Where’s home?

Home is where the hearth is.  Here’s an interesting video about dreams, life, passion and home.  Something to cool your eyes and hearts during these hot summer days.  Enjoy.

Path to Freedom

Paint Branch Creek after a Storm

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
– Ansel Adams

You could say this is my ‘backyard’ in Silver Spring, MD, USA.  I can look out the window and see the stream snaking its way down the valley.  Just a few weeks back, on May 15th to be precise, it was pretty stormy.  The normally placid Paint Branch Stream transformed itself into a roaring river as the storm raged.  The next afternoon as the waters were subsiding I went for a walk.

My thoughts strayed back to February 27th, less than 3 months earlier. It was just a few meters away that I had slipped on ice and fractured my left wrist.  On this day, though, the scene and the invigorating smell of the damp earth and the fresh air reminded me of my home state at the southwestern tip of India.  After the downpours of the hot and humid tropical monsoons of Kerala the earth and air seemed to look and smell the same.  After having endured the sparse, drab, grey and brown vegetation around here due to the prolonged, freezing and tiresome winter this past season, the sight around me now was a feast for my eyes!

I am a photo enthusiast, not a professional.  I love color, texture, and most of all, candid photography.  And what can be more candid than landscapes?  Landscapes don’t turn on fake smiles when you point a camera at them.  My camera is a well-worn Canon Powershot A2000 IS point-and-shoot.  Over its 5-year life it has seen some irresponsible handling.  There’s a slight chip on its lens and its sensor needs a bit of (a lot of, actually) cleaning.  Yet it gave me a beautiful picture.  I cropped it for the dimensions  I wanted.  Enjoy.