Eager to see the glow again!

The phenomena of Bioluminescence is relatively common in insects where it is exhibited by glow worms and fireflies. But the same Bioluminescence is exhibited by another form of living beings on the land - Fungi! Bioluminescent fungi are present in Indian jungles. But to see them is a challenge. 

It requires coming out of our comfort zone where we are used to have bright light in night and venture into the dark forest with minimal light and look for the glow by switching off the light source completely. 

Notice the twig in the center in the above image. That contains glowing fungi on its surface which glows at night. Below image of the same twig made at night would give you an idea.

The way these Bioluminescent fungi lit up the forest floor is really amazing! 
These twigs and stems look perfectly normal in the day light and by looking at them during the day one cannot make out which ones glow at night and which ones are not. So the only way to figure that out is to actually go out at night :).

 

 

The forest of the region where I went last year was teeming with various life forms. The color of the jungle was vibrant and so are the creatures!  

CLICK HERE for a detailed experience along with a video log of our experience last year.

And, we are planning for this year too! 

CLICK HERE for the link to know more about how you can also be a part of it!


Cheers,
Ash 

Melukote - A timeless beauty!

If I need to pick a handful of places around Bangalore that I feel worth visiting then this place - Melukote would be among the top three!

It was indeed sheer pleasure that I experienced when I visited this place few months back for the first time! But I dont know why I felt very much connected to the place as I entered and walked into its old small path ways of the small town. The whole place - its temples, kalyani (pond), houses, shops and almost everything is old structured and at one point or the other you feel that you are walking around the place  which is still in 1960s or before! I was really amazed by the way the city was still having the traditional charm to it.

 

(Click on the image to view bigger)

I thoroughly enjoyed my time and here are few images that made from my short visit.

Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
Ash

As the Spring makes way to the Summer...

Days are getting hotter and the scorching heat of the Sun is making the afternoon walks a tough call.

After a lovely and bloomy spring its time now to face the heat!

Leaves of Kusum Tree

But I thoroughly enjoyed the blooming season this time. I enjoyed my everyday drive through the avenues of Jayanagar while I was on the way to my office. I have witnessed blooming of Pink Poui (Tabebuia rosea) around Jayanagar Shopping Complex and the transition of a complete avenue containing African Tulip Trees from complete brown to wonderful soft green and then to dense dark green. Now it is the time of Jacaranda! As I am writing this blog there is still a blooming Jacaranda tree right in front of Maiyas Restaurant in Jayanagar. 

Last month we had been to Dharma Reservoir when we visited Yellapur. We took a shorter road which goes via few villages and through jungle. To our pleasure, we saw an entire tree with red bloom. It was a Kusum tree (Schleichera oleosa). Seeing the shiny red new leaves was a treat to our eyes.

 Kusum Tree

Flowers of Coral Tree

 
The forest was teeming with flowing trees and as the production was high so were the consumers! Tall and dry trees were having huge number of bee hives! In the time when the global population of wild bees is reducing at an alarming rate seeing such colonies of bees was a real treat! 

I am seeing bee hives not just in the rural jungles but in the urban concrete jungles as well! At my office on Brunton Road, every year when the Rain Tree (Albizia saman), which is in front of our office blooms we are having Bee hives to the structural blocks of the building. This is the third year now! 
 
After enjoying the bloom all across the city and outside, now it is time to face the Sun! Dry deciduous forest region in Dandeli gave us the glimpse already few weeks back!

Now when I visit Sirsi in the end of April, I know what can expect!
 

 
Cheers,
Ash

Birds, Boats and Bagheera! - An experience in Dandeli

Any nature lover would be thrilled to hear the news of sighting a Black Panther!
Any avid birder would be thrilled to hear the sighting of Great Hornbills!
Any adventure lover would be thrilled to hear about amazing experience of white water rafting in river Kali!

Last weekend we experienced all the three!

That was in Dandeli!

