The Goddess of Dighalikhupuri

Common Bluetail

crop, edit, edit

Another trip to Tamhani. This time with a punctured tyre! The machine which helps me to move from one place to another was helpless to move on its own! It was a tiresome walk of 1 km or so...

Just as the mechanic was trying to fix the problem I got curious about the scattered instruments and the dead tyre; got a snap just like that! back home played with the snap...

    I first tried cropping it so that everything comes closer so as to give the picture a kind of tightness; made it black n' white with a sepia tone.

Again adjusted brightness and contrast a lil bit. Then put the picture in PS. There I played with using different filters. Embossing attracted my attention; it was kind of fossilizing the frame!! I like it. Hence I tried it; adjusted the angle so that the picture looks more like a 3D snap; bordered it to make it packed.

  Finished! Can be sold as a book cover! ;-)

Tamhani scape

Borders make picture attractive, compact. these lines try to attract viewer to the more important features of photographs.
Landscapes such as this one are borderless although they look good with borders! what i mean to say is; it's man's nature to keep everything under control and happy (symbol of which is border); this may not work always though!   

Details:
1/125s, f/8.0, ISO 200
Instrument:
Sony cybershot DSC H50
Location:
Tamhani, Maharashtra, India.

Such a sweet home

No explanations about the quote (cauz everybody's home is different and personalized). I wanted to make this photograph soft; curtains did the job.
Details:
ISO 80, 1/80s, f/3.2
Sony Cybershot DSC H50

तुझ्या सजण्यात समावली, ही आयुष्यभराची ठेव...

1/200s, f/4.5, ISO 200, Manual handheld
Instrument: Sony Cybershot DSC H50

 

The Future Conservationist

An instantaneous shot while on a short trip to Kirloskar at Nashik. These people were interested in our binocular and this guy particularly was afraid of my hat. He thought that I am a Police inspector and will ask him for money.

Instrument: Sony Cybershot DSC H50

ISO 100, 1/640s, f/3.5. (this photograph has been previously exhibited in one of the photo exhibitions).

Behind every buddha there's a lil noise!

As I was wandering in one of the museums in the city of Jaipur, a kid attracted my attention, as I was being watched by him and he was quiet interested in the camera hanging from my shoulder. As I turned back and looked at him, i got a frame to catch his innocent and curious face. Here, in this picture there are two faces...both showing different mind states.

Wire tailed swallow (Hirundo smithii)

Very cute bird with least concern (LC) conservation status in IUCN data!!:-) These birds are solitary in nature. In Marathi language it is known as "तारवाली पाकोळी"!The long wire is not visible in this picture. Got this picture yesterday in the morning; Sunlight was to the left of the object; hence it created nice colors at the back of the bird. This is shot at my favorite place, on the busy bridge of Kawadi!

1/640s, f 4.5, ISO 100.  

Melghat Diaries

Day 1 (11^th April 2010)

I am here in Melghat, around 120 kms from Amravati, one of the district places in Maharashtra. Melghat is one of the tiger reserves in India, a unique representative! The state of Marathas has lost its entire tiger fauna, and only few of them are currently residing in the reserve of Melghat. We are total of 15 participants, enthu in wildlife conservation. Most of us are photographers, birders and amateurs. Today we had a safari by Gypsy to the tourist track. We got to see lots of birds and a heard of Gaurs. We visited the nature interpretation centre at Semadoh; and got to see the actual sizes of animals. I personally feel that watching wildlife in a sanctuary sitting in a Gypsy is not interesting. We have a thought of being at a safer side, we are in group, we do have cameras and other equipments, we are quite sure of the capacity of Gypsy to turn back and run away with a faster speed than the wild animal in case it attacks…so it’s kinda observing the wildlife from balcony of our respective houses. The thrill which you can experience wandering bare footed in jungle has its own category! Gaurs are really magnificent animals, but watching them from Gypsy made me feel that they are no different than buffalos!!

