Happy New Year - 2012 !!!

May the New Year bring to you and your loved ones all the happiness you could wish for and all the strength you need to pursue your dreams.

Happy New Year 2012 !!!

Colorful modified Jypsy at JKTYRE OYA Autocross and Motorcross at Mohali, Punjab, INDIA

This photograph was clicked last week at Phase-7 ground of Mohali, Punjab. This was a modified jypsy, which participated in Jk Tyre OYA Autocross and Motorcross, which was three days motorsport event. This was most colorful car on the ground and tyres were also different...

Dust Storm @ Mohali, Punjab, INDIA (Chandigarh Region)

This photograph was clicked during one of the motorsport event which happened during last week. It was a three days event and various competitions happened during these three days. Whole area around this ground was full of dust duirng these three days. For more photographs from this event, check out - http://phototravelings.blogspot.com/2011/12/dust-storm-at-mohali-chandigarh-punjab.html

Vijay Parmar : One of the main Motorsport Enthusiast in India || Raid de Himalaya by Himalayan Motorsports, Shimla

Dust Storm at 3rd JK TYRE OYA Auto Cross and Motorcross event in Mohali, Punjab, INDIA

On 24th Dec'2011, it was final round of various competition categories in OYA Motorport event in Chandigarh. The day was full of dust all around the place. I was standing very close to these tracks and a black bag converted into yellowish color after I came out. Dust was negligible when bikes were flying, but during car races, it was hard to see what exactly is happening. At times, it was not able to click photographs as well. And at one point of time only two cars were competing. Basically these folks note the time taken by each car on a particular track and finally the fastest one wins the race. To check out more photographs of the event, check out - OYA MOTORSPORTS

Papaya Tree @ Tarangi Resort, Jim Corbett National Park, Uttranchal, INDIA

Recently we went to Jim Corbett for an office trip and stayed at a resort called Tarangi. This photograph was shot at same place. This resort was amazingly beautiful and many such plants were around the cottages. To see more photographs of this resort, click on the photograph above. 

Holidays start from today || It's shutdown time in office

It's the same time of year when everything shuts down at office for 10 days, so that everyone can enjoy the festive season well. Shutdown at our office starts today and we shall be back on 2nd Jan'2012 with new energies. 

At the same time I am very excited about travel plans during next week. Today I am leaving for chandigarh and will move into hills and not sure about the destination for New year. All the plans will be made on fly and hope to utilize the vacations well. 

For now, Merry Christmas and I will back to wish New year soon !!!

Monsoon Freshness dipping down !!!

Monsoon season brings back all the freshness in whole environment, with green plants all around and wonderful fragrance of colorful flowers. With this it also bring good opportunities for photographers to play with rain-drop, clouds and colorful plants all around. Although Monsoons are not good for many regions in our country, but at the same place important for most of the states in India, who are dependent on Agriculture. 

This Photograph was clicked three years back during Monsoons at Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA !!!

इक लड़की भीगी भागी सी, सोयी रातों में जगी सी !!!

इक लड़की भीगी भागी सी, सोयी रातों में जागी सी...

मिली इक अजनबी से, कोई आगे ना पीछे. 

ये भी कहो, कोई बात है...

This Photograph was shot during one of the theater plays at National School Drama, Delhi, INDIA. She is Rajni in 'Chekhov ki Kahaniyan' play, which is directed by famous Theater Director Mr. Ranjit Kapoor.

Mobilegiri - Lady from hills, busy in usual morning things with her kids !!!

While travelling from Kullu Srahan to Shimla, this photographs was clicked from moving car. It's a click by HTC Desire HD and somehow it came out quite clear. Folks in the car were wondering, how she can do this to his kid :) ... Weather out there was chilling. Although she is wearing a half sweater, but temperature was below 10 degrees. This place was surrounded by snow capped hills and this kid is taking bath in open. Probably this is not a big deal for them, but this photograph still make me shiver in summers as well. See kid expressions and his hands.

Mobilegiri with a Kitten during MTB Trip in Himachal Pradesh, INDIA

In Oct'2011, I was in Himachal Pradesh and traversed various regions of Shimla, Kullu and Mandi Districts. During one of the camping stations, we found this cute kitten. She played with us for hours and also had some breakfast at our camp. It was sad but finally we had to move on  by leaving her with her Mom in nearby cottage. It was Shavadh, I remember the name correctly. This photograph is clicked with HTC Desire HD Mobile.

