The only ingredient that completes a beautiful home.

Hemingway smiled in my head.

The Pandavas are the five sons of Pandu, by his two wives Kunti and Madri. The story of their battle against their cousins the Kauravas is told in the great Indian epic of Mahabharata. The five sons are named Yudhishtira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Each of them is blessed with special powers due to their respective origins. For more on the Pandavas go [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandavas “Wikipedia”).

The Royal Crescent is an exclusive residential road of 30 houses, laid out in a crescent, in the city of Bath, England. It was designed by the architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774. It is amongst the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom.

Together with his father John Wood the Elder, John Wood the Younger was interested in occult and masonic symbolism; perhaps their creation on the largest scale was their joint work of the Royal Crescent and the nearby Circus (originally called “the King’s Circus”), which from the air can be observed to be a giant circle and crescent, symbolising the soleil-lune, the sun and moon. (Source: Wikipedia)

Passing by random strangers, every day of our lives. So many untouched and unlived moments slipping away. The chance of connection. The probability of contact.

Look around, look around kid at the wonders of the world spread out around you.

I’ve had the Minolta Dynax 9 with me for many months now and shot a few rolls with it. But until now I hadn’t managed to scan the films. So here it is finally, the first photo on this photoblog with my Dynax 9. This was shot outside Vienna, Austria in April this year.

The Dynax 9 is arguably the best pro film SLR ever produced, released just before the transition to the digital era. Built like a tank but so easy and intuitive to use. Perhaps the only ‘pro’ camera that you can pick up and start shooting without going through a manual first. It is virtually a crime that Minolta managed to screw up the timing of the release and subsequent marketing of this amazing camera. And they went and further crippled it by not upgrading it but instead releasing a similar featured, technically more modern but less pro Dynax 7. Even though with the advent and convenience of shooting digital I do not use it as much as I’d like to I don’t think I can ever give up one of the finest photographic tools ever produced!

The joy of a snapshot, permanent memories in an instant.