Sunsets..

Given a choice, I would go with my family to the coast and take sunset pictures. But recently that has not been possible with travel. There are amazing sunsets no matter where I am.. so here are some sunsets taken with the iPhone from car rides from airports to hotels, which invariably happen during sunsets!

These were all taken over last two months from moving vehicles.

There were also taken with the iPhone but didnt have to deal with movement..

Sometimes the best camera you have is the one in in your hand!

Expectations

Expectation 1:

We were on a plane back from Dallas to San Jose..

Little One: How long is this flight?

Jr. : 4 hours (right daddy?)

Me : yes. it is almost 4 hours.

Little One: FOUR HOURS ?!

Me : yes.

Little One : If we have to sit in the same seat for 4 hours, we should at least have our own TV! There is no TV on this plane. What am I supposed to do for 4 hours? It is not night. I cannot sleep either! This is not fair!

Me to San : Ellam Neram di! (closest translation is "this is all a sign of the times") 5 year old girl has an expectation of fairness for a 4 hour flight.

Expectation 2:

We are at a friends place and I am showing them a picture of the Black Mamba which was posted in Bigstockphoto. Daddy Narayanan is trying to make some money from Photography to pay for his 70-200 zoom lens.

San : These days he takes photos only of animals, flowers, insects..

MIL : and takes portraits of the kids. We don't show up in photos any more

Me : Come on now! You guys never come pose during the day. You always show up when I am tired or after dark. I get great photos when there is daylight.

MIL and San : We need more photos of us!

So to meet this expectation there is going to be a Saree party at our place with a photo session.. all lady friends of wife/ MIL who need new Facebook profile photos are to be invited. Yours truly is building a small studio made of white foam walls and white LED lights.. a home made light box setup. Let us see how this shapes up!

Expectation 3:

We are looking at tickets to India. A narrow time window when kids do not have school, when parents are in a frame of mind and are in better health to see the kids, when work can allow a break. So usually the ticket prices don't factor into this equation.

We watched prices go from 1380 to 1700 in 7 days and we are talking cheapest tickets. Why? Libya, Egypt crisis causing Oil prices to go up.

Why would a few days of unrest in a few countries affect oil prices for summer? What is happening is a drop in the bucket compared to fuel consumption over time. So, obviously someone is using these events to make money and is price gouging.

Decided not to wait anymore. What if the prices go to 2000 a ticket? So we got tickets now. Then realized that we have a passport that is expired.

Me to San: Why can't we mail it in?

San : I would love to but if the kid is <15 you have to go with both parents and stand in line!

Expectation 4:

We went to the San Jose Post office Passport section at 10 in the morning. (we went to Mountain View office and it was closed. so by the time we went to San Jose we were an hour late). Our token was 876. they were serving 796 when we got the token. It was moving at 7 numbers per hour. No, not kidding. 7 numbers per hour.

It is noon and they are attending to 811 and the lady announces "we are closed now, but if you have a token we will serve you as long as you are here when we call your number"

So we wait and wait and wait. Some folks who thought they could go out, have lunch and come back in time missed their slots.

My expectation was that the ladies at the counter tell the people who did not wait that they did miss their turn to give the benefit to folks like us who sat there with starving kids to get their chance. They DID ! They actually told folks who showed up after missing their numbers that they have to come back another day.

We finally got our turn at 2:45 and came out just before 3PM. The little one was totally dehydrated and complained of knee pain. Once in five years we go through this ordeal.

They should make this less painful and have more people to serve on Saturdays. How many people have the luxury of taking half a day off (both parents) with today's work pressure ?

The blogging has taken a backseat as have many other things. Have had a change of jobs within the company last week and that meant more time at work.

Planning to get a fresh start on the health front by joining a Yoga class at 5:30 AM. Time will tell if this will last or join the list of failed attempts to stick to a health routine.

Well, the expectations continue.

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Camera or the photographer?

Should copyright this..

Behind every successful camera, there is a photographer.

:)

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Another love affair begins..

As all of you know everything about my-exes...

The Tamron was sold off because it could not focus in low light. Later it was reported that it was not something a Tamron was supposed to do like a good lady should! Too bad the fact was realized only after selling it off.

Then came a quick make shift purchase of a used 28-90mm lens (with a small scratch) and eventually a 50mm prime lens which broke during the thanksgiving day zoo trip, so all in all a not so good run.

San gave me the go to get the lenses replaced a long time ago. One does not get these chances every day. Maybe once every three or four years and the pressure to do the homework right was just too much.

San had only two conditions.

a. A fixed budget

b. Once I get the lens (or lenses), I forfeit the right to complain about my photographic equipment for the next two years. Including no conversations about their ability, disability, etc. etc.

With a deal to get a new body for Thanksgiving 2011 (yes, we plan ahead) and months of web surfing, the final choice was...

The broken 50mm has been replaced with a new one. The scratched 28-90mm with a 18-200mm Sigma lens. This does what the old Tamron used to do, with the added OS or Optical Stabilization (same as the IS or Image Stabilization in the Cannon Lenses or the VR in the Nikon which stands for Vibration reduction).

Sample picture...

We will live happy ever after and have many many pictures together..

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The gift

The FIL gave me an amazing gift for our 10th wedding anniversary. That was for keeping his gift to me from ten years ago still alive and kicking.

Alive she is and kicking (me) for sure, and that goes without saying.

In any case, he gave me an iPhone which he had got in India. Unfortunately that thing didn't work here as it was attached to a Vodafone carrier. So we sold it to a phone store here and purchased a new 3GS !!! The employer also decided that they would support the plan since I paid for the phone out of pocket! That was a winning deal...

This gizmo (inspite of reports that it overheats) is awesome. I have never owned an i-anything. This is my first attempt at owning an i-device and absolutely love this.

1. It takes great pictures and videos with 800x600 resolution (my Sony camcorder takes videos at 640 x 480).

2. Have downloaded all of 2063 songs in my music collection to the iPhone and it still has memory left!

3. Have downloaded Pacman, Hangman and Tic-Tac-Toe and can now amuse Jr. and the little one very easily for upto 20-25 minutes, thereby setting a new world record.

That was a photo taken with the 3GS.

Unfortunately the quicktime video's are not amenable to editing using Windows Movie maker and that is leaving me back in the stone ages. Picasa 3 seems to be able to direct upload the video without any editing possibilities, but youtube is down for maintenance, so hopefully you will see that video uploaded tomorrow.

Quicktime + PC = blasphemy
AVI + Mac = blasphemy'

Using those two equations, one can understand how Microsoft and Apple complete the universal software laws.

All said and done, an all purpose amusement device, for a guy who is already amused easily!

ps. If you know of a good, free, virus and malware free movie converter to get the quicktimes to avi please let me know.

pps. If you know how to get the quicktime directly into Picasa or another free movie editor to put titles and credits and then save movie file, let me know as well.

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