Someone who touched my heart....

Its true that the best way to touch anyone's heart is through the stomach..... Normally its just me and my phone that gives me company during lunch breaks I choose to sit among the crowd in a large atrium centre at my workplace, only to find people laughing and having lunch with their colleagues.... So even if its being in a crowd, I do feel left out...but yeah, that's the nature of my job. 

When I started thinking that to find a person with the same vibe just like me would be impossible, I happened to get hold of a colleague of mine. The saddest part is she'll be leaving the job within 2 weeks and I'll be probably back to square one.

 I have been with my team mates who sit with me the whole day at workplace....but never did anyone invite me to join them for lunch. But this friend of mine did.... Its just been a week or 2 weeks since we started talking and from then there was a connection... She didn't just promise me that she wud join me for both the breaks that we got, she even looked to it that she kept her word with me...

 Yesterday I simply felt blessed ..even if it was a short time that I could spent with this girl, it was like a temporary relief or escape from the loneliness that I was facing here... 

I wanted to take my break and called this friend of mine... I could see she was engrossed in her job..but she left everything and came with me... We had our sandwiches at the open balcony...and we talked a lot... For lunch I called her again ..she was busy..but she did keep her word and called me to the pantry to .share her lunch.... As I was pushing down my croissant (supposedly my lunch) down my throat, she shared her lunch with me.. I didn't cry...but I did have tears within me and I didn't know how to show my gratitude to her.. I didn't want to look formal or seem formal.. We were good friends and friends do share and eat from the same plate... 

Yesterday was the day I got to work for 10 hours and while she shared her lunch, she kept reminding me that I have to eat and get energy to sit till 6pm. When I kept pushing the her plate back to her,she insisted that I had to have her share. 

I had to rush back soon to work, cos when you are new, a minute late to your desk will earn you a "rolling eye" look from your seniors. The look instantly falls on you...the clock and back again on you.

 I resumed my work and by 4:30, I took a break from the covering I've been doing for a colleague of mine. I came back to my seat,put my things down and headed right inside the door behind us...thats where two of my good friends sit. 

She was finishing her work and was ready to leave. That's when she handed out her fruit yoghurt to me and said...You would need this.

Who was this girl? Why was she being nice to me? She knew I looked tired. She knew I wouldn't take a break. She knew I longed for a company. 

I could see myself in her at times. She smiled each and every time. She had a bundle of positive energy within her and she knew how to be with people, cheer them up and make them happy at least for a moment.

 She is someone whom you can call as a good friend - You can rely on her, she'll keep her word and will be there for you... She is someone whom you can call as a sister- She's naughty,fun and extremely adorable. She would sing and dance with you. She would pull your leg. She would make you fall them but in the end,she'll never let go of your hand. 

Sometimes words aren't enough to express your love... Feelings are much beyond words... I may even get a kick on the butt if she happens to read this... If ever you do.. I just want to tell you...you're very special...

 

"Life .... " Time lapse

After "A day in a minute" time lapse, I wanted to something different and striking. Thats when I decided to do Kidney bean germination ... I knew it was tough.. but that was the fun part ...

People only notice your works and stuffs, when they find your works different and unusual from the rest of the photographer's clan.

I didnt have any idea as to how many days would be needed to do this experiment. But I decided to go with the flow.

Got my tripod arranged. Found a perfect spot to keep a watch and shoot the germination procedure. I made sure that the place I chose had enough of sunlight , so basically the subject was kept on a table next to the window.

I started of this experiment on January 31st. Soaked the kidney beans and kept it in a plastic container. The climate being unpredictable, I found the beans weren't sprouting even after 1-2 days. Soon, half of the kidney beans that weren't sprouting started to decay, I had to throw them off. In place, I soaked a few black eyed beans too to fill the gap

I had no intervalometer, so basically this stuff was tough to do. Cos, I needed to be alert and take an image at a fixed time interval. Occasionally I had to wake up in the middle of night to take few shots and then go back to sleep.

 

Please excuse the set up... the background may seem horrible. Gradually while experimenting with this germination process, I could relate to my Grade 6 Science lessons, at the end of the day I was more concerned in the growth not for photography purpose... but I could see life in front of my eyes.... Right from the sprouts ... the the roots growing underneath ... to the stem standing tall... I felt blessed ...!!! It was all about life ...from a mere bean to an upright stem ..... 

Merin Christy Photography presents - "Life" ... a 2 minute journey from a sprouting bean to a plant ....

