5 Ways To Keep Yourself Motivated For Learning Photography & Some Bonus

I can't tell you how many of my friends bought DSLR, with an intention of learning photography and then just gave up everything in few months. With all the other work and responsibilities that we have, we tend to put a hold on our passion and eventually end up giving up what we like to do. 

Just like every other hobby or passion, to keep it alive, you have to keep yourself motivated, no matter what. So - how exactly can we do it? Here are the 5 things that I recommend that you do, to keep your passion alive. 

1. Love what you do 
This is the first and the most important thing to keep you motivated. You need to love what you shoot. Period. You may not be the best photographer and might not have got the most amazing shot that there is. But if you like it, you will spend more time and click some more pictures. Sure - 5 years down the line when you look at your archives, you may not like most of the pictures you clicked, but they did their job. They kept you motivated to reach the level of photography you do today. 

2. Be with people who genuinely appreciates and critiques you
It doesn't matter what your job or passion is, you need to be around people who genuinely appreciate your work and critique it whenever necessary. Such people are difficult to find, but once you find them, don't leave them. They will keep you going, without virtually doing anything. 

3. Make it part of your routine/schedule
Just like you brush your teeth everyday and pay your bills every months, you need to give time to your photography and put it somewhere in your routine. How much time should you give? It really depends on you. I follow a schedule of reading about photography 15 mins everyday and plan a photoshoot at least once in a month. Reading alone will not improve your photography. Go out there and click some pictures. Find out how busy you are and then make time for your passion. 

4. See other photographers work & find a mentor 
Any form is art is about imagination and that usually comes with inspiration. I can't tell you how much I have learned just by looking at pictures that others have clicked. Start following photographers of your genre. I am sure you will have a lot of "Eureka" moments when you see other's work. Better is if you are able to talk to the photographer you admire and he acts as your mentor. 

5. Do something else too
I think this one is self-explanatory. No matter what passion you have, you have to do different things, take different experiences. The more diverse your life is, better are the chances that you will make better pictures and keep your self motivated. If you are stuck with one thing, that is the worst thing that you do. That will definitely derail you. 


I hope after reading this article, you will be able to keep yourself motivated and take your photography to newer heights. But before I leave you today, I want to give you a BONUS. It is actually an extension of my 1st point about loving your photography.

We all should love our work, but we should stop judging it. Don't judge your work based on what someone else thinks or says. Don't judge your work by looking at how many "Likes" you get on Facebook or on other social media. Yes, you want to share your photos on social media for others to see and appreciate, but not getting Likes does not mean photo is bad. Infact - getting a lot of likes doesn't mean your work is good either. So - trust your imagination, trust your skills. If you got the shot that you planned to click, that's the best thing that could have happened on that day. :-)

Thank you again for reading my blog, I really appreciate your support here. Interestingly - my writing this blog is a proof that I am keeping myself motivated about photography. (At least) As of today, I don't have many readers for my blog and I don't even know if people read my post till the end. Let's prove that by asking you a simple question. If you have read till the end, write #ReadIt in comment on my FB post Or on this post

You all have a wonderful day !!! 

One Trick That Will Improve Your Baby/Kids Photography Immediately

Babies and Kids are perhaps the most photogenic subjects that we can ever find. They are cute, delicate, little and most of all they are innocent and that innocense just shows in each of their picture. While I strongly believe that there is no such thing as a "Bad photo of a baby", there are things that you can do that can make their photos better and give it more meaning so that it can create memories worth life time.  

The thing that we all should understand is that babies/kids are small, and they have very small attention span and even lower tolerance level.  At the same time - parents have very high expectations. And therefore - it is important that you do not waste valuable time figuring out your techniques and settings and focus on capturing the emotions and innocense. 

Most of my current readers are not photographers and therefore I want to share a tip (which is known to all almost all the photographers) that will make your babies photos better. 

Here's the trick -  "Get Low ! Get to their level"

Yes. That's it. This one thing alone will make your baby/kids pictures so much better. Let me explain how. 

Me & my family visited a friends place a few weeks back and here are the two photos that I clicked on  that day. I specifically wanted to demonstrate how changing  the perspective makes all the difference in the final image and that's why I intentionally clicked two pictures. One the right way and the other wrong way. 

