Anjuna Flea Market

Goa – Goa Reloaded – Goa Revolution! What’s this suggests? Any guess?

In 2015, I went to Goa for 3 times – nothing can be better.

Lost some of the mobile snaps and wasn’t getting the required time to post the snaps. Finally I’m done with a section – some random photos that I have clicked in Anjuna’s weekly (Wednesday) Flea market are here for your treat.

Hippie selling Ninja shoes

The market is an interesting place, where you can see handcrafts from across globe.

The place is full of colors and life. On purpose, I developed all these snaps in monochrome - wanted to highlight the vibrancy using black-n-white only.

See the high resolution images of this post here in flickr.

Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.
© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.

A weekend in Shimla, 2014

Went to Shimla over a weekend, back in 2014. Wanted to take a break from July’s hot and humid Delhi.

Clicked few snaps and they were pending since a long time due to other commitments of life!

Finally came out with them. Hopefully you will like them.

See the high resolution images of this post here in flickr.

Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.

© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.

Learning to play with birds

I'm experimenting with Nikkor AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED and what could be better than trying this telephoto zoom lens on bird photography? This lens in my hand and my hand in bird photography - both are new to me. Very clearly I realized that this is the field of photography where I need most sincere patience to capture quality.

I did not tried though that seriously, I did not went outside for my so far venture in this area. All the snaps I captured either through my window or from rooftop of my room; need to get rid of this laziness soon.

These are what I achieved so far, hope to learn more and more in coming days.

See the high resolution images of this post here in flickr.

Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.
© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.

Weekend diaries: an evening in Dubai (19-April-2013)

I admit often that living in Dubai is a lifetime experience. A visit to Dubai always thrills me, it has many things to offer. It attracts me with it's engineering marvels, with it's beautiful cityscape, glamorous lifestyle, global population and what not!

This time I was in Palm Jumeirah. The weather disappointed me in one hand and gifted something else from the other hand. From Jumeirah, all the landmarks of Dubai are visible - I planned a shot. The weather was so cloudy that the visibility was very poor. I waited and waited for it to be in my favor but not. Finally it was the time of sunset and clouds played their role for something good - a drama.

The dust bug of D600 did not spared me, that is evident from the photographs but the day ended with a smile on my face. It was time for the evening. I was in Jumeirah Lake Towers to visit one of my friends, the view from his balcony was something spectacular, here is a glimpse

 That is why Dubai is so beautiful in everyone's eyes.

See the high resolution images of this post here in flickr. More stories of Dubai:

1. AT THE TOP
2. My last weekend in Dubai
3. Happy New Year 2013
4. Exploring Festival city


Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.
© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.

Weekend diaries: Al Aqah on 22-Feb-2013 and 12-Apr-2013

22-February-2013

Al Aqah mesmerized me last time and I promised myself that I will visit again but this time to capture sunrise. On 22-Feb early morning (5.30am) I bid adieu to my weekend sleep, left for Al Aqah with my friend and this time my new D600 accompanied me. 

We were there on time and had the allowance for setup. Mr. Sun started to rise from the confluence of sea and horizon. 

It is difficult for me to choose only one and show here. I captured a series of snaps and posted them here in sequence. Reflection of rising sun on Hajar mountains on the opposite side was beautiful too.

Leaving the bed early was beautiful and obviously fruitful. Another good Friday!

12-April-2013

I woke-up early to see the sunrise in Al Aqah again and headed straightway with one of my colleagues. Nature is not always in your disposal to fulfill your wish! It was a heavily clouded morning - so no sunrise. But nature never let someone to return from her door empty handed! Drama of clouds! This is one of my most favourites from UAE.

On Aqah beach we came across a Filipino family, they were collecting wild oysters from the rocks. Delicious weekend lunch!

Life is easy with a caring partner

Al Aqah! see you soon. High resolution images are in flickr.

Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.

© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.

Al Hayle and test shot with D600

01-Feb-2013: Al Hayle

It was weekend (Friday) and I did not wake up early to go for a photo walk what I usually do with my colleagues/friends on Friday early mornings. Rather we decided to go out after lunch. It was not winter anymore in Fujairah neither hotty summer, the temperature was pretty much bearable but the day was little bit overcasted. 

