The Mumbai Chapter

     Its been almost FOUR months since my last Phlog...What happened in-between??? Was I too busy to indulge into doing something thats as essential as breathing??? Did four and half year of addiction just blew off me???

     Well the truth is...I had been busy....busy with loads of stuffs...Busy moving around, busy settling down and most important busy clicking photos... Well In the past 4 months have captured over 3.4k photographs i.e. 850 photographs per month, i.e., almost 38 photographs per day. But to be frank the statistic is nothing to believe as in reality in the past 4 months there had been roughly 2 trips, 3 events i.e. around 12 days of photographic activity resulting in a pile up of 3.4k photographs. Well then what is the reason for the 4 month gap???

     There are several reasons, but most prominent one was the procrastination and the recent transfer from Pune to MumBai. And with Mumbai comes the daily long hours of commuting..i.e. 'Har roz Train ka Suffer' which almost extracted all my residual enthusiasm to do anything, forget just photography, all I enjoyed doing is to lie peacefully on my couch and rest.

     So was it the end of photography? Actually NO. The zest to do something more than the normal living being always crept in me and weekends had to be the time to leave the monster out. But being away from the ease in access to natural heaven, due to the change in location, had hit me hard and to top it none around who shared similar passion for photography or adventure.So how to relish the hunger??? Well the resolute was rather the evolution of photography. But what was to be shot??? Well nature and its elements or rather Almighty's creations were replaced by the creations of the Insane Humans, like me... and so were the complicated humans and their day to day or special moments. 

          One such an assignment for me was to capture what an unknown new comer or a visitor would capture in Mumbai, the Gateway of India. So as usual equipped with a camera and twin lens and a tripod, I set off with an ambitious plan to capture the essence of three most essential creations that came to my mind, First the Gateway near CST, then the Necklace of Mumbai the Marinelines and finally a Sunset at Bandra Worli Sealink. Now usually I would love to move along with a group of similarly passionate group, but earlier several plans was simply thrown down the drain due to some or the other excuses. So its better to go on solo rather than trusting someone who have other priorities.(Regrets for sounding harsh, but Its too really harsh when someone spoils something thats well planned and laid out in detail by me...) Well whoever said "If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to far, walk together" surely never walked in my shoes.

     So finally headed off one fine Saturday noon and reached Gateway by 1630hrs. Initial plan to capture the whole journey was cut short by the not so pleasant crowd and jam packed bus. A prior bad experience with crowd stopped me from taking off my Cam while being among them... So just focused on capturing just the essential structures and some interesting moments. So here we go...

    

The Gateway(minus the crowd)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/400
F/9     ISO-400     -0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(right on the face)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/400
F/9     ISO-400     -0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(A close up of the message inscripted)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/500
F/9     ISO-400    0 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway and the Taj Palace
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/250
F/9     ISO-400     -0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(Sea side)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/250
F/9     ISO-400     0 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(inner details)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/50
F/9     ISO-400     -0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(Inner beauty)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/60
F/9     ISO-400     -0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(strange frame???)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/60
F/9     ISO-400     -0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(Top details)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/80
F/9     ISO-400     0 step
Canon 18-55

The Gateway(Sitting right on the top)
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/400
F/9     ISO-200     -0.7 step
Canon 18-55

The Taj Hotel Tower
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/500
F/9     ISO-400     +0.3 step
Canon 18-55

The Tajs of Mumbai
EXIF: HDR attempted

     After the Man-made marvels lets check few moments of the Almighty's marvels(in a sane way)...