The first picture is clicked from my eye level, pointing down at the kids. Isn't this how most of us click pictures of kids? Do you click your babies picture like this? If you are then you may want to change your technique a bit. The problem with this picture is - 

1. The subject (kids) are looking very small (remember pointing down at something makes them look smaller).
2. There are too many other objects in the picture. My idea was to show that both kids are riding the car.Other elements in this picture are not really adding any value to the picture. 

Now here's the second picture. Do you think this picture looks better than the previous one? Notice that - nothing has changed in the picture except the angle/perspective from where I am clicking the picture. Both these pictures are clicked using my cell phone and are absolutely unedited/untouched. But they look so different..don't they?

Here's the reason why - 

1. Less distractions. Merely changing the perspective removed about 80% of distractions.I admit, not all the distractions are removed, but lesser the distractions, better the picture. 
2. Kids are filling almost the entire frame, that means that your eyes will go directly to the kids and nothing else. Very important. 
3. Since you are not pointing camera down at kids, they don't look small or big . They look pretty balanced  in the overall picture. 

I admit, this is a very simple and a small tip, but it will definitely make your pictures better. Hope it helps you capture pictures that you like better. Do leave a comment if you tried this and found it helpful ! 

Till then - you guys have a wonderful day and stay blessed !! 

Regards,
Priyank Pardiwala

The Story of Mumbai's Icon - Bandra Worli Sea Link

If you go around the world, all of the big cities have an iconic place which identifies the city. New York for example, has Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building. In fact -the entire view of the city from Hoboken is iconic. San Francisco has Golden Gate as its iconic architecture.  Mumbai for years was celebrating Queen's Necklace (a.k.a Marine Drive) area as the iconic place.  But now - India's financial capital has another icon - Bandra Worli Sea Link. 

There are many overlooks from where you can see this bridge and each has its own uniqueness. Here are the options that you have -

1. Bandra Fort (Bandstand as it is commonly known)
2. Worli Fort
3. Dadar Chowpatty
4. On the bridge :-)

Well quite frankly, bridge is not an option, but after doing some research I decided to go to Bandra Fort as it is 'the' best view of the bridge. 

Getting to Bandra Fort

Well - reaching Bandra Fort is not a problem. I am assuming you are using public transport to reach there. Take a train to Bandra Station and then take an auto or taxi from there to Bandra Fort (also known as Bandra Bandstand). It's a popular destination and home of Shah Rukh Khan, so reaching there should be very very easy. 

Anyways - I reached the place around 5.30 in the evening which is about 1 hour before sunset. This is usually my preferred time so that I can go around scout for the right place from where I want to take pictures.  At first I decided to go really close to the water (to avoid having crowd in my picture). But changed my mind later as the rocks were too slippery. 

Tip No. 1: Always reach our location early. You want to scout the place and there may be unexpected situations. No matter what - you do not want to miss the golden hour for clicking pictures.

Below are the first couple of pictures that I clicked over there. Its not that these are bad pictures, but I felt that there was something missing. Obviously it was not sunset yet, so the colors were not really at its best yet.  But even composition wise, I found it to be a very 'standard' composition with no much distinction. 

As I was clicking the pictures, I saw a couple. There was a small puddle to my left and the couple was sitting next to it. And from where I was standing, I could see their reflection in the puddle. That was a 'eureka' moment for me .I went really close to the puddle and took the following shot. The water was more or less still (was not very windy that day). To me - this change in angle and the overall composition is much more stronger (& unique) than a regular photo of the bridge. 

Tip No 2: Observe your surrounding. Look for opportunities to improvise your composition. There are way too many 'cliche' photos of everything in this world. These improvisations are the only way to make your photos stand out from the rest. 

I like the following shot a lot where I am trying to highlight the suspension tower of the bridge as a diamond shape (with its reflection). 

Next two shots are my favorite ones from the shoot. They are actually 3 shots blended into 1 single photo using post-processing. 

Some more pictures before it was dark & lights were turned on. 

