381 - 31st - The Yellow pattern

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 31st Dec'08

I don't know if you really recognized the first time you saw the picture, but to most of the people whom I showed this image, it was really unclear that what it really was. Before reading the next paragraph, just observe the image and try to figure out what it is. Ten points if you can do it correctly.

This image is from the airport of Tuxtla. We had rented a car and after finishing the documentation we were heading towards the car parking to pick up our vehicle. This pattern which you can see was actually the parking lot with individual slots demarcated by the yellow line.

Now, leave a comment if you got it right.

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380 - 30th - Popo from the heavens

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 30th Dec'08

Our flight had just taken off from the airport of Mexico City when I observed that we were already flying over Puebla. I was hoping that maybe the plan would fly past the volcano of Popcatepetl. Just in a couple of minutes I saw what I was waiting for. I could see the volcano at a distance surrounded with white and blue clouds with other smaller mountains in the vicinity. The whole scene was heavenly and unforgettably beautiful.

I waited till the plane started diverging from it's path towards the volcano and then took some shots. I was cursing why these damn airplane windows can't be opened.

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379 - 29th - Vicious stare

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 29th Dec'08

Not much description is needed for this image. The strong stare of the snake and the deadly blue shine in it's eyes says it all. Just observe the image for a couple of minutes & you would feel the effect.

Though there was a thick glass wall between my camera and the reptile, I somehow manged to get a decent shot with considerable clarity.

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378 - 28th - The divine duo

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 28th Dec'08

Sun and moon are perhaps the most important symbols in all the major civilizations in Latin America - the Mayas, Aztecs, and also Olmecs. All the temples, the palaces and major constructions have them in one form or the other. There are records of kings dedicating entire cities to the Sun god and huge palaces to the moon.

This picture is not from any of the archeological sites, but is a front door a small house in downtown Tlaxcala. Even my apartment's door has a golden yellow sun hanging on the side.

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377 - 27th - The orange dusk

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 27th Dec'08

I was buying some plants at the nurseries in Atlixco, a small town near Puebla, when it started getting dark. As I was getting back to my car, I saw a small lake at some distance with a couple of people standing at it's edge. I took my camera and reached the place. It was not a very clean water body, neither was it looking any special. But the effect of partial darkness of the dusk and the orange background of the sky, made it look like a beautiful painting.

I really wonder how my camera gives such nice pictures in the dark when it is least expected :)

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376 - 26th - Fresh & Green

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 26th Dec'08

Gardening is my newly found passion. It started when I moved into this new apartment of mine which had a small garden in the front. I started with cleaning up the place and then subsequently planting some flowering plants and other saplings. Presently my garden boasts of four varieties of roses - red, pink, yellow and orange, a small plant of lemon, one of guava and one of jasmine. There are two "plantlings" of noche buena, some cacti and a couple of broad leaved green plants.

Daily morning I spend around half an hour watering the garden. I started with small plants with no flowers at all, but now almost all of them are full of blooming buds. I took this photograph a couple of days back while sprinkling water on the plants.

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375 - 25th - Its Christmas!!!

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th Dec'08

Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated and revered of all festivals round the world. People of all countries, races and religions celebrate and enjoy it with equal excitement.

This is my second Christmas in Mexico. Exactly a year back I was at the same place, same city. But unlike last time, when I spent the whole day lazing around in my hotel room, I decided to be a part of the excitement out in the city. I went to the downtown which was decorated so beautifully that you couldn't recognize that it is the same place. Right in the middle there was this huge Christmas tree, fully covered with lights of ten different colors. Shot from a distance had many other subjects in the frame, so I decided on this lateral angle.

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374 - 24th - Santa claus is coming to town

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 24th Dec'08

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out
who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

So...You better watch out,
You better not cry
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.

Santa Claus is coming to town.

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373 - 23rd - The Nacimiento

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 23rd Dec'08

Come Christmas and almost every house here in Mexico would have two things for sure - A Christmas tree and a Nacimiento. Everyone knows what a Christmas tree is, but most of you won't know what is a Nacimiento. Or you would be knowing but by a different name.

