Posts tagged ‘HDR’

November 21, 2010

Twin trees @ the Tetons

The Grand Teton National Park – as the name suggest is awesomely grand ! The jagged, craggy peaks of the Tetons are quiet magnificent  by themselves. Really enjoyed this place as we drove thru for our Yellowstone visit. Made a note to myself that one day would need to get back to Teton for, may be a week just to get soaked in her beauty.

As much as I would like to have been there for the early morning golden light, that afternoon did not disappoint either. The quick storm, that was fast approaching, created the dynamic lighting for the below shot. Really loved the way the sun lit up the foreground , while the storm was brewing back at the mountains. Hope u like the same as much as I do !

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Grand Teton National Park,
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA

November 1, 2010

Shivanasamudram (Bharachukki) Falls

This is one of the amazing falls @ 2-3 hrs drive from Bangalore. There are different names around this falls like Bluff, Shivanasamudram, Shivasamudram, Gaganachukki, Bharachukki. Mother Kaveri splits into two major branches creating Gaganachukki and Bharachukki falls. The below is that of Bharachukki , few kilometers to the south-west of the Gaganachukki falls. Even here, the falls is huge (roughly with a width of 850 mts). It is a beautiful panoramic view and with the full flow one can find different kinds of smaller falls. Like Jog falls, not sure if each of these have their own names :).  The center falls is very different in that it creates different levels before flowing and continuing down . To its left are couple of beautiful ones [not with too much of water] and lends itself for longer exposures even during early evenings (as it would be in shade :) ). Onto the right, the rock formation tends to create multiple stepped falls with the right amount of water [will post this some time in future !!!] .

Some suggest to get to the falls before noon as the light would directly be falling on the falls. But for me it is always the dreamy effect and the dusk light that creates the magic. Its worth checking out the larger versions by clicking on the below image.

It is also significant to note that the Asia’s fist hydro electric project was started here in the beginning of the century(1902).

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Shivanasamudram, Bangalore, India
October 17, 2010

Bhoganandishwara Temple

Bhoganandishwara Temple – This small unknown temple, near Nandhi hills, is perhaps one of the finest and ornate of the Dravidian temples that I came across in  Bangalore, Karnataka. There are three temples side by side , each having a slightly different style , probably built during different periods. The back wall of the temples was the most ornate, with very different sculptures like standing Ganesha among others.

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Bhoganandishwara Temple
Near Nandhi Hills, Bangalore, India

September 25, 2010

What a place to write ur thoughts out …

This one is from the Hampi trip. It is one awesome place. It really deserves to be called the playground of kings & gods.

As I were enjoying the subtle sunset, saw this girl, all by herself, lost in writing something on her diary – may be something for her beloved

Was about to set the tripod for a classical sunset shot, just then the security rushed to indicate that the tripod was not allowed (as always, wonder where they come from !!!), not very lucky with that. Realized would not be able to capture the dusk, as the light was getting low. Then decided to increase the ISO and try out a diff angle. To compensate for the little noise tried out the textures. Really love the way it adds to the mode of the photo and how it came out.

Flickr Page Hampi Ruins
Karnataka, India
September 19, 2010

Temple guarded by Lions @ Kanchipuram

Kanchipuram (???????????) is rightly called the “City of 1000 temples”. Though we might not find 1000s of temples currently, there are atleast few hundreds. And a handful of them still active with rituals and pujas being performed on a daily basis. The below is from Kailashnath Temple. Accounting to Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations at home (yeah yeah my laziness too added to the delay :))  ended up at this place just after noon- after an hour and half drive from Chennai. Though the sun was harsh, the shot came out really good as I was able to sneak and set the tripod in the extreme corner for an HDR shot.

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Chennai, India
May 30, 2010

Mahabalipuram – Panchapandava Rathas

The monolithic temples @ the Mahabalipuram are known as rathas as they resemble wooden chariot. It is an innovation of Pallava King Narasimhavarman-I (Mamalla) [AD 630-668]. A Huge rock sloping from south to north was utilized judiciously to cutout different forms of temple, besides few animal sculptures.

