India by Debra Schoenberger - [Book Review] and A GiveAway

Book Description:

I have always been fascinated by the sheer beauty and diversity in Indian culture. "Sensory overload in a glance" is an apt description of a country that is always in movement. To be able to stand still in the middle of all that movement allows me to really "see" her people and absorb the flow of life from birth to death.

From learning how to make yellow ink from cow urine to watching funeral pyres burn in Varanasi, I realized that I would have to spend a lifetime here to grasp the immense value of her art, stunning architecture, fascinating food and love of all that is beautiful.

Buy the book:   Amazon   Blurb   iTunes   Website

Add on goodreads

My Review 
This is my first photo book review. I love photography and I am from India, so I chose this book to see India through a photographer's eyes. 

The photos range from smiling portraits of people to landscapes to crowded streets to common households and slums. These photos show not only the beautiful architecture but also clumsy areas and streets. Debra also covered a few photos of people from different religions. I loved the pic of a tourist taking Taj mahal from his phone. Pictures like Dhobhighat(a place where clothes are hanged after laundry for drying), a boy purchasing something in a grocery, a Muslim lady waiting outside a shop, a woman holding her husband on a bike etc., show the everyday life of people in India. I also loved the photos of the serene Ganga river in the dawn, some forts, Arti in Varanasi, Akshardham temple etc., 

One thing which is unique about this book is Debra, unlike other photographers didn't strive to show only good about India and its culture, but she also focused on normal people like street performers, shopkeepers, people stuck in traffic, busy roads etc., India is very diverse in cultures, traditions, religions and languages. An attempt to capture the essence of the country in one book itself is a brave concept to think about. Debra also mentioned the list of places where she has taken photos marked on a map at the end of the book. This of course, helps people who are not aware of India. 

I loved this book but I felt, it would have been great if there are captions to each photo or 2 sentences about the photo. I also felt some of the images seemed repeated, they might not be same but same lake/ river in different angles or photos of flower shops which are alike etc.,  

Overall, a good book that I would recommend to any photographer or someone who wants to see the everyday India.

My Rating: 4/5

PS:I have received this book through iread tours and this is my honest opinion on the book.

Author's Bio:

Debra Schoenberger aka #girlwithcamera

"My dad always carried a camera under the seat of his car and was constantly taking pictures. I think that his example, together with pouring over National Geographic magazines as a child fuelled my curiosity for the world around me.

I am a documentary photographer and street photography is my passion. Some of my images have been chosen by National Geographic as editor's favourites and are on display in the National Geographic museum in Washington, DC.  I also have an off-kilter sense of humour so I'm always looking for the unusual.

​Connect with the author:    Website ~  Facebook ​~ Instagram ~  Pinterest

Book Trailer:

GiveAway:
Win one $25 Amazon gift card (international) - 5 other winners will receive one copy of INDIA (choice ePUB or PDF) (ends April 1, 2017)

a Rafflecopter giveaway





Until next time,

Linking this to Mary's LMMLinkup. 

A Walk by the lake - Photo Walk #NaBloPoMo #day8

This is the first weekend after I started the NaBloPoMo challenge. Usually, I don't write on weekends, that's the reason for the delay in my day 8 post. 

We went to visit Prospect lake in Memorial park, Colorado Springs this Sunday and it is one of the best walks around the lake that I had after a long time. 

Here are some pictures..

Bright sunshine on the lake

Ducks and shadows

Birds flying off

Isn't it unique?

All lined up, waiting for whom?








Until next time,
 

My Cherished Item #CB16 - Old photos

Participating in the Cherished Blogfest #CB16.

What do I cherish most? Not a difficult question to answer 🤔

I love books and travel more than anything else in this world. My blog is obviously a reflection of the same. There is one more thing that i love. Photography and capturing wonderful moments of my life ☺

My cherished item is my album. You don't beleive but I have my old photo albums from my childhood still preserved safe in the shelves. They are very close to my heart. Whenever I feel lonely or deprssed or lack any motivation, I just take my album out and turn the pages, remembering the old times, re-living those happy moments until I feel positive again. These albums from different stages of my life always bring smile on my face on any day.

I have photo albums covering different stages of my life till marriage. Later, I have moved to digital copies. Google Picassa has become my best friend to save my happy moments from then. Now, I back up all my smart phone pics to Google photos which has enhanced storage and sharing options.