Night shots of the bridge (or any landscape) are typically challenging because of the slow shutter speeds and ability of your camera to focus properly. Tripod is a must. If you don't have a tripod, I would advise you to buy one. Perhaps the best investment you can make to improve your photography. For focusing during night time photography, I typically switch to manual focus and help my camera. Saves time and gets beautiful results. 

Tip No 3: Switch to Live-view, zoom to the area where you want to focus and manually focus on that area. This is the 'only' technique that will give you 'sharp' photos in night. 

Here are the night shots of the bridge - 

And here are my favorite night shots

In the end, I just want to say that, Bandra Worli Sea link is a delight to watch and photograph.  I hope this post helps you plan your next trip to this wonderful place. 

Do leave your feedback, it helps me improve :-) 

Buying the "Right" Camera for yourself

We are almost in the middle of Fall 2014, which means that the Shopping season is coming close and many of you may want to buy a new camera for yourself.

But there's that 'big' question ... "Which Camera Should I Buy?" With ridiculously many options, it is easy to get confused and spend your hard earned money on something that you will never need OR something that isn't really sufficient/enough for you. 

In this post, I will try and help you choose the "Right" camera for you. I am not recommending a particular camera. I want to lay out my thought process of how I would select a camera, If I wanted to buy one. So let's get started....

Here's the first question that you should ask yourself - "What am I going to do with this camera?" Now I want you to pick one of the answers below (the one that comes closest to your requirement)

1. I don't photograph much. I just need something that I can use for family events, trips. But that's about it. 
2. I feel like learning photography, but I am not sure if I will 'really' pursue it. 
3. I want to learn photography and I am ready to invest time and money. 
4. I have been doing photography for 'x' years. It is time for an upgrade !

Category 1 : I don't photograph much !!
If you selected the first answer, you are definitely not alone. Many of the people I know are similar to you. The purpose of camera is to record and capture some of the important events of your life. No intention of getting into photography. You just want to point that camera to someone, click the "button" and want a good picture.  Very well, then here's my recommendation for you - 

1. If you are not really picky about 'quality' of the image, do not buy a camera. Use your smartphone instead (or buy a smartphone with good camera). I know it is tempting to buy a Camera during those black friday deals, but don't buy it, if you really don't care about 'quality' of the image.  Save your hard earned money and invest it somewhere else.
2. If you do care for the quality OR if you are unhappy with your smartphone photos, then I recommend that you buy a Point-and-shoot digital camera. Here's the criteria that I recommend for buying the camera - 
1. Pick your Price: You have no intention of learning photography. So do not invest in 'high-end' Point-and-shoots. Pick a budget between $200-300 (for example). Do not go for 'really' cheap camera. They are no better than your smartphone camera (or worse).
2. Pick your Brand: Yes, when it comes to low-end point-and-shoots, brand of the camera does matter. I have had Sony, Nikon and Canon point-and-shoots before I bought DSLR and I have found a significant different in their quality. I recommend Sony OR Canon. 
3. Pick your Zoom: While this may not be really a choice with the kind of budget we are looking at, go for the camera with more optical zoom.

Category 2: I want to learn photography, but not sure !
This is perhaps the most common set of people that ask me the question "Hey which DSLR should I buy?". If you selected this answer that means you are 

1. Interested in learning photography.
2. You like how your friends with DSLR are able to capture great pictures that you are somehow unable to do with your current camera. 
3. But you are also conservative in terms of the budget. You are not sure if you want to invest a lot of money in buying expensive DSLR because you are not sure if you will continue to pursue your interest in photography.  

For you, I would recommend following selection criteria

1. I want "Manual": This is perhaps the most important criteria. Because you want to learn photography, you need to have camera that supports Manual Controls. 
2. I want "RAW": If you want to learn photography and post-production, you will want to shoot in RAW. Shooting in RAW format, opens up a lot of possibilities and trust me you will definitely need this.
3. I want "High ISO": Most of the new camera do support high ISO that allow you to shoot in low light situation. I recommend buying a camera that has usable ISO 6400. Usable ISO 12800 would be fantastic. 
4. I am Flexible in "Zoom":  I think people universally agree that, we really don't need super high zooms (unless you shoot sports or wildlife). For most of the practice scenarios, a 5x zoom is sufficient. I recommend being flexible about zoom and not run after 20x, 30x or 50x zooms.
5. I am Flexible in "Budget":Well this one is a bit tricky. I don't want you to invest a lot but definitely enough to get a good quality camera. A decent budget of $400-$600 should give you a good starter camera

Based on the above criteria, there are couple of options that you can choose.

