Beas 2009

As usual, the family X-Mas trip constituted a trip to India, composed of us visiting Delhi and Beas. I was quite excited to go this year as I missed out last years trip (which was apparently amazing) due to the frantic antics of Directing and D.O.P-ing two short films with a lot of problems (one more so than the other), preventing me from making the trip. I was particularly excited at the prospect of shooting, something I didn't do as much as I would have liked, mostly due to the lack of cars and my cousins getting me hooked on Command and Conquer Generals which ate away the hours. That and simply catching up and seeing a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. All in all quite a fun trip. Although an incredibly annoying cold didn't help much in me getting out either.

The day I did get out, since photography is not allowed within the walls of the Dera, I made my way to Beas station and started my little photographic walk from there. Although I have done this before I am quite happy to say that my eye has certainly improved. I saw Image opportunities jumping out at me more than ever, and I was happy clicking away picture, after picture after picture. I had only brought one memory card remembering previous years escapades thinking that no way would I fill it up. I was wrong. I reached a point where I was deleting on the go, a habit I am not particularly fond of as it keeps the lens away from my eye creating a sense of panic that I might be missing a shot somewhere!












One of the highlights of the day was finding this little lake, where I had the opportunity to juice out some bird photography! Especially moving birds! Despite being a third party lens and not a top of the range tier Lens, it continues to impress me with its sharpness and focusing ability. Albeit its a little slower than I'd like but pinpoint nonetheless!





I did also want to get some nice portraits of the local folk, and whilst I did shoot some naturals I did want to get my little flash involved. After having watched the OneLight DVD I felt that in my head my lighting fundamentals were in a much better place. Before I wouldn't think about things so much but rather just put my head on autopilot and flew by ear not really understanding what I was doing but getting results nonetheless. After having watched the DVD I tried to go for specific effects, such as messing about with my sync speed and aperture to get a good blend of ambient light and lit subjects. Although I did manage to get half way there when you're working quickly things have a tendency to fumble or not work out as they please. Such as I kept forgetting the inverse square law, one that I need to quickly familiarize myself with, as I have reached a point where I can pretty much gauge what aperture and shutter speed I will need for a certain look. The next problem is telling the flash how to react in those circumstances. Very often I'm amazed when i see the results one can get with a bare flash, but am unable to reproduce it under pressure because of my lack of familiarity with the device. I've had it hammered into me in the past that bare bulb = bad harsh light, but in my explorations of images and photography I've discovered that, that is not necessarily the case and am more open to experimenting what this little light can do. However I am still a whiles away from the level of mastery I would desire to have.