Last Day of the YEAR 2012

This is my favorite shot of this year. I took this photo in March. I was travelling when I captured this Himalayan beauty. I was on the way of making, probably one of the biggest decisions of my life, successful. Success is just another word, I believe. I mean yes I did stand up on my decision and it did work well for me. But journey is not over. It’s still going on, and hopefully will go on further…

Happy New YEAR everyone.

With lots of love and good wishes,

–Nandini.

Shabba-khair!

See you all in 2013

Flowing Evening

Life flows on within you and without you.
~ George Harrison

 

Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.
~Heraclitus 

Life’s good.

Instagram- Himalayas

 

I so much wanted to share this one. But, this photograph is not through my eyes and camera. And, probably that is the reason I wanted all of you to see this.

Standing seemingly tall
like a protective wall
The glorious snowy mountains
Clouds brushing their tops
While it may snow up there
It’s just rain down here

Location: Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India

Photography by: Mehak Dhiman (My little sister)

“Instagramed” by me.

My Mother’s Pixels

Last month, my Mom visited her parents’ home, which is located in a very beautiful place. It is almost plain, with little hills and plenty of tea gardens and is completely surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Since, I couldn’t accompany her (sadly), so she took the camera with her so that she could later show me what she saw. So sweet of her! And tea gardens used to be my favorite place to play and hide during my early childhood days. Aaah, the aroma!

She doesn’t have a blog, so I thought I would share those pictures for her. The photos were quite good, and for some of them I simply did some editing in Picasa.

Location: Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India. (Now, this place is literally sitting on the lap of Himalayas - Dhauladhar Range, lit. the White Range)

“Oh the White!”

“Bamboo”

 ”Classic Red and Green“

“A Perfect Capture”

“My Mom’s Mom (i.e. my Nani ji (grandmom))”

“Geraniums are from my Mom’s garden (originally pink)”

Love you Mom, missing you!

The Breezy Blue Himalayan Dream

Beautiful beautiful morning!

The Blue and the White

Why are you so far away…?

It was “super-windy” and cold, my hands were shaking. This photo showing that:

. .. A Wide View .. .

. . . Wide View with a Pine Tree in it . . .

. . . Winds.. brushing everything on their way. . .

. . .One B&W because of the thorny bush . . .

Standing HIGH at top of the mountain. Well, they are everywhere!
“Intersecting Natural and Artificial lines”

Travelling is mostly about fun, isn’t it?
Date of photography: March 11th, 2012 

Hope you enjoyed these photos, I loved taking them!

Faraway Mountains – AGAIN! :D

So by now, perhaps, most of you would have come to know about my love for these faraway mountains, as this is my third post on them. You can click here and here if you want to see those posts.

The very reason that my camera isn’t capable of clicking them, makes me more in LOVE with them and fascinates me to capture the drama which unfolds around them on different days. So even if the pictures are not that clear and GREAT, I am still going to share them here.

And I would again like to mention - Not Edited & Not Framed. (Execpt for the last one, I cropped it)

Way too dramatic the next day…!

Closer on the snowy part -

Without the “Zoom”. I loved the clouds, that’s why.

Thank God, the drama got over and I could see the blue sky!

(Click on the pictures to see them in a better way.)

Have a good day, everyone! May your camera gets fascinated by your photographic mind.

Not Edited & Not Framed

Same mountains (very very far away),

different day,

different light,

no editing & and no framing! (Edited & Framed)

Again, like the last time, let me know what you think. I would love to know!

. . . Landscape . . .

 I loved the clouds, so here is one more -

. . . Portrait . . .

Date of photography - February 18, 2012

“As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest,
or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door,
that does not look like a door, opens.“
-Stephen Graham

Snow-Capped Again

Not everything lasts forever,
Sunny winter days were here,
but now it’s just the blanket of clouds,
showering freezing water down,
capping the peaks with white flakes,
feels like it’s January all over again.

Out in the Green Wheat Fields

A sunny winter day,
splendid colors around,
cool breeze combing the fields,
a perfect blue sky,
some clouds trying to hide the sun,
Well, then who needs to go inside?

I got shrunk! But, I had a really good time.

Blue Mountains + Green fields = Perfect happiness

Trying to hide in the shade? Hehehe

Date pf photography – 26th January, 2012 (Republic Day of India). Now, celebrating India is better this way, isn’t it?

What a joy it is to feel the soft, springy earth under my feet once more,
to follow grassy roads that lead to ferny brooks
where I can bathe my fingers in a cataract of rippling notes,
or to clamber over a stone wall into green fields that
tumble and roll and climb in riotous gladness!
~ Helen Keller

It’s really sad that snowfall has caused havoc in many places, like in Europe. I hope it gets sunnier there soon… … “Praying”

Now, My Updated “Guest”

Sharing is one of the best things to do. I have always believed in it and now I do more.

I shared one bird’s photo yesterday, whose identity was a mystery for me since Google honestly didn’t help me much. I did put up every related detail of that bird there – Green, brown head, striped neck, India, patient, bird-size, but nothing good came up, at all. So finally, I shared it here on WordPress, and now I actually know what it is! I have found several websites/blogs which show that bird. And lucky for me it was on Wikipedia too! How cool is that.

Ok, so now ending up the mystery, I would like to update those of you who still don’t know what it (he/she) is [I read that both he & she look similar..].

This bird is called – Brown-Headed Barbet. Nice name, don’t you think?

I would like to share the names of my fellow bloggers who did their best to search for it.
Bindu John (who shared the links, even though he had just seen it once and knew its name in Malayalam, which is – ‘pachilakudukka’) and Cornel Apostol who successfully (unlike me) found it on the internet. Thanks a lot to both of you!

Later, I also found a Wikipedia page on it (I think I mentioned that earlier). You can click here to read more about this beautiful patient bird (Yes, “patience” is the quality I myself assigned to it). Also, there are hundreds of images on Google! Well, I just had to get the name right at the first place, I think! Haha!

Here’s one more photo I would like to share - Enjoy!

And that day when the Barbet surprised me with its presence, it had come for the food which I had kept to invite other birds I wanted to shoot (which I did too). I forgot to mention that yesterday.

Thank you all for your comments on my yesterday’s post!