Experiments with Light (Street)

Some photographs taken a while back in the streets of Chinatown, Singapore.

The Septic Sceptic

That's the latest title I have earned from one of my friends. Exploring on what it meant led me to the following definitions.

septic:
containing or resulting from disease-causing organisms; of or relating to or caused by putrefaction.

sceptic:
someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs.

So according to the friend, I am a person who doubts accepted beliefs that my brain has become putrefied. How did this happen?? The answers are HERE.

अहँ ब्रह्मास्मि

The title literally means 'I am Brahman'. Brahman, according to Hindu philosophy is the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this universe (Wikipedia). In simple terms it means that I am God. Though this may be difficult to accept for those who believe in an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent personal God, the realisation that one is God is what leads to enlightenment and eternal salvation from the misery that is life.

However, this statement can be verified in terms of our relations with fellow human beings. For reasons of convenience, the reasons are listed below

• God was created by humans and so was I.
• God gets the devotion and love from a few and so do I.
• No everyone likes God and so it is with me.
• Some deny the existence of God but want to know more and so it is with me. (Atleast I hope so.)
• Some know God but claim otherwise and some don't know God and claim otherwise and so it is with me. (Atleast I think so.)
• Atleast one person runs out of things to write about God and so it is with me.

Going by the above relations with humans, the relations I have with other people is on the same level. And I have no choice but to accept that I am God. अहँ ब्रह्मास्मि

This post was actually made to test the Hindi input offered by blogger. Not a bad effort by them and am waiting for Tamil support.

Experiments with Light (EOS Experience)

I attended an event organised by Canon Singapore called EOS Experience Day. The day started sunny but as I proceeded to the venue, storm clouds gathered with a menacing appearance. A few minutes later, the worst happened, the clouds started pouring rain (what else). Fortunately, the seminars that were to be conducted were conducted under a temporary shelter and so we were saved (The event was held at a seaside venue and some water skiing had been planned). The seminars were boring and the introduction of their newest camera, the EOS-1D Mark III followed. The darkness (both literal and figurative) brought on by the onset of rain was offset by this toy. It looks innocuous enough for a camera of its caliber, and once the shutter is pressed, it unleashes its inner beast and starts firing away at 10 fps with a 10 mega pixels resolution. To give a comparison of its speed, a video camera captures close to 24-25 fps at a resolution around 1 mega pixels max. If technology progresses fast enough soon we will be able to make movies out of digital SLRs.

Coming to the most interesting part of the EOS Experience Day, the visitors were allowed to try their shot at the new camera (hence the water skiing) and lens lineup (the longest being 1200mm of which it is rumored that there are only 10 in the world). There were also some macro and still life lenses lined-up and had arranged for some models to pose in swimwear (Canon wanted to give a great experience to the photographers I believe). By this time the rain had stopped but it was still cloudy, and the photographers, professional amateur and all went in hordes to try the lenses. I took some macro, then went to the long lens lineup,took some pictures of the surfers, then came back for some more macro, couldn't find any inspiration at the macro counter, tried some more shots competing for space with the other professionals and finally left. Though I couldn't take more shots, I came away satisfied that I was able to fire a machine gun in the guise of the EOD 1D Mark III. Was a bit sad that I couldn't get my hands on the 1200mm lens (the one with the longest queue). Take a look at some of the pictures taken that day.

A couple of Macro shots...

...a couple of high speed shots, couldn't get a longer lens...

...and a candid shot with the 50mm standard lens, but with a maximum aperture of f/1.4 it is anything but ordinary.

Saddest Song Ever

... I will make you hurt...

Priceless.

Experiments with light (Green)

Some pics from Macritchie reservoir. I went a bit late in the day and so could only get the midday sun to light the area.

Also met a pensive monkey who obliged with this pose

And finally kind of an abstract with the colors saturated...

Life is a Fatal Disease

This is the title of a poetry collection that caught by eye when browsing at the library. This is the kind of phrase that makes one think about its profundity but after sometime it becomes just another way of describing the mundaneness of being (a la Marvin the paranoid android).

A fatal disease is that leads to certain death. How, when and where the death may occur is what makes the difference. The person may try to prolong their life with medical aids but cannot prevent the inevitable. Likewise one may live like one wishes because in the end, when all ends, life too, ends.

Why does the above not make any sense at all?? Oh well, nevermind. Life is a fatal disease.

Every Day Is Exactly The Same

The title of this post is shared with a song by the band Nine Inch Nails from their album 'With Teeth'. The band is fronted by Trent Reznor who does most of the song writing and composing(not just arranging though he may use a few samples as is done by most of the Indian music directors and pop stars) the music. What makes his music appealing is the powerful lyrics and the musical genre (industrial rock) that seems to strike from within. It is my opinion that you can listen to other genres of music but rock music is to be felt in the bones to be enjoyed. People who can't do that just hear noise.

The appeal of lyrics and music extends to one other song from this album, 'Only'. This song is one of those few songs that cannot be written without feeling anything like what the song mentions. The song has no target (as opposed to a love song that seems to be written with the girlfriend - past, present or future - as the main target) and thus is open to interpretation. This is especially true as the chorus of the song goes "There is no you, there is only me" and somewhat contradicting the rest of the song lyrics in which the singer sings about losing definition and purpose in life. And so, this has been my anthem for the past few days and am hoping for it to change.

On a side note, 'With Teeth' has been said to be the worst NIN album in years, the music shifting toward hip-hop sounds than industrial rock. After listening to some of their previous tracks like 'Closer' (supposedly their best), 'Perfect Drug'(can be interpreted as alove song), 'Head like a Hole', 'Hurt'(An extremely good soft song and was covered by Johnny Cash sometime before his death) , 'Fragile', I have to agree. Now they have returned to their industrial roots in their upcoming album 'Year Zero', said to be a concept album about a dystopian future (as all futures are). Most of the songs are good and have a visceral appeal. A few are of the can't get it out of my head type, and is a must buy, though streaming from the site will do for now :-)