Sumasuta

When the circle completes, (but) in a wrong way!

2012-01-23T00:06:00.002+05:30

Scenario 1:

It was July of 2007, when I became a member of a small expedition group to find an elusive bird - Laterite Rock Bush Quail in the scrubby and plain areas of Marikanive, near Chitradurga. Subbu sir, Sudhir Shivaram and self were there for three days looking for a bird which was sighted last time by Dr.Salim Ali in the 1940s. That particular sub specie of Rock Bush Quail was always believed to be living around that place but there was no recent evidence for its existence in the present time. We were there to bring a photographic evidence for its existence and some preliminary data about its present state.

The area was largely consisted of brick red or near maroonish soil - laterite soil. Along with rest of the photographs of some of the bird species found in the area, I had made some images of the landscape of the region which included the laterite soil to give the image a context. It was purely from the documentation perspective. After coming back I had shared that image on India Nature Watch (INW).

It was July 2007.

CLICK HERE to see the image on INW.

Scenario 2:

It was on Jan 14th, 2012. I was in a school in RPC Layout where I had been asked to be one of the persons to judge a photography competition conducted as a part of an annual event of Havyaka people in Bangalore called Pratibimba. We were given a classroom where we arranged all the images on desks before we started evaluating them.

After deciding on the winning images, I was looking around in the classroom as there were few charts hanging on the walls which were done by some of the students. They were interesting and made me remember my schooldays when we were also used to prepare these kinds of charts and posters to decorate (!) the walls of the classroom. It was an in-explainable pleasure at those days to see our charts on the wall. Nice feeling it was. I went nostalgic looking at some of those charts in the room.

My eyes went to a chart on 'Types of soils in India'. Hmm...Interesting one, I thought. I started reading the chart and that's when the photo of the Laterite Soil gave me a feeling of deja vu! I stared at it for quite some time and it took me really some time to believe that it was my photo, which I shot during my Marikanive trip and subsequently shared on India Nature Watch! Wow! (not an expression for this moment though)

The picture was pasted there on the chart after cutting it from either some book or some chart which is available commercially somewhere. It has been put to use for commercial purpose by some one who just doesn't care about intellectual property and looking for free source in the internet to make their living!

My friend Harsha Bhat, who was with me while I was staring at the picture was totally dumbstruck when I showed him the original photo in my mobile.

The image has completed a full circle - from being in my mind before I tripped the shutter, then to my camera, then to my hard disk, then to the internet, then to some print media (with some revenue to it) and finally here I was standing in front and staring at it in total bewilderment!

The circle was completed, but in a very wrong way.

Thanks Shreenidhi for the photograph.

Sad and no cheers,
Ash

Two men

2012-01-17T00:22:00.000+05:30

When I heard them playing a harmonium and tabla along with the song, I was having my lunch. It was 2:15 on a Saturday afternoon and the heat was intense outside, very unlikely for a winter afternoon. I had come to home by taking a small break from a function and to take my mom.

The duo was going to each home in the street and singing a couple of lines of a song with a near perfect music from the equipment that they were carrying. I observed them for sometime and they seemed not bothered about how much money people were giving. They were hardly looking at the coin or a currency note. They were just stretching their hands, if at all anyone came outside the home to give them something. Otherwise they didn't bother to call anyone and were moving forward.

I couldn't resist myself from jumping out of my dining chair to grab my camera. I hate stopping people just to pose for me. When I am doing people photography or travel photography I prefer to work silently and do not prefer to ask people to pose for my photograph. Hence I wanted to be there near my gate before they get past my home.

When I went to the gate one of the guys with a blue face was just turning around from the home opposite to my home. A silent smile passed by on his face and he greeted me in an elegant manner and said "Namaskara". I dont know why but his smile and gesture touched me. It was very hot outside. The tar on the road was equally hot and here was a guy, in thick makeup and bare foot, who seems so oblivious to all these external uncomforts and smiling and greeting me in a dignified manner as if he was performing in a drama and I am his co-actor on stage! I was deeply moved!

By seeing a camera in my hand the other person also joined this guy and before I telling them anything they silently stood there. I clicked exactly 5 frames before I gave them some money and walked back to home. It was a silent affair. Within a minute everything was over and they were on their way ahead and so was I.

Back at home my mother told me that she has been seeing these kinds of makeup-men during some festival time and told me that doing such things are part of tradition in some community. She told that she will not get surprised even if they both were having a job or doing some business and doing this at this time of the year (around Sankranti) just to keep the tradition alive! I had heard stories of people going like this singing to keep their age old tradition during some particular time of the year but seeing someone fully dressed up as if he is about to go on stage was something which shook me completely. By looking at the way they were treating the people who came forward to give something, in fact, indicated that what my mother was telling may not be wrong. And she was confident about that!

Three days after the event when I looked back at those five photographs today and think, I really find some unknown feelings in myself. A little more thinking with their perspective of the whole act made me realize that what my mother was telling could actually be true. The two men were there to continue their tradition, which was not born out of any superstition but out of a sheer motive to beat the greatest enemy of man - the ego.

They were fighting a battle and I was seeing all the indications of them winning it!

Cheers,
Ash

Web site revisited

2011-12-26T22:55:00.000+05:30

And here I am with another set of images from the place where I made the previous set.

Last weekend when I went to the place with my friend Ramesh Adkoli it was completely covered in mist and the visibility was very very less. In the bitter cold of the morning it took some time to zero in on the kind of web which I was looking for.

I love winter just for this. Everything around gets covered in mist and the morning chill, though tough to beat at times, just refreshes my mind.

Enjoyed making some images at the place that day.

Sun came out to say a hi only by 8:10AM.

Cheers,
Ash

Winter web site!

2011-12-17T23:49:00.000+05:30

Last time when I went to my practice nets - TG Halli, I had forgotten what I had thought before leaving the place the previous time! I had spotted few web sites! Yes, spider webs! But it was too late that day and Sun was high. So I had left the place thinking that I would visit to that place first in my next practice session. But almost the same was about to repeat, if I had not decided to take a leisure walk.

There were some tall grass shrubs on which there was a tiny colony kind of webs all over. It was then I suddenly remembered my previous visit and rushed to get my camera. Sun was just coming up and the ambiance was mildly misty.

Instead of using my regular macro lens to make some web patterns I decided to go wide. I used my wide angle macro this time which allowed me to go very much closer than the wide angle lenses, thereby achieving the magnification, and retaining the wide angle aspect in the image at the same time. I love my wide angle macro lens - Sigma 28mm f/1.8 - which gives me some unique and amazing perspectives. More about that in a separate post sometime later.

I wish I had spotted it sometime earlier that day. As I was making the images, the mist was slowly disappearing and the light was getting bright. Thanks to the straying clouds I got few spotlights as well.

The next time when I go there this would be high in my list and will try to better some of the results.

Cheers,
Ash

Shapes and forms

2011-11-27T12:20:00.000+05:30

This winter is proving to be very enjoyable for me in terms of photography. The misty mornings that we had for about a month has proved very fruitful. I spent a couple of mornings on the last few weekends at T.G.Halli, on the outskirts of Bangalore photographing that aspect, which we get to see only during the winters - the dews.

Each time when I arrived at the place for the first half an hour or so I was going blank on what to shoot and how. But as the morning sun slowly comes out each time he was opening up the mind and by that time I was immersed in the essence of the place and I was finding myself amidst an immense opportunity each time.

Last time when I went to the place I was moved by some of the shapes and forms of the grass and the way they were beautified by the morning dews. I got glued to my viewfinder for long. The result is this blog where I have shared some of those creations.

Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
Ash

Winter is here

2011-10-24T00:25:00.000+05:30

I love mist. I simply love the feeling of being in mist. Everything around you would be dull and less contrasty and the mood is simply amazing.

After quite a good break I went back to my favorite photography backyard - TG Halli last weekend. As I was little late in reaching the place I had missed the morning mist. But while searching for a subject to work on when I lied down to the level of the grass the surrounding looked amazingly fresh. There were tiny droplets of the mist on these grass and the wings and the body of the damselfly was also having tiny sparkles of the mist. It was an amazing sight when I saw from the low angle.

Here I am presenting to you some of the images which I made on that morning. Nothing much to share in words.

Winter is here.... and.... I love it.

Cheers,
Ash

Silent bells

2011-10-21T00:11:00.000+05:30

It is a small village near Yellapur, a small town where I spent all my childhood. There is a temple of Ganapathi, which is popular among the people around Yellapur and Sirsi. The place is Chandguli. A serene and calm place amidst forest and it is one of the places which is closer to my heart. I had felt an unexplainable feeling when I had been there for the first time!

It was a feeling that I was there before. A feeling that I belong to that place! Never ever it happened to me till today in any other place! No, it was not a deja-vu (which I often experience on many occasions!). I had felt a connection. My faint memory says that I was in my 11th or 12th standard then.

The temple has several thousands of bells which devotees offer to the Lord when their wishes come true! A ritual which we see in several temples across India, in various other forms of offerings. The complete temple is completely surrounded and stuffed with bells. If they all make sound together then I bet many people from nearby villages also would go deaf! Yet they are all hanging there silently, without making any sound.

They just remind me of Buddhist monks or a Hindu saints who practice silence. These saints, though belong to the same kind - humans, who are making loud noise all over the world, they have realized that the inner peace is attained only in silence. These silent bells resemble those elegant people so much.

They are all celebrating silence at that place.

Please note that photography is prohibited at the place and I have made these images with prior permission from the staff there.

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Results of BBC Wildlife Photographer Of the Year are out. My dear friend Adithya Biloor has won the runner up award in the Nature in Black and White category for his wonderful image of an ant on the leaf. You can visit his site - Lens and Tales to view many of his wonderful images.

Another good friend of mine - Nilanjan, who had won the same title last year has another of his wonderful image winning a Highly Commended in the Behaviour-Birds category.

Feels great to see some Indian names in the winners list.

Heartily congratulations to Adithya and Nilanjan!

Cheers,
Ash

At times when I looked up...

2011-09-25T23:57:00.001+05:30

Clouds are something which give me an array of emotions.

When the clouds are heavy and dark I get scared about their tensed mood and the way in which they give the feel that they will wash away everything beneath them.

Then on a winter day when the sky is lovely blue few small clouds here and there give me a nice feel of some wanders with no idea about their destination.

They make me smile and I keep watching them for quite a long time till either they vanish into the air or move far far away. My heart feels very light after seeing them.

These are some of the images which I had made over past couple of years (the recent ones being today) which depict different moods of the clouds (and mine as well ?!!).

All images are made from my balcony at home.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Cheers,
Ash

Seeing beyond obvious

2011-08-15T23:31:00.000+05:30

Sometimes on the field I get glued to one particular subject or scenery for quite a log time and it takes several hours for me to come out of it.

One such thing happened recently to me when I found a pair of small flowers with an interesting arrangement. I got so much impressed with their relative posture that I spent a good couple of hours shooting only them.

For me their stance resembled that of a man and a woman with the man leaning forward towards the woman.The gentleness on the flowers and their opened structures were giving a pleasing mood to the entire scenery.

It was like a handsome gentleman proposing to a beautiful and graceful lady. Resemblance of the bud is left to the imagination of the viewer though! ;)

Blame it to my state of mind but I got too much carried away by the show that without my notice I had spent a good two hours exploring all the possibilities to capture the scene with different combinations of focal length and light.

It was fun. Initially I decided to shoot with the ambient light and once I was quite satisfied then I decided to throw in some directional light using a off-the-hot-shoe flash.

The flash light added a different dimension to some of the images. In some of the images they looked like celebrities!! I started loving the feel of the result and that kept me going. By that time I was kind of addicted to the scene and was not in any mood to explore anything else around.

I had used predominantly two focal lengths - 50mm and 28mm with a combination of various aperture values ranging from f/1.8 on both till f/7.1 combined with various light intensities and directions. Each combination had its own uniqueness. Though some of them suit my taste bud and some didn't, the process of making these images gave me a very good learning.

What you are seeing here are some of those which are close to my heart.

Hope you enjoy the set. Sometimes images like these exist in our very own vicinity.

