Best of 2013

It's finally here.
Best of 2013. Hope you all like it :)

Light Painting Vase

I've tried getting back to light painting because I haven't done it in a while and I'd forgotten how much fun it was. Of course it requires a lot of patience but it's worth the effort.

This particular picture was part of a "welcome home" banner that I did recently out of light painting.

I wanted to do something unique unlike the previous banners that I'd done and I thought light painting would be a good place to start.


Painting this vase wasn't too difficult but took a lot of time because I really wanted to get all the details so I had to go in and paint each flower separately and then the vase itself. The white streaks you see are actually reflections of the torch I was using. I used a home-made diffuser (ok, it was just a piece of paper).

Silver Lining

"Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining"
That's what I was thinking when I took this shot.

The dark, stormy cloud with the sun behind it creating a nice golden border just looked out of this world.

Would have loved to get a shot of the entire cloud (which was massive) but the buildings blocked the view.

Anyway what I was able to get wasn't half bad so I'm actually quite happy.

Sun Bathing

You'll find a lot of these dragonflies out and about when the sun is shining. That, to me was strange in the beginning because we were always taught in school that dragonflies come out only when it's about to rain.

Of course that proved to be false, like so many other things they tell us and I'm glad that it isn't true.

If it was then I wouldn't have been able to get this particular picture.
This dragonfly stayed pretty still till I took this picture and then it just flew off.

I was amazed by the details in the wings and the entire dragonfly when I zoomed in after I'd copied the pictures to my computer. Just goes to show how amazing God's creation really is :)

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.

Watch Where You Stand

Coming across this Oriental Garden Lizard was a bit of a surprise really because I've never seen one on this lemon plant before.

Plus this plant has thousands of thorns so to me it seemed really difficult (if not impossible) for a lizard to make its way to the top of said plant.

Surprise! Surprise! This particular lizard did manage to do so. It was really shy but I was able to get a good shot before it decided that I'd gotten too close and then promptly running off into the depths of the tree. Yes, it actually ran and didn't just walk. If I were that lizard I'd probably have quite a few holes in my feet!

A Work In Progress

I titled this "a work in progress" because it is part of my ongoing "The Tower On The Hill" series.

This year has provided some amazing picture opportunities and the clouds have been amazing so I decided to take pictures of the clouds and add the tower as a interesting element in the frame.

It's gone great so far and today was really good too because I was able to get this picture. I didn't expect it but it came out pretty good considering the fact that the sun had already set and the light was really low. The Canon SX50 HS doesn't handle noise very well and that created a lot of problems in post production but I was able to get rid of some of the noise (I didn't want to get rid of everything because that would have caused a loss of all detail in the image).

Anyway I'll have a separate page up just for this series.

Btw the tower is called "Eagles Crag" and is in a hill station called Kurseong.

The Clouds At Twilight

I just thought it would be nice to share a landscape picture today since I've been sharing pictures of wildlife lately.

This was taken after sunset. To be honest I didn't expect the sunset to be really dramatic that evening so I waited till the sun had dipped below the horizon because the colours in the sky began to change.

The colours were really nice and soothing and it was definitely a sight to behold. It get more beautiful as time passed and quite frankly pictures don't do justice to the really beautiful scene.

Ready To Move

We're back to Oriental Garden Lizards today. I like to mix things up a bit when I share so that I don't share the same subject twice in a row or too many times in a short time period. I'm not always successful but that's not a big deal I think.

Anyway I noticed this particular lizard running along the wall and then it suddenly stopped and stood like this for awhile. I don't know why it stopped but I'm glad that it did because I could get this shot that I'm happy with.

It stood there and allowed me to get quite close before running off again.

Red Dragon

I happened upon this red dragonfly when I wasn't prepared. The camera wasn't with me and I nearly went too close.

Fortunately the dragonfly stayed in the same place long enough for me to go grab my camera and get a good shot of it. These red dragonflies aren't very common here so it's always a treat to see them. They're really beautiful.

I find that these red ones are more easily spooked than the other dragonflies. I wonder why that is.

For all you skeptics out there - The colours are all natural. I haven't added or subtracted any colours. These beautiful creatures do exist. Just the beauty of God's wonderful creation :)

Something Blue

When we went sight seeing during my recent visit to Gangtok we couldn't see much because of the fog and the clouds and the rains so it was a little disappointing but it wasn't too bad.

