Travel Guide - Cancun Mexico

Each one of us should have a few days of vacation time in winter by planning a getaway to some warmer place. From my personal experience, escaping a few days from cold is extremely beneficial for your body and your mind! Cancun - Mexico is one of the most popular destinations to travel from the eastern shore especially because of the travel time. A direct flight takes you to Cancun in about 3 hours and 20 minutes. I and my family went for a vacation to Cancun recently and we fell in love with the place! I love to write so I knew I had to write a blog when I got back! I will be covering each aspect of travel like time, flights, resorts, activities etc. in the sections below.

Time of Travel

Good season to travel to Cancun is from November through March. Everything from mid-November becomes expensive because a lot of people plan around thanksgiving holidays and prices in December are always on the higher side. Prices drop significantly in the 1st week of January so travelling from January through February is the best time in my opinion. A point to note is that Martin Luther King holiday comes around 3rd or 4th week of January so avoid that long weekend (Unless you absolutely have no choice) because flights are expensive around that time. From what I have experienced, the same package of flight and hotel that I booked for 2nd week of January was 3.5 times expensive from 15th of December through New Year’s. March and April are other months to avoid because Spring breaks happen during that time so Cancun is flooded with college kids. Everything is expensive during that time! So if you want to go during March or April, find out about spring breaks and time your trip accordingly.

Weather

Weather in second week of January was in lower to mid-80s during day time and mid to late 70s during night time. Sunrise happened around 7:30 AM and sunset around 6:30 PM. A bright sunny day is a perfect day to relax either at the beach or at the swimming pool in the resort! On super cloudy and windy days, it might feel little chilly to be in the water but it is manageable.  

Beautiful day at the pool

How many days?

Don’t settle for less than 3 nights and 4 days. That’s the minimum you want! If you breakdown your days, you’ll need to spare one day for activities around Cancun. So at least another 2 days to just relax in the resort and enjoy the ambiance and food. In my opinion that’s what matters the most especially in a trip like Cancun. You don’t want your trip to be like you are running all over the place. Many people want to do everything while they are there. That just ruins the trip in my opinion especially if you are with kids. The point is do some activities but then give time to yourself at the resort. Relax at the beach and at the pool, sip some nice cocktails and eat your heart out!

Where to book from?

There are several travel websites like bookvip.com or applevacations.com. Most of these travel sites have either non-refundable charges or a heavy cancellation policy so watch out when you book. Read the terms and policies carefully. I booked from Southwest vacations for 3 reasons. First, I found better deals on nonstop flights. With a kid, last thing I want is to take a pit stop somewhere and have my travel time lengthened to 6 or 7 hours. Direct flight takes you there in 3 hours and 20 minutes! Second, checked baggage is free for southwest airlines. Lastly, southwest has excellent policy in terms of re-scheduling. If for some reason I need to reschedule my vacation, there are no additional fees. I just pay the difference of flight plus hotel and that’s it.

Immigration and VISA

If you have a stamped American VISA on your passport, you get Mexican VISA upon entry. The only documents you will need to carry is your passport with the stamped VISA and I-797 (It is advisable to make sure that the passport isn’t expiring in the next 6 months). Green card holders and US citizens don’t have to worry at all.

From Airport to Resort

When you book your vacation, there is an option of purchasing transportation to and from the airport and hotel. If you don’t want to rent a car, this is your option. Just get out of the airport and head to the transportation company’s van (The name of the transportation company is mentioned on your itinerary). You share the van with people who are heading to either yours or other resorts.

Vans ready for pickup outside the airport

Hotel Zone

The hotel zone is a strip of land along the coast that has several resorts next to each other. The hotel zone is an extremely safe area so you can get out of the hotel and go for a walk or to nearby stores if you want to get something (There are pharmacies and other stores in the area just in case you need something on an urgent basis). Also, many resorts have a convenience store inside of them so you may not need to step out (Confirm with the hotel before you book if that matters to you). Our hotel had a convenience store which had everything from baby wipes to toothbrush. I advise not to leave hotel zone and go to deeper pockets of downtown Cancun. Not safe!  Also, everyone understands English at the hotel zone so no need to worry about language barriers. Although before the trip I would still recommend learning some basic communication in Spanish like good morning, thank you, how are you etc.

Resort

I will say this a thousand times. BOOK AN ALL INCLUSIVE RESORT. It’s worth every penny! All-inclusive resorts are resorts where you stay and eat unlimited food and drink unlimited beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). The resort has several restaurants inside of it. Either buffets or luxury restaurants. Every restaurant serves alcoholic beverages so if you love margaritas and cocktails you will fall in love with the all-inclusive package! The swimming pool also has a poolside bar and a bar in the middle of the swimming pool called as swim-up bar. So you can just sit at the pool and sip drinks or swim and come sit in the water at the swim up bar and order drinks. The room has a small refrigerator which is stocked with beer and water everyday. The buffets have several cuisines so you get different variety of food to eat everyday. All you do at the all-inclusive resorts is just relax at the beach or pool and drink and eat whatever you want and how many times you want in a day! While researching on resorts look for kid friendly resorts (If travelling with kids) because kids remain occupied with different activities in the resort. The resorts have activities for kids of different ages be it at the pool or a dedicated mini water park. You can relax while kids play at their designated spaces. Many resorts have a babysitting facility (Paid service around $15 an hour). So if you and your spouse want to go on a dinner date for a couple of hours, you can do so. Again, don’t forget to read a lot of reviews before booking the resort. Websites like TripAdvisor have excellent in-depth reviews both by travel experts and recent customers. Another tip I have is to spend little more money and book a room on a higher floor and with an ocean view. You’ll not regret a bit! Waking up and looking out of the balcony at the blue ocean is just breathtaking. If you have booked a room without a view, at the reception just ask if they have an upgrade option. With empty rooms they just move you up for a very little charge.

