Ghumakkar's Diary

A good mood can always bring someone back to writing. After a tiring training (working) week at Oxford which happened to overlap with a changing mind, I finally had a day to devour the City of Palaces- London! I spent the hoping on hoping down the London underground/tube trains, visiting and capturing places in HDR and whenever had some idle – thinking about the coming week – what to do what not to do! Anyways, this blog is not about how to travel London, but to share the HDR London I saw… The London Eye I have always wanted to visit this modern wonder, and believe me it was as wonderful as it could have been to a solo traveler... The London Eye Modern Wonder in HDR Few moments at Big Ben and a walk on Westminster Bridge was another wonderful experience for me...

Have you ever appreciated that visiting few places becomes a religion for you? Like, visiting that particular chae wala shop around the corner in Kolkata or that old movie theater that has stopped screening new movies in Old Delhi since a long time or that particular CCD in Lucknow where you had coffee with your soul mate? Nostalgic, isn't it! I find this theory true to our travelling too. Just a view of Vishwanath Temple of BHU, idling at Assi and Dashaswamedh Ghats of Banaras, trekking every year at Naneghat, bathing at Nagaon - Alibaug are the few of the travelling things that I do almost every year. The new entrant to this annual travelling pilgrimage list is Kas Plateau. Just like the last year we rode to this place again and were happier than ever. Trivia Kas (Kaas) Pathaar or Kaas Plateau is located in the Satara District, some 30 kilometers off NH-4 (now NH 48) towards West. Plateau is about 300 kilometers from Mumbai via NH-4 and 375km via NH 17. We took...

37 posts 31 PADE Entries ~7200 words Blogged ~ 4200 PADE words 20000 words  CampNaNoWriMo novella This month July 2013 would be remembered forever :) So much happened in last one month that I will have to publish it in a 2 posts series – PADE and CampNaNoWriMo. Part1: PADE Honoured to be Ace of PADE 2013 (*shy* and *blush*) When I got to know about PADE by Sfurti and Ritu KT, only a few have confirmed to participate. And as started, मंजिलें जुडती गयीं -  काफ़िला बनता गया .   Honestly, I was envy of the duo-girls that why I couldn’t come up with such an idea and at same time sceptically curious about its success. But, then I thought to let’s give my blog a marathon month and see what it may return. Not just a bumper improvement in viewer counts and different ranks (except IndiRank), this month brought me many a Blogger’ mates. This people count is what I love earning :) The Big and Happy PADE Family   As I am not as verse with wo...

And, as it comes to an end with an apt Theme: Night, I am publishing my attempts at Star Trail, these are not perfect but still. Each star is dedicated to the participants of PADE and the biggest stars are obviously for Sfurti and Ritu .   This first pic was shot at Padum, Zanskarr Valley . It was my first attempt at Star Trail and clicked it with a 30 minutes of exposure. Star Trails at Padum This second pic was shot at Lonar Crater . Some 45 shots of 15 seconds

After posting Sunset at Arabian Sea , Goa for yesterday's theme, I realised it could have been posted for today's theme - Water too. :/ This pic was shot near Sonamarg when we were returning from Kargil to Srinagar. It was drizzling and I was lazy enough to set the tripod. It was a moderate energy stream and we thought to take a chance to click the silky flow of water . An attempt to click the silky flow of stream water This shot was taken by handheld camera at F/25 and 1/6sec exposure. A better background would have done wonders :) This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

My idea of vacation is: “ What I like doing best is Nothing ." " How do you do Nothing ," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. " Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin? ' and you say, ' Oh, Nothing ,' and then you go and do it. It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering ." " Oh! " said Pooh.”  (Thanks Goodread for the exact words of story) I love doing Nothing on Vacations, but end up doing a lot of things. Sunset at Goa This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

Not much thinking again, for this Special theme I am posting a pic from my collection that first came to my mind reading the Theme. Inspired by levitating self-portraits of a Japanese  photographer   Natsumi Hayashi , I tried this picture with a friend at Rangdum, Zanskar Valley. This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

Months back I started posting Smiles through a series Smiley Saturdays . So today I am publishing  a collage of the pics ( few of them ) I posted as Smiley Saturday. All of it :) This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

No philosophical interpretation of today's Theme: Signs, just what I love to read and click - Sign boards. Colorful, meaningful and informative Signboards! This first pic was shot at the  NH9, Maharashtra-Karnataka Border while we were riding to Kolkata to attend RM East 2011 . Raaste pe Nahin Jaati Kisi ki Jaan--Mera Bhaarat Mahan! :)  Another Kala Ghoda shot, a click of the world famous Street's sign.

Shapes have always attracted mankind, the affair started way back when the Circle was discovered and realised as the best crafted shape ever ( as a wheel ). Squares, rectangles, other polygons would have later being discovered and praised. One of the best example of human-admiration of Shapes is the Pyramids and a lot many other architectural marvels! And, what Shapes could reveal about astronomy is not unknown ( Mayan temples to Jantar Mantar ). For today's theme, I would like to post a Shape that is quite unique in all its characteristics - the Shape of an Ice Crystal!  Shot these falling crystals (animated) at Telus Spark Science Centre of Calgary . With varied falling speed on different screens they created awesomeness out there... Falling Ice Crystals Pic had that wood-yellow feeling owing to wooden frames, but I thought to post it in monochrome! This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more ...

