My Unlock 1.0 !!

The world is trying come back to normal (by accepting the reality and exercising caution) and here I am, trying to come back to my space where I had shared my thoughts, views and experiences over many years and had gone silent for close to four years! 

Lot has happened in that time. We completed our maiden feature length documentary on the untamed river in the Western Ghats - Aghanashini in 2017 and the subsequent two years had gone in attending various film festivals and screening events at various places. 

During the course of these four years there were few instances when I had thought of coming back to this space to share few thoughts but somehow the drive was not strong enough to make me sit and give words to those thoughts. 

In 2020, when I was thinking to coming back to normalcy, by normalcy I mean continue shooting and expressing through images, the world was struck with an event of the century and everything has come to a literal standstill. 

It has been about five months since I had gone out for shooting. The windows of my home and some vegetation around my apartment have become my canvas and occasionally I try to find some frames in them.

Last year I had spent some time in reading and understanding about vintage lenses. Believe me, it is a fascinating world! More about it on some other day perhaps. In that quest of learning about them, I bought a few very old lenses and started using them in my photography. Their subtle rendering is very different compared to the clinically sharp modern lenses and I was awestruck by their usefulness even in these modern times and by some of their performances on the modern day high resolution cameras. 

I am just waiting desperately for my next shoot in the wild, which as per the current scenario, is nowhere in sight for next several months.

No cheers,

Ash

Web site revisited

And here I am with another set of images from the place where I made the previous set.

Last weekend when I went to the place with my friend Ramesh Adkoli it was completely covered in mist and the visibility was very very less.  In the bitter cold of the morning it took some time to zero in on the kind of web which I was looking for.

I love winter just for this. Everything around gets covered in mist and the morning chill, though tough to beat at times, just refreshes my mind.

Enjoyed making some images at the place that day.

Sun came out to say a hi only by 8:10AM.

Cheers,
Ash

Winter web site!

Last time when I went to my practice nets - TG Halli, I had forgotten what I had thought before leaving the place the previous time! I had spotted few web sites! Yes, spider webs! But it was too late that day and Sun was high. So I had left the place thinking that I would visit to that place first in my next practice session. But almost the same was about to repeat, if I had not decided to take a leisure walk.

There were some tall grass shrubs on which there was a tiny colony kind of webs all over. It was then I suddenly remembered my previous visit and rushed to get my camera. Sun was just coming up and the ambiance was mildly misty.

Instead of using my regular macro lens to make some web patterns I decided to go wide. I used my wide angle macro this time which allowed me to go very much closer than the wide angle lenses, thereby achieving the magnification, and retaining the wide angle aspect in the image at the same time. I love my wide angle macro lens - Sigma 28mm f/1.8 - which gives me some unique and amazing perspectives. More about that in a separate post sometime later.

I wish I had spotted it sometime earlier that day. As I was making the images, the mist was slowly disappearing and the light was getting bright. Thanks to the straying clouds I got few spotlights as well.

The next time when I go there this would be high in my list and will try to better some of the results.

Cheers,
Ash

Moist ~ Green ~ Lively - Season's first Trip to Western Ghats

...

Cloudy weather  ~  Expecting clouds to pour down anytime  ~  gathering dark clouds  ~

Peeking sunbeams through the dark clouds, confusing if it would rain or clear off  ~  drizzling  ~  distant thunders  ~  water sprinkles  ~

sound of raindrops hitting the car bonnet  ~  bubbles on the still water on the road  ~  ripples on the calm waters  ~

looking up towards the sky  ~  street full of dark umbrellas  ~  people rarely looking straight  ~  bent heads  ~  wet roads  ~  filled pot holes, defying their depths  ~

rich greens  ~  moss on the rocks and logs  ~  wonderful ferns  ~  colorful mushrooms  ~  splendid wild flowers  ~  wet forest floor  ~  stretching and crawling leeches  ~  wet dead leaves  ~

 

 

muddy red waters  ~  full flowing rivers  ~  re-incarnated waterfalls  ~  silently flowing forest streams  ~  skiddy and slippery river banks  ~  submerged dead trees  ~

cloudy forests  ~  lively valleys  ~  misty canopies  ~  singing streams  ~  bathing rocks  ~  smiling plants  ~

This is what Monsoon in the Western Ghats is all about.

Isn't it? :)


All images are from my recent trip to Western Ghats between 8th and 10th July 2011.

Planning again in Aug. 


More details here: 
http://www.landscape-wizards.com/home/services/workshops-and-tours


Cheers,

Ash

Patterns - Revealed!

So, thanks folks for all your guesses, which either made itself to the 'comments' section or into your minds silently! :)

So as most of you have guessed, as water droplets, or mist or drizzles or whatever you have imagined, it is only partly correct! These images were that of the condensed steam which will remain in the underside of a steel plate which we all normally use to keep on the hot vessels such as for hot milk or for hot curry, in kitchen!  :)

Everyday, just before starting to office my mother gives me hot 'kashaya' from a hot steel vessel and before pouring the kashaya into the cup she always used to keep the steel plate which was covering it, in front of me and then pour the kashaya into the cup. I always got attracted towards the pattern of the condensed steam but no luck with time to shoot as I was already late to my bus...well almost always! ;)

 

So...as said earlier, one Saturday finally I got the chance and mood to capture this wonderful patterns using some of my lenses. Some images that you have seen are made from macro lenses and some from normal 50mm lens and some from the kit lens - 18-135mm (all with or without extension tubes).

There are patterns all around us. Seeing them and moreover identifying them in the busy crowd amidst our ever busy life gives so much of pleasure. Once we start 'seeing' these patterns the world around us magically transforms into altogether a different place...try it....to believe it!

Note: In the last image, the lines on the water surface is in fact the reflection of window pane, beside which the plate was kept!

Cheers,
Ash

Patterns are all around!

Patterns are everywhere and they excite me! In Nature there are plenty and we just have to look around keenly to recognize and enjoy them.

Off late when I am sitting at home, while reading or studying; when I get bored I try to see if I can find any pattern in the things around. The painted wall with the window pane, the book shelf with different colored books arranged on it, the contrastingly colored door and the wall, the tiny patterns of threads on the curtains and many more like these.

It was from quite a some time that I was observing some fantastic patterns on a thing which I was seeing almost daily just before leaving for my office. But as I would be in a hurry at that time I was always postponing the idea of photographing it. It was on a Saturday when I was at home and saw the pattern again! Wow! I had time!

They looked very abstract and beautiful. Partially Natural and partially man made! When I converted them into Black and White some pattern looked very interesting!

So, what are these? Any guesses?

I will answer after few days....

Till then let me know your guesses :)  I dont think its a tough guess!

Cheers,
Ash