ExpertDabbler

803, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Tell me if you liked the title

photowalk-project3.jpg, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Here’s one of those shots i liked composition wise - shot during the 8th Chennai photowalk.

Last weekend was my second photowalk in St. Thomas Mount and I thoroughly enjoyed. Kudos to CCG for organising this. I am particularly grateful coz i am one of those guys who like to shoot indoors with objects. I am less of people photographer. Candids are alien to me. This is a good opportunity to learn photographing people in a natural way

Personally, one of the pressing/delicate aspects of digital photography was the ethics in post processing.

http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2007/archives/693

Here we go with mine.

I do:
Crop my photos in Photoshop to make it better composition wise. BTW the above one was not cropped.
Fine tune the brightness/contrast/exposure and black values in RAW format to make it better.
Convert color to BW.

I do not:
Add elements
Remove unwanted elements.
Apply filters.

This photowalk project plus the advantages of post processing has rekindled my interest in photography. I think this blog is gonna see lot more photographs in the days to come.

Green, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Ha.. i am beginning to like my zoom lens better nowadays.
Thanks to Ganshu who advised me to shoot RAW. And to Keerthi who clarified my doubts on post processing.

Symmetry, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Cut the image right in the middle and each half would talk exactly the same language here.

location: chromepet flyover

cellphone-capsule, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Same subject, same day of shoot as the other capsule shot.
Only the lighting and composition varies. I had used a torch for lighting the capsule in the earlier one. No such tricks here.

Cropped the top in photoshop.

nadhaswaram, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Who is taller, the nadaswaram or the kid?
The junior was just mimicking the senior. The senior was doubly happy, for obvious reasons

No parking, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

Needless to say, i suck at candids!
Having said that, taking a candid is never easy. It has to have just that right kind of ‘Ull kuthu’ to make it interesting.

My salutes to folks like ravages, keerthi and velachery balu who manage much better candids.

8th Chennai photowalk in Pondy Bazaar

Beauty of everyday things, originally uploaded by expertdabbler.

I wanted to test drive my newly acquired Gorillapod.
I am thrilled with the results. Shots like these would not have been possible in traditional tripods. I had the camera at like 2-3 inches from the ground for this.

This time a camera tripod. No it’s not a tripod.

Well, Joby calls it a Gorillapod. I might try something with this tomorrow
At 50 USD, this one seems to be a super cool gadget for photo enthusiasts. Got it from my friend sometime back.
Let’s see how it works. Shall keep you posted.

I called this commerical break because i am writing a review for a product i’ve personally used and benefitted as a consumer:)

DUST-AID.

I am sure you would’ve heard about Band-aid. What on earth is Dust-Aid?

Scenario:
Say, you own a DSLR. Lets assume you also own two lenses. Chances are, you are one of those scene parties like me, who would change the lens right in the middle of a shoot. Location can be anything from Yosemite to Koovam.

There is a strong chance that your CCD sensor, (the digital equivalent of film which captures the shot) will accumulate dust. You may not notice this at first. But it will literally mark a mark in each and every photograph you shoot in due course.

We never had this problem with the traditional film cameras because we rewind the film roll for the next shot. Obviously that’s not the case with DSLRs.

Coming to the remedy, don’t for a moment think that wiping off the sensor with a cloth/oil/water would work. It’s called sensor for a reason. By trying these ‘murattu vaithiyam’ tricks, you may actually injure the sensor permanently.

In comes Dust-Aid. I think they called it Dust-Aid because it uses the same adhesive method to ‘heal’ the CCD sensor as BAND-AID. I had this problem during my US trip. NV sir would know that a lot of my photographs were ruined because of this issue. Eventually I found about this product and ordered it via BHphotovideo. It later turned out to be one of the useful purchases I ever made during the trip.

I cleaned my sensor after I reached India and it worked fantastic. My photos of Mani’s engagement came out perfect.

WARNING: There are some Canon users who’ve had problems with DUST_AID. Check out forums like dpreview and use your own discretion. I read that canon uses a coating on the sensor which is markedly different and delicate. DUST AID has a different variant of their product for Canon Users. I however reiterate that readers exercise discretion.

There are also some other competitors who follow a different approach to cleaning the sensor. Please let me know how effective they are if you have used any of the other products:) For now, my vote stays with DUST-AID.