The Royal Verandah

The term verandah has made its way to English via India and refers to an open roofed courtyard around a bungalow or terrace. According to Wikipedia, a verandah  “commonly refers to balconies on cruise ships and some hotel properties. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure.”. The following verandah is from the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad, India. Photographed as a single bracketed frame, this image was converted to black-and-white in Silver Efex Pro to add texture and tonal contrast.

DSC_0712-Edit
Pillared and beautifully decorated verandah at the Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad, India

Related Articles

Doors to perception

The Indian Marketplace

India, the land of colours, none more evident than in a marketplace.

DSC_0411
Bags on sale. The tree becomes the shop window. Anjuna Beach, Goa, India
DSC_0407
A riot of colour. Anjuna Beach, Goa, India
DSC_0358-Edit
Roadside hat seller. Panjim, Goa

All photographs from a Nikon D80, 3-shot bracketed exposures processed in Photomatix Pro and Adobe Lightroom 5.0.

Related Articles

Goa – A beach experience

Goa by night

Doors to Perception

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infiniteWilliam Blake

DSC_0661-Edit
Infinite doors at Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad, India

Photographed at the Chowmahalla Palace, the seat of the Nizams of Hyderabad, India (January 2012).

 

The Four Seasons – Autumn

The next in the series of sculptures by Philip Haas is Autumn. Autumn is characterised by ripe fruit (grapes, apples, blackberries) and vegetables (pumpkins, barley) ready for the picking.

_DSC2911_2_3-Edit
Autumn by Philip Haas

These sculptures are inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo‘s paintings of “The Four Seasons”. Arcimboldo used fruits, vegetables and grains to creative identifiable and imaginative portraits.

Technical Details
Photographed using Nikon D7000 with a 18-250mm F4.5/6.3 Lens
Autobracketed at -2, 0 and +2 in aperture priority mode (f/6.3 ISO 200)
Processed in Photomatix Pro and Adobe Lightroom

Agave – the “fake” cactus plants

Agaves are commonly mistaken to be cacti due to their appearance – spiny thick succulent leaves etc. However, Agaves are not related to cacti or Aloe, with whom they share a passing resemblance. The agave plants are monocarpic, which means that they flower only once in their lifetimes after which they die. As the flowering cycle could be decades, some species of Agave are also known as century plants.

IMG_1177
Agave bovicornuta

The photograph above is that of Agave bovicornuta from the New York Botanical gardens taken with an iPhone 4S and post-processed in Adobe Light 5.0.

 

Reach for the sky…

Just outside the popular Prudential Center in Boston stands a tall bronze statue seemingly reaching for the sky. This statue, by Donald De Lue, was cast in Italy and installed in 1967.

_DSC3366_7_8
Aiming high.. Prudential Center towering over the bronze statue by Donald De Lue. 

_DSC3369_70_71
The backdrop of the Prudential Center made an interesting backdrop/canvas for the dramatic pose struck by the quest eternal statue.
Technical Details
Nikon D7000 with a Tamron 18-200mm lens
Autobracket at -2, 0 +2 in Aperture Priority
Processed in Photomatix Pro and Adobe Lightroom 5.0