A Blog Without Limits

[swapnilsonawane]

Unlike Meru

I usually hate to travel by train or bus. The long journeys give me backaches, fatigues and I tend to get bored especially if I'm traveling alone. May be because I'm not the person who can make friends in a train or a bus. 

After a long time, I was going to travel to Bangalore by a train (from Mumbai). I still decided to stick to Meru Cabs to reach the railway station. Given that it was a normal rainy day in Mumbai, I didn't want the mud water splashing on my face sitting in an auto rickshaw. And carrying a heavy backpack in a public transport (TMT) bus wasn't going to be wise, especially in the peak time. 

Everything on merucabs website was normal and I got a cab confirmation. I got the SMS half an hour before the journey. But I never got a call from the chauffeur. He didn't pick mine either. His phone was switched off after some time. I tried reaching the customer care, but I could never reach the real person as IVRS was keeping me on hold for so called "21 seconds" and call was on hold for few minutes. I retried at least thrice and could not speak to the customer care person. I gave up eventually and went by an auto rickshaw. I never got a call from the chauffeur later. Given that Meru has been so reliable every time (yes, I must mention that), it was a bad experience for me. I should probably consider it as 1 in a 100 experience, unless they repeat this.

When I reached Bangalore, I still went with Meru and it was as smooth as before. When you do it right for 20 times, you can probably do it wrong for once I guess.

I did sent in my feedback on their website today, I'll surely post their reply here (if they do).

[swapnilsonawane]

Not the last Diwali

If the world was to end in 2012, it would have been my last Diwali (or anyone else's for that matter). By the time I'm writing this post, it's March 2013 already and everything's safe and sound. In any case, I wasn't one of the folks who wait for festivals for various reasons. This changed in last couple of years for few reasons. One of them was my camera. You have interesting subjects, places and light. And then you get a reason to click, which you shouldn't need anyway.

I had bought my canon 550D just a week before Diwali. Also, my school friends had planned for a reunion on the first day of Diwali. That was an additional opportunity to try my hands on the new gun. I did get few decent portraits that day, but no great ones as the natural light wasn't very good inside the school room. But on my way to the school, I found lots of flower vendors on the streets. Diwali was on.

I feel the real way to enjoy festivals is get out of your home and walk around the streets. It's really lively out there. We had a wonderful reunion on that day, and we got a nice gift too.

 I clicked this mug at my home. I was experimenting with my new 50mm prime lens. With no image stabilizer, it took me some time to prevent handshake. Diwali lights create nice bokeh too.

Marigold flowers have special importance in Diwali and some other festivals in India. No, I don't know about the history or facts related to that.

As it starts getting dark after the sunset, the tradition is to light up clay lamps at the windows and doors of your house. My apartment building was completely illuminated with such lamps, really felt like a festival of lights.

This is one of my favourite clicks. For bokeh and the feeling this picture creates. The kind of light it has. There are some situations, when you need to underexpose your photo. This looked like one of those to me, I didn't want the extra brightness.

By the way, this festival goes on for five days. But you don't get holidays for all those days. Some take off from their work, others continue to work hard. I was completely away from work, relaxing.

As much you associate Diwali with lights, you do the same with firecrackers as well. Like most of my other friends, I was a fan of firecrackers as a kid. I used to love the ones making the loudest of sounds. Not anymore, I don't feel like contributing to the smoke and the noise pollution. But that doesn't mean I couldn't click others doing it. 

I got that hexagonal bokeh. Generally, I use auto-focus for all the shots. For this one, I had to use manual focus as you don't have enough time for auto-focus to work. The skies are lit with firecrackers for a second or two. I loved this click for its bokeh.

I wished to spend more time on the streets during this Diwali. I could get various subjects and compositions. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that much time. But of course, world hasn't ended, I can still do it. And I'll wait for it.

[swapnilsonawane]

A Day Outing in Mysore

This was back in December 2012. I had planned for the Mysore and Ooty trip with a couple of my friends (Srinivas & Aniket). We had only two days to roam around, so this could have been hectic. So, we dropped Ooty from this plan and decided to visit only Mysore in a single day. 

