I have been living in an urban setting all my life. In this series I try to explore the basic tenets of urban dwelling. The skateboarder photograph, titled Scraping the Skies, reflects the sentiment of shooting for the sky. So does the speeding train of downtown Denver. It indicates the sense of urgency and speed in our lives. Urban life is synonymous with money. Well, on Wall Street, New York, money talks and Dollar Dwarfs. In this hustle bustle of big city life, sometimes we need to take a quiet walk by ourselves to hear our own voices. The photograph Urban Reflections is reminiscent of many such walks of mine in the city. Flip the coin and you see a more relaxed picture of urban life. One of which is wine tasting on a late Saturday afternoon (Photograph Wine Tasting shot at Highlands Ranch Wine Seller, Denver) or spending an evening at the theaters with the family (Photograph Going to the theater).

What is big city without the need to be a Cut Above - as represented in the shot at Floyd Barber shop (one of the oldest barber shops in Denver). In urban lifestyle the only thing that's constant is change. While some change their appearance, others are busy changing their environment. Either way it�s an Urban Facelift. Often things that we have left in the past or changed forcibly loom much bigger than we have in the present. Hence my Urban Facelift shows lot more detail of the run down shopping mall in the reflections than the portion above ground.

Amidst all these emotions there are some core emotions that will not change. If anything, they will become stronger. Our sense of family ties in the new world brings us back to our families at the end of a long day (Tail End of a Day). So is the sense of appreciating the freedom that we enjoy in our every day lives which many people in this world are not fortunate enough to have. The photograph Spirit on the Road needs a special mention. While shooting street and urban photographs, I normally choose a background and park my camera on the tripod. Once I find my stage, I wait for my actors to come and perform their act. It could be the lonely man walking in the cold (below twenty degree Fahrenheit - Urban Reflections) or the truck proudly displaying the national flag. As the truck driver approached my backdrop of James Dean, I signaled him (from the other side of the road) to drive a bit slowly in front of my back stage. For some reason, he misinterpreted my signal and did something that I could not have imagined!! He reversed his car on the busy street, paused for a moment, and gave full throttle to his engine. As I waited for him in my viewfinder, I clicked the shutter. All I could do to thank him before he left my stage was to give him a thumbs up with my eyes glued to the eyepiece. Strangers making a connection for a second!! No second takes for that shot - but that's what urban life is all about!!