Candle in the wind

Do you recognize this title? Of course, many of you could remember. This is title of a famous song that sung by Elton John. The song lyrics were altered by Elton John and Bernie Taupin to honor Princess Diana with the famous line Goodbye England’s rose. But it was originally written in 1973 to honor of Marilyn Monroe. Time to time, the lyrics and music were flavored by various artists.  This is a story of the original title.

Candle in the wind

Candle with flame is always beautiful. Many photographers have taken beautiful shots and you could find plenty of images in the internet. I wanted to try candle with flame, but I wanted to bring the flame that should reflect the wind. If I say in simple words, I wanted to capture “candle in the wind”.


Therefore, I made a setup. I placed the candle in an open space where I was careful with background that flash should not reach background object. If so, I could turn background as black, and I don’t need to find black screen. By the way, it was night. There was slow wind and it was ok for flame to bend a little. I used flash in order to bring the candle visible, but limited aperture, shutter speed and ISO as given below. I took several shots (as always) until I got nice flame that reflected the wind. In this image, I was concern about rule of thirds and lead room.

I am happy with the result. However, I would say a suggestion if you try same shot. It is better to use a color candle instead of white. Black background and white candle give a black and white image feeling, except the flame. I tried coloring the candle in Photoshop through selective color techniques, and it was quite nice. Green, purple, red colors were returned nice image.

Camera settings:

• Aperture size: f/5.6
• Shutter Speed: 1/60
• ISO: 400
• Focal length: 55mm
• Flash: Yes

Bug on a flower

Actually, I tried to photograph the flower. The bug is a bonus. We plan something, but we get something else. It might be good or bad result. When I was focusing the flower, suddenly a bug landed on the flower. I did not a take time to think or see. I just clicked. If I was thinking, I might miss the bug.

Bug on a flower

Do you know after the rain atmosphere come more bright and clear?  It was a sunny day after rain. Even though, sky was not clear. Therefore, I was not able to control aperture and shutter speed. Due to 250mm focal length, I should have at least increased the shutter speed. The background was a maize field. Tele zoom lens is ideal for turning background into gradient or solid color. I was considering the rule of thirds and negative space. Therefore, I made space on left side.

Camera settings:

• Aperture size: f/5.6
• Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec.
• ISO: 200
• Focal length: 250mm

Main color scheme in this image

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Curry tree fruit

Do you know curry tree? Mostly, it uses for cooking in Indian and Asian cooking as flavor and as well as herbal remedy. Even if you know it, you would not see the fruit. Unripe fruit is reddish and fully ripe fruit is black as it in the picture.

Fortunately, I had light green background which is good for a black image. Actually, I utilized banana leaf as background. The leaf had about 2 meter long distance to the subject. 250 mm lens was good enough to turn the background with better DoF. Therefore, you cannot find distracting spot or marks on the background. I used in-built flash to get better light on the subject. 1.3 m long distance was perfect to the in-built flash. I clicked the image by considering the rule of thirds. Stalk is not in focus due to low number aperture, and shallow DoF is not good for this image. Also, flash reflection on the fruit is another negative factor.

Camera settings are as follows:

• Aperture: f/5.6
• Shutter speed: 1/60
• ISO speed: 200
• Focal length: 250 mm
• Flash: Yes

Main color scheme in this image

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Note: Full resolution image is available at Wikimedia Commons under CC 4.0 license. It has passed Valuable image review. 

Rule of thirds - a boy

I have captured this image in upcountry of Sri Lanka. Normally, this area is beautiful due its natural scene and landscape. Mountain range, hills, tea plantation, greenery scenes, waterfalls, gardens are adding beauty to this place. It does not have much of infrastructure. But it has curved main roads and unprofessional sub roads. People live in small houses and tea plantation has small and medium bungalows for managers.

Rule of thirds - a boy

A boy walks from his home by a sub road, which was made by concrete. The road is negative point in this image due to its faded color that can interpret as over exposure. However, it should not have avoided. I was waiting him to turn his face/head towards left side where I had space and it could be ideal for Rule of thirds. His t-shirt & shorts colors give better combination to the image.

Camera settings are as follows:
Aperture: f/8
Shutter speed: 1/320
ISO speed: 200
Focal length: 55 mm
Flash: No

Main four colors in this image

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Note: Full resolution image is available at Wikimedia Commons under CC 4.0 license. It has passed quality image review.