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Posted by: hildebrand May 27 2009, 11:40 PM

Lakshmi ji's thread has inspired me to start a thread. I'll upload pictures I have taken or those got from other sources as well for all to enjoy. (I'll post irregularly though).


Starting with a set of pictures taken during a recent Kerala trip
I mostly stayed in Cochin and Kumarakom, so most pics shall be from there.

The first one is of view of the sea taken at Cochin(Kochi for the politically correct).


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Posted by: hildebrand May 27 2009, 11:43 PM

The sea and a boat at the same location.


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Posted by: hildebrand May 27 2009, 11:44 PM

I think I should scale the pictures for a better view next time. These are coming to be quite big.

Will keep posting more from time to time depending on response.

Posted by: hildebrand May 27 2009, 11:50 PM

A scaled view of a lake in Kochi



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Posted by: hildebrand May 27 2009, 11:54 PM

The moon and skies beyond



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Posted by: lakshmi May 28 2009, 01:43 AM

What a beauty Hildebrand. Love the color of the sky. Was it photographed in Kochin? Thanks for starting the thread. Waiting for more from you. I wonder whatever happened to Marcilo? He hasn't posted pictures for a while.

Lakshmi

Posted by: hildebrand May 28 2009, 02:02 AM

Glad you liked the pictures Lakshmi ji. Yes, all the pics till now are taken in Cochin. I loved the colour of the sky (and the water) there myself. Will add more by and by.

Posted by: simplefable May 28 2009, 07:57 AM

Good Job..hilde.
The moon and sky and the swaying trees..is a beauty.
Just open the pics in MS office picture manager and edit them to lower size. did the job on your first pic..and posting here..
btw...what is your camera? SLR ?



i resized this one to 400 X 600. may be you should go for something like 500 X 700 ??

Posted by: lakshmi May 28 2009, 08:42 AM

looks very pretty. Thanks Venkat for resizing

Lakshmi

Posted by: Faraaj73 May 28 2009, 02:24 PM

The scaling helps....I too liked the moon pic best!

Posted by: hildebrand May 28 2009, 04:32 PM

Glad you liked it SF and Lakshmi ji. I got the scaling bit. For the last two pics I did scaling to 800x600. (others since I had already uploaded, lazily didn't rescale them. I have done so now). For others maybe I'll go for a lower resolution one like you suggest. The camera is my brother's. its a Sony Cybershot 7 Mega Pixel Camera.

No MS Office picture manager here. I use Kolourpaint!

Thanks Faraaj for your comment. I also like the moon pic but there will be more coming in the days to come.

Posted by: Marcilo May 29 2009, 08:44 PM

I am here, just tad busy more so thanks to swine flu couldn’t plan anything for this summer

Posted by: Marcilo May 29 2009, 08:45 PM

Good going hildebrand. Thanks for sharing

Posted by: hildebrand May 29 2009, 11:55 PM

Thanks for the encouragement Marcilo bhai.

Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 12:01 AM

My Cochin pics are nearing over.
This one was taken on a lake near our resort.

Most of the pics in the coming days are going to be sea-sky types. I hope you all don't mind that. I love those kind of pics.


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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 12:04 AM

This one was taken while passing by.




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Posted by: lakshmi May 30 2009, 12:28 AM

Hildebrand,

I also like such pictures. Nature is so beautiful. Please post more pics.

Lakshmi

Posted by: mmuk2004 May 30 2009, 03:07 AM

Very nice pics HB. This one is so pretty. Can see the breeze swaying the tree. Waiting for more.

Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 04:01 AM

Thanks a lot Lakshmi ji and Madhavi for the appreciation. I'll be uploading the pics slowly.

The next one I am putting up is a view of backwaters while going to Kumarakom. The morning light wasn't as good as I would have liked plus I could zoom only so much. The view was quite awesome with lots of trees. When I think of Kerala at the moment, I remember trees and lots of waterbodies everywhere.


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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 04:04 AM

This is another one which we took when we were passing on a bridge on the way to Kumarakom. My next installment in coming days will start with Kumarakom pictures where we spent a couple of days so will have many more to show from there. (I think I'll upload them maybe two at a time to keep this trip running for sometime!).


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Posted by: Marcilo May 30 2009, 08:51 PM

This was probably shot with window rolled up. Was that the case? did you have flash on too?

Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 09:44 PM

Yes the window was rolled up. The car was passing by and suddenly we saw this view. We didn't have enough time to capture it and caught it through the window only. Getting a great view happened more than a few times on the trip but not all could be caught unfortunately on camera.

Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:27 PM

If other than the lovely sky and waterbodies I saw, the greenery and birds I saw there stand out for me.

Here's another one by the road with trees and some birds.




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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:29 PM

Next a view of the hotel in Kumarakom where we stayed. The garden was quite good with a variety of trees from palms to even a cashewnut tree (It had fruits also. Eating led to acidic burns. Avoid. ).

Singer Srinivas had this to say about Kumarakom, “Imagine opening your eyes every morning to a sheet of still, blue water and majestic palm tress gently swaying in the breeze. To define the feeling in one sentence: Nature undisturbed by man is wonderful and inspiring, and Kumarakom is just that!”

Now you know what to expect from the Kumarakom pictures.



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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:33 PM

Like I mentioned Kumarakom has the backwaters. We had gone for a boatride into the backwaters one particular day. There are small motorised boats available at an hourly rate. There are other bigger ones well equipped ones with bedrooms/Satellite TV etc at 12K per day also available! It was a lovely boat ride in this huge lake called Vembanad lake.
There are houses and resorts which can be seen while travelling.

