Apr 21 - R for Reflection #AtoZChallege

Camera: Sony RX100 iii
Picture of the day in 2012: Truck
Picture of the day in 2011: Bird's Paradise
Picture of the day in 2010: Phantom of the opera

Apr 19 - P for Pattern #AtoZChallenge

Camera: Sony RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2013: Stopping time/motion
Picture of the day in 2012: Game 
Picture of the day in 2011 Red velvet cake

Apr 18 - O for Over Exposed Photo #AtoZChallenge

O for Over Exposure Photography.

Camera: Sony RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2015: Food styling
Picture of the day in 2012: Empty
Picture of the day in 2011: Flower show
Picture of the day in 2010: Roses

Apr 17 - N for Nature, New Beginning #AtoZChallenge

N for Nature. Leaves are just beginning to grow back and flowers are just beginning to bloom in my neck of the woods. It is a new beginning to the new season!

Camera: Sony RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2016: Cherry blossoms
Picture of the day in 2012: Shopping
Picture of the day in 2011: Mamidikaya pappu charu
Picture of the day in 2010: Rockefeller Center sculpture

Apr 15 - M for Monochrome #AtoZChallenge

M for Monochrome photography. Monochrome photograph is where the photograph has a single hue. It includes all forms of black & white photos; sepia, cyan, browns and all hues of gray. To do it is black & white.

Camera: Soney RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2016: Tulip
Picture of the day in 2012: Rocks
Picture of the day in 2011: Midtown skyline from the park
Picture of the day in 2010: One of the busiest places

Apr 14 - L for Lines #AtoZChallenge

L is for Lines. Lines make interesting subject and add dynamic impact to photographs. Today's photo is also a good example of pattern and shadow.

Camera: Sony RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2012: Say cheese, smile
Picture of the day in 2011: Young volunteers at work

Apr 13 - K for Kit Lens #AtoZ Challenge

K for Kit Lens. This is my kit lens that came with my Nikon 5100. I used it for almost 2 years until I got my prime lens. Ever since, I have not touched until today, to take a picture of it. Nikon is my first DSLR and I didn't know what to expect. I started out with a kit lens and is a great lens for first time DSLR users. It is also a great lens for everyday photography. I use my DSLR mostly for food photography with prime lens. If one uses DSLR for everyday photography, it is good one to have in the collection of lenses.

Camera: Sony RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2013: Spring
Picture of the day in 2012: Landscape
Picture of the day in 2011: Random click
Picture of the day in 2010: Cloudy day

Apr 12 - J for J #AtoZChallenge

There are many options for J. J for jump, jewelry, joint, junk, jugs and JPEG. Since the theme is photography, I considered J for JPEG. JPEG is a format to compress and store digital images. Then, I didn't have an appropriate photo to go with the post. This morning while drafting the post, I changed it to J for j instead, the alphabet 'j'.

Camera: Sony RX 100 iii
Picture of the day in 2012: Faith
Picture of the day in 2011: City skyline from JK Onassis reservoir

Apr 11 - I for ISO #AtoZChallenger

I for ISO. ISO is one of the elements of exposure triangle. ISO stands of International Standards Organization, which sets the sensitivity of sensors on digital camera. Sensitivity of the image sensor depends on the ISO number and smaller the number, less sensitive the sensor is. The lowest number is 100 and it could go up as high as infinity. The highest ISO on a camera varies from camera to camera.

The rule of thumb is to keep the ISO low but in low light conditions, in indoor sporting events and in low light conditions when the photo is taken with out a tripod, ISO comes to recuse to well expose the photo. Also, ISO is used when freezing time/motion because the shutter is fast, resulting in less light going into camera. In such cases wider aperture and/or ISO are adjusted to well expose the photo. The drawback of high ISO is that the photo gets noisy as the ISO increases. One must have noticed, often times night pictures usually tend to have a grainy finish. That is the noise due to high ISO.

Today's photo was in a subway station where lighting was low. I didn't have a tripod and had to use a fast shutter to avoid a shake. ISO came to my rescue. Settings of the photo - ISO 12800 (very high ISO number), Shutter Speed - 1/100sec, Aperture - f/2.8. Here are high ISO pictures from the archives.

Camera: Sony Mark 3 RX100
Picture of the day in 2013: Flowers
Picture of the day in 2012: Hallway
Picture of the day in 2011: Cherry blossoms

Apr 10 - H for Hands #AtoZChallenge

H for Hands, hands of a watch. Did some post processing to get this finish and effect.

Camera: Sony Mark 3 RX100
Picture of the day in 2013: Flowers
Picture of the day in 2012: Arms
Picture of the day in 2011: Walk in the park