Some interesting angles to shooting videos on a holiday

This is an interview with “mobile” film maker from Mumbai, Shiva Prasad – in our Message of the Month section.

How can lay people on a vacation take better pictures using their mobile phones?

People love to capture their travel and adventure photos and look forward to preserving them as fond memories for the rest of their lives. That’s where the mobile phone comes in to capture beautiful imagery and footage on your vacation.

Many of the recently launched mobile phones have interesting creative presets such as slow motion videos, time-lapse (passage of time) giving you the ability to film in variable frame rates like 30 and 60 frames – and going right up to 970 frames on some phones. The latest Samsung Galaxy S 20 allows you to capture footage in true cinematic 24 frames in 8k resolution – the only mobile phone which offers this feature till date.

More on our interview with Shiva Prasad at this link >
Message of the Month Interview / May 2020

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How to take better pictures on your next vacation

Picture : copyright Shiva Prasad

Shiva Prasad is a Mumbai-based management graduate in international business. He chose filmmaking as his career, and has worked in Indian and British films. He also worked as a creative researcher for the Hindi feature film Irada, which won the Indian National Award in 2018. He has also been rated as a top photographer on Google Maps. As an extension to his passionate interest in anything smartphone, Shiva is an active stock video producer for leading stock agencies across the globe.

Shiva tasted success as a filmmaker in the year 2013, when he was stranded in the Uttarakhand flash floods. He managed to survive that and captured nature’s fury in great detail on his smartphone. (That was all the shooting kit he had with him at that point.)

Shiva has filmed a 20-episode television series on India’s holy river “Krishna”, with his smartphone. And Samsung, too, was inspired to produce a promotional video about Shiva Prasad’s creative journey in movie making.

For our Message for the Month feature we chatted with Shiva on his personal journey, and how people on vacation can take better pictures and videos on their smart phones. (This is the first segment in a two-part series of interviews.)

More on this story at this link >
Message of the Month / March 2020

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What’s “lost & found” at hotels and resorts

Every month, hundreds of personal items are left behind at hotels and resorts all over the country. A lot of these go unclaimed as they could be inexpensive items – and returning something small can sometimes be cumbersome, or impractical.

But if the item left behind is valuable or expensive, you can expect an anxious call from the guest – to check if the item has been found, and explore ways of having it picked up by someone.

For this month’s Q&A column, we spoke to five housekeeping supervisors at different locations, to hear their Lost & Found stories.

More on this story at the link below >

In conversation with Housekeeping Professionals
Q&A Session / February – 2020

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Coffee roaster Vasantha Machaiah talks about Kodagu as a holiday destination

How would you describe “Kodagu” as a travel destination in South India?

How do I describe Kodagu? Ours is such a beautiful experience that I am sometimes at a loss for words. Famous people have referred to it as the Scotland of India – some have even gone to the extent of calling it the Kashmir of Karnataka. I would love to call it “Heaven on Earth” – because Kodagu presents an unmatched panorama of beauty and everything that goes with that.

Believe me, in this fast changing world there still is an old-world charm about Kodagu – expressed so beautifully through its dense forests, majestically flowing rivers and spirited waterfalls. Another key visual experience is the wide expanse of lush green plantation cover.

No story on Kodagu is complete without one drink that says good morning to you, every day – Coorg Coffee. Kodagu is a world famous hill station, largely growing coffee and spices – known the world over for quality and yield.

More on this story at this link >
Q&A Interview / December 2019

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How do you tackle post-vacation blues?

What are your feelings like when you’re heading back home, after a really nice vacation?
A good vacation rejuvenates me as nothing else does. No spa, no mall can come close to the feeling of absolute contentment I feel when I am away from the city and when I am one with nature. Of course, the moment I touch city limits after a good holiday, it’s a sinking feeling. The stress sets in immediately, and I know that until my next vacation I have to wake up to the sounds of incessant honking and traffic – rather than the melodious bird sounds and the pollution-free air that I miss so much. I call it the holiday hangover, and the only ‘fix’ that can help me get over it is another holiday. Most of the times, I cannot wait to simply pack my bags, load the camera, and leave.

 

Q&A: In conversation with Travel Blogger Shama Ahmed

More on this story at the link below >
Q&A – May 2019

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What happens after a holiday break . . .

How to Re-engage Students After a Holiday Break https://t.co/JZ9SeLyRAl

— airda.org (@AIRDAfromINDIA) January 17, 2019

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Why January is a good time to make your holiday plans

One of the challenges of today’s world is to get the entire family on the same page of the calendar. We’re talking about wives, husbands and children who need to align and coordinate their free time – with a little give and take. It also means getting grandparents, uncles and aunts from different locations to wing their way to your holiday destination.

Every year we send out messages via our social media channels, reminding people that it’s a good time to plan your getaways for the year. Especially if they have a timeshare plan in place. “January” is a nice time for renewal, because the month brings in a newness that goes with making plans and resolutions. It also serves as a topical reminder for important things to do on your calendar.

So, here we are, once again, urging you to make time slots during the year for those well deserved breaks.

More on this story at the link below >
Message of the Month – January 2019

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Your family deserves a vacation, at least once in the year . . .

What I have learnt over the past few years is the need to give your family a nice vacation, at least once in the year. My job as a bank teller can be so monotonous and boring, that even a weekend break is welcome. Longer breaks are essential, because everybody needs time out to spend quality time with the family.

At the end of the day, you need to look beyond work and other daily routines, to get down to some serious planning. You also need some commitment to go along with that, to make things happen. So according to me, COMMITMENT is the key word.

Prabhakar Sivakumar, Bank Teller

Some more customer feedback & tips at the link below >
Q&A – January 2019

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A good time to plan vacation time in 2019

TIME TO MAKE YOUR PLANS > 2019 list of public holidays across Asia Pacific and globally | Human Resources Online https://t.co/XMl0YYT6Pk

— airda.org (@AIRDAfromINDIA) December 13, 2018

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Let’s leave footprints behind at a vacation spot, not garbage

What I find absolutely shocking is the amount of litter we can generate – especially on vacation. Cigarette butts, water bottles, biscuit & chocolate wrappers, empty foil packs, paper plates, food remnants – the list goes on and on.

On a forest or cross-country trek for instance, we need to carry along a convenient dump bag with us that can contain litter the group typically generates – each one of us could also carry our own individual dump bags if that can make things simpler. I’ve seen litter being dropped from tourist boats along picturesque stretches of river – and this tends to
float or even sink to be swallowed by fish. (And that spins off a whole new set of problems . . .)

Manoj Keshav, IT professional

More on this story at this link >
Let’s keep our vacation spaces clean

 

This image sourced from pixabay.com
https://pixabay.com/en/garbage-plastic-waste- waste-2416624/

 

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