16 Sep 2006: Part 1 (Angkor Wat)

I couldn’t catch the sunrise but I was there luckily when all the tourist hoard was away.I hired a tuk-tuk for 7 USD (whole day) that would take me to Angkor Wat, Bayon, Baphoun, Prae Khan and Phnom Bakeng (Tourist spot: Sunset view point).

The Tuk-tuk dropped me off at Angkor at 9AM after collecting my three day pass, to visit all the temples of Angkor, for 40USD. The weather was pleasant and would get hotter as the sun goes high. The sight was breath taking. A huge moat surrounds Angkor wat and a bridge connects the gopura at the entrance to the causeway.

The causeway could be approx. a kilometre. The stones that make the causeway are worn out. Taking millions of tourists now and thousands and monks and visitors in the past the stones show their age by the smoothness on them.  As I walked on it Water reservoirs in front of the structure are filled with lotuses and provides a perfect and a complete reflection of Angkor wat.

Lotus bud like stupas rising high pointing towards the sky. Four stupas surrounding a huge one in the center. Apparently, these were built according to the Hindu cosmology.

Steep stairways (steep as 75deg) providing access to the hallways and to the prayer rooms. A step inside these temples takes your imagination back a couple of thousand years. The archaeologists have dated this structure to belong to the 10 century, 967 A.D but are now reconsidering the date as they suspect that it could be older because the architecture of the 10th century some how doesn’t match with that of Angkor’s. I spotted some monks climbing the steep stairways effortlessly by using their hands, it seemed to me like as if they were rock-climbing minus the gear. I later found that it really reduces the effort if one walks up by using the hands on the next step as support. Really fascinating. The most fascinating of all are the carvings on the walls they are so ornately carved that some are almost three dimensional. So much detail went into it. What still fascinated me was how it stood strong against time, ageing gracefully and exhibiting more beauty as it grew old. How did this structure make it through rain, storm and other calamities that nature brings? I read somewhere that there were no earthquakes registered in Cambodia till date.

I wondered why would someone build something like that? Why were the stairs so steep? Why were they built so high above the ground level, so high that once you climb to any one of the stupas you could almost see the flat landscape for miles and miles. Was it to keep an eye to the approaching enemies? How the hell did they build those high rise structures? How did the stone reach so high? Did they use pulley’s? or was it just manpower? Many questions lingered in my head.

Stone, stone and stone everywhere. Chocolate chip colored. Algae and fungi found their homes on the moist corners of the walls.

The clock was now showing 11:45am. Wow! time just flies by. Apparently the busiest time at Angkor is at sunrise and at 3pm onwards, guess I have missed all the tourist hoards.

I have shot many pictures at Angkor wat but I don’t think any lens could capture the complete beauty of Angkor wat.

I got back to the tuk-tuk where my friendly driver waited for me to take to the next wonder that Cambodia has to offer the Bayon..

15th Sep 2006

I overslept for two hours and got out of bed at 5:30am (I planned to be at the bus terminal by 5:30am) and reached Mohr Chit-Mai a.k.a Northern Bus Terminal at 6:15am.

Quickly purchased a ticket to Aranyaprathet (border town of Thailand) for 207 bhat. The ride was smooth the roads fabulous. The bus reached Aranyaprathet at 11:20am. I quickly hopped on to a tuk-tuk and asked him to take me to the border which was around 6km from the bus terminal. After sending off to tuk-tuk driver I walked towards the sign which said immigration and departure. I was already feeling the change in the air as soon as I took the turn I was approached by a few kids asking for a dollar, I was happy that I finally made it.

Immigration was a breeze through I stood in the line which said foriegn passport (they had separate line for the thais) at my turn I was told to take the re-entry VISA as I would be returning back to Thailand. I was little worried about the cost: 1000 bhat (again!!), as this was not planned for (the re-entry VISA). Anyways after getting my re-entry VISA stamped from the clumsy thai employee at the immigration (he stamped the date wrong on my passport and then re did it after some striking with his red pen..eeks i hate mistakes in my passport). Leaving my 1000 bhat and worries behind I crossed the friendship bridge and the border to Poipet, Cambodia. Poipet is a seedy place with lots of casinos and gambling centers as it is illegal to gamble in thailand people cross over to this side over the weekend to gamble.

