Sunset in your Eyes

Just returning from visit to Ramadevara betta last week during deepavali festival. The Sun had lit the sky with deepavali lamp. The sky after rains, is lit colorfully by the sinking sun with golden light. I feel, this phenomenon has some scientific fact behind it. The Sunset coupled with stray clouds paint the sky with dramatic patterns during golden hour, few minutes after rains. The patterns are vivid if the rays of Sun pierce through the shattered clouds! This time, even in Ramanagara, the scene was similar. There was significant rain for 10mins and later on the sunset with clouds created colorful medley in the sky. The rocky hills and green fields added more charm to the entire scene. The lone upright slender tree added to the rule of thirds placement to the composition :). Overall a perfect scene to capture HDR images. I had GND even this time which again restricted exposure bracketing to 5. The final HDR was composed sparing the +2EV picture for all of them since +1EV had enough shadow details. The images were blend in Luminance HDR and final editing with Darktable. Not to forget the "auto-align" option in Luminance HDR which is very important when you compose HDR hand-held. Lot of tweakings were carried out in darktable to match the "Sunset seen in my eyes" :).

The title is used to depict the "Sunset seen in my eyes" that day hoping for colorful days with vivid outlook. I hope you enjoy the pictorical Sunset in your eyes too!

This time the musical credit goes to the beautiful work by Poland musician TrancEye - Sunset In Your Eyes. Just lovely piece of music with orchestral melody and spectacular piano. Here are special aspects of music.

--> 2:20 orchestral melody followed by medley of piano at 2:45
--> the silent piano melody 3:23
--> beautiful breakdown outset at 3:51

The orchestral atmosphere from 2:21 to 3:15 is just mind blowing with gradual tempo build-up around 3:35 which sets up perfect breakdown pattern at 4:18 :)

TranceEye - Sunset in your eyes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv1fWYD24co

A Beautiful Tomorrow

March 2014,

Hot summer day, thought of visiting some beach nearby to inhale breeze from the ocean. They are natural tranquilizers and mood bringers. This time, I chose to visit Maravanthe Beach near Kundapur. I had to bank upon the public transport for my plan. I ended up catching 3 buses for mere 70kms :(. My plan was primarily for photoshoot and rest for rejoicing.

The expansive sea shore of Maravanthe does not fail lure anyone in my humble opinion. It has a partner along the other side of the highway which is Souparnika River :). Driving along this sea shoreline is one of the wonderful experiences of lifetime especially during monsoon season during which place looks intimidating. Sometimes, the waves strike highway during peak monsoon season. During monsoon season, both river and sea brims and it feels like sea wants to take revenge against the river for not merging here. However the river keeps teasing the sea everytime :). Emotions apart, here are some of the HDR shots composed during my visit. Hope you enjoy the same.

As the sun slides down the horizon during last day Hindu calendar year, he will shine us for a new beautiful next day. I watched the sinking SUN hoping for "A beautiful Tomorrow". Whatever happens at this moment, be happy and enjoy the small things in life and hope for A Beautiful Tomorrow everyday :). Nature provides curation through simple means. Be it sunrise, sunshine, sunset, monsoon clouds & rains, summer breeze along sea shore, western ghats, sound of sea tides, roaring streams in forest, thundering sound of waterfalls, the striking downpour, rejoice every moment of nature which provides immense bliss to our souls which is enough to combat morbid city life.

Finally hear one of perfect musical melody from Imperfection "A Beautiful Tomorrow". What a work by imperfection absolutely gorgeous melody :)

For me life is like Uplifting Trance music :D. Many people feel it to be esoteric with sequence of monotonic beats. Some people have even criticized me as show-off listening to such music. But who cares! Music is for self-healing and not to impress foreign souls. At the outset, the sounds seems to be harsh, lacking in melody, naive and somewhat boring. You feel like switching off the music at very much early stage. However actual rythm starts past 2 minutes in most of cases during which many instruments line up and make up for symphonic chords. Once the rythm outsets, you never feel like tuning off ;). The music at its peak during the heart of breakdown and also breakdown :) and the melody prolongs. The last part again seems to boring however the prior influence of harmonic tunes makes it interesting too :D.

Even our life can be analogous to above case. Initially tough, boring and feel like cursing ourselves. Only those people who have patience to hear past 2 minutes will hear the actual melody and enjoy life and this symphony continues :). Few wicked thoughts may arise as if we can skip initial part and seek past 2 mins in music player. Remember life is like radio station ;) you cannot seek the way you want as in music player ;). Either you have to switch off or tune into other stations or have patience to listen to entire song :). Phew man.. enough of fable :D. Its time to hear beautiful music. Hope you listen past 2 mins and you have an option of seeking to position you want ;)

Imperfection - A Beautiful Tomorrow: http://vbox7.com/play:b0c856f639

I did pull up a video for one of monsoon videos compiled last year here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ce2S3AGBpE

Last Note: The beautiful images does not arise without complications. It was difficult to focus on a hot scorching evening. Also there were many people staring (some inquisitive while some teasers) at my camera setup. I had to overcome all those distractions/obstacles to continue with whatever I was planning for. Also few suggestions on perceptions arouse out of thoughtful truck drivers too B-) and believe me, they were good suggestions too! All those difficulties finally lead to beautiful images of tomorrow ;). More than that, I broke my shackles shooting in public without hesitation.