We just have to keep our eyes open to see them

Cheers,
Ash

Life in abundance

2011-08-08T00:22:00.000+05:30

Monsoon is the life-line of Western Ghats. It not only transforms the land into a green carpet but also enriches the life forms during that time.

One can see various types of wild flowers, vividly colorful mushrooms, richly green ferns and a rich number of other life forms like frogs, insects, cicadas and various other critters. With abundant food available it is no less than a festival time for the predators!

Last time on my visit to Jenukal Gudda, near Yellapur, I had a nice encounter with a Green Vine Snake. That was the first and the only time I photographed a Green Vine alive! Though I have been seeing this species of snake ever since my childhood, it rarely showed up since the time I started the photography. Hence I was excited to shoot this guy and he obliged happily.

During this year's Western Ghats trip in July I was expecting this species of snake to show up in one or the other place we visited. I always had my eyes open to find this one but all went in vein.
In all the places there were cicadas, frogs and other insects abundantly rich in number but there was no sign of a Green Vine.

With forest fragmented due to the construction of roads and highways these snakes have a constant pressure to sometime cross the road in order to find food or mate. That makes them vulnerable not only to the fast moving vehicles but also to their predators. These guys are masters in camouflaging. You just cannot find them once they are into some green shrubs or a tree. It is just next to impossible to find them if they don't move and they know that! For such a camouflaged guy it is nothing less than a disaster to come on the bare surface of a tar road where he is easily visible from anywhere. It is like getting onto a battlefield...unarmed!

Road kills are common across the Western Ghat region. During monsoons there is no surprise if the number goes high. The forests and its fringes will be filled with food and life and the grass looks greener on the other side of the road (!), which tempts guys like these to venture out into the bare tar roads and to cross them in desperacy!

The results are disastrous many times. We were a witness to one such road kill during this year's trip in July. It feels terribly sad to see such a charmingly beautiful creature lying flat on the road dead with its inside out!

No cheers,
Ash

Moist ~ Green ~ Lively - Season's first Trip to Western Ghats

2011-07-18T21:00:00.002+05:30

...

Cloudy weather ~ Expecting clouds to pour down anytime ~ gathering dark clouds ~

Peeking sunbeams through the dark clouds, confusing if it would rain or clear off ~ drizzling ~ distant thunders ~ water sprinkles ~

sound of raindrops hitting the car bonnet ~ bubbles on the still water on the road ~ ripples on the calm waters ~

looking up towards the sky ~ street full of dark umbrellas ~ people rarely looking straight ~ bent heads ~ wet roads ~ filled pot holes, defying their depths ~

rich greens ~ moss on the rocks and logs ~ wonderful ferns ~ colorful mushrooms ~ splendid wild flowers ~ wet forest floor ~ stretching and crawling leeches ~ wet dead leaves ~

muddy red waters ~ full flowing rivers ~ re-incarnated waterfalls ~ silently flowing forest streams ~ skiddy and slippery river banks ~ submerged dead trees ~

cloudy forests ~ lively valleys ~ misty canopies ~ singing streams ~ bathing rocks ~ smiling plants ~

This is what Monsoon in the Western Ghats is all about.

Isn't it? :)

All images are from my recent trip to Western Ghats between 8th and 10th July 2011.

Planning again in Aug.

More details here:
http://www.landscape-wizards.com/home/services/workshops-and-tours

Cheers,

Ash

Faces from the land of mines!

2011-07-04T00:04:00.004+05:30

It was a hot summer month of May. I was in the district of Bellary, which is known for its super hot summers and as a land which is badly hit by the mining or rather over mining, to be specific!

I was there at Hospet, along with my friend Shivakumar L to shoot some of the people portraits and culture images of the people around Hospet, Hampi and Sandur. We were there on an assignment. It was almost a first of its kind for us. We both were excited. We both were used to shoot for the whole day when it is Nature or WIldlife Photography. But people photography was something which I had not done much for so long hours.

We were going around Hospet and Sandur along with our friend Samad Kottur who was helping us with talking to the people and convincing them to allow us to shoot. It was because of his immense energy and knowledge about the place and people which made the trip a success.

We visited the Lambani settlement around Sandur. Lambanis are known for their vibrant colored clothes and they make those clothes by hand, mostly at home itself. We had the privilege to visit a Lambani village and make some images of women making the clothes at their homes.

We met two young guys who were working in a nearby mining refinery. One of the guy's head was nicely bathed with the fine dust of the ore. They seemed kind of unknown about the cause of the over mining and what they were concerned about was their daily wage which was barely enough to live their life and ofcourse to recharge their mobile!!

People we met were interesting! It was a nice learning for me. Both photographically and personally.

Approach to this genre of photography demands a very different skill set.

I am happy that I am learning it!

Cheers,
Ash

Monsoon is here, but I am still in the summer!

2011-06-17T16:30:00.002+05:30

Life has been very hectic in past couple of months. I was not finding enough time to update the blog. Apologies for that.

Quite an experience I had during these two months. Visit to the places around Daroji – Hampi for a culture and portrait shoot, visiting Ooty in March and a small trip to Sirsi, which was primarily to attend some family functions but turned out to be fruitful from the photography perspective and few more such nice experiences. Unfortunately the images are lying in RAW in my hard disk. Struggling to find right time and mood to process them and share it across.

Meanwhile here are few images from my trip to Ooty along with my friend Shivakumar L in March!!!

Better late than never! :)

Gearing up for the monsoon… I am excited!

Cheers,

Ash

Met him after an year!

2011-04-25T23:03:00.001+05:30

It was on Jan 31st, 2010. I was at Indian Institute of World Culture auditorium on BP Wadia road, Bangalore. I was there to attend a book releasing function of Nagesh Hegde.

One particular face caught my attention. He is a watchman there. I have no idea what drew my attention, but I felt a strong urge to make a portrait of him. That was one of the very few occasions when I had asked a person to sit for a portrait. The function was going on inside. I made his image just outside the hall.

After one year and two months on 16th April, 2011 I felt a strong urge to give him a print of his image which I made an year ago. I was having no idea if he is still working there or not. At the time when I had photographed him he was quite old.

I made a print of the image and went there to the same place on 17th April.

He was still there. Re arranging all the chairs, who were all scattered as a function has just ended. Another book releasing function!

I showed him his image. He smiled. He felt a strange feeling, more of happiness and little bit surprised and asked "Have you come all the way from there just to give this photo to a person who is nothing?!!". I was silent. Had only a smile on my face. I didn't talk. I felt the words would dilute the emotions. He then said 'Thank you sir'. I bowed my head.

No words again.

I asked him if he could give me a chance to make another image, this time by holding the print. He happily agreed. I was expecting a smile on his face this time, though I dint say it explicitly. Surprisingly he posed in the same serious way and it was natural. I dint say a word.

Made few images. Thanked him. Came back.

I was happy and smiling when I stepped out on the BP Wadia road.

Cheers,
Ash

Going Pelagic - The Second Innings!

2011-04-13T00:13:00.004+05:30

As indicated in my earlier post - Out In the Ocean I made another trip to the Ocean last week! This time it was at two places, back to back. First day at Mulky which was arranged by Shivashankar and the next two days at Kannur, Kerala which was arranged by Praveen J as a part of MNHS (Malabar Natural History Society). I was fortunate to be a part of a group of sixteen which consisted of eminent birders and photographers from Karnataka and Kerala. So needless to say this time it was big, much bigger than my previous time.

Arctic Skua Taking Off

We headed out towards Karkala on Friday afternoon itself and the plan was to reach Karkala and have some sleep before the dawn breaks out and hit the ocean before Sun comes out to have his tea! Plan went well and we reached Karkala at 1:30AM or so and hit the bed immediately after setting the alarm to ring at 4:45AM! I knew that the next three days are going to be very hectic and all of our sleep would be taking a toll on most of the days! I was not entirely wrong!

Floating Greater Crested Tern

Morning 5:15AM and we were ready to head towards Mulky. Shiva joined us along with Breakfast and Lunch packets. We were at the shore, to board the boat at around 6:30AM. The plan was to leave the shore in one boat and the second would come at around 9:30AM with Subbu, Ramit and others to join us in the ocean. The boat at Mulky was a bit smaller for the number of people, which was nine. After the lesson from my previous trip I was cautious enough to swallow one anti-omitting tablet much before we left the shore. Not taking the tablet took a toll of two of the team mates - Atanu and Vinaya who, soon after some time, kept themselves very busy in putting everything out in the ocean, repeatedly! It is very much important to take the anti-omitting tablet before hitting the sea, if one is not a frequent sea traveler.

Floating Lesser Crested Tern

The waters of Mulky, as before was not showing any signs of any pelagic birds activity. We were shooting the usual Greater and Lesser Crested Terns and some Common Terns along. Everyone were very attentive and constantly looking out for something new. Then the luck struck, "What is that??!! What is that??!! That's a pelagic!!" Rajneesh Suvarna shouted. There was the sighting of our first pelagic bird - the Shearwater. Which shearwater exactly? It was yet to be answered and that could have been done only if any of us had an image! Shearwaters are relatively smaller birds compared to Gulls. They approximately of the size of medium sized terns. But the thing which makes them hard to distinguish is that they fly very close to the water surface and disappear very easily among the sea tides. Once they land on water they are very difficult to spot from a distance since their small size hides nicely behind the fluctuating waves. Both of my images were not in focus, thanks to their flight close to the water. The AF of the camera constantly focuses onto the shining waves rather than onto the flying bird.
Luckily Shiva had got an image which was in good focus and initial look at the bird made us to guess that it could be Audubon Shearwater. But later on the third day we concluded that it was Persian Shearwater, which we saw on the next two days, in quite a good number.

Persian Shearwater

After having some discussions over the missed opportunity and possible species, as we were moving on, our luck struck again and an Arctic Skua (Parasitic Jaegar) flew past near to the boat. Luckily most of us got a shot where the bird could have been identified. That was a great cheer for all of us.

But the happiness of seeing the pelagic birds almost ended there itself. None of those birds appeared after that first sighting. All the time we were seeing were the Terns and occasionally few gulls. A small flock of Bridled Tern along with Common Terns and little terns gave a nice show of 'mixed fishing party' quite close to our boat. The day was pale afterwards. We couldn't venture too far into the sea due to smaller size of the boat. We stayed at about 8-10km from the shore and moving parallel to the ground. Till evening not much activity and by 3:30PM or so we were back at the shore. Day 1 was almost over and I was excited about the cricket World Cup Final!

Floating Bridled Tern

That day I would remember forever! I couldn't see a single ball till the 45th over of the second innings and thanks to a roadside hotel on the way to Kannur, we were able to enjoy the winning moments. It would really go down into my memory as one of the unforgettable days. Just because I was about miss the match completely, had we not found that hotel! phew!!

It was 12:10 or so when we reached Kannur and we were told to assemble at 6:30AM the next morning.

Fishing Boat similar to what we were in

The boat in Kannur was quite big, compared to the one at Mulky. It was in fact a fishermen boat which was hired for this purpose. We were joined by birders from Kerala and we were now 16 people on the boat, excluding the boat crew.

Bridled Tern taking off

After the usual sightings of Common terns, Greater Crested and Lesser Crested Terns, it was Bridled Terns who showed up. Many were found around the fishing boats, which were looking for the left out fishes that the fishermen throw into the sea. Terns found that much far into the sea are quite bold and approach the fishing boats without much fear. That was an advantage for us to observe them from close distance. What was interesting to see was that many of the Terns were using the floating things like thermocol, plastic things or even chappals which were thrown into the sea! Some gave very nice opportunity to photograph them.

Persian Shearwater

As the Sun came to the top, we were about 30km from the shore and it was complete water everywhere. Soon the excitement ran as someone spotted a Shearwater.

Persian Shearwater

The first for the day! After that we had several very good sightings of the bird and at noon we ended up having them all around!!

Persian Shearwater

It was a memorable moment for me when our boat was floating very close to a group of about 12-14 Persian Shearwaters! I was having my lunch watching them having theirs!! They seemed fearless and not bothered by our presence. The mid noon Sun has made us so tired that we were having some rest with two people in vigilance for the new birds.

