SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! No filters. No tricks. NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. 14MB original Nikon image only framed in Photoshop and saved at 4.6MB.
StarGazer Lilies have always been one of the most beautiful flowers in the world to me. They were literally the first that I planted when I was blessed to build a home on the South Shore of Long Island.
Not only does the name evoke that romantic fool spirit of childhood innocence and an unbelievable confidence of reaching for, and goind past, the stars... it also has the most stunning set of colors I have seen on a flower.
Here's the cool thing. This photo was shot, with NO filters, with NO backdrop, outdoors in bright sunlight. The black background with spectacular foreground was simply achieved by an unusual set of shutter speed and exposure control. (Note: I do not even own a macro lens).
What takes my breath away is the range of colors, and the breathtaking detail, even in a merely 4.6MB small version. (Click to see it larger and see the universe within one flower, like the galaxy clusters that are the nurseries of stars in the heavens above.
I gaze at these stargazer lilies in the day, until it is night, and I am one withe universe, gazing at the stars from where I came, and to whence I shall one day fly away.
© 2010-2011 IMRAN™
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Friday, June 17, 2011
A Star(Gazer Lily) Is Born - IMRAN™
Monday, June 13, 2011
Bring Kissable Tulips To Lips - IMRAN™
SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! No filters. No tricks. NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. Only framed in Photoshop..
Though most people associate Tulips with Holland, the flower actually originated in Central Asia. A national flower of Turkey, its short lived life is nevertheless one of delicacy, color, splendor and uniqueness.
The bulbs that I planted in a cold winter of 2010 burst forth in bloom in the wet, windy, cold and damp spring of 2011.
The Red-Yellow-Green traffic light colors of the photo are forgotten seeing the luscious pink with speckled white and ivory tones of the subject of this photo.
© 2011 IMRAN™
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Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Cold Beautiful Sky On Fire - IMRAN™
SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. Only framed in Photoshop & saved image as 4.2MB JPG.
The end of April, one of the rainiest I have ever lived, in 2011, possibly the windiest cloudiest year I have lived on Long Island, gave just enough cloud cover to make the sunset, finally visible after dozens of sunsets burnt to dull nothingness by wet dark clouds.
In the words of Jefferson Starship,
Will you light the sky on fire?
Will you light tonight like
You did the night before?
Hey, you could take me higher
Than the diamonds in the sky
As this day was coming to an end in New York, the last day of the life of a once freedom loving later genocide-inspiring terrorist was starting.
Within about 24 hours this photo, Usama Bin Laden, whose desire to teach America a lesson led to the policies that set fire to the Middle East and rained death over Afghanistan, whose henchmen and hell-bound dogs of urban war unleashed the fiery torrents of suicide bombings on innocent Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Jews everywhere....
As Bin Laden's last 24 hours of raining death on fellow Muslims in the name of Islam, and on democracy lovers in the name of freedom, started, .... I saw the promise of a cloudy night of uncertainty, and, before a bright new dawn could rise, the symbolism of this peaceful, cool, beautiful Sky On Fire.
May Peace Be With You.
© 2011 IMRAN
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Untouched, unedited, unmodified Nikon D300 photo ISO200, 300-450mm, f/5.6. 2.3eV, 1/125 second to compensate for nasty Nikon bug that makes Nikon's own lenses show up as "Non-CPU" unrecognized lenses with no way to change aperture. Nikon makes great cameras that always have manufacturing defects. Shame!
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Blessed, Beach - IMRAN™
I could not resist tapping this out to my friends and followers from my iPhone on a (chilly) night, standing at the beach of my blessed home at Heron Pointe, New York....
Walking along the rippling waterline on my beach. Definitely not T-shirt temperature. New Moon a thin orange sliver, perched atop the horizon, wants to get cozy under the (cloud) covers - but they're nowhere to be found. Shiny stars glint in the night's cold eye, as dark skies silently hear the wind's sighs. I stand still, on my own will, humbled, as I realize again - How Blessed Am I !
