Four Pillars (Char Khambe) of Santa Cruz

Aerial view of the 4 pillars with the backdrop of Panjim city.

By: Sanjeev V Sardesai

The history of the village of Santa Cruz, which is more popularly known as “Calapur” or “Kalapur”, a small peaceful hamlet, primarily with an agrarian heritage, and just about 5 kms from the capital city of Panaji, is quite amazing, when one is exposed to many of its facets of ecological, historical & natural assets, from time immemorial.

To better understand the history of this quaint Goan village, we must travel back in time to understand the possible identity granted to this area. Immediately preceding the arrival of the Portuguese rule in 1510, the territory on the island of Tiswadi, comprising 30 wards/ villages (“Tis”= Thirty; “Wadi”=wards/villages) was under the tutelage of the Adilshahi dynasty. This region of the Konkan belt came under Muslim rule since 1469, when the Bahamani reign overthrew the Kadamb rulers and anchored themselves on these lands. Later it was the Adilshahi Empire that took charge of these lands, after the breakup of Bahamani Dynasty.

The 360 Degree Spherical Panoramas

I recently did a trek in the Himalayas (Pahalgham, Kashmir). While trekking, and clicking away with my newly purchased phone (A Samsung Galaxy Edge), I discovered that it had a feature called 360 Spherical Panorama (or photo-spheres).

I started experimenting with this mode and was really amazed at how easy Google had made it to create an immersive 360 degree view. More importantly, these panos could be easily uploaded to Google maps, and then viewed via Google Views. This link explains the process of creating and sharing these photo-spheres.

I was thrilled, and created a number of these photo-spheres during the trek. Upon returning back to civilization, I realized I had made one mistake. I had switched off the GPS during the trek to conserve battery, which meant that my photo-spheres did not have the geo-coordinates embedded, and Google Maps gives an error, if you try to upload a photo-sphere without the geo-coordinates.

After much trial-and-error, I downloaded an app called "GeoTag" (a free Android app), that allows you to embed the geo-tags manually. After downloading the app, and updating the geo-coordinates, I could finally upload my photo-spheres to Google Map.

Below are some of the photo-spheres that I captured. To view the 360 sphere, just click on the image, and move the mouse up, down, left or right.

1. Royal Sar Lake (This is a small lake). Locals believe that you should not put your hands in the water, and we were forbidden to enter the water. We could, however, go a little further where the water was flowing, and enter the water there.

Views: Royal Lake by Cajetan Barretto

When the action gets too close.

Whenever a storm rolls in, my first instinct is to grab my tripod and camera and try to capture lightning.

This is exactly what I was doing few days back in India. I had managed to capture just one lightning shot and was getting frustrated but kept clicking away hoping for something good.

The shutter was open when I heard a terrifying explosion and a bright and blinding light right in front of me, not more than 30 meters away.

I had the presence of mind to keep the shutter cable pressed, and was rewarded with this crazy lightning shot.

A new way to explore Flickr.

I've been a Flickr user ever since the service was introduced as a small start-up in Vancouver, and was subsequently acquired by Yahoo. It is certainly one of the best sites to share and explore photos.

Every now and then, they introduce some cool features. Their latest one allows you to embed the pictures directly into your website, and explore other pictures in your stream in a very seamless manner.


This will certainly change the way I write blog posts in future.

The 5-Axis IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization)

5-Axis IBIS illustration. Image copyright by Olympus Corporation.

Olympus first introduced their 5-axis IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) with the E-M5, and further refined it with the E-M1 (their current flagship camera).

When I purchased the E-M1, the IBIS feature was not on my "must-have" list. I purchased the camera because of its other features (weather sealed body, 10fps shooting speed, great viewfinder etc.). My understanding was that image stabilization that is done on a lens (favored by Nikon & Canon) is always better than image stabilization done in the camera body (by moving the sensor, as shown in the illustration above). I was very skeptical that this type of stabilization would give good results.

I was completely wrong.

The Switch to Micro 4/3rd

My current micro 4/3 system.

Photography has become a lot more interesting for me recently, and it has to do with one tiny gem of a camera from Olympus. The rather odd sounding OM-D E-M1.

Up until now, I have shot mostly with Nikon D800 and have managed to collect some really beautiful Nikon lenses. I still love shooting with the D800, and I know its controls like the back of my hand. But it has one disadvantage that makes it impractical as an everyday camera. It is big and it is heavy.

I wanted something small and light that I could carry around with me, especially while travelling. About 2 years back, I decided to try the Olympus E-P2. It was a nice and slick camera, but its underwhelming auto-focus speed left a lot to be desired. I also tried the much revered Panasonic GF1 (which has great auto-focus speed), and even invested in the Panasonic GX1 (improvement over the GF1). I still have the GX1 and occasionally do use it, but all of these cameras fall woefully short in terms of image quality, when compared to the mighty Nikon D800.

I became very interested in the Olympus E-M5, as it was considered a game changer for the micro 4/3 system. But before I could make up my mind to buy it, rumors started circulating that Olympus was going to introduce something extraordinary. I decided to wait and see.

The OM-D E-M1 was finally announced, and it seemed to have everything that I was looking for in a smaller camera. I hit the pre-order button the moment it became available on Amazon. I was one of the early recipient of the camera, and the moment I held it in my hands, I knew I had a winner. It was exactly like a mini-version of my beloved D800.

E-M1 vs the D800

I have been using the E-M1 for more than 1 month now and it has exceeded all my expectations. I was thinking of writing one long post about all the unique features of the E-M1, but since that will be a very long post, I have decided to make separate posts highlighting some of the cool things I have been able to do with this camera.

Detailed technical review of the camera can be found at dpreview.com, where it earned their highest "Gold Award". My subsequent posts will be more focused on real-world use, and my personal experience with this camera.

High Speed Flash Photography.

SB-910. Shot at 1/32th power (approximately 1/17,000th of a second)

When we need to freeze action, the shutter speed of the camera has to be high, otherwise you will end up with a blurred image. Typically for sports, a shutter speeds between 1/500th of a second to 1/1000th of a second should give very sharp images. To get these kind of shutter speeds, one or more of the following should hold true:
    1. There is plenty of available light (e.g. daytime)
    2. You have a fast lens.
    3. Your camera can shoot at high ISO without too much degradation of image quality.

In broad daylight, you should be able to get those kind of high shutter speeds even with a normal lens, and normal ISO. But once the light starts fading, then your choices are limited to managing with #2 (fast lens) and/or #3 (setting a higher ISO). It is for this reason you see sports shooters with those huge professional lenses that are designed to gather as much light as possible, and big camera bodies that are designed to shoot at high ISO speed and still give excellent image quality.