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Originally Posted by Dieselritzer Those are some lovely pictures and a good writeup. Solo drives are truly amazing. Its a way of meditation for me where I can focus on my thoughts & just be at my own pace. Many a times I dont even put the music on and just enjoy all the sounds and the maahol around me. |
Thank you very much. I totally agree with you. Solo drives are like meditations for me too. Music does not matter to me. Sometime I listen to some music, sometimes I totally forget it and just listen to my car. Either way, just being out there alone and just driving down a road in your own thoughts and your own mood is a great meditation. I always come back refreshed!
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One thing i have observed, Karnataka has some stunning roads. May it be their highway or their internal roads, the quality of tarmac is amazing. Something we folks living in Maharashtra can only dream off.
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Totally agree again. I am originally from Pune and have traveled a lot in Maharashtra too. And I love driving there too. I love eating vada pav and misal pav while driving around in Maharashtra. But such road qualities and such scenic beauty (all around the year!) as we see in Karnataka or Kerala is hard to find in Maharastra drives. Of course Konkan is an exception. Konkan drives are always lovely. I love driving around in Konkan in the monsoon.
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Originally Posted by Fateh Salim Sadly, I do the same thing, but in GTA (Video Game Series) as you do in real life. I wish I had the ability to go on spontaneous drives like these. Thank you for the post; it has been a tremendous source of inspiration for me as a young college student |
Thank you very much for your kind words.
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Aside from the Udemy classes, I'd like to highlight India's first and only custom-designed Photography Institute, which is located in the Nigiris. Anyone interested in pushing their photography to the next level should definitely check out their website.
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Thank you for this information. I will surely check this out.
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I'm guessing you're using the same camera and lens combo that you used on your Kabini trip.
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Yes, I have the same camera and the lenses. However, now I have added a third lens - Nikon DX 35mm f1.8G prime lens! This is a lovely lens. This is great for wide aperture shots with narrow depth of field. The lens sharpness and optical qualities are great. Further, with the 1.5 crop factor of my APS-C sensor, this lens becomes effectively 52.5mm for me. So this is my "nifty fifty" prime lens now. Check out the reviews which are all highly positive for this lens.
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What degree of credibility do you have with the entire set? Will you suggest it to someone like me who lives in Ooty and enjoys cars, jeeps, and the local scenery?
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For someone like me, this gear is very good. I do not think my skills are yet at a level where I could fully utilize the capabilities of my camera to the limit. No, not yet. For now, it is still my skills that is the limiting factor, not the camera. Maybe someday I will reach a point where I would say now I know how to use this camera to the best possible results, but that is not good enough and I need a better camera. But till then, this camera is great.
So it depends on what your skill levels and interests are. For the kind of photography you mentioned (Jeep, Landscapes etc), this is a very good camera.
This camera has the same sensor as many more expensive Nikon DSLRs. Even the lenses are the same. Where this camera is a bit basic is in autofocus. The autofocus is only 9 point autofocus and is a bit slow. Therefore, this would not be a great camera for action photography or in general where you would need fast autofocus. But for still photography (the kind of photography I do and the kind you mentioned), autofocus speed is hardly a problem. I take my time to compose the frame and choose the appropriate focus point depending on the composition, focus carefully, and then shoot. If you are willing to do that, then this is a good camera.
Further, some niceties such as touch screen and WiFi connectivity are missing. But I do not need those. I am fine with using the dial pad instead of touch screen. And I am fine with using a cable to transfer the photos to my laptop.
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Originally Posted by tilt Many of us just wistfully dream of doing such things and you're actually doing it. I live life vicariously through you
Cheers and more power to you man! |
Thank you very much,
tilt!
Actually it is a funny paradox. I would love to do such drives with friends like you, who love driving and will appreciate the roads and the experiences (and we do many drives together and I love those). However, the moment we have more than one car in the group, such random drives are impossible. You can not just pull over and stop because you suddenly had an "aha moment" at some location, or take any arbitrary turn just because you saw a nice black tarmac and green hills somewhere. The other car will get confused if one car suddenly disappears from the scene :-)
So the paradox is that although I often feel that this would be a great experience to share with my driving buddies, the very act of having driving buddies there would make the experience impossible.
This is precisely why I love both solo drives and group drives,
separately.
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Originally Posted by androdev Lovely writeup @Dr.AD! I have been missing these roads. This thread is the inspiration I need to shake off my covid/lockdown blues. |
Thank you very much androdev. I was in the same boat, and was missing all these roads. So just decided to shake off my blues one fine morning and took off. Current weather is as good as it gets for enjoying some relaxed monsoon drive. And you have some lovely set of wheels in your garage. I would encourage you to take your favorite machine and set out for a monsoon drive. And please share photos with us. Looking forward to that.
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Originally Posted by indrangiri Nice write up on your solo day drive Dr. AD and good photography too !!. Hope our team at "Windows Down Motoring" is planning on a next weekend drive sometime soon and give us an opportunity to meet up !! |
Thank you very much. Yes, I am in touch with our friends at "Windows Down Motoring" and I am also eagerly waiting for their next drive. Would love to meet you soon on one of those drives.