Butterfly Effect

Yesterday a butterfly
Came floating gently through the sky.
He soared up through the atmosphere
Then drifted close enough to hear.

I said, "I'd love to fly with you
And sail around the way you do.
It looks like it would be such fun
To fly up toward the summer sun.

But I have not your graceful charm.
I haven't wings, just these two arms.
I've been designed to walk around.
My human feet must touch the ground.

Then magically he spoke to me
and told me what his wish would be.

He said, "What I'd love most to do
Is walk upon God's Earth with you,
To squish it's mud between my toes
Or touch my finger to my nose.

I'd love just once to walk around
With human feet to touch the ground,
But I have not two legs that swing,
I haven't arms, just these two wings."

And so we went our separate ways
In wonder and surprise.
For we'd both seen God's precious gifts
Through someone else's eyes.

The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing against a white stone...
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly way up high
It went away I' m sure because it wished to
kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto
but I have found my people here
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut candles in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one,
Butterflies don't live in here,
In the ghetto.

Dear butterfly,
Majestic monarch of the sky,
holder of universal secrets and reasons why,
color my canvas, touch my heart before I die,
to live in joy, teach me how never to say good-bye.

As you flutter by, you hear me sigh,
things missed because I forgot to try,
on your serene beauty I can rely,
oh what celestial magic you do supply.

Once you did struggle to be free,
you turned your life around to show me,
amazing my angel how you heard my plea,
you've cocooned my mind so I can see.

Lets fly together both as one,
and sore beyond time, once upon,
our silken wings God has spun,
Souls entwined, our infinite journey has just begun.

Happiness Within

At farmhouse I asked this little boy to do something interesting and this was what all he got.

I was on my way back from Bangalore to Delhi in the month of august, when the fear of swine flu had just gripped the whole country. With the precautionary mask on my face had nothing more worthwhile to do than using my cam. Started with the countryside landscape outside the moving train but was soon bored off, interestingly this small boy, who was witnessing all my photographic activities came to me asked to shoot him! After a few shots he threw himself at the door of the boogie, half hanging in air, though was terrified a bit but still excited. The expression on his face was a mixture of both!

The boy bewildered, puzzling over those incense sticks as my grandma offers her morning prayers to the Sun.

Garden venturer

Broken jhula(swing) lying unattended at a corner of my garden

Thats little bonsai, one of those many out of my mom`s collection

Small yet old, thats what attracts me towards these exotic bonsaiz

Abstract photography tips

Abstract photography has both confused and delighted photographers almost since the invention of the camera. Abstract whether in art or photography form, can be very personal. We are all

familiar with Pollock, Kandinsky and Picasso, great 20th century artists that painted based on their environment and live experiences. Like them or not, they were great painters that had portrayed great visual content in abstract form.

Choosing a subject of abstract form can be very challenging. However, abstract photography can be very fulfilling, in that, it opens the mind to a brand new visual experience, one that stimulates the imagination beyond the normality of perspective.

Abstract photography is a field that leaves many puzzled as to what exactly it includes. The definition varies so much by photographer and gallery, it seems like there is no common ground whatsoever. However, there are a few commonalities and motifs in abstract photography that will help clarify the field somewhat, even if there is no explicit, all-encompassing rule that all abstract photographs follow.

Abstract Photographers Have More Fun

It is from this point of view that we can now turn to look at the work of abstract photographers. For beginning photographers, especially, making abstract pictures is easy and fun. Anything can be used in the service of abstract photographers - literally. Let fly open the kitchen cupboard doors or wander your backyard during a snowstorm for inspiration. The results, whether in focus or blurred, will be abstract photographs as long as they do not depict or represent what we know as reality. The picture may remind the viewer of reality in some way, but that would be beside the point.

Abstract painters drip and pour paint; drag rags or brushes across canvas; or draw shapes with exaggerated precision and no obvious meaning. They build up paint or other material to create the painting. Abstract photographers begin with an object in reality and reduce, enlarge upon, or blur it beyond recognition.

Abstract photography is not just about shooting the image in its entirety. The perception of abstract photography has intrinsic values. The photographer not only concentrates on lines, forms and textures, but the compatibility of colours along with composition to achieve a great image. Abstract photography is the abstraction of part of an image that makes up the whole image. You remove all aspects of the image to reveal its artistic value.

It is amazing what you can find to photograph in an abstract way. Look around your home, your food cupboard, your fruit bowl and jewellery, all these make an ideal subject and will challenge your creativeness. Most abstract photography requires close focus to do it any justice. For example; you can use a 110mm macro lens that allows you to be 2cm away from your subject or, any short lens that allows you to focus in closely.

To make your subject even more interesting, try spraying water on it or vary your lighting with various filters. This will not just enhance the image, but will transform it into something captivating and intriguing to the viewer. When editing your image in Photoshop, de-saturating the image to black and white and then adding little colour brings out key aspects of the image.

