As you may have heard/seen by now, Chennai (India), was affected by intense rains and flooding in December 2015. As a result of that, hundreds of lives were lost and many people lost their homes and livelihoods. Even though the flood waters have subsided, the property loss has been staggering. As Chennai is getting rehabilitated, a lot of us have volunteered to help out Chennai in whatever way possible - physically or fiscally. So, in my own small way, I decided to put out a 2016 calendar filled with my photographs of Chennai and other places in the south. I decided to aptly call it "Memories of the South". The calendar cost was set at $25 and the net proceeds from it were going towards rebuilding Chennai. The response from my friends, supporters and page patrons was truly overwhelming. I was only hoping to sell 50 calendars but ended up selling 80 calendars. At the end of the day, with your help, I was able to donate $1150 to "Help Chennai get back on its feet", a local non-profit group that is distributing the funds to several NGOs (in Chennai) that are actively involved in rebuilding Chennai. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Even though the calendar was largely appreciated by those who bought it, the most common feedback that I got back was that they wished that each of the pictures had captions on them to explain where each photo was taken. Trust me! I really wanted to do it but the vendor that printed this could add a caption only when the picture was resized to a smaller size. :-( I was not willing to accept a smaller size for the pictures. So, I left it in as is. This post is to document each of the pictures and tell you a bit more about each of those clicks. Hope you enjoy it.

January 2016 - Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Mylapore, Chennai
It is a historic temple, whose history dates even older than that of Chennai. Even though Chennai is home to hundreds of temples, churches and mosques, this one has a special place in the hearts of Chennai residents. It still retains the old flavor of Madras, idolizes the faith of millions and symbolizes the traditional roots of the metropolis. The flower vendors near the temple, the smell of agarbathis (incense sticks), bhajans and classical numbers echoing off the walls of various music stores there and the bright display of silk sarees at RaSi (a famous silk saree store) just sweep you off your feet into a different world. This was a handheld shot taken at dusk.

February 2016 - Harvest fields, Near Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu, the southern state to which Chennai is the capital, is filled with rice paddy fields. Mid-January is when the harvest season starts for the farmers in this region. Took this shot around early January and you can see the almost-ready golden harvest color of the fields. My friend and I were driving through the south and we came across these fields. I got out of the car and took this shot from the side of the road. I loved the contrast of the golden yellow in the front to the green fields in the back.

March 2016 - Sunset at the Pondicherry Beach
​Pondicherry (or Puducherry) is a coastal union territory town in the south. Due to its French colonization past, the town still retains a lot of the French architecture, colors, culture and flavor. Even though called a beach, the town has a very rocky shore for the most part. Since the town is on the eastern side of the country, the sun sets not in the sea but rather on the other side - behind the town. But, on this particular evening, the sky lit up with blazing colors after the sun had set. I took this shot with a long exposure, soaking in the colors as well as the spray from the waves crashing against the rocks. The long exposure gave the sea a smooth, silky effect but trust me when I say that I had to wipe my gear so carefully to get all the salt spray off it. Enjoyed a nice mango-peanut (maanga sundal) snack after this.

April 2016 - Rice fields, Kurungulam, Tamil Nadu

One of my friends is into agriculture as a passionate hobby. He drives down from Chennai every weekend to his ancestral place called Kurungulam in Tamil Nadu, so that he can take care of the fields over there. On one of those trips, I accompanied him to experience the outdoors. We took a walk through a rice paddy field in that village. The experience of walking barefoot on those fields is something I will never forget. The little building that you see in this picture is a "pumpset" - an enclosure to house the electric pump that pumps water to the fields around there through the various irrigated paths. If you look at the front of the picture, you can even see the golden kernels of rice on those crops.

