The Beatles song was in my my when I Titled it. I felt happy when I came across this image. The “sunlight” is due to pointing the camera at a dining room light as I was photographing the flower from our patio. I was surprised at the effect.
Taj is perhaps the most photographed icon of all times. I had never been to see the Taj Mahal before. I was curious to know if I would see it and say to myself…”Yup…it looks like the pictures I have seen a million times”. I was afraid of that. However, when I went to see it….from the very first time I laid eyes on it, it was overwhelmingly beautiful. It is glowing, ethereal looking, massive, spectacular, milky, and a silent beauty that looks back at you. You almost want to use hushed tones when you are in its presence. It brought tears to my eyes. I am not sure I can describe the feeling you get when you see it. Made me intensely desire to be a poet.
Anyway, as far as photography is concerned, it was one difficult icon to shoot. It has been shot and shot and shot. I too took a million images of it. However, as I was walking towards the Taj, the immaculate lawns were being watered…and for some reason, there was a puddle in the lawn that I saw. In it was a silent reflection of the awesome monument. The puddle was not very big, but the image it held was huge. Here is a rendition of what I saw in the puddle. When I show this image to people, they either love it or hate it (processing, colors, crunchiness, etc). See what you think.
Anyway….it truly was a site to behold!!
Today, I want to share with you images of the incredible time we had in Jaisalmer….a small desert town in the western part of Rajasthan….very near the Pakistan border. I will write later about the town and the beautiful people, shops, handicrafts etc. that I saw in this town. Also, there is a spectacular fort that rises suddenly and spectacularly right out of the desert in an incredible way.
We drove an hour from this village, into the dunes area to shoot the sunset. On the way, we saw peacocks, camels, horses, tiny huts, colorful ladies carrying water home on their heads (a whole other story which I will talk about in a future post). When we reached the desert camp, I negotiated with the owner to rent a camel cart to take us deep into the dunes, and an extra camel and a man with a turban to pose for us by the dunes at sunset.
We rode this cart about 5 kilometers into the desert. It was an amazing experience….remote, peaceful, great light, only sounds of nature around us and an occasional antelope, peacock, camel or a child…..I could not believe I was experiencing such an incredible moment. I am grateful.
Here are some pictures of the cart we rode…. I will post several more awe inspiring sight in the next post on this journey.
Thanks for stopping by.
The cart owner brought his son (the next generation cart owner 
) with him. Notice what he is holding in his hand…he was so intrigued by my Flip video camera…so I gave it to him, showed him how to use it and he video taped a ton of footage. I could not get him to stop shooting…it was funny.
Keith and Sharon by the cart…
Today I saw a fellow photographer’s (Peter Györffy) first attempt at posting a video tutorial.
I watched it with interest and learned a few things that I did not know before. This inspired me to dig out an image that I created during a recent workshop and work on it to practice the techniques I learned. This is the result. I wish the flares were not as prominent. I do not take many landscape images. So this one was important for me to finish.
As always, any comments/suggestions you may have will be gratefully accepted.