Sunday, August 26, 2007

Stirring light

One of my favourites from the Monolake trip. The delicate morning light playing on the Tufas, stirring the soul.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Silence

Silent, peaceful and calm is what you feel when you take a deep look at the picture.

Monolake in the morning.

silence

This picture was displayed at "Frames of Mind 2007", Bangalore Photography Club's Annual Photography Exhibition.

Friday, August 03, 2007

First Light

The Second picture in the Monolake series.

First Light

Sun rising from behind the Tufas.

First Light

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Tranquility at Monolake

In Summer of 2004, i was introduced to the Fredmiranda Landscape Photographer Forum, one of best forums around, for Landscape Photography and in turn to Monolake, in the Eastern Sierra region of California.

Since then, Monolake had been on my photography travel wish list and every post of Monolake and the surrounding sierra region on FM, only increased my urge to visit Monolake.

Three years later, on a Summer morning in April 2007, when some of the photographers from the Northern California Photographers group planned a trip to Monolake and Bodie, i grabbed the chance and made the trip to Monolake.

We hit the road and after 7 hours of driving (thanks to our over confidence. Despite getting clear route instructions, we ended up driving for miles on the wrong highway, only to find about 3 feet of snow, a few miles before the destination). The road was closed and we had to turn back.

We summoned our GPS to give us the driving directions and it led through roads where only two wheelers would make it. We trusted the GPS and drove through small villages, mini forests, small towns and it did finally put us on to Highway 88, from where we drove to US 395, the highway that goes around the Eastern Sierras.

The First view of Monolake was breath taking and spell bound. The sub zero degree temperature, the wet sand, the chill waters, the snow mountains in the background, the interesting Tufa formations in the lake seen through a layer of fog and the whole landscape lit by a full moon and pre dawn light was just ethereal.

Standing at the bank of the lake during the first light, you go speechless, your eyes get moist, you feel like coming down on your knees, spread your arms and submit yourself to Mother Nature. Neither words nor pictures can make any justice to express the feeling one gets, when you first visit Monolake on a chilly winter morning.

I spent two mornings at Monolake and shot some images of the lake. The Pictures do not make any justice to the beauty of the place.

Here's one of my favourites from the trip.

Pre dawn at Monolake


Copy
Monolake and the Tufas, shot before Dawn.

To know more about Monolake, check out the Monolake website here.

Friday, June 29, 2007

FOM 2007 was a grand success.

Frames of Mind(FOM) 2007 was a grand success for everyone of us at Bangalore Photography Club(BPC). The response was awesome and overwhelming.

I would like to thank everyone who had come by to check out our photography work.
It was a big encouragement for all of us.

Images of the exhibition can be viewed here.

Personally for me, it had been a great moment as i made my first ever sale of my photographs. Two of my BW pictures received very good reviews from the visitors and also from the noted and renowned photographers who visited us. Both the BW's also got purchased at the exhibition.

I will start posting my Monolake series and also the pictures that were displayed at the exhibition, starting tomorrow. Please do visit this blog for my Photography updates in the future. Thank you.

Cheers,
Rakesh

Thursday, May 31, 2007

"Frames of Mind" is back



Bangalore Photography Club's annual photography exhibition "Frames of Mind" is back for the 2007 edition.

Frames of Mind 2007 will display the photographic work of about 35 photographers from bangalore.

The exhibition will be held on June 8th-10th at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,Bangalore.

I would like to invite you to the exhibition. If you are in town during the June 9th weekend, do check it out. The exhibition features very good photographs and i am sure you will have a great time.

I will have few of my pictures exhibitied at the event.

Should you need more info, pls feel free to email me.
Also watch out this space for driving directions to the venue.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

View through the caves

View of Upper Shivalaya and the Mantap at the lower level,seen from the Cave temples at Badami.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Abhishek and Aishwarya got married here

in the movie "Guru".

Agastya Theertha temple, Badami.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Upper Shivalaya again

Another view of the Upper Shivalaya, Badami

Monday, March 05, 2007

Upper Shivalaya, Badami

Another impromptu trip, last minute ticket deals, wait listed return journey, zero information about the place, interesting auto rickshaw drives, unclean town, highly touristy, the long walks through the small streets of the town, buying every snack the street vendors sold, beautiful cave temples, pre-ocuupied minds, soothing solitude at the not so easily accessible Upper Shivalaya, the beautiful sunrise and the forgetful crazy return journey.

These events sum up the Badami trip we did, during the last weekend of January.

Badami is a small town in Northern Karnataka, known for its 5th century architecture and the rock cut temples. It is a very peaceful place, but also a very unclean town.
More about Badami here

The trip was very eventful and a lot of fun. We also had a good photo trip.
We loved the place.

Here's a picture of the Upper Shivalaya,Badami.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

2007 begins at Hampi

Wish you all a belated Happy New year.

I had wanted to begin my 2007 posts on this blog with my New Year greeting photo,a light paintings shot with crackers, but the Enthu kinda died down and i have finally given up on the idea.

On the Photography front, 2007 began with a bang for me and Nara, as we did an impromptu trip to Hampi, on the first weekend of 2007.

It had been close to 2 years since i visited Hampi and i was more than happy to be there, hang around in the ruins, drive around in the tiny TVS Moped, just sit and watch the big red round sun, kissing the horizon and waving goodbye for the day.

It's been 1 week, since i have returned and i am already missing the place.
I hope to go back again very soon.

Apart from chilling out, i also did some shooting. Here's one of the pictures from the trip.



This is the Stone chariot inside the Vithala temple complex in Hampi.The Wheels are completely carved out of stone and are actually capable of revolving.

We shot it pretty late in the morning and hence the big dark shadows.