June 4, 2011 − 1145 PM via iPhone
© Imran Anwar
Technorati Tags: Beach, IMRAN, Imran Anwar, Life, Long Island, New York, Night, Philosophy, Poetry, Prose, USA, Moon, Blessings
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Field & Stream (& Streaks) Of Gold - IMRAN™
My 33rd Photo to make it in Flickr Explore on April 25, 2011!
A late November cloudy day in 2010 still turned into a golden moment when I looked out from my home. Field & Stream magazine would love the streaks of Gold, running through the sunset-lit reeds, rippliing waves reflecting light and the clouds with their blonde highlights on deeper reds.
The title is a wordplay on the magazine name, Field & Stream; Fields of Gold; Streaks of Gold; etc. :-)
© 2010-2011 IMRAN™
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Monday, May 30, 2011
Memories And Memorial Days - IMRAN™
19 Years And A Million Tears Ago. Mother's Memory 2/2 - IMRAN™ _____(Kindly Read) — 1400+ Views!, originally uploaded by ImranAnwar.
May you all have an awesome, safe, happy Memorial Day, and every day you take time to honor the memory of the fallen, the departed.
May those who died fighting to protect us live on forever in our memories.
May today mark the start of a new chapter, a new life, a new set of memories, for the best that lies ahead beyond tomorrow.
May we share the time and experiences in giving birth to those memories, together.
And, may we remember each other when time is an echo, love is a heaven, and life is a memory.
Please click the photo to read Mother, Memory.
Technorati Tags: Family, IMRAN, Imran Anwar, Life, Nikon, Philosophy, Photography, Sunset
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Pray, Japan : Heian Shrine, Kyoto - IMRAN™
The Heian Shrine, in Kyoto, Japan was a place I visited only once, during a memorable nearly 2 month long stay in Japan. It is a busy place, with lots of visitors. I had to be very patient, and click in perfect timing, to get this shot with not a soul in the photo frame.
How time flies.
Built in 1895, on the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto, it was nearing it's own 100th anniversary when I arrived there. And that was nearly 20 years ago.
How time flies. How life flows, until we are nothing but a dim afterglow, in the corridors of history, long forgotten even as the places we tread, as emperors or visitors, live on forever.
May the clouds of radiation dissipate from the skies of Japan, and may it again shine in its glory as a home to one of the finest people in the world.
With memories of this temple, a place to Pray, Japan and people long gone or recently lost, in my heart and on my mind...
© 1995-2011 IMRAN™
Minolta 7000i Photo Scan
Technorati Tags: History, IMRAN, Imran Anwar, Minolta, Photography, Red, Travel, Travelogue, Japan, Kyoto
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, Tuesday; Just Another BluesDay In Paradise - IMRAN™
Monday, Tuesday; Just Another BluesDay In Paradise - IMRAN™ __ Explored! — 500+ Views!, originally uploaded by ImranAnwar.
My 32nd Photo to make it in Flickr Explore on April 11, 2011!
I love the water, and I love red sunsets and blue waters. But, there are few places on earth where I have enjoyed singing seeing the blues on any Monday or Tuesday, than any BluesDay in the British Virgin Islands's heavenly beaches. The Baths, at Virgin Gorda, are a MUST SEE in your lifetme.
© 2008-2011 IMRAN
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Technorati Tags: Caribbean, IMRAN, Imran Anwar, Nature, Nikon, Paradise, Photography, Travel, Water
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Joy Of Flight (Even On A Cloudy Day) - IMRAN™
No reason not to fly away.
Runway lined with aviators,
Modern airborne gladiators.
Total calm, no fear, no fright,
My spirit already taking flight.
Farewell ground, Hello sky,
Joy of flight makes me cry!
Monday, May 09, 2011
Brand New Day, Bold New World, Of Global Brands Popularity
These most definitely were Coke and Mercedes Benz, and perhaps a handful of others. In the 1970s and 1980s Levi's and Pepsi, started showing up. Even though some technology companies like IBM were doing business globally, they were unknown or irrelevant to the masses.
