Perspective

2010-09-25T05:33:00.002+05:30

2010-08-29T14:20:00.005+05:30

Its been a long long time since I experimented with Photography. The reason was that I lost my first camera Canon Powershot S1IS which introduced me to this beautiful world. Since then there was no urge to try/experiment anything. This went for couple of years. Now recently thanks to my student Aayush and my roomie Naggu I purchased my first DSLR. My Canon EOS 500D with lens kit and other lens and accessories. I will detail about my kit separately. It just been few weeks, I went on a trip to my hometown Tirupati and got this cam along and had a chance to try out some few things. Here are a few snapshots arising out of that. Rest assured this space will now feature some regular updates.

I was primarily experimenting with B&W photography and had this lovely portrait shot of my Grandma. Thanks Avva for posing :-)

50mm(18-55, 3.5-5.6 lens), f/5.6, 1/8 s, 800ISO

Continuing with B&W this was an attempt to capture details in shadows. I intentionally produced grainy effect by using a higher ISO. The thing I wanted to capture here was a bland face with its details evident in the shadow. Thanks to my cousin Teja for posing

(18mm, f/3.5, 1/8s, 1600ISO)

Continuing with B&W this was an attempt at soft focus and also to create an impression of a person behind bars (well sort of). Since we already know the previous pic so the purpose will be diluted but as an independent pic I guess it would stand out a little.

(18mm, f/3.5, 1/4s, 3200ISO)

It was monsoons and how can I miss these shots, a simple B&W shots out from my window.

(50mm, f/22, 1/50s, 400ISO)

Well the mood outside, did a wide angle shot, although wide angle with 18mm does not come as striking because of the crop factor of 1.6x for small sized sensors this actually translates to a 28mm shot. I also have a wide angle converter to solve this problem an will post some pics when I experiment with that too. I also used the fluorescent filter in this shot to emphasize blue hues.

(18mm, f/10, 1/200s, ISO 400)-FLV Filter used

Experimenting with macro shot. Came out well. Look at the colour reproduction. I love my DSLR :-)

(50mm, f/5.6, 1/15s, 800ISO)

Views

2007-07-28T01:46:00.001+05:30

2007-07-15T01:31:00.000+05:30

A view of Sunset at Kasauli ... was a memorable trip. It shall be remembered in the history as the trip when it all began ...

2006-11-19T00:57:00.000+05:30

This is the pic of the famous Golden Temple ..... Damn the rain you will notice a slight blur the in the middle left corner.

2006-09-23T01:17:00.000+05:30

This is just a test blog. I was trying to see how Picasa`s "BLOG This" option fares...........seems pretty cool!!!

Night Shots

2006-05-21T03:49:00.000+05:30

Infite is the universe and if you ask what is there in that vast space...............all i can say for sure is DARKNESS.
I love darkness for it gives me a space..........light exposes everything, darkness gives me security..............light wakes up everyone and generates chaos, night gives me a serene calmness. In the morning, light engulfs everything, in the night, light can only cast shadows........ I like shadows for it gives me a sense of presence in this vast world of anonymosity. I like shadows coz unlike light it does not discriminate with you on the basis of colour...........it does not give you any false impression........no matter the light the shadows cast is always dark. It does not leave your side. And when the only ray of light also disappears you are engulfed by the whole space of darkness which is nothing but the shadow of the whole universe. You become one with the whole eternity.
I love the night time.

Dont worry..........have not become a sadist or anything alike........just felt like saying something and it just flew:D.
Well the crux is that I lately have been doing some night photography..........this time have divided my collection into some four parts. The first is my attempt to capture the beauty of the night sky, esp the moon. Rightly I have called it ECLIPSED.

The second part i have not been able to post because the pics are available in another Laptop, will do it soon. The theme for the second part is SHADOWS and one of my favorites.
The third are some two spooky scenes i was trying to capture in the night.........could not find many places and have not been able to travel lately too. The pics in this section are all taken in Chandigargh[;)]. Well bbut the place is a real beauty, wish i had some more time there. Will try to capture some more next time.
The last one is my attempt at Candles........and thanks to Anand for being such a patient recipient. I could not find a better name than radiance for this section.

ECLIPSED

Free is the moon and it shall walk the whole sky for it has been entrusted the task to light the dark. Many clouds shall pass but it shall radiate and fill the hearts with hope and clear many minds of fears.

Are the leaves trying to capture the moon or is the moon trying to fall in the arms of the nature. It does not matter to me coz whichever way you look at it, they both lose beauty without each other. A perfect example of symbiosis i would say.