May 2016 - "Boomboom maatukaaran", Chennai

I don't even know what the actual translation of that word could be in English but in Tamil, this guy is called a "Boomboom maatukaaran". He is more like "The traveling bull showman". He decks up his bull with colorful clothes and bells and walks around to each house in the neighborhood, telling them of fortunes that the house owner is bound to get in the coming days. He also makes the bull perform "tricks" like making it answer to his questions. The bull would respond with a wild shake of its head, jiggling all its bells. This would send the small children into wild laughter. He can also make the bull to lift its leg and do such simple tricks. The house owner then may give him some money for the "entertainment" and the "fortune-telling". This used to be so common a few decades ago but I was surprised to find this guy walk our streets in recent times. I was thrilled to capture him and his bull in "action". :-)

June 2016 - Sunrise at Marina Beach, Chennai

I have grown up in Chennai and lived there for 24 years of my life. But, never once, have I inspired myself to go to the beach and watch the spectacular sunrise that most of the Madras residents would know. Yes, there are probably quite a few like me too. But, two years back, when I visited Chennai, I wanted to experience that sunrise and of course, photograph it! So, one early morning, my dad drove me over to the Marina beach in the wee hours when even the stray dogs were tired and sleeping. My mom, who came with us, was very leery of those dogs and carefully dodged around them. Any other town in the world, I would have felt a bit unsafe and scared. But, not in my hometown. We saw some boats that were parked on the sandy beach. I setup my camera gear on a gorilla tripod and latched it onto one of the boats there. When the sun came up, more than taking several beautiful pictures of it, the sheer immersive experience that I had that morning was something I will never forget my entire life. Such a sight to behold and admire!

July 2016 - Vendors at the Marina beach, Chennai

One of the finest incentives of visiting the Marina beach in Chennai is not just the beach itself - it is the awesome street food that you get to eat there. You have a wide range of mouth-watering treats from sliced mangoes rubbed with paprika powder to fried chilli bajjis. One such food that you will find there is freshly roasted corn. I saw this girl roasting the corn on a windy evening and the sparks from her stove were flying away in the wind. I decided to slow down the shutter a tad and take the shot and made this cool shot. In this picture, I can smell the sea breeze mixed with hot corn off the fire.

August 2016 - Rock sculptures at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

Mahabalipuram, also known as Mamallapuram or Mahabs as the city-dwellers call it, is a city a little south of Chennai. The city is home to scores of rock sculptures dating back to the 7th and 8th centuries. Classified as a UNESCO world heritage site, the city attracts a lot of tourism from across the country and the world. This is just a sample of the sculptures carved on a single wall of rock. As you walk through these various art pieces, you can even find some sculptors working on some amazing stone works. I loved the B&W format of this picture since I thought it brought out the true colors and flavor or those rocks.

September 2016 - Lighthouse, Marina Beach, Chennai

This not-so-attractive yet dominating building is the lighthouse situated on the Marina Beach in Chennai. It is prominently featured on every single Marina Beach picture that is published. I wanted to do something different. So, when I went out to take that early morning sunrise shot, I took this shot of the lighthouse in those wee hours of the morning. The tone and the color of the picture gave it a totally different look than the traditional Marina Beach lighthouse pic.

October 2016 - Sunset at Marina Beach, Chennai

The Marina beach road in Chennai is adorned, across its entire stretch, with various statues of famous leaders. One of the most prominent statues is that of Mahatma Gandhi. On one of the evenings, when I was driving on this road with my father, I noticed that the sunset behind the clouds over the city was producing some splendid rays. I, immediately, jumped out of the car and raced across the road to get to a good vantage point to frame my shot before the rays faded away with the sunset. As much as I wished I could get the rays behind the Gandhi statue, I quite couldn't get it due to some obstructions in the pathway. But, I was still quite happy with the way it came out. Literally seconds after taking this shot, the effect faded away. :-)

November 2016 - Dawn at the Marina Beach, Chennai

This shot was taken a few minutes before the actual sunrise happened at the beach. The boats provided such a good cover for the pastel colors in the background. The horizon started changing colors and the long exposure brought out some nice effects on the picture and the details. The most interesting thing in this picture is that crow on the far left boat. It stayed up, looking at the horizon, just like me, waiting to admire the sunrise. I am disappointed about putting this picture in this calendar because I had to crop this picture quite a but to fit it into this calendar format. The actual picture is actually a lot more wider and shows the crow and more of the horizon as well. You can checkout the original picture under the landscapes section of my gallery on this website.

December 2016 - Church at Pondicherry

This is the "Immaculate Conception Cathedral" at Pondicherry (or Puducherry). The town is famous for its French churches built centuries ago. This is one such church with a lot of history behind it. I was passing by it and I just loved the way it looked. Moreover, the sky had such amazing clouds and light in the afternoon that I couldn't resist myself. Unfortunately, the church was closed at that time. I begged one of the gatekeepers there to let me in to the courtyard so that I can take the picture quickly and get out of there. After a few minutes, he allowed me. So, it was just me and the church. Took some time to compose the shot and bracketed it.