Persian Shearwater

The afternoon was dominated by Skuas. We had never imagined that we would be witnessing the mid air drama just in front of our eyes, so close. Skuas are rowdies at the ocean. They normally don't fish but rely on the birds who do fishing. Terns are their best targets. They harass Terns and make them puke out the fish which they have caught fresh and catch it in mid air and just fly away happily! Their body is made for bullying the smaller birds. They do that so well and so efficiently!

Arctic Skua with Persian Shearwaters

There was a group of Common Terns and crested terns which were fishing together. As we were enjoying the view, some one shouted "Skua, Skua!!". That was it. Before we could even locate the bird, it was behind a Common Tern and the chase has begun already!

Arctic Skua

Terns fly swiftly and take abrupt turns, but Skua was in no mood to give up. I was bedazzled by their maneuvring skills which finally made the tern to give up its catch.

Arctic Skua

Then it was the turn of a Greater Crested Tern! This time there were two rowdies behind it! It was a desperate run for the Tern and equally desperate chase for the Skuas!

Arctic Skua chasing a Common Tern

Arctic Skua chasing a Greater Crested Tern

Arctic Skua fighting among themselves for the fish (Sardinella longiceps)

The wobbling boat was posing a great challenge in following the birds in the view finder. It was an intense chase and at the end it payed off for the Skuas and after fighting among themselves one guy was finally settled with his catch! All the drama had happened just around our boat and everyone were so thrilled that the excitement on their faces was worth watching!

Arctic Skua landing in front of its catch

After the action pact drama we just started our journey back to the shore. On the way, again some Terns and Shearwaters greeted us. No new sightings there after. The day was ended with a wonderful feeling of having witnessed the dramatic life out there in the ocean!

Arctic Skua

Final day was good but without any new sightings. Surprisingly the Common Terns were missing for quite a long time. All the time it was Bridled Terns and they were all around. We met Persian Shearwaters again after sometime and Arctic Skua also greeted all of us. There was one sighting of a Skua which looked like a Pomarine Skua but none of us could get any conclusive image of the bird and hence it ended up as an unconfirmed sighting.

Flock of Common Terns along with Persian Shearwater

In the noon we hit upon a flock of Common Terns who were floating in group on the ocean water. They were in a very disciplined group and all were facing towards the same direction. There were few Persian Shearwaters also in the group. It was nice spending some time with them before we start heading back to the shore. On our way back we saw huge number of Bridled Terns, possibly migrating. They were around 500-600 in number and moving constantly in one direction. The trip ended with a happy note.

Floating Bridled Tern

Photographing from the boat was not at all easy by any means. All the three elements will be in teh constant move - the bird, the boat and the camera! Balancing my body itself was a challenge, forget about shooting! This was, for me, by far the most difficult condition to photograph. Getting the bird in the frame was a big challenge and achieving the focus on the bird was the next mammoth task. The trouble was manifold when the water was in the background. Success rate was very less for all the photographers and the shooting was mainly for the documentation purpose.

The team of Day 1 at Kannur, Kerala

I thank Shivashankar Nayak, Dipu K and Praveen J for organizing and giving me an opportunity to become a part of this wonderful expedition.

Cheers,
Ash

Watch out for some of the non-nature images from the trip in the coming days!

Coming Soon - The Pelagic saga continues...

2011-04-10T23:54:00.002+05:30

This time it was no small trip....Three days of back to back Pelagic birding....

Experienced tiresome birding and gruesome heat....

It was no happy ride on any of the days.... A true expedition with eminent birders....

An experience in itself.... and.... this time there was no disappointment in the end...

High action drama unfolded in front of our eyes on the second day and the sheer number of birds on the third day kept our jaw dropped...

Will be sharing the images and my experience from the expedition soon...

Keep tuned...

Cheers,
Ash

Why visit the same place again?

2011-03-24T13:51:00.000+05:30

This is the question that many of my non-photography friends (and my father also!! :))ask me and few of my photography friends have it in their mind (but don't ask openly! :)).

What is it that makes one to go to the same place again and again. Instead why not to different places each time? What is the reason behind my several repeated visits to some places like Kodachadri, Sathoddi falls or other places in the Western Ghats in the past two years. Why dint I chose different places each time?

I have tried to answer these questions in my blog on Landscape Wizards.

CLICK HERE to read what makes me go to such places again and again...... and again!

Cheers,
Ash

Out in the ocean!

2011-03-15T11:27:00.001+05:30

It was January and I got a mail from my friend Shivashankar Manjunath from Karkala that he is planning for a pelagic birding off the coast of Mulky. As there was no record of pelagic birding done in Karnataka I was very much excited to be part of it. Shivashankar had done all the arrangements of the boat and there were few more friends who would be joining the trip.

29th morning Anush Shetty and self landed in Udupi. The starting point was Mulky and we reached there by 7:15 or so and Shivashakar was there waiting for all the team members to join. When all gathered the watch clocked 7:45 or so and we headed straight to the place where the boat would be waiting for us.

It was a medium sized motor boat which can accommodate 7-8 people comfortably. After having some good sightings of stork billed kingfisher and small blue king fisher we started our journey into the sea.

The plan was to scout the area of about 8-10kms from the shore. Shivashankar had seen a patch of rocks at about 8 kms from the Kapu shore. So we targeted that place to look out for some pelagic birds. Pelagic birds are also called as Oceanic birds which are mainly confined to the open sea areas and seldom found near the shores. A similar survey done near the coast of Cochin in November was successful in recording some very interesting sightings of few pelagic birds like Flesh footed Shearwaters, Masked Booby, Arctic Skua and few others, which very rarely come near the shores. We were also expecting a few sightings like this. It was just taking a chance!

We reached the place of the group of rocks after about one hour. On the way we sighted quite a number of GreatCrested Terns, Black Headed Gulls, Caspian Terns and groups of Sanderlings and Turnstones. But since all these can be found near the shores as well, we were not keen on them. We had no clue of any pelagic bird yet.

After reaching the place we found quite a good number of white markings on the rocks and few Blue Rock Pigeons! But no signs of any guests which we were expecting. We waited there for about 15 - 20 minutes before we decided to head back as the sun was right above our head and there was not even a small clue as to if we could see any. On the way back we had a good sighting of Dolphins!

We were back at the shore by afternoon and after having our lunch we decided to bird along the coast of Mulky itself. The birding in the afternoon proved useful as we had some good sightings of the flock of Sanderlings, Terns and Gulls and mixed party of Sand Plovers and Turnstones. All were in good numbers and we saw some very nice acrobatic flights of the flock. It was a nice evening with some good photography opportunities.

Though the main purpose of the trip was not fulfilled completely what remained was our effort to find the pelagic birds on the coast of Mulky.

Shivashankar is planning for another one in the month of April and I am definitely game for it! the main challenge is to coupe with the sea sickness which, if happened, keeps one continuously busy omitting on the open ocean for hours together! :D

I was lucky! :)

Cheers,
Ash

Ah! Taj!

2011-02-14T00:08:00.004+05:30

What else can be given as a testimony for true love other than the Taj!

This is one monument in India which doesn't require any introduction across the world.

People pour in from around the world just to have a glimpse of this architectural wonder!

Not only for the architecture marvel but mainly for the emotion behind it.

People have smiled with deep content after seeing this...

People have screamed with utter joy after seeing this...

People have literally wept for hours after seeing this...

This is Taj...

One has to see it to believe it... It is truly magical...

I was lucky to get a nice colorful sunset and a vibrant sunrise on a winter day when I was there in Agra.

Internet carries tonnes and tonnes of images of Taj. I was moved very much by McCurrys images from this place.

My only intention was to be back with at least few different images of this Mecca of love.

I hope I have succeeded at least a little.

Cheers,

Ash

Padhaaro Mhare Des!

2011-01-23T00:11:00.002+05:30

Rajasthan - The Royal Land....Truly!

Inside Jaipur Palace

The state has varied colors. Feels like people here just love colors like crazy!

Visited Jaipur in last October.

I was there for just one day. It was more like a tourist than a photographer.

Truly a Pink City. Not only for its emblematic Hawa Mahal, but for its Old Jaipur parts.

There are loads of info you can always find on Internet for this amazingly famous place. So I will not bore you with my textual descriptions. All I have to say is that... I just fell in love with this place.

Hope you enjoy the images...... and this time its only images!

(Click on the images to view them big)

Inside Amber Fort

A tourist inside the Amber Fort

Inside Jaipur Palace

Inside Hawa Mahal

My dad looking through the window inside Amber Fort

A window inside Amber Fort

Raja's private place, Amber Fort

Various designs on the doors inside Jaipur Palace

Amber Fort

You might have seen hundreds of this kind of image. This is 101th. :)

Hawa Mahal

Amber Fort

At Choki Dani - A must visit place

View on the left of Hawa Mahal

I was moved! But she didn't!

Sometimes it looks like a brick wall

and

sometimes as a window!!

One of the several windows inside the Amber Fort. Not many would realize this illusion! People were walking very casually without even noticing it.

I could not resist to capture this.

Cheers,

Ash

Along the shores of Mulky and Marevanthe...

2010-12-23T00:35:00.001+05:30

West coast of India was always high on my list to photograph. Though not very far from Bengaluru (just a night journey by bus) I somehow couldn't make it all these time since I started photography.

But this time thanks to my friend Anush Shetty who initiated the thought of doing a shore birding around Udupi and Kundapura, I could make it happen. Our another friend Vinayakumar T also joined the team. It was fun.

After initial planning we contacted Shivashankar M and Ramit who regularly do birding around Karkala and Udupi for giving us some pointers as to when to go for what and what to expect in which place. Both of them were very helpful and they accompanied us on our visit to St.Mary's island on the evening of the first day.

The plan was to visit Mulky in the morning which has some nice mangrove forest around and thats where we can find the waders in good number. After getting down at Udupi and having our breakfast we took the bus towards Mulky and we were at Mulky by 7:45AM. Locals call the mangroves as 'Kandla-vana'.

We were greeted by a Stork Billed Kingfisher (but no good images) as soon as we got down from an auto-rickshaw. From the place where we got down from the Auto we could see the mangrove forest and the waders were all around. Initially we sighted only few, like Common Redshank, Common sandpipers and few commons like Little egret and Small Blue Kingfishers. But the uncommon for us was the Little Green Heron which made sure that it didn't come into too much open but gave us a very good sighting opportunity.

After a walk for few yards, Vinaya pointed out a good white patch on what seemed to be like an island. Wow! They were all roosting waders! There were Lesser Sand Plovers, Greater Sand Plovers, Sanderlings, Terek Sandpipers, Redshanks and few others as well.

The road towards that part of the backwater was not straight. In fact there was no road at all! We went to a nearby home and entered the mangrove from there on. My initial thought was that the water may be little deep and we may not be able to go much far. But it was not!

Soon we came out on the other side of the mangrove and it was like heavenly setting for photography. The light was excellent and the scene was amazing. You will have sea on one side and clear shallow water on the other and birds also didn't seem to shy!

All three of us enjoyed thoroughly and since it was first time for all of us w.r.t. waders and shore birds, we spent some time learning about few identification as well.

For photography there were plenty of things to do but my focus this time was mainly birding. It had been quite some time since I did some serious birding and I was enjoying the process. It was mesmerizing there on the backwaters of Mulky.

By the time we slowly exhausted the Sun had already come quite high and we were slowly started feeling the heat. But being there in winter has that advantage of not getting exposed to scorching sunlight and heat. It was pleasant the whole day, at least for me. But Anush might have a different opinion. :)

Apart from many of the waders we sighted good number of Blue Tailed Bee Eaters and Brahminy Kites. An unidentified snipe flew away when we were walking in the nearby paddy field. The skulky bird that we saw in the mangrove might have been a Rail. But no clear sighting.

But for us the morning was made. Very good number of birds and most of them are rare in and around Bangalore. So it was a refreshing morning for all of us and the next thing we all wanted was some food! It was clocking 11:30 by that time.

Afternoon was planned to spend on St.Mary's island. Shivashankara and Ramit had told us that they would be joining and they did. At 4:00PM we were standing in the queue to board the ferry which was taking us to the island which is about 45 min ride from the shore.

