Solitude

Blogger caught this picture of this lonely signal post in from a typical Californian road.

Giant Screen

The blogger got this picture of the Giant movie Screen from one of the biggest shopping mall in Dubai.

Back In Dubai

When the blogger visited Dubai again after 2 years and 9 months, the face of Dubai changed a lot. The tallest building you see in this picture (as well as in the world as of now) was under construction then.

Old Movie Camera

The blogger got this picture during his California Trip. The big boss of the office building where the blogger worked there owned this and the blogger was told that it the great man who invented this camera is his great father.

Climate Change

 

The blogger caught the same location in his camera at different time of the year and here you see the difference. The first picture was caught on a near harvest season for paddy on a fine evening when the moon was also visible up in the sky. The bamboo blossomed at that time and you can see the so called tallest grass in yellow color because of that. The second picture was taken after around 2 years on a rainy season, when the sky was little bit clear on another evening. You can see the effect of climate change in these pictures as well as the effect of bamboo blossom. The bamboo will perish after it blooms which is seen in the second picture. This will cause a temporary dry years in the forest. The blogger had already published the first picture in the post named “Bamboo Blossom and The Moon”. The location is place called Nadavayal in Wayanad district where the bloggers mother house is.

Snake on Roof Tiles

 

“The snake on the neighbor’s roof” was caught standing from the apartment balcony in Whitefield. It became cautious when its privacy was questioned by the blogger.

Californian Freeway

This is just a video clip that reminds me of my Californian trip back in the month of September 2010.

Thumbapoo (Leuca Indica)

Thumba is a very small flower white in color. It is found almost everywhere in Kerala. The botanical name of Thumba Poovu belongs to the family of Leucas. Thumba is called Leuca Indica or Leucas aspera. I am not a botanist, and I do not know the exact taxonomy and family tree of Thumba. Some people write it as Thumba and some others write it as Thumpa. Thumbapoo and the plant itself are related to many ways with the culture of people of Kerala. Thumbapoo is used as one of the ingredient of “ada” a food dish that is special to Kerala. Thumpapoo is having an important role in many poojas observed by the Hindu community in Kerala. Thumbapoo (the flower) and Thumbachedi (the plant) is ingredient to many ayurvedic medicines. Thumbapoo is having an important role with Onam, the festival of Kerala. This small flower has a resemblance with a beautiful foot, and there are many stories that describe how this “foot” landed in earth from heaven. Some of the main classifications of Thumba found in Kerala are Anisomeles malabarica, Leucas aspera and Leucas cephalotes.

The Riverside

Again, these are pictures of the Flooded River Kabani and the place is called Koodalkadavu. Whenever I go to my home town Payyampally, I will go to the house of Inchikalla Babychettan (George Panatt) which is situated by this Riverside, and I love spend time there just sitting at his verandah and enjoying this riverside. Manathavady River and Panamaram River combines at Koodalkadavu, to form the larger Kabani, and flows towards Karnataka (Beachnahalli Dam). Kabani River is one of the major sources of water (for drinking and agricultural purpose) for Karnataka, and Wayanad is not able to make much use of this river.

The forest land that can be seen in these pictures is known as Pulpally forest which occupies the tourist spot namely Kuruvadweep or Kuruva Island. This river separates payyampally and Pulpally.

 

 

Typical Californian Freeway

This picture shows a typical Californian freeway far from the seashore. The terrain is almost like dessert hills, and the sky is clear most of the time. Drive through these long curvy freeways along the hills and mountains were a pleasure for me, but after a while, it turned to be too monotonous.

Water vapor near Aircraft Wing

This video is taken from the terminal of Los Angeles airport. When the aircrafts where lifting up, water vapor formation near the aircraft wing (flowing from the front side of the wing towards the back side through bottom and top part of the wing) was noticed for a shot while. It lasted for around 4 to 6 seconds and it disappeared immediately.

Flooded River

These pictures of the Flooded River Kabani near Koodalkadavu is taken on the month of October 2010 just after the heavy rain that poured in Wayanad. Koodalkadavu is formed when the two rivers namely “Mananthavady Puzha” and “Panamaram Puzha” joins together at this place. Since these two rivers flows through most part of the Wayanad, the river turns muddy whenever there is heavy rain anywhere in Wayanad.
Kodalkadavu is located two kilometers away from Payyampally, and the famous tourist spot – Kuruvadweep lies nearby, which is again formed by the multi splits and joinings of the river Kabani and the forest land surrounded by the splitted branches of the River Kabani.

 

Parhelion

The Wikipedia definition says that “a sundog is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun”. You can read more about sundog in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog.This picture was shot from the terrace of the apartment in Electronic city phase 2 in Bangalore where I was living for a while. I noticed this when I was just walking on the terrace of the apartment on a normal evening. This was the first time I was witnessing this phenomenon, before that I had seen the pictures of sundog in the “Astronomy Picture of the Day” website of NASA. I ran back to my apartment to get hold of my camera so that I could take pictures before it vanished.

 

 

Arial Rain View

It was an amazing scene, to view the rain from the top of Nandi Hills. I was on a family picnic to Nandi hills on that afternoon. Around 6:00 pm all of a sudden they sky became cloudy and windy. People were rushing towards their car to escape from the rain and this view was not noticed by many in the rush. The rain that you see in the above pictures was approaching the hill and after a short while of 10 minutes it reached and rained violently for an hour.

