Photography Weekend in Coorg

I just spent 3 days in Coorg learning to be a better photographer. Coorg is a beautiful, mountainous region southwest of Bangalore. In addition to its beauty Coorg is known worldwide for its coffee beans and has several important religious sites for Hindus. The most surprising thing to me however, is there is also a town that is a Tibetan refugee center. You are driving along through southern India, a thousand miles from Tibet, and suddenly everyone you see is wearing Buddhist robes. There is also an amazing Buddhist temple - Incredible India. Just when I think I've got it figured out something new surprises me.


Anyway, I bought what I consider to be a very expensive camera 2 months ago; the kind with interchangeable lenses and more settings than I could comprehend (A Cannon 450D for the photographers out there). The only setting I had used on it was the "automatic everything" so when Michael Hubbard found a 3 day photography workshop being conducted in Coorg it was a great opportunity to do two things I was interested in; see Coorg and learn to use my camera.


I am happy to report that I now am very comfortable with Manual mode and have a good understanding of the basics of Aperature, ISO, and Shutter Speed settings and how they work together. I've got a lot to learn but I am no longer afraid of the manual settings. Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend and a link to the full album of my favorites. http://picasaweb.google.com/pbalthazor/CoorgPhotography

Chandelier in Buddhist Temple. I loved the geometric lines


Buddhist monk. I used a long shutter speed to get the motion

We hiked to a waterfall. On the way I saw this leaf that almost glowed against the brown and black background. It was caught in an eddy and remained perfectly still as the water washed over.

This is one of my favorites. A low aperature setting gives the sense of depth but also the bananas are the only natural thing in the picture including the lighting. A blue tarp over the stand created the cool blue lighting.

This is my favorite- there is no photoshop or any other tricks. On a morning walk I saw a lady sitting on the other side of a black mesh fabric surrounding a small greenhouse. The fabric does so many amazing things to the photo
Its India, taking a photo of a cow is required

On the way to the waterfall our guide spotted a scorpion on the grass. I've never seen one before and couldn't believe the blue-black coloration. I used a zoom lens to get this close. I expect Godzilla to appear at any moment to show this guy who is boss.

Spider web and grass in the morning dew

Make up your own story. There are too many metaphors for me to settle on any one...nature caged, forbidden love, etc.

Young visitor to the Buddhist temple