Pitaare se!!!!

When I dont have anything to post, I post from my Pitaare se :) These pics are taken @ Bushkill falls, PA :)





Location: Bushkill Falls, PA
Camera: Nikon D80

Grand Canyon Waste!!!

Nope, thats not a typo. Grand Canyon West was a wasted trip. Perhaps this is the one place that I ve seen in USA where you can get cheated in broad daylight and that too officially. First of all the approach road of 14 miles to the canyon has nothing but the stones and sand. The car runs on the road as if it is running on the snow. In fact, we saw a car skidding. Luckily no one was injured. Then the parking lot is 2-3 miles away from the canyon. From there you need to take their bus for which they charge almost $50 per head (just for to and fro 4 miles). This is mandatory. The food is expensive. The helicopter ride (10 mins), boat ride and back will make your pocket lighter by $180. Thankfully it is optional. To go on the skywalk you need another $30. You can not carry your own camera and need to pay extra $20 to have your picture taken by them. In short, one photograph on the skywalk will cost you $100. There are no safety railings at the cliff. You can go till the edge of the cliff. It is too dangerous.
We reached there in the afternoon. The landscape was overexposed. They had native red indian dance show and red indian village nearby. Here are some photographs taken @ Grand Canyon West.






Location: Grand Canyon West, Arizona
Camera: Nikon D80

Murde ki Jaan khatare mein!!!!

Well not trying to make fun of all those dead people with the title but wanted to give some chatpataa one to this post. 

The initial plan was to visit Yosemite early in the morning but couldn't make it due to some reasons. I was too restless and wanted to click something. I pinged Joy and he was ready to accompany me. The initial plan was to have lunch in Annapurna restaurant and head towards SF for some street photography. While driving to SF, Joy suggested to visit Golden Gate Cemetery.  I agreed.

We parked our car and started shooting.  I liked this place (but I m in no hurry to go their permanently :)). I can shoot for hours at this place. There are so many permutations and combinations possible of those headstones to capture in the camera.  You are sure of getting good pictures in any weather. 

Here are some of the snaps that clicked that day.

BTW Chan, here is an life element as per your request. ZINDAA HOO MAIN...;)

Location: Golden Gate Cemetery, San Bruno, CA

Camera: Nikon D80

Berkley Botanical Garden and bird photography

I knew that I was bad at macro photography (not that I am any better now) and wanted to improve my macro photography skills, so when Prakash asked me to join him at Berkley Botanical Garden, I decided to join him. Also I wanted to use the new tripod too :)

I got up at 6:45 am (that too on Sunday) and got ready. We reached the garden at 8:45 am and waited for the garden to open. It opens at 9:00 am. I was feeling sleepy. I wished I could have slept for those 15 mins at home. There are lots of phool paudhe in the garden. They have put a description for each phool paudha. In fact many places just the description was there but no phool paudha:)

It was quite disappointing trip though as there weren't lots of greenary and did not get any photographs the way I wanted them. Here are some of them.

This post was in saved state for a long time. I had been to Stevens Canyon Creek park in Cupertino for capturing a few birds in my lens after that. I did not get a good shot that time. Finally found this jodi on my patio only :)

Location: Berkley Botanical Garden and my patio, CA

Camera: Nikon D80

Pitaare se- Part II

Continuous rains on weekends kept me away from the camera this month. Here are some of from my khajana :) Hoping to click some in the fool's month :) These are some of the pics taken during my first motorcycle trip in USA to halfmoon bay and Baker's beach.



BTW I am quite excited about my $200 tripod. Should be getting it soon :) I must exploit it to recover every penny spent on it :)
Location: Half moon bay, CA
Camera: Nikon D80

The Ghost Town!!!!

A.k.a Bodie.  W.S. Bodie discovered gold here back in 1859. Over the years, Bodie has seen numerous booms...and busts. There were some huge gold strikes here and, at one point, the town had nearly 10,000 residents. By 1882 though, the big strikes were mostly history and the folks began to go elsewhere. Gunshots and stabbing were everyday story. Check out the bullet marks

Today Bodie is one of the largest and best preserved ghost towns in the West. Over 170 buildings remain and what the California Department of Parks and Recreations calls a state of "arrested decay." It is, without a doubt, a photographer's paradise. 

I first saw the photographs of bodie on Prakash's blog (http://passanha.com/home/gallery/Bodie/) when I was in India and I knew I had to capture this in my camera someday.  I bought my SLR after coming to USA and I knew where to use it. It had to be Bodie. Nobody was interested in joining me. I was determined to go alone, but finally my wife, Neha, Sumit and Shivank decided to join me:)  We hired an Impala LT, one of the worst cars ever. It did not even touch 90mph even after standing on the accelerator, But the decision turned out to be a good one when we hit the Bodie road. Actually there was no road at all. In fact in most rural parts of India there are better roads than this one. Had I brought my car here, I would not have forgiven myself for torturing it. BTW checkout the famous Bodie car.

