Knuckles here I come

At last I have great news. I’ll be on the Knuckles Mountains again by end of this week via Mathale. The place was confirmed and booked so now it’s only a matter of going and snapping hell of a lot of landscape photos.

I purchased a Canon 75-300mm Zoom lens last Saturday and that was what I was lacking all these days. So now I have zoom power, battery power aaaand space power to go on a shoot without worrying of electricity or memory space for few days. Gosh I’am thrilled even thinking of it.

Last night was quite a change since I went out for dinner with my girly. Usually on Sunday night I stay at home and watch a movie or some thing. We went to Crescat food court and that place was packed with eaters and smokers. Smoking is some thing I hate after I quit a year back. Now I can’t stand the smoke and it gives me headaches. So I had no intention to hang out for long there and was out the minute we finished dinner.

Future Digital artist

Seems like my next photo shoots where about it quite uncertain. I booked the Lunugamwehera forest department tourist bungalow but it seems there is a water crisis the booking got cancelled. Now they are looking for an alternative place to replace me and my team. The final word will come on Monday and if there is no suitable place left I have to hurry up and find a place to lodge since the plan is falling end of next week.

In the mean time I’am working on some Photoshop CS2 total training program to polish my Photoshop skills. I have this likeness and talent to draw from my childhood and after I left school there was very less time left for me to get involved in them. I tried few times to get in to digital painting but it didn’t work very well. Some times in to 3D graphics and digital illustrations interested me. After working with photoshop for a long period and self studying it with the help of online and magazine tutorials I developed quite a skill to work in that application. That was a major leap for me when I started seriously shooting photographs and my first mode was digital. True I have done photos in film but they were when I was just curious. But the real turning point occurred while I was working with my basic point and shoot Sony cyber shot camera. So Photoshop was a savior and a master craftsman who came to my rescue when I was craving to make my images more and more professional.

Among my latest interest one is to start on illustrating again and this time on PC. Once I owned a cheep graphic tablet but I didn’t like it much. So maybe this time I can invest on some “Real” graphic gear and jump start my drawing era again. Being creative is no magic for me but I wanna do it in style, The digital way.

Time and space

Phew! I think the longest days of my recent pass ended on last Saturday with my girls return. Well I must apologies for writing about her all these days and I’ll give it a break now. She’s back and I’am happy and let the life flow towards its original route.

By the way I got some accessories for my Canon from Singapore. My girl has done a decent job collecting what I have specified. Below is the list of stuff I got down. If you wonder what those are exactly there is a little description too J

Portable digital partner - a portable HD with 40GB space compatible to transfer data and photos from flash memory cards like SD, CF. Since memory cards cost hell now it’s better to buy one of these and transfer the data to this than spending on more space on cards.

Remote shutter - This device can take a picture or release the shutter of the camera remotely. Good in case where long exposures are required.

Batter pack NB2-LH - This is a high capacity batter pack for Canon – eos350d which is about 6 times powerful of the original kit battery.

Battery grip BG-E3 -This is a grip to fix under the camera with extra batteries. Very handy to have a stronger grip and to have extra powered stored. Can hold 2 NB2-LH batteries or 6 AA batteries.

So now I can go on shooting for longer periods without worrying of battery power and storage space. What a relief !!

Missing

Tow days ago my girl went to Singapore for some training and after that I’am lost. I suddenly feel like I was abandoned and all what I do with interest is utterly useless. This is the first time she went some where that far leaving me and since she used to be at her home or close by all this years I cant even believe that I’am alone. She called me few times a day and sms but yet it’s not enough for me to be satisfied.

I used to go missing for days at a time and some times even couldn’t call or sms her because of no mobile coverage and I used to think that it’s nothing much. But when she is gone I’am left with unexplainable sadness.

Dreams come and go

From my childhood I had one dream. All my other dreams and ambitions were around that key dream which I strived and achieve few years ago. That was independence. The freedom to live alone and to live the way I wanted to. Parent’s yes they have done a lot for me and my success but there were times I wanted to run away and hide some where and never return. Life at home was like that. They loved me, gave me what I wanted even though its was hard for them, yet I wanted more and more. And here I’am today living in my own place far away from the family and earning a decent living which can full fill most of my needs. I have to admit I have life almost half of my average life span If I’am fortunate enough to live the average life span of a Sri Lankan. So I should have being really ashamed If I was not independent now.

