Photo Stories on Lovell D'souza Photography

Some of you might have seen some pre-wedding photos of Melanie (aka Beautiful) and Daniel (aka Francis) on my Facebook Page. Wedding photos are gonna come up later. Much later, so hang on for now. Here is what went on behind the scenes on that day when we were by the Mandovi.

The freaks, Francis, Beautiful and Ernest dropped by my place and decided to give me a ride.

We were on our way to Panjim. Beautiful, just back from her visit to the church was complaining about all the crazy questions the priest was asking her. We had a good laugh and then indulged in some banter about the Vatican. Shhh!!

And that’s the Ernest we talk about. Ernie the man. All too happy to be sitting around and doing nothing.

We passed by Sangolda.

And in a short while we were passing through Porvorim. The sun was beginning to set. We were racing the clock. Guess who was not too pleased to be losing light. Okay, no points for the correct answer. Me!

Under the Bridge. I always think of RHCP each time I go below the Mandovi bridge. Always.

We zoom past the Panjim jetty.

And then, finally, the Mandovi. The barges had taken over the landscape. Got some test shots though.

You guys might remember this lighthouse from the “Lurking Storm” photo I posted some months back.

There were some birds in the sky.

And an Ernie on the sand.

I told the clowns to take a walk and pretend I’m not there. Told them to indulge in some PG13 activities that would not get any of us arrested. So that’s them, taking a walk by the shore.

Ernie on the other hand took a walk with my tripod.

Oh yeah! Ernie and the tripod. So beautiful. Made for each other.

This stray fellow tried to disrupt proceedings. But was scared away by Francis. Who just showed the dog his face. The rest was history.

The clowns headed towards the rocks.

Ernie headed to the shore.

In between all this nonsense, I did manage to get a few decent shots of the clowns. And then we just decided to goof around. Something we are pros at.

Here are Ernie and Francis. This shot was taken so that I could lock focus points. It was pretty dark btw, the autofocus was going crazy when those amateurs (read Francis) tried to use the camera.

Autofocus locked, and this is what Francis managed to click. Ernie parting with the tripod. It was a sad moment, but what was just had to be done.

And then one shot of Beautiful, me and the leaning lighthouse of.. oh wait, the lighthouse is, no way.

Finally, we called it a wrap and headed off towards what we call home. Beautiful punched the air coz I guess she found a keeper. Amen.

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The plan was to get some shots of the pier at Panjim. But sadly, the homies ditched, the sun set while I was driving and then the only homie around was Super Glen aka Super. We improvised and decided to just go some place close and get a few shots. Ladies and freaks, here is Sinquerim.

This was just after the sun had set.

The yellow light was thanks to a street lamp. I was really dark. Long exposure to the rescue.

That’s Bapaicho gadi (Father’s car), that I use to move my lazy butt around.

Super and I headed off to the fort. For most of you who know, where the Taj resort exists.

Thats us. Being all cool, keeping our distance, while some dude and his babe shared a quiet moment at the fort and did not give a damn about distance.

Super got down to his magic and softened the water, even without his cape.

And then, it was time to head to D’souza’s and eat some Choris Paos and Tongue. So thats it. Got this last photo and we were off!

A bunch of us go to the music room now and then to jam up. These are boys in action. Can’t really write much, since music is music. So no much talk. Enjoy the photos.

Our human metronome for the evening was Nirmal Samuel.

Cherian Koshy on bass.

Our very own Joshua Singh took to the keys.

And Daniel Peddity unleashed his vocal talent.

The other microphone would have been in my hand, but sadly I can’t click and sing at the same time. So there it lay, neglected.

The boys then decided to switch acts and next thing we know, Cherian was play ‘em keys.

Joshua joined in to add a few notes of his own.

While Danny dictated the bass lines.

The drummer remained unchanged.

And that was it.

Here is a short video that was shot a few days earlier.

And, that my friends, is “The Music Room”.

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It was the month of Ramadan and we decided to visit the Old City and experience what it was to be there at night while the city was wide awake. So off we were to Charminar.

We were welcomed by the organized chaos. Vendors wide awake, business going on as usual. From a distance we could see the Charminar, well lit up and welcoming us to the old city.

We squeezed pass the crowd and made our way towards it.

And there it was, the Charminar. The beauty of the Old City.

