Stanford University

We went out for lunch a couple weekends ago with a friend visiting from India.
He is a really close friend, but I had never actually met him personally, so this was the first time I was seeing him. It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to spend some time at the Stanford University after lunch. Some pictures from that day...

The famous Stanford tower

Stained glass over the entrance to the Memorial Chapel

Gold Leaf decoration on the chapel walls

My friend and I at the Lagunita Lake inside the campus

We stopped by my favorite fruit store on our way home. We usually never go there at this time of the year, so I was curious as to what they would have. They had all the fruits they have during the summer months, but in dried form!!! Strawberries, cherries, blueberries, pears, apples, raspberries, plums, apricots, any fruit you can think of, they had it...dried up! And an assortment of nuts. This is what we bought - dried mangoes, Brazilian nuts and a Bumble Bar :) All of it was on impulse, and all of it was YUMMMMY!

Enjoying the breeze

These pictures are specially for my dog-lover friends, Veena and Carolinagal (and all those others that I don't know are dog-lovers).

Please excuse the dirt on my windshield. The dog was truly beautiful, saw him on my way home today! Was too eager to post them up for my friends, so no photoshopping/cropping done.

My favoritest (is there such a word?) tree in my yard!

The Japanese Maple.

And the little "rock garden" hubby dear designed around it. I totally LOVE the red color of the leaves. I'll get a picture of the entire tree some day soon. Right now, just feeling a bit "artsy", hehe :)

We have some little green maples too, that hubby salvaged from a friend's yard. Those are still too small, in pots right now.

More From My Front Yard

I absolutely LOVE these colors (Sony W90)

Meri White Rosy (Nikon D200)

Meri Yellow Rosy (Sony W90)

Nikon D200

Waiting patiently to be planted (Sony W90)

This one's saying, हम नहीं बोलते, जाओ :) (Sony W90)

The Lone Palm

I see this tree everyday on my way to and from work. Am always amazed by it! Its got so many fronds! Top to bottom! Had been waiting for an opportunity to take a picture...you see the signal has to be red, and there have to be an exact number of cars ahead of me for me to be in the right spot! Finally, one day, I was in the right place at the right time :)

Maybe I should do a bit of cropping to the picture! I like how the picture looks against the blue background. Glad I changed the template.



And here's a cropped version, with a lil bit of contrast adjustment as suggested by xh...

Who won?

The car did, I think!

More Flowers!!!

Flowers seem to be the only interesting objects around lately. So here's some more...

Here's the beautiful state flower of California.

The Golden Poppy!

I love this picture of the single, perfect poppy.

Here's something like a whole field of 'em!

Don't these two look like they're best friends, about to play some mischievious prank? :)

I don't personally like roses (too much high maintenance, I think they are "snobbish" flowers!). But this one's quite beautiful!

Calla Lillies!

I'm watching you!

Here's Tiger again, watching our house from behind the fence.
He loves to do that, some times he comes and peers into our room through the French doors. And walks off in sloooooow motion if he sees either one of us looking back at him.
Silly cat :) I wonder where he got that little tangerine from!

Setting moon!

Ever wake up to see the setting moon instead of the rising sun?

This is what I saw when I opened my eyes at around 7am today. Well, I woke up because of the moon shining in my face through the French door opening into the backyard. (This is my lovely backyard :)

The picture is not quite up to the mark, but man, was it awesome or what! The moon looked MUCH bigger than it does here, and was very bright! I wish those cables weren't there to ruin my perfect picture.

People watching

These birdies are ALWAYS up there, sitting in a row! And I always wonder, what DO they do? Just people-watching (like we go bird-watching)?

Shades of grey

Grey...and a bit of brown

Grey...with a nice bright blue sky this time!

Angry grey-black skies...a bit of blue, a spot of red!

Photoshop :)

Ceedy and -xh- , thanks for helping with figuring out how to use PS, and for getting me started. I really needed that nudge to go start playing.


The first one is an example of what not to do :) Bahut zyaada enthu aa gaya tha!







This one...I walked out my door one morning, and I saw these flowers peeking out from behind the terracotta colored wall. It looked so...happy! Tried taking a picture, but was hard to get the flowers into focus (hmm...now that I think about it, I should have checked my camera settings! duh!) Well...anyway, I wanted the flower to be a little sharper, tried it with PS, but not quite satisfied. Not sure if there is actually much difference also or not. Should try using manual mode (note to self: figure out how to use manual mode!) and see if the picture comes out good!





And this here...makes me proud of me :o) I walked out the door, in the evening this time, to go home, and saw these amazing colors in the sky! Of course, I had to take a pic :) It was a cloudy day, so pic came out a little dull. PS to the rescue :) I love the new picture. It looks a little on the purple side, but I love how I can see the different shades that I saw in the sky that day!

I want to go to Mexico...NOW

Went to a Mexican restaurant yesterday for lunch. Was amazed with the colors in the place! Not that apna India koi kam hai, but this was a blaze of color!

Here's a pic...

Yellow...

This post is all yellow :) Took these in my office yesterday. Haven't come out quite like I expected :( Comments from pros really appreciated on how to get these to look better!

Wanted to get the water drops on the back of this one :) It looked so beautiful!

This one was still budding

There are so many things I wish I could have eliminated in this one, the green hose in the back, all the dirt in the lower right corner. Lesson learnt, look at the entire frame while taking the picture, not just the subject!!!

There's a mustard field right next to my office! I wish the mountains were not so hazy.

Orange mania!

I am still very much in love with my orange tree and oranges!

This one is inspired by AT&T...
More bars in more places!

Wanted to try out the "rule of thirds" with this one. Don't know if I like it much.
I need to read up on how to play with light.

Cats

This post is for my friend "sweetearth"

My neighbor has a cat, Tiger. He comes and suns himself in our yard all the time. He's quite a big, fat one, but very timid. He comes up to our French doors, peeks inside trying to find us. Koi dikh gaya to he'll sit and stare for hours together. Found him on the fence yesterday morning. Got a pic from inside the room, he ran away the minute I opened the door to get a closer shot :( Here he is...wish I could get a clearer, closer shot


This one's a sketch I made from a calendar.

Spring is in the air!

And am I glad or what!!!

Yesterday was a "photo-op" day for me. I woke up, looked out the window and saw my neighbor's tree sparkling with rain drops. I just had to go take pictures. Unfortunately my nicer camera had run out of batteries, so I had to use the chhota, point and shoot one. Then I drove to work, and saw the trees blossoming, (well, they had been blossoming for a few days, but photo ka "mood" nahin bana tha)

The neighbor's tree was too far for my little camera, but I still got a few pictures I like! Here's some of what I got... :)

This first one is just a HUGE weed!

I would love having a pendant like this one, the raindrop looked so beautiful! You can see the window in the raindrop if you look close enough!

Tiny weeds this time, washed and fresh faced!

This one's at my office

And this one's my favorite. Hint of life against a dark, cloudy sky. Can you see the raindrops on the flowers?

It was sunny today, and I got a few shots of this same flower today in the sunshine. Lets see what that one comes out like!

And here it is...with the brilliant blue sky!

Flowers scattered on the sidewalk...

Fell so in love with them...I need to preserve a few!