'Vilakku' means lamp in Malayalam and I just didnt think translating it to English wud do justice to the word :-) May be 'Dia' (in Hindi) will be a better translation.

The 1st pic is of the 'Chuttuvilakku', 'Vilakku' around the temple (or 'Ayyappan Kaavu' as its called there), near my home town, Eranhikkal in Kozhikode. The pic comes with f/10 and 0.6s exposure, using a tripod and focus on the leftmost 'Vilakku'.

In hindsight, I feel that a wider shutter and a correspondingly shorter exposure wud've been better for the 2nd pic. The problem is that, in the current pic, the people arnd it is also visible and not much blurred. Also the flame is a little messy, since the wind kept blowing it around. A lower, exposure time shud have solved these problems. Finally, I had to crop the pic to eliminate the distractions. I also have a pic with f/32 and 30s, taken from a little wider angle, where all the flames have transformed to bright red stars! But, that was way too unrealistic and not really what I wanted.

The 3rd pic is from home and is a little over exposed at the bottom and under exposed at the top @ f/4 and 15s. No complaints, since I liked the flare caused by the flame at the bottom :-)

These pics are again from a Bengaluru - Kozhikode drive!

The main problem I faced in 1st and 3rd pics was the bright sun. In the 1st pic, I used the flash to get his face uniformly illuminated. The 3rd pic, I guess is a li'l over exposed. I shud've used an exposure compensation - of atleast -2/3. In the 2nd pic, I didnt have much time to take the pic ... coz I was not sure how people wud react to me taking photos of women :-) So, I just took one and ran as fast as I can!

I did take a lot of time taking both the pics! With a bright sun around illuminating some things very bright and some things in the shade, electric posts running all around and a lot of area to cover, I kept, Amma, Achan and Rajeev waiting for each of this shots :-)

Finally, the 1st pic is f/13 @ 1/50 seconds and the 2nd one is f/8 @ 1/500 seconds.

These pics are taken in a market, seen from Ooty / Kozhikode Road (NH212), just after Mysuru.

In the pic of green peas, I used GIMP to clear the background around the basket.

The first pic is near the Golf Course, just after the High Grounds Police station. This is a region with heavy traffic and soothing tree cover ... but the traffic looks, just a blur @ 6 sec and f/6.3.

Second pic is the line of cars and lights in front of Windsor Manor hotel. 10 sec exposure and f/18.

Last pic is a Bajji/Cutlet stall near my house @ Ganga Nagar. Had been seeing this almost everyday during my return from office and I finally made an attempt at taking it. In the full size pic, the journey of the batter from the container to the frying pan is kinda visible :-) Unfortunately it didnt survive the resize :( This pic was 4.5 seconds and f/8.

Nowadays, every morning, when seeing the light coming in to the house ... I think of taking a pic :-) This time, the light was a little brighter and I cud use shorter exposures and higher DOF (f/6.3 and 1s for the 1st pic, f/6.3 and 1/2s for the 2nd).

Obviously, as is evident from the bored expression of Achan in the 2nd pic, this was more of a staged photo session and lacked the impromptu feel that I would like in portraits.

One thing I just cudnt decide was whether to use sepia or not. The pics, especially the 1st one has so many colors in it and it sometimes made sense to retain them. But, after doing sepia conversion ... I was in two minds. Just wasnt sure what to put ... finally I put both!

Best thing I cud've done on a monday morning :-) I wanted to take the pic against the light coming from the background. Obviously, the pic didnt come as well as I visualized ... and it lost a lot of sharpness after resizing ... but any pic of Achan is always good :-)

Against the light, manual mode was the only option @ f/3.5 and 2.5s. Needed a few retakes to make sure that Achan stay still thro' that 2.5s :-) Also, am not sure if sepia is the way to go here ... mostly I'll revisit this frame sometime.

Given a chance, I would have planted my tripod somewhere in the divider and set a long exposure with narrow shutter, trying to capture the entire gridlock of vehicles.

Adarsh says ... 'U r never caught in a traffic jam ... u r part of one!' I was part of one and had the clutch half pressed, with amma and achan sitting behind! Right @ the center of the city, junction of Brigade and MG Road, entering Kamaraj Road on a saturday evening!

Only thing I could manage was a hand held shot, with the camera outside the window and held high @ f/4 and 1/4 seconds!

This is the only photo session I had for almost a week now. So, I am putting it here, in spite of the results not being very encouraging.

In the second pic, the light effect is caused by a two wheeler coming down from the road, right in time! I also added Sepia effect to that pic. For completion sake, the 1st pic is @ f/4.5 and 1/2 s and the 2nd one is @ f/32 and 4.5 seconds.