In Love with Aperture 2!

I visited Nature Museum of Ottawa this Saturday. Amazing place to visit. If you happen anytime to come to Ottawa, this is one place you have to visit and and I'll tell you its worth every bit. 4 floors, 4 different galleries, maintained very beautifully. Some part of it is still under restoration. I had a very nice time there and already booked my next weekend's calender also :)

When I came back from there, while browsing the net I came to know about Aperture 2 release. I have heard a lot about Aperture but had never tried. This time decided to give a try and downloaded the 30days trial version.

However the control tabs are slightly different than PS CS3 or GIMP, which made me spend some time to learn the software. Once I learnt the basic operations, tried the first image. This is when I got awestruck looking at the results!! Amazing color rendition and great control! I felt the control over the 'level' tool is just unbeatable. As I have worked with CS3 and GIMP also, found the levels tool of Aperture 2 giving better results for me.

Here are some of the images that I processed using A 2. Some are from Nature Museum and some from my archives.

Best thing is that the price also looks quite affordable !! :)


- Ash

A few steps in a new way!!

Hmm, as I have told you in my last post, the weather here is too bad to go out. So I am having difficulty in spending some quality time with my camera! Today's winter storm was the fourth in the season!

So as I have already told you John Shaw's books are giving excellent company to me in this hostile weather. Today when I came back from a Coffee shop with a tea box (tea box from a coffee shop??!!) it was drizzling with freezing rain! Those drops made me and the box a bit wet! But along with the wetness they brought a good opportunity for me!!

As I got my extension tubes a few weeks back I was eager to put them into use as I didn't had opportunity to experiment with them. Macro/Closeup photography is a different world altogether. It needs different mind set, different level of patience and different thought process!

Macro photography, I believe is more than just mere close up and capturing the life size image of a small object. Composition is a big challenge in macro! You will have very very little space to play with and a fraction of an inch of your disposition is more than enough to spoil an image!
As I told the biggest challenge in macros is the composition. The time it takes to make a meaningful or pleasant composition really tests your patience! Many times you may get frustrated. But after over coming this frustration, when you become successful in making atleast one good image, the smile on your face and the joy in your heart is something that should be experienced to believe!

Macro Photography is a different ball game altogether. The science and the arts behind this form of photography has a different flavor in both of its 'science' and 'arts' !

I found THIS LINK on PN a very useful article on macro photography. If you are also interested in this form of art, then I would recommend you to go through this article. Some of you may find it too much fundamental but I am sure some of you will come back to me to say thanks! :)

I am trying to learn this game!

Life is all about learning!

Cheers,
Ash

I will let your imagination to flow to fig out about the images....

Weather is too bad!!

Hahaha... Dont go by the above image!! Thats just for myself to feel good in this HORRIBLE weather!!

      Weather here now a days is too bad to go out and shoot. I am having a real difficulty in spending some quality time with my camera. So decided to study a bit more in this time. John Shaw's two books 'Close Ups in Nature' and 'Focus On Nature' are giving a real good company to me in this hard time. The second one I have not started infact. Right from the day one I liked Shaw's books. the first book I had was 'A field guide to Nature Photography'. An amazing book which I would strongly recommend to any beginner in this field. The ease with which he explains the exposure theories and other important aspects of photography is something that catches you. These books not only contain some amazing high quality images but an invaluable informations as well. I did not get books 'Close Ups in Nature' and 'Focus On Nature' in Bangalore. So I ordered them online here.

If you want to know more about John Shaw and his books, CLICK HERE.

The above image I made in October 2007 when I had been to Pink Lake in fall.

- Ash

Some unshared images...

Hi,
Decided to post some images on my space here which I have not shared on India Nature Watch (INW) till now. Even I myself dont know the reason for not posting it in INW! :)
Now because of the same 'unknown reason' I have decided to share those images here in my place. :)
To find the images shared on INW CLICK HERE.

- Ash