Worth a thousand words

California Sunset

2010-12-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

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The Chief

2010-10-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

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Taken on a cold February morning in Philadelphia.

The Yacht

2010-08-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

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Inverted

2010-07-09T13:39:00.001-07:00

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This picture is of one of the towers in the Hearst Castle located south of Big Sur, CA.
This is one of the first pictures I took with a circular polarizer filter. I think it's brought out the colors beautifully.

Lit up

2010-06-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

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Taken from across the bay, this is a night shot of Long Beach, CA.

A Bridge of Light

2010-06-08T12:04:00.001-07:00

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This was taken in Long Beach, CA. I carry my camera pretty much every where I go. This time it was a business trip to Long Beach, CA and I was really glad I had brought my camera.

The Courthouse

2010-03-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

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Taken in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. The pic is of the courthouse built during colonial times.

The Camaro

2010-01-23T02:30:00.001-08:00

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Taken at the San Jose Auto Show, one of my favorite cars.

Big Sur

2009-08-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

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This was taken on the way to Big Sur. It was a windy day and clouds were moving fast overhead. This caused very interesting cloud shadow patterns on the hillside that I wanted to capture. This is actually a stitched image from 2 different images.

Lilac

2009-04-16T17:06:00.001-07:00

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This was taken in Big Sur, CA. It's a beautiful place to be during sunset. You can see the falls from a path carved out of the cliff. Facing the falls is the huge expanse of the Pacific Ocean and every evening it opens it's arms and welcomes the sun into it's bosom.

Serenity

2009-03-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

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This was taken at a small temple in Gilroy, CA. I took a couple of shots of this statue at different tilt angles but I found this one expressed the emotion of serenity the best.

Victorian

2009-02-22T11:10:00.001-08:00

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Taken on the Beringer winery this is a picture of the actual residence of the original owners of the winery in Napa, CA. The Victorian/Goth architecture was worth capturing especially with the rays of the setting sun casting a halo around the house.

Yosemite

2009-02-18T18:47:00.001-08:00

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This was taken in Yosemite Valley, CA. It was an overcast day and we had fresh snowfall the previous night. Where the sun shone the snow had melted to show a green hillside and the clouds made patches of shadows which I wanted to capture. So in this picture you see light on one side and shadows on the other side and the contrast it generates in nature, in terms of color. I took 4 pictures and stitched them together to create the panoramic shot. It is best seen by clicking on the picture.

Drawn to the light

2009-02-04T16:24:00.000-08:00

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A friend kindly allowed me to practice some studio portrait photography. The blur is intentional.

Heading to open seas

2008-12-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

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Taken on a Thanksgiving trip to Santa Cruz.

Wrong side of the tracks

2008-12-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

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Taken during my road trip somewhere in Nevada.

The Road Ahead

2008-11-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

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This was taken just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. The "sand" you see on the right side of the picture is actually salt. It's a beautiful place and lends itself to some good pictures. I'll post other pictures of the Great Salt Lakes of Utah soon.

Faith

2008-10-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

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The Seat of God

2008-01-16T14:54:00.001-08:00

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Taken in Bali, Indonesia, this picture was a little over exposed hence I decided to cover up the washed out colors by making the picture B/W and changing the color temperature to warm. By enhancing the shadows I further disguised the over exposure.

I decided to take the picture at an angle to take advantage of the lines in the picture.

I left my heart in San Francisco

2007-08-21T06:02:00.001-07:00

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When Flowers Cry

2007-07-10T06:45:00.001-07:00

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More Golden Than Ever

2007-06-20T14:34:00.001-07:00

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On a golden sunset I had the chance to be on the terrace of a tall building on a hill in San Francisco.

The Lady

2007-02-14T02:11:00.000-08:00

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Another picture from Philadelphia. I took this one on a cold, cloudy morning. There was just a little bit of sunlight and it was falling on this sculpture. In post editing I wanted to enhance the sunlight falling on the sculpture so I adjusted the color balance to focus on the reds and yellows while filtering out blues and greens. If you see closely you'll see the effect of the color balance shift in the sky(instead of being white it has a slight red-ish tint). I also adjusted the contrast to even out the sky behind since it only contained clouds. I like the play of light and shadow in this picture. Now that I think about it, I feel the picture would have looked even better if the background was white so that it blended with the page's white background.

