I’ve always had an interest in defense related topics and issues. Be it the latest technology used in warfare, Indian defense contracts, fighter planes etc. And Air Force is probably the most glamorous of the three main defense forces of any country (Army, Navy & Air force). Fighter jets are some of the most advanced innovations of mankind and they’re a thing of beauty. Symmetrical, long flowing lines and curves to provide aerodynamics and stealth in some cases to those majestic wingspans carrying a frightening amount of arsenal underneath them, amazes and fascinates me. And of course, there is that unmistakable sound of a jet and the sonic boom when it screams across the sky leaving a trail of smoke.

So with all this fascination towards aircrafts and weapons, when the Aero India 2011 came around, I wasn’t going to miss it, specially since this time I had a DSLR with me to capture some of these beauties in mid-air. I’ve been to the Aero India show in 2003, 2005 and 2007. But in all those shows, I either had a point & shoot or an old handy cam. So this was my first attempt at aviation photography with a digital SLR.

I decided to read up on a couple of articles on aviation photography to be better prepared for the air show. Here are a couple of articles I found useful: Art1 Art2

Gear: Canon 400D, 70-200mm F2.8IS coupled with 1.4x Teleconverter, Tokina 11-17mm, Spare battery, and an additional memory card. (The latter two came in very handy)

Weather conditions: The air show began at around 10am. It was a clear day with absolutely no clouds. Hot and dry. This made shooting planes on static display during the day difficult. And also sky looked dull gray almost when photographing planes in the air.

Suryakirans

The Indian Air Force’s aerobatic team called the Suryakirans, who fly the Kiran MkII, took to the sky first. I’ve seen them perform before in previous editions, and they did not disappoint. It would be the last time that they flew in these planes, as they are going to be using a new jet in the future, the BAE Hawk. So we may not get to see them at the next edition.

IJT (Intermediate Jet Trainer) – BAE Hawk, purchased from BAE systems a few years ago, after decades of delay, to train the IAF pilots, was up next.

LCA Tejas
Light Combat Aircraft, touted to be the lightest fighter jet in the world, has been source of pride and equal embarrassment. It was conceived almost two decades ago, and it received operational clearance only recently and is yet to be inducted in to the air force. But nevertheless, it is the first indigenous effort to build a fighter jet. It is expected to replace the aging Mig-21s in the IAF.

F/A 18 Super Hornet

F/A 18 is manufactured by Boeing, and is one of the contenders for the MMRCA (currently the largest defense tender in the world, worth $12 Billion) competition. It was the only fighter jet to fly with fully armed live missiles and ammunition during the air show.

F-16 IN Viper
Prerhaps the most known name among fighter jets, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, it has the most combat experience among all the fighter jets in the world. F-16s have flown during the Gulf war, War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. It is also in contention for the MMRCA contract.

Dassault Rafale
French Air force flew this fighter in at the last minute for Aero India 2011. Rafale is also one of the contenders for the MMRCA contract.

Red Bull Aerobatics team

Sukhoi MKI
My favorite fighter jet among all of them, the Russian Sukhoi 30 MKI, is jointly designed and customized for the IAF by Sukhoi and HAL. Widely regarded as one of the best fighter jets in the world for performance, maneuverability and capability. When parked next to other fighter jets, it dwarfs them, and has a massive presence about it.

Eurofighter Typhoon
Eurofighter Typhoon is manufactured by a consortium supported by European countries, and is in contention for the MMRCA contract. They had a jet on static display, and allowed the public to experience sitting in the cockpit. Companies competing for the MMRCA have been using all possible marketing gimmicks to gain advantage over the other, and this was one of them.

Saab Gripen
Swedish company Saab’s single engine lightweight fighter, Gripen, is another MMRCA contender. They claim the aircraft is designed for easy maintenance and can land and take off from small stretches of road too.As part of their marketing strategy, they ran a contest, and the winner was flown as a co-pilot on the fighter jet.

Sarang Dhruv ALH team
One of the few helicopter aerobatics teams in the world. Sarang flies the colorfully painted advanced light helicopters called Dhruv manufactured by HAL.

Static display & Exhibition Halls
Static display was poorly done this time with fighter jets parked haphazardly and so couldn’t get too many good shots of the planes. But the exhibition halls were much larger in number compared to previous editions of Aero India. They had display models of fighter jets, jet turbines, missiles and some other cool military gadgetry.