Clouds coming up in the evening @ Viceregal Lodge, Shimla

Sadhu in Saffron colored dress and Rudraksh || Expressions of NSD, Delhi, India

 

This photograph was shot during a play by Ranjit Kapoor. The name of this play was Aadamzad. Ranjit Kapoor is one of the famous directors in Indian Theatre. But this photograph is shared to highlight the life of Sadhus around us. I was wondering, if really these Brahmcharis or Sadhus so happy. I know that everyone in life is racing except few who have realized the importance of life. But is this one of the good way of spending life?

Lady in colorful Rajasthani Dress @ National School of Drama, Delhi

Recently a play by Ranjit Kappor called Aadamzad was showcased at Sammukh, NSD and it was around two families in Rajasthan. But this photograph is not about the play the dress this girl is wearing. Dress and jewellery is typical Rajasthani style and whole world is fan of this. Although happy expressions would have been better, but overall this photograph touched my heart and thought of sharing it here.

An emotional scene when a Dentist has just plucked first tooth of his career (half-tooth)

Here is a scene when an after-graduation doctor(Dentist) has just plucked a tooth after a long wait. Even this this tooth is not complete but doctor is not worried about that. He is emotional about his biggest and memorable achievement of his life. This was a dream day, when someone with severe pain came to the clinic and main doctor was out. He took this challenge and took out the tooth. Next step would be to operate for extracting the remaining part now.

Night shot of Jantar Mantar in Delhi, INDIA

Jantar Mantar in Delhi is very close to center of the city, Canought Place. Also this place is very popular, especially nowadays Anna ji come here very frequently. Although the exact place is not this. Jantar Mantars in India are one of the amazing things we have got as heritage. Such a lovely time yantras. Check out following link to see more photographs form the place, with detailed information - Check here

A wonderful view from IIAS window @ Shimla, Himchal Pradesh, INDIA

Viceregal Lodge or also known as Indian Institute of Advanced Studies is one of the best places to visit in Shimla Town. This Photograph is taken at same place. This a huge building having multiple corridors around it. This is one of the corridor in the backyard. The Cedar tree looks awesome through this huge window on other side of the corridor. Most of the part of this building in closed but some of the areas are accessible from outside. This whole campus has some beautiful gardens with lots of flowers and colorful plants.

Zoom-In Zoom-Out Magic from Humayun Tomb, Delhi, INDIA

Recently I went to Humayun tomb for shooting Lunar Eclipse 2011 and some of the folks were well equipped for capturing this eclipse with Humayun' tomb in front of the Moon Trail. results are yet to come, but at same time I was playing with my lens. This Photograph was taken by an exposure of 20 seconds, out of which 5 second exposure for Zoom-Out and different exposure of 3 seconds in various Zoom-In levels. More photographs form this shoot can be checked at HUMAYUN TOMB

President's House with very High Security @ Delhi, INDIA

Lunar Eclipse 2011 - 10th December

Most of the photographers in India were really excited on 10th December because we had lunar eclipse that day and it was in December, which is comparatively good for Dehlites.  Many photographers moved to different cities in India to shoot this Lunar Eclipse. Some of my friends had special permissions to shoot at various monuments in Delhi and I also joined one of the group at Humayun Tomb. I know this photograph is not very special, so will share the real project with all shapes of Moon with Humayun Tomb in foreground. Some of the casual shots can be seen HERE

Colorful Birds on a bamboo tree @ Jim Corbett National Park, Uttranchal, INDIA

Papadvaala @ India Gate, Delhi

This photographs was clicked at India Gate during beginning of this year. These Papads are very popular in Delhi and can be bought on red lights as well !!! During early days, I used to avoid such things which are sold in open, because of Delhi pollution and dirt all around. Soon I realized that they keep these covered with a plastic piece. Anyway, all these are just excuses... Now I like them and eat wherever I find...

New Bus Stand of Capital City of Himachal Pradesh - Shimla

During one of the recent trips to Shimla, I visited Indian Institute of Advanced Studies and Shimla Bus stand was visible from the way which connect IIAS with Boileuganj. Shimla has got this beautiful bus-stand with lot of space. It is located near Tootikandi which is not very crowded region in Shimla. Supposedly this one of best Bus-Stand in North-India till 2011.