For the moon is going into the clouds or emerging out of it is only a matter of judgement and state of mind:)

SPOOKY

Well to start of this was a wonderful theme water fountain ..... well no comments on this, just found it pleasing:)

This was a complete series of trees like this, no leaves and very hard trunk and a complete plaster like appearance on the top.......couldnt make a head or tail of it.........and ofcourse it was looking damn scary in the night, esp at 3am

This was an abondoned car lying in some corner at some place.........really found it scary

Well no big deal about this pic you would say............well yes, except for the lightning streak you would notice towards the top in the sky. :), well the time was 3am and it was raining heavily..........this pic was taken by keeping shutter open for 8 seconds. Night or day ...... you decide

This pic was taken by my new dear roomie Anand Prakash, well it seems the photography bug has bitten him too:)

This pic needs no comments .......... impeccable.
The calmness is what stirs me ......... This was my first attempt with candles and it turned out pretty ok.

Can be worked out as some NGO`s emblem..........protector of the light

Thanks again to anand for helping me out.........would not have been possible without him

The ripples in the flame and the radiance being reflected in the face. Some mystical/evil aura surronds the whole space

Disillusioned..........not liking the light at all........why has this radiance been enforced upon me. Let me hide in the darkness for the light from a mere flame is no answer to my errands

And here look at the contrast from the other pic........i simply love the difference. Notice the change of the whole ambience.

Introspective glance...........mind on the verge of a breakthrough. Eyes glancing at the flame and having a hint of enlightenment and hands trying to protect the flame which again is very sharp.

Well the difference of effects was achieved by increasing the exposure settings in the first pic a bit and changing the flim properties to tungsten film. Also the focus in the socond pic is on the flame of teh candle while it was the face in the first pic:)

And for all of you interested ppl (esp girls:P) the face in the picture is of Anand Prakash (and believe me he looks more spooky and drunk than he appears in the pic:D)

Life at the Crossroads

2006-02-24T09:33:00.000+05:30

Just to set the context for this blog. I along with three of my friends Saurabh, Pulkit and Anand have decided to ditch our jobs and start an institute to train students for engineering and medical entrance examinations. This was last week of December and since then phewwwww its been a rollercoaster ride.

Initially I wanted to blog bout our intentions and reasons as to why we choose to do so, coz that was invariably what everyone was inquisitive about and quite naturally too. But if we just leave aside the reasons and ponder on the experiences we had during the last few weeks, well that would make for a better and more interesting blog.

Times sure are changing!!!

They say home is the best support ……………………… well, that is also the first foundation which wobbles when you produce some kind of Earth shattering news. It was an earthquake alright when I informed my parents about my latest intended Adventure. Needless to say they got an attack of fits when they heard that I was going to Patiala and start this. First, I am their only son (and lemme tell you the amount of pampering I get: I still don’t know how to press my clothes, and till 10th class I din knew how to tie my laces; those are just two facts) and secondly, them being native south Indians; if these points are not enuff, what got them even more jitters was that I was going to Punjab which my dad still refers to as Afghanistan( I mean Pakistan was also fine, but Afghanistan!!!), nyways this was what happened............frequency of phone calls increased 10 fold (which in normal times was also above the otherwise 'normal':D) and every time they used to come with innovative arguments to convince me that going to (Afghanistan!!) was not the best option. The best one was from my dad who said "Son u r young, if u quit job then u r left income less......do one thing, stick with the job, then do an MBA, which will help u get an even better job and then marry.........and then u`ll have 2 earning members in ur family, and then u can leave ur job". phewwwww

Well I would confess the most problematic part is that my dad is a CA and he has this tendency to analyze and quantify each and every thing............we engineers talk and think in logical terms............these people understand only numbers............if u can not quantify even a bit, u wont make any sense to them, u r dead.

Well as a reaction my frequency of b`lore trips to my home also increased...........well in my 6 months stay I din make so many trips to b`lore as I had made in three weeks.

Somehow I managed to convince them with a bit of Logical/quantifiable arguments added by a tinge of senti and philosophical bullshit. Well in the end u know that I`m their only son :D......u get the picture, right:)

With my parents done (well not exactly but to a manageable limit).........next came my (their) inner circle of relatives..............well I dont care a damn about them so din even bother to inform or convince them..........really don’t care. It’s me and my mom & dad, thts all I care............something which I’m criticized a lot about, but hey thts how I’m brought up, independent.

