Netra Photo Gallery

Abstract shots from Mysore trip

2012-01-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

Lalit Mahal Palace
What caught my eyes before taking this pic?
-Beautiful architecture against clear blue sky and the beehives.
What I notice after taking this pic?
-Slight cracks in the structure.

Lalit Mahal Palace.
What caught my eyes?
-Lines, curves and patterns

Mysore Palace
What caught my eyes before taking this pic?
-Symmetry
What I notice after taking this pic?
-Net to safeguard the palace interiors; sculpture of a soldier. Of a soldier?! Quite strange.

Close up of a horse's nose and mouth
What caught my eyes before taking this pic?
-So many accessories on this poor fella and that too on his face. :(
What I notice after taking this pic?
-A worm dangling in air in front of him.

Huge open space for a helipad
What caught my eyes before taking this pic?
-A helipad for Lalit Mahal palace!!
What I notice after taking this pic?
-Rear wheel of a bicycle. Figure it out if you can! :)

Motion Blur:
My friend suggested me to try some motion blur pics. Here is one such shot from moving car.

Motion Blur:
This is not sand from a dirt track! Motion blur of haystack on a truck shot from a moving car:)

Sunset colors seen from a coffee day shop on Mysore-Bangalore highway!

Had a wonderful weekend trip to Mysore with my team mates and a special colleague from Germany! I was quite disappointed that we changed plans in the morning from Belur & Halebeedu to Mysore. I was all set to shoot architecture, art and sculpture! I then reset my mind to go completely abstract. It was absolutely amazing to capture the unseen/ rarely observed parts and pieces by focusing on clicking abstract.

We had a nice breakfast in Kamath Lokaruchi. Visited Chamundeshwari temple and it was quite amazing how I and my friends felt about Mahishasura. As kids, we used to find the statue of Mahishasura to be huge but now he looks small :)
We then roamed around and inside Mysore Palace. I got fascinated by the 3D paintings. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace.
We then had a nice long lunch in Lalit Mahal restaurant. Walked around the campus and started back to Bangalore.

Thanks to my colleagues for such a beautiful day! :)

Sky theater; sunset play

2011-12-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

6:13 PM

6:16 PM

6:18 PM

Its been ages I saw such magnificent shades of colors in the sky.

There was cool breeze and it felt like as though the screens were moving up for the color play to begin. The sky started getting painted with plain dull blue to lavender, which then started turning pink and shades of red that got deeper and deeper. It lasted for only a few minutes with the gradient shifting very rapidly.

A moment of "PURE BLISS"!!

Total lunar eclipse partially captured through my lens

2011-12-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

On 10-DEC-2011, total lunar eclipse occurred from 6:15PM till 9:45PM.
The whole day, I kept wishing for clear skies as there were few clouds floating over Bangalore city. When the event started, I was traveling back from a trek near Ramanagar. Fortunately, the skies were clear and we all got down from the bus and watched with awe, the shadow play of earth over moon. After some more time, took another break and made some pics. Unfortunately, missed the red coloring when the totality occurred at 8:30PM. Really missed it!:( Hoping on my luck the next time.

Good Morning Lalbagh

2011-11-06T00:02:00.000-07:00

Blessed feeling to catch the crisp early morning golden rays in Lalbagh after a night long rains. Love you Lalbagh!

The Grand Mysore Palace

2011-09-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

An effort to capture Mysore palace differently!

Crystal art

The grand illumination

A close up of an illuminated balcony

Goddess on one of the temples in the palace

A close up of a balcony

(Abstract shot) Couldn't resist capturing this wondeful electric blue shaded clouds with sun like lamp in the foreground :)

( Abstract shot) Beautiful lamp posts around the palace.

(Abstract shot) Loved the moon illusion the lamp created while composing this pic.

Another abstract shot

The main entrance

More than a lakh of such bulbs are used in lighting up the whole palace.