A Nacimiento is basically a small decoration through which the birth place of Jesus is presented. It typically consists of baby Jesus, some sheep lying around and a lot of hay. Sometimes people get more creative and make big houses and put some rain deers and Santas around the place (as you can see in the picture).

Must be really fun to create something like this. In India, we do almost the same thing on the festival of Krishna janmashtami, which is celebrated to mark the birthday of Lord Krishna. As a child, I always used to make something very similar with my friends, though with a different name - Jhanki.

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372 - 22nd - The white fire

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 22nd Dec'08

It is amazing how photographs change their looks once transformed from colored to Black and White. The whole thing looks drastically different and the image doesn't have the same effect any longer as when it was colored.

I was passing by a museum in Mexico City last week, where they put up different photos on display outside on the wall besides the pavement. The photos are really unique & I always make it a point to have a look at them whenever I am at the place. It was there where I noticed the different effect a Black & White image has on you. Along with giving a homogeneity to the elements of the picture, somehow it makes you observe the otherwise non noticeable details inside.

Click here to see how the colored image looks

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371 - 21st - Standing in the dark

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 21st Dec'08

I was just wandering on the streets near my house and I noticed this car standing in front of a nearby house. It wasn't too late at night but the streets were almost deserted. The houses were decorated with bright streaks of lights and were shining in the midst of the dark night.

I leaned against a wall in front of the house and took some photos. Given the notoriety of kidnapping cases in Mexico, I finished it quickly and left the place before someone could come and question me.

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370 - 20th - The shining tree

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 20th Dec'08

The entire city is drenched in the spirit of Christmas. You can see lights everywhere, on streets, inside houses; everywhere. I happened to visit a friend's house where his parents had extensive decorations set up for Christmas. There were tiny houses, small Santa Clause scattered everywhere and the garden covered with colorful lights.

After spending some time with the family I went out the garden to take some photos. This tree wrapped with a streak of colorful bulbs was looking magnificent against the dark night sky.

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369 - 19th - The lateral effect

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 19th Dec'08

I have emphasized before too about the effect of changing the angle of view. Things suddenly start looking different and strange.

Take this photo for example. Normally the leaves of this tree would look like this. But if you stand up on your toes, balance yourself on the nearby stone pavement, take your eye level to the level of the leaves and after five tough minutes of focusing press the click button, you get a really amazing perspective of an otherwise normal looking tree branch :)

P.S Do not forget to click in the image and see the full of it

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368 - 18th - A "sweet" heart

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 18th Dec'08

Food is a category which has been least exposed to my camera. Though I have clicked a lot of images of fruits and vegetables but when it comes to the "cooked" form of food, I don't think I would have clicked any more than ten photos. So when I saw this bakery in Toluca with the front window all lined up with delicious "wedding" cakes I though it would be a nice idea to experiment. I entered the shop, took the permission of the owner and started clicking.

When I was done, the owner called me and told she wanted to show me something. I went to the counter to find a big album of cakes. She thought that I was interested in buying cakes and was taking photos to show them back home so that people can choose. I explained her my motive of clicking photos, gave a polite thanks and hopped out of the shop.

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367 - 17th - One year

Originally "print screened" and uploaded by Pratosh Dwivedi - 17th Dec'08

It all started on this day, exactly a year back - 17th Dec'07. I was thinking about my photography and to do something about it so that I could express it in some way. The idea of a photo-blog struck me and I decided on the theme of "Image of the day". I thought that posting one image a day for keeping the blog alive would motivate me to work more on my photography; and it really happened.

Scores of things happened during this one year, many ups and downs. I lost my camera, I had many a dry spells when I couldn't find images to post and many other things which discouraged me at times. But somehow I kept the spirit alive and thus the blog.

I dedicate this post to my blog. The image is of the first post on the blog; posted on 17th Dec 2007.