A Fuzzy Rainbow

I got this picture of the rainbow on a cloudy evening on the highly polluted sky of Electronic city. The sun was so bright and the rainbow was very vague making it difficult to photograph it.

The Most Photographed Celestial Event

Sunset may be the most photographed celestial event, and the most watched beautiful celestial event by humans. Who does not like to stop by and watch a beautiful sunset?

Reflections of Melancholy

I got this picture during another Wayanad trip. The picture was shot from somewhere near Gundlupetta.

Dancing Fountain near Burj Khalifa Dubai

The blogger visited Dubai once again. He was on his way to California, when he missed the connection flight from Dubai. Emirates arranged the stay for the blogger in New Millennium hotel till next day where he had to board the next flight. The blogger’s intimate friend (Jaison) picked him from the hotel and roamed around Dubai. Jaison and blogger shared their golden memories in Dubai and the blogger enjoyed the new face of Dubai. They were working together in Emirates IT, when there were no Metro train, Burj Khalifa was under construction, palm Islands were not ready… The bloggers colleague Rudresh was also part of this fun trip in Dubai, who was also flying from Bangalore to California. The blogger found very difficult to shoot this video with his canon still camera. When he came out of the chilled air in shopping mall to the hot summer climate outside, his camera lens got fogged too much because of the high humid air. The tiny water sprinkled from the dancing fountain added to the foggy look of this video. More information about this wonderful fountain can be seen in the Wikipedia link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dubai_Fountain

Street Musician at Santa Monica Pier

Street musicians; we saw many on the beach. They keep on playing sweet music along with that, they sell the CDs. Here in the above video, you can see the musicians’ dog on top of the loudspeaker next to him. The dog was guarding his things, and it was an interesting scene.

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse that happened on 15th Jan 2010 was an annular eclipse. Scientists calculated that this is the longest annular eclipse of the millennium. The eclipse could be seen in its completeness from Dhanushkodi, the nearest place to Srilanka in India. It was a working day for me, and I went out to see if I can photograph the event. Since, the eclipse was partial in Bangalore; the sun was still brighter so that my camera could not get the actual shape of the eclipsed sun. It only gave the impression of a very bright ball in the picture. I tried with the minimum aperture and maximum shutter speed in my camera (Canon Powershot S2 IS). Still I could not get the actual view. Lot of people assembled there to watch the event. One guy came with an x ray film and helped me to photograph the event. Yes, it worked. I placed the X-Ray film on top of the lens, and adjusted the aperture and shutter speed. After two or three trials, I could compute the required values for aperture and shutter speed, and got these images. Dhanushkodi is an interesting place to visit, a big tragedy happened there long before. You can read about this place in Wikipedia in the link (Dahnushkodi)

More info about this solar eclipse can be found in Wikipedia in the following link. Solar Eclipse - 15th Jan 2010

Wildlife

Wildlife is a soothing scene for our mind. But are we becoming a threat to them, which is again a threat to ourself? Protect them, at least for our own good. This picture is from Wayanad.

Crepuscular rays

Crepuscular rays!!! We always see them, but may not notice the wonder of the nature. It makes us believe that sun is much much close than it is. We may even feel that the sun is just above the clouds by imagining the intersection point of these rays. The picture is from Nandi hills, a beautiful picnic place 70 kilometers away from Bangalore.

Sunset

Sunset is one of the celestial event that is ever captured the most number of times in photos by humans. These pictures are taken from Electronic city in Bangalore.

Rainbow

Rainbows!!! I use to see it a lot when I was in Wayanad. Yes, I had time to look out and watch the sky in the morning and evening, but now in Bangalore, when I come out of my office, it will be already dark. When am I going back to be there again forever?

The first picture of rainbow is taken from Wayanad, while the second one is from Bangalore.

Wayanad

This is where I belong to, but for the last 6 years I am living in cities. I feel like I am a prisoner when I in cities. People of Kerala speak about Wayanad with humiliation on account of the development. But it is a secret that they dream of buying land and living in Wayanad.

Ente Keralam

This beautiful location will make you a photographer (Peruvannamuzhi Dam and surroundings).

Green Nature

Nature is green, but how much? So much!!! How many different green colors can you find there? Countless!!! 24bit or 32bit or any higher bitmap is not going to capture it, but only human eye, another wonderful creation of the creator. When we create anything we are partners with him, and those who destroy or kill never can be in his company.

Twilight

A scene from the one of the many Wayanad drives that I made in the past 6 years. The “Land of Humps” is making these beautiful drives to be “only a dream” by blocking all the roads from Karnataka to Kerala one by one. This picture is taken early in the morning before sunrise.

Roll Clouds???

Can I call these clouds as roll clouds??? While driving back from Wayanad towards Mysore in the evening through Gundlupetta just after crossing the forest, towards the right side, I got this view. This location is a very beautiful one and is good for film making. The Malayalam film – “Chandranudikkunna Dikkil” was done from somewhere nearby.

Every cloud has a silver lining

Every cloud has a silver lining. I got this picture while driving towards Nandi Hills from Bangalore.