I love candles and the effect they have on me. I have spent many hours trying to capture them with their brilliance and the dancing flames. I experimented in many ways, different ISO settings, varied exposure times, additional light sources, getting close, adding shadows, and tripods. I particularly enjoy capturing the warmth that the flame and the coloured candles give out. This particular capture is very special to me as it was during a Hindu festival, Diwali. For my this picture shows the perfect harmony that friends and family live with when they are close. No matter what the personality, and no matter how long the gap, there is always a special warmth in meeting loved ones. The key to any good picture is when it can speak for itself. I hope that you can hear the same emotion I can.

Nikon D60 with Nikon 18-55mm, Exposure: 1/40 at f/5.6, ISO: 200, Focal length: 48
Brilliance, by Mira Joshi

Award Winner: Photo of the Day | November 12
Photo of the Day Award Category: Still Life Photography
Photograph Location: Dubai | The United Arab Emirates

Photographer: Mira Joshi (Dubai, UAE) Registered
I am a British national, born in India and currently living in Dubai. Art has been a passion since my art lessons at school. I have grown up capturing my vision of the world with pencils and paintbrushes. While using the camera to capture inspiration and ideas for my canvas’s I started to enjoy the possibilities that the images could portray. I have not stopped clicking since and everything I know is self-taught. With encouragement from friends and families I have filled up lots of personal albums. I am hoping to soon be able to study it professionally so I can understand the technical side to the images and improve myself with every picture. I enjoy black and white, landscape, still life and HDR photography. I use the Nikon D60 with Tamron aspherical 18 – 200mm and Nikon 55mm.

Website: http://www.wix.com/mirajoshi/mj
Twitter handle: http://twitter.com/#!/MiraDXB