Viswas Nair TK

"Champions are made from something they have deep inside them, a desire, a dream, a vision. They..."

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:21:10 +0530

“

Champions are made from something they have deep inside them, a desire, a dream, a vision.

They have to have last-minute stamina,
they have to be a little faster,
they have to have the skill and the will,

but the will must be stronger than the skill.

”

- Muhammad Ali

Desert Shepard Taken in the Thar desert on the outskirts of...

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:52:00 +0530

Desert Shepard

Taken in the Thar desert on the outskirts of Jaisalmer during my North India trip, this guy was leading a flock of about 100 sheep around an oasis. His highly contrasting orange turban against the blue sky and white dress against the brown earth made for a great scene that had to be digitized. The goats were pretty unruly and while I wanted to capture them in a more aesthetic way, I couldn’t think of a proper way to go about it in the short time I got the man to pose for me. In the end I had to frame it without the goats in the scene (quite the challenge this was) while attempting a rule of the thirds.

My regrets about the shot is not framing in the shadow of the head. I also wish the guy was in the right edge and not the left. I no longer recollect why I didn’t do this, though I suspect the goats distracting the scene. Also would have loved to capture this candid and possibly a side profile.

This was shot directly in JPEG in aperture priority (I still hadn’t figured out how to shoot manual). No post processing. There was plenty of sun, so I closed the aperture all the way to f/18 and still got a pretty good shutter speed.

If there was a witch I was walking down the street in the...

Sun, 13 May 2012 13:16:00 +0530

If there was a witch

I was walking down the street in the Shivaji Nagar area looking for an interesting subject and almost missed this woman when a young man in the nearby store pointed me out to her and asked me to take a photo of this “old disposable item”. The squint eyes, the crooked teeth and the semi-fake anger of being humiliated by a neighborhood kid in front of a complete stranger gave a great sense of character to a face worthy of a shot.

I got two shots, one in which she was pointing her fingers threatening the neighbor and this one. Chose the latter as I preferred not having motion as a distracting element in the shot.

Post Processing: Shot in RAW, No cropping, slight reduction in exposure, small bump in contrast, clarity, saturation and some vignetting.

27 things travel can teach you

Sun, 06 May 2012 09:34:56 +0530

27 things travel can teach you:

Couldn’t have said this better.

Musings After a long hot tired day of lugging around my camera...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:58:00 +0530

Musings

After a long hot tired day of lugging around my camera through the streets of old Jaipur, there is nothing more I wanted than to give my leg a break. This was the first day of my one month tour of Rajasthan and my legs were so sore with blisters, I wondered if I would walk the next 30. So was I excited or what when I saw the sign that read “Palace Cafe” inside the Jaipur palace!

I took my seat, ordered my coffee, opened my journal and started penning down the events of the day. It had been ages since I had used a fountain pen to write down my thoughts. It brought back a lot of old memories from school days. And then I paused my train of thoughts to savor the moment of freedom I was experiencing. Truly living the moment. Carefree. And I knew the moment had to be captured.

So I whipped out my camera, took four shots and this was the best of the lot. Shot in JPEG with no post processing, this would be the cover of my travel journal if I ever wrote one.

The coffee however was overpriced albeit refreshing.

Desert Beetle This shot was taken in the Thar desert on top of a...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:44:38 +0530

Desert Beetle

This shot was taken in the Thar desert on top of a sand dune. It was not too breezy and this little desert beetle was walking to oblivion. The breeze had formed a nice pattern on the sand and the trail behind the small guy was too dramatic to not capture. I got on the ground fully, put the camera in his path and started clicking. He stopped to pose for me and didn’t move a bit until I got up later and gave him the space.

This is another shot with my favorite out-of-focus>focus>out-of-focus sequence. Even at f/6.3 the distinction is very clear at this close a distance. I love the sense of depth in this picture but I do wish I had just a little bit more of the sand in focus and the trail a little clearer.

No post processing on the image. It was directly taken as a JPEG in Vivid setting.

Reflection This is my most viewed photo in flickr. It is one of...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:30:00 +0530

Reflection

This is my most viewed photo in flickr. It is one of the first few shots I took with my camera while I was still trying to figure what the various controls meant. Trying to get this shot taught me much about ISOs and shutter speed because I was having a hard time taking a picture that didn’t come blurred because of camera shake and low-light condition.