In the evening session we sat on machan from 4.30 to 7.00 p.m. sitting on machan fulfills your thrill requirement! You are alone though in a group! You have no measures of defence even if mishaps occur. You cannot run away nor can you hide! The only thing which I like the most about machan is that it tells you the jungle stories, shows you the real jungle dramas audio-visually, provided you sit quietly on machan. You shut your mouth, you listen to the surroundings…I have never imagined that the jungle can be so serious and dreadful at the same time! I heard laughs of hyena, a great horned owl calling the jungle so loudly that the voice itself created an image of this particular owl in my mind; no doubt it was a great horned owl. Nightjars, owlets, tree-pies, kingfishers and peacocks, everybody has its own story to tell to the jungle, but at different time intervals. I found the hierarchy so impressive that the jungle tries to maintain. I tried to be quiet, got to see peacocks coming to the waterholes, drinking water. Got to see, grey junglefowls (both males and females). There was a distinction between the behavior shown by both the males and females of peacocks and grey junglefowls. Males were quite alert as compared to the females; might be because of the more decorative plumage and heavy builds than females.

7.05 p.m.

We thought to left the machan, climbed down and started walking to the campsite. Visibility started decreasing as the darkness started showing up with a subsequent increase in the cries and activities of birds; these were the last few minutes for them to drink enough of water for the night to pass. There we encountered a bear, just 10-15 feet away from us up on a small hill, and yes we were bare footed with no torches to see the site, a single swiss knife in my pocket to depend on! I was curious enough to shoot a photo but the light was not enough, and my mind was still telling me that it’s a wild boar and not a bear until it roared; as it was the sole voice it could create! Now it was confirmed that it was a bear and four of us were in danger! It stood on its hind legs might be just for having a better look at us. Well, I have read enough of appropriate books to know about bears and was quite sure about the unpredictable behavior shown by it. Well, what could I do in such a case? Just thought about it and told all the other three that it’s a bear and that we should not run even if it comes towards us. I thought that just standing in front of it was not enough and that I had to do something just to scare it away, as it was quite interested in our activities! So I told the entire group that I will count one, two, and three and that we have to shout as louder as we could do! Well, we shouted, the result was it turned back in that typical bear style…we shouted twice, made a lot of noise as we started approaching the camp site! When we reached the camp site, a villager at camp site told us that the bear is still there!! I think, this is the unpredictable behavior of bears!! My throat was dry, and I was so helpless holding my swiss-knife in the right hand, what can I do in such situations? A swarm of questions, started approaching me just like angry honey bees, as if I am the one who has stolen their honey!!

This was the evening of the day 1. I started thinking of people living in the vicinity of wild animals, the intrusion made by us, the beauty of wild animals and that I was so clear about observing wild animals bare footed in the jungle; otherwise you don’t feel the fear and there is no thrill involved in observing them, rather appreciating their size and power. I could not see the face of the bear as I said before, light was not enough! I started thinking of my purpose of being in here in Melghat, The Land of Tigers…  

Day 2 (12^th April 2010)

I know and I understand the current situation of jungles in Maharashtra, and to a greater extent that of India and the world of course. I try to save water, save electricity, I don’t myself wear belts made by turtle or snake skin and don’t gift them as well; I am a vegetarian (turned just 3 months before!), I don’t eat eggs of wild species! I am quite aware of situation of plastic and that it’s accumulating in the environment and it’s harmful to all of us! So see, I am well educated, can get a job of environment teacher in schools, colleges; I can earn money either by teaching school children about do’s and don’ts of environmental education (EE) or I can start a N.G.O. dedicated to work for EE and can earn a lil bit for myself!! Well, most of these NGOs do this! I am not an anti-NGO man nor am I pessimistic about the NGO thing. I honestly think that working in an organization is much better than working individually and yes, it’s more effective, and then how can it be a failure? Here is this NGO…may be let’s just say organization (The word NGO might depict something else!). Nature Conservation Society, Amravati (NCSA) of Mr. Kishor Rithe, Mr. Vishal Bansod and Mr. Nishikant Kale, all full time members and care takers of NCSA (I don’t know about other members and other people involved in its operation, so those please forgive me for not mentioning about them!!). These are the hard workers who are really working for nature conservation and purely for nature conservation. They have research projects, they have conservation projects, and they are in direct contact with villagers living here in the buffer zone of Melghat tiger reserve. See, the problem is not only with the tigers and that they are poached so heavily that we just have to provide them with adequate amount of land; but also with the human beings who are settled on this tiger land and living with them. These people are living here since so many years that we just cannot resettle them to some other land! Their forefathers must have encountered forefathers of today’s Melghat tigers. Human-animal conflict is not time bound! There are many human families and tiger generations which are living here since before declaration of tiger reserve boundaries! Hence we have to solve problems of villagers along with saving tigers. NCSA has helped villagers living in Melghat and the work cannot be stopped here. It’s a continuous process. Total of 19 villages are to be resettled out of which 3 villages have been successfully resettled. We visited one of such villages, known as “Kund”. It’s a success story, written by NCSA, Forest department and of course villagers of Kund. Villages which are situated at boundary of core area want to get resettled just to avoid human-animal conflict and to proceed towards a better life. There are provisions made by government. So, for every problem our government has some solutions, the only thing is that we don’t know about them and we are bored of visiting government offices just to get something done. We think that writing mails is enough but it’s not. Kishor sir explained this situation in a very nice way to us…

