Finally Oxygenated!

As of my last post I was struggling to get the internet transferred to my new home and within few days of that post I finally got the net back! Feeling good! Finally I am oxygenated! :-)

The winter mornings here are becoming better and better. I always had wish of photographing T.G.Halli in misty weather and making images of dew covered butterfly. At last I am able to fulfill that wish in past couple of weeks.


On first Saturday of November when I had been to T G Halli it was very very misty. The place was looking surreal! The experience there was awesome and I got challenged by the attempt to make landscapes! Even though I have done some landscape images in the past but most of them were of the sunset time which I was pretty comfortable with. But this kind of mood capturing was a new challenge to me. I was experiencing a surreal joy in that place but all my attempts to capture that mood in the camera were going in vein! I was not happy with the results! Making landscapes in such situations is not that easy! A good learning from the failure! This is the reason I love to fail.... I learn the things.....


Last weekend was another wish coming true! - Dew covered butterfly! I always amazed by looking at Ganesh 's images of dew covered butterfly as to how beautiful they are and how wonderfully he has captured them in the image!


After our plan to Nandi Hills crashed because of last minute change, myself and Naga headed to T.G.halli last Saturday in search of dew and the beauties! We were there at 5:30 and the ambiance was fabulous! We had almost 40-50 min before the first rays of light actually hit the ground! Everywhere it was misty and it was looking heavenly!


Finally made few images which I always dreamt of! Satisfied and Happy!

Planned to visit Bharathpur and Ranathambore on the last week of this month.
Hoping for some good time in Bharathpur!

It feels good to be back.....on Net!

:-)
- Ash

Network - still unplugged!!

After settling down in the new place there began a new challenge for me - to get the landline and the broadband connections transferred to the new place! It is becoming a greater and greater challenge day by day. At last two days back finally we got the dial tone in the receiver!! But.... with the change of number!! (Oh Nooooo!!!) Now again have to fight with them to regain the same old number to which I had my precious broadband connection! I dont know when this fight is gonna end!! I am sure your wishes are with me!! ;-)



Mean while there are couple of updates from my side to share.
Soon after the launch of Chandrayan, we launched the second version of CNP (Creative Nature Photography). This has better look and feel than the earlier version. Thanks to Pramod and Shiv who took all the technical pain in designing this.
The office work held me down for almost continuous three weeks including the weekends and almost no photography at all !!! (Yes...it is true!!) Finally last Sunday broke this fast and headed to T G Halli with Adkoli and had some good time there.



For the software geeks I have a question here: I tried to use Nikon Capture NX to process my images from D300 and when ever I open a RAW image in NX it opens with beautiful vivid colors and looks great! But the Color Space is Nikon Adobe RGB which eventually have to be converted into sRGB to post on the web or even to print. Now, when I process the image (Levels/Curves etc) and at the end when I convert the color profile to sRGB I see a considerable shift in the colors! I am not able to understand why there is so much of a difference in the color space! When ultimately one has to convert to sRGB(either for web or to print) why on earth they show the image in the Nikon Adobe RGB format which looks so much beautiful, but eventually useless!!!! I am totally puzzled now!! If you have any solution for this - like how to preserve the same colors which appear in the Nikon Adobe RGB profile I would be very obliged to try that out with a bunch of heart filled thanks from my side!


Ok, that was for software geeks!.... Last weekend had some good session with D300 and have to learn a lot! I feel I am still using it as my D80, and not exploring the other possibilities of the body.... time to do some learning....

Deepavali - the festival of light - light is everywhere outside! In the day and now in the night as well. Yesterday evening tried some attempts to capture the festive mood in the sky. May be I will write about that in my next blog... and hopefully from home...after getting connected !!!

Till then... one more battle is left!

Wish me!

Ash

Busy in Nest Shifting!!

Life has become bit busy!

Acquired Nikon D300. But ever since life has become busy as we started shifting our home! Shifting home is a pain! and off late I have realised that there is a rule of thumb that you will lose one or the other things (mostly the important ones!!) in the process of packing and unpacking. Where does those things go?? - No idea! Law of conservation of Energy (perhaps 'things'?) seems to get deceived in this process as we cannot account for the disappearance of the things in the transit! I am yet to fig out whats my stake this time!


