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Photography

How to make better travel videos (continued)

To reemphasize what I mentioned in the last issue, promise yourself (with rare exception) to never “zoom” again. Instead, your first shot should be a wide-angle one that “establishes.” Then turn off the camera. Reframe for your medium shot and take it. The shot following that will be the close-up.

A goal (not always accomplished) is for every shot on your video to be good enough to stand alone as a still photograph. Which means you just can’t wave that video camera around willy-nilly.

India travel tips

I spent six weeks in India in February-March ’10, traveling through Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Rajasthan, with brief visits to Ahmedabad, Delhi, Khajuraho and Varanasi (June ’10, pg. 27 and July ’10, pg. 30). I have the following tips to offer.

Reconfirm flights in India a day or two before departure. Jet Airways canceled my flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi on two days’ notice, and I learned about this only because I happened to have a chance to check my e-mail.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice

Yesterday I was surprised to receive from my ex sister-in-law an e-mail with pictures of a brand-new grandchild. How wonderful that we can communicate our joy so easily and quickly! Having not seen that side of my family for a few years, I was anxious to see how my nephew, whose new baby had just arrived, had grown into a man plus, of course, who the baby resembled.

I was disappointed to find that of the five images, only one was in focus and showed the baby clearly. Most were blurry, had people’s faces cut off or were generally disappointing.

Photo tip

When taking a picture and confronted with snow and ice, there is an easy way to have a camera’s white balance capture the brilliant white and not make the photo gray.

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