I for "Indian"

Captured from original picture 
courtesy: 
www.athleteindia.com 

H for Hand

G - Go Green

F for Fire

E as in "Emotions"

And that's what makes life beautiful and worthwhile!!! 

D for "Door"

C for "Candle"

B for "Bokeh"

I was eyeing every little thing that passed me today, packed the compact camera in my bag all set to shoot for today's alphabet.  I ran almost 100 words that starts with B that I could try and shoot.  I captured bike, bin, beauty accessories, bathroom, broken wood, bench, Bigben, books, bulb.  But nothing satisfied me today.  And finally shot this with manual focus - bokeh (in simple - aesthetic blur).  If you read this post, you will understand what bokeh is.

Here's the wikipedia link too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh 

A for "Alphabets"

I am excited with this new challenge, although I hunted my house for various objects, looked out for some hints and finally ended up with this.

ABC Photo Challenge

I am a bit busy these days, hence finding it really difficult to login.  However I am trying to read other's post through my mobile app, but it is not allowing me to comment, sadly.  I have so much to catch up.  Well, everyone is busy with their work - so no complains. 

I wanted to start ABC Photo Challenge - simply put, to post pictures everyday for 26 days starting with A....tilL Z and the picture should represent anything that starts with that alphabet.  For instance, for A, you can post the picture of Apple, Affection, Antique or anything that you think represents that particular alphabet.  

Ofcourse this challenge comes with some ground rules:-

1. This challenge should be taken for consecutive 26 days
2.  The picture should be taken either a day before or on the day when they are posted. 
3.  The title of the post should have the alphabet and what you are representing (eg: B for Baloon or S as in Swan)
Whilst I am starting this project, I would also like my blog dosts to join me in this.  So I am tagging everyone who comments on my blog or who knows me - Shilpa, Bikk, DI, Insignia, Sandhya, Rama, Rachna, Alka, Priya, Ashok, Cloud9,  Rajlakshmi, Raaji, Indrani, Kusum,IGM, Jaish, Ashwini, Krishna, Reema, Myera, Arti, Ruchira, Bhargavi, Maddie, Amrit , Kanagu, Rakesh,Mridula, Uma.  Phew..this is one herculan task to tag and link their websites!! If I missed out anyone, please tag yourself and forgive me!

I know most of you are super busy with your own life/work, some of you have never posted any pictures in their blogs, and some very good quality writers.  If you think this photography challenge is completely irrelevant to you, please again apologise me and ignore this tag.  

Put your creative cap and capture the best moments / things around your house, objects and post them for next 26 days.  You don't need a posh gear, you don't have to go out for a photoshoot!!

Are you ready to start this 26 day journey with me from tomorrow  (Sunday 15th July onwards) ?  


Edited to add: 
Change in rule # 2: Pictures taken upto 7 days can be uploaded in the post.  Hope this will ease off the tension of taking pictures everyday!  

Thursday Challenge - MOVEMENT

Wordless Wednesday - 17

ISKCON in London

This beautiful Radha Krishna deity is from the ISKCON temple  in London.  Its a big temple (compared to the others that I've seen in rest of europe) and they had a restaurant just below the temple.  Couldn't take my eyes off these nicely decorated statues.  Did meditation for a brief time before I left for my shopping.The temple is located in the central london, somewhere off the Oxford street in Soho Square.  There are upteen general souvenir shops around this area too.  

Saturday Song!

I am a big fan of Konkana Sen.  If there's someone who can be crowned as "Beauty with elegance", it should be for sure Konkana Sen.  There's no need to talk about her acting skills.  She is probably one of the few actress of present days in any "?olly--Woods" who has the natural talent to express any emotion with grace effortlessly. This song is an amazing composition from Wake up Sid.  The movie is also a good one.  

With a bold female voice, the song also carries a lovely meaning.  Of course Konkana's acting is such an addition to this song.   Happened to see this Blu-ray Quality in youtube. For your eyes and ears!!

Do I need or not?

Lately I am confused in deciding 2 things - Whether or not to create a facebook fan page.  If I know the answer for this, another question that pops in my mind is - should I dedicate it to blogging or photography?

Thanks to all the friends (Flickr and blog) who have created their own page.  That inspires me.  But all I am still thinking is - do I need to have that kind of publicity? Do I want my friends and family to read or see my page? Do I have bandwidth to spend time on such things? I have no answer.  

Why does such simple things take so much time to decide and are so difficult to decide! Phew!  

Do you think creating a fan page is a healthy promotion?  
What kind of responsibilities will the owner of the fan page have?  
What if nobody "likes" the page after I create it ? :(

Thursday Challenge - BEVERAGES

 This week's Thursday Challenge is Beverages (hot or cold) like Coffee / Tea /  Wine / Beer etc.  I got plenty of these Ambrosia Liqueurs in Malta.  They actually taste very good like Benedryl cold syrup.  There isn't a lot of alcohol content.  I got a whole box that came with different flavors like almond, honey, coconut, blackcurrent, plum etc.  

