Raghav'sPhotoJournal

2013-08-13T00:00:00.001-07:00

Terrace Beauty

My terrace blooms with sprinkles of rains in the past few days.

A little butterfly came to visit today.

Fresh stock of leaves..

Many shied away from my camera, found one poser.

Table roses...

2013-07-19T06:51:00.003-07:00

Just Enjoying A Rainy Day

A koyal welcoming me with its sweet voice.

A pink lily smiling at me

Blanket of Clouds

Jade Bonsai

Abode of Bhavatarini - Dakshineswar Kali Temple

2012-11-20T06:55:00.001-08:00

After a very very long time here I am again traveling with my camera. Visiting holy places always brings a lot of new perspective to day to day life. Today my journey was to Dakshineswar Kali Temple the holy place where a normal priest became Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

The temple architecture is the splendid Bengali 'Navaratna' style I have always been seeing these structures on pandals or in movies and never seen in south India. So, today was my first glimpse of such beautiful design.

As I walk through I find the statue of the patriotic saint of modern India - Swami Vivekananda.

As entering the compound of the shrine on the left side we can see a series of small temples in a block dedicated to Lord Krishna in various avatars. Then we get to the main building which has the goddess in beautiful majestic form.

I find a very vivid relation between the traditional Bengali light colored sari with red border and the temple coloration. And the intricate designs on the arches and the top of the nine-spires.

And opposite to the main temple is the Ganges. People take a dip in the holy river and come in for the darshan. Now it does not look that holy to me. So i just dipped my toes.

Here is the building where Ramakrishna used to live for most of his life and used to be in the room facing the Ganges.

On the whole it was a very satisfying trip through the places where saints are born(enlightened) and where spirituality takes its strength to survive.
Do make a trip if you are visiting Kolkata next time.....

Shore Temple

2012-02-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

Was on my pending list places to click for a long time(a year!!). Now hope this would keep up the next posts of this stone carved monumental place.

I tried not to take pics of this wonderful temple the way I have seen most pictures. Wanted a new angle! Let me know how I managed to get a different angle.

As the Sun sets in the horizon darkness seems to take over , far away there is a light house showing still we are guided.

Lonely Traveller !!

My First Experience in Cherai -2

2012-01-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

The Sunsets give some really dejavu feelings going through the beach.

These are the famous "Made in China" product but came in centuries back to India. I guess better than today's Chinese goods.

This stretch of water has many dolphins. If your lucky and watchful you can spot few. I am now thinking to get a better lens to capture them.

My First Cherai Experience

2012-01-02T00:50:00.000-08:00

Kerala has always been the destination for nature lovers. Me being one of them had a great opportunity to spend 8 days in this beautiful small sea side village called Cherai. Here are few snaps taken in this serene peaceful place.

Miami Home Stay is truly Home away from Home . Warm administrative staff and a very co-operative cook.

Living in city seeing such empty roads is very easy on eyes. The only noise one would hear at night is the roaring waves hitting the walls.

One thing I thought would control going to a NLP programe with a beach is to exercise was to slim down a bit. But, the hotel we had our course had such good food.. i could not resist but eat each and every dish.

The hotel compound had few beautiful flowers always welcoming us with a smile or to say with their bloom.

I have seen one of the best Sun sets.. this one here sets on a sand castle.

We had visitors from the wild too. This snake was too fast for my photography skills. Could not get close for a - close encounter.

Bokeh

2012-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

I came across "Bokeh" while reading a site mansurovs.com and since then trying to get the best possible bokeh pics i can manage. Below are the few...

Chikmagaluru - Hebbe Falls

2011-11-24T22:27:00.000-08:00

These would be the only set of photos taken from a phone posted on this blog. Reason being they were all taken from my LG Optimus P500 mobile phone with 3.0 MP camera. It was a very sudden decision to take a trip to Hebbe falls in Karnataka. As it was the only time I did not carry my camera along with me to any trip. As a traveller had the most enjoyable trip but was a disappointed photographer.

Still thanks to my phone had few snaps to remember the journey.

Steps leading to the temple. 1500 roughly. Wont sweat at all !!

Shiva temple at the highest point Hebbe Giri.

All the above photos are at the Hebbe Giri which is the highest point in Karnataka.

Z Point at the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary on way to Hebbe falls.

Personally my fav couple of pics. This is the last point we have drive-able road to Hebbe falls after which we need to take a jeep as its only rough rolling stones after this point.

Alas ! Hebbe falls. 550+ feet high. As told by our jeep driver its in the 1000+ acres of coffee estate of the famous xxx-rum owner.

My friends felt this is like a jungle in the movie Anaconda. See the route we need to go through the jungle !

Candid shot I missed.. this is where my friend fell..luckily she did not fall into the raging water :)

These waters had leeches well very small though but they were bloody thirsty. Cant post my bloody feet here ! first experience with them..:)

Alleppey - Few best snaps

2011-11-14T21:31:00.000-08:00

The nature is at its best canvas during the sun set and sun rise.

Alleppey - Backwaters

2011-11-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Its been a long time I have come back with new post. But guess what, it's gonna be a really wonderful post. Went to Alleppey in June(late post!) it really blew me away....see how it did.

Onam 2011

2011-09-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys, Its been a long time I have come back to this blog. I must stop being lazy..but then I am too lazy to do that ...vicious cycle going on !
These are few pics from Onam day at my office.

Clock

2011-05-01T04:40:00.000-07:00

I liked teh clocks on display in this particular shop and wanted to compose a shot here and was messing with my White balance. But before i could refine this shot I was interrupted by the mall staff not to take photographs. Next, time !!

Fish on display

2011-05-01T04:21:00.000-07:00

I think the malls in Bengaluru has more variety than in other cities like Chennai or Hyderabad. This was a lone fish on display.

flowers

2011-05-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

There a lot of other kinds of trees but which most fascinated me were these flowers and I could do a macro with the pink flower here, sorry I do not know what is called.

Mango's

2011-05-01T04:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to Bengaluru(Bangalore). It is has fantastic climate even in mid-summer. I could not go around the city for a tour but just couple of visits to a friends college and there I found the garden, it was really amazing how many kinds of treet hey have and here a couple of Mango pics.

Corn Sparks

2011-03-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

First Shots- First Sunrise

2011-03-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

Do we need to say about a sunrise !

Full Moon-2

2011-03-25T03:38:00.000-07:00

The light on the water invites to take a walk down to the ends of the world.

Full Moon -1

2011-03-25T03:36:00.000-07:00

This the picture I could take on the Holi Night Full Moon, using my basic Canon 1000D with 18-55mm lens.

Full Moon

2011-03-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

Moon ! always a fascination for the romantics. Took this pic from through a telescope using my dSLR 1000D.