Colors of the Season

2007-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

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After a hiatus I'm back with pictures from Philadelphia. It's such a culturally rich city, with its museums and architecture and sculptures. A landscape photographer's dream. I plan to experiment a little in photoshop so feel free to critique the attempts. Thanks.

Linear - Part Deux

2006-11-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

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Linear

2006-10-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

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Taken on a suburb train station in Philly, I like this pic because of all the various lines in the picture. Vertical, diagonal, horizontal and chaotic lines. The weather was kind of dull that day with overcast skies hence I decided to go with a slight sepia tone. Besides the tone gives it a rustic feel.

Sands of Time

2006-09-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

Somitra pointed out that there was some pixelization in this pic and that made me look at my post once again and I found out that I had set the height and width of the post thinking that I was using the higher resolution pic but instead I was using the 400px resolution pic that Blogger creates for your original pic. I have made the appropriate changes to the post so now there is no pixelization. Thanks Somitra for bringing it to my notice. :)

Tethered

2006-09-13T00:52:00.000-07:00

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The New Jersey skyline as seen from the Philly side. The setting sun decided to illuminate just the buildings making this a shot not to be missed. There was a big yacht moored at the Philly side and I angled the shot to make it seem as the city was tethered to the post. I did not quite succeed but still I thought I should put up the attempt.

Old Man

2006-07-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

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Taken while standing at a bus stop in Long Beach, CA, the thing that drew my attention to the shot was the play of light and shadows. Even though the sunlight's falling from the top right corner of the frame (which would have put the face of the old man in shadows due to the overhangs next to the face), its reflection on the white belly lit up the face.

Life Happens

2006-07-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while since I actively blogged. A lot of stuff's happening at my end with a new job and finding a place to live. It gets difficult to blog when you're a nomad. No no not like the Bedouin more like a urban nomad, so stop picturing me in a veil will ya? I haven't stop taking pictures though, only stopped posting them for a while. Famous last words before I end this post, "I'll be back!!"

Watching You

2006-06-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

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The lights on a tennis court just outside my patio. they look so much like eyes (with lids and everything) watching over the players. Always an audience at the tennis court.

Dinner

2006-06-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

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Every so often you get to come across a shot you didn't plan for. I was showing my uncle my camera and while he was checking out the features I looked up to see this. I grabbed the camera out of my uncle's hands (much to his shock) and tried to compose this shot (I was scared the cat might move away before I was able to compose this the way I wanted to). Luckily I was showing uncle the zoom lens so I didn't have to waste time changing lenses. The moment I saw the cat I knew exactly what was on its mind.... Dinner.

Since the bird house was on a pole (specially for such an occasion) I decided to put the hunter at the bottom right of the frame and the hunted at the top left corner. Unfortunately my canon only has 7 focus points to choose from and none is on a diagonal line so I had to choose between focusing on the birdhouse or the cat. I chose the birdhouse. If you look closely you can see the cat watching the bird house.

Spiritual Clarity

2006-06-06T09:22:00.000-07:00

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Sometimes you are not even looking for photo ops and they stare at you. The day this pic was taken the whole sky had dark foreboding clouds, heavy with rain. That's what I tried to capture by cropping this vertically to show the heavy clouds. Another reason this was cropped vertically was because it enhanced the vertical lines of the crosses. Amidst the dark heavy clouds it was strange to see that the only patch of clear sky was framing the head of the crosses. I had to take the pic.

