l i t t l e F i n g e r

It's the time for ...

2011-12-10T13:29:00.001+05:30

some random awesome song !

My guilty pleasure !

2011-12-09T21:34:00.001+05:30

is listening to Eminem while working.

Published, again !

2011-10-29T19:18:00.002+05:30

So, Vijaya Karnataka, local Kannada newspaper used one of my pics in their Saturday supplement.

Original pic here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylittlefinger/5228477649/

My only complaint is they did not attribute it :-(

Earlier case of similar story from Udayavani is here : http://mylittlefinger.blogspot.com/2010/11/published.html

I wonder if I can make some money out of these :)

We made an ad !

2011-10-09T20:15:00.001+05:30

For BumsOnTheSaddle saddle bags !

Check this out !

BOTS wedgie ! from BumsOnTheSaddle on Vimeo.

Visit to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station

2011-08-29T00:07:00.005+05:30

Me and Chirdeep went to a weekend workshop / trip to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station last weekend.

Needless to say, we saw heavy rain, lots of snakes, frogs etc.

Here are few pictures:

We bumped into quite a few of Common Vine Snake. This little handsome fella is quite harmless. It is venomous but not fatal to humans. When threatened it displays the different color of scales !

here is how it looks when its agitated:

Another view of the green vine snake:

Another common sight was Malabar Pit Viper. Now, this one is quite venomous, as the name says its seen in mostly in Malabar / Sahyadri / western Ghats.

Couple of pictures:

Here is an close up view:

Yes they do come in different colors.

I got bored on an afternoon, and went to explore the place around the research center. I came across this fella:

While we are looking at tiny creatures, how can I forget to mention this beautiful frog?
Oh boy, I love frogs. They are cold and cute :)

And this cricket was kind enough to pose for this macro shot:

Agumbe is a beautiful place with wonderful bio-diversity, and a perfect get-away for a weekend. This unknown waterfall is a testimony for that :)

All in all, the place, people and wildlife were amazing. I love Agumbe.

You can see more pictures from this trip here: [

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.180757041996509.45024.100001866448053&l=a57e8c6e40&type=1 ]

More Agumbe pics are here on my Flickr account: [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylittlefinger/sets/72157627414998257/ ]

As always, please let me know what you think :-)

New stuff

2011-08-28T23:26:00.002+05:30

umm. I forgot to mention, I left ThoughtWorks and have joined Flipkart.

Moved on from generalist QA role to a specialist QA role.

Let me see how this gonna work out :-)

Almost famous

2011-08-28T23:23:00.002+05:30

Couple of months back, a new joinee to office came to me and asked if I am 'Sri Harsha', apparently he knows me from my blog !

Today, while I was goofing around at BumsOnTheSaddle , a customer asked me if I am "Sri Harsha", apparently he knows me from facebook.

Huh !!

Bums On The Saddle ...

2011-07-04T23:06:00.001+05:30

Selling anything is hard. Especially if you aren't selling just a commodity but an experience. That's what I learnt when I 'interned' at Bums On The Saddle.

Let me first just say this: Bums On The Saddle Rocks. Period. In BOTS you'd be never sold a bike, but an experience.

Okay, back to topic. I took a short break from all IT stuff and started working with BOTS with Rohan and Sid. I do have some retail selling experience as a cashier at a restaurant , as a waiter at a hotel and Salesman at an ice-cream shop. But boy was this different !

First, nothing goes just smooth. There will be a lot of things that aren't just going to fall in place. As a local bike shop guy, there are a hundred things you need to take care at any given point of time.

In this short period of time we :

Moved to a new place
Started designing the new set-up
Made a downhill training session happen ( big shout out to Nelly and Iggy !)
Made live streaming of Tour de France happen at the shop.
Put quite a few people on new cycles !
...

Thanks BOTS for the experience ! Love you guys :)

Tour de France 2011

2011-07-01T12:18:00.003+05:30

Mother of all the cycling races is around the corner ! Tour de France starts on July 2nd.

Though all time favorite Lance is not racing this time around, I am totally rooting for Mark Cavendish, one of the best sprinter of our time. I can't wait to see Team HTC-Highroad leading him out to front and then Mark beating hell out of others :D

Imagine cycling at around 50 km/h for about 150-180 kilometers and then for the last 500 meters or so, sprinting at 70-80 km/h ! That is a treat to watch !

Here is old but informative article about all the questions you may have about Tour de France.

http://likeithateit.net/?p=240

Timings of stages as per IST here: [ http://goo.gl/MW4MM ]

[ https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0Alpl9ukYBm8mdEY4SkFFMFFGSmpKejlxNHRlRnZJdkE&output=html ]

:-)

Offroading in Bangalore !

2011-05-16T11:08:00.004+05:30

A short clip of photos and videos of our Bangalore Bicycle Championship's last race in namma Bengaluru. Shot and compiled by Sagar.

What a race !

Check out the photos I clicked here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.145784058827141.35962.100001866448053&l=e7e82fec74

Check this out too : http://blog.bumsonthesaddle.com/2011/5/16/bbch-is-awesome

Mainstream trance track for the day ...

2011-05-11T03:25:00.001+05:30

Commuting to office by cycle in Bangalore - Part 2

2011-04-10T20:43:00.004+05:30

I've been commuting to office on a cycle for little more than 2 years now. Time to look back at the over all experience :)

I wrote about this long back, here.

Lets go through those again !

-> Distance I commute on bike -- It varied from 16 km to 10 km to 2 km, and now 6 km. (One way)

-> Time it takes -- Less than any motorbike or car. On a serious note, cycle is actually faster. Especially if the route is packed with other polluting vehicles (did you notice the smugness, hee hee)

-> How long I've been cycling to office : Little more than 2 years

-> What bike do I have: I have 2 bikes now. One is an awesome hard tail mountain bike (Trek 4300). Other one is a sexy road bike (Trek 1.5).

-> Where did I buy these mean machines? -- I bought both the bikes from Bums On the Saddle, The best bicycling shop in Bangalore. Those folks are actual bikers who know their stuff.

-> Okay, Isn't it kind of dangerous to cycle around in crazy Bangalore traffic ? No, not really. It's intimidating for sure. Once you understand how to mingle with the rest of the traffic, it gets easier.

