The World In 35mm

Barney-Stins-ome!

2012-05-21T01:00:00.002+05:30

Yet again, Dubai is the subject of my blog this time around too. But I swear, its not like the older 'boring-philosophy-stuff-to-go-with-a-bunch-of-photos-I-took-during-my-vacation' kind of.

Christmas vacation this time was so awesome I just can't find words to describe it. Probably cuz going to Dubai again in 6 months since last time was totally unexpected or maybe cuz its been 5 months since then that I'm writing about it that I can't actually remember what all we did there...NOT! It was actually awesome!

No matter how 'you-can't-explain-how-good-your-vacation-was-to-someone-y' it is, there are a few memories that stand out.

Road trip to Fujairah, one of the most beautiful places to visit in UAE. It was a good trip. And I remember my dad and brother fighting about how you had the choice to swim to Pakistan or Iran?! XD

Then there's a whole lot of Dubai-sh memories and then there's New Year's eve. To be honest, I've never actually seen a firework show. Or now when I think about it, a 'proper' and 'safe' firework show. Well, that's a little inside joke for my friends(Sreyas, Nihal, Jishaan, Mappu, Nithul :D) and I. And to see it from Burj Khalifa was simply awesome. Countdown to 12 with a huge crowd, and watching the firework work its magic like it's not gonna end, through the viewfinder, of course. I refused my brother's advice to stop with the photos and enjoy the show which I regret now, looking at the photos that came out.

BBQ at a park. Sounds plain. BBQ in the evening in Dubai. Okay. BBQ in the daytime in Dubai. Now, that's priceless :D This being my first visit to Dubai during the winter. Aweome place. Awesome time. Awesome people. Awesome food. Awesome :D (Awesome count this post : 8 :P) Oh, and mind you, flying a kite is not easy as it sounds. We gave the rest of the crowd at the park a great time looking like retards, though :P

And that's how my awesome vacation ended..

BAZINGA! Haha, actually, now this is where it gets so awesome I feel like Barney Stinson, "What up!"

On the 2nd of January, and the last day of my vacation. I was quite literally on cloud 9. I got to see footballing legends Nesta, Inzaghi, Gattuso, Seedorf, Ambrosini, Ibrahimovic, Pato, Robinho right in front of my eyes and get their autographs! I couldn't ask for anything more.

AC Milan, fortunately for me, had a friendly with Dubai's local club Al-Ahli. I was gonna miss that but I could squeeze in to one of their practice sessions as it was open to public for free. When you see them walk up to you to sign your book(for once, I'm grateful to Engineering Graphics cuz the only book I had in my backpack was the drawing book :D), you go speechless. As in, you feel like telling something but you go numb head to toe. Especially when Aquilani came up, I wanted to say "Stay at Liverpool, Aqua!" But all I did was stand like a frozen rock.

When it was Ibra's turn, its a totally different feeling though. He is scary, standing 18 feet tall with a "terminator" look on his face. Plus the fact that he's a taekwondo black belt. When Seedorf or Pato shoots the ball, it rips the net off. Ibra played defense during the practice session and he shoots the ball from 20 yards out, the crossbar vibates so hard, it reminds you of Physics lab in 12th grade :P

The reasons to why I was so fascinated about seeing AC Milan's first team for real are

1. They're one of the oldest football clubs in the world

2. We(Liverpool FC0 beat them in Istanbul in 2005 which is the best game of football I've ever watched.

3. David Beckham, my idol played for the club on loan twice, last year

4. Aquilani who's loaned out from Liverpool is currenly playing for them.

5. Ibrahimovic! :D

P.S : More photos on the facebook page.

