Finally moon!

I was able to get some moon pics but it happens that getting a good image is difficult. Getting an image of moon requires full zoom plus a very slow shutter speed. And if you want it with the least ISO then even the slowest shutter speed! So getting a pic with a blur in it isnt that difficult to get. Now I know that I dont have very steady hands but I got most of the images blurred even with a tripod! Maybe the wind or maybe my stomping around was enough to give that blur!

Well here are some pics that came good enough to be posted:

On 22nd even the best pic is with some (acceptable?) blur!


And this pic is just for the yellowish tinge on clouds thanks to (once again) the setting sun!

Moon and setting sun existing peacefully. A much better pic would come out of (full) moon and rising sun. But as I said am too lazy to get up so early in the morning.

And here is the video of the white tiger in zoo whoso pics are there on picasa and whose blog post I forgot to write :D

(its 30 mb and taking a hell lot time to upload here on blogger)

HIMYM and Friends

How I Met Your Mother

Friends

Well have watched part of both of the above series (more of HIMYM percentage wise :) ) but enough of both of them to know whats going on! Friends is from 94 so direction wise and location wise it looks kinda old. While himym look fresh both in terms of characters (much more beautiful) and dressing style.

Both the series revolve around the same concept of presenting the life of group of friends living together. Basically it can be classified as romantic comedy with less of romance and more of comedy.

Well i like himym better as it keeps bringing more characters so provides a little bit of change. Also its more of present times and mostly because its actually a narration. So gives a different kind of presentation than any other series.

And with himym and friends coming back to back on TV from 11 pm to 1 am I get a nice timepass :)

PS: going to watch HIMYM S5E01 just after finishing this post :)

Night pics

Well only birds dont play truant. Went at night wishing for some moon pics. But yes the moon was absent. Being a day after the Eid, I was expecting a nice slice of moon but I guess due to clouds got nothing! Well anyways here are some pics that I took while trying out the night capabilities of my camera. Landscape mode for night sucks. So had to go manual. As is given all over the net (and which I found out later) z980 is good enough for high ISO settings. And in smart mode it chooses high ISO. So instead of high ISO in manual mode I opted for slower shutter speeds (was written as 6" - wonder what it menas) but took about 3-4 seconds of shutter spped (was trying to hear shutter open and close by keeping my ear close to the camera!). Obviously with such shutter speeds I was using the tripod without which all I would have got is a set of blurry pics!

The view which I have taken many times during the day now taken @ night. Mind you its 9:30 pm pitch dark and no flash (obviously no flash for landscapes).


A little darker pic of my street.


No mood so had to be content with a star :P



The first pic is in manual mode, second one in the night landscape mode provided by Kodak guys! You can be your own judge as to which one is better!

Another set of pics!

Yeah I know its getting monotonous posting similar kind of pics again and again but currently thats my only timepass at home so I havent got anything else thats interesting enough. Unless ofcourse if I start posting travian stuff :P

So well today I wanted pics of flowers but as they are scarce during this time of the year I had to settle for birds and finally for the sun (thankfully it wasnt a setting sun today!).

Whole set of pics can be seen @ http://picasaweb.google.com/aug21st/CamTest

So today I first clicked around the birds that were sitting in the lawn downstairs instead of going to the rooftop directly.

Thats what I call timing! Was just in time to click before that bird disappeared behind (inside maybe) that tree.

The only flower that I was able to find in my house at this time. And it is the size of my thumb!

Just as I was packing up saw this bird sitting just above my head :)

Again showing off the manual focus with focus on the leaves and building in the background!

The sun was too bright for me to even observe the clouds with my naked eye! Had it not been for the clouds it would have been just an ordinary pic.

More pics

First of all the pic of my camera. Taken from my 3 mp camera phone so you can expect some pixelisation. Well the camera model is Kodak Z980 and this pic is taken with full 24x optical zoom:

Now today I was more interested in bird photography. I was interested but can hardly say the same about the birds. Forget about any flying shots or group pics it was so damn difficult to get any close up of any bird. Maybe I was a little past their flying time or they are camera shy..watever here are the results. The whole collection is also uploaded on picasa @ http://picasaweb.google.com/aug21st/CamTest. Putting up some better pics here too:

Now this is one of the rare occasion when the bird was sitting on my rooftop. It was just thirsty and was looking for water overflowing from the tank :)

While sitting on the roof I tumbled backwards getting this pic. Thats only cause of my slow reflexes and the time it takes in manual mode to get focus and proper brightness etc!

Another one on my rooftop. The background was varied collection of clothes hanging in Girls PG ( :P ) so had to brighten it as that multicolor backgroud hardly justified this bird's beauty.

Now here am just testing the shutter speed. Taken at 1/2000 shutter speed which I guess is equivalent to 1/2000 of a second. Whatever I had to set a very high ISO to get any picture at that shutter speed (and I have no idea what ISO is).

Now ofcourse some sunset pics (as they are the only pics that come real good).

In the last pics you 'can' notice that I was using manual focus and focused on the nearby mobile phone and hence the blurred effect of the background :)

Will obviously keep posting more pics as long as this hobby lasts!