Twins

2006-06-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

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Backbone

2006-05-31T01:14:00.000-07:00

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**UPDATE**

Taking Bakwaas' advice I cropped the first light pole. The edited version is here

The string of street lights reminded me so much of a spinal column of a whale I had seen in a museum as a child. Every time I passed this bridge I thought of taking this picture but either I was the driver so it would have been dangerous to take a pic or I didn't have my camera with me or it was night time and the pic was all blurry. This time I was in a bus so I could take the pic but there's some motion blur in it. Since I always wanted to capture the shot I didn't want to miss another chance. I've bumped the saturation a bit and cropped it slightly. That's about all the PP that I did.

Peeking through the Glass

2006-05-24T01:40:00.000-07:00

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That's my 75-300mm canon lens. I was cleaning lenses and noticed the depth of reflections the overhead lamp caused in the lens. Had to get the angle right to get maximum reflections in the maximum colors I could.

Looking Yonder

2006-05-20T19:29:00.000-07:00

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An experiment in selective coloring. The sky was a flat pale blue so I thought I'll make this B/W and then I thought I'll try giving it selective coloring. Took over an hour to do it. The result is mediocre but I'm putting it up anyways.

Circle of Love

2006-05-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

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This is from my archive. I recently told a friend about it and she couldn't find it so I'm posting this again. Besides most of you haven't seen it before.

Tick Tock

2006-05-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

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The thing that caught my attention while taking this shot was the angles of the lines in the shot. A single frame provided so many angles and they all blended beautifully (in my opinion). Its the clock over Long Beach train station.

Pillars 14 || Poles 7

2006-05-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

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"It's a bright sunny day in Long Beach, CA. The skies are blue, there's not one cloud in the sky, the temperature's a balmy 70 degrees and the fans have all come out to enjoy a good game and cheer their teams. This has been an exciting game so far. We are in the third quarter and the Pillars have the upper hand. The Poles haven't been able to break through the Pillar defence which looks like a brick wall. But don't count out the Poles just yet they are all men of Iron. The players are lined up. The Pillars in pink brick pattern jerseys and the Poles in daunting black striped jerseys" ... the small pole on the right side of the frame looks like a quarterback screaming "56!! 28!! 145!! Hutt!! Hutt!!" (or something like that... for those who don't know what the hell that is.. its something from American Football)

Speaking of American Football isn't it odd that the only time that the ball is actually hit with the foot is when one team has to hand over the ball to the other team and when a field goal has to be scored? the rest of the time the ball is carried in the hand...and YET its called "Football"....but its an exciting game to watch once you know what's going on and Super Bowl rocks!! Anurag Mathur was right when he named his novel "The Inscrutable Americans"

Totally Board or Totally Nuts?

2006-05-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

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There's a path of wooden boards on the edge of one of the lagoons near my place. Clean and polished (who does that anyways?clean I can understand but polished too??) I mean you can see the sunlight reflecting off of it in the frame. I was on my tummy trying to capture this pattern. I wanted to focus on only the first bolt and imply that the rest were symmetrical. I was down on my tummy for this one too and there were many joggers and walkers who rolled their eyes and probably thought "He's nuts!!" while others probably thought "That's what boredom will drive you to do"... well and there you have a pun for a title.

Carved in Stone (addendum) - Bird Brain

2006-05-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

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This pic is an addendum to the series Carved in Stone. It was taken in Long Beach, CA. The statue is of Lincoln I suppose and it felt as if all the pigeons were posing for me. I mean imagine the statue to be really big and instead of pigeons there are models posing on the pedestal. But you know how difficult it is to get top models..you call them and then wait till your grandkid picks up the phone one day and say "Grandpa it's Heidi Klum's assistant for you. She says she'll do the shoot now but only if you provide a walking stick and the lighting is not too harsh on her wrinkles"...and I roll my eyes and think geez now she'll perfectly with the writing on the statue "Old Glory"... Ok so you'll have to stretch your imagination to the limit, humor me will ya? Oh come on just for a minute. For a second?

Photographer's block

2006-05-08T01:26:00.000-07:00

I am suffering from a serious bout of photographer's block (a distant cousin of writer's block). I need a muse. Anyone volunteering? No? oh well I guess I'll just have to keep wandering the streets of San Francisco looking for my muse. I am currently working on a new theme... Elements.... But I want to make this theme creative... i.e. show the elements in a different perspective...so I'll put up some random pics till I have my theme ready... oh I almost forgot... I am running out of themes... so after elements how about everybody suggest themes and I'll compile the folio?? Just a thought... sleep on it...

