The Lifeometer

Another night at the mall

Another Saturday went by and nothing new happened. I was originally going to Atlantic City but then all the other people I was planning to go with bailed out. So all I have to look forward to is the Snow Boarding trip next weekend to the Blue Mountain from which as of now "I have bailed out".

Like always I went to the King of Prussia mall but this time with the camera. I always wanted to take pictures of the giant Christmas reindeers at the mall but was too lazy to take my camera. At last when I did, the reindeers were gone. It was cold outside anyway and the environment and weather were too non-conducive for taking pictures. But I still did take a few.

The problem in taking pics at the mall is that you become too noticeable. I have rarely seen anyone taking pictures at the mall and if I do see anyone, I make sure that he knows that I am seeing him. The roles just reverse up when I'm taking the pictures. It has been around a year since I have owned a good camera. But sadly I have not used it much. I also have couple of lenses on my to-buy list but at this time buying any of those would not make much sense since I don't take pictures as often as I would want to. I guess I will work on that first.

The Belly Dancer

Place : 42nd street and Madison Ave, NYC
Occasion: India Day Parade

It was a wonderful event to visit. Although I seriously could never figure out what a belly dancer was doing in India day parade.

Original Picture:

The following changes were made to the image:

1. Popping out of colors by using the Lab Color mode in photoshop. This is shown in this wonderful tutorial by some user:

2. Adding vignette to the picture. One of the ways to do this is shown in this second wonderful tutorial posted by some other youtube user:

Please let me know of any questions or comments. Thanks!

The Beginning is the End

They say that learn it by seeing it. They also say that share what you learnt to learn more out of it.
The goal is to take better pictures. The idea is to show what I do and ask clickers and flickers how I can do it better. To get critiqued and to critique (sometimes). And to see if any better can be done.