-> How many times I've crashed due to other vehicles : zero

-> How many times I've crashed due to my own stupidity : Two (survived with minor bruises to body, big dent to my ego)

-> How many times I've got yelled at from other motorists? None. (Surprise)

-> How many times I've given the 'finger' to other motorists : quite a few. When I am on a bike, I am very aggressive and fast. Hence, me yelling at other slow moving vehicles is inevitable.

-> How many times kids have given me 'Thumbs up' : more than a few. Kids love bikes. I always smile at them when they keep staring at the bike / or my funny attire.

The number of bike commuters is increasing day by day in Bangalore. I regularly meet a lot of bikers on the road everyday. I can't wait to see Bangalore turning into Amsterdam :)

:-)

Trip to Kanha Bandhavgarh

2011-03-28T19:32:00.005+05:30

Phew !

An awesome week long vacation to Kanha and Bandhavgarh National parks !

And here comes the pictures :)

Lets start with state bird of Karnataka, the Indian Roller. Here is a profile pic of it.

After lunch one day, in Kanha, I see an Indian Roller sitting on a tree in front of our log hut. I had to take pics of it :)

It ended up me chasing the bird around the resort, clicking some 300 pics of the same bird !

It was like shooting a model, it went on posing, I went on clicking !

Only thing that was missing was, I just couldn't take a good pic of it flying :-( But, in Bandhavgarh, while waiting for a tiger to show up (it did not) , I get a chance to shoot this pic. This is Indian Roller, flying !

Another beautiful bird I loved is Shikra. It's a small (comparatively ) bird of prey.

Look at those glowing red eyes !

Here is another pic :

If anyone calls you Goobe in Kannada, never get upset anymore. They actually mean, 'you are cute' :-)

Here is a rare jungle owlet :

And common spotted owlets:

One more:

Birds of prey are always majestic to look at. Following are an Indian Vulture, Crested Serpent Eagle and Changeable Hawk Eagle respectively :

One rare sighting was that of a Porcupine ! Apparently they are nocturnal, and aren't easy to find in day light. But little fella graced us with his presence !

Though it looks cute n all, it is a very dangerous animal. Even tigers are known getting hurt by these !

Okay. Lets look at some Tigers !

Her name is Kankati, Kan = Ear in Hindi, kati =torn .

She is around 5 years old. Apparently, she got into a teritorial fight with other tigress and killed her. During that fight, she lost her left eye. Also her right ear is cut.

Here she is walking past our jeep ! She was walking very near to us !

Boy o Boy o Boy !

All in all, it was fantastic ! More picture are here in my flickr page:

Let me know what you think !

psychedelic trance track for the night !

2011-03-13T22:47:00.001+05:30

I'm listening to this track over and over again. Your mileage may vary :P

Trip to B.R.Hills

2011-02-06T21:11:00.005+05:30

So, a bunch of us went to B.R.Hills this weekend.

Highlight of the trip: Tigers and Leopards didn't get a chance to meet us. We were too busy :-(

But here is a nice one: We spotted a "Draco, The Flying Lizard"

Can you spot the lizard ? :-)

Also, there were amazing number of different kinds of birds !

Here is a good shot of Racket-Tailed Drongo !

Also I got a chance to try out Canon 500 mm lens !

Fear ...

2011-01-06T20:50:00.004+05:30

Fear has always been a strange emotion for me. How much ever I convince myself that my fear related to few things are completely irrational, I am still left weak kneed :-(

I don't know how many times I've ranted that I want to hold a snake in my hand and take pics of it. I was almost convinced that if I see a non-venomous snake I wouldn't hesitate a second to catch it. I was very confident that I am not afraid of non-venomous snakes.

But,

During recent trip to back home, I ran into a chance of seeing a rat snake very close by. You see, I should have jumped on to the opportunity, run behind the snake and catch it. At least that was what I should have done.

Sigh.

So, first thing I did is to run, get my camera and take a pic.

From Blah

Then I ran towards the snake with all the intention of catching it. Just when I was this close to the snake, I froze. My mind was blank. I hesitated. Just for few seconds, I think I had no thoughts in my mind. Just staring at the snake.

That's all the time need for the super fast rat snake to run away.

So much for my courage and confidence :-(

According to my Mom, this fella is a frequent visitor for our garden.

So, as they (who ?) say, there is always next time :-)

Some Random Macro Shots

2011-01-03T18:11:00.003+05:30

So, I bought the new macro lens (Canon 100mm f2.8), hence I had to shoot some tiny stuff.

Yet to get used to the lens, initial reaction : 'Not really impressed'.

Few shots:

From RandomMacroShots

This one - me likey !

From RandomMacroShots

I like this one too !

I so want to try a reverse mount of lens to shoot some super macro pics. Just need to put some effort. Also need a nice flash.

:-)

long exposure star trails photography

2011-01-03T01:13:00.006+05:30

I've always been fascinated by the night sky, stars, space and celestial objects. And I love photography. So I had to try my hands again on long exposure sky photography this time :-)

Idea is to have very very slow shutter speed ie keep the shutter of camera open for a long time. During which, earth rotates (or stars "move"); hence the stars and other bright objects in the sky make bright lines in the pic rather than shiny dots.

Can you believe this was shot pitch dark night ?

From StarTrails

Exposure: 6019.0 sec

How ever the dark the sky looks, there is always light, from near by street lamp, distant house, street lights and thousand other things that emit light. Hence it is good to try long exposure shots of night sky in remote places where light pollution is minimal.

On December and January night sky, the most famous and noticeable constellation is the Orion Constellation. That's what I tried capturing during all my efforts this time.

From StarTrails

Exposure : 310.0 sec

As you can see above, instead of black background I have somewhat of a reddish color, purely because of all my neighbors not switching off their house lights :-)

Wide angle is the best option to cover as much area as possible. Also you would need tripod to mount the camera.

In Shutter priority mode, camera usually allows only 30 seconds of exposure. So switch to manual mode, keep decreasing the shutter speed and you would hit some thing called bulb-mode.

I have recently bought the remote trigger for my camera and it made my job of clicking photo easy. Either remote or some other method for keeping the shutter release button pressed.