Sunrise from the room

Swim up Bar

Buffet at the hotel

Workers and Tips

From what I’ve observed at the resort, the workers at the resorts are always smiling and greet you with respect. I have seen these guys work double shifts tirelessly. From what I’ve read, they work on a minimum wage.  But they still always smile at you and have their happy faces on. So please make it a point that you tip them in an appropriate way. Little appreciation goes a long way. There was a guy who was so nice towards us at the buffet and took care of our table so well. When we tipped him more than usual the joy on his face was just undefinable. So if you find an exceptional service from a waiter or a bartender don’t hesitate to give something extra. Tips are accepted in dollars and in Mexican pesos. Also, don’t forget to tip the driver who drops you off to the hotel from the airport. They take care of all of your luggage so they expect a dollar or two. As a guideline here are general tips that you can offer at different places inside of the resort:

1. Waiter serving your table at Buffets: $1 per person
2. Waiter at upscale restaurants: $5 per table
3. Bellboy: $1 per bag
4. Bartenders: $1 per one or two rounds of drinks
5. Housekeeping: $5 every time they clean the room
6. Room Service: $2 to $3 per service

Activities

The two most frequently done activities in Cancun are Snorkeling and visiting the historic site of Chichen Itza. If you have a toddler I wouldn’t recommend going to Chichen Itza. It’s almost a 3 hour drive one way from the hotel zone. So the day trip lasts for about 8 hours total. A toddler would get exhausted in the bus the whole day and your day might get ruined because of a crazy tantrum. Also, you can’t go snorkeling if you have a less than 5 year old kid so that isn’t a good option as well. What I would recommend though is doing the SubSee adventure. The SubSee adventure takes you through a glass bottom boat into the coral reefs where you can see the reefs, fish and other aquatic life. It is like travelling through a submarine. My 3.5 year old loved it! The total duration is 3 hours from and to the hotel so it isn’t very overwhelming. Most resorts have a desk near the reception area from where you can book the tours. I would recommend that as opposed to booking it from an outside vendor. Other activity to do is hop onto one of the local city buses and go to Market 28 to shop for local handicrafts and other souvenirs. If you love bargaining, Market 28 is the place for you!  

SubSee Boat

Handicrafts at Market 28

I hope this information is beneficial to any prospective families travelling to Cancun. I remember reading through so many blogs and forums when I was planning my trip so I thought it was my moral responsibility to write a blog myself for others to read. So plan a trip soon and have a blast! Please don’t forget to comment if you liked the write up or if this helped you plan your trip in a better way! Gracias Amigos!

Settle back in India for good? Ummm let me think!

Settle back in India for good? Ummm let me think!

So I recently visited India for vacation. While I was there, the most common question asked by friends and relatives was: "Why don’t you come back to India? Enough of staying abroad". I had to make an ‘I don’t know’ face in front of them because I know that question is not answerable in a simple Yes or No. So let me try to answer that question in the shortest form possible! 

Let me start from the beginning. I came to this country in year 2006 as a student. I had a burden of education loan on my back when I landed here. Not that my parents weren’t able to afford my college fees but after working for a year in the IT industry, it felt shameful to ask to parents for money. That education loan kept building up with each semester as I ordered checks from my bank to pay towards my college fees. At the end of my educational cycle, I had quite a heap of debt sitting on the back of my neck. The bank allows you a grace period of one year before you can start re-paying the loan so I had immense pressure on myself to find a job. 

I passed out in 2008 and started looking for a job. Autumn of 2008 was insane where the big financial crisis of 2007-08 had taken place and jobs were being slashed. Many of my college mates had to return to India because they weren’t able to find a job here in the US. I was lucky to have survived and found a job for myself. There was a lot of mental stress during those days where finding a job was extremely difficult. Well, that is my first reason why I don't want to come back to India right now. I had a very hard time finding a job here and I don't want to quit now. I have seen my classmates head back to India with no jobs under their belt. I have found a good one with extreme efforts and I don’t want to look back. 

Anyways, my job started and things got a little better (There is light at the end of every tunnel). Soon I started to re-pay my education loan which was of course in dollars. So I had to earn in dollars if I had to survive with paying that hefty amount each month to the bank. That was my second reason to stay here. I had to earn in dollars because I was paying in dollars to my bank. Banks in India charge a good 11-13% interest rate on education loans so it took me 5 years to get that loan off my back. So 5 years gone and I didn’t come back to India (You already know a few reasons why I didn't!)

