the grand old man of paro

having stumbled down the slopes of taktsang, the air's a little thicker. from the log cabin's chimney the smell of thukpa and wai wai hold out a steaming promise of a well-deserved meal. beer bottle caps pop in the background. a prayer wheel on a mountain stream measures its every runaround with a peal from a centuries old bell. a hundred birds hurry home and the furry black dog paws the soft earth hidden away under a throw of pine cones. and the woodcutter marks time with his axe. in slow arcs his old weak arms work a fallen log. an unfailing rhythm. the wind blows taktsang's holy dust into the many folds of his face. his handmedown jacket flutters in surrender to the evening chill. little chunks of pine fly off into the sky. he stops for one moment. time stops with him. all of time is slave to this weather beaten woodcutter in a handmedown, by the thukpa, wai wai log cabin. and when he smiles, the world smiles with him. for he is the grand old man of paro.

a whole new twist

i've nurtured a fascination for HDR (high dynamic range imaging) for quite some time now. but that annoying psy-debate that plays out in your head between classical and modern thought, for most part in my case had classical thought triumphing. but now i've seen enough. HDR is the new benchmark and i've decided to take the plunge. while my first experiments are just that - experiments, the future seems bright and promising. clear blue skies and vivid foregrounds. the first step was the software - big thanks to recho here. next up is a lot of clicking on auto bracket. i dredged up the only bracketed pics i could find immediately for these results. and they might not seem all that amazing. but watch this space. it's a whole new world.

The Junkyard of Photography

Link Of The Day - July 19

(look at what all i try to be cyber cool)

Incredible collection of images from the recycle bins of photographers all over the world. As neatorama says "But for some reason, the error-as-art conceit sort of works."

And I should add, it's a strange albeit very satiating kind of voyeurism.

zubesco

parveen babi's bodyguard in amar, akbar and antony softly padded his way into our lives this last week. meow.

das saal baad

it's been 10 years since the first blog came along. woooh. and what a ride it's been.
hurrah for our online lebensraums. forever in awe.

one little devil

kuttichatan, loosely translates as little devil. one former vice-principal's name loosely translated as the devil in the coconut-grove. thing is, in god's own country, the devils arent particularly frowned upon. and are even welcomed with endless cups of tea, marie biscuits, berkeley cigarettes and headless chickens.

historically kuttichatan is siva's consort. like my pa says, an agent, somebody the lord chose to outsource certain responsibilities that he couldn't be bothered with, to. kuttichatan mainly concerns himself with fire, arson and the like. if you've been a good kid this year, umm... sorry, we don't have santa in kerala. but if you've been a bad kid, kc will come huffin and puffin and burn your house down.

HOHOHohohohohohohohohohoho.
that part madonna part harlot, happy sad evil laugh will echo in my one functional ear forever.