The Breathing Time...

It has been quite a long time since I was able to post here. The obvious reason for my absent is my hectic travel and occupied schedules. But equally obvious reason is the lack of portable camera by which I used to capture the moments to blog. When I was carrying iPhone, it was easy to take pictures as it has an excellent camera. But the quality of the camera in my new phone is not encouraging enough to take ANY picture. My other camera - Canon 450D is too bulky to carry everywhere just for blog pictures.

This morning, I got some time where I could dust off my 450D and take some pictures. The subjects were just in front of me!

Top view of my table (after cleaning up all the mess on it...)! These days, I am also busy with organizing my backups. The original hard drive shipped with this laptop is on the right in this picture. It started making clanking noise and thus, I asked Dell to replace it. After installing the replacement drive, I installed the operating system and all software. It took almost whole day to install and update all of them with the latest patches and service packs. So, I decided to take an image of the hard drive that next time, if this hard drive crashes, I can just rebuild new hard drive from this image. I took image on the middle left hard drive which is Seagate 160GB one. The other hard drive on top in left is my routine incremental one and the one in bottom is 250GB Seagate one which I use to store my music and pictures. All these three hard drives are SATA ones and I use the SATA to USB interface to connect them to USB. The big one on right is a 500GB one which I use to store permanent backups.

Since I am "showing off" anyway, let me continue showing off some other things too :)

This is my new phone - Nokia 5310. Its wonderful phone. Very slim and robust. It has an earphone jack which helps me listen to the music using my in-ear headphones.

Senquel--AD my desensitizing mouth wash! I am using it since some time as one of my teeth has become very sensitive. I need to undergo some surgery for my tooth problem but I dont know when I will be able to.

Along with other items, this lens has been on the table since yesterday. Last evening, I went on terrace to do my routine exercise as I stayed home. The purpose of this exercise is to reduce my tummy. I had carried my camera bag with me to take some sunset pictures but I noticed below chap on the street and could not resist to take his picture...
I am sure you know the reason why I took this picture :)

This lens is indeed very amazing. Its so sharp and especially even in low light (small F value), its very fast too. Few months back, Raju and his wife visited 11KKN. Their kid Priyash was very playful that evening.

Look at his eyes... So big!

This is another f2.8 IS lens I recently got from J-Lo. It was a surprise gift for me. It is also very sharp and fast lens. Check the picture below...

At 31mm hand held, it so sharp! And notice the bokeh... its so powerful.

Check how faithful color reproduction it can do... It was a spontaneous shot during Ambrish's wedding. I like this lens very much but I wish it was a bit smaller in size that I can carry it attached to the camera in my small laptop bag.

J-Lo also got this bag for me. Its a nice and enough padded bag which I can carry on my travels. Unfortunately, it can hold only a camera, one additional lens and a flash. But thats good enough for time being.

This is an original lens which came with 450D. This too is 17-55mm IS but upto f3.5 and thats why it could remain small in size.

I think I am now pretty equipped with good lenses that if I am invited for a wedding photography, I will meet the expectations :). If I can add some muslins, strobes and reflectors, I can be a fully equipped wedding photographer  and if some beautiful subjects then stand in front of my camera, I may not need to depend on my rickshaw driving skills... :)

Since last few months, I am contemplating on visiting the zoo and try these lenses with tripod and mono pod. But it hasn't yet happened. I also fantasize to go on C G Road and do some street photography but again that is also not happening :(

Sage de Ammerikka - The return

From California, I returned to New Jersey. I received my new laptop from Dell but on opening the package, I found that it had a dent on the back of the body. So, Dhwani returned it and reordered it. Dell gave $100 credit for shipping me dented laptop and upgraded my configuration to 4GB from 2GB! This is why I like Dell.

I stayed at Mitulbhai;s place. Keeping awake till 2am was usual even though he had to go work in few hours.

An evening before, I had a dinner at Kukididi's place. We talked a lot and recollected some of old memories. Kukididi had prepared delicious Chhole for dinner. I asked her to pack it for my next day flight to India. Devalbhabhi packed thepalas for me.

I had two additional bags to carry with me. Lufthansa is an expensive airline as it charges $250 for an additional bag weighing upto 23 Kgs. For bag weighing more than 23 Kgs up to 32 Kgs, it charges $500! Air India charges $120 and $180 respectively. Brijesh was flying back by Air India and thus I asked him to carry one of my 32 Kg bag with him. Air India waived the charge for this bag as we have very good relations with it!

When I reached at Lufthansa counter for my check in, the girl at the counter warned me of charges for the third bag I was checking in. I was prepared. I handed her my passport and ticket and started weighing all my bags. All my check in bags were within limit. She asked me to weigh my handbag and it happened to be 14 Kgs - 6 Kgs more than allowed limit. So, she asked me to reduce it to 8 Kgs. I started to unpack my bag there at the counter. She asked me to go to a corner as I was blocking other passengers. When I returned at the counter, there was different girl. My passport, boarding cards and luggage tags were ready at the counter. She pasted luggage flaps on bags, gave me my boarding cards, luggage tags and passport and threw a nice smile and set me free!!! She saved my $250 :)

When I reached to my seat in the plane, a mother (reasonably healthy) and a father were busy in managing their crying infant. They requested me if I can relocate somewhere else that they can use third seat for their child. This created an opportunity for me to interact with one of the crews on board. I told her about Chhole I was carrying with me and if she could heat it up for my dinner :). During the dinner serving, she happily poured Chhole from plastic container to two aluminum ones. She heat up one and kept other one in cold compartment that I can use it on my second flight. I enjoyed Kukididi's chhole one more time.

I reached Frankfurt at 7:30am next day. It took a while for me to find a shower there. After shower, I came to the departure gate from where my New Delhi flight was to go. A coffee counter there brought a big relief to me! After puja, I had German cappuccino and theplas!

The flight brought me to New Delhi on time. An assistant of the airport authority came to escort me from the gate. At the immigration, there was a queue long enough for a wait time of at least an hour. The assistant put me to the diplomat counter and cleared me in a minute! My luggage arrived a little late. Customs officers were aware of my coming and thus I had no problems there too. Yogesh and Ambrish were waiting for me outside...

I stayed in New Delhi for few days before heading home. Life became pretty normal from next day.

Saga de Ammerikka - San Diego 2nd visit

From Philadelphia, I flew to LAX. I spent one day on site to demonstrate the integration of the system. The site would be ready in coming months.

Next day, we drove to San Diego. We stopped by Vigitron office to get a replacement for a faulty unit and then arrived at the famous San Diego zoo. Some of the pictures from this visit below:
Seeing is believing for these animals... I wish I could spend more time with them and I carried my tripod along with...

Below are some "other moments" in this zoo...

From San Diego, I returned to the site and then next day, I flew back to New Jersey.