Concealing Glow

Exams are always a pain, especially when you're give the timetable just one week ahead and then you scramble for your books and barely manage to finish the syllabus the night before.

Sometimes in life nothing seems to be work out no matter what you try or how hard you work. I know this is something I've said before but it's exactly how I've felt for the past few weeks/months. However, ever so often I'm reminded of God's love and grace. Ever so often there are little things that remind me of how beautiful life is and keep me carrying on.

Someone called me a tree-hugger before as a joke but I think that might be true to a certain extent. The world around me fascinates me and God's creation is just amazing! Today's picture is another reminder of that. We were returning home after a rather not-so-exciting trip to the hills and the driver suggested we make one last stop before the final leg of the journey.

After much deliberation we agreed and I'm so glad that we made this stop to take in the view. The sunset did look amazing as we were travelling but I'd never seen this view before. The previous times I'd been here had been really cloudy and you could barely see a few meters ahead of you so this view was stunning to say the least and I hope the picture does it justice.

Things might not always be going the way you want to go or how you want them to be but you've always got to remember that clouds move and eventually they part enough to let the sun shine through and when it does you realise that it's going to be OK because at the end of the day you have a God who loves you and cares about you and only wants what's best for you.

Now I should start studying to tomorrow's paper and stop boring the few of you who actually take time to read my blog. Thank you guys! :)

Unsettled

We're having a long patch of bad weather. It's ok when you don't have to go out but when you do it really messes up your plans.

The clouds never seem to leave the sky and usually we get a monotonous colour across the entire sky which is really boring. The high winds seemed to clear some of the clouds around the horizon and it made for a really cool timelapse.

This is one of the many frames from the timelapse I'm working on.
I'll be out of town for a while so I won't be able to reply to emails, messages and comments immediately.

Hope you have a great week ahead! :)

Over The Hills

I still think about last week and the time we spent shooting in Darjeeling. It was truly an amazing experience. This was shot on an iPhone 3GS. We stopped at a place on the way to Darjeeling via Kurseong and decided to shoot a few scenes there. Just before we started shooting the storm clouds began rolling in and I was able to get this photograph.

This is looking towards Siliguri (the vast valley).

In Amazement

Now that was a week I'm going to remember for a really long time. It was really tiring but it was fun as well and I got to learn a lot.

We worked with a film crew from Calcutta (or Kolkata as it's now known) and it was good.

This was near on of the shooting locations. These are some of my classmates. It was a picturesque location. Definitely one of the best places I've been to in a long time. It was beautiful beyond words. So perfect! God's creation never ceases to amaze!

This was shot on a iPhone 3GS and processed in Snapseed.

The Rising Clouds

I haven't been able to maintain this "one picture a day" thing ever since the holiday in June. Anyway I've tried to be as consistent as possible but that difficult with the long college hours and the added assignments they give us everyday.

This photograph was taken the last time I saw this tower. I haven't seen it since because of the weather here. We've had rains everyday which is a good thing since it brings the temperatures down a bit but it's not that great when you have to get to class in the morning.

Ethereal Glow

We were on our way back from the Eco Park where I took the last picture I uploaded and this is the view we were treated to. It was amazing to say the least.

We ended up stopping quite a few times to take in the view. It was exquisite, to say the least!

Over The Edge

This is the first time I attempted stitching a panorama from RAW files. I usually just post process one and then apply it to the others, export them as jpegs and then stitch those. I've known about this method but never tried it before. It's basically the same - the only difference is that the files are bigger and you can get more out of the final panorama in post.

This method nearly crippled my computer so I don't think I'll be doing it again. I wish I had a more powerful computer that could handle this because I love doing it like this.

Anyway I walked right to the edge of the hill and took this panorama. The view was beautiful (as you can see). That's actually the border between India and Nepal.

I'm working on a few self-portraits with light painting now. Hope they come out ok.

Through The Foliage

Yup...another cheesy caption/title...I know. Kinda hit a block there with captions. Can't seem to come up with catchy non-cheesy ones.

Anyway back to the picture. I wouldn't have got this picture if I had lost my way. There was a football (soccer...for the others) match that I was supposed to by playing in and also take pictures when I wasn't and I didn't know where they'd gone to play.

I assumed they'd be at the usual place but when I got there they weren't there. Figuring I was too late to play anyway, I decided to take it slow and get some good landscape shots on the way to the place they were actually at.

I didn't get to play that day but I did get some good pictures.

High Rise

One of the things I absolutely love about this time of the year is the fact that the sky is crystal clear. You won't see a single cloud in the sky. Now, I know I've said that clouds are awesome but just hear me out here.

The reason that a cloudless sky is great here is because we get to see the mighty Kanchenjunga range which has the world's 3rd highest peak. It's 8,586 feet high and we don't even have to step out of our homes to see it.

