Lifeblob's World

Our friends at Nature Wanderers have a series of wildlife photography workshops lined up between now and April 2011.

Do take a look at the schedule below and book well in advance if you are interested – the seats tend to fill up fast. For any queries or additional details, you can reach out to Shivang Mehta of Nature Wanderers.

Calling all photographers – The lifeblob photo contest for the month of July is now open and the theme is:

Rain Rain Rain – Share your photos of the beautiful and joyous rainy day

I love dancin in rain.. by Sneha Rathod

And this time, we are not giving away one or two prizes but a total of 16 prizes:

• 1 Gold prize winner will receive a cool Rs 1000/- gift voucher to the lifeblob store
• 5 Silze prize winners will receive 10% discount coupons to the lifeblob store
• 10 Bronze prize winners will receive 5% discount coupons to the lifeblob store

So what are you waiting for. Grab your cameras and get going, for the rain does not always come when you want it to. For more details about the contest, visit the photo contest page.

Today we announce the launch of a much needed and frequently asked for community feature: badges.

As a lifeblob user, badges are a way for you to show-off your accomplishments to the world and get more people to find you on lifeblob. Flaunt your badges on your blog page, your website, your photo-blog or anywhere else you like and declare to the world that you have arrived.

Some of the badges are available for everyone to use and you can pick up the one you like at  http://www.lifeblob.com/badges. If you have more ideas for these badges, let us know and we will get one created for you.

We also have a few special badges that are reserved for privileged / featured lifeblob users. If you have been interviewed on photography tips or if you are a lifeblob power user, you will hear from us really soon about your exclusive badge.

Rediff.com is one of the premier worldwide online providers of news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services. Rediff.com provides a platform for Indians worldwide to connect with one another online.

We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with Rediff.com to power their “Get Ahead” section with tips and tutorials on improving photography skills. So far, we have been offering these tips at our photography tips site and they will now also be accessible to a wider group of audience on “Rediff Get Ahead“.

Here is the first article that has been published: Tips to shoot great Black & White Photographs

This month started off on a big bang with the prize distribution ceremony of Bengaluru Photo Marathon Infinite 2010. The prize distribution ceremony was coupled with an exhibition of 65 amazing photos that were selected by the judges and was held at Jaaga.

I would like to thank Peevee, Suyog, and everyone who volunteered for all the hard work in putting this event together and to all the participants for their stunning portrayal of Bengaluru in making this event a grand success.

Here are some highlights from the prize distribution ceremony, presented through photos. To view all the submissions to the contest, proceed here.

The moment that you have all been waiting for is finally here. The contest for the month of April is now open and the theme for this month is:

Black & White – Recreate the magic in two colors

Graz by Luca Terminator

Anyone who has been into photography for some time will tell you that there is a charm to presenting the photos in monochrome. Simple looking photos can be transformed into masterpieces with the touch of a button and a splash of some extra contrast.

So time to go ahead, unleash your creative juices and present your masterpieces in black and white. For more details about the contest, follow this link.

Bengaluru photographers, time to get your photography gear out. Bengaluru Infinite 2010 is finally here! A day filled with photography in your favourite city capturing the city at its best.

What is it?

Bengaluru Infinite is a photo-marathon that will test your photography skills to the core. Each participant will be given 4 themes on which they will need to take photographs. The themes will cover a wide variety of subjects that are associated with Bengaluru, that define Bengaluru or that showcase the spirit of Bengaluru.

The contest starts at 8AM in the morning and ends at 8PM in the evening during which, the participants will need to shoot photographs that match the themes given to them.

Remember, you only get to submit two photos per theme, so make sure you take plenty of photos for the theme and pick up the best two of the lot.

You can find more details about the contest and the terms and conditions for submission here.

When is it?

The Bengaluru Infinite 2010 will be held on April 25, 2010. Registrations are open now and please call up the following numbers to get yourself registered for the contest.

Asif – 99451 30745 / Sriharsha – 98866 35410 / Peevee – 99455 16333

You can mail at bengaluruinfinite@gmail.com for further details! You can also register at http://bit.ly/bi2010 and one of our volunteers will get in touch with you.

Are there any prizes?

Of course, there are plenty of cool prizes to be won. The details of the prizes will be available shortly at the Bengaluru Infinity 2010 lifeblob page.

What camera should I use?

Photography is more about finding a great moment and capturing it in your camera, rather than a function of the equipment you use. It doesn’t matter what camera you use as long as you are excited to participate and have a knack of identifying a unique moment from the rest.

It goes without saying that you would do better if you had at least a DSLR camera in your hands, but no need to fret if you have a compact camera of a mobile camera since composing a great photo is 90% of the battle won.

We at lifeblob are proud to announce the launch of our first ebook titled “Shoot like a Pro with Compact Camera”. This is based on the tips available in this site and is targeted at a newbie who quickly wants to learn a few tricks, take a few good snaps and get inspired!

There are many bulky books available online and in print on the various subjects in photography. There are also many blogs, like Photography Tips, which will give you tips on how to improve your skills. However, seldom do you find one when you need the most; at the time of clicking! This ebook is a humble effort from our part to solve just that. Just print the ebook in the size of a pocket book and carry it around while shooting.

Shoot Like a Pro with Compact Camera Ebook

Download Here. Its Free!

Feel free to download it, print it, share it with your friends. Your feedback is very important to us. Please share us your thoughts about this ebook.

This Saturday, Lifeblob arranged a special treat for the budding photographers of Bangalore. We arranged a workshop by Anirban Chatterjee on how to use external Flash and other lighting equipments in a studio environment

Anirban started by giving us a brief theory on lighting and showed us how to shut ambient light and use the external flash to “flash” at just the right time to get the desired result.

He also used some of us as models and taught us how to shoot “profile pictures” (i.e. head shot); how to get the right balance of darkness and light to convey an emotion in the picture and the like.

We have the entire workshop recorded on video which will be uploaded here later.

We are planning to hold similar workshops in the near future. Follow us @lifeblob on twitter for more updates

The “Beautiful Moments” contest ended on 28th February, 2010. Once again, we received over 1000 entries. The competition was intense. Only one vote separated the gold and silver prizes.

Congratulations to the winners! We hope to see even greater participation in this month’s contest.

Gold Prize – Wonderful Purple trees by seanjw

Silver Prize – Magic Morning @ Lake Navajo by Leanne Dyckson

Here are some more remarkable entries to the contest: