I recently uploaded a few new clips onto the Raghasmusic.com site. Full disclosure: Dr. Krishna Raghavendra is my father-in-law and an obvious genius at the veena, his chosen instrument.

He will be releasing two CDs very shortly; Meditation and Nee Da Ma Da. Check them out!

Going “green” is tough. We receive junk mail, use diapers that have a half-life of maybe a 20 years (speculating here), drive our cars half a block to pick up a gallon of milk that is in a plastic container we just toss back into the garbage.

Yuck!

Well, with another kid on the way, I have been thinking of doing a whole lot more recycling. But there is something else that I spend a great deal of time doing – staring at a screen and especially Google.com. According to Justine Ungaro, a fellow photographer, “If Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.”

So, check out Blackle. No jokes here. This is still the same old Google search engine doing its thang in the background. Pretty cool.

Blackle is finally the new black.

UPDATE: Apparently there is also another website called Ninja (all black and “deadly accurate” – get it) that does the same thing as Blackle. [Thanks to Tim Sanders for this tip in his latest blog post]

RapOuts is the social messaging platform for marketers. It is still in beta but you can request an activation code to get your message out. Rahim, one of the co-founders of RapOuts has given the Help Vinay campaign quite a boost in publicity by using the RapOuts mediaplayer

“MakingRoom is a magazine about the process, intention and results of image-making.”

Wes Anderson's move The Darjeeling Limited looks like it might be a good laugh

Learn to Sketchcast

Got $1200 burning in your pocket for a Photo Vu?

Sing with me, “it's a small world after all”

Google now has a search engine you can customize and track websites you visit often

John in Japan has some 48 photography tips for you

If you use Lightroom to edit and prepare your images, you may be interested in Lightroom Galleries

I hope all of you have Strobist bookmarked. It's a terrific website to learn flash photography (and on the cheap, too). I stumbled upon another site, Sublime Light, that has quite a few useful posts as well. Check it out.

DarkerVision has posted a very good review of two web sites, Deviant Art and ImageFind, that photographers and artists can use to sell their work

We can all use more Photoshop shortcuts, so here are 18 more

Rocky Nook has a great lineup of affordable photography how-to books

formatpixel is a Flash-based online tool that allows you to design and create documents; like QuarkXpress or InDesign

While I am a photographer, I don't forget that I am also in business. If the last few links have been dollar-centric, don't hold that against me. I think you can be an artist and be a businessman or woman. So here are a few more links that you may want to check out:

Photographer's Tool Kit

This is an indispensable tool when photographing children or some very goofy adults

Some very good Lightroom Tutorials

Digital Wedding Forum now has a free forum for those planning to launch a wedding & photography business. [I belong to the Pro forum where I pay $99/year]

I was asked to photograph my cousin Vinay and his wife Rashmi for a post-card campaign Team Vinay is about to launch. If you haven't been following along, Vinay is battling AML, a form of Leukemia. Even after several chemotherapy sessions, he needs a bone marrow match. Please visit HelpVinay.org to read about where you can register and potentially save lives; Vinay's and others like him.

Vinay could very easily be your brother, your husband, your father. As a South Asian it is infinitely more challenging to find a match, but it doesn't have to be that way if only more South Asians like you (yes you reading this blog post) will commit to registering yourselves in the national marrow donor database. I have called you all, and some of you have readily done so, to step up and register. It's quick and painless. So, please DO IT NOW.

Here are the images I shot of Vinay and Rashmi over the weekend. Which one would you pick for the post-card campaign? Make your choice and then leave a comment that others will appreciate. Thank you.

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