Rays !!!

Well, I love to travel by train. I don’t feel bored while spending long time in train. When I was in Pune, I used to travel frequently between Mumbai and Pune by train. I enjoy it when train passed through tunnel and always wanted to take some photographs while train is in the tunnel. Once, similarly I was traveling from Mumbai to Pune and my compact digital camera was with me and I tried some experiments by clicking from the window of the train while train was passing through tunnel. As train runs at a relatively faster speed, it was obvious to get some blurred photos and I wanted to use this blur in favor of my photographs. After clicking may photographs, I tried to click exactly when train was about to leave the tunnel and after trying for so many times, I got this fantastic moment captured. I was lucky enough that a lady sitting on the seat in front of me put her hand on the window which gave some depth to this photo and tells a story like the scare people generally feel while train is in the tunnel and its entirely dark. Also faster train speed resulted in these rays which is giving the sense of fast movement of train.

Long Exposure !!!

Today I bring you an enticing article about long exposure photography. Long exposure photography is a technique in which a camera’s shutter is left open to expose over a longer period of time (be it 8 seconds or 8 hours). It is quite famous, trendy and somewhat difficult form of photography that allows you to witness things from a different perspective and lets you experience time in a different fashion. It enlightens your imagination to see beyond the face of an image, and to see what it can become. So, without a further ado, here I present a list of dazzling long exposure photographs that will take your breath away. I am quite sure that you will love this post whether you are a photographer or just a long exposure photography fan.

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Night View of Magarpatta city, Pune !!!

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Giant wheel and a moon !!!

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Rides in a fair - one still and other in motion !!!

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Both rides in motion !!!

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Columbus and giant wheel in motion !!!

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Ranger !!!

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A ride in a fair !!!

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Fireworks and a moon !!!

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Columbus !!!

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Gate of a fair !!!

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Athwa gate fly over bridge, Surat !!!

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Light painting !!!

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Star Trails !!!

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View of Pune City from Parvati Hill !!!

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Golden Temple, Amritsar !!!

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Tree at Tail Baila Plateau, Maharahstra !!!

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Tents, Stars and a flight trail !!!

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Part of Milky Way over Tail Baila Plateau, Maharashtra !!!

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Flow at Mulshi, Maharashtra !!!

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Water Fall at Tamhini Ghat, Maharashtra !!!

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Matheran !!!

The main advantage of being in Pune is that there are so many beautiful places around the city that you can visit most of them in a day trip. Same is the case with "Matheran - the smallest hill station of India". This was my second trip to Matheran and first in the monsoon. It is one of the few places in the world where motorized vehicles are not allowed.

Here are the few pics of Matheran.

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A view from Khandala Ghat !!!

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Road at Matheran !!!

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Tunnel at Pune - Mumbai Express way on the way to Matheran !!!

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Me at Khandala Ghat !!!

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Landscape at Matheran !!!

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Green trees, railway track and red clay at Matheran !!!

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Landscape at Matheran !!!

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Beautiful Matheran in Black & White !!!

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Rajmachi (Lonavala) Camping cum Shoot !!!

Though I love traveling, I never experienced camping till this one. This happened with our group of photographers called "P@P - Photographers at Pune". This was my first shoot with this group and it was a real fun. It was planned as overnight shoot and I was desperate to do some night photography which I have not done previously mainly because tripod is necessary for night photography, and I joust bought one a week before this shoot. And also I was always desperate to shoot star trails (for more details, search "Start trail photography"in google), so I thought this was the best chance to use my hands on star trails as we were to spend night away from the city over some mountain where I was expecting some clear sky.

We started from Pune at around 01:00 pm (23rd March, 2011) and reached at base camp at around 04:00 pm. Few people went for the trek, and few including me spent time at base camp chatting with each other and clicking some snaps. Before sunset, we went to collect woods to set our camp fire. After collecting the same, we shoot the sunset. But I was waiting for real darkness and wanted to see so many stars in the sky as my main purpose for this trip was to shoot star trails. But after sunset, we found so many clouds in the sky and stars were not clearly visible, which was very disappointing for me.

Then also, I tried to shoot star trails for few minutes when there was relatively clear sky and then we headed for lunch and then we slept at around 10:00 pm. We woke up at around 06:00 am in the morning, some guys prepared tea for all 35-40 people. We enjoyed tea and left the place at around 10:00 am after getting one group shot.

Here are some snaps from this trip.

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Camp Site !!!

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Our Cars !!!

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My tripod and sun !!!

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Framed Sunset !!!

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Sunset through grass !!!

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Fire, smoke, torch light and people !!!

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Star trails !!!

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Good morning, camp site, 06:00 am !!!

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Helping hands !!!

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Tea under preparation !!!

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Fire and smoke !!!

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A Pause - My Best Group Shot !!!

Well, I am posting this particular one because this is the best group shot I have clicked till date. Group photos is the one of the most common types of digital photographs. They happen everywhere from weddings, to camps, to parties, to sporting teams, to school etc.

There must be thousands of group photos taken each day around the world – however unfortunately many of the group photos that I see in my friendship group and on Flickr would leave their photographers disappointed with the results for a variety of reasons.

