Friday, July 13, 2012

Strip of paradise - Mom's garden



Mumbai has the glitzy marine drive, Hyderabad has the pretty necklace road and my home has a little strip of garden that is a treat to the eyes.  While I am not particularly interested in gardening, I enjoy photographing the flowering plants.  In the morning the plants seem organized like little school kids when my mom brings out the watering can.






The plants maintain their own routine and one day they simply decide to give out flowers of stunning beauty.  I just put aside my morning coffee and rush inside the house to get the camera.






I just use a low-budget Nikon camera but with the right settings and good lighting conditions, these low-cost cameras can rival the best SLRs in the market.





There is no post-processing involved when I am photographing plants and flowers.  I just use the RAW images from the cameras, but I try to get it right many times before I am satisfied with the results.  It seems tempting to remove the glare after I take my photographs in Photoshop, but for now I decided not to.




The morning light seems to have a magical and fresh quality to it; it enhances and brings out the pure colour in the surroundings so I photograph mostly in the morning.






To top it off, my house overlooks a gang of palm trees and the palm tree climbers take out the toddy in the morning and evening.  Could I ask for more?









In search of my mother's garden, I found my own.

                                    - Alice Walker - author, poet and activist.





Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Dancing Matt - Who the hell is Matt?






Matt is just like you and me.  I do not know Matt personally but he seems like a regular guy, he loves to travel but most importantly he seems to enjoy dancing, a very peculiar kind of dance.  I do not know what events transpired or what got into his head but in 2006 he did something very remarkable, something that I am sure no one has done before.


What he did is he took the goofy dance trick, traveled around the world (14 countries) and recorded himself dancing in front of major landmarks.  The video of Matt dancing went viral.  In 2008 armed with bigger budget and somewhat of a minor celebrity status, he visited 42 countries.  This year he visited 71 countries.





This was his first video released in 2006.  Background music is Sweet Lullaby by Deep Forest.




The second one where he visited 42 countries where more people join in on the madness.



Released in 2012, this is his most recent adventure.





Crack the sky salutes Matt for bringing smiles to millions of people around the globe irrespective of their caste, creed or culture.