Beyond the negative

Photography today has almost become an intangible output. In the days of the tedious process of converting a negative to a postive in a dark room, the product- a piece of thick paper embossed with memories on it- was a sacred object. A photograph was handled with care, hold only from the corners with a light hand and treasured in a memory book which had thick cardboard at the four corners of a presumed size on the page. Creating a photograph was creating a nostalgia in motion.

Things have changed today. Today, a photograph is more about sending immediate joy than the ardourous wait for the negatives to be developed. Sites like 123bubbles.com make a photo available across the continents at the click of the fingers. Photos have evolved as the centre point of a social dialogue. Photos are manevoured to create an identity, an aura and also sometimes, a foreboding mystery. Photos have not merely remained fragnants of memory and time. Photos pave a way for the future in more ways than one today.

What a party that was…

Our friends have had a very busy week. Their kitchen was simmering with one dish after the other, the hall was flooded with ribbons and glitter and all other decorative items you can think of, and the bed was hardly visible with the heap of gifts piled on it. Yeah, I am not exaggerating.

It was John’s first birthday and they threw a large party, naturally! Little did the baby know what all fuss went about organizing that perfect first birthday party! I know Irene since highschool and we have both stayed pretty much connected ever since, given that we live only a few blocks from each other…

I also tried to help the couple with whatever I could. We had to run about with decorators, finalizing the kind of décor we wanted, keep a tab of the cuisine we ordered and the worst- checking and re-checking the guest list to see if we didn’t miss out on anyone.

Peter, her husband, came across this site which really made things easy for us. From sending invitations, to keeping a note of who all were attending and who were not, this site was a real catch! Some of our net-savvy friends were delighted to receive their invitations by email, what’s more, they are now urging us to post photos on the site, where all the invitees can access the photos of John’s birthday party. Talk about getting cool!

After the party was done with, they also posted the photos of the party at the new photo sharing site I have been ranting about so much. They thought they might as well give a try and make John a little celebrity in the internet community. The child’s so cute, I bet he’s going to be crooned over by one and all at bubbles...

Now that Irene and her husband are more or less settled down in their normal routine after the big birthday bash, and that John is busy playing with the tons of toys he got, I thought I might write a post about how much fun it was to arrange for the birthday party…

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Want to throw a party? Remember this

  

1)      Keep a bowl of snacks at strategic locations, where you may think the guests will get chatting along- beside the sofa, near the water, etc. cookies or chocolates, pop-corn or chips will do.

2)      Roses, or generally any flowers, make for an excellent decoration. Placing crystal bowls with red rose petals floating on water will perk up the mood. 

3)      Keep the music going. Soft instrumental music is the best for a formal gathering and also goes well with any occasion.

4)      If you see your guest is caught up in a dull conversation, come to his rescue! Divert the topic or offer to introduce the guest to others.

5)      If it’s a children’s party, make sure you keep all your expensive crystals not only out of reach, but out of sight!

Children are messy eaters, Beware!

Photo posted by Jessica Hogan at the new photo-sharing site

6)      Keep lots of tissue papers and mops handy at a convenient place to clean any mess immediately.

7)      If you have pets, ensure your guests are okay with them and likewise, that your pets do not get disturbed seeing so many strangers at a time.

8)      Again, if it’s a children’s affair, keep those fish bowls out of reach

9)      Don’t go overboard trying to pair up your best friend with your husband’s colleague, it may create unhappy social situations!

10)  And most important of all, relax! If you are overly tensed, you may miss out on being that perfect host who puts everyone at ease…

What a wedding that must have been…

  I came across this blushing bride and the delicious wedding cake while browsing thru the new photo-sharing site I tumbled upon sometime back. And I couldn’t resist dedicating an entire post to the beauty of this new bride, to the sinful wedding cake and to matrimony in general…

 (Photo posted by Hendy Nugraha at the new photo-sharing site)  When the merry chaos of celebrations, champagne parties and receptions dies out, begins the true matrimony. When the make-up fades and when the kitchen needs to be cleaned, begins the true matrimony. When the icing on the cake is licked away and only the sweet soft bread is leftover, begins the true matrimony…  I don’t want to mar the pleasure of this beauitful bride and many others… So let’s end saying that, if u still find reasons to celebrate and get the champagne flowing, if you clean up the kitchen and still love your wife without the blush and the mascara, if you agrre to eat half of the remaining bread after the icing is licked, well, rest assured, you will see the matrimony you have just begun to the very (happy) end…

