1. The iconic Duke chapel that is the university’s most famous landmark.

2. Duke University from the top of the chapel tower. These buildings are the undergrad dorms.

3. Inside the Duke chapel

4. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens. I love the gardens during the fall. So do couples getting engaged and married – I saw three couples taking their wedding pictures and two couples taking their engagement pictures on  the same day!

5. Another picture of the Duke Gardens taken in the summer.

6. Durham’s sister cities. I hadn’t heard of a single city until I saw this wooden post!

7. I loved Durham’s farmers market. The price was steep, but I loved the colours there. And blue pottery right beside yellow squash = great picture !

8. I met this little guy at the Eno river festival on the 4th of July celebrations.

9. Mr. Mittens, a cat in my neighbourhood.

10. A dendroid at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The museum is in Raleigh, but as Durham and Raleigh are really twin cities in a way, I’ll take the creative liberty of including this picture here.

]]> http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/duke-and-durham-in-pictures/feed/ 0 arohabahuguna Duke Chapel Duke University Inside the chapel Bridge in Duke gardens Duke Gardens Durham's sister cities Farmer's market Eno river festival Mr. Mittens Askew http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/reflecting-back-and-moving-forward/ http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/reflecting-back-and-moving-forward/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:34:11 +0000 arohabahuguna http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/?p=884 ]]> Happy 2012! This past year has been interesting and eventful. I graduated from grad school in May, took a big road trip across the country in August, and moved to D.C. in December. I am excited about what 2012 will bring, and I have set a few major and minor focus areas in the new year. To begin with, I have decided to focus on taking better pictures by understanding exposure –  the ISO-shutter speed-aperture triangle – better. I have also decided to write (?) about a place through pictures – 10 pictures! I was inspired by Australian blogger Jessica Stanley’s blog where she posts 10 pictures from her life every week. Isn’t it a cool idea? It is also going to be a challenge to restrict myself to 10 photos for a really beautiful place. On the flip side, it’s going to force me to see beyond the mundane when I go to places that strike me as meh. In other words, I will have to force myself to find something worth taking pictures of, which is going to help me be a better observer and photographer. Win!

For this post I decided to post pictures of Tuscany – Florence, San Gimignano and Siena, when I was there in the summer of 2010.

1. A peek at the Duomo

2. The Duomo, that dominates the landscape of Florence. Taken from Piazzale Michelangelo

3. Candied fruits at Mercato Centrale – my lunch when I didn’t have time to grab food, or when I was broke because I spent all my lunch money on gelato!

4. Florence was so festive!

5. Ponte Vecchio at night. I don’t want to toot my horn, but I love this picture. PG who’s really good with words, said of this photo “the particular angles, and the stark reflection, and the play of the light from bright and clear on the right to dappled and mysterious on the left: the, less finished, becomes all the more intriguing.”

6.I love windows in Europe. They are so pretty!

7. The Duomo in Siena. The Italians love their Duomos, but I am not complaining.

8. An arch in San Gimignano.

9. Silhouette of an old woman walking away. This is one of those fortuitous shots for which I am grateful I was where I was.

10. Europe is a mecca for artists. Maybe for street musicians too, especially in the summer. I loved watching them paint or sing or play an instrument.

So these are my 10 photos. How did I do?

The city is all purty – ok, so the pictures of the fairy lights on trees and the Christmas tree were taken at National Harbour in Maryland and not D.C., but it’s all in the ‘hood.

And finally, Christmas is a time for dressing up like Santas (and why not?), and candy canes, and reindeer and gingerbread man, and meeting up at the National Mall for Santarchy. How rad is that?

Since Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, here’s a picture of PG and my contribution to the Thanksgiving potluck dinner: caramel covered strawberries. Somewhat untraditional for Thanksgiving, but they tasted great! Finally, with this picture, I am hoping to make a start in being more cognizant of food photo opportunities.

No, San Francisco wasn’t the last stop on our road trip. Just that I thought it only fitting to put in more thought into writing about a place that is a serious competitor to NYC – one of my favourite cities in the world!

Following are 5 reasons I love San Francisco:

1. It’s beautiful: What’s better than a city by the ocean? A city by the ocean with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge! Now that’s some serious “awesomeness”.

P.S. I tried to get a night picture of the Bridge, but it was foggy and I didn’t have a tripod.  So a long exposure was out of the question. But attached is an impressionistic view of the bridge!

