Mistakes or Flukes...

'Serendipity' is just another way of acknowledging a masterpiece fluke. 

Things happen the same way in Photography world; the only thing is photographers aren't as honest as scientists! What I mean to say is many a times, what you would be thinking as a pretty normal shot turns into an awesome shot. Taking it even a step further some mistakes rather than ruining the photograph gives a dramatic effect. And hence the apt saying 'Learn from your mistakes'.

I bought a tripod almost a year back, and I use it extensively for landscape shots. However accounting to my laziness, I still don't use it for photographing people. This is a shot I took sometime back, just for the sake of fun. I knew it I had ruined it when I didn't hear the shutter close even after 3 seconds.

A 5 second exposure, with a rear sync flash did the trick here. The flames are the shake effects of the indicator lights of the motorbike behind. The model is my friend 'Puppy' aka Yogesh.

The catch is not in avoiding mistakes, nor is it in living by flukes. It is in analyzing the masterpiece flukes! 

"I am learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life.... Procrastinating & rationalizing" 

- Calvin

When I am gone...

"That be not told of my death,

Or made to grieve in account of me,

& that I be not buried in consecrated ground,

& that no sexton be asked to toll the bell,

& that nobody is wished to see my dead body,

& that no mourners follow my funeral,

& that no flowers be painted on my grave,

& that no man remembers my name,

To this I put my name, for I have lived my life to full."

- Thomas Hardy

Height at Night

Finally after quite a long time, I went for a hike. 'Skandagiri' is a hill some 70 kms from Bangalore on NH-7 Highway. It's famous for night climbing in moonlight. 

We of course, depended more on torches than crescent moon. This place is also known for colorful sunrises. As per Murphy's law, all that could go wrong, went wrong. One of our bikes got punctured, we did loose the way in night, climbed back & then had to climb again. Well, to put in a nutshell, of the 14 people in my group who climbed; each one of them was a zombie, by the time we climbed down. 

However, it was worth the effort. Here are some pictures I managed to take:-

Bangalore Skyline before sunrise, as seen from the top of Skandagiri. The shot is a long exposure of 20 seconds on my tripod(struggled quite a lot to carry that to top).

The hill in front atop the clouds is Nandi Hills. The shot has been taken just after sunrise. Because of the speeding clouds here, Nandi Hills is visible like the pupil of a blinking eye.

Took this shot at the top. The boulder lies at the edge. Gives a good reference scale of the sizes. 'Kudos' to the morons who were standing near the edge to get themselves photographed. 

The Rising of Mankind...

"I heard a thousand blended notes,

while in a grove I sat reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 

Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran; 
And much it grieved my heart to think 
What Man has made of Man."

- William Wordsworth

Peace

"I do sit there with you,

alone, with sunshine on your face,

& your smile on mine,

forgetting all the worries in world,

& I for the first time feel the peace."

One of the few photographs which my friend really likes.

The Old Man & The Mountains

"The clouds will but pass,

and the sun will shine again.

The winds will but calm down,

and the breeze will then flow again.

But the mountains will still be there,

and so will the rocks be. 

A little weathered may be, 

a little old definitely.

Some of them will change as the clouds & the sun,

but I will definitely be the same, waiting.

Not for the ones who change but who are still there,

a little old, a little worn off, but still the same."

P.S - Dedicated  to my friend Sid, who understands what I write, or at least seems to!

Cherishing the memories

"And there I sit on a slow afternoon,

When I have seen seventy odd years,

Sipping a cup of slowly brewed coffee,

Lazying in the bright sunshine,

And gazing into the blue eyes of water,

Fondly cherishing the memories,

I gathered here in the warm blood of my youth."

Nights Shots!

Another Night of Power-cut. And like a Vampire my creativity woke in the dark!

'We work throughout the night'

'Fighting against the storms'

'The Twins' - Flaring at 200 mm in my 18-200 mm VRII Nikkor

'The acnes of the beautiful'

Bang... & Crackers

Whoever told you that 'Diwali' is just a festival, must have been drinking; not that Diwali is complete without people boozing :)

But this year I celebrated it in a different way. By shooting Fireworks. Well, this was my first go at shooting fireworks, The Photos haven't turned up very good, but much better than I expected!

'The Nebula'

'The Shooting Star'

'The Trails'

'Meteor Shower'

'The Kids'

And 'The Gang'

Still have to work on White Balance. Anyway, Happy Diwali!

Mere do haramkhor roommates...

The lights went out one fine evening. And the restless bug bit me. So here it goes...