1. High-end Point-and-Shoot Camera: These would be good for people who are unsure about pursuing photography. They are compact and have good quality.
2. Mirrorless Cameras: They are similar to DSLRs except that they are a much newer technology, much smaller and much light-weight. They have changeable lens system. 

Category 3: Don't know anything about photography, but committed to learn it  
If you are in this category, you will have a lot of choices, especially because you are committed, you want to learn and there are so many choices. Fortunately though the selection can be surprisingly simple.
If you are in this category that means -

1. You are flexible to stretch your budget
2. You do not mind carrying big DSLR and camera bags around
3. You like a particular genre of photography (For example - landscapes, seascapes, portraits, wild life etc). 
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY, you do plan to invest in photography in future (like additional accessories, lenses, tripods etc). 

 As I see it, the choice is very simple for you. Here's the criteria - 

1. Pick your budget: Fix your budget. Period. With DSLRs there are cameras from $500 to $7000 and I am sure everyone would agree that "you will get what you pay for". 
2. Pick your Brand: Yes. This is where you need to do your little research and pick a brand of the camera that you want to buy. This is very important because you would eventually (hopefully) buy accessories and probably upgrade to a new camera and switching between different system will not be a good idea.  My recommendation would be Canon, Nikon and Sony, in that order.  I have two Canon DSLRs and I love using those. 

There are basically 3 types DSLRs that you get in the market 

1. Entry-level DSLR: Canon Rebel series, for example, are the entry level DSLRs. They usually cost under $1000 and have good image quality and are loaded with features. They are CROP sensor camera, so their low light performance may not as great at some of the PRO cameras. But do you really need that? If your budget is less than $1000, then these cameras will give you a good start to digital photography. 
2. Mid-Level DSLR: These DSLR are also CROP sensor but they are loaded with different useful features like - high frames-per-second, high ISO, more sophisticated auto-focus system etc. They cost higher but as I said before you get what you pay for.  Examples of such camera - Canon 7D, Canon 60D, Canon 70D. 
3. PRO DSLRs: These are the expensive ones. They are full frame cameras with excellent image quality and low light performance. They are also loaded with various features I mentioned above. WIFI and GPS are some of the new addition to these cameras. Canon 6d, Canon 5d Mark III etc are some examples of this category of cameras. 

Pick any of the above camera depending on your budget. But if you are just starting photography, I would say you go for an Entry Level or Mid-Level DSLR. 

Category 4: I know Photography, It's time for an upgrade:

If you selected this, you probably don't need to read this article. You have spend good number of years doing photography and you probably know what you want to buy already. Plus I am sure you know about cameras, brands etc and I don't think there is anyone who can give you a better recommendation that you yourself. But below are some of the critical questions/decisions you will have to make. 

1. Your Specialization:
Since you have been doing photography for some years, you already know what kind of photography you like. If you are a landscape photographer for example, you will have a different need from a camera than a Sports Photographer or a wild-life photographer for example. No matter how much you want to say "I photography everything", don't say it. There is always a genre that you like more than other. 
 
2. Your System:
So this is a critical decision, whether you want to continue and use the same system/brand OR you want to change the system? Decision obviously depends on your experience with your current system. If you are unhappy with your system, then you would probably want to change it. But the decision won't be very simple because of all the investments that you have already made with the existing system. So unless you really HATE your current system, I recommend sticking with your current system. 
 
3. Your Sensor-Type:
This will depend upon the answer to your first question, your specialization. Generally speaking - landscape photographers love full-frame cameras while Sports/Wild-life photographers prefer to use crop-sensors with higher fps. Portrait work can be done with either full frame or crop sensors. So ultimately it is your choice on what kind of sensor you want. 


Ok with that, I would like to conclude my post here. Hope there was 'some' information that was useful for you.  

Once again, I really appreciate you reading my blog and keep visiting the page. Thank you for all your support.