pradeep satyaprakash

Thanks Jim. This photograph was created by combining three bracketed shots. They were taken by using AEB -1, 0, +1. I combined the three in Paintshop Pro to bring out the details in the white stone in the foreground, the details in the shadows on the yellowish rock in the front right of the frame, and also details in the trees. I then made a Gaussian blur layer to give it a slightly misty feeling. This was my first try at doing something like this, and I thought it worked reasonably well. The photo is not that great per se, but the technique worked well.

This photo was taken a while back ago. I brought it up to finalize it

and bring some meaning to that trip in April of 2004. I worked on

this image with two others that were exposure bracketed to bring out

the details in the shadows and the highlights. I know the horizon is

not level and the photo is not perfect, but I thought you would like

it nonetheless. As I go further and further in this digital domain, I

am realizing that mastering the software darkroom is critical to

bring the best out of one's photographs, and this is an example of

that process. I am still learning. Thank you for your critiques,

comments, and thoughts.

They have everything they need, nothing they don't need, and are content, hence the happiness. Nice photograph.

This portfolio is called "Digital Renaissance", but this will be the

end of that. This is my foray back into film photography. But this

time, using classic rangefinder cameras from the 1960s and 1970s. I

took this photo while testing a newly fixed Canonet GIII-QL17 camera.

It is difficult to go back to film after shooting digital for the

past two years. First the cost - almost $0.42 per printed exposure.

Second, the lack of feedback. That really kills me. Normally if I

shot this in digital, I would use my histogram to decide exposure.

With film, all I have is the click of the shutter and my imagination

to provide for thoughts about my image. Third, the depth of field is

not as before. With digital, I am used to have wide depth of field

due to the smaller sensor sizes. But with a "full-framed" 35mm

camera, and that too, a very small Canonet QL17 with a 40mm wide

angle lens shot wide open in low light really brings back my lessons

about depth of field. That is film. I am not sure if I love it

anymore liked I used to. Or maybe I need to reacquaint myself to this

old friend and lover.

About the photograph. I was in an old dusty warehouse that is

probably 40-50 years old. It is an old granite sawing and polishing

factory that has been decommissioned for those purposes. This

warehouse is open to the environment and over the years, all sorts of

human detritus has accumulated on the inside of it. These objects,

after being coverd with dust and dirt over time take on a different

type of look. One that is both sad, barren, cold, austere, and

elemental at the same time. So I was walking around testing my camera

and finishing off this roll of film when this chair next to some

cinder-blocks caught my eye. The chair is fairly small, so it looks

like that something a child would use, but a child in a factory? The

chair, the background, and the dirt floor all added to the sense of

punishment or loss. As if someone who once sat on that chair was

banished from society and human contact and would have to spend their

time on this uncomfortable and bleak chair as atonement for their

sins. Maybe it reminded me of all the chairs I have sat on as a child

when I was being punished in school for doing something. The chair in

the corner, the "time-out" chair, and the "dunce" chair. Looking at

that chair reminded me of how we impose our values of right and wrong

on something and other people, and we banish people to these

punishment chairs as they come and interact with our lives. But why

do we punish? What do we gain from that? What do we lose? Maybe this

punishment chair is just a testament to what we lose when we try to

punish others into our own world views and experiences. Maybe this

punishment chair is our chair. Maybe my chair. My punishment chair.

I have been meaning to work on this picture again. Here is an updated version. Thanks.

Yikes!

Warm color blanket. Excellent.

You are in trouble mister.

Photographer perusing photograph of photographer photographing photographer photographing a waterfall.

You have ruined my dinner. Thanks.

Is this Magnolia Gardens?

You have taken something annoying and tacky and made it in to a work of art.

Wonderful!

Reminds me of the HP commercial...picture, picture, taken by your poppa, a picture of your momma, a long time ago...

A man constipated!

Oversaturated. Boring. Inspired. Love the color of the rocks. Composition with dead tree is interesting.

Elementally beautiful.

Awwwwgh...you made coyote squash grumpy.

Thought this would be a fun photo for you guys to see. My cousin's

family was visiting us over the Christmas break in 2004 and he was

tossing his little kid up and down for fun. I caught this right as

the little guy was starting to come down.

Looky there, you can take a photograph with a Tamron AF 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 and it can make POTW. I thought the anything larger than 28-80 was the be avoided! ;0)

Thanks for your explanation. Yes, some fans of Elvis can be scary. I am a fan, but not a scary one. This was my first visit to Graceland and I was a bit underwhelmed. I had envisioned it in my mind differently, but what I did like was the prescence that place has. It is uniquely Elvis and has all the class, excitement, tackiness, and sillyness that embodied the man. I think I became more of a fan after visiting Graceland than I was before I visited it. Cheers.

...

Why is this scary? :?

JPG Compression makes this photo less than ideal in clarity. View in full size to appreciate.

I've been to this exact same place! I remember Arches/Moab so fondly. Visited them in January 2000. Picture is good, but not very interesting. Well exposed. Nice sky. Nothing interesting in foreground. Were you stepping on cryptobiotic organisms to take this picture? :^P