Before saying goodbye, here is short video compiled during my stay at Maravanthe beach. The steady video is mainly due to the usage of tripod.

Fields of my Village

I was skimming my CRDi motor between the bitumen trail of Kaup and my village on a relatively less overcast day. On the way, I stopped nearby paddy fields to enjoy the greenery for sometime. This is first time I am taking photographs of the paddy fields nearby my village :). Especially monsoon season adds more glory to the landscape. People of this area harvest twice a year due to ample availability of water (a stream runs nearby). These are few HDR and normal images captured during my journey. Never thought they look so beautiful.

Finally here are some HDR images from my village itself. The first one was captured during morning hours while the rest was during sunset.

I was wandering around village on a clear evening day. As I was roaming, this scene caught my eyes and my camera's too which tempted me to grab a HDR shot. It turned out to be beautiful too ;). The enjoyment could not be sustained for long time since ants had ascended the leg and started biting :(. I love the starburst reflection of Sun on the watery field. The field was prepared for slush race organized recently. The water presence is still persisting due to the diversion of stream water towards the field. Also monsoon season is keeping this temporary water body alive! The monsoon is backpacking for this year and consequently there was beautiful sunset during fine evening. I used GND filter to compose bracketed shots. The advantage is reduced luminosity of orange hot balloon which reduced bracketed shots from 7 to 5 ;). Hope you enjoy the pictures. My mother was excited after seeing final image and asked if it is was captured from any rivers along highway. When I explained that it was the nearby water body, she was astonished to see the beautiful scenery :D. My father taunted the excitement stating inept scenes  looks beautiful in cameras X(.

Music Time B-):

This time its once again beautiful music by New-World named Fields of La Tourette. This guy is amazing man. He is just 24 and creates stunning music! The way he blends high and low pitch notes is mesmerizing. His music is always flavored with ecstatic orchestral melody.

Here are few of my feelings from music

0:31 --> Build up of beautiful atmosphere (gentle breeze over paddy field)
0:34 --> birds flying over field
1:46 --> slow moving clouds over the field
2:15 --> the orchestral + guitar melody
2:41 --> profound orchestral melody (rising sun over field)
3:10 --> the fantastic breakdown outset (fast moving clouds with running deers)
3:39 --> The combination of high + low pitch notes again
4:03 --> Time to fly over the field :)

I don't have the privilege of visiting the place and have a feel but his music truly reveals the the emotions of the La Tourette. I felt in paddy fields of my village :). This post is dedicated to the beautiful music of New World and hope you enjoy the same. Fly over the field relishing the melodious music from Gordon.

New World - Fields of La Tourette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox7gghnlmbE

Be his fan: https://www.facebook.com/NewWorldTrance

Not to miss equally wonderful remix from Ahmed Romel once again with stunning orchestral melody and beautiful video from Simon.

Ahmed Romel Remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POoJEBriuL4

Skywatch Friday: Boundless light

Nature always inspires me to take my camera, lens and finally the blogs :-). It is because of such beautiful setup by mother nature which inspired me to dwell into photography. As always been murmuring in blog posts, my main interests are in landscape and timelapse photography however nowadays I am also lured towards HDR and architecture photography. These were some of the HDR shots composed during my recent visit to Kaup beach. Nowadays I love composing HDR shots after I switched to RAW from JPEG. I even wish to capture normal shots in RAW but honestly hard disks are getting exhausted :-(. Consequently for single exposures, I shoot RAW which I find interesting.

One of my favorite hobby is to stare at the sky :D especially during monsoon season to understand the formation of clouds and the storm build ups. Others include watching those glorious rays of Sun sinking down the horizon during golden hour with vivid patterns. Consequently, whenever I travel to hometown, I don't miss a chance to visit Kaup beach or Kudremukh rainforests during monsoon season. While the seascape filled with yellow shines the lovely Kudremukh forests would be painted green with pristine water flowing along brimming streams and thundering waterfalls :-).

The day, there was beautiful golden hour Sun piercing through stratocumulous clouds illuminating the sky with dramatic patterns of orange-yellow colors. That tempted me to grab the HDR shots basically to have the land, sea, clouds and sky and sun exposed in image. The shots are blend of 5 RAW images with exposures from -2 to 2 (except for second one which is 7 [-3 to 3]). Since the SUN was less intense than usual, even shooting towards SUN with 5 expsoures were enough. Usually shooting towards SUN requires 7 exposures. The images were blended and tonemapped with Luminance HDR (Fatal operator) and final touch-up with dark table. For some images, beta value of fatal operator was reduced to expose the shadows well. For second image, I was just hoping for scooter boat to remain steady and fortunately it remained so :-). Later the mighty sea tides turned it 90 degrees towards right. By then, my HDR composition was completed :-). Especially I love the first two images :-). I can use them as wallpapers from now onwards with special tag as self composed ;-).

