artnlight

Georgianna Lane is an brillaint photographer who I had the privilege to discover during my BYW e-course with Holly of Decor8. I find so much sensitivity, beauty and a certain delicacy in each of her pictures. They seem ethereal and like they come from another world uninhabited by clumsy humans. You must check out Georgianna's beautifully designed blog and as you flit from image to image you will chance upon her recordings of bird songs. To see her images with the chirping of birds as a background track is an something that cannot be explained. I would urge you to experince it.

When you see this image, one of the bird songs is not far off.

I particularly like this painterly series.

For experiencing more of Georgianna Lane's photography check her flickr, and to buy her images you can check her stock photography site or her Etsy.

You never know the treasures that you might find at any given random moment. One such moment was when I was standing listlessly staring into space as a friend went about purposefully buying her grocery. Something catches my eye & the next minute I'm bargaining the price of this book all the while trying to not look like I will pay anything to take this find back home. My random morning had gotten transformed. Imagine, travelling all the way to Thailand and devouring its exquisite handcrafted treasures complete with detailed explanations. Simply by slipping open the covers of what I held in my hand. Oh, the gods are kind.
Buddha's, dragons, elephants, jewellery, monastries, scripture cabinets, thai costumes are just a few things among the many that get detailed mention in this book.

The painstaking procedure of embedding mother of pearl into lacquer is explained in detail. Just reading it is exhausting. The book concludes that understandably such laborious techniques are not used anymore.
Thailand loved its 'paan' as well it would seem. And betel chewing was very much part of the cultural past of Thailand with all its attendent paraphernalia, some of it famed for its very high order craftsmanship.
Traditional Thai household life was spent mostly on the floor. This dressing table is clearly designed to use from floor-level.



There are many parallells to the Indian way of life and decorating that I find in this study, which I shouldn't find surprising. This is probably not the last you will see of this book. If I feel very South East Asian, I will quickly dip into the this book and share some of it with you as well.

I first met Chitra Aiyer a few years back on Flickr. Even then I knew she really took her photography seriously. She posted almost daily and I loved that her photography followed her life & she shot where she went, which meant that her pictures were never about the same thing. She also starting taking a serious interest in shooting people. Cut to now, Chitra takes on assignments to shoot weddings, family, children and even fun college get-togethers. And she shoots in natural light. I wish there were such things when I was in college, atleast I could bear to look at the pictures years down the line. I look forward to Chitra's Photography page updates on her new assignments. What I love is the freshness in her approach and that nothing or no one looks artificial or posed in her pictures.

Its clear how comfortable Chitra is with people, because these people who are not models, look happy and easy in these pictures.

I love these shots, the getting ready and the details.

I get a sense of the piognancy of the moment when I see these beautiful pictures.

The many emotions a bride goes through, to see more of this album click here.

Chitra is a trained architecht and lives in Bangalore with her husband and kids. She also writes a popular blog about returning to India, Bangalore and her photography.

Bombay holds in it many worlds. It has many faces and speaks many languages. So while South Bombay is all about colonial architechture and undertated old world elegance, as you go up north in the city, there are pockets which are distinctly Maharashrian, Gujarati, Parsee and south Indian in its ambience. Needles to say, this has much to do with the population of people living around it. In this city, there is a place for everyone, irrespective of where you are from. A few days back I was in Chembur, which has more than its fair share of south Indians and I passed Ahobila Muth, which is a beautiful though small example of south Indian temple architechture.

I love how all the colours come together in full saturation.

The juxtaposition of the traditional gold plated shikhara of the temple against the very modern glass facade is interesting, as is the fan right at the front.

The 'Shanka & Chakra on either side of the 'naamam' or tilak, is an omnipresent vaishnava symbol.

One wouldn't look at these pictures and associate them with Bombay/Mumbai. But they are an integral part of what forms this city and mainstays in the people's lives, who live around it. I'm sure there are so many people whose day is not complete without a visit to this temple.

Every once in a while I get a mail from a reader with a beautiful home and when I saw Divya Vijay Ramanan's beautiful home in Ranchi I knew I wanted to share it with all of you. What caught my eye was how harmoniously everything came together in this home & ofcourse the beautiful Krishna Tanjore painting. In Divy'a own words, "I am not sure whether you have seen any Army home- I should have actually sent you a "before" picture too:-) To put it mildly, it was quite sad, but we have tried to beautify it as much as we could! The lights and carpets are to camoflauge the walls and floors :-)" I did ask if she had before pictures, but no such luck :)

The lights throw a glow across the walls, it is interesting that Divya has placed the lamps below the table and not above. The shelves on either side hold her extensive silver collection.

The gold embroidered cushions are from a boutique in Calcutta & the painting is from Divya's moms home town, Tanjore.

"All the furniture is from an antique sheesham furniture shop in Bikaner, Rajasthan. My husband Vijay picked up all of them when he was there on work."

"Our shot-glass collection are from wherever we have been to or lived -US, Europe, Far East and Africa. Blue and white tea-coasters are from Amsterdam. Ganesha from Bangalore and the tibetan bells are from Leh"

If you have any queries about Divya's home, do leave a comment & she will answer it.

Finally the Blogging Your Way e-Course by the phenomenal Holly of Decor8 has come to an end and that should tone down my obsessive 24x7 attitude towards the internet. Really. To say the course was fantastic, amazing etc etc would still be an understatement. Fact is that I don't yet realise all that it has given me. Not the least is the exposure to SO MANY blogs out there and the people behind them who are so talented and brilliant at what they do. The least I could do is to introduce all of you to a handful of them. It was a killer to handpick a few, so I suspect in the weeks to come there will be many more such posts. But for starters here are a few blogs, who've really made me want to keep going back to them. Some for their simplicity, some for their honesty and some for their tremendous power of the visual.

Miss B of the blah blah blahg is funny, intelligent and her posts make for one hell of a rollicking ride- depending on her mood for the day. But what makes Miss B special for me is that she is the brain behind The bright side Project. This website inspires you daily, with one free giveaway a day. Nice Huh? :)

I love Janine's eye and the way she shoots. But what I really love is the unassuming person behind her beautiful photographs. She's straight & from the heart. Jardino makes for a great read with some real cameracandy.
Made by girl. Jen Ramos is this super dynamic girl, who has her own online business and shares a lot of her life and experiences through her blog. It takes courage to do that & I really admire her for it. I admire her for living her life out there and really sharing the journey.

I love Leaca's sensibilities, I like the way Simply Blogged looks and i like the person who writes it and that she always comes through. I like like like. And her beautiful photography is an added bonus. Check out her Etsy here.

Joanna is a Swedish art director and it totally shows on simple blueprint. Joanna should have called her blog 'eyecandy station' or something. So much visual happiness in one place is almost too much to bear. I completely love her style. And if my own loud and bright style were to get muted one of these days, she would be one of the people to blame.