The light was fading slowly and the sky was empty. Shivashankara and Ramit had told us that there are chances of sighting Great Crested Terns around the island and there exists a roost as well. We were excited and had our eyes open. But for our misfortune there were not even a single bird on the roosting spot and none in the sky as well.

St.Mary's island is an excellent place for a landscape photographer. There are innumerable opportunities for various types of landscape photography. Since it was a birding tour to me I deliberately travelled without my tripod. Hence I was limited by my chances of making some seascapes. You would be seeing some of my seascapes from this trip in the upcoming updates on Landscape Wizards.

While we were on our way back, we sighted three Terns far off in the sky. 'Looking at the size, they may be Crested or Caspian Terns' Shivashankara told. The day had ended for us with a very good number of waders in the morning and a fantastic sunset at St.Mary's island. It was time to head to Kundapura where we stayed at Anush's grandma's house(or a bungalow?) which was at around 10 kms from Kundapura and had plans to explore Marevanthe beach the next day. When I was closing my eyes the atmosphere around was resonating with the calls of Nightjars.

After sipping a lovely morning tea we headed towards Marevanthe beach. It was a partly cloudy day and by the time we reached Marevanthe it was around 6:45AM. Marevanthe being a plain beach with not much rocks around poses a less chance of seeing much waders. We were hoping for some Gulls or Terns which come near the shore at times. But during our walk in the morning along the beach not much birds were sighted. A Common Greenshank proved a good friend who gave some good images for all of us. :)

Except for Little Green Bee Eaters and few Brahminy Kites the prominent bird was a lone White Bellied Sea Eagle which flew past when I was having a wide angle on my camera. It was a nice sighting and Anush was bestowed with a nice image of the massive bird.

I was intrigued by the crabs on the shore. They looked funny to me. They were swift and run quite fast. They used to vanish out of sight within no time into the small holes that they had made all over. They sometime used to run into some waves and run away from some ways! It was fun photographing some of them.

When we were on our way back we say quite a good number of white fliers which might be Gulls of Terns who were flying far far away. The entire morning was not much fruitful from birding perspective but the Mangalore Buns that we ate in the morning after this birding made us forget everything else. :)

While coming back from the entire trip I was thinking: 'Yeah! What they say in the add of Karnataka Tourism is true!'

"Karnataka ~ One State Many Worlds!"

Much to explore!

Cheers,
Ash

Its up...Its LIVE...Its here... Enter The Trails...

2010-12-15T11:48:00.000+05:30

Click on the above image to enter into the world of breathtaking landscapes!

" 5 Elements, 5 Senses, 5 Seasons, 5 Wizards but one Passion its Landscape Wizards

The Evolution of the trails... "

Finally Its here my dear folks. We, the Team Wizards have come up with a brand new home i.e. a brand new site.

The best part of it is that you can not only enjoy some of the unique landscape imagery from the Team but also can join the forum where like minded people discuss about various aspects of Landscape Photography and share their images as well. No such forum existed in India which is completely dedicated for Landscape Photography. So if you are a landscape photographer or an enthusiast this would be THE forum for you to hone your skills and enjoy the journey.

Welcome!

Let there be good light!

Ashwin

From Pilani to Taj

2010-11-29T00:29:00.002+05:30

To submit my dissertation which I did in order to fulfill my MS degree, I had to travel to BITS, Pilani. Instead of making it a pure examination trip, I decided to spice it up by clubbing a small visit to Jaipur and Agra along with my parents. Even though each of these places are worth staying for months to photograph, my stay there for a mere one day or two was in no way making any justice for the beauty of these places.

A clay art on the wall, Jaipur

After some grueling viva session at BITS, I went on my way to Jaipur which took me four and a half hours to reach using a local bus. It was quite an experience.

Students on their way to school in a local auto rickshaw, Pilani

In the time of just four days I had touched four states - Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttara Pradesh and Delhi! (Whoa!!)

Colorful crafts for sale, Jaipur

Two nights and a day at Jaipur, then couple of days in Agra and then back to Delhi to board the flight towards my homeland in South - this was the plan. Since I was with my parents I dint have much luxury to explicitly buy some time to photograph. I had to be quick in seeing the opportunity and transforming them into meaningful images.

My mother listening anxiously to a palm reader and my father helping her translate Hindi

I didn't do travel photography till then. So it was quite a challenge for me. I was not used to take the camera out in public. I hate public attention. But in order to make travel photography this aspect was a must. Initially I was a bit reluctant but within couple of hours I went normal and my eyes started seeing frames.

This is the very first of the series which I will be presenting from my trip to these places.

The one and only!

It was a completely different journey for me. A road where I had not been before and a place that was completely alien to me as a photographer.

A self portrait - inside Jaipur Palace

Here I was, a Nature Photographer who was trying to find frames in the jungles of the historical architectures amidst the rich colors of cultural diversity.

Hope you enjoy this journey with me.

More coming soon...

Cheers,
Ash

Yana - yet again!

2010-10-31T23:30:00.006+05:30

Yana is a place where almost every photographer has failed!!
Why?
...
...
...

We started from Sirsi at around 6:00AM but by the time we reached Yana, it was 12:30PM!! The road to Yana is so beautiful that we couldn't stop ourselves from getting down and shooting on several occasions!

The streams were flowing in their full beauty through the lush green woods and the wet forest floor was adding more colors to the already vivid ambiance.

It drizzled, it rained, we got slightly wet but nothing stopped us from enjoying making images.

The road to Yana itself is a beauty! You will be driving amidst very thick evergreen forest and at some places roads were laid without cutting a single tree and hence they were very curvy!

When we finally reached Yana it was mid noon. Soon after, a thin layer of low level clouds started to gather and covered the rocks and the forest around.

It is very difficult to capture the sense of massiveness of those rocks. Till date I have not seen any single image which can even come closure to the actual feel of the massiveness of those magnificent rock formations. There are reasons to it!

In order to give the sense of anything (like height, massiveness etc) using a photograph we normally need a scale to compare. For example how much high a structure may be but in a photograph it is felt only when you make a normal person stand beside it and then our mind compares the height and gets a sense of the real height of the structure. Otherwise if we present the structure independently there is no way one can get the sense of its height.

This is precisely why NatGeo Photographer Micheal 'Nick' Nichols, while shooting the tallest tree on earth, made few people stand at certain heights on the tree. The image was published in last year's October issue. That image was a five sheet spread!! I was jaw dropped when I saw that for the first time. I had never seen anything like that till then. You can see a small video of its making and the image at the end HERE.

This is the exact same reason why every photograph of the rocks of Yana fail to give the sense of their massiveness. If you have not gone there yet then believe me the rocks are far far more massive than how they look in any image on the web. You will go breathless at least once and your heart would skip a beat for sure. Take my word!

We tried to concentrate on a lone tree which has succeeded in growing at that height, but then how do you depict the size of the tree? There are smaller trees and there are taller trees. So which one is this? How much is its approximate height? How do you portray that in your image?

There needs a massive amount of work to be done, similar to the one by Nick Nichols, to capture the sense of enormity of the size of those marvelous rocks of Yana and that is not at all easy!

That's why I had told in the beginning -
Yana is a place where almost every photographer has failed!!

Hoping to be successful sometime...

Cheers,

Ash

Note: You can find my older accounts of Yana HERE.

"Be bold and be creative" is the message

2010-10-22T11:15:00.005+05:30

Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year which is popularly known as BBC Wildlife Photographer of the year results are out. You can find them HERE.

As I was going through the winning images Gallery I felt one thing for sure...the juries are making statements with some of their selections.

Bence Mate, a 26 year young Wildlife photographer from Hungary won the Overall Winner award for his amazing image of leaf cutter ants of Costa Rican rainforest.

My friend Nilanjan Das has won Runner up in 'Nature in Black and White' section for his black buck in the storm image. You can find it HERE.

Some of the winning images are very unconventional. For example THIS image of a Polar Bear which won the first place in 'Animal Portraits'! A picture without the head of an animal! How bold the photographer would have been to submit this image to the competition! This fact itself makes a statement that there are people out there who are really challenging the traditional norms of photography. By choosing this image as a winner the juries have silently made a statement that animal portraits doesn't necessarily mean a sharp, clean, closeup image of an animal. That has been done to death and now start looking beyond that.

Not only this particular image but there are several others of them which stand as a testimony to the creativity and boldness exhibited by the photographer. Hats off to the juries for identifying such efforts and showing the world a different set of refreshing images which tell the stories in their own different ways.

Cheers,
Ash

So close yet so far!

2010-10-14T21:54:00.001+05:30

It feels terrible to be so close and yet so far! The pain manifolds when the goal was something you have been dreaming for! And i have felt the pain!

This image of mine was in the finals of BBC Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2010, under the category - 'Wild Places'. It didn't make it to the podium however.

BBC WPOTY awards are the most prestigious awards in the field of Nature Photography. This was the first time I had submitted my images to the contest. Out of thirteen images that I submitted six made their way to the semis and one to the final.

BBC awards will be announced on Oct 21st in their site. They have put up a teaser now in their site which show some of the highly commended images in the contest.
Great to see Sandesh Kadur's image in the preview and feels proud to know another friend of mine who has won a prize this time!

Asking me, who is he? Wait till 21st... :)

For the sneak preview of some of the Highly Commended images CLICK HERE.

Cheers,
Ash

In search of a waterfall

2010-09-13T21:58:00.006+05:30

It was not in my list until I called up Sunil,my cousin, just the previous day of my travel. "Benne holey is a nice place is what I have heard. I think we can complete it by noon and we can have our lunch at our home in Tattisara". These were his words.
As Pramod was joining my trip the next day, I had one day extra with me and I wanted to explore some new places where I have not yet been. So Benne holey sounded a good proposal by him.

Though I was brought up in Yellapur, Sirsi had been my second home (and my birth place too). Almost all my relatives are in and around Sirsi. So being in such a place and acting like a newcomer to the town is hard to me. But I have to undergo this state at least once every year when I am there exclusively to shoot. Sunil knows it well. So he came to pick me up from the bus stand at 7:00 in the morning and we headed straight to one of the restaurants to have some food. It took around 30min to get out from there and hit the road towards Kumta.

It was drizzling. The ground and the greens around were wet. Low level clouds were moving quite fast. Light was changing every now and then. I was excited. It was almost a perfect condition how I wanted it to be. Cloudy days are the best to shoot inside the forest as they reduce the contrast.

While we were driving in the Bandla Ghat, I spotted a nice stream beside the road. It was slightly inside the green foliage. We halted our car and I went to examine the place. It looked promising. I was tempted enough to take my camera out and start making some images. It was quite slippery all around.

The water from the place crosses the road from beneath and flows onto the other side of the road. It flows beside a huge Banyan tree and its roots were looking quite amazing.

We spent nearly one hour there photographing various aspects. I am huge fan of ferns and few ferns there were very beautiful.

It was after an hour when we realized that we might get late to the final point and started from this place. If you are destined to reach a place late you will reach late however fast you go! :) That's what happened!

From the very first turn itself our car was not able to climb a small uphill and we were forced to leave it behind and started walking towards the water fall. The path was nice and the forest was full of life. It was bustling with the calls of Cicada and a Malabar Whistling Thrush was in full mood of singing!

After a walk of about a kilometer, we finally met first human on the road! He was heading towards the road with couple of cows.

We asked him how much more we need to walk to get to the falls and his reply was "You are very near. Barely another kilometer or so!". At that point of time we had no other choice but to believe him! We started again.

As we go deep inside the forest was haunting! There was no sign of any human settlement, expect the road where we were heading. To make the matter worse it was drizzling occasionally and we had bare minimum protection from rain.

We walked and walked and walked....kept on stepping.....the road seemed endless! By the time we almost exhausted we had come about 5 kilometers! Now we could hear the roar of the falls from distance.

While visiting any of the waterfalls in the Western Ghats for photography, one thing to remember is to look out for other small streams on the way to the main falls. Photographically many a times these small streams prove to me small wonders! The same thing has happened that day. We were almost half a kilometer away from the falls and a small stream caught my attention. It was looking more beautiful because of the wild flowers around it. I thoroughly enjoyed the scene and made some images. Sunil was capturing some good movie as he is a professional videographer.

