The Seychelles Diaries - Day 4 - Praslin + Ladigue + Emmanuelle house + Anse Volbert +Coco De Mer + Anse Lazio +Baobab Pizza

for me, day 4 was the most memorable from our entire Seychelles trip. thats coz we got to do so much and see so much and meet a lot of people.

Catamaran from Mahe to Praslin and Ladigue : 

another early breakfast and Paul our designated driver dropped us from our lodge to the harbour where our tour operator Sultanne was waiting for ur with our catamaran pass.

Mahe was the main island with a population of about 75000 people while Praslin (pronounced Praa-Lean) and Ladigue were the other 2 important and big islands , with a combined population of not more than 4000 people.

everyone depended on catamaran for transport from one island to another and it was really expensive! our each ticket cost ur around SRs 3000/- and i was told the locals have a monthly pass to make commuting easier.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 3 - Copolia Nature Trail + Beau Valon beach at night

Nikki and I were extremely excited on day 3 after finding out that we were the only couple to be part of Copolia nature trail with our very own personal tour guide Steve.

as usual we were greeted to the sounds of colourful birds waking us up, and after my fav breakfast 'bacon-ham-egg' we were off to explore the beautiful mountains of Seychelles.

Shooting Glamour Portraits from Home - Help and Tips + all 4 parts in 1 post

its not as easy as it seems, but here are a few pointers that everyone needs to keep in mind

The Model : its great if the model has a lot of patience (along with looking stunningly beautiful) and its an added advantage if she can do her own make up! otherwise its going to get difficult to find a make up artist last minute! 

Glamour Portraits from Home - Bedroom

Part IV - Glamour Portraits from Home - Bedroom

not exactly Boudoir , but not too boring either. for the bedroom shoot i wanted to use just 1 600 RT flash unit with available lighting.

the 2 bedrooms we used had 2 different natural light options. for the forst one, we kept a 600 RT flash unit in the balcony at low power, while the model was posing in a long sweat shirt on the bed.

Glamour Portraits from Home - Basement and Outdoor

Part III Glamour Portraits from Home - Basement and Outdoor

Basement shooting was a bit tricky as there was absolutely no good source of light and i had to use 2  600 RT flashes mounted on 2 stands with soft box.

this purpose of the shoot was to highlight the model and NOT the car. the car was merely used as a prop.

the trick here was to achieve a good hair light and so we had to make several modifications to the car seat to allow the light to fall on the models head.

Glamour portraits from Home - Hallway Elevator

Part II - Glamour Portraits from Home - Hallway Elevator

for this, we were fortunate to again take the help of natural lighting , thanks to the very large window . here i decided to use 1 flash set up 600 RT mounted on stand with soft box , which was triggered using another 600 RT flash mounted on my Canon 1DX and Canon 5d mark III.

Glamour Fashion Portraits at Home - Living Room

Location hunting is a major pain , especially if its a last minute impromptu shoot.

normally a good location will have a nice uncluttered room for indoor shoots or a beautiful garden for outdoor shoots. and a typical place for a shoot would be a "resort" or "hotel" but not without demanding their pound of flesh. at one resort in Bengaluru we were told that a pro shoot would cost us anything above Rs 1 lakh! or if they had to charge per hour it would cost us Rs 10,000 per hour.

Shooting outdoor portraits using the Sunny 16 rule with 1 light set up

Shooting outdoor portraits using the Sunny 16 rule

i was fortunate to attend a workshop on "Understanding light" by my mentor Dr. Krishna Mohan and i wanted to know the best way to get portraits using an external light source in broad daylight. thats when Dr. Krishna explained the "Sunny 16 rule" to us.

and a few days later i was able to use what he taught us at the workshop pretty effectively.

The primary purpose of this shoot (for me) is to darken the backgrounds and mainly focus on the subject giving it a dramatic look with 1 light source. (at the workshop we used an external speedlite) when we use a narrow aperture like f 16 at 1/125 shutter speed at ISO 100 , without flash/strobe, the resulting image will be very dark. at such situations adding light from a flash or strobe will only illuminate the subject/model at close distances keeping the backgrounds dark. so the subject 'pops out' in the photo.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 2 - Beau valon and Marie Antoinette Restaurant

marie antoinette restaurant

The second day of our honeymoon began by admiring the surroundings of divers lodge. right in front of our lodge was an open patio where the residents could sit have their breakfast whilst watching the waves of  Beau Vallon . The owners of divers lodge grow tomatoes, green chillies and mangoes in their garden. Close to the patio  is a small bird food dispenser . It brings the most beautiful birds of seychelles every morning! we managed to spot the red fody also called the madagascar fody it resembles a small orange to red feathered sparrow. A few others were the zebra dove or the barred ground dove and the seychelle bulbul. It was heavenly to hear the morning waves, sounds of chirping birds and the scenic turquoise colored waters of Beau Vallon!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 1 - Tour of Mahe

pic clicked from the cab we were travelling in

the first thing we did after we got out from the airport was to convert Euros to Seychellois Rupees. Euros, Dollars, British Pounds are all accepted in Seychelles, but its always better to carry the local currency so u get back the exact change. at that time, 1 SR = 5 INR approx. and 1 Euro = 16 SR approx.

we managed to get a cab just outside the airport and the lodge we were booked at "Diver's Lodge" was situated at Beau Vallon beach which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. it was a 20 minute drive, covering a distance of about 15 kms.

topographically the island of Mahe and rest of the islands that comprise Seychelles is pristine beaches and granitic mountains. thats it. buying houses is very expensive coz u either get the beach front or the mountain range. in both cases, beautiful , ridiculously gorgeous landscapes.

