Adventures in Paradise

The Cohort

I've always enjoyed taking pictures, but never really got into the whole photography thing until this deployment when I encountered two of my guys who are serious about photography and eager to share their knowledge, even if they do occasionally slip into a languge resembling, but not quite actually Greek. ("Uh, Chief, you lost me at 'flash compensation.'" was part of this morning's 0430 transit discussion.) Then the new XO arrived and he has photography in his blood - not only was did his dad spend a season working with Ansel Adams, but he made his living that way for a long time.  XO is always looking at things with a photographer's eye, and shares well, too.

When I had the opportunity to visit the archeological sites in India that I knew would be a photo bonanza, I invited them along. One of them commented during the afternoon that the best thing about hanging out with other photographers is that nobody gets annoyed while you try to find exactly the right angle to take the perfect picture of a rock/flower/tree, they either wait patiently and discuss what you're trying to do or else they find something else and go off on their own. I'd add that it's fun to end up with four or five versions of the same subjects, like all those kids, and see how we each see things differently. And, there are always lots of pictures of other people taking pictures, because we all seem to find that irresistable, too.

The Chief who always seems to have new photography terms to confuse me with - it's like there's an endless supply.

This is the journalist who the Navy sent with us to record the events, which probably would have gotten more attention absent events in Libya and Japan, but I'm okay with not making the front pages. She worked her butt off, so I brought her along for some recreational photography. Keep her in your thoughts for the next few months would you?  A few days ago I sent her back to her permanent duty station - Japan.

And then there' s the group photo shoot in which we all seem to be taking pictures of each other at the same time.

That's it for India...next up - Thailand!

Family Groups

I tried posting yesterday but the thing about being at the mercy of satellite connections is that when you're on the edge of coverage and about to shift to another, sometimes you don't have a signal. Add tropical thunderstorms and it gets even tougher.  I tried to post this yesterday - it's my second-to-last India post.

While we had hordes of children to take pictures of during our visit to the temples, I think my favorite portraits were the worst technically, but the best emotionally. As XO and I walked around the beach after dinner on our final night, we encountered several families who, when we picked up the cameras to take kid pictures, posed as family groups for us. Neither of us speak Tamil and they generally spoke little or no English, we still managed to communicate - and they loved seeing the pictures of themselves.

I caught a picture of this little guy as he was running away from his mom and as soon as they saw the camera, dad scooped him up to pose. I got one with him willingly looking my direction after showing his this picture, but I like this one better, it's more natural. This is actually the picture that spawned multiple requests for family portraits.

These three were so cute together, but mom didn't want to be in the picture.

There is a picture in the soon-to-be posted Chennai album that my XO took of a young lady that belonged to this family group. She demanded XO take her picture, then tasked me to take pictures of the rest of her family.  (Actually there are a lot of other people's pictures in the album, mostly ones of me, but a few the XO took on this night because his lens is way better in low light than mine.)

Little Miss Adorable. She was running between her parents when she saw XO and me lift our cameras...she stopped and posed for us.  Look at those eyelashes!

Kids!

One of the best things I like about port visits is the kids.  I didn't get much chance to interact with kids through most of my visit, except at the very end. During our tour, there were tons of school groups in colorful uniforms. The cameras were like magnets, especially when I showed some of them their pictures in the LCD. It was easy to get great pictures after that, and it turns out our favorite pictures of the temples all seem to have kids in them.

The little boys posed...

Some were solemn for the first picture, then thrilled to see themselves on camera...

Rock Talk

I just spent four days in Thailand, but aside from the monkey post, you're going to have to wait. I have more India pictures to show you and I haven't even made a dent in processing the pictures I took in Phuket anyway. It seems like my blog traffic is slowly returning to normal, probably now that others have realized I don't really say or do anything too significant here. I'm okay with that!

But, back to India. After two marathon days that included a press availability, tours, women's round table and hosting a reception, I had a day off.  I had mentioned to the consulate folks who coordinated our visit that I really wanted to see Mahabalipuram, so they were kind enough not only to re-work the schedule for me so that I could do so, but also arranged for a couple of their folks to come along and for a member of the Archeological Society to give us a tour. I knew it was going to be a photographic gold mine, so I invited the members of my crew who are serious photographers.

The carvings at the sites ranged from huge temples carved into caves/boulder and some spectacular bas reliefs.

All of this was carved from a single granite boulder. The cool thing about having an archeologist as a guide is that he was quite factual and didn't get caught up in romanticizing the past - but he could point out all sorts of interesting details, like the cat, who is actually imitating/mirroring a man doing a mid-afternoon meditation on the other side of a fissure between the two boulders that make up the main relief/story. (Those are rats around the cat, I should have asked why.)

And there are monolithic free standing temples, each also carved from a single boulder. Seriously - try to imagine the size of the original rock and remember that these date from the 7th/8th Century.

And finally, they carved stone and built a series of stone temples on a larger piece of bedrock by the sea.

Again, mindblowing. Also mindblowing is that at one point, these temples were awash at high tide, but the government recognized the erosion and weathering would destroy the temples, so reclaimed land all around them and planted trees and grasses. They think that it's the only thing that saved the temples from the 2004 tsunami and are working to extend the reclaimed area.  And my guide was one of the guys who worked the digs at these sites, which is one of the coolest things I think someone can do. I learned a lot and got some good pictures in the process, which made it just about a perfect day.