I never thought that accepting an offer to experience Dandeli for two days would turn out to be so exciting and fruitful! It is not that I was going there for the first time. I had a nice time in 2006 when I attended the first meet if India Nature Watch at Kulgi Nature Camp, very near to Dandeli.

Dandeli is arguably one of the most bird rich areas of Karnataka. It is a paradise for birders and it doesn't take much to fall in love with birds after seeing the big birds like Malabar Pied Hornbill and its bigger brother Great Hornbill! If you want to see Malabar Pied Hornbills then Dandeli is THE place to be! You will find them almost everywhere!

Great Hornbill on a fruiting tree

Plum Headed Parakeet on a flowering tree

Summer has set in and the dry deciduous forest region of Dandeli-Anashi Tiger Reserve is embracing the pale brown color all over its canopy! Our visit to the Sunset point inside the National Park in the morning gave us a nice glimpse of the summer attire of this portion of the Western Ghats! The occasional flight of Malabar Pied Hornbills and the sightings of Malabar Giant Squirrels dwelling the canopies are treat to watch standing on the Sunset point.

The view of the vista combined with the flight of the hornbills over the canopy will offset the disappointment of relatively scarce wildlife in the park.

Barking Deer, inside the National Park

White water rafting in river Kali is another experience that is a must if you visit Dandeli. The rafting is conducted by the folks of Jungle Lodges and Resorts (JLR). The total distance of rafting is about 10kms and it takes a good 60-90 min to complete all the eight rapids. We had a wonderful time watching hornbills fly across the river on many occasions and at one point in time one bird came and sat on a low hanging branch while our raft was just under it! That was thrilling. It was my closest encounter with the bird.  

 Malabar Pied Hornbill over the forest canopy

Sighting of Black Panther in the dawn was an experience of my lifetime! As we were all talking in the jeep about possibility of sighting wild cats in the wee hours of the morning and our jeep was hardly 100 meters from the resort this fella was walking on the road gracefully! It took us quite sometime to realize what we were seeing is true! Our driver had initially thought that it was a sloth bear and I was so excited that I couldn't utter a single word! I slowly went near his ears and ushered that 'My boy, it is a Black Panther!'. By that time he had also realised that and was equally shocked! It was the first encounter with the most elusive cat for him as well!
Murphy ruled again! It was very early morning...no light at all...our jeep's head light was quite dim....and...the panther was Black! My camera started hunting to focus and my 300mm lens was of little use given the distance between us and the cat. By the time my camera caught something to focus the fella had happily left the scene by leaving all the thrill behind! So in the end it was just the memories of the encounter and the thrill of its sightings which remained.

There are many places around Dandeli for tourists. We visited Syntheri Rocks, a small falls beside a very huge rock! A very nice place to spend the evening. But it is not advisable to get into the water here as there are lots of casualties reported from past several years of people getting drowned in the water.

Overall, Dandeli is a fantastic place to be if you are a nature lover and the place will not disappoint you be it any season!


My stay in Dandeli Jungle Camp was arranged by www.dandeli.com

"N E R A L U" - The tree fest

Last Saturday I was at Cubbon Park, attending the first of its kind festival - Festival of trees of Bengaluru - NERALU.

The event was entirely crowd-funded and various enthusiasts from all over the city had contributed for the success of the event.

More about this initiative can be found at: http://neralu.in/

There were talks by eminent people about various aspects of trees of the city and the ecosystem around it. There were also activities for kids, 'Hug-a-Tree' campaign, an exhibition of photographs of trees by various photographers, various cultural events and many more.


Here is a small collection of images that I made during the time I was there on the first day.

There were many such beautiful hanging posters that were hand made with utmost artistry.   

The informative display boards were truly eye-catching!

 There was one or the other activity for everyone irrespective of the age!

"Hug-a-Tree"

"Hug-a-Tree"

 

A scene from the short play - Of Lata And Ashoka

Amphitheater where the short play was performed

 Hats-off to the people behind making this thought come true! 

Cheers,

Ash 

A brief account of an eventful month!

January has been very hectic. Not a single weekend was free and the whole month was quite an eventful one.