The roar of the falls was getting higher and higher for each step towards it. After a point where we couldn't even see it, we started fearing that with this much full slow whether it is possible to get even the glimpse of the falls! It is notorious anyways because of few mischief people who had lost their lives, the latest one being just a few months ago!

The roar was really strong. We came to a point where we hit a small junction where we could see two roads, one leading to an open space with only few more steps and other which was leading down the valley. By that time we were quite exhausted by our long walk and no food, and the with that much roar we thought it was not possible to reach the base anyways! So we decided to head towards the open space to have a glance of the source of the roar!

Benne holey Falls as seen from the top

As we went near we could realize how tall the falls was. It was literally horrifying! The sound waves that were hitting us were inducing more fear. We couldn't stand there for more than 10minutes. We were forced to head back! The falls was quite furious! It was as if we had disturbed its meditation! We didn't want to take any more chance! We started heading back.

The streams in the forest carry very sweet water! I have tasted it many times. Crystal clear and sweet as sugar! I drank plenty of water near the stream where I had photographed while going. I had just fell in love with that place. That time it was raining quite heavily. I was in no mood to take shelter! We started heading towards the place where we had stopped the car.

While coming back we searched for the man who had told us that the falls is barely a kilometer away! I wanted to clear his misunderstanding! :) For his good fortune, we couldn't find him!

We were thinking of heading back by 11:30 or 12:00 and when I saw my watch after sitting in the car, it was showing 2:45PM! No food....only the sweet water from the stream had kept us alive all the way for 12 kms of arduous path!

Long live Western Ghats!

Cheers,
Ash

Nature Tales dot Net!

2010-09-02T09:58:00.000+05:30

"There is no shortage of "beautiful" images of nature today. How many of them portray the hidden stories of nature ? Nature photographers can make much better images if they know hidden stories of nature. Often this is not the case. On the other hand field biologists and naturalists have this immense knowledge of nature. Nature Stories (NTN in short for naturetales.net) is a unique platform for bringing together both nature photographers and field biologists to share vivid and fascinating stories of mother nature."
- Text from the Home page of NTN

Click on the above image to enter

Our CNP team is proud to introduce another unique non-commercial forum which is dedicated for the images which tell stories. It is going to be a platform for various other aspects also which includes Photo Essays, Ask the Experts, Wild Encounters etc.

Check out and enjoy the Nature Tales!

http://naturetales.net

Cheers,
Ash

Monsoon in the Western Ghats and Ladakh - Spiti in the North!

2010-08-10T15:32:00.000+05:30

It was lush green everywhere. I was at a place where I could see green mountains till my eyes stretch. They all were having clouds at their peaks and few patches of clouds beneath my feat as well. I was standing at the top of a mountain and it was drizzling slightly.

I got up from this dream only when our bus took a steep turn on the road to Kollur at 4:30 in the morning. I was heading to my friend Adithya Biloor place to capture some of the monsoon moods around Kodachadri hills.

The place around Kodachadri transforms beautifully into a magical and colorful landscape during the monsoon. The ‘Karighati’ region which is on the road from Nagara to Kollur is a treat to the eyes and the misty feel in the ambiance is a feeling that has to be felt rather than explain in words.

I had a nice time photographing some of the wonderful streams that gets formed during the monsoon and which disappear silently when the monsoon ends.

To see few more images from this trip on Landscape Wizards CLICK HERE .

Currently I am handicapped by not having my Mac for processing my images from the trip. I shall share more images once I get back the machine.

=========================================================

On the other side Team Landscape Wizards has planned for the Ladakh and Spiti Landscape Photography Tour. That region is a pilgrimage for Landscape photography and this trip is focused mainly towards landscape photography aspect.

To get more details CLICK HERE.

As of now I am off for another trip to Sahyadris.

Cheers,
Ash

Compositions in Landscape Photography

2010-08-03T12:25:00.003+05:30

Monsoon is on and we are seeing green all around. The streams in the mountains are flowing in full flow and the wild flowers are blooming in their intense colors.

This is the time to head towards some of those regions which are at their best in these times. No easy task though but worth all the efforts.

Now, when you are heading towards some of those places to make some wonderful landscape images you probably will need some pointers to make your compositions effective.

To help you with this we, at Landscape Wizards have come up with a guideline on compositions in Landscape Photography. Thanks to Shivakumar L who has prepared this wonderful illustration booklet which will help you in understanding the compositional aspects better.It has only images and they speak for themselves.

To download this booklet CLICK HERE and don't worry, its for FREE. :)

Cheers,
Ash

Kaziranga - a small PhotoBook

2010-07-05T22:57:00.002+05:30

I was working on this last month and it took me about a week to complete all the processing of images for this 20 page book.

It contains 36 images of mine from my trip to Kaziranga last year. I chose only 36 images to test the print quality and it looks good.

Some images I have designed for spread and some for the background. Overall I am quite happy with the quality of the print and looks quite promising to have few more such books of my earlier images! I am thinking...

If you want to have a look at it, you are welcome to knock my doors anytime. :)

BTW, you can view my all posts of my Kaziranga Trip HERE.

Cheers,
Ash

Timeless 'Kanooru Kote'

2010-06-15T11:17:00.003+05:30

Couple of weekends back I along with my friend Nagabhushana visited a desolated remnant of the fort of Kanooru (Kanooru Kote in Kannada) in the heart of the Western Ghats.

It is situated at around 70KM from Sagar in the thickest of the forest where you feel it as a remote corner of the world. Its truly very very desolate.

The feel of the place is very mystic. There is a deafening silence in the place and you could almost feel it. The whole place once used to be the place of some dynasty is now shattered on ground and scattered apart on the forest floor.

Some remnants are still there to tell the story of the past glory. The whole place is now engulfed by the forest and you will find many of the remnants also look like part of the forest itself!

There are couple of temples which are robbed ruthlessly to find the buried wealth beneath the statue in the Sanctum sanctorum. The scene there is horrible and heart wrenching.

Reaching this place was no easy task. The route is awful and very steep at places. It took us quite a lot of time to find out that we are on right track and by the time we reached the place it was 4:00PM! I had about an hour to document the place and that short time is not enough for this mysterious and beautiful place to give justice through the images.

It's in my list to visit again.

I know nothing about its history and Googling also didn't help in getting anything more than the fact that it is a nice trekking spot for the trekking enthusiasts which is perfectly true. So if any of you know about its history or any useful information around this place please feel free to share it as your comment so that it becomes a good documentation on this place on web which is lacking at this point of time.

Cheers,
Ash

A Pano from my land

2010-06-01T23:22:00.003+05:30

I had been to my native last weekend to attend a marriage. On Sunday morning when people were busy in getting ready for the function I managed to squeeze in some time to climb a hillock in the backyard to see some opportunity to shoot.

The morning was little cloudy and the Sun was playing hide and seek behind the clouds now and then. The view from the top was serene and the only way I could capture that vastness was by doing a panorama.

I used my Tokina 12-24mm lens (at 24mm) for making this image. This pano is a stitch of only two images. As I didn't have a tripod with me, I had to choose wider focal length rather than mid range in order to get the alignment correct and for having less number of frames.

You can find some more very nice panoramas made by my friends here on Landscape Wizards

Cheers,
Ash

A 'guftagu' with Ibisbill

2010-05-24T23:27:00.004+05:30

Nameri has a number of different opportunities to shoot. It has dense pristine forest, small scrubby patch and a wonderful river bed. This river bed holds some very nice opportunity to shoot one of the very beautiful birds found in India - Ibisbill. The second day morning was mostly dedicated for the ibisbills which are normally found only while rafting.

The rafting starts almost 14km upstream and the total duration would be around two and a half hours. The currents are not very strong except at couple of places rest of the waters is quite calm. A bit care is indeed required to protect the camera gear from becoming wet but it is manageable.

The landscape of the region is very picturesque. The morning was bit cloudy which had dual effect on our photography. For certain type of images it helped and for some other it didn't. There were two people who were guiding the raft and one of them was a local expert on birds. He was very good in locating the birds in the highly camouflaged environment and identifying them.

The river bed was a calm and quite place and no wonder why the bird density was so healthy. There were large cormorants, river terns, Stone Plovers, river lapwings, king fishers, brahminy ducks, mergansers and of course the ibisbill.

River terns were having a nice morning fishing so as the pied king fishers. Photographing through the raft is quite a difficult task especially if you are using a fixed focal length lens. Zooms are perfectly suited for this condition where you will never know from where the bird approaches you.

After covering about half a kilometer our guide pointed towards a group of stones are called one of them as - Ibisbill!! I was baffled! I checked 3 - 4 times to see the characteristic long red bill of the bird but failed. I started doubting his spotting capacity.

But he was right. There WAS an ibisbill among the wet rocks which was so well camouflaged in between the rocks that for any first timer it was almost impossible to spot them. The difficulty manifolds because of the movement of the raft as well. At the second look I was able to spot the bird and spent next few minutes to help my other two team mates to spot the bird. I was very much impressed by the spotting ability of the guide and thanked him.

We spotted few more ibisbills just after that and one gave us a good opportunity to make some images of the beauty.

They are very beautiful birds and at the same time they are very shy and sensitive too. A bit of disturbance and they are gone...After that very less chances that you will be able to see them again on the downstream.

Not only ibisbill gave good company to us but also couple of huge flocks of great cormorants and couple of pied king fishers well.

We finally saw the mergansers from a bit closer than the last evening. For our luck one flew quite close.

The riverbed offered us some more interesting opportunities. As we moved along we saw a huge monitor lizard just entering a hole on the bank. As we moved further we were able to see only a part of its head stretched out.

Then we came across a barking deer (Muntjac) on the bank of the river. On the white rock the deer was looking amazing. Whatever mammal you get on those white stones is a bonus.

The experience of the rafting was simply amazing. Even though it doesnot come anywhere near to the actual white water rafting, but as this was added with photographic opportunity this was a unique and nice experience for all of us.

We were back on the ground by 10:00AM. Headed straight to the eco camp and started packing our stuffs.

A visit to the pigmy hog conservation camp was pending in the last. We completed that one as well just before the lunch.

By the time we started back to Guwahati it was 2:30PM and my mind was still hearing the voice from within which said - 'One and a half days are no where enough for this wonderland called NAMERI'.

Cheers,
Ash

Meeting the elusive White Winged Wood Duck at Nameri

2010-05-07T00:10:00.009+05:30

Nameri - situated on the banks of Jia Borheli river it is regarded as the most beautiful national park of North Eastern India. Though I didnot find many pictures of its landscape on net, I had good hope that it will not disappoint us.

It was afternoon when we started from Kazi towards Nameri. Kunwar accompanied us till Nameri as the driver of our vehicle didn't know the exact route. We reached Nameri eco camp at around 6:00 PM. It is around 3 hour drive from Kaziranga.

As it was already evening, we could not explore around the place. The person in charge (Mr Pradeep) has made all the arrangements of our stay and he showed us our hut in the campus. The stay in Nameri is in eco camp which is very neat and clean. It lies in the buffer zone of the National park and the core are is at about a kilometer walk from that place. One has to actually cross the river Jia Borheli to enter into he national park. The crossing is via a boat, driven by forest guards. Meenaram was our guide for the trip in Nameri and Pradeep had told us that he is one of the best guides of the region.

After having a very nice dinner, by the time we hit the bed plenty of owlets were calling all around the place.

The next morning Meenaram arrived at 5:30 AM and we were ready by that time. After having a cup of tea, we picked up the packed breakfast and started walking towards the river.

As we were nearing the shore the view started opening up more and more and there it was..... huuuge range of mountains till your eyes can see with the river flowing in front of you. Ah! It was a sight to behold. No wonder it is regarded as the most beautiful national parks of NE India, I thought.

As we moved closer Meenaram shouted -"Merganser, merganser".... I was thrilled. I always wanted to see that beauty ever since I saw its image by Dhritiman and here I am, seeing that fast flier in front of me. It was flying at a very low level, almost touching the water surface! But it was fast....very fast.

As I was recovering from that thrill, there was another surprise waiting! Within few minutes, we spotted a group a Wreathed Hornbills flying from that side of the region high in the sky. I skipped a heartbeat and almost choked! It was a dream for me! I had always heard about them seeing them in the skies is like a dream come true!