It was wonderful to visit Mysore Palace after a very long time. I guess the last time I visited was when I was 6 yrs old or so. With camera in my hands, it was a great pleasure to explore the beautiful architecture decked up with sparkling lights. I have seen many outstanding pictures of the palace. Since many people have already made such pics, I got motivated in trying out different compositions and effects. Hope you enjoy the pics as much as I did while shooting them :)

As Dusshera is just around the corner, I would like to wish you all a very happy festival.

Cheers,
Netra

Guess the waterfall

2011-06-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Let me see who can get this right! :)

OKAY..! Here you go..
The place is "Chunchi falls" near Kanakapura. Around 90km from Bangalore. I was quite thrilled by this place as it was way beyond my expectation. Had to make a small trek to reach the falls. It was very sunny and not a good day for photography! Hoping to visit again on a nicer day.

Family Portraits: Prashanth, Sukhi, Anaisha Baby and Ajay

2011-01-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

Here is another set of family portraits of Prashanth, Sukhi and Anaisha baby along with their family friend Ajay. Within an hour, I got 200 odd pics of which I could shortlist 150 good ones, each one having its own story. Enjoyed shooting this family esp Anaisha and Sukhi. Both are extremely photogenic and camera friendly :)

Family portraits: Sampath, Kala and baby Adhya

2010-12-25T21:58:00.000-08:00

Family portraits of my friends Sampath, Kala and baby Adhya. It was a beautiful day with them, was able to capture a variety of expressions and I loved watching Adhya. She is one nature lover. She was happiest when left all by herself. You can see that in the last pic(zoom the pic for better view of her expression). That pic brings joy to me whenever I see that :)

Friends forever

2010-12-19T07:37:00.000-08:00

Art Exhibition: Meet the artist Rohitha and some of her works..

2010-12-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome all to the art exhibition.

Rohitha is my colleague at SAP Labs, team mate at Read India Foundation and a great artist! I knew her as an artist but when I witnessed her masterpieces during the photo-shoot, I was full of joy :) I was even more stunned when I heard she came up with these master-pieces in a span of just 4 years while working on them over weekends only (apart from other interests that she gets busy with). I am now terribly inspired in fine arts ;) I am sure you too will, after seeing these beautiful paintings.

FOR SALE! Price: 8000 INR
If interested in buying this Tanjore paintaing, get in touch with Rohitha via http://sothisishowyoublog.blogspot.com/.

This is the first time I did photo-shoot of paintings and it was quite a challenging experience. Had to try a lot of different locations to avoid glare on the glass frame but yet retain good uniform lighting from the natural source. It was also a challenge to avoid angular distortions. Nevertheless, it was hard to achieve zero distortions which I then partially corrected using editing tools. I must say that I got to learn a lot about such a photo-session.

Some wallpapers

2010-11-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

God's art..

Golden dawn

Pitter-patter

That's an umbrella btw..

They look more like fire-works..

Rain water

Fresh greens..

Showstopper

2010-11-24T08:01:00.000-08:00

Thatt antha heli..! ;) (Guess the location)

2010-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Ondane sulivu (Clue no 1)

Eredane sulivu (Clue no 2)

Moorane sulivu (Clue no 3)

Nalkane sulivu (Clue no 4)

Ee prashneyannu sariyagi uttarisidavarige ondu pustakavannu kodalagutthade..
Tappu uttara kottavaru, nanu kelida pustakavannu nanage kodabekaguthade.. ;) ;) ;)

Camera tricks

2010-11-17T02:51:00.000-08:00

Canon 550D- my magic wand..! ;)

Distribution Event + Diwali Celebration at Brindavan Tent School

2010-11-14T06:09:00.000-08:00

Paper bags made by the school children. Love the art work on them.

Items that went into the hygiene kits.

Children's Day Cake

Cake cutting by the kids with their B'days in November.

Curious kids

Curious kids

Fireworks..

