The recent release of Adobe Photoshop CS4 and the subsequent update of Adobe Camera Raw v.5 [ACR] is just superb. The processing speed of large NEFs and PSD files is much improved over CS3, many new features added, etc....but one little addition in ACR5 is just best of all - the Graduated Filter option.

Bye bye to carrying Split-density Graduated Filters for every lens. Just do it later, in ACR!

The first is the original as was at the Mashobra page, and then the new version corrected in ACR5 with the Graduated Filter option:

  
click the thumbnail images for full page views

• PS CS4 / ACR5 resources:
  • What's new in ACR5 - by Julieanne Kost
  • There's more in CS4! - by Julieanne Kost

A quick trip to get some long overdue work done at our cottage in Simla. The view of the Himalayan Range from the air [Dhaka to Delhi] was spectacular, though I could not capture the «spactularness» due to the dirty aircraft windows ...

Little time to photograph the surrounds and birds. That meant I had to be up and out of the house by 7 AM to get an hour before breakfast to get some photographs. The birds in the shrubbery and trees behind my parents home in «Chotta» Simla [Shimla] would wake me and there was no need to set an alarm!  Here are some of the early morning visitors -

   
  

  

Verditer Flycatcher -  Eumyias thalassina;  Himalayan Bulbul - Pycnonotus leucogenys; Streaked Laughingthrush -  Garrulax jerdoni; Bar-Tailed Treecreeper - Certhia himalayana; Green-Backed TIT - Parus monticolus; Lesser Whitethroat - Sylvia curruca;  Great Barbet - Megalaima virens; Oriental White-eye - Zosterops palpebrosus;  Himalayan Bulbul.
See GlobalBirdTrekkers for more.

  

While waiting for the birds, I also took a few photos of the Indian Institute Of Advanced Study [used to be the ViceRegal Lodge], Gorton Castle [which now houses the Accountants General offices] and the Shimla Railway Station from the pathway above the house.

A couple of quick photos of the cottage at Sidhora in Mashobra -
 

Photographs are from September/30/08 to October/04/08.

A couple of photos - the view from our cottage in Mashobra [near Naldehra]  in the Shimla Hills. The mist rolling up the pine forested hills and a nice sunset later that evening.

The cottage on a misty and rainy day ~ Mannat & Jyoti at Mashobra ~ Mannat sketching flowers in the garden at Simla ~ My Mother looking on and giving Mannat the names of the flowers.
  
 

View of the mountains from the cottage ~ Naldehra golf course ~ Simla at Sunset.