Patterns - Revealed!

So, thanks folks for all your guesses, which either made itself to the 'comments' section or into your minds silently! :)

So as most of you have guessed, as water droplets, or mist or drizzles or whatever you have imagined, it is only partly correct! These images were that of the condensed steam which will remain in the underside of a steel plate which we all normally use to keep on the hot vessels such as for hot milk or for hot curry, in kitchen!  :)

Everyday, just before starting to office my mother gives me hot 'kashaya' from a hot steel vessel and before pouring the kashaya into the cup she always used to keep the steel plate which was covering it, in front of me and then pour the kashaya into the cup. I always got attracted towards the pattern of the condensed steam but no luck with time to shoot as I was already late to my bus...well almost always! ;)

 

So...as said earlier, one Saturday finally I got the chance and mood to capture this wonderful patterns using some of my lenses. Some images that you have seen are made from macro lenses and some from normal 50mm lens and some from the kit lens - 18-135mm (all with or without extension tubes).

There are patterns all around us. Seeing them and moreover identifying them in the busy crowd amidst our ever busy life gives so much of pleasure. Once we start 'seeing' these patterns the world around us magically transforms into altogether a different place...try it....to believe it!

Note: In the last image, the lines on the water surface is in fact the reflection of window pane, beside which the plate was kept!

Cheers,
Ash

A starry disaster!

It was at 3:00 in the afternoon when our driver Raghu started the jeep to head to the peak of Kodachadri. The previous two days it rained heavily during the day time but the nights were amazingly clean. It was this fact which made us feel good and have positive mindset.

We were at the top by 5:20 PM and as soon as we are out of the Jeep the locals at the top were screaming to drive a Gaur away from the vicinity. After sighting the massive Gaur and rushing to take a closer glimpse of the hulk and failing miserably (thanks to the screaming and noise making locals) we were back in track at 6:00PM.

Then it was a time to transfer our things to the peak which is a steep walk of almost a kilometer. Our strategy was to pitch the tent first and then go back and bring the gears. The total weight of all the things that we carried, combined was not less than 40kilos. It was still cloudy and at times it was getting very much foggy as well.

Unmoved by the very frequent changes in the conditions, we pitched the tent and we were all fearing that it would go in air like a parachute if we pitch even a single peg of it loosely. It took quite a good amount of time and effort to make sure that the tent is secure and safe. Though the wind was terribly fast at times, the tent stood on the ground, even though slightly deformed at times! It was very much important for us (probably as imp as the camera itself) because in that part of the western ghats, if it rains, it washes away everything and the nearest safe point was 1 kilometer down the top! So our prime focus at first was to have a stable roof and then start photographing the things above that! :)

It was very windy and we have made our best effort to pitch the tent firmly and took the courage of leaving it for having our dinner at ‘bhattara mane’ 1 km down. After having dinner we took all the camera and related things and headed back to the peak and by Gods grace the tent was intact but distorted a bit, not of very much worry.

The sky was very clear and what a place that is for star gazing! Absence of even the slightest of light pollution, we could easily identify the milky way and some other stellar formations. We took our gears out and decided to do a trial on the long exposure and calculation for the time lapse. By that time we were almost sure that we are going to have a blasting time ahead! After about an hour of different trials, adithya and self decided to cam down a bit and take a bit of rest.

Milky Way

The next moment when I opened my eyes, it was 12:40AM! Just about the time when the Leo rises from the horizon! With all excitement I opened the tent and dumbstruck by the scene out there!! The sky was covered by clouds! Damn! Back to bed again, as if it were a bad dream! Woke up at 1:15, sneaked out of the tent…. Worse! Back to bed! It was getting cold and cold. All the time the wind gust was so huge that the sound from the fluttering tent was enough to scare away the Gaurs which occasionally come there for grazing!

2:15AM and we have decided to have some camp fire to warm ourselves up. Thanks to the continuous fog and small drizzle, the woods was wet and luckily we had kept few inside the tent. With good amount of work we finally were successful in bringing the fire up! All these things happened under the shade of the thick clouds above!