Now came my inner circle of friends..............and well they are gems..........I knew they would understand and they did.............suggested a bit, gave me pros and cons, helped me a bit in more introspection and ofcouse assured me that they r there. I would not be able to do nything without u guys, although i`m not very expressive in such matters but u mean a lot to me. Luv u ppl(everyone knows who they r to me, I need not mention ny name here)

Life at the crossroads is wht I have chosen as the title.

Coz I feel I was in at the crossroads...........there were many roads that lay in front of me and I knew just some things as facts. Till now I was traveling on a big highway and if I continue to follow that I knew where i`ll be going, what my errands would be, my future would be. Others were little obscure............some dark and as robert frost would have said, "the grass on them wanted a wear".
And that intrigued and titillated me............I love uncertainty, for it allows you to mould/remold ur self.

And well, I chose the one with the lesser claim.............may be if things may not work, I`ll return to some other highway at the other crossroad, but that was an argument to pacify my brain which was pinning me with all the pros and cons, positives and negatives.........and with each negative my body secreting more panic enzymes.

Coz in my heart I knew, tht I shall never return to the highway, because I`ll make a highway of that narrow lane, for others to follow; thts my endeavor.

Strange it seems for the human kind............but everyone has an ego, everyone wants to prove one right and in the process can go to any lengths.........Just to prove wht one did was right pushes u tht extra mile and makes possible a sometime seemingly impossible task.

I know that many people believe otherwise...........the same group who counsels you to do this and that and are the first ones to criticize when u fail.

Yes I want to prove them wrong...........yes I have things to prove to the world and set some examples.

Well, things seem funny when u r thru the process. I for one am still in the process.......I do not know if the road will lead onto ways........or just fade away into solitude & darkness. But what I know for sure if I lay here following the same path, I`ll regret all my life; whatIF I had taken the other road at the crossroads?

The experience so far has been pure fun.

Never knew if it was so much fun working for oneself. You are the master of ur destiny, of ur time, of ur fun. Having fun while doing it all..............infact learnt the meaning to the phrase" Work should be fun".

Yes I have embarked on my journey..............I’m loving it. Spirits are high, hopes higher and dreams soaring.

I previously worked in an office with a huge campus. Mine now is a 1600 SqFT floor. I used to have a free coffee dispenser by my side............here I have none. There was a receptionist and many security guards who opened doors for me and who smiled when I came in. Here I smile at the open empty room when I get in..............I smile at the prospect tht this room will one day have all those facilities and even more and a receptionist will be there and greeting me and whts more. She will be my employee............I will own all of them. I miss those huge lawns and buildings and flowers at my corporate office...........but I dream of creating a better thing for myself.

:) hhmmm

Following the highway as my dad says would have surely given me a life of certainty and that is exactly wht I resented.
I hate constancy........

I understand small things and many people have this notion that i`m too logical. But to tell the truth most of the BIG decisions come from my heart. I get influenced by small things which appeals to my heart.........and one of those is if u imagine urself 10 years from now and u look back and try to remember moments in your life, there should be things worth remembering. Crazy things perhaps, but there should be some!! C`mn man!!! wht will u tell ur grand children about.............

I don’t know where this will lead me; success or failure, but really who cares. For me this journey itself exemplifies success. For it pacifies my heart and one should always follow his heart.

Mind gives all the arguments, it takes into account all the factors, fears, social expectations, peer pressures etc. Heart understands small things, it just knows you and actually knows what YOU want to become.

Just follow your heart, do HELL with the world. And then, well as the Nike commercial says "Just Do It"

Well, :), hmm

Times sure are changing..........and I am loving every bit of it:)

My Valentines day Gift !!!

2006-02-14T16:54:00.000+05:30

Boy what a Valentine this one was. For the first time I had an inkling of the possible feelings a lover gets titillated with when he/she decides to propose or give his valentine a gift.

The eternal feeling that this “is the most essential thing” and The whole purpose of your life lies in accomplishing this one task and that you don’t care if the whole world ends after that.

The bouts of fear with each passing or nearing hour ... u feel like u have spend 1 hr but find your minute hand deflected by 5 degrees ... the constant repetitions in your mind about what to say for the 1000th time or is it 10,000th? ... walking to and fro, practicing those lines and composing those utterly chaotic thoughts... drinking at least 5 liters of water and having gone to the loo 3-4 times in the span of 2 hrs..........deriving inspirations from different analogies of your brain ............... then encouraging oneself thinking what worse could possibly happen!!! And then sweating the very next second, thinking over the prospects of the worst eventuality.