Nocturnal - Cousin

2006-05-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

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Nocturnal - Stalwart

2006-04-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

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That's my neighborhood. Lagoons galore and beautiful walk ways. This was taken from under a bridge. The framing was pretty good. the water pretty calm and a wonderfully cool breeze ruffling the leaves. The neighborhood is all water front properties so there aren't any tall buildings. This one stands out and is the only one around for a couple of miles.

Nocturnal - Mothership

2006-04-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

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Again a shot from Long Beach. This one's of Queen Mary ship which was converted into a hotel. Maybe a little cropping might be needed but I got lazy. Again no tripod and no good place to keep the camera. The ship might look small here but believe me its HUGE. I think I was lucky to be staying at that hotel. At one end was the bridge in the previous post and on the other side was the Queen Mary, looking her regal self.

Nocturnal - Path of Light

2006-04-26T14:29:00.000-07:00

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This was taken in Long Beach, Southern Cali. from my hotel room... well not exactly a nocturnal shot but very close. There is slight blur to the pic because I didn't have a tripod and couldn't find a decent place to keep my camera while taking this shot. The low light caused the slightest shake of my hand to blur the pic. The next shot is more defined ... stay tuned... I want to say Thanks to Pavithra for helping me out with the template so that I can put full size pics up here.

Carved in Stone - Bookworm

2006-04-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

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This is my last post of this series. This figurine was about 7 inches tall and 11 inches long. I had to lay down flat on my tummy to get the angle. Taking a full frontal shot would have hidden the body and the relaxing pose of the figure so I took the shot at a slight angle. Took a couple of shots from other angles too but this one came out the best in my opinion.

Stay tuned for the next series.. Nocturnal

Carved in Stone - Fountain of Youth

2006-04-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

**UPDATE**
A fellow photography buff and a really good photographer, Prashant pointed out that more interesting angles of the previous shot were in order so Prashant here they are ... besides I took these and the fountain a week after I got my camera and was in a Point and Shoot mode.. I had yet to learn about angles, composition, lighting and exposure. Not that I know all that stuff now but I'm getting there... hehehe so keep those comments coming on how to make the shot better...

Thy Will Be Done

This is a closer shot of the sculpture on top of the building in the previous shot. I changed the color temperature of the pic to give it a more foreboding look.

This is a closeup shot of the fountain. Its slightly out of focus, the framing isn't done properly, so I didn't post it before. I plan to go to Vegas again now that I know more about digital photography. Vegas has such a multitude of subject matter that I wish I had gone there after I had read some books on photography.. well whenever I do I'll post the pics...

On a side note..anyone who's done portrait photography I would appreciate it if you could tell me what books you read to learn it or if you didn't read any book then what principles do you go by when taking portrait shots? I wanna get into it and am preparing myself for it so your comments would be really appreciated. Thanks everyone for your comments.

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Another shot from Vegas. The oxidized copper's green color provided a nice contrast with the cream colored building and that was in good contrast with the blue of the sky making this an interesting shot. You have to see the larger image since the small preview doesn't do it justice. It was very bright that day so the shot looks a little overexposed. I should have used bracketing however I was just starting out at the time and didn't know bracketing from bucketing. Another interesting thing about this picture is that the left side of the building is in shadows while the right side of the fountain is in shadows which makes it really interesting since there is only one light source - the sun.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Critical comments are welcome too so please help me get better or an opportunity to explain why I shot it the way I did. Thanks again.

Carved in Stone - Fiery Headdress

2006-04-20T03:03:00.000-07:00

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Carved in Stone - Weathered Innocence

2006-04-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

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This pic was taken on a trip to North Carolina. The statue of the child amid flowers looked so innocent. The red tulips (atleast I think they are tulips.. I could be wrong) gave the pic a splash of color since the rest of the pic is of pastel colors. The title was inspired by the statue and its condition. Look closely and you'll see what I mean.