The pink colored is called bajtra flavor(cactus fruit), which is very famous in Maltese islands.  Had just 2 more bottles left lying on a nice corner decorating the shelf.  Instead of uploading pictures from archives, I took this instant photo.  

Wordless Wednesday - 16

How I wrote my first 55er

I am like this boy statue today - drowned in my own thoughts, staring at the laptop and not knowing what to write.  I feel home sick today, missing my family and friends, indian street food, temples, driving my 2 wheeler - everything.  Anyways instead of boring you with my own stories, I'll share my first 55er.  I am inspired by blog dosts like Shilpa, CB, Dee, Philo, Jaish who could write amazing 55ers and short stories. 


I am not a great story teller.  You would have deciphered it by now.  I have participated in a couple of blog contests which turned out to be a flop show! Spinning the story by talking comes much more naturally for me than penning them down.  And restricting it to mere 55 words is a real challenge. 55000 words seemed much more easier.  I've written a lot of 55000ers during university exams!  Much effortlessly!  


Anyways, I was up for this 55 word challenge! But sooner, I ran out of vocabulary, searched for words everywhere. When I was satisfied with the vocabs, I realised I had too many words.  I counted, re-counted manually to make sure it's only 55 words!  And here it goes - my first 55er.  


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A miniscule happiness hidden inside the indescribable agony that surpassed through every vein of her body – a virus attack!  She looked at the mirror and silently said,  “To get this extra pampering and love from my husband, I don’t mind getting sick a 100 other times”.  She smiled. He cuddled her tightly from the back. 
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Post Processing the photo

While taking photography itself is an art, and mind you, is a difficult art, making the photos look beautiful is even tough.  Sometimes the background / foreground might not be what you wanted, or there are some additional things that fell into the frame while shooting, or simply light is not enough, or there's too much light. You only want to see what you intended to see, not something else in your frame.  If there's something more than that, it does disturb you, and the quality of the picture.  

Someone invented eraser to rub off the errors.  Similarly, we have photo editing tools to make the photo look even better.  I am not a pro in anything.  I have just laid my hands on them for the last 3 years.  

One of my friend who works in IT sector says that the software technology he uses is nothing but a mere "cut and paste".  Same with excel isn't it?  No offense to anyone who use these technologies.  To put it in a simple way, every software coding  has the "cut and paste" job.  Even MS Office.  Control C and Control V is not new to anyone.  Blogosphere call this act as plagiarism, while it's a coding job for a software professional, or anyone who works in computer.  Use the same blind strategy for photo editing too.  This is called post processing (in short pp).  Most of my photos do have pp work - in the form of adding water marks, in adjusting the frame, cropping off the unwanted objects, to adjust the lighting, color or contrast.  

While it is imperative to put efforts to take best picture, sometimes, we need to use these tools to make them look a bit more beautiful and presentable.  One can use paint.net, Photoshop, GIMP, Picnik, Picasa - any photo editing softwares for this.  

I'll share a simple example of how a simple "cut and paste" will enhance the look of the photo.  The one on the left side is the original photo which has wires, tube, holes on the wall.  A simple 15 minute work on photoshop, and the result is on the right side.  I've taken off the wire, bulb, some of the holes on the walls are gone and the window blinds are changed.  

Which one do you think is looking better?    Ofcourse post processing is not just cut and paste.  There are lots of other elements.  But to start with, these are something everyone can try out.  I personally use Paint.Net for my pp work.  Similarly when you see a lamp post on top of the head of someone or any other object disturbing the beautiful picture, just try your hands on simple cropping or editing. It's as simple as this.  This is no rocket science. Simple "cut and paste" job. 

Cruising through Loch Lomond

 Loch in Scottish means Lake.  Loch Lomond is one of the largest fresh water lake in Britain.  Many islands are included in this loch, including one of the largest fresh water island - Inchmurrin.  Loch Lomond is a popular tourist destination, pretty close to Glasgow and Stirling, and about 55 miles from Edinburgh.   

Now part of Loch Lomond and Trossach national Park, these are one of the picturesque places with umpteen water sports activities like kayaking ,jetskiing, canoeing, speedboats etc. We can even do picnic, BBQ, fishing. There are some of the largest golf courses along the shores.   

There are boat cruises available from the shores, showing you some of the beautiful mountains with trossachs mountain as backdrop, passing through various country clubs and summer houses and castles.  This is one such shot taken during my cruise.

There are different cruises - sunset cruise, island cruise, and some other cruises.  View of the cruise and mountain ranges from the rear mirror of my boat.  

I love boat cruises, and cannot get tired of no matter how many ever cruises I made.  I make sure I take at least 1 such cruise in every city I visit.  Quite contrary to that, S likes to sleep on these cruises.  As soon as the chill breeze hits his face, he yawns and sleeps in the next 10 minutes.  Do you enjoy boat cruises?