Day 195 | July 15 2007 | Laundry shop

A road side laundry shop, nothing flashy, not even electricity. Just a kerosene lamp during the evening, and a good old coal iron for pressing the clothes. Its cheap too.. 2Rs for a shirt, and 3 for a pair of pants. The best part is the faint smell of burning coal, and the crisp cotton clothes.

Day 194 | July 14 2007 | 8 Eyed Spider

This is one spider man which smaller insects gotta be scared of.. the reason is simple.. he's got 8 eyes. I bet he has more than 360 vision. I was tracking this guy for more than an hour with my macro kit. He's made home in a palm plant in my balcony.

He tracked down his prey, a common house fly, ate it, and ran away out of sight. He was aware of my presence, but realised that I was no threat to him, and allowed me to watch the whole drama. Isn't this like cool National Geographic stuff.. well I like to think so :)

Day 187 | July 07 2007 | City Market Bus Stop - Organised Chaos

Chaos? No, its just a normal day at the the City Market bus stop, Bangalore city. Its 7.30Pm, and the people want to get home soon after a hard days of work. Wondering how the huge buses will manage to get out? Its no big deal.. this happens 365 days a year.. and this happens Only In India!

Day 186 | July 6 2007 | Dusk in a village

Taken at dusk in a village while riding back from Mysore to Bangalore. The Airtel advertisement was my point of interest.

Day 179 | June 28 2007 | Monkey Rider

Thats a female monkey checking out my new Pulsar 220. The monkeys were actually more interested in the bag pack I had on the bike.

Taken at Nandi Hills on a solo ride I had been on to enjoy the bike and the heavy rains.

Day 177 | June 26 2007 | Another brick in the wall...

Well, its a brick kiln, a place where bricks are actually made by baking them. This immediately reminde me of Pink Floyd's famous or rather cult song.. Another brick in the wall. Now a days such kiln's have been sifted out of city limits due to the pollution they cause.

Day 173 | June 22 2007 | Bulldozer - Demolition Machine

There is a lot of construction activity going on everywhere. Not just in Bangalore, but all over India. Its Infrastructure time.. time to build and develop. India Shining!

Taken on Hosur road, where old structures are being taken down to give way for new roads and construct new housing projects. The machine is every boys favorite demolition machine, called as a bulldozer or even a JCB.

Day 168 | June 17 2007 | Gagan Chukki Falls

Out on a picnic to a place called Shivasamudram, 100Km far from Bangalore, we first visited Gagan Chukki Falls. Its much smaller than the Shivasamudra falls, which I would call as a mini Niagara fall due to its similar shape and size. Although not in its full splendor, this fall looks kind of spectacular.

Day 167 | June 16 2007 | U turn

I was just clicking away this Kingfisher airplane. And I noticed it was taking a turn. It was turning pretty hard, as if taking a U turn in the air. It was soon out of my cameras range to click, but I watched it till it faded beyond the horizon.

Day 165 | June 14 2007 | Lay you on a bed of roses...

Well those are not roses, but definitely an enticing bed of flowers to lie down on... And those are the lyrics of a song by Bon Jovi. Taken at Lalbaug, Bangalore.

Day 162 | June 11 2007 | Elevated highway construction

I pass the Hosur road every day to and from home and office. The elevated highway, a parallel highway, 20 feet about the ground is being constructed to connect Electronic City and Bangalore.A 12Km stretch of road.

The work is in full swing, so I decided to visit the site and get a few snaps. Taken through a long pipe, you can see workers with orange high visibility jackets on the far side, working hard.

Infractucture development is hot in India.. a sign of India Shining!

Day 161 | June 10 2007 | At the bowling alley

It was a Sunday, and we went with friends to the bowling alley. Thats Amoeba on Church Street, near Brigade Road, Bangalore.I know its not a good photo, but this is the only one I have for this day. Reason being that the battery conked off just after this pic, and I was not carrying the spare ones.

Day 160 | June 09 2007 | Zooming fast (Panning) (16:9)

Thats effect is called as the panning technique. How to do it? Keep a longer shutter speed. Focus on your subject, while moving the camera in the direction of the subjects movement, not loosing the focus point still on the subject. Then click, and while the shutter is open, keep moving the camera steadily in the same direction.

