Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Humri photu to kheencho........

A casual conversation with a friend was what introduced me to words like shutter speed, aperture, camera lenses etc. Yes, the world of photography. So, I decided to make myself more aware of these photographic terms and their significance while clicking pitures. The same friend had shown me a Canon SLR camera which costed about 28k, and i said to myself, who in the world would buy something like that for clicking pictures when you get amazin digicams for half the price. I am sure there must be people who treat their SLR's as not some instrument of photography, but as an extension of their own bodies. These are the people for whom, i guess clicking pictures with a digicam would be sacrilege. For gamers, it would be playstations,xboxes...., in similar fashion, i guess for photographers, it would be SLR's. Imagine a converstation between photographers n am sure they would mention a SLR in the same breath as car lovers would mention mercedes, or terrorists would mention AK-47s,56s? eh?
Nowadays, the term googling has become synonymous with searching something, n i had read somewhere that Google Inc had trademarked the term 'googling'. Newez, me veering of the subject....(Apologies to google for using it though.)tried to google some basic stuff about amateur photography. the site https://photo.net explains everything about photography, but it got too technical for me and hence decided to look out on google videos.
I had already heard about the Rule of thirds while clicking pictures, but in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiYHT-JvoqI , it has been explained in neat fashion, where at the end you really find the rule of thirds, extremely simple to put into practice.
Apparently depth of field or depth of focus is an important part of photography. Following video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzedefUXARE explains the same using photographs. Very nicely done tutorial showing how the aperture size affects the depth of field. The next http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpWtq-haaCQ video shows in general usage of a digicam, but i really liked the photoz in which the difference due to shutter speed is shown. I sure am atleast gona try to implement some of these tips so as to say. As far as the SLR goes well i would say, that can wait....

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Here Cometh the Rains


2nd July 2007,
After 3 days of incessant rain, the morning is dry and seems like i shall make it to office without having any part of my body 'dripping' in water. But wait a minute....The met dept had predicted 3 more days of rain. Naah, who trusts the met dept anyways. I get ready to go, start my bike and then..... yeah the met dept did get it right this time around. Thankfully, it is a drizzle and i manage to get to office, relatively dry. And then, it starts raining cats n dogs, elephants n dinosaurs or whatever you want to call it. I haven't seen so much water pouring in one day in Pune.
I get down to work and the entire day i keep hearing and seeing the downpour. The day ends prematurely for me at 7:30 but decide to delay my departure hoping that the rains would go away. Plus still had to see the remaining part of the movie Hotel Rwanda. Nice movie though. The movie finishes but not the rains. I eventually decide to push off, but my bike has other ideas. I am reminded of my own version of Murphy's law "If something has to go wrong, it will do so, exactly when you dont want it to." Anyways, the bike seems to be in no mood to take me home. So, I decide to take the PMT as Rickshaws refuse to ferry people to other side of the town. By the time I reach the bus stand, I am completely wet. Theres a threshold point of 'wetness quotient' if i may call it that. beyond which you really stop protecting yourself from the rain, actually you really stop caring because you cant get any 'wetter' than this.
So as i wait for the bus, i remember the recently released movie '1 40 ki last local'. Naah but no Neha dhupias out here. hehehe.... But theres this man, who comes and talks to me regarding how difficult it has been for him to reach work because of the rain I am like, wutever boss, why should i care. But then later realise hes on a high with a peg or two, more than his daily dose. The PMT buses refuse to stop in spite of me frantically waving like a person drowning. Should i go back to office at spend the night? Just then an indica taxi comes. The drunkard gets onto it and the driver asks me if i was interested in joining. Kothrud suddenly seems to be an elusive place. I hop into the car, and then realise, fuck i havent even asked the driver about how much it would cost me. Plus he isnt even dropping me to home, rides only till deccan. Wut if he charges me 500? the cars jam packed, and i start getting weird ideas. Could this be a trap? man, then i am surely screwed big time. The driver misses a turn, n my thoughts drift to the amount of money i am carrying, mobile, watch , aroung 15k? Fuck...but then the driver steers back to the original route. Realise hes drunk too. Hehehe.....Seems like everyone in the city is on a high. I am dropped at Deccan with all my belongings intact and i am lighter by only 10 bucks. Phew....Now to the next bus stop..... As i walk, my floaters seem to have had enough water and are now squeezin it all out. The journey doesnt seem to end. Luckily, i find a bus on my route. As the bus wades through water, i find that Karve road is filled with knee deep water. I find a maruti stuck with water upto its wind sheild and i realise that the concretisation of half of road has led to all this inundation. Finally, get down at my stop. Still about a kilometre of walking to do. The low lying societies and the slums are now filled up with water. I see people with bucket, pipes trying to remove water from their houses, but with rain still continuing, i really feel sorry for them. Decide to click some pics of the road or is it a river? Hehehe... and they say India Shining......Hehehehe.....Finally and yeah finally reach home. Its been a long day for me, and as i sit filling up my blog, i just hope that tomorrow is a much better day.