For more details on Kerala Backwaters refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_Backwaters

This particular picture has a mango tree loaded with mangoes. Oh how I love mangoes.


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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:37 PM

This is one of the big boats families book for the day (the 8K variety I was told). Note the AC in the house boat. The Kerala House Boats are called Kettuvallams


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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:39 PM

A view of a village on the lake bank.



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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:41 PM

Another view. Do notice the small girl doing fishing with her rod in the Lake.



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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:43 PM

Kumarakom has a lovely bird sanctuary which has lots of bird with a canopy at top. It has the lake towards one side and I show a side view of part of it here. Mostly the greenery is seen. More of it will come later.


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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:45 PM

Another boat passes our boat on the Lake.



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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:48 PM

The persons reside near the lake use it for all purposes including for washing. This pic shows one typical step like ghat where they do washing as their "pet" ducks swim.




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Posted by: hildebrand May 30 2009, 11:49 PM

A wider view of the ducks and the village nearby



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Posted by: lakshmi May 30 2009, 11:51 PM

Simply beautiful. Hildebrand, hats off to you for posting such beautiful pics. I am falling in love with Kerala. Next trip to India, Kerala will be on my radar. Thanks for sharing such beauties.

Lakshmi

Posted by: lakshmi May 30 2009, 11:52 PM

I like that little girl here.

Lakshmi

Posted by: hildebrand May 31 2009, 12:05 AM

You are most welcome Lakshmi ji.
Yes, kerala was extremely beautiful. Do try to visit it in the next trip if possible. I am told that Munnar and other places in Kerala are also very beautiful.
If you visit your sister in Bangalore maybe we can meet too.

More pics from the boat ride in the lake tomorrow.

Posted by: simplefable Jun 5 2009, 10:48 PM

HB..amazing ringside view of God's own Country ..
I too never went to Kerala..except an overnight stay in Guvuvayoor...to attend a marriage. Munnar is supposed to be a fantastic place...should plan one day for sure.

Posted by: hildebrand Jun 6 2009, 10:35 AM

Thanks SF. I've never visited Guruvayoor or Munnar and would definitely like to visit them sometime.

Posted by: hildebrand Jun 6 2009, 11:09 AM

A house on the bank and lady of the house washing in the lake water.



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Posted by: hildebrand Jun 6 2009, 11:13 AM

Three side view taken from the boat of the thick greenery of the bird sanctuary.



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Posted by: hildebrand Jun 6 2009, 11:17 AM

We next were slowly moving to an area where there was no land and the huge lake ahead. Two pics of the transition.

Posted by: hildebrand Jun 6 2009, 11:17 AM

We next were slowly moving to an area where there was no land and the huge lake ahead. Two pics of the transition.



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Posted by: hildebrand Jun 6 2009, 11:24 AM

Turning towards land and one of the huge boats (the one I mentioned with 12K per day rental) passes us by.



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Posted by: lakshmi Jun 7 2009, 08:04 PM

I like this kind of shot where the subject is shot unaware.

Lakshmi

Posted by: lakshmi Jun 7 2009, 08:05 PM

Nice shots Hildebrand.

Lakshmi

Posted by: hildebrand Jun 11 2009, 12:41 AM

Thanks Lakshmi ji.
I also like unaware photos. I for one am pretty unphotogenic. The one odd good photo of mine shall always be one of the unaware kind.

Posted by: hildebrand Jun 16 2009, 12:34 PM

Kerala for one was extremely green. Here are a few samples.



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Posted by: hildebrand Jun 16 2009, 12:37 PM

Coming back to the boat ride, the lake was really beautiful. Kms of water with lots of wonderful sights nearby.



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Posted by: hildebrand Jun 16 2009, 12:39 PM

On the lake many birds can be seen. As discussed earlier there is a bird sanctuary nearby. Some of these birds (sea gulls?) can often be seen on the water. A minute they'll be in the air, next floating on the lake water and the next second they'll dip into the water!
Quite amazing.



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Posted by: hildebrand Oct 7 2009, 11:10 PM

It is said that the best Pooja happens in Kolkata. Here are a few pics sent by relatives and friends.



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Posted by: Marcilo Oct 13 2009, 01:23 AM

wow.. look at the mall... i can count 5 levels in there....

Posted by: hildebrand Oct 13 2009, 10:00 PM

Kolkata is getting better.

Posted by: hildebrand Oct 14 2009, 12:05 AM

During the Dussehra period many communities celebrate Ravan Dahan. In some cases really huge Ravans are made.

In others small ones are bought from shops that spring up around that time and put by the individual lane ("galli") people.

I am attaching a pic of one such small one. Another clip of the shop got messed up since it was taken while driving in a hurry which shows three ravans of varying sizes for sale. Putting that up too for academic interest.


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Posted by: Marcilo Oct 19 2009, 11:02 PM

Are you in K'kata? i thought you were in Delhi

Posted by: Marcilo Oct 19 2009, 11:03 PM

Lol, I remember once we burnt scare crow saying its Ravana

Posted by: simplefable Oct 20 2009, 09:02 AM

Seems Hilde has kolkatan friends...and relatives.
I havent seen this kind of fervour for dussehra ...atleast in our part of AP. Actually Hyderabad is famous for Ganesh Nimajjan..where they make mammoth idols and submerge in lakes..

Posted by: hildebrand Oct 21 2009, 08:26 PM

No some relatives in K'kata. I shifted to B'luru sometime back from Delhi.

Posted by: hildebrand Oct 21 2009, 08:27 PM