Ten minutes from Home - A homework

The photo school homework for the week was interesting.

Drive, walk, bike from home.. stop exactly at 10 minutes. Take a photograph of the first interesting thing that catches your eye when you stop...

in Black and white!




Stopped at a Citibank Parking lot at 10 minutes and caught this tree.

In retrospect, should have adjusted the white balance or taken the shot with a higher f/stop...

There is so much to learn from not just taking the photo but when you sit down to taking a second look at it while adding finishing touches.

It can only get better with time and practice, no?


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Photoblog : Commute

The homework assignment for Photo school this week..

Commute!


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Jump fun..

The photo school assignment was "Jump!"

Here is my entry:




Here are other photos that were also considered today (you are allowed to post only one photo per assignment)..










It was a great day for going outdoors today and the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was vibrant with colors. The greens looked green, the blues were vibrant blues, the air was so clear it was a great day to take pictures.. especially when the kids were all so co-operative for the assignment.

More photos from the half day trip tomorrow.


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Homework: Storyboard

The photoschool homework was to tell a story in three pictures..

Our story:




Pretty self explanatory, we thinks!


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Architectural Detail - photoblog

Architectural Detail, was the topic for this weeks assignment..

Pressed for time (euphemism for I was too lazy to go outside), decided to focus on things in our house and grabbed this shot of our Chandelier..




Was actually happy with the result.

ps. On a totally unrelated topic, can anyone point me to videos of Ilayaraja playing an acoustic guitar? Would really appreciate it!

Windows - Homework assignment...

Two photos for the "windows" Photo homework assignment .. Have not decided if these are it or need to find something more..









Let me know what you think..

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Bokeh - the learning continues..

The hand did take a turn for the worse and limited activity for most of the day. After a lot of rest, got up this evening and tried taking photos. Options were restricted to indoor and that meant, the Christmas lights came out!

Like they say in Tamil "Yaam Petra Inbam" ... (the happiness I received, should be passed on, no?)

The camera modification




The setup on the dining table




A few shots which are better efforts than the previous one's posted earlier










Jr. is an amazing model. After getting hit by the flash a few times, she suggested that the picture be of the side of her face. It was a great idea.

Also, a tip. If you happen to try this at home, remember that 1000+ Christmas lights generate a lot of heat, when you pile them up in a heap. You are guaranteed to get your hands burnt if you unplug the lights and try to grab them off the table. It is NOT recommended under any circumstances, especially when you are recovering an already broken hand.

My kids asked me "how can you be so smart and stupid at the same time?"

How? How?

or should I be asking myself "Why?"


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Very very busy

With work..

Might be a couple of days to get back to Blogger.

Managed a 30 minute break earlier today to do the Photo school assignment, which was titled "collections" and this was my homework submission.



When you are surrounded by princesses, there is no other collection worth presenting, no?


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Digital Photography School

They give you homework assignments!

Nice to do Homework you like...really like!

Posting my assignments from last two weeks here.. (also on Flickr now thanks to the photo school)..







The hand is improving slowly but nicely. The range of motion has increased perceptibly. Even drove to work and back on my own yesterday! (mostly used left hand, but still this is a giant leap for sundarkind..)

We are going to wrap up the golu season this weekend.. so stay tuned for more golu photos.

Until then....



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When you assume ..

My high school physics teacher taught me :

When you "ass-u-me" you make an ass of you and me!

So, I did make an ass of me, when I assumed that textbooks in the USA would go through some kind of rigorous checking and proof reading before hitting the stands.

Worse, I assumed that teachers who give homework handouts, will check what they hand out, for quality!

As most of you have pointed out in response to my previous post, it does not sound right to write the letter "M" that way.

The reason I got all mad was that 5 of the 26 alphabets had an error in the way the strokes were mentioned!! Imagine how it would slow a kid down while taking notes in high school or college! I survived high school simply because I would write very fast and take extensive notes to go over at home. God forbid, Jr. ends up learning like me, and relies on notes, except she cannot write fast enough because 20% of the time she is going back and forth writing wrong strokes.. the nightmare!!

Here are some pictures from the homework sheet.



ACtually the option in the book (Phonics II - California syllabus ?) is worse!




Me rest case!

What ?

That sentence will be perfectly legitimate and taught in text books by the time Jr. hits middle school.


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Too much love

Jr. got a homework assignment from her school. They gave her two germinated seeds (just germinated!), in a cup with her name on it.

The goal: Learn how plants come from seeds.
How : go home, ask your parents to put some dirt in the cup, put the seeds, water it and watch it grow and as bring it back to school.

I promptly put some mud from the backyard, planted the seeds, while mommy watered it in front of Jr. and grandma pitched in by saying "sunlight is very important. lets keep it on the window sill with the rest of the plants".

Jr. of course was learning another hidden lesson, zen style. The plant does not grow instantly. Every 5 minutes she would go look for a plant. After my repeated answers of "it takes some time to grow", she reduced the frequency to every hour or so..

The next morning, she went first to look for her plant! Still no plant. She was disappointed. I told her "Trust me. In two days there will be a plant!".

Four days later, this is what we have in the cup!



Yes. Looks like the seed has become fungus fodder!

Looks like Jr. is not the only one learning lessons here. Apparently, with the responsibility of not disappointing the poor kid, all the adults in the house, have been showering love on Jr., by indirectly showering the cup with water! Three people watering the seeds everytime they go near the kitchen sink was too much for the seedlings!!

Lessons learned :

Jr.:
Plants maybe grow from seeds?
If they grow, they need the seed, soil, water, sunlight.
It takes a long time for plants to grow, longer if grown by adults.
I hope all the other parents did the same thing with the seeds!

Mommy, grandma :
From now on only daddy does these activity homeworks.

Daddy :
My name is in the mud now, literally!!

I am sure there will be a lot more plants to grow, butterflies to incubate, cakes to bake etc. etc. in the coming years. Hope I get better at supporting those projects!


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