Many of you might think of this as a ‘nothing’ photo, devoid of anything interesting. But I’m hoping a few of you might understand why I posted this. This is the kind of photo which reinforces my love for b/w. It is solely about the pleasures of light, shadow and contrast. I hope that comes across in this photo to you as it does to me. I have a slightly different shot of this place that I liked as well. You will get to see that tomorrow.

I’m not completely satisfied with the PP on this. Some essential thing is missing. But I don’t feel like working with it for too long so I post the photo as it is now. Hope you will like it better.

A tropical sun, but without the burning heat, has come calling. I’m taken back in time to hot afternoons; of sweat drenched foreheads, of delicious mangoes, of the sudden stillness after regular electricity cuts, and the beautiful feeling of cool air on hot skin. I breathe in the thick memories of summers bygone, intoxicating in their all-enveloping glory.

Ah, I remember that strand; a sultry Sunday when I roamed through the book market in Abids and found, to my utter delight, that my doors of perception had been cleansed. Here is another memory, of sitting for an entrance exam on a ferocious afternoon in May, half suffering from sunstroke, the questions looming up from the paper and forming surreal shapes. Streaking through my senses, a cool summer morning, the way she felt in my arms among the rocks, the dream like union of hesitant lips, the heavenly vision of half-naked flesh below me and then walking back hand in hand, hesitating to open my mouth and shatter the unbelievable dream. Here is another fragment; a day spent tramping through the hot roads of Pune but with the welcome relief of frequent Neera drinking stops. Suddenly, I taste that chilled beer again traveling down my throat, cold and exciting in a sleepy Delhi fast food joint. And how can I forget the gentle lapping of the waves as I sat on the beach and consumed a book on a lazy Goan afternoon.

I remember escaping in to the icy relief of air-conditioned libraries, of the air hanging still like a guillotine at 1 pm, of mid day roads swept clean of people, of juicy watermelons melting in my mouth, of sweaty bed sheets and howling Westerly winds. An endless succession of summers unfolding behind my eyes.

And there are words as well, from half-forgotten conversations, unwaveringly similar, time after time.

“Hey, who is getting the snacks?”

“Don’t you dare forget the green peas, fucker!”

“Oh boy this is life! Chilled beer hitting the spot, tasty snacks and the whole evening stretching away before you like an empty runway.”

“…Julio and Romiet…shit…damn…I mean Romeo and Juliet of course…cut it out you dickheads, I’m not drunk!”

I’ve been posting at random over the past few days, something new and something old. This is something slightly old. There was something about the way the woman was standing and observing the scene that made me reach for my camera and capture this.

Although I wish both the stems were in focus I still like the way this photo has come out. I find it to be quite surreal.

This is a photo from the same time and place as this [one](http://www.visual.arthedains.com/index.php?showimage=174). This is something of a pseudo-IR photo as I used only the red channel data during conversion to b/w. I think it gives the photo a certain soft mood.

From the rich, saturated colors of the previous photo let us move on to the simplicity of monochrome with today’s photo! This is from a while back. As the title suggests, I like the fluid like quality of the tree’s bark.

This is one of my favorite photos among all that I’ve shot in recent times. I like the way everything came together in this, me waiting, shivering in bone freezing wind for the light to be right and hoping a bird would fly into the frame, the way PP went etc, etc. But I don’t think of all those incoveniences now. All I see is a photo my eyes love to stare at! I hope you will agree with me.

From the intense golden of yesterday to the quiet monochrome of today. But I still have some photos in my archives that I want to finish posting. So here is one.

Even though this started off as a pretty ordinary photo I like the way it has ended up. I think the tone really suits the tree. The original shot was with two trees but I cropped out the other one as I feel it works better with this one tree. If you find the photo to be too big for your screen just press F11 in any browser to to full screen (and press F11 again to exit it).

I know sunsets are done to death by every aspiring photographer as they manage to look good no matter how much one screws them up. But inspite of that cynicism I still like the magic of a sunset, the beautiful golden light making everything appear melancholic and soft. So here goes the first, more to follow in the days ahead.