Iceland - August 2015 Day 1

It was unfortunate that we had very poor internet service this trip to Iceland hence no posts.  This was a small group photo tour to the Snaefelsness Peninsula and the Highlands.  The trip  was 11 days with 10 of them rainy and very windy - this is Iceland after all.  We arrived at a decent hour in Keflavik and on to the car rental.  The morning was spent organizing cell phone SIM cards, drinks and snacks.  We had breakfast at a quaint little breakfast pleace in Reykjavik. Walked about town and then drove on to a fishing village Hellnar and checked in to the hotel.A brief trip along the Southern coast before dinner and bed.  Note that this and most if the images in subsequent posts lack great skies. 

Martha's Vineyard - Workshop

A extended Memorial day weekend workshop in Martha's Vineyard was absolutely fantastic.  Friday through Tuesday of great weather even though it was cold (very cold and windy).  The Ashley Inn a B&B was large enough to accommodate all 16 of us with great rooms and a homemade breakfast each morning.  Winters and erosion have taken their toll on the Island and the Aquinnah (Gay Head) Light House is in the process of being moved further inland.  4:30 AM departures and Midnight to bed resulted in very long but fruitful days for the group. Here are some comments and feedback from the participants:[audio mp3="https://shivverma.com//wp-content/uploads/2015/05/wscomments.mp3"][/audio]In-between classes and field instruction I was able to get a few shots and this is one of my favorites. (please click on the image for a larger view)

Testing Affinity from Serif

Have not had a lot time to test the 2nd Beta release of Affinity but gave it a good shot yesterday.  Still a lot to learn, but on the whole, I like it a lot.  Has some great features built in, the filters are great but not sure I like the fact that it creates an intermediate file.  The following is an image processed entirely using Affinity (Sony Raw to a TIFF export).

70 South Gallery - Lighting Workshop

The 70 South Gallery - Lighting and Model Photography workshop was a huge success.  Thanks to some great organization by "Adventures in Photography" (NJ, NY and New England) and the 70 South Gallery, Morristown, NJ.  The workshop was sold out and we were fortunate to have decent weather for some of the outdoor shoots.  I would like to thank the participants, the models and the organizers for all the hard work and support that made this so awesome.Studio lights were Profoto and Arri, outdoor speed lights were Nissin and personal on and off camera flashes.  Lastolite reflectors and the Phottix Luna but dish were also incorporated in the various sessions.

Martha's Vineyard - Memorial Day Weekend Workshop

In case you’ve missed it, Adventures in Photography (AIP) has organized a 5 day/4 night workshop on Martha’s Vineyard over the Memorial Day Weekend  where I will be instructing.This is rare opportunity for photographers and their non-photographer partners to share some quality time together.Photographers get to photograph the beauty and charm of this unique island community while their non-photographer partners explore the charming New England character of Martha’s Vineyard.Adventures in Photography (AIP) has reserved all of the Ashley Inn's 10 rooms from May 22nd until May 26th. We can accommodate 20 people based on double occupancy. The Ashley Inn is an upscale B&B and breakfast is included.We still have a few rooms available but expect that they will sell out.For a full description of this Adventure go CLICK HERE

Iceland - February 28 to March 7

With the exceptional Aurora Borealis activity in Iceland, I am doing a 1 week photo tour and workshop that will be exceptional.From the western peninsulas of Snæfellsnes and Reykjanes to the exceptional south coast including the exquisite black sand beaches and icebergs in Jökulsárlón and surrounding areas this trip is designed for all levels of photographers.  This trip is limited to a maximum 7 participants.All Iceland photo tours and workshops in 2014 and 2013 were fully subscribed within days so please register as soon as possible.CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS 

2015 First Quarter - One Day Workshops

Wishing you and your families a Very Happy & Prosperous New YearThe One Day Workshops for the first quarter of 2015 have been posted.They are listed on the One Day Workshop PageORYou may go directly to the Registration Page to get details and register.All one day workshops include a Pizza Lunch