Though these monolithic temples are termed as panchapandava rathas, they have nothing to do with Mahabharatha. These rathas with their ekatala to tritala, vimanas and different in plan and elevation, exhibit splendid forms of south Indian art and architecture. The nakula-sahadeva ratha has apsidal vimana, a relief sculpture of ardhanariswara on the wall of Dharmaraja ratha, with perfect balancing of the masculine and feminine features. It is considered to be one of the finest specimen of the early Pallava art. The ratha also contains Pallava-Grantha, inscription recording the titles of Narasimavarman-I.

The group of the five rathas were executed as models of South Indian temples and were not consecrated as their stupas are still attached with the bed rock.

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Pancha Pandava Rathas, Mahabalipuram
Chennai, India

April 25, 2010

You just can’t Fence Nature !

Horsley Hills, Sunrise
Horsley Hills
Karnataka, India

Horsley Hills – a unexplored hill station – is around 160 kms from Bangalore. This kind of was a good place for a weekend outing. The guest house was really neat, cost effective and you can generally get custom food made, if you get the required things (chicken etc) and provide sufficient time !

The sunset point was really good and easily accessible – thought we actually missed the sunset due to timing. This also had a lot of potential for star gazing and star trail photography – the point being walkable from the guest house [do remember to carry a torch].

There is no specific sun rise view point, but you could go up for a small hike adjacent to the holiday inn (or something named similar, close to the Governors’ Bungalow, if you are an early bird !!!

April 18, 2010

Painted Hills


Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds
Eastern Oregon, USA

What is it made of

Layers of hard claystones which include ancient soils (palesols) and lake beds. Recently the surface of the hills had weathered into softer clay. The claystones were formed by several geographic events in the past 33 million yrs. the volcanic activity of cascade mountains (some 100 miles west) deposited layers of cooled ash. The atmosphere with the help of the plants and animals oxidized the ash. Ground water feed’ed the varied minerals. And in due course today’s claybeds were formed (wow what an amount of structural and chemical changes would have happened !!!!)

 

Colors of the Painted Hills

Aluminum, Silicon, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Sodium, Calcium, Phosphorus, Titanium, Potassium, Oxygen, Hydrogen – All this above and some additional elements by a very special secret recipe forms the beautiful colors of this wonderful scenery. Depending on the amount of moisture and the light available , the shades keeps varying thru the day and all seasons.

 

How come there is not much of flora on the hill

Its a interesting to note that there is not much of flora on the painted hills. And the reason is more interesting  – The clay on the painted hills has a great ability to absorb water and swell. And most of the plant are not able to compete with the soil for water. And the once that do, u can see them in the crevices and gullies of the red hills (the yellow ones that blossoms during the spring are chaenactis and bee-plant.

For the Flowers view of the mountain check this out !!!

August 5, 2008

American Southwest – Monument Valley


Three Mittens, Monument Valley Navajo Park
UT , USA

 

Monument Valley is not really a valley, but an upwarp of sedimentary rock that is at least 260 million years old, surrounded by sentinels that have yet to fully erode. The floor itself is more than a mile high, part of the 130,000 square-mile Colorado Plateau. Sandstone is easily eroded, and the wind, rain, cycles of frost and heat have been at work, cracking and chiseling the valley to its present form.

June 11, 2008

Grand Canyon – The Making


Toroweep, Grand Canyon National Park
AZ, USA

While the Colorado river accounts for the canyon’s depth, its width and formations are the work of even greater forces. Wind rushing thru the canyon erodes the limestone and sandstone- a few grains at a time. Rain pouring over the rim cuts deep side canyons on the softer rock. Perhaps the greatest canyon building force is snow or ice ! Water from the snow melt and the rain work its way into the cracks on the rocks. When frozen, expands, forcing the rocks away from the canyon walls.

February 20, 2008

Just Do it !


Enroute to Bryce Canyon
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT, USA

Thinking you need rest makes you restless.
Thinking you have to work hard makes you tired.
Thinking you have worked hard brings self pity.