Well, in the meantime several major events happened in my life. I got married. I had saved very less money because I was paying my loan for the past 5 years so now saving money and family responsibility was a top priority. Also, in the meantime my company was ready to sponsor my green card. That was a good news! I knew so many people who had to return to India because their employer didn’t file for their green card. I was lucky that I was getting an opportunity to become a permanent resident of this country. My honest work had paid off in a good way. How could I let it go? I couldn’t. Now there comes my third reason for not returning back to India. My green card was being filed and I had to get it! Approval of green card takes anywhere between 5 to 10 years so now I am at a phase where I am waiting for it to get approved and just can't leave everything and come back.

Also, once my green card processing was approved, I got a home for myself. It made no sense to keep paying rent to someone else every month. Buying a home was a good investment and I had to take that decision. There comes my fourth strong reason to stay here. I have a commitment towards a mortgage now and I have to stay here longer to make my investment well worth.  

To sum up, there is a very vicious cycle of events that makes one stay away from their country. It is like a big maze. You keep walking into it only to realize that the point of entrance is now out of sight. I am sure many Indians who live outside of India have similar stories. And I also believe this post would clear doubts of many people in India who wonder why their friend or relative isn’t ready to come back to India. 

I could have covered so many other points but I wanted to keep this as short as possible! Thanks for taking your time and reading through this patiently.    

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S HURDLE

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S HURDLE

So I was all excited because my 7 year old Canon 7D just got sold online! Which meant I had successfully raised some cash for my next camera. Now my brain was battling it out where several cameras were running through my head and it was not an easy decision to make. The first question that ran through my mind was what applications am I targeting?. I do lot of wildlife photography followed by landscapes and very few portraits. This year I have also committed myself to get into some Astrophotography where I want to capture pretty Milky Way shots. That is where the decision got even more complicated. The challenge here was to find that one camera which can do everything for me. 

There are two types of DSLRs that companies like Canon and Nikon manufacture. A crop sensor camera and a full frame camera. A crop sensor camera has a relatively smaller sensor whereas a full frame has a larger sensor. Biggest advantage of a full frame camera is that it can draw more light into the sensor which in turn gives less grainy and noise free images at higher ISO levels. On the other hand the biggest advantage of crop factor cameras is that you can get closer to your subject. For example Canon crop sensor cameras have a 1.6x crop factor which means when you mount a 100mm lens to your crop sensor camera, it actually becomes a 160mm lens. This works perfectly for wildlife because you now get more closer to your subject due to the automatic 1.6x zoom. But then crop sensor cameras don't work well at higher ISO levels because of their limited sensor size. Crop sensor cameras have evolved a lot over the years. Older crop sensor cameras were no good beyond 400 ISO but these days you can shoot at about 1600 ISO with a crop sensor camera and get noise free image. But they are no match to a full frame. On a full frame you can shoot at 6400 ISO and still get a noise free photo which you can print on an extra large canvas and hang it up in your living room. When I looked at my budget there were two cameras that were fitting inside my wallet. The Canon 7D Mark II  which is a crop senor body and the Canon 6D which is a full frame body. Third option was to stretch my budget little bit and get a Canon 5D Mark III which is a full frame camera. Let us now look at these three cameras on an overall basis and what advantages/disadvantages they enforced for my applications:

CANON 6D

The 6D would be a fantastic camera for Astrophotography and Landscapes because of its full frame nature. But that camera performs extremely bad when it comes to wildlife pictures, primarily because of these reasons: 

1. It shoots just 4 frames per second, which is not fast enough to capture a fast wildlife scene like an Eagle fishing. For something like that you need a camera that can capture more frames per second so you don't miss the action.

2. The ability of 6D to track a moving subject isn't that great because it has just 11 auto focus points. Ofcourse it was not manufactured to serve wildlife photographers so Canon wasn't really concerned about this feature. 

3. Since this is full frame camera you don't get that extra zoom on your lens so you are little away from your wildlife subject in the field. 

So say a bird is perched on a nice branch and light is low because of an extremely overcast day. The 6D would shine here where I can push my ISO to 4000 or even higher and get a really noise free shot of the bird, mostly because the bird is perched and not moving. But then under same conditions if I try to use the 6D for an eagle who is diving in to catch a fish, the 6D would fail terribly because it would not be able to keep good focus on the moving eagle. I can still get a good shot but it would be a hit or miss situation. 

So coming to a conclusion, the Canon 6D would be a good landscape and astrophotography camera but a bad wildlife camera. So the 6D was surely on a lower priority for me. 