2. Grafitti: I’ve mentioned my love for grafitti earlier in this post. San Franscisco has some very funky grafitti .

3. Wine Country: Don’t vineyards just conjure up visions of romance and good times? Of the movies A Walk in the Clouds, and French Kiss? I have happily watched these several times, even though they aren’t outstanding. Anyway, San Francisco is about an hour from the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma – an hour away from some of the world’s finest wines. What could be better?!

4. Its quirkiness: Okay, so maybe only Haight Street qualifies as quirky. But, it’s such an integral part of San Francisco, that it typifies the whole West Coast-San Francisco-Summer of Love experience.

The second picture is of a band playing inside the cramped stoop of the building, in case it isn’t clear. I apologize for the low quality, but there were tonnes of people there.

5. Its diversity: Sure it’s no New York City, but it’s diverse enough with a capital D! After all, it has the largest and most authentic looking Chinatown outside of Asia, and endless Asian food options.

6. It has a statue of Mahatma Gandhi:

Just kidding! But you get my point about diversity above?

Other notable mentions

1. Musee Mechanique: Want to know how hot your love life is? Want to get your fortune told? Or watch the last rites during an English execution. You can even get naughty and look through a lady’s boudoir! One of the largest collections of mechanically operated arcade machines through the ages at Fisherman’s Wharf, Musee Mechanique is a delightful place to visit.

2. Sea Lions on Pier 39: Seals suddenly appeared in the 1990s on Pier 39 and stayed on. There’s a great deal of grunting and squealing and posturing by the seals and loads of entertainment for the (human) visitors.

Twelve miles west of Denver is a small Western town, Golden, which was established during the Gold Rush period. We were there for a few hours. The highlight is definitely Clear Creek that flows through the town. I found the metal sculptures along the creek to be a nice touch.

Fun fact on Golden: The Coors Brewing Company, which is the third-largest brewery in the United States, is headquartered in Golden. It is the largest single brewing facility in the world!

We’re on to the 4th week of our road trip and we’ll be back in Durham soon. I haven’t posted some of the fun things we did/places we visited in the first half of the trip and I will attempt to do that in this post. They are not in chronological order or in any order of preference.

1. Mount Rushmore: We were in the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the week when the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was just ending. The rally is held every year in Sturgis, South Dakota in the first week of August. We saw hundreds of Harleys and biker dudes in their 50s sporting Harley jackets at Mount Rushmore. We even spotted a Harley with a French license plate!

Fun Fact on Mount Rushmore: The work of carving out Mount Rushmore didn’t start until a little before the Great Depression. An appeal was made to school kids to donate towards the project to get more funds. They figured that even if the children contributed just a dime, they would be able to collect $10,000. However, yo-yos made an appearance in the market at about the same time which also cost a dime. It was a difficult choice for the kids! Yo-yos won and only $1,700 were collected in the end.

2. My Birthday: I was in Portland, Oregon on my Birthday. D&M and their kids, TASK, had the day’s event planned ahead for us. It was a perfect day for blueberry picking and we picked close to 30 pounds of plump, juicy and waxy berries. I must have eaten around a pound straight from the bush. We then picnicked at a winery across the Columbia river in Washington state with a bottle of Tempranillo, cheese and baguette. Bliss!

P.S. I think I have a blind spot when it comes to shooting food. I always miss out when the spread is laid out, only to remember when the wine glass holds only the dregs and the baguette is half eaten.

3.  Waterfalls: Multnomah Falls, close to Portland, is claimed to be the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States.

4. Battle of Little Bighorn: We were driving through Montana on our way to Portland when we decided to stop at Little Bighorn where the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians fought with the United States Army in 1876 to fight for their lands. It resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Indians. Unfortunately for the Indians, they won the battle only to lose the war!

Fun fact: Many soldiers fighting in the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment were foreigners who did not even know how to speak English! Of the 793 enlisted men, 473 were native born and 320 were foreign born – the Irish and Germans were the largest foreign born groups!

5. Idaho: South Bend, Indiana to Portland, Oregon is the longest stretch we’ve covered in our trip at around 2,200 miles. Idaho was the last state before we reached Oregon and one of the prettiest!

6. Beaches and Sunsets: I’ve been to a few beaches and seen a couple of beautiful sunsets over Lake Michigan and Crescent City Beach in California. Lake Michigan is the fifth largest lake in the World and largest lake by surface area entirely in one country. Knowing these facts, I was still surprised that it looked so much like a sea.

