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..Through my Lens...

Temple in Golden Hour

Supreme Legacy

..back to the basics...

When I went to India recently, I thought I will take at least 10,000 pictures and hopefully get at least 50 odd good pictures. Needless to say the volume expectation was not met.Its simply not that easy when you only go for 2 weeks and you have many family commitments!!!I tried though... It is just not as easy as in US to go out and shoot; With 45 degree Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) heat in the May; forget about shooting , just to stay indoors is a challenge.

Equipment I used in my trip:

I carried my Nikon D3000 with 3 lenses:  Nikkor 18-55 mm lens, Sigma DG 70-300mm, Sigma 10-20mm Ultra wide angle lens.

The Supreme Legacy

In my defense, I did try to shoot here and there; first in my list was Charminar in the old city of Hyderabad.So my brother and I got on to a bike and started around 3:00 PM in the afternoon. The heat was so intense that we were getting chills!!! It is around 10 kms from where we stay to Charminar; with Sun on top and ridiculous traffic (not because there are more vehicles on the road, but sadly because of the attitude of the people/drivers) , it seemed like it took forever to reach there! Charminar and its surroundings are out of this world. It appears that the time has stopped and people are still living in 400 years back situation. Narrow streets, people, small businessmen, cost effective/cheap  jewellery...people, people, people.... you either need to walk or drive a 2 -wheeler - there is no way you can drive a car in those narrow streets with so many people around....

A narrow street near Charminar

A narrow street approaching Charminar

The Charminar, built in 1591 CE, is a monument and mosque located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.

As you navigate your way out of busy roads , you see this magnificent structure standing tall for the last 450 years representing the greatness of this City. The Charminar stands tall with its 4 magnificent & huge towers shooting in to sky. The structure has become yellowish due to lack of maintenance & due to pollution.

When we reached near Charminar, my brother stopped the bike in front of the Charminar and I got down and took several shots using Sigma 10-20mm lens from various angles. It was hot Indian Summer day, so the light situation was pretty harsh. There was no cloud cover , which I thought would have added some drama to the picture. To be very frank I was not at all satisfied with the pictures I shot. Of all, I liked the above picture the most because of its POV etc. I had done PP  for color correction, contrast and brightness adjustments using PS - CS6.

[The wiki link about Charminar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charminar]

^{Thriving & Bustling City}

^{The life thrives here in Hyderabad (especially near Charminar); people improvise, innovate and maximize the utilization of very few resources they have access to. It was the power of this adaption (fondly called as "Jugaad" now a days) which kept this city and it's people going for centuries.} 

An Auto-rikshaw driver is seen posing for a shot in the picture to the left

An Auto-rickshaw driver is seen posing for a shot in the picture above. Auto rickshaw is generally characterized by a sheet-metal body or open frame resting on three wheels, a canvas roof with drop-down sides, a small cabin in the front of the vehicle for the driver (sometimes called an auto-wallah)

Here in the picture to the right, a shop dweller is seen posing for the picture. I was taking a picture of charminar and this guy in the picture called me and asked me to take his picture.

 A shop dweller is seen posing for the picture. I was taking a picture of charminar and this guy in the picture called me and asked me to take his picture.

The Divine

 

Then it's turn for me to visit the divine.The whole family around 15 people travelled to a place called "Alampur". Alampur is the home of the deity "Mother Jgulamba" (wife of Shiva). Jogulamba temple is very ancient with some beautiful structures. The deity is  is said to be very powerful.

Alampur Jogulamba Temple - Ancient Temple structures

It was about 6:30 pm in the evening when I took the above picture. The sun was still scorching hot and the light was very harsh. I took the picture using the 10-20mm Sigma ultra wide angle lens. There was not single cloud cover in the sky. I had to PP this picture to remove annoying electrical wires dangling in the sky. I used PS-CS6 to over expose the sky area to hide the wires. There might have been a better way to make this picture more attractive, but I am just a beginner in PS.

Always shoot RAW:

One thing to note is that I always shoot RAW and use PS to fix the issues with exposure. RAW format is more powerful and useful and offers more flexibility when compared to JPEG.

