Rant 75: Food for thought

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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!

Rant 72: Flashbacks

Sometimes...

when I forget what a beautiful morning looks like...

When I forget what it's like to walk through fields in twilight...
When I forget what a sparkling night looks like...
...Manipal always takes me back.

Rant 71: The stuff of dreams

Continuing my foray into post-production, here's one I took at a place called Chikmaglur (around 4 hours drive away from Mangalore. Here's the post of that visit).
This random ghat area is on the way to the Mullayangiri hill, and having picked up a trick called the "dreamy / misty" effect, I knew I had to implement it on one of these photos. Best results emerge with photos of water/river taken with a high-end camera...still hunting around for such a shot on my comp, so posting of that will have to wait. But hope you enjoy this as well...kinda reminds me of the whole Pandora island effect!

Rant 70: MONO with a DASH of colour

Been doing some reading up on post-production techniques...effects etc. Not that I wasn't doing any before but those were mostly related to basic ones like Brightness/Contrast, Shadow/highlights..
But ever since I acquired the Adobe CS5 Master Collection (a total of 17 applications), the post-production bug has well and truly bitten me...
plus I've also started adding my watermark to my pics, so all you leechers can stuff it from here on...
So here's the first few of many experiments to come...
This one was taken way back in 2008, when I was still in college (Manipal) and working for our student-run news website The Manipal Journal.
I was on the outskirts of Mangalore with one of our reporters, covering a very sad incident. A bus full of children going to school had drowned in the river seen here, with just a few survivors. After a whole morning spent among them, I was quite depressed by the whole thing. As we walked across a bridge, en route to the bus stop, I spotted this boat and (who I assume was) its owner. Completely represented what I was going through at that point, mainly, sad, but looking out for some hope.
This second one, was taken in my native state of Orissa, in a city called Cuttack. The person on the top left is my cousin, who is now a full-fledged under-19 Ranji player for the state. And I was lucky to catch him during his morning practice. The cricket ball in the foreground was nearly brand new at the start of the session, and its current state clearly shows the rigours with which he practices. And in what seems like a rare case among the Indian middle class, his parents have allowed him to study a non-sciencey field in senior school, so that his time can be best devoted to the game.
Since that day, he has already played several professional games for the state and it just goes to show how much practice can make perfect.
Next up we have the famous Kuwait Towers. As you can read from its history, this landmark of Kuwait was ravaged by forces during the invasion period 1990-1992. It has since been restored to its former glory and is now considered the pride of the nation. Not to sound like a tour guide, but it is definitely a wonderful visit to this place, and completely worth going up to the bottom dome seen in the picture. It contains a rotating platform, which gives you amazing views of the entire city. A must-see if you're ever down in this country.
Coming back to mera bharat mahan, the next one came in New Delhi, specifically in the forest area adjacent to the Qutab Minar.
I had been clicking away - trees etc - and in this huge natural expanse, it was easy to feel a little alone, especially as 99% of traffic noise is blocked out, and all you can hear are birds, crickets, an occasional peacock (they're really hard to photograph!). So when I was a bit overwhelmed by the nature-ness of it all, I sat down on a piece of concrete for a breather. Lo and behold, one of the first things I see is this dude walking away and, of course, once again captured what I was feeling, a huge sense of solitude...well almost I suppose (two is company isn't it?).
And finally, we take the holy route. This gargantuan statue of Hindu deity Shiva is located in Murudeswar (for an earlier post on this place, click here). And for the uninitiated ones, this deity's favourite animal is the snake. I'll try not to wet myself here, but snakes, for me, are QUITE scary. I try and conquer my fears, though, by watching discovery channel type shows about these creatures, and have been fortunate not to be confronted by live, uncaged one yet (not that dead ones are any prettier). Anyway, this one on the left was obviously quite daunting for me to see, but became another way to fight fear I think. The deity himself is largely characterised as the destroyer, and he too brings up childhood memories of bearded sadhus on TV who - in loud booming voices - proclaimed how Shiva could destroy the whole universe with his dancing.

And as a bonus for going through this whole post, I give you my thanks and a shot of a typical action performed by most tourists (Indian ones anyway), vandalism. This one's taken at Ullalla beach just a few kms outside of Mangalore.
It put me in a cheerier mood writing this post (after all that snake talk), and I hope it gives you a few laughs as well.
Cheers!

Rant 69: Waiting for the sun

Feet of Gold