covers .. cauldron 2011-12-18 wide angle landscapes .. and wide photos .. patterns .. blaaaahh, cauldron 2011-12-03 5+ hours of non-stop raining this saturday evening ensured i get something done .. here is a 6 storey building of just spiraling stairs and nothing else and half a mile long line-up in a strip mall timely .. night, photowalk 2011-08-30 here is the first timely post in 1.5 years .. this pic was shot tonight !! bridge to somewhere .. travel, cauldron 2011-07-16 early morning shot .. was taken on the first outing after winter .. [needless to mention, jpeg compression of a 140mb hdr image file into a 453kb file turns it into a piece of shit] skywards .. travel, photowalk 2011-07-16 smells like vacation .. travel 2011-06-20 havent been online for a week now .. (almost) forgot what day of the week it is .. phone charger has disappeared, so no more phone for the next 2 weeks.. neon .. travel, photowalk 2011-05-18 freezing good times .. masked .. cauldron, photowalk 2011-02-19 i never put pics of people here .. but since they are masked i guess its ok .. bike & hike .. cauldron 2011-01-30 there was also a sail before that .. sundays with no plans means digging thru the cauldron for old pics .. icy .. blaaaahh 2011-01-23 p. a. t. h. blaaaahh 2011-01-16 dreadfully empty on a sunday .. rooftop .. events 2011-01-09 new years eve .. yonge & dundas .. blaaaahh, night 2011-01-08 where the santa at .. travel 2010-12-26 tried to check-in at north pole on foursquare when the flight was close to north pole .. and didnt work as expected .. this was some epic haze in hong kong .. visibility was as good as a blizzard .. blindingly bright over china .. colorful red sunset over japan .. so .. christmas day is kinda over .. and its early christmas morning again .. over the arctic region .. so .. where is the santa ?? [my eyes are now burning after 6 continuous movies .. and where is my breakfast .. ] got treated to the awesome views of snow covered mountain ranges over sunrise .. so .. i am within the arctic circle over alaska / yukon / british colombia .. i was driving around and camping in this awesome arctic wilderness in 2008 .. that trip needs to be repeated again .. shooting the shooters .. photowalk 2010-12-19 urban .. archives, travel 2010-12-10 getting close to the civilization .. its already 4 in the morning on a saturday .. and there is a whole day ahead o me .. trails .. archives, events 2010-11-20 just leave the shutter open .. and have some fries .. b/w snakes .. archives, b/w 2010-11-16 these pics were taken long back .. today im lazy and decided to look thru the cauldron .. this one was in a spot with the perfect lighting .. this one was hiding .. and this one was fancy & bling .. two more .. blaaaahh 2010-11-07 shooting in the dark without flash, hand held shot, not much ambient light .. @ an art gallery .. art, b/w 2010-10-30 some b/w love @ an art gallery .. the works were in the range $8,000 to $64,000 .. ( no wonder they were giving out free drinks and cookies to anyone who walked-by.. ) @ an ethnic show .. travel 2010-10-08 that fireball is definitely bigger than a person !! and .. travel 2010-09-12 ".. for once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return." -- Leonardo da Vinci [ waiting at the airports means i get to type shit on notepad, hoping to publish it later .. and then delete them all before boarding the flight .. ] the flight wings at sunrise time .. golden .. blaaaahh 2010-05-29 i found this digging thru the hard drives .. again a 3-exposure .. i like the 3-d like effect on the clouds at the upper left .. what now .. travel 2010-05-20 awesome blue skies .. and ocean sized lakes .. and mountains that fade into the horizon .. say hello to images with epic colors and contrasts .. that summer .. blaaaahh, archives 2010-05-12 the too-young-to-be-my-cousins were here .. and my place has literally been a day care for the past 1.5 weeks .. the tv played movies non-stop .. there was all the board games and screeching noises .. there were trips to places on bloody-hot-summery-afternoons .. continuous consumption of junk food .. a photo-outing should be in order .. its been a while .. wanderlust .. blaaaahh 2010-05-08 pricey lenses make fences disappear .. the mirage like cross near the beak is the fence .. would you have found it out if i didnt say so ? its surprising how royal and satisfying it feels to hold a unaffordable / pricey gadget .. this was the pic i took for world water day .. but its taken me so long to get to looking at this pic .. how the hell did i get here .. blaaaahh, archives, travel 2010-04-18 life can sometimes be underwhelming .. just sayin .. prefferred .. archives, travel 2010-04-17 @ pdy .. blaaaahh, travel 2010-04-12 i hate the heat .. and the summer is here .. it was soooo great to finally meet up with rbr and rksuper .. i miss the back-bencher days .. b/w .. travel 2010-03-21 the below two pics show why you should always use in-camera profiles instead of post-processing .. first one is shot in color and post-processed .. see how the sepia did not apply to the high-exposure parts of the pic .. stand here .. this sucks 2010-02-27 a neat idea to mark the perfect spot so tourists can get the entire background in their pictures .. they need to use paint or something for the markings .. instead of bandages and markers .. about radios .. blaaaahh, travel 2010-02-23 need to use the (holga-like, cheap, plastic, flea market) film camera more .. and who says animals dont enjoy music .. being a biker .. blaaaahh, travel 2010-02-01 two awesome and crazy long road trips on my motorbike .. that too .. back to back over the past two weekends .. but my back hurts so much now .. i need to get back to physical activities on a regular basis, which doesnt happen anymore .. also, i dont have a pic of my motorbike .. yet .. happy new year .. blaaaahh 2010-01-01 was watching the fireworks from the roof-top .. but did not realize i can just walk a few steps into my home and bring my camera .. and may be take some fireworks pics from the roof-top, without having to deal with being outdoors .. by the time i did .. i could only take this pic .. blaaaahhhhh .. blaaaahh 2009-12-22 its been raining crazy .. and not a single instance where i could drive without being interrupted by the rain gods .. its awesome though .. flights and sunlight .. blaaaahh 2009-12-10 homeless .. blaaaahh, this sucks 2009-11-30 closed the lease on the apartment i lived for a good long time .. im gonna to be couching / crashing for the next 2 nights .. and then hop on the flight .. things are half-packed .. and some shopping done .. too little time .. too much to do .. super excited .. events, photowalk 2009-11-09 epic times ahead .. super excited .. this is as abstract as a post can get .. if you know me .. you already know why im so excited now .. photography must be the coolest job ever .. blaaaahh, travel, photowalk 2009-11-01 or .. being a tourist might even be more awesome .. 'tourism' wants me to be able to throw away money and evidently i dont have enuf of it .. yet .. did a smaller version of a road-trip and good thing is i did have the focused motivation to take some pics .. i wish it was more like a planned longer trip .. and i also wish the weekend is not already over .. this weekend was the busy kind .. the awesome and busy kind .. all this in two short days -- -- 2 b'day parties and a lunch with someone .. -- and i did the nocturnal thing sat morning .. -- was on the roads doing the short trip on sunday morning to evening .. -- and went bowling on sunday night .. it was good times .. and a few shots from the weekend .. now that i have wandered as much as possible over the weekend .. i should really get some sleep before another work week starts in just 5 hours .. nocturnals photo walk .. photowalk 2009-10-31 a photo walk after a very very long time .. a bunch of nocturnals grouped up at windy lakefront at around 5 am .. when its windy and 29f outside .. also happens to be the first weekend in october when its not raining .. we waited for the sunrise .. i was more interested in the warmth it was going to bring .. (though i am here expecting to shoot a colorful sunrise .. ) stand on the lakefront when it is cold and windy .. and you will be more interested in the warmth than a colorful sunrise .. the birds graced us with their presence.. i wanted to take a pic with the silhouettes of a bunch of photographers .. but they were all way too scattered to get in a single frame .. saw this bike on my way toward the north-east end of the drive .. and the same bike while coming back .. and then .. on my way back .. stopped at the bean .. i guess there are not many crazy people outside at this early hour on a cold morning .. the bean was totally clean and shiny because of all the raining .. must have dried clean as it stopped raining last night .. by the time i finished my coffee .. a few tourists started to show up .. and thanks mike (cdp) for putting this photo walk together .. all gloomy again .. gotta run home before it starts to rain .. again .. ????????? blaaaahh, this sucks 2009-10-29 the current state of my mind is wierd - anxious but relaxed .. i hope things get sorted out the way i want it to be .. (believe me .. its not something too much to ask for ..) another post on the same day .. blaaaahh 2009-10-12 was looking at the pics i took at rithi's b'day party .. and came across these pics that i took two months back .. just realized that i have never posted twice on the same day .. except today .. i cant remember if those faces are really 3d .. or is it just awesome 2d paintings that are looking like 3d .. 2 more pics from the caves-hike .. and some random pics from the beer-bottling factory .. that is all .. hmm .. just the appetizers please .. blaaaahh 2009-09-19 that was my order tonight for dinner at the pizza place .. i ordered just the cheese sticks and cheese fries .. and got the look .. obviously .. i was thinking to skip the dinner tonight .. but at 8.45 pm i somehow felt a appetite for cheese fries .. so .. off i go to the pizza place near my apartment .. i thought i'd be thrown out if i just asked for the fries .. so .. just to make it sound like a real purchase .. i asked for the cheese sticks too .. it was fun to see the reaction on her face .. woah .. has it been that long already .. blaaaahh, awesomeness 2009-08-27 a big yyaaaayyyy for all the new experiences, all the traveling, epic places that i visited, various people i met, the things i did, some awesome things i did even though i cant believe i did it, some things i screwed