Sunday Flower

“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”
- Marcus Aurelius

Birds of Sangameshwar

It was fun chasing the birds for their portraits. I had good company in Jo, Rima and Animesh. Exploring the countryside early morning or in the golden hour of evening is so refreshing.

I had got the Sigma 100-400 just before the trip. It was almost a decade since my last birding lens, the Tamaron 200-400. I struggled a bit to get focus and finally shot mostly manual.

Sighting the hornbills was most exciting. The sunbird was so shy and required a lot of patience. The hoopoe was on the path and watched us with so much suspicion. The bee eaters used to sit still for long minutes, almost as if posing.

Those eyelashes!

Young and carefree

“Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.”
Says the great Marcus Aurelius.

We are never as connected with our own soul as when we are young. The joys of those carefree times...

When I was in primary we lived at Tarkhad, a small village of about 50 houses. The road to my school passed through fields and small lanes in the interior of Vasai. During the monsoons I used to float a stick in the streams / gutters running next to the lanes. It was such great fun to follow the floating stick for as long as I could.

Serious Observations of a Funny World

Across the Katraj Lake

This is an experimental HDR from about 2011. It is shot from Lake Town township and looks across the Katraj lake and the Katraj zoo. By today's standards it is a primitive looking HDR but, hey, I said it was experimental. :)

Click on the image to enjoy in higher resolution and detail.

After the lockdown

It was late October last year. The sudden and vicious lockdown and first wave had taken its toll. We had all been prisoners of our homes. A few months earlier we experienced the anxity and tensions of having a couple of cases in our home. Father locked in his room for 3 weeks, Viv Rash in theirs. The kids, the dog, me and Jo juggling it together. Thankfully the patients recovered in time.

But the months were full of cleaning up, washing up and trying to keep the anxity down as day in and day out the news told us gory details of the pandemic. Our building experienced cases in almost all of its floors. It was a difficult time emotionally.

All we wanted was an escape. Me and Jo had been yearning to get back to the Farm of Happiness since our visit just before the lockdown. The memory of the open spaces had given us a few moments of peace in the otherwise restricted and tense time.

So when the travel restrictions were relaxed, we gathered some family and headed to the Konkan. The journey was long but with 10 people, it was fun. We paid a quick visit to Amey and family at his Devrukh house. He has been wroking from there the entire lockdown. It was so much better than his small apartment at Mumbai, he said.


The first evening we headed on the sada for a walk. The walk. In the wild open space, on the sada. It was a piece of heaven for me. We are so connected with Nature.

You can enjoy the photos full screen by clicking on them.

If you enjoyed this post you may want to read about our trip in March 2020 just before the lock down here: Deep Konkan and Deep Konkan the lucky trip.

Torna and the Clouds

The day started with high drama in the sky. A bright sun painting the dazzling cloud formations against the clear blue expanse. The thunderstorm and rain the previous day had cleared the debries from the air leaving it crisp.

Such a scene demanded black and white. Add the yellow filter and the skies deepend into near black enhancing the contrast with the glowing clouds. The experience in person was far superior to its 2-D representation. But such is the nature of life, I suppose?

You can see Kille Torna at the bottom - standing its ground and watching the unfolding play.

Sky of Molten Gold

What a brilliant sunset! The sky was transformed into rivers of molten gold. The photo does not do justice to the brilliance witnessed.

View in large size by clicking on the photo.

Thunderstorm

This thunderstorm was moving very fast and seemingly appeared out of nowhere. For a while, these fantastic low cloud formations swirled around in a magcal show. There was no rain or lightening. But as this formation moved away northwards, a larger darker arm of the storm came from the south an spewed a lot of rain accompanied by brilliant lightening.

Twinking eyes

My father's eyes twinkle when he smiles. (My Indu Atya, his sister, also has the same smile.) He loves to crack silly jokes - we call them PJ's by VJ.

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50 F 1.4
Natural light from a window.

Of Spider Webs and Dew Drops

It was cold december on the sada in the Konkan. The grass had become reddish golden brown. Early mornings were enveloped in dense fog.

This wondorous landscape had another surpise for the intrepid adventurers - the jewels of the Gods. These symmetric webs of thin strands, adorned with sparkling spheres, dotted the landscape. The spider webs and the dew. It was mesmerising to look at them in the early morning fog-filtered light.

Aba

Aba likes to play with his granddaughter and take walks. He loves to travel and eat different things. A regular quiet person who spent his entire life in the usual quiet struggles of the common man. He who has seen the ups and downs of life and is neither too happy nor too sad.

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50 F 1.4
Used a softbox up close and front for this one.

The Soft Hands

My father has soft hands.

I have rarely, if ever, met someone who has more empathy than my father. He can feel the pain and suffering of others. And when he does, he gets besides himself in trying to ease it.

Growing up, these soft hands have carassed us and given us so much comfort. They have toiled tirelessly so that we could live.

Sony A7R III with Sony Zeiss Plannar 50mm F1.4

The Udumbara (Audumbar)

At the sasurwadi (in-law's place) there is this Audumbar tree which grows next to the building. The fruits grow in clusters. There is some kind of hair on them which gives them sort of a mystic halo — making them look like magical luminous spheres.

The Writer

A published author and a deep thinker. Whenever I try to click him, there is some kind of shyness which comes over him. Like a true blue creative soul, perhaps, he is unsure of what part of his complex self will be visible in the photo. Perhaps.

He has written a full length crime thriller novel published by Hachette. It has been well recieved. You can buy your copy here: Shot, Down.

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50 F 1.4

Artificial light coming from a couple of sources. Post processed in Lightroom/Photoshop. I tried to give a softer look in similitude of the softer introspective nature of the artist's soul.

Distant Rain

far away on the horizon the rain fell in dancing sheets
the glory of the late sun a mere backdrop now, of golden wonder
the storm raced across, rousing the furious wind
vicious bolts of lightening and bellows of glorious thunder

- q

Serious Observations of a Funny World