Wadi Naqab Trail hiking Ras al khaima UAE

Hiking : Wadi Naqab

Trail Hike Location : Ras Al Khaima, UAE

 Level : Beginner Recommended

Gears :
Hiking shoe / runners with good grip,
Water min 2 liters,
food,
snacks,
chocolates

Recommended season : Winter.

Wadi Naqab is a fantastic off-road destination for a bit of everything. A classic (if rather short) wadi-bashing experience with different levels of challenge, great camping spots and viewpoints, this all-rounder also offers an abundance of opportunities to get up to elevation for rewarding hiking.

Ras Al Khaimah's impressive Hajar Mountains lean from Wadi Naqab towards the sea, showing their many colours and formations.

Reaching the starting point of the journey is bit tricky. If you have a 4 wheel drive you can cover most of the unpaved roads till the bottom of the mountain. If you don't have a 4 wheel drive you can use your driving skill on your sedan car to reach as close as possible. I insist not to try any risky drive in the morning itself. You could spoil your entire trip.

Once you find nice good parking area you can park your car and gear up. After the parking you will have to travel approximately one kilometer to 2 kilometer through big round gravels and rocks. These pictures will give you an idea about the view that you may expect in early morning around 9 o'clock.

You may still find some houses and farmlands nearby. You may also find some random goats and dogs. You don't have to wonder if you find any local people there. You may also find some other trekking groups travelling along the same road.

 The first 5km are through the wadi bed and up to a bat cave (with some scrambling you can go inside if you would like). After a short break and snacks we'll start up a managed path with beautiful cliff views to an old settlement where we will have lunch.

Be prepared for surreal views! you need a 4wd to reach the starting point. nice hike, not very technical but need good level of fitness. some steep uphill ascend, but the view and village at the top made it worthwhile. good hiking boots with ankle protection are recommended.

Showka pools - Ras Al khaima - UAE

A short 5 minute video of our Hiking trip to showka trails.
 Located in the Ras Al Khaima, UAE. It is one of the popular hiking trail near to Dubai and excellent place to warm up. There are many hiking trails and plenty of opportunity for exploration as well. 

Precautions & Rules:
 No littering, fine upto AED 2000
 No network coverage,

 Mandatory list of items:
 Water, Food,
 High energy snacks like chocolates,
 Cola,
 Sweater for winter season,
 extra socks as you are going to jump into water,
 proper hiking shoe,
 proper clothing,
 hat, sunscreen,
 light, knife, GPS / Offline map,
 extra battery

 Travel Description :
 Start early morning and try to get to the starting point before the sunrise. Remember this is a day trip. Even though we start little late. I would like to recommend a trip to start it early as possible. So it is highly recommended to reach the starting point before the sunlight hits. So if you want to start little early you should have packed your bag the day / night before. Hopefully this will make your life easy so that you need to only brush up and start the engine of the car. Make sure all the necessary stuffs are there in the back before starting up from the home.

All the items which I mentioned here are mandatory stuff. Life without those thing would probably will be difficult during the Hike. Given the list as a checklist for the beginners and if you forget something you can always buy on the way from any gas station or supermarket. Make sure you hit any gas station and fill the gas in your car if you're going to the station, because the roads are not set very well and you can get easily lost.

For beginners it is highly recommended to group up and travel in a group. Hike is a physically challenging activity and make sure you are physically fit for travelling few kilometres without any problem. Once you reach the destination as mark in the map, you may find a place to park your car. Remember always to travel in a group because in case of physical injury the other one will be able to support.

 If you are beginner respect to set your GPS and track your movement all the way up and down during the Hike cause you may get lost anytime and all the different look almost similar or different and you will not be able to distinguish the exact way you want to go back. For experience it was you know the things, you know the rules, just keep going straight up the trail. What's your time as it will be very difficult and very dark on sunset.

Asses your physical condition all the way up and down, and make sure to take risk only that is acceptable. Climbing up on top of the steep Hills and mountains for selfies are good but kind of risky. You will find lots of sports to take selfies. You may find smallpools of water bodies and some animals living nearby. Some pools are very deep so you may as before getting step into full.

 You can Hike as much as you want and as far as you can go but keep in mind that you will have to return all the way back. Assess your physical condition and your teams physical condition before keeping going forward. Keep some emergency lights with you, in case if you may fail to turn on time you'll end up in Pitch Black dark night.