Another thing to note, its almost guaranteed that auto-focus will not work with faint brightness of stars, hence you would have to switch to manual focus.

Here is an example of my myopic eye-sight fooling me :-(

From StarTrails

Exposure : 68.0 sec

Exposure time of more than few hours is very common. But usually pictures will be shot with shorter duration and then will be stacked to reduce the light noise.

One more problem I faced: since the lens is pointing towards sky, there will be mist / moisture that gets collected on the lens. It slowly blurs the pic. I have not found any solution for this yet. methinks I can wipe the moisture off in the middle of long exposure. Not sure though.

Here is an example : Star trails are looking like they are comets !!

From StarTrails

Exposure : 1863.0 sec

Its not the first time I tried the star trail photography, and its always fun.

This pic I took in early 2009 :

For a change this time I went to sea shore one night, hoping to see less light. But there wasn't much difference in light pollution though :-(

Here is a better shot I have :

From StarTrails

Exposure: 1800.0 sec

One thing that you definitely need is patience, loads of patience :-)

Now, go on, shoot some stars :P

Fun with water balloons and camera ...

2011-01-02T13:41:00.011+05:30

You all might have seen those wonderful pictures of water balloon bursting, no ?

Ever wonder how tough actually it is to take a picture of it?

I tried my hands on that, and boy o boy, isn't that difficult !

Things needed:

Water :-)
Balloons, lots of them
Some thing to tie the balloon
A needle
And lots of bright light on Balloon
And of course a super fast lens.

So, I set out on a bright afternoon, with intent of shooting an awesome pic of water balloon bursting.

Here is my set up :

First few attempts went down the drain :(

Then few came pretty close, but no luck :-(

Almost there :

Oh my, so close yet so far !!

Finally one pic I am proud of (sorta ...) --

Yay !! You can even see the bit of balloon flying off !

Little technical stuff:

I couldn't use remote to click the pic. There is a delay of 2 seconds between me clicking the remote and shutter actually firing, it's ridiculously tough to sync shutter and balloon bursting.

Also, I didn't want some one else to burst the balloon. Hey I want all the credit, alright ?

So, I used the delayed self timer to click and sync the balloon bursting. I totally burst some 9-10 balloons to get the pic somewhat okay.

Camera used: Canon EOS 450 D
Lens : Canon 50 mm f1.8 (Fastest lens I have)
Shutter speed: 1/1000 of sec
I shot in Shutter priority mode.

That's all folks !

:-) let me know what you think !

So it goes

2010-12-22T11:14:00.002+05:30

Right now it's a war between cockroaches and me at my new place. There are only 2 insects I hate. Bedbugs and cockroaches.

Right now I have called for reinforcements, ie pest control company.

Lets see how it goes.

:-)

Such is ...

2010-12-21T19:14:00.002+05:30

Moved to a new place in Koramangala.

In the hall, where there is supposed to be a window, there is a freakin door !

First time I ever changed/shifted house in last 6 years. Did all the mistakes that could possibly be done !

Yay !

Isn't it ?

2010-12-14T16:48:00.001+05:30

For every story with a happy ending, there is another side of it where it's equally sad.

Just that nobody pays any attention to it.

Such is life...

*sigh*

hmm

2010-12-10T11:32:00.005+05:30

I am taking next 3 weeks off from office work. Woo Hoo !

So these are things I hope I'll get done in those 3 weeks:

* Play chess with my lovely niece.

* Visit lots of places. Currently I have following places in mind:

* Chitradurga

* Hampi

* Bijapur

* Badami, Aihole, Pattadakallu

* Ajanta, Ellora

* Scuba diving

* Complete photography assignment (More about this after I complete the assignment)

* Take loads of good pictures

* Take pics of night sky (at least 2 hour of exposure)

* Super macro pics of tiny insects

* Pictures of birds, lots of birds

* Build a unicycle

* Paint / sketch a nice painting

* Write a short story

* Finish reading the Sandman series (I have 4 more books to read)

* Get back to being ultra fit

* Eat properly

Knowing me, I'll probably just sit at home; knowing me, I'll probably do all of the above !

:-)

Money Or ...

2010-12-07T07:18:00.002+05:30

Sleep ?

You see, I've got to be at office by 7 in the morning. Yes, don't ask.

Every morning it's the same dilemma I go through.

Wake up at 5, take the bus OR get half an hour more sleep and take auto.

14 Rs Vs 90 Rs.

I hear auto fellas are making good business these days.

Sigh.

Once and for all

2010-12-02T10:59:00.003+05:30

Peach and Pink are almost same color .

No, really. They are. Almost.

weekend Trip to Agumbe

2010-11-30T13:42:00.003+05:30

It was a surprisingly refreshing trip to Agumbe last weekend !

From Agumbe November 2010

Sunrise at Kundadri

From Agumbe November 2010

View of the Onake Abbi falls from top !

From Agumbe November 2010

More trips like this would probably keep me sane :-)

Goa trance track for the day

2010-11-30T13:39:00.000+05:30

The Infinity Project - Telepathy

I wonder

2010-11-25T14:03:00.001+05:30

where do you get these things people speak of? You know, 'Motivation','Ambition','Goal' etc.

I need couple of Kgs. of those.

Psytrance track of the day :

2010-11-24T11:33:00.002+05:30

From Younger Brother

Published !

2010-11-08T07:02:00.002+05:30

:-) he he

Udayavani ( www.udayavani.com/Kannada ) Kannada Daily news paper, used one of my pictures for their Sunday supplement !

I didn't know about it, only when my cousin called up to ask about it, I ran and bought a copy :D

They happily photoshopped it though.

Original pic here :

Now, am I getting paid for it or what ?

Currently reading ...

2010-11-04T15:31:00.003+05:30

A Rainy Affair with a Snake ...

2010-08-16T11:46:00.004+05:30

So, whenever I visit my hometown, my dream is to bump into a snake and take pictures of it. Preferably a Cobra, but any snake would do for as a starter.

I couldn't believe my luck when I ran into a small snake this time I went home. But few problems.

I didn't have my camera at hand.

It was raining cats and dogs.

I was at least 5 minutes walk away from home where I have my camera.

But I can't let go of this chance to take pics of a snake, how can I ?

