Every person has a different perspective, the way we look at things, at nature, at objects and just about everything else. Swathi R, an IT professional who is passionate about Photography decided to experiment with B & W, sharing with us a few from her treasure chest.

The Sun, looking down at the world, watching life as it goes by….. Showcased on a wall…

A few clay pots, freshly baked, will they be used to store water or maybe cook a delicious dish in?! Their fate is unknown…

The Railway Station, a place that welcomes people by the dozen, every minute of every day….

A few drops of water trickling down the roof is a sight for sore eyes. And that i s exactly what one looks forward to come June. Monsoon sets in, or there are indications that monsoon is not far off… Aarthi S shares a few photographs she had shot during the last monsoon when she managed to go on a mini holiday with her best friends…

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
e. e. cummings

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore

I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on my face.
Katherine Mansfield

Ah, the beautiful sweet smell of rain…What are your fondest monsoon memories?

Enjoy the Monsoons!! Rejoice the colours…

M: Aarti, this is the Common crow... They seem to be romancing and lost in their own world 

Me: oh yes, how pretty… I dont think i’ve seen these before.

Ani who was walking ahead with her son exclaimed..  ‘Hello, we see the common crow all over back home, what is wrong with you both” *gave us a stern “stop being children” look*

Me: Ahem, Ani, this is not a crow… this is a butterfly di.. it is called the Common Crow

Ani: Oops.. my bad, was wondering why you girls are gushing over the boring crow…

During our brief stay at the Coir Village Resort, we saw quite a few Butterflies, but i remember the Common Crow, which is quite uncommon in other parts of the country.. It became a game of sorts, we would keep a look out and start signalling for the others to join in whenever we spotted an interesting butterfly, bird, insect, or bug. At the end of the trip, we dint know who was a child, the actual 2 year old or us 4

The beautiful butterfly called ‘Common Indian crow” we saw quite a bit through our stay at the Coir Village Resort in Kerala.

Wiki: It is found everywhere in India, right up into the mountains till 8000 feet. Occasionally it swarms in the low, wet jungles of South India due to the abundance of its food plants which are spread over three orders of plants.

Every day is a brand new day, one that lures people into making the most of it and exploring their lives through. Aarti Krishnakumar, a freelance writer from Chennai shares some of her fond memories from her travels across the country….

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
~ Carl Bard

While in Kerala, we visited the Krishnapuram Palace in Kayamkulam. The palace is a replica of the Padmanabapuram palace in Trivandrum. As the sun was beating down on us, i managed to capture a shot of the Palace from beyond the pond, catching the reflection of the palace in the waters…

Krishnapuram Palace, Kayamkulam

As the road wound around the cliff, the ocean below lashed against the mountain as if trying to grab our attention. We looked down to see the mountain covered in plants and moss, amidst which a flight of stairs caught our eye. We decided to sneak away and walk it down to get a closer look at the ocean… What a sight it was.. Totally worth the risk!

Varkala Beach, Kerala

After the long walk on a hot summer day, we had finally reached… Auroville, few kms ahead of Pondicherry! The place was infamous for the Matri Mandir and various boutiques in the center of the place.. These days, they dont allow visitors to enter the Matri Mandir without prior permission. So, we picked up our tickets, and walked the 1.5kms to the view point and soaked in the place with several others vying for a piece of the place..

Matri Mandir, Auroville, Pondicherry

Time to say Good bye.. Until next time.. I wonder where the road takes me next..!!

It is time to bring out the umbrellas and enjoy the cool breeze. Summer is nearly gone and Monsoon comes knocking on the door.Lakshmi Sharath, a media professional and an avid traveller shares some of her Monsoon tales.

The fresh smell of damp earth, those tiny drops on flowers and leaflets, the colours that soak in the monsoon – it sheer poetry on earth when it rains. I was in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, in a small plantation when I experienced the first rains of the season.

As the skies opened up ,the flowers tossed their heads ,dripping with water , the leaves looked greener and men walked around with colourful sheets around their heads.  There is nothing more romantic than the first rains of the season and here are some moments from it.

“Travelling has been a passion of mine, but it is only in the past few years that I have managed to make a few personal trips, journeys. And every destination is a new experience, adding to the life lessons, giving me a new lease on life”, shares Mukesh Tanwani, an IT professional from Bangalore..

I enjoy taking pictures of just about everything I see around me -Nature, people, Birds, flightless birds and others in between. During a recent vacation, I captured these myriad moments around a park.

This is a shot of the pretty yellow flower with a few drops of water still resting on the petals. The morning breeze brushed past the trees, tingling the petals. I decided to shoot only a portion of the flower in the frame, adding to the mystery, while enhancing its beauty!

The red and white of the flower caught my eye, and I had to capture the flower in my camera. The red shone against the white, with each of the petals in different patterns- some blossomed, while others were just uncurling. Almost like a child waking up in the morning…

The rose bud, the yellow and orange against the green of the leaf was beautiful against the sun’s rays. It stood tall in the plant beating the other roses and buds as if it was racing towards the sky. I stood still as if any movement could set off a breeze or alter the way the bud stood. This is one photograph I am quite proud of, the way the leaves, the petals look, the details visible on the photograph!

Looking forward to my next trip.. Wonder where the road takes me…

Summer and autumn are the perfect seasons to click some photographs. It is a wonderful way to give your photographs a bit of life and colour. There are two major methods to add a touch of warmth in your pictures, namely, physically and digitally. The following are some of the easy methods to add that finish and touch to your photos, says Chennai based photographer Ratzzz

Composition:

It may be an obvious statement but composition plays a major part in any technique. Use of metallic makeup on a female model, the beautiful drying yellow leaves, colorful clothes are some of the ways to bring about warmth in your photographs.

Play of Light:

If you are working in a light controlled environment, avoid using LEDs and fluorescent lights. Instead go for warm lights like candles and tungsten lamps. Try to work with warm colored walls, light blue, green, or even orange, so that the bounced light has a touch of softness too.

Camera Lens Filters:

There are a wide variety of filters in warm tones like yellow, red and orange. This is one of the easiest ways to create a feel of warmth in your pictures. But it is difficult to inverse the effect when you are using physical filters.

Digital Alterations:

With the technology available today, it is possible to manipulate any kind of photographs now. There are preset color filters available in any photo manipulating software. The color thermometer scale can be tipped towards warmer tones in a photo manipulating software pretty easily.

In many photo editing programs like Lightroom, Photoshop etc., you can change the tone and hue of individual colors, that you can add warmth to your pictures easily. You can color balance your photographs in three tiers namely light, mid-tones and shadows along the xyz scale.

Be careful that you don’t go overboard in the process of adding that finishing touch to your photographs; you only want to add that extra effect, not a burnt look.