Day 90 | March 31 2007 | Reunion

It was a sweet surprise to hear from an old friend, who had come to town. He was going to be there only for the next hour. My other friends and I rushed to meet him, and it was a grand reunion with warm hugs and pats on the back. Meeting after many years brought back the good old memories of the good times spent together.

Day 89 | March 30 2007 | Beer - The Fuel

On this hot afternoon, a few friends and I decided to meet for lunch. I was late to reach the Rasoi Restaurant cum Fuel Pub in Koramangala, but was not surprised to see that my friends had already started their first round of beers. The chilled Kingfisher draught beer was really soothing this hot afternoon. It was todays Fuel!

Day 88 | March 29 2007 | Commercial Street

This is a view of one of the lanes in Commercial Street, Bangalore's central shopping hub. Many lanes, lots of shops, and huge crowds. One can find branded stuff as well as the local varieties. This specific lane had lots of shoe stalls. Bargain hunting always works. You can easily get a pair of descent looking ladies footwear for as low as Rs.100.

I took this shot with the camera held higher up to get some depth and perspective of the environment.

Day 87 | March 28 2007 | Lord Unknown

This is 'Lord Unknown'. Unknown only because I'm unable to identify him and know his name. Most Indian gods/deities/lords are so smart and handsome that the all look the same to me; unless that have some special weapons or equipment which they are displaying. Ya equipment is not exactly the right word, but I just cant think of any other one.

Day 86 | March 27 2007 | Let there be light

This is a Phillips made, 150W metal halide lamp (MHN-TD), being used to highlight a building. It must be blinding to be so close in front of it when light.

This shot may seem cluttered, but I liked this because of the colour distribution in the reflector.. shades of the sky's blue and yellows of the building in front.

Day 85 | March 26 2007 | The Art Of Living - A New Ray Of Hope

This is a beautiful sunset seen at The Art of Living - International Centre. Also called as Ved Vignan Mahavidyapeeth, it is 21Km away from Bangalore city on the Kanakapura-Udayapura Road. Founded by spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, this organisation has found runaway success in Indian and abroad.

The place is a must visit for spiritualists although I had been there mostly as a tourist. They promise a new and hopeful life the spiritual way. From what I have come to know they do not preach based on any specific religion; but the Hindu scriptures - The Bhagavad Gita forms a base to their way of life. The building, the surroundings and other infrastructure and amenities are impressive. Once there, the clean air and the natural calm sets in a very spiritual mood. Do visit if spirituality interests you, or just for the sake of fun.

Day 84 | March 25 2007 | BMW

A to-scale model of a BMW car in a showcase of a shop. This was the most good looking of all the models. The lights in the showcase made this one stand out.

I don't know which model this is. Do you any idea?

Day 83 | March 24 2007 | Smokes

Now thats how they serve smokes in Bangalore's restaurants; clicked on a weekend party with friends.

No, I don't smoke, and actively advice against it. Have a look at this BBC report on smoking. Do you smoke? If you do.. is it not time yet to quit ? Get help/tips here.

Day 82 | March 23 2007 | Brigade Road - Trafic Cop

I was out with a couple of friends for a photo shoot; subject - Around Brigade Road and MG Road, Bangalore. This is the start of Brigade Road, a very busy intersection at any time of the day or night. Seen here is an over worked, lone Bangalore traffic cop.

Also see the other shots from this photo shoot here.

Day 81 | March 22 2007 | Ying Yang

Ying Yang are the famous and widely exploited Chinese symbols of feminine vs. masculine or passive force vs. active force. Exploited mostly for their commercial attractiveness than their real meaning, they can be see on a lot of inexpensive Chinese decorative goods. Like the popular Feng Shui stuff. This one was a wind chime, hanging outside a Chinese food joint.

The background is so blur due to the shallow DOF.

Day 80 | March 21 2007 | Inside a Rose

Those are the insides of a Rose flower. Visible are whorls of stamens; the filament topped by an anther where the pollen is produced.

There was a strong breeze which was making it difficult to click this rose. So this one, is a best of almost 20 photos.

Day 79 | March 20 2007 | Signs in the night

The lights were out, and there was nothing to do. My wife was playing with some flashy key chains and light balls; so here are the results. After a lot of failed tries, we succeeded in catching sensible shapes on the camera. Is that cool or what?

Day 78 | Mar 19 2007 | Solar Eclipse

Posting these photos piping hot, taken at 6.47AM IST today on a construction site near my office. It was a wonderful sight to see. My friend Sandip commented that its looking like some ones taken a bite of the Sun.