After recovering from all these initial excitements we crossed the river and now on the other side of the river, in the core zone of the park. The speciality of the park is in fact White Winged Ducks. They are currently found only in this place and very less is known about their other whereabouts and behavioral aspects in India. Many people come to Nameri only to have a glimpse of that one specie and most of the times they return disappointed. We were there to try our luck, and Meenaram has told us that we have a good chance of seeing it as he has the news that there is a pair in the nearby pond inside the forest.

The forest was amazing! It was teeming with life all over. We sighted a peregrine falcon high up on a tree and many black headed bulbuls around the forest check post. The black headed bulbuls found there are in fact cousins of our Ruby throated bulbuls which we find in the jungles of Western Ghats. We also saw pintails and starlings. the trees around also had Blue Faced Barbet and coppersmith Barbets.

But the guy that that held us for some time was Yellow Bellied Fantail Flycatcher, a beautiful tiny bird which has glorious yellow color on its belly and a very cute appearance. It was coming back to the same perch and thus helped us in getting some good images of the bird.

We were on our way to the pond where Meenaram had got the information that White Winged Wood Duck has seen the previous day. To add to that we met a forest officer of the region who was returning from that place also told us that he has seen a couple that morning just half an hour ago. That really excited us.

But the way to reach the place was also equally compelling. Huge amount of life all around. Wonderful butterflies flying all around in the morning light. Too good to resist. As Adi had decided to spend some time in photographing them I too got into business. But we had to start as the Sun was going up quite fast. We were quite near the pond.

Sultan Tit, One of the Jewels of NE

As we approached the pond Meenaram alerted us to watch our step as those birds are very sensitive even for the slightest sound. Meenaram headed the team and went in front. As we went a few meters further for our misfortune we heard fluttering sounds of few birds flying off! Shucks! They were gone! We were as silent as possible but still something went wrong and the pond was now duck-less! :(

All four of us got disappointed as there is no one knows when will they come back again to the place. As we were dejected, Meenaram told us that there is one more pond couple of kms away where there are chances of finding another pair. With little options left we started stepping toward the new destination. Clock was announcing 11:30AM and the Sun was getting ready to get on top.

When we reached the second pond we made a strategy. Meenaram to go ahead and scout the area for any presence of the duck and if found he would come back to get us along. As he was an expert of the area and was very much aware of the care to be taken to find that bird everyone agreed upon this. Meenaram went a little further and called us. He had not seen any bird but was sensing that there could be a pair! We followed him slowly. "Wahan hai...wahan hai" he ushered slowly. Yes! There it was! The elusive duck of the forest pond - White winged wood duck!

Next one and a half hours we spent sitting on the bank very silently. The bird had moved up on the bank and was not visible now. But Meenaram kept telling us that it would come back. It normally takes sometime rest in the shade and comes back to water. As we had not heard anything flying around we were also confident that it has to come out. It was a waiting game there after, After about 20min, finally the time has come. A male slowly emerged out into the water, but on the far shore. It was in a way good as it could not see us because of the distance. When it went back after a round it was the turn of the female to get into the water.

They were very calm and enjoying. It was an amazing feeling having witnesed them in their habitat, which is very unique. They live in the ponds inside thick wooded area. They are not like other ducks which can live in almost any form of large water body. These birds need specifically this kind of habitat where the pond is surrounded by thick forest. This makes them very vulnerable under present conditions of deforestation and segmentation.

We spent almost one and a half hours and silently came back without disturbing them. It is very important to maintain the same level of caution while returning from such sensitive habitat also. It is the responsibility of a wildlife photographer to not to disturb the animal/bird ether while approaching or while returning after the shoot is finished.

At the end we were all very happy and shook hands for the success and thanked Meenaram for his excellent expertise in spotting them.

It was 1:30 by then and we had not eaten anything since 6:30AM! We reached the eco camp by 2:30 and Adi decided to stay back for the evening walk and Anush and self decided to have a small second round walk post lunch.

We started by around 3:30PM and waited for some time for the boatman to arrive to take us to the other side. While waiting we saw another pack of Wreathed Hornbills.

Meenaram had stayed back in the forest check post. We met him and he took us into a forest trail. As it was winter and the day was short in that part of India, we had very little time left. Staying inside the forest in the late evening may turn out to be dangerous because of the chances of wild elephant attack which sometimes proves fatal. So we had to get back soon. But the forest was very captivating.

I have to go back to it in the future just to enjoy the sheer feel of it. We have only very few such protected areas left where one can feel the power of the forest.

We were back on the river bank by 4:45PM and a boatman helped us to cross the river. Meenaram came along.

You can see Meenaram at the center and Anush at the front

The day had ended for us. An amazing day it was. I had thoroughly enjoyed. The sad part was we had planned only one and a half days in this wonderland, which is absolutely not enough... :(

The next day was planned for rafting which as everyone says, was the most productive from bird photography perspective, Ibisbill - one of the beautiful birds of Indian Subcontinent was high on our list and they could be found only during the rafting...if one is lucky.... :)

Cheers,

Ash

An update on LW

2010-04-29T16:44:00.002+05:30

Finally, images on Landscape Wizards can now be purchased for various purposes. We have decided to open up the images for sale and now Nature lovers can not only enjoy them on web but on the walls of their living room or in the board room as well!

You can check out the 'Sales' section in the Landscape Wizards to get some more information regarding the criteria for pricing etc.

Feel free to contact... :)

Cheers,

Ash

On the route for the last time

2010-04-18T23:50:00.002+05:30

It was our final day in Kazi. The morning elephant ride was very fruitful. We had a wonderful experience of the misty morning which I wanted to have from the very first day. Now we were on our way to the Eastern Part of Kazi as our last safari.

On the way to the Eastern zone we had to cross paddy field area. Last time when we went there we had seen a big flock of parakeets resting on the tree beside the road. We were expecting the same flock to be present at that place as parakeets normally dont change their daily habits and routes.

For our surprise this time they were not on the trees but in the fields, busy in picking the paddy grains and other cereals. More and more were coming from various directions and joining the party. It was a sight to behold.

At one point of time there were nearly 500 birds in the flock. It was still growing. We all had a wonderful time photographing them. Shooting the flock to make good compositions is always a challenge for me. I think I have failed again! :(

If you were following all my posts of Kazi trip from the beginning you might be knowing that we had visited Eastern zone before as well. It is mixture of various types of habitats. It has woody region, it has lake bed, it has patch of grassland and it has river bed as well! So there are chances of seeing fauna in various types of habitats.

As we were heading towards the river bed, we noticed a huge tusker on the grassland beside a lake. It was quite huge and had very attractive long tusks. Kunwar declared that it will be coming to this part of the lake to cross the road where we were standing. We were a bit apprehensive on his declaration as we thought that it was too early to predict that. But that is Kunwar! He stopped the gypsy and told us to remain very silent, and he just slid onto his seat and closed his eyes as if he was preparing himself for a short sleep... ( in fact he was :) )

We were observing the huge guy. He slowly started showing the interest in coming to this side of the lake. He was trying to find a suitable place where he can cross the lake. After about 15 min, he was on this side of lake, beside which there was a road where our gypsy was standing. Kunwar then decided to move the gypsy a bit forward, to allow the tusker to cross. Doing this had another reason as well. The same guy had charged the previous day for one of the gypsies. As it is very difficult to escape in the reverse gear in case he starts charging from front, Kunwar proactively cleared the way for the tusker to cross the road. It was an intelligent move and that can come only by experience.

After about another 15min the tusker slowly climbed up to the road and there he was in front of us! He was a bit nervous and immediately crossed the road and disappeared into the woods on the other side.

As we moved ahead we saw a lonely elephant calf! The poor child was desperate to find its herd. The forest guard who was coming with us in the gypsy told us that the herd must have left this calf intentionally! We were surprised to hear that as we always thought elephant share a very complex and deep social bonding and are very protective about their calves. Guard told that this calf must have some disease because of which the herd must have abandoned it so that the disease will not spread to other calves in the herd! It was a totally new information for us!

The calf was looking very weak and it was roaming alone in the zone of tigers. Don't know what happened to that poor calf afterward.

We hit the grassland but the sun was already harsh. It was about 11:30AM when we decided to leave the place.

We came back to the resort, had our lunch, packed our stuffs and loaded them onto the Jeep to start towards another wonderland - Nameri.

See you there soon!

Cheers,
Ash

The morning mood of Kazi

2010-04-06T23:12:00.006+05:30

So here I am with the report of our final day at Kazi. I have to explain it with the help of two posts because of two reasons. One, the images of morning elephant safari carries a totally different mood and I don't want to mix those images with the rest. Second, otherwise there will be quite a number of posts in a single blog post with very less words along with them. So I have decided to have two posts for the final day.

When I was planning for my Kaziranga Trip in the winter last year, the thing that I was dreaming about was that of an image where a Rhino will be grazing in the green grassland with a morning misty mood around. But on all the four days by the time we entered the National Park it was 7:30AM onwards with no mist around. We were also helpless because the Park opens only by 7.30AM! So I was terribly disappointed. What made me pissed off is when I came to know on the fourth day that the elephant safari starts at 5:30 in the morning and I have only 1 day to go for that. :( All the time I was thinking that the elephant safari also starts by 7:30AM as no one is allowed to enter the Park before that. But in truth the elephant safari takes a different route (obviously!) and it starts at 5:30AM! I had inquired with many people while making the tour plan but all the time I had forgot to ask this one information which proved me very dear!

So finally I was in the grassland in the wee hours of the morning and the atmosphere around was very misty and moody. I was overjoyed by the scene around and simply enjoyed it for quite some time.

Many people don't like shooting from elephant's back. The angle will be that much interesting and you cannot change the angle. It was first time for me to shoot from the back of an elephant.

It was a new experience and I was kind of liking it. In my images I made sure that I make the images of fairly distant objects with wide angle perspective so that the matter of angle can be eliminated as much as possible.

The sun was not yet there in the horizon and the moon was still dominating the sky. But the light of the dawn was already celebrating its presence. It was a very unique moody atmosphere that I experienced there. For my good fortune we found a rhino grazing calmly being oblivious to our presence.

The flocks of egrets and mynah had started to fly in the sky declaring that they can see the Sun at the horizon. Slowly the bluish mist started to become yellowish and within next 10-12min the golden light of the Sun was glowing everything around.

It was a wonderful moment. Enjoying the sunrise in the midst of elephant grassland is an amazing experience. The mahaut was very co-operative and told good stories of the elephant which was carrying us. They all call that lady as "Phoolan Devi" :). This is because all the rhinos are afraid of this lady and they normally don't come close to her, otherwise many a times rhinos charge elephants. Phoolan Devi's calf was following us all along and it was very funny and enjoyable seeing how happy that cute calf was.

I had always heard that how tall the elephant grass is but here on this day I really experienced it. It is virtually impossible to know what is there just a couple of feet away! To give you people a comparative perspective, in the below image the people are actually sitting on the back of an elephant and that elephant is no less huge! :)

Our ride ended at 6:30AM and I was very very satisfied with the way it went.

self in the front, Anush in the middle and Adithya U N in the back

This is what I had imagined before planning the trip here and finally on the very last day it had come true - Kazi in the winter morning mood.

Cheers,
Ash

In the world of Gibbons

2010-03-07T23:56:00.005+05:30

Gibbon WLS is at around 120kms from Kaziranga. From Kazi it takes around 2.5 hrs to reach this place. I highly recommend this place to have it as the must visit place if you plan a trip to Kazi. You will really get a very clear idea on how thick and fantastic forest was present in the North East before it was cleared for converting the land into tea gardens.

We left Wild Grass (resort where we stayed) at around 5.45 in the morning and we had Kunwar with us. That was a big relief for all of us as we had missed him in the last evening safari which had costed us a bit dearly. Kunwar is a great naturalist guide and an excellent driver as well. He has a really good knowledge about Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary as well.

