Explore Maharashtra: The Great Ellora Caves

When I decided to explore a bit of Maharashtra with my family, the first thing that came to my mind was to see the famous Ellora & Ajanta caves. Though both the caves are in Aurangabad, they are actually quite far away from each other - so visiting both the caves on the same day is not possible.

We decided to explore Ellora caves on the first day. I had learned about Ellora in school - as part of our history lessons, but I only had a vague idea how it look in real life. I guess I should have just hit Google or Wikipedia before visiting the caves. In a way, I am glad that I did not do my usual research before visiting Ellora. The sheer magnificence can only be appreciated once you stand in front of the amazing structures.

Cave 29 (Hindu Cave) - Click photo to view large size.

Ellora is a set of 34 different caves. The caves are neatly numbered based on who constructed the caves. More details of the numbering and the religious influence of each cave can be found here.

Visiting all the 34 caves on foot is not practical (especially with a family). The caves are spread far apart. The easiest way to see the most important caves is to hire a rickshaw that will drive you around for a nominal price of Rs. 200 (less than $5). The rickshaw driver also acts as a guide giving you important details of each cave that you are visiting.

Inside cave 29. Click photo to view large size.

Ellora caves is a monolithic structure (carved out of a single piece of rock). Everything you see inside the caves (pillars, carvings, intricate designs) are all created by carving the rock. Imagining the amount of work that was involved simply boggles the mind. Some of the caves took hundreds of years to complete.

Explore Maharashtra: Introduction.

An elderly lady selling limbu sherbat on the way to Rajgad Fort.

When I went down to India for a much-needed break, I basically had 2 objectives:
1. Explore Goa on my own - preferably on a bike.
2. Travel to Pune (Maharashtra) to meetup with my family (who were flying directly from Kuwait to Pune), and spend some quality time with them.

As far as sight-seeing or photography goes, I did not have any expectations regarding Maharashtra. I find the place over-crowded, unhygienic, and communication with the people is a hassle as I don't know Marathi, and my knowledge of Hindi is very limited.

The only concrete plan I had made regarding Maharashtra was that I would try to do the "Rajgad Fort" trek - which is supposed to be a very challenging one-day trek. I also had some vague idea of spending a few days in Lonavla or a similar hill station - just to unwind myself.

Once I landed in Pune, I learned 2 things:
1. Maharashtra has massive history dating back to thousands of years. It also has an amazing natural beauty crafted by the Sayadhri mountains range.
2. For a decent amount (around Rs. 3000/- per day), you can hire a good car (such as the Toyota Innova) plus the driver - and drive anywhere you want.

I wasted no time in plotting a sight-seeing agenda that included historical places like Ajanta and Ellora Caves, challenging treks to various forts, and of course, unwinding in the beautiful hill stations of Mahabaleshwar & Lonavla.

It ended up being the most interesting time for the whole family. Long drives, interesting places and people, eating strawberries fresh from the garden, food poisoning and even a theft of my beloved Nike running shoes.

Over the coming few days, I'll try to sort out all the photos and organize them by place. Stay tuned.

Explore Goa: Old Goa

A trip to Goa would not be complete without visiting Old Goa. My original plan was to Visit Old Goa on 3rd December, which is the feast of the church and its patron saint - St. Francis Xavier. It would have been fun shooting the throngs of people who gather on the feast day, dressed in their finest clothes. Unfortunately, due to scheduling problems, I landed in Goa after the feast day.

Old Goa, also known as Velha Goa, was the former capital of the Portuguese India from the 16th to the 18th century, until it was abandoned due to plague and the capital was moved to Panaji.

Old Goa houses some very important catholic churches, the most famous being the "Basilica of Bom Jesus", which has the remains of St. Francis Xavier.