It is an amazing sight. You can even see the orange tones as the sun sets. It is amazing. I was able to get these shots before it went completely dark.

No End In Sight

If you have been following my blog you'll know that I recently visited a nearby hill-station called Darjeeling. You'll also know that the weather wasn't really good so we didn't see much.

On the way we stopped at this view point that overlooks the tea covered hills. The fog was thick and we couldn't see much. It cleared for a couple of minutes which is when I grabbed this quick shot.

Again, I shot RAW as I had to other option. The noise was again terrible so I had to crank up the noise reduction a great deal which meant a great loss in details if you zoom in.

Anyway I was pretty pleased with this picture as I was able to get it really close to what we actually saw.

I just love the hills. They just stretch on for ever and ever. And are so very beautiful!

Light Of The World

The minute I stepped onto the terrace (roof) of the house I was staying at and saw this scene John 14:6 was the verse that came to mind.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The sun does give us light and heat but it is just part of God's amazing creation. Unfortunately many give creation credit instead of the Creator!

It took me a while to get down to processing this panorama. I'd shot it in Gangtok during my last visit there but didn't really get a chance to process it until today.

I took 16 vertical shots in all. 8 for the foreground (the mountains) and 8 for the sky. I'm just getting started so I seem to have made them overlap a little too much (which isn't really bad) but since I wanted much more of the sky I couldn't get it. Anyway the content aware in Photoshop did an excellent job in filling in the edges!

Natural Painting

Woke up one morning to this amazingly beautiful scene. It was really a scene beyond words.

The clouds in the sky were one colour but they still added a dynamic to the scene.

I thought they blended really well with the lay of the land.

Reaching For Blue

As the sun set the clouds were moving in and it almost looked like they would block out the potentially amazing sunset.

Fortunately they stopped just at the edge of the mountain and stayed there and looked pretty...and by pretty I mean pretty amazing!

This peak stood out and it almost made me want to go and stand on the top. Unfortunately I was miles away from that place. The blue in the sky added to the scene though.

The Rising Clouds

Remember the picture of the fly that I uploaded recently? A lot of you wanted a picture of the clouds since they looked really interesting.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of that exact scene but I did manage to find a picture of the clouds that very afternoon just as they were ascending as the temperature rose.

It is a really amazing sight to see these clouds rise. It would make for an amazing timelapse. Anyway you could actually spend hours just watching this scene unfold and I think that particular fly shared my sentiments :D

The Temple On The Hill

Thanks to the massive zoom on the SX50 HS I was able to get a good shot of this temple.

You can actually see it in the distance in the last panorama that I uploaded. It was really far off but with the SX50 HS that wasn't really a problem.

I'm guessing it's a Buddhist temple. I can only imagine how much work must have gone into that since it was built quite high. Other than the temple there weren't other buildings on that hill so I don't even know how people visit that place since there didn't seem to be a direct approach road that was obvious to me.

As The Clouds Rise

Those who have been reading my blog know that I've been working on a series called "The Tower On The Hill" where I photograph this particular tower on the far away hill that is visible from where I stay.

This tower is in a town called Kurseong and is called Eagles' Crag.

I didn't know this had a name until a friend told me. Apparently the view from that tower is stunning so I'll have to visit someday.

Setting Moon

I woke up early one morning and went up to the roof and the run was just rising in the east while the moon was setting in the west.

It was just amazing. That was the first time I'd ever seen the moon setting behind the hills and it was gorgeous.

It was great. Fortunately the cloud had cleared by then and that provided a clean and clear view of the moon as it set and with the rising sun adding colours to the clouds it was beautiful.

Peeking Blue

Another one from my recent visit to a nearby hill station. It was amazing and I'm sure you can tell from the pictures.

For this particular picture I wanted to try something new in post-processing.

When I took the picture I remember the blue in the sky was really close to the blue hill in the background but that somehow got lost in the picture and that when split-toning seemed like a good idea.

I actually quite like this look even though some may say it doesn't look real. Of course I'm not going to use it for every picture but I think it works well for this particular one.

The Light Shines

I just love capturing beams of light in my pictures. It's adds a certain dynamic to the picture and makes it stand out.

During a recent visit to a hill station I saw this gigantic beam of light shining on the hill. It looked like God was reaching down to tell us something and if we listened hard enough, we'd be able to hear what He wanted to say.

The sky was overcast (as you can tell) but this particular beam of light was just amazing. It had to be captured :)

Evening Surprise

This sunset was a real surprise.

The colours lasted for a really short time and I was only able to get two shots during that time. So that gives you a vague idea of how long this scene lasted.

It was a pleasant surprise and I wish it had gone on for a really long time but it had been raining all day and just cleared in time for this. It started pouring down about 15 minutes after I took this picture.