Sunlight and vegetables

Nothing like seeing the morning sunlight filtering in through the green foliage when you are having your morning cup of tea. 

This is the first time that we are trying the Red Cabbage in our garden.  They are blooming well along with the normal cabbage.  We may have to wait another 3 months to pluck them.  

We found that these Grow Bags are better than normal conventional pots and it is cost effective too.

The Radish too are coming up well and it is about time to pluck them for our next salad. I wonder why they are always peeping out of the soil. 

It may take another day or two for the lettuce leaves to join the radish in the salad 

Daily morning I see one or two of these yellow flowers fully bloomed waiting for the bees. They fall off by evening. These flowers are from the sponge gourd creeper.. 

The decorative flowers are managing to hold on in one corner.

Looks like the green chillies are going to be surplus this year too. Last year there was continuous growth for six months. 

But what has got me really excited is the sight of these bunch of flowers that has come up on our Vanilla creeper. Its flowered after a gap of 2 years. 

Five years ago I had written in detail about the flowering cycle and the artificial pollination that one has to do for the Vanilla.

In a bunch, one or two flowers bloom in a day. They have to be artificially pollinated before noon. The ideal time is 9 to 10 am (they slowly close up as the sun gets hotter) If the flowers are successfully pollinated, they dry up but hold on to the stem. These stem (stalk) behind the flower grow thicker and ultimately becomes the Vanilla pods. In my attempt to pollinate, I see about 30% success this year. It requires patience and practice.  

The regular tomatoes are coming up well with the perfect round shape, but the cherry tomatoes are a peculiar variety. Never seen these oval shaped ones before. 

The mint leaves have got its perfect green sheen. I always put in a mint leaf along with a blade of lemon grass (cut into small pieces) in my morning tea.  Apart from its medicinal benefits, the aroma is very pleasing.  

A twig of the mint went into the decoration of the flan that we had yesterday. 

  

Flying Umbrellas

Had been to Bharuch last month. This was my first visit to Gujarat. Like they say, the journey is more interesting than reaching the destination. 

Travelled by the double decker train, again a first time. If you happen to be on the lower deck and look out of the window, you get a worm’s eye view especially of the platform and the commuters.  

For people travelling long distance it is going to be a pain as the luggage racks don’t take in big luggage and we Indians don’t know how to travel light.  Some keep their luggage in the aisle making it difficult for other commuters to walk. 

While filming the interior ofthe train  I caught one guy accidentally dropping his luggage on a co passenger. Luckily no one was hurt. 
There are many Indian songs showing the train or travelling by train , like Jiya ho, jiya ho jiya kuch bol do, or Rajesh Khanna’s Sapno ki Rani kab ayegi tu, or Shah Rukh’s Chaiya Chaiya, but I like the one on Rajesh Khanna and Zeenat singing Hum Dono Do Premee. 

While waiting for the train at Bombay Central I saw this board outside the cafeteria. You get a glass of hot milk for Rs 10/- but if you ask for it in English you will get 50 ml less.  

Actually I had been for a wedding shoot in Bharuch. Apart from capturing the wedding and the happy atmosphere, there are other things that catch your eye. Like the pundit who keeps his match box at a funny location for easy access. 

I am usually engaged to capture candid pictures and videos while there is a professional photographer who clicks the “standard” pictures. (I refuse to do that as I have an aversion for posed pictures) 

At the same location with the same subjects, one can make the picture interesting by just waiting for “that moment”  By comparing these two pictures below you will get an idea of what I am trying to say.

 pic clicked at "that moment"

                                             posed picture clicked by the photographer

It is funny to see the reactions of the guests and the couple when something happens out of turn. Here it was the case of the Flying Umbrellas.  Most of these happened when my camera was rolling,  but I edited them out in the final cut.

It was interesting to see the bride coming to the mandap on a motor bike, riding pillion. If I had known this earlier I would have suggested to keep the headlights off as that was causing a glare, and I had a tough time keeping it out of the frame. 

During my stay there I was put up in the Guest House and was impressed by the place. 

 No trappings of a commercial hotel but at the same time all the basic amenities were there. This was attached to the Swaminarayan Temple and was again impressed by the cleanliness and management of the temple and its surroundings. 

Some how I could not find time to go inside the temple and click, maybe next time. 

Covering weddings are fun. At the editing table you have the liberty to put in your ideas  and make it more interesting. Like this Flash Dance that I captured in a wedding in Pune two months ago. 

If I were the judge I would give the bride’s father the Best Dancer award. What perfect body movement.

  

Sports day at Little Angels school

School sports is a big event for any school going kid and it is more so for these kids who were preparing for it for the last four months. 

I had written about this school two months ago.

I specially liked their march past to the tune of Col Bogey march. Each one trying to keep in step.  

There were events that suited each child and in some cases the parents and the children had to take part together. 

It must be a real proud moment for the parents to see their kids on the victory stand. 

A special mention should be made about the instructors who were hovering around giving them the right encouragement, a nudge and a push wherever required.  

All ready, waiting for the next performance. 

Made a small trailer of the whole event.

I was observing these ladies from the neighborhood who were also enjoying the events. 

Liked that special event for the parents who had to race, with the wives leading the race. 

And the winners 

The last item on the agenda was an entertainer for everyone – the tug of war for the parents, or to put it in a better way – the tug of war between husbands and wives 

The look on all the husband’s face with that expression “for once I am going to defeat her” 

Have made small capsules of videos covering the complete event. While editing, I was just looking at the faces in the slow motion action replay of the tug of war. It is pure joy written on each and every face, and at the end of the day that is what counts.

The videos are titled as:

The Tug of War

The March Past

The Race

The Cycle Race

The Lemon and spoon Race

Something out of nothing

Was at my cousin’s place at Angamali (Cochin) and had some time to kill as there were a few more hours for my flight.   While sitting outside in her courtyard I could see some leaves shining against the oblique sunlight.   I fetched my camera and clicked some pictures by placing the leaves in between the camera and the sunlight. 

The results were something better than what I expected and it reminded me of what Ambrose Bierce said “Photograph is a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art”

At the editing table I did a little bit of tweaking with the colour tones which further enhanced the quality of the pictures. 

In Japanese this is known as Komorebi. 
While clicking these pictures, these two guys were having a quick bath. Later they perched on a tree and dried themselves. Captured that in the video.

It will be interesting to know that all these pictures were clicked in the noon sunlight, something like 11.30 am. Playing with the Curve option in Photoshop gives wonderful results.

Talking of Photoshop, there was this photograph that I clicked at a wedding which was a total wash out. Clicked in a hurry without changing the settings and this was the result.  

Later while processing from raw, I was about to delete the picture when I thought “let me see what I can do with this”

I played around with Photoshop and this is what I got :

I gave it a nice white background and enhanced it a little more.

Then I eliminated each character from the picture and got three more photographs. 

Selected a good music and gave it a punch by matching each picture with the beat of the music. The final result is appealing to the ear and the eye. (see video)

Talk of making something out of nothing.