Sugar Maple

Autumn shades of a sugar maple in the valley.
 

Harry Potter's forest

 Does'nt it remind you of the forest outside Harry Potter's alma mater. Well this is a shot I took while returning back from the White Oak Canyon trail. The heady climb was spaced with shots like this to let the body take a break. The climb up was really something.
 

Mr & Mrs Yellow Spider

 Meet the homely couple nestling in the branches of a sapling in the Shenandoah valley. Canon thanks for helping me out with this shot here.
 

The Waterfall

The waterfall I was talking about earlier. The view from where I took this shot is a sheer cliff with a huge drop. I could feel the blood tingle in my legs as I stood there taking this snap.

Cascading stream

This stream on the White Oak Canyon trail starts as a little trickle and then becomes a roaring waterfall downstream.

Meet Ms Kate Caterpillar

Meet Ms Kate Caterpillar. She was found frolicking under the autumn sun of a Shenandoah Valley overlook somewhere beyond the Thornton gap. The lady was dressed in an autumn maroon, black scarf and stilleto heels.

Late autumn in the Shenandoah Valley

Late autumn in the Shenandoah valley. Most of the trees have shed their leaves at the higher altitudes, but they still remain gorgeously colorful at the foot of the mountain range.

Drowned out

Hosur Road after the "deluge". "Deluge" is a relative term because even a regular rain storm seems to flood Bangalore these days. Dad mentioned that their entire area has lost all telephone connections. My sis-in-law mentioned that wipro was ferrying their employees on a boat from this partially inundated building shown in the photo.
You know what, wish I was in school (actually I am)... but what I mean is in middle school, back in India. These would be the times when schools would be off and the kids have the best time even though grown ups have a hell of a time.

Tomatoes from our garden

Tomatoes from our kitchen garden. It really is a pleasure to grow food in your own backyard. Reminds me of the time when my dad had a vegetable patch back when we were in Ranebennur. Photographer : Anin
Camera : Canon EOS Digital Rebel.
Lens: EF-S 18-55mm

The Cruise

There was this amazing 60 foot launch, straight out of a bond movie. Stupid as I am, I forgot to get a shot of it. It looked awesome at the dock and later when we were out sailing, it overtook us like a bullet through the water.
The cruise itself was breathtaking. Norfolk is pretty big in terms of the number of container ships that dock. The Navy has a significant presence there. We had a one man singing band on board who entertained us with classics by James Taylor, The Beatles, Elvis etc. It was a nice evening that I would recommend to anyone visiting the east coast.
The sunset itself was not as spectacular as say Hawaii, because it was a cloudy evening. But then a sunset is a sunset.
The waterfront at night, on our way back from the cruise. I had the camera on night shot and did not have the stabilizer switched on, so you can see the blur. Damn.

The Botanical Gardens

The Norfolk botanical gardens are an amazing treat. Couldn't spend much time there because we reached there pretty late. There was a wedding in progress in the outdoor arena. My camera would have loved to snap up those amazing flowers. I have so many photographs of them, but so little space on my website. Lets see what we can do.

Norfolk and a sunset cruise

The weekend of the 6th was amazing. We drove down to Norfolk, almost at the tip of Virginia and North Carolina. The American Rover took us on a sunset cruise.

World War II Memorial

This is the controversial WW II Memorial that opened recently in DC. I kinda like its architecture... very expansive and bright. It seems to be attracting everyone; veterans, their grandkids, never-heard-of-wwII types and the occasional curious tourist too. We went too. You know what, India is engraved on the stone slabs because it participated in the Pacific theatre of the war.

The Washington Monument

The Washington Monument as seen from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The reflecting pool is not maintained well these days. There was a time when it would be sparkling clean, these days geese fill it up with gook and it stinks to high heavens. Tax payer dollars ,where art thou ?

Lincoln Memorial

Ok, if some one doesn't know who Abraham Lincoln is, dude, you got a lot to catch up in your history lessons. If you believe in values of equality, democracy and stuff, you need to read up on his deeds. This memorial is one of my favourites in DC.