3:30AM, few of the brightest stars were visible just over our head and few in the North. Being close to the coastal, the wind direction was almost always from W –> E. So there is very little chances of the clouds in the East moving to North which seem clear. Adithya decided to continue sleep for a while and I have decoded to set up my camera facing east for sometime.

30 min later the sky in the North east cleared very slightly. I was keen. It was like that for about 5 mins. But no luck with any streaks. Clouds were back again.

At around 4:15 again a bit of the clearance in the eastern patch. I was on a long exposure and thought that my 12mm would cover that. As I was looking there…… there went a long streak! Wow! I thought my camera would have captured that, but I had missed that one by as close as few centimeters away from the right edge of my viewfinder! A big disappointment for me! Wait after that yielded nothing mut disappointment and frustration! I hit bed again at 4:30!

5:30, something was sounding very loud! Initially I thought I was dreaming but it dint take long to realize that it was pouring outside like mad. Huge outburst of rain clouds and the tent was reverberating with the sound of the raindrops hitting the plastic roof! After the disappointing time with the farther stars, we were expecting a good view of the nearest star rising at least! But the rain washed away every possibility of witnessing the famous sun rise of Kodachadri….

Nothing was fruitful for any of us. All the pain in getting those heavy things to that top and managing to spend the cold and windy night at a place which is a grazing land of the Gaurs, went into veins with the Gods of the rains having no mercy on our efforts.

What remains after this project is the immense brainstorming and knowledge gathering activity that went behind in executing it and the overall team effort that was put behind. If it were a win we would all be proud of it. But I am sure we are equally proud of this failure as well, or rather as Ganesh puts - we are all very proud of this ‘successful’ failure!

Three cheers to the team and their Herculean efforts first… then another three for Harsha for making this happen…

I am proud to be a team member of Leonids 09!

UPDATE: Yesterday night, when revisiting the long exposure images that I made, I noticed that without my attention I had caught one meteor!! Below is the update:-

So, finally looks like I too have one in my kitty. In the below image observe a small streak (!!) near the bottom right. The direction of the streak is quite different than the motion of the stars around. So I strongly suspect that it must have been a meteor strike. Harsha is also suspecting the same thing. It could be the third one for the team!  

This was in desperation when in spite of the cloud cover I was keeping my camera open for long exposures. For the bare eyes even those stars were also barely visible!

Cheers,

Ash

Sriharsha Joins the team!

There is an update on the Landscape Wizards front. We are all excited to welcome Sriharsha Ganjam into the team LW! Apart from being an avid Nature and Landscape  photographer, he is a passionate star gazer and has a very rich experience in that field. Now that adds a new dimension to the team.

 H (Sriharsha) is our captain of the Leonids 09 project as well :), after all he was the one who educated us on this event!  Now if your question is 'Whats Leonids??' then I am sure you will also be equally excited as we all are once you know what it is! It is one of the most spectacular events in the astronomical calender - the meteorite shower or rather a meteorite burst! This year they peak on Nov 17th and 18th, yes very few days are left! The shower is predicted to start at around 3AM at night and all predictions say that we are going to have a wonderful Nature's Firework!

  Now, around 15 Nature Photographers have teamed up to capture the event from different locations across Karnataka using time lapse photography and long exposure images. Sounds very exciting isn't it? yes it is! But...

  When we started planning of this project , in September the only worst fear was the retreating monsoon from the East Coast. If there are thick clouds in the sky then the only place left would be the top of an aircraft! And that worst fear looks coming alive now! :(  The West Coast being hit with the Cyclones and I am hearing the news of continuous showers from that side. Weather of Bangalore is also not much promising.

  As we are trying long exposure images and time lapse, the light pollution is a very big problem and that the reason why we have chosen the places far from the cities and city lights. Myself is heading towards Kodachadri where I will be trying to capture the event with resident - Adithya Biloor. With the clouds in the picture we are not at all sure on if it would be a success or a successful failure! Our fingers are crossed!

  Hmm, I have come quite a long way in the deviation from the main topic! :)

 A warm welcome Sriharsha!

