Little Rann of Kutch

Having been to kutch 4 years back have been wanting to go back to the place for quite some time. There is something magical about kutch. The light is magical for photography no doubt. But besides that roaming around in vast expanses of desert mixing with tribals is an experience in itself. So last week when i visited LRK ( Little Rann of Kutch ) was looking at reliving a similar experience. Unfortunately the rain made the Rann inaccessible which is disappointing in the sense i was expecting to go around the desert and make some nice images of Wild ass in the beautiful kutch light. Since none of those were happening I had to settle for two rides down the road where i was photographing birds with different compositions. Still I enjoyed making the images of different birds the highlight being eurasian wryneck which was my first time sighting. One of the things I have been trying these days is while photographing birds I have been trying to include the surrounding environment in interesting ways. I look for interesting patterns,colors and different negative space formations.

Salt Fields | LRK

Bush Chat | LRK

Golden Light  | LRK

Here is a wryneck sitting in lovely morning light. They get their name from the fact their necks can turn 180deg. In fact when disturbed they give a hissing sound like a snake as threat display.

Eurasian Wryneck | LRK

Here is siberian stone chat in its habitat. A male in its breeding plumage. It used to be earlier called as common stonechat. Morphological study classified this to be a different species. Being a small bird kutch type setting with stand out perches makes the bird identifiable among lot of foliage. I also like this image because it shows the scale of bird nicely.

Siberian Stonechat | LRK

Here is female rufous tailed shrike sitting in an interesting perch. I like the head turn plus the perch formation with the bird on the top. It gives a feel like a child about to ride the slide.

Rufous Tailed Shrike | LRK

Here is a variable wheatear in a typical thorny desert habitat. One of the commonly seen birds in Kutch.

Variable Wheatear | LRK

White eared bulbul is another desert resident. All bulbuls are cute and so is this guy. Photographing this bulbul is always tricky since the color combination of black and white patch near the ear tests the exposure latitude of camera sensor.  I used a light meter in this scenario to get the exposure right. In fact in a place like kutch i prefer using light meter because the terrain is open and background is typically bright either because of sky or the light bouncing of the ground.

White Eared Bulbul | LRK