up, and what not .. its been really good times .. here is a equally awesome sunset .. from 1000 ft above the ground .. on the roads .. after quite a while .... blaaaahh, travel 2009-08-24 its been a while since i was on the roads .. so .. a quick 2 day, 3 stop, road-trip was in order .. did some shopping friday night .. and started to drive at the stroke of midnight .. went straight to st louis .. to atop the arch .. and then roamed around for a while .. this pic from atop the arch makes the building look like a miniature model .. but its not .. may be i shud give this pic to D and ask her to do that photoshop thing (i dont do much of photo editing .. hence no photoshop for me .. ), where it makes everything to look like miniature models .. then we head to the budweiser beer bottling unit .. and got some education on how the beer was brewed and stuff .. i think they said that it takes a minimum of 6 days to brew a bottle of beer .. and i gulp it down in 60 seconds .. and at the end of the educational tour, i got 2 free beers (at around 9.30 am !) .. awesome .. so .. we head straight for some good lunch .. now .. morning beer + awesome food = nap in the car .. ha ha .. then .. a 1.5 hrs drive to the caves .. the plan was a 1.5 hrs hike into the caves .. at the beginning it kinda was boring .. but as we hiked deep into the caves .. we got to see some interesting formations .. this formation was the most awesome amongst all .. and man .. 'caves-dark' is really dark .. and this reflections off the water gave some really cool illusions of the depth of the water .. now .. i am all tired .. and had to drive for quite some distance for food .. and then checked-in into the hotel for some good sleep .... a good long shower and a quick breakfast later .. i head to springfield .. visited the lincoln home and the neighborhoods kept the old looks of the streets .. it was a very small tour though .. and had lots of time to kill around .. so .. drove to the capitol building .. and thats it !! there is nothing else in this place .. i mean this place is really deserted to be called as the capital of the state .. then it was just a straight 5+ hrs drive home .. with some pizzas for lunch .. todays adventures .. blaaaahh 2009-08-05 just a rant about my least adventurous day .. been staring at the computers for nearly 35 hrs in the past 48 hrs .. literally .. and its been more than 24 hours since i ate anything .. im working on the blogs and i intend to get this done today .. well thats what i thought when i started working yesterday .. hoping that the weekend will be better than this .. and i am also thinking about getting some food .. looooooonnnnggggg pending stuff .. blaaaahh 2009-08-05 so .. it has been a long time since i posted anything .. this is an update that i am really trying to fix my blogs (broken again) .. all the old posts are still sitting in the hard drive as xml files (luckily they have survived the time) .. and one good thing is i can easily filter the old and stupid stuff now .. so the number of posts is gonna get halved i guess .. i have updated a few old posts to test and see how things are working .. heres a year old pic anyway .. summer .. events 2009-07-20 its all about the beaches .. boats .. and outdoor fun .. for a cause .. causes, events 2009-05-06 when the employer says the $150 will be sponsored if you run, you run .. i have been volunteering & donating wherever i can since i was a kid, but havent participated anywhere in the past year .. so, this is a awesome thing that ual is doing .. paparazzi .. @ run for cancer awareness .. huge turnout @ run for cancer awareness .. even the dog got dressed in pink .. hike .. yay .. blaaaahh 2009-05-04 ppl read this .. look around .... and feed the elk .... this is how it works .. mile 2 of 18 .. this is gonna be awesome .. rock star .. blaaaahh 2009-04-27 this is what happens when kids play too much of 'gta' .. im myself a huge fan of the game though .. :) bricked .. this sucks, tech crap 2009-04-07 as much as i am trying not to sit in front of the computers after work .. situations are forcing me to do it over and over .. the only valuable things in my hard drive are my pics and music .. may be a few other files (called resume, plus some legal stuff) .. the netbook that runs on win-xp crashed two nights back .. some registry files are screwed up for no reason .. and there is no way to do anything about it .. and this being a netbook only makes things worse .. the reason this really sucks is .. i wanted to clean up the hard drive of my laptop and defragment it .. so .. i had backed-up all of my hard drive on the netbook .. and formatted and re installed the os on my laptop .. as the long and boring process of re-installation continues, and the endless list of softwares i need are being downloaded, my netbook is playing some music .. and then, the playlist moves on to play some videos .. and troubles start .. first media player stops responding .. and slowly .. even the task manager stops responding .. neat .. i have no other option but to restart .. only that it wont restart .. after wasting about an hour, the only obvious outcome - netbook is toast .. update after all the reading and searching .. i got back every single file from the netbook !! so .. no more win xp for the