Photography

Adieu Yves

25 March 2023 By Avinash Meetoo 2 Comments

Hier, nous avons eu la triste nouvelle que Yves Bula-Lafont nous a quitté. Il été agé de 64 ans seulement. Yves était le papa de Stéphane, le mari de ma sœur, Cherina.

J’ai rencontré Yves pour la première fois en 2012 à Maurice. Il était venu, avec son épouse Ghislaine, et des membres de la famille et quelques amis pour les fiançailles de Cherina et de Stéphane. Nous nous sommes revus en 2015 lors du mariage à Maurice.

Quelques semaines après, Christina, Anya, Kyan et moi ainsi que mes parents, Jaynarain et Rooma, étions à Castanet-Tolosan en France pour la deuxième partie du mariage. Ce fut un grand moment de découverte et de plaisir pour nous, en grande partie grâce à l’accueil de Ghislaine et de Yves chez eux. Je n’oublirai jamais le mariage ainsi que l’ambiance festive des nombreux apéros que nous avons eu.

Yves et moi sommes devenus amis très rapidement. Nous partagious quelques traits de caractère: toujours jovial, bon fêtard, aimaint le bon whisky et une bonne cigarette (à l’époque).

Nous pensons à vous, Ghislaine, Stéphane et Frédéric, et aussi à tous les autres membres de la famille et les amis de Toulouse.

Adieu Yves. Tu fut quelqu’un de bien.

My photography RAW processing workflow

17 December 2022 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

I bought my first serious digital camera on 10 April 2011 when we visited the US. It was a Canon EOS-60D with a crop sensor and I used a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. From the very beginning, I had decided to use the RAW format but I made a grave mistake:

Because storage space was still expensive and limited in 2011 and computers still slow, I chose to use the mRAW format instead of the regular RAW. This gave me a small file to process. Unfortunately, mRAW (and sRAW) are not RAW files at all (which I would come to understand later…)

At that time, I used the free Canon Digital Photo Professional software which opened the mRAW files without complaining. And I have to say that the JPGs I managed to obtain were good.

It is only on 6 November 2013 after having taken 4784 photos that I switched to the regular, full-size RAW format. The reason was obvious: I wanted to use the full power of the RAW processing software.

My first ever RAW photo is shown above: shot from a bungalow in Tamarin which overlooked the lagoon. I used my trusty Canon EOS-60D with a Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM.

Switching to DxO Optics Pro (aka PhotoLab) in 2014

On 8 December 2014, I purchased DXO OpticsPro 10 Essential and I tried to open my old mRAW files. I couldn’t and I got error messages such as “This is not a RAW file which can be opened with Optics Pro”. In other words, I have 4784 photos which I cannot open.

Fortunately, all the 19,062 remaining ones I have since taken can be opened by DxO as I now only use the full RAW format.

The situation in 2022

Equipment wise, these days I am using a Canon EOS-6D full-frame camera with a selection of nice lenses: a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM, the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM as well as a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM.

Software wise, I have switched to the DxO triumvirate:

DxO PhotoLab 6, the most advanced, end-to-end, RAW photo editing software according to DxO. It is not cheap but I am very happy doing my photo editing and processing in it. I have been using PhotoLab for 8 years now.
DxO ViewPoint 4, for geometric perfection and complete control over lines, angles, and shapes. I can adjust perspectives, fix distortions, warp specific areas, and correct wide-angle stretching for perfect images.
DxO FilmPack 6, for faithfully reproducing the colours and grains of analog films thanks to an exclusive calibration process developed by DxO and Fuji. In particular, I can use digital Fuji film emulations such as Velvia Vivid, Provia Standard, Astia Soft, ProNeg High, ProNeg Standard and Eterna on my Canon cameras. It is the best of both worlds.

And this is the kind of photos which I am capturing, processing and editing now. And, as you can guess, I am happy.

Here are all my photos on Flickr.

Two weeks of vacation in Mauritius

22 August 2022 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

For the first time ever in my life, I took two whole weeks of vacation from 1st to 12 August and decided to stay in Mauritius with Christina, Anya and Kyan.

The very first thing we did was to go to La Rhumerie de Chamarel with Joanna, Nandita, Jyotsna and Dirk Bruchmann. As you can easily imagine, we tasted all the rhum we could and had lunch there. Of course, we had a driver…

On the next day, we went to Le Maritim Hotel, only the four of us. And, despite not being very happy with the view we had from our room, we had a great time. The hotel was beautiful, there were a lot of things to see and do and the food was very good too.

On returning from Le Maritim, we relaxed a bit and, the next week, we went to Le Mauricia where Rooma and Suneelah joined us. There, in typical Le Mauricia style but with some inclement weather, we had a great time.

We returned home on a Thursday and, on Friday until the next Monday 15 August (which was a public holiday), we would be at Anoushka’s and Rikesh’s wedding. We participated in every ceremony, made speeches, helped where we could, partied and danced a lot and, by the end, we were exhausted but so happy of our two-week vacation.