Weekly Photo Challenge: The Golden Hour

The golden hour is the first and last hour of sunlight of the day. Every week, The Daily Post hosts a Photography Challenge with a theme which the bloggers need to interpret, take photographs and post them on WordPress. This is the first time I’m participating in Daily Post’s weekly photography challenge. Hope some of you photography enthusiasts would join too. The more, the merrier!
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I don’t have a DSLR to capture stunning images. Actually, I don’t need one. A 12.0 MP point and shoot camera with some Adobe Photoshop skills can do equally amazing stuff, although some might say such photographs are unoriginal. But poor us, we can’t afford DSLRs!

Empty Tables In The Morning

Melt Me With The Snow

 

Journey Into The Dusk

Sunlight: “A sign board ain’t gonna stop me!”

Filtering through flaws!

Let me park my car in the sky.

 

 

The Warmth Within (#Haiku #Photography)

We all find ourselves at the mercy of a chilly night or an empty street at one time or another during our lives with no companion to warm our shoulders that dropped at the prospect of having to face terrible hardships alone. None, not even the ones that we believed loved us the most, cared for us the most. We often look everywhere for our missing pen while we were holding it all along in our very own hands. At every phase of our life we have someone by our side who strengthens us. But there are also these periods when we are alone and left to fight on our own. But we know we can’t make it out alive unless we get help. And that is when you seek the help of your companion you have been overlooking. It is you. It is the hope within you.

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I wrote this haiku a long time back. While I was struggling with the block, I started mashing up photography and poetry to help myself out of the sluggish writer’s block. It kind of worked. To write words and tie them together seemed a mighty task. But slowly, with the help of photographs and some Photoshop skills, I started to get back on track to writing and blogging again. So now that the story behind posting this, drop your comments and share your thoughts about the haiku. Link back to your posts, I’d gladly read them. I can’t write good stuff if I don’t read good stuff!

 

Life Of Memories (#photograph #poem)

 

Life And Wheels Moved On – Haiku #45

This post is submitted at Haiku Heights. The prompt is ‘mask’.

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you see me not love (dear);
help comes; heals wounds; i wear mask
named humility.

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far away you went;
still wondering who it was;
life and wheels moved on.

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distance grew much now;
same humility hinders;
from seeking your love.

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love is not to ask;
but to give away; like blood,
from mother to child.

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hope filled eyes; i wait;
will your ever see through the mask;
forces act against.

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( The below is the text from which i framed the haiku. I couldn’t put in everything in Haiku. So, read on if you like to. It’s long though, don’t say i din’t warn you. )

while he dared, i cared.

expressing all is never always right,
it only takes boldness.

to hold back expressions take a lot more,
of love, faith and hope;
in truth, it takes a herculean boldness, more than what it takes to express,
but none sees it, just because there was an absence of my expression,

so, if boldness weighs more than love, care, faith and hope,
then yes, i was a loser right from the first moment,
the moment when i chose to hold back,
knowing too well what it takes and what it gives me.

one day hardly goes by,
with this question not torturing my mind,
“don’t you see this yet?”,
yet and again, i hold back from asking this loud.

why, ask me “why?”,
i might just yet stay mum, for the answer i have for you will stump you.
so, instead i choose to see you hurt because of my silence, than because of my answer,
i choose to see you hurt less while i still have the option.

but as no question should go unanswered,
i would give you these words,

“let your heart be honest with your eyes and with itself”

now go,
the journey is yours to travel,
the answers are your to unravel.

the journey would still end at where i am,
the answers still leave a part of the question untouched,
“why did you stay silent when you had so much love?”,

that, my love, shall be answered after you complete the journey,
the reason for making you search for the answer yourself is to prepare you,
for the eventual leash of my held back love.

a little apprehension lingers deep down though,
time is a thin thread, that i am playing by,
i fear i might not radiate and transfer enough reason into you so that you don’t give up on the journey that i put you to,
i fear, time might crop doubts in your head,
and if you submit to them, you would be convinced that i was a fool,
and you would distance yourself from me.

but doesn’t truth always win, as told by the meandering bards,
that’s one gamble i took.

now we go to where this started,
what it took to take this gamble, that might leave me with nothing if it went wrong.

my love,

expressing all is never always right,
it only takes boldness.

to hold back expressions take a lot more,
of love, faith and hope;
in truth, it takes a herculean boldness, more than what it takes to express.

Oh wait,
didn’t i tell you that i would go along with you through the journey, masked in a cloak of invisibility?
oh sure i din’t, because the quest for truth is one you should not skip,
though i knew it would impress you if i told i was coming along,
and it would raise my stature up a notch at your heart,
but i choose to hide my presence and lose a chance to have you love me.
but this journey is not about me, this is about you,
and that along with my enormous care is reason enough for me to wear the cloak of invisibility, in humility,
and walk along.

Oh darn!
while he dared, i cared.

that’s all i need you to see.
that’s all i need you to learn.

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Fading Like Footprints

i don’t hear the rain fall any more,

i don’t hear your footsteps any more,

or the soulful and innocent laughter that resounded down the corridors we once walked,

nor do I anymore fall in love everyday, with the soul that those eyes are portal to,

for you are too far to look into eyes, and share with you my soul’s deepest emotions.

fate took hold of everything that I held dear,

erasing footprints of the past, one at a time, slow and painful,

seeing which my senses crumbled, my words crippled,

helpless and woeful, I sing the song of a mute.

caught between staying true to love and life(not giving up), and the mundane desperation to run away from pain, I see the world laugh at me as I tear myself apart.

all i have now is a boulder that i use to bang my head,

when what i desperately need is a shoulder to rest upon.