The sunrise was very normal, but the Sun got exceptionally brighter as time passed, making it painful to continue watching with naked eyes. Finally I had to keep taking photos of it and check them on the camera's LCD. The bright line above the Sun in this pic is not any distortion or flare, its a small cloud formation. See another one here.

Now that I can reflect on the event, what more can one ask for.. two eclipse's in a month! Guess what, there are two more this year...

Day 77 | March 18 2007 | P.S.L.V - Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV, is India's primary satellite launch vehicle, developed indigenously by ISRO. First launched in 1993, it has since sucessfully lauched 11 times, catapulting India in the big league of space technology. The PSLV also carries foreign payload at competitive prcies. India Shining!

This one is a to-scale model replica in the premises of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium Bangalore. The Planetarium has a wonderful show in the sky theater, which I'm sure children as well as adults would love to watch. I was awestruck to see a beautiful replica of the real sky, stars and constellations, being projected on the darkened sky dome. The show also highlights Einstein and his valuable work. Do visit and catch the 4.30Pm English language show.

Day 76 | March 17 2007 | Bangalore Palace

Bangalore Palace, designed on the lines of Windsor Castle in London, is classic Tudor architecture. Its a wonderful majestic looking palace, a must visit in Bangalore. The furniture and decoration inside is really cool. Lots of beautiful paintings, especially the nude artistic art sets an antique mood to the place.

Why did I not post photos of the insides... well the ticket for a camera costs a whooping Rs.500, which I did not buy. The high cost is because the palace is privately owned by the current King Wodeyar; unlike all other ancient or heritage places in India being owned by the Govt.

Btw, the palace is also available for private parties; is that cool or what!

Day 75 | March 16 2007 | Best Of Luck Team India - World Cup 2007

It's cricket time again, Cricket World Cup 2007 is here! The cricket fever is ON and people of this cricket crazy nation are going crazy already.

This is the photo of another such cricket related activity going on on the streets of Koramangala, Bangalore. Airtel has put up a mobile display, carrying a huge wooden bat, and fans are signing and putting their messages on it... Another marketing gimmick?

Day 74 | March 15 2007 | Shiny Helmet

Four people in the room, four images on the shiny new helmet. Can you identify the people and the objects in the reflection? If not have a look at the notes here.

The photo looks over-exposed (it is), because the helmet was fully black in color, confusing the D40 metering system. I should have manually under-exposed it to get the other details.

Day 73 | March 14 2007 | Rusty!

Rusty old steam engine lying all alone in a park in Bangalore.

Discontinued in the 1990 by the Indian Railways, this must be the fate of the retired steam engines. Many of them will be lying in parks, railway museums across the country and even a few in some government engineering colleges. A few are still in use, but mostly at tourist places like Darjeeling, Matheran and even the Royal Orient. There is a huge fan following for steam locomotives in India. More info here.

BTW, Indian Railways is one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, spread across 63000 Km and growing fast! India Shining !

Day 72 | March 13 2007 | House warming

A newly constructed house, in the lane where my home is, was decorated with fancy colorful lights. A pooja had also taken place during the day time, indicating that a house warming was going on there. I took this photo late at night, when the activity had ceased, and other lights had been shut off. The halogen street lamps were washing the street road and other surfaces with a golden yellow.

Day 71 | March 12 2007 | Bling Bling !!

Isn't that a lot of bling bling in one place!

This is inside a shop in Forum mall. Girls just go crazy when they see all this. And if the shop has a "SALE, 50% Discount" sign.. you could guess what might happen. But then its always a pleasure to see the girls happy that they can buy all that they can; and disappointed that they cant buy just some more!

Day 70 | March 11 2007 | Reflections

A colleague of mine bought a new Pulsar, and wanted snaps of him with it. After we were done with him, Sandip and I, the click crazy duo, started our experiments. I sneaked up behind Sandip, who was trying to catch the reflections in the shiny chrome plated back of an Innova's side-mirror. The colors of the sky makes a steep gradient in the reflection.

Day 69 | March 10 2007 | Yummy pastries

Yummy pastries prepared by my friend Manish Gaur, who is a very talented and sought after baker in Bangalore. He founded the Institute of Baking & Cake Art, which runs training courses. He also owns a popular joint called as Caramel. Do drop in sometime and check out his wonderful yummy creations.

I have used selective focusing here, focusing only on the foreground object, the white pineapple pastry here. The background objects, the black forest pastry and the valentines brochure look blurrier. Thats Depth-Of-Field.