Weekend destination was set to Al Hayle castle, around 10.0 km from the city through the Al Hayle industrial area and mountains - the oldest fort in UAE. We (me and my colleague - just 2 of us) started after having our lunch at around 3.00 pm with our bi-cycles. 

We crossed the Al Hayle industrial area and entered in hilly area, the road was no more in plain - high high and higher. The sky was in non-cooperation mood. We were in 2.0 km radius of the fort after going through small villages and welcomed by darkness and storm

For the above image I combined the exposures, that's why it looks much brighter but the reality was more darker.

This was our camera setup for the first image. From this point we decided to go back - we did not dared to go through the storm. May be next time!

On our way back (the return journey was much much easier as we were coming down) in the industrial area, we met an abandoned ship (actually a mini boat) named Perkasa II from Port Kelang

We met him on our out bound  journey as well but in night it was more dramatic, the day time snap comes here

We were physically exhausted after 15.0 km (approx) of cycling.

20-Feb-2013: Test shot with D600

On 9-Feb I received my D600, then I just tested some blank shots with the camera and was reading the manual to get familiar with the controls. But no serious shots and I missed the last weekend photo walk. So D600 was not used for anything major.

On 20-Feb after returning from office I saw a beautiful sky through my window and I could not resist myself from capturing it

The sky was really so colorful and dramatic like this, I merged the exposures here to present the reality as much as possible. 

Stay tuned with my works at 500px and flickr.

Please feel free to comment. All comments (criticisms & appraisals) are welcome. Please do not reproduce the images for commercial purposes without prior permission.
© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.

New buddy joined the family

My inspiration at my current stage lies in these words of Henri Cartier: "Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst."

Dis-regarding my earlier kiddish clicks with point-n-shoots, the shutter actuation of my D5100 counts round of 7500. If I look at my public photos in 500px and flickr, then it shows there are barely five hundred images that I could dare to make public and out of them a maximum of 100 will stand out in my eyes now. 

If I take Henri Cartier's word in serious sense (means not just random clicks but those clicks which are worth to count), then there is a long path ahead to travel before getting over of my "worst". 

Still I dared to introduce a full-frame member in my d-slr family. Yes, my D5100 has a brother now - the mighty D600. 

Launching of D600 really lured me towards it, I wanted it in my bag. Lots of reviews in many forums/blogs encouraged me to go ahead with one negative note: dust/oil spots on the sensor issue. In December (2012) there were big deals in the market and I could find that Adorama would be happy to deliver the camera to me in UAE (where B&H or Amazon would like to disappoint me). Even after paying international delivery charges, and duties the deal was really mouth watering for me. In UAE we do not get such deals and eventually I have to pay much more than the amount of this deal just to buy the camera body. No doubt, I have to compromise the warranty - still better than buying from black market I guess.

After sleeping 2-3 nights over the issue I placed the order on 16-Dec and immediately it went to back order list. After waiting for almost 50 days and compromising one item from the package Adorama shipped my order on 5-Feb-2013 and I received it in UAE on 9-Feb-2013 via UPS.

I was little disappointed with Adorama due to the small item which I compromised, it was a Adorama's in-house lens cleaning kit. In all my email communications, they claimed that the item was available and kept aside for my order. All of a sudden they started to show that item in back order and mentioned that it would not be available till March-2013. I cancelled it and asked them to ship rest of the package - 50 days is a big time to wait.

Finally I got D600 with 24-85 kit lens, 32 GB Lexar card, Nikon Wi-Fi kit, Lower pro camera bag, additional battery and charger set at little less than AED 8200 - a very good deal at the end. A total of 296 AED I paid as customs duty (of which 221 is only the customs and UPS charged 75 as disbursement fee) - it turns out to be around 3% of my total cost. For your information, only D600 body costs AED 9000 in UAE (official retailer price).

I spent 3-4 hours in my office anxiously to leave and un-pack the package. I captured the un-packing with my trusty D5100.

Like many others, I tested the sensor and it looked pretty clean to me.

I looked at the shutter actuation in Opanda as well, I had a pre-shutter actuation of 10; I guess Nikon or Adorama did that to run a quality check. 

It is time to go out and explore the new monster buddy. I will keep on posting my new venture with D600. For the time being, D5100 will take the back seat but he will remain as the core member of my team.

Stay tuned with my works at 500px and flickr.

© Arunangshu NathSarkar | V-I-B-G-Y-O-R | flickr | 500px | Instagram.