Misty Nights

Murky Waters with the fog rolled in - Secret Lake outside Bangalore

A beacon of light & hope

Of frozen rivers & moonscapes

Reflecting over Nubra Valley

When time stands still

The world bows to thee

Dear Steve, 

I am one amongst many millions across the world who celebrates your life today. 

You are more than an inspiration to me. You have showed the world that less can often be more, that impossible is really nothing, that you can bring art into just about everything in life. You have taught me to dream.

Thank God for those 56 years!

May your soul rest in peace.

The most beautiful place on earth

Picturesque

Innocence

Ladakh's wonders

Ancient stone inscriptions, Ladakh

Negative Space

Madhugiri

Ladakh - toying with beauty

Gautam Buddha

Alchi Monastery, Ladakh

Enchanting Ladakh

The magic of traveling the road less travelled

Zen

Diskit Monastery - Hundar, Nubra Valley

Ladakh - Pristine

Chor Cho, Ladakh

The air so pure

 The wind in your hair

The sound of flowing water

The clouds casting their shadows

Awesomeness in your eyes

Nothingness in your mind

Heaven on earth

L.A.D.A.K.H

Juley

Leh Palace

Souls waiting to return.

Legend says that if you leave a pile of stones here one on top of another, your soul will return here when you die. I left mine too :)

Spituk Monastery

Spituk Monastery, Leh

Spituk Monastry

Spituk Monastry, Leh

Lake Tsomoriri

Yet another stunning high altitude landscape - Tsomoriri , Ladakh (15,100ft)

Nubra Valley

A scene so calm, it will make even the most tormented mind sit up & notice - enroute to Nubra Valley, Ladakh

Natural beauty

Pangong Tso, Ladakh

Wide eyed

Eurasian Thick-knee (Indian Stone-Curlew)

Look who is back!

After a long hiatus - Soaring Seagull is back in business! 

Golden eye

Blending in yet standing out

A crack in the sky

Monkey business

Love his big expressive eyes!

Pelican in all its grace

Pelican in full flight

Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary

There is something about winged creatures & flight. It never fails to evoke a sense of freedom combined with grace. Wings slicing through the air in one graceful swoop, it brings out the dreamer in you.

I was lucky to get an almost black background  in broad daylight on this one.

Snug as a bug in a rug

River Tern sheltering her little baby

Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, Mysore

Sky diving!

Diving in to pick up a twig

Pelican, Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary

Welcome 2011

This is my post number 230. Its been 7 years since i started posting on Soaring Seagull. 

This blog has become a window of self expression for me. This is my portfolio. This is also a record of my journey through the world of photography. Many visitors on this blog are now amongst my closest friends. Soaring Seagull is without doubt one of my most prized possessions!

With the dawn of 2011, i promise myself the following.

1. I will turn pro this year, come what may.

2. Soaring Seagull will end 2011 with 60+ posts

Wish you all a happy new year and keep visiting!

The Golden Temple

Magical sight at 4:00 AM 

The Golden Temple, Amritsar

Cormorant basking in the sun

You think he is practicing balance?
Cormorant - Lal Bagh Lake, Bangalore

Grace

Gently cutting through the still waters like a hot knife on butter.

Cormorant, Lal Bagh Lake. 

A riot of colors - Sunset at 35000 ft

Flaming skies - shot at 35000 feet. Temperature -53 degrees below zero

A splash of green

Green always soothes the eye!

When time stands still

Still waters - frozen in time

Lalbagh - for old times sake

Angry old duck!

3G from TATA Docomo - 3G Life - I can't wait!

Ok. 3G is officially here.

Am I travelling that fast? I mean by default every creature on earth is accustomed to 1G.  Pilots go through 9G when they take some sharp turns with their after burners on fire. F1 drivers go through 5G. Imagine telling a girl, she weighs 5 times her normal weight? No wonder very few women take up Formula one racing!

Cutting back to the 3G revolution hitting India. This is not about how fast you are travelling, but how quickly data can be transferred to and from your handheld device.

        I am a geek, an internet addict and a photographer. This means I like to read a lot about tech devices, participate in discussions, get high on social networking, feel good when Google announces something new, drool over apple webcasts, watch videos on TED, photo blog, etc etc. To me, the internet is a way of life. I can’t remember the last time I watched TV! I watch IPL on Youtube and news on ibnlive.com. Twitter & Facebook help me have conversations with friends, with brands. Facebook has taken over my life so much that when my friend excitedly calls to announce that he got a promotion, my default reaction is “I Like”.

