Sunday Stills - Tip for working with ice

This is real ice and not fake. I love to use real ice in shoots as it just adds to the authenticity of the image. When using ice, I usually like to buy it from the grocery store, love the shapes and texture and some reason it is not foggy like the ice I make at home.

For this shot, I used multiple reflectors...the ice acts like a mirror, reflecting light. I have seen backlight works best for ice images like this, with a couple of reflectors on the side.

Wanted to showcase caviar like a jewel... hope it worked

Do you like it with ice or without ??

Sunday Stills and a photography tip on White Balance

When photographing different shades of white - use auto WB mode or when you edit, use the WB dropper in Photoshop and click on the brightest white. You will have perfect shades of whites, no pale yellows or extreme-blue-whites.

The white on white above is very different white than the one below  (last one). Shot on different days, different light and different whites but both equally white and pristine.

If you are interested to learn hands-on ....click here. 

Sunday Stills with styling tips

I'm restarting my SundayStills with a tip every week. This week's tip is, if you are planning to photograph fresh produce, make sure you take them out of the refrigerator at least an hour or two before the shoot. Shoot them at room temperature, especially if they are red color produce. I do not know the science behind it, but I can tell you from experience, the difference is visually perceptive.

Thanks for stopping by. If you want me to ask me questions about styling/photography, email me and I will try my best to answer it. IF you want me to work on tutorials, let me know and your wish is my command...lol!

Have a fabulous week ahead.

Sunday Stills

 A quick post - Sunday stills. I did not have much in terms of fresh produce but I do love the aubergine color of the egg plant and the pink-red of the onion. The first image is more like a rustic kitchen scene. The second one is a bit whimsical. I love the textures of the background, wanted to use it with the rich purple color. I'm going to try bold whimsical color palette.

I want to start posting tutorials again...email me if you want something specific.

That's all for now. Have a fabulous week.

Sunday Stills

I love dry roses as much as I am in love with fresh ones....I am back with Sunday still life images for 2018.... I know I missed the month of January....it has been hectic for me and hectic not for good reasons. I do have a few recipes in draft but have not had the chance to post... don't ask it is a long story. I will be writing a detail post soon....but for now will have you enjoy these dried roses still life images.

Sunday Stills - Cherries

 Some stills from my garden. So many things on my to-do list today, took some time to share this.  promise to be back with recipe next week.

Sunday stills - Happy Mother's day !

 Mothers shape our lives like no other, there is no other relationship that is stronger and more impactful in a person's life than a mother n' child. I have been blessed with a mom who is strong and wise, fun loving and witty...she's strong as a pillar in my life. Ever major decision I have taken in my life is not without her consultation. I wish I could be like her.

To all the women out there, mothers, sisters, aunts and friends - Happy Mother's Day ! You make the world a better place.  Yes everyday is Mother's day but let's make this day special - and celebrate womanhood and motherhood.

Sunday Stills

This is the best time of the year, and if I say this again in summer or fall, don't believe it. This is 'the' best time of the year. My walks have become longer and am just soaking it all in, shedding my winter gloom and embracing all the sounds, aromas and sights around me. Storing it all in to contemplate on it, on cold winter nights. Picking wild flowers like a little girl and making a bouquet, it is so rightly said that it is the smaller things in life that makes the big difference.

The other day I was talking to my sister on the phone, she's a store house of positivity and warmth. I'm not kidding, I'm sooo blessed to have her in my life. There are some people and when you talk to them, you are just sooo happy...and then they are some 'other' people...lol! let's not go there.

She narrated a beautiful story, and I just had to share the story here and am sure a lot of you might have read it somewhere....

The Story : Two Buddhist Monks were on a journey, one the Buddha, the other a junior monk. During their journey they approached a raging river and on the river bank stood a young lady. She was clearly concerned about how she would get to the other side of the river without drowning.

The junior monk walked straight past her without giving it a thought and he crossed the river. The Buddha picked up the woman and carried her across the river. He placed her down, they parted ways with the woman and on they went with the journey.

