NW Trek – Photographing animals a whole new experience

Like most organized events (ok you got me, none were this well organized), this one started as an interesting email thread by a fellow softie, soon complex scheduling ensued and finally we had a booked plan for 15 of us to go to NW Trek to photograph the wild life there.

This was an interesting opportunity for both Margaret and I since we had never seriously considered photographing animals for that sake, though we like to think we were, actually were not that serious with photography. But things do change and this was a welcome change.

Our car was in the shop, we had a loaner with us, no navigation on it so out came the trusty phone to help guide us along.  A pleasant ride later we arrived just at 7:30am and met up with the rest of the crowd, still not knowing exactly what we had gotten ourselves into. Perspectives changed as we boarded the tram and started the tour, first we had to come to terms with the equipment folks were carrying around us, someone joked about 100K worth of camera gear on the tram and secondly the environment. Little did I realize that this was a 723-acre park, which housed about 200 animals ranging from black bears, wolves, deer’s, elks, bison to name a few.

As the day progressed we soaked in some really great sceneries and saw allot of animals up close and amazed about 600 shots together. Of course off the 600 about 5 really made the cut but compared to what the others had taken certainly had to hide mine ;).

This was truly a one of kind experience and would certainly encourage others to try out, irrespective of your interest in photography.

Feel free to check out the rest of the photos from trip on flickr.

Check out NW Trek @ http://www.nwtrek.org

Over and out, Raj

NW Trek – Photographing animals a whole new experience

Like most organized events (ok you got me, none were this will organized), this one started as an interesting email thread by a fellow softie, soon complex scheduling ensued and finally we had a booked plan for 15 of us to go to NW Trek to photograph the wild life there.

This was an interesting opportunity for both Margaret and I since we had never seriously considered photographing animals for that sake, though we like to think we were, actually were not that serious with photography. But things do change and this was a welcome change.

Our car was in the shop, we had a loaner with us, no navigation on it so out came the trusty phone to help guide us along.  A pleasant ride later we arrived just at 7:30am and met up with the rest of the crowd, still not knowing exactly what we had gotten ourselves into. Perspectives changed as we boarded the tram and started the tour, first we had to come to terms with the equipment folks were carrying around us, someone joked about 100K worth of camera gear on the tram and secondly the environment. Little did I realize that this was a 723-acre park, which housed about 200 animals ranging from black bears, wolves, deer’s, elks, bison to name a few.

As the day progressed we soaked in some really great sceneries and saw allot of animals up close and amazed about 600 shots together. Of course off the 600 about 5 really made the cut but compared to what the others had taken certainly had to hide mine ;).

This was truly a one of kind experience and would certainly encourage others to try out, irrespective of your interest in photography.

Feel free to check out the rest of the photos from trip on flickr.

Check out NW Treak @ http://www.nwtrek.org

Over and out, Raj

Figuring out I have diabetes!

There is always that moment of truth lurking around the bend and mine was apparently not too far along. I knew it was just a matter of time given my mom had the condition and that my eating habits were anything but healthy , but the truth is hard to swallow.

It all started with a trip to my optometrist to get my annual eye examination done. I was stoked, had this nice frame picked out and could not wait to get rid of the Oakley's I have at the moment. One thing leads to another, the doctor is concerned, I can so tell something is wrong. She takes a breath and asks “Raj do you have high blood pressure and or diabetes?”

WHAT!!! Yeah that's what I blurted out and startled her a bit.  Took a second to compose myself and said “Yeah I believe I have BP but not quite sure about diabetes.”

Long story short, she had found that I had a few hemorrhages in the left eye, which are typically caused by Diabetes and or BP and she wanted me to go see a doctor immediately.

This one simple appointment had turned into a downward spiral as I would find out in the next few days. I’ll write about that later.

Over and out, Raj

MUMM NAPA & Sparkling Wine

Having finished up with the tour of the winery we (Margaret,Ramiro and I) headed off to our next stop in the Napa Valley tour to MUMM NAPA.  Of course the interesting part was that our guide Ramiro had no clue where this place was at and for about 15 minutes we debated on its name, confused between NUNN and MUMM. Interestingly with the help of the iPhone and Google maps we quickly discovered the route and headed in the general direction until we arrived at MUMM NAPA.

Click here to read more on MUMM NAPA

I was actually looking forward to this tour cause personally I like champagne better that wine. Same old drill we went for the tour and the first thing i learnt really got me.  Apparently if this stuff is not made in a specific place in France, it cannot be called “Champagne”, WHAT!. Oh yeah anywhere else it is called “Sparkling Wine”. Ok I get it, the French are picky, they probably have a good reason to be, I just don't care.

