Dood’s Photo of the Day

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 16th Oct’08

I saw these most unusual kind of flowers while trekking up the mountain of Nevado de Toluca. Even though it was overcast and not enough sunlight was falling on the ground, these flowers were shining distinctively all over the place. They had leaves like cactus and a sizeable core with shades of purple.

The ones which bloomed were looking as in the picture, while others who had lived their lives were dry and their cores were split open right in the middle. Strange things nature has in store.

P.S There is one thing which I have decided to change from this post onwards. If you can tell what it is, please leave a comment

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 15th Oct’08

There lay a small lake just at the base of a Grey rocky mountain, with patches of green around it & some random pieces of rocks scattered in the middle. As I was walking past it the sun was playing hide and seek with the clouds and the shadows of the clouds were sweeping past me and on all the other things around me.

It was so quiet and serene that you could actually hear the flapping of the wings of a bird flying over your head. You could hear yourself breathing and the wind blowing past you. You could hear the thoughts breezing past your mind. A kind of unusual, satisfying peace.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 14th Oct’08

I was walking through a crowded side-walk in downtown Mexico City when it struck me that maybe a photo here would look good. So I took out my camera, leaned against a lamp post and started clicking arbitrarily. Of all the shots I got I somehow liked this one the most.

Only after transferring the photos and seeing them in full size, I realized that this man on the left of the image was giving me such a what-the-hell-are-you-doing stare

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 13th Oct’08

At the first look, this photo will give you an image of a huge mountain with some sundry small things filling up the rest of the frame. The sheer size of the Grey mountain on the right of the frame seems to overshadow the significance of almost everything else in the picture. But if you enlarge the picture by clicking on it and see the full view, you will observe that there are three main things which catch your attention. What are they, I leave it for you to decide.

I took this picture while trekking up the mountain of Nevado de Toluca.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 12th Oct’08

I saw this unusual looking flower in a town called Valle de Bravo. We stopped at the place for some snacks and parked the car in a nearby parking when I noticed these flowers growing right in the center of the parking area. My friend told me that they are called “Birds of Paradise” and indeed they gave the appearance of small birds.

Their unusual shape and vivid color combination gave them a type of beauty which is something very different from what one expects from flowers in general.

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Click here to see the flower from another angle

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 11th Oct’08

Xochimilco is a small tourist attraction near Mexico City. It has a stretch of water in the form of small river-like stagnant lake. You can hire a boat with seating capacity varying from 10-25 people. People usually go there with proper “partying” arrangements like music, food and beer. It takes around 2 hours to take a full round of the lake and you can see numerous boats floating around with each one hosting a small party.

Apart from the boats carrying people, there are other smaller ones which offer a variety of other services like food, flowers and even music. carefully looking, its a small business model in its own.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 10th Oct’08

It was a small break on the highway after a drive of almost 4 hours non-stop, when I just wandered away in the nearby fields while my friends were easing down. The sun was just preparing to call it a day & hitting the earth with its lateral rays creating long slant shadows. I saw this car standing in the ruins with no signs of any habitation nearby.

I didnt go close as I didn’t have enough time, but it’s strange how people can abandon things as big as a car. If you wanna get rid of it, at least sell it, instead of just throwing it away in some barren field.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 9th Oct’08

This photo is again from the monument of “Cristo Rey”. As I was walking back to the parking, I had to climb down this circular path towards the base of the statue. This pattern of numerous windows was perhaps the outer side of the rooms inside the church. Some of the windows were open while others were closed.

I had to wait for a long time at the edge of the building so that I could get a clean shot without anything else intruding into the frame. But the volume of people visiting the place was so huge that even after minutes of patient waiting, I couldnt avoid a couple of them to creep in at the top left edge of the building

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 8th Oct’08

Apart from the angle from which this photo was taken, there is something else to be mentioned about it. It was 9PM and even the artificial light was not that good at the place where I was thinking of clicking this one. So I just split open the aperture of my camera and gave the sensor maximum exposure.

You wont believe, it took around 35 secs for the photo to get captured after I pushed the button.

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Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 7th Oct’08

One of the most important religious monuments in all of Mexico, Cristo Rey (Christ the King) is an impressive 20-meter bronze statue of Jesus set atop the summit of the mountain Cerro de Cubilete. The colossal monument was constructed in 1950, replacing the smaller, original statue that was destroyed during the final stages of the Mexican Revolution.

The statue allegedly marks the exact geographical center of Mexico, and for religious Mexicans there is something to be said in having Jesus in the very heart of their country. As such, the statue is a popular day-trip destination for Mexicans visiting Guanajuato.

I took many different pictures of the statue from near and from far. Click the links below to see some more photos.

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Click here to see the church
Click here to see a distant view