“अरे, ये तुम्हारा देश है! तुम्हारी सरकार है! It’s not British government!”

Kishor sir is a computer engineer and currently he is dedicatedly working for the rights of Melghat villagers, on their health aspects and on the conservation aspects related to Melghat and other tiger reserves and national parks of central India. He is keen to raise an issue, fight for it; he does not think about the risk involved in it…he repeats. “It’s your government and not the Britishers!” He has faith in our government, and he has studied the law of this country so wisely that he knows where the solution of problem is. This the first time I saw such an organization working so enthusiastically.

Day 2 was not lucky for us as the other group got to see a wounded sambar, might be a possible prey of a leopard/tiger! We just felt the presence of a leopard/tiger and that was really exciting. The monkeys were continuously giving alert calls, typical of sighting of tiger by monkeys. We also heard alert calls given by barking dear, the whole of the jungle stood still in the fearful appreciation of the king of the Indian jungles. Way back to camp, we got to see a mother crested hawk eagle feeding its nestlings.

Sorry!! I Forgot to mention about Ravi. Ravi is a tenth standard korku boy, associated with Duda van and actively working in the field of EE for other korkus. He knows the current condition of Melghat forests and that we have to act rather than just talking/discussing about it. We got a chance to interact with him; he was not shy talking to us. He answered most of our questions logically, not innocently! I asked him, “what do you want to be in life?” he answered quickly that he wants to work for forest conservation. So difficult a question answer of which we people cannot find whole our miserable lives and this guy was so prompt and happy to answer it!    

NCSA, the resettled village and talk by Kishor sir really motivated me to break up the cocoon of helplessness…the starry night in the tent was excited by the stories of the jungle ghosts and that of the king of the jungle…some heard, some strangely not heard before…all about Melghat, The Land of Tigers!

Day 3 (13^th April 2010)

Last two days were discussion days (contradictions, controversies, comments, suggestions, questions and same questions repeated for a hell lot of times!!!), today is no different. We started our day with a nice trail to Chaurakund. We first went up 6 kms or so in the jungle ahead of Chaurakund. Got to see pugs of leopard; I was happy to see the presence of leopard here. It was quite near to the village and yes, they were fresh. I just imagined the crepuscular cat walking on the trail. I do this, every time I see pugmarks or scat of any animal…that’s my specialty. You imagine these magnificent animals walking on the trails, in their respective styles…it just like watching them live in jungle. We went ahead expecting something special to see, could not see animals though. Way back home, we stopped in the same village, just to get to know chaurakund people, their lifestyle, their relation with the jungle, their problems and lot more stuff. I and Vishal Gokhale (an enthu birder from Pune) started a conversation with an old lady who was sitting in her old house and that we caught her curiosity in our activities and our purposes to get down in chaurakund. She talked about herself, her family, her children and her Buddha (husband). She repeatedly emphasized about her health problems and that she cannot move much around. She talked about her children, told us that her three sons passed away because of illness, the only survived one is living in the village nearby, but he is not that into her. Her only daughter lives next door and she is quite helpful. Her house was nicely built. She told about the jungle and added that अभी सब उजाड हो गया (Most of the jungle has been cut down). Her Buddha had worked as a helper to the hunter sahib. He used to build machans on tiger kills and sit on the machan for tiger hunt with sahib. Those days, were prosperous days for the couple. I think that, sahib would have been a great attraction to the villagers, youngsters mainly, as they would have been paying them a good amount of money to locate tigers. The old lady was from Kund, the same village which was resettled near to Akot. Well, Akot is far away (for village people) for her; so she is not able to go there visit her family in there. She was not happy with the resettlement! This lady told us many things about health facilities, water arrangement and other aspects.