Indian Kite-flying king with his family @ Old Delhi, INDIA

I will not write much about Bhai Mian, as he doesn't need any introduction. In case you want to know more about Bhai Mian, check out http://phototravelings.blogspot.com/2011/12/bhai-mian-kite-flying-superhero-from.html

Garden of five senses during evening @ Delhi , INDIA

Garden of Five Senses is a nice place maintained by Delhi Tourism and more popular among couples. There are some nice sculptures installed around the garden and look wonderful during evenings. I am not sure if these are lit everyday or for some special occasions.

Sunset hues on white walls of houses in Chadigarh, Punjab, INDIA

Sunset hues on white wall @ Mohali, 3B-2

On Independence Day (15th August, 2011), I was in Chandigarh with my friends and planned to go to Sector-17 during the evening. Although it was too late to go, but we just wanted to have some snacks outside with regular chit-chat.

Can you read expressions - What does this expression say?

One of my friend was here in Noida with his son. I also met him for very short span of time and clicked few photographs. Out of all, I really loved this expression although I don't know what it conveys. Do you have any idea?

Religare Art Gallery showcasing their artwork @ INDIA ART SUMMIT 2011

Some unique trends of Old Delhi - Kabootarbazi !!!

Last weekend I visited Jama-Masjid in Old Delhi and also interacted few folks around this place. During the visit I met a very interesting family who also offered me to come on roof-top to have a different view of Old Delhi (Dilli-6). 

On roof-top, there were approximately 60 pigeons. One of the gentleman also told be about a unique trend of Old Delhi. All these pigeons fly in a group and at times they make a huge groups of around 1000 pigeons. When any of the owner ask his/her group to come back, most of the others also prefer to check at home. During such flights, at times some pigeons plan to join other group and go to other house. In this case original owner loose the right to get that pigeon back. If s/he wants that pigeon back, appropriate money needs to be paid as per breed of that pigeon. And this payment has no guarantee that pigeon will not go to other groups. This thing is religiously followed in Old Delhi region !!!

More interesting stories will follow from Old-Delhi !!!

Sunil Upadhyay - One of the fine actors of National School of Drama, Delhi, INDIA

This photograph was clicked during one of the recent plays by Ranjit Kapoor. It was PANCHLIGHT, a story about a bihar village with no light and people want to a have a panchlight in their village. Story starts with a love story where boy meets the girl in fields and they had some signals to indicate the presence to each other.

Sunil Upadhyay dictated various scenes from this play in a very interesting way... I have been watching his plays for last three years and a huge fan of this person. Although it's really difficult to compare actors of NSD Repretory with other.

Something from another Dilli Haat at Pitampura, Delhi, INDIA

Recently I visited Pitampura Dilli Haat and it was not that exciting as we have near INA Market. During day time, it was almost empty and  a particular section of the market had most of the shops unoccupied. Dilli Haats are actually considered as good places to buy handicrafts and ethnic stuff. We also went with same expectations but didn't find it interesting, although few of the shops were offering really great stuff.

'The Gift' story of 'Chekhov ki Duniya' play by Ranjeet Kapoor

This week NSD Repertory was performing 'Chekhov ki Duniya', directed by famous Director Ranjeet Kapoor. This play is based on various stories of Chekhov. Staging of the Hindi play titled 'Chekhov Ki Duniya' directed by Ranjit Kapoor. Chekhov Ki Duniya is a collection of six short stories by Chekhov. 'Cheenk' is one of the six stories shown in this play and it's filled with irony. It includes The Sneezer, who cannot apologize enough to a blustering general for splattering a sneeze on his head during one of the play they went for. 'Dooba Hua Aadmi' is the story of a man who earns by 'drowning.' Shikari shows a man-about-town using a husband as the conduit for his attempted seduction of the man's new bride... There are few more where an assistant of a dentist want to become a doctor and trying to pull tooth of church-father... Most of the stories were presented in very interesting way and lot of stuff to laugh !!

Lakshmi Pooja on Diwali Day

Lakshmi puja is performed during Diwali which is a very popular festival of India and also known as Festival of lights. According to tradition people would put small oil lamps outside their homes on Diwali and hope Lakshmi will come to bless them.

Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped by those who wish to acquire or to preserve wealth. It is believed that Lakshmi (wealth) goes only to those houses which are clean and where the people are hardworking. She does not visit the places which are unclean/dirty or where the people are lazy.
 

 Above photograph shows one of the steps of Lakshmi Poojan, when clay lamps are ready to start pooja during Diwali evening.

Holiday Cottage at Jim Corbett National Park !!!

