26 December 2008
Nature Wishes Christmas
15 December 2008
learning Crop factors, 35mm and others, sensor sizes.
The article is worth the read and I wish Derek gets well soon and continues his regular chores.
You can find the article here.
13 December 2008
Another try, another failure- Puttenhalli Lake, Yelahanka Lake
Until and unless, some one proves me wrong by showing a proof now, i would suggest "Dont head to Puttenhalli Lake". I am a little surprised as to why its been written on wikipedias of the world, and some official websites, claiming and holding this lake in extremely high spirits. I read on lot of places that there are plans of converting that lake into bird sanctuary. The memories are still fresh from the trip to puttenhalli lake, which went haywire when we could not find any traces of it. if you would like to read what happened this week, read on.
It was all going well when we decided for Agara lake for this Saturday shoot. Suddenly a compelling idea about Puttenhalli lake popped in. Google map also provided proofs that we just returned some meters before the spot, from where the probable lake could have come in sight the last time( last week) we went there. So, as the maps showed a huge Green spot around yelahanka, an air of optimism swept us, the plan was redrawn to Puttenhalli lake. We headed as early as morning 5:30 am on saturday. Cloud cover caught us skeptical. The wind blew past us and mist surrounded around the areas as we drove past the huge hebbal flyover. Soon we reached the spot from where we returned back, "Heritage Estate". We held our nerves and passed the first railway crossing. We held on to the road as we went past th
07 December 2008
Trip to Puttenhalli Lake, turned to Hebbal Lake




30 November 2008
A show of man's Best Friend

I may not be the best person to name all the breeds of the dogs who lined up with their proud owners, but sure am a dog lover and nothing excited me more. In one corner could be another surprisingly fed and grown mastiff waiting to be clicked for a shot, where on the other side, a pair of Siberian Huskies, sniffing around all around, fully alert.The dog barks in the environment and kids getting enticed by their looks & playful mood, was something that was really making up for the event. Here are couple more shots from the day. There were almost 400 different varieties of dogs which were scheduled to be exhibited at the show. Some of the dogs to be noted were St. Bernard, Neapolitan Mastiff, Maltese, Bull Mastiffs, pugs, Great Danes. I could also click a shot of the famous "The Mudhol hound" as a special exhibit.
26 November 2008
Experiments with my Macro kit

The light has been extremely bad these days with bangalore going in a blanket of showers and mist in the early morning and continuing with an overcast day leaving no time to take any good clicks. Being desperate to click using my macro lens, i experimented on my living room and as after i finished some mixture with tea, i used the spoon to click and magnify. As i magnified, i observer the salt and other masala giving nice color to the surface and the spoon appearing as craters on the moon. Here is the first glimpse.Shall post some interesting subjects soon.
25 November 2008
A stray pup

Finally overriding the fear, I charged down stairs and went outside near that garden. I tried to calm the pup and called him, expecting that listening to me, he may try to get out and come near the fence. I could have easily rescued him from there, by lifting him out. But nothing seemed to help and the battle between the bushes and the mini paws of the pup continued. By now one of the other neighbors had also come out and felt sad for him. I was left with no options and had to do something like that. I went to the neighbors’ place, asked for permission and jumped over the wall to get in to the garden. Carefully making my way through some herbs planted in the corner, I went up to the pup who was now struggling with the marigold plant. The fellow was anxious and was trembling. The pup weighed almost nothing and looked not been feed since long. I could jump the wall back, after having rescued, and holding him in only one hand. As I took it near my apartment, waiting for the rescue operation to finish, my wife was elated and gave me a look, as if I got the Indian sailors out of the Somalian hijackers’ clutches. We made arrangements for milk and bread dipped into it, and he gulped and slurped everything in a jiffy. He was still trembling and I could understand that he was scared. He was alone and quite young for being able to survive as a stray dog. I could not though sight his mother yet.
After a while, we decided that we would take him upstairs to our apartment for sometime. My wife made a nice cushioned bed with some rags in the balcony for him, where all proud possessions, my plants sit around. In one corner were my fishes swimming around and would peep through the fish bowl glass occasionally, to figure out as who their new friend was. We kept him for sometime, played around but soon he felt asleep. As he got up, he had a little more water and bread and then tried to move around the balcony, having the feel of the place. By the evening, we could observe that he wanted to go out, and it was the time, to say our little friend good bye. We left it in one of the safe corners, where after sometime; he caught up with his siblings and mother. What a Sunday it was!!
23 November 2008
Trip to Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary
The place has been maintained extremely well and lot of work was also under way. There are options when it comes to boating, and we choose to take a personal boat for three of us which costs 250Rs for a 25mins ride. The other option with boat having full amount of people(20 seat boats), would cost Rs. 25 each. The price was worth it and the folks rowing around are skilled physically and in their knowledge as well. The person, "Babu" who rowed the boat for us, seemed to have excellent details about birds, their proper names, their habitats and had been observing their activities since donkeys days. His observations were impeccable and could name the birds while they were in flight. The lake, is the actual diversion of river Cauvery, around this area and maintained as a place favourable to birds.
The trip was enthralling and an experience something for the first time.
The park outside is still coming up and has excellent parking facilities. There is a small restaurant available for people to quench their thirst or feed. We headed out of this place, committing to return again as per told by "Babu" about the birds which would be frequenting in the month of Jan now. The trip continued towards exploring the other royal remains of the city of Srirangapatna. A writeup for the same to follow soon.
18 November 2008
Weekend Trip-Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore
At around a 30 kms drive from the city centre, is the very well known Bannerghatta National Park. This place has been able to establish itself in a nice green cover on the outskirts of Bangalore and houses a zoo with lot of varieties of birds and animals, Children Park and a small cafeteria. It also offers a Lion, Tiger and bear safari with lot of jungle lodge buses plying throughout the day with tourists from all across, to sight these wild animals kept in their natural habitat, with the major attraction being White tiger. There is also a unique butterfly park on the other side of the zoo, which is an extremely beautiful, well maintained park with a huge dome shaped building for keeping butterflies in a Green house type environment, suitable to them. It also has a small museum for people looking to read and known more about the butterflies and moths and their beautiful world.
Bannerghatta Zoo: The zoo has a lot of variety of all kinds of birds and animals kept in the cages. Over the weekends the place is frequented by school children. This is their fantasy land with white peacocks, zebras, elephant rides,



