Here is another photo from the same place as yesterday. Cloned out some very distracting shrubs from the bottom. I noticed after coming home that they were present in almost all the photos I shot from this point! For some reason I got a lot of noise in the shadows in this photo even though it was shot at ISO 100. I’ve seen this happen sometimes so am trying to see if there is a pattern to their occurence. Has this happened to any of you? Any obvious reasons I’m missing? Please email me (arthedains at gmail dot com) and let me know.

As I had mentioned yesterday, I got out of Cologne for a brief time yesterday evening to take advantage of the nice clear day. I went to Konigswinter which is a small town along the Rhine, roughly opposite the erstwhile capital of Germany-Bonn. It is something of a resort, lying as it does among the lovely Drachenfels, a mountainous range. My plan was to climb to the top of the tallest hill on the outer edge of the town and take some sunset photos of the breathtaking vista visible from up there. But as it turned out I was completely out of breath by the time I went a quarter of the way up! In my defence, it was a very steep gradient, at times the inclination reached 60 degrees I think! So I decided to put off the climb to the top for another day when I was better prepared and instead chose a vantage point from where the view was not so bad and clicked away. Here is the first one from that shoot. The river is of course the Rhine and the town below is Konigswinter. On the extreme right of the photo you can see a silvery round building. It is the tallest building in the state I live in.

Although I went out of Cologne today to a nearby town on a photographic trip, I couldn’t decide on a photo to post from that trip. So here is something old instead. I hope you can guess why I named the photo thus! I’m quite happy with the way this photo has turned out. Initially, I had thought of posting this in color but the monochrome version which resulted after PP won hands down in the end!

I know this is a bit blurred and unsharp (it was shot handheld in very low light) but I like his natural smile.

This is the other photo I had talked about yesterday. I still cannot decide which one I like the best among the two. They both appeal to me on different levels!

Many of you might think of this as a ‘nothing’ photo, devoid of anything interesting. But I’m hoping a few of you might understand why I posted this. This is the kind of photo which reinforces my love for b/w. It is solely about the pleasures of light, shadow and contrast. I hope that comes across in this photo to you as it does to me. I have a slightly different shot of this place that I liked as well. You will get to see that tomorrow.

I’m not completely satisfied with the PP on this. Some essential thing is missing. But I don’t feel like working with it for too long so I post the photo as it is now. Hope you will like it better.

A tropical sun, but without the burning heat, has come calling. I’m taken back in time to hot afternoons; of sweat drenched foreheads, of delicious mangoes, of the sudden stillness after regular electricity cuts, and the beautiful feeling of cool air on hot skin. I breathe in the thick memories of summers bygone, intoxicating in their all-enveloping glory.

Ah, I remember that strand; a sultry Sunday when I roamed through the book market in Abids and found, to my utter delight, that my doors of perception had been cleansed. Here is another memory, of sitting for an entrance exam on a ferocious afternoon in May, half suffering from sunstroke, the questions looming up from the paper and forming surreal shapes. Streaking through my senses, a cool summer morning, the way she felt in my arms among the rocks, the dream like union of hesitant lips, the heavenly vision of half-naked flesh below me and then walking back hand in hand, hesitating to open my mouth and shatter the unbelievable dream. Here is another fragment; a day spent tramping through the hot roads of Pune but with the welcome relief of frequent Neera drinking stops. Suddenly, I taste that chilled beer again traveling down my throat, cold and exciting in a sleepy Delhi fast food joint. And how can I forget the gentle lapping of the waves as I sat on the beach and consumed a book on a lazy Goan afternoon.

I remember escaping in to the icy relief of air-conditioned libraries, of the air hanging still like a guillotine at 1 pm, of mid day roads swept clean of people, of juicy watermelons melting in my mouth, of sweaty bed sheets and howling Westerly winds. An endless succession of summers unfolding behind my eyes.

And there are words as well, from half-forgotten conversations, unwaveringly similar, time after time.

“Hey, who is getting the snacks?”

“Don’t you dare forget the green peas, fucker!”

“Oh boy this is life! Chilled beer hitting the spot, tasty snacks and the whole evening stretching away before you like an empty runway.”

“…Julio and Romiet…shit…damn…I mean Romeo and Juliet of course…cut it out you dickheads, I’m not drunk!”

I’ve been posting at random over the past few days, something new and something old. This is something slightly old. There was something about the way the woman was standing and observing the scene that made me reach for my camera and capture this.

Although I wish both the stems were in focus I still like the way this photo has come out. I find it to be quite surreal.