Music Courtesy - Late Pt. Ravi Shankar (Raga Kedara)
Shots - 1323 images
Photography and editing - Aleena Merin Saju (Merin Christy Photography)
Special Thanks - My brother (Alwyn Christy Saju) and my parents

  

                                   

Hope you guys liked the video.
Here's the vimeo link to it -  Life
Don't forget to visit my facebook page - Merin Christy Photography

After shooting the time lapse, I decided to replant it in a bigger pot ....
 

 

So guys.. thats all for now :)

Until we meet next time.. more experiments to try on ...
More posts to come , hopefully :)

Takecare,
Aleena

"A day in a minute" ---- Time lapse

I've always experimented with different genres of photography, and then recently I happened to watch a time lapse work by an awesum and wonderful photographer (Subodh Shetty) on vimeo .... Thus I actually decided to try out a time lapse ....

I had a doubt as to what to start with. As usual, I was at home and decided to shoot what I see outside my room window... To begin with, I took out my cam in the morning... I could see few patches of cloud here and there and tadaa... it seemed a perfect day to start...

I took some bits in the morning, noon and the highlight was evening just after sunset ....

So here guys...the final result -----

Merin Christy Photography presents "A day in a minute" ---- Time lapse...... !!! My first try in time lapse photography. !!!! Music -- Lindsay Sterling (Crystallize)

766 shots, 1 video :)

 

And ya ... that's the vimeo link "A day in a minute"

Do watch the video and leave the comments :)

Soon to write about my 2nd time lapse experiment....

Till we meet .... Good bye

Regards,

Aleena Merin

First win of 2014 :)

I have a good news to share in this week's blog post..... In my post 2 weeks ago, I had mentioned about going for a Photo walk with a group named Photowalk Dubai, a group which had members who regularly met over a venue for photo shoots. It was my first experience with photo walk... and I must say, I truly loved it...

The venue was Sharjah scrapyard... a area that lies adjacent to one of the Sharjah Industrial areas and Safeer mall, Sharjah. I happened to click many snaps there, some of them are as follows .....

On 26th December 2013, three of my pictures were published in Gulfnews

 

And then... tadaaa...little did I expect I would be receiving a call from Gulf news... that I had secured the 1st place in Gulf news reader photo competition for the month of December 2013..... Thus on January 26th, 2014 the winning entries along with the photographer's profile came published in Gulf news... And I was sooo thrilled .... my first win in photography... :)

The link - http://gulfnews.com/pictures/viewer/not-always-an-inborn-passion-1.1282038
http://gulfnews.com/pictures/viewer/featured-reader-photographers-of-december-2014-1.1281365

All thanks to my parents, my lil bro... n my friends who stood by me and supported me constantly ... :)
I was filled with wishes and congrats on my facebook wall after posting this image... and to this moment... I'm thrilled and excited ... :)

Friends shared my image....my degree mates changed the profile pic and subject in Whatsapp to congratulate me ....

So guys.... its a good start for the year :) :)
Thanks to the Almighty for the wonderful win .... :) :)

For those who haven't liked my photography page in Facebook, its "Merin Christy Photography"

Till we meet next time....

Regards,
Aleena  :)

Fruit drop :)

Yeah ... so as usual I begin experimenting with my lens one fine morning .... !!! I had no clue as to what to click... bokeh, abstract, portrait, water spash, fruit drop.. wait..wait... I was at home itself... then why not try Fruit drop once again ...

The last time I tried Fruit drop .. had to use grapes ... !!! This time I was prepared to take a better shot... !! Thus, I go in search of a transparent tank...no I couldnt find any... I decided to settle with a glass :)

Next ... what to drop into the glass of water ... !!! Na...na...apple was too big for the glass... yeah..I get to see small oranges in the fruit bowl..

And now the arrangement ... I arrange the glass ... pour in chilled water ... keep the glass on a table where there's direct sunlight ... n I keep an aluminum foil under the glass to reflect the sunlight onto the glass .... !!!! To avoid glare, I keep my lil bro's old school sweater behind the glass !!!

And the next step was setting the camera .... !!! I click..check ..click..check... side ways I keep changing and checking out with different f-stops and shutter speed ... and here's the final result ...

Its a single glass, 3 shots stitched together ... no photoshop used ...cos I still dunno how to use that stuff...

Till date, its the most liked and talked about pic in my Facebook profile as well as Merin Christy Photography (my facebook page)

Now... whats next ... I mean what do I click next ... ???? I'll keep thinking .... till I come up with any new idea... Tata for now :)

Regards,
Aleena :)

A not-so-bad 2013 !!!!

