England

Sometimes you're met with the unexpected like the time my sister sent me a text saying she was pregnant! I was overjoyed and it took me back to the time when she had sent a similar text saying she was engaged! Fast forward to a few days back and we now have a sixth member in our family - Ethan Joseph Harris! Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaaattttttt?!?!?!

Anyway, I'm now on my way to visit my sister, brother and my nephew - all the way in the UK. I mean, come on! How exciting is that! Seriously! I can't wait.

I'm typing this as I wait near the boarding gate for the flight to London. There was this little gag we used to play as kids - whenever we had a bag and someone asked us where we were headed we'd say, "London." Now I get to actually say it for real - it's unreal!

All I can say is God has been incredibly gracious to us...new member of the family and all. It's...it's...I don't even know what to say so, I'll just leave it at that.

I know I haven't uploaded anything in months but I've got so much to share and hopefully I'll be able to do that starting today. I need to keep this together. Pray for me! Things aren't perfect but I know I have a God who cares and looks after me and that is more than I could have ever asked or hoped for.

Until next time! Toodles!

Zephyrtone

I had the pleasure of shooting with Zephyrtone a while back. In case you don't know who they are you can check them out on Facebook. They're a music producer duo who's just launched an EP called "Shooting Stars" which you can check out here - Shooting Stars. My favourite track is "shooting stars" athough the others are pretty amazing too!

Sayan and Zephyr are amazing people and some of the few artists I actually have respect for.

BTW they're currently on tour across India so check out their dates and watch them live if you can.

I really have been super inactive here but I'm grateful for all those who've kept in touch via social media - much appreciated! :)

For those of you who've asked. I haven't stopped photography. That (as far as I can tell) will hopefully never happen. I just haven't uploaded a lot lately even though there's a lot of stuff I wish I had shared. Maybe I will in the future so stay tuned :D

Will be leaving for Chennai today for an internship so that should be exciting. Hopefully I'll be able to post more often.

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.

Happy Earth Day

I guess it's never too late to say that even though the day's nearly over in India.

Here's an abstract shot a dead tree that I found while wandering around one afternoon.

Have a good weekend :)

Vilasita

A while back I had an opportunity to shoot products for Vilasita They make "hand crafted luxury soaps and cosmetics". Usually I wouldn't take on a product shoot because that's not really my piece of cake but this was different. Since their products are organic they wanted something outdoor.

I'll be honest and tell you that I've only taken on a handful of commercial product shoots so this was exciting because it was a challenge. They wanted something that was unique and something that made their products look good. Plus I love shooting outdoor in nature under natural light so I just couldn't refuse.

We spent an entire evening out shooting products and it was a lot of fun. It was really tiring in that my hands were literally shaking towards the end of the shoot but it was a challenge and it worked out well.

It's always a good feeling when a client tells you on their own that they love the pictures. Here's one of my favourites from the shoot. These are bath salts.

If you live in India and want to try out home-made organic stuff definitely check out their page on Facebook and get in touch with them - Vilasita I haven't tried out their products because I'm the kind of person that will use whatever is cheap because I couldn't be bothered but going by the reviews they have they seem to be doing a good job.

Have a good week ahead! :)

Wandering Loss

Today's post is kinda related to my last post.

When you have major decisions to make and your future seems uncertain - so uncertain, in fact that you don't even know where you'll be the following month or what you'll be doing; that's when things can get scary and you really start to question where you're at. At times you might seem lost in the crowd, struggling to stand out and make your presence felt in one way or another - that's when things can get tricky. You have a decision to make - give up or carry on. Like I said last time, the right thing to do would be to carry. It's not going to be the easy thing to do because, I think, it's a lot harder to carry on than to even start in the first place.

As a Christian, one of the results of falling on times like this is it teaches you to rely more on God than yourself or people around you. It's never easy to hand over the reins to someone else but you've got to do it since that's what's best for you.

