The Little Raptor!

The Shikra is so far the smallest bird of prey I've encountered when compared to the eagles and hawks which is the same family it belongs to. But they are nevertheless, equally graceful in their perch.

This one had perched on a branch right by the side of the road and the dull light was making it difficult to get good shutter speed. This was shot with a 1.4x TC on the 600mm at 1/30s shutter and I never expected the result to be this good looking. The blown out areas around the bird are because of the sky visible through the leaves in the background, but there was no way to avoid that.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 600mm with 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/30s, f5.6, ISO 400

Proud and Perched Peacock

As the summer sets in, these magnificent birds are ready with their full blown plumage to welcome the oncoming monsoons. The peacock dancing is a very graceful display of well coordinated moves that create a brilliant optical illusion with the pattern of feathers. The peacocks are said to dance to invite and celebrate the rains but its actually a part of the courtship display to attract members of the opposite sex.

These large birds usually prefer moving around on the ground but they can do short stints of flight and can be found perched up on tree branches. Its amusing to see the peacock fly with its train of feathers.

Tech Specs:
Canon 400D + Canon 70-200L
Shot at 200mm, 1/25s, f4, ISO 200

Baby bloom!

This summer was a very rewarding experience with the langur babies. I had two or three opportunities to watch the mother-baby interaction closely. The baby enjoys attention from the entire group, and with a newborn in her arms, the mother is always kept in the close guards of the family. At one time, the whole family was shielding the mother from being seen with the baby.

The babies on the other hand, as innocent and exploratory that they can be, are always on the lookout for some mischief. At 2-3 weeks, they look so similar with human babies except for the the dark furry coat which slowly starts turning grey as they grow up.

This one was taken at Kanha national park on a rather dull day considering it was peak summer in April.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 600mm
Shot at 600mm, 1/320s, f4, ISO 400

Digpa-ratsa Ri - Hanle Observatory

Far far away....a black top road running in between two mountain ranges for miles and miles together. This is the road that leads you to a remote town called Hanle which boasts of the world's highest observatory for optical & infra-red astronomy. The place is free of tourists and the town had little or no provisions for more than 4-6 visitors at one time. We were lucky to find one of the two rooms available at the lone guest house in town. There may be no cell phones in this area, but there's internet at the observatory and a satellite phone at the guest house. The observatory is remotely controlled by scientists sitting in a cosy Bengalooru office while a resident engineer and some other ground staff rough it out at the observatory.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 24-105 F4L
Shot at 24mm, f16, 1/30s, ISO 100


Hanle also has one of the oldest monasteries in Ladakh dated back to the 17th century, but more on that in a later post.

Ssshhh...my angel's sleeping!

Even though they can't talk when they're born, a baby can express a lot with their eyes and facial expressions. I like the gleam in her eye when she's upto something naughty but what I love the most is to watch her sleeping.

When she was born, I was amazed by the long eyelashes she had and even now they are a treat to watch. Kids are just beautiful, and the time spent with them, so precious. She'll always be my little angel, even when she grows up!

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D+ Canon 100mm Macro
Shot handheld at 100mm, f2.8, 1/20s, ISO 400

Mommy's the Boss!

When it comes to raising a family and teaching the little ones how to take care of themselves etc, its always the mommy who handles it best. This is true even with the elephant herds and one can easily see that its the mothers and aunts and sisters who take care of the herd. The males are often found roaming alone and only jump in for their part in the reproductive cycle.

Elephant babies are very susceptible to attacks whilst they're young and are closely guarded by the herd members at all times. The mother actively keeps an eye on her young one and will usually keep it within her trunk's distance, afterall she's waited 22 long months to have the baby delivered. The babies on the other hand also prefer to be pampered by the herd and will follow their mother all through. A lot of emotions can be observed within the herd that symbolizes the intelligence level of these beasts.

Summer is the best time to watch huge herds of elephants gather around the Kabini river bank to relish the green grass that grows on the receded river bed. A lot of social interaction happens within the herd and also amongst different herds, its very interesting to watch their behavior. Here's one such moment when the baby was following his mother for a dip in the river.

Tech Specs:
Canon 7D + Canon 600mm with a 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, F5.6, 1/800s, ISO 200

The Land of the Lamas!

Ladakh - the mother of all naturally beautiful places. Its not a cosy place to be in, but it can be the most rewarding experience if you rough it out. I'm hooked on to the mountains since 2007 when we made our first trip, I had a borrowed Kodak P&S camera back then. But you can hardly go wrong with your camera in Ladakh, every place is equally beautiful and even random compositions turn out to be keepers.

The last year (2010) was the 4th year in succession to the Himalayas. This was originally conceptualized as a solo bike trip, but the head of the house had set conditional permissions and I was glad to get Elvin and Anand to ride with me. We're old college buddies so this became a good bachelors trip out into the wild.

I wanted to explore newer places this time and also wanted to experience staying at Pangong overnight. So the itinerary was chalked out and arrangements were made. This time we were going to cover Zanskar, Leh, Pangong, Hanle and Tso Moriri. But as things unfolded when we started the trip, we had to drop a couple of places out from the plan. We still managed to do Hanle and stay at Tso Moriri for a night which was a very satisfying experience.

The lake has so much to offer that you could stay for weeks together and still have more angles to shoot from. Here's one of my favorite pictures of the lake taken in the early morning hours (6AM).

Tech Specs:
Canon 400D + Canon 10-22mm
Shot at 10mm, F14, 1/25s, ISO 100



Cheers!

Reviving an old flame!

There's your passion and then there's work! It's always difficult to strike a balance between the two especially when you are passionate about things that conflict with your work commitments. Don't get me wrong here, I love my job and have no intentions of giving up my professional career as yet. But its unlike photography where one good picture makes your day and sometimes weeks together!

The initial idea for this blog was to keep account of all my trips and compile them into a collection for a read when I'll be too old to move out of the armchair, and may be also use it to show my grandkids how much fun it was being in the early 20th century. But, over time work took over and writing never really took off!

This time, I'm going to revive it again with the hope that I'll be able to keep it alive for a long long time. To keep things simple, I'm going to also make some changes to the format and use this space to talk about what I like the most - Photography. I'm no master of the art so I'll stay away from giving discourses and lectures about how to make your pictures look better, there are already tons of sites which do that. Instead, this will be a platform to share some of the pictures I like and my thoughts on why I like them or what was I thinking when I made the image.

Enough of gyaan for Day 1, here's a picture I will cherish for a long time.



This is a very special picture for me. Its taken from an elephant back during the morning "Tiger Show", but thats not what makes it special. This was a trip when me and Elvin took my 16-month old daughter to the jungles of MP on a 10 day trip. A detailed account of my trip can be found at Two Men & A Baby - In Search Of The Stripes.

I don't really approve of the commercialized Tiger Show process and was very skeptical of doing the elephant ride given the amount of equipment and the little one, but we thought we'd do it for the one-time experience. I was holding on to the 7D+600mm combo and my daughter with one hand and had the 70-200 mounted on the 400D on the other hand to click this one. It was a tough situation, but I'm happy with the result!

My daughter on the other hand was so delighted by the whole experience, especially when she spotted the striped cat walking next to the elephant, I could see the excitement in her eyes.

Now coming to the technicalities, I know it isn't the best angle to photograph this magnificent animal and I could have easily gotten a better composition by keeping some more space around it. But this is what you can get when you're managing a baby and hanging on to the elephant back. :)

Stay tuned for more...