Things I love about Alpharetta, Georgia & will miss

After spending two years in Alpharetta, Georgia It's time for me to move out of here. I am moving to Naperville, IL which in my initial research should be a very similar and beautiful city. 

Major difference being the snowy Illinois weather compared to the extremely cold of 20 degrees down here in Alpharetta, GA [Pun intended]

I have really loved Alpharetta for many reasons. Although I have spent time in Florida, New Jersey, Minnesota and few other states but Alpharetta, Georgia has been really close to my heart. I want to share some reasons for why I love Alpharetta so much.

What I love about Alpharetta

1. Great schools: When I moved to states, my daughter who was 5 year at that time was going to be coming with us. Her school was a major factor in deciding where we would live. I would happily sacrifice being closer to the office for finding a place with better. Almost from the get-go in my research Alpharetta came on top in terms of school in Georgia. Naturally, it became the first choice for me. Other cities which I have found out by living here, and have good schools are Johns creek & Cummings. My daughter finished her Kindergarten from Creek View Elementary school and it was pretty good experience overall.
2. Green patch: I read about this some time back, but Alpharetta is known as the city of trees. that's pretty amazing. But you have to come down here to believe it. Alpharetta is heavily surrounded by trees. When I first moved here, it reminded me of those beautiful resorts of Karnataka or Kerala where you can sit by the window and hear birds chatter and there are expansive green covers everywhere. but, here we were not living for 1-2 days and driving back but it is the way of life. As I reconnected back to living in the green cover, I realised how much have a missed it in the concrete jungles of Bangalore. there are a ton of trails around here, however, my most favorite is been the greenway trail which is a huge one, beautifully maintained and thronged by walkers, runners, and cyclists.
3. Great location: Another aspect which you would love being in the Georgia region is its proximity to so much around you. Florida is 4 hours out. If you want to touch the beaches, you can drive towards Florida down south to Panama city beach or Pensacola or you could drive longer towards clearwater and its absolute delight. you could go towards savannah, charleston or Myrtle beach which are not too far as well. Up north, you have smokey mountains, Chattahoochee forest reserve and you are not out of options to go around.  Overall quite pleased with the location of Alpharetta.
4. Secure, safe and good neighbourhood: In my two years of being here, not even once I had to be bothered about going outside late in the night, or being concerned about any particular areas. I travelled a lot, and the neighbourhood has been pretty safe with a good mix of crowds around. 
5. Good food joints: if you are looking for Indian restaurants, you won't be disappointed. There are tonnes of those here. some of them are madras chettinad, Bombay flames, Chennai express but our all time favourite being Inchin Bamboo.

Things which are not in favor of Alpharetta:

1. Public transport: Like a typical suburb it is not crowded at all however, the public transport is really close to zero down here. Unless you are driving you living at apartments just by the food store, moving around will be a challenge. however, thanks to the weather here, it is normally not a problem. but if you are coming from place like NY, CA where you have used a ton of public transport, Alpharetta has its challenges.
2. Train connectivity to airport/downtown: Covered as above, but there isn't any train connectivity from Alpharetta. Marta only runs up to North Springs station which is good 5 miles from Alpharetta. See the Marta Station map here.
3. Night life: Alpharetta has some decent restaurant but is a typical suburb, with not too much going around late evenings. So if you are a bachelor and like to be near happening night life, Alpharetta is not the best place. You are better off being near the downtown for that.

Remembering Shore temple, mahabalipuram

Looking at my photos in the archive the photos from Shore temple caught my attention.  This was such a fantastic trip down to Mahabalipuram and such fascinating temples and artifacts to see, that i could not even explain the feeling. You truly get the sense when you visit the place. 

While you can appreciate the scale, the detail and the history on the internet, the realization only happens when you get there. When you see the infinite bay of Bengal on one side, and this ravishing marvel on the other.

Photo scape from Snow laden New Jersey

Most of us love snowfall. In India, people go to places especially during snowfall season to enjoy. But in parts of united states, snowfall is as part of seasons as is spring season full of sunny days.
During my trips to New Jersey and Minneapolis, i have encountered a strong surge of cold fronts, and snowfall seasons, with storms all over the place.
While, living in conditions like this in no fun lot of times, there is always something to be seen as a positive. My photos, though very few taken around hotel premises should give you some idea of how it snowed, and show the artistic side of things too, hopefully.

Do tell me what you think of these photos!

Ease of taking great photos with phone cameras

I am often amazed by the output quality of phone cameras. I love taking pictures on the move and I dont have my SLR [Canon 400d] all the time with me. However my Note 4 does a pretty good job at filling up that gap.
Also, the portraits dont have to be perfect in a way, and playful, random angles do add to the liveliness of the image.
here in this example, my daughter and i were in a shopping center and since she and I were having some fun, I found an opportunity to take few pictures.
How I love the output quality and ease of taking these pictures.

How I love the output of phone cameras. Love the portrait of umi in playful mood.

A photo posted by saurabh mittal (@isaurabhmittal) on May 25, 2016 at 7:29pm PDT

However without being too pompous, I would reemphasize that ultimately cameras and gears are just tools but the most important aspect of any art form is the beholder of that eye, that gear and that perspective. But nothing to take away from the fact that Phone cameras have really come a long way ahead.

Good Day!
Tell me what you think about this image? Your thoughts of taking photos with phone cameras? Would love to hear & interact about it with you.