It was a successful event at Brindavan Tent school on 13-11-2010. We distributed hygiene kits, celebrated Diwali, kannada Rajyotsava and also Children's Day with the school children. Our special guests from Netherlands added more excitement and fun to the event.
Thanks to all the donors for your contributions.

More pics of the event : http://picasaweb.google.com/readindiafoundation/HygeneKitDistributionAndDiwaliCelebrationNov2010#
Read India Foundation: http://readindiafoundation.org/

Holy dip

2010-10-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

Camera Shy :D :D :D

Lalbagh: Nearest place to feel one with nature

2010-10-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Let me try making 20 ripples this time..

Catch me if you can..

Beauty conscious..

Health conscious.. 20 laps finished.. One last lap...!

You and I, in this beautiful world..

Lazy Sunday morning.. Let me sleep for some more time..

Shimmery water... Do I look more beautiful?

Tree kissing lake..

Various shades of green..

Waiting for the spring to be full of flowers..

For a nature lover like me who lives in a polluted city and glass buildings day long, lalbagh is a blessing. I spend my weekend mornings amidst the lush green, old huge trees, beautiful lake, flowers, colors, a good number of special species of flora and fauna. It is also a wonderful feeling to meet old friends and cherish sweet old memories while strolling in the beautiful garden. Thanks to the rains in B'lore for bathing my city everyday and making my lalbagh look even more beautiful, fresh and high contrast!

Waiting for the next weekend! :)

Portraits of my friends

2010-06-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Umbrella Story

2010-06-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

One fine day, Guru comes across a lonely umbrella and makes friends with her.

He then starts his journey with her.

Goes to a lake, shares beautiful moments with her. ;)

Later, introduces her to his friends.

Introduces to many more friends.

Then comes heavy gusty winds trying to separate her from him.He tries his best to protect her.But unfortunately, the mighty winds try to take him along with the umbrella.

Unable to see this, Viju runs to his rescue. The battle with mighty winds gets severe. Instead of letting go his friend, Viju decides to continue the struggle to save his friend.

Touched by this, Vishal decides to rescue his friends and wins the battle! :)

Moral of the story:
1. A true friend goes any extent to save you.
2. Unity is strength. It can win any battle.
3. If your love is true and strong enough, the whole world supports you to to be inseparable ;) ;)

SAP Guest House, Walldorf

2010-04-04T05:51:00.000-07:00

One frequently asked question by my colleagues both from India and Germany was if I stayed in SAP Guest house that was inaugurated very recently.

So, here are some pics of the Guest house. The best things about this place are, WAN phones are available in every room, SAP NW can be directly accessed and extremely close to the office (In fact, my office at building 1 could be seen from my room). Apart from these, I was happy to stay at this place for its freshness :) and the warm environment. However the only negative point is there is no kitchen available. Nevertheless, I hope the rooms can be enhanced with at least an option like a microwave.

Birds of Prey show at Burg Guttenberg, Germany

2010-03-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

A sleepy owl yawning..

A huge vulture..

This vulture was more like Vishwamitra.. He was just not able to see anything else but was just following his food..

The castle at Burg Guttenberg, Germany at the backdrop of river Neckar has a museum inside which exhibits objects from the middle ages. It also hosts show of special birds like owls, falcons, kara kara. Here are some pics of birds from the show.. More pics of the castle and the bird show will follow.

My New Baby! :)

2009-12-19T18:43:00.000-08:00

I'm in love with this car for its speciality "Beauty with Brains". It has an Italian design with stylish looks, a very strong body, comfortable drive, a lot of safety features, value for money and the best part "Blue and Me". Blue and Me syncs the mobile device with the car audio and can receive, make calls. It can even read out incoming SMS :)
All the audio, mobile controls are on the steering wheel. It has lot more interesting features, will update soon.

