Varanga - 16mm

Varanga is a small sleepy village located in the Udupi district of Karnataka at a distance of 25 Kms from Karkala and 43 Kms from Moodabidri on the way from Karkala to Agumbe. I reached Varanga just before sunset to capture the nice evening light. I had visited Varanga many a times and each time the experience is unique and exhilarating. The Kere Basadi of Varanga is unique Jain temple situated in the midst of a gentle green lake. Serene lake contrasts well with the sharp quadrilateral architecture of the temple and gentle swaying hills at the distance.

I used Canon EOS 5D mark II fitted with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM Lens and Hoya circular polarizing filter to get these pictures. I used various focal lengths from 16mm to 35 mm take these photos. What you can notice is use of hyperfocal distance to get both foreground as well as background in sharp focus. I had mentioned in the earlier blog about use of hyperfocal distance to catch flying kite as well as moon in sharp focus. Unfortunately hyperfocal distance will not work effectively for a 600mm focal length I was planning. It really is effective in normal to wide angle lenses.

Varanga - 16mm

So what is the definition of this term Hyper focal distance? The hyperfocal distance is the closest distance at which a lens can be focused while keeping objects at infinity acceptably sharp; that is, the focus distance with the maximum depth of field. Digital cameras with tiny sensors have almost eliminated need to get the calculator to get this hyperfocal distance. Tiny sensors which you find on most point and shoot cameras will give you a universal focus right from close up to infinity. Many manufacturers have eliminated the scale displaying a zone of focus on their digital lenses all together in recent years. So is it just meant for film cameras and not relevant to digital? No. As more people start venturing into larger sensors (35mm or larger) they will come to face with the hyperfocal distance.

Varanga - 23mm

When you focus your lens there will be a zone that is in focus and areas that are out of focus. The area that is in focus is called the focal plane of acceptable sharpness. The interesting thing about this focal plane is that, when you focus on a subject, one third of the distance closest between subject and camera is in focus; secondly, two thirds of the zone that stretches out from and behind the subject is also in focus.

In a landscape photography you want maximum area in focus (foreground to background), so if you keep your lens focus to infinity your focal plane stretches 1/3 in front of infinity and 2/3 beyond infinity. What is is the use of the focus infinity? it is a waste as it is supposed to be focus anyway. So trick is to focus little in front of the infinity mark so as to stretch the focal plane just into infinity. That will give you a sharply focus foreground and sharply focused background too.

Varanga - 35mm

There are 3 rules to get best out of this trick.

• Use wide angle lens which inherently has greater depth of field.
• Use smaller aperture like f/8-f/16 which give you a great depth of field.
• If you don’t have depth of field calculator handy, focus on a point about a third the distance between you and the subject and use depth of field preview button to check the focal plane.

If you want to be accurate and mathematically inclined there is a formula to calculate this hyperfocal distance. It is dependednt on several factors. The focal length of the lens, aperture, sensor size etc. I don’t want to confuse you with all that jargon. If you are interested to know the calculation check links below.

Learn more about hyperfocal distance at these links.

• Digital Photography school has a nice article Hyperfocal Distance – Photographer’s Friend
• Cambridge In Color also has a calculator and shows an excellent example of it in use http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/hyperfocal-distance.htm
• You can calculate exact hyperfocal charts with http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html.
• Martin Bailey has the following podcast on hyperfocal distance – Understanding Hyperfocal distance , DOF Explainedand the pdf-file to the DOF Explained
• Apple iTouch/iPhone/iPad has a free hyperfocal distance calculator called Field Tools
• Android phones have a similar app called Photo Tools

If you need more info on Varanga check this nice article on Deccan Herald – Basadis are testimony to rich Jain culture.

Exposure Fusion

Pre-Monsoon clouds were gathering as I shot this photo at Seethanadi Nature Camp inside Someshwara Wild Life Sanctuary, Hebri Karkala. I used Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM Lens on a tripod to get 3 bracketed images at 2 stop difference. I used Photomatix Pro to fuse exposure of these three bracketed shots to produce this photo. In Expo­sure Fusion a series of brack­eted images are processed to produce a dynamic range image. It takes the best tonal­i­ties from each image in the sequence and com­bines them to cre­ate a sin­gle image. Best part of each image gets recorded and fused together to com­bine all of the best ele­ments in final image. You have quite a lot of control to adjust which tonality of the exposures are used in the final image.

You might ask how is Expo­sure fusion is different from HDR? The only resem­blance the two have are that they com­bine a sequence of brack­eted images together. In Expo­sure Fusion the final prod­uct looks more real­is­tic to how the scene really would like. This means that the shad­ows main­tain a cer­tain amount of shad­ows and the high­lights remain brighter in higher tonal­i­ties then a high con­trast scene.

