Anil Advani

Pictures in the sky

Anil — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:36:45 +0000

Shape of the swirly cloud formation somewhat exaggerated by a Lensbaby [2.0 original]… Click pic for larger view.

somewhat “untitled” [edit]

Anil — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:36:00 +0000

414

Anil — Sun, 13 May 2012 02:55:55 +0000

Behind blue eyes….

Anil — Fri, 11 May 2012 00:40:39 +0000

‘Tis the season

Anil — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:45:40 +0000

These raw mangoes are almost in reach by stretching an arm out of the window – these are just about large enough but still completely raw to make a good jar of “aam panna“…..delicious!

Sorry, we’re closed today….

Anil — Wed, 02 May 2012 02:53:45 +0000

A rusty chain threaded between the roots of a Banyan tree and a lock holding it all together – wonder what purpose this serves? Someone used to chain a bicycle or rickshaw to the tree for safekeeping?

Continual “hartals” in Dhaka, but the water lilies are pretty

Anil — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:38:47 +0000

3 Hartals last week and 2 already this week. Work is quite at a standstill. * Hartal means a general strike.

Love, in the mango tree

Anil — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:27:49 +0000

Sensory overload!

Anil — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:39:15 +0000

Works by around 300 Bangladeshi artists in one place at one time…… it was just fantastic but a complete overload for the brain trying to absorb so much art at one time. Need to go back to spend time appreciating selected pieces Artist Shahabuddin Ahmed talking and gesturing at the inaugural ceremony of the Dhaka [...]

Does it satisfy?

Anil — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:27:24 +0000

Using the camera [and related paraphernalia] and photography as a medium without thinking of the technical aspects, enjoying the entire process of making an image from the time of seeing and composing a picture in the viewfinder to the end-result on paper [or screen] : the satisfaction level? MASSIVE. Yes, a lot! Click the images [...]

Panam Nagar – tribute exhibition

Anil — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:52:37 +0000

While driving down Gulshan road 56 and turning at 55, noticed this nice looking poster advertising a water-color painting exhibition “A Tribute to Panam Nagor” at Khazana restaurant organized by ‘Arts Council Dhaka’. A small poster stuck on the glass door of Khazana shows the full picture ….. OK, so a half-blue door is a half blue [...]

Duotone it or leave it?

Anil — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:20:32 +0000

While working on processing files for printing, it appears that some of the images benefit from toning while others don’t. The first one, in my opinion, takes on the tones well and brings out the scene as I experienced it. The 2nd image looks best left monochrome…. What is it that make one work in [...]

Nuts about bolts

Anil — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:52:35 +0000

….and screws, washers, nails, bits and pieces of things we might not think twice about – are Babla’s material for his art. Exhibited on 22nd Jan 2012 at Dhaka.

Biswa Ijtema, 2nd visit

Anil — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:46:10 +0000

Tongi Friday 20th Jan 2012. “…an annual Tablighi Jamaat Islamic movement congregation held at Tongi, Bangladesh by the river Turag. The event focuses on prayers and meditation and does not allow political discussion.” As per Wikipedia. Click for larger view

Back to NIK’s Silver Efex B&W

Anil — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:09:52 +0000

I had begun using NIK’s Silver Efex Pro a couple of years ago and then sort of abandoned the use. Why, I don’t know. I recently processed a few images into B&W, and thought they looked good until I ran them through a process in Silver Efex. What a difference! Old photo, new process. Looking [...]

Biswa Ijtema 2012 – Tongi Bangladesh

Anil — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:05:13 +0000

One of the largest peaceful gatherings on earth, and the largest congregation of Muslims – the Biswa Ijtema. Held on the banks of the Turag at Tongi on the outskirts of Dhaka city every year. Could not get the images I had anticipated [of millions of people gathered over a small area of just a few square miles] [...]

Jal Mahal, Jaipur

Anil — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 06:13:23 +0000

JAL MAHAL Jaipur, built in the middle of a 300 acre lake. Amazing! Click the picture for a very wide view…

Blue pottery, Sanganer.

Anil — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:10:10 +0000

The famous “blue” pottery from Jaipur. Made from an ancient formula which apparently originated in Iran and came to Rajasthan somewhere in the early 1800′s; consists of quartz, green glass, fullers earth, borax and gum. The items are hand painted with chromium, cobalt, iron and cadmium oxides which when fired change color to give the [...]

Kites, Juices, Umbrellas, Turbans at Johari Bazar Jaipur

Anil — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:59:22 +0000

Inside the old walled-city area of Jaipur, the old market places bussle with high activity and are seriously over-crowded, vehicles of all types motorized and camel/bullock/human driven – criscross across intersections in complete chaos! Line “drawing” created in Adobe Photoshop from a photo of a market place. Click pictures for larger views.

New Years day flowers

Anil — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:34:30 +0000

Jaipur, India. 1st Jan 2012. Flower lady. Click for a larger view.