Carved in Stone - Angels Rejoice

2006-04-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

	A crisp morning. Bright sunlight. clear blue skies and a stark white series of angels. what more could I ask for.
Such a crisp shot made me want to experiment with toning. Sepia was the obvious choice. But it wasn't too effective, though the edges were clear and sharp. It looked like a gradual tint was applied but the only processing was changing the original to sepia.
	Well if sepia won't do the trick I thought why not experiment with negatives. It was such a crisp morning that the negative came out really well in my opinion. It defines the edges so well.. something that you might want to experiment with... try it.. it might give unexpected results ...

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The first post of this series. I had taken this one a long time ago in Vegas. I had just got my camera and was in a "Shoot all mode" The receding line of trumpets in this is what caught my eye. Taken from the bottom it gives sense of depth. And since the rest of the angels were mirror images of the first one I wanted to capture just one and then imply the others just by their trumpets.

Nature's Nuggets - Circle of Life

2006-04-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

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This is my last post of this series. This pic was such a good representation that winter was over and spring had arrived. The last leaf hanging on as a new bud sprouts. The circle of life. Stay tuned for my next series... Carved in Stone

Nature's Nuggets - Ablution

2006-04-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

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There were two pictures I wanted to post in this series before I was interrupted by work. Not that I'm free now but I've decided not to get bogged down by it. This picture incidentally was taken at work on my trip to HQ in Long Beach, CA. Every day at 4pm a group of birds comes to drink and bathe in the fountain just outside my office. Its like clockwork. 4pm sharp. The only post processing on this pic was cropping it. The bird had just come up for air after dunking its head in the cool water (drops of water flying everywhere). I had a couple of pics of the bird with its head in the water but they didn't define the shape of the bird as well as this one did. I thought of cropping part of the bottom but wanted to include the peach reflection of the office building. Stay tuned for the last pic in this series tomorrow.

Forced Sabbatical

2006-04-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me and I don't see these busy days ending anytime soon. Please check in next week for updates. For now its back to burning the midnight oil for me.

Nature's Nuggets - Camouflage

2006-03-28T08:40:00.000-08:00

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I am glad you guys brought up the 2/3 rule because Jim Krause does mention it in his book Photo Idea Index and I think its a great rule to work with too since it does make for more interesting shots. Sometimes keeping a subject in the center is just plain and mediocre. It must have been in my subconcious when I took the previous shot and also this one. Thanks for your comments. In this pic I was tracking this humming bird with my camera and it flew into a shrub where it was making its nest. Once it entered the bush I just couldn't find it in my camera frame. It was so well hidden. I guess it had to be since it was in a place where it would be raising little humming birds and should be as safe as possible. Finally after searching for 15 minutes I finally found it in my frame. I had thought of making the shot a focal B/W but that sort of takes away the sense of how well the bird was camouflaged. So even though its a busy shot and doesn't make the main subject stand out that's kind of what I was going for anyways.

Nature's Nuggets - Which way did the Cat go?

2006-03-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

(Click the pic for a zoom view)

The first pic of this series. When I took the pic the sparrow sat there and kept looking left and right which inspired the title. Sam thanks for bringing to my notice that people cannot read my mind.. he he so here's why I kept the sparrow on the left side of the frame.

1. It is apparent in the picture that the sparrow is the subject matter so I didn't "have to" put it in the center to show that it was the subject.

2. The bird is looking left so by keeping it on the left and not showing what it's looking at I could essentially say what it was looking at (a cat in this instance) even though actually it was looking at nothing in particular.

3. And last since the bird was looking left I wanted to place it near the edge of the frame so that it seemed as if it was actually looking "outside" the frame. That didn't come out too well but that was the idea.