 Hiking is risky, travelling in a group makes much less risky. Highly recommend it.

35mm or 50MM ?

When I started working on creating digital images, I had the basic kit lens with my DSLR. That is nothing but other than the 18-55mm lens. It was that time I had no Idea of the digital DSLRs. The only thing I knew was bigger the lens better you can Zoom. I never had any clue about the artistic side of the DSLRS other than taking pics of dogs, cats and peoples faces.

After spending two year's and clicking 50k pics and hanging out with like minded fellow image makers, doing research in Youtube and reading famous advertorials, l figured out the best ways of taking images. Thanks to Epyc In UAE for lntroducing me to those who are pioneers in this field.

Later on the run i realised the need of prime lens, because of the endless possibilities and wide ranges of creative scope. I am not a full time photographer or a full time artist. But I would like to spend my time on this photography as an enthusiast. At the same time experimenting and taking up small projects. The question was If I should have 24mm, 50mm, 35mm or 100 mm after realizing certain facts.

After going through 1000's of Images and comparing the prices of the lens, I found a cheap & best option. l found used 50mm from online and bought it for some trials.

The wide apreture was more than enough for Bokehs and the sharpness on the narrow focal length was pretty amazing. Everybody loved their portraits which was taken with that lens. It was perfect for portraits. l still wonder why people spend hundreds and thousands of dollars lf they can buy one of these tiny little smart ones. May be the small lens is not looking good for a pro photographer Carrying a DSLR . l have seen people carrying heavy 70-200mm multimillion dollar lens. ofcourse it looks cooler but Its heavy.

Alright,  after playing around for 5-6 months with that 50 mm, I wanted to see how other prime lens are doing and what lam missing. That curiosity lead me to rent a 24mm, 35 mm and 100mm.

l started trials with each of these. 24mm was perfect in the sense of wide angle. But what I will do with that wide angle and wide aperture ? lt is going to be the prefect lens for close portraits. At that wide apreture, This lens would be an advantage for shooting party at night. still the distortion would make the people face look like a beaten frog. And if we want to use that lens for taking cityscapes, we would be never using that wide apreture. i would rather use my kit lens 18 - 55 for those purposes. Probably we will need some smaller apreture to get those buildings and scapes in a very sharp edges. I decided to not to spend for that 24mm lens just because i can take awsome portarits with that.

The 100 mm f1.8 was absolutelyamazing lens for portraits. It will completly isolate the face of people from any dirty backgrounds and gives that wonder full blurry background. The only problem is that the minimum distance between the subject and the photographer is bit longer.  And this lens is suitable for those who are working in a controlled studio environment shooting prewedding and post wedding shoots. Price wise i would say if you have 50 mm better stay with it. I mean i dont mind getting little closer to the subject when shooting portraits and products.

The real change i felt was while using the 35 mm on this crop sensor DSLR. The angles were perfect as it shows the exact view of a first person perspective. Not too wide. Not too narrow. It will help you to picture the scene exactly as you are seeing it. If you are a traveller or normal guy who love to take pics of the life around you. 35 mm F1.8 would be the perfect choice of lens.

Apreture wide enough to get bokehlesious background with out killing the story of the image. You can see bits of story thats behind the subject which is in other way contributing to your travelouge or documentry. Take portraits with out much distortion of the subject, even you can take selfie with that angle. I would say its the best focal length if you want to tell a story. Its very small in size and lightweight as well. One point i would like to share that this pretty little small lense will not scare your subject while you are on the street capturing local scene. I have personally experienced that of you go to some ones face with that big bazookas, the chances of saying no from the people is very high.  At the same time with this small one,  people don't feel that much hostile.

The other advantage of this 35 mm focal length is while taking videos. We will get a touch of that real movies scenes. The quality and the vibrance as well. i would recommend you, if you have a DSLR, get a 35 mm prime lens.  Or a 50 mm. feel the difference. 

Trip to Jabel Jais - Highest peak in UAE

Jabel Hafeet in Al ain is taking all the credits for the best mountain roads ever in UAE. Well that not true. you may need to reconsider the place called Jabel Jais, situated in the Ras al Khaima emirate near to the border of Oman, also another destination into your trip dairy.