CANON 7D MARK II

The 7D Mark II is a crop sensor camera which shoots 10 frames per second and has 65 auto focus points which makes this my first choice for wildlife photography. The 10 frames per second rate is perfect to freeze the action. Also with 65 auto focus point system, this camera would be excellent to track moving objects and keep them in focus. The only camera that can beat the Canon 7D Mark II in this department is the Canon 1DX full frame. This is top of the line camera that Canon manufactures and it is almost 3 times the cost of Canon 7D Mark II. Also I would surely be able to take good landscape pictures with the 7D Mark II, probably at par with the Canon 6D (Landscapes don't require a high ISO value so both 6D and 7D Mark II would have almost same image quality at lower ISO). Now the astrophotography part is where it starts falling little apart. I can still get acceptable images at 3200 ISO from a 7D Mark II along with noise reduction in post processing techniques. Which means I can click decent Milky Way pictures with this camera. Looks like at this point this is my best bet under the price range that I am targeting. 

Now there was a third camera that kept popping up in my mind. The Canon 5D Mark III. Let us look at it in detail.

CANON 5D MARK III

The 5D is a full frame camera so again like our previous discussion it performs very nicely at higher ISO levels. But, there is something that attracts me towards a 5D Mark III. It shoots 6 frames per second and also has a very decent auto focusing system with 61 auto focus points. When I compare it to the 7D mark II, it might fall a little behind at frames per second but then it gives you stunning wildlife photos when the light is super bad. Many experienced wildlife photographers say as soon as the light starts falling, they keep their 7D Mark II inside their bag and grab their 5D Mark III. So looking at my applications, this camera looks perfect as it does everything from Wildlife to Landscapes to Astrophotography. But then all good comes with a price! The Canon 5D Mark III is almost $1000 more expensive than the Canon 7D Mark II and Canon 6D (Canon 7D Mark II and Canon 6D are equally priced). I now started thinking that if I need to get this camera I will need to spend $1000 more. I can get everything out of my landscapes and astrophotography, but I have to compromise somewhere on the wildlife aspect. I wouldn't get the 10 frames per second and a fast auto focusing system, which is extremely important in wildlife (You just get that one opportunity which you can't miss!) Also another factor to consider is Canon 5D Mark III is getting old now. They already have a Canon 5D Mark IV out in the market which has better technology. 

My Decision:

After a lot of thinking I came to the decision that I will buy the 7D Mark II as of now. That gets me going with my wildlife and landscapes. I can get some astrophotography as well with this camera. My thought process was that rather than spending $1000 extra for the Canon 5D Mark III, I would save up that money and add some more to it after a few months and get the Canon 6D. That way I will have two camera bodies in my bag. One for wildlife and the other for landscapes and astrophotography. Rather than holding a 5D Mark III which is relatively old now, I'll be holding two bodies which are newer and better in terms of technology. So that was my final analysis. I got my 7D Mark II this week and I absolutely can't wait to take it out in the field! 

NOTE: Sometimes the decision to buy a camera also depends on what lenses you own. Sometimes all the lenses you own only work on crop sensor cameras so if you upgrade to a full frame, all those lenses become useless. So it is always advisable to buy lenses that work on both type of camera bodies. 

Hope this write up helps you in some or the other way when you make your next camera purchase! Happy clicking!

A SHAMEFUL MATTER

I still remember walking around in my hometown of Kolhapur at Rankala Lake and its vicinity as a kid. My home is just couple of minutes away from the lake. I used to look around and find so many birds flocking over the water in the morning sun. I used to try counting the fish who were visible under shallow waters. It was a pleasant sight. I lived so close to nature and I was proud and happy at the same time.

I took a similar stroll at the lake when I visited India in October 2014. I thought I would refresh my childhood memories. But the lake had different plans for me. It brought a sense of unrest in my mind. I thought to myself, what are we doing to our surroundings? Where are those innumerable Herons I used to see fishing along the lakeside? Where are all those fish I counted? You must be wondering what did I see which made me think in such a direction?  Well this is what I saw:

There were all these Ganesh Idols scattered all around the place. It was a devastated site. These were apparently from the “Ganesh Visarjan” of countless different “Tarun” and “Mitra” mandals that Kolhapur city has (Most of them are bloody useless because they consists of youngsters who are least interested in any kind of social improvement or upbringing. They just get together in the evening, chit-chat and utter bad/abusive words in public and then go home). Because of the chemicals and colors involved in manufacturing of these idols, the water was over polluted. Fish were dead and there was only one Heron I saw who was sitting on a tree branch because probably he had nothing to eat in this corrupt water. There were two aspects that I was concerned about after looking at all of this. First was our religion and second was nature.

Let’s turn tables towards religion first. Lord Ganesh is supposed to be one of the most worshipped gods in Hinduism. He is called as “Vighnaharta” (Destroyer of Obstructions). Is this how we want to see our god? With broken hands and feet and half submerged in shitty water? There were countless flies and insects hovering around these idols. Where are we heading with all this? All these so called “Mandals” in Kolhapur collect money from people and celebrate “Ganesh Utsav”. And what is the outcome? THIS? I don’t know. This should be stopped. If I was on committee of a “Tarun Mandal” in Kolhapur, I would rather collect money from people on “Ganesh Utsav” and feed the needy and poor. Make donations to old age homes and schools for mentally challenged kids. And for the sake of traditions, buy a small eco-friendly Ganesh idol for my “Mandal”.  Atleast god will have a smile on his face when he’ll look at all of this from above. These days there is competition amongst mandals for having the tallest Ganesh idol is town. Why do we need this? An authority should step up immediately and have restrictions on the size of these idols. Why do we have to care how big the idol is? Aren’t our feelings for god and his festival more important? Does praying to bigger and taller idols intensifies the prayer? I just don’t know where we are heading with all this. If we don’t take an action now, it’s a shame on us if we call ourselves Hindus.