Not easy.. try it. That shot above is the best out of 30 panning shots. And ya.. having an SLR helps :)

Day 159 | June 8 2007 | American Chopper

Its always like a festival on weekends at Forum Mall in Koramangala Bangalore. Some activity is always going on. This weekend, a Wrangler promo was going on. An American Chopper bike was on display, and the main crowd puller. Strangely enough, the girl-crowd was hardly interested. But then.. aren't bikes supposed to be boyz toys?

Day 158 | June 7 2007 | Dark Alleys

One of the entrances to the Johnson Market is a dark walk way... One can hardly notice the sacks and bags lying in the corner after entering the alley. My eyes got adjusted to the dim light inside, after going in from the strong 11 O'clock late morning sun. After a few moments the details are visible... cycles, scooters, rotting vegetables in the corners.. and even a couple of rodents.

While I was taking this photo, deeply thinking about the available lighting and my camera metering settings, I was a bit startled when the person in the left of the frame walked past me. I never noticed him through the viewfinder while composing this shot... and now I cant stop wondering.. where did he appear from....

Day 157 | June 06 2007 | Ultra2 Wide SCSI

Thats an Ultra2 Wide SCSI interface card from one of the servers in the labs. This one costs well above $600. I always find PCB's loaded with IC's and chips very interesting to checkout. Taken with my trusty old 3Mp point and shoot Kodak digital.

Day 156 | June 05 2007 | Stamen

Is that a WOW shot of a stamen? Taken with 4X magnification filter kit, the left stamen was my point of focus. This is an hand held shot and best out of 8. At such magnification levels, a very high shutter speed is needed to compensate for hand shakes. Some experts even recommend holding ones breath while releasing the shutter; and I tried that on this shot successfully.

Day 155 | June 4 2007 | Electronics City Over-Bridge

Lush green lawns welcoming visitors to the Electronic city. Taken from the bridge connecting Bannergattha and Hosur bridge.

Day 154 | June 03 2007 | s.m.i.l.e

These are my friends from Pune who were visiting us in Bangalore. They are a cute couple and I think the chemistry between them is visible because of their great smiles!

Day 153 | June 2 2007 | Golden Lining

Who says every cloud has a silver lining. Some clouds have a golden lining!

Taken with my 3Mp Kodak, from the Silk board flyover.

Day 152 | June 1 2007 | Buzzy Busy Bee

It was difficult capturing this busy bee who moved a lot during our photo shoot, but it was fun. This is the best of a set of 32 pics. I used a 7+ macro filter to get the magnification, and manual focusing.

Taken at the Lalbaug botanical garden, Bangalore.

Day 151 | May 31 2007 | Over the Fly Over

The new flyovers coming all over Hosur road are a good spot for traffic photography. Unfortunately today the traffic was pretty much less, motivating me to instead quickly reach home before the traffic jams started.

Day 150 | May 30 2007 | Gracefully Old

On an early morning walk to the grocery store, I saw this meek old figure sitting in the corner under a old garage shade, his trusted old walking stick by his side. Some one nearby told me his name is Dyaneshwar. He sits there most of the time watching the world go by... getting old gracefully...

Day 149 | May 29 2007 | Making Faces

Everyday while I come home from work, I see potters selling their wares on the footpaths. This particular one near Koramangala sells these face masks. On inquiring I found out that it is local custom to hang the masks on roof tops to ward of evil.

I found the faces funny, and colorfully incapable of repelling any kind of evil. Shouldn't they be scarier or eviler to ward of 'regular' evil..

Day 148 | May 28 2007 | Alarmed!

Walking on a street, I saw an old dog lying on the pavement. I started clicking, and the dog noticed me. Thats his alarmed look, as he was not sure if I was a threat to him. But he calmed down to my presence and he allowed me more clicks.

Day 147 | May 27 2007 | Dried flower from Ooty

A friend gifted us a bunch of dried yellow wild flowers, which he got from Ooty. They open up when watered, and resemble miniature sunflowers. Thats a macro of one such flower.