Basilica of Bom Jesus

Intricate facade of Bom Jesus Church

Explore Goa: Bird-Watching

Juvenile Brahminy Kit

I am on vacation. I go to sleep late at night and I would like to stay in bed till noon. But every morning, I end up being forced out of bed at 5 a.m., when it is still pitch black outside. That is the price I have to pay for living in a tropical paradise. The cacophony of thousand birds screaming their guts out means that morning sleep is just not possible.

Yesterday morning, I decided to take my revenge on the noisy birds by fixing the newly acquired 80-400mm lens and going out and shooting all the birds I could see. The biggest noise making culprits are, of course, the crows. There are thousands of crows screaming all day long. However, I was astonished to see the varied bird life that exists in Mobor. I managed to get the following captures in just 1 hour. I can only imagine what an avid birder can find here.

Explore Goa: Margao to Panjim.

National Highway NH17 connecting Margao to Panjim.

I decided to cycle from Margao to Panjim. Margao is the commercial hub of Goa, while Panjim is the capital of Goa. Since the distance is relatively short, I thought it might be a good idea to check out some of the places near Vasco (named after Vasco-da-Gama).

The weather was hazy without any clouds, so I knew in advance that my landscape photography was not going to be anything spectacular. I decided to focus on the journey. The route I followed is marked on the map in red.

Route from Panjim to Margao via Vasco.

Explore Goa: Fishing in Arabian Sea.

Early Morning on Mandovi River.

My brother Roy is an avid angler. Okay. Let me rephrase that. My brother is a crazy fisherman. He can spend hours in the sea waiting for the fish to bite. I have tried fishing on a number of occasions and always came back with the same conclusion. I don't have the patience for fishing. This does not mean I lack patience. I have plenty of patience. For example, when it comes to photography, I can sit for hours waiting for the sun to be at just the right position so that I can get the "perfect shot". The difference, for me, is that I know exactly how long I have to wait for the sun to be at a specific point. But when it comes to fishing, I don't know when (or if) the fish are going to bite - and that is what I find frustrating. I thrive on certainty. I leave uncertainty for others.

Roy called me late last night asking if I would join him for a fishing trip along with some friends of his. The fishing would be in a high-speed boat, which he felt I might enjoy. The was a catch (pardon the pun). I had to get up at 5:30 am!!. Even as I groaned at the prospect of getting up at such an ungodly hour, I agreed to join him - thinking that the trip might offer some photographic opportunities.

Explore Goa: Dudhsagar.

Dudhsagar Waterfalls

Dudhsagar (which literally means "sea of milk") is a waterfall on the Mandovi river, and a must-see destination for tourists. The falls dry up into a trickle during the dry seasons (January to May) but provide an awe-inspiring view during the monsoon season (June to September) - as the heavy monsoon water gushes over the mountain.

Dudhsagar is in a very remote location and not accessible by car or bicycle. I had a number of options to visit the place:
1. Ask my brother to drive me to the falls in his 4x4 SUV (most convenient).
2. Go on one of the tourist vehicles that take people to Kulem by car - and then a bumpy 1 hour ride to the waterfalls in a 4x4.

How about Trekking?

Explore Goa: Margao to Ponda and Back.

The "Old Market" in Margao.

After a nice rest in Margao at my Sisters place, I was unsure what to do next. I wanted to make the trip to Dudhsagar waterfalls, but felt that I should keep it for another day. Instead, I thought I'll take a trip to the Old Market and perhaps do a little cycling to Ponda & back. The "little cycling" eventually turned out to be 4 hours of solid cycling.

My bike trip from Margao to Ponda & back.

Explore Goa: River Sal Boat Trip.

Betty's Cruise on the River Sal.

A river trip in a tourist boat is about as close I wanted to get on my photography trip as a Turkish family wants to get to a Greek Salad. The only reason I decided to give it a try is:
1. The boat belongs to my brother and he captains the boat.
2. I felt like I needed a break to just sit back and relax.
3. Great food and drinks. Did I mention that its all free for me?

