Home, Sweet Home in Infra-red

One of my first infra-red photos with my dedicated IR converted DSLR was a frontal landscape of my house. It was a learning experience figuring out, how to take and process the IR image. Principle point being that white balance needs to be preset for the light condition before you do the capture. In PS, the red and blue channels need to be reversed in color channel mixer.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/23356707_kFtBK9#!i=2255574448&k=nCQZs7T&lb=1&s=A

Waiting for Spring

Just processed a photo taken last year at Pittsburgh during spring against a backdrop of the students building at Carnegie Mellon University with a pink cherry blossom in full bloom. Cant wait to see my wounded cherry blossoms bloom again after being rampaged by hurricane Sandy. My favorite pink cherry blossom in my backyard sufferred multiple branch fractures due to the hurricane and the following Noreaster.

Carnegie Mellon University, My photo @500px.com

An awesome piece of architecture of a building at Carnegie Mellon Univ.,Pittsburgh.
My photo at 500px.com has reached popular status!

http://500px.com/photo/19724581

Carnegie Mellon Arts. My photo @500px.com

 The Carnegie Mellon school of Arts, Pittsburgh. A beautiful and impressive foyer greets visitors  in this premiere institute, world renowned for its Art's courses. My photo posted at 500px.com and reached the popular status!

http://500px.com/photo/19753717

Dreamhouse, My photo at 500px

Dreamhouse, a photo captured from the passenger side,while driving in Pittsburgh near Carnegie Mellon University. My photo at 500px.com.

http://500px.com/photo/19626897

Lonely, my photo at 500px

Lonely, a lone tree that I shot from the passenger side of the car while driving on the Pennsylvania turnpike from Pittsburgh. I have posted this picture at my 500px.com site.
Again, I have used textures on the sky, which on the original photo was rather uninteresting.

http://500px.com/photo/19500243

Playing with Textures

Textures are fun in photoshop. One can make your own textures and superimpose them on photographs and turn dull pictures into interesting art. There is no dearth of finished textures available on the internet and the choice of textures is infinite. This opens the door to the world of artsy photography or what some call the painterly effect. Here are some examples, which I have processed, today and I will post the non-texture with the textured ones for comparative purposes.

Back to Birds

Yeah! I am back into birds after a long haitus, which had me, dabbling into other subjects for photography. Birds are sublime and as colorful as flowers. Therefore, it is always, such a joy, photographing birds. Come winter and the birds that dont migrate became scarcer to find but, they do hide in the warmer nooks and corners, which you need to make a concerted effort to discover. For some reason, they lose there colorful plumage during winter and start becoming more colorful during spring, just like flowers. Here are some photographs that I have processed, today. And, I must confess, that they have brought me great happiness, as if I finding a lost love again!

My Daily Photo, 11/26/12.

Pizzeria, my daily photo posted to my smugmug site.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/23356707_kFtBK9#!i=2237850467&k=9HhCSsf&lb=1&s=A

Lincoln Tunnel, My photo at 500px

Linclon Tunnel. My photo posted at 500px.com.

http://500px.com/photo/19042251

Iguana, my photo at 500px.com


Iguana, a portrait. My photo at 500px.com.

http://500px.com/photo/18864437

My daily photo, 11/21/12.

Barn. My daily photo at Smugmug. Shot taken from moving car while driving on Pensylvania Turnpike. Part of my Rural America series.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/23356707_kFtBK9#!i=2228629347&k=L38W73s&lb=1&s=A

My Photo at 500px.com

Birdie. My photo at 500px.com

http://500px.com/photo/18574827

Tragedy in Gaza

The curtain of violence again drops on the Gaza strip unfolding another tragedy with the major players being the militant Hamas pitted against the might of the state of Israel. There appears to be no solution in sight as the tensions escalate with the vicious cycle of retaliatory attacks by Israel in response to the furtive missile/rocket strikes of the Hamas, which is a guerilla outfit that operates in the heavily populated Hamas strip. Innocent civilian bystanders have become the victims of this madness and more than 200 children have been reported to be injured in Gaza. The  rest of the world watches helplessly and can only express outrage at this totally avoidable conflagration between two hostile parties, each blaming the other for having drawn first blood.
Who started this imbroglio can never be ascertained as facts can get murky as charges and counter charges get exchanged and the level of rhetoric drowns reason. Violence begets more violence as rockets stream across the Israel/Hamas border southwards into Israel wrecking havoc and disrupting the fragile truce that had been in effect since Prime Minister Netanyahu came into power in Israel. Netanyahu, a hardliner has been swift in initiating retaliatory responses with air-strikes against the Hamas, who intermingle with the civilians and are difficult to target without affecting innocent bystanders. Hence, the high civilian injuries reported with many Palestinians left with their homes destroyed, if they escape these so called surgical strikes. Many Palestinians and Israelis recount the horror of previous attacks and have had their loved ones injured or dead, as a consequence. The human misery inflicted has made the civilians bitter and further hardened their resolve to fight each other to the tooth and nail. Thus the violence that has flared up has no end, as the attacks intensifies.
And, when the bombs or rockets explode, the fire will rage, leaving the Gaza strip enveloped in a cloud of black smoke. As these clouds clear, the devastation will be apparent to the rest of the world via the media. We are inundated with pictures of this tragedy on facebook and twitter as well as our television channels and we can only watch with a repressed anger questioning the compulsions of our fellow brothers to indulge in such rabid madness. When will it all end is what the rest of the world ask! The answer is when enough of either parties die. When there has been a satisfaction of the retributions. When more than enough blood has been shed. We hope at least then, there will be some sense left for a truce,
Till then, we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best. But, the truce will only be momentary as the surviving factions again amass their weapons and replenish their arsenals for another bout of confrontation. There is no end in sight for this madness!