On the way we saw these really beautiful flowers just growing wild on the hill side and so we stopped to get a few pictures.

It was raining and the light was really low so it was a challenge but since the clouds diffused the sunlight it was kinda easy too.

My Pretty Wings

I  haven't photographed dragonflies in a really long time so I wanted to get back to doing it because they really interest me.

They come in so many variations that it's sometimes difficult to keep track. Anyway this particular dragonfly isn't one of the more common ones in this area. Most people don't even know it exists and when they see pictures of it they think I've swapped colours or something like that.

With dragonflies you have to be slow and patient as they'll fly off at the smallest sign of trouble. The trick is to wait patiently without moving a lot in the same place as the dragonfly will invariably come back to it's old resting spot and then you can get a good picture.

Tail Whip

We get a lot of these Oriental Garden Lizards in this are...or at least we used to until they cleared up the bushes in the plot of land adjacent to ours.

Anyway this particular lizard was on the wall after the rains just as the sun was coming out. In an earlier post I'd said that you shouldn't get too close to these lizards because they'll freak out.

Well I just wanted to see how close I could get. I'd gotten pretty close once before and that was great so I thought I'd do it this time too. Unfortunately there is a big gap between the wall and the place where I was standing and by gap I mean a trench sort of thing as I was on a raised platform. I tired leaning forward and got pretty close but then my foot slipped and the sudden movement spooked the lizard who flicked its tail at me for some reason before running off.

It made a good picture even though I wasn't able to get really close.

Like A Tree Planted By The Rivers Of Water

The day we decided to go out sight-seeing it was raining heavily. When the day began it was bright and sunny so we thought it would be perfect for sight seeing but we were wrong as the weather is so unpredictable.

It started getting cloudy when we left and the rain began pouring down shortly after.

Along the way I noticed this tiny little waterfall and this tree there right at the top. It reminded me of the verse Psalm 1:3 which says "he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

that brings forth its fruit in its season,

whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

I plan to add this verse to the picture and print it out and put it up on my wall.

As The Clouds Leave

For some reason this year I've been shooting a lot of landscapes. One of the main reasons could be that God has given us some amazing sunsets and skies this year. Or maybe I didn't really notice them earlier. Either way I'm sharing another landscape photograph.

I'm told that this "tower on the hill" is at a place called Eagles Crag in a town called Kurseong. I knew the name of the town but didn't know that they had a specific name for the tower or the place where the tower is.

This picture was taken after the sun had set. I had to shoot RAW in order to be able to get enough detail out of it. In this case jpegs just wouldn't work. Unfortunately the SX50 doesn't handle noise very well and I had to remove a lot of noise but couldn't get rid of all of it because I wanted some detail and sharpness remaining.

Btw if any of you are on Facebook you might want to check out my page - Just Image-n.

Pretty In Yellow

Yes, yellow...not pink.

I have been uploading quite a few landscapes over the past few days so I thought it would be nice to take a break. So here is a picture of a yellow dahlia.

This one is from our garden just after winter.

Not much to say here. As for post-processing I toned down the shadows in order to get a dark background which wouldn't distract from the main subject.

Against The Setting Sun

The sunset wasn't really spectacular that evening and neither were the clouds.

The clouds didn't really have definition and weren't dynamic either but they did server one great purpose. Due to the clouds the light in the sky was kinda like a gradient. Mostly saturated around the sun and then gradually changing colours as you moved away.

We have these palm-like trees in our compound and this particular part of the tree actually looked nice silhouetted against the setting sun.

In The Dead Of Night

My trip to Gangtok was just amazing. If you are ever in this part of the country I would highly recommend that you visit this beautiful hill station.

Although I didn't really go around much as that wasn't the reason for my visit, God did provide some amazing picture opportunities that I don't think I would have got anywhere else.

The second night I was there, I just ventured up to the terrace sometime after/during midnight and I saw the fog rolling past. This was something I've never seen before so I was mesmerised by this scene. It was just beautiful...kinda eerie too.

Heaven Is Dearer Now

Last year on this day my grandfather was called home by the Lord. It was a sad moment but we will meet him again soon and we know that he is in a much better place now.

I took this picture the day before yesterday and I thought it would be perfect for this as it kinda reminds me of heaven.

This in itself is so beautiful so I can only imagine how beautiful heaven is going to be.