That is not the case today. As I tweeted today:
World Top 10 Brands: Apple top, Google, IBM follow - http://bit.ly/iRdI5Z
Not only is a technology (and increasingly consumer electronics now) company, Apple, the world's most valuable brand, it displaced another technology company, Google. To show the trend even more clearly, IBM actually rose up, to become number 3.
Other global brand stalwarts like McDonald's, and especially Coke, have fallen.
They remain in the Top 10, but it is amazing to see the impact technology has had on the global society in just a few years. Don't forget, it was literally 10 years ago that Apple, coming back from near death in the late 1990s with the Return Of Jobs, launched the iPod and MacOS X.
Ten to twenty years ago most people in the world would not know the difference between Unix and other similar sounding words. Today, the world's most valued brand is based on Unix, a variant of MacOS X running on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and counting.
Today we may think that Cloud Computing (or the impact it has) is limited to big corporations. I daresay, there is nothing stopping Cloud vendors of today from being the Apple of tomorrow.
Steve Jobs, and Apple, see that, as we know from their acquisition ($4.5 million!) of the icloud.com domain name. But, surely there will be many more new entrants of today that could be on that Top 10 List in 2020, if they have the vision.
What do you think? Will your brand be one of them? And, what are you doing today to make it happen?
© Imran Anwar
Technorati Tags: Cloud, Cloud Computing, IMRAN, Imran Anwar, Marketing, Strategy, Branding, Brands, Apple, IBM, Google, Coke, McDonalds, Steve Jobs
Sunday, May 08, 2011
On Mother's Day, Honor Mother's Memory - IMRAN™
19 Years And A Million Tears Ago. Mother's Memory 2/2 - IMRAN™ _____(Kindly Read), originally uploaded by ImranAnwar.
Happy Mother's Day to those blessed to be Mothers, and those lucky enough to have their parents, especially their mothers, with them. For those of us who lost the single most important human relationship God created... please honor, Mother, Memory.
2/2. The saddest day of my life, 19 years and a million tears ago.
I flew out of JFK the night of February 1, 1992, headed to Pakistan - where it was already 2/2/1992. I was going to see my beloved parents in Lahore. But, I was en route via Karachi. My Mom had insisted I stop there to condole the death of a relative and a friend's father there, the previous week.
The powerful PIA Boeing 747 jet engines hurtled me across the North Atlantic Ocean, erasing 600 miles per hour between my mother and me. But, there was an invisible infinite eternal distance of space and time growing silently, a cosmic chasm that no theory of relativity and no known power in the universe could shorten.
As the plane was flying towards Europe, life was flying away. As the aircraft was coming in for a landing, unknown to me, my mother's soul was taking off into the heavens beyond this world.
Landing in Karachi, I was smiling and happy, when I disembarked, clueless about what tragedy had struck me but I was unaware of. At my cousin's insistence (who was at the airport waiting for me) I went to the airline counter to check the status of my connecting flight to Lahore that was supposed to be for a few days later.
I was charming the young lady checking my reservation, asking her for a front window seat. She looked at me in a puzzled manner that I did not understand then. As she quietly typed on the keyboard my curious eye made me read a telex message on her desk, facing her.
As I read the upside down text, my breath left me, my heart stopped. I felt the hand of death clutch my heart...
"Please give priority seating...
Passenger Imran Anwar needs to be on next flight....
Has to attend Mother's funeral."
That is how I found out that my mother had died while I was on my way to her. She was just over 50 years old.
Instead of seeing my Mom to open the bags of gifts I was carrying for her and everyone, I would barely get home in time to carry her body for burial. Instead of her pinching my cheeks as she loved to do, all I got to do was touch her cheek one final time. As I had fallen on my knees next to her, she seemed just to have fallen asleep, forever.
18 years later today, to the day, not a day goes by when I do not shed a tear for my beloved mother. Tears roll down my cheeks as I write these words, and every time I relive that moment.
Ami, I will love you forever, even after I die.
