Touching Woods

 

If You came across this detour by the Highway, would You stop and
 walk down and through, knowing You`ll be fading into a thick forest some distance away. Knowing Your phone will be displaying "No Network Coverage" and the nearest man made structure will be long out of Your visual range.. Would You?
Yes? Seriously?
For Your kind information this is the land of the Tiger.
Still interested? ... Come!!

There`s something about the crackle of dry leaves under my boots
over unpaved ground, through an unmade piece of land,
and the sound of crickets ratcheting up a cacophony in the daytime, that makes the forest feel so much more than just a romantic experience, and so much more than an adventure trip.
 Something that tells me that the Jungle is not a place I`m in or at,
 but it is a place in my Heart. A place in my heart, not for the Deja vu moment, but for the Finding Home moment.
And this time in the jungle I brought the Family along to share this place in my heart. Cause run away as I may from the city life, I would not leave the family to the city.
The Family.. this another place deep inside of me, came to Kanha National reserve, and in the reserve snagged a nicely done place to stay.
It was a place called Chitvan in the Kanha wildlife sanctuary, where the Jungle and the resort seem to merge into each other across undefined boundaries. But we are here for the forest, those cottages are there to spend the night over.. or we`d be at a place in the Tiger`s insides.
I so wished I had house like that, and a  forest for a backyard, and all I could see from the balcony were tree tops. Some Luxury.. huh..
At times I wonder how come the richest man in India would chose to build a profane tower to live in, in the middle of a densely populated city and overlooking slums and shanties..

This forest seems like a city centre of sorts for the various forms of life, that just continue to go about their business of the day, in a place that has all the possible shades of Green.
 Dark Green, light Green, sap green, olive green, brownish green, yellowish green, prickly green, smooth green, matt green to shiny and Glossy Green. And then come all the conceivable shades of Brown.

The air here; has a distinct smell to it.. It is probably the leaves, the trees, the dirt or the animals, or all of them or some of them..


 I call this particular smell, "Earth".









Smile buddy, You`re on camera!!

Yeah! That`s all I have of him. I could feel His presence around us on so many occasions, but.. I guess, I did`nt have a prior appointment.

And then there came the rains.. Jungle Rain..  the spell with a spell.. You`d have to be there to feel what it is like, I wish I could explain, it was Magical. Neti above just let all go.

Out of the Jungle, we pampered ourselves with a dip and a nap at the resort.. BLISS!!

Thanks Chitvan Jungle Lodge
 for the lovely experience!!

The Tree of Good Life

If You think that`s the firewood for the Fireplace in the bedroom, then You`re clearly missing the Trees for the Wood.

Like a Hollywood Tree Monster invading Your living spaces, there`s a Tree coming right out of the floor and going through the roof.. And here we are talking not about the Tree in the House but about a House on the Tree.. 

Yes, we are talking about a TreeHouse. 

And a Place in the Trees is the closest You can get to a Place in the Clouds. Cause while "Building castles in the air" remains  only a metaphor, this Tree house here however is the real deal.

Perched not very high above the ground among the trees are neatly done cottages with all the modern amenities, so You can stay aloof and afloat in the leaves for as long as You want.

In case it gets a little eerie up there, You`ll have company in the neighboring branches  

The surroundings resemble a tropical rain forest with the greens laying claim to each and every square foot of land below.

A place so rich with flora that You would`nt believe You`re in Rajasthan.

Yes, we`re in Rajasthan, a mere 30min drive from Jaipur on NH8. For more details, just Google the words "Tree house resort" or just click here.
Apart from the heady experience of living in these cottages, there`s a lot to be experienced here over a weekend of Getaway and GetLosthood.

So check it out and feel absolutely free to thank me later for the great experience.

Cheers!

Beauty of the Hands of the Holder

Some time back we got into product Photography that had me staring at product pieces through my lens like a German Shepherd staring at a bandicoot Burrough up close. But the picture of a big dog sizing up a rodent has a lot of life and color of it`s own. Product  Photography however  required a dedicated ingection of both life and color in an otherwise lifeless setting of Still Life.

And there is only so much that Designer paper, satin and velvet cloth, imitation pearls and dried leaves, as props can add to the picture.



There was a discovery waiting to be made that changed our perception of how we look at  product shoots. 

And it all started with this shot.

We`ve shot jewellery before, but never in such a setting, and in this shot we found Life. And what did we learn? Well..

      Firstly, a pair of hands provides a realistic depiction of the subject and a good reference to figure out it`s size. Secondly, the hands provide us the human element, so integral to the story of the product.

These shots were neither rehearsed nor posed. It just so happened that Tavishi was showing us her collection and I just happened to have left one Flash head in power ON mode. Thank the Lord for the years I`ve spent as a television cameraperson that makes me such a sniper of good frames.

That`s Tavishi Gupta, the unsuspecting hand model, and it`s not just her hands but the fine manner in which she naturally held the pieces that makes the shots CLICK. A finesse that You see in the store she runs. The store is PinkGold, that showcases the creations of select designers, in the form of dresses, bags, footwear and accessories.  Finally before packing up from Pink Gold, I shot some footwear like this.. Does it look good??

 For the full story of the store check out  AllwhatSheWants 

I`ve got Hands on my mind ever since and that`s what I was looking for when we shot in the house of Rashma Talwar Sud for AllWhatSheWants. Rashma is a bakery expert who has taken her life long passion to a professional level.  An imaginative and intuitive  cook, She specialises in low calorie, low sugar desserts, for the health concious, which are not just home made but hand made.
That`s a shot of the dessert carter herself on the right,


























and for the food shots, we could have played with props and lights here as well but guess what..
Got a pair of beautiful hands.. never need a prop again!
And in the Dessert Carter`s story, the hands made a lot of sense, cause Rashma's hands actually dabble through the dough. The idea being, using hands actually creates bigger air pockets in the dough, making the cake a lot more Fluffy. Click here to know more about the Dessert Carter.

Eventually more and more people lent their helping hands to making allwhatshewants.com and shotstories.net a visual delight, and next in line was Musskan,
 and that litttle elephant by the way is a ring, 
Yes!! that one too..

Do You think You have it what it takes to sport that one on your finger? Can You handle it.. Well "Kiwi by Musskan" has more such jewels with an uninhibited appeal.










Dare You to have a calculater like Musskan`s.

This is Musskan, here to rescue the world from minimalism and modesty, with her bold and vibrant designs, of the semi precious kind. Read her full story here

Next we tried some very precious jewellry at the Tanishq store in South Ex, Delhi with some help form the store staff. Our subject was Tanishq`s Mia collection on the left and a piece from their Glam Gold collection

Most of these pics came to us when allwhatshewants.com went looking for personal profiles of entrepreneurs, artists, designers and creators. We had featured products before, but this time we wanted to talk about the people behind those creations.

And in that series we met Riddhima and Saloni, two very Young , very Promising entrepreneurs, and the force behind Risa Bags.

We shot some of their bags, in the old fashioned product shoot style..



And the shots came out well.. 

but could we get Ridhima to model for our shoot? Yes!!
And this is what we got.

In the second pic, that`s Riddhima telling me how she would want the bag`s straps to be like for the shot.
And here is Risa`s full story.

Thanks Tavishi, Rashma, Musskan, Riddhima and Saloni for the helping hands.