The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Sightseeing in Matheran

we woke up at around 8 am and after a quick but healthy breakfast at Lords Central Hotel decided to walk around Matheran, a decision that both of us would regret considering it would mean we would be walking for more than 6 km for about 3 hours! the terrain was rugged and we were tempted many a times to hire the local horse rides but decided to walk anyways.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 1 - Checking In at Lords Central Hotel and Matheran at Night

we had booked our hotel rooms in advance so we knew where we were going to stay. the 3 nights and 2 days we spent at Lords, cost us Rs 13,502/-  (we paid the next day), which included breakfast, lunch and dinner with tea and cake being served in the morning and evening.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 1 - Mangalore to Mumbai to Matheran

here i am back with another blog series , this time visiting Magnificent Matheran, which is a popular hill station situated around 90 kms from Mumbai.

this time, i carried my 5dmarkiii + EF 16-35 f 2.8 L II USM and Sigma 35 mm f 1.4 ART lens with me.

the duration of our holiday was from Oct 31 to Nov 10th and the places we visited included Lonavala, Matheran, Pune and Mumbai.

Shooting Portraits with Elimchrom 175 cm Octabox as back light and plain background

I have received a lot of requests to do a quick post of shooting portraits with a white background (backlight and plain ) and so have writing this post. FYI this might not be the text book way of achieving the result, but as long as it works for me and the client is happy, its fine :)

The Elinchrom 175 cm Octabox is one of the best for shooting portraits. the 175 cm is really large and gives soft, diffused lighting to the subject. 

in this quick post, i want to show u some examples where i have taken advantage of the large 175 cm size and used the elinchrom 175 octa as backlight and even as a plain white background

Goodbye Seychelles, Hello Dubai Hello Bengaluru

so 7 days had passed so quickly and now we were waiting for our cabbie to pick us up and drop us to the international airport.
ours was the first flight from Mahe to Dubai and since protocol demands we be at the airport at least 3 hours in advance meant that we would be spending a lot of time at the departure terminal at Mahe.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 7 - Glass Bottom Boat

Day 7 :  so here it was, our very last day! once again, our tour guide had informed us that we would be the only couple to go on the glass bottom boat ride as the other tourists had rescheduled their plans.

so effectively this turned out to be a very private , romantic date, with just me and my wife niki.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 6 - Scuba Diving

Scuba diving was something nikki was interested to do the very first day we landed in Seychelles! and the place we stayed at was called "Diver's Lodge" kept reminding her of scuba diving and we had "Big Blue Divers" for our immediate next door neighbours.
me on the other hand, well, am petrified of water, have always been, and so was not really keen to go scuba diving. when we met the instructor, i nearly signed up for scuba diving as well, but my senses prevailed and i decided not to enrol while nikki was jumping for joy!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 5 - Sunday at Victoria + Lunch at Butcher's Grill + Dinner at La Plage

the only time we actually got to explore the city on our own was on day 5, which also happened to be a lazy sunday.

after our super awesome breakfast, we decided to travel to Victoria by local bus as it was the cheapest way to get to the main city and back. we totally forgot to overlook the fact that on a Sunday, nothing open! literally, all the shops are closed, the markets closed , only a few restaurants are open.

managed to ask a few friendly locals if any restaurants would be open as it was lunch time already, and we finally got to eat Seychelles Junk Food courtesy The Butcher's Grill.

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.