Kerala is famous for its Banana Chips. Raw banana is sliced and fried in coconut oil. This humble snack is a favorite of most south indians, and is now marketed by some “snack” majors. Look at this, to know how they are made:

This image was taken at the famed “chettiyangadi” in Thrissur. This place, according to my dad, was famous for “Papad” earlier. Now, the shops have been hugely replaced by stalls selling chips and other such eatables. Each stall has a huge variety of eatables for sale, and they take care that each stall has something “special” for their customers. Banana Chips is the primary item, and in the image above you are seeing a man slicing bananas, which fall directly into Hot coconut oil! Kerala is famous for Coconut and its oil

Image Details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 8.2mm
Taken on: August 19, 2007

Traveling is always an enchanting experience for me. I try to take a new route or a new train each time I make a trip so as to see as much as possible! During my recent journey to Bangalore from Mumbai, the train taken by me was a pretty old one, in which I have already traveled many times. But as an added attraction, the train now takes a different route. This newer route is more greener and has a more eye-catching landscape. I caught this on that route…

This image was taken somewhere between Dharmavaram and Satya Sai Prashanti Nilayam (both in Andhra Pradesh, India). This is probably a sight not commonly seen in that part of Andhra, which is usually barren with a rocky upper soil. The rivers in this side are usually dry with their rocky bed visible!

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/1000 sec
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 13.3mm
Taken On: August 14, 2007

Life on the tracks always isn’t as glamorous as it looks…

These gentlemen toil day in and day out to keep thousands of passengers who simply rush past at 100kmph very safe. They walk around withe heavy loads on their back, with utmost concentration on the sounds that they hear, after all their life is as precious as ours. Look at this gentleman:

He is engrossed in his surroundings, walking on a very rough patch with heavy luggage. He was not interested in my camera, but was more interested in the serene surroundings. This man is walking back after ensuring that my train would reach her destination safely, and the tracks are perfectly alright!

I wish to thank this gentleman for doing his duty right, for I am alive today! Thank you!

Image Details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/400 sec
Aperture: f/3.6
Focal Length: 49.2mm
Taken on: August 14, 2007

Sorry for not updating for about a week – I was out of station. I had a very short trip to Kerala during the period.

This image of a water fall was taken during my recent trip to Kerala:

The story behind: While standing at the door of the coach I was traveling in, a railway staffer gave me a hint about this waterfall. He told me the exact location, and asked me to keep an eye on it. The location is somewhere near Ukshi station. It appears on the left side of the train, while traveling from Ratnagiri to Chiplun. It is about 15-16 kilometres from Ratnagiri.

This is one of my favorite images of this trip! More images from this trip would come up every day for the next one week. So please be here…

Image details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 400
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 7.4mm
Taken On: August 20, 2007

After Konkan Delight, here is Konkan Trouble…

The section is extremely hot during summers, and the entire landscape turns brown after the green pastures dry up. The areas around Konkan, depend solely on rain for their agriculture, and that very well displays up when the rains end. The entire terrain dries up, and grasslands turn into bare lands! Look at this image…

The angle is a bit different from my earlier one, but the location is the same! This image was taken way back in February 2005 – when my “old” camera was “new”!

Camera: FUJIFILM
Model: FinePix S3500
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/680 sec
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 6mm
Image taken on: February 18, 2005

Traveling on Konkan Railway during the monsoon is a delight in itself. The entire 735 km length of track adorns a green overcoat, with water gushing out of each crevice on the hills around. The brown colour of the soil around, the blue colour of the trains and the Grey colour of the tracks make for a marvelous scene.

One such image, showing out the real marvel of KR is here:

This image was taken while traveling from Kerala to Mumbai in July 2007. The location is Diwankhavati (in Ratnagiri District of Maharashtra). This station is very unique is a located on a beautiful curve.

This is what Diwankhavati station looks like during Monsoons. What it looks like during the summer is a different story (one such image will be put up very soon).

Image Details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 125
Exposure: 1/500 sec
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 18.9mm
Taken on: July 07, 2007

The following image of an electric locomotive entering into the station, became one of favorites after just one review of the image on my computer. I otherwise don’t like electric locomotives, and have a passion for diesel locos…

Some words about the Image: This image was taken in the evening (at around 1853) on July 31, 2007. The location is Panvel Railway Station (Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra). I was spending some time with a friend at the station when we (both of us had cameras) took this image. The crispness of the image, and the preservation of the details by the camera is something that I really loved. All details on the face of the loco has been preserved, and to add to it, the maze of overhead equipment on the background had really helped in keeping the viewer’s attention on the image.

You may be amazed as to what is the rarity in this image: The class of Locomotive. The WCAG1 class of locomotive, which is featured in this image were produced in very less numbers. Only around 12 locomotives of this class (road numbers from 21970 to 21981) were built. Spotting these locos are pretty rare, and this image succeeds in spotting the loco, and preserving all the details on the loco face.

Image Details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 125
Exposure: 1/30 sec
Aperture: f/3.6
Focal Length: 59.5mm

This particular image was taken just the next day after I got my new camera.

The image was taken at my backyard. The subject was water droplets on a Banana Leaf. This was taken on a morning. There was light showers through the night, and the water droplets seemed to be a good subject. The sun light was tangential to the leaf. This was my first trial with macro photography on my new camera.

Image details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/100 sec
Aperture: f/3.6
Focal Length: 24.2mm

After my first post, which was a night shot, here comes a landscape:

This image was shot in October 2006, when i was driving down from Bangalore to Kozhikode. This image was taken somewhere immediately after the Thamarasseri Ghat section on the Kerala-Karnataka border. The ghats feature around 20-or-so hairpin bends and is a marvelous section to drive through.

Image details

Camera: FUJIFILM
Model: FinePix S3500
ISO: 64
Exposure: 1/210 sec
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 6mm

Like every initiative, I think the “First Impression is the Best Impression”. Presenting before you my first “photo-post”.

This is not a very superb image, but one image that I am quite happy about. It was my first experiment of night photography using my new camera. I exposed the frame for pretty long, and got this result.

This image was taken from Karave Village on the Palm Beach Marg in Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra state in India). The road is called widely as the Queen’s Necklace of Navi Mumbai. I love the glittering effects caused by the light, which was mainly due to the aperture of f/4.

Image details:

Camera: Panasonic
Model: DMC-FZ50
ISO: 100
Exposure: 25.0 sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 7.4mm