Londoneye at night

On my first night in London, I was roaming around, just getting a flavour of the place. I came close to Londoneye, and then moved across the river. From there I got this view, it looked so beautiful, the shimmer of the lights on the river was the icing on the cake. This photo could have been sharper, but my camera did not behave too well at night since there was a slight drizzle as well. I can sharpen this image using Photoshop, but I only post images to this blog au natural, as they are without modifying them in any way.

London ceremonial policeman

This is a photo of a ceremonial London policeman outside one of the army regiments. I obviously do not know more than that, I initially thought that this was what they called a London 'bearskin', but a search for that term brought a different kind of uniform, and then I recalled that this photo was actually taken outside a place where the placard mentioned that this was the headquarters for one of the regiments. Of course, if someone is reading this and knows which regiment, please update via the comments so that I can put that information in.

Finally got the correction via comments: (From Martin)

This not a policeman, it is a soldier from the Household Cavalry's Life Guards regiment (Distinguishable from the Blues and Royals by the white plume). He is on duty outside Horse Guards.Horse Guards is named after the troops who have mounted the Queen's Life Guard on this spot since the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660. It remains the official entrance to St James's Palace and Buckingham Palace and this is why The Queen's Life Guard is still mounted here.Apart from members of the Royal Family or cavalrymen on duty, everyone needs the Sovereign's permission in the form of an Ivory Pass to either drive or ride through Horse Guards.

Buckingham Palace, London

As part of seeing some of the sights of London, I also went to see Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the guards did not let me go inside. My first reaction on seeing Buckingham Palace was that the place looked a bit too small to be the center of a world that at one time covered a significant portion of the globe.

But, second reaction was that this was a big building and it must have plenty of room, and the grounds must also be pretty large. The second photo was of something quaint, a horse buggy, and all the tourists found this pretty interesting.

New city Hall London

Was roaming around London and saw this magnifient looking structure. This is the London City Hall, and somehow, any way you think about it, it does not conjure up images of government employees going about their routine business. Some more information about this building and history can be found in these 2 links.

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London Aquarium

When I was walking on the banks of the river Thames, I saw this amazing looking building. The architecture and the looks of the building impressed, and since the camera was literally almost always with me when I was in London, I took a few photos so as to get a nice representation. However, at this time I felt the need for a better lens as there was no way I was able to capture the entire building.
Still I made the best use I could of my current camera. Unfortunately, I did not have too much time and was not able to visit the Aquarium, it would have been fun though. Maybe the next time.

Road to Buckingham Palace

I had gone to London a few months back, and I am going to run a small series on the photos that I took over there. For a number of photos, I really liked the weather condition in the city, it gave the city a look of grey due to the clouds; I really liked the way some of the photographs came out. I hope that regular readers like these as well.
This is the road leading to Buckingham Palace. It's a nice open road lined with trees on both sides. We walked a long way on this road, and it was not at all tiring.

Natural not so perfect flower

In continuation of my previous photo, I consider this single flower to be very beautiful. This plant grows in my house, so that did not take too much effort to go somewhere, but it took a number of photos before I felt that I had got the photo that I wanted.
This photos shows some flies, naturally attracted to the flower, sitting in a very natural way on the flower. This is more of a pose that nature gives, with 2 different elements of nature at peace with each other.

Imperfect rose

I have seen lots of photos of perfectly formed roses, but the pleasure of seeing a flower bloom in its natural location, imperfections and all, is a different feeling together. This photograph was taken around 11 in the morning, using my trust Olympus UZ 750, and I took around 3-4 photographs at different lengths, and this photo was the ideal one.
If you look closely, you can see the insect at the center. That is more of a natural thing, rather than just a flower.

The bigger Kikar pool

This is the bigger pool in Kikar. It is a at a lower level than the other pool, and is a fairly standard pool (although it is not a standard size or shape, it is more like a standard resort pool which are never a boring rectangular in shape). The deep end is around 5 feet, with the shallower end being around 4 feet in depth.
The colour is great, and the pool was very clean. There was obviously some effort put in to keep the pool clean. In November, it was chilly, but at around 11 in the morning, one could enter the pool with a bit of will power; once in though, no reason to come out. It was very comfortable.

Kikar Pool photo

If you take the last photo I posted on the Kikar Lodge and turn around and take another photograph, this is the photograph that you will get. There are 2 pools in the resort, located at different levels, but very close to each other.
This pool is the one at the higher level, and is fairly small. But, and this is the important part, it is fitted with a floating net, so you can play pool volleyball. And this is what the whole bunch of us did, spending around 2 hours in the pool, just playing with around 12 people involved totally. Great fun.

Kikar Lodge, Chandigarh

Over the weekend, I had been to the Kikar Lodge, a resort around 90 km away from Chandigarh. This is a small resort, located off the main road. It is an exceedingly beautiful and compact place, well maintained.
There are a number of cottages and tents over to enjoy, and these are well maintained. It is ideal for a group situation, where the objective is to have a relaxing time. As a bonus, there is no TV, no newspapers, and mobile coverage is spotty. An ideal day in summer or even in autumn is to spend it in the pool, relaxing in the company of friends and drinks.

Heritage village - a view inside

This is another view of the Heritage Village from inside. This is my third post on this resort, and will be the last one. So many posts from one place, because I truly liked the photographs that I tool at this place.
If you see the above photgraph, there are many balances in this photo. The white of the building contrasts with the light brown of the path, with the absolute green of the grass and hedges giving a beautiful edge to the photo. There is no clutter to break up this balance.

Swimming pool at Heritage Village Manesar

A few posts back, I had posted a photo of the Heritage Village at Manesar, Haryana, India. This is another photo of the same location. This is a superb August morning, with the absolute certainity that the day is going to be much hotter later. But in the morning time, the pool temperature is just excellent, and the colour comes out as great.
What made the arrangement even better is that a bar had been setup at one end of the pool, so one could relax in the pool and indulge in a cocktail or some nice juice. I spent quite some time in the pool, only coming out when the sun had climbed somewhat on the sky and it started getting hot.
What made things very comfortable was that a lot of the things were taken care of, there were adequate towels and places to sit, the place was very clean (both the pool and the sorroundings) and the staff was friendly and helpful.

Diwali - Festival of lights

Diwali is a very special time to be in India. It is an occassion of great festivities. Families use this time to meet relatives and friends, and exchange gifts. Houses are decorated with lots of lights. Children and adults enjoy the celebration with a great amount of fireworks bursting.
However, the tradition of bursting fireworks is reducing gradually. There are concerted campaigns to reduce the use of firecrackers because of the smoke and sound pollution they cause. In fact, at the end of Diwali, in the next morning, a haze formed by smoke can be seen clearly over the city.
The photograph above is from a type of firecracker that is in a round shape with a rounded bottom so that it can spin easily. There is a rope of powder wound around a central point, and one end is lighted. As the rope burns with energy due to the powder, it imparts a spin to the cracker whuch starts rotating at great speeds. At night, in the darkness, the sparks it emits makes it look real beautiful.