The Monkey and the waterfall...

These pics were taken at the zoo we went to the other day. Yes, the same one where the pic of the giraffe was taken. There was this monkey (Chimpanzee, orangutan, some other monkey family) who was sitting behind and in between the two water falls. He can clearly be seen in the picture above. However, from that point, he was way far away and I did not carry my 55-200 with me to the zoo.

The picture to the left is of the same waterfall, taken with a smaller aperture/slower shutter but the monkey is not visible from this angle. These photos were taken in the middle of the day. Luckily it was overcast so there wasn't much glare....just nice diffused sunlight. I would like to add a circular polarizer to the mix the next time, it should enrich the color of the water for me...

Happy Halloween!!

We carved a Jack-o-lantern a couple of days back for halloween. It was a pretty simple one but it turned out pretty good at least for a n00b carver like me.It was a fun event with the kiddos all sitting around me while I was busy sucking out the guts of the pumpkin. It did not take very long though. I might go out there after halloween and get a slickdeal on a clearance pumpkin and carve another one. May be, may be not....depends on how enthusiastic I feel on Sunday.

Search the net for pumpkin carvings and you will find a whole slew of really cool and very intricate carvings....from the very creative to the laugh-out-loud funny. There isn't a lack of creativity in this world. There is creativity in everything. A good photographer can probably take a picture of a door knob and make it look like heaven. I remember one pic of a port-a-potty on kenrockwell.com or some other site. It was just a toilet, a cheap one for that matter. However, the way the foreground colors gelled with the background, the composition and the overall scale of the photo made it look like something you wanna own!

Here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to post more often. I'd like to do more than post and run with pics. I'd like to put a context around the pics I post and probably post a bit about abstract me. If it's just posting pics, I don't need a blog, Flickr or Picasa. can do a much better job of hosting my pics for me. Like many other like to dos, this may remain a like to do or it may actually turn into am doing.

Happy Diwali from our family to yours....

Although a little belated, here's wishing a very Happy Diwali to you and yours...

Diwali reminds me of the scheduling, planning and budgeting we used to do during our childhood days. We used to get a fixed amount to burn every Diwali. It used to money well burnt with a bang. These are some fond memories, something I used to look forward to every year, right until the early morning of Diwali day and leading into the grand finale a couple of days later.


Diwali was never a big auspicious day for me nor a big gift giving/exchanging occasion. The grandest part of Diwali was buying, hoarding and lighting of fire crackers. This was in addition to watching a family of business folks have a GRAND Diwali gala on the day of Laxmi puja. This used to happen a day (or two) after our Diwali day and it was always something to look forward to. They used to get all the cool pyrotechnics available at that time - Parachutes being one of them (don't remember what the others were called).......

Giraffe at the zoo

Met this giraffe at the zoo the other day.

They had a platform at a height which made it at the same level as the giraffe's head (which is pretty high off the ground, mind you!)

Folks can purchase a cracker from the lady for $1 a piece and feed it to the giraffe.

What a novel money making scheme..."You pay me so that I can sell you a 10 cent cracker for a dollar so that I can let you feed my own giraffe" Whoa!

Anyways, i did not buy any crackers (although they looked appetizing and I was hungry) but I did get to snap a couple of good pics of the giraffe. I need to remember to turn on the flash the next time I shoot animals. The eyes look lifeless without it.

Random pumpkin....

I don't really know him but he let me take a couple of pics of him while he posed for me!

Life's a rollercoaster....

Nothing to say.... (part deux)