This is how the border looks like

It was totally a different landscape just a few hundred meters away(thai side) was clean and quiet and now I saw touts, beggars, labourers, visiting thais and khmers (cambodians) crossing border to shop at the friendship market. I saw the cambodian flag with a picture of angkor wat on it flying high a smile ran through my face …it felt good.

I walked right into the VISA counter to get my VISA on arrival it was a breeze through. I guess every foreigner, no matter how well read or cautious about cambodia, they get scammed into this and so did I. Well, it was plain and simple the VISA costs around 20USD i.e. 800 bhat but they charge you 1000 bhat i.e. 25USD you can’t do much about this. After having my VISA stamped I hopped on to the free shuttle which dropped me off at the immigration. I filled in the arrival card and a few minutes later I was out of the line. I guess not many Indians travel to Cambodia cause I was stared at all the time.

Did I mention that there was this tout who was following me right from the thai border asking me if I wanted a taxi to siem reap? Well, I was ignoring him as I knew that this is all a scam I would be lured into taking one of those taxis ridiculously priced and I would be dropped off at some guest with which they have a deal with. Anyways after ignoring him for a long time he was kinda pissed off/angry with me as I was not responding to him the way he expected. For instance I told him that I would be “taking a walk around poipet and then decide where to go”, which is highly unlikely that a tourist does it and they know why everyone comes to cambodia.

I got into the free bus shuttle service which drove through the mucky streets and dropped me off at the bus/taxi station. The time now read 12:40noon. I decided earlier that I would not be taking the bus. I looked around to see if anyone would be interested to share the cab to siem reap the town closest to Angkor Wat.

I met a friendly american who was waiting for the bus to arrive since 10:00 am she quickly agreed and we decided to hire the cab for 2000 bhat i.e. 50USD. It was a Toyota Camry. I hought “must be the japanese contribution”. The tarmac on the road faded quickly than I realized. We set our journey on the bumpy road for the next 4 hours.

The camry was hitting speeds of 90-100kms inspite of the potholes every 2meters. The cab driver (Nianmai) was very kind enough to gives us enough stops(Sisophon Market and Karhlan) before our asses got numb from the ride.

He took us to the “Killing Fields” in siem reap before dropping us off.

A little bit about killing fields

“On April 17th, 1975 the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. They forced all city dwellers into the countryside and to labor camps. During their rule, it is estimated that 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution. 2 million Cambodians represented approximately 30% of the Cambodian population during that time.

The Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia to year zero. They banned all institutions, including stores, banks, hospitals, schools, religion, and the family. Everyone was forced to work 12 - 14 hours a day, every day. Children were separated from their parents to work in mobile groups or as soldiers. People were fed one watery bowl of soup with a few grains of rice thrown in. Babies, children, adults and the elderly were killed everywhere. The Khmer Rouge killed people if they didn’t like them, if didn’t work hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from different ethnic groups, or if they showed sympathy when their family members were taken away to be killed. All were killed without reason. Everyone had to pledge total allegiance to Angka, the Khmer Rouge government. It was a campaign based on instilling constant fear and keeping their victims off balance.”

We finally reached siem reap at 6:00pm I checked into Chao Say guest house, which was recommended by one of the tourists, for 7 USD a night, with fan and hot shower and no windows.

A quick shower and I was out to find some place to eat..something authentic..something khmer. I chose a quite restaurant which served “Angkor beer” for 50 cents. The most delicious dish of all was the “Fish Amok” (I highly recommend this) served in a coconut shell. Prawn pastis were ok. I thought of the french and their infleunce on the Khmers.

I crashed into my bed hoping for an early start to catch the dawn….

I have this undescribable liking for clouds and skies. I don’t know why but it influences me a lot sometimes reflecting my own emotions. An Artwork from the artist above conveying his moods and emotions with the clouds as if sky is his canvas and the wind and sunlight the brushes.

Be it cumulus, stratus, cirrus or nimbus they have their beauty of their own.