netbook, say hello to linux .. im still going to keep the vista on the laptop, as i have some softwares that require windows .. i know a lotta people would have faced a situation like this .. so i will try to post a detailed list on how to deal with netbook os crashes .. even if you dont even have a external cd/dvd to reinstall the os .. hey microsoft .. i need all that time back .. spring .. supposedly .. blaaaahh 2009-04-02 so .. its second day of spring .. and it snowed .. message - 'it aint over until i say its over' .. its h-o-clock .. guess what i found .. blaaaahh 2009-03-29 paint the city green .. events, photowalk 2009-03-25 hope y'all had a great st. patricks day .. (michelle's cake) a while .. blaaaahh 2009-03-15 ski and freeze .. awesomeness 2009-02-28 late night skiing this weekend .. i had to take a larger than normal sized skii today .. and that means extraaaaa speed .. the temperatures dropped and sitting in the lift froze my hand and i was not even able to remove my headphones .. though i had fun .. was terribly cold .. must have waited for a better day .. cold .. blaaaahh 2009-01-30 so .. it has not been snowing for the past 3 days .. but temperatures have been terrible .. with record lows today .. - 36'c (minus 36 celsius !!) and winds of 40-50 mph .. this is a 3 storied building .. look at that ice (string?) formation .. its as tall as atleast 9 feet .. around 2 am now .. they switched off the lights and closed the alley too .. if i dont get out now .. they will come and kick butt .. photochallenge .. photowalk 2009-01-10 stalled .. this sucks 2008-12-16 heavy snow storm here .. stalled traffic on i-90 .. late .. awesomeness, photowalk 2008-10-14 past sunset @ forest preserves .. rushing to get out before a cop shows up .. .. blaaaahh, travel 2008-10-07 im not sure if i will ever get around to the pics from new york, florida, etc , etc , etc .. that is one very very rarely used kitchen .. does keeping milk in refrigerator count as using the kitchen .. blinding .. blaaaahh, photowalk 2008-10-04 bright sunlight in winter is more binding .. and again .. in b/w .. b/w, cdp, photowalk 2008-09-29 b/w pics from the cdp photowalk .. the bug that kept moving .. cdp .. cdp, photowalk 2008-09-28 i should try and hang out with the photographers more often for two reasons .. first, its okay be lying flat on the road with a camera when you in a group of people who are doing something similiar .. and second, this might be only boost i have gotten so far to go out and take pics of random things (which is what i actually want to do, but havent gotten around to even after having the camera for a while now) .. i need to start learning something bout editing pics .. atleast in this case i need to know editing to remove the bird poop in the pic .. this is the road to hell right at this moment .. we walked till the end .. and now there was nothing else to shoot at .. so i took this one .. photowalk .. cdp, photowalk 2008-09-22 .. with cdp .. im already planning to hang out with the photographers next weekend too .. perfect reflections .. noise .. photowalk 2008-09-18 an old pic (one of the firsts with the new camera) .. noise reduction in dpp does seem to work .. or does it ?? awesomeness .. awesomeness, travel 2008-09-05 .. really .. if you have visited alaska, you already know what i am talking about .. if you havent yet .. you really should visit this unbelievably beautiful place .. so .. it has been a full week of some extra-ordinary travel .. a little bit of crazy things .. (hiking a glacier in the dark so i can see the sunrise from atop, bear in the parking lot) .. and traveling solo means a whole world of freedom too .. however i am totally drained out .. and this is going to be a post of just few words - an epic trip and i will be back in alaska again sometime .. i cant wait to see the pics i took .. atleast a few should resemble the awesomeness this place is .. update: pics are now in the gallery .. the neighbourhood .. photowalk 2008-07-07 walking around the neighborhood .. @ the local fest .. dangerously close ?? if you are wondering .. blaaaahh 2007-11-15 if you are wondering why this first post is weird, or blogs here have no continuity .. well there is a bunch of the old posts (from 2005 - now) that *might* be moved from the old site .. its been a while since the old blog went down .. and now its all just a bunch of xml files .. i have been thinking about rewriting the whole photo-blog thing .. so i could make it easy to move around the hosting services without having to sweat about it .. so .. i plan to re-write the whole thing and then move the old blogs over here .. i am already gathering some ideas about what / how i want it look like .. lots of researching and learning new stuff ahead .. and i am looking at blogs of tons of people .. pick out whatever i like for appearance / themes / ui / content .. but i am not going to get my own domain name yet .. especially because i need to be able to use some kind of services .. and see what options are available, and see which ones are really flexible .. lets see how this turns out .. domain name yet .. especially because i need to be able to use some kind of services .. and see what options are available, and see which ones are really flexible .. lets see how this turns out ..