Light Trails in Concert Photography featuring Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Bevar Sea

ISO: 400
Exposure: 2.5 sec
Aperture: 5.6

I recently attended a concert in Bengalooru , India on the 31st of March 2012 with 4 top bands dishing out music from death metal to stoner doom and old school.  The bands that performed that night were

• Shepherd (Doom from Bangalore)
• Dhwesha (old school death metal from Bangalore)
• Albatross ( Horror metal band from Mumbai)
• Bevar Sea (Beer soaked stoner doom from Bangalore)

and to my luck , this would be the first gig in India to be covered using the Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

i decided to get creative with the pics here as the venue was really small and crammed. there was no stage for the musicians and the audience was 2 feet away from the band. to make things worse, most photographers who turned up to cover the event were pretty much disappointed coz the lighting was abysmal.

Canon 5D Mark III Low Light Photos, test shots and Review

yes, i am passionate about photography and i have been a Canon fan boy for as long as i can remember, so u can imagine my excitement when i had made a decision back in October 2011 that i was going to purchase the yet-to-be-released 1DX model.

fortunately 5 years back i had invested in postal savings and the timing would be right for me to pick up the 1DX. but Canon made another announcement sometime in Feb end early March about the release of the Mark III, the successor to the awesome Mark II and now i was again confused on which to buy.

weighing the pros and cons i finally decided to go for the Mark III after discussing with several eminent photographers like Dr. Krishna Mohan and my good friend Krishna Prasad. and its probably the best decision i have made in a long time.

61 AF POINTS : is truly remarkable. its the same as the 1DX and makes the previous Mark II with just 9 AF points seem primitive.
If u can see the pic below, i selected manually the tip of my friends finger to be focused shooting under low light and all i can say is WOW.

Canon EF 8 - 15 mm f 4 L Fisheye USM lens review with test shots

I am not really good at lens reviews but i decided to try this one out anyways just because Canon have probably made their most fun lens ever.
Its a Fisheye lens, not something that i would have bought a few months back, simply coz i was happy with the gear i already owned. it was only until i managed to see a few shots taken with the Fisheye lens and the positive reviews given by Kai, presenter on Digital Rev Tv( a hardcore Nikon fanboy praising canon lens?)  i decided to dig into my savings and buy this piece of expensive glass.

Build Quality : its an L series lens. that means it has all the awesomeness of an L lens, Canon's flagship series of top of the line quality products. its small in size, and its also a bit plasticy, but its made from some very strong plastic. and its weather sealed.... so take it out anywhere , anytime... just dont try going underwater, coz that will be plain stupid.

Official Press Release of Trend Slaughter Fest II

Press Release:

ABIGAIL (Japan), CAUCHEMAR (Canada) and DYING EMBRACE (India) have just been confirmed to headline the second TRENDSLAUGHTER FEST on January 29th 2012, in Bangalore, India. According to the organizers (Cyclopean Eye Productions/Trendslaughter crew), the festival has been created to “bring Bangalore the best of underground metal by getting both foreign acts and local bands together and thereby creating a rock solid underground movement to spearhead the Heavy metal culture in India.” The fest will also have local support from Death/Grind band Gorified, old school Deathmetallers Dhwesha and Drone/Space Doom rockers Djinn and Miskatonic.

Last year the TRENDSLAUGHTER FEST was headlined by Bangladeshi bestial death/thrash metallers band Orator with local bands Dying Embrace, Bevar Sea, Culminant and Gorified and saw around 200+ fans congregate at the venue at Kyra Theatre, Bangalore, India for a good 8 hours Stoner, Thrash, Brutal Death metal, Death Grind, Doom and Old school Death metal!

Headliners Information :

About Abigail:
ABIGAIL is a Japanese black thrash metal outfit that was formed in January of 1992 by Yasuyuki (bass / vocals), Youhei (drums) and Yasunori (guitar) being inspired by early Black / Thrash Metal bands like BATHORY, VENOM, SODOM, BULLDOZER, HELLHAMMER, NME etc. From 1999, the band has heavily toured Europe, Asia, USA countless times appearing on big festivals like Hell Fest, and NWN Fest (Nuclear War Now) among others. The band has nearly 70 releases (which includes full length cds, splits, compilation and live cds/lps) and is one of the most well known bands in Japan today.

