Happy Halloween!!!

Hey folks! I know I've been MIA lately but I do plan to get back to sharing regularly.

Happy Halloween! :)

Just something I threw together at the very last minute.

It's also Diwali time here so it's pretty noisy outside...poor Dixie.

Anguish

I have been waiting to share this image and today I finally can. I took this for a competition where it became a favourite. Then a band wanted to use it for their single that they're releasing next week. So, I helped them design their art for the single. Definitely check them out on Facebook - If Hope Dies India

They released the art for the single today so now I can finally share this. This was shot with on speedlight behind and above myself to the right.

Ominous

I'm guessing (rather, hoping) you saw the sneak peak I posted to my Instagram yesterday.

Last year I decided to do a Halloween themed picture for Halloween. It wasn't meant to be very serious and was meant to have a touch of humour as well.

This year for Halloween I decided to do the opposite. I decided to do something seriously creepy and use techniques I haven't used before. It had it's challenges but I really learnt a lot creating this image so I'm quite happy.

I showed it a couple of my photographer friends and they seemed to like it too so I guess that's a good sign.

Halloween isn't celebrated here but this is something I've wanted to work on for a while now and what better time to upload a creepy/scary picture than the 31st of October, eh?

Summertime, It's Our Vacation

Exams are finally over! After over a month of practical and theory exams and countless sleepless nights it's finally over. Still have a long way to go before I finish my degree but these are steps towards that.

Now for the fun part - the summer vacations. WOOOHOOO!

I'm looking forward to these vacations. I have a few photoshoots to do as well as a music video and a couple other videos and if there's time I'll work on a short film as well. This is going to be a really busy summer. But good because it's what I like doing and a much needed break from that college and those books.

Today's is a rather weird self portrait. This perfectly encapsulates the feeling you get when your exams are over and you've spent sleepless nights preparing for those exams. All you want to do is crash. Dump you uniform, your books, everything and just sleep!

Ironically I couldn't sleep because of the work that has to be done but I'm looking forward to a good night's rest hahaha

If you haven't finished your exams I wish you the very best for those! Do well and enjoy your holidays :)

The Lookout

Today started off in an interesting way. Just as I was getting ready to leave for classes I got a phone call saying that out results for the previous semester were out. That made me really nervous. Unfortunately the university server was down and that just added to the tension. I got to class and everyone was sombre and quiet. We were all anxious.

Anyway, God has been really merciful and graceful again (as He always is) and enabled me to get through with fairly good grades.

Now for today's picture. As with most self-portraits this has a very personal message. I have a little over a year to finish the course I'm currently studying and then I'll have to look for something else. I still don't know what that's going to be or how God is going to lead me into the future but I have to always be on the lookout for His guidance and help.

This is a composite (obviously) of two pictures. The base image of the flower and flora is light painted. If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen a BTS (Behind The Scenes) photograph of this that I shared recently.

In The Mirror

Sometimes you just have to take a picture of yourself but why make it just another selfie in the mirror when you can be creative.

Sure it takes a little more time and effort but it's fun even if it's an amazing photograph. It's quirky and a way of self-expression.

With all the Halloween images that the internet was bombarded with recently I thought I'd do something a little silly.

Take Me Away

Some of my friends convinced me to share this online. I didn't want to do it because it is a little embarrassing but what's the worst that could happen? I will get made fun of. It's not like that hasn't happened before. Anyway, here goes.

I saw this empty-ish room and knew I had to do a levitation style photograph here. Unfortunately I feel sick and so couldn't get it exactly how I wanted but this isn't half bad either.

Look Up

Last night was just spectacular! I got to see the milky way again which made it really special too.
The light pollution means it's really faint in the night sky but if you let your eyes adjust for a few minutes you can see it without the help of any equipment.

I took one photograph and then just stood there looking up at the stars and the lightning in the distance. It was an amazing and a really humbling experience. God's creation sure is marvellous.

The moon was setting and gave off this yellow glow that made it all the more amazing! I stayed up for a couple of hours just looking and occasionally taking pictures. Sometimes I don't bother to take pictures because I get so caught up in what I'm looking at and to be honest I don't really regret it because it's really an amazing memory!

Go Germany

With the semi-final in a few hours I though I'd share this image I made while on vacation before the team I'm supporting gets knocked out of competition. Now I'm not saying that they will loose, all I'm saying is that I'd rather post this while they're still in rather then after they're out.

This was shot in Manual Mode - as most (if not all) multiplicity photographs should be.

Go Germany!
May the best team win!

Upwards

The one thing I really love about the rains are the amazing clouds.

I noticed this really bright cloud peeping out of this gap in the thick, dark clouds and I knew I had to take a picture. A "selfie" (self-portrait) seemed appropriate.

Ghastly Figure

So this past winter the fog was really thick one night and I decided to shoot a few self-portraits (if you can call it that). I tried a few with torches and other stuff and this is one of those.

It's surprising how many test shots end up turning out to the some of the best.

Low

I decided to work on another self portrait. I was recently given a flash as a gift and it only seemed sensible that I use that for at least one self-portrait. This was my first test shot but it turned out to be my favourite :D

Looking Up

I took pictures after a very long time today. Although it wasn't something I'm used to shooting it was fun and pretty good.