Whenever I fly I make sure I capture these formations without fail.

here is what I saw…

Cheers

I think in Photography one thing that cannot be acheived is to capture the full range of shadows, highlights and luminiosity within a single image.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range imaging

I was introduced to HDR a few months ago through another flickr member.
The first thing you’ll notice in a HDR image is that there was decent amount effort went into pushing the ranges of luminiosity, highlights and shadows. Light is evenly distributed and the tones are more pronunced than a picture exposed using normal digital techniques.

Basically it means when you employ this technique you can produce images with a very high dynamic range for exposures in other words when you expose your picture most of us usually follow the light meter inside our cameras and some of us use external light meters: based on these readings we expose this picture but we will never have an exposure which is technically perfect i.e. we cannot have all the shadows exposed in a way so that every detail in the dark area is visible and at the same time expose all the highlights to avoid burn outs. Basically, it is difficult to acheive this dynamic exposure range using film, slide or digital techniques. HDR helps you to acheive that thus allowing you to create some nice and surreal images.

I hope you guys understood what I wrote up there anyways here is the definition

Definition:
“In computer graphics and cinematography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows.”

You can wiki this for more information or read more here.

all right since we now know what HDR means so how do I generate one?

How do I generate a HDR Image

Things you need to generate a HDR image
1.Most importantly your image(s) itself.
You would require an image that has been bracketed for +/-1EV(Exposure Value) i.e. basically you shoot the same picture with different exposure settings, one slightly overexposed(1 stop), one slightly underexposed(1 stop) and one with exact exposure settings as suggested by your camera.
2.A software that can generate a HDR
PhotoMatix Pro is a popular one (HDR, Tone Mapping)
You can also acheive HDR using Adobe Photoshop CS2

Example:
Original Image
HDR Image

Original Image

HDR Image

Some interesting links
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml
http://www.cybergrain.com/archives/2005/05/photoshop_hdr_i_1.html
http://www.hdrsoft.com/examples.html

After a long tiring week I decided to take off from the city and decided to go to some place quite, historical, cultural with similing faces and laid back atmosphere so I decided to go to HAMPI.

Boarded the HAMPI Express from Bangalore which leaves at 10pm and reaches HOSPET,the closest town to Hampi, at 7:30am. Hired an auto rickshaw (indian tuk-tuk) to take us to HAMPI which is around 13kms away from HOSPET.

The landscape was a nice change tea shops, mud houses, children playing on the streets to banana plantations and finally the rocky hills indicating that we have reached HAMPI. The experience was exhilarating: ruins, temples, carvings, pillars, rocks, boulders, restoration sites, archealogical sites are definetley a get away from the city’s hustle-bustle.

Some of the moments captured from HAMPI.

History: Hampi (ಹ೦ಪೆ, Hampe in Kannada) is a village in northern Karnataka, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River in India. Hampi is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire. Possibly predating the city of Vijayanagara, this village continues to be an important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple. The village of Hampi contains several other monuments belonging to the old city. It extends into some of the old ceremonial streets of Vijayanagara.

Hampi is identified with the mythological Kishkindha, the monkey kingdom which finds mention in the Ramayana. The first historical settlements in Hampi date back to 1 CE.

Hampi formed one of the cores of the capital of the Vijayanagara empire from 1336 to 1565. Hampi was chosen because of its strategic location, bounded by the torrential Tungabhadra river on one side and surrounded by defensible hills on the other three sides.

you can wiki for this more here
Ruins at Vittala Temple

The famous stone chariot “Kalyana Ratha, Vittala Temple”

Hemakoota Temples

for more information you can read this

What would life be with a hot steaming cuppa coffee..

Damn!! I forgot that light meter..does that sound familiar.
A beautiful landscape is waiting in front of you to be clicked and you are left with your imagination on how to expose that frame.
Well..sunny 16 rule comes handy.

What is Sunny 16 Rule?

On a brightest sunny day the exposure is roughly equal to the reciprocal of your film speed or ISO setting (in case of digital slr) at f/16.

i.e. your shutter speed = (approx) film speed

so if you are loaded with a 100 ISO film then set your shutter speed to 125
and if you are loaded with a 200 ISO then your shutter speed would be 250 basically anything close to the ISO numbers.