                                                    

Nature has its own sufferings too in all of this. Look what we have done to a beautiful place in the city. I remember we called “Rankala Lake” as “Rankala Chaupati” at one time (“Chaupati” means Beach). Since the city lacked a beach, we considered the lake as our beach. People came here to stroll in the evening time with their families. It was like a picnic spot. And we have spoiled everything. For us and our future generations. It’s a shame. That’s all I can say. I feel sad I wouldn’t be able to take my child on a morning walk and show him or her where I had the best time of my childhood. After looking at this, I’ve pledged to myself that if I will ever return to India and celebrate Ganesh Utsav back home, I’ll buy an idol which is made out of nature friendly material. Probably something that will dissolve in water after the “visarjan” and will not harm natural resources of any kind. I am pretty sure there are idols which are made out of eco-friendly material. I searched online and I’ve already found a few websites (e.g. http://www.ecoganesha.org/). And I request all of you to do the same.

I will be checking if there are some concerned authorities in the city of Kolhapur to whom I can forward this message. Hopefully some action will be taken. I know most of the times all these “Tarun and Mitra Mandals” have politicians affiliated to them. All they care about is votes and that’s why they keep these traditions running. No one takes actions. Why? Because people enjoy Ganesh Festival and anyone who takes action against all of this would be in trouble when it comes to vote banks! We need to wake up people! Wake up big time! Charity starts at home. One step at a time! We need to urge all idol manufacturers to use eco-friendly material. I don’t know how many would agree and listen but we need to try and keep trying. Well I can keep writing on and on but I’d cut short and hope we all learn something from this. GANPATI BAPPA MORYA! 

Finally a big thank you to my cousin Malhar Thorat for having his Digital SLR handy. It wouldn't have been possible to get these pictures without him. 

The Triangle of Exposure in Photography

The Triangle of Exposure in Photography

Introduction:

Understanding exposure is one of the most essential elements of photography. Expensive cameras can take beautiful pictures by default is a definite myth! You might carry a $10,000 camera in your hands but if you don’t know how to play with your exposure, you cannot click astounding pictures!

There are basically three basic elements of exposure i.e. Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Changing one of them affects the other two. To understand this better, let us consider our camera as a window with two flaps. Now lets relate our exposure elements to this window. Consider Aperture as the size of the window. Bigger the size, more light will enter through it. The shutter speed is basically the time for which the door remains open. More amount of time it remains open, more light will enter the room. Now imagine you are standing inside the room. If you wear sunglasses you will see a darker imagine. Which means you have a low ISO. If you keep the size of the window same and remove your sunglasses, you’ll see a brighter scene. That is high ISO. 

Let us now look into details of each one of them.

 APERTURE:

As we saw, Aperture is the size of the window. When you click the shutter button of you camera, a small hole opens up in your lens. Using an aperture value, you can basically control the size of this opening when the picture is taken.

Aperture is measured as ‘f-stop’ or ‘f-number’ i.e. f2.8, f4, f5.6 etc. Changing from one value to the other either doubles or halves the opening of the lens. Large aperture means more opening and smaller aperture means less opening. Make an important point here that smaller the f-stop number, larger the opening. Which means that f2.8 will result in a bigger opening than f5.6. Which means f2.8 will have more light coming into the lens as compared to f5.6.

Concept of Depth of Field (DOF) and its relation with Aperture:

Depth of field can be either larger of smaller/shallow. Larger depth of field means all of your imagine will be in focus. Shallow depth of field will result in only a smaller area of your picture in focus and rest of the picture will be blurred. If you are taking a landscape photo with nice river and mountains in the backdrop, you’ll need a larger depth of field. On the contrary if you need to take picture of a flower and want everything else in the background to be blurred, you’ll need a shallow depth of field.

Now if you have understood the definition of large and shallow DOF, let us relate them to f-stops. Larger aperture means shallow depth of field. Which means if you want to take picture of a flower with the background blurred, you’ll need to stick with a smaller number of f-stop i.e. f2.8, f4 etc. Now as you will start increasing this number and click the same picture, you’ll start noticing that the background has started to get visible. In short, you are moving from a shallow DOF to a larger DOF.

Let us compare set of pictures so you’ll see this with a better perspective. The two pictures below illustrate how DOF changes with aperture value. You can clearly see how the background is visible at f40 and blurred at f3.5

Aperture v/s DOF

Let us look at a few more pictures and their relative f-stops.