TWiP - Your Itinerary - my chat with Host Rob Knight

It was a pleasure to meet Rob Knight at Photo Plus Expo the end of October.  Rob is the host for "Your Itinerary" on the ever expanding TWiP network.  Frederick van Johnson is sure building and building fast.  Thank you Rob for a wonderful discussion and thanks to the TWiP team for adding Your Itinerary to the mix.Here is the text from the podcast page:"Your Itinerary this week features my interview with published photographer, educator and workshop leader Shiv Verma. Shiv and I were chatting at the Photo Plus Expo in New York last month, and I thought you would be interested to hear where our conversation took us.Shiv and I both lead photography workshops, and we both strive to offer something to our clients beyond locations and instruction. Anyone can take people to beautiful places and show them around. Providing a unique experience is what makes the difference between the average photo tour and something wonderful that clients will remember for the rest of their lives.Shiv and I begin by discussing travel, photography and scouting locations, but we ended up trading tips for creating unique trips and providing great experiences for clients. Whether you’re planning a trip, looking for a photo workshop or planning a workshop yourself, I think you’ll find this week’s episode very interesting."Hope you enjoy and appreciate what TWiP is doing for the photographic community.Click Here to go to the TWiP podcast

Photo Plus Expo 2014 and Lumix Lounge

Spent three fantastic days in NY City at the Photo Plus Expo.  Saw some great stuff that I will be blogging about soon.  The mirror-less world continues to pick up steam and there is a lot happening with this lighter better world of photography.  Trending - HYBRID - animated stills and more.Was honored to be invited and to be interviewed in the Panasonic Lumix Lounge by none other than Frederick Van Johnson.  Click here for the interview.Panasonic had an awesome booth with lost of gear for visitors to test out, demos, 4K TVs and the fantastic new LX100 - I want one.  Use the link to check it out.

Processing with Capture One

For the past few weeks I have been processing my raw files using Capture One Pro rather than Adobe Camera Raw.  I am finding the RAW processing engine in Capture One to be exceptional.  Mark you, I have not upgraded to Version 8 and am still using Version 7.2.3In brief I love the way the the software handles skin-tones.  The amount of detail it can draw out of dull highlights and shadows is great.  The HDR sliders make it possible to bring out natural looking HDR tonal ranges from a single RAW file - exceptional.Now I just need to get more familiar with all the features and then upgrade to Version 8.Here is an example of an image processed using Capture One Pro.  The image was captured in Iceland during my workshop this past September.  Please do click on the image to see a larger version. 

Diaphanous Flowers - Rose of Sharon

This is the fourth flower in this series.  A Rose of Sharon from the yard.  This one was lit from the side and the back with a low intensity cross fill.  All lighting for these images have been cool LED lights, daylight balanced.  Once again please click on the image for a larger view.

India - March 2015 - Tribes of Gujarat & Kavant Fair

March 4 - 19, 2015 photo tour through the western region of India. The “Tribes of Gujarat with Kavant Fair” is a tremendous opportunity to get one of the finest cultural experiences possible in India.For details on the trip please visit - http://tinyurl.com/meq6ge8This trip will immerse you in an India that few get to see or experience. Feel free to share this with with your friends.  The trip is all inclusive, round trip air fare included (from a US gateway city) and will have a maximum of 12 participants.  Register ASAP as this one will fill up very fast. 

Diaphanous Lily 2

This is the second image in the series.  The process is the same as Diaphanous Lily with the exception of lighting.  Here I used two lights instead of the single light in the first image.  Please click on the image for a larger view.