We stopped at Jorhat for a cup of 'Chai' and Gibbon WLS is quite near to Jorhat. Jorhat is a district place and it has a domestic airport. So to reach Kazi, one can plan to come to Jorhat via flight and then head to Kazi from here which is only couple of hours away. As we were near to the entrance of Gibbon WLS, Anush sighted Capped Langurs on the Acacia trees, grown along the border of a tea estate. There were around 3-4 of them.

Capped Langurs are found in NE India, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. They are found in the subtropical or tropical fry forests. They look very charming because of their golden colored fur and black face. The glittering eyes look amazing. We spent around 30min with this group before we started towards the entrance of the wild life sanctuary.

Gibbon WLS was earlier known as Hoollongapar Forest in the time of British. The Govt of Assam announced it as a Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in 1997. In 2004 it was again renamed as Hoollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary.

This wildlife sanctuary is home for India's only ape - Hoolock Gibbon. Apes don't have a tail. Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans are some of the other 'popular apes' :). Hoolocks are smallest among all the apes. There are several species of Gibbons and Hoolock is one of them, which is found in India. There are two types of Hoolock Gibbons are found in India. Eastern Hoolock Gibbon in the forests of Arunachal and the Western Hoolock Gibbon in seven North Eastern states of India.

Hoolocks rarely come on the forest floor. They are canopy dwellers. Most of their life they spend in the canopy. They need continuous stretch of forest canopy to move around in the jungle. The fragmentation of the forest and destruction of it for the tea estates along with the hunting has pushed this wonderful ape to get listed in the endangered species list.

Gibbon WLS is a wonderful place to see this ape. In the dense forest undergrowth you will see lot more creatures than just the Gibbons at the top. It is a wonderful place to observe some amazing bird species as well. I got a glimpse of one of the splendid birds that was high in my wish list - Sultan Tit.

I was thrilled when I saw this bird. Never in my dreams I had thought that I would see this here, though later I came to know that these are found here pretty often.

Finding the Hoolocks is a great joy in itself. But without a proper guide you may end up days together bt with no sight. The best way to trace them is waiting till they call out. Their sound is very distinct and they callout loud to and can be heard even kilometers away. They call to announce their territories and this is how all the groups in the jungle communicate as well. Normally they start calling at around 7 AM and till 11 AM. We hit our chance at around 9:30 AM when a guide from another group of photographers helped us to find the calling group. We ventured into the forest.

There was no pathways. It was very thick undergrowth and we had to make our ways to reach the source of the call. The forest was just pristine. There were plenty of leeches on the floor and the soil was wet. very less sunlight reaches the forest floor here. My eyes were at the canopy and finally after a chase of around 15 minutes we get to see a glimpse of the Gibbon - a female with a child clinging to it.

Gibbons are the only primates in which male and females have distinct colorations. Male is a dark black individual with prominent white eyebrow where as a female has more of a lighter colored fur. Their hands are very long, perfectly adapted to move around in the canopy. Another fantastic behavior is their hanging nature.

We spent around one hour inside the thick vegetation trying to catch the glimpses of its behaviors. Amazing feel it was. The forest was thick and as the sun was going up it was getting humid and more humid under the canopy. We finally came back to reach one of the main pathways after about one and a half hours inside the forest.

As we were about to leave the place, Kunwar sighted something very interesting. It was a Civet and that too on a tree!! Civets are mainly nocturnal and rarely found during the day and when found normally on ground. On a tree is something very special for all of us. It was basking in the sun to get itself warmer. A rare treat to all of us and another feather in the cap for Kunwar's sighting ability.

At around 1:00PM we were back in our Jeep, on the way to Kaziranga. We had our lunch at Jorhat and headed back to Wild Grass after that.

The next day was our final day at Kazi. Morning was our Elephant ride and we had decided to explore the Eastern zone after that as our final Safari.

And after that.....we would be heading to a national park which has the most beautiful landscape in all the National parks of Assam - Nameri....

Cheers,
Ash

Day 3: Day out at Burra Pahar

2010-02-17T23:27:00.005+05:30

On the third day we head out to Burra Pahar (must be Buda Pahad in Hindi, means Old Mountain), a mountainous terrain with some dense forest habitat.

But for our bad luck, our Gypsy broke down on the way and we had to wait for about 30min until Kunwar got back with another Gypsy. But on the other side, for our good luck it had broken down in a nice place! Just beside the road there was Tea garden and a small village. As the Sun was just rising and the mist was still in the air the ambiance was excellent for some photo shoot.

All three of us enjoyed the morning Sun and the ambiance there. The people around were quite curious especially the children!

As our new Gypsy arrived, we continued on our path. On the way Kunwar amazingly sighted a Malayan Giant Squirrel. It was in quite a thick foliage but his remarkable ability to sight didn't fail to nail down the spot and we got some good images of this Near Threatened (according to IUCN) species of giant squirrels.

Burra Pahar is a thick forest range and the jeep trail runs on its almost the edge of the forest range. Its a place where not many tourists will enter due to relatively low sighting of Rhinos, for which Kazi is famous for. But this is the place to get a glimpse of the North Eastern forest and to feel its might. Many of the trees are broad leaved and tall. We saw plenty of bird activities on the canopy as well as under the canopy. I thoroughly enjoyed the feel of the forest. The mammal sighting was zero and after about 30min we reached a forest check post a watch tower, on the banks of the mighty river Brahmaputra.

After having out packed breakfast there, Kunwar took us along the bank of the river where the thick forest meets the river. Just as we were heading towards the river, the forest guard who had gone ahead came rushed and told us that he saw river dolphins! Wow! We all got excited and just ran to have a glimpse. River Dolphins are very active and its very difficult to track them, let alone photographing. I could see a river dolphin coming out over the water surface but only for a fraction of second and I will never know from where it will come out again! No photographers to attach to the story! But it was a great experience!

We headed along the river bank. There were River Lapwings and couple of Pied Kingfishers. On the far end there were good number of Great Thick-knees. The forest trail was buzzing with lots of verities of butterflies. Me, ignorant of their names always asking Anush if he could name few. Adithya was quite busy photographing them. Just as we moved ahead there was a clearance which was leading the river. There were elephant foot marks all around and Kunwar pointed to one area among the wet mud and held his finger steady.

It was a tiger pug mark! A huge pug mark! I was astonished to see the sheer size of it. Looking at it, he told that tiger had come there just last night or in the early morning. I was thrilled!

As we head further, we got some good photographic opportunities to shoot river lapwing and pied kingfishers.

We headed back to the point where we had our Gypsy by 10:30 and headed towards the grassland on the periphery of the forest region.

A part of the grassland was put under controlled fire to clear off the elephant grass and the weeds. Every year the grass of Kazi were burnt so that each year fresh grass can grow using the richer content left because of the burnt grass. the process had slowly started for the season from that part of the Sanctuary.

As we ventured into the grassland, within 10min we saw our first Rhino of the day. It was grazing in the dry grass. The sound of Gypsy alerted it and as Rhinos have poor sighting it just stood alerted in the direction from where the sound was coming.

After spending about 15min with it we moved on and near a water body we saw another Rhino grazing alongside of the pond standing in knee deep water. There were lesser whistling ducks in the pond and some Lesser Adjutant Storks were flying far away.

The day started getting hotter and we slowly started heading back. We needed to go back 30km to reach our hotel and should get prepared for the afternoon shoot as well. So we started our journey back.

Afternoon was planned in Western Region but the sad part for us was Kunwar was not with us. He had to go to repair his Gypsy if we want him for the rest of days. So he arranged another driver for us. the other driver was 'just a driver'. The sad part for all the three was that he was a typical 'tourist driver'. He was working in binary mode - stop or keep moving. He looked as if he didnot know something called 'slow approach or slow driving' which is very essential if you are taking photographers with you. We struggled quite a bit to get the Gypsy in place on many of the occasions to get our shots. We were missing Kunwar a lot. "Kunwar the incredible" (this is how Steve Winters has addressed him in his blog).

Finally after having a round in the Western Range we stopped at the Sunset point. But the Sun had already set by the time we reached there and there were couple of Black Necked Storks, some Egrets and few Herons standing in the red water.

There was a Rhino which came quite close to our vehicle and the forest guard made sure that it stayed a safe distance before it went on to do its business - grazing!

Overall the day was quite good. Burra Pahar certainly is a great place to enjoy. If you happen to sight wild animals its a bonus. But otherwise also its a wonderful place to visit. If you are a butterfly lover then there are plenty on the banks of the river, along the forest fringe.

At night there was another performance by the local people. The music and the dance were very nice. I enjoyed the whole time.

The plan for the next day was set - to visit Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, the place where you see the only ape of India - Hoolock Gibbons!

Watch out for my next post...

Cheers,
Ash

Pleasant Surprise - Sanctuary Asia Awards 2009 Special Mention!

2010-02-12T23:21:00.006+05:30

Yesterday evening was quite busy for me. We had an entertainment evening at office and at 8:30PM I had a client call to attend. 9.00PM was my last bus from my office. By the time I kept the telephone receiver down it was just 9:00!! I rushed and ran hard only to see my bus crossing the gate... :(

Then I came by a different route and my friend dropped me home. It was 10:15PM and I was feeling quite tired. When I reached the door to bell, I saw a courier at the door. When I flipped it to see from where it had come, to my surprise it was from Sanctuary Asia!

One of my images, "Snake in the spider web" had won a special mention prize in last year's contest! I have no idea why they have intimated me this much late where as the other prizes were announced in Dec 09 itself!! And that's why it was a total surprise for me!

Anyways, here is the image -

And the blog related to that is here -
http://sumasuta.blogspot.com/2008/09/tale-of-hanging-unfortunate.html

You can view all the other winning images HERE.

Cheers,
Ash

Things are little busy here!

2010-01-29T12:16:00.004+05:30

I have become quite busy with very less time to spare to update my blog with the remaining parts of Kazi trip. Loads of images are still left to process. But the office work and my studies are holding me back from doing that.

Hoping to come back soon and to continue with my Kazi and Nameri experience.

Meanwhile I am sharing few moon scapes which I had done over last few months at various places on various occasions.

Hope you enjoy them.

I promise to come back soon!

Cheers,
Ash

Day 2: Eastern and Central

2010-01-14T00:24:00.003+05:30

After the eventful first day, our expectations went high for the second day as well where we were planning to cover Eastern zone in the morning and Central in the evening.

Eastern is quite different from the vegetation and habitat perspective where there is good forest and a long shoreline of the mighty river Brahmaputra. The habitat is very interesting and at places quite beautiful.

We were expecting some owlets to show up along the track where we were heading. 'Jungle owlets and barred owlets are pretty common at that place' is what Konwar had been telling us last day. But for the spotted owlet in the morning, quite high on a tree we did not have luck with any other.

A Pallas fish eagle was guarding its nest high up on a tree. The screeching call of its was resonating in the woods beneath and could be heard from quite far. It is a huge bird. A pleasure to watch and treat for the eyes.

On the next water body we saw quite a good number of migratory guests - Bar Headed Geese. More and more of them were coming from nearby water bodies. They were there along with another migratory flock of Gray Legged Geese. We saw couple of beautiful Northern Lapwing flying far. Gray lapwing was another specie which marked its presence.

After having our packed breakfast in the gypsy we moved on. The next interesting sighting was the master of camouflage - Long Tailed Nightjar.

A bird so well camouflaged that it is virtually impossible to find it among the dry leaves unless it flies once! But if you spot its place once then there is high probability of finding it again there at the same place the next day as well. It has so much of confidence on its ability to camouflage that it doesn’t bother to even move when you approach it quite close - as close as very few feet away. I had seen it in Bharatpur last year and had spent almost 2 hours with it! Its a true master of camouflage.

As we moved on we started approaching the shoreline of Brahmaputra. We all had heard about its might but never in my dreams I had thought that it would be so huge and vast! The breadth of the river was so long that the other end of the shore was almost not visible! By looking at it it is hard to believe that this river will cause so much of havoc during monsoon in this part of the country! If in the normal days itself its so vast and huge then how does it look when it gets flooded!

As we moved on we encountered the markings made by the Tiger on the barks of a tree. Tigers do these markings to sharpen their nails. As we moved forward there was a tusker in musth just beside the jeep track. As the tuskers during that time tend to be quite aggressive and can do mock or actual attacks Konwar became a bit alert. As it was high noon he might have been going for the water body to cool himself.