        I used to use a dial up connection at home for a long time. This was functional but it limited my internet use in terms of time and money. However it opened up the World Wide Web to me.  The flip side was that there was only so much I could do online. Most of my interaction with the web was text based and one way.

I got a broad band connection at home around 6 years back. Boy! Did it open up the internet for me. Suddenly I was photo blogging, sharing photos on Flickr, downloading movies on torrents, napster became my online music source, Web 2.0 opened up for me…Wikis, Orkut, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube…the net became “always on” & “unlimited” & “affordable”. Interestingly, I quietly switched from desktop to laptop in this phase.

        Now, with 3G coming in, I can’t help but feel déjà-vu. 3G is going to open up yet another new world to me, albeit on the mobile phone. My mobile phone is already smart. Smarter than me perhaps. 3G will only give it a nitro boost. Here again, I can see the switch from laptop to phone happening. 3G will enable huge amounts of data transfer very quickly…Phones will start having bigger flash cards (like hard disks). Battery technology will see the next big leap as phones suck in more & more power quickly. 

How will 3G Life from Tata Docomo change my life?

1. “Phone” will by default mean “Smart phone” to me. I can’t even fathom having a “sms and call only” phone anymore

2. Social networking will soon become “phone only” apps for me. I have already stopped using twitter and Facebook from my laptop. With video capability coming in, it would only be logical for me to use my smart phone  to network 

3. Content will become richer.  If a picture can speak a thousand words, imagine what a video can do! When I had a dial up I wud only send text based emails. When I got broadband I started sharing richer content in the form of pics  and now with 3G I would now share even richer content in the form of HD videos. 

4. Telephone conversations will never be the same. See and talk will become the default mode of conversation. Imagine your ailing grandmother in a hospital, able to see u and talk to you whilst u are several thousand miles away. 

5. Maps! I depend on Google Maps to go just about anywhere these days. Yes! It has made me dumber coz I don’t have to remember any landmarks. But with 3G, maps would become seamless. No more waiting for maps to download. Maps can get richer and more detailed with live streaming data and street views. Yum! 

6. Phone will now be the new TV. Imagine u are on the bus getting home from work and Sachin is on 399. Normally you wud be getting hyper, pressing the refresh button on CricInfo or listening to the radio. With 3G you can simply catch the action live online wherever u are, using nothing more than your phone. 

7. My library travels with me. More and more of my data will get stored in the cloud.  I see myself storing all my contacts, my calendar entries, notes, music library, videos, eBooks, etc on the cloud so that I can access them wherever I am from whatever device I have ..be it a laptop, iPad, phone, desktop ,etc. 

8. Mobile banking will become seamless and more widespread. It took a long time for people to get comfortable making transactions online. Now the next step would be to make payments from the mobile. Why carry a credit card / debit card when you can pay through your cell?

9.Online gaming. Being a gaming fan, I would happily use my phone to play network games. Maybe connect via Bluetooth onto my Play station or NFS on my laptop. No more games against the computer.

10. Phone as a modem will become default. Why buy a USB dongle when u can use your phone to get the same / if not better internet speeds at the same rates.

Well 4G is now around the corner. Till then latch on to your seat belt. Coz its actually you who is hurtling forward this time around!

3G from TATA DOCOMO - http://www.3glife.com/

Fatehpur

Akbar's victory city - Fatehpur Sikri

Tranquility

Rare greens at Ranthambore

Indian Roller

Lift off

Lapwing taking off

T28

We've got company!

Grumpy

A Dream

Driving through corbett in search of the elusive tiger ... 6 AM

Red Eyed

Beauty in color!

Juvenile Egret

The freshness that comes with new life

(Canon EOS 50D | 1/1000s at f/5.6 | ISO 640 | Focal Length : 200 mm)

Time for a dip

One of the 50 odd crocodiles that feed on the water birds in the park.

(Canon 50D,  175mm, f/5.6 at 1/800s , ISO 800)

Caught in flight

Black headed Ibis, Rangathittu Bird Sanctuary
Canon 50D, f/5.6 at 1/2500s, ISO 800, Focal length : 200 mm