Returning back to blogger

Friends, I am back on blogger.
After spending some time on self-hosted wordpress I decided to turn back to blogger. Self-hosted while gives you a ton of control, It also demands a lot of time to get into the nitty gritty of web development.
I simply couldnt afford that type of time. and it was coming in between being able to write at my will Vs making edits & getting technical.
My Photo import from blogger also didnt happen properly too and it was not worth the time to fix It.
So, we are back to blogger. Hopefully this means I will be able to write more frequently without excuses.


Wordpress Vs Blogger

There are tons of blog which talk about 'How to move from blogger to wordpress' or if blogger is better than wordpress. What Do i think after spending 1 year with Wordpress?

Moving to a new site

Dear Readers,
 My Blog has done well with all your support, readership, comments and suggestions!

Its time for me to move to a new platform and this can be a bit disruptive for all of us.
Apart from me spending some time and putting the chips in right place, you may have difficulty finding content. I apologize in advance for that.
Rest assured things should be alright.

As the blocks move around, do go and checkout my new http://www.saurabhmittalphotography.com/ which is in making.

I will move selective posts there and continue to work on my blog.

Question:
Pls do feel free to comment in the section below and i will get back to you.
Tell me what is the most important part of my blog if you have read from me before? what among photography tips, travel and general shots do you like the most? do you have a suggestion for me, or for other readers to make use of, while moving to a new blog?

I will wait for your suggestions!

Tips to Shoot better Portraits at home or anywhere else

Here is a portrait of my daughter, Umika. This was shot at my home in alpharetta, GA last week when the light was soft, cloudy weather and i was working from home.
I have always recommended people to use the natural lightening and make it work.
Here is a decent example of that.
You can see here that i didn't use any artificial lightening and instead shot this in my balcony.

Taking 10000 steps a day?

5600....13000...7500...3400... As I review my s- health app data from a past week, my motivation goes down. I see 3400 steps for Thursday. I feel as if I lost bank balance or quotient of happiness.  
The drop in graph is so disappointing and more over disheartening.
If you are like me, life around pedometers- counting steps, elevation, calories burnt etc is more than a fad. 
While surely, wearables are the hottest thing in town, there is a large fitness move which is inspiring this trend.

A Day trip to BAPS, Atlanta

I Visited BAPS Atlanta over the weekend. The temple is known to be the largest hindu temple outside of india. I was taken aback by the sheer scale of it, and the beautiful work of creating, and then maintaining this place.

Traveling through the busiest airport in the world- Few Tips

I moved to US, and settled in Alpharetta. Alpharetta is a city around 30-40 miles from downtown Atlanta. Thats my primary & major Place of reference, and its airport, my travel hub. I travel a lot, so obviously I have to use the airport a lot and this means going through a lot.

You may already be aware, and if not, let me tell you. Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world. 

While that is awesome to know and feel when you frequent that place, it can be a major hassle in itself. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport has 6 concourses in itself, and requires you to take some time when catching a flight, and more some when in a hurry. Over a period of time, i have surely gotten better at using the airport for faster ingress/egress.

Photographers paradise: Belur- Temples which speak -Part 2

I am hoping if you getting directly to this page, you may want to check on the part 1 of the photo series here. 

Here are some additional photos from the trip as part two. The intricate detail work is not just on the outside walls of the temples, but it follows and gets even more detailed towards the inside. The interiors of these temples must be at least 15 degree cooler than the outside if not more.  A shot i took of the interior of the main temple at Belur.

Photographers paradise: Belur- Temples which speak -Part 1

During June this year 2014, we took a family trip to Belur and Halebedu Temples. While the Belur and halebedu temples are not too far from Bangalore, these have not been covered by us earlier. For some reason or the other they keep getting delayed.

One of the prime reason has been that i have also envisioned to take 2-3 days off, and then make a good long trip of this whole belt covering Hassan, Belur, Halebedu, Shravanbela Gola, Shringeri, hornadu and then chikmaglur and its tea estates. Somethings take time and while I have always wanted to do it, Hasnt happened yet.

This trip was unique since my mom was visiting us and this would be an opportunity to show her these places too. The travel To Belur and halebedu temples was actually quite good. the roads on Hassan side are excellent and not much of traffic as you leave bangalore. No complaints there. We had a comfortable & luxury hotel booking already done, so that part was taken care too.

Visiting temples was an experience which was surreal. I didnt give the title to this post just to say something fancy. The title shares my emotions and how i felt about these temples. 

From outside, the temples are in middle of a village and you can really fathom if such a place is going to show up. though if you are like me and a traveller to parts of india, then this wont be a surprise either. Especially down south this is very common where a temple is surrounded by a village, and small shops. in-fact in most cases, the incoming visitors and travellers start driving livelihood of lot of these villages. 

At the belur temple, we spent an easy afternoon of 3 hours and took it easy. There was so much to soak in here. 

I would strongly recommend everyone to take the guides there. The guides which i have seen there are govt. officials and they have good insight into the history and current researching and finding work being carried out by the govt. which makes it very interesting to hear from them.

Secondly, there are so many minute details, which you cant see by yourself. When they point out those to you, that is when first you are shocked & then surprised and finally can only appreciate the artists work, creative & effort.

Another very interesting aspect of the carvings in stone is the creativity & imagination part. Lots of the characters are imaginary work of art too. 

Without too much talking, i will leave you to view next 3 photos from the Temple of belur. These are really the temples which speak to you. every bit of it, tells a tale if you have time to absorb & listen.

How to get around from Newark Airport to New York Penn/Amtrak stations?

At the NewYork Penn station, as the boarding gate for my Acela was going to be announced. 

Recently, for a business trip i had to move around Newark and New York areas, both using Air plane and trains. I was also traveling to Providence post my work at Newark, and hence the commute and transits were inevitable.