As we headed towards the gate there were Indian Rollers (sub species which are specific to NE, with distinguishing dark throat) and a Brown Fish Owl to bid adieu for the morning safari.

The evening was decided to be spent in the Central Zone. After having our lunch at the resort we started at around 2.00 PM.

The light was getting better and better and turning quite red.

We are hoping for some drama which would make some really amazing images. But the dreams and wishes remained as they are and no drama or no real good sightings as well.

But the distant herd of elephants and the just rinsing moon gave a nice opportunity to make few images.

We went up to the place where I had made the images of turtle and from there we headed back. On our way back we saw a lone Red Headed Vulture sitting at the top of a tree. That was my first sighting of that specie.

As the Sun set behind the far mountains and as the horizon started turning reddish pink mixed with yellow and a tint of blue, we were at the watch tower near the lake in the Central park.

The geometrical shape of the structure of the tower was looking interesting in the background of the colorful sky. I decided to try some image of those formations.

So there the day ended. A day with not many activities. It was certainly not as dramatic as the last day.

But as they say – every day cannot be Sunday! :)

Cheers,

Ash

Welcome 2010!

2010-01-01T09:55:00.003+05:30

Wish you all a very happy & cheerful new year!

Wish your dreams come true or at least you get closer to your goals :) !

Loads of Cheers,

Ash

E v E n I n G...

2009-12-26T23:42:00.003+05:30

The evenings during the winter in Kaziranga are normally small. Sun will set by around 4:40 and by 5:00PM it will be almost pitch dark!

So during all evening safaris we had only couple of hours and we had to be quick in making images if we want to utilize the amazing golden light well.

We went on Western Range on our first evening in Kazi. I had heard that Western Zone is the most beautiful and picturesque of all the zones! In the beginning it impressed me a bit but not to the full extent until the evening drama started...

We first headed to a watch tower beside a huge lake on the Western range. There were great white and spot billed pelicans floating far away. Almost impossible to get any images. We almost immediately headed back as we had less time. On our way back Konwar spotted a Rhino grazing very close to the road. It was very quite and hence we all had almost missed it. It was Konwar's remarkable skill of spotting which made him to stop and warn us to remain silent.

He was very right! After we went silent it started coming closer and closer. Before we were too close to its comfort Konwar started the Gypsy and we were on the move...

When we hit the main track again there was another vehicle whose guide waved at us to come fast! By seeing his enthusiasm we thought there might be a Tiger itself! It was another Rhino but what made the scene special was the tall green grass behind and the moon in the sky! The light was very pleasing and the mood was compelling.

We spent around 20min with that guy and I made some close perspectives. This time it was the closest that we got with a Rhino.

The light was getting golden as the sun was getting ready to call it a day. The grass and the trees around had started to glow in the evening light! The reddish yellow glow when falling on the green grass was creating a mesmerizing scenery around! After Bharatpur I had rarely seen such dramatic evening light!

We decided to spend the remaining time of the Sunset on the banks of a lake from where the scenery and the angle was nice to capture the drama.

We all enjoyed thoroughly the mood and the evening colors before Konwar reminded gently that it was time to leave! Ah! The day had ended such wonderfully!

What else could we had asked for in the first day! It was an amazing day!

As we headed towards the gate there was a Tusker in the late evening grazing near the safari track!

The day was over for us inside the National Park!

But back at resort there was a traditional Assamee dance organized. A local group of men and women were performing a beautiful dance around the campfire.

There were many people from other countries as well who were enjoying the dance. I was overwhelmed by the gracefulness of the performers!

We were all tired! As I closed my eyes the whole day came on the screen of my mind as a collage with various moments that had happened that day...the first sighting of the rhino.... then the charge and the stalemate... then the turtles... then the evening drama and the wonderful sunset...at the end the wonderful dance performance.... at each and every moment I had enjoyed to the fullest! As my thoughts were about to continue, I heard something....It was the morning alarm!

Cheers,
Ash

As the curtain rises...

2009-12-20T16:12:00.006+05:30

After a fantastic and a dreamy trip to Bharatpur last year, the immediate next thing I was thinking was, where's next?

Its almost in the mid of this year that I narrowed down on Kaziranga. North East had always fascinated me and one of the most famous national parks of India which is also a World Heritage Site was the obvious choice for me.

I discussed this idea with my friend Dhritiman Mukharjee,a fantastic and a very passionate photographer who has made innumerable number of trips to NE. It is he who suggested to include Nameri also in our list as it is not far from Kazi and believe me we would have really missed a wonderful place if we had not included it in our trip plan. We would like to thank WanderVogel for planning our entire trip and making arrangements so well.

After a lot of planning and few hick ups now and then,finally we three (Adithya U N, Anush Shetty and self) were sitting in BIAL (Bangalore International Airport Ltd), waiting for our flight which would take us to Guwahati via Kolkota.

A 15min delay in flight, tiring 4 hour journey in air followed by a 5 hours of journey through road made us totally tiring and we just desperately waiting for the time when we hit the bed.

We reached our resort Wild Grass at 9:00 pm. There we were greeted by a very friendly person who asked if we are from WanderVogels and took us to show us our room. Later he introduced himself as Konwar, the man who worked with Steve Winters for 8months in Kaziranga when Steve was here to photograph the Tigers of Kazi last year. Dhriti had promised me that he would arrange Konwar to us as both -Guide and driver and he kept his words! We were thrilled!

In Kaziranga jeep safari starts at 7.30AM. Plan was to go on Central range on the first morning and to Western Range in the evening.

As we entered the park, I was amazed by looking at the height of the elephant grass! I had heard and read about it but i never imagined that this specie of grass can grow this tall!! We were standing on the seat in our Gypsy but barely we could see over the top of grass. It was insanely high!

We first went to a watch tower beside a lake where we saw the first rhino of our trip. It was grazing in peace. There were some mynas and egrets around it. Needless to say that we were excited, afterall it was first time for all of us. We were unaware that we will be spending full 30min in a stalemate situation, just an hour later.

We started from watchtower after 30min and entered a semiwooded area. 'Khalij Pheasant female' Konwar whispered. It has just crossed the jeep track. 'Wait and be ready, now the all beautiful male will come out' he predicted and switched off the gypsy engine. And there it was, coming out through the ferns and bushes, carefully looking around as though he was crossing a busy national highway. He was really beautiful! This was one of the species high in my wishlist.

After a few hundred meters we saw Assam Roofed Turtles and Tent Turtles basking in the mid day sun. There were quite a number of them.

After a dip in the water for few minutes they used to climb a dead log which was in the water and allowed the body to dry. Nice little creatures they are. As there was nothing to add to the frame, along with Turtles, to make it interesting,

I decided to make images of the Turtles from behind a bush by finding a small opening through which I can see them in the frame and rest of the frame filling with the foliage around. I found this technique producing some interesting results.

It was almost 11.00 by the time we started from there and the next patch of landscape was again the tall elephant grassland. There were distant calls from Crested Serpent Eagle and Pallas Fish Eagle and we have sighted the first Pallas Eagle in flight, quite far off.

As we were moving slowly, Konwar stopped the Gypsy. There was a huge female Rhino standing on the road ahead. She was massive and was having her pre-lunch snacks! :) As soon as she saw our vehicle she became alert. No need to say it was ditto on our part as well. Rhinos are known for charging and in Africa more deaths are reported from Rhino charge than any other animal! Thats the reason why the Forest Dept sends an armed guard with each of the safari jeep.

After seeing us she adjusted her position and now she was standing completely facing our jeep. Konwar had already shut the engine down. For the next 20 min no move from that side and no move from this as well.

Gypsies after gypsies gathered behind us. There were almost 10 vehicles behind us (Thanks to the weekend crowd). Konwar decided to try taking our gypsy a little further and see if she goes away because of our approach. But as soon as she moved the jeep for coupe of feet, the Rhino came charging for few steps and stopped! Konwar dint take further chances as the massive had made its statement clear - "STAY AWAY!".

After few more minutes of stalemate, the forest guard prepared his gun to fire in air. The lady was now standing right across the road. Then the gun fired! Now she knew what she has to do! She just ran into the thick elephant grass. It was an experience to remember!

It was approaching 12:00 as we headed towards the entrance. A lone Grey Headed Fish eagle was watching us leaving the Central Zone of the park from distance...

Back from the wonderlands of North East!

2009-12-08T22:41:00.004+05:30

I am back after a week long trip to some of the wonderlands of North East India. We covered Kaziranga, Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary and Nameri National Park from 28th Nov till 6th Dec.

The mood of Kazi was fantastic. Misty mornings and the lush green grassland with tall elephant grass everywhere. Everything seemed very picturesque. Every evenings were very colorful.

Gibbon WLS gave us a good feel of the typical NE forest which once dominated most of the land before it was exploited heavily for logging and tea plantations. Good that at least 27sq km of area is left for the Hoolock Gibbons to roam around in the thick canopy.

Nameri is considered as the most picturisqe National Park among all the National Parks of NE. Jia Bhoroli river flows on the edge of the park provides a fantastic opportunity to witness some of the rare birds of NE India.

Lots to talk about and loads of images to share!

Stay tuned...

Cheers,
Ash

Leonids 09, some by products!

2009-11-27T23:27:00.005+05:30

Even though the Leonids plan went into vein, my trip to Kodachadri and Madodi proved quite useful.

On the night I left Bangalore, Adithya called had called me just to say that its raining like cats and dogs! But when I landed there early morning and looked up, the stars and the clean sky welcomed me! I was delighted....OK, as the below tells...it promptly turned cloudy every morning once the Sun came up! :)

Adithya's place (Simha Farms) is a wonderful place if you want to photograpgh some of the Western Ghats species. Malabar Grey Hornbils, Racquet Tailed Drongos, Small Sunbirds, Hill Mynas, Malabar Parakeets and what not! This time it was the hornbils and the yellow browed bulbuls which were in plenty. Just before the Sun rise morning sky turns very much colorful and Adithya told me that its almost everyday scene here! Lucky him!

Several of my photo sessions and birding walks turned quite fruitful either in terms of photography or in birding. We got to get a glimpse of the elusive and colorful Malabar Trogon. It rained that afternoon as well. We had plans of making some long exposure images on the nights of 16th. Thanks to the clouds which made sure that we go to sleep at the right time by not allowing to photograph anything.

Just before starting to Kodachadri we got to photograph Hump Nosed Pit Wiper, a poisonous snake found in the jungles of Southern India! Its quite small in lenth and quite inactive during the day.

Our fate of what happened during the D-Day of Leonids was already told by me earlier. But even if we dint get many of the planned things, we did get some wonderful play of clouds and early morning Sun. I had made a time lapse of few sec length which I will share sometime later. The same clouds which had ruined the show that night, now gave some spectacular show with the Sun above and the forest below. Some parts of the forest was looking like the Cloud Forest of Mexico! The ambiance was very much refreshing. It was healing the deep wounds a bit, caused last night by the same clouds!

We packed our stuffs at around 8 and started our journey back. Kestrel was there to say Good Morning, but we were looking for his cousin- Amur Falcon which was found there last December! But all our search dint yield any fruitful results.

We were back by 11.00, with mixed feelings of some distressed failure and some good scenic moments.

UPDATE:

I am leaving to Kaziranga (Assam) tomorrow. I will be spending 4 and a half days at Kazi and two days at Nameri. Hoping for some good time.

Cheers,
Ash

Patterns - Revealed!

2009-11-23T23:50:00.002+05:30

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!

2009-11-20T23:23:00.005+05:30

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!

2009-11-12T23:27:00.002+05:30

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!

2009-11-12T15:06:00.001+05:30

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 bewitching wilderness.

2009-11-02T22:46:00.005+05:30

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!

2009-10-29T23:22:00.002+05:30

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....

2009-10-21T15:41:00.001+05:30

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!

2009-10-08T20:40:00.003+05:30

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!

2009-10-02T11:38:00.001+05:30

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!

2009-09-30T15:49:00.001+05:30

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...

2009-09-21T22:46:00.030+05:30

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!

2009-09-19T11:41:00.004+05:30

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