About Cauchemar:
Cauchemar was founded in 2007 as a collaboration between vocalist Annick Giroux and guitarist François Patry. With the goal of producing eerie, no-frills doomy Heavy Metal, the project eventually turned into a band with the addition of Patrick Pageau (ASILE, ex-BASTARDATOR guitarist) on drums. They have released in 2010 the "La Vierge Noire" MLP on American label Nuclear War Now! Productions, toured Canada, Colombia, Chile and Peru, and are currently writing material for a new album.

About Dying Embrace:
Legendary pioneering Death/Doom act from Bangalore have been in existence for twenty years with releases on international labels (7” vinyl on Legion Of Death Records, France, compliation CD on Psychic Scream, Malaysia) and have had the title of being India’s oldest Death Metal band. This is one band that brings both old metal heads (30+ years olds into Sabbath, Maiden, Priest) and the new breed of metal heads together.

Links to all bands:
Abigail - www.myspace.com/666abigail
Cauchemar- www.facebook.com/cauchemarmetal
Dying Embrace - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HJGT9YYDSo&feature=related
Gorified - http://www.myspace.com/gorifiedcorpses
Dhwesha - http://www.myspace.com/dhwesha
Djinn and Miskatonic - http://soundcloud.com/djinnandmiskatonic

Trend Slaughter Fest II...The Slaughter Continues

The first edition of Trend Slaughter Fest featuring some of Asia's best underground bands was a roaring success and its no surprise that the organizers of the show decided to give the fans another blow of extreme underground madness. 

i am super thrilled to be covering the event as the self declared "official photographer" but enough of that and here's a brief description of the bands that are gonna be sharing the stage on that day.

Aperture Av mode in DSLR photography simple tutorial

Camera: Canon

Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO: 800

Exposure: 1/40 sec

Aperture: 1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

Flash Used: No

Aperture? f stops? wide aperture? Depth of Field? Bokeh? i have been asked several times to explain what the big deal really is about apertures and shooting with Av mode on a DSLR or compact cameras. and so here is a simple tutorial explaining this ....

Aperture : is the opening or hole which controls the amount of light entering the lens. and please remember a large aperture means smallest f number like f 1.2, f 1.4, f 1.8, f 2.8 . its inversely proportional. ALWAYS. and similarly a narrow aperture means large f number like f 8 to f 22.

what and why are they useful?

most useful in photography as it conveys what exactly u what u want to convey or highlight or focus in a photo.

Simple tips to Frames within Frames In Photography

Simple tips to Frames within Frames In Photography

From creative pics II

Model: Canon EOS 60D

ISO: 3200

Exposure: 1/80 sec

Aperture: 4.0

Focal Length: 50mm

Flash Used: No

First let me ask myself some questions about framing and for your convenience , i shall answer them as well..

what is framing?

Its a simple technique in photography where the subject grabs immediate attention by the viewer

Why is framing done?

So that ur images look cool and different from the ordinary

How is framing done?

presence of mind and a good subject tops the list

Types of framing

2 important ones are portrait framing and object framing.

What ees Frames within Frames?

as the name suggests its "Frames within a frame". it could be a reflection of a mirror, books in a shelf, photo of a window or wall clock or just about anything.

Munz and Nirmal Visit my place

My good friend Munz along with Nithil Nirmal had come to my place yesterday, the 20th Of November 2011.

