Category: JustLikeThat

My Lunar Adventure (Moon Photography)

It was supposed to be the brightest & the best full moon of the year 2010. The photographer in me was excited about the prospect of shooting the moon for some amazing results.


(Referenced from http://www.wrotniak.net/)

The entire first half of the 30th Jan was spent on reading up about lunar photography. Tips & tricks from across the web were read, understood & made notes of. After finalizing on a good location for the shoot, I announced to the family that I would be away with my third baby (that is how the Canon 500D is referenced to by the wife when peeved) for the whole of the Saturday evening. If looks & sighs could kill …..

Thanks to a brain wave at the last minute, I landed up on the 10th floor of a very familiar car park that proved to be a great location for the purpose. I spent more than an hour waiting for the moon rise & setting up the equipment … all in the company of an amused security guard (pictured below).

Bengaluru’s air pollution came into play & hid the moon till it rose a clear 5-10 degrees off the horizon. After that, the full moon was a breathtaking sight. With all my preparation & good luck with the weather, I had to return with some amazing snaps. Right?

Imagine my disappointment when the two best shots of the evening turned out to these below:

IMG_1255-1IMG_1331 IMG_1315

Oh well … not everything was lost. It was a great outing. I got to do something out of the ordinary. And thanks to all my preparation, I know exactly what would’ve resulted in me taking spectacular snaps (like Andrzej Wrotniak’s snap at the beginning of this posting).

If any of you are interested in photographing the moon, find below some notes from my prep work for this adventure :

Tips:

  • Pack in your tripod & a telephoto lens (300 mm minimum; bigger the better; a tele-converter would be handy)
  • Its a good idea to bracket your exposure
  • Use the camera’s highest resolution setting
  • Experiment around f11 – f16 : 1/125 – 1/250 : ISO 100 – ISO 400

Resources:

Tip #1 was where I bit the dust – I only have a cheap Sigma 18-200mm lens that was just not big enough for the occasion. I now think I should’ve carried my older Minolta aim-n-shoot camera. Its 20x optical zoom might have given better results. Well, the next full moon is just a month away!

Common Thread Across Oracle & Apple Announcements

The 27th of January witnessed a couple of high profile IT events – Apple launching the iPad and Oracle outlining its strategy for Sun. Though the events addressed completely different markets (Apple bringing technology to the common man, whereas Oracle is building technology focused on enterprises), there was a common thread across the two.

oracle-sun

Software – Hardware Integration.

Executives of both companies touted their unique prowess to engineer hardware – software integration for their customer’s benefit. Though this is not a new concept (another example is IBM’s concept of Appliances), we are getting to hear more of this in the market place.

apple_ipad1

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Difference Between Mars & Venus

The Republic day holiday gave me an opportunity to spend a lot of time with the kids. Naturally it was a roller coaster ride – the tantrums, their life discoveries, the fights, their demand for attention & their evolving personalities! By evening I was at my wits end counting the number of years left for them to leave home (which by the way is a long time away).

In between putting the kids to bed & hitting the sack, I spent a while mulling over what kind of individuals I want my kids to grow up.

Thanks to Khalil Gibrans’ famous poem, I remembered the quote about “..our children are not ours, they belong to the world ..”. We, the parents, need to launch them to the world with a best chance of their success – with or without us. Accordingly the kids need to grow up to be independent.

Considering the ever changing world we live in today, it’s become difficult to predict what skills will help them tomorrow. In this uncertainity, the only certainity is that individuals need to be strong minded to take on any challenge they come across – mind over matter.

Just before calling it a day, I proudly announced to the missus that I wanted my kids to grow up to be independent & strong minded.

“I want them to be happy” – came the response even before I started explaining how I had arrived at the choice of my attributes. And the matter was closed.

Apart from being awed by the brilliance of her thought’s simplicity, I was left acknowledging that Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus! And to know that I am the one with Tal Ben-Shahar’s book Happier by my bed side …. tsch tsch.

PS: While I pen these thoughts & blog it via a cool iPhone app, the missus is snoring away the day’s travails.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Life is a Balance

It was the first day of the year & decade. Having spent the day with the extended family, we had just finished a sumptuous Rajasthani dinner & started heading home. Just as we started, we came across a bunch of villas that got us all wishing, drooling & “hmmmmm“ing. The plush serene looking bougainvillea adorned villas were inspirational & good enough to be my “strive for” goal of the year (or maybe the decade). I was charged up & was eager to get to the next stage of the game.

Driving further, we stopped at a traffic signal. We were surprised to find a street hawker knocking at our windows beckoning us to buy her cartoon shaped balloons. It was almost 11:30 pm & a cold foggy night . And here was a young girl (all of 10-12 years old) begging us to buy her wares so that she & her family (an elder woman carrying an infant who were trailing behind) could have dinner that night. The scene had a sobering effect.
Go after more & better, or be happy with what I have?
Maybe, it doesn’t have to be a this or that? Maybe, it ought to be a this AND that. It is the BALANCE.
Future AND Present.
Self AND Surroundings.
Work AND Life.
Passions AND Making a Living.