Aerial Views

Plane view, a view from the window of an airplane over Phoenix. Photo posted at 500px.

http://500px.com/photo/18502537

Pier 39 Marina, San Fanscisco

A night time view at the Pier 39 Marina, San Franscisco. Shot this in Oct. 2012, when visited my son, who is at UC Berkeley. My photo posted at 500px.com.

Pier 39 Marina, San Francisco. My photo posted at 500px.com. http://500px.com/photo/18383847

My Daily Photo, 11/16/12.

Church in Toms River, NJ. My daily photo posted at Smugmug.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/23356707_kFtBK9#!i=2219805107&k=dcdqbXK&lb=1&s=A

Photoshop CS6 Postprocessing with color lab

Recently, discovered that color lab was better than RGB or CMYK for post-processing color photos.
There was a good tutorial on a blog that I found and I took it for a test drive.  See link below:

http://mauriziofecchio.blogspot.it/2012/05/my-workflow-for-hdr-my-tutorial-on.htm

You can watch an easy youtube video tutorial on how to use lab color at below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJdwZHzVkBY

Now for my own experimentation.
I had this dull looking landscape of Miami, which had colors which looked very tired as below. RAW/NEF image processed in LR4:

The below was the post-processed photo that I used with Colr Efex pro 4 with tonal contrast,
polarization filter and a graduated filter for bluing the sky. The photo is still dull.

Then, I used photoshop CS6 and did levels and curves in RGB and tweaked with hue and saturation, brightness & contrast and lastly sharpened the photo with unsharp mask with result as below:

I then processed it using color lab in photoshop CS6.

The color and luminosity now pops out and the photo was salvaged.

Voice of India, 2G auction flop is Congress's show

The recent flop of the 2G auction which netted a mere  9000 crores or so, when it was estimated that the figure should have been 5 times larger, reflects more on the failure of the Congress govt. than anything else, including the predicted estimated loss by the CAG.
So, to attack the constitutional body, CAG is erroneous and an attempt by the Congress to undermine its impact.
Imagine, yourself as a telecom company owner and you were contemplating participating in the 2G auction. The auction comes after the 3G spectrum has already been auctioned, so, already your interest in this retrograde commodity appears to be compromised. Why will any sane telecom player buy a slower spectrum for communication unless it can be had for a bargain. Therefore, the 2G auction can be likened to a liquidation sale or a sale of 2nd hand goods. Furthermore, this comes after strong scrutiny of the supreme court and tightening of credit by major lending banks which contributed to the buyers staying away from the Chor Bazaar of the 2G spectrum auctions.
It was a pathetic sight to watch Minister Manish Tiwari come on national news channel and taunting the CAG by asking, "Where is the 1.76 lakh crore loss.". The Congess's stand of a lesser or no loss is by no way vindicated. The value of the 2G spectrum in 2008 when it was auctioned was at a time when 2G was at the cutting edge of technology and a hot commodity and hence was valued much higher. Yesterday's technology is today's trash in the fast pace telecom sector.
The lack luster interest in the 2G auction should be construed as a failure of the Congress govt. Instead, the Congress party is portraying this fiasco as a vindication of its stand and has called for a press conference on friday, as a celebration party. This must be condemned by all and serious questions must be asked by the scribes covering the press conference. Furthermore, the CAG must also be permitted to have a press conference and contradict the misinformation, put forth by the Congress.

Born to be Blue- a touching jazz song, great lyrics!

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Chet Baker Lyrics

" Born To Be Blue "

Customize :

Send "Born To Be Blue" Ringtone to your Cell

Some folks were meant to live in clover
but they are such a chosen few
and clovers being green
is something i've never seen
'cause i was born to be blue

When there's a yellow moon above me
they say there's moonbeams i shoul view
but moonbeams being gold
are something i can't behold
'cause i was born to be blue

When i met you
the world was bright and sunny
when you left the courtain fell
i'd like to laugh
but nothing strikes me funny
now my world's a faded pastel

I guess i'm luckier than some folks
i've known the thrill of loving you
but that alone is more
than i was created for
'cause i was born to be blue

When i met you
the world was bright and sunny
but when you left the courtain fell
i'd like to laugh
but there's nothing that strikes me funny
now my world's a faded pastel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y11EHQAGhU

My Daily Photo, 11/16/12.

Tortoise. Found this cute guy swimming in the pool, trying to find his way out but could not , so the boys helped him out with a shovel. He stayed around to thank them and pose for a photograph and then vanished from our backyard. I offered it a leaf to eat but he declined and vanished into his shell. When, I checked later, both he and the leaf were gone! Photo posted to my Smugmug site.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/23356707_kFtBK9#!i=2217037893&k=RpV5H6R&lb=1&s=A