What makes you happy?

Few days back, I came across this article that says, “... ordinary experiences become increasingly associated with happiness as people get older...”. Not taking any position on what it said, I anyway asked myself which experiences made me most happy. I immediately recollected something.  Some two years back, I woke up at around 2 - 3 AM with some unexplained noises outside. Probably I woke up from somewhat deeper sleep and brain wasn’t fully functional for few moments - it had not yet made sense of source of sounds and quickly decided to invoke fear - a good amount of it. I walk to the window and glance outside to find out source of sounds and.. state of my mind changed INSTANTLY. It felt like definition of beauty to the eyes and wonderful tranquility and happiness to the mind. brain swings into action in a moment or two later asking - what is that I am looking at? Right under the tree few feet away, those were two beautiful Antelopes. I knew I shouldn't be seeing them if it was not a dream. few more moments and my brain finally caught up with the reality. Antelopes they were, but not of the size I thought a moment ago. They were near infant age twins of largest Asian antelope - Nilgai and they were those four big, innocent eyes that replaced fear and anxiety with peace and happiness in my mind. for the impact it generated, I would anytime argue it was an extra-ordinary experience, but looking at it objectively, sighting of a Nilgai may not be regarded as that extra-ordinary. So, if what the article said was right, I am getting older, or probably I was born older? Wouldn't I have been equally happy seeing them some twenty years ago too?

Anyways, recently I again had a chance to be in beautiful surroundings that had somewhat similar effect. Standing between bright yellow of mustard flowers, looking at water reflecting yellows and greens and mixed flock of birds adding more life.. All these almost as non pre-planned, unexpected as seeing those Nilgai youngs. As I stood there, I wouldn’t have objected if time stopped and didn’t realise if it was flowing or not. Some shots below, I hope they convey some of the beauty out there.

Overlooked and under-appreciated, some weed flowers

Soon after my previous post wild flowers three months back, I again accumulated a post worth of new flowers - mostly weeds this time. as before, I was hopeful of identifying them but waiting for that means the list only grows longer. So, here is the post that simply lists out photographs of weed flowers I found beautiful. Apologies for not much text to accompany these shots here.

They were mixed with lots of other types of grasses / weeds on ground. as with almost all flowers here, when they flowered, they flowered in huge numbers.

I think this are buds of above but now not sure.

Something similar. in fact, I noticed it was a different kind only while uploading.

Along with red ones, below were in bloom in good numbers and even as red ones declined, they increased and increases in numbers.

Much smaller than even above, but still capable of giving a good competition by scattering purple dots on grounds due to their numbers.

These existed in less numbers and saw only once or twice.

These joined the show somewhat late - or at least I noticed them later. Not only bright red flowers here that was adding to the beauty but leaves also appeared beautiful.

These are smaller than most of above, mostly seen just outside home. they are small enough that not easy to notice them elsewhere. I even wondered if they were less interested in spreading pollen and more in catching insects. Not that I really expect to see any such rare plant on my doorstep. So far haven't seen any insect visiting it.

Another white flower, its bigger than all of above. appeared less dramatic compared to previous flower.

Okay, it appeared less dramatic only till I got this shot. Looks like a brave ant trying to see what's inside this grand entrance.

One more white flower. I wish to take a shot with enough magnification where can see details of individual flower here. should be a tough task though.

One more..

and this is the smallest flower yet that I have seen. another doorstep flower.

Okay, I guess world may exist tomorrow too and instead of making this post longer and longer, let me end this here. will cover remaining flowers some other time. Ending with these brightly coloured flowers for which no macro lens is required.

HX300 - End word

Remember HX300? ok, I too thought I wont be coming up with yet another post talking about it.. Well, I had bought that camera on pretext of gift to Mom. I think you see the benefits straight away. I felt less guilty about indulging in expense I wasn’t 100 percent sure was justified, met a long standing demand to have a camera for her and I get a camera for what looks like free. and it seemed to work. She happily used it in fully automatic mode and I experimented with manual mode – results of which you saw earlier. but, just about a month of switching between Auto and Manual and.. Mode dial gave up..

All-Plastic broken and detached dial in my hand left me completely shocked. Can Sony product be like that? With detached mode dial if I put lots of efforts, I can still turn dial a full round in 10-15 minutes, which is as good as not usable. so I have put that in Auto mode which is most useful for Mom - whose camera it is after all. A drastic reduction in total usefulness of the camera and great disappointment for me. I am unable to decide if I was more disappointed to see all my accumulated camera budget go waste or seeing a brand I usually value highly come out with this build quality or was it disappointment with self that I made a wrong choice. either way, it is Very disappointing. and no, I am told that the broken dial is not covered under warranty. They want me to pay nearly 20 per cent of what I paid for the camera to fix a new piece of around one inch of plastic.

I am normally a good customer to have. I talk happily about a product if turns out good and keep quite when I find I selected wrong product. but this time, I have already talked so much about HX300, mostly positive things, that not saying now that it’s a great camera under right conditions but only if it stays usable. would not be fair play on my part just in case someone evaluating the camera takes some inputs from what I had written here.

Consolation prize to whole story is, per se a camera was not a bad gift. It was a wonderful Sunny day after many Sunless cold days and Mom went ahead to find some birds. and, luckily on this day, Auto mode was all that was needed.

A resident. This is a saved frame from video. It gives quite usable size. this is a good crop as well.

Power of 50x. Though Auto mode, 50x and a beginner doesn't make a good combination for most of the time. and beginner or not, not zooming in when you can is a very difficult thing to do.

Two shots I liked a lot. Specially the River Lapwing. It actually was better than my best shot till date.