Mirror, Mirror...

Photo from our trip to Mayem Lake. Read about it here.

The Rainbow Bridge

Photo from our trip to Mayem Lake. Read about it here.

Sunset at Candolim Beach

Golden light on a gloomy evening

Looking around Kanheri Caves - The desolate landscape

As with most places Maharashtra before the monsoons, there are looming clouds along with dry and dead dead vegetation all around, so much unlike the landscape of the monsoons. Kanheri caves in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park is no exception to this.

Click here for a larger sized version.

The view by night

 V Resort & Resto Lounge at the 'small Vagator cliff', Goa (also know as Ozrean) commands quite a view by day, but I have yet to see it. By night, I'm guessing unless its a night with a full moon, the lights of V shines brighter and more interesting than the dark beach and the sea beyond. So that makes 2 situations I'd like to visit this place in, a full moon, and of course, for a sunset. Anyways, here's a pan of the restaurant and lounge area.

Giovi's more realistic panorama is here. Check the larger size image here.

Dusk by the beach

I've been itching to get some good photos of the rocks and the waves so being at Ozrean, Goa sounded like a good opportunity. We reached the beach too late to catch the actual sunset, but there was still enough light in the sky. I set up for a HDR shot of the waves. However, I also liked how the metered and the +2 exposure shots turned out so they are included in this series as well.

The Devil’s Canyon

On the last Goa trip, we visited Mollem Wildlife Sanctuary (check out Giovi’s pics here). This was the first time we didn’t walk around a place, we drove around instead. This place is called the Devil’s Canyon. It was a dull day (We could already hear the thunder in the distance and it started pouring just minutes afterwards). While it was hard to make out what the bottom looked like, this HDR has managed to bring it out… and killed the mystery.

Singapore skyline at night

Well, that’s a tiny looking Merlion there right in front of the Fullerton. I know its tiny in this photo, so use this link to see the photo in its full size avatar…

Esplanade by night

Here’s a first in the series, this set is on the Esplanade in Singapore.

Looking around Kanheri – Descent into greenery

Looking around Kanheri – Flame of the Forest

We visited Kanheri on an overcast day. The clouds loomed around, threatening to rain. In July or August, it would have meant that I was walking around with an umbrella in the hand, the camera carefully wrapped to avoid the stray rain drops or the sudden downpour.

One of the challenges of a bright, yet overcast sky is that any photo you take looks gloomy with a white sky, and no polariser can help you add some blue to the dull sky. You could use a graduated Neutral Density (ND) filter, but you need straight horizons for that, and I don’t have one to begin with. So instead, I opted to try High Dynamic Range (HDR) instead.

The Buddha at Kanheri Caves

Stepping out side the stupa of yesterday, is the Buddha of today. This statue towers over the entrance, and while there are other, more intricate sculptures around the place, this one takes the cake because of his sheer size.

The stupa at Kanheri Caves

I am a regular at the Stuck in Customs website, and one of his recent posts caught my eye. And so at the visit to Kanheri caves at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, I And that was the inspiration behind this attempt. There was hardly any light coming in, which became a bit of a challenge with me not carrying my tripod.

Just after cursing myself a couple of times, I thought that maybe its time to try out the bagpod. So I swung off the backpack, squished the top so that it got a depression, and then balanced the camera on it. The 2-second timer helped. That kept the camera steady enough for this picture. If I had carried the tripod, I think I would have ended up with a higher point-of-view, but I like this PoV’s effect.