December 2003, Amsterdam.

I finally bought a dedicated film scanner, a Nikon Coolscan V ED, which I received today. This is the first shot scanned with it. I’ve posted this particular photo before a long long time back, albeit in a modified form, here. This photo is from the first ever roll I shot with my then recently acquired Minolta Dynax 5, also my first modern SLR.

Berlin 2004.

Cologne, 2005.

Summer 2002, Hyderabad.

Not a great shot by any stretch of the imagination but this was what I used to see almost every day from my hostel room for almost one year while doing my Masters at HCU. For some reason I was very intrigued by the rock. There was something very fascinating about the way it stood there, all alone, day after day. And I think it still stands there in that exact position to this day.

I love shooting film. There is something about the aesthetic that film has that always pleases me, the fine soft grain and the pleasing transition of zones. So much so I went and bought myself another film camera, the Canon Canonet Q17 GIII,  a classic, compact and quiet rangefinder from the 70s. More once I get it and use it.

Summer 2002, Hyderabad.

Summer 2006, Cologne.

400th photo here!

Carnival kicked off here today at exactly 11:11 am. The streets were awash with people half drunk, dressed in the craziest and zaniest of costumes and by evening the same streets had been marked by puke and scarred by broken bottles with drunk people tottering and stumbling everywhere. The road outside my lab turned into one huge street party. This lovable madness will end next Tuesday. So it is only appropriate that I post a photo connected to Cologne’s crazy carnival. But this photo was not shot today, it is from my first carnival in Cologne back in 2004. The ‘supergirl’ was my labmate. Finally, as they say here, ‘Kölle Alaaf’!