We carried on.

Here is a short video of Sharmila zipping past the chaos.

Ah, don’t worry about this fellow, he was with us.

We stopped at a store selling bangles and other jewelry while we waited for some more folks to catch up with us.

And then, to the streets.

There were a lot of bangles for sale.

And this old man, although the stern angry look on this face, he was very happy to have his photo clicked. Once I showed him his photograph on the LCD, he gave a nod of approval and then I was back on the street.

Walking along the road was getting us nowhere, so we decided to use the divider instead. Saved us a lot of time.

This man was selling bread. He was very happy to see us and gave us his best pose.

Then we passed by a shoe store.

Kapur found a kid at the shoe store who was all too excited to have his photo clicked.

And then we did some more waiting.

Kapur got some more shots.

Somewhere hidden in all this was is the Charminar College.

This young fellow was in two minds whether to let me click his photo or not. I asked him if he was cool with me getting his headshot. First he went, “No.” But then he got his cup of tea, started to sip on it and was like, “Okay, click now.”

Sharmila also wanted her photo clicked, but she ain’t had no cup of tea!

More shots from the street.

Kapur’s toothache started to get worse. Wisdom teeth are only for a gifted few I guess. The rest of em just gotta get it taken off!

We went in search of a medical store. And passed by a Nikon outlet!

More street shots.

This chap saw me walking past him with my camera in hand and went, “Hey you. Are you from some newspaper or magazine?” And before I could reply, he asked me to click his photograph. I obliged.

He made sure I got a photograph of the guy next door too. And then asked me if his photograph will be published in the next days newspaper. I said, “No, I’m just clicking for fun.” He was a bit surprised, and then asked me if I was going to be passing this way tomorrow. And, if I was, he would like to have his photograph. I replied, “No, but in case I do, I shall get you a print.”

We exchanged pleasantries and then I carried on.

We then passed by a chicken shop.

I stopped. And, the guys there we all to happy to see me. Once again, the “Am I from the newspaper” conversation propped up.

I passed by another shop and got this simple shot of the price.

The chap there asked me to get a shot of him.

It then suddenly occurred that people don’t really mind having their photos clicked. Something I’m very careful of. I normally always ask before clicking anyone’s photo on the street, which is very rare. But all the folks at the Old City were happy to have their photos clicked.

The walk went on. And we made our pit stop for the night. Shah Ghouse it was, for some good biryani.

Here is a scene of what was going on outside the restaurant. The guys are serving Haleem.

We went up and grabbed our grub.

Stomachs full, and we where back down. No change in the scene. Madness as usual. Haleem was selling like Hot..er..Haleem!!

Found this video on YouTube, look at these human machines go!

Everyone was up for some Irani Chai. So we headed to a restaurant next door.

And we were done! Plans were to finish off the whole Old City experience by having ice cream at Famous Ice-cream. So we made our way to the Mozamjahi Market.

Everyone got a taste of the ice cream.

And a view of the clock tower.

Then it was pretty late and exhaustion started to show.

It was almost 1:30 am, so we all headed home after that. And that was it. Old City during Ramadan was great!

The long weekend it was, and my good friend, Daniel Peddity was kind enough to allow me to tag along with him and his awesome folks to Goa! Camera, one set of clothes and a laptop all shared the space of one bag and off we were to my Motherland!

We hit the road via the Mumbai highway. Hyderabad’s great crawling traffic was there to greet us. We were part of the chaos.

I took the the role of the navigator and made sure to document everything and anything. We did record our track before the phone battery started to die out. But navigator I was! And navigation I did! And other useless things too. Like clicking photos.

Finally we were on the outskirts of Hyderabad and the roads had some mercy on us.

Yes, we did come across the occasional stunt riders on the highway. These two indulging in a crazy balancing act. Not to mention that they had another bag nicely balanced on the tank of the bike.

We saw wheels. A lot of them.

And, some ‘highly in flammable’ stuff.

We were to make a pit stop at Danny’s Aunt’s place. And passed through a busy market. Business was on as usual. Everyone making a living.

And then, the irresponsible shame to the nation was spotted. This chap totally not bothered about the people behind while he took the turns.

We had to overtake him to avoid death.

More stunt riders.

We passed through a village. The fields on either sides greeted us.

And so did a herd of cattle.