Portraying her dreams thru the bubbles
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/500
F/9     ISO-400     -1 step
Canon 55-250

The small, sensitive spheres
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/800
F/5.6     ISO-400     -1 step
Canon 55-250

Bubbling off...
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/800
F/5.6     ISO-400     -1 step
Canon 55-250

The smoke faced...
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/640
F/5.6     ISO-400     +.3 step
Canon 55-250

The killing of the Ice
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/3200
F/5.6     ISO-400     -1 step
Canon 55-250

"Mera Beta Agla Sah Rukh Banega..."
EXIF F/5.6
Shutterspeed 1/2000    ISO 400

Now, at around 5:20 I realized I had to capture the Sunset @ Worli Seaface...but I forgot that the Sunsets at around 6:15(20/10/12) and with any means I had to reach atleast by 6:05 so that I can select a spot and get comfortable enough to get an awesome Sunset frame...But reaching from Gateway to Worli Seaface by bus, on time, a questionable challenge...
     Well the following Pic should answer the result of the challenge.

The missed opportunity
EXIF: Shutterspeed 10 sec
F/22     ISO-100   Canon 18-55

     Well I got a bus for sure, almost immediately, unfortunately it was on a long route and thru jam packed roads and I reached the location 15mins past Sunset. SO what to do??? Well utilize the time to capture whatever is interesting....and so here r the results of the time invested

The glowing flow
EXIF: Shutterspeed 30 sec
F/13     ISO-100   Canon 18-55

The Colourful flames
EXIF: Shutterspeed 13 sec
F/18     ISO-100   Canon 18-55

The swoosh...
EXIF: Shutterspeed 20 sec
F/18     ISO-100   Canon 18-55

     At this moment I came across a guard of the Bandra Worli Sealink, who was about to leave for the day, came to me and shared a few thoughts and few stories he had experienced and in the end said a few magical words..."the best view of the link is on the other end, but there is a spot from where you can get a good view of it" and he agreed to accompany me to the spot. Looking at this chap who is close to the early seventies and hardly my shoulder high, and also remembering the fact that he had been stationed at the Worli end of the Seaface since morning, I was taken aback by his enthusiasm and humbleness. I mean, in Mumbai who would, on their own, would come to you and genuinely give you a helping hand??? Until ofcourse the person had to harm you??? So after almost a 20-25mins of walking thru the streets of Worli we came to this spot where you could actually capture the length of the Sealink, though the bridge was too far off from the point where we had been but the scene was worth experiencing, unfortunately though the night was a bit too windy ample to dis-stabilize my tripod, but yet could capture a few decent frames and to some extent could capture the contrasting scenery.

The other end
EXIF: Shutterspeed 25 sec
F/5.6     ISO-100   Canon 18-55

Sri Siddhivinayak Temple, late in the night
EXIF: Shutterspeed 1/30 sec
F/5.6     ISO-400   Canon 18-55

     Well after completing the BWSL, I realized it was almost 8p.m. and if I had to capture the Marinelines and the famous Queen's Necklace, it would easily take another 2-3hrs, including the travel time thru maddening late evening Mumbai's traffic to Marinelines and also the time I would need to spend to get some good frames and making the trip a successful one, but I later realized the biggest fact, it would result in me reaching around 00:00hrs to home...and thats not an ideal situation especially when you are no longer a bachelor and living your life on your own terms and conditions...So next mission...Queen's Necklace can wait...Last leg of the mission was returning Home thru the EverCrowded evening Down Locals with my Equipments with me...a Never attempted challenge for me. But before heading off from the place, as a token of remembrance I clicked a self portrait along with AtmaRamji, my guide for the evening and thanks to him I could capture experience what I would say is an amazing scene...

Finally a memorabilia, Thats my Guide for the eve Mr. AtmaRam.

     So finally my first expedition of Mumbai ended on a tiresome but relishing experience, though had missed out on capturing the Queen's Necklace...but still I could do it, which, at some point of time, seemed an impossible task looking at the way the whole change happened within a short span of time. Well thats the end of this compilation...now all I have to do is steal some time out and present you all the other experiments/ expeditions from the Mumbai Life...while all you have to do is share your thoughts and inputs to improve upon my Naive blog...
    


Your Simply
ಪ್ರjwaല്