 He has written a very nice article on Landscape Photography: Myths and Realities.

 A very good read.... Read on...

Cheers,
Ash

Patterns are all around!

Patterns are everywhere and they excite me! In Nature there are plenty and we just have to look around keenly to recognize and enjoy them.

Off late when I am sitting at home, while reading or studying; when I get bored I try to see if I can find any pattern in the things around. The painted wall with the window pane, the book shelf with different colored books arranged on it, the contrastingly colored door and the wall, the tiny patterns of threads on the curtains and many more like these.

It was from quite a some time that I was observing some fantastic patterns on a thing which I was seeing almost daily just before leaving for my office. But as I would be in a hurry at that time I was always postponing the idea of photographing it. It was on a Saturday when I was at home and saw the pattern again! Wow! I had time!

They looked very abstract and beautiful. Partially Natural and partially man made! When I converted them into Black and White some pattern looked very interesting!

So, what are these? Any guesses?

I will answer after few days....

Till then let me know your guesses :)  I dont think its a tough guess!

Cheers,
Ash

Yana - a biwitching wilderness.

For the people who dont know, there is a wonderful place called Yana in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. Amazing rock formations which are standing right in the middle of the evergreen forest. The forest around is so thick and dense that you can find leeches even in the hot mid summer!

    Pramod, shiv and self were there in this monsoon as a part of our western ghats trip this season. Even though I had been there 5 years ago i dint have a complete memory of how the place was exactly (I was not into photography then). So I was also as excited as Shiv and Pramod.

   We reached there by around 7 and it was slightly drizzling. After sitting inside the jeep for around 15min we decided to walk in the rains itself. It was mild and we were hoping that it will stop soon. So it did. When we reached the place we all were totally dumb struck by looking at the beauty of the place. The main rock - Bhairaveshwara Shikhara was looking so huge and majestic that none of us could talk literally for some time. The rock is huge and it is surrounded by lush green and dense forest. The monsoon mood was in the air and everything around was wet.

      Notice a tiny looking reddish spot on the right side of the tree, its a Scarlet Minivet!


  The bird life in the place was so much active that we saw Ruby Throated Bulbuls sitting very near to us. The scarlet minivets and the Yellow browed bulbuls were almost everywhere! They seem oblivious to our presence and kept themselves busy in finding some food for the morning. As we all were keen on making some landscape images all we could do was just enjoy seeing them. A Malabar Whistling Thrush was busy singing in various notes and it was giving a melodious background score for the scenary out there. Soon it came out and sat on a tree trunk for sometime and disappeared into the woods again. Then came an Emerald Dove in a sudden bullet like speed and went back into the woods in the same speed! After sometime we realised that at that time we were the only humans in the vicinity. Probably the Dove was not expecting the two legged creatures at that early time of the day and  we probably have surprised them.

  The local poojaris of the temple arrive at around 10:30 and till that time the place belongs to various birds and probably for some mammals as well, we dont know!

   As the Sun started rising slowly above the forest canopy and over the rocky formations, Pramod had a wonderful idea of the image below:
 

  
 It was around 10:30AM by the time we were little exhausted, more mentally than physically. Frankly, none of us were expecting Yana to be this much full of opportunities.... and we have not even explored the cave like path which runs around the temple!

  The place is full of opportunities for a Nature Photographer and it is currently in my must visit place for the next monsoon as well.

  Started back from the place at around 12:00PM and all I remember later was the wonderful time we had there and the way our Jeep driver drove back us to Sirsi... all the time above 80 or 100 kmph, in those curvy wooded road!!

 Cheers,
 Ash

Canopy Contest 09 - Third Prize!

Friends,
 My image of the Shadow over the forest canopy, which I made during my last year's trek to Kumara Parvatha (KP) has won the third prize in the Photo Contest held as a part of 5th International Canopy Conference (http://www.canopy2009.org/html/P&F.html).

