England

Sometimes you're met with the unexpected like the time my sister sent me a text saying she was pregnant! I was overjoyed and it took me back to the time when she had sent a similar text saying she was engaged! Fast forward to a few days back and we now have a sixth member in our family - Ethan Joseph Harris! Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaaattttttt?!?!?!

Anyway, I'm now on my way to visit my sister, brother and my nephew - all the way in the UK. I mean, come on! How exciting is that! Seriously! I can't wait.

I'm typing this as I wait near the boarding gate for the flight to London. There was this little gag we used to play as kids - whenever we had a bag and someone asked us where we were headed we'd say, "London." Now I get to actually say it for real - it's unreal!

All I can say is God has been incredibly gracious to us...new member of the family and all. It's...it's...I don't even know what to say so, I'll just leave it at that.

I know I haven't uploaded anything in months but I've got so much to share and hopefully I'll be able to do that starting today. I need to keep this together. Pray for me! Things aren't perfect but I know I have a God who cares and looks after me and that is more than I could have ever asked or hoped for.

Until next time! Toodles!

Broken Frames

It's been a year since earthquakes devastated Nepal so I asked a good friend of mine to write a little something to go along with the pictures as a message to and from the people of Nepal.

Article by Upashana Gurung
Pictures by Daniel Raghu

Life was never "normal" after that day, and even if we wanted to we could not forget the unimaginable loss we suffered. It has already been a year since the devastating earthquake hit Nepal. One of the most beautiful countries had been turned into pieces of ruins. As we look back upon that day, there is no way we won't feel the sorrow all over again.

Even though words cannot describe the unbearable agony we had to go through; even after everything we lost, we were still smiling with tears in our eyes and with the hope that one day it would all be alright.

As I'm writing this, I really cannot express the pain and grief of someone who lost everything in the remote villages of Nepal. I really cannot. And if for one second I put myself in their shoes, I could not bear the heaviness of my heart.

The pain and anguish they must have felt is beyond mine or anyone's conception.

But YOU, you are a warrior who survived a great catastrophe.

You are the brave one.
Don't ever forget that.

The hope, the strength, the unity that we all have, let's not let go of that. Because when we look back, these are the only things that kept us going froward. We're fixing the ruins, we're reconstructing buildings, we're helping the ones in need - providing food and shelter and clothes; most of all we're giving away love and hope to the ones who lost it.

Every country, every organisation, every individual from all over the world that has been helping us in these darkest days, we are profoundly grateful for all that you have and are doing for us.

 Because we have each other we have the courage to believe that we can move forward.

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

For you are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord shall enlighten my darkness. - 2 Samuel 22:29

Bring Me Down

Seven of us went out on Saturday. I was helping some of them learn how to use their cameras better. We left in the morning and were out till about 5 in the evening. Except for about an hour or so we were on our feet just walking around, exploring and shooting. It was a day to remember for sure.

We were on the hill when we noticed this tree out in the distance. It really seemed to stand out from the others around it. It was taller than the rest but also had almost no leaves on it. It made this particular scene really interesting.

I had to work some Photoshop magic on the original image because it was flat and boring. The light wasn't particularly exciting because this was way off in the distance so there was no clear separation or anything. The camera didn't pick up on the colours either. Maybe someday I'll get down to working on a tutorial on how I edited this image.

It reminded me of the lyrics "Can't nothing bring me down".

Under The Clouds

It's been crazy busy here these past few weeks. Just when I thought I would find time to share a few pictures it got really busy again. Anyway I thought I would share something from my last vacation since our vacations for the festivals just got over.

 This was taken as we were flying towards Delhi. It was an amazing sight and the clouds were just beautiful.

In other news, my computer forced me to upgrade to Windows 8.1 and I can't say that I like it all that much. It's not a huge improvement from Windows 8. Actually I don't see a lot of differences. It did uninstall my anti-virus software which is really annoying.

To The Other Side

I keep going back and looking at pictures I took in June. That was a great vacation.

This place was definitely one of my favourites. It was an amazing experience. The clouds just made it so much better. You can just go to this Eco Park and spend the entire day there. You'll also have some really interesting monkeys for company.

A Wonder

I'm not quite sure which I like better - the Taj Mahal or the clouds. Since I've only seen the Taj once I think I'll go with that.

It's definitely a magnificent structure and you can't really comprehend how huge it is until you notice the tiny people in the distance. It's huge!

Minaret

The Taj Mahal is a beautiful structure for sure and so it was exciting to see it for the first time.

I ended up taking more pictures of the four minarets that I did of the main structure.
Someday I plan to go back there and spend the entire day shooting. Maybe even do a timelapse or something fun.

FRI

No - FRI doesn't stand for Friday but refers to the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, India. It's one of the best place I've been to and so I'm really happy that this panorama I shot of the front of this building turned out to be one of my absolute favourites from this trip.

This is a really old building with some good scientists and doctors working here - they study plants and all things related to them

I was told that there is no concrete in this building - not on iota. It's a massive building and perfectly symmetrical right down to the lawns and the flowers you find there.

Talking To The Beast

Recently I went to visit family in Delhi and so we went to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra. I'd never been there before but have always wanted to visit.

They've built a new highway that connects Delhi to Agra and the journey only takes about three hours by road. That has also got to the one of the best roads I've been on in India.

The sunrise was stunning and we stopped on the way to rest the car for a while. That's when I got this photograph of my brother and his car.
Btw thank you Vijay for the amazing time I had there.

Also for those of you who don't follow my page on Facebook here is a bonus picture for today. Two nights back we had one of the clearest and most stunning night skies in this place - I honestly can't remember the last time we had such a beautiful and clear night sky. It was so clear that you could actually see the Milky Way. It was faint but it was visible. So here is my first Milky Way picture. Also if you want you can follow my Facebook page - Daniel Raghu Photography.