Airshow and Action photography from DIPC5 - 2014

The way I took this photo was little different from recommended normal way of shooting fast moving objects. Normally to freez a fast moving object we need to keep the shutter speed at a very high speed. Then you will get the frame where the flying birds are frozen in it.

Long exposure photoshoot in Dubai

Recently I went for a photoshoot with our group EPyC. This was at a place some where near Garhoud.
There is this huge parking plot from which in one direction if you look, you will get the entire city scape. Its was a beautiful view. But there was a major problem. The temperature and the humidity was high at this time. And because of this there was some kind off haze which make the view little cloudy. We were not able to get the long distance view of the city scape clearly in the lens. This picture was getting blurred and the lights were distorted. Lights coming from the building were not sharp.

But lucky for that day we had a Harley Davidson Bike coming up for the event. I was able to click the bike some from our group also modeled along with bike. Since i dont have the permission to the photo, right now I cant upload.

Later on the midnight cops showed up and said that is a sensitive area. some palace are there near by. SO you will have to stop and leave. And we had to leave. Any way Im planning to get that city scape on a cool dry night. 

Meteor shower 2014 - How to take star trail photography

Once again guys thanks for visiting my ungky dugly random blog of a expat living in dubai. The time was passing by and the meteor shower of the decade came at last. We - I mean a group of like minded photographic enthusiast went on a Trip to Kalba desert for capturing the guest who are visiting once in a decade.

We set up our camera and kept clicking. finally around the midnight few meteors showed up but didn't meet our expectations. I kept my camera in time interval shooting mode after focusing it around the north pole. Expecting that the meteor shower may happen in that direction.

Unfortunately the meteor shower didn't caught up in ny shot of the camera. But I managed to make a star trail photography. Anyway that did payoff the efforts I guess. :) cheers.

How to do a star trail photography.

Step : 1 - Scout the area the day before.

You are probably going to take a star trail in the middle of night where there is no absolute no light around. The light pollution from the city scape building and street light create light pollution and you will not be able to take any good picture. The light from the surrounding will be scattered all over the atmosphere. You will not get any stars. So scout the area in a day time. understand the good position for you so that in the night you will not be taking much time to get settle down.

Before picking the day for the star trail, go through the weather reports. Sky should be cool with no clouds. There should not be moonlight because it will scatter all the sky and you will be able to spot a single star.
Less dust pollution and dry windy air are the best time to go.

Step : 2 - Gather your gears.

a) DSLR
b) Wide angle lens - 18 mm will do fine. Lesser the better area you can cover.
c) Tripod. - A good one. Without and loose ends.
d) Shutter release cable / remote
e) Additional battery - if needed.
f) A flashlight - small one will do fine

other things you can take along with you is
a) Picnic chair
b) Snaks & Drinks

Step : 3- Set up your camera

Make sure the tripod is fixed firmly on the ground. If it moves you entire night could get spoiled. Connect your camera and select the camera in manual mode. Put the focal length on the minimum and put the focus point at infinity/ near infinity. Please note that certain lens can go even beyond infinity also. Just make sure by taking some sample shot and zoom in to see the star and clear cut pixelated and not blurred.

Normal setting i do for star trail is

ISO : 800/1600
Shutter speed : 30 sec
Aperture : less than f4.5

Once you set the focus of the lens. Connect the shutter release cable if needed.

Step 4 : Start Clicking

If you have time interval shooting mode available. You can enable that mode. The you don't have to keep clicking all the time. The camera will take the picture and you can continue relaxing with your snacks or talk.

Step 5: Composing the images in photoshop

The ultimate aim is to get a series of continues images. Like 100 or 200 images without changing the position of the camera from the tripod. Once we collect all these pictures from your camera in your computer, we will have to do stacking procedures in photoshop.

Open photoshop. Click File - Scripts - load files into stack.

It will open a window named load layers. Click Browse and Select all the images and press OK
It will take some time to process all the images into layers.

Once it is loaded. you have goto the layers menu and convert each layer to lighten mode. as shown below. You have to convert each and every layers.

then you will see the image like a star trails. Once 'lighten' is done to all layers. right click the layers and click flatten image.

This will create a single image which shows all the trails together. 