I wont get into the details of the process, you can get that from http://www.madehow.com. However it is worth the while calling out that specific step through which they get rid of the dead yeast in the bottles by freezing them was fascinating.

Ramiro, Margaret and I retired to the lounge area to taste some of the Sparkling wines from MUMM NAPA and then headed home.  It was a fine way to end our first day in San Francisco. We were looking forward to visiting Alcatraz the next day.

Over and Out, Raj

Technorati Tags: BMWMontaukRider,Travel,Vacation

Napa Valley – Robert Mondavi Winery Part II

Having gone through the whole rigmarole of learning how to cultivate good grapes and then how to extract their juice and make wine, it was finally time to taste some wine.

As we walked back from the winery to the tasting room i came across some cool art work on the wall giving this relative modern establishment a rustic look.

Now came the moment I dreaded most, tasting wine.  I have never had the pallet to taste good wine, I usually settle for the generic beer or some Jack and Coke. This was an interesting experience. What I learnt most of it all was the Wine tasting was no different from tasting tea. Big difference is that tasting tea does not give you a buzz ;).

The most interesting part of this all to me was the difference the glass made. Yes believe it or not I could actually tell. So the guy pours wine into a regular looking round wine goblet and we go through the motions of swishing it around smelling the wine and tasting, I was not impressed.  The he brings out a goblet which is allot wider than what he had given us earlier and he says try this,  Like the glass was going to make a difference.  BOY was I pleasantly surprised.  It did make a difference and it tasted allot better.  Then came the story of how Riedel came into Napa valley and pitched their glasses to Robert and the rest made history as usual.

This was one of the better experiences I’ve had in a long time, any trip out with my wife is fun in general, but this one was unique in the perspective that I learnt a bit about wine making but most importantly reiterated the fact that we as human beings have this innate ability to dream and realize them, admits all hard ships. Robert Mondavi was just one more example to drive the fact home, a visionary who redefined the art of wine making.

The next time you are around San Francisco I’d strongly recommend you take a trip up to Napa Valley and check out the Robert Mondavi winery. 

Over and Out, Raj

Technorati Tags: BMWMontaukRider,Travel,Vacation

Napa Valley – Robert Mondavi Winery Part I

So we headed out to Napa Valley in search of a winery.  Well more specifically the Robert Mondavi Winery. I did not know what to expect as I am not into wine, but hey I went with the flow.

The drive up was fun especially since we headed off towards the Golden Gate bridge, stopped off at a view point took some pictures and then hit the road again.

More about the “Golden Gate Bridge”

We got to the Robert Mondavi Winery at 10:55 with just about 5 minutes to spare for the 11:00 clock tour.  we are the last minute kind, in spite of the fact Margaret vehemently disagrees with me.  A couple of quick photo ops and we got into the tour.

Now the history of this place is pretty interesting. Apparently Robert and his brother inherited the business form their father, but never could see eye to eye on the business direction. Who could have guessed that siblings could not get along :). Mostly a case that Robert was all in to changing the business of wine making.   Robert in 1965 set off to do his own thing and created the Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966. Everything since then is his legacy in making.  Of course I am not writing his biography here, follow the link to Wikipedia and you can get all that you need to know about Robert and more.

The tour itself lasted an hour and half, really could not tell the time pass by. The open fields with the grape trellis was fascinating. I could tell that immediately that this was no easy process to setup. Apparently the grape wines are not strong enough to support themselves and they require this complex mesh with carefully measured spaces between the vines for the grapes to grow properly.

We went through the regular “Oh there are many types of wine, …… blah blah blah” you know the spiel. Here is a quick visual summary of a few.

After spending about 1/2 hour on the field learning about how the grapes are grown, the soil conditions they need, how the climate shift in the valley helps balance out the acid etc (trust me there is some deep stuff here) we went to the factory where the wine is pressed, aged and bottled.

oh yes the photo quality is not that great, hey they where all taken on an iPhone and honestly given the lighting i think they came out great. Here is a learning, next time i should bring my SLR along. But there is no guarantee that the pictures will come out any better.

Now the bottom right image is the the interesting one.  This machine is used to crush the grapes so that they can extract all the juice from it. Apparently based on the speed of the press the color from the skin can be controlled.  This was fascinating to learn that the color of the wine actually comes from the skin.  Now this is priceless, the switch used to control the speed of the press. Check it out, the tortoise and the hare.

To be continued ……

Over and out, Raj

Technorati Tags: BMWMontaukRider,Travel,Vacation

San Francisco breakfast

The day started early with Ramiro, Margaret and I heading off to Coupa Cafe. Nice little place in Palo Alto, need to get out more and find similar places in Seattle.

 The coffee was great but not as pretty as the one from ZOKA in Seattle. I guess I can always compromise looks for taste.


Over and out.

Raj


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