Guess Me

[D70,Tamron macro f2.8 90mm @ F4.5, 1/4 sec]

It was one of those days when I was shooting macro. Shot a flower and was reviewing it on the camera LCD when this pleasant blur turned up, didnt have a clue when this crept in.

The last 2 weekends I locked myself at home. The summer heat is going out of bounds. The only leeway that the summer gives is to tolerate it and hike those aweing mountain peaks. With great deal of planning I should be able to hike atleast 4 peaks this summer.

May the force be with me.

Road Trip : Fuji Parikrama

Courtesy : http://www.jnto.go.jp

In the August of 2003, I trekked Mt. Fuji with a goal of watching the early morning sun and then make a full circle of the crater on the top, neither of this was possible on account of a typhoon, call it bad timing. But last sunday I joined Bharat and Eisha in completing the "Fuji Parikrama" if not at the summit.

We set out at 8:00 AM on the chou expressway. It was a bright sunny day. After an hours drive we rested at Futaba Parking area , and dallyed at the fuji view point. The plan of the day was to exit the expressway at Fuji-yoshida, drive down to Fuji Safari park via Lake Yamanaka, then move onto Shiraito Falls and take the route 139 and hit the expressway.

FUJI SAFARI REVISITED

[AP*, f4.5, 1/200, 200mm ], Handheld VR On.

It was around 11:00AM and we were at Fuji Safari Park as planned. This being my second visit in under 7days was a bit reluctant to go on a shooting spree. Bharat was almost petrified at the wheel when a lioness started strolling around the car.

[AP*, f5, 1/250, 22mm ], Handheld.

This lioness on the tree caught my attention as I was in perfect position to get the best of what I could. This would be my first reference of calling the big fellow "cute" and hopefully the last. After spending a couple of hours at the park we traced our way to my destination of the day the Shiraito Waterfalls. The drive to the falls was just the best of all times. It was like driving an alpine course on the Grand Turismo 4 (sony playstation).

SHIRAITO WATERFALLS / SHIRAITONOTAKI

[SP*, f16, 1/3, 18mm ], on tripod, crop in height.

At the very sight of the falls one feels that they are rightly named as "white thread falls". The falls measured 200meters in width and 20 meters in height. I started on my assignment of shooting the falls. Since we had a plan of spending a good amount of time at the falls, I spent a great deal of time correcting some imprefections I got used to.

[SP*, f11, 1/25, 31mm ],on tripod

Probably this is my first instance of using the tripod to the best. The slightly overcast conditions helped me to a great extent. Shooting the images in raw always has the down side of spending loads of time to rework, since I am still a longway away from Photoshop and/or writing automating scripts. On the lighter side along with great felxibility comes great pain.

[SP*, f9, 1/8, 18mm ], on tripod, circular polarizer

Once done with the basic shooting I experimented with the polarizer, which yeilded some acceptable results.

[SP*, f16, 1/3, 18mm ],on tripod.

There were a couple of gold fish that were trying to swim upstream. Wondered for a while why they need to do so. With little interest in further researching on that subject, I tried to capture them, the end result being the shot here under.

[SP*, f7.1, 1/10, 18mm ], on tripod, circular polarizer.

At around 3:00PM we hit the road. On the way we visited the Fugaku Lava cave, the temperature in this cave is ZERO Degrees centigrade even in peak summer. One can find 15 feet long ICE stalagmites resembling the Amarnath ice lingam.

We were almost nearing the expressway when we got a good glimpse of the Mt Fuji which was masked by clouds all day long. By 6:00PM we were done and a successful Fuji Parikrama came to an end.

Camera : Nikon D70
Lens : Nikkor 18-70mm DX

Fuji Safari Park

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1250, 200m ]

Yesterday I made it to the Fuji safari park along with Mahesh, Amit and Prasad Joshi. This park is somewhat unique for the very reason that it allows you enter in your own car to the proximity of the carnivores. It was a cloudy day and in the evening we were greeted by some rain. The safari park is situated at the foot of Mt Fuji. Once again clouds enveloped fuji-san and I was having a walk in the clouds all the way.