It reminded me of this because I always turn to God and His amazing creation for inspiration because that is an infinite source.

This was taken the last time we had a good sunset with clouds.

Figure In The Fog

We had a few really foggy days two weeks back and so I was able to do something I've been planning for a while now.

This is my first conceptual portrait and also my first self-portrait this year and I love it. It turned out better than what I've expected.

The fog was really thick and as I've said before. I just love the way the lights look in the fog so. I haven't really edited this much other than mirroring the background in Photoshop.

Light Portrait

I had this idea a while back or doing a self-portrait with light painting but had to wait till I got some EL wire. Unfortunately you don't get that here and so I had to wait till someone was visiting from the UK and asked them to bring a pack.

Doing this was tricky. I had to first shoot just the light from the wire for the background and then put a torch behind me so that the camera would capture a silhouette. The torch was pretty powerful so it ended up getting a lot of light in the front as well.

Then I had to combine the two in Photoshop which is when I decided to take it a step further. I decided to make it look like a ghost of some sort. That's when I decided to do the red eyes and the hint of blue in the face - kinda like blue fire. It ended up reminding me of Ghost Rider :D

Anyway suggestions are always welcome :)

On a side note - I'm going to make a slight change to my posts on G+ since they think all my links to the blog are spam. I'll share each post as usual but will not be adding a link my posts as that gets flagged.

Also planning to revive my Youtube channel which I've been neglecting. It will start with a Best of 2013 video so stay tuned :)

Looking To The Skies

Remember the dramatic sunset I spoke off a while back? It was really dramatic where the sun was setting and I almost missed the other side.

I happened to turn around and I was in complete awe of what I say. It was beautiful. So I decided to go and get my tripod and take a couple of self-portraits.

Post-processing was real pain because my laptop kept hanging and then finally crashed. Thankfully it was just a temporary crash and it rebooted. I'm quite happy with this anyway.

Unexpected View

It started raining very early in the morning and the rain showed no signs of stopping so I thought it would go one for a day or two.

Surprisingly it stopped in the afternoon and the sky began to clear. I hoped for another amazing sunset and God gave us a really amazing sunset.

I was on the terrace for nearly two hours just watching, taking pictures and listening to music. It was so beautiful at times that I would forget to take a picture because I just loved the view.

I did manage to get a few pictures but they didn't turn out quite the way I had expected but I still like them.

Today was another one of those days when there were really dark clouds in the sky yet the sky was blue. People say this is unusual and pictures that capture this are fake but I disagree because I've seen this happen so many times before.

Supermoon 2013

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know everyone is putting up pictures of the supermoon but trust me this is going to be different. "How?" You ask? Well simply because the moon was behind clouds for most the night so getting a clear shot of the moon was nigh impossible.

But I did manage to get some cool self portraits done.

I know I've always said that the SX50 HS is really bad for night photography and I'll stick to that statement. I would have preferred a better camera but you work with what you have so I tried to make the most of last night.

The moon did manage to steer clear of the clouds for a while yesterday and I did get some good details but I'm not going to share that today. The SX50 is perfect for close-up detail shots though.

I wanted to get the entire scene in focus (me included) but that was going to be impossible with the highest f-stop on the SX50 i.e. f8. Plus stopping down to f8 meant that I would get a relatively dark picture which is not what I was going for. I wish I could amp up the ISO but I can't so I had to deal with that.

These are just two of the pictures I took yesterday. I took loads more but I liked these two. As for the light on my arm - that's a torch. I used one of my slippers (flip-flops) to balance it on a brick so that it was shining on me the entire time.

Hopefully I'll have a better camera during the next supermoon.

I Am My Own Worst Enemy

Today's picture is another self portrait. I worked on this a while back and just though I'd share it today.

Have you ever been so angry with yourself that you want to hit yourself real hard? Sometimes I feel like that. That's when I got the idea for this picture.

It took a while to get the positioning correct so I hope you like it.

One of my friends said that the one to the left has a "wolverine" like pose. Maybe he is right. If he is then Wolverine has to be really really thin :P

BTW if you want to see more self portraits just click on the "Self Portraits" link which should be under the categories tab to the left.

Enjoy!

Hope you had a great day! :)

Right Past Me

You know that moment when you are studying and you can't seem to get anything into your head. You might understand what you are studying but about a minute or two later you've forgotten everything? Well that happens to me A LOT! It all seems to blow right past me. Truth be told I do get frustrated sometimes and what better way to get your mind off something frustrating than something that actually interests you, right? Right? For me photography was a way to rid myself of frustrations.

Today's picture is a conceptual self-portrait from an idea that popped into my head when I was studying.

I couldn't begin working on this for quite a few months because I didn't think I had the right equipment. Finally, I decided to forget about the equipment and just try and improvise. Lets just say that I was successful :D I know it might look like I used an external flash and other "professional" equipment but honestly I didn't.

Again, if you have questions do leave a comment below or get in touch with me via email or through some other website and I'll be happy to answer them :)

Anyway have a great day folks...