It was quite a good talk with her. I separated from Vishal and just started wandering in the village. These people seemed curious to me, as I saw a nice collection of shapeless marbles they were worshipping as their god. So they find their god, in such complex, abstract and so to say beautiful forms created by nature. I think, the origin of the concept of god is more in the non-understandable form! I turned to a village boy who attracted my attention. His name was Shiva. Shiva is in sixth standard and he regularly goes to the school. He is clever as he solved all the basic mathematics questions which I asked him, such as what is 5+4, what is 9+4 and what is 5*4 etc. Shiva is an indicator of educational system operating in chaurakund. It’s a positive sign. The Duda van (Duda means Forest owlet in Korku language), a EE program run by NCSA is popular in these village boys. Shiva told me about Duda. He asked me the next possible dates of Duda to come here; I told him that I am not the right authority to tell about it, but that I will convey your message to the right personals! Shiva was enthu about meeting me again, as I told him that in the month of May I’ll come to have a talk with him again and that I’ll ask him more complex mathematics problems (For which I have to learn maths, well it’ll take a month or so…;-))

Back in the camp we had a nice (I mean, really nice) discussion on our trip. Everyone discovered the fact that villagers are approachable, they know about Duda.

In the evening we again sat on a machan, but this time we were 10 people, all amateurs and all expecting a tiger. This should not happen. Tiger is not a candy!! We people are so eager to watch, buy anything valuable that we almost loose the excitement! The result was clear we could not see a tiger not even a single wild boar! What we saw was a Gaur male, who was disturbed because our notorious activities. Finishing the 7.00 pm deadline we climbed the cliff, up on the base camp we got to know that yesterday evening as the group sitting on the machan left it, a big cat came just after 20-25 minutes. Workers at base camp heard those roaring sounds…I was annoyed by the fact that we could not make it! It’s not just watching a tiger, but it is more about feeling the presence of the big cat. In my story, the big cat is not only a magnificent animal; but it’s something at the ace of food chain that governs the jungle. Many people asked me the whether I saw a tiger or not? And to tell you the truth they were more excited asking me the question than me. “I saw a bear, what’s more than that??” on such a reply they just turn around!! I don’t know what’s so special in watching a cat who knows you as one of the tourists coming just to get nice pictures of it. Well, a bear is so mad to understand all these things!! ;-) Back to the camp site we encountered a civet (who crossed us and climbed up a tree; it was looking so cute that we just kept watching it!) and a jackal. It was the second last day at Melghat; everyone was tired; but we had to finish the assignment given by Kishor sir in the morning. The assignment was to identify any of the conservation problem and setting up strategies by using different tools. It was theoretical and was really nicely made. I talked about polluted wetlands and their effects on migratory birds. I will describe this in some of my next blog posts. Each participant presented various problems and innovative solutions for them. It was too late; we finished off and went to our respective tents. Back on his way to NCSA centre Kishor sir spotted two bears near the camp site…we were quite awake in our tents, the dark night was over the tent, and we were murmuring about the last night of the camp and the amazing experiences we got to have in Melghat-The land of Tigers… 

A Lazy Sunday

Yesterday was a lazy Sunday for me. I woke up a little late (7.30 a.m.)! I looked in the mirror, my eyes were red and there was a significant irritation; I ignored it saying that it just might be the incomplete dream which passed away like a running train (passing slowly, making lot of noise). I prepared my usual gears and went to a canteen nearby to have a tea. The place was crowded with people went out for exploring their respective Sundays. I took a tea and went inside a small jungle like area nearby. I could not found anything impressive except the silence; the tall and huge trees were in process to create and a random pattern of light and shadows that was spread throughout the place. It is this feeling of loneliness and at the same time being surrounded by so many serious personals that cannot be photographed or written. There is no music, no clutter, no shouting, no computer beeps, not a single thought.