Few things u need to know about Seychelles

• its comprises of 155 islands and only a handful of them are inhabited. 
• the largest island is Mahe, and Victoria is the capital
• Victoria is also the worlds smallest capital city
• the population of Mahe is about 70,000
• the other major islands are Praslin, La Digue and Silhouette islands
• languages spoken are French, English and Seychellois Creole. 
• the local cuisine or Creole food has chicken curry (non spicy), fish baked or steamed, and lots of vegetables, with the occasional fruit bat and octopus. 
• Cable and wireless is the primary telecommunications firm based in Seychelles, the other is Airtel
• a bus ride to any point costs SR 5/-
• Seybrew beer is the local beer and its delicious!
• the people live in complete religious harmony and ethnically Africans, Indians and Chinese are the local inhabitants.
• they dont have any manufacturing units in Seychelles except Tuna , which is exported throughout the world , making them the biggest exporters. 
• everything is Seychelles is super expensive! thats because everything comes into Seychelles by boat/ship 

Honeymoon tip #1 : NEVER plan a tour on the very first day on arrival!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 1 Landed in Seychelles!!

the flight from Dubai to Seychelles was about 4 hours. but it really felt longer! so the joy on our faces when the captain announced "we will be landing in Mahe shortly" was priceless! here we are finally in Seychelles!

i took a lot of photos using the 5d mark iii and ultra wide 17-40 lens from the window of the aircraft.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 1 Bangalore and Dubai

i am a professional wedding photographer and so travelling is something that comes naturally to me. i never really enjoyed travelling when i was on assignment as i never really got to enjoy the travel, most often i would get confined to the hotel rooms, marriage halls of the events i am covering, so this is truly the very first time i enjoyed the travel. more so as it was my honeymoon! and magnificent Seychelles was our destination. so i decided to blog our journey from Mangalore to Seychelles for 2 reasons.
1. the photos are just not to be missed
2. this could serve as a travel guide to first time travellers to seychelles from India. will be writing about the must visit places in Seychelles, the local cuisine, culture etc. in the upcoming blog posts. 

we have been planning our honeymoon destination for months now and we had narrowed it down to the usual suspects Maldives, Mauritius , Bali, Malaysia etc. Nicole, my wife hates the cold, so travelling to Europe in January was totally out of the question even though we had initially agreed to go to Greece.

i really dont remember now who had come up with the idea of Seychelles but i was fortunate to have a friend Mario who arranges holidays through his firm Fleetfoot Journeys based in Mumbai.

after countless hours of talking over the phone and hundreds of email exchanges we were extremely happy to get our confirmed hotel reservations. made all the payments months before the Rupee had a nasty fall and had booked our flight tickets from MANGALORE TO BANGALORE, BANGALORE TO DUBAI, DUBAI TO MAHE (Seychelles)

there was an alternate route to fly via Colombo. but since it was our first time travel together abroad as a married couple, we thought it would be best to go via Duabi. in any case Dubai has a wonderful airport, which looks like a massive shopping mall.

some pics clicked at Bangalore airport, its not wise to take out the DSLR and start shooting inside the airport. a lot of pics are taken using their smartphones but i dont think its allowed to click photos with big bulky DSLR's inside the airport.

bangalore airport

The Chocolate Room - Bangalore

Death By Chocolate.... Guaranteed!

found out this place by pure luck, as i was desultorily looking for places to rest my lazy back side after jamming with my band Dying Embrace (oh yes i play in a band as well). i seriously have no idea why i looked up wards but there it was, the huge bill board for The Chocolate Room looking down (pun intended) on me.

Plan B

Plan B when plan A doesnt work out for you

the only good thing i really like about the city of Bangalore or Bengalooru is the variety of food joints, restaurants tailor made to suit everyone's palate. just a few months ago i had blogged about another place called Hae Kum Gang and delicious mouth watering (and wallet tearing) Korean dishes (read here) and todays review (or not) is of a pub/restaurant called Plan B which is situated on the same building as the Korean Hae Kum Gang restaurant.

Baale Birud Ritual at Coorg Weddings

Baale Birud Ritual at Coorg Weddings - is a very unique ritual followed at Coorg Weddings.

just before the Groom and his family enters the wedding hall, banana stems are placed vertical on wooden stakes and elders (sometimes even young men) from the Brides and Grooms side take turns in cutting them down.