[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Riju, i feel some of the pics have not been adjusted properly with respect to the tone mapping, specially the Baleno pic on the first page. Just look at the color difference of the sky between the branches of the tree.

Just couldnt get that right Benny and like I mentioned I was in no mood to pull my camera out at that place with a lot of dust. Also it aint easy to shoot when the sky is really harsh.

Originally Posted by BomBatt

Could you have gone there early so that your wifey enjoyed mist and then when the mist cleared you could have enjoyed clear blue sky? Never mind, just my thought...

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

Dude, misty morning are much more romantic then a clear blue sky in harsh mid-day light apart from the fact you missed the best time to shoot.

Thanks bombatt and Kaushik, well now I have a reason to visit Mullayanagiri once again .

Last day of the travelogue coming up. As usual the weather changed and started playing up during my drive back.

[akroy]

Riju, wonderful pics and writeup. Sorry for the delay in reading it.

And ya, Wish you and you wife and very Happy Anniversary (Belated)

Abhi

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice travelogue and pics Riju. Can you post the original pics of stream pls....

arrey, these are taken by professional level cam & will look different from our simple point & shoots. Moreover, my friend riju has found an exotic stream. I love that stream riju. Great way to celebrate. cheers

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

arrey, these are taken by professional level cam & will look different from our simple point & shoots. Moreover, my friend riju has found an exotic stream. I love that stream riju.

Actually when you shoot with actual P&S cameras pics of water bodies look like they are frozen. I mean you do not get a feeling that water is flowing at all. Though with manual settings and by varying the shutter speed one can get that desired effect that Riju has managed here.

@ Riju, what shutter speeds have you shot the stream pics at? 1/15? 1/4? Or even lesser?

[rjstyles69]

Day 4 : 09-Dec-08

Overslept and woke up a little late, was already feeling bad that my holiday has come to an end. Everything has been packed the previous night and my car also washed, with a heavy heart we go over to Ansar's house for breakfast.

Its Eid today and we are served some mutton delicacy for breakfast. I simply loved it and wifey goes on to play with Ansar's little angels.

A pic of the angels




Its 10am now and time to leave, thats when Ansar's mom offers to give recipes of a few non-veg dishesto my wife. My better half is still a novice when it comes to cooking traditional non-veg dishes. 30mins later we are off , bidding our adieu to their family.

Today 1st stop is at Belur and from there on to Halebidu. Lunch is already planned at Suvarna Regency at Hassan.

Posting pics shot at Belur. Please note the skies were a bit harsh and I had to underexpose most of the pics. The weather playing spoilsport was the main reason. When we left Chikmagalur its all cloudy and all of the sudden the sun is out.



















We finish up with Belur and head over to Halebidu. Halebidu is just about 17kms from Belur. The road is pretty well marked and hence no chance of loosing your way. Excellent roads and watch out for those occasional errant drivers/bikers.









I never carried a flash (since I dont have one) hence no pics of the interiors of the temple. I shot a few with my wife's sony cybershot.

From here on we take the road in front of the bus-stand to reach the Hassan-Belur Road. There are 2 routes to reach hassan.
If you take the road in front of the lake, its the same Hassan-Halebidu road which takes you via the MCF.

By about 2pm we are hassan and pull over at Suvarna Regency for lunch. Fill up our grumbling bellies and we are off to Bangalore.

The 1st milestone read 174kms to Bangalore. Wifey buckles up and falls asleep and lets me do my driving. From Chennarayapatna floor the pedal and enjoy the pleasure of revving my beauty to the max.

Simply wanted to test the S-drives and its performance. Managed to sustain speeds of 140kmph on most of the stretches and for company I had a Innova whoz driver had excellent driving skills.

In flat 2 hrs and 30 mins we reach Peenya and from there on it takes us another 1 hour to get home. Beat that !! Therez a huge traffic jam and guess what !! the cops are letting go off the 2 wheelers, autos,buses and cabs stopping 4 wheelers and asking them where are they coming from blah blah.

I am pulled over and I ask the cop whats this whole scene about and response is this that " we are checking vehicles coz of the mumbai scene" . A little lost I still ask him whaaat !! He says " All this coz we need to ensure that terrorists don't enter our City " .
What rubbish !! I go on to reason saying what about the buses and the auto's you just let go ? No response and then goes on to say " hogi neevu" . Me and wife have a good laugh at our so called Police Force and their reasoning.

Am back home by about 6:45 and the odo reads 942kms. Did a quick check of the mileage and the figure was about 15.xx after all the ghat section driving and the redlining I did for the whole trip. Not bad at all for and wifey puts the ball back in my court asking me " Do you really want to sell the car " and here I am back in the same old dilemma .

Thanks all for your time going thru my banter. Have a nice day.

[snaronikar]

Nice photos once gain, Riju.Thanks for sharing..15.xx is a good average and you are thinking of selling this car? Unless you have plans to buy an SUV. ;-)

[-GT-]

RJ:

The pictures of the temples are fantastic! All that "underexposing due to harsh sky" etc., doesn't hold any water. The sky is beautifully blue with its own character and the temple and sculptures are rightly exposed with nice contrasts; and the shrubs are too green to be true?! - I wouldn't believe if you said you hadn't played on the PC ! The only photo that doesn't compare with the rest is that of the little cuties, but that has been more than compensated by the cuties themselves.

By the way, your Baleno is probably the only one that gives such a FE (I remember it gave some 19kmpl in one of your previous trips). I don't think you are going to sell this beauty.