I know that this snake is non-venomous, tiny (around 1-1.5 feet in length), and wouldn't kill me if it bites me.

So, I gathered all my courage and grabbed the snake by it's tail (?). And brought it home while few people were giving me those funny looks.

Now, reached home, grabbed my camera, put on my only decent lens. I kept the snake on a small plant, waited till it got comfortable. Then got into business.

While I was getting drenched in rain along with my camera, I managed to shoot few good pics.

After around 100 pics, rain got heavier, time to let the snake go on it's way. I left it back where I found it. I couldn't find courage to kiss it good-bye.

~~I am still trying to figure out an 'English' name for this snake. I'll update once I do.~~

Most probably it's Buff Striped Keel back.

Dear God ...

2010-07-27T06:53:00.001+05:30

Grant me the...

Serenity to accept things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can, and the

Wisdom to know the difference

Patience for the things that take time

Appreciation for all that I have, and

Tolerance for those with different struggles

Freedom to live beyond the limitations of my past ways, the

Ability to feel your love for us and my love for each other and the

Strength to get up and try again even when I feel it is hopeless.

lifted from here

hmm ...

2010-07-25T12:19:00.002+05:30

I would know who I am, only when I move out of my comfort zone.

Colors ...

2010-06-28T22:29:00.003+05:30

World without colors is boring. Eh?

Few colorful pics here, shot at San Francisco Pride Parade...

Huh

2010-03-06T23:31:00.004+05:30

Ever heard of a game called Roller Derby ?

Me neither.

But, am going to watch that game, live, today !!

:-)

Update:

WTF !

New Blog !

2010-03-03T10:56:00.002+05:30

Well, I've been writing about personal stuff for more than three years now! It's about time I started rambling about my professional work as well. No?

New blog is here ( http://findingbugs.blogspot.com/ ), it's about how to find bugs :-)

That's my new blogs, it's about software testing. So, if you aren't into that kinda stuff, don't even bother going there :-)

:-)

Sad day ..

2010-03-02T08:41:00.002+05:30

It'a great loss for the world of photography :-(

My 18-55 mm lens's autofocus stopped working.

Sad day indeed.

Me thinks...

2010-02-22T08:33:00.001+05:30

There is something inherently wrong about being right. No?

What's in a name ?

2010-02-22T02:31:00.004+05:30

Here in SF, often I go to a Starbucks coffee shop near my apartment. While they take your order, they also ask for your name and write it down on the coffee cup. Once coffee is ready, they call your name.

"Your name, please"

"Harsha ..."

"Okay", scribbles something on the coffee cup.

2-3 minutes later ...

"...sha, your coffee !"

"Thanks!"

Harsha then checks the coffee cup, and starts laughing !

Okay, here are the variants of my name that ended up on the coffee cup:

"Arshad"

"Arsha"

"Asha"

"Shasha"

"Sha"

"Hasha"

...

Next time, I'll say my name is Harry or something ...

Lens Review: Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro

2010-02-16T03:05:00.004+05:30

Or in simple terms, Tamron 70-300 with macro for Canon DSLRs.

It's been an year since I've been using this lens. So, time for a review :-) or in other words, time to show off my pics taken by this lens :D

Facts:

How long I've been using this lens? - One year.

How much did I pay for this? - 8500 Rs ( ~ 170 USD)

Using it as a telephoto lens:

If you are out in a bright day light, and your subject is relatively near by and still, then you can take some good pics.

If you intend to use this lens mostly for bird photography, here are the things you need to know:

Problem:

Autofocus is painfully slow.

Work around:

I usually can guess the distance between me and the birds. So I switch to Manual focus, get the bird in focus, switch back to auto focus, take shots. For some reason, I haven't still perfected my manual focussing skills. I blame this on my short sight !

If you want to take pics of birds flying, then the slow auto focus is definitely a huge problem. Here is a trick I use. Start focussing on the bird while it is still far, and keep pressing the shutter button half way (auto focus) until the bird is in the frame you want. Then click :-)

Below is an example of that:

Not the best of the shots, but hey !

Problem:

Autofocus is very noisy !

Work around:

Pretty much same as mentioned above. But, boy, can it get any louder !!

Problem:

Pictures are not sharp:

Work around:

Well, use GIMP or Photoshop or whatever floats your boat :-) It actually takes sharp enough pics if you are close enough, I can't really tell the workable distance between birds and me, my guess is 10-12 feet. I know that it's ridiculous, 'cause in bird photography, it's way too hard to get close to birds. But some time I do get a chance when birds feel brave not fly off :-)

Case in point:

Problem:

Short focus ! What I mean is that, you took a picture, focussing on bird, but after you click, and see pic in laptop, you realize that focus is offset by a small value and actual focus is somewhere else near by the bird. ( Pardon my sentence :D )

Case in point:

You see, instead of Bulbul, the focus in on the leaf !! It was taken using autofocus, and I was quite close to the bird as well.

Another one:

Lens totally missed the Kingfisher !

Work around:

I don't know!! manual focussing, may be. I recently started noticing it. I'm yet to figure out the pattern ...

Using it in the Macro Mode:

This lens comes with a pseudo macro capacity, from 180-300 mm, you can switch to macro mode and get closer to the subject (~ 1 meter).

Problem:

Autofocus, noisy and slow.

Honestly, I am impressed with the macro shots this lens can take. Some of them came out really nice. (I guess).

You ought to have lots of patience with this lens, if you want to take a good macro. Not every macro subject stands still, like this lady bug on creeper ... Creeper moves for slightest wind, lady bug was in a hurry to get away from me :-)

But once in a while, there are subjects which stand still until you force them to move !

Case in point:

My biggest complaint:

As of now, with this lens, in aperture priority mode, I can not shoot with f value lesser than f5.6 ! Bummer ! If I try to shoot with f8 or lower, camera throws an error on LCD. I have to switch it off and on to get rid of it :( It's called 'Sticky Aperture' I guess.

My Conclusion:

I bought this lens as a cheap experimental lens to try bird photography. I had read about these problems before, but wasn't worried much.

For money it costs for this lens, it did give me quite a few good shots. But it also let me down lot of time. I've been using it for long time now, I pretty much know how to work with this lens!