of exciting colorful

Jungle Safari: Jungle safari remains the biggest attraction for all coming in and there would be surely a lot of lens men in every single bus going out in the wild. The areas for safari has been divided into two parts, offering tourists a complete safari covering Tiger, lion, bear and deer


Butterfly Park: This is the best part of the national park visit. From the road, a huge board with a butterfly etched to its back, a nice open place with lot of greenery and small boards with tit-bits of information on butterflies welcome and attract inside as you pay for entry ticket. This place has been maintained excellently and has a very green envelop all around. After a little stride and reading fascinating information display about the moths and butterflies, a dome in the centre of the frame appears with a colossal butterfly modeled as the entrance to this place. As you enter, it appears to be a fairy land with water pool, lot of flowers & plants, butterflies, and




butterflies inside. To the top, there are huge nests made of fiber and cloth, tucked to the top. The entire place has a compelling beauty to it. And for some time you would feel completely lost into it. The pathway takes you through the entire place and ends up in a beautiful museum about birds and moths. There is pond at the back of the park and also the butterfly rearing plant.
Some Tips:
- Gets extremely crowded, so if you are planning to visit this place, start early to avoid queues for safaris.
- There are Volvo buses available too directly to BNP which could be a great medium if you are looking to come by public transport.
- The place is a great picnic spot. There is lot of space to enjoy a good meal and play games with your family over the weekend. Also the pond & green cover at the Butterfly Park is idea to spend some casual moments over a weekend.
- Best time to sight butterflies is from 9:00am -3:00pm.
07 November 2008
Weekend Trip-Manchibelle Dam Experience and photos
Trip To: Manchinbelle Dam & visiting banyan tree & Naga Temple on the way.
Free Add-On: banyan tree, Naga Temple.
Distance: Almost 40 Kms from Bangalore City.
Trip directions: MG Road -> Take the Mysore road -> Look for Rajeshwari Dental College (which should come to your right side travelling from Blr)->Take exact right from there (there is a board also which shall confirm you are turning the correct road).
TIPS FOR REACHING:
The road next to the dental college, leads you straight to the Big Banyan Tree and then carries on to the Manchinbelle dam. About the road conditions, drive on the Mysore road is a pleasure as always, till the Rajeswari Dental College. As you turn, the road looks retraced, with a fine outlook, not posing any troubles. It’s a beauty till the Big Banyan tree and one can cruise through scanty traffic and scenic landscapes around. From the big banyan Tree, another few Kms are promising and then they fall apart, both the road and the promises it made. It’s a complete devastation and bumpy ride hereon. As one drives down to the dam, the road is a little slippery posing risk if driven without taking care.
EXPERIENCE
As the drive from the rajeshwari dental college starts, we started feeling alike of some place around Madikeri. The vegetation around the road changes and everything turns a lot greener, the lovely winter morning charmed us into the drive with the sun coming out and a beautiful aroma added to the air by flora around. The place smelt fresh and clean. We could not find much human movement in this area and the traffic on the road was reduced suddenly too, with few buses and trolleys passing by at times. These were excellent conditions for a metropolitan resident like me and I could recollect pleasure of driving at my native place in Punjab. After a good drive of 8 Kms from the Rajeshwari Dental college, we reached the Big Banyan tree which also known as Ramohalli and is a 400 years old, banyan tree. The tree trunk has already expired and the splits have been able to flourish with the little maintenance offered by this place. The span of this tree is huge and has the whole park built around it. The spot has got some attention from the authorities, with one of the nationalized, maintaining this park. There is a bus stand built over here a small market in front, catering the needs of locals and people visit this historical tree. After spending sometime and gulping some warm tea in the cold morning, we continued. The road continues from here in the same manner and the scenery starts to change fast. It’s a beautiful drive, extremely hush and green, and one more major crossing comes your way. WE took left and continued and didn’t get any further choices of roads, since it heads directly to the Dam. The road suddenly got worse and the speed never went beyond 10-15 Kms. Still nothing should dampen your spirits, as I could only hear birds’ sweet sounds and slow music wind. We were enjoying the drive, though it was quite bumpy now. There was this huge turn coming our way, and as we took that on, voila…this was it. The Manchinbelle Dam water bed, in front of our eyes, and we were spellbound. I just pulled over. If someone has ever driven to Goa from Bangalore, that’s the same surprise which shocks you as you discover Karwar coasts suddenly appearing. In this photo embedded below, you could also notice the Savandurga peak, which acts as a backdrop to the water bed.

