Ghumakkar's Diary

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 .   ...

There was a time when Writing Letters  was more of  a necessity and also passion, and then it became to show real affection . I still remember how I wrote my first letter to my sister and was amazed to receive the reply. Difference between postcard and an inland letter was realised later. For today's theme of PADE: Letters , my first entry is one of my favorite piece of letter, shot it minutes ago and edited it on PixlrExpress. Written on LetterPad, this novelty came much later to my cognizance. A conventional Letter And, then came the era of Emails - which pushed everything from postcards, inland letters, treasurable designer letter pads and just a days ago - telegram to backyards.  Here's a screenshot of my eLetters - which I hate and love simultaneously..

As Ritu pointed out in her post , this PADE is challenging our creativity to come up with newer and better interpretations of the theme, we are falling short of it every other day. So, today again owing to a lot of writing already going on I surrendered to the challenge. publishing this conventional frame  that I shot last year on my Zanskar trip. This Commemorative plaque was presented to the Late Manoj Pandey Kargil Memorial by Abhishek Bachhan and signed by Amitabh Bachhan. It's the famous poem written by one of the most known and my favorite Hindi poet Shri Hariwanshrai Bachhan ji . Angee Path by Hariwansh Rai Bachchan ji (Click the pic o see enlarged version) This is my entry to  PADE Day 21 Theme of Frame . 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 .  

Though I generally put disclaimer at the bottom of the post, this one needs it right now. I am putting watermark on the picture, but the art it is depicting is not created by me. All due thanks to the guys who made this nice - cartoon art - that I could capture and reproduce here. This was one satire we saw in Kala Ghoda Festival over the Noise Pollution. Loud speakers are agitating a tired ear and at far left corner there is white saint like  Ear that's meditating. Message is clear, isn't it? This is my entry to PADE Day 20 Theme of Cartoon . Right now I have this feeling that how much more I need to travel and shot to have a real diversified collection. Or, is it better to have a niche collection? A thought worth some precious time... 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 .  

I had a few pics for the subject, I tried to write down a few lines that could rhyme ( or at least be read like rhyming ), then honoring my limits I took recess to Google search and could find what I had in my mind at BrainyQuotes .  The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can't have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I'd rather not be in a cage. I'd rather be dead. And it's real simple. And I think it's not that uncommon   ~ Angelina Jolie  Let me be free... This is how I ended up saying I'd rather be dead  impromptu when asked what I want to do in my life. :)  Well, this pic was shot at ghats of Ganga (Ganges) in Varanasi with a telescopic lens and is my current Whatsapp DP. Not just the kid's mood, I love the mood of complete picture which has absolutely no relation with what the kid is up to. Also, I am in deep love with Angelina's lips , but that's another story. This picture post is an ...

A late entry to PADE: theme Bridge, I wanted to submit something rather meaningful and not just material, but still. This one bridge is somewhere between Rangdum and Padum, in Zanskar valley. Not much significant, I liked this pic for its composition and color of sky that adds value to it. The sky is brighter, cleaner and blue'er ( if there's such a word ) in this side of World! 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 .