The One Taking The Photograph

 Daily Prompt : Tables Turned

Are you as comfortable in front of a camera as behind one? Being written about, as well as writing?

The answer for the first is a definite no! I love taking photographs but not being  the subject of a photograph.

I take hundreds of photos at parties, get-togethers or when on holiday but I’ll only be there in five or six of them.  I take photos because I like to capture a moment, in a way I’m freezing it forever. This probably started because I had to move around so much and everything in life kept changing so photographs became the means to remember.

I probably should also mention the fact the I was always a little crazy when it came to photographs(emphasis on crazy). My parents tell me that when I was a toddler I had a habit of waking up at three in the morning. I would then wake my parents up and ask them to bring all the albums and will go through the photographs and ask what was going on when each photograph was taken. My parents lost a lot of sleep that way. This went on for almost a year till they had enough of it and made me get rid of that habit.

As for writing, I’ve mentioned it a lot of times already but once again – I like to write .
No one has ever written about me and I don’t think anyone will find much to write anyway. Though if someone does write I wouldn’t have a problem with that(as long as whatever is written doesn’t have a photograph of me attached to it).

Mirrored

Daily Prompt : show us MIRRORED.

Mirror work is quite common in traditional Indian dresses and accessories. It’s more common towards the northern part of the country.
So for today’s prompt here’s a couple of photos on that topic.

I found these in a fair and was told that this is of Gujarati style.

 

Some of mom’s dresses with mirror work.

The Other Love

Daily Prompt for the day asks photographers to show something on the topic “OTHER”. I wont say I qualify as a photographer yet, but I do love taking photos and sharing them here so going along with that idea for the prompt.

Other than writing and photography, another field I have interest in is music.

When I turned 19 I went a little crazy and decided I have the patience and skill to learn to play an instrument. Though the one I love the most is violin I bought a guitar instead figuring I’ll start with that. My dad told me not to because I have a habit of starting things and then leaving them mid way.
I bought it anyway and had every intention of proving him wrong. I played on and off for a year, learned the basic chords but just like most other “projects” of mine I left it. Now I just pick it up once in a while but those occasions are becoming rarer and rarer. In the end, it looks like I just gave my dad a reason to say “I told you so” (which he loves to do!) and smirk whenever he sees the guitar.

Looks a little sad doesn’t he??

Daily Prompt: Great or Greatest?

Prompt for the day: Great or Greatest?

What makes a blog great? What makes you follow a blog or “Like” a post?

Since my blog is only one month old I’m still learning about what makes a blog great. So I can’t really answer that question. Though in my opinion writing about  things that makes you feel good will be enjoyed by others too.

I can give a much better answer  for the second part of the prompt. Whether I like a post or a blog depends entirely on the content of the posts. Sometimes reading one post is enough to make up my mind for others it might take couple more posts.

I love seeing the photos taken by fellow bloggers and like reading about books, music, movies,poems,short stories and random musings. This means I have a wide variety of blogs and posts to read and I do read so many of them and have found a lot of great blogs and I’m sure I’ll continue to find more in the future.

 

 

Forever And After

Today’s Daily Prompt is : No Longer  A Mere Mortal.

I would prefer not to make much changes in my lifestyle other than have some source of income.

If I do take a potion that makes me immortal then these are things I would probably do:

1.Travel and see the world. Staying in one place for too long is not something I’m interested in. Eternity should be enough time to see the world.

2.Find some good long term investments – I know that sounds boring but I really don’t want to spent eternity as a hobo. I don’t need huge returns just an amount that can help me live my day to day life.

3. Considering the previous point works out I would prefer a comfortable house as a base, a place to come back to. Not big mansions or anything, never was a fan of those. A small cottage preferably near a beach. Though that might not work in long term taking into account the rising sea levels and all.

4. Work out more. That would be a big change in lifestyle seeing I don’t work out at all these days. If I’m living forever at least I should be in shape.

5. I’m not all that selfish I would like to help people. If I have all the time in the world then I can change at least one persons fate. I would take that over doing nothing any day. No, I wont be a super hero or anything but just a normal, or not so normal, person providing a helping hand.

6. Learn some of the things that I never seem to have time to do like playing instruments(guitar,violin and piano), write a book and cooking techniques (eternity would be hell without good food).

I think that’s a start. I’ll probably think up more things later but  should be enough for now.

Hunting Skills

Here is my post for today’s Daily Prompt: We Can Be Taught!

 

Simba And Patches

 

This photo was taken in 2011 during a practice session on hunting skills . The mother cat was not my pet but was a frequent visitor and decided that my house was good enough a place to raise her kids.

These guys were quite adept at finding things to play with. As they grew up their mom started giving them lessons on hunting using ropes, paper balls or live rats. She would show them how to crouch, how to pounce and how to kill.Needless to say I wasn’t a fan of the live rat sessions because that meant I had to join them and I try to throw away the rat before they created a mess.

When this photo was taken their mom had finished a demo and left them to continue on their own while she watched from a distance. In their little kitten minds the rope probably took the form of a snake. They pounced and tugged and chewed it for a long time. Then got bored and went back to running around the house.

 

Mom having a snooze

My Take On The Daily Prompt(The Artist’s Eye)

I know the prompt says to write about a painting or sculpture I’m drawn to but I’m writing about an artist whose paintings where one of the first I saw as a child and fell in love with it instantly. The artist was my maternal grandfather.

My Grandad – The artist

He passed away when my mom was just a teenager so I never got to meet him. My mom had a collection of his sketches and paintings. When I first saw the paintings I didn’t actually know anything about art. I was too small to understand art and artists because at that time what I drew with my crayons was to me just as same as art. Older people drew big and complex pictures, kids like me drew smaller ones that are not so complex. After growing up I was able to admire his work and see more clearly how he brought pictures to life.

There is no lack of talent in my family. There are artists, sculptors, dancers, singers and writers but the first person that comes to mind when it comes to talent is my grandad.

There are two sketches I like the most and I can still recall both of them with every detail. One is a pencil sketch called “Light and Shade”, I can still see clearly in my mind the way he captured light falling on a corridor through arches and the shadows where the light couldn’t reach, every detail and shade was perfectly produced on paper with his pencil.The other one is a painting of a white kitten against a black background. The fur and eyes of the kitten was done so beautifully that you almost felt it is going to come out of the painting any minute. Unfortunately I don’t have the paintings with me or photographs of them right now, so I can’t share it with you all.

The main reason I fell in love with his paintings was that this was the proof to the life lived by a person I never met. Through his art I could see what he saw in the world through his eyes as an artist.