Star-trails in the Southern Hemisphere

Finding Polaris or the North Star is easy in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, finding Sigma Octantis is very difficult. The star lies in the constellation of Octans and has a magnitude of 5.5 making it barely visible even on a clear night.  One can use the Southern Cross to make an attempt at locating its position but it will never be really accurate.  I did my best and set up my cameras to do a time-lapse.  This was the night Germany played Brazil in the World Cup.My tripod and camera must have aroused the curiosity of the night security guard at Eagle Island Camp.  He kindly moved my rig to a more secure position on the tiles of the swimming pool.  This was after 395 images had been captured with about 105 to go.  Sequence disrupted but in my opinion the stack is interesting.  Sigma Octantis is in the top left corner of the frame - INVISIBLE.Stars in Africa are incredibly bright as indicated by the EXIF data.  These images were captured using the Panasonic Lumix GH4 and the 12 to 35 mm Lumix Vario lens.  Exposure triad: f/2.8, 13 sec, ISO 200 - no noise reduction required.In hindsight, I should have added an ND filter and increased the exposure to 25 seconds or closed down the aperture to f/4.  This would have extended the individual trails.Your comments would be appreciated.

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

It was a rare but awesome opportunity to see this pair of Carmine Bee-eaters in Botswana. The Southern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicoides) is primarily found in sub-equatorial African region. These are migratory birds that spend the winter August to November (breeding season) in Zimbabwe. They move south to Botswana and  South Africa for the summer and then migrate to equatorial Africa from March to August.

In search of the Lilac Breasted Roller

I do not believe a trip to Southern Africa would be complete without a good image of the Lilac Breasted Roller (Coracias caudatus). Many images were taken during this trip to Botswana and many rejected till this opportunity. The bird is fairly skittish and very fast in leaving its perch. Here it gave me a lovely pose and the catchlight was just right.Panasonic Lumix GH4 with the Panasonic Lumix Vario 100-300 f/4-5.OIS lens at 264mm. Exposure Triad, f/5.6, 1/3200 sec, ISO 400. The image has been slightly cropped on the left for improved composition.

Using Mirror-less Cameras in Africa

For my 2014 South Africa and Botswana photo tour I used only MILS cameras - a Sony A7R for some of the big landscapes and night photography, a Panasonic Lumix GH4 for action and wildlife (mainly with the Lumix Vario 100 to 300 mm which is  a 200 to 600 mm equivalent) and the Olympus OMD EM1 mainly with a Lumix Vario 35 to 100 mm (70 - 200 mm equivalent) for closer subjects and wider FOV.  Have no regrets and no disappointments at all.  The focusing is fast, shutter actuations at 12 and 11 FPS, accurate tracking and continuous focus. The next two images are of a sunset captured in the Shinde concession in Botswana: Earlier in the day this Red-billed Francolin was captured sitting on a termite mound.Contact Gary Farber or Keth Patankar at Hunt's Photo & Video for all your Mirror-less Camera Needs

The Vast Icelandic Landscape

I posted this composite on facebook yesterday more as a "tiny" jab at a photography friend.  However, today I felt it worthy of a post on my blog.

Gullfoss - Iceland

I can never get tired of looking at images from Iceland.  This is an extract of Gullfoss (Golden Waterfall), one of the most popular waterfalls in Iceland and a key stop on the the Golden Circle.  It is a multi tiered waterfall on the river Hvítá. The first is a wide but shallow three step fall and then it drops in two tall stages. The first is about 36 feet and the second about 70 feet.  This image is a small extract of the final drop. Canon 5D Mk II, 70-200 f2.8 at 200 mm, f/10, 0.8 seconds, ISO 250.

Cloud Formations

I have a passion for unique and captivating cloud formations and felt rewarded on March 27th 2014.  We were on our way back from a trip around the Golden Circle in Iceland.  Driving to Reykjavik it was foggy with low visibility but the fog really looked like low clouds.  About a half hour to the hotel we saw  some openings with some blue barely showing through an exquisite wind swept cloud formation.  This image was converted to monochrome using Nik Silverefex Pro.  I feel that simplifying a scene in B&W can not only enhance the image but also the story.

We spent a while photographing the swirls across the wide snow covered landscape and headed west toward the hotel.  The sun set as a fiery ball but mostly obscured by clouds.  Soon after there was a semblance of an afterglow that we did stop and capture. I feel the juxtaposition of the warm and cool tones make this image.  The lower portion of the scene was intentionally cropped to eliminate a few man made structures that I found obtrusive.