The boat trip is a major attraction for the visiting tourists who enjoy the scenic river and the sea. The trip starts in River Sal and briefly goes into the Arabian sea for dolphin viewing before returning back to the river. The trip continues upstream - going all the way to Varca before returning back to Mobor after 5 hours of cruising. Books on birds, plus a pair of binoculars are provided on each table.

Route taken by the boat.

Explore Goa: From Mobor to Palolem

My 21-gear Trek bicycle ride.

I decided to do the Mobor-Palolem route using a bicycle. I knew it would be challenging, considering that the route is full of small mountains but I felt my newly acquired 21-gear bike Trek bike would be up to the challenge. I was wrong.

I started early morning at 6:00 am. It was still dark as I cycled towards Cavelossim, to get to the ferry to cross over to Assolna.

My bike route from Mobor

Explore Goa: Fontainhas.

One of the many Portuguese style homes in Fontainhas.

"Fontainhas (or Bairro das Fontainhas, in Portuguese) is an old Latin Quarter in the city of Panaji in Goa, India. It maintains to this day its Portuguese influence, namely at the architectonic level, such as narrow streets, old villas and buildings painted in lively colors. The quarter shows how Panaji was during the Portuguese rule of Goa." - Source: Wikipedia.

I used to work and live in Panjim 20 years ago. I would pass by Fontainhas almost every day, but never thought to give it a second glance. For my career-oriented eyes, it seemed like any other place. Last week, when I was flying from Mumbai to Goa on Spice Jet airlines, I started reading their in-flight magazine and found an article in their travel section called "Must-see places", and Fontainhas is listed as one of the places. That was an eye opener for me so I decided to check it out.

I got into an auto-rickshaw and asked the driver to drop me anywhere on the Fontainhas street. He stopped right in front of the place where Fontainhas (Portuguese word for "small fountains") begins. The water from the fountains looks very dirty. I am not sure if the locals use this water for their daily use.

Fontainhas (The little fountains).

Explore Goa: Cholta Cholta

Cholta Cholta at Panjim Gardens.

Cholta Cholta (A Konkani term which means "While walking") is a walking tour organized by Goa Bookworm. Goa Bookworm promotes reading for children. They have a special library where children can explore a fine selection of books organized by age group. Goa Bookworm organizes these Cholta Cholta tours so that children (and adults) learn more about the history of Goa.

My friend Cecil thought it would be a good opportunity for both of us to learn something about Panjim - especially since I am on a "Explore Goa" tour. I jumped at the opportunity and took a local bus to travel all the way to Panjim (The capital of Goa that is about 60 kilometers from where I live). My family (especially my brothers) were perplexed why I chose to travel by the local buses when I could easily ask one of them to drive me by car. I've been enjoying my travels by buses because I get to know a lot of interesting people-  so I plan to use buses as often as I can during my stay here in Goa.

Explore Goa: Aldona.

Aldona - North Goa

Aldona is a sleepy village in North Goa full of greenery and colorful people. One of the most colorful person being the well known Goan writer/humor columnist, and my long time friend Cecil Pinto. Cecil loves everything Goan and offered to drive me around his beautiful village looking for interesting things to photograph.

20 years back, I was a regular in Aldona and not much seems to have changed since then as far as the unique character of the village is concerned. There are a lot of new houses, but they retain their typical village architecture. Thankfully, there are no grotesque modern style concrete block houses in the Village.

Nikon 80-400: First Impressions.

The Nikkor 80-400 f4.5-f5.6.

As part of my plans to travel to Goa and photograph wildlife over there, I decided to invest in a suitable telephoto lens. I would have ideally preferred something along the lines of Nikkor 200-400 f4 but obviously, that's way over my budget - and even if I could arrange the money, it would be very impractical to carry around on a trek (due to its size and weight).

