A FEW HUMBLE CLICKS - Pictures from a camera phone

Unless you are a pro, you cannot have a dedicated camera on you all the time.  So what do I do?. I take my Android phone and click away.  I feel bad for not having a camera, forget about the pictures for a few days and then look at them again.

Pictures taken from a camera phone are not very good even if you pile on effects and filters in Photoshop but there are quite a few image-enhancing apps available in Android market and using them on your crummy photos can produce surprising results.  Here are some of my favorites.

Taken just before attending a bloggers meet in Hyderabad.

Sun Dog.  It was cold this day, but the sun came out for a brief moment.

A plane, a rocket or a meteor?

Was listening to The Beatles and spotted a plane.

Opposite my workplace.

No Colour - Black, white and many shades of grey.

The strong brown of the early morning coffee, that unexpected yellow in concrete jungle or the incandescent orange rays of setting sun, the human eye responds very strongly to colours.  The advertisers and filmmakers no doubt have recognized the subtle power of colour to catch the human eye and influence our moods, but great photographers and filmmakers also recognize the other important aspect in the visual medium; the forms and shapes.


When you look at a black and white photograph, your eye is forced to examine the forms and shapes without the distraction of colour.  There are photographers like Ansel Adams whose images are superbly balanced and he clearly elevates the photography to an art form.

In my college years one of my seniors used to bring a digital camera to our campus, but oddly enough he used to switch the camera to black n' white mode and take pictures repeatedly of an old banyan tree.  In conversing with him, I found out that he was trying to capture "the balance of things, you know, the shapes of things."  We thought he was a nut job and left him alone; I wonder where he is now.  Later in my life after countless number of days with my humble camera, I think I understood what he was trying to say.  Here's me applying some of his principles.

Dargah at Moula-Ali

Arabian Sea and a silhouette of a friend.

Tamilnadu-Kerala border.

Disused warehouse, originally a colour photograph converted into black and white.

On a Friday at friends' house. 

                                                           

A gift by a guest

I got a gift yesterday.  It's a guest post by none other than Subho's Jejune diet, one of the most influential bloggers around; also a person I look up to when my life feels rudderless through his writings, conversations and music sharing.  So without further ado here is his guest post which sparkles with wit, embedded wisdom and some truly creative images.



                                                                                      *****

Some posts package your abilities like well shot glamor pics of aging divas. They are like well designed apps that intuitively know what you want them to do. Their shoes shine like in the ads, and their clothes are clean and starched, and they obediently line up and sing the national anthem in three part harmony. They unhesitatingly sort into openings and closures, and bullet point themselves into bite-sized chunks. Such posts make gloomy days seem sunny to me and Readers Digest read like high art.

Painting with light.

Some posts just don’t write. They sit like a sullen child holding its breath and daring you to end a paragraph. They file themselves away into the back of the bottom shelf in the drafts folder and pretend to be invisible when you peer to look. They disappear into the soil of the mind like an expensive seed that waits to germinate till you forget to water it. I keep taking them out, bathing, feeding and drying them out like pet geckos in the sun. These posts are very dear to me. Like children with special needs.

Chili plant.

Some posts write themselves, brushing you aside like an unpleasant thing lying on the road. They roll themselves out like a magic carpet of thoughts and images, usually unlike anything you were prepared for. Then they look back at you and gloat, as if saying, now what are you going to do? Some of them go a step further and announce it to you even as you sit to write. What I usually do with such posts is generously gift them to my fellow bloggers in the guise of a guest post. Like curses in a Stephen King story, they become their problem after that.

                                                                           *****



Thank you Subho's Jejune diet for taking your time and contributing a post to this blog and turning it into a much better place.

