As I had mentioned the day before I had to attend a small party yesterday. It was very enjoyable with delicious food and a hilarious film afterwards. Of course, my camera went with me! This is one of the hosts for the party whom I caught with an interesting look.

A couple of days back I went for another walk along the Rhine and got back with some stuff I’m happy with. Here is the first one of those.

I’m not sure if any of you will like a burnt out source of harsh light smack in the center, taking away attention from the rest of the photo. But I personally like this shot. The sun was anything but harsh. It was bright but not harsh, a warm winter sun bringing winter hardened skin to life. What those three guys were doing perfectly captured the spirit of the day, a day to bask in the gentle warmth of the sun and watch the day unwind in the company of friends.

I like the various lines coming together in this and set off against the solitary figure.

This is the final photo in a series of three connected with the carnival preparations of a friend. That strange white color on his face is not a PP artifact, it is his make-up!

Here is the second photo in a series of three connected with the carnival preparations of a friend. This is the same guy as yesterday. In this, he was being given some expert help by another friend. While she touched up his make-up the rest of us were wondering aloud about all the strange stuff women use to beautify themselves, lip liner, eye liner, lip gloss, blush, foundation, glitter…and the list is endless! It is a whole different world, cosmetics for women!

Since today is the beginning of carnival I thought it would be appropriate to post something connected to it. This is a friend of mine putting the finishing touches to his make-up that would go with his costume before he ventured out.

This was one of the rare instances of me shooting in jpeg format. Later, while reviewing I realized how much more ‘safe’ shooting in RAW is. Since I’m still not very good at getting proper exposures the original of this shot came out very dark. In RAW, the latitude for error correction is much greater, not so in jpeg. Still, I managed to get something back and I think the photo now conveys something of what I wanted it to in the first place. If you are looking at the focal length in the exif data and wondering where the rest of the image has gone, yes, this photo is cropped!

Thanks for the nice comments on the previous photo. Today’s photo is from the same shop window as the one [here](http://www.visual.arthedains.com/index.php?showimage=129). Only this time, I included a whole lot more in the frame. Somehow, I’m not very satisfied with the PP on this. Something is missing. But I decided to post it all the same. Do let me know what you think.

I’m still depending on photos from about ten days ago as I haven’t shot anything in between because of the terrible weather here. This is from the same place as the one I put up yesterday. The lake had frozen and so people were having fun walking, skating and playing over it. Didn’t realize what the guy on the extreme right was doing until I came home and was reviewing the shots!

On another note, I finally decided to order the Minolta Dynax 7D as it was very attractively priced. I’m eagerly awaiting its arrival!

I had noticed this in a shop window while on the way to work a few days ago and had made a mental note to take a photo the next time I had the camera with me. Today, I took my camera out after a long time so I managed to shoot this. Later in the afternoon, I went out with a friend to a park near my lab and took some photos in spite of the freezing cold…brr! While coming back we were rewarded with one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. But more of that stuff in the days ahead!

I could not manage to post-process the other water droplets photo that I was supposed to post today. So here is something from my film archives instead. This is a photo of an acquaintance from my last trip to Berlin in June 2005. This was shot on top of the Reichstag. I like the dreamy expression in his eyes even though that was only a pose!