Dubai

2011-07-21T20:58:00.010+05:30

I was quite excited to come to Dubai not only cuz it will be fun spending (probably) the last month of a strangely long vacation with my siblings and their family, it will mean escape from the monsoon. But apparently, I forgot how it feels like when it's around 45 degrees outside. Besides a few expensive recreational activities, there isn't much you can do in Dubai in the summer unless you want to literally cook yourself. So, "shapping malls"(in a mallu accent) it was. When the rest of the group goes shopping(or window shopping), I walk around taking photos. Actually I enjoyed it cuz of three reasons:

1. In Dubai, man-made wonder replaces nature, or at least I think that is what they're trying to :P Where Burj Khalifa = The Grand Canyon, The Palm Islands = Lakshwadeep (I know, I know. That's not even a valid comparison, but you get the point) and so on. When we went to Palm Jumeirah, just being there gave me tingles. It was beautiful but..I don't know, there was something strange about the place,

2. This is something I can't do freely back at my place. The way I see it, if someone does something different or don't do something others don't, he/she is out of their minds and whatever. Not that I give a damn about it, but it pricks; and finally

3. I get to do this with my brother's Canon EOS 400D! But the downside is, every time you think you got hold of using it, there's bad news. I still have a long way to go.

The beach

2011-07-04T07:16:00.008+05:30

When I was in primary school, going to the beach 2 and a half kilometers away used to be a luxury. Even if the grown ups take us there, there's always the "dont-go-near-the-water" rule. We would be taken to a cliff nearby and show us the beach. It was almost like watching a video from a distance and that too annoying cuz we could see other kids playing in the water. I mean, whats the fun in going to the beach and not getting drenched in the water or making sandcastles or playing football or taking a walk in the hot sand, barefoot, licking an ice cream cone? Yep, it was that terrible. This summer vacation, I fell in love with the beach all over again. There's no other place in my town where I actually enjoy which maybe the reason, but that's not my point.

I literally spent a huge chunk of my time at the beach either playing football, swimming or just taking a walk watching other people. From homeless people to fishermen(yes, they do fishing at the beach :D) to amateur teams playing beach football to couples to people playing fetch with their dogs to people like me. It's teh place to relax. Especially for me, to cool down from the entrance exams that just finished, to stop worrying about other things. The hot sun and the cold water, equally soothing. 'Going to the beach' clichéd among my friends. As in, whenever we hung out, (not the Google plus hangout, the real ones ;) ) wherever we go, whatever we do, we finally end up there. Like there's a gravitational pull. And then we sit on the sand just watching the waves and controlling the temptation of going into the water. But, eventually we all go back home drenched. And, some of them had to travel a long distance by bus. It was terrible, but it was fun at the same time.

Innocence

2011-05-07T12:35:00.011+05:30

"My heart leaps up when I behold
A Rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the man;
And I wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety."

-William Wordsworth

Adults confuse me. They live in a world of their own. They preach something and practice something else. They say they're mature but waste a huge part of their lives fighting on the simplest of all things, making simple things complicated. They worry about things that won't happen. They make and break laws whenever they like. Everything wrong they do has a cause. It's for the good. They give up happiness for other things that they think is more important.

But, in every man is a child. Innocence. Longing to jump and play, to shout and have fun, to live carefree, to enjoy the small things in life. But they refrain. It's that one small thing that separates adults from children. It's not something that they've learnt growing up, but forgot. As an adolescent, I'm right between the two but it's certainly not best of both worlds.

It's kind of pointless wishing my niece turning two tomorrow a happy birthday let alone through the Internet, so this is a little something to mark the day. Happy Birthday :)

Suomen

2011-05-01T23:15:00.003+05:30

I know it's been almost a year since the Millennium Youth Camp and it's a bit late to post this. But, it's better late than never.

I've always loved to travel but don't get much chance. Rarely does my family travel to places together and well, we're "too young" to travel with friends and not them. And it ends up boring most times. Kind of a sad story that way, until last year when I got selected for this camp in Finland. It was a dream come true in every respect. It was my first ever trip to another continent and my first trip to another country alone. I wont talk science and make it boring for you, nor will the photos completely show you what we did during the camp. But if you want to, you can check out the Official Flickr Page of the camp.