© IMRAN
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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Need Lots Of Green For Diamond Encrusted Gold — IMRAN™
Need Lots Of Green For Diamond Encrusted Gold — IMRAN™ ---(Click To View Detail), originally uploaded by ImranAnwar.
My 31st Photo to make it in Flickr Explore on April 6, 2011!
This mid-June photo on a fairly hot day was suprising to me in many ways. One was how bright and clear that day was at a time of year when hazy and humid is more common.
Next was how much of the dew was still on the flowers in direct sunlight despite it being nearly Noon.
Lastly, what was amazing was the tiny diamond like specks of water droplet reflections shimmering and shining like jewles encrusted in a gold leaf.
As you know, you need lots of green (money) to buy so many diamonds encrusted in Gold. But, this moment was free by the blessings of God, despite it being the toughest ever financial phase of my life.
Even if you have nothing, or are about to lose everything, take a walk - and see the wealth, the jewels, the treasures God still blesses you, and us, with that we are lucky enough to be alive to enjoy.
© 2010-2011 IMRAN
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Sun (Street) Light - IMRAN™
SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! No filters. No tricks. NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. Only framed in Photoshop..
I caught this beautiful sunset from my hotel window in Orlando, Florida during a recent trip there to give a speech at the HIMMS 2011 conference.
I was able to balance the Sun right above the little structure visible under it.
The sun silhouetted the street lamp shade and the castle like outline of the buildin go the left.
© 2011 IMRAN
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Sunday, April 24, 2011
G(l)O(w) GREEN! - IMRAN™
This is one of the most unnatural looking yet completely natural colors I can recall capturing. This non-HDR shot shows stunningly high dynamic range of my neighbor's highly Neon bright Hydrangea to the side of my house at high noon.
It was nearing mid-day when I stepped out of the house to take some pictures on an especially vivid, blindingly bright, Summer day in June.
Usually the weather at my home at that time can be somewhat hazy from humidity and heat on Long Island, New York.
This day it was definitely glowing warm and the sun was almost vertically above. These plants are at the corner of my neighbor's house, and partly shaded - but the grassy grounds that stretch behind the house were awash in the bright hot light of the sun.
I cannot take credit for the spectacular colors the Nikon D300 captured at ISO280. I was simply shooting in Program mode - while bending over backwards (literally) to frame the three depths of flowers aligned but visible for a bokeh effect and playing with the 100-300 (450mm eq) lens.
I hope you too can feel the heat and afterglow from this image.
© 2010 IMRAN
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Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Bursting Heart On Fire - IMRAN™
4th of July Fireworks at Watch Hill & Davis Park, opposite my beach on the Great South Bay, Heron Pointe, East Patchogue, New York. I am sure the plan was not to have these fireworks (shot over 15 seconds) to make the shape of a heart like this photo, but this is what it came out as.
Technorati Tags: Fireworks, IMRAN, ImranAnwar, New York, Photography
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Eye's Iris Pierced By Ultra Violet (Day) Light Iris - IMRAN™
My 29th Photo to make it in Flickr Explore at #44 March 16, 2011
SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera. Stunning Nikon D300 RAW image simply framed in Photoshop with *NO* editing or processing of any kind. Framed & saved as 4.7MB JPG from 14MB original.
This was a particularly blindlingly bright day of the Summer of 2010. My life was still in turmoil, in a seemingly endless downward spiral. I still jauntily walked around my house, soaking in the sun, and the blessings God still bestowed me with.
Nikon in hand, I clicked on many of the flowers around my home that were in full bloom.
I did not know how much longer I would live in that dream home, had no way of stopping the total nuclear meltdown like stage that my life had gone through, financially and emotionally, from being away to Pakistan for most of the year after my Father's sudden death.
Walking by the flowerbeds he had seen many of the same bulbs bloom during his stay here in 1996, I let the bright white light of the sun and the ultra-violet, indigo, dark orchid range of colors the iris flowers fired melt into the irises of my eyes. And my camera.