HDR takes the sequence of images and blends the images seam­lessly but does its best to even the tonal­i­ties in the extreme tonal­i­ties of shad­ows and high­lights. That is why HDR the appear­s arti­fi­cial­ and unnat­u­ral­.

Expo­sure Fusion after fus­ing the images together keeps the tonal­i­ties how they would appear if one was to be look­ing at the actual scene being pho­tographed. HDR image most of the time shows the uneven tran­si­tion between the lumi­nance and can there­fore lose the appeal of real­ism. Expo­sure Fusion pro­duces results that are truer to the scene that the pho­tog­ra­pher is try­ing to capture.

Photomatix Pro produces both fantastic HDR as well as Exposure Fusion. Try it and you will love the results. Trial mode is also available for Photomatix Pro.

Trying to go beyond my comfort zone has been my effort for last few months. I tried my hands in travel photography in my Lakshadweep island trip. Now I am trying my hands with my new lens Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM. I bought this lens as I wanted a considerable reach for shooting birds. After trying out Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM lens successfully for macro it was difficult to use Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM. There were 2 main reasons. Minimum focusing distance of 300mm f/4 was 1.5meters with a magnification of 0.24x. With 300mm f/2.8 minimum focussing distance increased to 2.5 meters and the magnification decreased to 0.13x. I used Canon EF 2x II Extender to increase the Extenders do not affect the Minimum Focus Distance of the lens they are mounted behind, thus the Maximum Magnification of the lens is also multiplied by 2x. I got 600mm lens with 0.26x magnification which was great. If I need more magnification I need to add my Kenko extension tubes but I haven’t resorted to that yet.

Because the Canon EF 2x II Extender is multiplying the aberrations/flaws of the lens it is mounted behind by 2x, there will be noticeable degradation in image quality when using the 2x. Sharpness and contrast take a hit with all but the best lenses. Additional CA (Chromatic Aberration) is introduced as is slight barrel distortion, but vignetting is somewhat reduced. The best 2x results will only be made using a very sharp lens such as the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens. I have tried this 2x Extender on my other lenses almost all of them have failed.

Female Crimson Marsh Glider (Trithemis aurora)

Crimson Marsh Glider (Trithemis aurora)
It is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae.

It is a medium sized dragonfly that is commonly found in weedy tanks and ponds, marshes, channels, and slow flowing streams and rivers in the lowlands and mid-hills. It breeds in streams, rivers, canals, ponds and tanks. It is found commonly and widely distributed in India throughout the year.

The male of the species is distinctly different from the female.

The male has a reddish brown face, with eyes that are crimson above and brown on the sides. The thorax is red with a fine, purple pruinescence. The abdomen, the base of which is swollen, is crimson with a violet tinge. The wings are transparent with crimson venation and the base has a broad amber patch. The wing spots are a dark reddish-brown and the legs are black.

The female has an olivaceous or bright reddish-brown face with eyes that are purplish-brown above and grey below. The thorax is olivaceous with brown median and black lateral stripes. The abdomen is reddish-brown with median and lateral black markings. The black markings are confluent at the end of each segment and enclose a reddish-brown spot. The wings are transparent with brown tips. The venation is bright yellow to brown and basal amber markings are pale. The wing spots are a dark brown and the lags are dark grey with narrow yellow stripes.

Grey Pansy Butterfly (Junonia atlites)

Grey Pansy Butterfly (Junonia atlites)

Wingspan of 55-65 mm. A medium sized light gray butterfly with darker colored wing margins. The sexes are similar. The upper side is marked with a row of post-median ocelli on both wings. There is a series of short wavy bands hanging off the costal margin of the fore-wing. The underside ground color is much paler, and the hind wing has an oblique line running across the wing. The markings and the intensity of color on the undersides of this butterfly are quite variable; the dry season forms showing the lightest color and fewest markings.

It is a much more habitat specific species than the other pansies, inhabiting areas in the vicinity of water such as rice fields, canals, tanks and marshy areas. It is not plentiful but may be found throughout the year and is the least common of the pansies. It is seldom seen above 2500 feet elevation.

Its behavior is very similar to that of the other pansies except in egg laying. It will often lay eggs on plants above the waterline in rice fields or open water bodies. The larvae are capable of surviving a rise in water levels by moving to high ground or other host plants nearby with relative ease. Like the other pansies, it joins migratory flights.

Black Torrent Dart Damselfly (Dysphaea ethela)

Black Torrent Dart Damselfly (Dysphaea ethela)

A large black damselfly with amber coloured wings. Lives in torrential hill streams from 300-1000m ASL. This damselfly is rare and usually sits in the middle of streams on boulders or emergent twigs. If disturbed flies high up to riparian trees. Breeding: Not known. Flight season: June to December. Distribution: Western Ghats from Agastyamalai to Aghanashini river in Uttara Kannara district. This species is also known from the Eastern Ghats.