2013 was indeed a not-so-bad year for me :) ..... I enrolled for driving classes in January .... first was theory and then the practicals... Obviously....I was waiting for my practicals to start....!!! I remember the first day clearly... I arrived at the driving institute by 6 am... yeah my class was from 6:20am to 7am ...!! In short .... I was in the first batch ... early bird :)

As I saw my instructor, I started getting into the passenger seat next to the driver's. Half way through, the instructor came up to me and asked..."Have you come for a tour or something?" .... I said ,"Well, no..." ... Then she replied... "Then get into the driver seat" :) So, thats how it started..... I had no control over the steering.. well, who could possibly have on their first driving class ... !!!! End of the day, I could see almost half of the red cones down ... Yeah I crashed into them while trying to take a u-turns... So basically the first day was fully u-turns .... and driving in "8" shape :) ...

Well... I made mistake...more mistakes.... but I finally succeeded by getting the driver's license :)

Then after that it was purely job hunting.... browsing through appointments section in Gulf news ... registering in career sites ..etc etc... But I was a fresher .. so getting a job  right now.. that to after 2009's recession was a bit tough... But of course if you have hold in a company...or if any of your relative has a hold with someone in some company... then you're guaranteed of a job ... :)

Therefore, by April I guess, my MBA 4th sem results were out ... n ya... I passed out :) And that's when I decided to go to Kerala for a week ... for 2 reasons :) !!! Primarily, to apply for my mba certificate through the university... and secondly.... to meet my friends after 6 months .. :)

Thus, I planned my trip for a week.... May 28th to June 2nd ... days might differ (I actually dont remember the exact date..but I guess that dates are correct)... I landed at Cochin airport ... stayed with my uncle n family... went to the university with Savio, Anusree, Aisten n Savio's sister.... in Savio's car.. it was too good.... !!! Although the university procedures took up most of our time.. we managed to get back home by 5:30-6 pm....!!!

Then ya... I had to meet my friends right...so we planned.. nops... I planned to meet them at Lulu Mall in Cochin.. it was newly opened...n I've never been there... !! we had a great time... !!! To name everyone - Abhishek, Kiran, Savio, Jerin, Varghese, Colin, Aiswarya, Nishana, Fatima, Sharon, Meekhal n Sherynn :) We hogged at McDonalds... stuffing ourselves with fries and McFlurry .... !!Then headed to the play zone... did bowling .... then took a stroll in Lulu supermarket ... !! Finally.. it was time to say good bye  :(

Wonder how a week flies so fast .. I returned to UAE ... back to job hunting... Thankfully got a job as an HR Executive ... joined by June end ...

Therefore, I entered into work life .....  Used to take the company transport initially.. then shifted to driving .... Yeah, I had accidents 2 times in between :( .. but I was safe .. Thanks to the Almighty :)

Finally I decide to quit my job in December  due to health and personal reasons... Thus back to 24-hours-at-home-right-now mode ...

Meanwhile... I celebrated my 25th bday in August ... n in December ..it was my lil bro's 15th bday :) My parents gifted him a tab ... n I gave him a Superman Tee :)

So basically, 2013 was a not-so-bad year for me :) I had my share of ups and downs this 2013 ...

Meanwhile.. I started experimenting with photography more seriously ... and I used to send my entries constantly to Gulf news :) until it got published ... :) On December 13th, I joined a group of amatuer as well as professional shutterbugs in Dubai ... They are called "Photowalk Dubai" ... I was a member of their FB group.. hence the photowalk on Dec 13 was at Sharjah scrapyard ... the basic requirement was to use a 50 mm lens... I had one ...n so I joined them.... it was a wonderful experience with those guys... got to learn many stuffs .... So... that was a good thing I had this year apart from my driver's license, mba result n job .... :)

 Ohh ....The sad part is... I couldnt continue my blogging in the past 6 months... so I've decided to do it regularly.. to jot something or the other ... I hope it works out ... :)

By the way... Happy New Year folks .....

This has been the first time since I didnt get a single sms on my mobile for the new year... Usually my mobile was loaded with sms's exactly at 12 ... !! And, ya... I didnt forget to send sms as usual.. to many of my closest buddies :) ....  But in this era of whatsapping ... and with a forward button.. a common "HNY" msg can be forwarded to all... I have heard technology connects people... not thats not the case right now...

So guys... I have got the subject for my next blog I guess .... Now to decide..whether to write up a feature on that .... Till then.. see ya ..

Takecare .. Have a wonderful , awesum n rocking 2014 ...

Regards,
Aleena