=)), lemme tell you it was pure unadulterated adrenalin gushing fun!!!

Well the context my dear blog readers was not that I was going to propose some damsel (well I think it would have been lot simpler). I had actually planned to give my resignation letter to my boss :) and was having all sought of apprehensions and remorse feelings about this.

Well how did it end?

I went in, started telling what I had practiced, which was in no proximity to what I had actually thought upon. Nyways he had a blank expression and then started enquiring about my plans and then to my surprise started giving suggestions as to how you can improve it, told about some overseas opportunities in the same sector. BOY!!!

The best part was what he told towards the end. He said, "I would normally have counseled someone if he was not happy with the job or leaving because of internal issues, but you are young and are actually going to start something which u have thought upon since a long time and are passionate about. Counseling is required for those who I feel are confused but you are actually going towards what you really wish to do, you are going towards light, so I feel no need to give any arguments. I wish you all the very best and success"

One of the most enlightening feedback/argument we have come across. Kyon saurabh/pulkit/anand ??

Village trip ...

2006-01-09T17:17:00.000+05:30

Me along with 3 friends of mine, Abhinav, Vasavi and Vivek, went on a village trip. The weather was perfect for the trip. HAd loads of fun with a slight drizzle throughout our outing. Pluged out dsugarcane and eat it (well atleast tried eating it). Believe me its tought to slice of the outer surface. There was also a river near the village where we went. All in all it was a nice memorable trip.

Fields with different shades of green. Never thought you could see so many shades of green at one place.

A nice village Cow!!!

The river ...

Some more pics I took while on the way ...

Scotch ...

2005-12-15T19:54:00.000+05:30

Picture of the Scotch which we toasted on in Goa. Its was the classic Balvenie, 10 years old and even though I`m not an occasional drinker and may be not the best person to comment but it was really smooth :)

New Cam :)

2005-12-07T16:22:00.000+05:30

Well, I have been out of blogging for over a month now I guess. Reason being, I was actually waiting for my new cam to come. Bought Canon S1 IS from amazon and it had a looong journey before it fell into my hands. Arpit ordered it for me from Amazon, then pele`s sis brought it to India (Kota) from where pele got it when he went home for diwali and then he delivered it to my house in B`lore from where I took it on my way to Goa. Had no experience whtsoever when I first operated it in Goa. Just did some old point and shoot there. Really missed a grt opportunity to take some good nature pics there but i simply had no time to experiment with this cam.

Well came back and did a lot of reading and shooting and reading. Still tons of things to experiment. Not able to find time to go out and shoot, will do that soon. In the meantime did some shooting near my place.

Well this for a start, was experimenting with my cams depth of field, and its focus in dim light. Now wht I got here simply amazed me, wont say tht I intended this. Asked many people wht they think is in this picture. Found all sort of things as an answer. Coconut being predominant(??)

Well this is a close up of my Flute :)
The thing I liked here was the texture gradient and the reflection it got around the rim.

Well apart from tht did some outdoor experiments, these are some of the pics

This I photographed to check my manual aperture settings. With experience I`ll be able to know which 'f' value fits perfect for such distances. The background blurring effect was achieved with success.
Well but then I took another one in an automatic mode just to see wht values my processor decides. That pic turned out to have a better balance :D

This I shot in the night. I somehow prefer to do night photography. Well initally was failing miserably to get night shots and all my shots were underexposed. Also lot of shaking was taking place. Well then Ashu gave some fundaes about fixing ur elbow to ur chest and it works. Shots of shutter time upto 1.5 secs can be taken with ease. This was taken with an exposure time of arnd 1 sec. Again the gradient and shades is what I like here.

This is all for now. This was my start, had a look at the album of Ashu`s, which he took during his stay at IIT-G. They were awesome. Still a lot to experiment. What I really miss is a tripod to take some good night pics. Will try some more and will post them here.

Till then ...

Fear

2005-11-09T19:34:00.000+05:30

I must say a word about fear. It is life`s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, distinguished in the grab of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with it with little trouble. You become anxious. Reasons comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapon technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread.

Fear next turns fully to your body, which is already aware that something terribly wrong is going on. Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and your guts have slithered away like a snake. Now your tongue drops dead like an opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot. Your ear goes deaf. Your muscle begins to shiver as if they had malaria and your knees to shake as though they were dancing. Your heart strains too hard, while your sphincter relaxes too much. And so with the rest of your body. Every part of you, in the manner most suited to it, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. They always pay proper attention to fear.

