Pics from Golden Temple @ the Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe, near Kushalnagar, Kodagu aka Coorg.

The first pic is of the owner of a small hotel (Hotel Riya) were we had lunch en route Madikeri, abt 10km from Kushal Nagar. One of the best and sumptuous meals I had outside home @ just Rs. 20 per head.

The other two are also people we met en route Madikeri, the hunk in the 2nd pic just outside the hotel and the boy further up in the ghats.

The 3rd pic is the eye of a Sambhar deer and the blue shirt reflecting in it is mine! All pics from Nisargadhama, near Kushalnagar, Coorg aka Kodagu.

One of the first things I learnt abt photography is not to take pictures of people with sun (or any light) behind. While, that tip helped me early on, its been a good experiment to take pics of people with sun right behind, especially the evening sun. Just make sure that spot metering or manual exposure is used ... u'll get good uniform lighting for the whole face. Add effects like a glowing hair to it ... not worth a miss isnt it? Pic is taken with Av mode @ f/5.6 and 1/30s.

The second pic was a typical outdoor photoshoot, equiped with a tripod and a very charming smile :-) I used a thinner shutter for the 2nd pic @ f/8 and 1/15s, thanks to the tripod.

All pics are from Dubare elephant camp, off Kushal Nagar - Siddapura road, Coorg aka Kodagu.

The 3rd pic is a typical example of dark and bright regions in the same pic and another demo of the dynamic range of an SLR compared to a normal Digicam. I still wished I had a Graduated ND filter :(

Near Mridul's house @ Kannur, after his engagement. From left (in 1st and 2nd pic), Kalyan, Rajesh, Rajeev and Mridul. Courtesy Rajeev for the 3rd pic which includes me.

Disclaimer 1st: These pictures by no means reflect my views on any political parties :-)

The pics are taken en route to Kannur from Kozhikode, around Thikodi and Payyoli. Normal handheld pics There were so many of these red flags in this area (possibly since there was a state party meet, soon to be held) that I cudnt stop myself from taking a pic :-)

'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 :-)