End of Days - Floating on Glass

2006-03-25T00:40:00.000-08:00

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Thanks everyone for all your comments. I really appreciate everyone taking time to write a few encouraging words.. This is the last pic of this series. I posted this one before too but I felt it deserved a place in this category. It was taken one evening at a lagoon near my apartment. The next series is

Nature's Nuggets

End of Days - Mi Casa es Su Casa

2006-03-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

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(My house is your house)

I wanted to capture the sun shining its final rays over the house on the left but the lighting wasn't right. The bright sun forced the shutter speed to be high causing the house to be under exposed. The sunset however was beautiful. And how I wished that was my house. And if I didn't get the title right let me know... my spanish is rustic

End of Days - Flying into Apocalypse

2006-03-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

This pic was my attempt at capturing the sun full on. I waited for 10 minutes for a bird to fly through my shot. It just felt empty without a flying bird. What do you say Sam? Isn't it really similar to the pic on your blog?

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End of Days - Warm Brushstrokes

2006-03-20T22:06:00.000-08:00

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End of Days - Celestial Artistry

2006-03-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

The first pic of this week's theme. This picture was taken on a road trip I took to Big Sur State park. I was afraid the clouds at the horizon would mask the beautiful sunset but they just gave it their own brush stroke.
Its when you see such beautiful works of nature that you tend you question who or what is behind all this? You realize your place in the grand scheme of things and see how you are but a tiny speck in this beautiful Celestial Artistry.

Sepia Dreams - Entre Vous

2006-03-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

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The end of a busy week brings an end to this week's theme

Sepia Dreams

This is the last pic of the theme taken at a friend's apartment complex. Though slightly blurred I felt a little sepia would bring out the shades... ha that's a paradox.... A new week and a new theme... Coming up....

End of Days

Sepia Dreams - Walk the walk

2006-03-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

Sepia Dreams - Electrical Super Highway

2006-03-16T07:54:00.000-08:00

Sepia Dreams - Leisure

2006-03-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Wish I could be sitting on that bench right now... its been a hectic week at work and this picture reminds me of carefree days I had when I took this pic.

Sepia Dreams - Down the Drain

2006-03-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

The original blue tint in the original picture wasn't bringing out the essence of the subject. The lighting was really low as it was way past sunset. Making it sepia in my opinion makes it well defined.

Sepia Dreams - Here Kitty Kitty

2006-03-13T01:24:00.000-08:00

With this post I have decided to put a thematic twist to my blog. This week's theme will be sepia. The cat in the picture got almost lost in the wall background in the original picture but when I turned it to sepia I could see its outline better. Besides the colors were shades of brown and dark green anyways so I decided to turn it to sepia.

Migration

2006-03-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

I took this picture for two reasons. First the contrast of the orange clouds with the blue looked beautiful and also the shape of the migrating birds looked so similar to the cloud formation.

Lamps

2006-03-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of a bridge near my apartment. I've become enamored with night shots and I tried hard to get the whole bridge but for that I would have had to wade into the lagoon. It feels like the street lights are the reason for the orange glow in the sky and that's why I took this picture.

Marry Me

2006-03-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

This picture is one of the entries in a photo contest by Shutterfly. Please click here to vote for it if you like it. Thanks.

Lighthouse

2006-03-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

The most brightly lit house on the block no doubt. It looked so cheerful compared to the dark serene apartments in the background. I had to place the camera on a wall to steady it because there was actually very little light except from the house. The perfectly still waters of the lagoon were great for capturing reflections.

Waiting

2006-03-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

I was out for a walk one evening and as by now you must already know, I carry my camera with me wherever I can, I came across this bridge and it looked so symmetrical. The street lamps formed a passage of sorts. The empty road adds to the feeling of waiting shown by the person standing under the bus stop sign.

The Pier

2006-02-26T23:56:00.000-08:00

I used a telephoto lens to take this shot of two friends having a picnic at a pier on a secluded lake in Napa Valley. Post shot editing was done to highlight the blue color in the picture while making the rest black.

Indian Idol

2006-02-26T23:53:00.000-08:00

The idea behind this shot of an Indian god was to show that there is darkness before one meets God (call Him by whatever name you may) and once the blinding glory of God is upon you there's enlightenment thereafter.