What is your most cherished item? Do you also retain copies of your old photos in albums still? Or did you move to online storage?
Do let me know in comments.

Until next time,

My Love for Instagram - WT Festival #day3

I had come across 'Instagram' in 2012 and I instantly loved it. Not because it is the best platform to share your favorite photos with your friends, but for the filters that made my pictures look great.

I am not a great photographer, but I love capturing lovely moments of my life and watch them later when I need inspiration and motivation. Since I have only basic skills in photography, I am not sure how to adjust the lens, focus an object and blur the background, set the lighting etc., When I first got introduced to the number of filters in Instagram, it was a fantastic experience. I never shared much of my personal photos but I clicked day to day pics and nature a lot.

I have stumbled upon #photoadayJune instagram challenge last month in marathon bloggers facebook group. The challenge was to post one photo a day throughout the month of June and I  jumped with excitement to join the fun. A few prompts were dead easy, a few were fine and a few were very tough. Somehow, I managed to complete the challenge in June and here is a snippet of the challenge.

A collage of some photos from Challenge

Prompt -Gold

Prompt -Water 

For the prompt 'Vibrant'

Although I love instagram, I had bad time with it. I don't know how,  but my account was hacked once and it showed me following atleast 2000 unknown people. 😩
Somehow I retrieved my account back but couldnt remove every one from my 'following ' list. Still finding a way or an app to do mass unfollow.
So, this is my Instagtam story, do you have any strange story with social media?

Until next time,

Dark Clouds - #WordlessWednesday

#Clouds #Sky #Sun #NewPhone #SamsungGalaxyS6

Until next time,

To Be a Child by Debra Schoenberger - A Guest Post

A different book with pictures of smiling and playing kids. Interesting right? 

Read more about the book and the guest post by author Debra on travel tips.

Book Description:

Give a child a cardboard box and his imagination will turn it into anything but!

Today, it is less common to see children playing in the streets, especially in urban areas. The plethora of ready-made toys should make any child happy. What usually happens is that the box the toy came in becomes the toy!

This book documents children at play (and at times at work) from 10 different countries. A child's ingenuity never ceases to amaze me and I hope you will share these images with your children as well. 

Buy the book: Website Amazon

Author's Bio:

Debra Schoenberger aka #girl with camera

"My dad always carried a camera under the seat of his car and was constantly taking pictures. I think that his example, together with pouring over National Geographic magazines as a child fuelled my curiosity for the world around me.

I am a documentary photographer and street photography is my passion. Some of my images have been chosen by National Geographic as editor's favourites and are on display in the National Geographic museum in Washington, DC. I also have an off-kilter sense of humour so I'm always looking for the unusual. Plus I usually have a lot of scars on my knees. ​(le sigh...)

I live with my creative director, Miss Pickles (my budgie) in Victoria, BC, Canada.

Connect with the author: Website Twitter Facebook

Connect with the photographer's website: Website 

Guest Post by Debra Schoenberger

Advice for Someone Who Wants to Travel to Other Countries 

Plan at least a year ahead and do your research. Be prepared for last minute problems and don’t panic. Have a good travel / medical insurance. I once had two important flights on a 14 flight itinerary cancel at the last minute but because I had good travel insurance I was able to re-book with another airline (which happened to be way better) and the insurance company paid for the difference. 

Enjoy the culture you are getting to know. Things won’t be the same back home and that’s OK. Be patient and smile! Try to get to know a few words in your host country - people really appreciate it when you try to speak to them in their own language. 

Bring energy bars and snacks with you, instant coffee if you’re a coffee lover and plenty of baby wipes. Sometimes my backpack gets covered in dirt and grime so I use the baby wipes to clean it off. Pack light. Do a trial pack with your backback, put it on and walk around your home or outside for 15 minutes. If it’s too heavy, pack lighter. If you’re miserable because you’re tired, you won’t feel like taking pictures plus you could pull a muscle!

I find it much easier to fly around the world in one direction than back and forth across the Pacific ocean as I don’t feel as jet-lagged. Do your research - sometimes booking a flight in the country of origin will give you a better rate. If you are comfortable with booking your own flights over the internet, try different days of the week and different times of day to look for deals. I usually begin with 3 different airlines and hotels and work my way down from there. You will get all sorts of quotes but be patient, eventually a quote will come up that you will be happy with. Read the travel section of your local newspaper or sign up to receive specials from your favourite airlines. Frequent flyer points aren’t as good as they used to be but always try to use them. Air China, for example, partners with Air Canada so I was able to accumulate the Air China points on my Air Canada card. 

