Do you know your camera?

Tweet
Share

Because we humans are curious and impatient set of creatures we tend to get right in to business most of the time. soon as we bring a new TV to our home all we want to do is to plug it in and watch. It’s the same with the washing machine and the Hair drier. When we learn to put in the batteries or plug it in to a wall socket and switch the damn thing on we think that’s it. And we think the rest of the features will eventually come to play. And most of the time we are wrong. Once we realize that the basics of the machine is accomplished and it does what we mainly expect it to do we stop right there. I will say ok if you do this to your TV or your little bed side Radio. But when it comes to your camera you are doing a big mistake by stopping with the basics.

First of all its really important to realize that the little equipment you call the camera which you craved to own can do lot more than just pointing and shooting at something. It comes with a big bundle of features which can do wonders to your photography. Whatever the camera you may own it has its own ways of handling the basic aspects of photography which are controlling the light, focus etc. How many of you have read the manual which comes with the camera in the old fashioned ‘book’ method before actually start shooting with the camera? You may say yes I have read it but think and see if you can really remember what it said and the instructions given. And how many of you carry the manual with you?? I used to do that and I still do. Whenever I take my camera I take my manual as well. Because for that camera that manual is my bible.

I can’t emphasize how important it is to know your camera and its features thoroughly. Because whenever you feel like you are lost or helpless with some situation which you wanted to photograph your camera actually has some kind of a method to overcome it. Even how technically stupid or advanced your camera is it has its own built in ways to shoot different conditions. You must know your camera so well that when the right moment comes you will know how to take the maximum of it.

Most of the people does not even know how to press the shutter release button properly and keep on complaining that their pics are not sharp or not focused. I simply will say read the manual. Film and Digital cameras have different ways of focusing. Learn to do it properly as the first thing before shooting.

Thinking that changing your camera to a SLR can make good photos is a myth if you really don’t know how to handle it.

If you don’t know how to ride a cycle don’t expect a 1340cc Hayabusa to take you to a place faster.

Birds

Tweet
Share

Birds are creatures which bring utmost peace and joy to our minds. They wake up early and sing their song while at work. They fly around filling the empty sky. Photographing birds is a tough task. Because birds are always an active set of animals. But when captured properly they make you look at them twice. Here are some interesting photographs of birds.

Photographs have being publish without the consent of photographers as photographers are unknown. If any violation kindly let me know.

Kinetic photography collection

Tweet
Share

I'm quite sure that you have seeing pictures like this before. And maybe wondered how these are really made. Some stunningly looks like computer graphics or renders and some looks like the were made with some kind of motion. And the fact about these shots is that they were made with some kind of a motion. And the motion is not really with the object which is shot but with the camera it self. This technique of photography is called Kinetic photography.

When you hear the word ‘kinetic‘ for the first time, probably the first thing that comes to your mind is motion. Kinetic Photography, also known as ‘camera tossing‘, is a technique of shooting photos with the actual physical movement of the camera. However, it does not necessarily involve tossing of the camera — you can also shake, bounce, swing or spin it; the goal of the technique is to obtain unpredictable results which are sometimes fascinating, always abstract and rarely boring.

The main rule of kinetic photography is simple: do not hold your camera stationary! Obviously, it is a quite uncommon and bizarre technique that involves risk of damaging your camera. The concept is extremely simple and really fun to use. Though the outcome is uncertain, kinetic photography sometimes produces beautiful abstract, random and motion blurred images. The results often look like a computer generated graphics.

Below I present some beautiful examples of kinetic photography for your inspiration.

Travel photography feature - Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi

Tweet
Share

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara

Whenever I set my foot out having photographs in mind I plan my travelling up to the last possible moment. It helps me to achieve what I want to achieve and being a landscape photographer time of the day is my most important factor. But there are incidences where every plan doesn’t work out as its expected. But because of that sometimes unexpected opportunities occur. Below photo stream is from my recent visit to Anuradhapura. My initial plan was to photograph Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in broad day light or early as possible in the morning but due to some dozens of reasons I had to reach there an hour before the gates close at night.