[AP*, f5.0, 1/125, 200m ]

The first section happens to be that of the bears, a bear entered the water and started having some fun. I just swung into action, started shooting, just when I am done I realized that I got two things wrong, the first was that I was shooting in JPEG only mode rather than RAW and secondly it was in Aperture Priority mode than the desired Shutter priority mode for such fast action. Of all the above image looked a bit acceptable.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/400, 160m ]

It was half past noon and guess the tigers were done with their lunch, hardly could find a tiger in the vicinity. At the very exit was this tiger.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1600, 116m ]

There seemed to be a population explosion in the lions camp. The lioness out numbered the lions as usual. This very lioness/cub turned to be the animal of the day for me. I was staring right into my eyes, I was 10/15 feet from it when I took these shots.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/250, 200mm ]

Initially I used to wonder how come goats and pigs take center stage in a zoo/safari, well I dont have an answer let me put it this way "This is Japan, sometimes expect the unexpected". Not pretty sure but I presume this is a mountain goat.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1600, 200mm ]

Some of you might be wondering how come safari in Japan. Well once a Japanese industrialist been to an african safari near Mt Kilimanjaro and was so pleased with it that he set up one right at the foot of Mt Fuji in 1980.

[AP*, f6.3, 1/250, 200mm ]




[AP*, f6.3, 1/250, 200mm ]

I was very thankful to Mr. Lion for posing upright. This being my first shoot of the wild though not in the wild, was quite an experience. Loads of lessons learnt. Guess every serious photographer should have a short checklist stuck right in his mind and breeze through it before the click. That sure will make a difference between a perfect shot and a near perfect shot.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/200, 200mm ]

This rihno seemed so bogged by it weight or by the unknown factor that it hardly lifted its head. Some how I found this snap very interesting.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/2000, 95mm ]



[AP*, f2.8, 1/800, 70mm ]

Locked with a medium telephoto lens , with the wide angle lens in the trunk and no option to get out of the car, left me to squeeze this to the best. The quadruped walk was the most graceful I seen in its class.

[AP*, f2.8, 1/1000, 200mm ]

This deer was quite far away and there was a fencing wire running at its nose level. I just wondered if this lens can blur that line to a desired extent and I guess it did a decent job.

[AP*, f6.3, 1/100, 190mm ]

I never liked cropping the images and this is one time I havent cropped on any of the images.

So over all its been a wonderful day with the camera but still its a long way for the perfect shot and mastering the art.

Camera : Nikon D70
Lens : Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR
Tripod : No tripod, all handheld.

*AP : Aperture Priority Mode

US Times : Boston

John Harvard [ Founder 1638 ]

Last month [ 18th-22nd May 2005 ] I was on a small business trip to Chicago, USA. I was at my sluggish best on account of jetlag. A 11/12 hr difference [Japan-EST US] literally made my days into nights and the vice verse. No sooner I was done in Chicago, I took a flight to Boston.

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library [ Harvard, Boston ]

Boston been loaded with friends from my schooling and college, I had a royal time. It was a cloudy day all the way in Boston, I was so lazy that I just did a point and shoot photography.Early in the morning of 21st May 2005, I , Srikanth and Anu walked around Harvard Square and hit the Harvard Campus.

MIT

Later in the day Ashok, Subhash,Siva and Naveen gave me a ride to Boston downtown, on the way we visited the MIT campus. For the past 10 years I been looking forward visiting the campus and there I was.

Mr Bagpiper

At Harvard Campus there was a memorial church and a wedding party was on the way. There was this Bagpiper in all his splendor who caught my attention.

Physics lecture notes

Walking down the Harvard Lawn I stumbled on some Physics lecture notes, reminding me of my bygone days.