"Light is the basic element of nature that enables us to experience the myriad creations of nature itself. How do we fathom the art behind intricate patterns created by wind on sand dunes without the warm light of the setting sun? How do we experience the beauty of the water carved canyon on a solitary night without the light showered on it by the full moon? How do we comprehend the vastness of this universe without the light from billions of stars? Light, an omnipresent element of nature, creates its imprint on everything everywhere. My photography and this website are my humble attempts to share the views of some of those unique imprints - the Imprints of Light."

I currently live in San Diego, California, where I work as an engineer in the growing telecommunications industry in the area. I grew up in India and lived for the most part in the historic city of Madurai.

I was initially drawn towards videography; however, I couldn't find avenues to develop skills in that area. While I had experimented with fine-art photography using point and shoot cameras, it wasn't until 2001 that I took up photography as a serious hobby along with an SLR camera.

While I dabble in different genres of photography, my primary interest lies in landscapes. I think landscapes present the greatest challenge in terms of artistic composition. It is a difficult, but worthwhile exercise in creativity to bring expansive vistas within the frame of a photograph. Accomodating the wide range of luminosity levels within the narrow dynamic range of the photographic medium presents a great challenge as well. Engaging in creative thoughts in the midst of magnificent creations of nature provides a healthy respite from the predominantly left brain centric activities that are characteristic of the kind of work I do everyday for a living.

I generally like subtle colors and earthy tones. May be because of that, I subconsciously include lots of browns and shades of grey even in my Macro photographs. The deserts of California, Arizona, and Utah have given me enough feed to satiate my hunger for earthy tones. I also strive to make my images look more natural and closer to reality. To that end, I do not use color modifying filters.

While I do not intend to financially benefit from my photography, I have had some of my photographs displayed in juried art exhibitions in California and outside. The originals of most of the images in the gallery can scale up to provide excellent prints of up to 24" x 36". If you are interested in obtaining a print of any of these images please contact me, and I'll be happy to provide high quality archival prints to you.

One of questions people frequently ask me is about the equipment I use. I use a Canon EOS 20D and a selection of lenses made by Tamron and Canon. For landscapes I use one of the following three lenses - Tamron SP 11-18mm f/4-5.6 Di-II, Tamron SP 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di and Tamron SP 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di. I also use a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 DG APO for medium-long telephoto needs. I use the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS for telephoto use depending on subject and practicality. For close-ups and Macros I use the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8 Macro. Sometimes I also use this and the Sigma 70-300mm in combination with Canon's 250D or 500D diopters. For general purpose portraits which I mainly use for friends and family is a Canon 85mm f/1.8. I also use a variety of other accessories such as diopters, neutral density filters, diffusers, and so on. My stability system consists of a Bogen/Manfrotto 3021BPRO tripod fitted with Markins M10 Ballhead. The quick release system is an Arca-Swiss type with the clamp from Markins and plates from "Really Right Stuff". I also use a Kirk flash bracket in combination with Canon 420EX flash fitted with Stofen omnibounce.

Should you have any questions about the equipment I used for a particular shot, please leave a comment on that particular image. Please provide your e-mail address in the comment form, and I'll certainly get back to you in a day or two. Don't type your e-mail address in the body of your message just to make sure that spambots don't have access to it. Please provide it only in the appropriate field.

I have been shooting digital since 2003 and all the images in this site were shot with a digital camera. I shoot only RAW format images with minimal in-camera processing. All my post-processing is done using PhaseOne's CaptureOne software and Adobe's Photoshop CS2. My RAW image processing is done with CaptureOne where the input color profile is the Hi-Sat profile for my camera from Etcetera. I found this profile to work better than the default profiles that come with CaptureOne. At the end of this stage, I usually generate 16-bit TIFF files in the AdobeRGB color space. I also use CaptureOne as a lightbox to select those that would find their way to the gallery and mark those that'll go to the trash can. In the case of almost 80% of the images, all my processing ends with CaptureOne. In these cases I feed the TIFF files to Photoshop only to resize them for the web, or to process them further for printing. Such processing involve color space transformation and preparing the image for optimal rendition at the target color space.

I believe that the photographer should always visualize the final image even before he/she trips the camera shutter. This is especially true in landscapes which frequently demand a high dynamic range, and in Macros where depth of field is a tricky issue. I usually try to achieve the required dynamic range using Graduated Neutral Density filters. However, there are cases where GND filters cannot be of use and I shoot multiple images with different exposure settings to later blend them on the computer. This also happens in Macro/Close-up shots when one includes two or more objects in a frame where these objects don't lie in the same plane. To achieve increased depth of field, I take multiple shots with different focus points and later blend them on the computer. I use Photoshop mainly to perform the task of blending images to achieve the required DR or increased DOF.

Almost all images require sharpening before their intended final use. The sharpening parameters are different when target is the web or when it is the printer. I use a Photoshop plugin called Nik Sharpener to make the job easier. I find this to make much more sense than the Unsharp Mask of Photoshop.

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