The Matheran Diaries - Day 3 - Leaving Matheran + Chikki at Lonavla + Hello Pune

it was time to leave Matheran and head to Pune. woke up early as usual and after a quick breakfast, we took along with us a lady porter to accompany us with our bags and walk to Dasturi Naka where our designated cabbie Sameer Khan waiting to take us to Pune.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Matheran at Night , Street photography

a quick run down of the streets of Matheran in case u are visiting this blog for the first time.

• Matheran is a popular tourist hill station situated about 90 km from Mumbai
• vehicles are banned here, rickshaw pullers and horses are popular means of transport
• the place is also famous for leather products, shoes and chikki and sweets. 

the streets of Matheran is filled with people at all times. most of the tourists are locals (Marathi speaking) from neighbouring districts , some from neighbouring states and few foreigners as well. 

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Lords Central Hotel, Matheran + Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

a quick photo series of Lord's Central Hotel at Matheran

Breakfast and meeting Mr Lord

we woke up early and had a lovely pritein rich bread and omlette breakfast. then met Mr. Lord himself, the owner/prop at Lords Central Hotel who was really helpful in planning our next few days travel itinerary. Mr. Lord lives in Mumbai and comes to Matheran on weekends to look after the hotel.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Parsi graveyard at Matheran

its  pretty spooky at first to find a graveyard in the middle of a forest on a mountain and Niki decided we take a look.

we met a caretaker family thats been living there for 2 generations and most of the graves belonged to the Lord family of Matheran (the hotel we stayed at belongs to the Lords family as well). we also met a dog named Pari which translates to Angel.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 2 - Sightseeing in Matheran

we woke up at around 8 am and after a quick but healthy breakfast at Lords Central Hotel decided to walk around Matheran, a decision that both of us would regret considering it would mean we would be walking for more than 6 km for about 3 hours! the terrain was rugged and we were tempted many a times to hire the local horse rides but decided to walk anyways.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 1 - Checking In at Lords Central Hotel and Matheran at Night

we had booked our hotel rooms in advance so we knew where we were going to stay. the 3 nights and 2 days we spent at Lords, cost us Rs 13,502/-  (we paid the next day), which included breakfast, lunch and dinner with tea and cake being served in the morning and evening.

The Matheran Diaries - Day 1 - Mangalore to Mumbai to Matheran

here i am back with another blog series , this time visiting Magnificent Matheran, which is a popular hill station situated around 90 kms from Mumbai.

this time, i carried my 5dmarkiii + EF 16-35 f 2.8 L II USM and Sigma 35 mm f 1.4 ART lens with me.

the duration of our holiday was from Oct 31 to Nov 10th and the places we visited included Lonavala, Matheran, Pune and Mumbai.

Shooting Portraits with Elimchrom 175 cm Octabox as back light and plain background

I have received a lot of requests to do a quick post of shooting portraits with a white background (backlight and plain ) and so have writing this post. FYI this might not be the text book way of achieving the result, but as long as it works for me and the client is happy, its fine :)

The Elinchrom 175 cm Octabox is one of the best for shooting portraits. the 175 cm is really large and gives soft, diffused lighting to the subject. 

in this quick post, i want to show u some examples where i have taken advantage of the large 175 cm size and used the elinchrom 175 octa as backlight and even as a plain white background

Goodbye Seychelles, Hello Dubai Hello Bengaluru

so 7 days had passed so quickly and now we were waiting for our cabbie to pick us up and drop us to the international airport.
ours was the first flight from Mahe to Dubai and since protocol demands we be at the airport at least 3 hours in advance meant that we would be spending a lot of time at the departure terminal at Mahe.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 7 - Glass Bottom Boat

Day 7 :  so here it was, our very last day! once again, our tour guide had informed us that we would be the only couple to go on the glass bottom boat ride as the other tourists had rescheduled their plans.

so effectively this turned out to be a very private , romantic date, with just me and my wife niki.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 6 - Scuba Diving

Scuba diving was something nikki was interested to do the very first day we landed in Seychelles! and the place we stayed at was called "Diver's Lodge" kept reminding her of scuba diving and we had "Big Blue Divers" for our immediate next door neighbours.
me on the other hand, well, am petrified of water, have always been, and so was not really keen to go scuba diving. when we met the instructor, i nearly signed up for scuba diving as well, but my senses prevailed and i decided not to enrol while nikki was jumping for joy!

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 5 - Sunday at Victoria + Lunch at Butcher's Grill + Dinner at La Plage

the only time we actually got to explore the city on our own was on day 5, which also happened to be a lazy sunday.

after our super awesome breakfast, we decided to travel to Victoria by local bus as it was the cheapest way to get to the main city and back. we totally forgot to overlook the fact that on a Sunday, nothing open! literally, all the shops are closed, the markets closed , only a few restaurants are open.

managed to ask a few friendly locals if any restaurants would be open as it was lunch time already, and we finally got to eat Seychelles Junk Food courtesy The Butcher's Grill.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 4 - Praslin + Ladigue + Emmanuelle house + Anse Volbert +Coco De Mer + Anse Lazio +Baobab Pizza

for me, day 4 was the most memorable from our entire Seychelles trip. thats coz we got to do so much and see so much and meet a lot of people.

Catamaran from Mahe to Praslin and Ladigue : 

another early breakfast and Paul our designated driver dropped us from our lodge to the harbour where our tour operator Sultanne was waiting for ur with our catamaran pass.

Mahe was the main island with a population of about 75000 people while Praslin (pronounced Praa-Lean) and Ladigue were the other 2 important and big islands , with a combined population of not more than 4000 people.

everyone depended on catamaran for transport from one island to another and it was really expensive! our each ticket cost ur around SRs 3000/- and i was told the locals have a monthly pass to make commuting easier.

The Seychelles Diaries - Day 3 - Copolia Nature Trail + Beau Valon beach at night

Nikki and I were extremely excited on day 3 after finding out that we were the only couple to be part of Copolia nature trail with our very own personal tour guide Steve.

as usual we were greeted to the sounds of colourful birds waking us up, and after my fav breakfast 'bacon-ham-egg' we were off to explore the beautiful mountains of Seychelles.

Shooting Glamour Portraits from Home - Help and Tips + all 4 parts in 1 post

its not as easy as it seems, but here are a few pointers that everyone needs to keep in mind

The Model : its great if the model has a lot of patience (along with looking stunningly beautiful) and its an added advantage if she can do her own make up! otherwise its going to get difficult to find a make up artist last minute!