On a related note, while discussing with one of my colleagues I was mentioning that shifting home is like building a new software from scratch! (Perhaps you will have the framework - the boundaries of house!) All the old database (of where the things are at home) in your mind will become obsolete and you need to define new data structures and build a totally new database altogether, from scratch! Bugs in the design are a kind of prone in the initial stages as there will be trials and errors to finally make the things stabilize! :)


In the discussion I was mentioning that the Software Management Processes that the software Industries follow (like CMMI Level 5 etc) , something similar may help in this process as well. Like - Feasibility Study [Studying as to all the major things will occupy proper places or not].Documenting before you start packing the things and have a clear cut idea as to where exactly these things will be placed at the new place [Like what the Process tells - make the Design Document before you actually design! :)]. Then calling for a review (!!) from family members and reviewing/incorporating their comments! And then going ahead with implementation. This helps in finding the things while unpacking and saves time in thinking where to keep what! At the end it all depends on how much time you have to complete the shifting! ;) [ Time to Market - Lesser the time , more the deviation from the process!! :)]

So I am in the process of unpacking my things. I have to fig out what and all have disappeared! Till now everything seems to be Ok.
In the mean time made a small trip around to test D300. Some results are shared here.


Need to arrange the things.... Office is calling on weekends.... Winter misty mornings are calling outside....

...... and I am busy updating my database........

:)

Ash

Magic of Kathlekan!

Western Ghats are always refreshing...
Its after quite a long while since I had been to my native! As I dint have a single monsoon photography trip this time [ I had planned for at least two this season! :( ] I decided to take some break and head towards Sagar - Sirsi region and explore some new places which I haven't visited before. Incidentally I had met Ashok T.Hegde on India Nature Watch (INW) and he was forcing me to visit his place in the monsoons when the place will be at its best. He is located in a beautiful place - Mavinagundi which is very near to the renowned Jog falls. The place is very near to the pristine forests of Kathlekan where some new species of frogs and plants are still being discovered!


I was very much excited to visit the place just to enjoy the feel of the dense forest of Kathlekan region. The word Kathlekan means 'the dark forest' and why not it should be called so? It is a perfect name for the forest region over there. Such a lovely vegetation! You should be there to feel and enjoy it. To reach Kathlekan region you need to take the road from Sagar which heads towards Jog Falls and then towards Honnavara. The first checkpost that you encounter will be the place Mavinagundi. There is a high mobile transmission tower just beside the check post and the beautiful home that you see just behind that tower is where Ashok T.Hegde lives with his wife. It is such a lovely place!
The morning that I landed there infront of their gate, I was on my toes right from that moment as I had decided not to waste any time in taking rest. The light was fantastic outside.


After a small breakfast we started to head towards Kathlekan region. My friend Adithya U.N. had also joined us for the day and we are hoping for some good time. I went very curious when Ashokji mentioned that there are really large number of Lion Tailed Macaques(LTM) in that region. I remember hearing that some people have sighted LTMs from that region but I dint know that it is so much big population. Later when we met Mr.Sunil who is studying the behavioral ecology of Primates in that region we come to know that there are minimum of 630 LTMs in the region, which makes it the largest population region in the world! But as their territory is very big and they are canopy lovers it is tough to find them and very tough to photograph them from that region. But I want to give a try.... let me see when that time comes....
Till the afternoon there were no sightings of either LTM of any interesting bird species. Only couple of sightings of Yellow Browed Bulbuls were the only thing that we got. Then headed towards Gerusoppa to have some lunch. On the way you will see a beautiful falls at a distant mountain. The view was fantastic. Decided to spend some time while coming back to make some good image of the falls, hoping that it wont rain then... :) and it didn't...!


The day went in shotting some landscapes and other attempts and no interesting sightings. Adi disappointed a bit as his gun was sleeping almost idle without any bird for food! :) He had to satisfy the camera and himself with some landscape images which I have absolutely no idea if he enjoyed of not... ;)
While coming back I had decided that we will go the same view point where we went in the afternoon, the next morning as well as I was expecting to get some good moody images in the morning when the forest is covered with clouds and the heat from the canopy forms a fantastic scenery. I was visualizing something like that and I never know when I got asleep!


The next day Sun was welcomed by the calls of the Malabar Gery Hornbils and a thin line of cloud in the sky! I was happy with the first one but the second one disappointed me a bit. Hoping for a good light in the time to come, we had a good cup of coffee and headed towards the place. I must admire the enthu of Ashokji and his encouragement towards the nature and nature photography!


When we reached the place.... it was almost no change.... as clear as the last day afternoon... no mist.... no clouds!! Disappointed big time! Plan flopped! What else?? Then we planned to go the same place where we had seen Yellow Browed Bulbul last day. That is a small hilltop kind of place where there is a half constructed temple and a watch tower for the sight seeing. But the place is abandoned as the accessibility is a bit tough and the road is horrible! So it forms a nice open space around the thick forest and ideal for the bird activity. So we just went around the temple and I sighted one White Bellied Blue Flycather. Second time for me after my sighting in Kodachadri region. Then saw couple of Velvet Fronted Nuthatches and Scarlet Minivets.