Siva

Siva and I were college buddies. Today, Siva works as a senior executive in a global software company. He is married with two kids. He picked up a passion for agriculture and over the last few years, he has been taking care of his relatives' lands in a small village called Kurungulam. He does this with absolutely no payback other than his own self-satisfaction of being able to pursue his passion. Without fail or any fatigue, he will drive every single weekend out to Kurungulam, a place close to Mayiladuthurai, 5 hours by road from Chennai, where he lives. He spends a couple of days there working with the local help and the farmers in maintaining those lush paddy fields. Other than rice, they grow all types of vegetables and fruits as well. He is looking into more modern ways of doing farming including rotation of crops, using modern farming devices, goat farming and so on.

Kurungulam School

In that same village, the public school was in shambles. Lack of extra classrooms, supplies and quality teachers made it very difficult on the local children. So, carrying his father's torch, Siva has made it a personal cause to ensure that the school gets all the necessary help to make sure that the children have a good platform to study. As I said, this is a public school and technically, the Government should be doing all this but from what I learnt, there is only so much that they do!

When I visited the school with him, almost all the children knew him and wished him with a beaming smile. He also knew a lot about the kids as he narrated a few of their stories to me. Stories like that of a child whose parents are no more but is being raised by a local farmer, who is not well-off himself. Then, I look at the child whose face is beaming with hope of a brighter life ahead. Heartbreaking to hear some of the stories as I sit with the rest of us here, taking too many things for granted.

He then visited the Principal's office, where he was greeted with so much respect. I looked around and saw the pictures of the three most apt figures related to education and personal inspiration - Dr. Radhakrishnan, Dr. Abdul Kalam and Mahakavi Bharathi. Loved it. The cracks in the walls and the cobwebs around were wailing petitions for maintenance. He then distributed a few bags of stationery including pencils, notebooks etc. When I asked him how he procured those, he told me that his corporate colleagues donated towards the cause. he carefully counted all those materials one-by-one and the Principal wrote it up in an accounting book.

We then took a tour of the school. I saw kids sitting and reading under trees and on corridors. He told me that the new classrooms were under construction at that time. He walked me upstairs to the newly built classrooms. I walked into a few of them and just felt an indescribable feeling of inspiration run through my veins. Realizing that some of the changes we seek in our tomorrows could be from a place like this was just thrilling.

I am sure that there are plenty of everyday heroes like Siva but personally knowing someone like this up close was so inspiring. If you wish to know more about the school, he runs a blog at this URL - http://kscup.blogspot.com/. Check it out. The reason why I called out this program on this day is that education is not just about the teachers alone but it is also about people that value education so much that they will go to any extent to help a student to get that education. Great job, Siva! Keep up your awesome work!!

I came upon this picture of the NYC skyline in the backdrop with the twin towers standing intimidatingly tall and with the Statue of Liberty in the foreground. With 9/11 being today, this picture struck a chord in me. I decided to enhance it so that it reflects the mood of what this day and that place has to come to represent today. So, first, I scanned the picture. Here is how it looked as I had scanned it.

I had taken this picture from a boat that I had taken to visit lady liberty. As you can tell, the horizon in this picture was a little tilted. So, first order of business, I imported it into Lightroom and cropped the picture. I adjusted the tilt of the picture so that the horizon is straightened. Took a little bit off the sky, which mostly didn't have any character as that December in NYC was mostly very cold and gloomy. Next, I adjusted the color sliders a little bit so that the statue and the pedestal popped out a bit rather than appearing washed out. I sharpened the picture with a mask such that the outlines of the buildings and the statue were very crisp. This increased a lot of noise in the already grainy picture. Added some extra noise reduction but this took away the details from the buildings and also the shapes of the people near the statue. I was okay with it as it started to look like art. Next, I added a few gradients on the sky from three points to bring out the color and contrast so that it looked like twilight and gave the picture the required mood. Next, I used the Adjustment Brush and selected the water with the Auto Mask on. I brought down the Clarity and the Sharpness sliders. This gave a nice smooth effect to the water as though I had used a Vari-ND filter with long exposure. This is how it looked after all these adjustments.