 

To Get Close To Nature, You Just Need To…

To Get Close To Nature, You Just Need To…

To get close to nature,

You just need to breathe,

You just need to feel the air,

You just need to smell the earth,

You just need to embrace the warmth,

You just need to welcome the rain droplets,

And then, you just need to hold all of them together,

Like you would with your Love, Friend, Sister, Brother, Father and Mother,

Make the rain droplets your tears of grief and sympathy,

The warmth, your shield that can break any arrow,

The earth, your motivation to live and love,

The air, your teacher of truthfulness,

You just need to breathe yet,

Now where are you?

Close to nature.

Let Secrets Be (Fairy Tale – #1)

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 I have missed on capturing you for a very long time. But I will get you today. Because, I now know your secret.

Each day, for the past week, Marie has been trying to photograph a brown hare which she saw one evening in The Forest of Alvon while roaming the woods in search of a White Stag. Marie was, until yesterday, clueless as to why the hare was so successful at avoiding her camera. She is not an early-riser and that was her routine every vacation, and as a hobby photographer, she never was inclined to getting up at day break to capture spectacular sun rises. But yesterday, her grandmother had put up a schedule of activities which she hated to do, like having to learn and cook a dish for breakfast. Putting up her photographic quest as an excuse, she got up early and set out for the woods. The horizon still hid a part of the sun. She crouched behind the trunk of the fallen tree, unsure whether the hare would show up at daybreak. A few moments later, a scurry in a tall grass patch to her right caught her attention, she knew that it was the hare. She readied the camera. The hare stood in the clearing, sniffing dew drops. The sunlit patch moved up unto her, as Marie watched, and when the sun rays gently shimmered on the hare, he dazzled for a moment, and then vanished. Marie gasped, but slowly her alarm turned into admiration and awe.

While still lost in thoughts about the magical events of yesterday, a quick rustling sound brought her back to the present. She quickly got to a squatting posture. The golden patch slowly moved up. And the hare vanished again, Marie never clicked.

Let secrets be! 

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299 words

Faery Taleish Pinterest Contest

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other entries :

I Got Cloned Again!

Lol.. My second photomanipulation work. 😀

Click on the image for higher resolution

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Tweet me at @sankarajayanth

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“No Religion”, is the true freedom (a sketch)

I sketched this a year ago. Forgot about it, but somehow this flashed in my mind just now and shared  shared it.  Click any image to open slideshow view.

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Tweet me at @sankarajayanth.

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I Got Cloned !!

Lol.. Only photomanipulated myself. 😛

 

my first try at it. clearly gruffy job..

cloned, but doing the same thing. internet. :O

My clones are sincerely sorry if you thought “I really got cloned” 😉

‘Escape’ Key Is On the Run – Escaped!

The official Windows facebook page posted this image and I was unable to control my awe at such simple yet volumes-speaking creative stuff.

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I would like to share some more photos, which have this dash of creativity that simply catches out minds off guard.

When Your Sketches Feel The Tickle

At Your Fingertips Is The World You Make

I Cannot speak. No words at all to describe this ‘creation’.

Human Fly

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any websites you know where we can pour-in for hours looking at creative stuff? Do tell me if you know any.

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Tweet me at @sankarajayanth

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A Monkey At 1000ft From Ground (photograph)

The monkey was overseeing a vast expanse of hills and valleys in Shimla. The tree, on which you see the money, is actually a very tall one, some 500-1000 feet from the valley that it’s root bearing land shallows into. Amazing how fearless monkeys are, compared to their more evolved relatives. 

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Tweet me at @sankarajayanth.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth

click for high resolution image

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bowels of earth,
play magic symphonies,
green hope bears fruits and flowers.

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Tweet me at @sankarajayanth.

P.S: I created that image following instructions in this tutorial on psd.tutsplus.com

This post is an entry at dailypost.wordpress.com.

The Duchess Pigeon and The Mysterious Parchment – Unnamed Series #1

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She woke up to the cooing of a bird. Rubbing her still-sleepy-eyes, she sat up and looked at the window on her bedside. The morning light was washing through the glass and the polka dotted curtain, causing the room to be filled with distorted shadowy polka dots. She could see a bird’s silhouette through that white fabric. Slipping her feet into a pair of fluffy pink slippers as she got down, she reluctantly walked to the window and slid aside the curtains, in haste, partly due to the sleep’s hangover, rupturing the morning’s silence which was sweetened only moments ago by the deep pitched cooing of the bird outside her window. The bird fluttered its wings in alarm, but did not fly away. The little girl drew her hand back, slightly apprehensive that she frightened the pigeon and that it may fly away when she opened the window. She carefully wrapped her fingers around the gold-coated window knob and turned it slowly. She pulled the wooden framed window aside and looked at the bird. It was a white duchess pigeon. A tiny rolled-up parchment that was tied to one of the pigeon’s leg caught her attention. It made her anxious and excited. But taking it from the pigeon might prove to be a difficult task, she thought, since she had already made the bird panicky.

to be continued… ( for now, this is the first piece of an unnamed series of tales. Hopefully. )

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P.S: Tweet me at @sankarajayanth. Twitter is an awesome place for writers and bloggers to interact and share their experiences and works.

Pictures, those with a fairy essence in them, motivate me a lot into writing tales and poems. Having recently stumbled upon the picture bookmarking site, Pinterest, I came across a wide pool of stunning photographs which all have the said essence in them. I chose this picture to write a short tale, and as I was writing, I realized that this picture has in it the potential to become the starting scene in a possibly long series of historical/fantasy/ficiton/tragedy tales. I hope to continue using these #Faery pictures and write decent stories.

A special thanks to Anna Meade, host of the #FaeryTaleish Pinterest Board and of course, I thank all the people who contributed to the #FaeryTaleish collection.

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