A morning walk in the Village of Punjab, India

I visited my friends house at Patiala, on 28th feb/1st March. His home is located in beautiful green surrounding areas of rural Punjab. I asked him for a morning walk with our cameras. As I know there's a lot of beauty hidden there in nearby areas.
We started around 7am; Sun was out.We crossed the campus to reach nearby Pears garden. My friend informed me that we will see beautiful flowers on Pears trees. And I was amazed when we reached there after 10 min walk.I said Wow!!! So beautiful blossoms. I took along my Samsung point and shoot camera and kept my SLR at home; due to two reasons, one is obvious its weight as I was lazy in the morning and second, I know the Macro capabilities of Digicam. Its 10 MP camera with excellent image quality and Macros are stunning too.

Hope you agree.
Here it is fertile soil of Punjab.

Punjab has the lowest level of hunger in India and Poverty rate is also lowest around 6%. Punjab (the five rivers region) is one of the most fertile regions on earth. The region is ideal for wheat-growing. Rice, sugar cane, fruits and vegetables are also grown. It produces 60% of India's wheat, and 40% of India's rice. Some data from wikipedia

In the above shot the soil is being irrigated and vegetables are sowed in.

I kept on taking shots of nice pears blossoms.

Then I noticed some dead trees.

I inquired and got to know that these are replanted here from somewhere else(Migrated) :(

Then we moved on and saw this beautiful textures under my feet. Straight down. This is cracked soil as may be watered few days back.

There were so tiny buds at ground, I bent on knees to take following shot.

I was amazed at depth of filed of these macro shots, looked stunning to me.
And notice the DOF on following shots ;-)
I can see a bit dew on these little flowersActual distance from lens may be around 1 or 2 cm.
following was so soft I afraid to touch as it may damage its fur


And here comes classic Scare Crow, converted to black and white.
And there the real thing the identity on Punjab the "Wheat" plants
Wow!!! what a depth of field I got from this little cam. Bravo to Samsung. It was shot with Macro focus in Auto mode as in Program mode it was taking a bit long to focus.

And following are also stunning macros Imho.


These little flowers are of the size of my thumb

I was moving back from another route and here are two villagers in their happy mood
Sky was great at that day. (I underexposed it a bit in PP)

And finally I reached back at my destination and it is tube-well house, located nearby my friends home, used for irrigation to fields.It was one of greatest walk I ever had and will remember lifelong. I hope you enjoyed the morning walk with me. Thanks for accompanying. See you.

Canon 5D Mark II becomes cinematic with 24fps Movie recording from latest Firmware v2.0.4

Canon has issued a new Firmware v2.0.3(updated with v2.0.4 on 19th March) for its popular EOS Canon 5D mark II camera which adds more video options to make it at par with Canon EOS 7D in Movie options.

Now 24fps frame rate at HD movie recording will be available just like 7D, or Nikon's all new Movie SLRs.

This is a special feature which creates smooth flow of frames and gives a Cinematic feeling just like Hollywood movies.
This 24 fps feature is available in many high end Video cameras but when this 24 fps combines with an DSLR, it becomes a super combination. Because DSLRs can create amazing effects like great "Depth of Field" "Change in Focus" etc. So it is a welcome feature for 5D II users.

Download it from Canon link below.

Firmware changes

• Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.
  NTSC:
  1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed - actual 29.97 fps)
  1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual 23.976 fps)
  640×480 : 30 fps (changed - actual 29.97 fps)
  PAL:
  1920×1080 : 25 fps (added - actual 25.0 fps)
  1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual 23.976 fps)
  640×480 : 25 fps (added - actual 25.0 fps)

Other updations

• Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
• Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
• Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
• Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
• Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

Update on 19th March:
Canon has released firmware v2.0.4 for its 5D Mark II DSLR that corrects the bug found in the previous version. With v2.0.3, sound recording would not work if a manual record volume was used in the C1/C2/C3 custom settings modes. The revised firmware update addresses the issue and is now available for download from Canon's website


Download the updated Firmware 2.0.4 with complete guidance to install

Whats different in Panasonic G2

Panasonic has introduced two models to take up where the G1 left off - the simplified G10 and the upgraded G2. Both are having a new simplified 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens with image stabilization, equipped with 720p HD video

The G2 is the high-end model, and it has some special features

• AVCHD-Lite video recording (1080p)
• Flip-out 3-inch touch-screen
• LCD display with 460,000 pixels
• The touch and flip functions
• Higher Resolution Viewfinder
• Touchscreen features include

o customizable on-screen menus,
o touch focus
o shutter release
o iPhone-style image playback

• Electronic viewfinder has 1.44 million pixels and magnification of 1.4X (same as on the original G1)

• Eye sensor detects when EVF is in use
• Records movies at 1280 x 720 (files play at 60 fps, sensor outputs 30 fps) using AVCHD Lite codec
• Unlimited recording time when using AVCHD Lite, except in Europe
• Dedicated movie recording button
• Records monaural sound, though an optional stereo mic is available
• Dust Reduction System
• 360 shots per charge
  

* Available in black, blue, and red
* Ship date, price To be announced

Jallian Wala Bagh, Amritsar, India

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (Hindi: जलियांवाला बाग़ हत्याकांड جلیانوالہ باغ Jallianwala Bāġa Hatyākāṇḍ), alternatively known as the Amritsar Massacre, was named after the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in the northern Indian city of Amritsar where, on April 13, 1919, 90 British Indian Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted for 10 to 15 minutes, until the soldiers ran out of ammunition

Know more about it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jallianwala_Bagh_Massacre

36 Bullet Marks, Jallian Wala Bagh

Bullet Marks

Remembrance @ Jallian Wala Bagh, Amritsar India

Shaheedi Kuaan, Where lots of people jumped to save themselves from bullets, Jallian Wala Bagh, Amritsar India

Bullet Marks

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Golden Temple, Amritsar, India

Golden Temple, Amritsar, India, originally uploaded by Photography24x7.

Just wanted to inform my friends here that I just visitedAmritsar-ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ in this February.
Amritsar is 32 kilometres east of Lahore, Pakistan and therefore, very close to India's western border with Pakistan

You all must be knowing that Golden Temple: ਹਰਿਮੰਦਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ or Harmandir Sahib is located there and its culturally the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs and one of the oldest Sikh gurdwaras. This temple was established by Guru Ram Das Ji, the fourth guru of the Sikhs, and is, also due to the shrine, known as Guru Di Nagri meaning city of the Guru.
Harmandir Sahib was built with four doors to show that every religion or faith is allowed to go in to meditate or just listen to the prayers for peace. It was originally built during AD 1574, the site of the temple was surrounded by a small lake. and due to this lake the city name is called Amritsar meaning "pool of the Nectar of Immortality".

This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal in Agra and is the number one destination for non-resident-Indians (NRI) in the whole of India.

Source : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amritsar