It’s someone’s birthday…

He’s always been a jolly good fellow and now he’s one year older. Mac, my dog will be 6 tomorrow…

I brought him in as a shabby little pup from that pet shop down the corner. He became a darling of the household in no-time and his popularity over-shot mine… He’s stayed put with me all thru the breakups, the bad school grades, the fall-outs with bests of my friends and many not so pleasant moments of childhood. I love u Mac…

O, btw this is a pic i came across bubbles. Love the cake! Though Mac prefers his eggs and meat, I thought I need to do something crazy and grand enough to mark my best pal’s b’day. So this post..

 Photo posted by Stacey Bullins at the new photo-based social networking site

Hope- The diamond

Yeah, I have come across this over-rated and over-hyped term- ‘hope’ a lot of times. Not that I am not optimistic, I have optimism by the cartloads- it’s just that the concept of hope has been way too dissected by the philosophical enthusiasts.

 Hope for me is that killing smile the lady at the mall had. 

Hope for me is mum’s raisin cake.

 Hope for me is dad’s coffee and smoke after the dinner…

 Heck, hope for me is my dog Mac!

Picture this…

 

 I came across it on the new photo sharing site I have been talking about…

So now, hope for me is also a diamond! Cool… 

 (Photo posted by Juanita Miller at bubbles)

Digg this!

Together

I came across this photo on the new site I have been visiting these days. I paused for a second and let the mouse stand still for sometime. I sipped my coffee and stared at this simple picture for a long time. There’s something about this photo, that’s so humane and so romantic, isn’t it?

The romance of fall, the tinge of senescence, the touch of love. Being together, that’s above it all. And in their own special, albeit commercial ways, the new social networking sites are perhaps giving us more avenues of ‘connecting’.

(Photo posted by Amanda Munsey at the new photo-sharing site)

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Mona Lisa et al

One of the most intriguing manifestations of art is perhaps Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Lying at the Lourve in Paris, Mona Lisa’s sloppy smile, or smug, or whatever you can call it, has proved a mystery for many a historians since ceturies. Infact, it’s that curve of her lips that has been the hot topic of art historians, religious bodies and secret societies ever since Leonardo struck his final stroke on the canvas.

Photo posted by Renah Stewart at the cool new photo sharing site

The expression through the visual medium could not get any more exciting and challenging than this painting. But with the internet, there’s a new age of art, expresions and intrigue in the e-community. Surfing thru the net is like coming across many smugly smiling Mona Lisas, many in-the-making Leonardo Da Vincis. Don’t mind the exaggeration, but indeed, today the internet has surpassed the limitations of time, space and money and brought to your eyes an exciting range of audio, visual and static means of entertainment through podcasting, video-sharing sites like Tou tube, and photo sharing sites like flickr, showbeyond, and more recently, 123bubbles.com.

 Out of these, I seem to have developed a soft corner for 123bubbles. I have been to 123bubbles.com quite a few number of times and seem to like the innate simplicity which the site projects. Every two three days or so, the photos change and I see more smiling faces, more toothless smiles and more happy family get-togethers.

 Photo posted by Hendy Nugraha at www.123bubbles.com

and

 Photo posted by Julie Barber at www.123bubbles.com

 This is a cool new site that for once, does not  entirely cash on the technology savvy youth who catch splendid, politically correct photos, agreed, but at the same time, it’s a site where moms and dads and sisters and siblings bare a wide grin and capture some crazy moments of life. And then, they put it up on 123bubbles.com without any inhibitions about how good or bad the photo looks. Quite frankly, Flickr and webshot.com gave me a huge inferiority complex, which 123bubbles.com is slowly easing down.and

Photo posted by Carlos Cerritelli at the cool new photo sharing site

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Hey reader,

 Welcome! In case you think why I haven’t been posting much, well it’s because of this other little blog i write at http://greenfodder.blogspot.com/…

Now, however, I think I will follow up on this blog too. (WordPress is rather cool!)

 So till then,

Enjoy life…