As the journey went on, the Buddha  could see some concern on the junior monk's mind, he asked what was wrong. The junior monk replied, "how could you carry her like that? You know we can't touch women, it's against our way of life". The Buddha answered, "I left the woman at shore a long way back, and you are still carrying her?"

There is so much we all carry with us, it is really not worth it. I really hope to learn from it and practice to leave the 'unwanted' at the shore.

Sunday Stills - Vintage

 

Happy Easter ! I'm back as promised with my vintage post. I have a thing for old things... dried flowers or old hand written letters or sheet music... even fossils. Most of my stuff is from my own collection, from mom and dad, they have a story and memories associated with them.

 

"Sometimes you never know the true value of a moment, until it becomes a memory" The letters are from my dad, and I cherish them because they are hand written. Dad had one of the most beautiful handwriting I have seen, so artistic... His words were not just wise but so well chosen and put together. Some people have to make an effort to write or express, for some it comes so naturally.

 

Hope you guys have a wonderful Easter, will come back with a recipe next this week.

 

Sunday Stills - chiaroscuro

I have a recipe post, that was due today but well.... the best part of blogging is there are no rules. So this week I have 2 #SundayStills to share. One moody and the other vintage still life, I am posting that on Sunday. Hope you guys have a fabulous weekend. Hugs!!

*I know it is not a Sunday... oh well ;)

Sunday Stills - Speed light

Thank you everyone for being part of Instagram (live) Q&A on photography. Sharing what I know, even though I am learning myself, is indeed very fulfilling. Thanks again.

 

One of the questions addressed was about speed lights. I use Nikon  SB-600. It is a really an old model, but does its job very well. I am sharing an image here taken with the help of the speed light. Just one light source - speed light.  The light was not directly facing the flowers, but it was facing a reflector that was facing the flowers. Very simple set up.

 

If you guys are interested in more of Instagram live sessions or behind the scene set up, do follow me on Instagram.

 

Have a wonderful weekend, love and hugs.

 

 Here is one in natural light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Sunday Stills - Ranunculus

 I was shopping at my grocery store and saw these beautiful Ranunculus, they had them in baby pink, red and flame orange (this one) ... I remember my childhood and especially my dad, it was his favorite and every year he would plant the bulbs, dig the bulbs out after the season and store them in a cool dry place. I have never looked at it as an exotic flower...but it stood there amongst hundreds of flowers, just so stunning and gorgeous... I had to bring a bunch home. I just loved every minute of photographing these beauties.

 

I have tried to style them in different ways... I did not want to share all of them, so sharing a few of my favorites, which one is your favorite ??

 

Have a fabulous weekend... lots of love and smiles your way. Hugs!

Sunday Stills - A new chair

When I saw this adorable pretty country chair that comes with a table, I was in love.... there was no way I was not going to get it. It is the perfect thing I have been looking for, especially for my outdoor shoots. I was looking for something country and rustic... I'm so glad I found it. My prop collection is rather tiny, compared to the number of years I have been blogging and of late I have become even more picky. Space is always a constrain, and I like to keep my collection a bit contained. This is a big prop or should I say my first big one. I have a list lol !

 

Since it is so cold outside, here are some indoor test shots with the prop. What do you guys think? I know when I posted it on social media, you guys just loved it. :)

 

Once it gets warmer and a little green outside, I am looking forward to shoot with this cutie. 

 

Sunday Stills

This week has been part busy, so I have not been able to post a recipe on the blog. I took some time off and just decided to take it easy and enjoy some much wanted me time. I could get used to this. I had decided not to touch my camera for the weekend, but ...the roses were calling my name. So here are a couple of my favorite images from the set. Hope you guys have a fabulous Sunday. Love n hugs.

Sunday Stills - The magic of steam

This weeks #SundayStill is very close to my heart, it is not only a still life image from yours truly but some of the most fascinating images of steam by some of my photographer friends. I certainly did not want them in a collage format...each images is so  beautiful and needs to stand by itself.  I had very hard time trying to arrange them all...I did not want any image to be placed last... as it would not do justice, even though it was not arranged in any particular order. So, I posted mine last...

I hope you enjoy this fabulous selection, the photographer name is acknowledged in the caption (below) the images. Thank you to each and every one for giving me this privilege to share your images.

