The Better Images from my Third Eye

Having done a lot of travel in the past couple years in India and abroad, I got some great opportunities to visit some extra-ordinary locales. I carried a camera to most of the trips, as any other traveler who considers it to be a key accessory. For that particular moment, our eyes are the best cameras and capture the images of the scene better than any other camera, especially with the imagination of the human mind. With a camera, one takes pictures to almost recreate the scene along with the imagination that one had, so that they can be viewed even after many years. The camera can definitely be called our third eye too!

I am not a professional photographer and all of the pictures here were shot with a point and shoot camera. With the perception and imagination at the moment of shooting, I would call these pictures as a few good pictures that I might have taken. This blog entry is a part of Travel Photos contest organized by Blog Adda. I am sure there are better pictures and posts accompanying the pictures, but as always I am happy to be a part of this contest.

This first picture was shot at the Great Horseshoe Bend in Page in Arizona (US), when I went on a road trip with a few friends in July 2009. This is a place where the mountain is shaped like a horseshoe magnet, and the river’s trail follows the path of a horseshoe as well. The water flow from above looks to be really smooth and serene, but upon close observation you definitely see the water currents and turbulences. I’d liken this to the human mind, which has a lot of activity going on within. But the person’s face at the first glance, doesn’t give a clue of the happenings in his mind (unless he is overtly expressive).

This second picture was shot at the Paddington Underground Railway Station in Great Britain in Dec 2008, when I was in London for a day during transit. The thing that captured my attention in this picture was the fact that this train station reminded me of the Indian train stations during monsoon, with the rain water around. The Britishers surely inspired a lot of things in India including the train system. Another generic observation in this picture is that the people are awaiting the next train with some concern over the time of arrival, and are all set for yet another working day.

This third picture was shot during the London transit as well, and I saw an advertisement hoarding on a bus, and it encouraged recycling. Though, all countries are now encouraging recycling, I have not seen many effective signs either in the US or in India that probably reaches out to the high school/college students in a casual way. Instead of having movie posters or consumer product advertisement hoarding on buses, we’d rather have a hoarding that’s dedicated towards a cause.

This fourth picture was shot at one of the natural wonders, Grand Canyon in Arizona (US). The Canyon itself is a great wonder, and an entire lifetime is not sufficient to visit the Canyon and explore all parts of the Canyon. This is one of the scenic points in the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, called the Angel’s Window.  A natural window like formation, that it is, stands out from the rest of the Canyon. This is formed over a millions of years due to the wind and probably water forces. The texture of the material that made up the formation is what captivates me the most, with the layers of limestone and other material withstanding all the heat and the cold, and sculpted into such a formation. How I wish, the human mind also took both positive and negative forces and made itself into an admirable entity.

The last one, probably being the most clichéd picture, is that of a sunrise as seen of the Bay of Bengal in Visakhapatnam, shot in December 2008. With the waves from the sea, hitting the rocks on the sea shore and the sun rising with it’s own grace forming a wonderful and colorful texture in the sky, a day cannot begin better than this. It is also an indication of the nature’s fact that, there is always a chance to begin everything afresh and proceed in the right direction, irrespective of the what happened prior to it.

I will soon be getting an SLR, and it will probably provide a new dimension to my creativity with my third eye!