Know when to use HDR

May 29, 2018

What a rain in coast. A thunderous pre-monsoon rains morphed our village to river. An ideal time to be in village listening to blustering rains, beholding the roaring downpour with a sip of coffee & golibaje. After savaging the region for nearly 6hrs, the floods ensued. The fields were marooned. Hopefully the troposphere thaws in couple of days.

It has been unprecedented rains in coastal Karnataka with rain gauge crossing 350mm mark within a span of 12hrs. A well marked low-pressure area off the coast of Arabian sea resulted in heavy nimbus clouds barging into the land. In a jiffy the heavens roared with thick droplets of rain over the coastal regions swamping in matter of 3hrs. The unabated rains that lasted for nearly 9hrs inundated Mangalore & unabated like never before. The freakish clouds did not disappear until completely dissipated and deluged the region. The insatiable rains crumbled with mighty power morphing the cities to artificial rivers. Mangalore city was virtually hijacked for 5hrs by the roaring troposphere stalling the life of the citizens. When the troposphere thawed, city was in deep shambles mocking the incumbents.

Back to topic, here in Bangalore, it was all clear. The effect of rains could be felt by cool breeze, azure skies and intermittent moisture-less clouds. I was at Rachenahalli lake and the sky looked splendid. The Sunlight was perfect like studio setup to shoot landscape facing it. I shot couple of pictures to quench my photo hunt. Unfortunately, the pictures did not turn out good. Ironically, last time I lamented for not turning on HDR but this time its opposite. The HDR mode did not work out, Why? Look at the pictures :(. They are either blown out or had dull colors. The beauty was stunning, the exposure was perfect but the only mistake I did was turning on mobile camera HDR. There was no need for HDR when nature comes up with perfect crystal light. I did not realize while shooting but as I reached home, the picture did not impress me :(. I was late again. Mistakes are often great teachers. This time too I had a lesson. Even though, I did not shoot HDR off, from past experiences I am confident picture would have been perfect without any HDR settings.

All these are deliberately unedited to show how highlights are blown out and colors turned artificial. The actual colors were excellent but above ones bear vintage look. Rejigging the images will make them fine but that day exposure of Sun was perfect. A non-HDR shot would have done the job with couple of simple edits. The above image needs too many level/color corrections.

A day after lamenting

11 Sep 2018,

Something unusual happened after writing previous post. It rained like it is peak monsoon season in Bangalore. The rains rushed all of sudden during the evening time bringing a deserved relief to drying city. This evening we had chiming of thick droplets pounding heavily over the earth. Probably the heavens might have showered with anger or may be to prove me wrong. Positively, the skies rekindled hopes of more rains and more evening joys for photographers :-). A drastic change in climate, turned the table and poured for an hour. Yes it rained a lot and flooded the roads. The uncanny weather was finally broken with onset of September rains. While the thunder roared over troposphere, the rains roared over ground. This synergy, flooded the ground after spell of 30 minutes. Despite the torrential rains, the moisture over the ground dried relatively faster which indicates city had prolonged dry period. The rains are relief to city dwellers as well farmers. The heavy rains however could not bring down the humidity level!

And a 10sec feel of tropical storm is here!

Surprisingly, the rains were confined to region nearby to our area not extending beyond 2km radius. Hypothetically, the nature, just to  rebuke my conjecture, poured for an hour to highlight their presence. Furthermore these statements are just for humor and not to be taken for further analysis per-se :-)

Last days of Summer

10th September 2018

After ferocious rains, the monsoon is gradually terminating its presence over India. Yes it did not rain much in Bangalore this time. The weather is either cloudy or dry, but bereft of healthy rains. The excess monsoon rains last year would have slowed down the activity this year. Also Bangalore was gripped by nonseasonal rains which would have further weakened the monsoon rains in this region. To go on, lot of assumptions stem from brain but there is still hope. It is just September and October is yet to come. We still have hopes of getting normal rains during withdrawal phase of monsoon. As of now, it is dry out here with cooler nights which is indication of winter onset. Hope we see more rains!

Here are the pictures of fag end of summer. Only patch of clouds were hovering over Rachenahalli lake. These are not rain bearing clouds but added lot of glory to evening sky. It was simply Majestic to behold such a scene during our long walk along the promenade of lake. Hope you enjoy too!

