Wandering Loss

Today's post is kinda related to my last post.

When you have major decisions to make and your future seems uncertain - so uncertain, in fact that you don't even know where you'll be the following month or what you'll be doing; that's when things can get scary and you really start to question where you're at. At times you might seem lost in the crowd, struggling to stand out and make your presence felt in one way or another - that's when things can get tricky. You have a decision to make - give up or carry on. Like I said last time, the right thing to do would be to carry. It's not going to be the easy thing to do because, I think, it's a lot harder to carry on than to even start in the first place.

As a Christian, one of the results of falling on times like this is it teaches you to rely more on God than yourself or people around you. It's never easy to hand over the reins to someone else but you've got to do it since that's what's best for you.

This picture had been lying on my drive for years and it wasn't until recently that I got to working on it. Each leaf, twig, branch is part of something so much bigger than itself and yet it's always lost among all the other parts that are almost identical to it. Sometimes life's like that. You're wandering and you're lost in the crowd. These twigs would have been lost too if I shot them head on but a slight change in perspective and a different angle and VOILA! it stands out and is separate from the others around it.

What if God's like a photographer and we're those twigs? We've got to let Him do His thing and carry on trusting Him.

I hope the people in Myanmar are OK. We felt the tremor hundreds of miles away from the epicentre so I can only imagine what it must have been like there.

Beautiful Loneliness

I shared a black and white version of this image a while back but I'm sharing this now because I just couldn't decide which one I liked better.

This was the only flower of its kind in that beautiful garden. That seemed a little odd since every other species had at least two of its kind growing. Another thing that struck me was the placement of this flower - it was growing in a corner almost hidden from plain sight but it was still so beautiful.

This is getting philosophical but I think there's a lesson to be learnt from that and I know it's something I struggle with as well. I post updates regularly and upload pictures to my blog and various other social media sites but what have I really accomplished? Sometimes you might be bogged down by thoughts like that or the fear of obscurity but I think it's important to carry on and keep doing what you're doing even if no one else understands or cares.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week ahead! :)

Horns of the Devil

The last few pictures were all taken while on a recent trip to a place called Gayabari. It's a nice place with friendly people. If you do visit you'll have to get used to the locals asking you what you're doing there.

We found this really nice cave-like place and in the excitement I almost overlooked this tiny little creature that was happily feeding on the grass.

I haven't seen a caterpillar like this in a while. I think it's beautiful. The others with me would beg to differ. I can't help but wonder what sort of pretty, little fluttering thing this will turn into.

Reminds me of the days when I used to collect caterpillars and watch them slowly transform into beautiful butterflies.

EXIF info. - SS 1/400sec. f/5.6 ISO 160 250mm Canon t4i (650D)

The More The Merrier

So many things have happened this past week and that's probably why I haven't been able to upload anything in a long time. My apologies for that.

Anyway, a few of us have been going out almost ever weekend for the past three weeks or so just to shoot stuff and learn new things while exploring new places. It's tiring for sure but so much fun and you learn a lot of thins along the way.

I didn't get much time to shoot because I was busy helping the others figure out how to use their own cameras and helping them get better angles and such. We stopped along the way to refill out water bottles and this flower was the only one growing at this place. This is a little strange because not ten feet away there was a whole garden of sorts so it seemed kind of odd that this one was planted separately.

This is a focus stacked image - three images shot from the same angle using the same settings but with different focus points. You get used to this when you're shooting things really close because the depth of field is paper thin. Getting this was a little difficult because of the strong wind. I would have liked to get more than three but it couldn't be helped. Getting more than three shots would have enabled me to get a lot more in focus.

The Lookout

Today started off in an interesting way. Just as I was getting ready to leave for classes I got a phone call saying that out results for the previous semester were out. That made me really nervous. Unfortunately the university server was down and that just added to the tension. I got to class and everyone was sombre and quiet. We were all anxious.

Anyway, God has been really merciful and graceful again (as He always is) and enabled me to get through with fairly good grades.

Now for today's picture. As with most self-portraits this has a very personal message. I have a little over a year to finish the course I'm currently studying and then I'll have to look for something else. I still don't know what that's going to be or how God is going to lead me into the future but I have to always be on the lookout for His guidance and help.

This is a composite (obviously) of two pictures. The base image of the flower and flora is light painted. If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen a BTS (Behind The Scenes) photograph of this that I shared recently.

In The Spotlight

We went to an inter-college fest earlier this month. We participated in the short film competition and I participated in the photography competition as well.

One of the themes was "Framing A Shot". I thought I had a few good shots until my friend, Upashana showed me this rose and this turned into the best shot I'd taken all day. I'm really happy with this photograph. It took a few weird positions, dirt on my clothes and some nasty stares from people watching me but it was worth it.