Attractive Bathroom Accessories

2009-12-17T06:12:00.000-08:00

My favourite shot! :) I tried a creative perspective by placing the camera below glass tea poi. I got this beautiful print of the tea poi over the object! :)

I couldn't resist buying this set when I went window shopping! :)

Some interesting shots at Innovative Film City

2009-10-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Wax model of Albert Einstein

A very intricate sculpting on camel bone

It was a pleasant trip to Innovative Film City, near Mysore Road last weekend accompanied by my buddies except for the unexpected scorchy sun. The place is not so great. We expected it to be much better when compared to Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. Here are 2 of my interesting shots.

Some more flowers...

2009-09-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

Some special flowers for you :)

2009-08-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

Flowers for you

2009-08-08T04:45:00.000-07:00

Blue and green- The most beautiful colors of planet earth!

2009-06-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

Mushroom: Radial Beauty!

2009-06-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Expressions of a frightened kitten

2009-05-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

One fine day we got a kitten as a gift. As most of my family members do not fancy a cat at home, we decided to give it to a cousin who happens to love cats. However, the kitten got to stay at home for almost a day till she came and picked her.
It was a terrible day for the poor kitten including my pet dog Sonu. Sonu is very pampered and he was unable to stand the attention on the kitten. He tried scaring her (the kitten was no lesser in scaring the dog, seemed like a natural instinct) and all his attempts only led to his depression as he got all the scoldings. He finally went to my neighbor's house which he has never done in the past and dint move an inch from there, though my mom tried offering him a lot of his favorite stuff . After a long time, he returned home only after he got confirmed that the kitten was no longer at home! :)
It was very cute to watch this..!

My doggie

2009-03-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

My little wonderland!

2009-02-27T11:06:00.000-08:00

There cant be anything more beautiful than a place like this. Manchinabele, a place close to Mysore road is special as it is not known to many people and it is just pure nature that one can find here. I always wish this tiny wonderland remains undiscovered..! :)
Sweet Memories: It was too beautiful to be a part of this place and listen to the nature songs of the river, trees, insects, birds and of course my own breathing in sync with the rest :) I wish I could experience those magical moments again in my life.
I so much wish I lived here as a bird or a fish.. Hmmm, God..! you better take my requirements properly for my next life..!! :) :)

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T04:01:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favourite pics. Everytime I see this pic, the color and the shape of these button rose petals make me more and more nature loving. Hats off to God's creativitiy! :)

Message to all my friends:

Never wait for an oppurtunity to show your loved ones how much you care coz when you wait for one, you could be timed out.. Make each and every moment special with your loved ones and as today is Valentine's day make it more special! :) :)

Lots of love!,

Netra

The Joy of Sharing.. :)

2008-12-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

Sweater Distribution Event: Dec 2008

Dental Camp: Mar 2008

Diwali Celebration: Nov 2008

A typical Saturday with the kids

Some Group Pics

Lunch Time

Journey till now..
The year 2008 has been successful for Read India Foundation. It is an NGO for helping under privileged kids in terms of education, health and school infrastructure started by me and Viju, a friend of mine. Today we have a core group working with dedication and a huge number of volunteers contributing directly/indirectly to this cause.

As a recap, I am posting some of the pics of the wonderful events we conducted this year. It has been a real nice experience shooting the beautiful expressions of these kids.

We look forward to extend our support to more and more such kids in the coming years.

If you like to know more about our organization, kindly follow the link to the website
http://www.readindiafoundation.org/

Color Pencil Sketching of Lord Ganesh

2008-12-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

Vakra tunda mahakaya

Soorya kooti samaprabha

Nirvignam kurumedeva

Sarva karyeshu sarvada..!

Art details: This is a graphite sketch of Ganesh. And for coloring, I have used color pencils.

For all my non-Indian friends: Ganesh is one of the most famous Indian Gods. His baby like features with the head of an elephant makes him look adorable. He is very widely worshipped as the God of wisdom, fine arts and good fortune.

