Group

After the caving season

@ Ervaikulam

Is it the end or the begining. Let us work together to preserve them

Nilgiri Tahr

To read about munnar mela click here

Drive safely

29. Don't mix drink and drive

There is a massive drive started by Bangalore Traffic Police to control the menace of drink and drive. During weekend after 11 PM, it takes double the time it usually use to take to come from MG road to Whitefield . There are numerous police check posts, but the funny part is that they will just come near you and ask if you are coming from PUB. And if you say "NO" they will let you go :)

Sunrise

28. Beautiful sunrise at Nandi hills

http://my-roadtrips.blogspot.com/2006/05/nandi-hills-year-round-picnic.html

Curves

27.On the way to nandi hills

http://my-roadtrips.blogspot.com/2006/05/nandi-hills-year-round-picnic.html

Sunset !!

26. Another one from Krabi sea

 

http://my-roadtrips.blogspot.com/2007/03/krabi-krabi-is-located-in-west-coast-of.html

Fly high !

25. Another one from Ranganthetu
For more info about Ranganthitu visit
http://my-roadtrips.blogspot.com/2008/03/ranganthetu-or-ranganthitu-slow-flowing.html

Expression !

24. Little girl

Height!

23. 975

 

This is the height of Bangalore above sea level

 

Pink

22.  Cherry blossom

 

You know what time of year it is when the beer cans turn pink, and train stations are covered with pictures of flowers and markets are decorated with pink flowers – hanami season.

Hanami season in March and April is, for many Japanese, the best time of year. This is when the cherry blossom trees all over Japan come in to bloom for between seven and 10 days and people hold outdoor parties to view them. The name says it all - hana means "flower" and mi is "to look".

 

This is a great time of year to visit Japan as the weather is perfect – warm, but not nearly as hot as summer, and everybody is in a party frame of mind. I was lucky to be there during this time of the year.

The advent of the blossoms not only heralds the end of a harsh winter but also the beginning of another school year and a new fiscal year for businesses, so hanami is like a party to celebrate a new beginning. I have heard that there are groups of people who follow this cherry blossom season from south of Japan to all the way north.

 

Tibet !

21.   Buddhist temple at Bylakuppe.

Tibet is a plateau region in Central Asia and the home to the indigenous Tibetan people. With an average elevation of 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), it is the highest region on Earth and is commonly referred to as the "Roof of the World."  Bylakuppe, near  Kushalnagar, is one of the Tibetan Refugees in India.

Olympic Torch Ignites World-Wide Controversy

The 2008 Olympic torch relay was engulfed in controversy Friday as critics slammed Beijing's plans for stops in Taiwan and Tibet, as well as a side trip over Mount Everest.

The relay ahead of the Beijing Games is scheduled to pass through 22 cities in five continents outside China, as well as Taipei, Hong Kong and Macau.

It will then move on through 113 cities across China's 31 provinces and regions.

China's media heralded the route unveiled late Thursday as the "Relay of Friendship," but it sparked an immediate outcry overseas.

Taiwan's National Olympic Committee said it did not want to play any part in the relay, denouncing it as "unacceptable" political interference, due to longstanding political rivalries.

Tibetan independence activists also slammed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for helping China reinforce its control over Tibet.

Five Americans were due to be expelled after staging an illegal demonstration at Mount Everest base camp in which they called for Tibetan independence and voiced outrage at the torch passing through the Himalayan region.

They were detained after Wednesday unfurling banners demanding a "free Tibet" and protesting against the plans to take the torch to the top of the mountain.

China has ruled Tibet since sending troops in to "liberate" it in 1951 and has violently suppressed a number of uprisings since then.

Tibetan independence activists called on the IOC to speak out on behalf of the Americans, but IOC members refused to comment, saying the organisation did not engage in political issues.

China announced Friday that the Americans would be released and expelled from the country.

But Lhadon Tethong, the executive director of US-based Students For a Free Tibet, which organised the Everest campaign, said more protests would come.

"We will be taking every opportunity to use the Olympics to spotlight China's brutal rule, and we will challenge the Chinese at every turn," she told AFP.

She accused the IOC of backing China's "political agenda" with the Games.

"We are extremely upset that the IOC is clearly supporting the Chinese political agenda with the Games," she said in Kathmandu.

"They (the Chinese) are using the Games to strengthen and legitimise their claims over Tibet."

Tsering Thadup, who runs the Tibetan Refugee Centre in Kathmandu, said China should lose the right to host the Games.

"China should not be allowed to hold the Olympics as they have been continually violating human rights in Tibet," he said.

"The torch relay has no significance unless China stops violating human rights."

Around 2,500 refugees flee Tibet every year to Nepal, which is now home to around 20,000 Tibetans.

On Taiwan, Beijing Olympic organisers accused the island of breaking its word and violating the Olympic charter by rejecting a place in the relay.

Beijing organising committee vice president Jiang Xiaoyu said Taiwan's Olympic Committee agreed to host the relay months ago and only changed its mind last week after pressure from "non sporting" authorities in Taipei.

"The Chinese nation has the fine tradition of keeping promises. We do not a9gree to any practice or behaviour that breaches promises or a consensus previously reached," said Jiang.