Boundless scattered light ;-)

Boundless light behind the rocks

Today's theme for Skywatch is boundless light. Now for title, after watching those glorious rays of Sun, this title flashed on to my mind. Boundless light with bountiful colors :D. It seems like the sky is spraying colorful light on earth :D. The SUN obviously has boundless light and energy. It is also star twinkling in distant world! Let our life be filled with bountiful of light amidst darkness. Even if darkness galore, lets make sure we find little light in there.

Finally hear one of beautiful Music from Mr.Gordon codenamed New World from US, "Boundless light". I describe him as musical genius. He was just 21 when he composed such an outstanding music :-). He is right example for enthusiasm and passion. His hard work and passion in musical instruments has drawn such magical talent in him at a tender age. His unique style of crafting uplifting music (especially a brief melody at end of music without bass) has elevated him to epitome of music.  Whenever new music roles out of his talent, he is champ! The melodious lead riffs, scintillating orchestral melody are his specials :D. They are absolutely stunning :-). I have to learn lot from this young guy's passion which helped him to achieve such musical loftiness. He has been one of my favorite music producers since introduction from "Rise Above". Even though I have not found like minded people who admire such music, I am inclined to this genre which are filled with boundless emotions and energy, despite the absence of vocal. It has been more than 3 years of journey into Uplifting trance music and chillout music for me and my interest towards it keeps elevating with introduction of such musical talents :-).

As far as this music, the emotions start at 1:50, later with boundless orchestral melody at 3:00, with outset of spectacular breakdown at 4:01 and finally the light arrives with blazing speed at 4:52 :-). 

Enough said, hear it here!

New World : Boundless Light(Emotional mix):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y95CW5KnlaI

Also do not miss equally beautiful remix of the same by TouchStone:

New World - Boundless Light (Touchstone Remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uLfMrIHzRI 

Finally if you wish to participate in skywatch theme and share with boundless world, create a blog post with a picture (self-owned) inclusive of sky and link your blogpost here (skyle). Note that text is not mandatory! Also do not forget to visit related posts from other member's too!

The Mountain

We were getting ready to camp at Dudhsaagar falls after long 15km walk from castle rock to dudhsaagar. Just relaxing along the railway tracks, this dusk show off by nature caught my eyes ;-). I tried grabbing picture but things were not properly exposed. Hence grabbed 5 shot HDR and composed the picture. The google+ photo editor did some more fantastic job to correct the picture. The western ghats at near end was properly exposed along with the sky at distant end. The start burst of Sun is again due to diffraction from aperture blades due to high 'f' stop. I could not correct the Sun flares (need to learn few more techniques!). Eventually I am happy with the picture and big thanks to g+ photo editor! Hope you will enjoy the mountain picture ;-)

WESTERN GHATS VIEWED FROM DUDHSAAGAR WATERFALLS!

Speaking of mountain, hear the beautiful music by Soundlift "The Mountain". As always feel his brilliance with blend of orchestral and synthesizer and experience the mountain ambiance ;-)

SoundLift: The Mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eEctjavOwM

Time to Rest

05 Oct 2013

My parents were here in Bangalore for 2 weeks and hence bit of break from kitchen ;-) It was time to drop them back to native village :-(. Never felt 2 weeks would pass so early :-(. Nevertheless, they love the native village than city life for obvious reasons. This Saturday, the return long drive from Bangalore to Kaup with too much luggage :D. Effectively we were 5 instead of 3 :-). This time, father drove from Nelamangala junction till Gundya forest gate. I had lot of room to grab videos and pictures :D. One of the battery drained and other battery almost half used ;-). This time there are drive videos along Shiraadi ghat too! Even though the roads were not good, it was delightful to watch sahyaadri ranges with tons of waterfalls and not to miss gundya river. For few kms, the river follows the highway too!

Around 12PM, we reached Gundya forest gate. Prior to that I had lot of photo shoot as mentioned above along shiraadi ghat! There was slight drizzle at shiraadi ghat and as we neared Mangalore, the clouds opened up with pounding rain. The road was almost invisible for some time. Overall it was smooth journey and we covered in 9hrs (including 90 minutes cumulative break).

Coming back, the dreadful national (notional?) highway along shiraadi ghat was more than compensated by captivating western ghats and gundya river. Father was tired driving and it was time to rest near by this beautiful gundya river and hence the title ;-). Here are two HDRs; one from western ghats and other Gundya river with western ghats at backdrop. Both are 5 exposure bracketed HDRs.

This picture was featured in incredible india g+ page. I am really honored to have my picture in their page :-). That was shared unknowingly among 200,000 followers of incredible india g+ page. Hope you will also enjoy the same.

CAPTIVATING GUNDYA RIVER WITH BEAUTIFUL WESTERN GHATS IN BACKDROP

THE WESTERN GHATS!

The shiraadi ghat road stretch is beautiful than Kuduremukh stretch due to many seasonal waterfalls and Gundya river. I am not debasing Kuduremukh ghats, only difference is that road along Kuduremukh ghats does not contain as many water spots as shiraadi ghat. Also do not miss magnificent train journey along Sakaleshpur-Subramanya railway track. One of the memorable journey you will ever have during monsoon season. Also water spots are more along railway stretch than highway ;-).

