Small Town Girl

After our trip to Kerala, we went back to my grandparents place in the state of Tamil Nadu to relax. Since my grandparents city was located between small villages it was fun to go through these small towns and to see their distance from technology. I was born in the place my grandparents reside. It used to be a very small town back in those days with a few T-shirt companies as its most famously known for. Now since they have had big exports to other countries, this small town has grown to have some five star hotels and a booming business lifestyle. Its amazing how some few years changes a place so dramatically. But I'm glad to say that the surrounding villages definitely show the country side as it was. So here are some pictures I took while I travelled with my grandparents and traveled to the neighboring towns:

Pink Temple, Tamil Nadu

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/9.0

Prayers, Tamil Nadu

Focal length: 50mm
Shutter speed: 1/20
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/9.0

Wild Peacock, Tamil Nadu

Focal length: 400mm
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/5.6

Baby Kitten, Tamil Nadu

Focal length: 105mm
Shutter speed: 1/40
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4.0

Little House, Tamil Nadu

Focal length: 40mm
Shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/6.3

Hard Labor, Tamil Nadu

Focal length: 50mm
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/2.5

Kerala, India

Morning Bath, Kerala

Focal length: 88mm
Shutter speed: 1/50
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4.0

Week 2 was spent with grandparents and traveling. It takes 8 hours of train ride to travel 300 miles from aunts place to grandparents. And once there we are only few hours from the next state, Kerala-India. Kerala is known for its tropical weather as some call it god's green thumb. It has its heaviest monsoon in India and is known for the use of a communistic state government. It is also known for Indian Elephants and the variety of Coconut and Banana trees. So we visited Kerala and took my grandparents along. We went mainly for the Guruvayur temple but we were also able to visit the Elephant sanctuary next to the temple called Anakotta and see our old house in the nearby city. We stayed overnight to cover all the places and to take photos of the place. It was all wonderful since we got a taste of the Monsoon at Guruvayur, which in the humid weather was a good feeling. And we also got to eat some authentic Kerala food which I personally enjoy since its rare to find it here in the U.S. So all in all this trip was a lot of fun and gave me some excellent pictures which I treasure for their uniqueness. So here are the pictures:

Oh btw, i had gotten a new lens before leaving for India. Its an awesome lens- a portrait lens: Canon 50mm f/1.4. I'm in love with it as it blurs and bokeh's the background. It also brings the DOF (depth of field) down and only focus on the subject, which is really good for portrait photography, as your main focus is only one subject. The pictures are crisp and clean and the Lens is fast. The f-stop is the lowest f-stop I have so far. Since I had to find a place for it in my camera bag, I had decided to leave my Macro lens behind. I planned to not take macro photos in India because I decided my photography for this trip is going to focus more on the culture, the architecture of the buildings and people of this country. So here are the pictures from my trip in Kerala:

Eye of a Giant, Kerala

Focal length: 400mm
Shutter speed: 1/160
ISO: 500
Aperture: f/5.6

Tusks, Kerala

Focal length: 400mm
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 250
Aperture: f/5.6

Elephant Bath, Kerala

Focal length: 65mm
Shutter speed: 1/400
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/9.0

Going Banana's, Kerala

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/30
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4.0

Working Women, Kerala

Focal length: 50mm
Shutter speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/5.0

Farm Worker, Kerala

Focal length: 50mm
Shutter speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/5.0

Vacation in India

This summer 2009 my family and I headed for a vacation in India. Yes, my motherland. It was exciting knowing that Ill be able to take pictures of a totally different country and bring out the cultural aspect of it. So I headed to India via Singapore through Singapore Airlines. So as usual with most Singapore Airlines, we had an 18hour layover period at Singapore, before our flight to India. We went to Little India at Singapore and took the subway. I had some fun captures in the short time we had at Singapore.

Singapore Subway Station

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/4
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4.0

The Singapore Rush

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 0.3secs
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4.0

Once we landed in India, after a 22hour flight journey and after a 18hour stopover, we spent a week in Chennai-South India. This is a well-known place, a.k.a Madras, and is the location of my aunt and her family. So the first week was spent just cooling of the flight trip and adjusting to the new weather and time. I spent most of my time under a fan or air condition since the weather was hot and humid. I had my first chance to work for my aunt as a photographer for their Indian style renewing-vows function. So here are some photos of Week 1 in India and the Wedding:

Roof tops in the Busy City

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/9.0

Music that Echoed

Focal length: 35mm
Shutter speed: 1/400
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/4.0

A Villager

Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/80
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/6.3

Parrot Tarot Reading

Focal length: 105mm
Shutter speed: 1/60
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/4.0

Prayers at the Wedding

Focal length: 105mm
Shutter speed: 1/100
ISO: 400
Aperture: f/4.0