Below is the image and the description (as I have sent along with the image):

This image was made from the top of Kumara Parvatha, one of the highest peaks in Western Ghats. It was evening and the Sun was setting slowly on the other side of the mountain. As he was going down the shadow of the mountain slowly started covering the forest canopy beneath. Minute by minute the shadow slowly covered more and more of the canopy and within 20mins the whole region was in the shadow.

The forest including the canopy is under heavy threat everywhere. No matter if it's the tropical rain forest of the equator or the Taiga of the north. The human greed is the power behind the devastation of the beautiful green carpet of the top. The mountain shadow which slowly gulped the forest beneath looked like a symbolic representation of what is actually happening for the canopy around the world. For me the shadow represented the dark shadow of the mammoth greed of man which is ruthlessly clearing the canopy day by day.


 I feel honored to receive the prize which was judged by  - Mark Moffett, (a Nat Geo photographer), Ganesh H S , Sandesh Kadur and Shekhar Dattatri.

 First prize went to a nice image by Nanda Ramesh where he had portrayed a lone langur sitting on a branch in the canopy of a tree with wonderful clouds in the valley behind. It was a nice image. Second prize was for the image of Fire Flies by Kalyan Varma, another very rare and nice image. A tree was full of fire flies and he had captured it very nicely. Another of his image of a Great pied hornbill flying towards a canopy was chosen as a specially commended image.


Cheers,
Ash 

In the preparations again....

 

   I have been busy with various activities and didn't get time to update my space. Most of the last week was spend with doctors and tablets (!!) and towards the end and during deepavali, I was in fever because of 2 things - Nikon's launch of D3s and the man who tested it - Vincent Munier! I was just recovering from my fever and his image set, made from the new legend D3s just made me to go back to bed and take rest!

HERE is the link to his images and a small video made using that. Now, dont hold me responsible if you also end up on bed, taking some paracetamol tablets!

Munier's site - www.vincentmunier.com also has a dedicated gallery for of  assignment.

Apart from all this, my exams are nearing.....again!! So I will be going back into my den to prepare myself for the battle! :)

See you after the exams with some image set from Yana and a separate blog post on Blue Channel processing for portraits.

Enjoy,

Ash

Experiment!

  That was in May, when I was in my grandma's home in Sirsi. I normally spend couple of hours in the morning in areca plantation, each time I go there. 

  That day I was not in a mood lug around with my 300mm lens and hence I  decided to put my 50mm lens on the body and went for a walk. 

  If you are familiar with the areca plantations, you will very well know that there will be plenty of lizards in the plantation. By a bit careful approach they allow you to go closer and I tried something similar that day.

  Step by step I went close. I must have taken at least 10 min before I step further each time. Every step I go close I was getting a different perspective. I was clicking each time. Because of the sound of the shutter it went couple of feet above the tree. I bet he (it was a male!) would not have heard anything like that in his entire life! Not only him but any of his ancestors also most probably! :)




  As I was giving enough time for it to get used to my presence, it came back again. Now I was closer to him. Then decided to test his boldness! I slowly stretched my hand and through the tiny view inside the viewfinder I made sure that its complete body is placed inside the frame. As I was approaching in an angle, many a times the focus was at the tip of his mouth and the eye was going OOF. After a bit of adjustment finally I managed to get the eye in focus.  Then slowly taken my hands back! Status quo was maintained! I was happy!





  Then struck another idea - how about taking an image in the bottom up fashion! Sounded interesting! The challenge here was the exposure! The sky was bright and the subject was pretty dark and this time there was absolutely no way that I can see through the viewfinder! With the built-in flash there are only very few controls available and you cant bounce the light as well. Still decided to use the flash as just fill light, just to lit its underparts against the bright background. The problem with the Auto Focus(AF) engine is that, in the condition of high contrast, it ends up in focusing the brighter subject. Most of the time it was focusing to infinity (which was the bright sky)! Being not an AF-S (silent) lens, the focusing makes bit sound, which was of concern. Then after around eight to ten tries , tilting the wrist in such a way that the AF focuses on the nearer subject, and when the distance meter on the lens read that it has focused on the closer subject, I just stared clicking. After couple of frames, adjusted my hand a little and again clicked couple of frames.





