Great Smoky Mountains

Clingman's dome
Originally uploaded by ravishankar_ha.

'Mambo Craze' by De Phazz

- Why, Lucy, your eyes are filled with tears?
- My heart is strained with bloodness
Oh look, the orchestra is getting ready, dance with me, George!
Check the scene outside of Medellin.
Make a fuss in Caracas
Mixed guys and dark men at the bars
Mambo's slow Guantanamo
Was so glad escape in Trinidad
Outside down in Kingston town
Stole a car in the streets of Panama
Went too far in Bogota

Space cake brake at the Titicaca lake
Got some more in Ecuador
Out for a dance in a dive in Puerto Prince
Went too far in Bogota

A little weak, a little pale today
Looks like it's time, for that certain holiday

A little weak, a little pale today

A little weak, a little pale today

"Rip 'em up"

Space cake brake on the Titicaca lake
Got some more in Ecuador
Stole a car in the streets of Panama
Went too far in Bogota

A little weak, a little pale today
Looks like it's time, for that certain holiday

A little weak, a little pale today
Looks like it's time, for that certain holiday

A little weak, a little pale today

Apt 2002

view from my apt :)
Originally uploaded by ravishankar_ha.

After 3 long years of stay at the IIT campus, I've finally moved out. The feeling is totally mixed. As much as I wanted to get the hell out of a very poorly maintained and totally neglected residential complex provided by the IIT, I feel pretty emotional and sentimental about leaving it. Those 3 years of fun, friends, and school can never be replaced or erased out of the memories of any of us who lived there.

However,with all that emotions, I'm also excited to move into the heart of downtown Chicago. Yeah that's right, its 'downtown Chicago' baby. The apartment is a beautiful 2 bedroom setup on the 20th floor with a pretty good view of Rush/Oak street and the oak street beach,(the pic shows what I mean).

Well, I hope this move brings equal excitment and fun as did IIT!!

Yellowstone

yellowstone landscape
Originally uploaded by ravishankar_ha.

Visiting Yellowstone had been on my wishlist of travels for a long time. Finally I got the chance to be there this labour day weekend. Having a cousin live in Helena, MT (3hrs drive from Yellowstone) also helped :).
For all I had heard and imagined about Yellowstone, I must say it was bit of a let down. If you expect a green landscape you'll be dissapointed. There so much logging in the forest, the hills are only swatches of the lodgepole pine trees which is the main vegetation of the yellowstone forest area. Personally I like the smokey mountain landscape compared to this. However Yellowstone is yellowstone and no where else would you find so many gysers and springs in the world (maybe newzealand and iceland :)).
All said and done, Yellowstone is off my wishlist and is now captured in my head and my canon S3IS and I like it.

panning shot!! Mustang

Mustang!! Originally uploaded by ravishankar_ha.

Macro

Shooting small objects at blown-up sizes, seeing the minute details and capturing them in a camera makes it a very interesting field of photography.
I've also discovered that macro photography can be very painful if you donot have the right amount of patience. But once you have started playing with the settings and found the right one for you it is super fun.
From what I've read, true macro photography is best done with a macro lens and an SLR camera. However, I feel fairly satisfied with the performance of my Canon S3IS. Using the super macro mode with a low aperture setttings gives pretty good results. Ofcourse playing with the shutter speed and aperture a little bit can make the results even more satisfactory.

CANON S3 IS

Once in a while there is this sudden rush of passion and interest that hits me when I least expect it. If it comes to me fast, then it leaves me even faster. This time around its an interest in photography. Well, this "sudden rush" thing is also often accompanied by an impulse buy. And this time around its a CANON S3 IS which is an absolutely marvelous piece of equipment and I love it so far. To be fair to the camera itself and just to give a comapritive idea on the performance of the camera, I think I should give a low-down on it. So here goes it...

Type of Camera:
Compact digital camera with built-in flash, 12x Optical / 4x Digital / 48x Combined Zoom

Total Pixels:
Approx. 6.2 Megapixels

Focal Length:
6.0-72.0mm f/2.7-3.5 (35mm film equivalent: 36-432mm)

LCD Monitor:
2.0 inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD with variable-angle function

Maximum Aperture:
f/2.7 (W) - f/3.5 (T)

Shutter Speed:
15-1/3200 sec. (settable in Tv or M)

Shooting Modes:
Auto; Creative: P, Av, Tv, M, C; Image: Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sports, Special Scene (Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Indoor, Night Snapshot, Color Accent, Color Swap), My Colors, Stitch Assist, Movie

All this interest in photography really started when I was going through a friends blog which had a link to the pictures she had taken. The pictures were really impressive and intiated an interest in photography in me.
I surprised myself with all the research I did on photography and all the forums I joined to learn the tips and tricks of photography even before I bought the camera. Although I did some research on photography, I didnt know squat about what equipment to buy. So I totaly relied on another friend's advise on buying the camera itself. She being a "total photography person" and all, owning a myriad of cameras from pentax to canon, sugested the CANON S3 IS and I just bought it without a second thought. And I must thank her for this beautiful suggestion coz I totaly love the camera. I just now hope my interest in photography lasts a little longer than the others did.