If you are looking for a cheap, experimental lens for entering in to bird photography / telephoto arena, and won't mind risking some money, I would say, go for it :-)

Here [Flickr] are the few pics I've taken with this lens.

Let me know what you think !

Book stores

2010-02-16T00:54:00.002+05:30

There is something about going to a random book store and looking at all the books on display. Time starts to flow smoothly and slowly. It's a nice experience.

I just walked in to a random book store. It was different in it's own way. I wish I had my camera to take some pictures of all the books on shelves.

I love book stores. Especially when they allow you to grab book, take a chair, sit and read.

Are you depressed?

2010-02-14T23:27:00.003+05:30

No?

Well, listen to this song then. Read the lyrics. I bet you will be depressed by the time song finishes ...

For a fallen angel by My Dying Bride

As I draw up my breath,

And silver fills my eyes.

I kiss her still,

For she will never rise.

On my weak body,

Lays her dying hand.

Through those meadows of Heaven,

Where we ran.

Like a thief in the night,

The wind blows so light.

It wars with my tears,

That won't dry for many years.

"Love's golden arrow

At her should have fled,

And not Death's ebon dart

To strike her dead."

On an unrelated note, here is a picture I took ...

It's a dying Dandelion.

Sour Grapes ...

2010-02-13T03:00:00.002+05:30

Well, It's been 3 weeks here in San Francisco, and yet I haven't managed to get my bums on a saddle :-(

I've been thinking. It must be so boring to cycle here in SF. No autos, no BMTC buses to cut you off, no potholes, no crazy pedestrians, no cows. They've got cycle lanes for FSM's sake !!

Well, the cycle I've been lusting after costs me $2100 (~1,00,000 Rs) ...

Should I ? Should I not?

Red Pill? Blue Pill?

Can I see your credit card?

2010-02-02T03:09:00.003+05:30

"Hi, I would like to rent a cycle for this week ..."

"Okay, Can I see your credit card and an ID please ?"

"Umm, I don't have a credit card ..."

"Sorry, no bike then ..."

"Huh ..."

Being apologetic ...

2010-01-29T12:54:00.002+05:30

One thing I observed ... Whenever I am in a foreign country, I tend to become very apologetic. I'll start using 'Sorry', 'Excuse me' a lot. Also a lot of 'Thank you' thrown in.

I wonder why.

May be, because I feel like a guest, and hence the behavior.

As it is, I am apologetic for no reason. Imagine my state now !

Also, the word 'apologetic' sounds very weird. No?

San Francisco !

2010-01-26T09:28:00.002+05:30

That's where I am right now!

Too cold, can't feel the sunshine because I work from morning 8 to evening 7, struggling to find food, too lazy to take my camera out and lungs full of cough are killing me!

But looks like I'll like this city, different from New York and London.

On a completely different note, words of appreciation make me feel happy ! very happy...

Simple math

2010-01-18T18:10:00.001+05:30

( Me in my current status ) - ( The Mask I wear) - ( Photography ) - ( Cycling ) == Empty

It's that time of the year ...

2010-01-07T15:29:00.004+05:30

where I show off my photography ...

I spent the last week at my hometown, and well mostly clicked lots of pics.

This time around I didn't go after the big birds or the landscapes, but was looking for tiny creatures to take good macro shots.

I started with this lady bug, which I think had a tough day:

I had dreamt of taking a pic similar to the one below for a long long time, finally I did!!

Here it is:

Then, I got hold of this grass hopper. A brave one in that...

Finally the cute frog fella !!

Tell me what you think of these pics !

like a bubble on water ....

2010-01-04T15:17:00.002+05:30

"blip"

That's my life, your life on some scale in the grand scheme of things ...

Just a "blip"

Some stay longer, some for shorter time. In between, we cry, we laugh, we wish for a better lens :(

How to take picture of the Moon?

2010-01-04T12:06:00.003+05:30

Got a DSLR? Have a telephoto lens? Still can't take a good pic of the Moon?

It's all explained in my other blog here

:-)

Editing Gimmicks

2009-12-16T12:08:00.004+05:30

How to convert this:

to this?

It's all explained in my other blog here: Click here

Put your comments there, let me know what you think !

The Book I am reading - III

2009-12-16T11:14:00.004+05:30

I read two books lately.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

Apparently the classic books.

Let me just say I completely failed to see the point / message of the books if at all there is one.

1984 by George Orwell is next in line.

On second thoughts, I should just stick to comic books.

It's about the birds ...

2009-12-07T15:05:00.002+05:30

Yep, It's about the birds.

Been a long time since I wrote anything here... Oh, well.

Recently went to Bandipur, though didn't see a tiger, I saw couple of magnificent birds.

Crested Hawk Eagle

Another shot of the same

And, then there was Crested Serpent Eagle

I had never seen these birds in the wild before !

Anybody ready to gift me this ?

(Clicking on the above pics will take you to my flickr pages.)

Quote for the day ...

2009-11-02T15:16:00.001+05:30

"If you are so smart, why aren't you rich?"

So true, so true ...

Stolen from here...

My own website !!

2009-09-22T19:42:00.005+05:30

Woohooo !!!

Everybody, go to http://mylittlefinger.in ! [UPDATE: Don't bother. It's not mine anymore :) ]

That's my site !! Although nothing much there right now, I promise I'll show off all my CSS/html skills there soon :-)

Woo hoo !!!

Did you know

2009-09-17T16:27:00.001+05:30

this word?

"Ominous"

My client at the office used this on a conversation and I had to quickly google it to understand ...

:(

How to shoot lightning!

2009-09-13T20:52:00.005+05:30

or to be precise, how I managed to capture lighting on my camera :-)

Okay, this might be a lengthy post, you've been warned ...

So, another weekend, and as usual I am wondering what to do. But today, Bangalore weather has been nice... It started to drizzle in the evening. And lighting ...

So I took my camera out, put my 18-55 mm lens on that, and set it up on my rarely used tripod.

Alright, lightning was predominant on east side and sky was full of clouds :( Once in a while I could see lightning clearly, but had no idea how to shoot it.

So, I set my shutter speed to max, ie 30 seconds and to compensate that I kept the aperture to low. f22 me thinks.

But, no luck. All I could capture was some light pollution from Bangalore night sky and some residual light from the lightnings. Even after 5-6 attempts.

