Diwali - When Gods Killed Demons

Through out my childhood I have spent most of my time studying Amar Chitra Katha comics on our mythology. They were amazing! Even after so many years and after reading reading several versions of our epics, they are still very appealing!

Narkaasura being killed and people celebrating the death of a Demon in the hands of a God thousands of years ago, we still celebrate with lot of pomp and hope. Some pictures of my diwali this time.

Bird's Eye View

Birds have all the fun. Reuters has put up some great aerial shots together. Breathtaking. Birds which enjoy this view all the time must have one exciting life. Only wish they had more evolved brains to think beyond eating, nesting, surviving and predating. Click here.

Some more pics of Nagarjuna Sagar

Unfortunately, we started very late in the afternoon from the city and hence did not go till the dam. We just went till very outskirts of Sagar and returned back. Actually we all wanted a long drive and we had a fantastic drive, so not really complaining.

Speeding towards nature's lap

Sony DSC-H5, Shutter Speed - 1/15, Aperture - Auto

Last weekend, I went visiting Nagarjunasagar with my family. It was absolutely fantastic experience. I have been to Sagar several times before, but the experience is always exhilarating. I tried capturing the speed of drive in the picture, and this drove my mom crazy. She even threatened to get down and take a bus back. Obviously driving with one hand at 130kmph and shooting pictures on a single lane was not her choicest way of having fun.

Blocking and blotting our skyline

David Ogilvy, considered father of advertising, in autobiography said "I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard."

President Eisenhower declared, "I am against these billboards that mar our scenery, but I don't know what I can do about it."

Advertisers continue to block our skyline with ever increasing number of hoarding virtually blocking all the beautiful azure sky with beautiful white cotton clouds flitting across, in the day. In the night we have the garish display of ads with bright lights and flashing neons, which effectively blot out any stars in the sky. The pollution compounds this problem and "starry sky" is something of elusive concept for most the kids. We don't see any stars except for the brightest of them that too on a lucky night.

This provoked me to take the following pictures of both the beautiful sky (for most of which I had to go out of the city or find specific spots like the tankbund) and also the hoardings blocking the beauty.

I will keep posting to add more pictures of the city skyline blocked by hoardings as a series.

Now for some beautiful unblocked, unspoilt skyline visible only from some specific places in the city or by traveling away from the city.

Makes me wonder, what kind of world are we leaving for our children?

My Sony DSC-H5 - Perpetual Love Hate

I hate it, I love it, I hate it, I love it.......the fight goes on.

I bought by Sony DSC-H5 an year and half back assuming I will never grow out of semi-SLR for all my photographic needs. Here I am today cribbing about what my faithful camera cannot do.

I love my camera for several amazing shots I have captured in the past one year. An easy camera to get started with and offers good usability for a newbie like me. But for the past couple of weeks I have been spending more time on photography again and experimenting with things I did not dare to do before like shooting with the shutter speed mode at 1/1000 of a second for catching water drops in action, long exposure photographs for catching subject in action, panoramas.

This is where the camera starts showing its chinks in its features. Of course it being just a semi-SLR, I should crib too much, maybe I have just outgrown it. The features I miss the most now

• A remote control to shoot a picture without shaking the tripod
  
• The same remote control to control the shutter for extended-exposure photography (2hrs etc)
• Built-in time lapse photography feature
• Controllable through USB from my laptop
  
• Proper de-focusing of background
• DC power source input, to hook it up to my car cigar lighter charger or ordinary power source at home
  

Maybe I should stop rambling and go and invest some money in a DSLR like Nikon D60 or a Canon 450D.

Photography of the mind, heart and soul

Eyes can be blind - but the mind, heart and soul cannot be. The case in point being this site TheBlindPhotographer.com which has exhibited photography of some blind artists. Truly feel delighted at their idea and dedication to the purpose.

What catches you immediately seeing the pictures is their concept and composition. At the face of it we seem to have an advantage over the differently-abled people, but do we really? Are we not distracted away from the inner meaning and beauty, by the external beauty, bright colors and snazzy technique?

Update:
This may look like coincidence but this site was being featured in the CNN "Inside The Middle East" yesterday (03-Sep-2008)

Panorama - The Right Size for our Eyes

It took electronics engineers almost several decades before they realized that our eyes can take much more detail horizontally then a traditional 4:3 ratio screens. Photography on the other hand picked it up much earlier with wide-angle lenses and ultra-wide lenses. But they are probhitively expensive for the average enthusiast.

Here is where some smart photographic techniques and slick photo-editing software will allow you to make some fantastic panoramas. Panoguide.com has some good articles on making panoramas and printing them. DCMag has some more.

My first panorama of Tankbund.