I pray God for love and peace, the most essential elements for one's existence and which are missing in today's world!

Love

2008-11-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

The most luckiest flower used to express the most beautiful emotion on earth!
Nothing can match a red rose when it comes to expressing love for someone you care the most be it alive, near, far or dead.
These roses are for all my loved ones. I feel blessed to share these roses with a lot of wonderful people who've given me loads of love and care in my life.

Road Trip to Talakadu and Shivanasamudra

2008-11-15T23:42:00.001-08:00

Sculpture of Baby Ganesh sitting on a Rat (The Rat is special here as it has a few attributes of a horse)

A Cute Sculpture of Baby Nandi

Kauvery River

Shivanasamudra Waterfalls

Sunset reflection on a lake filled with lotus leaves.

Festival of lights: Diwali

2008-11-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hope you had a wonderful Diwali.

Some of my friends asked if I have edited the pics.. These pics are directly from the cam without any editing.

Cheers,

Netra

Bubble Trouble! :)

2008-10-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

oops missed it!

Lately, I've got a fascination for photographing refraction through tiny water droplets. However, with the basic lens 18-55mm that I have, I can hardly focus on water drop, forget the detail in it :(
Today, I got an idea of trying out soap water bubbles. I started recalling my childhood days how I used to make such bubbles. I made a small bottle of shower gel and water. Then started looking for a straw. I couldn't find any :( Then I took an ear bud ;) took off the cotton from both the ends and started my experiment. The bubbles were nice and colorful, however I felt the size of the bubbles could be increased. I started looking for a bigger stuff for making better bubbles. Then I saw an old face wash tube, quite big in size. I cut the tube on one end and gave a try. It was amazing..!! :)
The next problem was, I was the only person for my experiment. I had to blow and shoot simultaneously. The bubble would disappear very quickly even before I could focus my cam on it. Next idea was to place the tube and then blow the bubble on an object. This worked too. This is how I could place the bubbles on the doggie and get some nice shots ;)
Later, I had an hour of fun.. :D This experiment made me creative with a lot of new ideas. Will try them out sometime! :)
Hope you too have fun watching the pics :)

Red Radial Captivity

2008-09-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Since my childhood, I have been fascinated by this flower. Whenever I've spotted this flower, I have troubled my family and friends in getting this flower for me, as it blooms on a big tree.
After seeing the details of this flower, I realize that nature offers such a wide variety of wonderful patterns and design. This is now inspiring me a lot in fashion designing :)

Strategy Lessons!

2008-09-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

It was wonderful watching the mommy spider with her small one on her. The baby spider was moving around her body and it looked like the mother was teaching strategies to the small one :) I stood there for a few mins and it was wonderful watching this. I should've taken a video…

Prince Charming

2008-09-18T05:19:00.000-07:00

This frog who was happily swaying caught my attention while I was portraying my friend. He looked like he was playing a flute and dancing to the nature sounds.. :)
Only later when I transferred the pic to my laptop did I realize this frog was not a normal species. I was flabbergasted to see the golden lining around his eyes. Hope this guy is not the "Frog Prince" as in the old fairy tale who transformed into a handsome Prince.. ;)

Every phase of life is beautiful..

2008-09-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

The first leaf is young, fresh and colorful. It looks full of life.
The second leaf is old, shriveled and faded. It still looks stunning with attractive patterns on it, despite the hardship it has undergone through all these years.
If I ask you to choose one beautiful leaf of the two presented here, I am sure most of you might find it difficult to decide..
Friend!, Enjoy each and every moment and make your life as beautiful as these leaves!

Water Sculpture

2008-09-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

The 3 dimensional water sculptures were created by my friend Sushma by throwing stones into the pond and captured by me on my cam :). It required a lot of synchronization wrt the timing and the target, which we obtained after a few trials.
After we got a few good snaps, we appreciated the team work :).

