Rant 79: Standby...

How does one come back? hmmm let me see...

1) Tried work for the best part of eight hours..20% help
2) Tried some college application research...20% help
3) Been sitting here for two hours staring at my laptop screen...1% help
4) Hoping this pointless post helps with the remaining 59%....
5) Realising after another two hours that this post didn't help at all.... -20% help...


I hate the numbers game...

Rant 78: The not-so-great divide

Nowhere could the phrase "Getting in touch with nature" be more literal than at Ross Island - part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and erstwhile British East India capital for this archipelago.


Clearly, man is meant to go back to his roots here...as the Britishers' presbyterian church probably found out ages ago.

Rant 77: A tripper's eye view

Ahh! At last, I enter the oh so spectacular world of Panoramas!
This lovely specimen was picked up when your's truly was cutting through the Western Ghats on a eight-year old Bajaj Pulsar 150, going from Anjuna beach in Goa to Belgaum in north Karnataka. And as always, the ghats are ever ready with their amazing views. Now although I have several samples of photos that I clicked with the intention of stitching them into a panorama, I never actually did the stitching part - probably because I was too lazy to follow the hundreds of instructions on how to do it manually. However, today I stumbled upon a very nifty way to stitch. Basically photoshop has an in-built feature. File>Automate>Photomerge. Then simply select the photos - in order mind you - and click OK. Voila! just a minute later, I have my panorama!

ps: It may seem like I'm standing on a U-bend in the road, but it's actually just one straight road! how cool is that?

Rant 76: Not quite cheating...but not quite a Picasso!

Thankfully, I've been able to hack out plenty of leaves in the last few weeks and despite the initial joy when I wake up in the morning that I don't have to go to work, it gets quite boring towards the evenings. Hence, I've been getting on my bike and just heading off to the nearby beaches. Been experimenting with some slow-shutter speeds (like 30 seconds, and it can give some lovely effects and some lovely disasters as well!!)
anyways, in keeping with the trend of doing some post-production learning as well, I picked up this cool trick that lets me convert my photos into a painting. And while I understand that this type probably has little real-world application, it can definitely come of use in graphic design and the like. Additionally, I also picked up a lovely way to ease my post-production for the future.
Basically effects like the one you can see above involve several steps, and four filters with numerous little adjustments in each. So, in order that I don't have to keep going back to my tutorial every time, Photoshop lets me "record" all the steps that I take, and the next time I want to apply that effect, I can just use a self-assigned keyboard shortcut and voila! I have auto pilot doing things for me!
Back to the pic itself, of course, it's a first time for me on this effect, but it does look fairly painting-esque don't you think?
and here's the original

Rant 75: Food for thought

The Akshay Patra Foundation
Helping to reduce want among children... and you can help by clicking here

Rant 74: Steeped in Sepia

Next up for a bit of Post-Production mayhem...ladies and gents, I present to you, my friend Vinod!
This picture was taken - like this one - along the return journey during a trip to Chikmagalur.
Now the editing on this one is not done with the "quick-fix" method of pre-installed Filters that Photoshop provides. Instead, I've used Adjustment Layers (Hue/Saturation and Black/White) to get absolute control over which colours I want in their original state and which I want with the Sepia touch.
Sepia for me represents a sombre mood, and I'm trying to steer clear of using action shots for this kind of editing.
And if you want to see what a difference this method can make, I give you the original photo below.

Rant 73: One day to learn life

One day...that's all it takes to make you feel like new person. One day...that's all it takes for you to get perspective on your problems and frustrations. One day...that's all it took for me to realise life ain't all that much to lose my mind over.
One day and a 256 Kms round trip...that's exactly how long it took.
My buddy Yashpal and I hacked out a trip to Sakleshpur, a place in the Western Ghats, within 10 minutes on Saturday and the very next day at 5:30am, we were ready to go! "La Poderosa" (the Mighty One!) aka my motorcycle was ready and waiting.
True to our own tardy selves, though, we were only able to reach the highway proper by 6:30. However, we were still able to catch a glorious sunrise and the buildup towards a "bright" day.
A few kms outside of Mangalore city limits, we stopped at an elevated road to catch a glimpse of the image on your right. And some distance after that, the sight was akin to what religious nuts call heaven...I mean, it gave you the feeling that whether there actually is one or not, sights like these are good enough for humans to live in hope, which I concede is not a bad thing at all.
We got ourselves some breakfast and continued.
Despite the point of this trip being not the destination but the ride itself - meaning we made several pit stops for pictures and such - I think we made pretty good time.
Soon enough, we were coming towards our first glimpse of the proper Western Ghats, and this was as daunting a sight as I've ever seen. The hill, standing tall, telling you that "boss! you humans have fucked up the planet good, but you can't fuck with my species"
Sure enough, during the initial climb we were given a damn good example of why we should know our limits when tackling the hills. No doubt left in our minds as to how we should play this. If this huge hunk of metal fell prey to the dangers of the hill curves, then our two wheeler was at even greater risk.
It was not all gloom and doom though. The ghats here are famous for small and big waterfalls which provide a helpful respite from the day's wanderings and we too stopped for a breather.
The water was brilliant, cold and refreshing to the core. We also did the usual posing for pictures, while I also tried my hand at some slow-shutter speed snapping, trying to give the stream a smooth-flow effect.
Dunno how well that worked out but there you go.
Then began the real test of our trip. The really screwed up roads of Karnataka. All you people who've ever wished to walk on the moon (not the Michael Jackson style...the one with actual rockets), look no further than the ghat roads to practice your moon buggy tricks.
There aren't any potholes here, because they're all huge enough to be upgraded to the crater category!
Anyways, Yashpal came up with the brilliant analogy of how best to deal with the frustration of riding through the fucked up roads.
"Don't get frustrated, think of this entire trip as life itself. The initial stages were good, smooth roads, cool air, nice views. There will be bad stages in the middle, potholes, craters, but if you keep the ultimate goal in mind, i.e. destination then these holes will seem minor."
I don't care a lot about the destination that we reached (except they have these things being sold at various points of the entrance), but if the point of wading through all those craters was so that we could get the chance to see this, then I am willing to take up the offer of taking a moon buggy through these ghats any day of the week.
Pics below were seen on the return journey actually but well worth stopping amid heavy traffic on a curve with a slight drizzle falling.

Thanks babe!