Honey Bees : Micro Nikkor 60mm AFD

The winter flowers has blossomed on the terrace. Unlike earlier years, there seems to be a profusion of honey bees busy collecting sap from the flowers.

I was really surprised at how sharp the 60mm AFD is.

The photos below have been taken with the Nikon D300 and the micro nikkor 60mm AFD.

200 ASA  f6.7  1/500s
Perfectly formed. One wing fits perfectly over the other !

200 ASA  f6.7  1/250s

200 ASA  f6.7  1/350s

200 ASA  f6.7  1/350s

200 ASA  f6.7  1/250s

Portrait | Experiments with the Nikon 18-70mm

A long discussion with two of my closest childhood friends post the Christmas lunch. The discussion centered around photography.

This photo was taken in ambient light with the D300 and the Nikon 18-70mm at 70mm at f4.5 and 1600 ASA.

Light & Dark

Ringo (Dec 2011) on the bed. 12 C is too cold for him.

Shot in available light with the micro Nikkor 60 mm and the Nikon D300 at f3.2 and 1/45s.

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Monochrome

Poinsettia on the terrace.

Nikon D300 | Micro Nikkor 60mm @ 200 ASA

The Jazz Concert - Some new pictures

Some new pictures from last week's concert at Dalhousie Institute.

Cropped shot of Izaline Calister during the sound check before the concert. 

Shot with the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 85mm f1.8  @ f2 and 800 ASA. 

Monojit Datta of Los Amigos during the concert on Day 1 of the Congo Square and DI Jazz Fest 2011.

Shot with the D300 and the Nikon 50mm f1.4  @ f2 and 3200 ASA.

Jazz @ DI : Day 3

The day 3 of the Congo Square & DI Jazz Fest 2011 had the Karnataka College of Percussion with Ramamani and TAS Mani teamed up with BuJazzO (a 21 piece youth jazz orchestra from Germany) to present a mix of Carnatic music and jazz fusion.

Out of the compositions played, City Life (written by Louis Banks) was brilliant. The encore with chants of Govinda Jaye Jaye  with  sax and trumpets  made an intriguing sound-scape.

I'm afraid that the pictures are not up to the mark. I was down with a severe cold and had an extremely runny nose and a pre-concert double shot of brandy with warm water was of no help at all.

The shots were predominantly taken with the Nikon 85mm f1.8 on the Nikon D300 along with a few shots taken with the Nikon 18-70mm.

Jazz @ DI : Day 2

The second day of the Congo Square and the DI Jazz Fest 2011 turned out to be a wonderful evening. Old friends, good jazz (though Prasanna's music sounded more like heavy metal sometimes) and great food.

The plus point about concert photography is that one finds a first row seat and stays put there and that is exactly what I did.

I stuck to the trusted Nikon 85mm f1.8 with the Nikon D300. The light was not at all conducive to any sort of zooms except very fast zooms, which I don't have.

All pictures shot at 1600 ASA (very few at 400 ASA) and at f2 at shutter speeds  between 1/45s and 1/250s.

The show started with Izaline Calister and her Trio  with Latin Jazz & Caribbean music with Izaline Calister (Curacao/Netherlands) on Vocals, Yelman Aponte (Venezuela) on Bass, Enrique Firpi (Italy) on Drums and Marc Bischoff (Netherlands) on the Piano.

Her music - a mix of folk, jazz and Afro-Caribbean music - sung in a language called Papiementu was too good. She urged the audience to sing and dance along with her and soon the patrons were on their feet dancing and singing with her.

The next act was by the Prasanna and Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music Faculty in Concert with Prasanna (India) with Guitars/Vocals, Lara Bello (Spain) with Vocals and Derek Nievergelt (USA) on the Bass and Dafnis Prieto (Cuba) on the Drums.

Jazz @ DI : Day 1

The music scene in Calcutta peaks in winter and among the best programs on the calendar is the Congo Square and DI Jazz Fest , held at Dalhousie Institute, Calcutta and this year it's on from the 25th till the 27th of November with promises of world class jazz.


This is my first experiments with concert photography.

 

 

Yesterday was Day 1.

Los Amigos - the Calcutta's own Latino Jazz band - played to the crowds. 
 

Monojit Datta on the Cognas

Premjit Dutta on the Timbales

Pradyumna Singh Manot on the Piano

Sumit Ramachandran makes a guest appearance.  Sarthok Chakraborty on the Bass is obscured by Sumit

This was followed by a concert by the Warren Walker Trio with Warren Walker (USA) on the saxophone, Mario Carrillo (Spain) on the double bass and Tarun Balani (India) on the drums.

Pictures with the Nikon D300 and the Nikon 18-70 and 50mm f1.4.