September 8th 2014 -I am back.

This post comes after a long break. I have been on my toes the past few months. A lot happened during these months. I was out of the country, visiting family and friends, which was fun, then  my kid's vacations started, which is by the way, my full time working period.  I have to keep them busy and a whole lot needs to be done during those times. When my kid's vacations ended in September, mine started. Phew... Even if you work like a dog during their school days, it's nothing compared to having school going kids at home. I think I have done enough of whining. Let's get back to business.

I have been clicking pictures, though they were more of family and friends. Just this week I clicked a few nature pictures. It's been such a nice summer. Even in September we have an extended summer month going on. Just loving the weather out here, but I am too afraid of the winter. In no case do I want an extended winter.

The dew drops have started appearing in the mornings. It's a little chilly, temperatures going down to 50 F, so what, the days a warm and cozy.

Hope these pictures would bring some freshness in your lives. Will be back with some more soon.

May 27th 2014 - Summer is here.

Summer is here finally. It's been a busy month and hence I could not post earlier this month. When you live in a place which has 6-7 months of winter, you welcome the summers even more. There are parts of the world where the summers are too hot . Here at my place the summers are mild. Even, an 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) seems like scorching heat. Anyways, for good or for bad the summers are here and so are the flowers trees, bees and the baby birds. 
The first picture is of a Poppy flower with rain drops.
Aperture-F4
ISO- 100

The next picture is of the Tulip flowers. A few miles from my place is the city, Holland. Few Dutch settlers from the country Holland founded the city and a large percentage of people here follow Dutch traditions and culture even today. Such a cool way to preserve your culture. They even have a Tulip festival. The picture is from the Tulips gardens of Holland Michigan.

Aperture - F9.5
Shutter Speed - 1/60 secs
ISO- 100

This next picture is of the trees in my backyard which were snow capped in the winters and now every branch brimming with life. It's a refreshing site. The breeze has a melody - the melody of the summer and with every whiff of air you can smell the fragrant flowers. Lots of song birds have nests in these trees. It becomes the busiest place. The blue skies, the green rustling leaves, can bring life back into your life. With all the busy birds, I was also busy at home doing all the pending jobs which were back logged during the winters.

This summer I was in no case going to miss taking shots of the baby birds, so one day I went in search of goslings and chicks. I found a few and took lots of shots. Here is a shot of a gosling very close to me. 

Aperture - F11
Shutter speed - 1/500 sec
ISO - 2500

This is all for now from me, but I have taken lots of flower pictures which I will definitely share with you in my coming posts. Hope you all are keeping yourselves safe in the summers by keeping hydrated. Have a great week!

April 28th 20014 - My work published in an online magazine.

I have sold a few pictures but have never found out where they were being used until today. Today, I stumbled upon one of my shots on the web in an online magazine - "Stunning Places Magazine". They have given due credits and also bought from one of the websites I publish my work on. 

It's nice to know that the work which is also my passion is being used by people.

The shot is of the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

April 26th 2014 - The new look and feel of my website.

Check it out at www.dipalis.com.

Your feedback is welcome.

April 22nd 2014 - Utah's Treasure.

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

Won Staff Favorite on April, 2014 on Viewbug.

I received 1 Awards, won 1 Trifectas, 16 Likes, 9 Peer Recognitions and 9 Favorites on viewbug.com

More of my work on View bug is at

http://www.viewbug.com/dipali

March 24th 2014 - Waiting for Spring.

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!