Until next time,

What's my blog all about?

Hello all..

You might be wondering, why I am posting about my blog in my blog :p
I have been blogging from a long time without any big ambition or long term goal. Now, I think, it's time to go back and see why this blog is created, what this contains and how important it is to me and what's going to be the future.

Abbey falls, Coorg

I have started my blog around 10 years ago. I will still sheepishly smile seeing my first post. It's horrible and kind of a note/ journal.

I love writing and enjoy reading books. From childhood, I had a habit of diary writing too. So, wanted to start a blog just to beat the monotony of life and share my thoughts on the books that I read. My other interest is traveling. I get amused by different places. I equally enjoy exploring a historical place, a romantic beach, a hill station, an adventure place, and a scenic spot. Travelling recharges me and I have a lot of wonderful experiences visiting different places. So, slowly I started writing travelogues in my blog. I also write on movies, social issues and other miscellaneous things in my blog if there is something that I want to share to this world which I feel might benefit others in any way.

I am a classical dancer and I love dancing. Since peacock is colorful with feathers and looks fantastic, I choose this name without much thought. But, I love this name even now.

I am not sure about the future and I don't have any goals on monetizing much on this platform. I wish to read as many books I can and blog about them. I wish to travel as many places as I can and share those pictures and details in my blog. Simple goals, Isn't it? :-)

Sharing some of the photos that define my blog

Ramappa lake, Warangal

How can I forget?  designed this logo last year :-)

Designed my signature long back, I love it!

Niagara Falls, wonderful!

Fascinated by warangal, good historical place

My book reading hobby started from here

I love Dan Brown's novels

Linking this to #MondayMusings hosted by Corinne from WriteTribe and EverydayGyaan.

Until next time,

Collection of some random snaps

Place: Ramappa lake in the evening, Warangal

Ramappa lake seems excellent at the time of sunset. This photo was taken when we were on boat ride.

Place: Mainland China, Hyderabad 

Liked this decoration in the restaurant. See.. how beautiful this flower is made only with vegetables :)

Place: Princeton, USA. Next day after snow storm

Watching snowfall and playing with snow is great, but the next day after snowfall is also wonderful. See.. how bright sun is competing with snow to brighten the place :)

Place: Niagara, USA

Watching Niagara falls is the most un-forgettable experience. Watching water this much nearer from the park will make you crazy. 

Place: Gandipet Lake in the evening, Hyderabad

Gandipet lake is a peaceful place to go, especially if you are interested in long drives on wonderful evenings to the outskirts of the city 

Hope you liked these random clicks :)

Until next time,

Fall foliage trip - Day 2

Details of Day 1 trip are here.

Day 2 started fresh as we had good sleep. We got accommodation in 'America's Best value Inn' at Plattsburg. Room is not that clean, but manageable for one night stay.

Entrance

Tour started at 8.30AM to a place called ‘Ausable Chasm’. It is a wonderful place near Keeseville, New york , which offers nature trails, walking tours and treks at different difficulty levels. This place offers activities like rafting, tubing and  rappelling and mining. Scenic and adventure trails offer excellent views of rainbow falls, caves etc., As part of the tour, we couldn't go for rafting, but we went for an easy 3 mile walk which is called ‘RIM walk’. See below excellent views from the walk.

Rainbow Falls

Rainbow falls

Hydro electricity project

View from Rim walk

Our next stop is to Lake Champlain, which is the 6^th largest lake in US and Canada. We traveled by ferry to Vermont state from here, which took around 15 mins. 

Lake Champlain

All cars on ferry, even our bus was on ferry :)

Then, we reached Burlington, which is the largest city in Vermont State. We walked to Cherry Street and Church Street and stopped for lunch there. Burlington is a city with population of only around 40000. City seemed to be peaceful and pleasant.

We stopped at a teddy bear factory in Vermont. See wonderful photos from there.. Many big and small cute teddy bears in groups :)

do you see all colors in the same tree?? :)

The last attraction in our itinerary is Maple museum. This museum shows how maple syrup is made from maple leaves and other products based on maple syrup. Museum is very small with an entry fee of $3, which I think is not worth for the money. But, see their decoration for Halloween J Is ti interesting? J

Doesn't he look real?

Hope you liked the photos :)

Until next time,