Now you can adjust contrast, brightness, hue, saturation, curves etc. as you like. This will be our final image. 

And that s how we do post processing in star trails photography. 

Please add you comments. Share or suggest modifications. Thank you for your time. 

If you would like to have a look at my photography blog please go to http://shafisgraphics.blogspot.com 

Stove is hot and am gonna sit.

Indian national congress failed to understand the fact that the stove is hot. My understanding is that people of India gave a reply to the Congress govt that they don't need them anymore. Reason is very simple. They dared to put their hand in the kitchen. the price of LPG went 4 times higher with in 10 years, regardless the fact the profit share of these petroleum companies in india is sky high.

Its literally a shame. But in my state the minority supports the congress and because of this reason the congress still hold 12 seats of 20.

The policies of the BJP government is soo cool to hear. The reforms that they planning and the Modification they talking is awesome. I think even the Uncle sam and team even worried about the reforms which Mr. Narendra modi is going to make. I doubt the who is going to be the ultimate beneficiary. Definitely he is uneducated. Cant even face an interview unless it is pre planned and pre recorded. I wonder where in the world am I live in. Can this country afford an educated realistic people.

The media hipe created a wave and thus proven the media efficiency in India. Congress some how failed even there also. The man who against the both party, Mr Aravind Kejriwal is imprisoned with in one week after election ! This is getting real secular. This means what my dear fellow indian? Dont you dare open your mouth ever. Keep it shut.

The amount of money where BJP invested in online media is remarkable. The search queries were changed in few days. All the negative news were tumbled. The links which were popular and listed in the top before one months was like all the negative news against Modi. With is a fortnight the SEO optimisation and viral links proved that the algorithms which google used in the or search engines need to be reviewed.

My concern is about the foreign currency and exchange rate. Will that be effected?

According my opinion the market index which is going high for the past few weeks is just a speculation. The sail out is expected to happen once it reaches the 4 years highest point.

Does the new government impose income tax for foreign investments?
I guess and would like to give an No for this question. Why ? the reason is simple. Majority of the politicians and balck money are invested in foreign countries as real estate and mutual fund bonds. If they want to white money out of black money. the only option is foreign exchange Introducing taxation to these will bring problem for them and at the same time to compensate people will start smuggling. In other words again problem.

How the gold rate going to be affected ?
India is a gold consumer country. Definitely it will be maintained by the foreign market.

Will there be any reduction in the price of fuels?
Ambani brothers will have to make a call on this question.

Now i would like to show you one picture which our future prime minister sitting with number one fraud in India. I don't own this picture. But I can't resist sharing this. Guess what my dear friends ...start your pray. Because this is the future of India.

Graphics - A New initiative

Guys I would like to introduce you my new photoblog http://shafisgraphics.blogspot.ae/.  Its a new initiative started just out of curiosity and keen interest in the subject of Art, in the sense of photography.

This blog will be contributing some clicks to the blogger world. If you find anything useful let me know i will be glad to have a back link for the usage. If you are looking for something special creative ideas. You are welcome to share the Ideas.

Probably i will be sharing some cool tricks and tips of digital photography too.

And oh by default the learning of photography started with a basic entry level DSLR canon 1100 D and now I carry a Nikkon D5300. I have a 18-55 mm kit lense and a 70 - 200 zoom lense. three speedlights ad a remote trigger. A home made umbrella as a flash diffuser and a use the sun glare reflector of my car during the sunny days. And of course a cheap tripod and carry bags and extra batteries. A flash light too.

Expresoo attituderia .

Like i mentioned in one of my previous post, its really fun to watch angry people. Its more fun making them pissed off !.

This incident happened in one of the supermarket. OK me and my friend was on our routine shopping. Just bought few things. Few things means exactly chocolate, few cool drinks and banana fries.

On the way to the payment  counter i was busy with my phone and i had to my both hand for speedy chatting. I was standing behind a family and they just finished their billing and waiting for the packing and payment. I was about to put my stuff on the desk in front of the cashier just to get my hands free.

I dont know what made this tiny girl behind the desk got angry. She had a freaky look at me and pushed the things in my hand before it reached on the table. Well it fell down . I was really confused. I asked myself .. Did i do something wrong? I found the lady is bit angry. I can see it on their face but I had to ignore everything since i was already busy chatting on mobile with my beloved.

