Travel Photography - Mahabaleshwar

My last post on Sinhagadh was written back in Oct 2015. Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted anything new on this blog.  But that for sure doesn't mean that I have stopped photography. I have been travelling and busy with work and unfortunately not able to upload pictures here. 

So today I am going to share pictures and some stories about my trip to Mahabaleshwar. Most of the people living in Mumbai, Pune know of this place. It's a super popular destination in Maharashtra. Mahabaleshwar is a hill station with some really beautiful views, specially if you visit the place in the right season. 

As with all destination in Maharashtra, best time to visit is Monsoons or just after monsoons. I went there in late October of 2015 which is a decent time to visit the place. 

There are many points to visit in Mahabaleshwar. Most of them are scenic but there are 2-3 points that will make you go Wow. I highly recommend visiting these points if you are visiting Mahabaleshwar

1. Savitri Point
2. Arthur Seat Point
3. Kate's Point

Okay- so without writing too many things, let me take you to the pictures now. 

Fort of the Lion Knight - Sinhagadh

I admin, I am not very good at giving sensational Titles to my posts. But if you have studied in India, especially in Maharashtra, you would know the story of Sinhagadh Fort and why it was named Sinhagadh.  Well, I am not going to take a history class here, but the fort was named Sinhagadh in the honor of Shivaji's favorite and brave knight Tanaji, who died conquering the fort. 

More about history of Sinhagadh at - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhagad

Coming back to photography, ever since I moved to Pune in May 2015, I never really got a chance to do photography. I (along with my friends) made several plans but somehow they kept rescheduling until on 29th August 2015 where we put our foot down and decided to go to Sinhagadh Fort. 

Sinhagadh is a popular tourist destination. Anyone living in Pune, or even Maharashtra knows that it is one of the most scenic destinations in Maharashtra.  Monsoons are the best time to visit Sinhagadh (in fact any fort in Maharashtra).

But of course, as always there are many challenges when trying to do landscape photography Sinhagadh.

1.  Monsoon = Rains. And rains is something that your camera will not like, unless you take the necessary precautions.  If budget is not a problem, but a waterproof cover for your camera. That way you don't have to worry about safety of your camera. But for all other(like me), I recommend going to the fort when you know that it is not going to rain. 
2. Crowd.  As I said, Sinhagadh is a very very popular location and there will be a lot of people over there. Choose a time which is less popular among the crowd. We decided to go early morning (6.30am to 7am) to avoid crowd and also get the right kind of lighting. 
3. Dense Clouds. Monsoons will also have a lot of dense clouds. While they are great for visual pleasure, they are not so great for photography. This is one of the challenge that we faced while doing photography of Sinhagadh. The clouds were dense most of the times and we were hardly able to see anything from the fort, except of course the dark dense clouds.  My recommendation is - be prepared for this. You may not get the kind of images that you plan to take. 

Alright then, without wasting much of the time, here are the pictures that I clicked. Hope you like them. 

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 !!! 

Punish yourself. Go to Taraporewale Aquarium in Mumbai

Don't get me wrong. I am a pure Mumbaikar and I love this city but there are some things about the city (especially when they are over-hyped) that I simply cannot tolerate.  Taraporewala Aquarium is one of those things.  Anyone who was born and raised in Mumbai knows this aquarium. It was perhaps the only aquarium that we had ever seen in our childhood and sure at that time, it was great. We all enjoyed going there to see different kinds of fishes and sea animals. It will always remain as our childhood memories. 

But now things have changed. Many of you who are in Mumbai probably know that this aquarium was shutdown for some time and it was renovated (suppsedly) and re-opend in the first week of March 2015. There was a tremendous hype surrounding the renovation that it was now ultramodern and it was even compared to some of the international aquariums.

