The Delicate Arch

The Delicate Arch appeared all of a sudden at the end of a strenuous trail from the parking lot, at Arches National Park, in Utah. This arch is hidden from view, and the only way to get up-close to it is to hike about a mile and a half, under the harsh sun and a steady incline. No wonder this is one of the most photographed arches in the world. People seemed to flock around the base of the arch, taking pictures. 

I had to wait till sunset, to be able to photograph the arch without any people around it :)

Happy World Photography Day!

Aug 19th 2011 is World Photography Day. Happy clicking with your Nikons, Canons, Sonys, iPhones..... - yes, we have so many devices to capture all those precious (and mundane) moments!

My Nikon and Me - http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhishekontheweb/6058053424/

Antelope Canyons in Arizona

Its been a really long time since I posted something on my blog. Now when I notice, this is my first post in 2011! Yes, its been that long.

This year, I can say that I have traveled a lot. I moved from Chicago to Denver. Denver has a few interesting places nearby, and this gave me a lot of opportunities to visit new places.

In the month of July, I made a trip to Utah and Arizona - a trip lasting 3 days, and covered places from Bryce Canyon in Utah to Grand Canyon in Arizona. Here is a photo which I shot during my recent trip to Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona.

"Lights and Shadows"

Upper Antelope Canyon (and lower Antelope Canyon) are slot canyons made of Navajo sandstone, and are considered one of the most photographed slot canyons in the world. These canyons are named because when they were discovered, herds of antelopes roamed the area.

I was awestruck by the beauty of these canyons. With narrow passages, and sunlight flowing through small slits, it was really a remarkable place. You can read more about the Antelope Canyons in the Wikipedia page here.

This photograph was shot in one of the darker areas. Set on a tripod, with an exposure of 1.3 sec, I was able to get good amount of detail without any flash.

Panoramas

For the past couple of months, I took the effort of shooting some panoramic views of Chicago. Now, what motivated me was a free software called Hugin, which creates such perfect stitched views. With some HDR processing, this is what the images look like. All I can say is - "Summers bring out Chicago's real beauty!!"

The Giant Eyeball at Pritzker Park, Chicago

Michigan Lake and south Loop, Chicago

View of downtown Chicago from Millennium Park - with the Cloud Gate at the center

Another view of the Cloud Gate, at downtown Chicago

Sunset and clouds, as viewed from my apartment window

Water Bubbles (Photo Blog)

Water Bubbles, originally uploaded by abhishekontheweb.

The bowl was filled with water, and it was made to overflow by placing it under flowing tap water. As the tap water hit the surface of the water in the bowl, I was able to shoot these random shapes of the froth generated. Shot at 1/200th second with flash on. (Looks like cells under a microscope, doesn't it?)

A Cloudy Evening

A Cloudy Evening, originally uploaded by abhishekontheweb.

Some times, when you look out of your window, don't you wish that the sky was redder (something which is generally shown in those science fiction movies depicting earthlings on Mars) - giving it a dramatic hue. Well, yesterday, when I had nothing better to do, I looked out and saw a cloudy sky. There was a reddish hue, as it was almost dusk. Then, I thought, wouldn't it be worth a try to make it look even more dramatic. Thanks to digital photography, a photo can be made to look so surreal, just by a couple of mouse clicks (in my case, a couple of taps on the trackpad). With the help of iPhoto, I was able to use a red filter to enhance the color of the sky. The photo was taken at a very low exposure, to bring out the shades of the cloud formation.

The next morning, I was surprised to see the sky so blue!!

A Cold Winter Day

Cold Winter Day on "Black Friday"

Yesterday (the day after Thanksgiving - the so called "Black Friday" discount day in the retail world), I had a chance to take my camera out. With the winters just around the corner, it was a bit cold and windy (but pleasant and sunny none the less), and I was trying my hand to shoot some pics with the new camera - my intention was to get a handle over its features as quickly as possible. I managed to take some shots - and a few of them were taken in black and white to give that "cold winter effect". Here's a link to the slideshow for the rest of the pics: Flickr Slide Show

My First Date with the Nikon D90

View from my apartment - Shutter priority with exposure at 30s

I had a blog post of an almost similar name a couple of years back - when I had got Canon A570IS. And after months of research and reading online articles, watching videos, I finally ended up ordering Nikon D90 with 18-105mm VR kit lens. It arrived this Tuesday, and I was SUPER excited - so excited that I left office a couple of hours earlier than usual :)

I would have loved to have shot an unboxing video (but, I was TOO impatient- just grabbed a knife and opened the box the instant I got home). I had also ordered some additional accessories (that included a Dolica Proline tripod). So, the first thing I do is to setup the camera on the tripod and shoot with a reasonably long exposure (30s). Thankfully, it was dark outside. And I liked the result :)

For the past 2 days, I have been reading about the features of the camera - in fact, had bought a book by David Busch specifically for that.

I guess I'll be using my Flickr account big time now.