Taiwan has maintained in the past that it would consider accepting the torch relay only if the leg were part of the international section, sandwiched between two sovereign countries.

But Taipei was unhappy at being asked to hand off the torch to Hong Kong, part of China, which it said was tantamount to undermining Taiwan's self-rule status.

"The Beijing authorities are attempting to turn the relay into a domestic route and therefore dwarf our status. This is absolutely unacceptable," Taiwan Olympic Committee chairman Tsai Chen-wei said in a statement late Thursday.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory, to be retaken by force if necessary, following their split in 1949 after a civil war.

However, members of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang party, which favours improved ties with Beijing, backed the torch relay, including Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin.

Source:- http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org

Beautiful

20 . Beautiful Krabi.

 

Rayleigh beach is one of the most beautiful beaches of Krabi.  It has got beautiful limestone formation on one side. WIth the sea in the backdrop the view looks amazing

Sunset

19.  One of the snap taken of sky from my previous cellphone - Motorola RAZR V3

Curves

18. On the way to Coorg

Yuvraj

17.  12

Standing tall

16.  @ Golden palm resort, Bangalore

All alone !

15. All alone !

Marina beach, Chennai

Silver

14. Kanyakumari

 

This picture of Kanyamari Sea at noon has been clicked with sun-glasses kept in front of the lens.

Orange against blue

13. Another angle

 

Sky

12. View from inside the plane

Tokyo tower

11. Tokyo from Tokyo tower

Standing tall at 333m, this tower is one of the most popular tourist attraction in Tokyo.

Some interesting facts about the tower

333m Height of the Tower. Since its opening in 1958, the Tokyo Tower has been the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower. The Eiffel Tower in Paris is 320 m high.

4,000t The Tokyo Tower weighs about 4,000 tons. It is much lighter than the Eiffel Tower, which weighs 7,000 tons, a result of remarkable advances in steel manufacturing and construction technology.

140 drums Paint used for the Tower was 28,000 liters, equal to 140 drums. The Tower is painted orange and white according to the Civil Aeronautic Law.

24 broadcast waves This is the number of broadcast waves that Tokyo Tower is transmitting. Among them, 14 are analog waves and 10 are digital waves, which show that most broadcast stations in Tokyo are transmitting their waves from the Tower.

176 lights One hundred and seventy-six floodlights installed in various parts light up the Tower. The Tower is illuminated with an orange light in winter and white incandescent light in summer, delighting visitors and passers-by.

 

dodda alada mara

10. The great banyan tree

28 KMs west of Bangalore is situated this place.
 Read my blog for  complete info

http://my-roadtrips.blogspot.com/2006_04_23_archive.html

Majestic

9. Painted stork

 

Another one from Ranganathittu. Best season to visit and see these birds is June to November. Even during month of February there are a lot of birds.

The King

8. Crocodile

 

One of the most powerful animal on earth.  They have by far the strongest bite of any animal.

The snap has been clicked at Ranganthitu Bird Sanctuary. River Cauvery flows slowly around a small piece of land creating a small island near Srirangapatna ( near Mysore). This is the nesting & breeding place for various migratory birds from all over the world.

Rays of Hope

7. Rays

 

"Lets work together to keep the planet green" - eeshmengi

Snap clicked on the top of Nandi Hills

Crow - ready to fly

6. Crow - The Common Raven

A common-raven can easily be found anywhere in Indian sub continent. This picture is from the Marina beach - Chennai.

HDR

 

5. View from Sinclairs hotel - Ooty
 
Snap #4 and #5 are HDR images. HDR stand for High dynamic range imaging.

It is a process whereby one uses multiexposed images and blends them into one final image. I generally take pictures at +2EV,0,-2EV and use Photomatix to get the HDR image. Though Adobe Photoshop CS2 has also introduced the feature to generate HDRs. I find Photomatix better and easy to use.  There are good tutorials on HDR at the websites of Adobe Photoshop and Photomatix. 

Colors of nature

4. Colors of nature

On the way to Ooty, the jungle ( Bandipur forest ) is rich in both flora and fauna. I really liked the colors and took a lot of snaps and this is the best among them. I processed few snaps to get this color and contrast. I would write about it in my next post. :)

Yellow

3. Yellow rose

Ooty rose garden has got over 1000 varieties of rose. The best season to visit is June-July. I went there during winter season and could find very few roses.

Chicken Island

2. Chicken Island

This island in near Krabi and looks like chicken. Krabi is the place where the famous movie Kaho Na Pyaar Hai was shot. Amisha Patel and Hrithik Roshan made their debut in ths movie.

1. Reaching for the sky

I clicked this picture sitting inside a long tail boat at the beautiful islands of Krabi - Thailand.

a snap a day.

i'll try to publish a snap everyday.

comments are always welcome.

I have been doing photography for last 3 years. i own panasonic dmc fz7. It is a nice camera for beginners. It provides 12x optical zoom, 6 MegaPixel, and a lot of other manual controls, which are good enogh for someone who wants to learn photography and later on want to upgrade to digital SLR.