Bokehs and Starbursts!

There are some amazing things one can shoot during night. Long exposure shots of light trails, amazing bokehs, starbursts, star trails, and much more.
Tonight, like many before, I was at office past sundown, and I had camera with me. Had a concept to try out too. So, off I went to the terrace to try out the shot.

Western Express Highway at night, bokehs of the lights

While I was up there, the Mahim bay glittered and tempted me to take the long exposure shot. Looks damn nice, right? Worth climbing up to the terrace for a peek!

Long Exposure shot of the Mahim Bay, Bandra Worli Sea Link in background

Something I noticed, while processing the photos, if you suspect that there may be some dirt on your lens, shoot a bokeh at night, the dirt ll show up as a shadow in the orb!

Guess I need to clean the prime!

Cheers!!

TTL: Clean Beach, Clear Water ; Diveagar

Within the group, we had all joined our respective jobs in April, and by the time it was September, we were desperate for a break. So, when the Dusshera break presented an opportunity for 4 days of holidays, a trip was immediately planned and executed.

We had planned to go from Pune to Diveagar. About 150 kms drive west through the western ghats would take us to this beach. We had heard of it to be quite a picturesque and clean one, so we were quite interested about it. I was looking forward to the drive, it had been quite a few months since I had gone for a drive. The Google Maps screenshot depicts the route we had taken.

Route from Pune to Diveagar
We booked ourselves a self drive car from Zoomcar, a snappy Honda Jazz and we were away at the crack of dawn; at about 8 am.

Me posing with the Honda Jazz

The road we took, would take us through the scenic Tamhini ghat and then further on, we shall reach Mangaon and then on to the beach.

Clouds enroute to Diveagar

Random flowers by the street

Hillscape enroute Tamhini Ghat

Long open road

En route Tamhini Ghat

Natural beauty galore. The road is patchy at places, with ditches which needed us to creep over them, but over all, the road to the beach was kinda fine.

Once near the coast, there runs a parallel road to the beach, with multiple points of entry to the beach. Find the right fork and one can take the car directly to the beach.

The beach road to Diveagar Beach

The beach was quite amazing. Wide and clean. The slope is a gradual one, making it ideal for families consisting of kids to come over and have fun too. Options of water sports were present too. The water is clear and absolute fun to splash about it.

Horse drawn Tongas on DIveagar Beach

Water Scooter at Diveagar Beach

Diveagar Beach

Small waves at Diveagar beach

The wide Diveagar Beach

Quad bikes on the Diveagar Beach

Clear Water at the Diveagar Beach

Diveagar Beach

Diveagar Beach

The friends gang posing at the Diveagar Beach

In terms of crowd density, this is not a dense beach. One can find space to run about and play happily on the beach or have their own peaceful time. Be advised though, there is almost no shade on the beach and no provisions for chairs or umbrellas are present. Only a handful of shops selling water bottles and snacks could be found, so carry your food and water positively.

Once we had exhausted ourselves on the beach, running about  and splashing about in the water, we were on the ride back home. Instead of taking the route we had come by, we chose to take the alternate route, which would have us join the Mumbai- Pune expressway near Khopoli. On map, all we could see was a nice long almost straight road. What it actually turned out to be, was very close to a nightmare. The road is non existent for most of it and there are murderous ditches all along. Ditches the size of dustbins which would gobble up a wheel and some of the axle too. By the time we had reached the expressway, we were tired as hell and still had another hour and a half worth of travel left. So, take it from me, do not take the return route that we had taken, it was horrible.

We did make it safe and sound, albeit worn out and tired. Had a nice big meal at an old haunt of ours and we retired for the day.

When I look back, yes, it was tiresome; true, we could have gone to some other places too, but in the end, it was fun, and absolutely worth it.

Until next time!
Cheers!!

Glimpses of Mumbai – 200 m above earth – 1

Hi there readers,

It has been quite sometime since my last post. Have been keeping busy due to the internship.
There’s an advantage while you are interning on a realty project. Now a days, most of the projects are high rise ones,  so is mine. The following shots have been taken in a Mumbai suburb, from about 200m above the earth.  I hope you like the view.

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More of similar shots, coming up soon. And yes, please view full screen 😛

Cheers!!

Glimpses of Mumbai: Bandra – Worli Sealink

So, my quest of shooting the icons of Mumbai continues in this post too. In the earlier posts, the Tulsi Pipe road, Haji Ali Dargah, Chor Bazaar and the Queen’s Necklace have been covered. This time, it is the ₹1600 crore worth engineering marvel, the Bandra- Worli Sealink. The shots have been shot from the Bandra Fort, in company of Dipanwita, and the other shots are from the Dadar beach, in company of Tanisha, both amazing photographers in their own rights.
I was asked recently by a friend, what I do in my spare time?Well, I post process my photos! 🙂

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Next up, I go to Grant Road, and shoot a very specific chowk. Keep an eye out for the results.
Cheers!!

TTL: Velas

This post is special.
Special because it is about an event which has so much of risk, uncertainty and struggle that you must marvel the outcomes.

This post is about the tiny Olive Ridley turtles of Velas, Maharashtra.

Every year, thousands of female turtles swim their way from across the world to this little known beach in Maharashtra. They make nests, lay their eggs and wade back into the sea towards an uncertain future. Over time, the eggs hatch and baby turtles make their way into the sea on their own. The interesting thing is, all the females which would be born at Velas, would come back to the same beach to lay their eggs.

We made an overnight trip from Pune. About 200 kms to Velas, took us about 5 hours through the hilly,twisty turny roads of the western ghats. We made occasional stops and then we reached the spot, early morning.

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Since the hatching of the eggs is a natural phenomenon, we missed it. The day we went, the turtles didn’t hatch and we couldn’t see them. We were a bit sad about it, and with some heavy heart, we made our way to Hariharishwar beach, spent some time there and then we came back to the Velas beach once more to have a look at the rock formations and the landscapes that are there.

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Our trip ended the following night as we drove back home.

A few days later, one of my friends went, and she was luckier than we were and got some amazing shots of the turtles as they made their way from the sands to the sea.

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Special thanks to Medha for letting me use the photos. Am happy that you got to see them babies and you shot them.

The turtles can be seen during the months of October to December as they come to lay the eggs and from end February to mid April as the babies hatch out. The months are based on general observations and they do vary. So does the hatching. It may be so that you make a trip today and see no hatching while your friend who went a day earlier saw a basket full of them. Most people spend the weekend over there, which generally guarantees some sightings.

To the travelers out there who have not yet been to this place, go on, make a trip. The route, the location, the beach, they are worth the distance. Its a tiny village, about 50-70 homes, some offer homestay facilities too. Have a look at the MTDC website for further information.

Have fun all. Next trip, next outing, should be interesting. See you all later.

Cheers!!