At Lake Berryessa, California

 

Runoff from the Lower Yosemite Falls at dusk in Yosemite National Park, California, my first success at long exposure photography

20-mule team wagon at Harmony Borax Works, Death Valley National Park, California

 

ABOUT ME

Photography is my sanity! It is how I get away from the everyday monotony that life can become. I want my photos to capture not just moments in time, but to convey a feeling to the viewer, a feeling that I experienced when taking the photo.

I am from India. I live in the beautiful state of California with my husband and two daughters. I love California for its stunning coastline, great weather, and the endless photo opportunities it presents, all within an hour’s drive or less.

The first camera I ever held in my hands was a film camera that my parents had when I was a little girl. Each roll of film was precious, and we had to carefully think about our subject and composition before taking a photo or risk wasting film.

When I got married, the camera my husband had at the time was another film camera (this time with a fancy Panorama mode). I remember the anticipation of waiting for the roll(s) of film to be developed into prints, once we came back from a vacation. There was no instant gratification of looking at the photos on the back of the camera. Then came our first digital camera, the Sony Powershot SD500 with its 5.0 megapixels and a shiny silver body, a small camera that let us preview our photos right after they were taken and upload them to a computer to be viewed on a large screen.

We bought our first DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T1i in 2009. I did not know what a DSLR was at the time, and spent the first year or so taking photos in mostly auto mode. After reading articles and blogs and watching online tutorials, I slowly began to understand how experimenting with the different settings on the camera made a huge difference in how the photos turned out.

Many hundreds of mediocre photos later, on our trip to Yosemite National Park, the one long exposure photo I took on the night of April 19th 2014 of the Lower Yosemite Falls sparked my love of Photography. Although it is not a great photo technically, it is very special to me.

My family and I have been on many road trips together, mostly to National Parks, spanning across California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming, Montana, and I am rarely seen without my camera in hand, trying to capture as best I can, the beauty I see in these magnificent, awe-inspiring landscapes, seascapes, forests, valleys, and canyons.

I consider being able to travel an absolute privilege, and I hope we get to travel to many beautiful destinations near and far, meeting new people, learning about different cultures, absorbing and growing with each travel experience, and capturing the memories along the way.