Posting the pics of my photography session yesterday evening. Tried some stuff using manual settings thought apart from exposure I wasnt able to understand anything else :P

First of all the pics showing off the zooming capabilities-

The above building is approximately 200-300 mts from my house as in crow distance. Now am really bad at approximating distances so it can be anything but the distance am putting down in next few pics will be relative to this one :D

Yes I love the sun!

That would be approx 50 mts from my house.

A billboard some 300 mts away from my house. maybe 200..not sure! Using digital zoom here and yes I dont have a steady hand.

No idea about the distance as it was high up in the sky. Used digital zoom too and was somehow able to grab this kite in this frame!

Now some pics where I tampered with manual settings. In this set of 3 pics all taken at the same time I played with shutter speeds. In others test case I played with aperture without fully understanding its significance and got some not so good looking pics.

Now some pics which just came good without any special significance..and yeah most of them related to the setting sun (will have another session today probably during that same time..am too lazy to get up early in the morning for rising sun!)

Theres also a video with nice resolution but thats a tad bigger for my net connection to handle (~125MB) to skipping it for now. And anyone who can give tips for photography is most wlecome!

Women in army-Gender bias?

This post is just an opinion on the newslink (obviously of TOI):
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5028294.cms

And especially for this particular remark:

"We have doubts on why you should do it for male officers and not for the women. Why are they treated differently?" the court asked.

Well am not a gender biased person or anything but one thing I firmly agree on that on an average men are physically stronger than females. Now you can point out 100 exceptions but I assure you those number of exceptions will be quite finite (maybe even countable). So for any job that is a physical job I will be biased towards men and for most jobs against women too. And especially for army I find no reason why women should be preferred for killing other person and living in tough conditions over men?

As I said am not gender biased so dont apply the above principle to any other kind of jobs thats just skill, intellect or a routine job that doesnt require anything. Its just for jobs that require physical strength. For those who contest this claim also or want to give some examples here is my suggestion: watch finals of any sport that has different section for men and women and compare the record time or anything. Be it athletics, tennis or any other sport (can leave out gymnastics here probably...not sure).

Another thing is that for those women who really want equality should expect no concessions for being a women (like claming mahila seat in bus or expecting etiquettes like opening of door for them or whatever). This is the same principle of reserved categories wanting equality and wanting concessing because they are from that caste at the same time. If you want to be considered in the same level then you should play on the same field. Only till the time being you want to get to this level you should have concessions (for the reason the reservations were implemented to get the scheduled class at the same par).

Just my thoughts no offence here. I certainly like women :)

Austerity-the new buzzword!

This austerity thing is dominating the headlines be it thanks to politicians living in 5 star hotels or Rahul Gandhi travelling by train and inviting stones at himself or maybe Shashi T tweeting around! Whatever be the reason with congress high command sticking to this new keyword its bound to remain that way.
Firstly I have usually been against this austerity stuff (not that i have much to spend around) but have been against the hue and cry that was raised when Mallya gifted a jet to his son (did he?) or Mittal married off his daughter in some style. I believe they have right to spend as much as they want considering the fact that they have worked hard for it. Of course while not hurting anyone (sentiments dont count please). But in case of politicians there is a whole new aspect involved. Can a person who is living his life comfortably really understand the problems of the poor? I know i can give a hundred arguments against that statement but still its a much better argument than of some private people spending money.
What I want to talk about though is that is the government sure that this austerity drive is saving money instead of incurring more expenditures? Lets take the case of Rahul Gandhi going by train instead of a chopper or plane. Savings because of tickets would be minimal compared to the cost of security involved. Read somewhere that police was involved to provide security along the entire route? (dont ask why still stones were pelted at him if you know how Indian police works) Now compare that to him going in a chopper in which case the security agencies are clueless about his whereabouts till he lands (YSR death informed us about this security system).
Leave the whole security thing lets talk about productivity now. I atleast believe that even the most incompetent minister would have work to do most of the day. Just going through all the papers without doing anything new would keep him busy. Now how can you expect person travelling in sleeper class to go through all the files. Is the savings in ticket worth that much amount of time?
Congress party instead of showing solidarity with all the drought affected people and get down to their level try working harder and get them to your level. Or is it that all hope is lost for the latter condition?
And Shashi T: think before you tweet :P

"About Me"

Found a very nice about me while browsing through Orkut profiles (birdwatching watever :P ). Agree with most of them!

i like 99 more than 100.

i like it when my hat is just about to blow away with the wind.

i like the feeling of a long-awaited bath.

i like acting sleepy.

i like being able to tell a mosquito just by feeling it on the skin.

i like sitting cross-legged on a chair.

i like it to face the wind with closed eyes and walk towards it.

i like it when I'm sitting in veggies and a leaf falls on my table.

i like the fireflies to fly over water bodies.

i like an empty mind.

i like most of the people I say Hi to on the street.

i like trying to listen to a song playing somewhere far off when I'm trying to sleep.

i like it when my head expands to take in a bright and fresh evening.

i like to barely miss the target of my water balloons in Holi.

i like the perfection of just the slightest imperfection.