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!

Convivial

Sometimes when someone says "Please take a picture" you just have to no matter what the lighting is or what the circumstances are. This is one such picture. I wasn't prepared for a late night photo session with friends as I had just got back from photographing a band and was looking for some time away from photography but I couldn't say no.

The lights in the background provided for a nice colour contrast against the warm colour of the bulb behind me as I shot my friend's mother (not with a gun...obviously).

I've been experimenting with tones and colours for a while now so I would love to know what you think of this.

A Walk

Another one for a recent series of photos I took for two of my friends.

We had a great time shooting in that park. Taking pictures of people is challenging but also really interesting because there are so many options and you can be as creative as you want with almost no limits.

Anyway I got to go back to the school where I spent the last (and best) two years of my school life for their biennial concert and it was really great!

Choices

This butterfly was really pretty and although we were in a hurry I just had to get a shot of it.

The day was perfect too. The sun was bright and the clouds looked amazing. I couldn't go close to the butterfly because the plant was in an enclosure.

This is where the massive zoom on the SX50 HS helped.

It seemed like this pretty little creature was having a hard time making up its mind because there were so many flowers to choose from. It finally picked this one.

Playful

This is the juvenile Oriental Garden Lizard that I spoke of in my previous blog post about these lizards. This is only one I've seen that's this tiny.

It was thinner than my little finger - and that's really ting because I'm pretty thin myself. It was tiny but it's tail just stretched on forever.

It was beautiful though and I wish I had more time photographing it. It was really shy and kept jumping everywhere. It just wouldn't stay still. But it was worth it. I hope I get to see more of these this year.

Intense

Since most of the lizard were hibernating I wasn't able to get good pictures so here is one that I took last year.

This particular fellow won a fight which I'm guessing was about its territory. It then went on to climb a fence and just stayed there for a while before coming back down and onto the grass.

It provided me with loads of really great picture opportunities and I must say that those pictures were some of my favourites.

Also I think the lizards are slowly coming out of hibernation because yesterday was really sunny and I saw two of these amazing creatures. I was able to shoot one (with a camera, obviously).

Depths Of Beauty

A friend of mine recently got a new camera and he wanted some help with it, so we met up and spent some time taking pictures.

The place he was staying at had some really pretty flower. This particular one was my favourite.

My camera had a really tough time focusing for some reason so I had to switch to Manual Focus for this. It's time like this that make me wish I had steady hands :P

Different From The Others

I really love photographing flowers. There are so many different ways you can shoot just one flower.

My mom just bought some beautiful new flowers but I wasn't able to take pictures because I got home late from class. Will try and get some shots tomorrow.

Took this picture during a recent trip to Darjeeling. We stopped at Batasia Loop and the garden was stunning!

Leaf Eater

We've had this cherry tree in our front garden for a few years now and one of the best things about it is the wildlife it attracts. There are loads of birds, bats and Oriental Garden Lizards that love this tree.

I've seen birds and bats eating the fruit but I've never seen an Oriental Garden Lizard eating one so I was curious when I noticed this little lizard munching on something. Turns out it was eating the leaves.

It was completely engrossed in what it was doing that it didn't even notice me sneaking up on it to get a picture. This has got to be one of my favourite pictures of this beautiful creature.

You can find this picture and more in my new "Best of 2013" video on my Youtube channel.

Full Bloom

This is one of the pictures that will probably be in my Best of 2013 video that I'm currently putting together.
It's quite difficult trying to pick favourites from your own pictures.

Anyway this pretty flower was just growing by the wayside and I'm glad I took a picture of it when I did because it had been trampled to the ground when I saw it the next day.

Which reminds me of how the beauty of this place is lost on the people that live here. So I'm going to make it my goal to showcase the best of the beauty of this place. When I get a new camera I'll start timelapses, long exposures and other new things because there are just so many things to be photographed.

Pink and Pretty

A day's break from landscape photographs  :D

Here is a pretty little pink flower that I saw a couple of weeks back. The was just one plant with pink flower - all the others had yellow flowers on them so these flowers really stood out.

Unfortunately they were all spread out and on uneven ground (it was a hill) so i couldn't really get them both in one picture but I was told they were all part of the same garden.