Clearly, higher exposure was not going work.

And I started to lower the exposure gradually, still no luck. And now clouds were moving towards south. And it started to drizzle heavily.

Armed with an umbrella, I continued on my quest to capture the elusive lighting.

By now, I changed my tactics from longer exposure to very short exposure. Like 0.8 sec at f5.6

Then there was a silver line over the clouds. Literally !!

So, the trick I used is to click continuously, with highest exposure that is less than a second. Because, for exposure longer than a second, the de-noise mechanism on my camera starts. Ie, once a shot with 1 sec exposure is taken, it would not allow me to take another shot immediately. Though I can disable it, I didn't want to.

Finally after around 200 clicks I got my first shot with a lightning.

And after some more clicking, here is the best I could capture !!

All these pics are in my flickr page, which you can find here ...

If you know a better way to capture lightnings, please do let me know...

I am happy :-)

Tiny ant

2009-09-10T10:20:00.000+05:30

There is was a tiny ant on my desk, and it looked like it was lost. It just went in cirlces :(

I tried to help, but I think I just killed it.

The Book I Am Reading - II

2009-08-27T11:10:00.002+05:30

Well, I read 8-9 chapters of 'The Selfish Gene', and I am giving up.

I get the gist of the book, and it is too intensive for me to read :( Especially when the Richard Dawkins (Author) starts to argue about other experts' view.

Now I am picking up another book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson. And its got big fonts!! Yay!! I just love the books with big fonts :)

The Book I Am Reading

2009-08-21T15:49:00.002+05:30

Okay, time for some serious reading.

So, day before yesterday, I ordered few books from flipkart.com. This is my first ever online purchase ! Phew !

So, one of the books has already arrived today and I am gonna start reading today.

It's 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins, I've already read some chapters long back, and by no means it's an easy read.

Well, anyway, once I finished reading this, I hope to put a post on what I think about the book.

Lady with Pretty Eyes - Part 2

2009-08-18T09:55:00.003+05:30

Yes!!

My dear readers would probably remember this post Lady with pretty eyes...

I met her again in the bus today, and I spoke to her too!!!

Woohoo!! :D

Well, we had both changed the bus route to office, and today I was trying my best to sleep in the bus. When I opened my eyes , I saw a lady was sitting next to me. And she was none other than the same lady with pretty eyes !!

I opened my earlier post in this blog on my cellphone, then I asked her if she used to commute on the older route we both used to take. She said 'yes'.

Then, gathering all my courage, I told her that I had written a post about her in my blog and gave my cellphone to her to read the post.

As she started to read it, I blurted 'Please don't slap me' ...

Sheesh!!

She read it, with a smile on her face, then I apologized to her if I had offended her, she said no !

:)

Then she asked if I used to get down at Domlur bus stop on earlier route and said she had actually noticed me (Big grin on my face ... he he he)

Now I know her name, where she works ...

~~We then spoke about weather, politics, cricket and life in general...~~

Rest of the journey , neither of us spoke :(

And I even forgot to say 'Bye' when I got down from the bus :(

Well, any way, I am happy :D

You can bet that I am going to take the same bus tomorrow.

It's time for

2009-08-13T12:20:00.002+05:30

some whining ...

Somethings I noticed while commuting to office in BMTC buses lately.

* I can read a 200 page novel in just 4 hours or so.

* Reading a P.G. Wodehouse novel while listening to some rock/metal song is quite a multitask. I noticed that a long trance/downtempo track makes reading easy. Especially when it has no lyrics.

* I can not read more than two P.G.Wodehouse books back to back. I'll just end up skipping all the description and just follow the story :(

* BMTC air cooled buses are uncomfortable if you end up sitting on seats where the AC ventilators are broken, and there are quite a lot of them (broken AC ventilators)

* All the FM radio channels in Bangalore suck, none of them play any western music or decent Hindi music, (Except Radio Indigo, but none of the buses put that channel ). And the drivers have no idea about volume controllers.

Well, that's about it, please tune in to this for more whining.

Is there

2009-08-10T11:23:00.001+05:30

something wrong with the lifestyle when you spend half of your monthly income on pair of headphones?

I guess there is.

Blame it on 'Impulsive shopping'

No more cycling for another month :(

2009-08-07T12:57:00.003+05:30

Well, that's what doc says :(

I hurt my right knee, a weekend off-road ride of about 60-65 KM proved little too much.

This is exactly what I am going through, and there is no medicine other than resting. Apparently.

Now, back to BMTC buses, and some good old ~~P. G. Woodehouse~~ P. G. Wodehouse books.

Any recommendations on good books that I should read? I get about 2 hours everyday in the bus to read.

oh me !!

2009-06-14T04:12:00.002+05:30

Tomorrow is Sunday, that means cleaning lady will come and clean the apartment I live in. That means, I will spend good amount of time cleaning the apartment myself before she arrives, so that the apartment is at-least in a presentable condition for the cleaning lady.

meh.

Well... but why ?

2009-06-11T12:19:00.002+05:30

It's been 4 days here in London, and still I haven't taken my Camera out yet.

And I just have to stop comparing London with New York. These are just different cities. Very different.

Am I ?

2009-05-27T20:40:00.002+05:30

So there was this calf at my home when I was a kiddo ... I loved it a lot.Then it died. And nobody did anything. And I cried. Then afterwards I stopped liking those calves anymore. Always kept them in a distance. Afraid that they'll also die one day and I will again have to bear the pain.

10 more years later.

My sister got a dog. Small puppy. Man .. I just couldn't avoid loving it. It was like my best buddy.

I was doing my engineering then. Whenever I go back to my house, it would jump up my my neck and play around ... Then. It got lost. Yep. Fully grown awesome dog. Got lost. sad. Again I cried.

I learnt something. You love something, then you lose something. Just like that. And there is always pain.

So, I'm afraid of that pain, pain of losing. So I just don't love anything these days.

They call me "Chicken"

I wonder

2009-05-27T20:39:00.002+05:30

if I will ever be able to love something / someone with all my heart ...

I guess not ...

Why .. Why ...

2009-05-20T14:12:00.003+05:30

stopped running in the morning for few days, and I am back to my old self again ...