On a crowded Sunday evening, the Skies also turned vociferous. Although not by sound but by its flaming colors. Hope this does not portend future miseries. The reflection on the lake was great which photographers always yearn for!

Winter means drier days, drier weather, drier skin, drier vegetation, and most unfortunately drier days for photographer. Rarely we see clouds but not guaranteed. Fog can add lot of drama in your shots but they are interesting only in countryside not in city. Consequently lethargic landscape enthusiasts in city have to contend with monotonous shots in coming days :-).

Sea Tides - Part 2

With prolific beauty all around the bay fostered by unprecedented rains, it was impossible to stick to one part of the shore. I walked all around lighthouse, backwaters, rocks before settling down nearby shore. The mighty waves creates beautiful silky effect for shutter speeds of 1/13s. The blue-hour was irresistible which resulted in series of shots crashing against the boulders and  splashing the waves high :).

Linked to Skywatch Friday

An evening in Jakkur Lake

This is an older post drafted well over 2 years. If I remember date, somewhere around 2015 June/July

A bunch of scattered clouds are hovering over the skies of Bangalore thanks to bleak monsoon. The monsoon is not showing up its energy which was visible during June and it's once again disappointing year. Even though there lies a hope, the expectation is still low. Back to Subject, the scattered clouds are creating spectacles over the Western horizon every evening. We wished to visit to lake bed to enjoy the golden reflections. Instant place that popped into my mind was the nearby Jakkur Lake. It was ride to Jakkur lake and we were there in 20 mins.

Jakkur lake is fed by water from water treatment plant which makes it near fresh water source. The presence of various birds suggests that water is manageable if not potable.

Here are pictures for you!

A great way to end the day with enticing blue hour

Festival of Lights

Shot during Deepavali festival

Slow FasTag

Recently I was conducting trials on newly recharged FastTag. En-route to Udupi, we stumble across 5 toll gates till hassan. Since, Shiradi Ghat repair is underway, 3 more toll gates were avoided.

My first encounter was at the 8th mile toll gate. Fortunately, I took the service road rather than main lane. You know right! It is one of the most tainted toll gate with vehicles lined up for almost 300mtrs all along the gates. It takes sometimes more than 15mins to cross this point. Assuming that a km can be covered in one minute, the stay in toll gate is darn waste Also I did not find any FastTag lane apparantely, ergo I was double fortunate!

Second encounter was at the nelamangala toll gate towards hassan. Yes, the fast tag was in place but Alas! There is gap of almost 3mins between vehicles. That is due to incapability of scanner to quickly dispatch the readings. I may be wrong as well. This may be due to server delays as well. It was obvious when I crossed Hassan toll gate. The accuracy of machine is problem. You need to move vehicle as close as possible with slow pace to enable the reader to scan your bar-code attached to windshield.

Due to the inevitable delay between vehicles, the FastTag was functioning slower than its intention. Suppose if most of the vehicles migrate to FastTag, the delay will accentuate and may be worse than manual operation. Hopefully, we would have better readers to dispense vehicles at faster rate.

The third toll gate, FastTag was not functioning and remaining two, it worked. The most incurred delay was at fifth toll gate where I had to move near to barrier for scanner to recognise the FastTag sticker. The delay was almost 20s which is way too high. The frustration was visible on vehicle owners which ensued perpetual honks. Moreover, I also observed non-fasttag enable vehicles entering the fasttag lane. The notice board clearly displays impeachment in form of fines for such an offense but the rules just remain in placard.

Non FastTag vehicles entering FasTag lane

The most discomforting part was the staff needs to manually let in the vehicles due to jitter caused by device. That's really pathetic than the manual receipt lending. Also, the staff needs to operate under rains or Sun for the so-called automated system.

I was happy to successfully operate my fast tag account but unhappy to see the lousy response of the equipment

Splendid revisit to Koodli

24th August 2018,

My last visit to Koodli was dim. I could not figure out the contrast between Tunga & Bhadra. This time, thanks to energetic monsoon rains, both rivers were swelling with well differentiated color. It was literally possible to juxtapose the rivers at Sangama point (Confluence point). My camera could not resist the temptation to grab such beautiful scene. Also the presence of pleasant atmosphere enabled me to capture the complete beauty. Whenever Sun god shed light, the contrast accentuated adding to my Joy. Hope you also enjoy these scenes.

