I went on a vacation to National Parks in the state Utah - the most wonderful wonderland. It was a long drive from my place but worth it. As an incentive I got to pass many different states along the way. I had been longing to do something like this for a while. Believe me, you learn a lot by traveling through different terrains and when the summit is Utah, you don't even get tired.
I passed through the busy - Illinois, the windmill state - Iowa, the lush green - Nebraska and the colorful Colorado along the way. In all, I covered I,807 miles (2,908 km) one way. This is a little more than Delhi, India to Kanyakumari, India one way. Do the math - a total of 3614 miles (5,816 km) on wheels but for the experience and the views it's worth it. The picture above is of the snow capped La Sal mountains in the Arches National Park.
Utah has snow and desert at one place. The air is so pure, and the silence of the place is divine, the best part is the view. How can Nature make all these sculptures by itself? Once again I am in awe of Nature.
The adjacent picture is of the Double Arch.The blue sky against the red sandstone looked very beautiful as it looks great in the picture.
Aperture - F8
ISO - 100
Shutter Speed- 1/30 secs.
The most strenuous hike was the hike to the Delicate arch. Man, how I wished I had not embarked on the trail. A very long and steep trail that too without water but if I had not undertaken that trail, I would have missed one of the most breathtaking views of Utah.
I was so out of breath and so out of water when I reached the top but by just looking at it, I did not hesitate to go further to take a closeup. Man seems so small in front of this magnificent structure. The calmness, stillness and colors were too much to imbibe in one day. I wished to stay a little longer but had to visit a few more sites, so had to leave that peaceful place.
Another visit was to the Zion National Park, a five hour drive from the Arches National Park. It was like an oasis in the desert. Red sandstone rocks with rivers and trees. It is called the "Hanging gardens" as the Juniper trees seem to hang from the mountain tops. If only I could have stayed there forever. Never seen anything like it before. I found a desert Lizard and a herd of Deer very close to me in the wild and of course squirrels - who behaved like people, asking for food from the passers-by on the trail.
There are way too many pictures for one blog post, so I will be sharing them in my next one. Hope you all are having a nice week.
The picture on the right is of the Virgin river flowing through the Zion National Park.
ISO - 100
Aperture - F11
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We have had the official first day of Spring, but here in Michigan it seems that Spring is far from near. Though the piles of snow have melted to some extent, even then we have occasional snow flurries here and there. Ugh... now I am getting impatient. Cannot wait for the Spring break to take some time off from this daily humdrum. When you have school going kids, you feel their Spring break is like yours, though that is just an illusion, but this time I might just get a chance to go out for a long road trip. Fingers crossed. It is said that the darkest hour is just before dawn. I love to read quotes. They give you courage to fight the adverse conditions, in my case - the weather. I know.. I know.. this is nothing as compared to the misery in this world. Wish I could do something about that too. Sometimes I enjoy this roller coaster ride of weather that was this year. Still cannot wait for the daily dose of sunshine and the warmth that it brings with it. I love the mild summers of Michigan.
This is a still from the visit to Chicago in December. Loved the little puddle and the reflection. I have been looking for one to take a shot.
Shutter speed - 1/60
Aperture - F11
ISO -100
Since the weather is such, I got a bit bored of shooting the cold, grey and very rarely blue sky landscapes, city-scapes so mostly I went again to my indoor subjects.
Yet another quote comes to my mind - Necessity is the mother of invention. I discovered some new things not inventions, but new ideas. My sessions of long hours on different kinds of softwares to make Illustrations was also a part of my new discoveries. Played with them to make something interesting. Also as I have been designing and developing websites for long, I designed a few templates.
Please click on the image to view full size. The image on the right is a collage of a few templates.
Now you know who to call when you need a website. :) Sorry, if you think this was soliciting. ;)
Another skill I am honing is converting color images to black and white to get the right tones of greys, blacks and whites.
This is yet another cityscape of Chicago downtown.
Shutter speed - 1/45 secs
Aperture - F11
ISO - 100
Hope some of you on the other side of the globe are enjoying the onset of summers while I am still waiting for Spring. This was not sarcasm, just enjoy life whatever may come. Live in the moment. Have a nice week!
This has been a long winter and it's not over yet.
There is not much to do in these winter storms apart from staying warm
and healthy. Just an occasional outing for pictures is all that can be
done. The scenes of winter are picturesque only when the sun is out and
the surroundings are filled with sunlight - a rare commodity this
winter.
This is a scene at a Park near where I live.
Shutter Speed: 1/750
ISO : 100
Setting : Manual
In the same park I saw this Coniferous tree. It was huge. Really loved the blue sky which we rarely see here at this time of the year. It is always greyish and cloudy. You can imagine how huge it must have been. It is so surprising that some trees just stand in the adversities to grow and flourish. Kind of like the quote - "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going". Also reminds me Kelly Clarkson's - "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". I love this song. One can also say that they are made tough genetically. So standing strong in adversity is not their property but their genes are like that. Anyway, they are a delight to the eyes amongst the white snow.
