lot of planes

The plane in the center, a M-21 Blackbird, is one of only 12 planes of its kind and goes at an amazing Mach 3; that's 3 times the speed of sound, about 1000 m/s. The smaller plane on the top of it, is a drone, which can launch from the Blackbird mid-way in flight! It's meant for unmanned surveillance. More information here.



Location: Flight Museum, Seattle, WA.

28-cylinder "Wasp Major" engine

a working model of the "Wasp Major" engine

another view..
it was even switched on for a while. Wish i could capture the video of it in motion.
The internals of a moving engine is always a beauty.

Observe the helical setting of the cylinders.. air-craft can't have straight or V cylinders like ships do. They can't afford so much space.
These engines were used in the aircraft for World War II. You can check more here.

Location: Flight Museum, Seattle, WA.

a bright structure

guess what this is?

the complete structure

Location: Pacific Science Center, Seattle, WA


Couple of us made a trip to Seattle to welcome the new year.
Will be posting some of the good pics taken around there.

Have a great and happy 2007!

Waterfalls

the falls

the bridge midway

the big picture
(my friends in the foreground)

it actually looks like some Lord of the Rings setting :)
the water drops from a large height, forms a pool below and then falls again.

Location: Multnomah waterfalls, near Portland, OR

PS-1: my finals should be getting over in 2 days. hopefully i'll catch some good snaps in december; my camera is growing fat sitting idly these days :-)

PS-2: The falls are near Portland, and not Salem as posted previously. Thanks to Allen Cox for correcting.

a lonely island

Location: the atlantic ocean

Cotton in the sky

Location: on the atlantic coast

from the skies..

long ago when i first understood that the earth really rotates 360 degrees, i wondered whether it would not be possible to make some flying object which will go vertically up in air and then stay put there while the earth does the moving. It can come down when it's destination comes below it. So simple and effective! This way we could take advantage of earth's motion without doing much work ourselves.

Air travel would have been much cheaper if the sky didn't moved along with the land below :(


Location: over Frankfurt, Germany.

small communities

a small village

another one..

Location: near the border of Andhra & Orissa.

can you imagine how different their lives are,
compared to our wierd wired world.

btw, i recently discovered a search engine which displays results relevant to India. They seem to have filtered Indian websites and indexed them. So, anything you search for, will be India-specific.
Wouldn't it be great if you are looking for cricket or some latest news and you get the results specific to India from Indian sites. I think it helps you get the Indian perspective.

The site is guruji.com and is started by 2 IIT-Delhi alumni. Try it out.

a red mango tree..

..there seems to be a hole in its heart

Location: somewhere on the border between Andhra & Orissa.

Happiness is in..

..being free

Location: outskirts of Vizianagaram, AP, India

experiments with light

ducks

snakes

golden chains

iron fencing

kids on toy horses

Tried with long exposure times and a shaking lens.
Location: Kailasagiri hill, Vizag, AP - @ night

a lazy animal

guess who I am?

ok, here's the pose.
take it fast, I'll be out only for a while.

Location: Nandankanan zoo, Bhuwaneswar, Orissa

on a fish hunt..

Location: Chilka lake, Orissa

Shanti Stupa

this is the Shanti Stupa (Peace Pagoda) built a few decades ago at Dhauli, the location where Emperor Ashok is said to have laid down his weapons after the Kalinga war and accepted the path of Ahimsa

Location: Dhaula giri, new Bhuwaneswar, Orissa, India

marvellous Orissa

the great Konark Temple

a better view

the detail..
imagine how much time it would have took.

caves at Khandagiri & Udaygiri.
these caves were man-made, carved to serve as residence for the Jain monks

more caves at the same location - there are close to 30 caves in total

the Lingaraja temple (hmm.. not sure)

Location: Konark & around Bhuwaneswar, Orissa, India.

freshness

the road ahead..

tall trees.. short hills

the clouds flying low

beautiful roads.. it's a joy to ride here

vrrooom..

anantagiri waterfalls.. 2 mavericks somehow made it to the middle

a waterproof leaf

trying to keep the crows away :)

the six of us (the photographer was missing)

distant hills.. you should be able to see a few waterfalls

the road back

Location: The road between S.Kota & Araku, Visakhapatnam Dist, AP.

The best time to experience nature in its purest form is when the rain has stopped and the surroundings are still wet. Its when the pollution in the atmosphere has been washed down and the air is filled with the distinct smell of the wet earth.. its so rejuvenating.

Vizag 4 u.. Kailasagiri Hill

Sea View

The road to the top

Welcome to Kailasagiri

This is the "Adithya" view point.
There are a couple of such view points around the place with their own distinct names.

a Bench overlooking the sea

The view of the beach - to the left of the hill..
isn't it beautiful?

The view of the beach - to the right

Viswa Santhi Kshetram - a place on the hill where people come for meditation on full moon days
(source: the caretaker of the place)

same place.. inside view

there is a jungle trail which had some narrow pathways.. i didn't dare to go beyond a few metres ;-)

Lord Shiva and Parvathi
(click here for a view under the lights)

An Observatory mounted here recently

The tour has come to an end, hope u enjoyed it.. thank you :)

Location: Kailasagiri Hill, Vizag, AP.

by the way, there is a huge tourism project that will be starting soon in Vizag with an estimated 3,000 crore rupees expenditure. There are going to be water parks, beach resorts, golf courses, malls and other attractions. There was a consortium formed - Vizag Beach Resorts Private Ltd, which has signed an MoU recently with the state government - to undertake this project over a span of 7 years, starting next year.
Catch the full news in telugu here. English versions can be read here and here.