Beauty and the dirty . .

Photos from Brookfield Zoo. Are these frogs watching the dirty picture ?

But why burn an Indian flag ?

Come on people, there should be a reason for every action . . What has India got anything to do with the "unprovoked" "unintended" NATO strikes on Pakistani soldiers. This attitude definitely needs a change . . .

Cup Cakes - From my kitchen

A thanksgiving treat from wife, Tastes delicious as it looks. . .

Sachins awkard stare . . .

Source : Cricinfo.

The Rodent

Met him near Harper College tennis court, busy munching his snack.

Steve Jobs - Biography Released

Dear Steve, I am sorry for the picture quality that's the best i could do with my iPhone 4.

A Barn on I55 ~ Chicago to Springfield

Focal Length 18 mm

Shutter Speed 1/500S

On a rainy day !

Probably the best picture i have taken in my iPhone so far. When I was strolling my way to work i happened to notice this .. The reflections in the rain drops has come out very well . .

Party on a Pirate Ship

If you happen to visit Alton, Illinois.. You got to take a ride.

Lonely Bride

          Bride waiting for her groom & glancing at the Missouri river....

Man who redefined personal computing . . RIP Steve !

Aakash Vs Ipad

Make a wise choice !

En Route St Louis

When you see through naked eyes it looks ordinary, but DSLR changes the whole perspective. Took a bunch of pictures on the drive, everything turned out to be good(at least in my eyes), a couple from the lot is posted here.

First picture was taken at 4:51 PM and second at 6:33 PM, color of the sky changed completely in space of 100 minutes . . .

Flower

Bee searching for honey . . . Looks too bright, should have reduced the aperture a bit i guess, still looks descent with the brightness.

Aperture - F/11.

A Leaf from Mohonk . . .

Camera : Apple iPhone 4
Focal Length : 3.9 mm
Shutter Speed : 1/17 s
Aperture : f/2.8
ISO : 80

Clicking the picture will take you to the Flickr page, for the full size picture.

Mohonk

I should have carried my DSLR with me to this place, that's the first thing that came to my mind when i landed here. But then iPhone's camera turned out to be more than useful, i would have ended up as a photographer and missed the fun - if i had taken my DSLR.  Is this the best place to spend a couple of days ? I will say definitely yes because i haven't seen anything more beautiful -The mountain house faces a mountain / lake on one side and a deep valley on the other side.

So many things to do out there - Hiking, Biking, Tennis, Golf, Basket Ball, Pool table, Ping Pong and the list goes on. This resort ranks on Top 20 in the United States, visit this link http://www.mohonk.com/ for more details.

Lynfred Winery

 

Couple of pictures from the Lynfred Winery, a family run business @ Roselle, Illinois. The above bride and groom dressing on the wine bottles were very attractive in particular. There is a good selection of wines and they aren't expensive either, i mean prices ranges from 10$ to 100$.

There was a wine tasting option as well, 9 different types of wine for 7$. Not a bad deal if you want to get slightly drunk as all these wines had about 10 - 15 % of alcohol. If you want to spend a couple of hours around this area, without spending much - this is your place. There is a free cellar tour on the weekends, making the deal even more eventful.

Traffic Lights . .

Trying a low shutter speed (2 seconds) in shutter priority mode. I think i could have done slightly better with a tripod.

When I Get A DSLR

After 2 long years of researching about DSLRs, and finally getting to know what DSLR stands for(Digital Single Lens Reflex) i have(too) bought Nikon D5100 with a Nikkor 18-200 AF-S lens. As any DSLR buyer i dont have much of a clue on what this does, i see a lot of new words / abbreviations - aperture, shutter speed, focal length, ISO, metering, SWM and many more, most of them haven't gone into my head yet.

Stay tuned for more,more and more pictures.

Can i have a loan - To get into the Forbes billionaires list.

That's an eye catching advert for loans. Loans loans loans all over the place, common guys there is enough debt on everyone's head already. Don't make it worse. . . .

Chicago Beans

Sun Shines

This is the cloud gate at the Millennium park, downtown Chicago. Its called as the bean because of its shape, if you look it closer you will indeed see it resembles a bean. It took 23 million $ to build this structure, weighs about 98 metric tons.Architect - Anish Kapoor

Shoe & Nice - Navy Pier Chicago

I have no idea what these are, i tried looking into google to see what these actually represent cant find anything at all. These are right at entrance of Navy Pier @ Chicago.

Oshkosh Air Venture - Bombing Demo

Missed out on attaching the video last time around. So here we go,

Oshkosh Air Venture 2011

http://www.airventure.org/attractions/airshows.html

Air show information available in the link. Pictures are there to be seen.

Spring break

I was always said, spring in North east is very very and very beautiful. I knew it would be better than the snow covered places, but dint expect it to be this good. My iPhone camera doesn't give a real picture, but the place has gone way better from what it used to be. It literally took 2 weeks for the place to change completely, from black leafless tress to flowers filled green all over the place has turned the mood around.

 With more flowers people started having the pollen allergy, that's a kick back though.

Cloud Group

These pictures were shot on the way back from finishing a sumptuous buffet @ Bangalore restaurant in Bridgeport. Nice bunch of clouds, was staring it all the way back home.

Shopping @ Shop & Stop

Probably this is there for such a long time, but i never noticed / thought about. A small board fixed to the trolley indicating which aisle in the store has what, makes life so much easier for customers. Instead of looking for sales staff who can help us figure where is what, this will guide us directly to the department which we will be interested in. Smart thinking , Improving customer experience - i should say !

By the way this place is Stop & Shop, Main Avenue, Norwalk.

Save Earth

Coincidentally a friend of mine forwarded the picture, which further emphasize on the importance of conservation of the earth. I know none of us wants to leave the world like a pathetic shape for our offspring. How bad would we have felt if we had to live life like the ones in the movie - Water World ? I know it would have been fun for a few days, but sick on longer run.

At Chipotle's

Chipotle has been one of my favorite eat outs, since i visited it for the first time somewhere in the first week of Jan 2011. When there is an offer of buy 1 get 1 free, there is no stopping me. Ok, coming to the blog - I have always welcomed ideas of "Green", "Recycling", "Conservation" and especially living most part of my life in India, i think resources are to be conserved and recycled. 

Chipotle just like any other restaurant is following the Green norms, which i guess is part of the government initiatives and of course they will have their own set of benefits. The way it was put across in the paper napkins caught my eye and here is how it was.

It is always better to use a past electricity bill or a parking ticket to clean your hand, rather than chopping down a tree.

Pepsi's Cricket World Cup Campaign

I can totally understand Pepsi would go to the limits to market their products, but Cricketers common you gotta use your brain. Do you want to paint your belly buttons and pose for a PEPSI advertisement, not a great idea i would say. You are going to be role models for thousands of aspiring cricketers / sports man in the country. And this is definitely not the way to aspire !

Remember for Indians cricket is everything ....

Customer Service Policy

Stew Leonards is my favorite place for the yogurt, especially the flavored ones. They are the best in this area, a little expensive comparatively but worth every extra cent. The eye catching picture was shot yesterday on the way to my regular grocery shopping. A very good policy if you are a customer, when you are the service provider not the best place to be in.

How cool is that ?

 

That was the effect of a good 5 inches of snow, though its cold and there is every unimaginable difficulty with the snow around. The view at times makes one think its worth all the trouble. This is the view from my desk, different angles ofcourse. I literally spent all my day watching the flakes taking twists and turns before reaching the ground, indeed i made sure all work was getting done.