Finally one of the water spot! There were many but we stopped at only few places. Felt like taking bath but no time :-(.

ONE OF SEASONAL WATERFALL ALONG HIGHWAY

Two musics this time. 'Time to Rest' by Andy Blueman and the chill-down remix of same by Magdelayna. Both are very good but latter is slightly more soothing than original version. So rest yourself for 18 mins enjoying beautiful music but not more than that ;-).

1) Time to Rest (original mix) - Andy Blueman : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf65BcRCBMU

2) Time To Rest (Magdelayna Chilled Remake) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSQY3Pfz-C0

After small rest, it was time to drive for me before father could lose patience. Consequently drove all the way to our village from here.

So, why take pain of self driving? We have never felt it as pain ;-) It is really joyous to drive CRDi ;-). Apart from this, there are many reasons. It gives lot of flexibility to halt anywhere you wish. Secondly, we can fill in ample luggage compared to traveling by public transport. Last but not the least, traveling by car has proven to be far more cheaper than even Rajahamsa bus for 3 of us. If we include, luggage we had carried, the difference is even more. Only requirement is at-least two drivers are required. Many people have presumption that driving along ghats is cumbersome. But thats not case ;-). Once you experience driving along ghats, you will feel like driving repeatedly :-). Do not miss any chance if you have opportunity to drive along western ghats!

HDR and panorama during Mantralaya visit

Here are some HDR and panorama shots taken during our yearly visit to Mantralaya temple. Few years back, torrential rains and floods from Tungabhadra river, had ruined the temple very badly. Later, many volunteers thronged to help in reconstruction of the town including temple. As a result of many years of work, the temple has beautiful look now. This panorama stitch is of temple front view. Of-course one could see barrel distortion and it is expected when you grab panorama shots non-linearly. Even some UWL lenses exhibit this nature but not noticeable as below. Enjoy the full front view of temple.

MANTRALAYA TEMPLE

Evening time, we spent considerable amount of time in Tungabhadra river basin. I wanted to stay till the Sunset and achieved it too ;-). Before sunset, I wanted to grab landscape picture with coracle. As expected, the high energy SUN eats up all the luminosity in picture consequently under-exposing the surroundings. Hence time to grab HDR shot. 5 exposure shot gave me perfect image exposing both coracle and Sun eventually :-).

CORACLE AND SUN ;-)

Next is golden hour picture just before sunset. We were expecting beautiful Sunset, however clouds suddenly turned up and spoiled our enthusiasm :-(. Nevertheless, the nature never betrays. The Sun behind clouds was waving rays through the clouds :-). That created some beautiful colors too! This is perfect for HDR shot. Here is one more 5 image bracketed HDR. I am really happy with the image. The clouds, colors and rocks are perfectly exposed. Also my one more intention was to expose those distant power masts which was achieved in image. The only problematic part is the distant landscape did not come up with good colors. After inspecting all 5 images, I realized more dynamic was required. This is the case where one needs 7 exposures to have great dynamic range. Eventually, I am happy with the result.

GOLDEN HOUR HDR OF TUNGABHADRA RIVER, MANTRALAYA

HDR and panorama from Shringeri.

After sailing through Kuduremukh western ghats, we reached Shringeri on 21-09-2013. It was hardly 2hrs journey mainly due to ghat section. It is really mesmerizing experience driving through western ghats during monsoon season. Rolling back to mainstream, father wanted to visit Shringeri to spend some time in temple town. Despite, being only 2hr journey, lot of hurdles made us to refrain from visiting the beautiful Malnad temple. This time the visit was pre-planned and we made it too. As always, I did some experiments with my favorite partner ;-). I did not try much except for some HDR and panorama. Last time, I did shoot a HDR of preserved ancient temple which is documented here. This time, there were thick clouds over sky which tempted me to grab a HDR with Tunga River. So here is HDR bracketed with 3 exposures. I happy with clouds, vegetation and water being exposed in image except for the colors which would have been more greener if there were more bracketed shots (may be 5).

TUNGA RIVER BASIN, SHRINGERI

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus Point: Auto
Aperture: f/9.0
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Landscape
White Balance: Cloudy
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images:3
Exposures: --2,0,+2(1/200s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

From this blog onwards, I am modifying setting details slightly. HDRs are always bracketed in 'Manual focus' mode and hence I am shifting from Focus to Focus point. Sometimes we will have to make manual focus points to concentrate on subject of interest. I will mention the focus point explicitly if set to manual

Next is panorama of Tunga river nearby temple. Since the monsoon has almost ended, not much water could be seen. My intention was to grab wider image of the river with hillocks. Here is 5 image stitch of sweet Tunga river of Shringeri!

PANORAMIC VIEW OF SWEET TUNGA RIVER BASIN

7 exposure HDR of Mundkoor temple corridor

This is 7 exposure HDR bracketed during my recent visit to Mundkoor Durgaparameshwari temple near Karkala. The main reason going beyond 5 exposure was that even at -2EV, the coconut trees were not exposed. Also the high contrast region between roof and temple, made camera evaluate bit crazily. Actually at normal exposure, the image seemed to be overexposed at the roof side while darker along corridor. Hence I had to compose 7 bracketed shots from -3 to +3 to grab more dynamic range to expose trees and corridor properly. Eventually I got the result I wanted i.e. trees and corridor properly exposed. I am happy with colors along the corridor and lighting on the sky as well as puddles on the floor. Hope you will enjoy the picture also.