It was a summer camp and we visited when Finland gets relatively warmer. Yes, relatively! For me, it was freezing cold. Even three layers of clothes couldn't keep me warm when outdoors. I'm just kidding. It wasn't that bad but it was a little bit too cold for me to call it summer. Other than that, it's a beautiful place. What I expected was a very urban place with skyscrapers and everything. But the first thing you'll notice is the greenery. Miles and miles of lush green fields, forests, lakes and the clean and cool breeze. Yet, it's technologically very much advanced and a very developed country. A lesson everyone should learn. It's not a conclusion just by first sight.

I must have seen the place more through the viewfinder during the camp. I just didn't want to miss out on anything. I wanted to capture every moment in '35mm'. But my first day at the campsite was the longest day in my life. Literally. We were having this event where we played some funny games and did some jolly work in groups and got to know each other. It was very sunny outside and when I looked at my watch, it was 9pm in the "night". That's when I realized the days are longer during summer in Finland. It was a good thing for us as we reach back at our campsite late in the evening after our daily agenda. So, we still have a lot of time to maybe explore the place, go swimming or play twister(African Twister as we call it :D).

The one thing we all(well almost everyone) enjoyed alike was the sauna and swimming in the freezing lake with a few seconds in between (:P) and the barbeque and the singing around the campfire. It was an experience I could have otherwise just dreamt of. I was very lucky to be a part of MYC 2010. I had the time of my life there. It's quite late but I'd like to thank Maija Aksela and all the camp organizers and the guides for the fun time we had back there.(I know it sounds like a cheesy dialogue in some TV reality show, but this I really mean it) It has had a big influence in me.

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning" -Ivy Baker Priest

Supermoon

2011-03-19T22:25:00.009+05:30

Night photography on a semi-pro or a point-and-shoot digital camera has always been a Himalayan task for me. Either the photos are out of focus or too exposed. Or if I'm trying to take a picture of people, they always end up looking like monsters.Yep, I'm talking about red eyes. I don't like using flash and neither can I take long exposure pictures. 1. I don't have a tripod, 2. My hands are too shaky(especially when I'm switching to long exposures) and 3. I don't have a DSLR. Why I'm saying all this is 'cause I was skeptic about the fact that photography is not always about having an EOS 1D or Telephoto lens or professional accessories.

A famous award winning photo by a war photographer came from an iPhone and a 10¢ app. Anyone can take beautiful pictures. It's about being at the right place at the right time and having a different perspective.

I thought I'd give it another try anyway. Lucky for me, today is March 19 2011. What's so special about it? It's the day our moon would come to a distance of 221,559 miles from earth. Biggest full moon in 18 years.

With a lot of excitement I went out to see how big the "supermoon" is. Rather disappointing. It was not as big as I thought it would be. I literally pushed my Olympus C-760 (6.3-63mm) to it's limits. Yeah, nothing extra-ordinary came out, but as I said, all I had was a semi-pro cam and 2 very shaky hands. I even put a red-filter(digitally) for a shot and it looked a little scary. Devilish. Would it turn out to be one? Let's wait n see.

Beach

2010-06-04T17:22:00.004+05:30

Reflection

2010-06-01T12:21:00.001+05:30

The Sunset

2010-05-30T21:35:00.001+05:30

From the wild

2010-05-22T15:40:00.001+05:30

The Red Hot Mean Machine!!!

2010-05-01T16:13:00.001+05:30

It was 6:30 in the morning when Nihal and I went to the beach to take some photos of his bike with sunrise in the background. Unfortunately, it rained that night and it was all dark and cloudy in the morning. But still, we went there and got some good shots. He calls his bike, "The Red Hot Mean Machine!"

The "Not-so-scaredy" Cat

2010-04-28T11:47:00.001+05:30

I never get to photograph animals. I always scare them away with my camera. But this one was looking at me with a "What's he doing?" kind of attitude when I started taking its pictures. It started posing turning its head this way and that. I started throwing stones at it to make it look ferocious ( Sorry, animal lovers! :P My brother must have loved this part! :D). It didn't even move. In fact, it yawned at me for that!