I sat cross-legged and started thinking of the random pattern of shadows and light inside me, and about my relatedness with the nature of this place…

Golden Shower Tree

Cassia fistula. Popularly known as "Golden Shower Tree". "बहावा" in Marathi Language. Its from family: Fabaceae. And its native of south Asia. (I like it when they call it native!! :-)
 Details: 1/800s, f/4.0, ISO 100 and lens: 45.0 mm equivalent. Caught today morning...I repeat its a native! :-))

Situation Update

I am worried about the condition of Kawadi wetlands. These wetlands are getting converted into wastelands. For getting this photo I crawled some distance and found some interesting stuff lying around me for example cow dung, plastic bags, wasted food, cloths etc. (the list is huge)! This photo clearly shows the scattered garbage on the shore. The water is so dirty and stinky. Tell me why, these beautiful birds from beautiful and relatively clean places come to our place? Because they have nowhere to go...and its disturbing!

Symbol of Love

Caught a pair of ruddy shelducks, popularly known as "Brahminy shelducks" in India. These beautiful birds migrate from Himalayas to the central and south India during winter. In Hindu literature, Brahminy ducks are portrayed as the symbol of love. I tried to capture this symbol of love, as i am currently unable to capture it in any other form ;-); these beauties were too far, so I used digital zoom, just to get them full frame. (Digital zoom may result in noisy images (if light conditions are not appropriate!). I was lucky enough to get a good image!

Details: 1/320s, f/4.5, ISO 100, 30x digital! :-)

  

Jacarand

Jacaranda is a african tree introduced to India. The blooming period start with the start of summer. These flowers look awesome during day light. This photo was captured in the morning around 8.00 am. Light was nice hence I could use shutter speed appropriately. Flowers were on a upper branch, so I used normal mode (not macro) with 1/640s, f/3.5 at ISO 200. focal length was 31.8mm equivalent.

Recent Bird Trip at Kawadi_21 March'10

Surprisingly we could not see Common coots, River Terns and Green Bee Eaters!! Where Did they Go? For complete bird list approach me at pankajkoparde@gmail.com

House Crow

    Full Frame House crow (No catch light though!)

Morning Time is for cleaning and getting ready for a good day cause...isn't it?

Bird Trip_Mulashi & a Bit of Lavasa

Date: 28 Feb'10 (On the way we realised that its the science day!!)

Time: 7.00 am to 2.00 pm

Route: Pune- Pashan lake- Bhukum- Mulashi-Pune

There is wonder in woods and aimless paths....

Bird List:
1.Open billed storks
2. Jungle Myna
3. Common Myna
4. Common Crow
5. Jungle Crow

6. Asian Koel
7. White Breasted Kingfisher
8. Purple Sunbird
9. Ashy Prinia
10. Long tailed shrike

See the way they have organized to work hard 

11. Shikra
12. Common Kestrel
13. Spotbills
14. Red vented bulbuls
15. common bushchat
16. indian robin
17. magpie robin
18. Keer parakeet
19. Owlet (Dark?!)
20. Golden Oriole
21. Large grey babbler
22. River Terns
23. Little Cormorants
24. Wire tailed swallow

25. Cattle egrets
26. common sparrow

Pashan Lake Visit

Date: 27 Feb'10

Time: 7.15 am to 8.00 am

In the following picture, there is a mixed population of grey herons and egrets. I am doubtful abt the heron at the topmost branches of the tree. Can u please id it for me? Seems to be a grey heron juveline/immature, but the black cap is not evident.

Bird List:

1. Grey heron

2. Painted Stork

3. Open billed stork

4. White necked stork

5. Little cormorants

6. Intermediate Egret

7. Little Egret

8. Pond herons

9. River Terns

10. Ruddy shelduck

11. Nakta

12. Shoveller

13. Spotbill

14. Coot

15. Sandpipers common

16. Red wattled lapwings

17. Black Drongo

18. Dabchicks

19. White Brested Kingfisher

20. Common Myna

21. Black Kite

22. House crow

23. Jungle crow

24. Black winged stilts


Animals:

1. Checkered Killback

BIRD TRIP

Yesterday I alone went to bird trip...kind of bird race...a miniature form. the route was pune-khadakwasla-sinhgad-panshet-rajgad-baneshwar-pune.

Got to see amazing terrain and high contrast nature art! :-) It was total of 180 kms and i enjoyed the ride! I recommend that ppl shd try this! But be alone to explore nature!