Monument Valley, Utah; Aperture f22

Bleeding Heart; Aperture f4

The topmost landscape picture is shot at f22 because I needed a larger depth of field. That way I have all of the objects in the frame clearly in focus. On the contrary the ‘Bleeding Heart’ picture above was shot at f4. This was because I needed a shallow DOF. In other words, I only wanted the flowers to be in focus and everything else in the background blurred. There were bunch of green bushes in the background but they have been blurred because of the aperture value I chose. That way I kept the viewer’s interest locked on the flowers. A visible busch in the background would have been a distraction.

 SHUTTER SPEED:

As discussed in our opening paragraph, shutter speed is the time for which the flaps on the window remain opens. In other words, the time for which the shutter remains open. Shutter speed is calculated in terms of fraction of a second or seconds i.e. 1/10, 1/500, 1/1000, 2 secs, 5 secs etc. Remember larger the denominator, faster the shutter speed. And faster shutter speeds means better freeze of the action. Acceptable action freeze happens at 1/60 shutter speed. Anything below that (1/10 etc.) will result in shaking of the image. If you want to freeze a biker or a moving car, you will need a higher shutter speed, somewhere around 1/200 or higher.

Let us now look at the relation between aperture and shutter speed. Imagine the amount of light that will enter through the window. Say you have a higher shutter speed. Which means the flaps on the window open and close pretty quickly. So there is a pretty thin margin for the light to enter into the room. Now what will happen when you keep the shutter speed same as before and increase the size of the window? Obviously more light will enter into the room. In short to get the same exposure out of a picture, you have to simultaneously adjust shutter speed and aperture i.e. if you increase your shutter speed by one stop, you’ll have to decrease your f-number by one stop as well. For example, say you clicked a picture at 1/30 and f5.6. Now say you increased the shutter speed by one stop to 1/60. Now you are keeping the opening of the lens same but keeping the shutter open for a shorter time, hence less light would enter the camera. So to compensate and allow the same amount of light into the lens, you’ll have to increase the opening of the lens. In other words, switch from f5.6 to f4.

 Let us now look at a few examples of shutter speed and its application.

Fishing Eagle; Shutter Speed: 1/1000; Aperture: f5.6

In the picture above, I wanted to freeze the action when this eagle picked up a fish from the water. A higher shutter speed of 1/1000 did a perfect job. The aperture was kept at f5.6 so that the bird is in focus and the background is decently visible (Remember here my focus is the bird and not the background. So I wouldn't mind blurring the background a little bit).

Badwater Basin; Shutter Speed: 1/2 sec; Aperture: f22

While taking this picture at Death Valley National Park, I was not worried about freezing any motion so I stuck to a lower shutter speed of 1/2 sec. Also, as this is a landscape picture I needed a larger DOF hence I chose an aperture value of f22.

After shutter speed let us now get to the final element of exposure i.e. ISO.

ISO:

As we saw in the introduction, ISO is the amount of sensitivity to light by your camera. If you leave your camera on Auto ISO, darker the environment, your camera will try to push the ISO to a higher value. Although a very important factor to note here is that higher ISO values lead to a grainy/noisy image.  Every photographer always strives to keep the ISO value on the camera as low as possible.

There are several situations when you’ll feel the need to push your ISO to higher values like an indoor sports event, museums, indoor concerts etc. In a darker scenario if you want to keep a low ISO (to avoid grainy image), you’ll have to compensate on shutter speed and aperture. Lower aperture values will give you better results with acceptable ISO. Similarly lowering the shutter speed will also yield better results. Although lowering shutter speeds wouldn't work in many situations. Imagine you are shooting an indoor sports event and you don’t want to have a higher ISO value. In that case you will have to lower your shutter speed as well.  But then shooting a fast moving basketball player with lower shutter speeds will result in a shaky image. Hence in situations like these keeping a lower aperture value is the best alternative. All lenses have a minimum f-stop value that you can use. Lower the aperture value, more expensive the lens (Because you can use that lens in a better way in low light situations). For example, a 50mm f1.8 lens is more expensive than a 50mm f2.8 lens.

Here is an example of a low ISO night image:

Brooklyn Bridge; Shutter Speed: 30 sec; Aperture f16; ISO 100

The above picture of Brooklyn Bridge was taken at ISO 100. Because of that, the image turned out to be noise/grain free. But to achieve that, notice I had to use a shutter speed of 30 sec. If I would have used a shutter speed of 1/500 and kept the ISO 100 and aperture f16, this image would have been an extremely underexposed image, almost dark. To make the image visible, I would have had to raise the ISO. But again higher ISO means more noise. Again, since the shutter speed was 30 sec, I had to use a tripod to get this shot. If I had tried clicking this hand held, it would have been a shaky image.
 
Conclusion:

To sum things up, the world of exposure entirely revolves around three elements; Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. Each of them is inter-dependent on the other. Changing one element hampers the performance of the other; hence it is important to understand the balance between values of all three. Every photographer strives to come to an acceptable shutter speed, aperture and ISO, which would give him/her a perfectly exposed shot. With my personal experience, I would say you would understand these elements in a much better way when you’ll go out with your camera on field and try different settings. Try an indoor sporting event or a night shot. Try the same shot with different settings and see how your output varies. Every camera has an inbuilt digital meter which shows you whether your shot is under or overexposed. Adjust your settings until you get a perfectly exposed shot.