Till a few hours ago, PADE was Picture A Day Experiment, and then it got rain-washed to make me realize that it has always been Photo A Day Experiment. Anyways, Rain has always been my favorite season ( of course after Winters ), and living in Maharashtra it means a lot! Not just for the drought affected areas like Ahmednagar, but also as it paints just every region Green  as soon as it reaches the state. So, for the today's theme I would be posting three different pics.. This first pic was shot while descending from Naneghat by my Olympus mju waterproof camera. Our recent trek was the Best trek ever with waterfalls following the course made for general people :) You should see the rain drops in pic... Trekking down Naneghat On our recent  Lonavala-Karla trip, I found this drenched bottle-brush flower. It's a favorite flower and luckily with the P&S Olympus mju camera, I could capture the droplets! Mission accomplished :) 

Last year, we learned about a very day-to-day  yet very different kind of photography. It was Sports Photography.  Matches were scheduled in late evening, under flood lights. Under these type of artificial lighting, it's a real tough job to get a pic rightly done when the player is in action. My 55-300mm tele lens couldn't help me much and so I went back to reading and came to know about high speed low f-stop lenses - that are specialized for sports photography. For today's theme I am posting these two best pics I could manage to take, you can see the ghostly blur owing to the motion of subject. Yellow color came out brilliantly in contrast with the background Fortunate enough to capture the emotions :) This is my entry to  PADE Day 23 Theme of Play . This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .   ...

Bliss is to have A Life you always wanted to... Blessed are thou If live that... Another mobile-camera shot, somewhere near Belgaum on NH4 almost a year back. This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .  

For today's theme Art , I again went back to my Kaala Ghoda Festival collection. Though, complete collection is about the display of art, I chose the Puppets or Kathaputlis  for the post. Kathputli or Indian puppetry has been native to Rajasthan and is said to be over thousand years' old in history. I have always been fascinated by the puppets and the ones who control them with strings. Somewhere in my heart I believe we are being controlled by someone as skilled as those puppeteers up above in cosmic world regulating us in and out of our dimensions. And, then this thought discourages me to take initiative; and then I think about the  Jonathan Livingston and it encourages to take that first step...and then I  feel lost when realize that he was one of the only of the clan that reached the height to die alone. Well, here are the pics.. The Puppeteer ..and the Puppet...do notice the plate with money in it..

Bokeh, the word that has got its root in Japanese meaning ' blur ' or ' haze ', adds beautiful aesthetic quality to pictures with a little play of lens ( and it's  quality ). Ritu has written a very good article on producing Bokeh , may read here . This pic for today's PADE theme was shot on Indiblogger Nokia Apptasting Event . It's not a perfect Bokeh, but random and coarse one.  It was shot on Nikon D5000 at f6.3 - 1/30 sec exposure. And, then these glasses gave the pic the love I wished :) This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .   

Another very uncoventional theme for Picture A Day Experiment , seems Sfurti and Ritu have spent real good time deciding the themes. Super! This pic was shot by us  in March 2012, when we wanted to do something new ( and not just star trail and moon-moon ) and Abhimanyu suggested this experiment with torch light in a dark night. I didn't want to post my name, but this was the only pic where Abhimanyu was sorta visible ( on right side ) and so were his fingers ( white thick short lines ). This pic was shot with a 15-seconds exposure in complete darkness. Area on wall was marked, and within that region Abhimanyu had to write the word ( here, my name ) using flash light virtually on wall. His fingers tell when he switched on and off the torch. This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .   

No this Theme is not sponsored by Microsoft ( as far as I know ), mighty organizers ( here  and  here ) may have something else to say... Well, today's theme is Window and I am again posting two of my favorite pics. First one is the one I shot in April while taking off from Mumbai (like most of the other mobile camera  savvy travelers). What I love most about this pic is that it appears hell lot like Indian peninsula, isn't it? And, are you able to recognise Bandra Worli Sea Link? Imitating Indian Peninsula (the bridge is Bandra Worli Sea Link) This pic was shot on Mobile Camera (LG OptmiusL9) and edited on PixlrExpress/Instgram.  Another pic is the one I shot few months back for a TruePixer assignment: from your window . Not finding any worth sharing event from my window, finally I found movement of people in my ally worth experimenting. A few shot, and I shot this one. The Ghost of my town This one was shot on Nikon D5000...

I always wished to click a good picture of my tools that I used to click pictures. Today's theme Tool is an apt occasion for the purpose. Though, owing to limited resources with me right now I couldn't click what I would say my favorite , but still it came out pretty good. By and large, Camera is a tool for telling the truth. (modified after By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth ~George Carlin ) Shot this through my mobile camera (LG-OptimusL9) and edited on PixlrExpress, watermarked by PicsArt. That guy on left sits idle on the bookshelf, so happily accepted the offer of modelling I proposed to him. This picture post is an Entry to PADE-2013, a month long  Photo-blog  event. To know more and participate, click  here  or  here . Check themes  here .      

Streets have been a favorite topic for almost all those who ever wanted/want to be in to active photography. As I feel, there are two-type of street-photography - one, that needs you on the street with a prime lens (no zoom) to let you go near your subject, talk to him/her, ask his/her permission and take a picture that will tell a story worth thousand words. Firoze saaheb is one of such blogger-photographer I know. Then, there is another type of street-photography, for amateurs like me to indulge in - with zoom lenses that facilitates to shoot whatever you want to without connecting to subject ( and, thus no hesitation ). My today's post is one such pic, that I took a year back while returning from Kaala Ghoda Festival, putting my colleague as a model in an ally. Mood What I love in this photo is not just the colors and composition, but also that the subject it self is not in the focus, for me it gives a mood to this picture. Do share what you would have liked? This p...