Returning

Mushroom cluster 8th Nov (no 2 in linked post)
Just because you got a good picture of something does not mean it's over. That the thing is done, wrap up your cameras and close the door behind you. There is almost always more to come. Learn to have patience, learn the rewards of return.

Things, particularly living things change, they evolve, they like people display sides of themselves that you've never seen before. You cannot anticipate everything, don't try to. Even the inanimate things, light moves over a familiar surface, moss climbs over it in the rain. Everything changes and you can keep looking and keep learning. Try not to be so wrapped up in shooting that you forget to see.



The same cluster 10th Nov
Many people visit the same places and yet their photographs are not the same. What sets the good apart from the also-rans is the ability to see and break tired ways of seeing, the patience with a subject that cracks it wide open. The good shot you wanted and got in the bag is often the one that has more to do with you and your head than with the subject at hand. Sometimes you need to stare at something stupidly for a while before it begins to speak to you. (It helps an awful lot if its an immobile thing.) Don't be easily satisfied.

More from 10th Nov

Fireflies: the making of a shot

The path in Jubilee park by night
When I set out to do a fireflies in the landscape shot, it was quite late in the season. The erratic rain had got the worst of the population. And this meagre shot was all I could come up with. I waited while fireflies flitted around in the frame to let them show up against the dark background. And then later in the quite long exposure, I light-painted the trees in the back hoping that I wasn't washing out any of the firefly trails. I didn't mostly and it was fine, but the method was a little hit or miss. Besides, I did not like the background at all. The tree frame did not look as good as I wanted.

By day: windblown and bent tree in the Mainlawns in the monsoon

So I switched to another place where from a previous daytime shot, I knew I would love the background, and a day and night diptych appealed to me. So I took my tripod, and headed to my favourite windblown tree in the Mainlawns. By now, much of the season was over, and there were darn few fireflies to flit about in my frame. I wanted to make sure if one did oblige, that I would not loose it in the light-painting part of the shot. With the greater number of reflecting surfaces, the grass stalks up in the front of the image, the light would have to be balanced pretty closely. I thought wouldn't it help too much that the colours of the firefly flash and the grass are similar. Cars cruising along the side of the road that turned up around the horizon were not much help either (which was why I hadn't begun on this shot here). I wasn't sure I wanted to risk it, so I took a shot without exposing for the tree, just the dark and a firefly trail in it.

And then I shot for the tree separately, this time like before, waiting till the end of the exposure to light paint (you know, just in case). As it turned out, a firefly (which is actually a beetle) made a small sortie and I got a little trail to the right and another streak in the upper left. Not enough, but some satisfaction. And anyway, I had my backup plan, the earlier trail. All I had to was sandwich the two shots to get what I was after! Fireflies blinking love signals to each other in the lush monsoon enriched Mainlawns!

By night: windblown and bent tree in the Mainlawns in the monsoon

Knowing

I find knowing what to shoot is the first step to getting good shots. I spend more than half my unproductive time stumbling around dazed by the heat or by weary feet, looking for something to hold my eye.

In the field, disappointment is not a rare thing. Boredom fortunately for me is.

If memory serves, some big photographer once said to his teacher: Can you now please tell me what to point my lens at?
(1 and 2: Hawk moth; 3: Cicada)


PS. The wings of hawks moths beat at about 85 beats per second. The high frequency insects go as far as 1000 bps. They have muscles that respond with multiple contractions to each action potential so they can go past the upper limit set by neuronal firing. All that speed just to stay in the same place!

More star streaks

Orion travels over Bangalore's nighttime sky. The amount of light in the sky over the city is much higher than that over Hampi and the sky shows up as a hazy dirty orange rather than black. You can see the haze at the bottom of the window that's more haze from IISc street lamps, building lights and such like. If you set the WB on your image to tungsten light it sets back to this nice blue, so I'm guessing most of the stray light has this temperature.

