Image Image Image Image Image

Bharatpur Archives - Gaurav Mittal Photography

06

Jul

Creating an Emotional Impact With Images

When I photograph birds, I have one sole intention: I want my audience not only to look carefully at the images but stop, spend some time with them, and be truly curious about them. Images that generate an emotion involve a thought process and must be carefully planned ahead of time. While staging birdshots is one way of doing this, I personally prefer to do it in a natural environment. There are many ways of creating impact with images; in this post, I will be sharing my thoughts on the story telling, mood, composition and techniques that create this impact.

Read more…

29

Dec

Canon 7D Mark II Review

Canon 7D Mark II Review

 

Introduction

Three years ago when I got very serious about bird photography, I knew I needed to upgrade from my first DSLR the Canon 50D to something better. After a thorough research, I decided to invest in the Canon 7D, which had a slightly faster frame rate and being an APS-C camera with a crop sensor, gave me more effective focal length. Increased focal length is always a driving force for a bird photographer when considering a camera.  Equipped with my 7D and the 500mm lens, in December of 2011, I headed to Bosque, New Mexico. After two days of shooting with the 7D, much to my dismay I found that the ISO related noise handling was extremely poor, causing the images to suffer badly, it was surprising that even at very low ISO, images seemed to appear as if high ISO settings were used. The autofocus was also sluggish.

Read more…

05

Dec

Scouting Early for Bird Photography Workshop in Bharatpur

I have recently just completed a first round scouting visit to Keoladeo Ghana National Park in preparation for my first bird photography workshop in Bharatpur in late January. I’m clearly excited about leading this workshop, the images below provide a good idea on what to expect in Bharatpur. Clearly there are vast opportunities to come away with lifetime of memories and learning experience.  It is a joy to visit Bharatpur as each visit provides a unique sense and feel to the place.

Read more…

23

Nov

Bird Photography Workshop in Bharatpur

A little over two months are remaining for my first ever Bird photography workshop in Bharatpur and I’m very excited about the opportunity to help and educate the participants on the fundamentals of bird photography. From understand composition, exposure, having a proper workflow in post processing to the ethics when approaching wildlife in the field, I will cover all of these and much more.

Read more…

10

Sep

Serene Green: Making Impact in Bird Photography

1/3200 sec F/8.0 ISO 800, Canon IDX, 600mm + 1.4x

1/3200 sec F/8.0 ISO 800, Canon IDX, 600mm +1.4x

Birds by far are one of the most popular subjects in wildlife photography; every minute thousands of images are uploaded online showing birds in flight or behavioral activity. However, amongst the thousands only a few are attention catching. The problem lies in the fact that very little thought process is involved in the creativity, the composition and accurate post processing of the image. Read more…

01

Sep

Romancing Over Candlelight Dinner at Bharatpur

1/800 sec F/8.0 ISO 800, Canon 5D Mark III, 600mm +2x

1/800 sec F/8.0 ISO 800, Canon 5D Mark III, 600mm +2x

It is no secret that images created in the early morning or late afternoon light also known as the “golden hour”produce pleasing results. It is critical to be present at the right location and have the composition and the exposure setup because the light is ever changing and you get just a few seconds or maybe a minute to capture that magical moment.

Read more…

17

Jan

Bird Photography Trip: Fifteen Hours in Bharatpur

I’m finally back and blogging again after a long break. I would have hoped to start of the first blog of the New Year with an exciting story about my first bird photography trip of the year, a trip to Keoladeo National Park in Bhratpur, land of birds. You would probably be scrolling down by now to quickly have a look at my new images from KNP before settling into reading this post. Well, this post is neither very exciting nor filled with images of the colorful birds, as you would have expected.

Do stay with me on this as this may be worth your while.  Barely fifteen hours after I arrived in Bharatpur, I was already on my way back to Delhi. The car ride was emotional for me, the unfortunate streak now extended to six. Six is the number of consecutive photography trips that I have failed to either start or finish in the last four months. Read more…