This photograph was clicked during one of my recent trips to Jim Corbett National Park. We stayed in Tarangi resort which is approximately 8 kilometers form Bijrani Gate of Jim Corbett National Park. It's showing one of the holiday cottage at Tarangi. Tarangi resort has lot of space around and density of cottages is very low wr.t. total area available in the resort. Very well maintained, full of flora n fauna and appropriate place to relax during holidays !!!

Reached Hatu Peak again - A wonderful place at 3400 mtrs. (11152 ft.)

Hatu Peak is near Narkanda. There is beautiful climb of 6 kilometers form main highway. Hatu peak has a temple and tourism come here for experiencing less-explored nature. It's an amazing place with wonderful weather on the top. It's situated at 3400 mtrs. Place has got one HPPWD guest house as well. Many bollywood moviews have been shot at this place.

In above photograph, Aneesh is jumping with excitement of reaching the place again. I am not sure if you noticed link on 'Place again' :)

Front view of Viceregal Lodge, Shimla (Indian Institute of Advanced Studies)

Jama Masjid - A day after Eid

This is one of the photograph taken at India's largest mosque in Old Delhi - Jama Masjid !! This place is always surrounded by pigeons flying here and there. I waited for approximately 15 minutes to take this shot as movement is random most of the times. Luckily I didn't have to wait very long to get the right composition. This is what I wanted and I was happy to see the results. Hope to visit Jama Masjid again and come up with more photographs !!!

A colorful flower from garden of Five Senses, Delhi, INDIA

This photograph was clicked in 2007 when I had just started carrying camera with me :) ... It was an office outing some of friends. Although place is mainly for couples who need privacy in crowded cities like Delhi, but we didn't disturb them. Garden of Five senses has nice collection of flowers and plants.

Best use of harsh light while Photographing small objects

I know it sounds stupid to emphasize on doing photography in harsh light but what to do when you don't have an option and time to wait for right lighting. Of course, it's extremely challenging while shooting landscapes but small objects like Flowers, Leaves, Abstracts etc can be tried in Harsh light.

THe photograph above is clicked during noon time. This flower was very well lit from back side and there was a brown wall in the background. That wall was not getting any light or negligible as compared to light on this flower. Metering was set as spot metering, by pointing on this flower. I tried few shots and realized that Nikon D200 was not cirrectly metering the light. Then I used exposure compensation of negative 1 stop to achieve this result. And this photograph has hardly any post-processing. I like this shot and now I need not to wait for early mornings or evenings to shoot such things :) ..

Aneesh with his adventurous spirit !!!

During my recent visit to Shimla, Aneesh was accompanying me and he is a marvelous biker. Although one needs to have lot of courage to ride with him, but I did it :)

Here is one of the moment when we were getting late for something and main route was jammed. He thought of taking this shortcut and we reached 2 minutes before the event started. Probably all these things were normal for Aneesh, but very scary for me. Somehow this photograph is not showing right perspective. Actually these stairs were quite steep.

Just came back from Jim Corbett !!!

Last weekend we were out for a trip to Jim Corbett, a wildlife sanctuary with maximum number of Tigers in India. Theoretically probability of  seeing a tiger at Corbett should be high but huge area and disproportional distribution make it near to impossible. It was third time when I visited Corbett, and haven't seen Tiger. 

We stayed at Tarangi Resort, which was a decent place to stay. Above photograph is clicked inside the resort.

Missed Delhi's first Kite Festival which happened last weekend at India Gate !! (12th - 13th Nov, 2011)

I was listening about this Kite Festival for last few weeks and when I planned for it, something special came on the way. Every year, our official trip if organized during this time of the year and this time our trip to Corbett conflicted with Kite Festival. After coming back from Corbett, I am seeing hundreds of photographs of wonderful festival and people had good time at India Gate. Now I am truly missing First Kite Festival of Delhi and hope I make for it next time !!!

Since I had no photograph of Kite Fest, I though of putting this night shot of India Gate Here...

If you have also missed Delhi Kite Festival by Delhi Tourism, just click on the photograph above to see more... And http://life-inspires.blogspot.com/2011/11/when-hanuman-and-taj-mahal-took-over.html

Dark Silver colored car in front of South Block of Indian President's House @ Delhi, INDIA

A little boy going inside colorful fountains inside UB-City, Banglore, Karnataka, INDIA

 

Festive season in India is still ON !!!

Although Diwali is over now but still November and December remain more colorful in India. Welcome of winters with lots of other small special days. And these days all US festivals/special-days are more important in India as well. Christmas is next big day in next few months...