This picture had been lying on my drive for years and it wasn't until recently that I got to working on it. Each leaf, twig, branch is part of something so much bigger than itself and yet it's always lost among all the other parts that are almost identical to it. Sometimes life's like that. You're wandering and you're lost in the crowd. These twigs would have been lost too if I shot them head on but a slight change in perspective and a different angle and VOILA! it stands out and is separate from the others around it.

What if God's like a photographer and we're those twigs? We've got to let Him do His thing and carry on trusting Him.

I hope the people in Myanmar are OK. We felt the tremor hundreds of miles away from the epicentre so I can only imagine what it must have been like there.

Beautiful Loneliness

I shared a black and white version of this image a while back but I'm sharing this now because I just couldn't decide which one I liked better.

This was the only flower of its kind in that beautiful garden. That seemed a little odd since every other species had at least two of its kind growing. Another thing that struck me was the placement of this flower - it was growing in a corner almost hidden from plain sight but it was still so beautiful.

This is getting philosophical but I think there's a lesson to be learnt from that and I know it's something I struggle with as well. I post updates regularly and upload pictures to my blog and various other social media sites but what have I really accomplished? Sometimes you might be bogged down by thoughts like that or the fear of obscurity but I think it's important to carry on and keep doing what you're doing even if no one else understands or cares.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week ahead! :)

If Hope Dies

If you follow me on Instagram ( @danielraghu ) you would have seen a BTS picture I posted right after I wrapped up shooting with a local band. We had a great time and we created some beautiful images that also pay tribute to the natural beauty of the place they live in.

One particular image really stood out and today I can finally share it with you all. I think it perfectly captures the band's persona as well as the quality and beauty of the forest there.

I would love to know what you think.

Convivial

Sometimes when someone says "Please take a picture" you just have to no matter what the lighting is or what the circumstances are. This is one such picture. I wasn't prepared for a late night photo session with friends as I had just got back from photographing a band and was looking for some time away from photography but I couldn't say no.

The lights in the background provided for a nice colour contrast against the warm colour of the bulb behind me as I shot my friend's mother (not with a gun...obviously).

I've been experimenting with tones and colours for a while now so I would love to know what you think of this.

Happy Anniversary

I can't believe it's been 2 years since my sister got married! Time really does fly!

They're probably one of the few couples that I find inspiring both in their love for one another and also in their love for God. That's something that I haven't seen too often and that's something I think the world could use more of.

So Happy Anniversary to both of you!

You've both been huge pillars of support in my life and I can't thank you enough for all you've done! Hope you're enjoying London

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.

Exquisite

It's my friend's birthday today so Happy Birthday, Upashana!

You've probably seen pictures of her before as she is my favourite model and I love working with her.

This was taken during another one of our explorations. A few of us friends would go to new places and explore them. It was fun and we would always come away with pictures we were happy with.

This is one such moment.

Simba

Last Friday was rather bittersweet. We won a short film competition and I stood first in a photography competition and was extremely happy until my brother sent me a picture. It was a picture of a grave inscribed with the name "Simba".

Simba is my cousin's cat and he was honestly one of the best looking cats around. Unfortunately, he had to be put down because his health failed him and he couldn't recover.

Now I doubt Simba was really 'my friend' but he was the one cat that made me want a cat. I loved the way he purred when you played with him or the fact that he was easily attracted by you scratching the couch cover. He will most definitely be missed.

This is one of the very last pictures of this handsome fellow.

Gleam

It's been far too long since I was last online. Getting caught up with all the emails, messages and comments might just be the hardest part.

Anyway, it's Valentine's Day and since I realised that too late to create a picture specifically for today I decided to process one of my pictures to mean something for today.

So, how about some much needed warmth and glow that generally comes with the feeling of being loved?

How do I know this? Easy! God's love really warms you up and I know those of you in relationships can attest to that fact but let me tell you that the love of God supersedes anything you've ever know before.