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366 - 16th - Vitral

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 16th Dec'08

Vitral is an art usually found in Europe and is created using small tainted pieces of glass. You can see all sorts of different shapes made of colored glass - eagles, humans, owls, plants and buildings. The one you can see above in the image is a fusion of man and fire. It was set up at the "Cosmo Vitral" in downtown Toluca.

I stopped there on the way back from Zitacuaro for some time and visited this place. It had vitral all over the place, on the roof, on the walls, everywhere. An amazing form of art; really.

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365 - 15th - Lilies??

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 15th Dec'08

I am not sure if they were lilies but at the nursery where I saw them I could see at least four different shades of them planted in small pots and arranged in straight rows. The owner of the nursery knew the name in Spanish which I forgot even before I left the place. Whatever the name is, the flowers were amazing for sure. Specially given the huge number in which they were present, the view was simply beautiful.

The man gave me one of the small pots, with white flowers for 40 pesos and advised me to keep them away from direct sunlight for most of the day. They are now adding to the beauty of my living room :)

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364 - 14th - Noche Buenas

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 14th Dec'08

Noche buena or the Poinsettia is a plant which is native to Mexico and often blooms around Christmas time. It has green leaves and the most common version of it has flaming red group of leaves at the top which gives an illusion of a flower. Come Christmas and you can see them all over the place. Poeple buy them and keep them inside their houses, offices are decorated with them and you can find them planted on the road side too.

A couple of days back I bought two small plants, but they are still waiting to be planted in my front garden.

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363 - 13th - The colorful bird

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 13th Dec'08

It was not the first time that I was seeing a cock, but surely I have never seen such a colorful one before, except the ones which are printed on the "cock brand" cracker packets in India. With amazing shades of blue, orange and red, the bird was a living example of an exquisite color display. I think that it would be second only to the peacock if ranked in terms of the number of different color shades present.

If you click on the image and see the full view, there are two things worth observing. The first is the color of it's eye - an orange eyeball with a black retina while the second being the white rope attached to one of it's legs. No comment on the color of the eye, but the rope seemed to be a mark of ownership for the bird.

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362 - 12th - Beauty in Death

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 12th Dec'08

As you approach the main hangout of the Monarch butterflies in El Rosario, where you can see almost the entire jungle completely covered in a sheet of orange butterflies, the number of dead ones on the ground and in the bushes keeps on increasing. You can see butterfly wings scattered all over the ground and also hundreds of them lying around; dead.

But even death fails to steal their beauty. Had it not been their unusual way of being scattered around the place, you could actually mistake them to be alive. I found these three dead butterflies on a dry log of wood. As I went near, I could see them from much closer as they would no longer get frightened and fly away.

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361 - 11th - Sanctuary of El Rosario

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 11th Dec'08

Sanctuary of El Rosario is one of the entry points to see the annual migration of Monarch Butterflies. You have to drive for around an hour from the nearest city of Zitacuaro to reach the place. The sanctuary is a small town in itself with a population of some five hundred odd people. As you reach the place and start hiking towards the jungle, the place offers you exquisite gifts with the monarch butterflies present in each one of them in one form or the other. It also has a series of makeshift restaurants offering you some nice fresh Mexican food. People usually stop at these restaurants on their way down after a long trek up the mountain.

A small place but a really good one for business between the months of Oct and March when the butterflies arrive.

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360 - 10th - Among the branches

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 10th Dec'08

I was staring at the big group of butterflies on the ground and making some videos when something inside the tree in front of me caught my attention. I could see a couple of butterflies playing around and hopping from branch to branch. I stood there and observed them for some time. It was only two of them, flying around behind each other and occasionally fluttering their wings in communion. Their play lasted for a couple of minutes before they flew away to another tree out of the range of my camera.

I took this one while watching them enjoying the sunny afternoon.

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359 - 9th - The black sheep

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 9th Dec'08

While climbing down the mountain in the jungles of Zitacuaro, I saw a herd of sheep grazing on a small patch of grass at some distance. I told my friends to go ahead and that I would meet them at the base. I walked for around ten minutes to reach the place and maintained a safe distance from the animals so that they don't get scared and run away.

