Could it be...

The last 5 days saw what was definitely our best National Park trip in recent memory. The family got Daddy Narayanan a L series wide angle lens and a Neutral Density filter kit and volunteered to walk behind for pictures in heat and cold, on dry desert beds to badwater wetlands at the Death Valley National Park.

In the middle of this trip which spanned almost 1600 miles of driving over the five days, an important milestone was reached. Daddy turned 40!

We had a great time driving to and from the park as well as seeing some amazing views. 

When everyone was wishing daddy on his birthday, we happened to be at the sand dunes. 

When daddy Narayanan looked up to catch the dunes he saw an almost unbelievable site. A beautiful woman that very closely resembled his wife was looking down at him with a beatific smile..

"We are in the middle of the desert and it is freaking hot.. Could this be... a mirage?" he thought to himself and clicked away. To his surprise the smile stayed through that day and the next and the next.. and it changed into the stare and frown only after reaching back home and Daddy declared that he had caught a stomach bug! 

Now life is back to normal again.. Daddy is still as immature as ever and the magic day that had such hopes of turning dad into some kind of older mature person having ended, the usual routine continues. 

Death Valley was totally worth the drive and the Cousin family made it all the more exciting! 

Have been hiccuping for 8 hours now with no end in sight. These four photos are the only ones I managed to edit yesterday. The other 3000+ have to wait a few weeks. 

The trail through Golden Canyon, aptly named!

The beautiful Kern river that runs along the freeway 178 on our way to Death Valley..

Darwin falls in the middle of a desert reached after a 1.5 mile hike. Truly spectacular!

Thanks to everyone for wishing me a happy 40th. Your wishes and prayers were definitely answered !

Experiments with backlight

Cowboy Studio kit -> Lighting experiment -> no one willing to help with the learning -> No problem!

Spent most of the day reading a book that will help with work. Finally finished it off. Wanted to do one last test before going to bed. The wife and kids are not going to help with this, so it became a self portrait experiment.

Key light -> Check (direct light or bounce main flash off wall)

Fill light -> bounce flash off floor

Back light -> Yes vs. No using secondary slave flash

and yes.. the "cowboy" triggered the idea of using a hat and black San Francisco jacket..

Looks like Daddy Narayanan is no cowboy. Also realizing my weight loss for the first time in a close up picture. Now I know why my mother was so unhappy with the yoga making me skinny to a point where I look malnourished! 

It is good for the tummy to be toally gone but my cheeks have disappeared as well and that needs to be looked into..

This one almost works.. except the slave flash, which is a 280 speedlite seems to flash full power. If there is a way to reduce it or put a diffuser there, that would help. Took 10 shots with different light combinations and two came out okay. Have a lot of learning ahead to figure out this whole lighting scheme..

The portaits take a backseat for now and we will do landscapes over the break!

Studio setup

The new muslin backgrounds and key light setup arrived while I was out of town earlier this week. Finally got to set it up late last night.

We now have a studio in the house that can pretty much turn night to day at the drop of a switch. 

Cowboy Studio simply rocks!

You can keep adding things to the setup over time!

This morning, my models woke up and were so surprised to see me all ready.. clicked these as they wandered in front of the muslin cloth. 

This gets pictures that give the new Portrait white look..

Cannot wait to try the black background and get some Film Noir looking shots.

Finished Bangles

San is sick and that meant engaging the kids "quietly". When faced with such challenges, daddy always capitualates to doing whatever the kids want in order to satisfy the "quietness spec".

We finished the Banlges project in a little under 2 hours. 

Here is the final result in HDR..

It is sunny outside but downright chilly to the point where we might be starting serial art projects today.

Here is to a happy Deepavali to everyone!

My darling daughters, may Art, Math and Science light up your life the way the diwali lights and firecrakers light up dark and cold November nights! 

Kids crafts

The kids have been celebrating their brithday multiple times.. with classmates, family, family friends, grandparents only special, dinner at their favorite restaurant on their actual birthday etc. 

Here is a photo from yet another celebration at home!

Wish I had lighting like this at the bowling lanes...

They got  many gifts most of which are arts and crafts stuff. 

Jr. loved this dairy which she promptly bling-ed (guessing that is the right term for it?) 

Today they started working on decorative bangles where you do the decorating yourself. After 30 minutes of going nowhere, they asked me to come help. They were trying to "glue" the ribbons to the plastic bangle and the whole thing was a big mess.  So I asked them to wash the bangles and start from scratch. 

Me : Where is the instructions? 

LO : We threw it out!

Me : GO and GET it, NOW!

Jr. : Here it is. 

Me : (after reading the instruction and figuring out that you are supposed to start with the double side sticky tape before doing anything with glue). You have not even opened this packet with the tape! Why?

Jr. : We don't need the tape.

Me : Says "who?" It says here in the instructions that you have to start with the tape.. why didnt you read the instructions?

LO : It has TOO MANY WORDS!  Who will read that many words. It is not simple instructions!

We finally did restart the project and they did a great job of following the instructions step by step. 

This is what happens when your kids get used to EULA's which run pages long and they just get used to clicking "I agree" on the one hand and have instructions that are "Step 1: sticky tape. Step 2: wrap Step 3: Glue".. 

Today my job is done in this house. Have taught kids something very important.

Always start with the instruction manual!