   The one that you are seeing here was the very first frame and I got only two good frames out of six. 

 

  I sometimes force myself to use only 50mm and try to look the world around only through that. If I were having any other lens with me, I probably may get tempted and hence I would not carry any other lens on certain occasions. I get to learn a lot on those occasions. This one was just one of them.

  We should not hesitate experiment with the things. Its very easy to aspire for bigger and better equipments but the real challenge lies in showing our vision through our photographs with whatever equipment we have with us. The only way to put them for better use is by experimenting with them. Using them in some unconventional ways and try to come up with some really different images and trust me you dont have to have costly equipments with you to prove this one.

Apply thought!

Cheers,

Ash

  


   

The next small step in LW!

 Its been just over a month since I became a part of Landscape Wizards Team.

 LW is one of its kind in India which is completely dedicated to Landscape Photography. I bet you will find a fine collection of stunning landscape images which is made across India and abroad.

  As a small next step apart from sharing images for viewing, the team has decided to place some wallpapers and calenders for download! Yes! Now you can download these wall papers and Calenders onto your desktops and enjoy the image in its bigger form!

You can download the wallpapers/calenders from the 'Resources' section of the website.

HERE is the link to the site, in case if you are not aware yet!

Cheers,

Ash

Open for Search and Subscription!

   I am no geek in exploring the latest tools on web. But agree that they make your life simpler. Its only recently that I got to know about the 'Subscription' tool and 'Search' option tool which we can embed to the blog space. One enables to Subscribe posts/comments and the other to search the whole blog space. 

Cool stuffs.

I am late I know!

As the world says - Better late than never! :)

Enjoy...

Ash

Angle of light and Texture...

Photography is all about the way of handling and controlling light. It may be either the light falling on the subject or the light falling on the CCD/film. In most of the forms of Nature Photography, controlling the light falling on the subject may not be possible, in which case we need to control the light falling on the CCD to make the image how we want to portray. But in some cases it is possible to control the light falling on the subject and that opens up a Pandora's box of opportunities.

In macro photography it is not only the amount of light which matters but what also matters is the angle in which it falls on the subject. In most of the cases the angle defines the structures and gives more textured feel.

In the below series of images I will illustrate how does the angle of light change the feel of the image.
All the images were shot with/compensated for the same exposure values. I have used Nikon SB 600 flash for the experiment, with Body: D300 and lens: Nikkor 50mm f/1.8. I have NOT applied sharpness for any of these images while processing and they are just out of the camera with only JPG conversion and resizing for web publication.

The below image was lit with flash almost perpendicular to the plane of the tree bark. Note that there are not much details visible on the bark. The image looks very flat and the moult of the Cicada is also not visually highlighted.



Now consider the below one where I have lit the bark from the top right corner. This highlights some of the textures which were not visible in the previous image. But still the image looks flat on the bottom portion.




In the next image I tried lighting from the bottom right. This added a bit more drama on the right side of the frame and the textures have come out good. The Cicada is also lit from the side and gives a better anchor for the visual. However the left part of the image went too dark and creates an uninteresting empty space.




This time I lit the bark from the bottom and almost at the center of the lower edge of the frame and close to the plane of tree. This created good amount of drama. The play of light and shadows created a nice feel to the image (at least for my taste!)



So we can see that, how the texture and feel differs depending on the angle of light falling on the subject. If you compare the first and the last image you can see a mammoth of difference in terms of the texture and feel of the image. If you had noticed carefully its the shadows which create drama and dynamism in these kind of images and to make the most use of it we need to experiment on the angle of light falling on the subject. If we cannot move the light source then we need to see if changing our shooting angle helps in creating this drama of light and shadow.

This is nothing new thought. Just an experiment from my side. You can read a related post by Ganesh H S - HERE .

Regards,
Ash

Yana - graphically!

Though I belong to the region of Sahyadris and close to Yana, I have been there only for couple of times till now!....The second time in that "couple of times" was just over a month ago!! :) Curse me and I take that!