I had recently purchased a wooden table and laid a glass top on it. Little did I know that this was an excellent surface for reflection. I happened to be playing with the camera during a power outage and caught a shot of a candle that reflected nicely. This gave me the idea for this shot.

I took many photos until I finally got one that I was satisfied with. I was very particular about capturing the reflection of the entire arm. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a candle in the frame. Took a few with the candle, but decided against it in the end. I was unsure if I wanted the full face or only a part of it. Decided to go for the latter. I was unsure if I wanted it cut exactly at the vertical center line of the face or leave some of the shadow on the left side. Decided to go for the shadows.

My only regret for the shot is that I wish I had taken it at F4. The depth of focus is a little too shallow and this is visible in the face. Otherwise I love this shot. I especially like the clarity of the reflection visible with the watchstrap mark and the hair. Also love the lights and shadows around the wrist and the symmetry of the two palms and their reflection.

Post processing: Conversion to B&W.

Warm Embrace This was taken on an early morning weekend trip to...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:07:17 +0530

Warm Embrace

This was taken on an early morning weekend trip to Nandi Hills with a friend of mine. The 50mm lens in my camera (Nikon D90) is possibly the worst to use for a good sunrise/sunset shot. Thankfully my friend was carrying a Sigma 70-300mm lens on his Nikon D5000 which he was happy to let me use.

This was my first experience with a zoom lens and made me realize the shortcomings of my lens. The convenience of not having to walk close to or away from the subject was very helpful and this would significantly help with candid photography. However, there is nothing candid about this shot.

The sun was rising very fast and brightening up the sky real quick. I wanted the early morning low temperature and also another subject in the frame both of which would get harder the higher the sun went. I was at the edge of a walled road overlooking a cliff to take this shot and couldn’t move very freely. I wanted the shot in such a way that the sun would look like a flower at the end of the branch. The position from which I could do this, the light was such, the exposure kept jumping all over the place in auto-focus. I put it to manual and got the shot. I liked what I saw on the LCD. Unfortunately, the leaves were out of focus and I noticed this only after getting home on a large screen. I rarely use manual focus on my 50mm. I misjudged it on the zoom lens.

Though not what I had originally intended, I thankfully had another shot taken with auto-focus from a slightly different position where the exposure wasn’t jumping around. And this was it. In the end it looked like every other sunrise shot and for some reason converting to B&W gave it a very different feel that I decided to keep. I also like the thin spread of light around the branch edges close to the sun.

Post-processing: Raw > Cropped to make the branch come from the top left corner losing a bit of the sky > Converted to B&W > Minor exposure reduction > Exported to JPEG

Stay Away! The aim was to capture a red themed shot. I rode down...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:58:00 +0530

Stay Away!

The aim was to capture a red themed shot. I rode down the Hennur main road and ran into many small stores and houses painted red with Vodafone logos. This was the side door of one such store. I have a different shot that captures the door straight front with the Vodaphone logo on the side but the shot lacked character on account of lack of depth. The image looked very flat. For this shot I opened the aperture to get the out-of-focus>focus>out-of-focus sequence. Upon reviewing the shot I was left confused about whether the whole latch should have been left in focus. Overall, I love the red theme and it is my only wallpaper class shot. Love it as my windows lock screen. Post-processing: reduced exposure, small bump in contrast, reduced shadows and small increase in clarity.

2011 - The year of the drama...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:07:00 +0530

… all of which has been laid to rest, hopefully. I don’t think I have ever looked forward to a new year being so different as this one. As always, however messy a year might be, the reading and gaming list leaves me with a deep sense of happiness and accomplishment:

Books:

Like the flowing river by Paulo Coehlo
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov
World War Z by Max Brooks
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Breakfast of champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Journey to the center of the earth by Jules Verne
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
The colors of Magic and The light fantastic by Terry Pratchet
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Gora by Rabindranath Tagore
Anzacs at War Commando Comics
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Games:

God of War I
Portal 2
Mortal Kombat
Call of Juarez - The Cartel
Witcher 2 - Assasins of Kings
Resistance 3

Hampi photos now uploaded to flickr

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:26:00 +0530

Hampi photos now uploaded to flickr

And now for the Caucasian/brown version. I had to correct the...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:08:00 +0530

And now for the Caucasian/brown version. I had to correct the eyes, make the nose less round and change the cheek bones to get it this way. I still wasn’t able to reproduced the original. Realized that the face has to be become thinner which would mean redoing a lot of the work that went in (the paper wouldn’t have been able to handle it anymore). The nose had to become shorter which meant redoing the lips, something which I wasn’t willing to touch (this was the hardest bit). Some of the angles were also wrong. It is amazing how very minute variations in angles can have a huge impact on the looks. 7 billion people in the planet and most of them unique looking. The biological aspect of the origin of unique faces fascinates me.

