Wales, Wales, Wales

Image by Peter Morgan/Mooganic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moogan/207174086/

What a shock! What a pleasure!

I only started watching the game 23 mins into the match. I had waited around for the hotel people to go to bed. They liked the football and we watched Man U stealing a point with seconds left.

Then I flicked the channels and saw the score -- England 16 Wales 3 and I thought oh no. Then the commentors said that England hadn't taken all their channels and I though 'OH MY GOD, NO!' but I haven't seen Wales play for ages and I wanted to see them.

I watched the rest of the first half and Wales managed, somehow to close the gap.

In the break, I ran down to 7/11 to get a beer in. Met some English boys, they suggested that I go to the Irish bar but I thought it'd be full of English and I wasn't confident about Wales. There was no reason at that time to have confidence in them. I kind of regret not going now but .....

Anyway, watched the second half, brilliant! We all know what happened!! Come on Wales! Play like that more

I'm happy

Chris

Bundi -- living in the past

The magic of Bundi is everywhere and in everything. In it's magnificent and slightly deteriorated palace, in the abandoned fort who's kings are now monkeys, in the streets of the old town that define time, the seductive countryside that surrounds it and in its peace and slowness.

Like Snow White, Bundi is lost in time, from staying in Havelis hundred of years old, wandering maze-like streets that are lined with greek-like geometric houses coloured mainly in pastel blue, hearing chants are from the temples to sharing a masala chai (Indian tea) with some locals.













The impressive gates to Bundi Palace

The Sathi Lassi is a big hit with travellers. This is the creater, Mr Sathi himself (below).

I love my India

This is what I came to India for. Admittedly, I haven't gotten very far with my intented Indian project, though I have learnt lots and I'm definitely not abandoning my ideas.

This approach is hard work, especially when travelling and the results are a little so, so.

It was fun getting the posters up though. I created several different ones, one with drawings of Indian men and women, Indian gods, the Taj Mahal but the villagers wanted this one.

When we're putting up the posters Arjan started singing I love my India.

Photo Challenges

There are a lot of them going on the web. I found quite a few through Epic Edits but I've seemed to missed the boat. The December challenge, a portrait for each day of the month sounded well worthwhile. This challenge was set up by Trevor Carpenter, here's his link.

http://www.trevorcarpenter.com/








Trevor has a community photo challenge on at the moment. Check out his website for more details.

There's also Ben Spark, who particiated in the self-portrait with your camera competition. He's just completed his taking a photo everyday for a 1,000 days (that includes uploading a photo a day!!) and has committed himself to another 1,000 days.









On a smaller scale, there's a 365 plus 1 group on flickr.

I'd really like to get involved in something like this. I'll keep my eye out for them.

Here's an update from Epic Edits. Check it out, there are some fun pictures that lead to great blog sites. There's a helluva lot going on out there in blog space.

http://blog.epicedits.com/2008/01/09/66-faces-of-photography/

This is the first competition I've enter and I feel like a cheat as I had a ready made photo. I have done a few more since but still feel my 'entry' is stronger.

Anyways, results are on the 21st.

The Village

It was like walking in a David Bowie song. The foot fell onto powder, a soft cushion that give way and sent a cloud of moon dust into the air. This was the path to Dana's village. I've never walked on anything like it.

Dana led me back to his village, well I would say hamlet. The village is Brirendiaya but 'village' is a loose term. It clovers 7 KMs and consists of many hamlets. Dana's hamlet had about 10-12 houses or Bhungas (round houses).

Dana is the village pop star. He has just come back from Indonesia. He plays the wash board but that's his English. He plays a drum that uses goat skin over a medium sized pot and a wash board. It doesn't seem much but it sounds great, especially in a round house.















This is Dana's season and he's playing a concert most nights. In April he'll go to America.

Father and Son













Arjun (above) is Dana's brother but I don't think this is in the literal sense. They don't have the same mum for starters. Arjun works with camel leather and fashions wallets, shoes, mirrors and accessories for the house.

Communial cooking. For villagers and visiters. For a mere 25 ruppees (20p UK or 40 cents US) you get a spicy vegetable curry and as many chapatis as you want.












House












Stand strong girl! Some kids from the village















The head of the village.

White Balance; an area to work on

I'm fairly new to digital photography. I got my Canon EOS 400D about six months ago and I have learnt loads since then. Evidently, I have loads more to learn as well.

White Balance is the issue I most need to address.

White Balance (WB) - the camera uses a 'recording' for white to work out the reproduction of colours. If the white is recorded right then the reproduction of the colours will be accurate (for a camera). But the 'recording' of white changes all the time due to 'colour temperature' and therefore white balance changes all the time.

Many of mine photos have been affected by either using Auto White Balance (ABW) when a preset or custom setting for WB would have been better or using the preset 'sunny', 'cloudy', 'tunsgens', 'fluorescent' etc., and not changing the setting when the light source changes. This has lead to many of my photos looking a bit strange or dull.

At this stage

I guess that I need to have my light setting to ABW for most occasions. At the moment, the main exception I know of is for sunrise and sunset.

Use preset WB if the light source is going to be constant and remember to turn back to AWB when I finish shooting.

Also to learn how to do custom WB, so if I'm going to a lot of photos, say indoors, then a Custom WB would be better.

Also to shoot using RAW, as this will give you the option to correct WB after shooting.