Yana, I must say, is a wonderland for Landscape and abstract photography. You get some wonderful perspectives if you spend some time there.



Pramod, Shiv and self were there on an early morning and the whole place was completely void of any human beings! The pundits of the temple and a small coffee shop owners are from a nearby village and they arrive there only by 10 - 10:30 in the morning. Till then the whole place belongs to the fairy blue birds, scarlet minivets, Malabar whistling thrushes, Emerald Doves,Golden fronted Leafbirds and above all for the wonderful Ruby throated bulbuls! They all literally rule the place till almost 9:30 and as the sun starts his routine walk over the Bhairaveshara Shikara, they all fine their way into the thick forest again where some go to the canopy and some on the forest floor and some to the nearby stream beds!

The rock formations of Yana are no less than any Natural wonders. Stud in the middle of thick evergreen forest of the Western Ghats, they look huge and majestic when you see them for the very first time. I bet, everyone on their very first visit will skip a heartbeat when they see the main rock - Bhairaveshwara Shikhara. It has to be seen to believe.



While we were shooting, an idea came to my mind after seeing the unique edges of the rocks. 'They look like graph' !

I exposed only the top portions of the rock and underexposed the image very much so that I get the edges but as completely black.

Then while viewing on my computer they looked very interesting even if I invert the image! That what I did for the below one.




So if any of you have not visited the place yet, just plan your next trip there. Its not far, but more than worth visiting.

Some more images of Yana will be shared on Landscape Wizards.

Cheers,
Ash

Kukkana Gudda - an experience....

"They have arrived and this time we have to make it." Adithya Biloor's voice was filled with joy when he told this to me that night over the phone. It was the mid of monsoon and in that part of the Western Ghats the monsoon is ruthless.

On the backwaters of Linganamakki Dam which is built across river Sharavati, there are plenty of very interesting places to photograph. Some like Honnemaradu are quite familiar to people while many others are not.



This place is called Kukkana Gudda by the local people and 'Kukka' for them means the bird - whether it may be Black headed Ibis or Crested Night herons or Little or Median Egrets. They all belong to the family of 'Kukka' for them! :) And 'Gudda' means mountain (in this context it means island!).

As I was planning for three day photo trip to the places around Sirsi on the first weekend of Sept
2009, I some how had to squeeze time in between to make a trip to explore Kukkana Gudda which almost no one has photographed before. Thanks to Adithya Biloor who has arranged for a small coracle (or boat or whatever you call, as there is no English word for what is used here - "Teppa" in Kannada) and couple of Life jackets! As it takes around 45 min to reach the island on boat, where you will be sitting about 1 inch below the water level and the boat wobbling because of the heavy winds, the life jacket seemed appropriate. I wish if there were a life jacket for my camera gears as well! ;)

That day when I landed there at his place, it was slightly drizzling and the Sun was playing hide and seek behind the fast moving low level clouds indicating the unpredictability of the weather.
After spending some time in the morning in the Jungles around by trying some macro we were all set in the afternoon to head to Kukkana Gudda.


It was a slippery road which took us to a small village on the bank of backwater. The person who was supposed to take us to the island is basically a fisherman. There were couple of other houses also nearby.

After a warm greeting we directly headed towards the place where he had his coracle, placed upside down. His brother was nearby who will also be joining along with us. A single person is not enough to drive the coracle. The heavy winds will drive away the coracle in different directions and it needs some excellent skill to control it.



As soon as we stepped inside the boat I realized that we are in fact 1 or 2 inch below the water level and that made a chill to ran through my spinal chord! It was a different experience not to mention that how much scary too!

We started. Slowly but steadily we were moving. The atmosphere was promising with patches of clouds lingering around. Far distant mountains were under the black shade of rain clouds but they seemed too thick to move to us within couple of hours before which we were planning to return to the shore.


What looked like a very tiny island from the shore ,started looking like a considerable sized one. As and when we started moving closure the birds there slowly started realizing that they have guests!

Unlike other heronaries like Gudvi or Ranganatittu, the birds here are not get used to people. So they started becoming alert as our coracle approached nearer.