So - one fine day (a saturday), I decided to take my wife and kid to this aquarium, completely unaware of what was going to happen next. Since it was a weekend, I was expecting some rush and so I decided to pick an ODD time (about 1.30pm) to reach there. Let me walk you through what exactly happens over there 

1. If you want to go to this Aquarium, you have to pass through multiple stages/queues. The great (sarcasm) part about it though is that its like a video game. You don't know what's next, until you reach that stage. 
2. First queue is "Outside the gate" (literally on the road), and no points for guessing, the queue is long (and I mean really long - atleast about 200-300 people). And the security guard won't let you in until its full hour. They allow people to go in at full hour like 1pm, 2pm , 3pm etc. So - if you reached there at 1.10pm, you gotta wait outside for the next 50mins. That's 50 mins of waiting in hot Mumbai afternoon with your kids.Welcome to Taraporewale Aquarium.
3. So somehow you go through those 50 mins and you are finally allowed to go inside the gate. So what's next? You gotta buy tickets to get inside the aquarium...right? Here's the equation. # of people entering the date = 300. # counters = 2. Time to get ticket = "Depends on mood of people at counter". It took me about 40-45 mins just to get the tickets. And if you are wondering what happended to my wife and kid. They are waiting. Outside. No share. No place to sit. Kid is still excited (coz he's gonna get to see some fishes) But he doesn't know that things are just getting started. 
4. Now - normally you would expect that once you buy ticket, you go inside. Nah Nah. Doesn't happen over here. There is a 3rd queue. For entering the aquarium. And this one is the LONGEST of them all because there are people from previous slots trying to enter the aquarium (i.e. if  you entered in 2pm slot, there are people from 1pm slot trying to get inside the aquarium). It took us about 1 hour 20 mins to to through that queue and go inside aquarium. And the kid (who came to see fishes) is already frustrated. Oh - but never mind, this is not the end. There are still more queues. Still not frustrations waiting for you inside. 
5. So let's take a check-point here. You've already spent close to 2.5 hours and barely got inside the aquarium. On positive side, there is Shade. There is A.C. On the negative (or the normal) side, you are still in a queue. Even after entering the aquarium, you are not really allowed to roam around the way you please. You have to follow the queue. You are not allowed to 'wait' longer at a particular fish-tank. There will be security guards, bugging you and asking you to move ahead (in marathi - "Chala..pudhe chala..pudhe chala"). 
6. The aquarium itself is not very big. If you have visited any aquariums outside India (like singapore, USA, UK), this one would definitely look smaller. We went through the entire aquarium in about 20-25 mins. That's 2.5 hours of waiting in line and 30 mins of seeing fish. 
7. Coming to the fishes. I wasn't really impressed. I could be biased because I have seen aquariums in different countries. But when they said Newly renovated, best in class etc, I expected more. It definitely was disappointing. 
8. Oh and I forgot to mention. You are not allowed to take photographs inside the aquarium unless you pay for photography charges. I found that weird for 2 reasons. One - The charges are pretty high. For photography using Mobile phones its Rs 500 and for clicking good professional pictures it is about Rs 5K-10K. The ticket cost for entering the aquarium is Rs 60. So now you understand why it's weird? Second reason is - WHO WOULD WANT TO CLICK A PICTURE OF THEMSELVES AFTER WAITING FOR 2.5 HOURS????(i guess this one is self-explanatory). 

Here are my little suggestions to Taraporewale Aquarium team (if they even desire to make their visitor experience a pleasant one)

1. Please raise the ticket price. At least for weekends. With Rs 60 per ticket, it is just too cheap. Entire population of Mumbai would probably come there for this price. 
2. Please provide an option for buying tickets online. There is definitely a big chunk of people driven away by sheer inconvenience of getting inside the aquarium. This will at-least help them skip some of your queues. 
3. Provide a VIP Pass (Fast Pass) at a much higher price, so that those who can afford the convenience can atleast skip the major queues. 
4. Allow photography for free. Period. 

WOW- I didn't realize, but this post turned out to be longer that I originally thought. I would have to blame emotions for this. They don't come often, but when they do, they come in Burst mode !!! :-) 

Anyways - thank you for reading this post. Hope it reaches the Taraporewale Aquarium's management team and we can hope for some changes. Until then, you all stay blessed & 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 :-)