Ready For Take Off

I can't remember when I last shared a picture of a dragonfly but it's been a while so here is one today.

These can sometimes be a real challenge to photograph and you have to go to great lengths to get a good shot but it's worth all the effort.

This dragonfly gave me a particularly difficult time. It wouldn't let me go near it and it just wouldn't stay still for more than a couple of seconds so by the time I'd framed my shot it would be somewhere else.

Finally I decided to just be very still and wait till it came and rested in front of the camera. I figured it wouldn't be very long since it kept moving around. It took a while but this is what I was able to get.

Standing Out

It is important to stand out from the crowd at time and yet it is also important to blend it when necessary. Maintaining a balance can not only be tricky but also difficult.

Yup, I'm done with the philosophy stuff :P

This one was taken at a place on the way to Darjeeling (not sure of the exact name). It wasn't a village or anything. Just a lookout with this small bed of flowers near it. The flowers were beautiful (as you can probably tell).

This particular one caught my attention. Don't ask me why because I honestly don't know.

Just Hanging

We saw these beautiful flower at a place called Batasia Loop in Darjeeling. That's a place that I've spoke of in one of my previous blog posts.

There are quite a few pictures from this place as it is really beautiful, specially when there are pretty flowers like this particular one.

Anyway the Auto Focus on the SX50 isn't particularly great when it comes to macro shots and even though I manually shifted the focus point it still didn't do a great job.

Yellow Beauty

On a recent trip to a nearby hill-station we stopped at a watch-tower sort of place to take in the view. Although the fog was really thick and we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us, we weren't completely disappointed because of all the pretty flowers in that place.

While the others were busy trying to see how far off into the distance they could see, I decided to photograph there amazing flowers.

There were so many of them and they were just beautiful.

The SX50 HS isn't one for great bokeh so I had to improvise. After a few adjustment layers, I added the iris blur filter. If you don't have that in Photoshop then you should try out the lens blur filter.

Missing A Piece

It's been a while since I last uploaded a picture of a dragonfly. One of the many reasons is that winter is coming and so we don't see dragonflies this time of the year.

Which is also why you'll see more landscape photographs from me now.

Anyway back to the dragonfly. This little beauty was having a feast that afternoon. It kept flying off and returning with something between it's feet and then eating that.

Somehow it managed to stay still for a minute which is when I was able to get close and take this photograph. I used the flash to darken the background. Unfortunately that caused a hard reflection in both its compound eyes. Note to self- build a diffuser for macro shots.

It was only when I was post processing this photograph that I noticed that it's right wing was torn.

High Alert

I came across this juvenile Oriental Garden Lizard and it was really shy. This meant that getting a picture was going to be a real challenge.

Surprisingly the more it tried to hide, the better photo opportunities it provided so that was really good.

I just thought I'd go with a lizard picture today as I hadn't uploaded one in a while.

Stay tuned for pictures from today. We went to Darjeeling and got some really nice pictures which I'll upload sometime soon - just as soon as I finish post-processing.

An Unnoticed Weed

Now when I say "weed" I'm referring to unwanted plants growing in a garden...nothing else.

We don't really take a moment to look at these plants, do we? I mean we just uproot 'em and hope they never grow back.

Truth is they have their own beauty and they are home to many different insects (ok, pests...but still). I'm just waiting to get my hands on a DSLR and delve into macro photography because what I've seen with the SX50 has been amazing so I can only imagine what it will be like when I can go closer.

The Eyes Have It

A while back I started an album on Facebook titled "The Eyes Have It". Where I would upload pictures of the eyes of various creatures and have people guess what they were.

It didn't go on for too long though but if it was still on I would have added this picture to that as well.

My dog hates this bullfrog for some reason. He has no problem with other types of frogs and toads but he hates bullfrogs. I have no idea why but he just does.

Away From Danger

It's probably just me but I think the population of Oriental Garden Lizards has gone done in this area this year. One of the main reasons would be loss of habitat as overgrown areas are cleared and houses are built.

It's sad but it is inevitable. So I'v really tried searching for these lizards and photographing them before they all disappear for good.

Finding this lizard was a surprise (as they most often are). I was photographing these flowers against the sun when I noticed this unusually thick branch. When I went close I knew why it seemed thick. This lizard was perfectly camouflaged on this branch.