Dubai to Khasab,Mussandam by road

Khasab is the small capital city of mussandam peninsula, of Oman - has frequently been dubbed as the "Norway of Arabia" because of its extensive fjord-like craggy inlets and desolate mountainscapes. Its basically nothing but some barren lands and mountains with extremely amazing views and camping spots. If you are a resident of UAE then you can go there through border posts with out any problems in your own Vehicle.

I am writing this travelogue to help those who are planing to travel by roads to khasab from  UAE. Our plan was to start early in the morning, cover the long distance on road as soon as possible, pass the border and head for different maimum possible location in Khasab. A Pit stop at Ras al khaima, before the border for lunch and refueling and some shopping for filling up the trunk with food items and water. We had no intention to go for overnight camping. In fact some of our friends are there so they will be hanging out  with us later on all along the travel. 

The ugly truth of Engineering

I started working on open source platforms for my projects in the beginning. If you ask me why, the main reason would be to reduce the cost. Since the beginning of my career, I have been always an enthusiast of open source platform for development of projects. Creating something new from nothing was exiting and interesting and kept us pushing to our limits. To be honest I still love to have my first job back, because in those days at office every day is a new day and there will always some thing new to learn.

Taking it to the street - Photography in Dubai

When you want to take your photography skill to the streets, it’s not going to be a very easy task to get accomplished. For any average photographers and beginners, it’s a moment that need to be faced and experienced. It’s like you are going to ride an elephant. It’s embarrassing, it’s intimidating, and it’s exhilarating until you get the feel of the street. Once you get the feel and you will be seemingly merging into the crowed and get the best street photographs of your life.

A rock band - Thaikudam Bridge

This post is definitely not going to be an interesting one for you  if you have never ever tuned to the music of this band called Thaikudam Bridge. I am frequent listener of the FM radio shows while on the traveling or driving. And came across this particular Rock music in Malayalam and was quite impressive with the composition of that particular song. The name of the song "Fish Rock" and was from a new band called "Thaikudam Bridge". To be honest that, this one was a real hit in south India and most of the young bloods would have probably enjoyed it just like us.  I personally could resist sharing their work. This is the one I liked very much and its a live show. Even i came to know names of different fishes in malayam from this song :D

Nature through a 50 mm lens

Due to some unforseen circumstances I had to leave to my home country for a small vaccation just for two weeks. The last minute preperations and hassle went bit out of plan and was not able to finish all thing which i was planned to do. Getting in the middle of nowhere traffic block was an awsome experience. Just link any other trips, my plan was to get maximum clicks. Even though time was limited, I have to admit every single efforts payed off. I want to share few of my best shot in this blog post. feel free to use these images if you want.

Summer desert heat 2015

This was a planned trip into the middle of a desert. The entire event was so adrenaline filled. I was not sure to make it up to the event in time due to heavy schedule at work. luckily i was able to finish on time and called my friends and gave confirmation the i will joining. My policy towards work will remain same high priority. jokes and fun apart, i respect my job seriously and do what ever it take to get it done. More over my friends are the one who should know about this policy of mine rather than any one else. There are times i was not able to reach one time due to unforeseen incidents. After all we all are engineers. This is the way we decided to live.

Through the roads of the western ghats - Wayanad

All roads were leading to beautiful destinations. This place is in India where 97% of the land belong to the government as a wild life reserve. That is wayanad district in Kerala, India. You look around, its green everywhere. Typical tropical climate where temperature around 26°C.

'The land of paddy fields" stretches along the northeast border of Kerala state.

2:30 hrs from Calicut International airport and there is no rail Network in this district. Since we, my wife and me, had only two days to travel around, we thought about having a road trip around this district and visit any few places on the way. And also decided  to stay in somewhere there itself in the night, because the night drive can be really risky in these roads.

New year celebration Dubai 2015.

I know its been more than two months since the new year celebration was over. But as a matter of fact there were quite a big celebration out there i was really happy to see the celebration from the best view point across the sea just right in front of the Dubai Burj al arab hotel. It was an awesome and exclusive show. I think you might have already seen it on youtube. If not yet its the right time to search for it and watch it.

I was also lucky enough to get few shot which was extremely awesome. And i am very much happy to share it with you guys.

If you want you can use this image but please leave a credit back link to my page. here or my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/shafisgraphics 

You can click on the image to get the full size image. It really big. Definitely will fit in your monitor wallpaper. I have few more fireworks back in my laptop. I will upload tht one also as soon as possible. 

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.