One of the cool things about Adobe Lightroom is that it integrates with other editing tools very nicely. One such tool that I use occasionally is onOne Perfect Effects. I right-clicked on this pic and chose Edit In -> Perfect Effects. I was able to see the same file within Perfect Effects with all the Lightroom adjustments I had made. I chose an effect called Rice Paper and applied some vignetting too. Once I saved the file in Perfect Effects, the updated file was immediately showing up in Lightroom. This is how it looked at that point -

Next, I decided that the image required some text and the American flag to be weaved in somehow. I chose Photoshop as the ideal tool for that. So, again, I right-clicked on the most recent version of the file in LightRoom and selected Edit In -> Adobe Photoshop CS6. Within Photoshop, I added a layer for adding text. I tried a few fonts until I liked the one that you see in the final picture below. I also added another layer. Pasted an American flag image into the picture. I lowered the opacity of the layer to be 11% and the fill to be around 50%. Anything higher than this put the focus on the flag than the core image. I didn't want that. I also resized the layer image in such a way that the flag was aligned from the top of the sky up to the top of the waterline. I did this because I liked the texture of the water as it is. The flag overlay was messing up with the texture. Anyway, after a few brightness and saturation adjustments, I was happy with it. I saved the image and went back to Lightroom to see the final image. Here, I could have again adjusted the noise reduction to bring down the grains. But, I decided that I wanted the grungy, grainy feel to it. Just added a border to add a final touch. Here is the final picture. Hope you like it.

I am not saying that this is the right way to do it. I just loved the way the image transformed itself into the appropriate mood I wanted. So, I just wanted to share which tools worked well for what purposes. But, you can always do it in a different way, based on what you feel you want in your image. Until next time, vanakkam!

As a photographer, one of the most dreadful things to happen to you is a photobomb. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it is not anything that explodes but I guarantee you will explode (either with anger or laughter) once you see one. Photobombs are unintended objects or subjects that pop into your picture when your actual focus is on something else. For example, you may be taking a picture of a newly-wed couple in a nice wooded area but as you clicked the picture, you probably didn't notice the two chipmunks in the background doing something pretty nasty! Those two chipmunks could have spoiled your perfectly exposed picture of your happily smiling couple or you could sell the concept to the couple as a "Love is in the air" theme!!

More than often, photobombs only mess up a good picture rather than complementing them and hence their name. They can end up making the photo hilarious too. If you google images of photobombs, I guarantee you hours of entertainment looking at rib-cracking pictures posted by various people across the world. However, for a serious photog, photobombs are not a humorous thing. Imagine setting up a long-exposure shot with the perfect light and your shot is messed up by someone walking into your shot! Been there, had that happen.

So, how do you fix it? Unfortunately, there are no green and blue wires to defuse these. But, based on what type of photobomb you have, it may be as easy as cropping the picture appropriately. For example, look at this picture here. I took a shot of me, my family and friends sitting in a bus, on the way back from Hearst Castle, CA. I put the focus on my beautiful wife through the bus' rearview mirror. I had my 50mm prime lens loaded on the camera and so, there was no way to actually zoom into it but I was able to get a crisp shot of her along with my friends.

And since I was not able to zoom in, my original shot included other folks in the bus sitting next to us as well and look at what I captured of a fellow passenger a.k.a Photobomb!

ROFL Not a pleasant thing for a family and friends' pic. In this case, since the guy was sitting away from us, I was able to crop him out easily and defuse the photobomb. But, in pictures where your composition is messed up or the photobomb got in front of your subject and there is only so much Photoshop can do, you can do nothing much other than redo the shot. So, it is always good to review your shots onsite when you are taking some very important pictures. It is also a good practice to take a few extra pictures of your shot in case you mess up one somehow. I even change my settings for the same shot and redo it a few times. Again, if it is a casual shot, you won't regret so much about the photobomb. Just laugh it away! Have a great rest of the week, y'all!!

