Bikenomads 2012 Calendar is up!

2011 hardly had any recreational rides mostly due to me being in US for work for most par of the year. However, I'm glad to be featuring in Bikenomads 2012 calendar as well. This time it can be downloaded and printed at your own convenience. Go grab it here!.

My Ladakh ride in downloadable eBook format

I was playing with photoshop & had this idea of creating manifesto cum coffee-table book frm photos of my Ladakh Tour. I am reusing photos already published & also including some new ones. Results are interesting so far. Here is the first part of four part series of my Ladakh travelogue. I have designed it for full screen viewing so i recommend you click on 'Fullscreen' link on top of the document. Like it? You are free to download & distribute this piece of work for non-commercial purpose. Let's see what new ideas I get for rest of the parts. Stay tuned!

Journey Through Heaven - Part One

The 2011 BN Calendar is out!

I consider myself fortunate to have some my photographs published in 2011 Bikenomads Calendar. Unlike last year's, the 2011 BN calendar is available in printed format. It has been designed quite differently with a cool theme & everyone is loving it! I was lucky enough to see three of my pics on it when Chaitanya handed over the calendars to me last week. This year, I went on few rides, but did more photography. I hope, someday the picture reverses :)

The Kaas Experience

I wanted to share some of the photos from my last year's trip to Kaas - The valley of flowers near Satara. This colorful place can give you lots of opportunities to capture some stunning shots if you visit just in the right time of the year - i.e. Mid September to mid October. A slightly warm yet damp weather after rains fosters flower growth in this valley. As sky slowly opens up after Mansoon, this time of year provides occasional sunlight just perfect for shooting in Kaas. No doubt this is my favorite time to shoot around Pune.

When Nandu & Rucha invited me for this trip, it was already October end and I wasn't expecting anything special from this place. It was mostly cloudy till we reached Satara from Pune in Nandu's car. As soon as we started climbing the tabletop mountains - a characteristic of this area, we got increasingly covered in fog. We had to slow down our car and take extra cautions on blind turns. We could not see much around. However, once in a while fog used to disappear for few seconds uncovering splendid beauty of this valley. Each fog-less moment ended with a "wow". Such fabulous this place appeared even though it was our slightly out-of-season trip. Next year, I'd better be on time!

Into The Wild & Secret Valley

From Into The Wild with i10

Amol Waghmare (we call him "Waghya") bought his brand new Hyundai i10. We decided to hunt for the so called "Secret Lake". Birjoo (FF - Federer fan), Nikhil ("Chalo" personality) joined. It was an early morning trip. We started around 5AM. As expected we took a wrong turn after Mulshi lake and ended up at a dead end. Road construction workers told us there is no lake nearby. We still rode ahead after coming back at the wrong turn point. It took us another hour before we could locate the lake. It turned out to be on the same route which I already knew. It was the same route where i did my Ladakh test ride. Well, I didn't find the lake as beautiful as it was described to me. May be we reached too late. Anyways, we actually discovered another spot.

There is a deadly deep valley very close to that lake. You have to see it to believe. The trip was not a waste at all. After doing some photo shooting. My friend "Waghya" - big fan of Into The Wild - told me how he wanted to have a photo similar to Alex's on the movie poster.

It would have been really tough to stop buses passing by so we decided to use i10. A location just before Mulshi lake was ideal to get blue sky in the background. I got the shot. Worked for some time in Photoshop, and this is what I could do. Not a perfect shot but I guess it should make him happy :)

From Into The Wild with i10