Print master

Anil — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:29:46 +0000

This print-master has been at it for 50 years or more at a small textile block-print “factory” in Sanganer near Jaipur. The unusual looking building is the “Hawa Mahal” or “Palace of Winds”…

One place, many views

Anil — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:59:59 +0000

AMER FORT Jaipur

Crusty outside and fluffy inside

Anil — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:54:16 +0000

Missing home made bread [bread maker gone on holiday] and tired of market bought bread, I found a recipe to try – which worked out just great. I ate one straight off the tray, hot and with loads of butter, the next with a cheese, and the third with home-made raspberry jam. Heavenly!

Peace Happiness Love

Anil — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:30:40 +0000

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us” – Hal Borland. Peace Happiness and Love.

Bangladesh: Crowdsourced Travel

Anil — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:14:17 +0000

Co-author of Bradt’s Travel Guide “Bangladesh“, Mikey Leung, has started a great Start Some Good project to promote Bangladesh in a positive light - pls do visit the website to add your support. You can also add your photos of Bangladesh – go to the Positive Light Crowdsourced Travel website

Wilder Thing, mellow evening

Anil — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:55:18 +0000

A mellow evening cruise up-river on the Wilder Thing

Simla Nov 2011

Anil — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:51:47 +0000

Simla visit November 2011 A view of Kasumpti from Knollswood ~ A view of “New Shimla” from Sudden Death [the jumble of a concrete jungle used to be where we used to play as children - what is now New Shimla used to be called Buffalo Pond and White Temple] ~ Evening view ~ “Chotta” Simla [...]

Unsuitable for frying

Anil — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:35:22 +0000

The post-it on our door says “FEED THE FISH!” so one cannot miss this first thing in the morning. The two Angels are waiting, they know it is feeding time and they sort of ‘wag their tails’ in anticipation when they see someone near the bowl. When we first got them, the yellow/green Ghost Angel [...]

She did it [I could not]

Anil — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:46:41 +0000

SoFoBoMo 2011 closing-date is Aug 31st. Friend Ujwala Prabhu; was one of the 6 artists who I photographed for my first attempt at SoFoBoMo in 2008 [A Month 6 Artists And A Book], she was “partner in crime” assisting me in the cover design and book layout, then in 2009 we both shot together for 3 [...]

Breaking away from tradition

Anil — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:06:24 +0000

Talking about blogs and the “traditional” look and style of a blog page. Searching for a WordPress theme with a pre-set idea is really quite a difficult task! There is always something in every theme [most of them beautifully crafted, no doubt!] that sort of takes away from the way one wants ones own blog [...]

Put to good use [read: blowing my trumpet]

Anil — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:38:56 +0000

A while ago, in November 2009 , I wrote about a commemorative postage stamp of India [# 2053] which was based [digitally adjusted version] on a photograph of mine [taken in 2007] – which I had pretty much forgotten about – until a letter [yes, by snail-mail!] turned up while I was in Simla last month. Lo and [...]

Spam can be good?

Anil — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 05:41:36 +0000

We all hate spam and junk mail. Offers to buy enhancers, products that apparently increase pleasures ten-fold, ways to make money for nothing, the list goes on. When junk mail and spam stopped coming in to this blog for the past couple of months, I was elated. Yes! AT LAST I WAS FREE FROM IT! [...]

No idea

Anil — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:28:10 +0000

Can it be so hard to rack ones [wrecked?] brain, and yet come up blank? Quite easily! If you turn up the volume, you might just hear the rusty gears grinding. Therefore, no idea, no theme for SoFoBoMo yet…. There are yet 17 long days to complete a SoFoBoMo 2011 project – so it can be [...]

experimenting

Anil — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:03:19 +0000

Minus 3-stop ND filter + a Polarizer to slow the shutter. Prefocus. Click, drag shutter, pan, release.

Will remain fondly remembered….

Anil — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:19:41 +0000

Daman Nath passed away at Shimla 7th August 2011

SoFoBoMo 2011 = NoSoFoBoMo

Anil — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 05:25:59 +0000

Procrastinated, and so it looks like I will have to drop-out of SoFoBoMo this year

Audio stuff – yes, again

Anil — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:51:31 +0000

About ZENs, Lowthers, ZEROs hot-wired…. for those who might be interested in a lot of electronic mumbo-jumbo and technical details. This is about directly hard-wiring a good CD player to the Decware ZEN single-ended triode monoblocs [the original SV83M Signature amps] and the amps are in turn hard-wired to the Lowther PM4As [in their spiral horn-loaded [...]

Near Sabhatu – a Step-well with Shiv murti

Anil — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:23:18 +0000

Took a side road on my way from Simla to Chandigarh, got off the highway at Solan onto the track to Sabhatu. Something I’ve never done before. The road and scenery were beautiful, though the “road” was more for a powerful 4-wheel-drive vehicle and not the type I was in - slipping and sliding on the rough [...]

Salmon at sunset

Anil — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:33:45 +0000

Yet another beauty of a sunset! Salmon sky after the sun went down below Prospect Hill across from us….. low clouds and mist after a spell of rain made the scene. [Click the pic for a larger view]

Flecked with gold

Anil — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:44:01 +0000

Gold and Orange – magical sunset at Simla! Click the image for an expanded view.