Urban Sketchers at GPO

Good to see that artists have no qualms of sitting anywhere when they want to capture something interesting.

I am talking about the Pune Urban Sketchers who had a session at the Pune General Post Office.

This artist (Harshad) sat outside the premises but the red gate gave a good contrast to what he wanted to capture.

This is one of those old letter boxes from the British era which can be seen in front of almost all GPOs in India. I remember there was a board next to it saying that all letters posted in this box will have a "special cancellation stamp" on it. Wonder why they removed that sign.

Walking around the Post Office brought back memories, like this philatelic bureau from where I used to buy first day covers about five decades ago. (at that time it was situated on the left side of the entrance)

And these segregated boxes for Airmail / Local and rest of India. There was a time when the letters were delivered on the same day (if it was local) provided you post before the first collection at 7.30 am.

The age-old method of making gum by the Post Office as a "public service" is still being carried on. 

At the rear of the post office I noticed this wrought iron spiral staircase which still stands, but not in use.

Deepali has captured this well with her minimalistic but effective drawing.

Even though it was a Sunday, the sorting activity was in full swing and somebody did sketch them in action.

Sitting in the sunlight and creating a picture has its own advantages. (creativity while soaking in vitamin D)

One young man decided to capture the steeple of the 160 year old St Paul's church which was just across the road.

Participants were from all age groups and that is one way to discover the hidden talent in the young ones.

I like the improvisation done on this tripod whereby a board is attached to hold all the required material while painting, including a  packet of biscuit :-)

I was also fascinated by the medium of creating a picture. It may be a variety of colours with the modern pen or it may be charcoal.

Many in Pune are not aware of the existence of the Zero stone which is dug right in front of the GPO. (Pune was earlier called Poona)

The mandatory group photo at the end of the session. I was not very happy with this group photo as some of them were in the shade and some were directly under the sunlight (which is against the "rules" of clicking a group photo) But then I did not try to rearrange them as I knew this was a group who would be happy in creating a picture than being "in the picture" Good to see all of them smiling. 

Captured most of them in action and compiled it into a 12 minute video. All this activity reminded me of the Urban Sketchers I captured four years ago at the Botanical Survey of India. Something big is coming up for the Urban Sketchers in the first week of December. These three slides below will give you a better idea of the event. 

Flickr and the Green Bee Eater

I observed that I was spending more time in front of my computer and less time outside. I know that this is not healthy but photography assignments (and later processing them)  keep me chained to the desktop.
So I took my camera and went out on to the terrace.  I scanned the tree tops and within 10 minutes I spotted this cute little bird sitting on a branch, about thirty meters away from me. I got some shots and a little video clipping of my new little friend.
Later while processing the picture I was surprised to see the crisp and clear picture, considering the fact that I was using a point and shoot camera with no tripod.
This goes to prove that you don't need a sophisticated camera or high end lens to capture a good picture.

I uploaded it on my Flickr site and the picture made it to the Explore section of that day.

Once a picture makes it to the Explore section the number of hits just shoots up. As of date it has 7323 views, 276 favourites and 18 comments (all within 10 days)

The Green Bee Eater is found from Gambia to Ethiopia and in Asia from India to Vietnam. They predominantly eat insects especially bees, wasps and ants which are caught in the air by making sorties from an open perch. Before swallowing the prey, a bee eater removes stings and break the exoskeleton of the prey by repeatedly thrashing it on the perch.
They sun bathe more frequently than other bee eating species and sometimes bathe in water by dipping in water in flight. Now that is something I want to see.

  

Doing Yoga the right way

It is said that the breathing technique that Lance Naik Hanumanthappa learned in Yoga, helped him in staying alive (for 5 days) even after being buried under 35 feet of snow at an altitude of 20500 feet.

Last week was International Yoga Day and the Yoga class which I attend, decided to have the class in the open. For a change I did not take part, but decided to click some pictures. 

It was good to see the young and the not so young doing it together. 

I have attended a few yoga classes earlier conducted by different people, but there is a refreshing change in the way this class is conducted. The instructors are sincere and always makes an effort to see that the students do it the right way. 

They also know that each one has a different capacity and the aasanas are done as per the limitations of each individual. 

Emphasis is given in stretching each part of the body, something that we rarely do on a day to day basis. 

The routine keeps changing on a daily basis and as we do the aasanas we know that “today we are working on the lower limb” or “looks like today we are strengthening the lower back”

While I was shooting, I found this little guy busy on my tripod camera, trying to quickly spin a web. I did not disturb him, but at the end of the session I did not see any web, and our friend was missing. He must have moved on to the nearby tree to get his breakfast. 

I made two videos by compiling all that I captured. The first one is a one minute trailer and the second one runs for about 11 minutes.