One major disadvantage of using magnification filters is that they can focus sharply only in the center. The outer areas are hopelessly lost. So framing becomes very critical and important. This is one such experimental macro shot with a 2+ magnification.

Day 146 | May 26 2007 | Which planet is that?

Can you recognise that planet? Well.. I cant either, cos its not one! Its a 15+ (15 times) magnified surface of a compound wall, open to the elements. Everything that is not white is either some sort of algae growth, dried/dead or otherwise. The black ring surrounding, is the inner metal ring of the magnification filters stacked together.

Day 145 | May 25 2007 | Iridescent Clouds

I had seen such cloud formations before, and never given another thought to them; until I read and saw a few good pics of this phenomenon called as Iridescent Clouds. Do check a few more pics here.

Day 144 | May 24 2007 | 2.7

The new highway from Hosur road, joining Electronic City, to Bannergatha was completed recently. Its just near my office, and the urge to ride on the brand new tarmac was just too much. While riding I came across this marker announcing 2.7. Strangely there was no 2.6 before nor a 2.8 ahead.

Day 143 | May 23 2007 | I love PCB's

Thats a macro of a PCB - Printed Circuit Board. Its the under side PCB of a 2.5" Momentous Seagate hard drive. The circular section, is the disk motor housing, which spins at 5400 RPM. I love PCB's... and especially the smell of new PC hardware.. a true geek I'm.

Day 142 | May 22 2007 | Kangan..

Its fun to dress up in Indian traditional/ethnic clothes, which now a days can only be occasional. The occasion today.. family dinner at a friends home.

Thats my wife's 'Kangan' or bangle made from hard wax or 'lakh' as its locally called, decorated with tiny jewels and stones. The red cloth in the background is one of my favorite embroidered Kurta.

Day 141 | May 21 2007 | Business as usual..

Strolling through the streets of Bangalore city, particularly the older parts always shows how the city has evolved. You can see the modern and the retro in the same setting, a time deference of centuries. Chikpet is such and old market place deep inside Bangalore city.

The yellow walls of this logistics office in Sultanpet stand out in this old market place. Looks like both the parties are concentrating on the deal which might be progress inside that office, while other business runs as usual outside..

Day 140 | May 20 2007 | Attack of the Ants

I recently bought a macro kit, which are nothing but lens filter offering magnifications of +1 +2 +4 and macro, i.e. +7. This one was taken using 7+ lens filter on my 18-55mm zoom Nikor. A true macro means that an image the size of the subject is projected on the camera sensor. So I guess this is a macro.

Even the ants are clearly visible, working hard to salvage whatever is available of this dead insect. Thats a hard days work for them. Do have a look at a closer macro here.

Day 139 | May 19 2007 | Stop!!

While waiting at a signal, I saw this graffiti on a wall near by. I went closer and examined it and was surprised to see this strong statement .. "Stop!! U.S. interference in Indian Nuclear Program". I like the photograph because of the details of the mud and even the green stuff growing up on the wall. BTW, can the US stop India Shining, and the future Smiling Buddhas?

Day 138 | May 18 2007 | 24 'HORS' tyre works

I see this sign every day while commuting to office via the Hosur highway. Its an advert for a tyre puncture/flat repair shop. The yellow tyre says 24 HORS, obviously a spelling mistake, but who cares? If you got a flat, this shop will come to your rescue.

Day 137 | May 17 2007 | Common cold, No cure yet!

I recently read that there is still no cure for the common cold. Then what do all these 'cold' medicines available off the shelf do? I guess they only provide comfort to the patient and generate revenue for the pharma companies. But, the Indian government (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has recently put in price regulations on a lot of drugs, bringing them to the common mans reach. Perhaps India might be the only developed country where most medicines are still available without a proper prescription, and chemist shops are as treated as daily or retail essentials.... India shining!

Thats a close up of the meds prescribed to be by the doc. Now thats a lot of meds right..

