Last evening, I had the pleasure of meeting Ragnar ‘Rax’ Axelsson who is a photography inspiration of mine. His work chronicles the trials and tribulations of original people of Greenland. He has dedicated his art to covering climate change and its impact on the Arctic and the Tundras. His books, the Faces of the North being the most recent, are a treasure. We talked about life and work, Leica and climate change and finding our own voice. I was honored to meet him and hopefully you will see a big pi.co on him soon.

November 5, 2016, Reykjavik, Iceland.

It has been an interesting trip so far, from a photography standpoint. Of all the cameras, I have used: 

• Leica Monochrome to focus on subjects and simpler photos.
• Fuji xPro2 for late evening and early morning long exposures. It is mostly because the Leica can’t handle more than 60 seconds exposure. The new Seven5 Lee Filters have come in really super handy.
• My most used camera – about three in four photos have been on iPhone7Plus which is indeed a great camera.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you know the quality of the photos I am sharing. The camera does color so well. You just have to learn how to expose the photos properly and find the right composition. The telephoto lens and the portrait mode have opened up so many opportunities to make good photos. There are some long exposures I made on this camera that are simply stunning!

Apple, you might be making me mad about the  laptops, but you got the whole iPhone-camera thing totally dialed in. 

November 2, 2016, Deplar Farm, Iceland!

It is cold, rainy and grey here. Perfect day for me to totally binge on The Fall Season 3. I mean who can resist that show! Unfortunately, I need to plan, pack and do some last minute shopping for a trip. We all live in stress inducing, mind-numbing, politically charged times and need some relief from the mundane. So, instead of sending you some heavy stuff, I wanted to share some fun reads and a few podcasts and videos for you to enjoy.

In praise of Leica M9: We are often told that digital devices have built in redundancy. We need to throw them out in order to get a better one. At least one person disagrees. Matt Jacobson, an early employee at Facebook discusses a special bond with a brassed up Leica M9 camera. I really enjoyed this story of a Leica lover’s affair with an old digital. [The Official Leica Blog]

How sampling transformed music: Great TED talk by Mark Ronson. [TED]

Insta office: La Nube: INMC young architects from Europe created a project and an Insta office called La Nube! Fun video to watch. [YouTube]

The origins of high-five: Delightful video about Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke. [Aeon]

The Rise and Fall of the Army Surplus store: They used to be everywhere. And then designers moved in. [The Art of Manliness]

A $10,000 connected/smart watch full of rose gold: No thank you, Tag Heuer! I wouldn’t wear it even if you gave me for free. My wrist space is at super premium! [Hodinkee]

October 29, 2016, San Francisco

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In case you were wondering, for the third time in the past five months, I’ve gotten hit by the cold/flu combo. I decided to take time off from the Internet, work and spent a substantial amount of time over the past three days recuperating by doing absolutely nothing (except answering emails) and drinking lot of ginger/tulsi tea and hydrating myself. The rest has done me good and I feel energized to get back to work. I can’t handle not being out and about.

I remember the sparseness of talent and original thought, and degree of elitism during the formative years of Indian fashion scene. I used to write about that stuff and even as a non-trained, not-really-fashion-writer, it was obvious that there was such a huge chasm between the rest of the world and Indian fashion, despite the claims by many of the then designers. It is exciting to learn about the subtle and modern changes to the act of weaving, traditional crafts and other artisanal work being adopted by the fashion talent coming from little corners of the country.Fashion clearly has come a long way in India.