The Forest Run Teaser
This photo is from my ride to a hill station called Binsar in North India taken at sunrise. The bike is a Honda CB100oR. Camera was a Canon 7D with a Canon 18-135 IS lens.
Ramp Sadhu
This gentleman was spotted sporting various accessories and living in a roadside one room temple in New Delhi, India. Clearly he was too preoccupied with his fantasies of becoming a ramp model and a bollywood actor. I and my camera didnt mind at all, in fact we obliged when he posed.
Camera: Canon 500D, 70-200mm f4 L Non-IS.
A full color version:
Faith
Shot on the ghats of Varanasi at around 9 AM with a bright sky. Camera : 500D, 70-200mm f4 L, ISO 200. Varanasi is the cultural capital of India and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest of India.
The ghats of Varanasi are a photographer’s delight, with so much interesting activity that you will be confused where to point your camera to! However, it is also one of the most shot places in India, therefore one will need to take photos which are different and not clichéd. The one is one from my travel around India on a Yamaha R1 superbike in 2009.
Trees!
Trees are a very important part of a road traveller, whether he is conscious about their presence or not is another matter. Me having travelled a lot on motorcycles often sought shade under trees, or looked for a tree in vast deserts like the Nullarbor plains of Australia. Nullarbor, interestingly, means ‘without trees’.
I didn’t intentionally focus on shooting trees or using them as elements in photos until very recently. Shooting trees and foliage can be very challenging, especially in harsh lighting conditions where there is a lot of micro contrast due to the light seeping through the leaves, ambient light and the shadows created by each individual leaf. It is enough to confuse the exposure system of any camera. Even HDR fails many times when encountering certain light situations dealing with lots of trees under the sun.
This page shows 20 of my photographs dealing with just one tree in the compositions. This is the easiest and most powerful way to use them as primary and secondary subjects and produce deep and intelligent compositions.
I am on the lookout for a single lone tree which can provide me with a logical breakup of the frame and often provides me with a natural frame in which to compose my primary elements.
Let us take each of my photos one by one:
1. Shot in Australia one cloudy evening. The light in the sky was enough to make a silhouette with it. Notice that I have framed the tree, which is the main subject to the left, leaving a lot of space on the right for any text or other elements.
2. Shot in Australia, this forms a very powerful composition with another tree lying uprooted and dead on the ground and the other one weeping and arching back in disbelief. The fog helps fade the background elements softly, eliminating any glaring distractions.
3 & 4. Shot in Australia, the fog and the diffused skylight helps create an atmosphere of mystery. The black and white treatment with soft focus helps accentuate the effect. The images wouldnt have been so powerul if there were more than one tree.
5. Shot in Australia, processed to have a light sepia and grains, this image exudes pain and suffering, and perhaps resilience of tree (the main subject) in the time of adversity.
6. Shot in Australia, this photo takes the tree to divide the photo into two asymmetrical spaces and forms a natural border for the subjects in question, the cows. The leaves and color have a positive effect of life and energy, a stark contrast to the previous images.
7. The branches of this tree provide an interesting way to have an inner natural frame emphasising the main subject, the motorcycle.
8. Shot in New Zealand, this tree was with a white bark and no leaves. The trunk and its shadow again divide the photo asymmetrically into two halves.
9. Shot in New Zealand, the main subject is again the tree.
10. Shot in New Zealand one evening, three is used to connect to the main subject, the moon and give the photo a lot more depth, something which wouldnt be possible with just the moon as the element.
11. Shot in New Zealand the windblown bare tree gives an effect of movement and mystery in the photo.
12. Shot in India. This is an example of how leaves and foliage can be used to a more create more interesting photo.
13. Shot in India, the tree creates a natural division of the photo, placing the main subject (the man) on the left side.
14. Shot in Australia, the bare tree in a parched landscape seems to be reaching for water in the clouds. These sort of obvious and philosophical meanings can be attached to these kind of photos.
15. Shot in Australia, the lone green tree stands in a bleak and rustic landscape.
16. Shot in India, the tree again divides the photos into two halves, each one having a subject of interest.
17. Shot in Ireland, the hundreds of branches make for an intriguing silhouette.
18. Shot in Ireland, the photo has been given a high key treatment with grains. The drooping naked branches exude mystery, sadness and humility.
19. Shot in New Zealand, this extremely old tree with extremely convoluted roots made for a very interesting subject.
20. Shot in India, this photos has trees in different ‘layers’ fading into the background.
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Vespa!
The unmissable shape of the iconic Vespa is captured here with the essence of being free, independent and flirtuous.
Photo was taken on the Great Ocean Road in Australia in November 2009 with a Canon 500D and 70-200mm f4 L with post processing in Photoshop and Lightroom.
A Hot Afternoon
This photo was shot in my second New Zealand roadtrip in 2010 on a Suzuki BKing. The place is Cape Egmont lighthouse near New Plymouth, North Island. The map location is here.
Camera settings: ISO 200, 16mm, f4.5, 1/2500 sec with a Canon 500D and Canon 10-22mm f3.5-5.6 lens