Munz is like the rock star of photography and Nithil owns the first photography studio back in Kannur called Minerva Studios which was started by his grand father 85 years back!!

had an amazing time, Munz got to experiment with his newly purchased 7D camera and we took a lot of indoor , outdoor, telephoto and landscape pics

posting some of my fav photos from yesterday

Canon 60D

Glass - EF 70 to 200 mm f 2.8 L IS II USM

Aperture - f 4

Shutter - 1/40

ISO - 400

Focal Length - 168 mm

Flash - speedlite 580 EX II, bounced off ceiling

From november 20, 2011 munz and nirmal flats visit

Tips to Taking Candid Shots at Weddings

Tips to Taking Candid Shots at Weddings by Pritham D'Souza

From Candid Photography at Weddings

Its a never ending headache for a photographer to carry the right lens at weddings. a few of them depend on a general walk around lens like EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS lens which is an excellent choice offering group shots and even medium telephoto range to capture those precious moments.

for the others, there's the always dependable EF 70 to 200 mm f 2.8 L IS II which renders sharp images even at very low light and is a super fast lens with wide aperture of 2.8

i did the right thing and carried both of them and used them extensively at a wedding i covered few months back.

below are some photos i clicked using EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS USM lens

Forsaken - Hemispheres Album Review

Forsaken - Hemispheres Album Review by Bed Pan Boy

From Forsaken - Hemispheres (2011)

Forsaken are a 6 member metal band that hail from Bangalore, India and have been pretty active ever since their formation in 2009.

and before i pigeon hole them into being a "contemporary metal band" playing "this" kind of metal" i decided to give a good listen to their album and here is what i really think...

Lightning Photography simple tips

Lightning Photography simple tips by Pritham D'Souza

From lightning

Here's another Lightning shot added to the millions of Lightning shots thats available on the internet...i took this pic last night (October 25, 2011) from my apartments in Mangalore, India. its not supposed to be raining this time of the year, however one needs to make most of the situation and stop cribbing.

decided to try out Lightning shots....

ok i still dont have a tripod and sooo had to use a table and stool and kept the camera in various positions before i got a chance to release the shutter.

its not really about speed here. capturing Lightning shots is made easy using a very very slow shutter also known as long exposures. If u have a DSLR or a good digital camera with manual controls, u must have seen the mode dial which shows "bulb" option.

How to get good Slow Shutter Shots and Switching off Image Stabilization when using a Tripod

How to get good Slow Shutter Shots and Switching off Image Stabilization when using a Tripod by Pritham D'Souza

From Club Mahindra Goa

I clicked this pic when i was holidaying in Goa at Club Mahindra Beach Resort and this was the best time to experiment with slow shutter.

notice how the water is giving a silky smooth effect which only adds to the uniqueness of the photo.

i achieved this using the following steps

1200 Year Old Mangaldevi Temple captured with EF 70 to 200 mm f 2.8 L IS II

1200 Year Old Mangaldevi Temple captured with EF 70 to 200 mm f 2.8 L IS II

Mangala Devi Temple in Mangalore, India is over 1200 years old built around the 9th Century. "Mangalore" is named after this famous temple which houses the Goddess Mangala and hence the name "Mangala Ooru" which translates to "City of Mangala" and the Anglicized version MANGALORE

From mangaldevi temple

this was my very first attempt at capturing a temple and i decided to start with one of the oldest and most famous temples in Mangalore. no photography was allowed inside the temple premises , but i somehow managed to get in a few shots using my superb Canon EF 70 to 200 mm f 2.8 L IS II USM glass.

Katpady Village shot using ND filter on canon EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS wide angle

Katpady Village shot using ND filter on canon EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS wide angle

From katpady in pics

Katpady is a tiny village hamlet near Udupi in Karnatata and its also the ancestral home of my future In Laws.

the name is Tulu language means "Kattu Paadi" which in english translates to "Tie it down"

i have no idea what needs to be tied down and where, but it was another great day to shoot photos with my canon 60D along with EF 24 to 105 mm f 4 L is glass with ND4X filter.

Shooting Landscapes with an ND filter and 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS wide angle Lens

Shooting Landscapes with an ND filter and 24 to 105 mm f 4 L IS wide angle Lens

From mother nature father nothing 2

The view from my place here in Mangalore is absolutely stunning. I live at probably the highest elevation, and i can see the Arabian Sea just outside my window.

The golden hour in the evening is when the rays of the sun start to give a fantastic orange and red discharge and it looks really great esp if one shoots with ND Filters.