I took this at f10 (and the light still shows up!) for about 20 minutes at 200 ISO. Pointed it high up in the sky to avoid as much background light as possible. I also sat so my shadow fell on the camera cutting off some ambient light as well. I also shut off the long exposure noise reduction option on my camera which meant the camera didn't lock up for a long time after a shot. There is some noise, you can deal with most of it using some noise reduction software.

Only thing being I wish I would think to do these things in summer. It was freezing up on the roof. Not too many people really go up on the hostel roof and a girl saw me climbing up and apparently called and asked who I was. I predictably didn't hear her and carried on. A while later there were two girls standing on a ledge facing the roof looking up. I thought they were out looking at stars or something so I carried on setting up my shots. After a bit there were 3 and I figured they were looking at me and wondering what the f*** I was upto and who I was. I must've looked nice and suspicious in my black turtle neck! I asked them if something was the matter and I think they either figured out who I was or at least realized I was also a girl, because the relief was obvious in their laughter!

Holometabolous insects

Hmm, I had found me some unhatched lacewing eggs, upon which I kept a very close eye. This ere eye hoped to catch the hatching and to not miss the young ones as I had with the the last series of eggs. (check prev posts). Here's what an adult looks like.

Pretty faerielike huh? Well they're a little like dragonflies but to the good biologist me what sets them apart is the fact that some of them have ears....on their wings!

Well, so for some reason I was expecting little baby lacewings to pop out of these eggs... small versions of big momma/daddy you know? Quite a surprise when I got these hairy creatures instead!

Well, vive holometabolous insects....these lacewing larvae as I had conveniently forgotten are well known for their voracious appetites for many small creatures, mosquitoes, their larvae, aphids, etc. They are often used in biological pest control programmes for this reason, lacewing eggs are actually sold to you so you can 'spread them throughout your fields or gardens' to acheive maximum pest control.

The larvae eventually pupate and voila you have an adult...and no I havent found a lacewing pupa just yet !

Light and line

All photos in this post except the first are not mine and are preceded by links to the original
There are rewards when you wake up early in the morning. The vines are lianas (woody creepers) brought here to ces from the western ghats, planted years ago. They mesmerise everyone who sees them the first time. Its like a breath from a rainforest somewhere hit the city of bangalore. The building at the back is my department.


The reason I picked this image is that its about lines, it verges on a graphic version of a line photograph. And yet its not.

Here are a few examples of graphic line images. This one uses the classic quality of repitition.
repitition

heres repitition and symmetry breaking
rupture

Heres another, uses form, depth and curves. (And, off course, some beauiful tonality)
curves

You'll notice that these images have very simple geometries, something that makes many line images intuitive and quick to 'grasp'. You see the image, finding the form, are led around the image exactly as the photographers eye saw it.

Occasionally the repititive line is used to dilineate form, to explore smooth curvy geometries
form

Some photographs explore the line as a twisty concept...
twisted


Few explore, straight and twisty lines in a confused ungeometric pattern. Which is why i like that picture....

Sometimes its just about being awake

And then off course once you've seen the opportunity, about taking it. I'm sure you've seen these pots in you're home. well i realised there was a just begun one in mine and i figured that well the wasp will come back and finish it. so i waited for it. the first set of pictures were ok...not close enough, light wasnt right. but because i knew what the wasp would do i could set it up so things would be right...

Then i waited over several days, hoping to catch a trip when she was bringing some mud in...and now i'll wait for until she brings over some caterpillars.
Other times its even easier than that. these are lacewing eggs, they've hatched unfortunately. next time i hope to catch them before that happens. These were on my balcony curtains, the red lights them up nicely, doesnt it?

oh the other story in this one? make sure you've backed up before you delete!!!! i deleted all the RAWs for this session and theres no back up, oh well, they're still there i'll try and redo it .

The addendum to this story is that I was never really able to 'redo' it to my satisfaction. The positions of the eggs had been altered due to many things...and I couldnt replicate what I wanted to. Moral of the story, do not loose your RAW files.