"Kisi ko 'Riyaz' karte time disturb nahi karte hain" 

"Nahi to aise maar padti hai"

"Ab khoon kharaba hoga"

The models are my 2 roommates, Puppy & Sid.

Three Stooges...

The famous three stooges, back again together after a period of 3 years. I wish the fourth, & the only one to be ideally named as a stooge(Tinu) was there.

Rishi, Jai & me at Rishi's Place, Vashi, Mumbai

Flashback!

My last year in a glimpse...

'Life moves on' - Edinburgh Castle from a different angle.

Outside my Place! Shot on tripod.

'Joys of Childhood' - Shot at Silverknowes beach.

'Thoughtful' - Me, Harsh & Sampu! Aveimore Skiing resort.

'I do things besides making Love Birds' - Naughty Cupid! Shot at Brussels.

"We carry the goods for you" - Line of Trucks, Dover port

Keukenhof Garden, Holland

Skinny Bridge, Amsterdam

 Rhine Castle, Germany

Snow-clad Windmill, Belgium

'On the run', Piccadily Square, London

'Grass is always greener on the other side', Sussex

'The endless opportunities', Sussex

'Penny, Emma & Lucy', York

'Trust', York

'We drive CTE' - The mad people of my classic team

A stroll in the evening...

I normally don't shoot people on streets, feel a little shy & awkward for that. Somehow today, felt like taking a couple of pictures & here are the results...

The guy here was raising money to visit his dying father in Jamaica. He was playing free 3 minute chess matches. He had played more than 246 matches since morning & hadn't lost a single one. The girl in the picture made an amazing sketch of this guy playing. She asked me if I could take a picture. 

Address 128, Princess street, Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the outer window of a Waterstone's book shop. I really loved it.

This champ here was sitting alone in 'Princess gardens'. I know nothing unusual about it! But I expected a guy of his age to be chilling out with his buddies, girls or lazying around listening loud music. He however was intently sketching 'Edinburgh Castle'.

'Where the executioner's face is always well hidden'. 'Save Environment' exhibition at 'Princess Gardens'.

This is the Edinburgh territorial clock. At its full lush, reflecting the colors of summers, its 5 minutes faster.

P.S - All of these pictures were shot at 'Princess street'

Rain, Rain, Go away... Little Johnny wants to Play

"Don't be sad, my child; Hear the music" says the thunder "I am playing it only for you."

"I don't know what you mean. I can't hear any music." I shout back.

"But you have to listen carefully my child." The thunder god replies.

I concentrate, stretching my brows  & then all of a sudden I am able to hear it. 

The crystal droplets falling from high above in the sky. They travel so far, & just blow away to tiny fragments on the hot cobblestones. They make a tiny beat 'Put' when hey hit the tin roof or the tar road. The lucky ones are just absorbed by the parched earth. The luckiest ones hang from the green leaves, each one of them reflecting the rainbow at the horizon. It's as if the leaves are in love with the pearls & fear to let them go. 

Shot outside my house, after a rainy day. Tried the max aperture of 3.5; shutter speed is pretty low though & hence the sharpness. It's hard to get out of bed when you are sick.

All of them do make a sound; collectively they make the music.

It's beautiful. 

You can't feel it sitting in your comfortable abode. To feel it you have to be out in the open. Take a quiet stroll alone with the raindrops slowly hitting you across the face. You will feel lighter; the world would seem a better place to live in. Sit near a river under a tree, with somebody whom you love & everything you wanted to tell hem will be said by those raindrops. The world seems to have a pink tint now. It's a feeling. You have to feel that music. I think this is the most beautiful sounds you will hear from nature, besides the sound of wind roaring on a mountain. 

Scotland is beautiful in rains, So is India.

Enjoy the music. I had my share; I hope you get yours too.

Happy Friendship's Day

All those lucky bastards who had the good luck to have been tagged with my friendship, I wish you guys a Happy Friendship's Day.

Of course, this is just an excuse!

I bought a Manfrotto couple of days back. I didn't get much chance to use it till now. But today shaking away my laziness, I ventured into the streets at 10 O'Clock in the night to get some pictures. They are not especially good, because I am still learning.

I am facing 2 problems here. The white balance is not correct. I can manage that. The highlights are all washed out in the sky. But worst is people don't seem to drive in Edinburgh after 9. I don't get enough vehicle trail lights. Come on guys, move out of your home, go out!

These shots are taken from a bridge 5 minutes away from my place. Since I was already late, I couldn't compose. Also the limited view from the over-bridge makes the choices limited. All the 3 pictures are cropped.