We had started from Bangalore at 6 am and by now it were 7.15, with birds already moving around the place and enjoying the morning sun.
We started moving around the base. The first stop was made, near a huge boulder near the water bed. I sighted a greater coucal on the rocks. It was far off, so I crouched and went near the rock. I could just get couple of shots, when it fle
The sun rose higher
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quitefar/
I leave you with another panorama Shot, taken from near by the water bed and covering the complete backdrop.

TIPS
o Take eatables as per your need. The basic snacks are available in plenty near the Banyan tree but tough to find afterwards since least no of shops follow. Please do not litter for it’s sad to see people leaving their waste behind at such a spot.
o No petrol bunks on the complete route and in fact very few on Mysore road too, so folks leaving quite early should take care of fueling up.
o Extremely lone place early morning and during the day times too. One needs to be extra conscious.
o We saw a board near the Dam in front of few houses “BEWARE OF ROBBERS, PLEASE DO NOT GO INTO LONE AREAS”. As we ventured around photographing we realize the relevance. The place is lone and quite.
o Tough ride so make sure you pull up your socks for the bumpy journey.
o Excellent place for birding. Not seen any such place around Bangalore with so many birds around.
14 October 2008
Writing with Citizen Matters
1, Visiting Hesarghatta Lake
2, Smoking out the Cigarette
Do share your comments with me, after you happen to read through those.
07 October 2008
Memoir from Coorg Trip
06 October 2008
Venturing into Street Photography, Madivala Market, bangalore
It was quite an early morning start and we reached the market as the sun came out fully. The market still under a slosh of washed out cloudy ambience and a little drizzle was opening up to its prospects. Though it was quite lively with the amount of jostling happening but it was more of stalls, canopies and marts getting setup. Most of the people cleaning up their respective places and acting as interior decorators for their on road marts, though cleaning up is an individualistic affair. There were lot of tent houses which never needed to relocate and open into a new place as the place was taken up for almost ever. As the market saw more unloading of vegetable, fruits, fishes and every single thing which could be needed for a house hold, more and more noise rose into the atmosphere. The drizzle had already drained down and the clear weather was a welcome sign.


I have to say that people’s experience was mixed bag. Most of the people just took notice of this group of lens men and then carried on working with their chores and some of them shied away or gave a candid smile seeing them being shot. Some of the them were not very enthusiastic about some people just strolling around and clicking photos and were suspicious about our identity but as a group we were pretty comfortable to explain the cause for which we all were around. I went ahead and clicked a fruit seller when couple of people around the corner, came to me and started inquiring. It was my first trip and an encounter straight off with them. I explained a little about our interest and our photography and that we share pics among each other. This made them even more sceptical and then one of those dark eyed,


Soon we moved ahead and I came across Abdul Chacha. An old, lament person, sitting in a small tented canopy which sold beetel and Pan Leaves. He was enjoying his morning puff of Bidi and was not perturbed by the clicking happening around and had a beautiful lightening in his eyes. As I sat around and



Here are these sweet kids with such an innocent smiles to their faces that shows the true face and spirit of the people. Also a amma, making its trade as others setup their shops for the day.

This is another photo of fish selling family where this kid was so happy when his uncle called him from inside for the photo. I was told that all the fishes come in from Mysore and specific varities from Kolkatta and he was too proud to show me his possessions and his shop.
As we moved on, we clicked and clicked and encompassed lot of emotions over the streets. I can conclude by saying that street life is a different ball game when looked from a photography point of view as the emotions and stories of people can move your soul and show you the struggle and larger than life, which may not be a clear inference while clicking birds and flowers. An experience worth it, I am sure and looking forward for the same soon again.