We had chalked out all the plan, what places to visit and how much time to spend there. We started very early in the morning. As expected, there was no traffic whatsoever. Shivanasamudram Waterfalls was the first place in our itinerary. GPS and maps helped us a lot in locating the place, local folks helped too. We reached there well-in time. Fortunately, it wasn't completely dry out there. It had good amount of water, even though not as rich as it is in rainy season. 

Apparently, this was the second town in Asia to get Hydro-electricity. As I was trying different composition, heard a lot of kids shouting and running. So, they were here for a school picnic. I was glad to be done with my clicks and we decided to move on.

Next destination was the not-so-famous Somnathapura temple. Usually, when someone talks about Somnath temple, it's mostly about the one located in Saurashtra, Gujarat. The temple was open by the time we reached there. We didn't see a lot of crowd there, but there were a few people including foreigners around. First look, the temple and its architecture was amazing, surely it deserved more visitors. I waited for the people to move out of the frame.

I wish I carried a tripod, nevertheless I was able to get a decently sharp photo of the temple. I must recite, the architecture and work was just amazing. It was pure art. After spending some time inside, we decided to move on. Next place was the "Mysore Palace". It was pretty close from Somnathapura, so were there in less than an hour. It was a Monday, but still the place was crowded, good that we didn't choose a Sunday for this trip.

The palace gave a feel of the royalty. While my friends opted to go visit the palace from inside, I decided to stay out and try my camera. I hate to be a part of the rush, especially at such places. There was a small flower garden in the palace premises, which was well maintained.

Everything was royal. Even the flowers around were proud of the place they were part of.

We moved on after my friends were back outside. After having lunch in a CCD nearby, we went to the Ranganthittu bird sanctuary. Without any telephoto lens, I didn't hope to get any great clicks. It was approximately an hour of drive away from the palace. We spent around an hour there. A bird sanctuary with people there for a picnic is a disappointment. Obviously, birds don't come stand in front of you and smile if you want to click them. You need to stay quiet. That wasn't happening. People creating all kinds of noise, running here and there. Without wasting a lot of time, we moved to our next destination.

It was Vrindavan gardens, even bigger disappointment. Vrindavan gardens is really a famous place, well-known in Karnataka, but then that's it. It didn't have anything great. Even the flowers weren't fresh, it was sounding dull. The fountains were ok, but you wouldn't go that far just for those.

Colorful fountains at Vrindavan gardens after 7 pm or Mysore palace illuminated - we had two choices. The second one was obvious for us. We started driving back to Mysore palace, completing the triangle. 

It had started getting dark, but we were at the palace in an hour. We bought the entry tickets and were made to sit in the chairs placed in the palace ground. After some time, the light and sound programme started, which was the most boring part of the day. This was being presented in Kannada language, so most of the people around were uninterested. Had it been done in Hindi / English, it could have been different. 

In any case, the palace was illuminated for a minute or so. It was an amazing scene. There are some things better watched with naked eyes than in photographs. This seemed like one of them. With this, we said good-bye to Mysore and started driving back to Bangalore. Worth mentioning, we were back at 11.30 pm and we cooked food at that time. Had food and off to sleep. It was a tiring day obviously, but worth the effort. Loved Mysore and wouldn't mind going there again.

[swapnilsonawane]

A Saturday Morning Trip to Nandi Hills

If you work in a city like Mumbai or Bangalore, you know how hectic your day is. Pollution, road traffic jams, crowded public transport are only few of the day-to-day problems. Weekend outings are a nice way to relax and relieve the stress.

On one of the Saturdays, we headed to Nandi Hills, which is located approximately 60 km from Bangalore city. I had heard good things about this place from a couple of my friends, so was naturally excited to go there early morning. I always love watching the sun rise, who doesn't?

We started early at 4 am and reached there by 6 am. I was a little surprised to see the number of people lined up at the gate. We parked the rented cab and started jogging towards the hill top. The sun wasn't in the picture yet, but sunrise was around the corner. The golden light was beautiful. It was extremely cold out there, but very fresh too. My camera was dying to get a click :)

It was all golden around. Saturday mornings can be spent at home sleeping (oh yes, I just love sleeping) or they can be spent watching the sun rise like this. 