MUNDKOOR TEMPLE CORRIDOR

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 23mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 400
Picture Style: Neutral
White Balance: Shade
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images:7
Exposures: -3,-2,-1,0,+1,+2,+3(1/30s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

Last Note:

Someone questioned as how normal picture like above can be called HDR. HDRs need not have bright colors. HDR is all about composing an image similar to your eyes see with greater dynamic range which cameras cannot capture. Of-course they seem fake sometimes but that is not the intention behind HDR captures.

HDR and Panorama during monsoon visit to Murudeshwara

The stretch between Udupi to Karwar is one of my favorite travel route. Those ravishing hillocks, Arabian sea, konkan railway tunnels and not to miss plenty of rivers give heavenly feeling especially during monsoon season. Of them, the stretch between Kundapur to Gokarna is truly marvelous. Also not miss the gorgeous site near Shiroor where one can see both western ghats and Arabian sea from highway. I could not grab any picture of this site due to lack of time :-(.

I can never miss few minutes break at glorious Maravanthe beach where Souparnika river teases arabian sea. During our recent visit to Anegudde siddhivinayak temple and Murudeshwar, I stopped at Maravanthe beach for quite some time to enjoy the full flowing river and roaring sea. From many days, I wanted to capture panoramic view of beautiful Maravanthe beach. This time I achieved the same. Hope you will enjoy this six image stitch of the sight.

NATURE MAGIC AT MARAVANTHE BEACH, KUNDAPURA

Next is 5 image stitch of hills near Murudeshwar. Just casual shot, nothing specific in mind.

HILLS NEARBY MURUDESHWARA

Apsarakonda was not in our plan. However due to bad roads we reached Murudeshwar around 1:30PM. The temple is closed from 1PM to 3PM. Hence we visited apsarakonda falls which is 17km from here. The road in this stretch was very good. As we reached the site, I was tempted to grab HDR of Kasarkod beach. This is one beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Also there was heavy rain too ;-) due to which we were the only visitor :D. It was delightful to watch the full flourishing apsarakonda waterfalls. Last time when we visited during December time-frame, it looked like tap water. This time, it had full glory :-). I was really excited to see the waterfall site. Will share some pics when I find time. So here is HDR of the evergreen Kasarkod beach from Apsarakonda waterfall parking lot. I am happy that clouds, paddy fields and sea are properly exposed in picture. The massive clouds poured for nearly 30 minutes later. Unfortunately due to dearth of time, we could not reach top of hill to have magnificent view of Kasarkod beach. Also we missed majestic Sharavati river basin at Honavar and Idagunji temple. I have some plans to visit these places this winter.

MAGNIFICENT KASARKOD BEACH, HONAVAR

The next HDR is of hillocks viewed from top of pinnacle at Murudeshwar. HDR was shot to get greater dynamic range. I was never knowing that we can reach the top floor of pinnacle. This time I observed the lift at the entrance and had good aerial view of the Murudeshwar (including Shiva statue) from top of pinnacle. Here is HDR of aerial view of Murudeswar with lush green western ghats at the backdrop.

MURUDESHWARA TOWN!

With this write-up, I am celebrating 100th post in blogger. Hope you enjoyed the small write-ups throughout.

Twilight HDR of Kaup Beach Light House

I barely had any time during Ganesh Chaturthi visit to my native place. During the festival day, I hardly found any time in midst of savoring grand food at home :D. Eventually, during evening, I payed a brief visit to Kaup beach. Not the best of season to visit since majority of time sky is covered with clouds. Nevertheless, the beach looks so enthusiastic and fearful during monsoon season. This time, the shore lines intruded shops even ;-). There is lot to learn from those waves which strike the shore with tremendous energy.

So here is 5 exposure HDR, of Kaup beach light house during twilight time. I am happy with image except that 7 exposures would have spiced up the picture still more ;-). Regarding sharpness, that is max I can get from kit lens. I did not apply any post processing for sharpness. This time, I performed some selective color correction around rocks and light house area. Lastly, I learned to use scissors tool in GIMP ;-).

MY LOVELY HOMETOWN BEACH!

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 55mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/8
ISO: 200
Picture Style: Neutral
White Balance: Cloudy
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 5
Exposures: -2.-1,0,+1,+2 (8s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

I have few timelapse too from Kaup beach as well as my hometown. Will club most of them into single video after accumulating sufficient amount. As of now, that day seems to be bit far!

After reaching Bangalore, I was excited to see 20k view count on my blogger site :-). The blog which was started just as time-pass has seen enormous amount visitors [20k is not small number ;-)]. This blog will still remain as time-pass yard for me and no plans for serious writing ;-). I just want to share some thoughts for getting valuable feedback especially in photography area. One more thing I am happy about is most of the views are from google search [So google has promoted by blogs in its search index :-)]. I also have some old blogs which is not yet uploaded to blogger. Stay tuned for many more travel write-up!

