Connected

A creative mind never sleeps. Every moment, it keeps thinking of ways to capture, create and innovate. A photographer’s mind wants to capture all that their eyes see transforming it into pictures that live forever. A painter takes blank canvas and covers it with breathtaking beauty. An artist is connected to creativity through passion.

  Above picture was taken at the cog railway station in North Conway, NH. I am adding this picture for the daily photo challenge of “Connected” because riding the wooden train with steam engine made me feel connected to travel in 18th century.

Today was a good day

When I saw last week’s photo challenge on daily post, it sounded interesting. But I kept thinking what constitutes a good day for me. Just a week before the photo challenge I had the opportunity to click some nice pictures of my daughter playing on patio and in our backyard. It was early evening and we all had fun hanging out together enjoying our new home. I felt good and peaceful spending time away from work, phone and capturing beautiful memories for us. So, when I saw the photo challenge “Today was a good day”, I immediately thought of this day with my family. The more I thought about it, I came up with below list of things that would make a good day for me.

1. See my little one laugh and giggle.
2. Relaxing with a good cup of masala or ginger chai.
3. Making bread
4. Spending quality time with my family.
5. Eating tasty food.
6. Doing something creative – photography, blogging or cooking.
7. Seeing the forest behind feeling peaceful with birds chirping in the background.

The list might go on but the post really made me think what I want from a good day. Basically, to be happy and remember to appreciate life.

 
A Good day to you 🙂

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/today-was-a-good-day/

Creepy

When I saw this week’s photo challenge “Creepy”, I felt dumbfounded. I wasn’t sure what and how I would capture it. The idea itselfs seemed scary. I thought of taking a picture of darkness in my house or that of patio etc. But felt scared like a coward. As I went into the kitchen at night, I saw this moth by the sink window. It usually sits there most nights..creepy right. Well, I got my creepy photo. But seriously even while editing the picture I felt uneasy. What do you think?

  

Daily Daily photo challenge – Creepy challenge

Simple things and memories

It’s interesting how simple things remind us of memories from past. We don’t remember them often as they were usual mundane acts we used to carry on without much thought. But one day when we are so much farther away from that memory, the sudden reminder makes us smile. Today I found below orange juicer purchased 2 years ago and remembered my mom and grandmother. They used to juice oranges in summer for myself and bro using the same simple juicer. You might think that it’s not a great memory but since they are not here today, this simple thing made a big difference. I felt both of them were with me when I cut the tangerines in half and worked on extracting every drop from it. That’s what my grandmother used to do. I could see her wrinkled hands and diligence at work. I could see my mom smiling and handing us the glasses. Just these simple thoughts are enough to make anyone smile. I am sure many of you also experience the same and hopefully you take a minute to realize their importance in this busy life.

Cheers and keep smiling!

Fun in miniature size

It’s been a while since I have held my SLR. To tell the truth, I have become lazy to carry it on my regular evening walks or while traveling. You see I like to travel light and on my evening walks I just want to enjoy the fresh air after working from home almost 9 hours. So, my camera has been sitting in it’s bag throwing tantrums to go out. I have made a promise to it, this weekend is all about street photography. For a long time now, I have been thinking about photographing the streets of Chicago and I hate missing moments such as the one in picture below. I took it from the back seat of a cab with my iPhone 5 camera. It’s quite good but I just missed my Nikon.

Another reason for not using SLR is that I have been thinking about what I want to photograph. Bro always tells me that my photographs are good but they are missing depth. I never understood what he was trying to say until I read “Veil of Roses” by Laura Fitzgerald. The protagonist in this book is an Iranian woman who comes to USA and for the first time in her life feels free, like a bird out of her cage. She see freedom everywhere, in everything and records it with her camera. This made me realize that I want to feel connected to my photos. Even though I am just an amateur photo enthusiastic, I want to find out what I like about photography and why do I want to click a picture. Hopefully, I will find it soon.

Anyways, just look at those two kids having fun. They look so beautiful and happy.

Fun in miniature size

Hobbies

   I have varied interests and it’s hard to immerse into one thing for a long time. One week I am photographing, another cooking new recipes and then writing, blogging, reading etc..If I had more time, I would keep learning every creative pursuit I came across. Here is my first attempt at pottery. A wonderful workshop themed “Tea for two” at Lincoln Square Pottery Studio, a non-profit in Chicago.