10 hours of labor. I chose the wrong photo to do this one. It...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:04:00 +0530

10 hours of labor. I chose the wrong photo to do this one. It was shot in the dark with a flash, so there was too much lighting and shadows on the face which would look proper only if the background was dark as in the original photo. I couldn’t do the dark background well enough, so the shading turned a Caucasian into an African. I am not satisfied with the accuracy of the reproduction but I like how the face doesn’t look weird. Also managed to damage the paper around the cheek region which gives an acne effect! Good learning experience though. I especially like the way the hair turned out.

This was very challenging because it isn’t a copy from a...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:20:00 +0530

This was very challenging because it isn’t a copy from a drawing. I drew this from a color photograph so figuring out the shadow and lighting was hard, especially on the face. The lips and the nose were quite the ordeal. The original had the woman resting her chin on the left hand. I drew the limbs first and then the face. After spending a lot of time on the face, I realized that the face had to become smaller to do which I would have to redraw large parts of the limbs which I didn’t want to do. I modified it so that the face no longer rests on the arm and added a t-shirt as a filler. The right leg could have been a bit thinner. I also didn’t get the lighting and shadows on the limbs properly because of changes in the posture that was made.

What can I say, I am addicted! :) The female form is too...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:54:00 +0530

What can I say, I am addicted! :) The female form is too enticing.

This was a copy of woman sketch by jamie mosher available here: http://jamiemosher.deviantart.com/art/Woman-sketch-187225043

I didn’t like the original bra design and decided to bring in some creativity into this piece by replacing it with a t-shirt bra. I especially like the way the original author handled the collar bone (and my reproduction of it as well). The navel and the left feet was the most challenging part. The missing face and palms made the task a whole lot easier. I made changes to the muscle structure in the thighs and knees by changing the shading. The original looked unusually muscular for a woman. Overall, a very satisfying work with all the curves.

I need to buy my own scanner. The actual drawing looks much more detailed than this scan.

This reproduction of a pencil drawing titled German rider and...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:43:00 +0530

This reproduction of a pencil drawing titled German rider and horse was my first attempt at shading for shadows and lighting. This was drawn upside down. The original had a horse with a wider face. While not intentional, I actually like my leaner horse better. The face came out surprisingly well. The rider seems to be sitting in an awkward angle and his left leg is a little too long. The left arm glove area got a bit messy as compared to the original. Not having to draw a face (saved by the helmet!) made the task easier.

This is a reproduction of an anime girl I found...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:33:00 +0530

This is a reproduction of an anime girl I found here: http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/7635/2/1/49653/how-to-draw-an-anime-woman-step-13.htm

I didn’t follow the instructions in this page and went about it my way. I don’t have too many complaints about this one. It was fairly accurate reproduction that was simple to do since it didn’t have any lights and shadows. It was a good exercise in understanding shapes of limbs.

This reproduction of Picasso’s portrait of Igor Stravinsky...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:18:00 +0530

This reproduction of Picasso’s portrait of Igor Stravinsky was done upside down. Being one of my first works, I was quite happy with the picture overall. The face is way too tilted and looks a bit funny around the mouth region. The crossing of fingers looks a bit awkward but then so does it in the original available here:

http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picasso25.html

2010. Mostly Accomplished. A few shortcomings.

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:15:00 +0530

Books:

Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Wheels by Arthur Hailey
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Sin City: The big fat kill by Frank Miller
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
India A History by John Keay
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
The murder artist by John Case
Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Rainbows End by Verner Vinge

Games:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Chronicles of Riddick - Escape from butcher bay
Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena
Borderlands
The Witcher
Just Cause 2
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Machinarium
God of War 3
Unchartered 2
Resistance
Resistance 2
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Dead Space
Medal of Honor
Call of Duty: Black Ops

Fusion Perfected.

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:52:00 +0530

Fusion Perfected.