The luck began to change when a pair of Scarlet Minivets decided to spend their time around the canopy of a tree which was at very close to the place where we were standing. I rushed to have a place where I can get a good view and started burning the images! The view was fantastic and so was the atmosphere around. Made some good images and then it was time of the Nuthatches to perform the show. They are one lovely cute birds. The red beak and the blue wings give a very very cute outlook to their appearance. After spending quite some time at that place, I was happy, so as Ashokji! So, we decided to head back and try our luck to see if we get any luck with LTMs!


While we were driving back I was glued to the window and was enjoying the distant calls of Whistling thrushes. It is so fantastic to listen to them. You tend to think that there is surely some one out there in the woods who is whistling so beautifully! They generally whistle in the early mornings . Because of its melodious song in the breeding time, they are popularly called as 'Idle Schoolboy'! :) Salim Ali says so! Absolutely true! So, as I was totally into that pleasant mood Ashokji took a bend on the road which was having a beautiful stream beside. I just noticed something perching on the rock beside the stream and screamed "STOP STOP!!".


I just rushed out of the car and slowly approached the stream and found the beautiful fella - Malabar Whistling Thrush! What a beauty it was! So shiny blue and black and what a setting it was sitting in! I just could not take my eyes off the view finder and as I dint want to miss any moment to witness this bird from so close! That guy was having some food in its mouth and he must be having a nest nearby, may be under the pool where we were standing. After spending some good 15min with him he decided to go to his nest to feed his children and we decided to head back to feed ourselves too!


The morning was amazing and worth spending. My sincere thanks to Ashokji who took all the pain to take me to that place that too in the wee hours of the morning.


Came back to home by 9:30 and both were very happy. A morning well spent. After having breakfast we decided to try our luck with the Malabar Grey Hornbils which were having a party at the other side of the paddy field. The effort was not wasted as they allowed us to approach close and I got some decent images. Another good luck of the morning.


Time was over and it was the time to head ahead towards Sirsi for me. The time that I spent in Mavinagundi was something unforgettable and I would want to go back to the place again and again and I bet if you go there just once, you will not disagree with me.

That is the magic of Kathlekan...



Thanks once again Ashokji for all the help. Will see you soon... :)

Cheers,
Ash

Wide angle and Ranganatittu!

You may laugh but it was true, I had not visited Ranganatittu even once till all these years! Even though it is regarded as one of the very good places to shoot birds [ofcourse with camera!! :)] I somehow didn't make it there. I had seen plenty of images on various forums which were made in Ranganatittu. Even though it is a heronary what makes it special is the angle of light that you will get on mornings and evenings.


That was one such day, on our [Pramod, Ganesh and myself] way to INW meet at Mysore, we decided to visit Ranganatittu for sometime. The light was beautiful and the surroundings were looking great. After some failures to create some different images using my tele lens, I decided to go for wide angle view to capture the elegant morning. The cirrus clouds in the blue sky was adding to the drama. I started enjoying the wide angle perspectives and the blues and the cloud patterns were making me dumbfounded.




Even though we spent only 35-40 min on boat and covered a very little area, all of us enjoyed a lot and all of us have some unique images of Ranganatittu, which I personally have not seen anywhere earlier.


Views may differ! :-)

Cheers,
Ash

Tale of a hanging unfortunate!

Nature is so awful! It never seizes to amaze with its surprises! Its just that we need a bit of luck to be there at the right time at the right moment to be the witness for the same.
One such luck happened to be turn towards me when I visited Gudvi Bird Sanctuary last time. We were returning from bird shoot and I was looking for something interesting for macro on the ground! But not in my dreams I had thought that I would see anything like this! - A snake caught in spider web! I have no idea how it got stuck there! Thought of many possibilities - It might have fallen from any of the above branches and might have got stuck or any possibility of trying to catch the spider as a desperate attempt or by any other means??? I spent around 30 plus min to see what happens next!!! and... what I saw after that was another amazing story....


...I had a very close encounter (just 6 ft away) with the Crested Serpent Eagle[CSE] just couple of hours back at around the same place! As this snake would make a tasty lunch for CSE, I was damn curious to see if I would be a witness for anything like a mid air hunt infront of my eyes!!


There were almost 6-8 Giant Wood spiders high above the web where this fella was hanging. I bet they were also equally tensed and excited as we were! I imagined them to be discussing among themselves on how to get rid of this mid-air crisis! As the size of the snake is bigger compared to their usual (or rarely some unusual) pray they were not looking keen on building some strategy to sack this guy and celebrate their lunch! I was expecting for some hero among them to come forward and do some action! But the biggest question still remained.... Who will bell the cat??


