The new Polaroid SX70 has been driving me crazy (in an altogether good way) ever since it arrived, a week back. Shooting on instant film, with the benefit of SLR composition has to be experienced to be appreciated. This is one of the test shots the wife took, late in the evening by the light of a single tungsten lamp.

I love the crisp focusing, the shallow depth of field and the overall dreamy quality of the film. Five thumbs up for me!

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Polaroid SX70
Impossible PX600 Silver Shade film
2012, At home, Bangalore, India

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Not all visions of the future need be apocalyptic. Not all apocalypses need look scary and fearsome.

Multiple exposures, with three different colour filters, on a single frame. It's still only a bush. And not quite as tangled as it looks here.

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Lomography La Sardina
Kodak Ultramax 400ISO
2011, At home, Bangalore, India

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They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

- Robert Frost 'Desert Places'

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Lomography La Sardina
Kodak Ultramax 400ISO
2011, At home, Bangalore, India

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After a hiatus of over two years, this blog is back with a brand new template. Plenty has happened in the interim, not the least of which is my new found love for analog photography courtesy the Lomography movement. Who knew toy cameras could be so addictive.

Today's post is one of my recent experiments with light painting using a Lomo camera.

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Lomography La Sardina
Kodak Ultramax 400ISO
2011, At home, Bangalore, India

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Distance makes for strange collaborations. Ritu and me decided (well, she decided, really and I just played along thinking it would be a fun thing to do), a while back, to collaborate on a daily diptych project. I'd send her an image everyday and she'd add one of her own and post the two to her FlickR page.

And as you can see, above, the fact that we're two very different people in two very different cities with two very different agendas makes for interesting compositions.

The first one was a delightful co-incidence and the second, a study in contrasts.

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For the curious ones- my pictures are on the left, and Ritu's on the right.
To see the live project visit here

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Sometimes it helps to see the whole as a sum of parts. The hard, angular lines and the texture that stands out under a hard mid-day sun combine to create a sort of abstract composition.

The humble, and ubiquitous, transformer is elevated to an entirely different place in the scheme of things...

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Nikon D90, 28-105mm
2009, By the roadside, Toy City, Greater Noida, India.

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The desert, the camels- one and the same. Softly undulatnig mounds, both.

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Illford BW 800ISO
2005, Camel Fair, Pushkar, Rajasthan, India.

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As you can see, I'm really having to trawl the archives now. Camera's gone in for servicing and replacement of certain parts damaged in drunken stupor during recent trip to Goa. Though, having said that, pictures of pretty women is something that this photoblog can do with a certain measure of...

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Fuji 800ISO
2005, Pune, India.

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My younger brother once asked me 'How come there's no pictures of me on your blog?'. So I searched my archives for the goofiest, most embarassing picture of him that I could find. This is it- what I call his 'teeth-brushing' expression.

On the other hand, he's a bloody good surgeon. And the best brother I could have wished for... I love you Salil.

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Fuji 800ISO
2005, Bombay, India.

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scha·den·freu·de (shädn-froid)
Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
[German : Schaden, damage (from Middle High German schade, from Old High German scado) + Freude, joy (from Middle High German vreude, from Old High German frewida, from fr, happy).]

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Camels have a sense of humour, methinks

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Fuji 100ISO
2005, Pushkar, India

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And there- on a busy market street- like a portal into Wonderland!

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Fuji 100ISO
2005, Pushkar, Rajasthan, India.

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in bright white battles
they did their time;
Now, mute sentinels,
with each passing moment
they mark it...

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Illford ISO400
2005, Diu Fort, Diu, India.

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India is a colourful country. More so if you visit Gujarat and Rajasthan- both primarily desert states. The weather's arid for the most part, rainfall is scanty and the terrain is littered with scrub vegetation. The people make up for the drabness by filling their lives with colour. Their clothes, their homes, the streets- everything's vibrant and in your face. You can't help but want to shoot everything you lay your eyes on...

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Vijay Lakshmi Sindoor Bhandaar- makers and roadside sellers of pigments, dyes and other colours... The best Point-of-Purchase publicity I've seen in a long time...

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Fuji 100ISO
2005, Pushkar, Rajasthan, India.

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When one visits a place like Pushkar, a little town teaming with foreign tourists the year round but primarily a pilgrimage centre for Hindus, the last place one expects to be staying in is a little weather-beaten joint called The Pink Floyd Cafe and Hotel! Nonetheless, that is exactly where I stayed!! A charming little place that you must visit if you're ever in Pushkar... If you go in for that kind of thing, each room is named after a Pink Floyd album- mine was called A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Considering I shelled out almost three times what I would've paid in any other hotel at that time of the year, it must've been exactly that!! This puppet was cheerily posing for me in the rooftop cafe, though the fact that she was hanging from the rafters did seem a little morbid...

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Oh, and I've been tagged by George of 'A Daily Photoessay', so-

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Code Monkey
2. Part-time Computer Assembler
3. Industrial Design Consultant
4. Entrepreuner

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Pulp Fiction
2. Life Is Beautiful
3. Ice Age
4. Sholay

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Bombay, India
2. Kodaikanal, India
3. Aurangabad, India
4. Guwahati, India

Four TV shows I love:

1. I
2. don't
3. watch
4. TV

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Thimphu, Bhutan
2. Goa, India
3. Pokhra, Nepal
4. Pushkar, India

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Mincemeat Lasagna (the way I make it)
2. Spicy Bitter Beans Curry with Thalipith (the way my Mum makes it)
3. Blueberry Cheesecake (haven't had a better one since Churchill's in Bombay about 2 years back)
4. Kadhi-Moong ki dal-Rotli (yes Yash, I know I should be dropping in at your place soon)

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Google
2. Myopic Endeavour (well, almost daily)
3. A whole bunch of photoblogs (see photoblogroll in the sidebar)
4. Core77

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Biking it from Manali to Leh
2. Attending Partha's wedding in Delhi
3. Visiting my brother in the UK (Stoke-on-Trent, charming little town and all that)
4. Working in Bangalore (?)

Four bloggers I am tagging:

1. Ritu
2. Salil
3. Suyog
4. Ajay

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Fuji 200ISO
2005, The Pink Floyd Cafe, Pushkar, India

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Nikon F75, 28-105mm
Illford BW, 400ISO
2005, Pushkar, Rajasthan, India.

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