Finding love was not an ambition for me but it was just a normal thing that I wanted to do since that’s the nature of all humans. Even in that I have succeeded few times yet didn’t had the need and the courage to hang on and failed intentionally and at times miserably. Girls came and went just like the rainy seasons and some went after fulfilling its purpose and some left inviting times of drought. Momentary satisfaction was just a need and long term relationships were just a fake after all.

And few years back she came my way. Things started to change and mostly some things I thought that will never in this life time. I used to think that this is also going to become just another rainy season but it turned out to be a summer which I wish that will last a life time. She was a morning sun light after a long dark night and a storm some times which destroyed my ego and carried away my neutral habits. So my empty space is filled now and my life long achieved dream of Independence is yet again to be destroyed. It’s for the better or worse I’ll let my destiny to decide. What ever it is I’am geared up for it.

Anjalika And My girl

Office is getting hectic again. Some urgent process re-engineering stuff and project work came up all of a sudden. I know its how the office life is. And maybe without those life will not be running any way since some challenges and dead lines are required to speed up and to experience life. Come to think of it the whole samsara thing is like office work. We come, work and go. Some times have to leave early and some times pushed away forcefully. Some manage to work for all their life and retire when old and some come and go without even knowing they existed. There are desires, burdens, challenges, moments of happiness and sorrow. Office is life within the life and uncertain just like the life it self.

My girl thinks that I don’t spend enough time with her. Ya I admit that. I wonder why I feel so lazy when it comes to taking my girl out. She blames that I always go around with friends for parties, movies and vanish in to jungles for days and don’t take notice of her needs. She badly wanted to see the new movie “Anjalika” so after few reminders I finally decided that I will take her. The movie was not so good but not so bad either. I say it’s watch-able. The new face Pooja Umashankar truly is a refresher. Coming back to my girly I think she was very happy not because of the movie but because she had spent some time with me after all. I like to see that look on her face. Those look of joy and gratefulness in her eye and hear that tone from her.

Since she was practically reminding me to be with her always some times I do feel like doing so but due to some matter I get stuck and plans change. When she keeps on telling me that I start to think of her always and urge to see her and be with her and the next thing I know is that she just mind her own business and forgets all those what she said. Yesterday I said that I wanted to see her but she didn’t take notice of it. I wonder how come woman remembers men when it comes to their needs and if not hang out with their cousins and friends and all that. Come to think of there we are all the same after all.

And oh this is not me and my girl. Its from the movie "Anjalika". Pooja and Channa lol.

Knuckels the heaven on earth

My trip to knuckles was a major success. Stayed at the Dothalu camp on the foot of Dothalugala Mountain which is one of the 5 mountains of Knuckles range. Due to heavy winds we were not able to camp out side so had to lodge in the near by stony cabin.

Did some good tracking on the Dothalugala tracking route and on the mini worlds end (Again) which gave me some good photo opportunities. Apart from that the biggest event of the trip was visiting Mee mure. Mee mure is a remote village situated at the foot of Lakegala mountain about 33 km away from normal human habitat. Seeing the normal and historical natural life style of our own Sri Lankan villagers was a new experience and at the same time a good opportunity for photos. Mountain peaks covered in heavy fog and Jungles covering most of the land and breeze that chills the skin makes Knuckels a heaven on earth.

TV won PC gain

At last I got some good news regarding the Plasma TV. After taking it to repair 2 times and returning without fixing it properly the company agreed to replace it with a brand new one. Well saying that even sound pretty good to me :) So hopefully they will deliver the new machine next week and after that I can be with peace with that.

I bought my first PC yesterday. I already have a laptop but that is not much of a help for my imaging work. The new machine is a killer with 2gb ram and a nvidia gforce graphics card and a 21" flat crt monitor. It works super fast and working with big big image files is pretty much fun now.