New beginings

Aasim’s school reopened today. He is now in 1st Standard, has to carry books back and forth to school, has school for nearly the full day (Read return at 3:30pm). We were apprehensive that he might not cope very well with having to eat cold lunch, pampered that he has been till now… However all our apprehensions were in vain – he just returned, very happy with the new classrooms, apparently they are huge, knows that the teacher has a 40 day old son, has eaten his lunch and now playing outside.

Yesterday Vivek called up and asked if I was game for some table top photography. I readily agreed and got a three hour crash course in lighting table top subjects, starting from a single light, adding a fill-in light, then adding a reflector and as a bonus I got to use his Nikon D70 🙂

The picture shown is one of the result of that exercise. He criticized me for being afraid to experiment when I wanted a single spotlight on a white background to light up this urn and added an orange plate with a flower! The result while not what I was seeing in my minds eye is indeed eye catching…

We have never been equals in the past – so we demand to be more than equals for eternity!! Bah! I would rather close my business.

Photography and Ethics

Vivek our photographer friend, a very recent convert to digital photography, had come over one evening – during the course of conversation he remarked that while digital was one of the best thing that happened to his photography it is the worst thing that has happened to a photographer. What he really meant was that

More birds and some code

More birds and some code

If the week could be described in one word I would say “Hot”, in fac this was the hottest week of the summer, temperature was mostly above 45C, Even the garden lizard felt need of a drink. Thankfully yesterday it rained and today temperature has been in the low 40s… Now that the Mango season

After bee the bird…

After bee the bird…

I have been waiting in anticipation for this picture for nearly three months now, a Coppersmith (aka crimson breasted barbet) has made its nest right next to our main gate. However it is a very shy bird and would never come near the nest when any of us was around…. But my  patience paid off

In the heart of Tiger land

In the heart of Tiger land

21st May – It was hot!! We started about an hour late, around 2pm, in Mr Arjun Dhanwatey’s Sumo. Along with him were his wife and daughter, I immediately was relieved because Aasim had some company and would not get bored, though it was bit of a squeeze in the Sumo for 6 adults and

Sometimes you just have to wait….

I have ISO’s of Fedora Core 2 on one of my machine but for a variety of reasons cannot install it as yet… sidcarter andbrainz will be arriving later in the day and tomorrow we leave for Kanha National Park, our guide told us that tigers are on the move and so we have great

Ancestors, Elections and some Photography

Ancestors, Elections and some Photography

Sometime this week we discovered that Swati’s father has a family tree drawing which goes back to 13 generations, spanning nearly 250 years, enthused by this she has decided to put the whole stuff on the web. This lead to some RnD and I discovered GEDCOM format. phpGedView is a great PHP application if you

A prayer and a desire

Dil me sanam ki soorat Aakhon me aashiqui de Mere khuda mujhe tu Ek aur zindagi de Kaise karoon mohabbat Do din ki zindagi me Yeh din to beet jayenge Yuhi hasi hasi me Jee bharke pyaar karloon Aisi mujhe khushi de Mere khuda mujhe tu Ek aur zindagi de Sau saal tak sanam ki

It’s a jungle out there….

Tigers were recently sited sighted about 40kms for where we live… For those of you who did not know Nagpur is surrounded on all four side, within drivable distance, by National parks and sanctuaries, the best known among them is the Kanha National Park which is in fact the jungle in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book!!