As the winter passes by...

Looks like the cool weather is gone for this season and is making way to the hotter summer this time. Temperature during the day is soaring and the misty mornings are gone. Now onwards the Sun rules the sky and he will start towards his peak.

This winter I didn't shoot much. My trip to Kodachadri in October last year was the only trip which stands out for me in this winter. No visits to my backyard T.G.Halli as well.

Trip to Kodachadri was in fact a LW workshop which I co-lead with my friend Sri Harsha Ganjam. Sahana had also accompanied me on the trip and we all had a wonderful time at my friend Adithya Biloor's place - Simha Farms. It was fruitful for me personally in terms of some of the images I got during the trip.

We had some nice time making images at Hidlumane falls and a nice evening at Baindoor beach. The evening hue was fantastic and everyone enjoyed making images.

We went to the top of Kodachadri to witness the sunrise and we were surprised by looking at the amount of tiny flowers on top of the peak. They were huge in number and were of many varieties as well. It was the first time I had seen so many flowers at that place! The sunrise was also a pleasure to sight.

All in all a very nice time spent and that's all I have this winter.

Need to see how this summer will be.

Cheers,
Ash
   

Leonids 09, some by products!

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

A starry disaster!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Milky Way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Ash

Paradise...well seen!

Finally I broke free!! Free from all the hectic schedules of work-study-work-study and... finally broke free...

Headed to my friend's place near Kodachadri along with my parents, I never imagined that I will experience such a great pleasure in those two days! Simha Farms is where we stayed and thanks Adithya Biloor and his family for such a wonderful hospitality.




Kodachadri was in my list of must visit for the third time :) and this time with my parents! As they cannot trek (for obvious reasons!) we had to hire a Jeep to reach the peak and O boy! I found some of the world's best drivers! The road to Kodachadri is very very tough to say the least! The 8km road to the top will take not less that an hour to drive. The patience and skill of most of the drivers are something that deserves commendation.




Reached the top at around 5:15 to see the Sunset and by the time we started ascending the final small stretch to reach the 'Sarvajna Mantapa' from where you get to see the true beauty of the place, the peak started to cover in the mist completely. Thick clouds started hitting the peak and the feel was amazing. Though the visibility diminished quickly and so the photo opportunity, I was slightly optimistic that the mist will soon clear and may give an opportunity to witness some of the wonderful moments that the place is famous for.




And it didn't disappoint! Slowly after sometime the Sun started showing up....and.... there it was......the ground underneath was completely covered with the layered clouds and the atmosphere above became crystal clear for some moment! WOW! It was a sight to behold! Never in my previous times I had witnessed this drama of Nature in front of my eyes here. The setting sun was adding colors to the mood and it was a moment of sheer ecstasy.




The next day morning I spent time on the backwaters of Linganamakki Dam along with Adithya Biloor. We were there just when the Sun was opening his eyes and was getting ready to for the new day and we promptly waited for him to show up.




Couple of Ashy Wood Swallow pairs were having some jolly time and the perch they were on was giving some nice photography opportunities. I decided to go with minimalistic approach and tried some experiments around the same.








Later part of the day was spent in hunting down one of the elusive birds of that region - Black capped Kingfisher which was not very much recorded from that region. The place 'Pandavara Tali' was beautiful and serene. I was about to give up hope of witnessing that beauty and decided to take a plunge into the flowing water to beat the heat and there it was...flying in front of all of us and finally settling on the branch on the other shore.




The bird is really beautiful and the colors are very striking. I had never thought that I would be adding this beauty to my lifers list this much soon and that too from Karnataka region. Bhtarkanika of Orissa and Sunderbans of West Bengal are famous for its frequent sightings.




The evening was spent again in the backwaters but photography was less.




Overall a memorable trip after a long time and a very well spent break for me. A paradise well seen...again!


Cheers,
Ash

Amidst the clouds - A trek to Kodachadri !!

The mountains always fascinated me! So are the clouds! The joy mounts when both these combine together and produce a visual spectacle! Monsoon is THE time to enjoy this. As the monsoon was on its way we decided to conquer Kodachadri!! For the weekend warriors like us these treks bring such an adrenaline that it takes months together to get out of that mood!
Needless to say that the trek was fantastic! We hit by the monsoon showers(or the pre monsoon showers??) while we were climbing through the grasslands. The leeches were everywhere and were looking very well built!! We literally ran in some places inspite of having 12 kg backpack!! But every trouble melts away when you see the huge dense clouds hitting right at the high peaks of the Sahyadris! The eyes start to think if its a reality or any kind of dream or illusion!!



This time I had decided to carry my photography gears to the top and after lot of calculations and assumptions I had finally decided to carry everything!! :) So my backpack was my Lowepro CompuTrekker with all the lenses and was happily weighing 12 kgs!! Naga, KG and Manu also had their backpacks which weighed definitely not less than mine!


All the pain that one undergoes in carrying such heavy stuffs through the mountains start disappearing when you start enjoying the nature over there. For us at the first it was White Bellied Blueflycatcher which gave tremendous pleasure! It was a lifer for me as well!(Uff!! A lifer after a loooooong time!) Then it was followed by the Blue Oak Leaf butterfly and what seemed like a mixed hunting group of White Bellied Treepie, Racket Tailed Drongo and Barbets. [It may not be a mixed hunting group as the barbets dont hunt insects].


After a small pit stop at the famous Mallu's place and having some lemon juice and banana we set out further. It was then that the play of leeches and the shower started! After enjoying all these (!!!) we were at the top at around 3:30 in the afternoon. After taking some rest and negotiating about the staying place in the local Inspection Bunglow we started ascending the peak and we were there at around 5:30!


The nature is pristine over there! Boy, what a wonderful sight it is! Even though it is not first time for me but still I get the same joy every time as if it is the first time that I am coming there!

The distant mountains were blue and the clouds were passing by beneath our feat! The forest beneath was echoing with the whistles of the Malabar Whistling Thrushes! The grass was green and so were the deciduos forest patches! All in all the feeling was fantastic!
After witnessing the sunset it was time to come back to the bunglow.

The night was cold and calm and I slept as if I haven't slept for years!! It was very calm indeed.



The next day morning when I opened my eyes it was 5:15 and we should be at the top again by 5:45! As the clouds hid the sun behind them, the sunrise was not much evident except for some golden rays amidst the clouds. The air was pure and cold. Everyone of us enjoyed to the fullest.
Started descending at around 10:30 and we were back at the bottom by afternoon.



The flight of the White Bellied Treepie, the whistle of the Malabar Whistling Thrush ,the call of White Bellied Blue Flycatcher and the sudden shower when we were in the grassland.... all these will remain green in my memories in the time to come.


I have already started planning my next trip to Kodachadri!! :)

Cheers,
Ash