Silent bells

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

"Be bold and be creative" is the message

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