And then, out of no where, the skies decided to unleash the raindrops.

But it did stop. And we made it safely to Danny’s Aunt’s place. The camera went into the bag and what followed was a night of nonstop driving. I switched to the wheel at sometime in the middle of the night and I’m pretty sure I sleep drove for a while. Thanks to the non-existence of proper road signs we burnt some rubber and also flew over some speed breakers. A mongoose almost got hit, but some NFS moves saved the day. Anyone and everyone we asked for directions told us to take a turn at the round about with the Shivaji statue. Not to mention that every round about had one of these statues.

We battled the rain. Danny’s Dad, suddenly in the middle of the night, zoomed pass me and I was like, “He so can’t do that!” and so, the battle of the rains turned into the battle of the flying cars. More speed breakers appeared from no where. Finally we experienced the moon’s surface at the Belgaum – Goa highway. I think I destroyed the underneath of Danny’s car while trying to negotiate these crazy roads.

But after all the chaos and madness, we were at the road to Ponda! We made a quick pit stop.

And, took in the fresh air!

Let the cars take some rest.

And then, we were there. Motherland!

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And then, suddenly I packed my bags and headed off to my Sister‘s place. We had planned a road trip along with the BIL Bonnie. We were to meet the gamer pals Srijay and Sarvesh (who were to drive down from Pune) at Lonavala/Khandala the next morning, and hang around there for a day or two.

The eve was spent at the Sister’s where I received the VIP treatment. Same treatment that I receive when I go back home to my Motherland, Goa.

The Sister and I grew up reading books, hence you will find her place or mine always filled with books lying all over the place. Its a different thing that off late all my books are lying in a cupboard. But I plan to read those sometime in the future.

We have our sharing system. If the Sister buys a book, I don’t buy it. If I buy a book, the Sister won’t buy it. When we meet, we exchange our stash. If we don’t meet, the stash gets pilled up at home in Goa. From where we pick the best of the lot and take it to our respective places. This system works perfect.

Back to the Sister’s place. There was a whole bunch kept for me to choose from. I took all.

Bonnie shows up with a so called ‘ergonomic’ mouse, which drew the attention away from the books. Jolene played around with it for a bit and realized that it a complete load of bull. I wonder where that mouse is lying now.

And guess who was lying near the Sister’s bed. Sponge Bob, Square Pants! There is another Sponge Bob lying at home in the showcase btw.

More soft toys made their presence felt.

My stash comprised of just one book. Which I read on the train from Hyderabad to Mumbai. This one is now archived in a cupboard at Home, Motherland.

The Sister then got down to business and did some research on locations around Mumbai. Notice the awesome wallpaper of the Gulmarg Gondola she has on screen!

And the soft toys were back!

But the moment was ruined thanks to the standard shoot yourself in the mirror since no one documents the photographer moment.

We were in two minds whether to go to Bhimashaker instead. Google maps to the rescue and the Sister to the research.

And yes, chocolates! Thank to our aunt who got these for us. Oh, and there you seen another book on Paper Quilling. You should check out my Mother’s Quilling work.

My machine was with me too. This bad boy took me places.

Oh and this book, I had to take back and archive it at the Motherland. Turns out the Sister had bought this one too. Fail on my part.

All this research, hanging around, eating chocolates made time fly. Before we knew it, it was pretty late.

Time had come to call it a night. The next day would involve a lot of driving in heavy rains. We all would need out beauty sleep.

More soft toys were found lying by the bed.

I clicked a photo of what the author of “No God in Sight” had to say.

And then the lights were out.

What was turning out to be a boring day at work had to be turned into something more exciting. Lying below Joshua Singh‘s desk was a task that no man could do. But I guess it was more because no one actually bothered to. Mukesh Mukhi came to the rescue and displayed his aeronautical engineering skills. The now assembled plane hangs on Vivaik Bharadwaaj‘s board with the other planes that he owns. This is a recollection of what happened that one boring day at the workplace.

We un-boxed the parts.

Only to land up with a complete mess.

And then began the assembling of tiny parts that no man had ever seen before.

Luckily, Mukhi had the blueprint in front of him.

And in no time, the wheels were in place!

Mukhi was hard at work, while Johnny watched from nearby.

The engineering went on.

Johnny kept an observant eye over the entire proceeding.

And then things started to take shape. We had a propellor and a fuselage.

