GAURAV PATELme@gauravpatel.co.ukGraphic Designer

Yeah, I couldn’t resist. I saw @kosso‘s iPhone 4 image and I just had to do this.

I noticed my iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.0 deletes all text (and photos) in any textbox when you hit the Globe and Backspace keys together. Notes app, the subject field in Mail, the address bar in Safari, anywhere you enter text. If the keyboard has the Globe icon (you must have an international keyboard enabled), it will do it.

The video below shows me doing it:

Yeah, it’s a little find, it’s not world changing, but it’s there.

I haven’t posted anything in a while and I just made this and and and and and and and.

It started off as this, which turned into this, and ended up as above. Oh yeah, I shaved my head.

Yesterday, 4th April, was the day crazy people around the world took to the streets of their local city at 4am for 4amproject.org:

The aim of the 4amproject is to gather a collection of photos from around the world at the magical time of 4am. Everyone can take part and join in! All you need is a camera. We want to see what you see at that moment in time on that one day. What’s your view at 4am?

I read about this through PetaPixel at around 11pm, needless to say I instantly jumped at this. I scheduled to meet my friend at 3:30am, from where we would drive somewhere into Central London. I had no idea what to expect from London at 4am. I’m always drunk whenever I experience the city that late/early.

I did not sleep and I was practically dead when picked my friend up. We drove past Westminster Bridge and saw how beautiful it was at night. We both agreed to park nearby and walk as Southbank, Waterloo, etc were walking distance away.

This is the route we took. Each photo has been placed on the map where it was taken or as close as possible.

Here’s a higher-resolution slideshow of the photos from the morning (or see them on Flickr on lower-resolution):

A remote control arrived that morning and if I did not bring that, my photo strategy would have radically changed and I wouldn’t have been as happy with the results as I am. I instantly knew I would be taking long exposures with the Canon EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, otherwise known as the “Shit Stock Lens”.

I basically tied my camera to anything and everything using the Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom with the ballhead attachment. This was the first time using the Gorillapod and I have to say, for this, it was perfect. The only problem I had was straightening the legs once I was finished with a shot, though if you’re constantly tying it around rails and benches, it’s awesome.

Once mounted, I would use the remote control to control the shutter speed (the camera was on fully manual with BULB setting for shutter speed). What’s awesome is the Canon 500D displays the seconds the shutter has been open for on the LCD.

Protip: anyone can take photos like mine. You just need a stable surface and manually set the shutter speed. This is definitely achievable with an inexpensive point and shoot. In fact, the next time I do this, I’ll take my Sony DSC-T70 and do some more experiments with my 500D.

Despite freezing my chops off and being ridiculously tired, this was definitely worth it. Walking around Central London at 4am (read: sober) is definitely an experience; you don’t see many people but the ones you do see are the ones you think about, like what they’re doing, where they’re going, etc. We even saw a lovely couple broadcast their fornication outside Embankment Tube Station.

This post is already 50 million times longer than I had planned.

Summary: I loved it. I look forward to the next 4amproject.

Goodbye.

If you want to see the all the photos, they’re on my Flickr. If I’ve taken a photo of you and it’s not there, email me.

Holi, the “Festival of Colors” was actually on the Monday 1st of March, so the Borough of Richmond Upon Thames with Arts Service and the Ethnic Minorities Advocacy Group (EMAG) put on a festival on Saturday 6th March.

I did not see this festival advertised anywhere and I don’t live too far away from Twickenham, however the turnout was staggering, as was the diversity of the crowd. I seriously expected to see 2 small Indian families (do they even exist?) and a few couples, but boy was I wrong. There were people of all ages, walks of life, colours, sizes.

I went with my friend and he said something along the lines of if all people came to events like this, there would be no racism or hate towards people of certain ethnic backgrounds or their way of life. The entire day was enjoyed by absolutely everyone, I saw a sea of smiles through my cameras viewfinder and that surely can’t be a bad thing.

Update: As I do for all my events, I compile video and photos from the day and make a short YouTube clip:

The festival started off with 3 acts, a bloke, a woman, and some kids. That’s about as precise as I can get about who they were.

Just after they finished, the coloured powder was available.

They didn’t put all the powder out at once, they seemed to have the perfect amount for the people there and just kept on reissuing it after once in a while.

The music was flowing, people were dancing… and throwing powder at each other

A few local Twickenham Indian restaurants came out in full force, providing food and drink for everyone

The kids absolutely loved it and got stuck in, I didn’t see any fighting or snatching of powder

If I had £1 for every smile I captured …

Nothing Indian is complete without dancing

I think he might be famous

Some organisers with smiles and a proud look on their faces, so they should, it was organised well

With dancing, comes dance-offs. The little girl won.

‘Ello ‘ello officer

Cute couples everywhere

This chick came running up to me with handfuls of powder with the intent on throwing it on my “clean face” but ended up all. over. my. camera.

This was my first Holi experience and it was nothing short of epic. I am definitely going to this next year.

Camera: Canon 500D with EF 50mm f/1.8 II, EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM III

Vincent Brown (@attila) is the sole cause of my obsession of self-portraits in reflective surfaces. I can’t stop! Someone lock me up in a MySpace prison.

This photo was taken in Dharamsala, North India, home of Tibeteans in exile, and the Tibetean Government.

I’ve been stupidly busy going through all of my photos from India. I have taken over 3000, of which I am processing and organising in Adobe Lightroom. I promise to have a full, lengthy blog post up soon, preferably before the year is over.

Posted via web from Gaurav’s posterous

In the most Desi style glass known to man. Refreshing :)

Posted via email from Gaurav’s posterous