#98: obiwan on photography

It's been exactly a year since my religious conversion .... from film photography to digital. It's more a repertoire expansion than a conversion or an upgrade. My film camera will stay with me (although it felt odd in my hands after a year in exile).

Now a few words of advice to my readers (the 2 of them) who may be thinking of going digital.

1. There are tons of good cameras out there .... from the slick aim-and-shoot, to the fixed zoom, to the now-affordable digital SLRs. I have trusted the advice of a few professional reviews before baring my wallet. And they have delivered good wisdom. If you are in the same boat, I personally recommend Digital Camera Resource, Digital Photography Review, and Digital Picture (for Canon products).


2. It's not in the mega-pixels. Contrary to sales pitches, ramping up pixels do not give you better or sharper images. They may just do the reverse. Don't take my word for it. Read this, "The myth about megapixels" in the NY Times.


3. The magic is in the lens. The range from less than a $100 to a couple of thousand for just that glass should tell you that there is a serious difference. Lenses bundled with SLR kits are the bottom of the line; let's just say they take pictures. Investing in a good lens is worth it, and definitely a lot more than ramping up the pixels.


4. Packing in a large zoom range has trade-offs. The images suffer from distortions and softness, and they forgo lens speed. Some have image stabilisers built in. But there's only that much they can compensate for. And they cannot help if your objects are in motion – think of people or wild-life. So don't get greedy on the range.


5. Third party lenses (Sigma or Tamron) are a hit-and-miss. You could get a terrific match with your camera and at a fraction of the cost of camera brands. How good is your luck? My advice: accessorise gradually.

So there you have it: my recently acquired wisdom distilled into one posting. Happy clicking. This is no guarantee for terrific photos (look at me). But you'll have a fighting chance!

#93: cow-tipping in vermont

Among the "ambiance" of one-size-fits-all stereotypical US cities, Vermont towns are a welcome few that buckle the trend. It was really like what I had heard it to be .... rolling hills, meandering roads with hardly any traffic, crystal blue lakes on either side, ski-slopes at a distance .... and most importantly, people who were so friendly and welcoming. Just imagine leaving your homes and cars with all possessions completely unlocked day after day, week after week, years on end, and nothing ever goes missing. It's a kind of rural simplicity I never thought I'd see in this day and age, and in this country.

Temperatures were in the 90s, and then I landed up in Middlebury where it was downright chilly at night. The College is the heart of a quaint and historic little town. Burlington is a bit more of a city. Stowe is a winter ski-resort that has funky antique car-parades in summer when the entire town descends on to that one main street and sits patiently on its sides to cheer and holler as those vintage cars roll by. And then there are towns with names like Moscow and InkyDinkyOinky Ink. If you haven't been to Vermont, you owe yourself a trip. You'll do the locals a favour in return. Too many visitors there are bratty college kids from Massachusetts and New York who cannot think beyond their juvenile sport of "cow-tipping".

PS: The "Adirondacks" are a signature furniture style of the region. And I stumbled upon a re-enactment of a battle of 1780s between French and English troops on the banks of Lake Champlain.

#89: pixels, millions of 'em

Everyone and their mother now has a digital camera. If not a camera, then mobile phones that are almost just as capable. And everyone, including this perpendicular pronoun, has turned into a born-again photo enthusiast overnight.

There is an overload of digital images everywhere ..... Facebook, blogger, flickr, zoomr, myspace, you name it. It is absolute chaos. But all is not so dismal: there are clear benefits too. I learned long ago that the good photographers take bad pictures too .... and perhaps in proportions similar to us amateurs. They just take more exposures and end up getting more number of decent photos from them.

Digital photography has just made that happen for everyone. The "marginal cost" of a bad photo is now zero. If I don't like it, I just delete it. There's no suspense of waiting to find out how it will turn out, and no remorse of paying to print bad exposures. Tinkering with photos is so much easier; sharing them online is a breeze.

In that spirit, I posted my personal favourite photograph last week.

#87: fireworks

Jefferson Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

July 4th in DC and "rain+thunder+lightning+threat of cancellation of the fireworks on the Mall" is an inevitable routine. This year wasn't any different. The clouds came, roared, poured, but thankfully rolled on. We had our "Made in China" fireworks, although they did not last as long. If the lawmakers here keep pressuring the Chinese to appreciate the yuan, the fireworks next year may get shorter still.

#78: beam me up, scotty

A zoom lens, and an unsuspecting stranger on a bench 4 floors below....

A famous misquote
The line "Beam me up, Scotty" is one of the most notorious misquotes in popular culture. Although Scotty became synonymous with the line, it was never actually said in the Star Trek series. The closest Captain Kirk came to was in the fourth Star Trek movie, when he said "Scotty, beam me up". See link.

#76: cherry-blossoms