I hope you're having a great day and I hope you have a great week ahead. I shall not keep you any further :D

Phantasm

Oh wow! It's been a while since I last posted here. My inbox was flooded with emails and notifications and I promise I'll get to them in time. I apologise as I haven't been online lately because of my exams and other work but hopefully I'll be more active now that I actually have holidays

After posting so many pictures of people I think it's time for a break.

Anyway, I just finished working on this image and I think it's one of my favourite images I've worked on yet. This was taken in October but it's been lying on my hard drive just waiting to be processed.

It wasn't until I came recently read Proverbs 3:6 which says "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." that I actually knew how to process this image.

I used a couple of different techniques to add the additional light to this image and make it look like something right out of a dream. My computer could barely keep up and what should have taken less than an hour ended up taking more than three hours to finish.

Anyway, let me know what you think. If you want more details I'd be happy to post a "layer Breakdown" video for this image on Youtube. Just let me know :)

Take care!

Aglow

Looks like I should transition into taking portraits and not landscapes since I've been doing a lot of that lately and people tend to enjoy that a lot more.

Anyway here's another picture that I experimented on with the tones and colour grading. Also I tried out this new technique which I used to add light to the top right of the picture. If you want to know how it's done let me know and I'll get back to you :)

My friend was taking pictures of some of my other friends and the light just looked amazing behind her so I asked her to hold her pose and grabbed this shot.

Ardour

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. It's been an amazing year and God has been so very faithful even though I've failed Him more times than I can count but I've been reassured of His promise to never leave my side this year.

On that note I would like to share today's picture.

These are my juniors in college and they've been together for more than 5 years (or so I've been told). This was taken at a local park - the only one worth going to in the city, IMO.

Anyway, why did I choose "Ardour" as the title for this picture? One of the meanings of the word is "a great intensity or passion". I think, all of us can relate to this at some level whether we've been in a relationship or just dream about one.

For me, the best relationship I've ever had and will ever have is the one I currently enjoy with my God. He loves me (and all of us) with an unbeatable intensity and passion. So much so that he even gave us His son so that we can be free. All you have to do is believe. That's not it. He will continue to love you like no one else can.

Sure, the love of a fellow human being is amazing but God's love surpasses anything you've every known or imagined.

I've been experimenting with my editing a lot lately and this is one of the results. It's not a proper fall edit but I quite like the way it turned out.

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?

The Kindness of a Stranger

I bought my very first android phone last week and the story of how I got is what I want to share with you today because it involves a complete stranger.

If you're on the internet and are into gadgets you would have heard of the name OnePlus. They make good phones for a low price. Much lower than big companies like Samsung or LG or Apple. However, getting their latest phone is no easy task because of their controversial invite system. For someone like me who didn't buy their first phone getting an invite so soon is nigh impossible.

On their forums I came across a user named Cool Droid. He had a cool Whatsapp mod that I commented on and we got talking. He commented on my introductory post (which had some of my work) and somewhere along the line he said he would give me an invite if he got one to share. Fast forward a few weeks and a few random messages later he sends me a message and tells me to come online ASAP. I do go online and he gives me an invite code for the phone.

I don't know who he is. I don't even know his name but here's a stranger who kept his word. He made a promise and fulfilled it. You don't come across such people very often. So this picture is for you Cool Droid. I really appreciate the gesture and I can't thank you enough :)

Ardent

Man! Oh! Man! It's been crazy busy with classes and a few photoshoots too. It's amazing but so very tiring. Been working late nights on pictures.

Things were starting to get a little monotonous with editing so I decided to work on a portrait I had put off for far too long. This one is of a friend who shares the same name with me haha

He's pretty awesome and I really wanted to take a good portrait for him. He hasn't seen it yet but I do hope he likes it.

I took a more artistic approach to this one and decided to go with a kind of gritty look. This was taken using light that was streaming through a window in my room.

Shooting with people has been a challenge but has also been incredibly fun at the same time. It's amazing!