There were Black Headed Ibis, Median Egrets, Little Egrets, Crested Night Herons, Little Cormorant, and Pond herons and all in good numbers. The habitation was consisting of shrubby and thorny bushes which was providing a nice canopy for the birds to breed.



We slowly circled the island sitting on the coracle. Never got down from it because of the fear of disturbing the birds too much. Slowly they seemed to be accepting our presence and started to returning to their ground.


As it is the backwater, there are several dead tree tops which are buried underwater several years ago. The birds which take off will find that place convenient to sit. It provided some nice photographic opportunity.







The photography was tough because of the speedy winds and wobbling boat and no hard surface to stand.




After spending around 30 min around the island we thought that it was time to head back as the clouds started gathering.


It was another man's turn now to row the coracle and we were all set to become drenched in rain! The thick dark clouds were gathering faster than we expected. I packed my camera inside a plastic bag along with the long lens. There was a thick plastic blanket which the fishermen use which proved useful for me. After I packed them to protect from rain, I started enjoying the showers sitting in the middle of the water.




By the time we reached the shore the rain had disappeared again. The air was clean and the visibility was clear. We could still see the island clearly from the shore...The birds were now calm and on their routine.

Their guests are gone.

Cheers,
Ash

A ride to an island! - Kukkana Gudda

Exams are over and I am back! Thanks for all your wishes! :)

It was mid of monsoon and I was expecting a call from my dear friend Adithya Biloor. We had planned last season a visit to relatively an unknown place - Kukkana Gudda, which, during monsoon transforms into a place full of activities...




The place is very compelling but definitely not the path for it....Strictly not for weak hearted...

Will share my experience....soon...

Stay tuned in....


Cheers,
Ash

Paradise Lost...but...partly regained!

It feels terrible when you find that all your hardwork went into vein, that too without a single mistake of yours...I underwent the same trauma couple of days back and now feeling better...

It is that time of the year when I head towards the Western Ghats to capture the monsoon mood of the Western Ghats. I am big fan of the wetness that you get to feel in the Western Ghats during the monsoon.



Three days - Unchalli Falls, Muregar Falls, Satoddi Falls, Magod Falls, Jenukal Gudda, Yana and Gudvi.... poised itinerary and an equally poised weather and three firmly determined guys with a back pack and a tripod in hand with leech socks and a cap, telling don't care for the rain and looking out for something unique and different...

Three days of literally exhausting photography and enjoyed every moment of it. Be it waiting for 4 hours for the fog to clear at Uncahalli (which never did) or getting wet in rain in Yana we all enjoyed each and every moment... Monsoon is THE time to experience the Western Ghats...



It was an action packed trip with my dear friends Shiv and Pramod. Thanks friends for making this trip so wonderful!



With so many happy moments in mind I just connected my Photobank (where I copy my images during my trip) to my Mac and......it refused to get detected! Ah! What a terrible luck! Tried every possible way. Cursed Mac and tried on Windows and found that Mac was innocent! Windows too refused to detect it! After many trials at last I had to conclude that my photobank had started its eternal journey towards the Heaven! That was not my biggest concern! I knew that he would find a place in Heaven for sure but never thought that he would go there with my 8GB worth of RAW images from this trip!

For that moment I had lost my images! Gone! I had used that card again at Gudvi so there are all chances that even if I run the recovery software I will not get back all my images. May be only a part of it I may get back. Thinking this I ran the recovery software given by SanDisk and it proved that my guess was absolutely right!




I got around 60% of my images back - Good news! And the bad news is that I had plans to make a pano stitch of the wonderful Jenukal but lost all of those images. But really happy that I have some images which I needed badly. Some from Magod and few from Jenukal and Sathoddi... Atlast.....missed by whisker!



Uff!! That was a very close shave!

I had lost the Paradise, but now regained partly!

Cheers,
Ash

P.S. : I have my mid sem exams on Aug 29th and 30th. So I am not spending much time processing my images. Will process and upload rest of the images after my exams. Hope you people will stay tuned...Thanks much!