The Pier

I used a telephoto lens to take this shot of two friends having a picnic at a pier on a secluded lake in Napa Valley. Post shot editing was done to highlight the blue color in the picture while making the rest black. 

Indian Idol

The idea behind this shot of an Indian god was to show that there is darkness before one meets God (call Him by whatever name you may) and once the blinding glory of God is upon you there's enlightenment thereafter.

The Green Bee

I was practicing my close up shots on a bright sunny morning in Atlanta. What's an amateur photography portfolio without a closeup of a flower with a bee inside it??. I searched high and low for bees, I even called up the Queen Bee but she refused to budge from her hive. Crestfallen I decided to see what could be done to establish my amateur status and there it was... A bud that looked so uncannily like a bee. It gives me great pleasure to join the official ranks of Amateur Photographers... 

Smoke Signals

This picture was taken at a lake in the Napa Valley. The cloud formation was very interesting and I found that if I slanted the camera a bit the clouds looked like smoke signals given by Native Americans to communicate. By slanting the camera I was able to provide the feeling that the clouds were in motion and were actually emanating from the hillside completing the effect of puffs of smoke.

Speedy Gonzales

I was visiting my cousin in Sunnyvale and as I walked into his yard I noticed a bunch of snails on a shrub in the yard. The lighting was diffused because of clouds and that brought out the green in the leaves. The color of the snails was in stark contrast with the leaves and I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice my close-up shots. While I was naming this picture I started thinking about snails and almost became one. I thought if I was a snail I would want to be famous and what's more famous in a snail world than a speedy snail? Heh!

Steeple of Chaos

This was a surprise shot. I took this shot from the window of a moving car. The building looked beautiful standing out on the horizon, hidden behind the trees. When I took the shot the subject in my mind was to capture a building of peace trapped behind a mesh thus making attaining peace a challenge. The surprise was the blurring of the trees in the foreground. It depicted a fast moving, chaotic world and the clarity of the building showed a steady figure that might be responsible for bring order to the madness. The shot was taken in Baltimore.

The bridge to nowhere

 

Around the bend

The symmetry of the lines on the road is what caught my attention to this shot. The swoop provided the sense of direction that I needed to show. To highlight the swoop I took the shot from near the ground instead of standing up. The shot was taken on a road trip to Big Sur state park on Pacific Coast highway.

Love

Love is a slow kiss. It's anticipation.
Love is a flaw in your lover, not bothering you. It's acceptance.
Love is a kiss starting at the lips,ending at the toes.It's exploring.
Love is dancing together in the rain.It's joy.
Love is the arms around you tightening their embrace. It's ecstasy.
Love is seeing a new side of a person you knew. It's renewal.
Love is saying goodbye and knowing we will be back. It's faith.
Love is stories that will never be told. It's personal.
Love is a warmth enveloping your whole being. Its pure.
Love is two beings with one soul. Its eternal.

Check out this poem at Poetry.com

Warmth

Sunset on the Pacific coast highway is beautiful. A perfect end to a great day. There was a chill in the air and my friend has the collar of his jacket up. The colors of the sun at the time of this shot reminded me of a warm fire.

Quaint

The country side on the ride to Napa Valley is beautiful. The day was bright and clear. I've always been fascinated with the pictures of French and British country side I've seen in magazines or ads and I've wanted to take one of my own. This shot had everything I wanted; a quaint house in the foreground holding the shot in place, birds on a cable filling out the left side of the shot, a hillside with smaller cottages, a house at the top and lush green grass complemented by a bright blue sky peppered with the (in my opinion) perfect collection of clouds.

Spread your Wings

 

Solar Crosshairs

Just another example of why you should carry your camera wherever you go. This shot was taken when I was out playing golf with my friend in Atlanta, GA. A couple of planes had trailed white smoke creating a criss cross pattern in the sky. I had to walk half a mile to get the sun exactly in the intersection of the trails. Taking a picture of the sun is always difficult and for this shot I had to point it directly at the sun. The direct light blocked the bright blue of the sky but it didn't matter because the cross hair effect was the main subject of this shot anyways.

Veins of Wood

There are times when you'll get a photo opportunity when you least expect it. That's why I carry my camera with me everywhere I go. In this case I was driving down to my local grocery store and looked up to see this great cloud formation with a beautiful diffused pink color. Now I had taken a lot of cloud pictures and I wanted to take this one too but not just by itself. Even though it was beautiful on its own I thought it would make a great backdrop for another subject. The hunt was on to find a great subject matter that could use the cloud formation as a backdrop. In a nearby park I was walking under some trees when I looked up and the first thing that came to my mind was "The branches look so much like veins". And that started me thinking that the pink clouds would be perfect to depict a healthy organ with the tree's branches as veins. It was difficult to position myself to maximise the effect of veins.

Reeds

 

Cove

 

Flowers

 

Children of Shadow

Silhouettes are beautiful. Period. And when you get a chance to shoot a silhouette of an interesting sculpture, tree or even a person don't let that opportunity pass you by. If you get a good backdrop for your silhouette shot that's like icing on the cake. I took this shot of a school playground sculpture near my place. It looked beautiful in bright sunlight by I felt it would look even better as a silhouette shot. I cropped the picture to provide a better frame and removed part of the sky and the dark background. By taking the shot at an elevation angle, making the sculpture span the natural gradient color of the background from orange to blue I hoped to give it a sense of towering into the sky even though the sculpture is only 10 feet in height.

Floating on Glass

Here's the thing about wide angle shots, they capture a lot of lanscape, landscape that you never intended to be in the shot. A tighter shot is needed which might guide us to use a telephoto lens but then you don't get the panoramic view that you want. What's the alternative? Welcome to the world of cropping. This picture had a lot of sky captured. And the vast expanse of the sky took the focus away from the main subject of the picture. It has been my experience that while taking wide angle shots don't worry too much about removing stuff from the frame while taking a shot. Concentrate on the subject matter and frame it to maximize the effect you are going for. Then come back to your editing software and crop the picture to remove the extra stuff and tighten the shot.

The Burning Bush

Pink and blue = Flame in my mind when I noticed this cloud formation in Atlanta. By itself I could not have conveyed the message of Flame so I positioned the shot with a bush in the foreground to give the effect that the bush was on fire.

 

My Backyard

 

Girl on the Moon

The sculpture of a little girl looking out into the sky was a great subject but she wasn't looking at anything in particular. I wanted to take the shot of the girl but didn't want her staring into empty space. I waited till dusk when the moon became clearly visible and positioned myself and took the shot from below to set the moon in the line of sight of the girl. I put the focus on the moon because the girl out of focus still looked like a girl where as if the moon had been blurred I wouldn't have been able to show that the girl was looking at the moon (it looked like a bulb with the focus on the girl)

A Slice of Heaven

 

Once in a Pink Moon

Finally a shot of the moon that was clear. I've tried umpteen number of times to capture the moon at night. I've tried holding my hand steady but the shot was always blurred. Then I put the camera on a stand and still could not get the details I wanted. I decided that taking a shot of the moon at night would require a telephoto zoom lens that would annihilate my bank balance. To get a clear shot of the moon I waited till dusk when there was just enough light not to have a real slow shutter speed and still dark enough to provide a nice background for the moon. It was my luck that the rays of the setting sun gave a pink tint to the moon. Overall I was very pleased with this shot.