Pigeon Point and Gazos Creek

A photoblog of the recent trip to Pigeon point lighthouse and Gazos Creek.

Two more spots on California State Route 1, that made our hearts lighter. Thanks to the cousins for pointing us to the lighthouse!

The kids really enjoyed the walk around the lighthouse, because it was extremely windy. They also loved playing in the creek where the water was warmer than the ocean water just a few feet away. But the tide comes in very fast and before you knew it, we had to make a retreat to the restaurant.

Taking pictures of the lighthouse with the fog definitely requires a tripod, so the pictures shown here are not exactly great. There will be another attempt, hopefully soon.

Also, the stitch shot of Gazos Creek from the parking lot has exposed another weakness of this method. A constant setting for exposure results in an over exposed picture on one side of the ocean and an underexposed picture on the other side. Might possibly need some software trick to adjust the pictures individually before stitching them! You can see the fog rolling in towards us, the creek going into the ocean, the restaurant on the other side of the road, all in one shot. You can even see the lighthouse on the right side, if you squint a little. Just that the light was not captured right across the 20 shots from left to right. Better luck next time, I guess..

Would definitely recommend these places for a day trip, if you are in the bay area.

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Much ado about wobbly tooth

Jr. last night, throwing a big scene about her "wobbly tooth". She is such a drama queen. Wanted to exploit the tooth situation, grandma in India situation and even tried to break routine by saying "I have to thachcham(sleep) next to daddy!", a move that was vehemently veto'd by the little one..

Earlier this evening, she came and spat out the tooth on my laptop. Here she is, all proud, after loosing her first teeth. I do not think any of us made such a big deal about teeth falling when we were kids.

Apparently there is a tooth fairy, some money involved which I owe Jr., now that the teeth has been burried in the backyard, etc. etc. All this is new to me. Just found out that my parents owe me approximately 20,000$ in back toothfairy money including the interest!

ps. Thanks to all for your messages in response to the previous post. Regular life has resumed in the household!

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Dress up with Bombay

Bombay paati(grandma) taught the girls to play dress up.

This game is always concluded with a photoshoot by daddy.

Here are a couple of good ones..

Gives us a preview of things to come, doesn't it?

A conversation between the little one and Grandma.

LO : You will give all the jewels to me ?
Bombay: Yes da Chellam. After me, I am going to give you all my jewels!
LO : Then dont wear them all the time. Or they will get dirty when you give them to me.
Bombay: !!!!!!!

San is going to have a very tough time when the two grow up. Thank god daddy does not wear jewels and the girls don't care much for electronic equipment.

ps. they have already divvied up grandma and mommy's jewelry.

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Pretty posers

The kids, were supposed to pose with the Golden gate in the background..

Jr. who is a pro, just turns on "smile on tap".

The little one on the other hand, was not in her mood. She was toying with daddy. On the one hand she wanted to pose for him, but on the other, she was pissed off that he wanted her to distract herself from all the things happening on the vista point and look at the same lens she has been staring at, at various vista points! The expression on her face, priceless.

The next day at Carmel by the Sea, she wanted to get her feet on the sand. While all the other three females in our entourage stayed put inside the van, sighting obvious reasons like temperature, wind speed etc., the little one walked out of the van with me and San's uncle, walked all the way to the sea and walked back. It was very windy and a little chilly and she wasn't wearing her jacket. On the way back to the van, we walked past a rock and she said "Daddy, put me on the rock and take my picture!"

and I did!

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Free Software Downloads

Behold, some of the most expensive photos to be presented here.

Had to buy a card reader, and pay for the software(one time use!) to recover the files.

All the CF card format recovery software that show up on google, say "Free Download", but what was learnt the hard way today, after playing with 5 different software was:

a. The "download" is free! i.e., you don't have to pay to download the software into your computer, uncompress the files, register etc. The minute you ask it to analyze your Flash card, it prompts a window which says "pay 69.99 to get a key emailed to you".. so much for that one!

b. The "download" and the analysis was free. But once you see that the pictures you want are intact in the flash card, to save them was 39.99 or 49.99 payable to some website in Patagonia, Godknowsistan, etc.

c. The "download" and analysis was free. But once you see the pictures, you pay 14.99 to get a key. Again, all these sites plaster the word "free" liberally and have testimonials about the free part (most likely written by dudes who sell the software) and there is no mention about money for these sites.

d. The analysis was free, but once you try to save, the software asks you "purchase key" or "start trial period".. You are tired and then you feel like you have hit jackpot and click trial period! You select the images (25 photos in all) and say "Recover" and you get a message "The free trial lets you recover only one image per day. If you want to overwrite this feature, purchase key for 69.99!". The trial period was for 8 days!

Finally got tired of this and just took option c.

Once bitten, twice shy. Will never format the CF card unless the card gets full.

There are a few photos out of the 25 which are priceless. There is one photo of San with the light coming from the back, which alone made the recovery worth the time and effort and money spent, but then again, don't need that photo, as it has been etched into my permanent memory. Sometimes a few beams of light, make that woman who you see day in and day out, always take for granted, appear like she just came down from the sky, and you get a rush of flashbacks on top of Bear Mountain. The brain works in mysterious ways. Enough said!

Here are pictures from the trip and the fireworks.

At one point was thinking that when you pay more than a few hundred dollars for a camera, it would be nice if the company that sold the camera packaged a free software with the install disk that recovers accidentally format pictures!

Any takers for this idea at Canon?

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