]]> http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/flotsam-and-jetsam/feed/ 0 arohabahuguna Mount Rushmore and Bikers Blueberries DSCN4974 DSCN4978 Picnic Tables at the Winery Multnomah Falls Waterfall The Graves of U.S. Army soldiers Grave of an Unknown Soldier Couer d'Alene Seagulls at Lake Michigan Crescent City Beach Portland Beach Cannon beach Surfers http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/the-arches-in-utah/ http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/the-arches-in-utah/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 09:15:11 +0000 arohabahuguna http://arohabahuguna.wordpress.com/?p=730 ]]> “On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings
The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds
The heat was hot and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound

I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain…
…After two days in the desert sun
My skin began to turn red…”

I was in the Arches National Park yesterday in the afternoon. It was beautiful with the red sandstone arches standing bright against the sunlight, and to paraphrase the above song, the heat was hot and my skin began to turn red just after 2 hours! It was burning and the landscape was bone-dry (with random patches of green). I got a few good pictures, but regretted not being there at sunset.

We took the trail to the Delicate Arch, which probably epitomizes the Arches for most people. The actual hike to the Arch is 3 miles with no shaded areas. My heart quailed at the thought, and we chose to take the easier option of half-a-mile hike to a viewpoint. Needless to say, no pain, no gain! The angle of the arch was a little off from the viewpoint.

We then went to the ‘Windows’, which turned out to be an easier hike with a more rewarding sight!

The Arches have a a diverse and abundant wildlife, and I would have loved to see some bighorn sheep and fox, but I don’t think they wanted to venture out in the sun! We were running low on fuel and chow and so we headed out of the park at 3 with a blazing sun overhead.

Mormonism is a very young religion which was founded by Joseph Smith, when he had a vision of God in the 1820s telling him that the true bible was ‘lost’ over time and instructed him not to join any of the churches. So he found a new one! The interesting fact about Mormonism is that even though the Mormons believe in Jesus Christ as the saviour, most Christians including PG do not consider Mormons as Christians. It took me a while to understand this, but I think I do now.

The pillar with seagulls on top in the picture above has an interesting story behind it. When the pioneers (aka the early Mormons) first got to Utah, their crops were seriously threatened by a swarm of crickets. They prayed for divine intervention to save their crops and help came to them in the form of a flock of seagulls. To commemorate this ‘miracle’, the Mormons built this monument. It does take some amount of faith and credulity to believe in religious miracles, and at the cost of being blasphemous, I’ll say that I’m not the believing kinds!

I’m quite at a loss on how to describe the Tabernacle. It was originally built for Mormon conferences and now is home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which is apparently world famous. I hadn’t even heard of it until I read the relevant Lonely Planet section.  I’ll start with the least controversial fact on the tabernacle. It has an organ with around 11,000 pipes! The tabernacle is also touted as an acoustic wonder aided by the domed roof. Apparently, even a pin drop at the pulpit can be heard all the way to the back of the building.  The missionaries who gave us the tour, first dropped a pin, then a paper clip and then a nail onto the top of a lectern. Sure enough, all of these made the appropriate sounds. However, the problem was that the sounds were too amplified. PG is convinced they had a microphone somewhere.

Only the members of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) can enter the temple. However, one of the sisters told us that it has several rooms, and multiple weddings can be conducted in a single day. A neat concept for a church that views strengthening family as one of its core values.

Going back to the concept of baptism of the dead, we visited the Family Research Centre which keeps records on some 3 billion deceased people from all over the world! The Library was founded to assist members of LDS trace their genealogy so that their ancestors who aren’t members can be baptized too. I find this more than a little disrespectful of the wishes of the dead. Anyway, I didn’t really expect to find someone in my family, but I did! Or at least someone with the same surname.

Despite my reservations expressed above, I do find the Mormons some of the nicest people I’ve met!

And finally, I’ll end with the image of a bee  to denote how much hard work I’ve been putting into traveling! The beehive by the way, is the official emblem of Utah and represents the qualities of industry, and self-reliance greatly respected by the settlers.

I’ve been road tripping with my favourite ally, PG, this past month across the U.S.A. I’ve seen so many cool places now that remembering all the interesting trivia is going to be difficult unless I start posting about them. Like how a family lived in a hollowed-out redwood in the Redwoods National Park in the 1930s.

Redwoods are gigantic and a park ranger pointed out a hollowed out tree in the same area that fit 32 schoolchildren inside it! Another tree called simply The Big Tree in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, California measures 304 feet tall and 21 feet in diameter. It’s width is almost four times my height! Not surprisingly, a bunch of painters were stationed in front of it to capture the grandeur.

We hiked though a couple of beautiful trails in the National Park, one of which looked out into the Pacific ocean.

And finally, I came across the following tree with a huge protrusion that looked like an indigenous man with an ivory tusk through his nose. What does it look like to you?