Water droplets can be photographed in many intresting ways.I shot these droplets on a rainy day.

In essence, abstract photography is not a true reflection of the natural world. This is the beauty of it. It concentrates on a certain characteristic of the subject in an aesthetic way, and so the abstraction of a particular image becomes art. It draws you in and challenges you, it can move you, and it compels you to ask questions. It can be minimal, busy, colourful, dark and mysterious. You do not have to be a professional photographer to produce good abstract photography, nevertheless having some knowledge of the equipment and a good visual awareness will make this a fun thing to do whether for a hobby or professional pursuits.

Subject & Composition

The most common reaction to abstract photographer is probably an incredulous, curious,

What is that? Many abstract photos have no clear or discernible subject, while others try and make the subject appear like an entirely unlike object.

Most abstract photographers focus on the everyday objects around them, familiar things that they show us through their third eye to be less familiar than we like to think, turning sunny suburban sidewalks into dark noir landscapes, grass into exact geometric designs. Our daily life is transformed from something we are entirely used to something we are not entirely at home with.

Many abstract photographs are minimalistic, isolating a subject. Roadways are obscured beneath the snow with nothing but vague shadows to show the way, or a single droplet is left in crisp focus against a soft blur of the background. Simplicity of composition is another common trait of abstract photographs—through utter chaos of form is almost as common. The busy meanderings of twisted spider webs leave our eyes confused without a single place to rest upon, just as the dusty mess of an abandoned house or the fallen leaves of dozens of trees mixed together.

Intresting colors can be added to the photo during post-processing and refining the image

Color

Especial attention to color is paid by abstract photographers. Many seek color harmonies, focusing on the symphony of similar colors in the highlights and lowlights of hair, or

rust stains on old cold iron.

Others still seek to point out the exact same hue of entirely unlike objects. A bright green grasshopper may be juxtaposed next to someone's eyes, or a wedding ring next to a doorknob. Still others try to show complete contrast. The use of color filters is a very common technique. Rainbows may be splayed across otherwise color-drained photographs of cities, or the undercanopy of a forest turned to a distinctly underwater shade of aquamarine. Similarly, color isolation is another technique often utilized. A girl in a bright red dress in a blurry black & white city, a single leaf on a tree remaining green. Of course, there are countless other color techniques and effects pioneered by abstract photographers, many of which have since moved into other fields of photography.

Texture

Another factor that many abstract photos have in common is close attention to texture. Repeating patterns are a favorite of many abstract photographers, from the repetition of black umbrellas in a rainy city to dozens of converging parallel lines looking down a road into the distance with its sidewalks and powerlines. A common extension of this is a single, conspicuous break in the pattern, a blank spot in a line of plates, or an unusual gap between a crowd of people walking down a sidewalk.Just as common is the complete lack of pattern, utter chaos, from the clutter on the bedroom floor to the random placement of bathroom stall graffiti. Texture filters, from dust speckles to exaggerated noise to drip patterns are often utilized, either applied in a digital image editing program or on-site with pieces of glass or plastic placed in front of the lens.

Subjectivity

As this article has demonstrated, there is tremendous variety in the field of abstract photography. What determines a good abstract photo is similarly varied, determined

entirely by the user. What may deeply please one person may attract no interest whatsoever from another—sometimes for exactly the same reason. Indeed, much of the appeal in abstract photography is the incredible amount of interpretation left up to the viewer.

Nor is it impossible for an amateur to get involved in abstract photography: because of its incredible variety, personal style and the subjective experience reigns. Some find this distasteful, others liberating; just another subjectivity. Abstract photography, because of the sheer amount of imagination and creativity involved in the process, also serves as an excellent exercise for photographers of other fields to help improve their craft in general, building skills in attention

to detail, color and texture, and stretch the boundaries of their own personal style with experimentation. It's a wonderful type of photography to explore—try it for yourself.

Snail leaves a trail

That slimy creature was destroying my mom`s plants from within, eating up their roots.The gardener picked it up on his spade and brought it straight away to me.

Photographing this sticky creature on the ground would have been difficult, so I dropped it on "Sunday Times" and strted clicking.

It slipped of the paper again and again but I somehow managed to keep the folded newspaper beneath it steady with one hand whereas focussing the camera with the other.

Took around 50-60 snaps only to land with a handful of properly focussed pictures during post-processing.

It was very irritating and difficult to lock focus on this continuously moving creature, but then only hardwork pays off!!

Snail moving up & down as I continue rolling the newspaper

Slimy snail looking for alternative route..

The snail he lives in his hard round house,
In the orchard, under the tree:
Says he, "I have but a single room;
But it's large enough for me."

The snail in his little house doth dwell
All the week from end to end,
You're at home, Master Snail; that's all very well.
But you never receive a friend.