Well, now what if it is not exactly that sunny.
Hmm..not to worry we can tweak this rule a bit to work for us.

If it’s slightly overcast then we need more light to expose so we open it up one stop (I mean the aperture) keeping the shutter speeds same as above.
so for 100 ISO film it would be shutter speed = 125 and aperture f/11.

If it’s slightly more than overcast then we shall open it up a little more..2 stops.
so we get for 100 ISO film, shutter speed = 125 and aperture f/8.0

and for the rest of the ISO’s you do the math.

Happy Clickin.

It always fascinates me to see night photographs of traffic esp. those long white and red streaks of light. I have seen many photographs of traffic at night, endless shuffling through those Nat Geo really charges up your gray cells. After being inspired enough I decided to see night life from a different perspective. Whenever I used to travel I was always able to spot a good “night” frame here and there..I guess it’s the warm glow of tungsten on peoples faces and buildings,gates,foodstalls, I guess it’s the fire that lights up in those narrow streets. There is a strange beauty in the night mesmerizing and calm.

After said all that I wanted some good memoirs of night life through my lens

Some points to consider while shooting traffic at night esp if you want those everlasting white/yellow/red streaks of lights, glittering street lamps..

What would you need:
1. A sturdy and flexible tripod.
2. A Shutter release OR IR remote control to release the shutter
3. A good wide angle lens with MF (Manual focus) option
4. Patience and Cool.

1. Setting your ISO
If you are using a Digital SLR then set your ISO to 100/200. I prefer these ISO levels as the color saturation is more and more detail is captured while exposing. If you are shooting with a film/slide then also make sure you have loaded the camera with a ISO 100/200 film. I suggest Fuji crystal for film users and Fuji Velvia 100/100F for slide users.
2. Apertue and Shutter Speed settings
a. Stoop the aperture down to anything above 18 (personally I like 22) this is to allow the light to gradually fill the frame as time passes by.. so you can capture even the most dimly lit areas…if exposed for a long enough time all the street lights will glitter like stars and this is also to avoid those bright blobs in your picture if you were shooting traffic travelling towards the direction of the frame with their head lights on

b. Change to MF (Manual Focus). Now compose your picture. It is better if you a still /stationary object in your frame like a lamp post, sign post, parked vehicle etc., and focus on that This gives the feeling of motion better.
c. Set your shutter speeds to anything above 15″ (secs) (personally I like the BULB setting). Why 15″ ? I’am assuming here that a vehicle would enter and pass the frame (when viewed through your viewfinder) in 15″. If you have continous traffic coming at irregular intervals then it is better to set your shutter to BULB.

Now once your ISO, aperture and shutter speed settings are done then release your shutter slowly using the shutter release…take a deep breath and leave the shutter release to avoid any camera shake.. after you are satisified that enough traffic has passed by then release the shutter back to normal.
During the whole process you can completley forget the cameras readings.

DO NOT compensate for exposure by taking the camera readings into consideration.
You can experiment with different combinations of aperture and shutter speed settings. Interesting shots can be taken by experimenting with different white balance settings. Also do try taking some shots in Black & White and am sure you will be pleased.
Here are some of the pictures I have taken during the last two years.

This saturday I was all set to test the capabilities of my new D-SLR the CANON EOS 350D.

So along with a bunch of enthusiasts I decided to shoot people rather kids and families on the streets..and man it turned out a wonderful experience for me. I guess one can understand what “unity in diversity” means from this street. The first thing I spotted was a big gateway/entrance which was colorfully decorated with small sculptures of hindu gods and dieties and the back drop was a tall structure emerging from the mosque which was just a few meters down the lane..I decided to walk into the lane and took the right…a quiet start with people immersed in their daily chores.

Housewives washing clothes and cooking, the elderly lot were just baskin themselves in the sun kids playing marbles youth involved in a serious game of carromboard..the moment the cameras were taken out of the bags one of the kids noticed the same out of nowhere as if the guards were alerted with enemy attack.

There were kids and kids all around me asking me what I was doing there and why I was takin pictures..once those questions were answered everyone wanted their “Single Photos” )..anyways…this is what I saw and captured on those lively streets through my lens..