Big Caution - all Photo Bloggers

Caution!
Blogger / BlogSpot / Google never deletes pictures uploaded on their site eventhough you deleted them from your post.

Try this... post a picture on your blog. Copy the url for that picture from your published post. Delete your post. You will think that picture was deleted with your post. WRONG!. Paste the image URL in your browser and voila... it shows up right away. This proves that eventhough your post is deleted, your images are still preserved on http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/. So dont post anything that you will regret for later... You may want to uploadyour pics/posts to your own site and FTP it from there to blogspot or upload to flickr and link from there (not sure if it works).

From now on, i will FTP all my pics to my own site and link to blogspot, this way i can control what i upload or delete. Everyone knows that 300MB is the size limit per blog on BlogSpot, and i think these orphaned image files which do not belong to any post add up to your blog size. Also, these images which do not belong to any post are searchable in Google images...So freaky...
Link
Another Link


If anyone knows of a way to delete the images, please let me know. Till then i will stay away from uploading images on BlogSpot. Adios.

One Stormy Night

As a kid, I was fascinated by the bright flashes of lightning. Mom used to tell me that the lightning strikes and the thunder meant that the angels were punishing the sinners. I really believed that and used to count how many sinners were punished every night i heard the thunder. As i grew up, i used to look at lightning pictures taken by professional photographers and was awed by them.

I got my chance one night. It was a dark, cloudy, windy and cold night in 2003. The thunder roll was prominent and occasionally cracking loud. I saw it as an opportunity for me to shoot some pictures of the lightning arcs and got out on the balcony.

Our balcony has a very pretty and clear view of the mountains nearby. So i took my camera out and set it up on a tripod. The lightning arcs took their own sweet time to strike and my shutter-happy finger and camera weren't too fast to click when they struck. So i decided to take a chance and set the shutter to remain open for 15 seconds, reduced the exposure bias all the way down hoping i would get whatever showed up. Since it was a digital point and shoot camera, i couldn't adjust a whole lot of settings to get a better picture. Some pictures were overexposed as there were quite a lot of arcs in the 15 second window; some had none but i was lucky with a few pictures as there were only one or few arcs. The building you see at the bottom of the pictures is usually busy all the time, but was deserted and quiet that night; the lights on its walls kept turning on and off frequently and that spooked me off. Maybe the wind was shaking things up? Anyway... i'll stop my babbling here and move on with the pictures....


The original content and images from this post are now available on the new website. Click here or on image to be re-directed to the new site

The original content and images from this post are now available on the new website. Click here or on image to be re-directed to the new site

Floral Fantasy

Now, who doesn't like flowers? They are a part of everyone's life. Whether it is a birthday, wedding, anniversary, a simple "I love you" or for no reason at all, flowers are always there to convey the right feeling. Of course, i couldn't get all the flowers, but managed to get quite a few pretty ones. So forget your allergies, enjoy the flowers here :-)

The original content and images from this post are now available on the new website. Click here or on image to be re-directed to the new site

The original content and images from this post are now available on the new website. Click here or on image to be re-directed to the new site

Eye In The Sky!

Here are some pictures i took during the numerous times i flew from the west coast to the east coast and back. I always make sure i get the window seat if im taking a day flight.


The original content and images from this post are now available on the new website. Click here or on image to be re-directed to the new site

The original content and images from this post are now available on the new website. Click here or on image to be re-directed to the new site


P.S: If you are curious to know what camera i used for these pictures, it is a Canon S230 Digital camera.

Random Thoughts!

This is my first post here and i thought why not start it with something pretty and cute :-) Here is a picture of the neighbor's cat which hangs around in our backyard most of the time. I know you must be thinking this kitty is photogenenic and likes to pose for the camera, but i'll have to tell you that when cats get comfortable, they are the most lazy things around and least mobile. This one wouldn't move till i had finished clicking like 40 pictures, then got bored, let out a yawn and majestically walked away.




This picture was taken around sunset two weeks ago. We (my wife and I) drove to see the beautiful rose garden near San Jose airport and i couldnt resist shooting this fly down as i was walking through the garden :-)




These seagulls are a very common sight on the beaches here. This one was caught red handed (or rather should i say red beaked) while trying to steal from the trash can at the Atlantic City boardwalk. Without the zoom lens, i would have scared the birdie away.




This is a pretty old picture, probably over two years old. I love taking macro pictures and this one came out pretty well. Spring time is a colorful time here in my apartment complex and the parking lots look pretty with colorful flowers. This one was right next to my parking spot and luckily i had my camera with me.


I have tons of other pictures waiting to be uploaded. Will post them as i find time :-)

later...