Swetha dropped by for some moral support.

And here is a totally random shot of Mukhi’s spike!

Some parts where yet to find their place.

While others were just waiting to be attached.

Mukhi had to stop for a while and contemplate.

We had a rudder.

And we realized that it was totally safe for Mukhi to work with.

The wings were in place.

And firmly attached.

Some more parts were joined.

And fixed properly.

And voila! After all the hard work, sweat, tears, pain and trauma, the creation was ready to take off.

All the aeronautical engineering had finally paid off.

The great flight of softness can now be found hanging on the Man’s wall in his cabin.

So that was that. A boring day at work, made less boring thanks to a whole ton of jobless people.
PS: We do work a lot actually.

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Unreal and bewitching, the forlorn ruins of Hampi lie scattered over a landscape that leaves you spellbound the moment you cast your eyes on it. Heaps of giant boulders perch precariously over miles of undulated terrain, their rusty hues offset by jade-green pals groves, banana plantations and paddy fields, while the aure sky painted with fluffy white cirrus only adds to the magical atmosphere.

Thats what the Lonely Planet book had to say. Screw all that, we just wanted to get out of Hyderabad, and Hampi it was.

This time Alpha Male had his Mrs along. Introducing Tulsi Gandhi, who was on a trip with us for the first time

We had a late night bus to catch, so we hung around the work place to kill time.

We had a word with the man himself, Vivaik Bharadwaj. We spoke about some lenses, tripods and how folks in the office are scared of him. SJ (John Paul) got some last minute work done, while Dev (Nikhil Dev) displayed some addiction to the latest Nexus craze, Robo Defense.

We waited for SJ to finish his work and just clicked some random shots around the office.

And then we were done! Machines locked, tickets in the bag, laces tied, and we were off.

And over night bus ride, a couple of auto rickshaws from Hospet and finally we were there.

We cross the river and were greeted by this.

I hope no one was offended by me wearing shorts all the time. Not that I had great legs to flaunt.
We did not pre book any place, hence no rooms were available at the good places at Hampi, aka Mowgli and Shanti Guest Houses. So we had to settle for a couple of rooms at this place called Laxmi Golden Beach Resort. Seriously? Beach Resort? I did not notice any beach!

The place was very nice, but the service was pathetic. The folks at the counter did not bother to entertain anyone who was not ‘white skinned’. They seemed to have hired a bunch of guys who suffered from amnesia. They could not remember anything we asked or told them. Anyway, we had to settle for this place.

We just hung around and had a nice lazy breakfast.

SJ got down to doing his usual nonsense.

We then settled down at our base camp and indulged in some refreshment.

Lunch time was around the corner, so we decided to hit the “Goan Corner” and indulge in some Goan food. So the Goan corner it was!

We made our ways through the fields. The village boys, SJ and I, explained to the city kids that difference in the mud textures ment difference in the strength of the soil. Basically you could fall into the fields if you did not see where you placed you foot.

Growing up in the village ment I could run around without falling into the fields. And then managed to go click!

Click!

And, Click!

Finally, we were there! The Goan Corner.

Lunch was crazy. We ate some Chicken Cafreal and Chicken Xacuti while SJ cracked some legendary Johnny Jokes. Everyone was in splits and we had a real good time over looking the lush green fields.

After a ton of burps and navigating back to our base camp, we decided to head off to the river and watch the sun set. Sadly, lazy folks that we are, we missed the sunset but there was enough of light to find our way to the river.

And then we were there. By the river bank.

It got dark. And all we could think of was dinner. We decided to head to the Shanti Guest House and spend the lazy evening there. Food was ordered, mosquitoes were killed and a lot of photos of inanimate objects were clicked. I got a nice shot of my 50mm lens that evening. More photo from that evening will feature on my Photo Blog or Facebook Page soon.

Nightfall, and it was to be a night of drinks and discussion. We hit base camp again.

The handful of us went on talking till around 4 in the morning. Lots of topics discussed. Lots of noises heard from the neighboring cottage. And then it was time to indulge in some slumber.

Next morning. Oh wait, there was no next morning. It directly started as next afternoon. Us hungry souls had to indulge in some gastric satisfactions. The destination was set, Mogli Restaurant it was.

We drank, ate, sat, wasted time, ate, drank, wasted more time. We made lazy people look active.

