Biker Nirvana at Pawana Backwaters

I had visited Pawana Dam quite a few number of times but never had a chance to see it in the evening. With the Tung fort standing right in the center of the whole landscape, I had always thought that Sunset would be worth a repeat visit.

Weather was fantastic on Saturday as light cloud cover was accompanying sunshine making the breeze cooler. One friend called up for the ride, 2 more joined in and we were off to Pawana by 4.30 PM.

We could see some parachutes floating slowly in the evening sky as we climbed to the top of a hill on the southern side of the Pawna Dam. Pawana dam backwaters is in the middle of a hilly area with some nice wind making it as a favorite place for para gliders. We took our bikes off the road to reach our usual vista point. The sun was well above the hills meaning we had reached there in time. I managed to take some snaps as the sky was increasingly getting filled with shades of orange and those floating parachuted were adding even more drama.



After the sunset, sky filled with even more colors making an ideal condition for silhouette shots. I couldn't use tripod because only low angle shots were providing enough sky in the photograph. For these shots I had to literally lay on the ground with camera in hand. Available shutter speed was also not so high and I didn't want increase ISO by much. Many shots were blurred but these came out exactly as I wanted. One more wish fulfilled!



See the whole Pawana set on Flickr.

Panning Life

Capt. Nandu Chitnis first introduced me to this technique. It is quite simple to understand but requires a lot of patience and control to get a satisfactory shot. On the first day of our experiment at Lavasa, I could find only one worthwhile picture in my first 100 clicks. Came to know that a professional motor sport photographer has to click 300-400 for every good shot he takes. Being a beginner, it seemed nice to have better success ratio but later I realized that it is the difference between my and his in definition of "one good shot"! :)

While Nandu has clicked a lot of bikers, he always wanted to have one of his own pan shot. And who else could better help him ;). Fortunately, one of my click on our second shoot at NDA road got explored! on flickr!. Sounds like a good omen! Here are some more interesting ones that we clicked during this panning experiment.

The Dock on Fire

This Sunday, finally, we found time to grab our BN calendar. Pravin's wife accompanied us for the first time and we happended to reach Rucha's place in San Francisco by evening. We had a chat over quick round of tea and delicious homemade pizza. Then come Sai's suggestion - a walk to Marina near golden gate bridge. My decision to carry camera and the new 10-22mm lens, even though no shoot was planned, turned out to be wise.



This particular photo was an accident. I changed the shutter speed from 15 to 30 sec and mistakenly moved the camera thinking it was still 30!

Here is the pic without fire.

Lighthouse Blues

Its early Saturday morning and I see a missed call from Pravin. I callback. Plan is a dusk photoshoot near Santa Cruz, Joy is also coming. How can I say no?

Flickr Set

Bikenomads 2009 Calendar

Unlike its biweekly nature in 2008, the latest BN calendar has monthly format. So only 12 could find place. Good thing is that it is reaching even more number of people this year. Check out this slide show from Sayan's gallery.

View SlideShare presentation

2008 for me almost went without rides. I had opportunity to click some pictures during BN meet with a TOI reporter in Mutha Ghat before I moved here, glad to have one of these clicks appearing in the calendar. Another memorable ride for 2008 was done here in Big Sur, California with Nandu. I could not actually ride the bike that time and so was just holding the camera. The place is so wonderful and I wish to ride here one day.

the calendar was made possible in short time by many folks especially Sayan from Pune and a great guy from Bangalore - Venkat who has been sponsoring this calendar since its first year.

Read the making of BN calendar for 2009.