Sunday Flower

“There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers”
William James

Portrait of The Jo

The Jo. Just awakened.

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Voigtländer 65mm F2 Apo-Lanthar
Light: Window

Sunday Flower

“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius

Sunday Flower

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
Marcus Aurelius

Sunday Flower

“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
Francis Bacon

Sunday Flower

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
Socrates

The Grand Play

The same direction.
The same balcony.
The same floor.
The same building.

But it is different.
The clouds are in a great hurry.
To reach someplace.
The mood is grey and sombre.
A few drops of intermittant rain.
Reminding us of the grand play.

Rambling Sinhagad

The shadows of the pandameic were hovering over the horizon. Me and Jo headed to the Sinhagad for a bit of happiness and peace. The gad is a favourite haunt. Over the years I must have clicked so many photos up there but still everytime I get something new.

This day - 9th Feb 2020 - it was cold and it was shrouded in a blanket of fog and it was not crowded. We roamed around while I tried to click some unusual angles. The gad takes on a certain rugged look at this time of the year. The lush green grass of the has dried up and is now a light golden yellow and adorns the black rocks.

Rajpuri Caves, Pachgani

About 7 odd kilometers from the Pachgani bus stand, on the Ambral road, is the village of Shindola. Located near this village are the ancient caves called ‘Rajapuri Caves’ or ‘Kartikeya Caves’. There are 4 caves and a kund. As the main temple is of Kartikeya, women are not allowed here. Some or the local villager will around to enforce this. Our culture has such funny twists. It is sad that people kill their own culture by not changing it appropriately with the changing times.

There is nothing else around so unless you are a bored male or group of males there is no point in visiting this place.

Photos are from our visit in Jan 2021.

Portrait: Anuja

This is a single strobe portrait of my beautiful friend Anuja. The softbox is placed on the top left of the frame.

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R-MIII
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50 F1.4
Light: Speedlight in a softbox
Postprocessing in Photoshop.

Portrait: Anuja

The usual fake smiles and soft skin photos do not do justice to the soul of the human. We need to dig deeper. We need to try to surface the deepest emotions we have inside of us. To bring out and wear our true face with its innumerable moods and expressions. There is beauty in that truth.

Anuja, like all ladies, loves a beautiful glamorous photo. But at my behest, she bravely put in serious efforts to bring out a genuine serious emotion. I found this photo to be far more interesting than those other sweet ones. But that is just me. :-)

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50 F 1.4
Light: Speedlight in a softbox
Postprocessing in Photoshop.

Portrait: Mitr Amey

My friend Amey. A treker. A biker. A traveller.

The photo
Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50 F 1.4
Light: Speedlight in a softbox

Sunday Flower

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

Cityscape - A monsoon eve

The low, heavy, rain filled clouds float over the city of boxes. The lights represent the living in those boxes.

Lights. Boxes. And the wonderful rain clouds...

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.