Things couldn't have got any worse...

Till the Heavens opened up, and God said "Oh... I hate you Meghana!"

Bokeh blah blah....

One fine December day, when I saw that my Flickr contact Satya!!! posted a pic taken through his lensbaby... I wanted a similar pic too!
As always, I lacked funds and all, so a few months later, decided to make this little attachment in the homemade holga-esq lens that I had made a few weeks earlier.

So how does it work?
The shape of the bokeh is the shape of the aperture. So, if the aperture is hexagonal, the bokeh is hexagonal... and if the shape of the aperture is heart shaped, or star shaped... then, the bokeh is a heart or a star respectively... Thanks to Ashwin for the simple explanation, which got me thinking and eventually come up with this...

How did I do it?
I took my holga/Lens baby (homemade) and on the inside of the lens, placed a circular cutout of black tinted paper with a cutout in the desired shape in the centre of the disc...
so, the aperture (opening for light) is between the glass and the sensor, nearer the glass rather than the sensor, and not floating about...

A little observation:
for objects close by, the bokeh formed is inverted... eg: if you place the heart straight on the lens, on the image, the bokeh of the shape of the heart appears inverted.
... so, place the aperture shape upside down if the shape is not symmetrical and the object is very near...
So, there... I have custom bokeh... for almost no cost... except for the 8 bucks I spent on the fresh sheet of black tinted paper, of which I hardly used about 1/50th...
I'm now going to experiment with more shapes, types of bokeh shots with this lens. Wow! Just when I was despairing that i have finally run out of ideas... It couldn't have come at a better time...
try this, have fun, experiment and do post in your feedback if any...

PS: Music facilitated the making of this ... so don't forget... put of your fav music full blast!

sketching away...

I haven't sketched for a long time. The last sketch I made was this incomplete one a month back at CDSA while Anita Ma'am was sharing some f her wisdom with us... which I don't remember at all...
So, I wonder when I will end up sketching again...

This is a job for... someone else...

there must be something wrong with myself... when will i realise that?

lassie

lassie
Originally uploaded by DraconianRain

Don't give her any coffee please, she gets high...
Somebody run quickly and get her some chai

the blue Corsair like head-style on the pretty head...
big pretty Deadlights looking away to the side instead...

she started talking bilge... some body sound the din...
The lassies going Addled, tie her up to the belaying pin!

with long slender fingers she stifles a little sly laugh...
what do i do Me bucko, she's is a rum little thing by half!

who gave her Grog, grub and gun (canon) in her hand...
now she looks like a pirate's favourite Wench ... Begad!!

Look at her through my spyglass, she's looking high...
now she covers her face, she's feeling shy...

-------------------------Cap'n DraconianRain (You savvy?!)

My tribute to Sanjeev Kapoor!

One fine march morning (today), I had a sudden inspiration to cook, and soon enough a set of Sanjeev Kapoor recipes was handed over to me unceremoniously...
I remembered all the great cooks I have known... My mum, my Grand mum, Sanjeev Kapoor, Revati, Harshad and Vinay, and Philipp... wow quiet a list... so where did I fit in? and why was I doing it? Irrespective of that...
I started scanning through for a good, easy, least taxing vegetarian something to cook up in the shortest possible time.
I chose to make gobhi musallam ... since the gobhi was already there in the refrigerator!
And with a few tips from mom, I made something really really nice!
It was quiet a treat!

I'm not an instinctive cook... can't improvise much, but what I can do is cook by the book! Sometimes, that helps too...

And I understand what Philipp believed in... Cooking is the ultimate relaxing therapy! Only, I like to be on the other side savouring, in the end, the lovely instinctive delicacies arising from a series of unfortunate events throughout the course of the day...! especially when there are people like him cooking!

Samba Pa Ti

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Its probably the greatest ever slow Santana rock ballad.... Its got a very lovely lazy beat, and the guitar solo and the delay and all is just too magical!
Takes me to another level altogether. I listened to it so much in Auroville... it takes me back there. especially after dark. The first few days when I was finding myself there, without finding the ones I knew before. It was some experience when I visited Philipp and Dhilshath's house for the first time, just on my second day there... Thank god for friends... I could never have found my way through those dark wooded roads...
I remember the first rain there... the lovely smell of the damp read earth... and I wondered what would happen in Monsoons... I loved the rain, till I got stuck in the middle of nowhere when the heavens really poured their rage out...
The lazy afternoons waiting for teatime, the little bench we sat on chatting, the nights in the little vault, the late card sessions on the kitchen vault terrace...
The lovely midnight rides the woods of Auroville in complete darkness...
I remember the eclipse I saw from the Aspiration bench close to 2 AM... the time I spent with my guitar in my little hut, the mindless nights at the beach, hearing the waves roar and splash on the shores, getting drenched in them, not worrying about the sand and salt in my hair, skin and clothes... not worrying about falling sick... not worrying about anyone else... the deep sea swimming, in clear but profound waters
and then mindlessly falling in love... The scorpion stung, with a gleam in his eye, and left such a sublime longing as the song leaves...