Here is a flood of colors, with green blades, like light sabers battling the violet laser light of the flowers.
© 2010-2011 IMRAN
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Thursday, April 07, 2011
Sun D(r)own(s) In Loving Lava Of Volcano Sky - IMRAN™
SOOC Image Straight Out Of Camera!! NO editing, tweaking, of ANY kind. Only framed in Photoshop & saved image as 7MB JPG.
I've been living and boating on the Great South Bay, between Patchogue, Bellport, Fire Island and many of the amazing Long Island inlets for 16 years.
Every Eastbound cruise has me hooking around the channels from the Great South Bay into Bellport Bay, near the shallows of Howell's Point.
Finally, on February 27, 2011, as I was running an errand, I realized that the sun covered by layers of clouds would create a spectacular sumst. I rushed home, grabbed the Nikon bag, and on a whim headed to find my way to Howell's Point.
Taking the meandering roads off of South Country Road, I finally arrived at my destination.... only to find the road so flooded that there was water up to the doorsills a quarter mile up the road.
Risking stalling the engine, I slowly drove through that water until the front wheels of the car were up high enough on the sand which had washed on to the road so I could actually get out, twist and stretch my leg out to not disembark into the flooded street.
I then made my way to the point I had seen for 16 years - and gazed upon this magnificent sunset.
The Nikon did it's thing. I was only there to bemesmerized by the lava color filled sky, from a muted sun feeding a volcanic eruption of passionate colors into the moist cloudy embraces of the sky....
What a way for the day to climax into the depth of night.
© 2011 IMRAN
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Saturday, April 02, 2011
Sure Rocky Shore Rocks For Sure - IMRAN™
This is one of the most interesting, spectacular and delightful places I have ever traveled to. The Baths, at Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands are a wonder of nature. What was likely an eruption of red molten rock from the earth, is one of the bluest of blue places I have ever seen.
The rocks, like pebbles strewn in sand, line this area of caves, nooks and crannies, to steal a kiss, or more in, for lovers seeking virgin spots to leave their mark.
The rocks in the middle of the picture almost made me title this photo in memory of the statutes of Easter Island and the rocks at Stonehenge -- StonesUnHinged. I'll hang on to that title in my mind for another photo more suitable for it.
I hope you get to savor some of these sweet spots made for lovers, for love, for passion, without ration.
Let's rock on, my beautiful friends and lovers past, present, and near future.
© 2008-2011 IMRAN
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Monday, March 28, 2011
Reddish, (Sun)Set, G(l)o(w)! - IMRAN™
This picture, taken on the Western side of my home community, shows one of my favorite colors in the world filling the sky.
The sailboat masts and the dying last leaves on trees bowing to the coldness of impending winter are silhouetted by the fiery sun that feeds our planet energy.
A Reddish Ready Sunset is Set to Go Glow!
© 2009-2011 IMRAN™
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PS Sorry, haven't posted pics since Feb 7. Been traveling for work non-stop. Posted this from Orlando where I came to make some speeches at HIMMS.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Can't See The Forest For The Trees. ForesTree - IMRAN™
Driving from Long Island, New York, to Hopkinton and Southborough, in Massachusetts, in late October, 2010, I saw one of the most vivid clear blue skies above me.
Zipping along on I-495 (which is numbered the same but completely separate from the I-495 Long Island Expressway that I use to get to my home in Long Island), in the Bellingham and Franklin areas, I saw an approaching clearing to the right of the road.
Though the side of the road was rutted from rains and wheels of trucks that may have passed over it, I was smoothly able to pull over.
This picture reminded me of the beauty one can find even in the stark days of Fall and approaching Winter.
And, it made me wonder, if a tree falls in a forest in Fall,..... but then I wondered, if I was looking at a scene of forestry, or ForesTree, or just a densely packed series of dull wood and bright reds and greens, which the Nikon D300 (with eq. 450mm handheld zoom) captured.
But, it did make it hard to see the forest for the trees.
© 2010-2011 IMRAN
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