Everybody was tired. We reached here in the afternoon around lunch time to find there is nothing to eat. Everyone was cursing me and I was in no mood to pay attention to them. I was seeing paradise in front of me. I immediately assembled my lenses and here are some of the pictures of the ghost town including a group picture (dont laugh at my shades) :) 

Location: Bodie state historic park

Camera: Nikon D80

Gaadi bula rahi hai !!!!!!!

I am too fascinated with the trains. I have travelled a lot in aamchi mumbai local trains, sometime standing at the train door hanging in there with just one finger and one toe (yes I am still alive :)). I always wanted to click train photographs but did not get any opportunity. Finally when I was exploring fremont, I found this Sunol-Nile tourist train. I decided to hop on it. When I enquired at their information centre (0.5 miles away from the train station), the train was about to leave. I told them that I want to get on the train. They immediately called the guard of the train over walkie-talkie and asked to hold on. I went to the station and parked my car right next to the train. The train was waiting just for me. As soon as I boarded the train, it moved. Woww, I loved that VVIP treatement :) Here are a couple of snaps of the train and the track.




There is one more steam train that I explored last Sunday, but it was raining cats and dogs so couldnt click good pictures. Here is one of the few shots. I hope to revisit the place on a bright Californian day and post part II of Gaadi bula rahi hai :)



Location: For the first two snaps, Sunol railway station, CA
For the last snap, Felton steam train station, CA
Camera: Nikon D80.

Take a look at my flickr stream for some additional pictures when you click on the images here.

Show me the way!!

Finally I got the muhurta for my next photoshoot and this time I wasnt alone. Joy and Suyash were with me. We wanted to shoot some lighthouse at night. Joy finalized on pigeon point lighthouse.

We reached there around 5 pm. The weather was just perfect. We were happy about it, but we were so wrong. Soon it turned into bone chilling winter weather. My hands were freezing. I couldnt operate the tripod because of that and finally broke it :( And it was not even night yet! I was worried about the night shoot. Joy offered to share his tripod :)

Finally it was dark and we were waiting for the lighthouse to show us the way (basically to light up). waiting... waiting.... waiting.... and we found out that there wont be any light :( We learnt that they only turned on the lights on special occassions.

Here are some of the snaps from our photoshoot. I wish there was light to show me the way :(






Location: Pigeon point lighthouse, Hwy 1, California
Camera: Nikon D80

Pitaare se!!!!

I could not click the snaps recently, so did not have anything to post. At the same time I did not want my blog to be a dead blog. Solution? Posting photos from my khajana :)

Following image was the first image from my Nikon d80. My wife thought I ve gone mad coz I was alone in dark bedroom with this candle lit and struggling to click this one with my (new) camera on tripod.



The next one was clicked somewhere in half moon bay.


This one was clicked near sausalito

Lake Elizabeth Explored!!!

My photographic eye was itching for the past few days, however making exclusive photography trips to popular destinations was not an affordable option (that too in this recession). I decided to explore the areas around Fremont. I finalized on lake Elizabeth which was just 2 miles from my place.

Joy suggested that I try early morning photography. I got up at 6:30 am for this photoshoot to take advantage of early morning light (that too on Saturday where my usual wake time is somewhere around 12-1:00 pm). I really could not catch the early morning light though :-(

Lake Elizabeth is a beautiful place with a 3 mile jogging trail around the lake. It also has boating facility near the lake. This place is a treat for bird watchers (both 'flying' and 'jogging' birds ;))

Here are some of the photographs from this photo shoot. The first one below is of (flying) birds bathing on the shore. Sorry I am not really into watching flying birds so dont know their category:(



The second one is the reflection of the grass in the water (too informative, isnt it? :))


The next two are of people who are into fitness world. The bunch of chinki people were practising some kind of martial arts. I think it is 'Tai chi' based on my limited knowledge about martial arts. I was surprised to see only chinki people practising that, but when I went near I understood the reason for the same. The music and instructions were in their languague :)



Location: Lake Elizabeth, Fremont, CA
Camera: Nikon D80

Happy New Year!!!!

Wish you all a very happy new year. I did not make any plans for the new year eve, but for sure I did not want to spend time at home. Wify wasnt ready to go out because of the possibility of rowdy public spoiling the fun. Finally I succefully managed to blackmail her emotionally and she was ready to go out :) We decided to head towards San Francisco. We took BART to reach SF. I was disappointed to see the wire fence along the shore which was 8 ft high. Finally I found a best place to set my tripod. Already 4-5 other photographers had put their tripods. Mine was the smallest tripod and the smallest camera around :(

Exactly at 12:00 am, the fireworks started. I tried my best to capture them but could not manage to click good ones :( I suck at fireworks photography big time. Anyways, these are some of the snaps clicked by me. May be I ll try once again on 4th July :)

Camera: Nikon D80
Place: San Francisco, Howard st,