Why Why :-(

"On every occasion I am ready for the funeral ..."

Another day .. another song ...

2009-05-20T11:08:00.002+05:30

It's from a band called "Band of horses", song title is "The Funeral" [youtube link]

Lyrics:

I'm coming up only to hold you under

I'm coming up only to show you wrong

And to know you is hard and we wonder

To know you all wrong, we were

Really too late to call, so we wait for

Morning to wake you; it's all we got

To know me as hardly golden

Is to know me all wrong, they were

At every occasion I'll be ready for a funeral

At every occasion once more is called a funeral

Every occasion I'm ready for the funeral

At every occasion one brilliant day funeral

I'm coming up only to show you down for

I'm coming up only to show you wrong

To the outside, the dead leaves, they all blow (alive is very poetic)

For'e (before) they died had trees to hang their hope

At every occasion I'll be ready for the funeral

At every occasion once more is called the funeral

At every occasion I'm ready for the funeral

At every occasion one brilliant day funeral

I have no freakin' idea what those lyrics are supposed to mean ... But I like this song :)

Lyrics stolen from here

Riding Down The Stairs ...

2009-05-14T12:07:00.003+05:30

ps: No balls were burst during making of this video ...

Rohan and me tried these stunts at our office yesterday!! and Dheeraj took the video :-)

And ride back home was much more eventful :D

I did this poster :-)

2009-05-10T22:25:00.002+05:30

For details check this page !

It will be super awesome!!

Well, here it is ....

2009-04-24T14:19:00.002+05:30

All this action happened in couple of seconds!

The baby Bulbul was very courageous and let me go very near to her (or him, I have no idea )...

Here is one of the cute shots of her I have:

(Clicking on these pics will take you to my Flickr pages ....)

I can lift my front wheel like 4cm.

2009-04-20T14:52:00.004+05:30

Watch the video, then read the title. :-)

Commuting to office in Cycle in Bangalore!

2009-04-15T18:10:00.006+05:30

(update: latest post on the same topic is here)

is easier than I thought !!

Okay, here are the facts:

♦ The distance I commute in cycle: little more than 15 Kilo Meters (one way).

♦ Time I take: 40 Minutes (+/- 3-4 minutes)

♦ I commute mostly during rush hours, I leave at around 8:30 -9.00 AM in the morning, leave at around 7:30 - 8 PM in the evening.

♦ Root I take : Srinagar / Hanumanthanagar -> Ashoka Pillar -> Diary Circle -> Koramangala -> Inner Ring Road -> Old Airport Road.

♦ How long I've been cycling to office: last 12 days.

♦ What bike do I have: Trek 4300, It's a nice mountain bike.

♦ Where did I buy the cycle?: From Bums On The Saddle, the coolest bicycling shop in Bangalore!

Some comparison:

I've commuted on Motor bike, Public buses and now, a cycle.

Time taken to commute on motor bike is around 40-45 minutes for 15 kms, but I am at the mercy of traffic. Time taken on bus: more than an hour and 15 minutes. Again, I am at the mercy of BMTC. Not every time I get a bus as soon as I go to bus stand.

On cycle, it's always 40 minutes +/- 3 minutes. Always. Yes, Yes, I do jump traffic signals, ride on footpaths. But I try my best to be not a nuisance to public and traffic.

How is the experience so far? Absolutely FUN! Feels like I've gone back in time to my high school days :-)

Some interesting stuff that happened:

♦ I went through McDonald's "Drive-Thru" on my cycle!! The guy at the counter was kinda shocked to see me on cycle :-)

♦ An old lady and a cute kiddo gave me "Thumbs Up" !! Awesome!

♦ Almost fell from bike when I jumped from footpath to Road more than one feet deep :-)

♦ Did more than 50 Kilo Meters on a Sunday, didn't feel tired at all ...

Okay, Here is what I feel:

Cycling around Bangalore in heavy traffic is not really tough or dangerous. Just keep some common sense, and you will be fine. Things like a good helmet, hand-gloves and a air mask/filter are a must.

Cycling to office ...

2009-03-30T10:06:00.001+05:30

Yep, that's what I did today!

I cycled to office on my new bike :D

Though my legs are screaming, I am happy!!

Guess what!

2009-03-29T13:41:00.003+05:30

Bought a Brand New Bike!!

It's a Trek 4300

Bought this beauty at Bums On The Saddle

I am already commuting by public transportation for last 6 months or so. Now, I plan to commute on my new bike...

So, "Carbon Free Commuting" part 2 begins!!

Isn't it?

2009-03-24T16:16:00.002+05:30

[web comic stolen from here]

And ..

2009-03-23T10:42:00.001+05:30

eating a medium sized watermelon completely on your own doesn't kill you.

"cause I am still alive and kicking :-)

Current Status: Update

2009-03-10T18:00:00.000+05:30

Still screwed up :(

Current status:

2009-02-27T20:53:00.001+05:30

screwed up.

Ahoy!!

2009-02-26T16:15:00.003+05:30

I've started another blog, where I am trying explain some of editing I do for my pictures.

Here it is.

See you all there ...

This blog will remain as it is. Prime place for all my ramblings :)

Exactly ...

2009-02-17T13:26:00.001+05:30

"I realized something. I'm just the vibration of a few atoms that happened to clump together, an impossibly unique combination that will eventually dismantle, and drift apart forever. And then I'll be gone too, into an unimaginable void, where even sadness can't exist."

Stolen from here : http://www.daisyowl.com/comic/2008-12-10

AeroIndia 2009

2009-02-16T08:33:00.004+05:30

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Clicking on the slides will show details...

Clicking here will take you to my Flickr page ..

(rss readers, please visit the blog ...)

Gonna see the planes again ...

2009-02-11T19:50:00.002+05:30

I wrote about my first visit to AeroIndia show here ...

I am going again tomorrow!

Only one difference, I am going with my camera, hopefully take some good pics :-)

Oh, I am going along with flickr friend Digital Monk, meeting him for the first time ...

Now, to figure out how to take pictures of planes ...

Got tagged!

2009-02-09T20:59:00.004+05:30

for the first time, by her :-)

Well, I am supposed to post the 6th picture from 6th folder in my comp.

