Best Review

After my first attempt at night photography, I have got so many appreciations. One common thing I have found in those appreciations was, most of them did not know about the technical details involved in that photography. So I thought it would nice if I get a review from a professional. I remembered my friend telling me that her boss is a professional photographer, so I asked her to share the link of my travel and photo blog to him and ask him professional feedback. Below is the feedback which he gave:

"He is a very good photographer and the best part is documenting skills. His compositions are very good and in some cases very creative. I suggest he should concentrate on documenting. Sell his articles in local magazines eg: Asian Geography.
Documenting refers to writing a short article and using photographs to support them. Also attached some of his work that I liked."

This was a true professional and best review that I got and in fact he has gone through all my blog posts and the pictures in them. That is something amazing from his side and have given me a great boost to go ahead and learn more and more skills from now on. Hope I can become a good photographer some day :-)

Point of Inspiration

Its been around 1.5 year that I bought the my DSLR camera, but never used it to the potential. I always used the regular Automatic or No Flash or Sports or Sunset or Night modes which are already preset. I was never convinced that I was taking some nice pictures even though my friends always appreciated my pictures. I was a bit lazy in reading the manual and learning it. Nagaraj has been insisting since day 1 to read the manual and I have been overlooking that.

Picture taken by Marc and Sina

Last week when my couch surfing guests Marc and Sina, showed me the Singapore skyline picture that they took at night. I can say that, that was the moment of inspiration for me to actually know more and more insights into the photography. They taught me some tips as how to take night pictures and also waterfalls. I have tried the night photography yesterday and got quite impressive results for an amateur photographer. Hopefully I will try photographing waterfall too.

Here are the pics that I took.

Team Building Party

Its been around 2 years that I have been part of this team in Credit Suisse in Singapore. The team has grown enormously and have delivered many a projects, but none of us know each other properly and doesn't really know each other personally.

Finally this Friday, management has taken a step to give a Team Building party to the team. The attendance to this was compulsory. So evening by 4PM, we were all at the Ceylon Cricket Club to start a great evening. We were told that we will be having some games and then dinner at 6.30PM. When I heard about the games and saw the people around me, I thought what these old guys will play and this whole exercise would be a flop.

To my surprise once the games were started everyone forgot where they come from and what position they are in and have actually enjoyed the games part of the evening. We were split into 4 groups and were supposed to compete in 3 different games.

That's my team Red Bulls

After then games we went for dinner and drinks. After having 2 or 3 drinks we asked for some good music and then started dancing for a long time. We had food, drinks, danced and spoke to each other and in fact knew each other well. We had a great time till 1 in the night. In fact this is the first time I have got a chance to speak to all my bosses with whom I haven't really spoken for 2 years.

That's the final group who were there till Late night

Hope I will have these kind of parties quarterly.

Do you enjoy your work?

I have always encountered this question in my life, "Do you enjoy your work?". I spontaneously say "NO". I gave justification saying that I don't really like working and just for survival I am working. But even I was not convinced or satisfied with my answer.

During this Diwali weekend I was again in the same situation but this time I got the proper answer which I felt was very convincing and satisfying to hear. The girl who asked me this question gave her answer for the same question.

She said: "I love music, travelling etc and if I start loving my job and spending more time there, then I don't think I can spend time for those activities which I love more".

On the similar note I felt that I was having the same thing in mind but never came out with such a self explanatory answer. From now on I have the answer for this question :-).

Congratulations

Congratulations to Dolly and Ravi for becoming parents for the first time. Last night Dolly has given birth to a beautiful little angel. I wish you both parents good luck and God bless the baby. Hope to see you guys soon.

Happy Diwali

I know its been quite a while I have actually posted in the blog. This was because of many reasons both at personal and professional front. Finally today (After Ramya asked me to write something as she was missing my posts ;)) I wanted to make sure of writing something.

This weekend was Diwali weekend and this will be my third Diwali in Singapore. The first year, I went to the Diwali count down at Serangoon, which was good and the second year I was at home doing nothing. Even this time I thought I will not do anything other than sitting at home and watching some stupid movie.





The day before Diwali, I got a call from Vidya bhai and he asked me to come down to his place with my friends. As there was nothing else to do we all went to his place on the diwali day and had nice biryani and sweets. After the food we were all excited to burn those sparklers as its been a long time we all have actually done that. After enjoying the crackers and taking some pictures, I and Surya left to Poonam's place (Surya's friend).


This was my first time to meet this gang and was not sure how I would get along with them. But to my surprise everyone was good and I had a great time with them. I had gobi manchurian and coke at their place, burned some sparklers, took some pics and then left for Clarke Quay. I and Surya thought we will not go but finally ended up going there and thought we will leave early and came home at 3AM in the night.

Over all it was a fun filled Diwali that I had in the past 3 years. Even though it is late, belated Diwali wishes to one and all.

Helping Hand

Not everybody can do good things and help people. I am proud of my dad as he has done it many a times till date. The recent Kurnool relief operation is one more Feather in dad's Cap.

A day after the floods in Kurnool, dad called me and asked me to see the news (which normally I don't care about). I switched logged into the Internet news and came to know about the situation in AP. After a while I called dad to discuss how it is going and how is everyone over there. Dad then told me that he is doing a relief operation for the affected people. As usual being a lazy bum, I asked my dad to give money to someone and they would take care. But he insisted on doing it by himself and if I am interested I can do some contribution.

Immediately, I sent message to all my friends in Singapore, called friends and cousins in USA to ask if they are interested in contributing to this noble cause. To my surprise, I got so many positive responses and was able to send the contributions around 100K (15K (From MGIT friends) + 17.5 (From Singapore Friends) + 40.5K (From Nandu and his friends) + 15K (Ramya and her Friends) + 5K (From Munnu bava) + 6K (From Swetha's Friends))

This overwhelming response has motivated dad further and has done the helping activities in two different phases.

Phase 1:
Around 50 volunteers were there to help in cooking and packing the rice, water and clothes.
Around 30 volunteers went into the affected areas to distribute the food and water.
Over 1300Kg of rice has been cooked and packed.
6 vans left Hyderabad in the night and distributed over several affected villages by next day afternoon.

Phase 2:
Hundreds of blankets were sent to the needful.
Some of the daily food items were also sent along.

Result of the operation:
Many appreciations and blessings to all those who have helped in this activity.

Note: You can see the video which came in the news here.

Thanks

I would like to thank all those beautiful people who have been part of this initiative. I shall write more about the relief program in my next post.