Once there, I got behind a bush and clicked some photos. Due to the sun shining at the back, the photos got a a nice effect of a bright background and a dark foreground. Among all that I clicked, I liked this one the most.

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358 - 8th - A swarm of beauty

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 8th Dec'08

This picture can easily be titled as one of the most rare scenes I would ever shoot; hundreds of orange butterflies planted in a small patch of land, sipping on water flowing in a small stream. It was a scene I had never imagined could exist and was really a treat to the eyes. The butterflies, completely oblivious of the people moving around were lost in their own beautiful world. You could go within a "touching distance" and they wont even care.

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357 - 7th - A new beginning

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 7th Dec'08

To every end there is a new beginning. A beginning which overshadows all the memories of the end and sparks a new flame of life. A beginning which induces a new streak of life in total lifelessness.

This tree was probably chooped some years ago and the dry stump was all that was left of it. But somehow a small trace of life has managed to sprout from the dry wood. A tiny branch with lush green leaves give a sign of new life and a new beginning. Maybe it will rise to the same magnificent heights some day :)

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356 - 6th - Monarch Butterflies

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 6th Dec'08

Imagine a place where all you can see is butterflies. Millions of them at practically every nook and corner. You can see them on trees, in the air and even on the ground. Splashing their bright orange color all around, they just fill up the whole place with their beauty.

I happened to go to one such place last weekend. It was a place where these Monarch butterflies come each year after traveling hundreds of kilometers from Canada to Mexico. They gather here to lay eggs, to reproduce and then to fly back home. A really exceptional view and really a rare phenomenon.

Stay tuned for more photos from the same place :)

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355 - 5th - The converging trees

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 5th Dec'08

It is amazing how different things start looking when you just change the angle of your view by a few degrees. I was roaming around in the jungle for almost two hours looking at figs and branches to find something "clickable". I shot some tiny flowers, some buzzing bees and some crawling creatures, but all the time I was looking either down or straight in the line of sight.

I dont know what prompted me to do that, but suddenly I looked up towards the sky. I could see the trees converging over my head as if I am looking thru a fish-eye lens. It surely was a nice view and a good one to click too.

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354 - 4th - The pine tree

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 4th Dec'08

I think it was pine but I had a doubt because the branches were hanging really low. I searched for some signboards nearby but couldn't find any. Given that it was a butterfly sanctuary, I found the idea of inquiring about a tree totally out of context. So I just went ahead and took some photos of the sharp green leaves shining against the bright sunlight.

Later when I returned to the base, I saw some local people selling painted pine fruits. Maybe that was a silent indication that the tree was really pine :)

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353 - 3rd - The butterfly on the vase

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 3rd Dec'08

I had just entered my room in Zitacuaro when I saw this big butterfly perched on a dry branch right on top of the dressing table. Had it not been the size, I would have really mistaken it for a real one. Firstly because of the amazingly vivid and real looking colors in which it was painted and secondly since everywhere at the place one was expecting to spot the butterflies.

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352 - 2nd - The red rose

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 2nd Dec'08

I was waiting at the reception in a hotel in Zitacuaro when my exploring eyes stopped at this bowl kept right in front of the receptionist. I still dont know what made the water looked green; maybe it was the painted base of the bowl or some color dissolved in the water. But whatever it was, it made a great contrasting combination with the crimson red roses floating on the surface.

I had to bend my camera and my neck at a very awkward angle to get the right shot from the top. When I finished, I realized that everyone around including the bell boy standing right behind me, were staring at me in amusement.

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351 - 1st - Morning dew

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 1st Dec'08

The mornings are getting colder and the temperature is dipping. Each morning when I get up I see the world outside covered in a layer of dew. The plants, the trees, the grass, all the cars parked outside and the glass of my apartment windows.

This morning I got up and removed the curtains off my bedroom window when I saw the sun shining on the flowers just outside my window. The view of the bright yellow flowers through the dew drops immediately made me jump off my bed and reach for my camera.

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