The Green Bee

2006-02-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

I was practicing my close up shots on a bright sunny morning in Atlanta. What's an amateur photography portfolio without a closeup of a flower with a bee inside it??. I searched high and low for bees, I even called up the Queen Bee but she refused to budge from her hive. Crestfallen I decided to see what could be done to establish my amateur status and there it was... A bud that looked so uncannily like a bee. It gives me great pleasure to join the official ranks of Amateur Photographers...

Smoke Signals

2006-02-25T02:10:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken at a lake in the Napa Valley. The cloud formation was very interesting and I found that if I slanted the camera a bit the clouds looked like smoke signals given by Native Americans to communicate. By slanting the camera I was able to provide the feeling that the clouds were in motion and were actually emanating from the hillside completing the effect of puffs of smoke.

Speedy Gonzales

2006-02-25T01:17:00.000-08:00

I was visiting my cousin in Sunnyvale and as I walked into his yard I noticed a bunch of snails on a shrub in the yard. The lighting was diffused because of clouds and that brought out the green in the leaves. The color of the snails was in stark contrast with the leaves and I thought it would be a great opportunity to practice my close-up shots. While I was naming this picture I started thinking about snails and almost became one. I thought if I was a snail I would want to be famous and what's more famous in a snail world than a speedy snail? Heh!

Steeple of Chaos

2006-02-25T01:15:00.000-08:00

This was a surprise shot. I took this shot from the window of a moving car. The building looked beautiful standing out on the horizon, hidden behind the trees. When I took the shot the subject in my mind was to capture a building of peace trapped behind a mesh thus making attaining peace a challenge. The surprise was the blurring of the trees in the foreground. It depicted a fast moving, chaotic world and the clarity of the building showed a steady figure that might be responsible for bring order to the madness. The shot was taken in Baltimore.

2006-02-25T01:10:00.000-08:00

The bridge to nowhere

Around the bend

2006-02-25T01:07:00.000-08:00

The symmetry of the lines on the road is what caught my attention to this shot. The swoop provided the sense of direction that I needed to show. To highlight the swoop I took the shot from near the ground instead of standing up. The shot was taken on a road trip to Big Sur state park on Pacific Coast highway.

Love

2006-02-25T00:57:00.000-08:00

Love is a slow kiss. It's anticipation.
Love is a flaw in your lover, not bothering you. It's acceptance.
Love is a kiss starting at the lips,ending at the toes.It's exploring.
Love is dancing together in the rain.It's joy.
Love is the arms around you tightening their embrace. It's ecstasy.
Love is seeing a new side of a person you knew. It's renewal.
Love is saying goodbye and knowing we will be back. It's faith.
Love is stories that will never be told. It's personal.
Love is a warmth enveloping your whole being. Its pure.
Love is two beings with one soul. Its eternal.

Check out this poem at Poetry.com

2006-02-25T00:52:00.000-08:00

Warmth

Sunset on the Pacific coast highway is beautiful. A perfect end to a great day. There was a chill in the air and my friend has the collar of his jacket up. The colors of the sun at the time of this shot reminded me of a warm fire.

2006-02-25T00:44:00.000-08:00

Quaint

The country side on the ride to Napa Valley is beautiful. The day was bright and clear. I've always been fascinated with the pictures of French and British country side I've seen in magazines or ads and I've wanted to take one of my own. This shot had everything I wanted; a quaint house in the foreground holding the shot in place, birds on a cable filling out the left side of the shot, a hillside with smaller cottages, a house at the top and lush green grass complemented by a bright blue sky peppered with the (in my opinion) perfect collection of clouds.

2006-02-25T00:42:00.000-08:00

Spread your Wings

2006-02-25T00:39:00.000-08:00

Solar Crosshairs

Just another example of why you should carry your camera wherever you go. This shot was taken when I was out playing golf with my friend in Atlanta, GA. A couple of planes had trailed white smoke creating a criss cross pattern in the sky. I had to walk half a mile to get the sun exactly in the intersection of the trails. Taking a picture of the sun is always difficult and for this shot I had to point it directly at the sun. The direct light blocked the bright blue of the sky but it didn't matter because the cross hair effect was the main subject of this shot anyways.