Common group photo mistakes and problems include:

• one or more subjects always seem to be looking away or in different directions (i.e. at different photographers)
• subjects blinking (there’s always one)
• someone being missing from the photo
• different moods in the group (some smiling, some serious, some playing up to the camera etc)
• the group being too far away or not all fitting into the shot.

These problems become more common when the group is large. I took this photo during Holi celebration at Magarpatta City of Pune where I reside and above mentioned all the problems were almost avoided in this photo.

I had a very good 2 hours in the morning when me and my friends had an awesome rain dance on some fantastic music. DJ was good and was putting some nice tracks. After having enough dance, I decided to come back to my place to carry a camera as I wanted to capture the essence of this beautiful day through my camera lens.

Venue was the ground beside the gymnasium and DJ was set on the terrace of the same building. So, that was the best vantage point to click the entire venue. I decided to climb on that terrace. After clicking few casual shots, I decided to click my best group shot ever. There were around 200 people who were dancing on the every bit of music and everybody was lost. I asked DJ to pause a track just for a second. The moment DJ paused a track, everybody (all 200 people) started looking and screaming towards DJ, and they found me having my DSLR in the neck and focusing at them. They really thought that I was some media photographer, and everybody started screaming at me and I got my best group shot. This all happened within a couple of seconds and everybody was back to dance again.

Konkan !!!

Well, I love traveling and I am passionate about photography. I don't know whether I love traveling because I love photography or I love photography because I love traveling. well, I really don't like to be alone - what I mean by this is I mostly don't like to spend time alone. But, traveling and photography are the only things when I can be all alone and that too very happily and satisfied. Even while traveling, the best part for me is the road journey which I enjoy most. I do think very much and most positive and inspirational thoughts come to my mind while traveling. My first all alone trip was in 2007 when I traveled to Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Vrindavan and Roorkee all in around 20 days. I loved that trip and then I had a recent a week long trip to Bangalore.

Traveling brings everything out of me which is really there inside me. I become really me while traveling alone. I had a good group of 7-8 people here at Pune and Pune is a very good place to have weekend getaways. Pune has everything from virgin beaches to small villages to mountains to religious places in radius of around 200 kms.

In the end of January '11, we planned to visit Konkan area - specifically Srivardhan , Harihareshwar and Divegarh. It was 1 night, 2 days trip. I am writing this because it brought best out of me. I was suffering from loose motion for 3 days before the trip and I was not sure whether I should go or not, but at the end I went for it and believe me, nothing happened for those 2 days and everything started going well as soon as I sit in the cab.

We started at around 01:30 pm from Pune and reached Harihareshwar at around 07:30 pm with two halts - one for lunch and one near lake on the way to destination. We booked our accommodation in advance in beach resort and that resort was like typical "Konkan House" which we loved as beach was only 5 mins walk from the resort. We had tea and snack at resort immediately after reaching there. Everybody got fresh and immediately we went to the beach at night.

It was like dark room. I still can hear the roaring sound of waves and still can see that clear sky which is out of question to be visible from any of the cities. Rarely you see so many stars in the sky. I was looking for such a dark as I wanted to do some experiments in night photography. For the first time , I tried light painting and results were not bad. We spent around an hour or so at the beach and went back to the resort at around 10 pm and then had a dinner and again tea after dinner. Everybody was tired, but nobody was in the mood to sleep.

We started playing Dumb-C at the resort and that was real fun. I still remember one movie which was given to me named "Raja Rani ko chahiye ek boond paseena". Each and everyone enjoyed this part of night and then at around 01:00 am or so we decided to have a sleep. We woke up at around 07:00 am and went to the beach. It was fantastic to have only 8 people at the beach. Yes, that was really a virgin beach. There was nobody on the beach and it gave feelings like we booked a private beach for us for that particular morning. We went back to the resort at around 10:00 am and had a tea and breakfast. After breakfast and taking bath, we left the resort at 12:00 noon and so Harihareshwar.

From Harihareshwar, we headed towards Srivardhan and Divegarh with en-route visit to Harihareshwar temple. The rocky structures over here were fantastic. We didn't spend much time at Srivardhan as there was nothing except beach. We visited one more temple and then started our journey back to Pune at around 04:00 pm and reached Pune at around 10:00 pm and then spend some time at CCD at Chandani Chowk and had a dinner at "Up & Above" restaurant at Chandani Chowk, Pune.

Here are some memories captured through camera lenses !!!

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Lake view on the way to Srivardhan !!!

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Lake view on a way to Srivardhan !!!

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My first try of light painting !!!

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Beach sand at night under torch light !!!

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"Taare" in background with "Sitaare" in foreground !!!

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Footprints !!!

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A walk on beach at early morning !!!

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Introspecting ? !

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Harihareshwar beach !!!

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Fun !!!

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From left to right - Bhawana, Soumen, Sneh, Me & Shefali !!!

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Gate of farm at Harihareshwar !!!

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Scenic natural beauty at Harihareshwar !!!

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Sometimes you just love to be alone at places like this !!!

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Captured in the glass !!!

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A view of Harihareshwar beach from Harihareshwar temple !!!

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Which way to go ?

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Some creativity at Srivardhan beach !!!

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At "Up & Above" restaurant, Chandani Chowk, Pune !!!

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