The snail pushes through a green
night, for the grass is heavy
with water and meets over
the bright path he makes, where rain
has darkened the earth's dark. He
moves in a wood of desire,

pale antlers barely stirring
as he hunts. I cannot tell
what power is at work, drenched there
with purpose, knowing nothing.
What is a snail's fury? All
I think is that if later

I parted the blades above
the tunnel and saw the thin
trail of broken white across
litter, I would never have
imagined the slow passion
to that deliberate progress.

Landscape photography tips

A landscape is a section or portion of scenery as seen from a single viewpoint.

Scenery is the subject of a landscape image. Typically, people and animals are

not shown in a landscape, unless they are relatively small in the image and have

been included in the composition to show scale. Some photographers argue that the

sea coast, the city and man-made structures in general should not be included in a

landscape, and images that do contain them are more accurately called seascapes

or cityscapes. From a purist perspective, they are probably correct, since a landscape

is a picture of the land and its aggregate natural features. However, if natural scenery

dominates an image, it can probably be accurately termed a landscape, even though

there may be a farmhouse in the distance, a city skyline on the horizon or a road or

path in the foreground.

The term “Urban Landscape” describes photographs of the city taken in the manner of a

landscape, using buildings and other man-made features as graphical elements of composition that are treated in the same way the photographer would treat mountains and trees.

STYLES OF LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

Three styles of landscape photography are recognized - representational, impressionistic and abstract. The representational style is also known as the straight or straight descriptive style.

REPRESENTATIONAL

This style results in pictures that show scenery at its most natural and realistic, with no visual manipulation or artifice. It is a straightforward style - what you see is what you get. Successful images in the representational style are not simple snapshots. Although the photographer adds no props or other components to a scene and does not try to “bend” reality, great attention is paid to composition and detail. Light, timing and the weather are critical elements.

IMPRESSIONISTIC

The impressionistic landscape photographer employs photographic techniques that result in images that have vague or elusive qualities. They are less tangible and more unreal, while still retaining their values that make them landscape pictures. The viewer is given the impression of a landscape rather than the clear reality of one.

ABSTRACT

This style - Abstract - could also probably be referred to as the graphic style, since the components of scenery are treated by the photographer as graphic elements, arranged for their compositional values. Natural elements may be rendered as unrecognizable or almost so. Shape and form take priority. Elements may be juxtapositioned for comparison or contrast, isolated by extreme close-up, reduced to silhouettes by severe underexposure, and so on. Design is more

important than recognizable representation.

In the landscape taken above(on the way to Hemkund Sahib, Uttrakhand), the blossom has been used in the foreground giving the landscape a distintive look

QUICK HINTS FOR EFFECTIVE LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

These quick tips are not essential to every landscape picture you take, but bearing them in mind and applying them judiciously will improve your picture-taking. A foreground object will help to frame the scene and add a look of three-dimensionality. Frame the scene so that it contains a center of interest - an object that draws the viewer's eye into the picture.Placing the center of interest off-center, in accordance with the Rule of Thirds, will create a harmonious composition.Placing the horizon a third of the way down from the top or bottom of the frame is usually much better than having it in the middle of the scene. Scale can often be important to the understanding of a landscape, and can be achieved by including an object of a known size in the scene. People, animals or other recognizable objects that would naturally belong in the scene are suitable for showing scale. The quality of lighting is perhaps the most influential attribute of a successful landscape. Waiting for interesting lighting that is moody, dramatic or diffused usually pays off in a memorable photograph. Ensure that your camera's flash is turned off when shooting landscapes, unless you require it to brighten a foreground object. Flash in a dusty, misty or foggy

scene may cause flare by reflecting off the droplets of moisture or dust particles. Use a tripod to ensure sharpness, especially in low-light conditions. In very low light, be sure to select a fast film speed or a high digital camera's ISO setting that will permit proper exposure and good depth of field. Watch for unsightly or unnatural elements such as overhead wires, hydrants, poles

and garbage cans, especially in the foreground. If you cannot easily move them, reposition yourself to a camera angle that eliminates them from the frame. Don't let the weather stop you from capturing an attractive landscape. Rain can add a degree of softness and peacefulness to a scene. On an overcast day, be sure your scene has an area of color in it to counteract the overall dull lighting.

Keep the rules of composition in mind when framing a scene. Lines, in particular, can be a strong factor in making an interesting landscape. Landscape photography is often more horizontal than it is vertical, presenting the opportunity to shoot a panorama. If you are faced with a wide vista and your camera has a panorama mode, this is the time to select it. Cropping afterwards can achieve a similar purpose.

When the wind is blowing or water is moving - waves, waterfalls, a tumbling brook - capturing that movement by using a slow shutter speed to create blur can add great interest to a landscape. When selecting a slow shutter speed, be sure you retain proper exposure by also appropriately adjusting your camera's aperture. Many cameras will do this automatically for you in Shutter Priority mode.