After few seconds i wanted to chat so many things and it was not possible with one hand. I tried to put things again on the table. Again she blocked and said wait. I really didn't understand what she meant. The desk is already empty, why should cannot keep the stuffs on the desk. This time i got pissed off. The guy standing behind me was also looking perplexed. He was also seeing this.

Now this is like an embarrassment. I asked her politely why i can't put this things on the desk. She said you have to wait until she finishes. Well thats an excuse but not quite satisfactory for a brain with reasonable pride. And she was rude. Even with of makeup and she looked really angry. Thats completely wrong!! with all those make up she should look pretty. Now people in the other lanes also started watching me. God .. I felt more embarrassed.  My friend was looking at me like WHAT the F are U Doing !... I told him i didn't do anything.

This is something what you are not expecting from the customer service. We are paying money for the stuff what we are taking from there. They actually invited us to shop from there. People have lot of options today and why we choose one of that option is that we are expecting something beneficial from them. But what if they act like we are an uninvited guest to the fret party!.

Actually what i should have done is to leave everything and return back then and there itself. And i was about to do that, but something just stuck into my mind. This is not the way to have a reply to this arrogant racist behaviour. I am an indian and i want to give a reply. A very good payback.

My friend bought few big boxes of water bottle. 12x1 litre bottles exactly, of different companies and different prices. Lol it really heavy. ;) I put it in a trolly and walked to the same desk. My friend told me to go and he will wait outside. She saw me and her face look so pale. She knew what we were into. I kept my trolley in front of me and walked to the desk and waited. Lol i was busy on my phone calling someone someone from planet Mars and on my other hand i was trying to get the credit card from my purse and it was stuck inside ;) wink wink. In this acting how can i help lifting all the bottle boxes to her desk to read bar code. She was trying to get the barcode reading, and she can't lift the boxes! She became red hot angry and started shouting something in her native language. Thank god ! I can't understand a single word.

It was really fun!. i didn't pay attention and i was sooo busy talking with someone someone from planet mars. Now people from the other lanes also started listening. I just stood there and played little stupid for a couple of minutes. She was jumping and shouting. I didnt move or paid any attention. Its their duty to do the packing right ? :P

After sometime some helper came to the desk and made all the billing work. Lol i was still acting on the phone.

Bottom line is : people ....  realy don't really have to **** with guys with bloody INDIAN attitude! Specially guys in group. We all know angry is a goo and its not something that you should waste on people who are walking by. Some people have plenty of time to play the games. If you feel like you are the boss. You should start paying salary to whom you show your attitude. Thats it. Lets keep it simple. 

Dragon mart - Dubai

Dragon mart. An awesome trading place in dubai. When you get tired of the luxury costly stuffs from the polished malls of dubai, you can got to dragon mart. It is located on the 'al ain road' way away from the busy dubai city. You can find anything with the cheap and best price. Specially the chinese items.

Dragon Mart provides a very huge market place for the supply of Chinese products in the Middle Eastern and North African Markets, offering Chinese traders and manufacturers a unique platform from which to cater to the needs of this sizeable market. This was Inaugurated on December 7th, 2004, the 1.2 kilometre-long Dragon Mart is the largest trading centre for Chinese products outside mainland China.
The 150,000 square meter dragon-shaped structure has 3,950 shops engaged in the wholesale and retail trade of a variety of Chinese products including home appliances, stationery, office appliances, communication and acoustic equipment, lamps, household items, building materials, furniture, toys, machinery, garments, textiles, footwear and general merchandise.

With over 2,500 parking spaces, the shopping centre is divided into seven zones offering an array of high quality facilities for visitors and traders alike, making it the largest Chinese commercial centre in the MENA region. So just make sure where you have parked your car how to get out of there. Otherwise you will get lost.

smoke photography

Smoke photography is nothing but taking picture of the smoke in a dark room with speedlights and flashes and get an abstract type of image in your camera. This is not that easy as you think. This require little bit of hands on experience on your DSLR settings as well as you should master the angles of speed lights.