Just Do It !!!

September 29, 2007

Ancient Drawing Board

Lower Calf Creek Trail
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Utah, USA

It was an amazing experience just walking between mineral-streaked cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, beaver ponds and pre-historic rock art sites en route to the 126-foot-high Lower Calf Creek Falls. The total roundtrip distance to the falls is 5-1/2 miles. Though the summer sun was above and my (a little over a year old) son was on the backpack, the hike was pretty enjoyable with very little elevation change. Most of the trail is sandy & that slows the pace, at times !

The most interesting part of the hike were the wall paintings and the Indian granaries (zoom in & zoom out) and of course the jewel of the crown being the lower falls itself.

On an entirely different perspective, we travel so far, hike so long to get a peek into the lives of the Anasazi Indians. These petroglyph on the walls of the canyons does provide the glimpse. But you know what, in most of these trails you see a notice that there are messages that indicate a heavy penalty if you make new makings (or painting) on these canyon walls (of course !!!)

We do have the technology to make new painting on these walls, that could last more the existing ones. If we are not allowed to make new paintings today how would people, 800 – 1000 years from get a glimpse onto ours lives …… right :-)

Wrong !!! As technology grows, live changes and so is the medium. Who knows even the blog(s) like these -yeah the same one u r reading now ;-) could serve the purpose of providing the window to our lives, in future. Time’s Person of the year , 2006 clearly indicated the significance of the user generated content (if you already don’t know Times Person of the year 2006 is YOU) .

The count of blogs, as of writing this post, just on WordPress.com alone is 1,562,804 blogs with 53,197 new posts today. Even after dropping off the test blogs and the inactive ones, it is still quiet a number – the point is there is a good amount of user content getting generated every day on the Internet.

What would happen to these valuable user generated content, once the user is no more ?Even if someone decides to manage and maintain a users content after user’s time, On what basis would the user account details be shared with the family or friends ? May be the blog or the site could be graciously closed, but what if the users demise is not expected ? Would these become asserts of the individuate and hence be part of his Will ? How would we differentiate between the valuable and junk out of these content ?

So many things to ponder about ….

October 30, 2006

Night Shoot – Mt Hood

Each time I drove through I84, when I see Mt Hood standing so majestic, I wish at the least, I was not in the driver seat and at the extreme, was tempted to pull over at the emergency shoulder on the side of the highway and shoot out to my fullest the snow covered Mt. Hood.

I had always seen Mt Hood when I was on the way to somewhere and wanted to spend some quality time enjoying the splendor of the same. Hence when I first saw the ‘call for night shoot’ @ Flickr in PDX Ground, I was all game for it.

So yesterday several of Flickrites (Redgum, cinnabear100, outre, chief_dawg, WolfMana & myself) got together for a night shoot of Mt Hood headed by Redgum (Thanks a lot Redgum for putting it together). We drove to Trillium lake around 5:30 PM. Though the morning was bit foggy , the afternoon turnout to be bit more brighter.

The 15 second exposure limit on my S2 was bit restrictive, but still some of the shots came out good. Click on the picks to see a larger version @ Flickr, and here for a slide show.

Mt Hood Mt Hood from US 26, Pulled the car over the shoulder , ran across the highway and shot this. This actually is a HDR and I pretty much like the results
Mt Hood as reflected on Trillium Lake. It was around 7 PM and was quiet dark. Long exposure do create wonders. For a HDR version of the same check this out Reflections
Sunset ! Sun set @ Trillium Lake

The best part is I have never met the folks I went with yesterday, but it was fun, was a good team. Learnt new things, met some aliens, froze cold and got some good shots of Mt Hood. Meeting new ppl, learning their view and ideas, thank you Flickr for bring us all together (it is just not technology at the end, but how to make ppl use it).

Click here to see a VR Panorama of the view from Trillium Lake during daytime.

With the winter fast approaching , not sure of the probabilities of having one, but looking out for the next shoot out :)

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