Diwali - Festival Of Lights

Today is the start of the Festival of Lights (know as Diwali, Deepawali or Devali). This is an important festival in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, celebrated for different reasons, occurring between mid-October and mid-November and is lasts for five days. For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. For Jains, Diwali marks the attainment of moksha or nirvana by Mahavira in 527 BC. For Sikhs, Diwali is celebrated as Bandhi Chhor Diwas (The Celebration of Freedom), and celebrates the release from prison of the sixth guru, Guru Hargobind, who also rescued 52 Hindu kings held captive by Mughal Emperor with him in the Gwalior Fort in 1619.

Deepavali is an official holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji.

The name "Diwali" is a contraction of "Deepavali" (Sanskrit: दीपावली Dīpāvalī), which translates into "row of lamps". Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas or dīpas) in Sanskrit: दीप) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.

Diwali commemorates the return of Lord Rama, along with Sita and Lakshmana, from his 14-year-long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas and by bursting firecrackers.

The festival starts with Dhanteras on which most Indian business communities begin their financial year. The second day of the festival, Naraka Chaturdasi, marks the vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna and his wife Satyabhama.Amavasya, the third day of Deepawali, marks the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth in her most benevolent mood, fulfilling the wishes of her devotees. Amavasya also tells the story of Lord Vishnu, who in his dwarf incarnation vanquished the Bali, and banished him to Patala. It is on the fourth day of Deepawali, Kartika Shudda Padyami, that Bali went to patala and took the reins of his new kingdom in there. The fifth day is referred to as Yama Dvitiya (also called Bhai Dooj), and on this day sisters invite their brothers to their homes.

Besides Hindus, Sikhs and Jains also celebrate Diwali.

Evening Lights

Here is a photo I got with my new Nikon D7000 the other night when I was messing about with the white balance settings. Just for the sake of it I popped it into Photoshop and ran the auto colour correction but I was disappointed with the results - they came out fairly boring - so I decided to keep and post this one, it's much more dramatic.

Photograph Details:

• Nikon D7000
• focal length 18mm
• ISO-100
• exp: 1/10
• f3.5

Pansy

The Pansy is a large group of hybrid plants cultivated as garden flowers. Pansies are derived from Viola species Viola tricolor hybridized with other viola species, these hybrids are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana or less commonly Viola tricolor hortensis. The name "pansy" also appears as part of the common name for other Viola species that are wildflowers in Europe. Some unrelated species, such as the Pansy Monkeyflower, also have "pansy" in their name.

Nail

In woodworking and construction, a nail is a pin-shaped, sharp object of hard metal or alloy used as a fastener. Formerly wrought iron, today's nails are typically made of steel, often dipped or coated to prevent corrosion in harsh conditions or improve adhesion. Ordinary nails for wood are usually of a soft, low-carbon or "mild" steel (about 0.1% carbon, the rest iron and perhaps a trace of silicon or manganese). Nails for concrete are harder, with 0.5-0.75% carbon.

Lupins

Bluebonnet lupins, notably the Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) are the state flower ofTexas, USA. The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3–1.5 m (0.98–4.9 ft) tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m (10 ft) tall—see also bush lupin—with one species (Lupinus jaimehintoniana from the Mexican state of Oaxaca) a tree up to 8 m (26 ft) high with a trunk 20 cm (7.9 in) in diameter. They have a characteristic and easily recognised leaf shape, with soft green to grey-green leaves which in many species bear silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into 5–28 leaflets or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower 1–2 cm long, with a typical peaflower shape with an upper 'standard' or 'banner', two lateral 'wings' and two lower petalsfused as a 'keel'. Due to the flower shape, several species are known as bluebonnetsor quaker bonnets. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds.


Why not get some for your own garden today!

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 185mm, ISO-200, exp: 1/200, f4.8

Flower

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 18mm, ISO-200, exp: 30 sec, f3.5

Static Motion

I thought I'd post this photograph, despite its flaws. It was a 13 second exposure which shows the motion of the sky, with the landscape in the foreground being still. I think it has a quiet calm about it.

Buy the Moon film (2009) on DVD and Blu-Ray now:

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 18mm, ISO-200, exp: 30 sec, f3.5

Light Pollution

Photograph Details: Nikon D7000, focal length 18mm, ISO-100, exp: 30 sec, f7.1

Shot with my new baby, the Nikon D7000. I was really hoping to get some images of the Milky Way this evening now I've had a few hours to play with the D7000, but this was all I could get...

Nikon D7000

Wahoo! Finally got my new baby - a brand new spanking Nikon D7000! Am I chuffed? well, take a guess! 


I'm still trying to learn this new beast of a camera (of which the quickest shutter speed is 1/8000 sec and a maximum ISO of over 25000) Truly staggering numbers, fitting of a staggering camera body! 


I've spent the day snapping away today in somewhat miserable weather conditions (it's been moody and overcast all day, with a splattering of light drizzle) but that hasn't stopped me. 

Hatchet

A hatchet (from the French hachette, a diminutive form of the French hache, 'axe') is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade used to cut and split wood. Hatchets may also be used for hewing when making flattened surfaces on logs; when the hatchet head is optimized for this purpose it is called a broadaxe.

Nikon D800

Wow, the rumours are spreading fast on Twitter today about the new Nikon D800. An official announcement is due within the next 2 months or so (possibly sooner) but who knows with Nikon.

They've recently released the newer updated processer the "Expeed 3" duel core processor in their new interchangable lens camera the Nikon 1. Will the D800 have the same amazing piece of kit or another even better one.
Why? Because speculation puts the D800 at a whopping 36 megapixel sensor. Either way, which ever way you look at it, its big! And so is the price... an estimated ¥300,000, or £2543.18 or $3912.92
It ain't cheap, but cheaper then Nikon's current D3X and D3S sitting squarely inbetween the D700 (currently approx £1849.95) and the D3S (currently approx £3594)
Not too shabby, but still, not exactly cheap....

Buy a Nikon Camera Today

New Forest Panorama

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length 27mm, exp: 1/125-1/200, ISO-200, f/5.6-7.1

I took this picture a few weeks back in the New Forest. It is composed of 8 photographs taken just by moving the camera to the right each time, without a tripod (you can tell!) It was stitched together using autostitch and cropped in Photoshop Elements.

Sunset

Photograph Details: Nikon D40, focal length: 18mm, ISO-200, exp: 30sec, f/3.5