Day 136 | May 16 2007 | Bangalore Race Course

Bought some new accessories for the Nikon DSLR. One of the things is a new lens hood for the 18-55 mm zoom Nikor lens. The hood can be attached to the lens in multiple positions. Thats a test shot for the Bangalore Race Course using that hood in its extreme position. This gives the image a real optical vignetting effect in the corners, unlike done in software.

Day 135 | May 15 2007 | Candle in the wind..

The lights were out this evening, so out came the candles. Fooling around with the camera I was looking to make a good desktop wallpaper. And this one came out pretty well. Thats the candle in the wind, a song dedicated by Elton John to late Princes Diana.

Day 134 | May 14 2007 | Auto Rickshaw (negative)

Was at a friends place for dinner and his son has a lot of toys. This is an auto rickshaw from his collection. Nothing unique about this, but just experimenting with negatives and high ISO noise photos.

Day 133 | May 13 2007 | Get set go..

Just some experimentation here. Taken at a traffic signal, the traffic moved ahead on that turn as soon as the signal went green. You can see the people standing patiently to cross as soon as the traffic stops.

Day 132 | May 12 2007 | Dreaming big

Some wise man said 'dream big', and you can make it. I believe in this, and try to dream big, hoping that some day the efforts pay off. But this is something similar to what I see when I take my spectacles off.

Day 131 | May 11 2007 | Pink Curtains

Thats the top view of a Pink curtain. And thats not just any Pink. To be specific, it is Tyrian Pink. Also called as Bright Tyrian Purple or Bright Imperial Purple. (Hex: #B80049) (RGB: 184, 0, 73).

Did you know that..? Neither did I. Who told me.. Wikipedia did. And strangely, this Pink is widely seen in nature.

Day 130 | May 10 2007 | Rusty Old Pipes

Just saw this old window AC while walking up through the stairs of an old building, housing the Life Insurance Corporation of India. The pipes running in and out of the AC, looked interesting because of the uniform rust and 'age' factor.

Day 129 | May 09 2007 | Mythological toys

Thats a set of Indian mythological toys my parents got from their trip to West Bengal. Those are Balram, Subadhra and (Lord) Krishna from the, The Mahabharata. Its a great Indian epic, a story of legends, written originally in Sanskrit.

This one is cropped specially in the 16:9 wide format, the most widely used format for movies.

Day 128 | May 08 2007 | Bird in the window

A pigeon sitting on a window sill.. I think he spotted me. I like this pic because of the details visible in the highlights (bright areas) as well as the shadows (darker areas).

Day 127 | May 07 2007 | Hang on brother!

A common scene, in most Indian cities. Early morning commuters have to hang on for dear life while commuting in these over crowded city busses.

I took this using my point and shoot camera (Kodak), while I was riding my bike to work on the infamous Hosur Road, Bangalore. The bus and I were going at almost 50Kmph. I guess this was the most craziest way I have ever taken candid shot.

Day 126 | May 06 2007 | Inside an IT training room

This week was hectic, with lots of trainings going on. Taken inside the training room of a popular IT training institute in Bangalore. Such institutes do good business training not only corporates, but also students who are fresh out of college.

The trainer was a bit perplexed after my colleague asked him a tough technical question. Funny? No. The 'trainer', we found out later, was a non technical person who has started his carrier working as a camera salesman in Dubai. He too did a technical course from an IT institute and was now riding the IT boom, teaching others. Now that's India Shining!

Day 125 | May 05 2007 | Begging while the world passes by..

An old man, bent and sick, begging in front of a apparel shop, while the world chooses to look away, and avoid guilt. Thats life for us, but thats a hard days work for a beggar.

Day 124 | May 04 2007 | Entertaining tomorows buyers

Inside a mall in Bangalore, a penguin is brought to entertain the kids. After all, these kids will grow up to be tomorrows buyers. A research paper also indicates that kids today influence 80% of household purchases in the consumer goods section. So 'hook em young' seems to be the new mantra.

Day 123 | May 03 2007 | Sunset at 10000 feet

To me, that sight looks likes the gates of heaven.. This is the first time I watched a sunset through a plane, from above the clouds, and it was mind blowing! Clicked while flying back from Pune to Bangalore.