2006-02-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

Veins of Wood

There are times when you'll get a photo opportunity when you least expect it. That's why I carry my camera with me everywhere I go. In this case I was driving down to my local grocery store and looked up to see this great cloud formation with a beautiful diffused pink color. Now I had taken a lot of cloud pictures and I wanted to take this one too but not just by itself. Even though it was beautiful on its own I thought it would make a great backdrop for another subject. The hunt was on to find a great subject matter that could use the cloud formation as a backdrop. In a nearby park I was walking under some trees when I looked up and the first thing that came to my mind was "The branches look so much like veins". And that started me thinking that the pink clouds would be perfect to depict a healthy organ with the tree's branches as veins. It was difficult to position myself to maximise the effect of veins.

2006-02-20T22:30:00.000-08:00

Reeds

2006-02-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

Cove

2006-02-20T22:27:00.000-08:00

Flowers

Children of Shadow

2006-02-20T22:25:00.000-08:00

Silhouettes are beautiful. Period. And when you get a chance to shoot a silhouette of an interesting sculpture, tree or even a person don't let that opportunity pass you by. If you get a good backdrop for your silhouette shot that's like icing on the cake. I took this shot of a school playground sculpture near my place. It looked beautiful in bright sunlight by I felt it would look even better as a silhouette shot. I cropped the picture to provide a better frame and removed part of the sky and the dark background. By taking the shot at an elevation angle, making the sculpture span the natural gradient color of the background from orange to blue I hoped to give it a sense of towering into the sky even though the sculpture is only 10 feet in height.

Floating on Glass

2006-02-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

Here's the thing about wide angle shots, they capture a lot of lanscape, landscape that you never intended to be in the shot. A tighter shot is needed which might guide us to use a telephoto lens but then you don't get the panoramic view that you want. What's the alternative? Welcome to the world of cropping. This picture had a lot of sky captured. And the vast expanse of the sky took the focus away from the main subject of the picture. It has been my experience that while taking wide angle shots don't worry too much about removing stuff from the frame while taking a shot. Concentrate on the subject matter and frame it to maximize the effect you are going for. Then come back to your editing software and crop the picture to remove the extra stuff and tighten the shot.

2006-02-20T22:22:00.000-08:00

The Burning Bush

Pink and blue = Flame in my mind when I noticed this cloud formation in Atlanta. By itself I could not have conveyed the message of Flame so I positioned the shot with a bush in the foreground to give the effect that the bush was on fire.

2006-02-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

2006-02-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

My Backyard

Girl on the Moon

2006-02-18T17:43:00.000-08:00

The sculpture of a little girl looking out into the sky was a great subject but she wasn't looking at anything in particular. I wanted to take the shot of the girl but didn't want her staring into empty space. I waited till dusk when the moon became clearly visible and positioned myself and took the shot from below to set the moon in the line of sight of the girl. I put the focus on the moon because the girl out of focus still looked like a girl where as if the moon had been blurred I wouldn't have been able to show that the girl was looking at the moon (it looked like a bulb with the focus on the girl)

2006-02-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

A Slice of Heaven

2006-02-18T17:01:00.001-08:00

Once in a Pink Moon

Finally a shot of the moon that was clear. I've tried umpteen number of times to capture the moon at night. I've tried holding my hand steady but the shot was always blurred. Then I put the camera on a stand and still could not get the details I wanted. I decided that taking a shot of the moon at night would require a telephoto zoom lens that would annihilate my bank balance. To get a clear shot of the moon I waited till dusk when there was just enough light not to have a real slow shutter speed and still dark enough to provide a nice background for the moon. It was my luck that the rays of the setting sun gave a pink tint to the moon. Overall I was very pleased with this shot.

2006-02-18T17:01:00.000-08:00

In Bloom

2006-02-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

Last one standing