   This was a handbuilding session and we were four students with one instructor. We first started off with kneading the clay like a bread dough. Kneading clay is not that easy but thankfully it’s only a few minutes task. Then, we beat the clay dough by throwing it hard on the table to make it a bit flat. Ed, our instructor said these two steps help remove air bubbles from the clay which would break your creation due to high temperatures in the kiln. It was then rolled out like a paratha by using a machine and any remaining air bubbles were pricked with a needle like tool. Once, everyone was done with this process, we were given arced shaped papers which would turn into a cup if you stuck the ends together. I started tracing one on my piece of clay. I also took a crocheted napkin with flower pattern and pressed it on the clay to embed the design. Finally, I lifted off the piece very carefully and stuck the ends together making a cup. We performed similar processes for making base of the cup, handle and the saucer. It was a great class with lots of useful information & tips for beginners.

  I am happy to have morning tea in my handmade cup :). Another reminder that I want to learn more. Next workshop at the studio is on Wheelthrowing. Do give it a try.

Tea for two

Teacup with my name on it 😀

Papaya Ice cream

A thought of making real fruit ice cream was on my mind from quite sometime. Lots of different fruits were consumed without turning into an ice cream. So, when we bought Papaya during grocery shopping last Friday, I thought why not. The ice cream turned out to be delightfully tasty with a splash of honey over it. Here is the recipe,

Ingredients: 1/4th Papaya, Ginger, Lime juice, Cane Sugar, Honey

Recipe:

1. Cut papaya into square chunks after removing the skin and seeds.
2. Add 1-2 tbsp of sugar (depending on the sweetness of papaya) and 1 small piece of crushed ginger to half cup water and bring to a boil. Keep aside to cool.
3. Add the ginger sugar water to Papaya chunks and grind everything in a blender.
4. Add lime juice and mix.
5. Taste the puree and add extra sugar or lime if desired. Fill the mixture in ice cream molds or cups and freeze overnight.

Just before eating, remove the ice cream from mold and drizzle some honey over it.

Enjoy!

I had Indian Kulfi molds so it looks more like Papaya kulfi.

100th Post: Dedicated to Creativity

Finally, I reached a century in something :). I had hoped of reaching this magic number sooner and already had a post in mind for it. But now that the day has finally arrived, the idea is totally different. This post is dedicated to “Creativity”. How much has it done for us. Do we really think about it? Appreciate it? I think not. If it weren’t for creativity, humans would be bored. Even a small burst of creative idea gives us a stimulation of fresh energy. Makes us the happiest and most satisfied person. Doesn’t matter how minute the new idea is. It is new, it is different and it puts our positivity in motion. If you want to be a positive person, try doing something new every day. Doesn’t matter if its cooking a new recipe from a food blog or turning kitchen upside down trying your own. Just do it. Even if the outcome is not as you expected, you will feel rejuvenated. That’s what a creative process is all about. Rejuvenating your senses, your whole being.

From past two weeks, I have been editing and posting a photo on my Flickr feed almost every day. Not only did I improve but also learned a lot from other Flickr member photos.

Below is one of my favorite pics as I never thought it would look like this when I clicked it :). First time I could compare photography to writing fiction. You can transform your photos to something more. Similar to transforming your character into someone he could never imagine to become.

Lovers Vacationing

Cheers!

Vintage

A nostalgic feeling creeps in on watching old movies, looking at old photos or reading novels set in the past. I wonder how people used to feel back then when there were no cellphones, no internet and it took several days to go across countries. Next a question emerges, would I have traveled to USA in those times? You see, now I can call my family anytime, video chat with them and even reach India within less than 20 hours. I wonder how immigrants would have felt on setting foot in a foreign land. I can almost feel their excitement, wonder and fear. Time traveling would have solved my curiosity. May be someday in future :). Until then I have my imagination, history and novels.

Vintage Kodet lens camera. Picture taken at “The Great Alaska Lodge”.

Kodet Lens Camera

Frozen Fire – An Art

My mother made us go to drawing classes while we were in school. She thought we should give it a try and was delighted to hear that bro and I both loved it. We would wait for Saturday to arrive and learned various types of drawing from sketching scenes to still life to human portraits. I liked sketching black and white terrains with mountains, trees & snow while my brother competed with portrait of Jackie Chan. I was reminded of my drawing days while editing below photo of logs on fire. It felt like I have captured the movement of fire in a moment, made it still and calm.

Frozen Fire