NATURE - FAR AND NEAR.

We all are a part of this earth, which is full of natural objects. When a child is grown up, he finds himself/herself a part of mother nature...Of course, their second mother.

2. Nature photography cud be an expression of creativity inherent in a human being. But still if you want to explore the world of nature, it would be better to see it from the eyes of a child in awe of wild places and the creatures. However, if you are lured by the nature's beauty, find out an intimacy beyond observation and own it by the virtue of your 'third eye', I mean the camera you possess. Before your camera is revealed the wealth of subtle beauty, as in the whole globe, the nature is approachable only by long drives and well-thought hikes. Contrary to this most glorious beauty is readily available to everyone everywhere and not always beyond, but rather in a backyard, a roadside field, open city lot lying uncared or a local national park.

3. A variety of insects and wildflowers can be found in these places. It will require in all likelihood a keen eye perception, time and patience. Besides, you will find a large variety of different subjects interpreting their existence. It is worthwhile that when you find spot with varieties, visit it on a regular basis from start of rains till March end(in India), as the flowers in bloom and the species of insects will change weak by weak. Most usable time is the early morning as the air is cooler and insects less active making them an east prey of your camera...In winter, the cool nights cover the insects and flowers in dew. There, it would be wise to be in the field at dawn, otherwise the magic of natural beauty will be going to fade as the sun rises above tree level.......next

PHOTOGRAPHY-CROSS PROCESSING-59

THERE IS AN INHERENT DESIRE IN THE HUMAN MIND TO EXPERIMENT/to evolve something new...Photography is not the exception...In other words, since the photographers all over the globe shoot crores of photographs each day, it s natural for them to find out new avenues from the rut...They have lots of images on their laptop/computers, CDs/DVDs. When they get a time for rest, different calculations of the images are natural to come into their brains.

2. Such was the desire when in 60s Kodak introduced two developers...E4 and C22. They were conscious therefore they written a warning against using wrong processing chemicals for their films and transparencies....When photographers got something new, they experimented with their unushable films with the two chemicals.....In a NATURAL COURSE, cross processing is the procedure of deliberately processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. For example, processing colour transparency film in negative developer C41 resulting in a negative image on a colourless base. And processing colour negative film in E6 (slide developer) resulting in a positive image but with the orange base of a normally processed colour negative.

3. This process was much in vogue during 70s and 80s..The photographers from Time and National Geographic magazine worked on this process and produced stunning results. Much work of this nature was done on studio portraits, landscapes etc.

4. Now in DIGITAL ERA we do not have those chemicals and films for shooting and processing. ON Photoshop this can be done to some satisfaction using curve tool. I used the curve tool for my pink flower where the gradation changed from red to purple to light yellow. The middle curves are easily bifurcated by the light yellow. U may please notice the colour gradation from pink to purple to light yellow, and a demarcation of diagonal lines is making pic strong---from left to middle to right above.

PHOTOGRAPHY-58-ZONE FOCUSING

While using manual focus for a long time, when autofocus cameras were rare and also now when switching to manual focusing, I use zone focusing, the easiest way of focusing, calculating the distance in the mind and setting the lens to that distance. It is easy in wide angles say from 28mm to 50mm of a zoom lens and small apertures.

2. Assume that you are photographing an event, which occurs within a set area such as football match, children coming out of school in a rush and hurry. By choosing the correct aperture for the lens, it will be possible for you to obtain acceptably sharp/sharp pictures from a subject anywhere within that area without having to alter the focus again. For example my subject comes within the area of 10ft to 30ft and moves within that area...My DOF table on the lens will give an aperture of f8, since the DOF stretches from 10ft and even beyond to 30ft at f8, and the subject shot at 15ft or 20ft will be sharp within the said DOF...Thus if the boys are rushing out of school...i focus my lens at 15ft and to find the best action boy/girl at that distance, i immediately click the shutter.....next example: if a procession is on the move, i move to front and a little bit more of distance and when the appropriate subject comes within 10ft,15ft,20ft, i focus at any of that distance without looking in the viewfinder and click fast. The picture will be sharp with sufficient dof, including more people in sharp focus from front to back.

3. In the picture above the saluting boy was 10ft. I focused at 10ft on my 28-200 sigma lens and since it was sunlight, i used ISO100, f11 at 1/250 and clicked the guy correctly focused. Only i cared for focusing when i took my lens from 70 to 200mm.