After reading various reviews, I decided to finally settle for the aging Nikkor 80-400. When this lens is mounted on my D300 (which has a crop sensor of 1.5x), this lens effectively becomes 120mm-600mm - which is ideal range for shooting wild-life (or snooping into your neighbors house).

Explore Goa: Introduction

Satellite View of Mobor

I was born and brought up in a small village called Mobor in Goa (India). Life was pretty hard for us as children. We had to walk nearly 1 hour to the nearest bus station as there were no roads where we lived. The River Sal flows 100 meters in front of our house, and the Arabian sea is 500 meters at the back of our house. Both the river and the sea meet up about 1 kilometer down and we are locked up in a peninsula.

When the monsoons hit, everything would get flooded. The only advantage of living in a peninsula with all this water surrounding us is that we never had to pay for fish. When we wanted to eat fish, we would go either to the river or the sea and catch fish. Fresh fish all day, every day!!.

It is only after I left Goa and started living in Kuwait that I came to the realization that I was brought up in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The pristine white sandy beaches, lush forests, amazing wildlife, fruit bearing trees all around. It's all there. In fact, I've realized that there are many interesting places in Goa that I have not yet been to - especially the wild life sanctuaries and the national parks.

I travel to Goa regularly for my vacations - but I always look at this time as an opportunity to sit with my family & friends, relax, eat good food and return back to Kuwait. Besides an occasional trip to the amazing Dudhsagar Falls, I have rarely ventured out to explore Goa.

I have decided to try something different this time. Instead of looking at Goa as my home town, I am going to look at Goa as a travel destination to explore and photograph. I plan to visit most of the wildlife sanctuaries (hello 80-400mm lens, you will come in handy here), and visit different villages and towns to appreciate Goa and the place that I call my home.

I fly to Goa on 4th December, and in the next 3 weeks, I will be documenting my journey on this blog.

My other passion (i.e. fitness), and the fitness blog, will have to take a backstage for 1 month.

Grand Mosque Kuwait - Revisited

The Holy Koran at the Grand mosque - Kuwait

Back in May 2007, I visited the Grand Mosque with my brand new D200 and immediately realized that I should  have taken a tripod to get some interior shots.

To those who are interested in visiting the Grand Mosque, the AWARE center organizes tours every month (usually the 2nd Saturday of each month). More details about the tour are here.

My family wanted to see the Grand Mosque so I decided to visit it once again with the whole family. We gathered at the Mosque at 9:30 am (there were around 40 other people). We were served water, tea, juices and biscuits and the guide gave us a comprehensive tour of the mosque - along with its history, architecture, and statistics on how many people the mosque can accommodate.

I had carried my tripod this time so I managed to get some nice shots of the interior - especially the detailed ceilings and walls inside the mosque.

You can see the photos here.

Lexar Professional 32GB 233x

Lexar Professional 32GB 233x
Originally uploaded by Cajie.

As our cameras become bigger in resolution, our need for increased storage keeps on increasing. Few years back, I could get decent mileage out of a 2GB card on my D70 (a 6 mega-pixel camera). Once I upgraded to a D200 (10.1 mega-pixel), The 2GB started feeling very small and I invested in a couple of 4GB and 8GB cards.

On the D300 (a 14.2 mega-pixel camera) , the 4GB and even the 8GB cards seem inadequate - especially when I decide to shoot both JPEG and RAW images at the same time.

I decided to order a 32GB 233x card since they have become quiet affordable. As of this writing, this card is neither the largest (you can get 64GB CF cards), nor the fastest (you can get a 600x speed cards). These high-speed demons are necessary when you want to capture HD video, but for general photography, a 233x is more than sufficient. I tried shooting continuous shots (the D300 can shoot at 6fps), and the card had no problem keeping up with the shooting.

My only concern using such high-capacity cards is the possibility of losing a large number of photos if the card gets corrupted. I just popped the card in the camera and the display shows that it will capture 2800 pictures at the highest quality settings!. Imagine filling up the card and then losing all those photos.