Lot more pictures uploaded on my Facebook page here

I’d signed up for this photowalk weeks before, but I almost ended up not going. This was the worldwide photowalk held every year all over the world. There were two of them happening in Bangalore, and I decided to attend the one at Malleshwaram. This was also my first real experience with street photography.

We met up at St.Peter’s Seminary around 7:30AM. I managed to reach there despite not knowing the area too well thanks to Google Maps. After spending around 20 odd minutes there, we walked down towards the residential area passing by old houses – some abandoned & dilapidated, C.V.Raman’s house, and few other prominent local landmarks. I met up with people whom I’d only known in the virtual world (FB/Twitter/Flickr) and it was good to finally meet some of them. The weather was just perfect. (I seem to be saying that a lot recently… makes people living outside of Bangalore jealous I’m sure). We also walked through the local market before we finally ended up at Adiga’s to have some idli-vadas. (Vada & Masala Dosa in my case).

It was great fun hanging out with photogs and meeting new people. The photography bit though was an interesting experience for me. I still haven’t taken to it (street photography) completely yet, and I wouldn’t want to put it on my ‘not so favorite type of photography’ just yet, not before I give it a few more shots. I still do not have a set way on how to go about doing street photography. Each seem to have their own way of doing it. While some ask for permission before taking pictures, others shoot candids while engaging in a conversation and some prefer the zoom lens to shoot people portraits from a distance. I guess there is no right or wrong way of doing it. The best part of street photography to me though is about the reaction you get from people. It can vary from a smile, joy, curiosity, suspicion and sometimes even anger.

Here are some pictures from the walk:

 

 

For more see here

Indian weddings are usually loud and dare I say even obnoxious at times. I would have probably refused to cover such a wedding. While some like the idea of wedding being a mass congregation event, I like it to be a quite and private affair. So when I got a mail from a friend, whose sister was getting married soon, and had seen my pictures online, asking me if I could cover her wedding with a photojournalistic approach, rather than the traditional approach where the bride and groom are made to sit on a stage and people are herded up and down the stage for group pictures, I said yes.

This being my first wedding shoot I read up a bit looking for a few pointers on what to shoot and what not to. I used my 70-200mm f2.8L IS mostly, but also made use of the wide angle lens a few times.

The shoot was a 2 day affair. The first day everyone just hung around and chilled. It made my job easier since I had friends there so we chatted in between shots. The weather in general was beautiful, and the venue, a resort, was perfect for a small private wedding. The girls got mehendi on their hands while the guys walked around with beer in their hands, and later in the evening there was an impromptu ‘screw the bulb turn the knob’ dance lessons for their european friends.

Day 2 was more of the same. But on this day the whole place was decorated with lights and flowers for the main wedding ceremony. There were a couple of small rituals with the bride and the groom, before the actual wedding ceremony. My camera was doing great till then, but went kaput on me during the middle of the wedding ceremony. Luckily, a friend had a DSLR, so we managed a few pics during that period. But my plans for doing family portraits with strobes went to the bin, or so I thought. After dinner, when people had settled down a bit, we decided to give the portrait shoot a go. With the help of friends, I managed to get a lighting setup working with gear from all makes – Nikon D40, Cactus V4 triggers & receivers, Vivitar 285hv flash and a Canon 430EXII speedlite. And it worked!!

Pictures:

For more pictures, see here

Note: Please do not copy or reproduce these pictures without permission.

I decided to go shoot the Sunfeast 10k Marathon which took place on May 23rd, on a beautiful Sunday morning, in Bangalore. I left home early, parked my car on St.Marks Road, and walked all the way up to Vidhan Soudha, through Cubbon Park. The marathon began at 7am, first with the disabled people in wheelchairs, elite run for men and women, senior citizens run, and then the open 10k run which had the most participants.

It was a fun experience standing on the sidelines watching people run. Each one with his/her own unique style of running and the expressions on their face. Standing with a 70-300mm helped me get a good reach to capture people’s expressions. It also helped that almost everyone wanted a picture taken of themselves probably assuming I was a press person. 🙂

By the end of the event, I had probably walked 10 km myself, from 5 30am to 10 30am. We definitely need to continue this event every year as it epitomizes what Bangalore is all about, a welcoming…cosmopolitan..friendly city. It was a joy to watch people from all walks of life and places take part in such a happy event.

For the entire set of pictures from the event, see here: Sunfeast 10k World Marathon – FB