Images & Satisfaction

Two very satisfying Images I had made over the last six months.

Pencil shading in Nature | Kerala

Diya | Kodachadri

Red Whiskered Bulbul | Munnar

Here is a common red whiskered bulbul amidst green foliage in munnar evening light. Though i had clear images made some images through foliage to leverage on the foreground and background blur and create a sandwich effect on the bird. The textured out of focus branches in the back drop ( see bigger image ) think gives an impressionist feel to the image.

Red Whiskered Bulbul | Munnar

Flame Throated Bulbul | Thattekad

Here is a lovely flame throated bulbul in thattekad morning light. This is a subspecies of black crested bulbul. Though it looks very similar to ruby throated bulbul it is not the same. Ruby throated bulbul has a deeper red coloration in its neck in comparison to this bulbul.

Flame Throated Bulbul | Thattekad

Tadpole Patterns | Kodachadri

We had hundreds of tadpoles that were moving about in the stream close to the place we stayed in kodachadri. The movements were very similar to the starling migration patterns.

Here is a pattern coupled with textured nature of water.

Tadpole Textures | Kodachadri

Light Streaks | Kodachadri

Sikkim : Moon over Mountains

The human eye has a focal length perspective of 50mm. Any focal length above gives an exaggerated perspective of the distant object. I wanted to leverage this idea in making an image of moon setting over the horizon. More specifically I was hoping the moon set at early mornings would happen over kangchenjunga and I would be able to make an image of moon with an exaggerated perspective with respect to kangchenjunga ( Another example of this is if you had watched the movie Bruce almighty there is a scene in which Jim carrey pulls the moon closer for Jennifer Aniston giving it a bigger than normal size. Was looking at something similar with respect to kangchenjunga as comparison :)). As it turned out from Lava or Neora valley where I tried, the moon set was occurring over the adjacent mountain which was rishyap a small and one of the many high altitude towns around Lava. So though the original idea did not pan out still managed to make some images of moon setting over Rishyap.

Sikkim : Light Series

At the end of sikkim trip though it was not a conscious choice I realized most of my images were oriented towards the magical light I had witnessed over the mountains. Here is the light series from the trip.

Mountain Light

Flow of Light

Light and Clouds

First Light

Light Layers

Somehow had missed out on posting this one. Jugal our naturalist and bird guide had mentioned this bird "Hoopoe Lark" was a specialty of Great Rann of Kutch. We went out looking for this in Great rann of Kutch. This bird partly resembles the common Hoopoe and hence it gets its name. The peculiarity with this bird is every time it would allow us to get closer and once we settle down the bird would start running. The bird every time it runs on wet soil the foot marks were immediately baked by kutch heat highlighted by the exposed salt.

Hoopoe Lark footprints


After two hours of running behind we almost gave up and got on to the vehicle thinking of going back. Magically the bird suddenly approached us close and climbed on to a nearby shrub giving us eye level shot from the vehicle itself. After running behind the bird by foot it was ironical the way we finally managed to make images of this bird.

Hoopoe Lark - Potrait

Chestnut Bellied Nuthatch
A species of nuthatch seen around Assam and Kumaon region.

Update : Looks like it is not restricted to Assam and Kumaon alone. Actually its association is more defined by the type of forest it is found rather than just north or southern parts of indian and in this case it is tropical dry vegetation. Thanks to Deepa for the correction.

Two images made at Binsar zero point. The pink tinge over the horizon happens at sunset. From Binsar zero point the span of Himalayan range visible is about 300kms.



A slightly wider view with moon rise over the mountains.

A Black Headed Jay day dreaming on a gloomy Sattal morning :)

Himalayan Bulbul
Songster from himalayas. Checkout his crest display in morning light.

Moods of Kumaon Himalayas - 1
I made a series of images of the eastern himalayan range from pangot and binayak. These are small villages away from Nainital by a distance of around 20kms. The first time you look at a himalayan range it hits you captivating you by its sheer scale and size. Though you make innumerable images you still come back with a feeling full justice has not been done in showcasing this wonder of nature. Nevertheless here is my attempt. A view of the kumaon eastern himalayan range from pangot. The highlighted range in the center is trisul flanked on the left side by Shivling and on the right by Nandadevi.

A rabari tribal from Kutch in his traditional white dress. They are nomadic in nature and only 3000 families are believed to be around kutch. Their main job is herding camels. This old man is in his eighties and he told us even today he herds camels across kutch for kilometers in search of vegetation and pasture. In the dry kutch heat when we were worried about heat related issues like dehydration though we were traveling in jeep and had lot of supply of water it was amazing to the see the way the tribals had adapted themselves to live in this harsh desert setting and go about their daily lives.

A variable wheatear takes off from its perch. The perch here is the candelilla shrub that mainly grows in the desert. This shrubs gets its name from its little candle like appearance. Their pencil like stems grow in bunches with reasonable spacing between them making them ideal perches for birds in a desert setting. In a desert environment with sparse vegetation hanging around near candelilla shrubs is always a good bet to spot some variety of small birds.

- Great Rann of Kutch -
GRK ( Great Rann of Kutch ) being a low lying area floods every year and the water starts to evaporate once the summer sets in with its 50deg heat. The evaporating water leaves behind an earth coated with hardened salt. The residual water is so strong with brine concentration the water body turns pink and the horizon over the water glows with a pink tinge.

Montagu Harrier
This harrier gets its name after the britain naturalist George Montagu ( source wikipedia ). True to its harrier nature it flys low scanning the terrain for potential prey. This is a male montagu harrier. He was quite tolerant about our presence. After making the regular images with clean background at eye level was trying out some approaches to make some different images. A cooperative subject is a prerequisite to try something different in the field. In this scenario moved myself on the ground so that there was some grass between myself and the harrier. The idea here was I wanted to sandwich the harrier between the blur from foreground grass and the background blur.

Calling it a day - Banni Grasslands ( Kutch )

Camel flock crossing Banni grasslands herded by Rabari tribals.

Naliya Grasslands @ Sunset
A lone chinkara stands amidst glowing grass at sunset. The glowing grass is due to the setting sun at horizon. I wanted to include more of the horizon but could not because I was using prime lens. One of the disadvantages of using prime lens. Nevertheless of all the images I made in Kutch this one is close to my heart and is my favorite from the trip. Happy Diwali Everyone !!!

Blue Cheeked Bee Eater ( Kutch )
Passage migrant from Africa to India during winter. Slightly bigger than the common Green bee eater. Nevertheless very shy. Have to keep running behind them to locate that one bold guy who will allow a closer approach for some decent images.