As I saw him getting all excited about his shots, I was fondly reminded of my childhood when I got introduced to photography by my dad. When we visited my grandmother’s home, I loved browsing through a tattered photo album that she had. It contained small 2x2 B&W pictures from my dad’s youth. There was even a picture of my grandma where she looked young and beautiful. These pictures fascinated me always – freezing memories of a lifetime in small paper art forms. What impressed me even more were some perspective shots and double-exposure shots of my dad and his siblings. There was this shot of one of my uncles holding a miniature-size of my aunt in his hand! As a child, I was awed by such imagery. My dad explained how he did that shot but I am not quite sure I understood it at that time.

I might have been in my 7^th or 8^th grade when my father could afford a camera of our own. It was not anything grand by any means. It was a small point-and-shoot film camera – one where you had to manually advance the film to the next shot after a shot was taken. But, I was ecstatic with what we had at that time. My father taught me about framing techniques, adding angles to a shot and also about film speed / ASA (now known as ISO). I remember buying Kodak film rolls from photo studios and specifically asking for 100 ASA film. I remember going with my dad to specific locations like the Guindy park and Gandhi memorial in Chennai where my father showed me how to do perspective shots. Of course, I could not see instant results since it was a film camera. But, when the rolls were washed and printed, I could really appreciate how creative those shots were.

Today, I have some real good camera equipment with me but I cannot quite clearly say if I have my father’s creative eyes to frame my shots or not. But, when someone appreciates me for one of my shots, I owe that to a few people that have supported me and motivated me to follow this passion. However, I owe it definitely to the one person that ignited it in me (maybe unknowingly) when I was a child. When I saw my son get all excited about his little photo gig over the weekend, I was only silently wishing that he would remember me in the same way I remember my father, when he grows up.

Today is my father’s 65^th birthday. I wish him a healthy, happy and colorful future. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Basilica St. Louis Cathedral

The city itself was very slow. For a place where most of the drivers do not go beyond 55 mph, it had its share of traffic jams. With just 2-3 lanes to major highways, it was difficult to get around during weekday evenings. The one place that I really wanted to visit was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. This was touted as one of the largest cathedrals outside of Europe. The church itself is 100 years old. The highlight of the interiors was that it housed mural art designed with 41.5 million pieces of mosaic tiles!! The internet pictures looked amazing and I was very excited about putting my new Gitzo/RRS combo to work.

I reached the Cathedral Saturday morning around 10 am. As I was shooting pictures of the exterior, the church Father noticed me and said that the service was just getting over and that I could get in from the front and can take pictures. So, I walked around the building and got to the front of the church. I pulled the huge doors open and as soon as I walked inside, I just gasped. The imposingly high ceilings decorated with intricate mosaic artwork just took my breath away. The first thought that crossed my mind was - "Crap! I need a wider lens".

There were very few people left in the church. There was already a photog at work at the very entrance. Peeked at his gear - Canon with a 16-35 lens. I complimented on his good lens selection. Soon, we were conversing comfortably about good settings to use in that light. We were critiquing his shots too. With absolutely no introductions to each other, it still felt like we already knew each other so well. Photogs rock! As my new found friend moved to a different spot,  I setup shop and started experimenting with my shots.

That place is a goldmine for photogs but one needs to figure out the right time to shoot since they switch off the key focus lights after the service is over. If you are thinking that you should shoot before a service starts, factor in the throngs of people that will keep walking in and out of your shots. Your long exposure shots are going to be a challenge with that. Positioning your tripod at a good place will also be difficult. Also, they start closing off some of the areas around the main shrine before a service starts.

Anyway, I made the best use of my time while I was there. Since I was just on my own, I spent a good 3.5 hours out there. The next service was starting up and so, I had to wrap up. Saturday churchgoers looked like they were attending an Oscars red carpet ceremony. Everyone looked like they were there to do portraits. When I left that place, I went directly to a restaurant since I was famished!

Picture in this post: This was one of the very last pictures that I took while I was there. The service was about to start and so, people were everywhere. You can see some motion blur of the people at the bottom of the picture. I cropped out most of it. Just left a little bit to show scale of the place. What I liked about this specific shot was the starburst at the top. Those lights had just been switched on for the service. There are some other Pano and bracketed shots that I took as well. I will process them later and publish them. Until then, enjoy this picture. At its max resolution (not posted here), you can see an amazing amount of detail on the art on those walls.

Details: D800, Nikon 24-70 lens, 24mm, f22, 3s, ISO 1250

Until next time, adios!