Being holy place, many Hindu pilgrims arrive here and offer ceremonies to ancestors. Numerous developmental activities have been completed which includes changing rooms, resting area and a clean promenade to reach the confluence point. Unfortunately, there is lack of public toilets. Also government levies hefty parking charge of Rs.40 for four wheelers despite the absence of parking lot.

ISHWARA TEMPLE

PANORAMIC VIEW OF CONFLUENCE

Here is the video. Every clip you can clearly view the distinction of colors. Hope you enjoy!

When cloud disappears, beauty transpires

24th August 2018,

The vehement monsoon has revived age old reservoirs of Karnataka, rejuvenated the waterfalls and left a valuable lesson to human civilization. When you meddle with nature, the reverse process entails. That is evident from the furious monsoon season that pummeled Malnad regions of Karnataka this year. The district known as Coorg was devastated by the massive floods and enormous landslides wiping out villages altogether. The amount of destruction has made erstwhile human habitats, non-livable. It looks like nature reclaimed all its lost space in partnership with monsoon. The unprecedented deforestation in Coorg due to the growing resort culture, the blatant culling of pristine rainforest for rubber/tea plantations has finally broke the patience of nature and the savage events ensued. The tall pinnacles of rainforest would have withheld such a destruction by decelerating the rains towards ground and also acting as strong foundations for mountains. Alas! they are no more now in Coorg, thanks to modernization and greed. Even after series of disasters, governments are hesitating to revive these rainforests which shows ignorance and irresponsibility. I believe it is not hesitation but speculation of declining profit for greedy politicians. Despite all kinds of scientific improvements, nature teaches us to live within boundary. But this is not being learnt by people here in Coorg. Consequently, more disasters are inevitable. It's time to resuscitate the rainforest for our good!

Back to the main topic. After few scribbles of preaching, the Linganamakki dam in Karnataka also brimmed to its potential due to copious monsoon rains in catchment areas. After gap of 4 years, the water was let out of dam reviving the glory of Jog falls. Unfortunately we visited few days after the event and consequently could not view the exuberance of the waterfall. Nevertheless, the day of visit was not bleak. This time the glory was far exceeding the last visit. It takes a little patience to view waterfall since the cloud cover engulfs the valley thwarting the views of beauty. Initially we also had to contend with massive roar but have patience till nebulous gorge clears. As the clock ticked past 3PM, we finally had a great glimpse of the mammoth waterfall and cheered for the nature. The selfies ensued as well ;-). Once clouds faded temporarily, the jog falls was beehive with selfie takers. I like to grab portraits of landscape and hardly interested in self/selfie portraits :D. Hope you enjoy the beautiful glimpse of waterfall and a short video as well!

When Cloud disappears,
The beauty transpires!

The Flamboyant Jog Falls

Few captures from my better half

On the way back, I was excited to see tall pinnacles of Sharavathi valley sanctuary. It rains more than coorg here but the pinnacles have preserved the stability beautiful mountains. This shows how important is our beautiful rainforests in controlling disaster. At least, these forests should set as an example for mankind to conserve the giant trees.

Here is video. Most of my time spent in waiting for the clouds to disperse away from waterfall. Hence there were hardly any pictures captured.

It is more of cloudwatch than Skywatch :-)

Sea Tides - Part 1

May 12 2018,

The election day visit was one of the most memorable visit to my beautiful Kapu beach with clear atmosphere and dazzling Sun amidst the clouds. The rains have cheered the nature and its green everywhere. The impact is visible during the golden hour with the hydrogen star flaunting its beauty along the western horizon amidst the drifting clouds. I had busy time framing the endearing landscape views and consequently the memory card was loaded with beauty of nature. It was moment of delighted as I processed those images. Very minimal edits were required on captured images which shows how uber adorable was nature that day.

There are humongous pictures indeed. To make sure the viewers don't lose sync, I have split the post in three parts with the selected images which I think conceived well and here is the first one.

Linked to Skywatch Friday