There was an impromptu photoshoot of Tulsi & Johnny that happened. Those photos will be up somewhere sometime soon.

Lunch time turned into tea time.

Oh, and as a Goan, you are required to sleep post lunch. Its tradition. You don’t want to displease your dead forefathers by not doing so.

It was evening in no time. We had a bus to catch at Hospet. We headed back to our base camp and packed up.

The laziest trip ever came to an end. Bye bye Hampi.

So that was it. No nonsense. No sightseeing. Just eat, drink, sleep and repeat.

The complete album of us Clowns at Hampi can be found on Flickr. More albums and stories to come soon.

And here is a video of us all winding up the trip with a few words of wisdom.
PS: It’s totally for fun.

Thank you for reading.

It all started on the 14th of December 2010. Our good friend Daniel Peddity aka Saniel aka Sanny Beta aka Peddity aka Peddity Bhai (the list goes on) was to marry his beautiful bride Rebyl Pinto. So it was! Off we were to the hide out. This is a short recollection of a little bit of what went on behind the scenes and got captured.

First we needed a practice shot of what was to become Rebyl and Daniel. Thats our man sipping on some coke while he attacked his Mac D burger at the same time. Which reminds me, I did not get one.

And whats a groom if he isn’t well groomed. So off he was to clean up the mane. We did try to get him to take off the crazy side burn, but he was like, “No, Rebyl likes it”.

Luckily on site was our very own Mukesh Mukhi. Taking calls, running around, and doing what he does best. That is, keeping himself busy.

The weapon of choice for the day was the Canon Rebel T2i. Yeah, I know I gotta upgrade to a full frame sometime soon. I’m on that, though it may take a while. If anyone knows anyone else who wants to gift me a Canon 5D Mark II, then you know where to find me.

Checklist. Check!

Then the boys got ready.

While the dude recording the video did his thing.

Time flew by. And then arrived the bride’s bouquet. It was heavy indeed. Must have weighed more than a kilo surely. I handed it over to Rebyl and she went, “This is heavy!”

And off we were for the ceremony. There were other photographers too. Who made sure that they were in the thick of action. I lurked in the background not wanting to disrupt the proceedings. Which reminds me, this is the only wedding which I made it to without having a bath! I wouldn’t have had a suit either. But thanks to my good friend’s John Paul, Mukesh Mukhi and Vignesh Anand my shoes and shirt somehow landed up in a car at the venue. Now how I landed up not having a bath is a whole different story. Lets blame the groom for that!

Now, now! Please draw your attention back to wedding.

The bride’s brother stood at a side watching his sister get into good hands.

The Pastor on the other hand was fooling around a lot. Popping into the frame while I tried to get some shots. This one is for you Pastor.

And then they were married. We headed off to a studio since the other photographer wanted to get some studio shots of the couple.

So off I was to the studio. Answering a number of calls asking why are the newly weds absconding while I watched the two of them indulge in some funny poses. I got a whole bunch of photos of this action. But I’ll share those sometime in the future.

Finally all that jazz was done. And off we were to the reception.

We had a few minutes to take some shots. This one went all wrong.

This is the best fail moment from the wedding. We just got out of the lift. All the guests was present at the reception waiting for the bride and groom. The lighting at the lift was perfect. The mirrored wall played well with the light, bouncing it all over the place. I went, “we gotta get a shot”. But some unknown folks were getting out of the other lift. Rebyl goes, “get those people to wait”. I look into the viewfinder and had a split second to decide whether I should get a shot of some strangers with the bride or me with the bride. I won.

The reception commenced. Got this photo of me clicking the couple thanks to Paul. And then the reception ended.

A bunch of us stayed back since it was Daniel’s birthday. We decided to sing for the groom.

So it was done.

Mr. Krupakar Peddity had some thoughts to share. I did not get any close to him. (Photo by Emmanuel Peddity)

And yes, I managed to get the couple to take their rings off. Woohoo, thats a first! And, Saniel Beta if you are reading this, I’m still waiting for the rings. Need those close up shots.

And thats them. Mr and Mrs Peddity. And they lived happily ever after.

An yes here are some links that you would like to visit.
Rebyl and Daniel – The Engagement
Rebyl and Daniel – The Wedding Album
My ten favorite shots from the wedding

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