Filler Post

Phuket is great - much has changed, most is the same. Took Thai cooking lessons today and having dinner at the hotel restaurant tonight (NYT must do in Phuket, so why not?) Tomorrow a little wandering around the town in the center of the island. More later - and there's still a ton of India pictures to post.

In the meantime, I leave you with a monkey eating a young coconut...what more could you want?

Want

I really wanted to bring this little guy home with me, he was so cute. Sadly, dogs don't seem to stay healthy for long there, and I'm pretty sure that Stormy would be displeased, but he was outright adorable with the little worry wrinkles about his eyes.

His littermate was a cutie, too. He wasn't so worried though...

Street Scenes

Most of my photography was done through the side windows of either my car or the van we used on the final day of touring. Still, I continued with my obession over bikes in urban settings.

The street signs were great - this one was all over the place. Not a bad reminder for any city.

There were beautiful murals all over the city. This stuff was public art at it's best.

Most of the trucks and buses were painted brightly and well-decorated.

And another bike picture, just for good measure.

Rare Sight

For those of you commenting on the Free Republic thread about me - I really just find that group of old men howling at the moon to be more funny than anything else. Obviously none of them have seen my 6 foot 4 Weapons Officer shaking in his boots when I am angry...my killer instinct is strong and everyone onboard knows it. So, I am just arrogant enough to not be threatened at all by people whose last military service ended before I was born. My guys will follow me anywhere, what more could I ask?

And, getting back to the cooler things in life - last night I got a call at 2130 (9:30pm for those unfamiliar with the 24 hour clock) saying that there was a great rainbow outside. Now, really...a rainbow at night? I figured I'd see a halo around the moon with a rainbow at the edges, which I've seen before in tropical seas. I was not prepared for a full double rainbow astern of us. 

You'll need to click to get a good look. I used a 20 second exposure and a polarizing filter. Couldn't get the second rainbow in the shot of the full arc because everything washed out with a longer exposure. I did get it in a 1/4 arc picture, but I love this one with the rainbow over the ship. My guys wanted to change direction and find the pot of gold.

Food in Chennai

You knew my first post was going to be about food, right? From my very first deployment, I think my mother has been convinced that all I do on deployment is eat and shop. Sadly, I spent so much time on the ship that I didn't eat local but for my last  meal. Breakfasts were taken during the sporting events, which on day one was very English tea-like...little crust-less sandwiches and biscuits with tea or coffee. The sandwich filling though - way better than anything I ever had at a tea, they all had a delayed kick that was great. Breakfast with cricket was much more traditional to South Indian cuisine and I went back for seconds. And thirds.

My final day in port I actually got out to see some sights, the photos for which I am still processing in between gun shoots and engineering drills, which means slowly.  After the tour of some archeological sites, we had lunch at a resort restaurant near the beach. (The cost of said lunch was such that what one person paid for lunch would have paid for all of us at dinner that night!)

I noticed a few things as I was editing here...first, I will apparently opt to go totally vegetarian without even thinking about it when I'm eating Indian - didn't have anything at all with meat or eggs the whole day.  My favorite vegetables are pretty obvious, too - I picked two different preparations of okra (which I only like Indian style) and cauliflower (which I will eat at any time, in any form).  There's also dal (lentils), which I finished, and rice, which I didn't.

We had dinner at a local place on the beach where our group was the only non-Indian table - which is my favorite way to eat. The specialty is idly, a steamed rice/lentil patty, but my photos of the idly didn't turn out well, so you get the banana leaf, chutneys, sambar and the uttapam (onion packed pancake) that I loved and need to learn to cook. Amazing meal, and one which I will look for again.

We walked around the beach and found meals and street food that I'd have eaten in a heartbeat if I hadn't been full from dinner.  I'd have no idea what is was I was eating, but that's half the fun.

Okay, this I recognized - roasted corn!

There were about a dozen carts set up identically, but this is the only photo that came out well enough to share. Doesn't everything look appetizing?

 

This is Funny

I really have made it to the big time! The Free Republic forum has a whole thread devoted to me and how screwed the Navy is because they let a girl command a war ship. Seriously, don't go read there if you're going to be offended - because there are some ignorant jerks who apparently last served in any military capacity about 50 years ago and still think they know what they're talking about. (And guys? Yes, the Vertical Launching System does in fact carry rocket launched torpedos and your argument about the difference between the Mk 13 (one-armed bandit) and Mk 26 (two arms) missile launchers is moot because there's not a single one of either system left in the Fleet today.)

They're not saying anything I haven't heard said to my face in the last 18 years, and I've still managed to do okay here in the Navy. Only now they're blaming it on the current President, ignoring the fact that the first time I took command, it was under the previous President. And of course they don't know that under said previous President, I was responsible for launching more than 30 Tomahawk missiles (so yeah, probably killed a few people there) and they weren't on the bridge when the (entirely male) watch team were freaking out about six high speed inbound Iranian gunboats - but that's okay because they're young and they needed someone with a little experience to bring the focus back. But probably I'd have just gone to pieces if they're actually started shooting, right? (Why yes, that was sarcasm!)

Mind you, I do have a couple of defenders on the board, which I appreicate. As for the others...well, they probably wouldn't want to run into any of my female Sailors in a dark alley...

And that was after taking a face full of pepper spray.