Almost sunset

A few minutes before sunset. This was the first day the sun was visible in the evening after almost three weeks. Even then, at the horizon, it was obscured by clouds. I have forgotten the settings I used for this shot, I think I made it darker in Photoshop.. but not sure.

Pideon and the setting sun

This pigeon was blind in one eye I think. It could not see me approaching at all. It flew away when it heard the sound of the shutter thrice. This is the third pic.

Clouds above Sanpada

Taken at Millennium Towers

My Brother Criminal

Druggie or criminal?

Old farmer back after a day's work

But where did he get that umbrella from?

Boy and cow

That boy and his cows ran when they saw our noisy crowd bearing down on them. Then I suppose he thought it was just weird city people. This is cropped out of a photo where I pose stylishly.

Backstreet boys

Some of the guys who were there at the waterfall. I can't understand how some of them naturally look like they are out of some music video.

Phantom?

... or his horse? Something is coming out of the entrance to the jungle kingdom!

Waterfall

My friend Dinesh is the photographer. 1/1000 sec shutter speed.

Doctor Meerajkar and wife

The good doctor said that he hasn't posed like this for a photo in a long time. We like them, and will go there again when we can sit around and chat with them peacefully on a weekday.

Doctor's Farm - River view

River view from Doctor's Farm terrace

Clouds

Converted to b/w and one click adjustment in Auto Levels.

Drrrrrip

More rusty stuff

Rusty nail

My fascination for close ups of things lying around mostly is because I don't get out of the house much. On the other hand, there are lots of things around that are much more interesting in close-up. For example, this nail that holds a pipe to the wall.

Exercise mat - evolution!

Yesterday, a photo on Ashish's blog shot in B&w on the camera inspired some reading on the Net, and some experiments this morning. It seems that professional photographers always advocate shooting in color, and adjusting in Photoshop (or equivalent) for greyscale photos. I have generally thought that adjusting in Photoshop is manipulation. Not so, say the pros. Seems that even the exposure compensation or using different aperture is manipulation. And b & w is defintely manipulation, after all nothing exists in b & w in the real world! So here I go manipulating!

Mat - as is. Shot in color.




Below, mat converted to simple greyscale. This is probably what you will get if you shoot in greyscale in the camera too.



Below, mat fixed in Photoshop Channel mixer. I think I pushed up the Green channel to get this effect. I like it better this way.

Door to the terrace

Closed down the aperture by 2 stops to get this effect. Not as good as what I wanted - I would have loved just the white outside, and just the pattern of reflections. This was pretty much the same in Photoshop, so didn't try any serious adjustments.

Nailed

Someone had banged in this nail on tha parapet on the terrace, may be were using it for a clothesline. Shot in color, but it still looked almost black and white. A straight greyscale conversion in Photoshop looked quite OK, till I experimented with Channel Mixer and pushed up Red a little and converted to Monochrome. I think its better this way. Perhaps, next time I will let a bit mroe light enter while shooting to bring out the texture on the nail better.

Valve - b/w

I focused on one of the spokes close to me, and used as wide an aperture as possible. Then import to Photoshop, adjust, adjust.. I think its a it blown out in the end, but as an experiment, I am happy with it!

Experiments with b & w - cars

In this pic, I shot in color and converted to b & w. I used Photoshop's channel mixer and pushed the Red channel up, and blue down... Anyway this is what I ended up with. Four parked cars, tiled floor and water after the rain.