Our Honeymoon in Aruba
Heaven on Earth ! Aruba was a dream .. a quick one that I wished would just last forever. From waking up in the morning, opening the balcony door, and taking in that breath-taking ocean view and the life-restoring powers of the Aruban sun and that wonderful sea breeze, to rolling in that powdery white sand near the crystal clear aqua waters, to taking romantic night walks listening to island bands play all night long, it was simply that perfect honeymoon that we’ve always dreamed of.
Ofcourse it wouldn’t be complete without my second most favorite thing in the world, my camera. If I could have only cloned myself, we would have had more photos together. I tried to capture the warmth, textures, and feel of the trip and Aruba giving the two of us something that can help us re-live that short week. Needless to say, I took tons of photos of my lovely wife, and got to do lots of landscape work. I found out that it’s not hard to take nice photos in paradise of such a hot model 
The resort was the RIU Palace in Palm Beach, Aruba. 5 stars of luxurious suites, food from around the world, friendly people, and a relaxing atmosphere. Aruba is a tiny island outside the hurricane belt that is so small .. I threw out the map and drove from one end of the island to the other with ease in less than 75 minutes. Can’t wait til our next vacation. Tons more photos inside this post (more…)
Countryside Beauty
No matter how many times we see the beauty of the countryside in photos, it never ceases to amaze us. It is refreshing to do some landscape photogrpahy around Toronto, to help show that beauty is there if we actively look for it. It is also a nice break from people photography, and gives me more freedom of expression in terms of shapes and colors. (more…)
Massive Panorama – Aruba
An experimental panorama stitched together from 4 different photos:
While on my honeymoon, I was desperate to capture the grandiosity and the beauty of the resort we were staying at in Palm Beach, Aruba. The RIU Palace was an incredible resort. We had tons of fun, and enjoyed every minute of it. I did not have a lens with me that could have done this palace any justice. I wanted a lens so wide that it could squeeze the entire view out of our room balcony into one photo, but all I had was my standard focal length zoom.
Then it struck me, 4 photos.. top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right, stitched together, creating one massive and beautiful panoramic photo. Even simple panoramas requiring only two photos require a tripod, but I wasn’t about to lug a tripod around Aruba with me on my honeymoon. So with a steady hand and a good eye, I managed to pull this off, and it made a wonderful addition to our honeymoon album.
Blue-Black Canada
During December of 2008, I got the opportunity to travel to Edmonton and Ottawa. Ofcourse, I had my camera with me (the D90 at the time). It is amazing how each of these cities had a completely different feel to it. Both of these shots recieved cyanotype-like processing to convey structure over colors. I love the dynamic range in both photos, specially in the shadow region. The photo of Edmonton’s skyline was a long exposure sunset capture, the camera was stabilized on top of an inverted ice bucket on a window ledge. The shot was taken through the window glass.
The second photograph here is a hand-held capture of a spiral walkway at the train station in Ottawa. The minute I saw this structure, I knew it was going to make an amazing photo. Composition here is everything, and I think I nailed it here in terms of exposure, composition, and content.