If you like to have a look at some other photos i took recently please check my photography blog. www.shafisgraphics.blogspot.com . If you would like to know more details on any particular photographs, please let me know. 

Learning photography is tricky. Learning smoke photography is even more tricky.

I will just go through some of the samples I took few months ago. Remember speed light is a must at least one. A black dark back ground is also required. I used my black t shirt in on a chair as a back ground. Well first lets go through the images then i will go through the settings.

The setting I used for this image is f/4, iso 100 and shutter speed 1/100. And i used a flash to iluminate the white smoke. 

OK This is the top view of my simple setup. Now i will explaing the set up step by step.

Step 1 : Arrange the black cloth (I prefer to use black cloth instead of blackboard because its much effective in reducing the reflection) of the far side. Position the camera and the flash as shown. also the thing which you are going to burn in the middle.

Step 2: Camera settings. Put the camera in the manual mode. and set the ISO to 100, Shutter speed 1/100, aperture f minimum (that means maximum opening). Dont forget to connect your SLR with the flash unit.

step 3: Simulate smoke. And click.

step 4: post processing. This s bit tricky. Because the color of smoke will be white and the background will be black. Some time smoke may not be absolute white, but shades of grey. The you have to open the picture in photoshop and then add tint or shade of colours according to your imagination.

Here is some examples. Which i tired my self.

Al rams - ras al khaima

This is from my recent visit with couple of friends to a fishing harbour in ras al khaima - UAE.

This place is an old village but holds the heritage and business as well as culture of the old arabian village. This place has a history. Which is almost on it faded pages of history. May be for few more years you can see this place as it is from the 100s of years back. May be this place will be restored and kept as a moment from the past. Or may be some corporate may put a beach resort in this beautiful old place.

From wiki pedia :

Ras al-Khaimah (alternatively Ra'sal-Khaymah or Ras el-Kheima; Arabic: رأس الخيمة‎ Rā's al Ḫaima) is one of the Persian Gulf Arab sheikhdoms forming the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its name means "Top of the Tent". The emirate is in the northern part of the UAE, bordering Oman's exclave of Musandam. It covers an area of 1,684 square km. The capital city and home of most residents is also called Ras Al Khaimah. The emirate had a population of 210,063 at the 2005 Census, of which 41.82 percent or 87,848 were Emirati citizens. Latest estimates put the total population at between 250,000 and 300,000. Locals accounted for 97,529 in the population estimate for 2010.[1] The city has two main sections, Old Ras Al Khaimah and Nakheel, on either side of a creek. It is served by the Ras Al Khaimah International Airport. It consists of a northern part (where the city of Ras al-Khaimah is situated), and a large exclave in the south (near Hatta), and a few small islands in the Persian Gulf.

We had to start a liitle early to reach there, so that we can cover the beautiful rise and early cozy seens of the harbour. From Dubai to Ras al Khaima its 1 hours travelling time. Straight high way. But due to the smog we arrived on the spot little late. But still sun was below the horizon. I clicked around 270 photos. And i would like to share few of them here. This is as it is not photoshoped or edited. I had made little adjustments to the brightness and contrast and saturation. But nothing else.

People who work here are manily from indian sub continent. Their bosses are the local people around ras al khaima. Here people are getting ready for the job.

Already one team is set for sail. 

All the boats were parked in a raw. their reflection in the water made an amazing view.

Sun rays hitting the water. 

There were 100s of birds circling around this island 

I got a macro lense from my friend. Then i tried to see the marine life.

home of unknown creatures

Long exposure photography try outs.

Light trails.. life trails

An admiration. An appreciation. Just the voice spelled by the word "wow". This is what you get for the hardship and home work you have done make something a success. You will take pride for the rest of your life and the rest of people will talk about for a few days. Share the admiration and envy the success and then done. Its gone. Its forgotten. Its a part of never written pages of history.

I know a lot of people personally and professionally who is the type who can bring that "wow" into you. Most of them are lost in the days of that unwritten pages. Nobody remember them now. May be there's too much pages. May be there's nothing at all. I recall them as heros of that time.

All you can recollect from the past was useless pieces of memories. When I try to put all in a place, the heros were nomore heros. When the time passes all you get is light trails of memories. Very vague.