Nehal

2008-08-23T04:21:00.000-07:00

The portraits are of my best friend Neema's 3 yr old kid, Nehal. It was a little hard for me to capture her expressions as she was in a very playful mood and was singing, dancing and running all around. Whenever I asked her to smile, she would give me a beautiful smile( like the one in the 1st pic). God bless her with all the happiness.
It was wonderful meeting my dear friend with her kid after a long time and spending a memorable evening with them.

Nature

2008-07-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Small elements of nature bring such immense happiness which cannot be replaced with money,
power or whatsoever.I got these roadside species on Mysore road. I have them in my room and everytime I look at them, they appear more and more gorgeous! :)
My collection includes leaves skeleton, rose petals, tiny wild flowers, and some similar wild species.. These are memory links for some special days/events in my life.. Either I pick them on a special day or the day gets special in someway when I pick them :)
Good work GOD, your creation is the best!

Guess what pattern is it?

2008-07-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

Fabric or butterfly wing?

Dart board or an eye of a parrot? (View it full screen by clicking on the pic)

Soap carving of a baby elephant

2008-06-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

I found a bar of useless soap while I was cleaning my room. I felt like doing some creative stuff before throwing it away. I then got an idea of carving on it and I carved this baby elephant out. Once I finished it, I was quite surprised as I had never done this before. This is indeed very interesting and would love to do more such sculptures...

Kerala Scenic Pics

2008-05-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Water Painting, Kerala Trip

2008-05-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

Butterflies, Butterfly park

2008-04-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

Cute Expressions of a Baby

2008-03-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

The expressions of a baby are very cute. The kid is very expressive as you can see a variety of her expressions in the above pictures. Looks like she has a great future as an actor :)
The name of the baby is Harshita, 1 yr old now. She is the daughter of my buddy Parimala.
God bless her with loads of happiness so that she could smile more and more and make her loved ones smile too :)

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

I have made this flash video with some of the rose snaps taken during my visit to Lalbagh on Independence day, Germany, at home etc. I have used Canon DSLR, Sony Cybershot and Sony Ericsson P1i mobile for shooting these pictures.

The flash video has interactive elements. You could dynamically select the photo that you would like to see from the thumbnails at the bottom of the video.
Watch the video with the background music to enjoy it. :)

If you like to send this to your loved ones, you could use the link:
"Happy Valentine's Day"

Happy Valentine's Day..!! :)

Cheers,
Netra

Nature: Interactive Flash Video

2008-02-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Wings; Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

2008-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

2008-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

River Tern on incubation

Painted Stork: Drinking Water

Spoonbill

A Pair of painted storks skaking hands

Little Egret

Painted Stork with wings wide open

Open Bill Stork

A pair of Spoonbills

Open Bill Stork

Painted Stork: " Did u call me?"

Spoonbill with water reflection

Spoonbill

Painted Stork

A happy Painted Stork

Vibrant colors

2007-12-29T07:47:00.000-08:00

Nandi hills

2007-12-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

Some Creative clicks :)

2007-11-21T03:14:00.000-08:00

Austria

2007-11-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

Austria continued....

2007-11-21T01:26:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Earth sight from a flight

2007-11-15T00:49:00.000-08:00

This is my favourite snap: Earth looks gorgeous...There is BlackSea below covered with clouds. View it fullscreen, looks very gorgeous.

Magical Dew Drops (Nandi Hills)

2007-10-21T06:37:00.001-07:00

Dew drop on a grass blade

Pearls

Dew drops on eye lashes

Dew drops on grass blades

Magical Dew Drops (Nandi hills)cont..

2007-10-21T05:40:00.001-07:00

All set for the sunrise party

Nature's Beauty

Bejeweled Spider Web

Decorated wild plant

Crystal Worm

Dew drops on the leaves

Dew drops on the grass

Leaf Skeleton

2007-08-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Cheers

2007-08-05T07:14:00.000-07:00