Day 68 | Mar 09 2007 | Hardlife@Bangalore

My friends and I were walking down a residential lane in Koramangala, when they pointed out this sign to me. Hung on the compound wall of a house, it said "NO PARKING U'll FIND FLAT TYRES". I have seen these kind of funny straight-to-the-point signs in Pune too. Do you think it's rude, straight forward, or plain desperate?

Btw, do you notice that the Fiat Premier Padmani, the popular 70's city car, is parked just under that sign. Did it have flat tyres (read tires :) .. NO!

Addendum: No, its not a sepia. Its the actual color of the scene. The yellow halogen street lights makes everything come that way.

Day 67 | Mar 08 2007 | Love in a busy mall

Was at Forum mall this evening, watching the people go by. I had wanted this particular shot for quite some time, with people on the escalators, to try and capture the motion. So I had tried man times earlier with many angles, frames and shutter speeds. Finally this one shot turned out to be the best out of all those.

I also chose this shot because of the couple seen standing, on the top side of the pic. They were there chatting away oblivious to the world around them. Thats love right ?

Day 66 | Mar 07 2007 | Life in 8 seconds

I got this shot while experimenting with the camera shutter speeds, riding pillion on a bike. It might not seem appealing, but I like it because it has captured 8 seconds (8 seconds long exposure) of life on a busy street in just a single frame!

Day 65 | Mar 06 2007 | Sin City - Gotham City !

The colors of the clouds, the light coming out of the windows, the unseen moon, gives this picture a very Gotham City look. I had imagined this picture and the title in my mind when I was was passing this street the last time. Taken in Koramangala, this is the Sunday-to-Monday building.

Day 64 | Mar 05 2007 | F.R.I.E.N.D.S

On a one day bike trip to Shivagange, a trekking spot 60Km away from Bangalore, I was more than delighted to find monkeys in huge numbers. I clicked like crazy, offering (rather bribing) them with some chocolates. These 3 friends were just holding on to each other as if it was the end of the world.

Day 63 | Mar 04 2007 | Lunar Eclipse March 2007

Total Lunar Eclipse March 04 2007.
It was a genuine pleasure to witness this beautiful celestial event first hand. It gave me more to think about, than just the techniques needed to photograph it properly.

The first image is a couple of hours before the eclipse began, just an hour after moon rise. The next 5 images are of the eclipse in totality. Here the moon is looking orange in color, as the direct sunlight is now being blocked totally by the earth which is now linearly in the middle of the sun and the moon. The orange color is due to the indirect light reaching the moon, being filtered and refracted through earths atmosphere.

The remaining images are of the eclipse ending. It was a wonderful sight nonetheless, till the Bangalore clouds decided to play sport.. It felt like missing the ending of a great movie... I missed the initial penumbral phase too (sleeping). But then there is always next time.. Aug 28 2007.

Technical data: ISO ranges used: 400, 800, 1600, 3200. Exposure times: 1,2,3,6,8,10,20,30 sec (with tripod). The above collage is a best-of almost 250 time-lapsed images of the event.

Day 62 | Mar 03 2007 | Young Technician

Hard days work - Young Technician.
I was chatting with friends outside a mall on a lazy weekend, watching the world go by. Thats when I spotted this young chap, barely out of college or tech school. He was working diligently, full of concentration, doing maintenance checks on the lights in the mall premises. I had smiled at him and he did not mind me taking his pics.

Day 61 | Mar 02 2007 | A queue for liquor?

A queue outside a liquor store. Strange; but is it true? Naah! Hidden out of view on the right is a bank ATM.

Thats the power of photography.. the darker side?

Day 60 | Mar 01 2007 | Hardware Store

Hard days work - Hardware store.
Want to do some home improvement? Are you DIY enthusiasts? No better place than a nearby hardware store like this one to buy you things to get the job done. Everything from nails, water pipes, paints, sand papers, tools... you name it, they have it.

Taken outside a hardware store, the store keeper and my friends turn to look at some commotion going on on the road outside.

Day 32 to Day 59 - Report and Archive

End of 59 days. Firstly thanks to everyone who keeps pushing me, asking me why I'm not updating frequently... Apart from that, my photo priorities have changed. Initially I wanted this to be a purely people oriented project. Then I had a self-realization that its more about good or rather correct photography than anything else. Isn't the change noticeable.. some nature and abstract photos coming in lately..

Here is a archive of Feb 07... You like 365, please promote it and keep revisiting. Thanks.

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