HDR and Panorama during Shivanasamudra revisit with cheap CPL filter

Visitors were not allowed to step down during my last visit to Shivanasamudra. That was quite obvious too! Also I had to face ire of our usual travel gang when I went alone :D. Hence time to revisit the falls to have some excursion :-). I carried my cheap CPL filter with me since the day was hazy and believe me, it did very very good job. Almost removed 70% of haze in picture when used 90 degree from SUN axis! I was really excited since sky did not turn white in pictures :-). Most of the pictures which were shot at an angle ranging from 30-90 degrees from Sun's axis had clearly exposed SKY :-). Will share some pictures at some point later in blog.

We had hired taxi to visit Shivanasamudra and Talakaadu this time. I faced wrath of mother when traveled alone in bike last time :D. This time we were four and hence taxi would be convenient and cheap. More than our expectation, we had full fun at Bharachukki falls with water and monkeys :-). The boys enjoyed in water and I enjoyed with camera ;-). I have lot of milky ways too ;-). We had coracle ride close to main waterfall and completely drenched :D.

Back to primary topic ;-). The first is HDR shot of one of our friend watching one of divisions of Bharachukki falls. This is 5 bracketed HDR shot ranging from -2 to +2 in increments of +1EV. The camera light meter was exposing only the water but not our friend and hence I grabbed HDR shot ;-). In composed final image we have both person and waterfall properly exposed! The bright sky is magic of CPL filter ;-).

FRIEND LOOKING INTO THE WATERFALLS!

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Neutral
White Balance: Daylight
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 5
Exposures: -2.-1,0,+1,+2 (1/30s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

While stepping up back from Bharachukki falls, I was tempted to capture full view of Bharachukki falls. Again 18mm was not enough :(. The only option was to take multiple shots and stitch them. This is 6 shot panorama picture. The weird sky is again because of CPL filter! The sky is bit weird mainly because the camera was not at proper angle from which CPL filter could be used faithfully from axis of SUN. Of-course due to changing position, it was impossible too! The final image stitched with Hugin panorama creator did turn out very well ;-). The settings were f/11 (Av mode), ISO 100 and 'daylight' white balance. Hope you will enjoy the image. The image is best viewed in full size.

PANORAMA OF BHARACHUKKI FALLS

In order to know how CPL filters work, you need to know the light physics with electromagnetic waves. There are lot articles in internet if you are interested ;-). I will be using the filter in future extensively after seeing results especially in Kaup beach :-). I did buy it long time back. Just wondering what I was doing keeping it idle. Fortunately at-least I am enlightened now ;-)

Comments and critiques are always welcome.

Some HDR and Panorama during Jog Falls visit

Western ghats are the best place to visit during Monsoon time. Despite of inclement weather, once reached, they are heaven. During our day long stay in Jog falls, I did some trial HDR and panorama. In real terms, HDR was not required at falls site since overcast weather provided some good lighting. The only reason I bracketed HDR shots was to get nice colors on image :-).

The first is the panorama shot of Jog falls from bungalow view point (not british bungalow) located nearby. We wanted some good elevated view point to enjoy the jog falls entirely. As we were roaming around, we could spot this as perfect place. We were relaxing for some time after concluding individual photo-shoots :-). Later it started raining and we went inside the bungalow premises. The view of falls was so gorgeous. However apart from the 4 falls, there was also gowri-shankar falls which is alive only during monsoon. After rain receded, a thought entered into my mind to grab panorama shot including gowri-shankar falls. I took six shots by fixing up white balance as well as aperture. The final image stitching was straight forward with Hugin Panorama creator. The overcast weather made sure the lighting to be uniform in all images. The SUN would have altered exposure bias atleast in few of images.

PANORAMIC JOG FALL VIEW. LEFT MOST IS GOWRI-SHANKAR FALLS

We had hired taxi to visit other view points nearby Jog falls. On the way, we stopped on the Sharavati bridge for some time. The flow control of the river is based on the water outflow from Linganamakki Dam. The same path plunges as Jog falls after few distance. Eventually the Sharavati river meets Arabian sea in Honavar which is 60kms from here. I personally feel you should never miss the Konkan railway journey along beautiful Sharavati river basin near Honavar.

I composed HDR shots nearby bridge totaling 5 shots ranging from -2 to +2 in increments of 1EV.  The reason behind composing HDR was, camera's light meter either used to expose sky or the river. Not both at a time. The final image turned out to be OK but huge haze at background. Probably I required CPL filter here.

SHARAVATI RIVER BASIN NEAR JOG!

Next HDR is of Jog falls itself. As I mentioned earlier, there was no requirement of HDR. I just wanted those bright colors in final image. Again 5 shots ranging from -2 to +2 with increments of 1EV. I increased the green color balance and some applied few color corrections on image. The main interest in image is the clouds which would have not been exposed in normal shots. The Raja falls was plummeting towards narrow gorge which generated misty envelop around the area. Due to this it was difficult to predict when would sight become totally clear. When it cleared, people were thronging to view and shoot the waterfall including us :-).