The rose itself was pretty but when I decided to use the shrub in front of it to frame the flower it turned out really beautiful. The green you see around the rose are leaves from the shrub that was growing a couple of feet away from the rose.

Radiance

We really enjoyed our stay in Mahabaleshwar. The flowers were plenteous and just beautiful. They really made the place look so radiant and beautiful.

When I took a picture of this flower I didn't think I would end up processing the photograph in black and white. It was a last minute decision.

Taking a picture of this flower was actually fun to take because of the location. It was growing at the edge of this really lovely lush green lawn. My relatives were making fun of me because I was lying down on the grass to get this angle but you just have to do things that others might consider weird.

 

The Flower That Smells The Sweetest

"The flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly." - William Wordsworth

During a recent visit to a hill station in Maharashtra called Mahabaleshwar we stayed at a really nice place that had beautiful flowers growing everywhere. It just made the place look so beautiful and gave it a calm, serene ambiance.

My cousins and I would just lay down on the grass under the warm sun and slowly doze off to sleep. It was just beautiful with a view of the hills.

The Core

I've been noticing these flowers in the garden and almost always the centre seems to decay and die last. That's what stays till the very end. It stays attached to the plant for quite a while even after it has completely dried up.

Maybe it's the same with us as well. The real us always survives no matter what experiences we have and no matter what we go through. I came across this quote recently "We are who we are...eventually". That's what got me thinking.

The Loner

In keeping with my recent black and white photographs here is another one.
Once I started editing in black and white I just kept going. Revisited some photographs that I had archived because they looked amazing in black and white.

I have no idea what this flower is called but I do remember that we would fight for this when we were younger. You don't get a lot of nectar out of it but what you do get is really sweet and will leave you wanting more.

Day 5 - Singular

The last day of the 5 day black and white photo challenge. This has been fun. I've gone back and processed some photographs that I never though would get to see the light of day and they've looked really good. Today's upload is one such image.

This didn't look particularly interesting in colour but it just popped in black and white.

Day 3 - Future Hope

Today is Day 3 of the Black and White Photo Challenge.

I'm actually running out of people to nominate since most people have already completely the challenge.

This is a macro shot of the centre of a rose. God's creation is so amazingly detailed and always so interesting. I didn't intend to convert this to black and white but once I did I just loved the feel of the photograph.

Black And White Challenge - Day 1

One of my friends on Facebook challenged me to upload one black and white photograph everyday for the next five days. Today is the first.

I don't usually do a lot of black and white photographs so this should be interesting.

Happiness

I must say that I'm as happy as a bee that's found a fresh flower with tons of nectar. Well I don't know if bees experience emotions the same way we do but that's not the point.

God has been faithful throughout even though I've failed Him so many times. Got my results today and by God's grace I got good grades.

"But you , O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth."
Psalm 86:15

In The Morning Light

I think this is one of my favourite images. I just love the way it turned out.

The sunlight looked amazing in the morning and so I decided to go up to the roof and shoot the hills but I saw this little pocket of light and couldn't help but stop to take a picture. The weeds here had this soft, warm glow that just made it perfect for a good photograph.

This was take just as the sun was rising and was no longer a giant red ball of fire in the sky. It was overcast but there was a gap in the clouds at the horizon through which the warm and beautiful light from the sun hit this spot.

Overlooked

How often we tend to overlook or even ignore the little things in life that actually matter. I think these flowers represent that very well. They're tiny, maybe not more than a centimetre or two in diameter and yet they're so beautiful. It also goes to show how beautiful and wonderful God's creation is even at a macro level.

These flowers grow all along the hillside on the way to Mussoorie which is a hill station in India. Most people don't notice them and some ignore it and fail to see the beauty in them. When I was taking pictures of these flower someone actually asked me why I was wasting time photographing these flowers!

Also notice the tiny insect on the flower in focus. I really wished I had my DIY flash adapter so I could take a few extreme macro shots. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to take it with me without damaging it and thus rendering it useless.

Cold Meat

So this was the first proper dish of the first meal I had in Delhi and it was delicious.

That is probably one of the highlights from the trip - it was delicious and looked really good too.

Flourish

We visited Darjeeling recently and stopped at a place which had some pretty flowers. Most of the flowers were drying up but there were some really pretty ones like these.

In Between

In our garden we have a plant with some amazing yellow-red flowers. The ants love them and you'll never see one of these flowers without ants on it. It's just beautiful and really amazing.

They start off all bunched together and as they blossom they move farther apart and stay that way.

Some say the flower resembles a parrot's beak.

This ant seemed content with staying here. It was perfectly still while all the other ants were moving about and having a nice time. Maybe it was just tired.

Tiny Beauty

This particular flower is probably less than a centimetre long - they're really tiny which makes photographing them a challenge.

I used the reverse-lens technique for this one and it is focus stacked - there is no other way you're going to a better DOF.