I am travelling this month to Kashmir for an adventure trek and I will get my first opportunity to test both the new D300 as well as the new card. Only when I return back will I know if my concerns were valid or not.

An Impulse Upgrade.

I've been using the Nikon D200 for the past 3 years as my primary tool for photography. It has served me well and the controls on the camera feel like second nature to me. Before taking a picture, I can switch the settings for ISO, Aperture, Shutter, etc. without even looking at the camera body. I was happy with my images and I had no plans of upgrading as I was waiting for Nikon to update their full-frame (FX Sensor) camera D700, (hopefully with 1080p video) before making the upgrade decision.

Jumping to a FX sensor  is going to be a big jump for me - as I have already invested in some quality lenses that are not compatible with the FX sensor (especially my lovely Nikkor 17-55 f2.8 and the Sigma 30mm f1.4). Besides buying the expensive camera body, I will also have to invest in some quality FX lenses. So that will not happen in the near future.

When I saw an ad for a used D300 body for a very good price, my antenna went up. I knew that the D300 was a step up from the D200. I was also aware of its improved ISO performance, but was not really sure about other enhancements compared to my current D200.

I pulled the trigger and purchased the body (It came bundled with the awesome 50mm f1.4 lens that I reviewed yesterday). Once I had the camera in my grubby hands, I decided to check its features compared to the D200. I was shocked!. This thing is an improvement over the D200 in almost every single area. DPReview has a nice side-by-side comparison of both D200 and D300. If I had analyzed these differences earlier, I am sure I would  have been tempted to upgrade much much earlier.

For me, these are the main differences:

1. ISO performance: I can shoot comfortably up to ISO 800 on the D200. It can go up to ISO 1600, but the pictures are not really usable. According to the data sheet, D300 allows me to shoot usable pictures up to ISO 1600, and it goes up to ISO 3200. So essentially, 1 whole stop of low-light improvement.

2. Auto-Focusing: D300 has 51 focus points for fast and accurate focusing, compared to the 11 focus points of D200.

3. Picture Size: D300 outputs 12.3 megapixels, compared to the 10.2 megapixels from the D200.

4. Dust Reduction System: D300 comes with a dust reduction system that automatically cleans the sensor using vibrations. D200 does not have such a system and dust removal requires careful manual cleaning that requires surgical skills.

5. Live View: I was surprised to learn that D300 has a live-view mode. Images can be composed using the LCD screen. D200 does not support live view.

Of course, there are many other differences but the above are what caught my fancy.

I've had the camera in my hands for only 2 days so I can't make a definitive judgement on how good it is compared to the D200. However, I will be shooting a lot in the coming days and I will post my detailed impressions on this camera. More importantly, I am going for a Himalayan trek next month so the camera will see some action there.

Since my main motivation of upgrading to D300 was its low-light capabilities, I decided to test this first. We had an outing last night at the beach with some friends. I took the new camera along with me to try some low-light shots. Here's one example shot at ISO 3200.

The place was almost dark and the only lights available for this picture were some sodium lights in a nearby basket-ball court about 50 meters away!!. This photo would be impossible to capture with the D200,

As expected, the image was quite noisy. I ran it through Neat Image Pro, and then applied some sharpening to make it usable. As you can see, the picture is decent and usable (albeit at a lower-resolution). But at the end of the day, it is usable and that is all that matters.

Here's a 100% crop of the original image (after running through Neat Image).

 Needless to say, I am terribly excited with the D300. Combined with the 50mm f1.4, it appears to be a deadly combination for low-light photography.

I still haven't decided what I will do with the D200. Perhaps use it as a backup body. It is, after all, still an awesome picture-taking machine.

The Superlative Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF

Back in 2008, I sold off my trusty 50mm f/1.8D AF prime lens, with the idea that I will upgrade to the faster version of the lens. I even placed the order for it on Amazon. For some reason, Amazon had difficulty in fulfilling the order and kept postponing the delivery. I got fed up and cancelled the order and got the 105mm VR macro lens instead.