But, 6th folder in my laptop happens to be folder with source code of my project in office ... So I am taking 6th folder in my "Pictures" folder :-)

Here it is :

Man, this brought some nice memory !!

This is taken in September 1st, 2008 in Adirondacks Mountain range in New York ...

Oh boy, didn't we ( Me + 3 of my colleagues ) walk that day! At least 20-25 kilo-meters I think.

A really nice, exhausting trek ...

There should be a name for it ...

2009-02-02T00:03:00.002+05:30

The other night I couldn't sleep. At all.

So, I started to count sheep ...

Then another fear took over ... I was afraid that I might run out of numbers ...

I don't understand ...

2009-01-26T21:00:00.000+05:30

How Twitter manages to be down once in a while :(

He said ...

2009-01-26T20:43:00.000+05:30

"The world is nothing but an illusion"

And I am thinking about it. Generally when I think, end result is a blog post ...

Quote for the day ...

2009-01-21T16:53:00.000+05:30

"Eventually I won't need anything"

I bleed but wait like nothings wrong ...

2009-01-12T09:18:00.002+05:30

another copy-paste ...

This song is stuck in my mind these days ...

Times when I just can't
Bring myself to say it loud
'Fraid that what I'll say comes out somehow awry

That is when it seems
We move in circles day to day
Twist the drama of the play to get us by

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear
Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on
Do we need debate
When it seems too late
Like I bleed but wait
Like nothing's wrong
...

Lift by Poets of the fall ...

Optimism ...

2009-01-08T13:59:00.005+05:30

"Optimism" - It's not just an attitude anymore ...

It's a survival tactic ...

Stolen from here

Everything I had to know

2009-01-07T20:57:00.001+05:30

Your eyes told me when they met mine in that fraction of a second ....

Or so I assume ...

Man, I'm all fucked up :(

Would it be a happy ending?

2009-01-05T10:20:00.002+05:30

You are a story.

I am full of contradictions.

If we get together,

It would be a story full of contradictions.

What do you do?

2009-01-05T07:49:00.010+05:30

So, you go to Shimoga, attend your buddy's wedding, come out of marriage hall at around 2 in the afternoon and your bus back to Bangalore is not until 11 in the night. What would you do?

Well, we asked around, figured out that we could go to Mandagadde, where there is a bird sanctuary :-) We've got a camera, lot of time and a full tummy! Camera hasn't got more than 3X zoom, but hey we've got a camera at least!

Can you see the bird in the above pic? Yeah Yeah, that's about 'Bird Photography' I could do :(. Apparently wrong season ...

So, we head to Sakrebailu to see some elephants :-)

The monkey in the pic is closest to the elephant species we could see. Apparently wrong timing :(

Public is allowed to see Elephants only in the morning :-)

Hey, but we met couple of kids who promised to let us see Elephants if we gave 10 bucks ...

We didn't dare going to Gajnur Dam :-) You see, we were already disappointed !!

So back to Shimoga bus stand and a lengthy discussion about 'You, me and a bunch of Neurons'

Yay!!

Text only Ads: Do check my Flickr photos here

What's the point ?

2009-01-02T23:30:00.000+05:30

"The point of asking a question in spite of knowing the answer is to let other person know that you've thought of the question"

aha .. One more Year gone!

2009-01-01T16:43:00.002+05:30

And I am still alive !! yay!

May you all have the balls to do whatever you wanted to do in your life, in this year!

Lady with pretty eyes ...

2008-12-19T10:44:00.003+05:30

I see her almost everyday at the bus stop. Well, days when I am not late ...

To say the least she's got very pretty eyes. She gets down one stop before mine. She mostly wears jeans and a tee-shirt ... and listens to FM on her silver color cellphone.

I manage to get into the same bus as she does. Most of the time. Whenever possible, I stare at her eyes. I mean stare, not just look once in a while. Well, I am kinda known for my 'staring' in friends circle. :-)

She didn't notice me for quite a few days ... But recently she did. Now once in a while she looks at me, sees that I am staring at her, she would immediately look down or somewhere else. This makes my journey to office very interesting :-)

I am very sure that she thinks of me as a creepy guy, who stares at her. And I have no problems with that.

I want to try this once: write 'Hi' on sheet of paper, and hold it, so that she can see it next time she looks back at me. I am not sure if I really have guts to do that, but it would be very interesting.

I want to start

2008-12-08T12:44:00.001+05:30

Telling stories ...

With pictures ...

Shouldn't I?

** l i t t l e F i n g e r **

It's the time for ...

My guilty pleasure !

Published, again !

We made an ad !

Visit to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station

New stuff

Almost famous

Bums On The Saddle ...

Tour de France 2011

Offroading in Bangalore !

Mainstream trance track for the day ...

Commuting to office by cycle in Bangalore - Part 2

Trip to Kanha Bandhavgarh

psychedelic trance track for the night !

Trip to B.R.Hills

Fear ...

Some Random Macro Shots

long exposure star trails photography

Fun with water balloons and camera ...

So it goes

Such is ...

Isn't it ?

hmm

Money Or ...

Once and for all

weekend Trip to Agumbe

Goa trance track for the day

I wonder

Psytrance track of the day :

Published !

Currently reading ...

A Rainy Affair with a Snake ...

Dear God ...

hmm ...

Colors ...

Huh

New Blog !

Sad day ..

Me thinks...

What's in a name ?

Lens Review: Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro

Book stores

Are you depressed?

Sour Grapes ...

Can I see your credit card?

Being apologetic ...

San Francisco !

Simple math

It's that time of the year ...

like a bubble on water ....

How to take picture of the Moon?

Editing Gimmicks

The Book I am reading - III

It's about the birds ...

Quote for the day ...

My own website !!

Did you know

How to shoot lightning!

Tiny ant

The Book I Am Reading - II

The Book I Am Reading

Lady with Pretty Eyes - Part 2

It's time for

Is there

No more cycling for another month :(

oh me !!

Well... but why ?

Am I ?

I wonder

Why .. Why ...

Another day .. another song ...

Riding Down The Stairs ...

I did this poster :-)

Well, here it is ....

I can lift my front wheel like 4cm.

Commuting to office in Cycle in Bangalore!

Cycling to office ...

Guess what!

Isn't it?

l i t t l e F i n g e r