A different perspective

In my older posts I have mentioned about buying a new lens. Though I prefer prime lens than the zoom one and If you ask me why ? my quick answer will be its fast & sharp. However recently I felt my 40 mm prime is way too long to fit the story in my frame.

In last couple of months I was looking into different wide angle lens – my first preference was always Nikon but most of the time preference and affordability does not match and on those cases affordability wins (Well I guess most of the time). I choose Tokina 11- 16 F2.8 DX II. Bought it from Hildalgo, Quaipo, Manila.

The photos came out very sharp in the middle of the frame but has a good amount of distortion at the corner of the frame which is acceptable for a wide angle lens like this.

The best thing I liked about this lens is that you can capture a lot of things in your frame (say the background, the atmosphere etc.) which gives you a different perspective all together.

I would call below photo as “Busy Market”. The aim was to capture the frame on how the wet market looks like when lots of people are walking, buying and selling. So even though I was hand holding my camera I tried to take a long exposure (about 2 sec.) just to get the panning effect in order to show the busy atmosphere of the Quiapo.

Now the next one is funny. It was very hot and humid at that time of the year, if I can remember it correctly it was around mid May and I was just smoking beside a vegetable shop and noticed that two dogs are eating “Ladies Finger” (a.k.a. “Okra”). Well that’s a first time for me and felt like I should capture this candid moment :).

It was late afternoon and while going back home, I found this guy is sitting in front of a showroom of men’s inner wear. He was calculating something and I found this photograph very intuitive. I noticed the catch line written beside him was “Satisfying the human need for comfort”, may be he is one of those people who is working day and night to make our life more comfortable.

Now this photo I took and didn’t even ask for permission. Well while taking the street photos some photographers feel that zoom lens is the right lens to carry, it has it’s own pros and con but I don’t want to go into those details now (You can always Google it). I took the below photo while walking through the side walks and liked with the combination of dark red background with the two guys sitting wearing white shirts. The color came out pretty nice, what do you think ?

Tokina 11-16 2.8 lens it pretty sharp and renders good color but for my entry level DSLR body I felt it’s very heavy. I always like lightweight camera for street photography which is easy to hold and carry. But the truth is it’s really felt awesome in my hand, very sturdy, fast focus and grand focal length to work with.

Nikon 10-24mm F3.5 – 4.5 is also very nice lens, but considering the price point and the sharpness I think Tokina is better. If you are planning to buy a wide angle lens, Tokina 12-28 F4 also worth a try.

I guess I am not a great reviewer of the lens, so please don’t consider this as a review of Tokina 11-16 F2.8. There are plenty of websites where you can get the review in detail. This is just my opinion on Tokina 11-16 as a street photography lens. It’s great lens for landscape photography also because of its focal length. In future I will post landscape photos taken using this lens.

Hope you liked the photos. Waiting to hear from you 🙂

Festival of Colors

One of the famous Indian Festival “HOLI” I spend this year in Manila, Philippines. Organized by the Indian Community in Manila in Mall of Asia. Discovered about this event in Facebook. It was Sunday, took my camera and reached there just on time.
There were so many Filipinos also have joined the event at the river side bank at Mall of Asia. Indeed it was a spectacular event, truly the smell of Indian spice at the soil of Manila. They have organized desi boys & girls performance and also Brazilian Samba dance with the help of a small Brazilian troop.

There were no alcohols are allowed at the event area as it’s meant to be a family event. The sky was clear enough to take beautiful pictures. I carried my 40mm 2.8 prime. Aim was to capture few candid moments of people playing and dancing with colors.

With the punjabi bhangra music & Samba beats the vibe of the whole event is just the way you want. It was absolutely crazy. Greeting strangers with colors because it’s the only day people wont complain if you throw the color at them. It’s one of those day when regardless of all the religion, all the languages, people rejoice together.

Capturing candid moments really wasn’t easy. Noticed few local newspaper journalists and few hobbyist also joined with their photography gear. 40mm is not exactly the right focal length for this kind of events. Moreover to get the right expression of the people is also very critical. I did not take precautions of my photography gear even though my camera or lens is not dust proof. Thankfully no damage happened.

I guess wide angle lens like 14-24 2.8, 17-50 2.8 or 18-55mm is the more appropriate lens for this kind of event if you can’t afford the ultra wide. Drinks (Thandai) was served in the event area with some varities of delicious Indian food. Also the organizer distributed one packet of Abir (Color) free of cost. Really enjoyed the way Filipinos were involved in the event.

Will surely try to attend more of this kind of desi festival in Philippines.