On a Sunday - A walk in the park

Located in the heart of the city, KBR park is like a beauty spot on the face of Hyderabad.  This is the park where you are more likely to find spirited senior citizens walking than couples sitting on the bench and holding their hands.  One fine Sunday morning as I was having a steamin' cup of coffee and preparing to read  the vivid and stately prose of P.G. Wodehouse in my favorite reading spot, my brother came bursting into my room and proposed we go to a walk since the weather was sensational.  Why not?

With the morning sun peeking from behind the palm trees and dragonflies hovering around like mini helicopters, we got into our tracks and tees and off we went to KBR park located in Jubilee Hills.  With no agenda on our mind and a Nikon camera in our pockets, we explored the 24-acre park.  It is very unusual to find a mini jungle like this in the beating heart of the city but here it is, the local flora and fauna in all its glory.

A family of flowers.

The park is well-maintained with few ponds, wooden benches, a duck here and a peacock there.  The air was fresh and the light was golden.  We came across many colorful sights and we were furiously clicking away on our camera.

Nature's supermodel.

Suddenly without warning a peacock appears out of nowhere and lands across the path.  With the attitude and swagger of a seasoned supermodel, he starts strutting around and showing off his colorful feathers; we were happy to oblige.

Old world charm.

After spending nearly 3 hours exploring, we rested our weary legs in the shade near abandoned garage somewhere in the park.  We knew that when we get home, mom's crispy Sunday special dosas will be waiting for us.  What a way to start off a Sunday.  So when was the last time you took a walk in the park?

The mystic bond of brotherhood.

Information:

KBR (Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park) is located near LV Prasad Eye Hospital.  The place is well connected by buses and autos.  The park opens its gate at 4:30 a.m. and closes at 9 in the morning and starts again at 5 in the evening until 7 p.m.

In Wild Heaven - Kerala in pictures

It has been exactly one year since I visited Kerala.  Yesterday I was browsing through my computer and found these pictures that I took on my trip to Kerala last year.  Many would like to call it God's Own Country, but after experiencing the stunning beauty of Kerala firsthand, I would prefer to call it the Emerald State.  So last year around August we packed our bags to attend one of our Nair's wedding in Kozhikode (pronounced koi-koh-de).

Crossing the TN border into Kerala.

Our train journey was mostly comfortable.  At midnight we traversed through Tamilnadu and we just entered the Kerala as the sun was about to rise.  The landscape changes dramatically from a semi-arid flat landscape to verdant hills touching the clouds; we knew we arrived in Kerala.

Green grows the rushes.

Our friend's place is a little village some 50 kilometers from Kozhikode.  When we finally arrived at his place, we were treated to the typical Nair hospitality. Each of us were given a large glass of tea.  I took my camera and explored the backyard.

My friend's backyard.

In this village and mostly across Kerala, the houses are not cramped together tightly like in the cities, they are separated by a considerable gap allowing one house to have a luxury of a garden.  The weather is cool but damp.  Everywhere I look there is greenery, even the walls are covered with moss.  We drank plenty of tea and were waiting for a typical Malayali breakfast.

The moss covers everything.

A blue tent was set up in front of the house and the lady of the house got our breakfast.  This is "puttu", which is made from rice, coconut, few pulses and cereals.  It is delicious as it looks and has an offbeat taste.

Puttu, a breakfast dish.

Because of the dense moisture-laden air, the light takes on a magical quality.  It was like we walked into a Mani Ratnam movie.  After we had our bellies full, we decided to hit the beach.

Getting ready to hit the beach.

The beach was a 2-3 hour drive from the village and it was mostly deserted.  We had all the beach to ourselves.  While some of us entered the blue waters, others decided to chill out beneath the coconut tree shades.

An isolated beach.

After our day at the beach, we went home weary but satisfied and preparing for the wedding the next day.  This trip was particularly satisfying to me as with this trip I completed my journey of all the Southern States.  I cannot recommend Kerala highly enough, the people, the place and the food are all beautiful.  If you do get a chance, do not miss out on exploring Kerala.

A dash of pink in a sea of green.

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.

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.