only subject in this photograph is my cousin, dressed in a traditional way for his birthday celebrations. I had a very tough time capturing this. You know why? 

As he was the birthday boy, everybody wanted a photo with him, everybody wanted to hold him, play with him, and they never let him alone. But I was lucky enough to find him alone amidst  all that. When I popped out my camera and focused the lens at him, he gave this unusual look. Maybe he couldn't make head or tail of what I was upto. The light in the background added a special touch to the frame. 

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Beginners' Guide: Buying a Camera Kit

One of my blog readers asked me what's the best kit for a beginner. As a beginner, we all have that question in our minds. So, I am going to give you a guide on 'Buying a camera kit' and I will also show you what an ideal kit would consist of. 

There's a lot of things to look at before you invest money on a kit. A beginners' kit must be simple and of course the investment should be small. According to me, a beginners' kit must comprise of a SLR, 2 or more lenses, a tripod and a kit bag. Moreover, a beginner must invest in a cheap SLR and invest more in accessories. Now, let me consider myself in place of a beginner and I have about Rs 50,000 ($ 813) in my pocket. And I'm going to invest this in buying a kit for photography. Then, my kit would comprise of the following items:

1. Camera: Canon EOS 600D (Body only)

Source: Flipkart

Canon EOS 600D is one of the best entry level DSLR and I think it is one of the best budget DSLR for a beginner. The 600D is powered by an 18 megapixel CMOS sensor. Other key features of the camera is ISO 100-6400, expandable upto 12800, 9 AF points, Built in flash, HD video recording. These make the Canon EOS 600D a must buy camera for beginners. I have chose this camera after considering some facts, reviews, and more. You can also check out these cameras:

• Nikon D3200
• Nikon D5200
• Canon 1100D
• Sony Alpha A57

2. Lens 1: Tamron AF 18-200 mm F/3.5-6.3 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) Macro

Source: Flipkart

As a beginner, you need to have a zoom lens in your kit. I prefer the Tamron 18-200mm because it has a focal length from 18 to 200 mm. It even has a macro switch which will able you to shoot macro with this lens. This lens can be used for shooting portraits, landscapes, birds and animals, macro and more. I have chose this lens over the kit lenses like 18-55 mm or 18-135 mm because of its focal length and also for the fact that it costs about Rs 13,000. 

3. Lens 2: Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II lens

Source: Flipkart

I feel every beginner must have a prime lens in their kit. Prime lens are unlike zoom lenses as they have a fixed focal range i.e., you cannot zoom in and zoom out using this lens. You may be wondering, why this lens then? Let me tell you. Prime lens provide great image quality, wider aperture and better aperture compared to zoom lens. As you are not able to zoom in and out using this lens, you need to get close to your subject. This makes you think before you click. Eventually, this will help you develop your photography skills. The 50 mm is one of the basic prime lens and it costs around Rs 6000. You can shoot portrait, landscape, macro and more with this lens. Other prime lens for 600D:

• Canon EF 40 mm f/2.8 

4.  Tripod: Benro T-600EX

Source: Flipkart

According to me, tripods are a must in a beginners' kit. Tripods not only help you in shooting landscapes, waterfalls, lights, fast moving objects, star trails etc but also helps you to work with different exposures. With tripods you can make exciting images. Tripods makes understanding exposures easier. The Benro T-600EX costs about Rs 1500.

5. Camera bag: DigiFlip Wizard CB001 

Source: Flipkart

A photographer is always in move. So you need to have a suitable camera bag to hold your camera and its accessories. There are different camera bags in the market, but I have chose this considering the items I have. The DigiFlip Wizard camera bag cost around Rs 1ooo

This how I would make use of my budget to buy a beginners' kit. You can even invest in other accessories like UV filters, flash etc. Don't make the wrong move by investing most of your budget on the camera body and least on the accessories like lens. Choose your items wisely. Be patient. Take time, make a research on the items you are interested. Check out the reviews online and do check out the sample images. That's all I have to tell in this post. If you anything more to ask me, do comment below. Thanks for reading. 

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