Quickly you make a rash decision. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you`ve defeated yourself. Fear which is but an impression has triumphed over you.

The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you might find hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don`t, if your fear becomes the wordlessly darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

-An extract from 'THE LIFE OF PI' by Yann Martel

Radiance

2005-10-29T17:00:00.000+05:30

A Picture is worth a thousand words' or so goes a saying. Well dunno bout the number of words i need to describe this but when i received this picture I was simply impeccable. This pic was taken just after we got over with our convocation.

Never imagined while strikin a pose tht it would come like this. Smile radiating from the heart shadowing on the face. Ever wonderered why can`t we smile like this in all our pics.........may be you dont feel like it, may be it automatically comes on to you when you know that probably this is the last time you are smiling with these people. Probably that Aura surrounds you.........or is it just me seeing things. Whtever...........

(Standin from your Left) 1) Gaurav Singh, from Jaipur, presently in Pune, working at Bharat Forge 2) Nagendra Singh Dhakar, from Bharatpur(i dont know the exact name of place:D), now in Mumbai servicing Halcrow 3) Anirban Das, from (somewhere in the vicinity of Bhilai:D), now in Pune, playing with big bucks at CDLS equity firm 4) Piyush Prahladka, a non-bong from Calcutta, in Bangalore with the BigG Google 5) Amit Goyal, hailin from Kota, now in Bangalore, keeps changin jobs, i guess now at Synopsis
Standing in the middle from your Left 1) Shahzad Aktar Wakeel, from the land of lalu, Patna, is in Pune now with Synechron Software solns 2) Anand Gautam hailin from the same place Patna and residin also at the same place Pune now, he is with ZS Marketing consultancy

Sitting(rather kneeling) from your left 1) Vamsi Krishan(thts me;)), (from various places, now in Bangalore), presently in Chennai with Larsen n Toubro 2) Deepak Laddha, from Jodhpur, he is now in Mumbai and was with BPCL last heard Boston Analytics were trying to steal him:)

I would like to mention another indispensable member of our gang here, rather two.

First is the great Arpit jain, coming from Udaipur, is currently in Illinois, California, gone to complete his studies (thts his version) at the UIUC. I will soon put up his pic here;)

Another person although not here among us now is always with each one of us always.........Sachin Garg, from Muzaffarnagar, is now at the most splendid place out of reach of our mere mortals. We all love u Mua:*

Thts it friends our gang at IIT- Bombay

Dont have many pics now, promise to come back with more pblogs bout each of us.

My Roomie_my first photo blog

2005-10-26T16:52:00.000+05:30

Well this is my first photo blog. Normally if you would see a persons photo in his first photoblog u would believe its his photo which he had published. Well on the contrary this is not me.
Although the person in the frame may look overtly innocent and very 'seedha-saadha' he is, if nything else, not even a distant light year close to seedha sadha:). Well lemme introduce to you ladies n gentlemen, my first year roomie, Nagendra Singh Dhakar, or Naggu as we call him.

Our meetin was through a letter, yeah thts right a letter, tht too not written by him:D. When I came to our room I found a lock and a piece of paper attached to it which said in the pseudest of english know tht he has gone to his LG`s house and will only return the next day. Well I was already having blues bout how to survive the 'HEP' people of Mumbai and all and here I find this letter. I thought he must be some pseud 'typical Xavier' sougha guy and god knows how i`ll adjust with him.......but fate it seems had some other plans.

Next day I come and see this (dont worry, I was also mistaken like u all and 'innocent' was my first impression)...........lying ill on the bed. His LGs were with him and they did all the talkin and he din utter a single word. LG`s left and we were there both lying on our backs staring at the ugly wall. I initiated a discussion which he answered in minimal no of syllables required and then again staring thing started.

Somehow got to know tht it was his LG`s who wrote tht letter and not him and he was sick the whole last two days.

(I guess this is enuff for my first blog..........there r soo much to hell bout him tht i`ll post another blog, kyon naggu:P)

My first blog

2004-07-21T11:34:00.000+05:30

Hey ppl.........well this is my first Blog entry. frankly i din know wht this blog thing was all bout. Then Suraj once posted his blog url from Budapest and i did like it. Then browsing thru alis homepage I again came across his blog site and kinda liked it so I though bout giving it a try:)
Well i dont think i`m even a descent writer but will try to scribble whtever comes to my mind (i think thts wht blog is bout, right).
Well thts enough for my first entry...........catch u all around:)
ciao