Mistakes to be avoided: Always carry Tripod

As the Sun was winding down and because I did not carry the tripod, I had to shoot the pictures with HIGH ISO. I used High ISO:800 for all the below pictures to avoid camera shake. These picture look grainy and I was not really happy with the quality of these pictures.

[Wiki link for Alampur Temple: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alampur,_Mahbubnagar]

The Dhabha

Enroute to Alampur from Hyderabad , It was the time for a pit stop for a break. We stopped at a Dhabha on the roadside.

Dhaba is the name given to roadside restaurants in India and Pakistan. They are situated on highways and generally serve local cuisine, and also serve as truck stops.

Dhabas were characterized by mud structures and cots to sit upon (called 'chaarpai' in Hindi - See Charpoy) while eating. A wooden plank would be placed across the width of the cot on which to place the dishes. With time, the cots were replaced by tables. The food is typically inexpensive and has a 'homemade' feel to it.

There was a lot of action going on inn the kitchen. The head cook was constantly cooking delicious stuff. The fire made the atmosphere look dramatic. I had asked the cook and his assistant , if I can take pictures and they cheerfully agreed. 

Because of low lighting situation and no tripod, I had to shoot the below pictures using High ISO:800. These pictures are not as grainy.

The cook is cooking the food at the Dhabha - The delicious Dal Fry is seen on the side

The cook is adding the pre-prepared gravy to the Curry he is making. The clay tandoori fire pit is burning with full power

The boy is cooking the Roti using the Tandoori style. The mud/clay fire pit is clearly seen in this picture

 The Saint and Sun

One more worth mentioning visit is our trip to "Budha Purnima" project in Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderbad. 

The Buddha Statue of Hyderabad is a monolith located in India. It is the world's tallest monolith of Gautama Buddha.This statue is located at Lumbini Park in the Husain Sagar Island can be reached by boat in 15 minutes.

We started around 5:00pm in the evening. The whole family went for this visit. It was still scorching hot at 5:00 PM.A ferry takes people to the island in Hussain Sagar lake. The ferry ride was about 15 minutes from the shore. There were some speed boats also seen in the lake. It was around 6:00 PM in the evening and the sun was getting ready to go down. I took lot of shots while on-board the ferry and on the island.

On the Island the Budha looked pretty tall. The sun was setting in the back of the Budha. The sun's position was pretty low relative to the statue. The sun appeared almost at the pedestal of the Budha.
I was shooting in "Aperture mode" here with ISO:100.
We had to take a big family picture covering the entire length of the Budha statue and also the breadth of the entire family. I was trying in aperture mode , but the pictures were turning out to be very dark . As I was playing around with my settings, there came a Photographer (who makes living by taking the pictures of the visitors) and took my camera and shot in manual by changing the ISO to 200.
Most of pictures of Budha and with the sun setting in the background turned out to be silhouettes. I did some PP also added some HDR effect to make the picture stand out. Even here, I have to be honest, I did not like the way the pictures turned out.

Golden Hour

While going back I took the the pictures of sun setting down the City skyline in to the Hussain Sagar waters. Those pictures looked good in the viewfinder but did not had my full marks. See below:

on the way back  - dinner at  Tajmahal Restaurant was good as well. Tajmahal restaurant is a very old chain of restaurants..see the special thali from Tajmahal

Conclusion

Overall , my visit was not for sight seeing. With lot of family commitments and tons of relatives, it is just a challenge to plan for photo shoots. Just to be able to take some pictures (I took around 500) is a big deal. With hot and humid conditions in May, Its a daunting task to even venture out during the day. To add to the chaos, I forgot my Tripod and even if I had carried one, I would not have been able to carry that heavy tripod wherever I go.  I expected at least couple of pictures with very high quality, eye-catching quality , but was not able to produce any(to my satisfaction). Because of harsh light conditions and not an iota of cloud cover , the pictures were pretty shabby and I had to discard most of my pictures. I could salvage some of my pictures because I shot them in RAW.

[See more pictures here: http://nagrotte.com/portfolio/back-basics-india/#prettyPhoto]

To end on delicious note, see the picture of a Mango cart found everywhere in the streets...