Bay Backed Shrike in the thorny scrub forest around Tirunalveli

The first weekend was much awaited 'Chitra Santhe 2014', that was preponed this year by couple of weeks! The exhibition went very well this time, where our stall was visited by quite a large crowd.

A fancy Fantail Flycatcher spotted during Bangalore Bird Race

Then Sahana and me had been to Kaiga, to participate in the 'Kaiga Bird Marathon - 2014'. We had a nice time birding around the place, where I got to see four lifers!

 Bay Backed Shrike in its flying aerobatics! 

Third Sunday was Bangalore Bird Race! A full day of nice birding and followed by a get together of loads of birders from the city in the evening.

A Pied Crested Cuckoo, also called as harbinger of rain, spotted in the outskirts of Tirunalveli.

And the most exhilarating experience was the last weekend of Jan!! We trekked to Kumara Parvatha! Arguably the toughest trek of South India that pushes ones endurance to the limit!

The whole month was quite eventful!

Started processing pending images. Shared images here are from my visit to Tirunalveli and during Bangalore Bird Race.


Cheers,
Ash

Nice start for the new year

Wish you all a very happy new year!

The year has started well for me. We at Landscape Wizards had a nice show at 'Chitra Santhe' this time. Unlike the last time we had many framed fine-art images for sale. The response this time was really excellent and we had some good sales as well.

Year 2014 has begun well! Loads of things to do this time.

Hoping to be back on track! ;-)

Cheers and happy new year once again,

Ash

Places seen wide

When we go to a place that has got wide views, say top of a mountain, often we find that it is difficult to convert the feel of being there into an effective image. This problem is equally faced by any tourist/trekker and a photographer. It is often very difficult to convert the feel of being at a place that has the view of a very vast expanse into something measurable as the pixels.

One of the ways, which sometime does a better job than a conventional two dimensional photograph is to shoot multiple frames across the vastness and creating a panorama by stitching those images together.

Though it has got the limitation of scrolling to see the whole image, but the sense of how wide the scene was would still be maintained.

I had faced same problem on various occasions. The one that I remember the most was while I was at Unchalli Falls on a near full moon night at around 12:30AM! I was there to shoot the falls in the moon night and my initial idea was to shoot the falls using a wide angle including some portion of the sky with few stars. But when I stood at the shooting spot I saw that the whole valley was lit up beautifully with the moonlight and I just dumped the idea of shooting only the falls since it was not giving any meaning when compared to the feel of being there at night and looking at the moon-lit valley. I decided to make a panorama and result is the below image.

Unchalli Falls at night. (Click for the lager image)

When I was at Hampi to shoot for the book on Daroji, I saw an opportunity to make another panorama. This time I was without a tripod and the whole scene was very very wide. I took a chance and went ahead with shooting handheld and it took about 20+ images to cover the complete scene. Luckily the stitch went perfect and I was very happy with the result.

Hampi  (Click for the lager image)

This year when I had been to Ooty with my wife there was a huge Eucalyptus tree. I was at a slightly higher place and it was difficult to shoot the tree. It was either getting distorted due to the wide angle lens or it was not completely covering in the frame. Then Sahana suggested me to try a vertical panorama and there you go, it was a fantastic idea! I tried the vertical panorama for the first time and the result was not bad at all!

 

That is Sahana to give the scale of the hugeness of the tree :)

There were few more occasions when I found panoramas did a better job in conveying my feeling on that place. I have shared few more here which I think you would enjoy.

Devarayana Durga (Click for the lager image) 

Nameri, post sunset (Click for the lager image) 

Bheemanavaare (Click for the lager image) 

 Jenukallu Gudda (Click for the lager image)

Bhyundar Valley (Valley of Flowers)

Do let me know what do you think about this thought about making panoramas.

There are many more panoramas on our gallery dedicated to panoramas on Landscape wizards. 

Here is the link:    http://www.landscape-wizards.com/home/our-work/panoramas


Cheers,
Ash