Colours

2010-04-23T09:28:00.001+05:30

la naturaleza es bella

2010-04-17T09:42:00.002+05:30

la naturaleza es bella simply means Nature is beautiful in Spanish. This is another kind of photography, I'm new at. Most of the photos I took long ago are all abstract and the subjects are things I find in and around my house. But in the last few weeks, I got a lot of exposure, and a great chance to get a good grip on photography. So, I changed my perspective and started trying out new stuff.

First steps...

2010-04-12T08:18:00.001+05:30

These are also pictures that I took from Ooty last week. My brother was showing his 11 month old daughter some pigeons on the top of the roof. She was quite amused by it. You can almost guess that from her expression.

The picture speaks for itself. That's my niece with her parents learning to walk.

These are the first pictures in my blog with people as the subject. This picture marks my first steps into a totally different kind of photography.

Glimpses from Ooty

2010-04-08T13:27:00.001+05:30

I had gone to Ooty last weekend with my family. We had a very good view of the entire town and the mountains in the background from where we stayed. I took a lot of pictures with my brother's Cannon EOS 400D. Got a good grip on photography using a pro camera. These are some of the best views from the place where we stayed.

P.S : There is no much editing in the pics.

Drizzle in the summertime

2010-03-26T05:25:00.001+05:30

Its tremendously hot in my place since three weeks! There were many reports of people hospitalized due to sunburns. It is quite frequent in the north, but for kerala, it was strange.Everyone was advised not to go out in the sun. To add to the agony, there was shortage of water everywhere. It was total chaos, then. Everyone were desperate for some rain. And it did, it rained cats and dogs, one night. I was asleep and totally unaware of it. But when I woke up in the morning, I could smell something strange. When I went outside, everything looked new and beautiful and there were puddles of water here and there. It rained! God heard out prayers! When I looked out of my window, I could see raindrops on the papaya tree leaves and it looked beautiful. It reminded me of the 'Windows Vista' wallpapers in my desktop. I took my cam, rushed outside and took some random shots. These are 3 of the best ones! It rained alright, but within hours, mercury rose again and its hotter than ever since then!

My photoblog on MTV India Wassup - 18 Jan 2010

2010-01-20T07:50:00.003+05:30

Screw

2009-12-26T07:03:00.001+05:30

My father is an engineer and he loves working with spanners and screw drivers. I don't find it fun, though. He has a tiny cupboard about a feet wide and tall where he keeps all the small things like screws, washers, nuts,wall plugs, etc. This screw nad washer were left out on the top of the tiny little draw. I straight away took my camera and shot it in macro mode.

Morning Sun

2009-12-26T06:58:00.001+05:30

Remember, I was walking around my house, taking pictures aimlessly? This is one of the pictures I took that day. It was about 8 in the morning. My favourite time of the day.

Plant

2009-12-26T06:55:00.001+05:30

Another one taken using my brother's DSLR. I agree, there's nothing great in this picture but I love the depth of the green.

Sack

2009-12-26T06:49:00.001+05:30

I was feeling really bored one day. I took my camera and took a round or two around my home, taking pictures of all sorts of things. I know people will think I'm crazy, but I don't really care. Sometimes, things you think are normal are wonderful when you look through the viewfinder. This is the picture of manure packed in sacks. My dad loves gardening and he bought some of these home for the plants!

Pebbles

2009-12-26T06:43:00.001+05:30

People think I'm doing next to nothing taking pictures of things like these. But I think there's beauty in everything. Its just the way 'you' see it. I took this picture using my brother's DSLR with a macro lens.

Spidey

2009-12-26T06:33:00.001+05:30

Same place where I found the flowers. I always give attention for the small things in life. This is one example. I saw a beautiful spider between the leaves in my backyard. It looked a bit different from spiders you usually see inside your house. Thought I'd share it with you all. I'm still wondering what that white thingy is on the web...Strange!

Goalpost

2009-12-26T06:28:00.001+05:30

Again, this is the picture of our school ground. I was lying on the ground and trying to get some rest after playing football for a while. I lay down near one of the goalposts. It wasn't the neatest/whitest goalposts, but it sure was good enough for a picture!