Flickr

As part of improving the photography, I am getting more and more involved in flickr.
Uploading photos and getting feedback is one way to sustain your interest.

My flickr Link

Wideangle - Decision Taken or Did I?

I thought I had made the decision on my wide angle lens. I thought the wide angle lens tt will join my 28-135 in my kit wud be Sigma 10-20mm.
Decided to go for Sigma coz of
* Slight price adv (~50$)
* Extra 2mm

Now the next step was to get it from a local store.
I called around 20 stores today including
Wolf Camera, San Jose Camera, Ritz Camera, Kamera Korner, Keeble & Shuchat.
Only in one Wolf Camera, the camera was available. But it was 570$!

Now the options are
* Buy the lens for 570 whose actual cost is 480$
* Get it online - This is the last thing I want to do.

So again I am rethinking of Tokina.

Advantages of Tokina are
* Fixed focal length
* Almost 'L' Quality

Tokina vs Sigma


Current decision is.
If I get Tokina for <500 in any local store, I will buy it.
I have to call all stores again. Oh.. Not today!

From Old Files

One of my favs from old files.
Jelly Fish Shot.
Sorry for the noise - Lighting was not good.

Exp 1/8, f/5.6, ISO 1000

Slow Shutter speed

This is one of my experiments with slow shutter speed.

Post processing:
- Tighter crop
- Edge blur


Exif Info : f/9, Exp - 5 s, ISO 200

Gimp - A discovery!

I have been searching for a decent 'advanced' photo editor.
Photoshopz there.. but its not free :(. I have been using iPhoto, Graphic Converter and some 'simpler' image editors I got from Download.com. iPhoto is good, but not gr8 as a photo-editor. Graphic Converter has lot of functionalities, but I used to get lost in the middle.

Recently only I discovered Gimp.
Its great!
Its good for 'advanced' photo editing, its not that complicated and above all its FREE!!!

But not everything with Gimp I like.
Gimp is a X-Windows application and it launches X11. Not very happy about it as I want to keep my Mac clean n fast.
The UI and controls are not superior to Photoshop(But again photoshop isn't free..)

Still, I am very happy with my discovery!

Get Gimp here.

B & W Photography

Recently I have a feeling like.. I have not done enough justice to my hobby!!! (Villain is Laziness).. I personally feel the knowledge level I have in photography not in par with my experience!
So thought of spending some effort to refine my photographic skills..
Thought of restarting from basics..

Read some where that the best way to improve your photography (Composition mainly) is to switch to black & white photography.. The reason being the errors we make will be more noticeable ( Yeah thats true, Some times colors save you from some one saying aaaah! :) - With Exceptions).

Here is one of the outputs...

Nothing ground breaking. One simple image.
The subject is 'my Piano'.

The topic is Low DOF...
I have tried to keep the rule of 2/3s also...



EXIF Info: Exp 1/8,f/5.6,ISO 1000

Search for wide angle..

My current lens is the kit lens(Canon 28-135mm IS USM) I got with 40D. Because of the cropped sensor, the widest I can get is ~45mm (28*1.6) :(.
I am looking for a wide angle lens... The shortlisted options are..
Canon 10-22mm
Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6
Tokina 12-24mm f/4

I read good reviews about all three lens...
Canon is removed from the list because of its price (~700$).
Now I have to choose from Sigma and Tokina..
Sigma is wide(10mm) but Tokina has fixed focal length..

I am a bit towards Sigma as of now. But still undecided....

My Current Photography Equipments are -->

Primary Equipments
- Canon EOS 40D
- Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
- PlatinumPlus 6200DX
- Hoya Polarizer
- UV Filter
Alternate Equipments
- Canon S2IS
- Olympus Stylus 850 SW