Apparently I realized that it’s a good opportunity to shoot away some night scenes of the holy place which could end up being an uncommon set of photos. As I though the photos came out well. However taking the shots was a challenge. One was the lighting conditions and the other was to keep the places original nature intact while achieving it. As you may see in the night shots my main interest and focus is on the well lit areas and structures rather than the Bo tree itself. I had to come again the next day morning to capture the tree and the surrounding ritualistic behaviors which would look better and detailed with day light.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Stone wall"

 Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Lighting lamps"

 Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Sri Maha Bodhi Entrance"

Below is a short description about Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi extracted from its official website

The Sacred Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura is reckoned as the oldest surviving historical tree in the world. It was brought to Sri Lanka by the Theri Sangamitta, daughter of Emperor Asoka and was planted in the Mahameghavana Park in Anuradhapura in 249 BC by King Devanampiyatissa. It is said to be the southern branch of the Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi at Buddha Gaya in India under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Guardian stone carving"

  Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Cheewara puja"

The Mahavamsa or the Great Chronicle of the Sinhalese provides an elaborate account of the establishment of the Jaya Siri Maha Bodhi in the island. Bodhi means wisdom that understands the four Noble Truths. Thus the tree which assisted Lord Buddha to achieve wisdom or enlightenment is called Bodhi.

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Panduru" (Offerings)

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Worship"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Worship"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Sri Maha Bodhi entrance"

Photograph - Priyantha Bandara "Sri Maha Bodhi and golden fence"

Kajo Merkert - Fine art photography

Tweet
Share

Todays featured photographer is Kajo Merkert. He emerges from Australia and does breath taking work on landscape photography. Below are some stunning works from this master

You can see more of Kajo's work here

Important things to remember when uploading photos to internet

Tweet
Share

Internet is a vast ocean of goodies. You can find anything and everything in it. The very first reason why you think of uploading your pics on to the web is because you got inspired by what you saw at the first place.

Let me tell you few things about which you should know and do when you put stuff on the web. There are nothing complicated or hard to adjust about these points.

1. Add a watermark. You know that something which says that the photo is taken by you and it belongs to you. Like “Priyantha Bandara photography” Which I have on my work. Its helps to make an audience and prevent your work from used in places which you don’t want. And when you put the watermark place it in a place where it’s hard to take off. If you place it right on the border someone will remove it easily and claim the work is theirs.

2. Don’t upload photos in high resolution. Always down size it because who ever use internet don’t want to waste their bandwidth on big photos which take forever to download. Any way if the photo is looking good and has a decent size that’s all what you require to show it.

3. Don’t flood your work or ‘spam’ your own work. Which means do not upload dozens of photos to the web at once. The best of galleries on the web were filled with years of work gradually. Not over night. My rule is max 5-10 shots for a new album and 3 for new additions to that album. If it’s a open gallery like Deviant art I will upload max 1-2 images a week.

4. Choose what you upload wisely. Maybe you think some photo stream looks good. Maybe some several shots of a bird feeding its little ones. But uploading them entirely won’t do good. Fans visit your page to see a photo. Not a mini documentary. Choose only the one or two best shots out of the lot and post those only.

5. Keep some information about the shot when ever its appropriated. Maybe the location of a landscape or the name of the bird etc. It helps.

6. Categorize your shots. If you have the facility to name the albums or upload them in pre defined categories use it accordingly. Unless you have bunch of shots which does not need categorization. Always keep the albums neat. I would upload landscapes and waterscapes separately. And other shots on a theme. Maybe depending on the trip made. Something like “Katharagama” Which has a bundled value than uploaded individually in different albums. But there are no rules for this. It’s your photos after all.

Hope this information will be useful. Let me know your comments and suggestions as well.

Photography of Cole Rise

Tweet
Share

There are no two words that photography is a form of art. And art is like drugs. Once you taste It you want more. Today’s inspirational featured photographer is Cole Rise. A stylish set of photographs which speaks for themselves.

Cole Rise has spent the better half of his life taking pleasure behind the lens; stalking cows and lying in the grass to capture the landscape. His work has been featured in a notable amount of international creative magazines, books, billboards, websites, posters, and even a few CD covers for bands you can find in most music stores. He can't tell you how big the universe is, or why we're really here, but his work sometimes flirts with the idea of knowing.


You can see more of Coles pics here