Diwali - Festival of lights

Diwali - Festival of lights @ Brampton, Canada

It all started 3 years ago , when we started gathering at my place for Diwali celebration. It was so good that , our house has became permanent venue for Diwali festival . just for the sake of information , we are not allowed to light up the firework  any time of the year except in the city of Brampton for Diwali as major population in Brampton city are Indian.( Sikh community )

The festive season for Hindus  starts with the Ganapati  festival,  in October and the nine-day Navaratri followed by Dussehra   and Diwali.
This year, Wednesday , Oct. 26, is the actual religious date for Diwali, but we could not celebrate on that particular day , as it was a working day. We Have decided to gather and celebrate on the weekend 29 Oct 

We gather and traditionally celebrated with prayers to Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth.

Needless to say Diwali centers around the legend of Lord Rama, who was said to have defeated the demon king Ravana who had captured his wife Sita.
Lamps were lit to welcome them home.

Diwali holds another significance for the Sikh community which celebrates Bandhi  Chhorh Divas as the day Guru Har Gobind Ji, who was held prisoner, had himself along with 52 other princes released from Gwalior Fort by Jahangir.

As everybody was busy lighting up the firework . I was out with my tripod and camera shooting the fireworks

All the pictures were taken in shutter priority mode with the shutter speed around 6 to 10 secs . the same can also be shot at in bulb mode , which most of the cameras have . please read the camera manual to find out. We need a tripod , wireless/wired shutter release and camera  of course.

Enjoy the pictures……..

Finally the Usual Metadata  for these captures

Mode:  Shutter  priority

Aperture:  f 22

Shutter Speed:  6 sec to 10 sec, depending on the kind of firework (Bulb mode only in Manual mode)

ISO: 100

WB( White Balance) : Auto

Camera : Nikon D90

Lens:  Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX ultra wide lens 

Don Valley Brick work... an effort to give its glory back

 

Don Valley Brick Works [Ever Green Brick work]

At my work place The Home Depot Toronto, we have a ongoing program called Giving back to the Community. As a part of this one Friday we visited this place Ever Green Brick Work to plant some 1000 plants..At first I thought I was a regular community charity activity. But the place is photographer's  dream place for photo shooting . Unfortunately I was not prepared for it as I was not carrying my gear. I went around the place, it was amazing place.

I went back again the next day for photo shoot with my gear. Enjoy the HDR images of the brick Works

History of Don Valley Brick Works

The Don Valley Brick Works were created in 1889 by the Taylor brothers. They use to make bricks 100,000 units a day . in 1946 there was a major fire accident and everything  got destroyed. more details can be found in the below link

http://ebw.evergreen.ca/

Now let's talk about the Photography technique

HDR Photography

High Dynamic Range (HDR) - Is taking  multiple photographs at varying exposure levels and  Merge the photos into an HDR image that reveals highlight and shadow details.

HDR images accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint light.

This multiple images at different exposures can be taken using a feature called Bracketing in the DSLR camera. Many cameras offer one or more bracketing functions. The most common is auto exposure bracketing (AEB), which involves taking a series of pictures of the subject while changing the exposure level. The normal practice is to take three shots, one under-exposing by 1/3EV, the second at the metered exposure and the third over-exposing by 1/3EV. That being said lets talk about the File format.

Most of the DSLR  cameras are often take pictures in  RAW(not yet processed - uncompressed file)  image format and  JPEG [8 bit compressed )It is always advisable  to take pictures in RAW format, though they will occupy lot of space on the memory card as compared to JPEG,is uncompressed. Most of the cameras have the options of shooting in RAW and JPEG.

 I always shoot both in RAW and JPEG fine. You do not want to miss any moment .Regarding the memory card capacity. Instead of carrying a higher capacity one card , it always advisable to carry 3 to 4 smaller capacity cards.

There are various software in the market for that can be used for generating HDR images , some can be purchased and some are for free.

Here are some of the most popular software's available in the market. Luminance HDR and Picturenaut are free software's available

 Artizen HDR

DynamicPhoto HDR

easyHDR

Essential HDR

HDR Darkroom

HDR Photo Studio

Luminance HDR

Photomatix Pro

Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro

Picturenaut

Finally the Usual Metadata  for these captures

Mode:  Aperture priority

Aperture:  f 9 –f11

Bracketing: 3F

Shutter Speed:  0.5 sec to 1/250 sec, depending on the ISO and the exposure

ISO:100

WB( White Balance) : Auto

Camera : Nikon D90

Lens:  18mm – 200mm VR II  f 3.5  Lens