MAJESTIC JOG FALLS AND WESTERN GHATS

HDR from terrace :-)

While riding back from office, there was beautiful sunset at the horizon. The colors were so majestic and sun rays piercing through clouds were delightful to watch. I was pretty much desperate to reach home :-). By the time I reached home, the SUN had already sunk from horizon :-(. Nevertheless, the twilight colors were so beautiful :-). I wanted to grab some snaps. I did some experiments with white balance and depth of field. Consequently either buildings or sky were exposed in images. So time to grab HDR shots :D. During twilight it would be great if you have higher dynamic range and hence I configured Magic Lantern to grab 5 shots ranging from -2 to +2. I kept camera on wall of terrace to arrive at aligned shots. Luminance HDR did good job again. I increased alpha value a bit and decreased beta value. Some post corrections in GIMP gave me this final image. Hope you will enjoy the image. Comments and critiques are always welcome.

HDR from terrace ;-)

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Neutral
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 5
Exposures: -2.-1,0,+1,+2 (3s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

Revisiting the Panorama Art and HDR of Chunchi falls

It has been long time since I composed panorama shots. Earlier when I was extensively using pocket camera SX210IS, I used to compose many panorama shots. It had option of panorama bracketing which made things very easy. I am not using pocket camera to that extent and left it at home town for quick shooting. Nowadays even mobile camera has HDR and panorama options. However, EOS550D does not have one. The only option is to have Ultra Wide Angle lens. But the UWL lenses are bit expensive to buy as of now. I need to wait some more time until I pile up some budget to buy it. Till then only option is to be contended with 18mm focal length.

During my visit to Chunchi falls, I encountered many beautiful landscapes en-route. They were delightful to watch. It is at that time when I felt 18mm also not enough to compose the beautiful landscape in a frame. Finally decided to compose panorama shots manually and hand-held. My prediction was at-least 80% of subject would be properly aligned in final composition (40% area each from center axis). At some places, 6shots were taken and at some I went till 9 shots.

The problem with this approach is varying lighting. Hence one has to fix up the white balance as well as depth of field properly before proceeding with bracketing. I fixed the white balance to cloudy and probably depth of field to f/11. I also made sure that focus point was infinity. This technique is difficult to apply when things are moving and they are in frame always like sea waves or waterfalls. Hence I did not compose any panorama of waterfall site. I have tried panorama of Kaup beach many times but changing wave position misalign final image. However in the images I composed nothing was moving except clouds. The clouds move out of frame after sometime and also were moving slowly. Hence panorama was pretty much easy. Hope you will enjoy the pictures. I will try out few more in coming days. Enlarge and view to have real feel of the pictures.

The panorama shots were stitched together with beautiful open source software, Hugin panorama creator. It is also available for windows. It has got many features like exposure correction, manual control point selection etc.. I am yet to explore more on the features of software.

This image was taken from parking place of waterfall site. It came out to be bit tricky. It consisted of 6 shots out of which first one had less exposure bias. In final image, the left half turned out to be too much under-exposed and right half was proper. I had to turn off the exposure correction in software and increased the exposure bias of first image to match with other images. Finally the composed image turned out well. My main interests were the hills and channel.

LANDSCAPE NEAR WATERFALLS AREA

This image was straight forward. My only expectation was to keep both bulls and hills in the frame which I was able to achieve.

THE HILLS AND THE BULLS

This came out really well. I am happy with hills, clouds and road in image. The only problematic portion is that road should have not clipped in the middle. It is not software's mistake but mine. I should have framed images properly.

CHUNCHI FALLS CROSS ON THE WAY TO SANGAMA

There was nothing to capture as HDR in Chunchi falls since lighting was perfect. Still I tried HDR shot. The composed image really came out well. The final image has more colors than the normal LDR shot we take. Only concern is, the waterfall filled lesser portion of frame. The greenery of trees is spread well throughout the image which would not have been possible with normal shots and also rocks have showed up natural color. The picture was taken from view point located at a distance from waterfalls. No RAW this time too :(

CHUNCHI FALLS FROM VIEW POINT

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 28mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/25 (You know why!)
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Neutral
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 3
Exposures: -2,0,+2 (1/15s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

As always, feedback and critiques are highly appreciated.

HDR of Gaganachukki Falls

This is 3 exposure bracketed HDR of Gaganachukki falls. The shots were taken during my solo bike ride to Shivanasamudra and Talakaadu on 03-Aug. I had taken 5 shots however it did not come out so well and hence limited final composition to 3 bracketed shots in Luminance HDR. There was huge crowd as expected and bracketing steady shots was difficult. I found a wall along the steps where I could place the camera to compose bracketed shots without any mis-alignment.

Even with 3 bracketed shots there were slight problems. At the edges of the hills there were fringing which could be noticed only after thorough investigation. For normal viewers, it may not be noticeable but people in landscape photography forums do notice such fine details. I was really annoyed seeing it. Eventually I wanted to correct it by some means. First I gave a try reducing chromatic aberration tool in GIMP which did not work out (or I did not use it properly?). The next option was to select the damaged part of image and reduce saturation values for those colors. The major dis-tractors were cyan and red. I chose Hue-Saturation tool and selected cyan and red and teared down the value to -100%. Bingo! all fringes are gone :-). I was really excited after seeing the result. Hope you will enjoy the image too! One more thing I learned was to bracket only 3 shots for HDR during broad daylight. I believe more bracketing is required only during magic hours. Please let me know if you have any alternate opinions.