It was always in my schedule to eventually get the f/1.4 lens, and when Nikon introduced their AF-S version of the 50mm f/1.4, I thought that is the lens I should go for - but the steep price of $440 kept me at bay.

So when I saw an ad for a used 50mm f/1.4 for around $200, I was really really tempted even though I was not sure whether I could afford it. The decision became much easier when my wife urged me to go ahead and pick it up. All photographers should have a wife like mine.

The f/1.4 lens is 2/3rd stops brighter than the f/1.8 counterpart (i.e. 66% brighter). That makes a big difference when it comes to shooting in low-light situations.

The lens can be shot wide open without any worries (i.e. images appear sharp even when the lens is fully opened at f/1.4) unlike some lenses that need to be stopped down by a stop or two to get ideal results.

This picture of my daughter Erika was taken at f/1.4.

BTW, it is a ritual of mine to first take a picture of Erika with any new lens that I purchase.

The f/1.4 also makes it possible to completely blur out the background because of its extremely shallow DOF (depth-of-field). This is easy to see in the picture above. Erika was standing in a mall when I took the picture - but the whole background is completely blurred out.

The shallow DOF makes it very tricky to get the right focus. Even a slight mistake can render the picture out-of-focus so nailing the focus is extremely important when shooting wide open with this lens.

This picture really demonstrates the wafer-thin DOF of this lens. In this picture (shot wide open at f/1.4), just 2 or 3 lines of text are in focus, while the rest of the book (both front and rear) are out of focus. This can best be demonstrated by a 100% crop of the above image.

The area of focus is just a few millimeters. Imagine if you were shooting a portrait with this lens, it would be extremely important to get the camera to focus on the eyes of the model to ensure that the portrait appears sharp. Of course, you must keep in mind that the depth-of-field is also determined by the distance to the subject. Closer the subject (as in the case of Erika above), nailing the focus is paramount. However, when the subject moves further away, the depth-of-field increases. This means that if you are shooting a photo of a person who is 10 meters away, then focusing on any part of the body will be just fine.

Traditionally, on the film cameras, 50mm was considered the "normal" lens because the area of coverage provided by a 50mm is similar to the coverage that we get with our naked eyes. And this principle still applies if you have a FX sensor camera such as a Nikon D700, Nikon D3S, Nikon D3X, etc. However, when you mount this lens on a DX sensor camera such as the D90, D300s, the camera gives you a field-of-view of 75mm because these sensors have a crop factor of 1.5 (so 50mm x 1.5 = 75mm).

Since 75mm is an ideal range for portraits, this becomes an ideal portrait lens when mounted on DX sensor cameras.

Conclusion: If you love low-light photography or portrait photography, you owe it to yourself to invest in a 50mm f/1.4.

The Sigma 30mm f1.4

Perfect Breakfast
Originally uploaded by Cajie.

I was just checking my archives and realized that I never posted about this beautiful lens. I've had this lens for more than a year, but never really made good use of it.

However, I've recently become something of a health nut. I even started a separate blog to record my progress. Since the new blog is dedicated to fitness and healthy lifestyle, I find myself taking lots of food pictures. The Sigma (with its ultra-fast f1.4 aperture) allows amazing shallow depth-of-field, which, in turn, results in interesting pictures of food.

The Sigma 30mm f1.4 is a DX-optimized lens, which means it works on DX sensors such as D40, D80, D300 etc. It will not work correctly on full-frame sensors such as D700, D3, D3X etc.

It has a HSM (Hyper-Sonic Motor) on its body, which allows for fast and silent focusing. The HSM also allows the lens to be used on bodies that don't have a motor on the body such as the D40 and the D60.

It is not cheap. At around $450, it is something you purchase when you have lots of spare change or you need it for professional work.