The thing which troubles me most is I am not able to guess the correct exposure for these shots. I guess, I do need more practice & loads of it too!

Anyway Guys, I hope you do have a lovely day ahead.

      

My Bucket List Part I

Ok, for the advantage of all the fools who are movie buffs & haven't seen the movie "Bucket List" & all the intelligent people who don't see movies, let me explain the term first. A "Bucket List" is the list things you would rather complete before hitting the bucket. Putting it more poetically, committing those sins for which you wouldn't mind rotting in hell for eternity. Got the picture? Of course, You bet... I am a poetic person.

There are days when I wake up crazy. I am all materialistic, selfish, greedy scum. And on those days, the only thing that hovers my mind besides 'Drew Barrymore' is this:-

I shot these pictures at Heathrow Airport yesterday, where it was on display. I didn't take out the complete picture, because it looks so boring, It had a tag 'Please do not touch' & most importantly because of the stage lights.

Perhaps the most famous fans of Ferrari are Jeremy Clarkson & Michael Schumacher. Well personally, I consider Jeremy Clarkson as a fool who has got lot of charisma. He is stupid, extremely biased, pre-notioned, repetitive & doesn't know half of the times, what he is talking about (e.g - The episode where he sees light to a Porsche 911, He says that the Porsche emits 300 Carbon dioxides! What the hell, is 300 CO2?). Of course he is a good orator, and knows how to drive. But that is not what I like about him. What I like about him is

"I consider Ferrari as the scale down model of God." 

- Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear

I know there are lot of other things on my Bucket list, which I would give more priority to. But all of them are things I want to do, things which will satisfy my inner self, things which incline more towards satisfying my soul rather than my greed, & I would give my life away for any of them gladly. But if there is one materialistic thing which I would give my legs for, is this noise making, environment polluting, fuel guzzling monster. Of course, I would have to go for a flappy gear pedal version then, I gave my legs away... remember.

For those perky, finicky, detail interested bastards, I would now specify which model would I really like. The ones who are not interested in specs can of course skip. Well, the model again varies on the days & the mood I wake up in. The days when I still have fragments  of my nice content personality left, I would rather choose a Ferrari F430. It's a beautiful machine & I really hope to own it some day if possible( I know its really hard, but I still would like to give it a try). The looks... Well you can see the above pictures. Of course you can watch more pictures here to satisfy your gluttonous greed - Ferrari.

But on days when I wake up a true monster, when I don't have any humane emotions left in me, when I am the every greedy, unsatisfied satan himself, I do prefer to own the F60. Of course, for this to happen, would take another miracle. But then again one of my Fav sayings is 

"Miracles do happen, You just have to work harder for them to happen."

I really forgot who said that, will google for it once I have some spare time.  

Anyway coming back to the point, The F60 is the most unpractical car you can ever own. Its a fuel guzzling pump, you can not sell it once you have chosen to buy it (Did I tell you that YOU have to be chosen to buy it.) Its practical perspective is certainly not worth the money (the base car costs 1 million). It certainly is not a street car, for you can't see who is coming behind you till he hits you in the back, & then of course you would die of a heart attack. It was designed by a bunch of crazy physics interested engineers, who had never driven on a road. 

It is not the fastest car in production, not to say it is neither the most powerful. It can be overrun both by the 18 year older McLaren F1 & the relatively newer Bugatti Veyron. 

What it is, is the ultimate extravagant use of technology. It is the new chapter in future of cars, & a new benchmark for the engineering perfection. It was never designed to be practical. And I love it for its very impractical nature. Because even though highly impractical it is, It does it perfectly with a panache which no other car today can match. I can go on writing & you will still not get a idea of what I am talking about if you haven't seen it. If you have seen it, You probably know that no matter how hard I try, I would never come close to explaining the beauty of this wonderful machine. That's why I would rather let you see yourself. Here you go & enjoy...

I know most of you might be thinking that the top 2 of my Fav cars are Ferrari. And I must be a Ferrari chauvinist. Well, I can't give you 10 different defenses against this, I could provide you with 5, if i really tried. However, I know that they wouldn't be perfectly true. I know cars more beautiful, more powerful, more performance oriented than these 2 Ferraris. However the truth is Ferrari is my secret 'Achilles Heel'. In fact, I have suggested a couple of times, that they should ban other car manufacturers from using the Red hot Paint. For, its meant to be only a Ferrari, which carries that away with a grace & style.

So that is my dark side.... 

(or should it be Red side?)