Shutter Speed - 1/200
ISO- 100
Setting : Manual
Below is a shot from a road over a highway. This is what I am talking about -the cloudy, gloomy but this one has a little sun shining through the clouds at sunset like hope in despair.
Shutter speed : 1/30
ISO : 100
Setting : Manual
Click on the images to get a better view.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, this is exactly what I am doing. With this optimistic note I end this post. Hope you all will stay warm . Have a nice week!
A very Happy new year to you all! Hope everyone started the New Year with making new resolutions! As for me I made a resolution that I will make resolutions all throughout the year and follow them as they are made. Ha Ha! No worries and no hassles. As for the artistic side of me, I have been bitten by the creative bug. I had always loved designing things on the web -websites, images and the likes. I gave it a break for sometime, but the creative bug has bitten me again. I made a lot of illustrations in the past few days which I will be sharing with you in this post.
This is just plain and simple New year Image I designed in Photoshop.
I have seen many Christmas ornaments and the fact is that I just wanted some thing to hang by the side next to the new year text and this came out not to be a Christmas ornament but lights you could say. I really liked the way they came out.
As for the weather out here, it remained deadly. We experienced the Polar Vortex which is unusual for my place. Temperatures below -30F, so low that there was complete shutdown of the educational institutions, flights were halted and warnings of frost bite were swarming my email. Just to make our heads spin, yesterday we had temperatures of 45F which can be called as a heat wave for Michiganders. Something is seriously wrong with this weather. If things do not improve we might see winters in summers and summers in winters. No, it hasn't changed at present, it's still icy all around.
These are a few shots taken of the nasty weather. The berries are somehow surviving the cold temperatures. Three shots with three diffferent cameras. A cellphone, a Panasonic and a Canon. Please click on the pictures to get a better view.
Enough of the weather report. This weather just makes you open other options for your creative
self. As of now I have indulged into Illustrations. Photography is a
part of me but since the weather outside is not feasible, there are
limited outdoor options. I mostly designed products, logos, typography, backgrounds, and abstract art.
These are a few of those. I have been posting pictures on Pixoto. We will be getting the yearly awards. I am very excited and anxious. So this is all from my side. Hope you all will have a nice week ahead and hope you all are abiding by your resolutions. Smile!
We have come to the end of the year 2013. A lot happened
to everyone this year, there were some good moments and some not so
good. For me, photographically, it's been a kind year. I accomplished a
lot in my own standards. I thank God for all the accomplishments.
This is a shot of some place near where I live. The snow had turned into ice and the branches were drooping down by their weight.
Shutter speed : 1/125 sec
Aperture : F11
ISO : 100
As the year comes to an end, I saw the most beautiful winter I had ever
seen. Usually I sit in my cozy home but this winter I made an effort and
clicked a lot of pictures outdoors. All this was only possible with
the help of my better half who drove me to places where I couldn't have
embarked on my own.
The blue sky with the icy branches.
Shutter speed : 1/200 sec
Aperture : F9
ISO : 100
 |
| The Bean in the dark. |
To top it all off, I went for a vacation to Chicago and for the first time captured The Bean in the dark. I am very fascinated by this piece of architecture so I click it whenever I get a chance. It was a cold evening but worth all the walk down to the Millennium park. Captured a lot of city images too which I promise to share in my future posts. Here is a shot of The Bean handheld, with the buildings in the background in Black and white.
Shutter Speed : 1/2 sec
Aperture : 3.5
ISO : 1600
A very Happy new beginning to the coming New Year 2014. Have a blessed year. See you all in the New Year!
The winter fever is here. We got our first spell of Lake Snow Effect. This phenomenon is very usual near the Great lakes. We can get cozy in our homes till March ... or is it June? I keep my spirits up and therefore I say that this is the time of the year when I can practice a lot, I mean, REALLY A LOT (since it is such a long period of time and not otherwise ;)) on my indoor photography skills.
Shutter Speed - 1/90 secs
Aperture - 8
ISO - 100
I was lucky one day when I was at my kid's bus stop to have my ordinary pocket camera with me from which I took this picture of snow flakes. Not a very good shot but good for an ordinary camera. At the time I took this picture, I had a high fever - when am I not feeling under the weather, ugh? Since I had to pick my kid, I wrapped my self up and went to the bus stop. No one would believe, that a person shaking with fever the previous day had rolled down windows and was taking shots of snow. You see, I also have a different kind of fever - the photography fever. Anyway, one thing is for sure, as I am unable to catch up with the flu season, from now on I am also going to get the seasonal flu shots. Bring it on!!! I am not scared.
What will a person do sitting in bed all day? Work - of course, this time on my computer. And I did a lot of illustrations. Just a few are here as I had mentioned in my previous post. Please give your feedback below in the comments. These are best viewed at full size.
Since the viral cum bacterial infections had invaded me, I did not get a
chance to do much of photography.
Just one fine day I thought to myself
- that's enough and took a few indoor shots. Here are the perfect ingredients for a tomato soup, my favorite.
Keep yourself upbeat, as winters are here to stay. With this healthy soup and a splash of colors I end this post to meet you soon. Hope you all will have a nice week.