So why do I struggle so much for HDR? As mentioned in earlier blogs, the natural world looks so beautiful in HDR. Our eyes have greater dynamic range while cameras do not have. The cameras which do have are highly expensive. Hence this sort of circus is required ;-). Once again I did the same mistake, not shooting RAW. I don't know when will I correct myself.

GAGANACHUKKI FALLS

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/22 (of-course to get vast depth of field)
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Neutral (Thought of increasing sharpness later)
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 3 (initally 5)
Exposures: -2,0,+2 (initially -2.-1,0,+1,+2) (1/30s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

Manual HDR: View via stream

After enchanting journey along Sakaleshapura-Subramanya tracks, my 32GB SD card was fully loaded. Hence I had no option other than to use the 4GB SD card which came with camera pack. The Magic Lantern firmware is loaded only in former one while latter did not have it. Consequently HDR had to be manually bracketed. The only plus point was tripod.

I was having a monsoon walk around my village on overcast Sunday morning. After seeing this view, I wanted to capture a HDR image. There was no option other than manually compose the images. The major problem was changing light which mangled with exposures. Fortunately for sometime the lighting was steady and I could grab 3 shots. The images were put together in Luminance HDR and it did good job as always. I am happy with composed image. All subjects are properly exposed. Hope you will enjoy the image too! I did the same mistake of not taking RAW shots :(

HDR view via stream

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/22 (Not sure why I went so far)
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Landscape
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 3
Exposures: -2,0,+2 (1/8s for middle)
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

Edit 1:

Now I remember why I went all the way upto f/22. The intention was to capture flow of water which is not possible with higher shutter speed. Hence I had to increase 'f' stop to maximum to get some feel of flowing water. However even f/22 could give me only 1/8th of second with proper exposure. I wanted somewhere around 5 seconds. A ND filter would have been great choice. With a GND, HDR composition would not have required at all!

HDR Landscape through automated siphon!

This was captured in Markonahalli reservoir near Yediyur inside Automated siphon designed by Sir M Vishweshwarayya. When looked through bear eye, everything is neat and clear. However, camera cannot see everything at one shot. Hence HDR was necessary. This is again 3 exposure bracketed HDR  taken inside siphon! Hope you will enjoy the image too!

HDR through siphon

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Landscape
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 3
Exposures: -2,0,+2
ML firmware version: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

HDR of Kunigal Bypass

Travelers commuting towards Mangalore, understand the importance of Kunigal Bypass which saves almost 20 minutes compared to commuting inside town. As we travel towards Mangalore, we enjoy the glorious landscape of Kunigal Bypass which is only 2yrs old. I feel like taking so many snaps. Due to some or the other obstacles (usual excuses!), the plans had to be dropped. This time on our return journey from Markonahalli Dam, we stopped at Kunigal Bypass for some time to enjoy the landscape. The puddle after rain, snaky national highway 75, beautiful landscape and monsoon clouds tempted me to grab a HDR shot. The problem with normal images are either sky will be exposed or the land. If we need both of them in the frame, only option is HDR. I somehow became fan of HDR nowadays. Although not many of them are successful, I am happy with successfully composed HDRs. The natural world can only be enjoyed with HDR! However cameras cannot match human eye. Hence we have to grab bracketed shots to compose an equivalent.

Here is HDR composed using Luminance HDR of Kunigal bypass. I am really happy after seeing the results. The bracketed shots were composed using magical open-source  Magic Lantern firmware for canon EOS DSLRs. What a great add-on it is! It automates everything once adjustments are done. The Fatal operator did again very good job in Luminance HDR. Some saturation and alpha values were adjusted to tone-map the image. Later GIMP was used for color correction and luminance adjustments. Hope you will enjoy the image too! I should have shot images in RAW but could not remember :(

KUNIGAL BYPASS ALONG NATIONAL HIGHWAY - 75

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/13
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Landscape
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 3
Exposures: -2,0,+2
ML firmware version: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

HDR of my village

This was shot almost a month back. There was considerable amount of rain for almost 10days before monsoon could get started. The lush greenery on plantations along with monsoon clouds tempted me to capture a HDR. The shot was taken around 6:30PM I believe. Since it was quite dark, tripod was must. The ML HDR option was tuned for 3 images shot with 0,+,++ (initially at -2EV) with increment of 2EV which is {-2,0,+2} exposure values. I do not remember the settings properly. May be f/10 with ISO 100. I guess the shutter speed for mid image was around 1s (not sure). The images were put together in Luminance HDR and the software did excellent work. Fatal operator was chosen and the HDR was tone-mapped with lessening alpha and increasing saturation values. The image was further corrected with GIMP. I am satisfied with result except for clouds have come out like candy :-). The composed image was around 19MB :D which was shrinked to 2MB after more compression. Hope you will enjoy the image too!

HDR of village