May, 2011 Archives

Quick Visit to Dakshina Chitra (May ’11)

This was a quick trip to Dakshina Chitra without any plans. It’s hard to ride on this scorching Chennai heat and an additional layer to protect my tees doesn’t help the cause. Started off around 10 AM and tanked up the bike and quickly off the road. The traffic from CMBT till Guindy was pretty hectic due to the Metro Rail construction and after that the ride was as good as anything. Stopped over for a breakfast at Hotchips around Palavakkam and quickly filled my tummy and reached Dakshina Chitra at 11.15 AM.

In a nutsheell, this is an attempt to showcase the bygone era of some southindian living by setting up traditional homes of South India (Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala & Andhra Pradesh). Tamilnadu section possess Chettinad House, Ambur House, Potter’s House etc., & Ilkal, Weaver’s House in Karnataka Section, ILkat Weaker’s House, Coastal Andhra Thatch House in Andhra Section & Hindhu House, Syrian Christian House from Kerala Section. You can easily spend couple of house visiting the various houses and try your hands on the activities (pottery, painting, weaving etc.,) setup in various points.

After visiting these sections, finally visited Mask Exhibition where famous sound indian masks were on display. Had a quick visit at the exhibition and moved on.

There are few shops setup in the premises for the people who are interested in purchasing handicrafts & souveniers. There is a craft shop as well and unfortunately it was closed for lunch when I reached there. After you done all these activities, I am sure you will be hungry enough and there is an restaurant right inside Dakshina Chitra and they serve Veg/Non-Veg.

After spending quiet few hours in Dakshina Chitra, left the place with no heart. This is a must visit place if you are looking for some quite and calm place to spend your weekend.

Sky Watch – Night Shots @ Chennai Bypass (May ’11)

It’s been quite a while that I went out for a photo shoot. So, decided to checkout Maduravoyal-Tambaram bypass where there is a possibility of shooting sunset. But I started bit late and missed out the sunset, then thought of checking out points along the road where I can capture sunset shots. Got a very good point mid way between Tambaram & Porur. Sun was already down and had to use a bit of high ISO and hence the pictures are little bit noisy. Shot couple of night shots as well @ Porur & Maduravoyal junction.

Photoshop Experiments – Tilt Shift Photography

Not a perfect subject for this experiment. But still tried to see the effect on it.