... I looked around in the anxiety for CSE to see if I will be a lucky guy.l.. but no clues of it anywhere! My cousin was busy with his HDV camcorder filming the entire event!... It was silence all around... Then finally one brave guy (or gal, I swear I dont know!) came forward and proceeded towards the hanging unfortunate! He looked clever! He came near, observed the situation closely and took a very wise decision! He slowly cut four major, strong threads which were holding the snake and left some work for the snake to get rid of the rest! After cutting four threads he rushed back as he may be expecting the snake to make some brisk movements to get rid of the rest of the threads, and if he was not fast enough then he may also fall along with the snake... and who knows the next story!!


He was wise and quick and made himself positioned in a safe place to witness the next events.... Then after some trouble the snake finally managed to get back to ground and it must have thanked the spider and GOD (for not sending CSE till then) before it disappeared into the bamboo woods again.


...An unforgettable event for both of us and we looked each other with a silent 'wow' expression!!

Note: A friend Bharat Chedda from India Nature Watch told that the snake is Bronze back and it might have tried to glide from one branch to another and caught stuck in the web of Giant Wood Spider! - quite possible!!

Nature is Amazing....!

Cheers,
Ash

A morning on the hill....

Last time when I had been to Nandi Hills (couple of years back I guess!) the garden around the bungalow had attracted me a lot. It was so fresh. I dint had camera then. So whenever I wanted to make some macros or close up photography of flower I always remembered that place. Because of some or the other reasons I could not visit that place for a long time.
Last weekend I was fortunate enough to freeze my plan and sticking to it! :) It was a fantastic day out there. I was sorry for my friend Prashant who drove all the way long to the hill top just to realise that he had kept the only memory card of his camera back at home!
The morning was misty and the sun slowly started peeping behind the clouds as the time went by. Got some good opportunities to make some images which I always wanted to make.


The morning mist had saturated the colors very well and everything was looking so fresh and colorful. I tried out some images of some patterns. Below are couple of them. Even though both look slightly similar, for me they both convey slightly different feel. The first one is more intense in the dark colors and because of that the greens on the edges very prominently stand out, imparting an intense mood through the image. Whereas the second one has more elements and because of its relatively lesser darker region, the mood is somewhat pleasant. just my feel.... taste buds differ! :)





As the Sun started peeping out got some unique lighting opportunity. The flowers were looking so fantastic when the mist was cleared.


After some more experimentations I called it a day. After a long time I had a real fantastic morning!


Hope to spend some more mornings there...

Cheers,
Ash

My experiments with Light!!

Photography is all about controlling light! How much you have the control on it hat much you will have the control on the result that you get. In the cases where we cannot have the control on the incident light, like when we will be shooting in the open area with a cloudy dull sky where we cannot do much other than praying for good light(!), we will stand helpless! But to shoot certain things the same dull light comes very handy to conduct some experiments and get some good results.

  On a weekend in Hesaraghatta Lake area, it was totally cloudy when we landed and light was very dull! The last day I was planning to spend some time in the experimentation with external light source such as torch! Though I dont have a very bright torch, I had decided with whatever I have. So when I landed there I was in search of a suitable subject on which I can start my experiments! Bingo! Only after a few minutes I found a mashroom with a thin and semitransparent skin! I was delighted! Below are the series of images with the explanation on what I tried to do and what I got. You are the best judge to say which one worked and which one are not!

The below image is a plain as is - without any flash or external light source.

 As I said to me it looks 'plain'! Nothing more than that! 

  So decided to lit the subject from sidewise and held the LED torch from the top left corner and you can see the result below- 

 As this looked interesting I got curious to tryout further. The next attempt was to illuminate the subject completely from sideways. Below is how that looks - 

The soft bluish glow that the LED light created gave a very soothing feeling.

The next attempt was to make the subject backlit! I held the torch such that the semitransparent nature of its skin becomes evident and gives a total different view. Here it is -

 So... the same subject, handled in different ways, depending on light the mood that the image imparts changes from angle to angle! 

  Below is another image where the side of the grass blade was purposefully illuminated using the LED and that gave a different feel to the image.

  Another attempt is below where I used three light sources to illuminate this tiny bud from different angles. One from left, one from right and I used a white paper as diffuser to diffuse the light from the flash. Thanks to my friend Pramod S V who suggested the use of white sheet and thanks to him and Naga who held the torches to make this below image.

..... and here are the equipments that I used to make the above image... :-)

  It was a very good learning for me over the two weekends. This is not anything very new or groundbreaking theory that I discovered! Its just my version of it. Many people have tried this globally and our own Ganesh H S has done some remarkable images using this technique. You can find a related article written by him on this topic HERE.

   One thing that I am learning over the time in photography is we should never hesitate to experiment in the field. 

After all photography is not just about 'taking the images', for me its all about 'making the images'.

Cheers,

Ash