This was the Big day. 31st may, 2009. The day when Bangalore was Slated to run, and Run for a cause. This was the day for
Sunfeast 10k Marathon and other host of various runs for different categories of runners. It looked to be a beautiful and a promising day from the very beginning. We Rose early and sipped our share of coffee at a near by Cafe Coffee Day on
Lavelle Junction.
Not Everyone was excited and there were sure some surprised faces seeing so many people early morning. If you are statistics man, the count of people was a whopping 23,000 but believe me, it was even more than that counting the required volunteers and policemen to manage such a huge Show. It appeared as the whole town was awake this early.
First was the turn of Elderly folks to start their Run which was so
fun filled that everyone on the sidelines would have felt left out.
At least i did. All of them wore yellow tops and they were so
enthusiastic about it, that one cant put in words. Some of those were in groups and used this opportunity to loud their voices, some simply enjoyed the attention from the fellow photographers and onlookers on the sidelines.
There were some curious faces also seen around. Lot of visitors looked anxious and looked confused. Although they were raring to go.
Some of the elderly
didn't pay much attention and
in-fact called out to people on the sidelines to not stand there but join in for walk/Run. Now this was serious stuff for them.
There was a good arrangement of aid available for all different walks. Lot of volunteers carried medical kits and there were ambulances on the stroll.
The inside of the Stadium started getting filled up in the morning itself. It was nothing more than riot of colors where everyone was coming in to participate, have fun or cheer this big event.
Then was the Turn of Elite
Women's 10k Marathon and whole stadium roared and cheered and these ladies zoomed away out of the stadium.
If it was time for the Open 10k to start and people were lining up for that, this
RJ started to get the ball rolling for the Kingfisher 'Run-In Costume' event where they choose people with diverse and exquisite themes to dress and awarded them hefty prizes.
As the Gates opened for open 10k, people thronged out of the stadium and most of them looked at ease and well prepared for the event and rather looked to be enjoying that.
The Open 10k saw a sea of people running through it. notice the back of the stand where from all the people are coming and are waiting for their turn.
Honorable Chief minister Mr.
Yedurappa came to the stadium and looked cool in his Nike track suit, though he strolled through the Lap inside the stadium and spoke to the media.
On the other hand it was time for the ladies to fire all cylinders and touch down the finish lane for the Elite 10k
Women's marathon. This was quite a close finish.
Police men had their fair luck of getting close to the celebrities and enjoying the day, though i found the security to be lousy. i Saw lot of photographers jump those grills and get down near to anywhere they wanted and i was wondering if the CM or anyone around had any security at all.
In fact the event of this level where thousands of people are all stuck in a stand before they go out for a run, the security should have been a point of most importance. But the complete event was soft on this end.
As
Deepika Padukone came in to the stadium, she got lot of attention but first on she went on to give away awards to different winners.
The VIP box had lot of colors and cameras pointed to them while
Deepika enjoyed a good gallery view of this whole event.
The most enjoyable of the day was the
Majja run where people dressed in most interesting of costumes to run for different reasons.
Kids had good time with their parents and sure they got the best of views of this event.
This group of corporate folks too ran in their effervescent
yellow colored Ts.
A fellow dressed in Indian clothing and carrying map of
india showed the situation of the country and how the blood was flowing throughout...
A
kathakali Dance also put up lot of effort to get dressed and walk for this run.
Some volunteers just carried their Placards and cheered through the crowd.
Now this group was quite
inspired by mythological characters and also carried their message on different issues.
A fellow dressed fully with CD carried his message about Piracy.
Another huge Group from
CUPA carried their message across and all the members dressed like animals.
A fantastic day and the
enthusiasm of the people was unmatchable. I am sure everyone watching them would have been overwhelmed by it and would have felt like running with them.
Do put in your comments if you like something or disliked something or felt that any facet was missed out through this.
Warm Regards,
Saurabh Mittal, quitefar@gmail.com
9880199422
Liked the shot!!! Since some time I was thinking about making some set up for myself to click some studio type shots. It looks fantastic when we see those crisp shots in white or black backgrounds in infinite mode and the product seated in between. Frankly, but just looking at those shots we don’t come to know what it takes to get those outcomes. I am not a professional and hence have limited knowledge which I gained from reading online and experimenting. So here are the things which i would plan to showcase:
1. Setup of creating a cheap softbox.
2. Using the softbox.
3. What other options I have seen.
Creating a soft box setup:
Now frankly I am very cost conscious fellow. Until and unless I see a reason or a measurable outcome, I don’t like to spend money, especially on photography stuff. Rather i would buy some stocks :). May be that’s the sole reason I haven't got my hands on a DSLR yet.
Here are the items you would need to get started:
1. Carton box- After the Friday office, I went to the kiryana store round the corner and asked him the typical carton boxes which are lying with them in plenty. Asked him if he expected something for it but costed nothing since our regular groceries come from there only. Cost=0 Rs.
2. Scissors, Paper Cutter, Selo Tape - Available at home, so Cost=0 Rs.
3. Trace paper or Butter paper Sheets-2 Sheets from the stationary store @ 4Rs each. Cost=8 Rs.
4. White Chart-1 sheet @7 Rs each. Cost=7 Rs.
So, all set with the initial items to begin with at the cost of 15 Rs. Pretty cheap rite.
Here is how the carton looks like:
Listing some steps which followed next:
1. I removed the top closing ends.
2. Now to the other three sides, Side 1, Side 2, and top side 3, I started cutting huge windows out to leave frames from the sides. I have depicted them with white line in the below diagram. That’s what you need to remove.
3. After you carefully remove those out, the box would now look like a frame ready with you for your studio setup.
4. The empty frames now need to be covered with butter paper so that you can diffuse soft light through that to your subject.
Remember, the three sides, side 1, side 2 and top side 3 are the ones which would have the butter paper stuck to. This is how it would look like after sticking the butter paper.
6. Voila we are almost done…I cut the white paper sheet per the size of box and covered back side 4 with it and also spread it across the Bottom side 5 to give us a nice clear white background. And this is how it would look now.
So, this is the point where the soft box studio setup is ready to be used for our purpose. Now towards our second step, Using the soft box.
I don't have any external flashes to fire from any direction, so i planned to use my night lamps shades from the bedside for this purpose. Here are the items which i use for the next steps:
1, My tripod- You bet tripod is lot useful for things to hold other than the camera.
2, A lamp shade or simple bulb holder.
3, 100 Watts bulb. It suited my requirement. you can tweak that per your requirement.
4, Camera. My reliable Sony H50.
5, A subject to shoot. :)
I mounted the lamp shade using my tripod and now the light was coming from the top of the subject. Here is how it looks with the subject "Ganesha" enjoying all the limelight.
Here is a closer look at the setup.
And just to give you an idea of how the tripod was used and how the light was hanging around :)
And finally here is the outcome of the setup you just saw.
I was pretty happy with this cheap and fast setup. I think a flash would be much more helpful which is something I feel could be among other options. Of course, I used a small thermocol piece (lying useless in the TV carton) to reflect light in some shots even better.
I hope you find this tutorial useful and please do leave your comments If there are any more options by which things can be improved.
