Water Bubbles (Photo Blog)

Water Bubbles, originally uploaded by abhishekontheweb.

The bowl was filled with water, and it was made to overflow by placing it under flowing tap water. As the tap water hit the surface of the water in the bowl, I was able to shoot these random shapes of the froth generated. Shot at 1/200th second with flash on. (Looks like cells under a microscope, doesn't it?)

Translation Party - Can Translations be Fun?

Recently, I became a HUGE fan of CNET's Buzz Out Loud podcast (nothing to do with the Google Buzz launch this week, and believe me, these CNET presenters are not happy with Google stealing their show's name). Whatever, today, when I was listening to one of their latest episodes, they suggested a site to visit - it's called the "Translation Party" (oh, btw, its from Google...). 

What it does is simple. It asks you to enter any English sentence. It converts that sentence to Japanese (I know what you might be thinking. Japanese, huh? Do I need to impress anyone in Japanese!?!). Simple, right? But here's where the fun starts (and that's why the name has "Party" in it). It converts the translated Japanese back to English. and so forth. After about ten or so to and fro translations, even in your wildest dreams, you won't be able to imagine how come the final English sentence turn out to be so funny (and equally senseless). 

Lets, for example, enter a sentence: "I am planning to visit the auto expo in Chicago today." Plain, simple English, which even a 3 year old kid is going to understand, right. On clicking the "find equilibrium" - yes, that's what they seem to call it, this is what it displays:

 

Once more!! Once more!! Lets enter "Man, I am so tired of the cold!!!" And, here comes the response:

Try it out for yourself, and comment if you find some translations real deep and profound!!

A Cloudy Evening

A Cloudy Evening, originally uploaded by abhishekontheweb.

Some times, when you look out of your window, don't you wish that the sky was redder (something which is generally shown in those science fiction movies depicting earthlings on Mars) - giving it a dramatic hue. Well, yesterday, when I had nothing better to do, I looked out and saw a cloudy sky. There was a reddish hue, as it was almost dusk. Then, I thought, wouldn't it be worth a try to make it look even more dramatic. Thanks to digital photography, a photo can be made to look so surreal, just by a couple of mouse clicks (in my case, a couple of taps on the trackpad). With the help of iPhoto, I was able to use a red filter to enhance the color of the sky. The photo was taken at a very low exposure, to bring out the shades of the cloud formation.

The next morning, I was surprised to see the sky so blue!!