Exposure/Light Meter

Note that the meter runs from -2 to +2. A perfectly exposed shot will have the scale at 0. Minus values represent underexposed shot while the positive values indicate an overexposed shot. 

So don't wait! Get out there with your camera and play with it! That is the best way to have fun and learn at the same time! I hope you liked reading my post. If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to write to me at pnbhosale@gmail.com. Happy clicking and happy learning! 

A Road Trip to National Parks of the West!

It was time to plan another photography trip and I was wondering where to go. Last time I chose Maine and New Hampshire over Florida. Florida was under consideration this time as well but after thinking for a few days, I realized two things. Firstly Florida isn’t too far from where I live and I can always squeeze in a quick trip down there. Secondly it would have been a purely birding trip. Wildlife and birding is always an uncertain equation (You have to be at the right place at the right time!) so flying so far and getting disappointed wasn’t on my plate!  I wanted to do something big that wouldn’t be possible to repeat. After a few days of research I thought the best place I can hit would be National Parks of the west. There were a few reasons why I chose those National Parks. First, it would be purely landscape based trip so no fear of luck. If you make there for sunset or sunrise you are surely getting that shot! Mountains and Trees don’t fly and run like wildlife! Another factor being that since all those parks are usually dry during this season, I could book tickets early and I didn’t have to fear about heavy rains (Plus in some situations Rain and Storm add to a much better effect for Landscape Photography). So it was decided! Landscapes it is!

Next part was research. I went through several days of research with reading two books and a few blogs. Finally came up with my travel route which was the following:

Las Vegas à Arches National Park à Horseshoe Bend à Antelope Canyons à Monument Valley à Zion National Park à Death Valley National Park à Las Vegas

I planned to take two lenses with me along with my Canon 7D. First lens was the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and my second lens was Canon 70-200 F4 (Just in case I needed little zoom). Flew out of Baltimore and reached Las Vegas around 7:00PM in the evening. Picked up my rental car. Although a little pricey, I got myself an all wheel drive Jeep which would make off road travel easier for me. I dropped my bags at the Vegas Hotel and took the hotel shuttle for the Las Vegas Strip. Spend the next 4 hours doing some night photography and I got some fantastic shots of the cityscape! Here is one of the shots from Las Vegas:

 I came back to my hotel room at 1:00AM the next morning from the Vegas Strip. The air travel and 4 hours of walking on the Strip had made me dead tired! It was time to doze off! Woke up at 6 AM and this was going to be a long day. Seven and a half hours of drive to Arches National Park! Major attractions at Arches were Balanced Rock, North and South Windows, Delicate Arch and a few more to name. Delicate Arch is the most attractive photographic point at Arches and you require a good hour of strenuous hike to get up there! Started my hike at 6:00PM and took one hour and five minutes to reach to the top. I was exhausted! Climbing the mountains with your camera bag, lenses, water and tripod isn’t easy! The view from the top was breathtaking! I felt as if every step and breath I took to be here was worth it! The red rock glowed beautifully under the setting sun! Here is a picture of the Delicate Arch at sunset:

After a long day and strenuous hike at Arches National Park, it was time to doze off! I found a nice diner near my motel, ate to my satisfaction and went off to sleep with another day of excitement in my dreams! Woke up next day before the sun rose and headed towards the morning session of Arches National Park. The weather wasn’t going to be co-operative that day with clouds forming above me. It was probably going to rain. Cloudy sky wasn’t an issue but carrying you gear and hiking for half a mile becomes difficult when it starts raining in the middle of your hike. You have no place to hide in a deserted park and you surely don’t want to wet your expensive gear! I didn’t take any chances that morning. I did take a lot of pictures but definitely stayed close to my car just in case it started raining. I did get some interesting shots that morning! Here is one of them:

After completing the morning session it was time to head out to Page, Arizona. The drive was about 4.5 hours and my aim was to cover three locations around Page: Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon and Monument Valley. I reached Page at 4:00PM. Checked into my motel, took a quick shower and I was all set to hit Horseshoe Bend for sunset. The hike to Horseshoe bend is a medium leveled hike. You don’t strain yourself as much as the Delicate Arch Hike but you do have to take quick pit stops to catch some breath. Checked the weather and my jaw dropped! Winds close to 40 miles per hour were on the agenda! Horseshoe Bend needs to be captured from the edge of a cliff so standing at such elevation with winds would be extremely difficult. Plus the desert sand would be a pain in the eyes. Also with the sand, we have to be extremely careful with the camera gear because if the sand goes into your lens or camera, it is very difficult to blow it out. In fact there are chances that the sand particles might go deeper into your camera while you are trying to clean it. I hiked and reached at the horseshoe bend. I was expecting a cloudy sky but to my dissatisfaction, it was a clear sky. With sun setting in front of you on a clear day, light becomes extremely harsh. Plus the wind made it worst to stand on the edge of the cliff. I wasn’t happy with my overall sunset setup and I decided I needed to be back at the same location next day for Sunrise! So called it a day and headed back to my motel. When I woke up the next day, the weather was much better. Winds had calmed down and I had a smile on my face! Hiked back to the cliff and what a wonderful setting it was! I’ll let my picture do the talking here:

