Into the wild

The place where I live is surrounded by  mountains and ever green forests of western ghats. After taking photography seriously I wanted to explore many those mountains and forests which are rarely accessed by human beings.
Last week myself and  my old  friend Yogesh went for a whole day trekking to one of those forests.

I tried to make some images to depict the monsoon mood.

Monsoon Raagas

  As all of  you know I am living amidst the thick forests of Western Ghats. It's a place full of green, mountain, birds etc. Especially in the time of monsoon the beauty of the place reaches to it's peak. It is my long time wish to make some images in the rainy days through which I can depict monsoon. The big challenge for this israin itself! Mist and the water are the biggest enemies of the camera. Last year in the attempt my camera got exposed to the mist. I had to replace the CCD of the camera.
So This year I was scared to do the experiments as with at-most difficulty I had changed my camera and my new D90 is in perfect condition. I didn't want to take extra risk. But when the monsoon started and the nature began to dance with wings spread to it's own tunes my desire started to grow again.
Finally, today I decided to take the risk, but with proper care. I hired a jeep and collected enough plastic bags to cover my camera, in the event of rain fall.
This morning we (myself and my wife Anusha)  around 5.30 in the morning headed to Kollur ghats. I had already noted the places where to take photos. In fact I have even composed the scenes and the only thing remaining was recording them on the sensor.

There are many streams flowing only during the time of monsoon. I used my camera bag as bean bag to achieve the slow shutter.
There is a beautiful view point facing west. One has to be there to enjoy the beauty of the place.I feel  thousand words or hundred images will definitely fail to describe the serenity of the place.When we reached there luckily and very a rarely rainbow was formed on the valley. I could not believe my eyes, it was so serenic!It was out of the world. It lasted for a few seconds I was in very awkward position to make image and with a little difficulty I managed to make 2 images.

Just a few meter ahead there was another stream flowing with the style of a super model!  We didn't want to waste a single opportunity.

                                          (Difference in the color is due to white balance)                                                        After making some more images  we headed back towards the foothill of Kodachadri,Khareghati. Though we were not sure of making any images as it is the thick forest and thousands of leaches are waiting for us to step down from the jeep. But we managed to make some images sitting in the jeep.

                                                    

The mist, gigantic trees soaked in the rain were a treat to watch.

                            

    It was getting late and we reluctantly headed back to home.

PS: Please see the larger images to get better impact of the place

3 birds- This year

Last year I saw 3 rare birds-
1.Black capped Kingfisher(Apr-2009)
2.Oriental dwarf Kingfisher(Apr end 2009)
3.Amur Falcon(Dec 2008)
Though I had made record images of those birds this year I wanted to make some decent images. Unfortunately this year let alone photograph those birds,but I failed to have a sighting of the birds.

I went to the same places same time this year too, but could not find the birds. May be I have to wait till next year.

Lizard acrobat

Couple of weeks back I was wandering in my farm with my camera. Suddenly a lizard(forest calotous?) jumped on me. Both me and lizard were shocked to see each other. Lizard made another jump. But it failed to catch the tree and stuck to a leaf. It was amazing to see how that succeeded to hold the leaf with only fingers, that too keeping it's body parallel to the ground.

It did hold the leaf like this more than 10 minutes and after that slowly tried to climb the leaf. It easily did that and disappeared.Nature never stops to amaze.