-GT-

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by akroy

Riju, wonderful pics and writeup. Sorry for the delay in reading it.
And ya, Wish you and you wife and very Happy Anniversary (Belated)
Abhi

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

arrey, these are taken by professional level cam & will look different from our simple point & shoots. Moreover, my friend riju has found an exotic stream. I love that stream riju. Great way to celebrate. cheers

Abhi and John thanks guys.

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

@ Riju, what shutter speeds have you shot the stream pics at? 1/15? 1/4? Or even lesser?

It was a less than 3 sec exposure , do the math .

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Nice photos once gain, Riju.Thanks for sharing..15.xx is a good average and you are thinking of selling this car? Unless you have plans to buy an SUV. ;-)

Srini I am all inclined to pick up a SUV,but then the sheer pleasure of those speed bursts that you get from a sedan is addictive. Also in the last 2 yrs and 8 months time the only problem I faced with the car during my trips is the lights going off. Thats it and nothing else, she sometimes never ceases to amaze me.

Originally Posted by -GT-

RJ:
The pictures of the temples are fantastic! All that "underexposing due to harsh sky" etc., doesn't hold any water. The sky is beautifully blue with its own character and the temple and sculptures are rightly exposed with nice contrasts; and the shrubs are too green to be true?! - I wouldn't believe if you said you hadn't played on the PC !

Thanks GT , look at the last 4 pictures you prolly would understand what I was talking about and why I said the skies were playing spoilsport. And about the grass being green, that was again a 3 exposure shot which was merged and tone mapped. Needs a lot of patience , but then no harm in trying. Aint it ?

Originally Posted by -GT-

By the way, your Baleno is probably the only one that gives such a FE (I remember it gave some 19kmpl in one of your previous trips). I don't think you are going to sell this beauty.-GT-

Last trip it was 17.xx odd and this time it was lesser coz I redlined the car at every possible chance I got. Also we did about 100 kms of ghat driving thru bad roads. The mantra is simple, I get my car serviced regularly and ensure that I myself stand by during the work.

[gkrishn]

Riju,
Excellent report. Pics have come out very nice.

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Last trip it was 17.xx odd and this time it was lesser coz I redlined the car at every possible chance I got. Also we did about 100 kms of ghat driving thru bad roads. The mantra is simple, I get my car serviced regularly and ensure that I myself stand by during the work.

I'm sure your car is running on some other engine then baleno engine. Or may be it's reproducing petrol somehow he he. I never got more then 14.5 kmpl during my trips and nowadays it's even less, at 12-13kmpl. Talking about highway driving here and I better not say anything about my city mileage.
BTW nice shots again.

[lohithrao]

Great report Riju....as always

Looking at all the pics it has inspired me shrug off my laziyness and capture as many pics as possible in my future rides/drives

btw qhy you want to sell your car? if so whats next???

[mobike008]

Riju, how the heck did i miss this travelogue. Firstly, belated anniversary and i can see that you had good fun.

Your pictures speak a thousand words but as i read your travelougue and see pictures i note the downside of being such a good photographer. We lesser mortals tend to keep buzzing you with so many questions like :- which mode, how much exposure? edited? etc. I reckon you have to live with this constant questioning

I am happy being an amateur

Great travelogue and as mentioned before, your pictures in their trademark style frames are quite popular on the forum.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by gkrishn

Riju,
Excellent report. Pics have come out very nice.

Thanks Guru, its been long how have you bin ?

Originally Posted by kaushik_s

I'm sure your car is running on some other engine then baleno engine. Or may be it's reproducing petrol somehow he he. I never got more then 14.5 kmpl during my trips and nowadays it's even less, at 12-13kmpl. Talking about highway driving here and I better not say anything about my city mileage.

Well I dont know what to say, my car has never let me down. And I went on to re-calculate atleast 5 times before I posted the number here.

Originally Posted by lohithrao

Great report Riju....as always

Looking at all the pics it has inspired me shrug off my laziyness and capture as many pics as possible in my future rides/drives
btw qhy you want to sell your car? if so whats next???

Thanks Lohit, well I am looking at a diesel vehicle but then with the recession and the paltry hikes offered I dont know how far this change over would be feasible.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Riju, how the heck did i miss this travelogue. Firstly, belated anniversary and i can see that you had good fun.

Your pictures speak a thousand words but as i read your travelougue and see pictures i note the downside of being such a good photographer. We lesser mortals tend to keep buzzing you with so many questions like :- which mode, how much exposure? edited? etc. I reckon you have to live with this constant questioning

Thanks avi , for questions we always have flickr . See you there and please don't let that camera rot. Atleast put it in your refrigerator and save it for a better day .

[vrvarier]

Hey, nice one, man. Great pics and narration. This one is high on my wish-list. Do you think Kemmanagundi is good enough for an exclusive trip, or can be combined with CKM trip?
regards,
Venu.

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by vrvarier

Hey, nice one, man. Great pics and narration. This one is high on my wish-list. Do you think Kemmanagundi is good enough for an exclusive trip, or can be combined with CKM trip?
regards,
Venu.

Venu sorry for the late response, Dec 19th was when my vacations started and I have been offline since then for quite sometime.

Its upto you, if you wished to you could carry your own tent and camp in the mountains in Kemmungundi and trek to Hebbe. Else a single day to do this is more than enough. I would suggest you can club it with the Chikmagalur trip and visit this place.