News

Announcing Infos.mu

29 November 2010 By Avinash Meetoo 2 Comments

www.infos.mu

Christina and the kids like to ask me the following during the week-end: “What are we going to do today?” Sometimes, the answer is obvious but, to be frank, sometimes I am not inspired at all and I find it tough to come up with something worthwhile.

In fact, I’ve slowly realised over the years that a lot of Mauritians (and, by extension, foreigners living in Mauritius) do not really know what’s happening in the country and, consequently, waste their free time indulging on the self-contemplation of their navels…

That’s why I got the idea of creating a website, www.infos.mu, to inform people about events happening on the island as well as provide practical information not readily available elsewhere. I really want (us) to discover Mauritius differently. Â The site aims to become a comprehensive directory of information for Mauritians and foreigners.

Here are cool things you can do on www.infos.mu right now:

Plan your weekends in advance by checking events ordered by date.
Listen to the best Mauritian sÃ©gas as selected by real sÃ©ga lovers.
List of banks, embassies, consulates and hotels.
Departure and arrival times and dates of planes.
etc. etc. etc.

Sure, the website is still a work in progress. And I really need to enhance the navigation (any idea of what I could do?)

One key idea of www.infos.mu is that it is a contributory website with user-generated content: anyone can become a contributor and add events which he/she feel are worthwhile.Â You have an event happening in your region? Do not hesitate to share the event with us.

I would like to thank Ishtiba Meeajane, Liliane Chan as well as Christina who have done a formidable job to help me set up www.infos.mu.

www.infos.mu is a free service provided by Knowledge Seven, my own company which provides consultancy, support and training for opensource software. By the way, I’ve a blog on Knowledge Seven’s website too…

(A precision: the Google ads on the website are, eventually, for covering hosting costs.)

Quick polls result on dpreview

21 November 2010 By Avinash Meetoo 9 Comments

Just came across results following quite a few polls on dpreview, one of the most popular photography website.

Some of the results are worth commenting.

For “What shooting mode do you most often use?”, half answered Aperture Priority. In general, I am more of a Program guy (during the day) and Manual guy (at night.) But I have also noticed that I tend to use Aperture Priority more now because I have just bought a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8. During the day, you can’t really let the camera choose the aperture as, most of the time, it will tend to choose f/1.8 and this will give you a too shallow depth of field. So, what I do, is that I just AP and select f/8 which gives me admirable results.

For “To what extent do you post-process your images?”, most answered “Most shots get a little brightness/contrast and/or sharpening.” This is exactly what I do: some cropping (I love cropping my photos!) and lighting and that’s it. Direct to Flickr if it’s good enough!

To “What single thing contributed most to learning your photographic skills?”, half answered “Practice – I’m 100% self taught.” A quarter answered “Books / magazines / online articles.” This means that 3/4 of photographers out there learnt their art by themselves.

And, finally, “How often do you shoot raw?”, half answered “I only ever shoot raw.” Personally, I am more in favour of getting it right the first time…

Six of the best…

26 October 2010 By Avinash Meetoo 6 Comments

During the past month, I have shot three rolls of Fuji Superia 200, that is, only 104 photos with my Canon EOS-500N and new fixed-length 50mm f/1.8. Here are six of the best:

Reading a book with Dada

One of the nicest things living in Mauritius is that my kids, Anya and Kyan, have the possibility to spend some quality time with their grand-parents. My dad is explaining the intricacies of fauna to Kyan and he seems to be loving it (who? both!)

Anya and ChloÃ© at Roches-Brunes

Anya is eight now and loves playing with ChloÃ©, her cousin. In fact, when I visit my in-laws, my kids vanish after two seconds only to appear when we have to leave. That’s one of the joys of being a parent :-)

A mum and her son

Kyan, like all boys, needs (1) his toys and (2) his mum. He tells everyone he’s going to become a pilot in the United States Navy when he grows up. Who knows what might happen in the future…

Two cousins

Kyan and Shayne were playing in the yard and I happened to be holding my camera. I took that shot without realising that I had a keeper. I’ll love showing it to them when they’ll be 20. The only problem is that I’ll be more than 50 at that time… Enfin.

A brother and a sister

Like all brothers and sisters, Anya and Kyan love each other. I took that photo in the Pamplemousses Garden in the north of the island. The light was nice (if a bit too strong) and the kids were happy to be photographed.

On a beautiful tree

This is a beautiful tree we saw at Pamplemousses Garden. I immediately asked Anya and Kyan to climb on it without realising that I was going to get that great photo.

Film photography is excellent. Being limited to 36 shots makes me think a lot before taking a photo. Consequently, they tend to be of better quality. And, bizarrely, I love the wait while the film is being processed, before actually discovering the photos. This increases their desirability a lot…