Candle meets Camera : Light painting

The following try at candle light drawing is the result of two things:
  •  New camera in the home! It's a Canon Powershot SX150IS. A bridge camera with some pretty good control over various factors.
  • More than 48 hours of power outage. An unsurprising situation when the efficiency of the electricity department is coupled with a state wide holiday.
My eyes got sore after much reading in the candle light and then there was nothing else to do in the unblinking darkness. So what if it's been only 3 days since I got hands on my first camera, it mostly never hurts to experiment!

And there was light. And art.


Initial tests: Heart at a shutter speed of 5 seconds. Nice enough, the ISO could be as low as 160.



The signature. Shutter speed goes to 10 seconds.


Moving onto less straightforward shapes is challenging. A number of limitations pop up:
  • Single handed effort - A self timed shot isn't quite helpful in the situation. Usually light painting requires help from atleast another person.
  • Time trial - The Canon SX150IS has a shutter speed limit of 15 seconds (slowest)
  • Candle isn't laser! - You get a lot of boiling wax showered on your hands as you draw, and if you move too fast the candle itself jumps out of it's weak bond with the candle stand.


Et's outline. Shutter speed still at 10 seconds.



And at a shutter speed of dazzling 15 seconds, Chloé !

As I said, this is a first try done mainly to kill time during powercut. Anyhow, looking forward to better ideas along the same line ^_^ :kitten


Growing Up

This is a coincidence. I was about to write this post about how Chloé has grown up (physically), and then today happens to be my birthday ^_^

So now I'll talk about Chloé, about growing up in general, about birthdays, future, or something like that.

Here I have a bunch of snaps of le cat, those that can be fairly juxtaposed with some older photos from an earlier post.


The picture to the left is the first ever snap of Chloé.
The beady eyes have grown, the little ears are strong, and don't get it wrong - it's the very same blanket !
And she loves to get cloaked in it.
 


Always her cube.
This rubik's cube is a wonderful survivor of Chloé's daily violence.


The cube still continues to be an integral part of Chloé's nap times on my bed.
Just compare the sizes of the cube and the cat in both the pictures.



This is the basket in which I kept her when she was too small to even climb out of it. She slept curled up as a tiny furball in a corner. Now she fills the whole basket, but nevertheless enjoys hoping inside it and even having a nap at times !
You can find the early footage of this basket in this post.


It is always nice to have certain constants in life. Even as fresh and better ideas happen and we create/collect more colorful things, the little constants always reminds us of a simple living we had and should continue to have.

At this time I am ideally supposed to be in an air conditioned cubicle in some big IT company. But I got these few spare months before I start working in any such places. And while most of my fellow folks might be seeing this as an unnecessary lag of time, I am sincerely grateful for this.

If it wasn't for these few weeks, I wouldn't have had such a free space in a very long time. There were things I wanted to try, things I wanted to measure myself in. I could get started with these things, which wouldn't ever have happened if I were to start working in a cubicle right away.

What was gained? 
In a broad sense: an appreciation for simple living and an awful lot of peace, AND the secret to happiness :).
These things will forever stay, no matter how the future might turn out.
I should remind you here, that nothing comes without hardwork. It it a curious fact that even in a long row of days which were boldly labelled 'free', there were few days where I had more than 6 hours sleep ^_^.

Breathe, Smile, Create :rainbow

And stop chasing the golden snitch !




Harry Potter completion : 3 books, 3 movies

Relatively slow, I know. But this is the normal and regular pace for me ^_^
Sometimes I bicycle to grandma's home with a book and without the cellphone.
I like such reading breaks, away from everything digital. 
And even essential, because otherwise it is hard to spend too much time with a book !