Quickly competed my morning session and heading back to the place from where my booked tour to Antelope Canyons was supposed to leave. Antelope Canyon is an extremely beautiful location and you cannot drive your own car here due to sand. There are tours available which take you into the canyons using special vehicles equipped with tires that can handle the sand. My tour left at 10:00AM and it took us about 30 minutes to get to the canyons. The canyons are deep into the sand and while you walk through them, there is sand falling constantly from above! So if you plan to change your camera’s lens while in the canyon, FORGET IT!! Your camera will end its life after that! Anyways. After my shirt full of sand, I was happy to have clicked one of the most unique places on earth! It was an awesome feeling. Here is one of the shots from Antelope Canyon:

After completing my tour, my destination for the evening was Monument Valley National Park which is two hours drive from Page. Again, the roads inside this park are curvy and full of bumps and rocks! I have heard people having three flat tires at one given point in time, blowing out their engines and what not! And with very limited cell phone coverage, there are changes where you’ll be stuck inside the park for hours!  I didn’t want to take a risk so I booked a tour with one of the tour guides at Monument National Park. They have special vehicles that take you into the park. The guides have Satellite phones with them so they can communicate outside the park in case of an emergency. My tour guide was from the native Navajo tribes who have stayed in the park for many decades. He knew every inch of the park and took us deep into Monument Valley. I got some wonderful photo opportunities while I was there and all thanks to him! Here is a picture from the monument valley:

Came back to my motel after my trip and called it a day.

Started for Zion National Park the next morning. The drive is about 2.5 hours from Page. Reached Zion and the sky couldn’t be more co-operative!! Beautiful clouds added up to a great setup for my landscape shots! I spent an entire day at Zion National Park. You have to walk a lot inside Zion if you want to explore its beauty. I did a few hikes inside the park and it was breath taking! If you want to hike and cover the entire park, you need to stay for at least 3 to 4 days! I just had one day with me so I covered major attractions throughout the entire day. In the evening I made it up to a famous sunset point in Zion, the “Watchman”. This location is considered to be one of the most photographed locations inside the park! Again, I’ll let my picture from the “Watchman” make all the talking!

Here is another picture from Zion:

So after a great day at Zion, it was time to call off a day and head towards Las Vegas! I just had one day left now and the destination was Death Valley National Park. I started for Vegas the same day I left Zion and it took three hours to reach to Vegas. Checked into my hotel and dozed off. I had to wake up at 3:00AM for Sunrise at Death Valley National Park! So as planned started at 3:30AM the next day for Death Valley after a mere 3 hours of sleep. Reached just before sunrise at a place called Bad Water. This place is below sea level and there are salt accumulations all over the place! In fact this place is considered to be the lowest place below sea level in the entire world!! And above all, this is one of the most photographed sunrise locations in Death Valley! Here is a picture from the Bad Water:

After Bad Water, I drove around a place known as Artists Drive in Death Valley National Park. The name says so because at any point on that drive, you can just stop and paint a picture of the beautiful road, sky and rocks! Here is a picture from the Artists Drive:

Light got harsher later in the day so there was very little chance of getting a good photo in the desert. I had to wait for the sunset. Spent some time reading a few books about Death Valley at the visitor’s center. Gave me some time to take a deep breath too as my past few days were extremely hectic. Laid down on the bench inside the visitor’s center’s shade (Caring less about what people think!) and took a good afternoon nap. Felt like heaven!! At sunset headed to the famous Sand Dunes of Death Valley National Park. The evening light made the sand dunes shine like diamonds! It was a wonderful sight! Here is a picture from the sunset at Sand Dunes in Death Valley:

I had no intentions of waiting at Death Valley for night shots as there is very little cell phone coverage and driving at night is be risky. But since the sky got clearer as day ended, I decided to stay for a night shot. And the decision paid off!! My picture will explain the rest!

Came back to Vegas that night. I had my flight at 6:00PM the next day. I decided to relax for the last day and keep my camera aside. Spent some time in Vegas that day just chilling on the streets and enjoying some street shows around Vegas. And finally my trip came to an end. What a beautiful experience it was! I would say one week is very little time if you want to explore all of the National Parks in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. But we as working professionals have hard time finding more than a week just for a road trip! I’ll have to win a lottery for that so I could retire from my job and do road trips for the rest of my life!!

Anyways. I hope you enjoyed reading my post and above all the pictures I took! I would cut the story short now, as this has already turned to be a larger post than I anticipated! Do visit some or all of the places I mentioned in my post. It is worth every penny you spent on visiting these places! My website is www.prithvirajbhosalephotography.zenfolio.com Please feel free to visit my site and explore some more pictures from this as well as other trips of mine. Also, if you need any additional information, feel free to drop me an e-mail at pnbhosale@gmail.com

Thanks for visiting my blog!