CAPTURING CULTURE
Ihad always been interested in painting and photography. My father, who worked in the Advertising industry, was a keen photographer. As a child I had access to many books on photography, but I was more inclined towards painting. My husband is interested in photography too, and we often combined the activities of travelling and photography.
But I myself was never a photographer. In 2010, my husband started finding it very hard to make time for his hobby. Since his cameras were gathering dust, he gifted me his Canon set comprising of a Canon 5D Mark II, a 7D and accompanying lenses. It was a life changing experience. All my photographs that you can see have been taken in the last four years. I have had no formal training at all but picked up tips along the way. The internet was a great help as well. Since my family travels a lot, it has never been a problem to balance
photography and family life. My husband and son are both enthusiastic photographers have encouraged and supported my passion.
Photography is the means through which I can traverse the boundary of my city, state or country and reach out to the world. I express my thoughts, my feelings, and our rich Indian culture through my images. To budding photographers, I would say— if you have a dream, strive to achieve it. Share the photographs you take and seek advice. With so many photography and social networking sites, its easier to seek expert advise and hone your skills. At the end of the day, stay true to your heart. Observe as many photographs as possible but believe in originality instead of imitating someone else’s style of photography.
Monkeys
This picture of two monkeys comes to us from Smita Naik from Mumbai. She photographed the monkeys at Nandi Hills near Bangalore. She wants to know whether the framing is right and also wants to know if there is some method to get rid of the fog.
The picture was taken when it was drizzling and the fog has created a low- contrast image. If I were you, I would have checked the contrast setting within the camera and if needed, boosted the contrast. I feel that the framing is okay; the monkey on the left is placed as per the rule of the thirds. By adjusting the contrast and sharpening the image, we can reduce the foggy effect ( but cannot remove it totally).
You have taken the shot at a shutter speed of 1/ 10 second. At such low shutter speeds, it is generally not possible to avoid hand- shake. You have also used the widest aperture that your lens offers at the 55mm setting. Lenses do not perform at their best when used wide open and depth of field is also very restricted at the widest aperture. These all add up to create a less- than- satisfactory picture. Since the ambient light was very low, you could have increased the ISO to 1600. On the 1000D that