Expectedly, many of them were carrying cameras. I was travelling with my friends, who are not into photography as such. Usually, I'm not a big fan of making people stand and capturing kodak moments, but then it seemed like an opportunity to get a few portraits with such beautiful background. Good background can enhance your photographs a lot.

To get a different frame, I wanted to get to what seemed liked a Sunrise point, but it was heavily crowded already and I tried something else instead. 

I love silhouettes, I feel they speak more than what the picture contains. They don't differentiate between people. I was in love with the place.

They had a nicely maintained park with a variety of fresh flowers around. It was a nice feeling to walk bare feet on the grass with the dew settled on it. We turned to the other side of the hills facing west. By now, skies had started getting its trademark blue color. Rather, it was a blend.

We were hungry and thankfully they had a couple of vendors selling some breakfast food items and ice creams. We had to return back to the city by then. I was in no hurry particularly, but I too decided to return back with my friends. While walking down the hills, I captured the flowers. 

That was a good-bye to Nandi Hills. Nature offers so much, it is upto us.

[swapnilsonawane]

Morning Trip to Mumbai CST

I had always dreamt of being in Mumbai CST early morning, for many reasons. I love to roam around in Mumbai streets, unless I'm heading somewhere for some work and getting late, when it becomes a headache. Secondly, it gives me a lot of scope to get some nice clicks. More importantly, people walking over the busy streets aren't bothered about someone shooting them (with a camera I mean!) and they don't pose either.

That morning, I reached Mumbai CST railway station at around 7.30 AM and was walking with the 18-135 mm lens attached to the cam, worried if someone might think of something suspicious, this place has some terrible history. The station as expected, was heavily crowded, so I went out looking for bright light and I could see those buildings built by British Architect back in the 19th century.

As you can read the board - बृहन्मुंबई महानगर पालिका (in Marathi), it is the head office of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. This is a Grade IIA heritage building. As I was getting some clicks, I realized there were so many people running here and there already. Not to panic, they were on their way to offices. There were school kids, vendors, sweepers, taxi drivers and police vans.

Among all this, there were animal lovers who were feeding cows and pigeons before starting the long day.

As the vehicles passed the place, pigeons would fly all around, only to return back to their breakfast, in few seconds. By now, street vendors had started setting up their small shops. You could buy fruits, fresh juice, pirated CDs, posters, notebooks, shoes, wallets, handbags, clothes and what not.

Among all this, there was this guy sitting along in one corner of the road, doing nothing, but surely thinking about something. 

I recalled few lines from some blog -

Is life full of nothing but disappointments and misery?

Am I just here to suffer, never able to break free?

I'm surrounded by the dark, not a gleam in sight 

I've tried to be strong but I haven't the strength to fight.

I am dejected, I surrender..

With that, I didn't feel like continuing further and decided to head home from there. Life is what one sees on the streets, in the morning. 

[swapnilsonawane]

An Evening at Hebbal Lake

After visiting a few other lakes in Bangalore, I always wanted to visit the Hebbal Lake some day. That being ~25 km from my place, I preferred to go there in the evening (and not morning for the sunrise) along with my friend (Abhilash). When we reached there, I was quite glad to see that the lake was being well-maintained (unlike some other lakes in Bangalore). There is a small park around, where people (and mostly couples as you expect) usually roam around. As the time passed, clouds were getting dramatic, skies were colorful. We were just loving those moments, you didn't need a camera, naked eyes were good enough to enjoy the scenes. Well, I went there with my cam of course. The water wasn't moving that much, so I tried some reflection shots.

I tried to get closer to the water level to get good symmetry. I was almost getting my feet wet, but was scared to get my 550D in there!

After some time, I could see yellowish-orange tint in the skies and I couldn't have been in a better place in Bangalore at that time. 

This one turned out to my first explore in flickr :) I didn't feel like leaving the place, but had to travel 25 km back home on a bike, so we left after it started getting dark. It was a wonderful evening, I would surely love to visit Hebbal Lake for a Sunrise, even though I would need to wake up at as early as five in the morning. After all, that will make my day.

Note: Please do not copy the photos without prior permission. You can always ask :)