Following is the bird list:

Khadakwasla Area:

1. Common Pochard

2. Spotbills

3. Coots

4. Little Egret

5. Intermediate Egret

6. Indian Robin

7. Magpie Robin

8. Dabchicks

9. Laughing Doves

10. Common Myna

11. Little Cormorants

12. Sandpipers

13. Black Drongo

14. Red Vented Bulbul

15. Pond Herons

16. Red Wattled Lapwings

17. White Breasted moorhen

18. Northern Shoveller

19. Pintails

20. Garganey



Panshet Area:

1. Pond Herons

2. Asian Koel

3. House Crow

4. Straited Swallows

5. Black Shouldered Kite

6. Magpie Robin

7. Indian Robin

8. Pied Bhushchat

9. Red wattled lapwing

10. Rock Pigeon

11. Purple Sunbirds

12. Great Tit

13. Green Bee Eaters

14. Long tailed shrike

15. Bay backed shrikes

16. Common Myna




Way To Rajgad and Rajgad-Baneshwar:

1. Green Bee Eaters

2. Short Toed Snake Eagle

3. Unknown Eagle

4. Creasted Serpent Eagle

5. Black Shouldered Kite

6. Indian Roller

7. Malabar Crested Lark?

8. Bay Backed Shrike

9. Common Stonechat

Two birds are unidentified will check them and correct the list.

Report Photos

Recently, I participated in a photography exhibition and got to see a variety of photos, by various photographers. The exhibition included all kind of photography, abstract, landscape, portrait, wildlife etc.

Some of the photographs were really awesome to comment on, perfect timing and freeze frame!

When you look at a picture it should amaze you either by its content or by its technical excellence. it doesn't matter whether it is edited or not!!

The only thing which I learned in this exhibition is that "it doesn't matter what camera you possess, the only thing which matters, is the perspective of the camera man, and the implementation of it which reaches to audience through his images!!"



I got to see a lot of excellent wildlife photographs. Greater Flamingos in flight, standing in the still water, spotbill mother with chicks, purple sky landscapes, and lot of portraits! These are not so different kind of compositions. These are common, people look at them as if they are reporting something, I mean...see, there is a flamingo, there is this spotbill etc. etc. The report photographs are essentially telling something, if whatever they are telling is uncommon/ weird, then it might make a good composition. All the above mentioned compositions are good, no doubt! But photographically, something unusual makes the news! Like the orchid which I have given here as an example, and look at the snake below, even it is a risky task to capture the hood of the cobra, the orchid composition is interesting than the cobra one, both are equally good though!! :-)
,

Faces

First Assignment
Human faces are one of those most interesting subjects to capture. Human faces represent a plethora of emotions and expressions. This might be because we understand those emotions even when we ourselves are not expressing them!

This unique quality makes human faces pictures interesting. While capturing such faces from different parts of my beautiful country, I have came to know the journey of life behind each face I have captured.

I prefer to take natural shots, without prior permission of the model! I do not use flash, as I hate it; or more precisely I can not use it finely! In my opinion flash makes the shot artificial. Although in indoor conditions, u need to use flash, because of low light situation.

Second Assignment
Faces are not unique to humans. Other animals, Buildings, structures do also possess them. That's what I came to know when I started capturing faces for my second assignment. I started capturing faces of birds, animals, and big-tall structures. It was interesting to get the insight of the whole organism by just looking at its face!

Abstracts

I really don't get the meaning of abstract! It is really so abstract to define a abstract art or concept or theory or to greater extent...life!!

Well...abstract might not seems to be totally ununderstandable concept! The way people deliver it may be ununderstandable! Abstract is basically an uncommon, improbable thing which might have happened during the course of imagination! This definition is a self made definition, and may not apply to all cases of abstractness.

Most of the photographers distort their images or they take their shots in an unusual angle or in an unusual positions to get a basic abstract shot, and then manipulate the images by using different softwares to enhance the abstractness of the image. Softwares are basically used for getting abstract looking, so to say meaningless pictures!

Sometimes, these pictures possess heavenly beautiful expressions and most of the times, they represent the saddest part of art. Simple images can be made abstract...the only thing to keep in mind is why and how to make it abstract?