Have a fabulous Sunday, love and hugs.

If I Have missed out anyone or have a typo error, please let me know. Thanks again !



Image courtesy Sia Krishna
 




Image courtesy Ambica Salvam

Image Courtesy Madhuri Aggarwal





Image courtesy Meena Kumar

Image Courtesy - Jayashri Ravi

 

Tons of fabulous images below....do not forget to check them out....

Sunday Stills - Coffee

I have been wanting to post Sunday stills for a couple of weeks now, so even though it is late, I had to share my still life images from this week. Coffee makes my morning, the aroma of fresh coffee in the kitchen ...sitting by my bay window sipping my cup of coffee and watching the world go by. The two things that make me smile, any time of the day is flowers and coffee. Growing up in a south Indian household, I mother would roast coffee pods every week and grind them every other day. For me the aroma of coffee is as relaxing as memories of my childhood.

 

Here are some images from a recent shoot.... hope you like them. Have a fabulous week, love n' hugs.

 

Use my dusty speed light after months. I guess I should use it more often, love the highlights from it.  

Sunday Stills

Here are some still life from last week...
It is really late on this side of the world. I will call it a day and see you very soon with another recipe and more about the story...

It was quite a challenge shooting both black and white in the same frame. This is not a composite but same image with both. Two ends of the dynamic range... to get details and exposure in both was a bit thinking and experimenting.

Sunday Stills - Taming the reflections

It started out as a lazy saturday morning, ...I sat down to enjoy my coffee. The gray clouds diffused the light...I was playing with a leaf, watching the highlights and shadows as I rotated it and placed it on the dinning table. I got a couple of black cards to block the excess reflections, played with different background and before I knew it, it had been four hours...When you love what you do, time seems to fly.

Stocking up groceries has been on my list for the last few days and I have been procrastinating, all I have in my refrigerator are some bell peppers, tomatoes and snap peas ....oh yes some spinach too. So my subject has been the onion.  I have been going over board with it, lol ... I'm not going to post all the images of the onion, posted one of them on a plate and the other in the glass bell. The onion is such a beautiful subject to photograph, specially with the artistic green shoots. There are so many textures, and layers in an onion ..

Here are a few images ... taming the reflections.

Reflections and highlights are very powerful in an image if used effectively, reflections can be mysterious, enchanting or disastrous. It is how you see them and use them.

Sunday stills

 Over the years I have done several photography projects like 365 days of photography - where I took a photo a day, it was  an intense project. It helped me learn the functioning of my camera . 52 weeks of creative exposure helped me explore landscape/outdoor photography. the project helped me think creatively about the exposure triangle, something that I am still learning and working on.  Indian masala dubba, was a project straight from the heart, started by Dolphia, Deeba and myself - we paired spices and shot them once a month, I am in love with this and plan to finish the rest of the spices on the list this year. Monthly mingle was a project started by Sophia, Ilva and myself, where we picked a topic to blog/photograph on. We posted our interpretation once a month.  I started a new project last year called Sunday Stills : as the name implies still life photography on the blog, every Sunday.

 

 

 

 

This image of the three apples is one of my first from seven years ago(2010). I can laugh at it now, but at that time it was so frustrating to try and bring to life my vision of the image I had in mind.   These projects have really helped me grow and hone my skills. I started out with a point and shoot camera, all I knew about photography was, 2 buttons. One - how to turn the camera on and the other the shutter.  I had the creative vision but did not know how to execute it. I knew what constituted a good photograph and what elements make an image stand down, but without the knowledge of framing, colors, light exposure, there was no way I could execute my vision. Slowly I have been able to somewhat express myself visually. There is still a long way to go. Today I am proud to share my journey, the image of the apple is as much mine as the image above. I am not shy of it, as it has helped me grown.

This year I plan to continue with #SundayStills, as am in love with still life.

 

The Image from #SundayStill this week was such a fun image to work on. It was exciting to learn to make the old map and distressed paper. Thanks to my sister-in-law, who taught me how to distress paper.

 

That is it for now.... I'm going to start a thread on Facebook, asking you to post your first photography. It will be fun !Join me there