nikkor

Nights in a rainforest are far from being a silent affair. The whole forest seems to come alive as the darkness sets in. While the day time performers of a musical symphony are the cicadas, the nights belong to the crickets. And if it is monsoon season, the multitude of frogs chime in with their vocal contributions. The rhythmic music of crickets accompanied by the high pitched tones of the frogs, the spooky calls of a nightjar or an owl, the gurgling sounds of the many streams breaking through their rocky paths, the soft, chill breeze blowing through the leaves and branches of tall trees, among many others, are what characterise a rainforest night....

Elephants can swim. I had heard and read about that. The sea faring elephants of the Andamans and Sri Lanka are very well known. Legends like the elephant named Rajan, of the Andamans, was featured in a Hollywood movie too. However, I had not been lucky enough to see one actually swim, until this March, in Kaziranga, when I was a first hand witness to that. We were on our afternoon safari....

Year 2017 saw a good variety of destinations for me. Starting off with birding in Goa and Bharatpur to Corbett, Kabini and Sundarbans followed by monsoon macro at Agumbe, Nilgiris, Valparai and Munnar. Finishing off with a bit of an offbeat family travel to Meghalaya. Here are a few of my personal favourites from this year. Beginning with some of our beautiful winged friends here : Big-cat luck favoured me quite a bit this year :-) Was graced with a sighting in every outing of mine....

Meghalaya - The name comes from two Sanskrit words, ‘Megh’ meaning clouds and ‘Alaya’ meaning abode, “The abode of the clouds”. So very apt. Visit the place in monsoon or just post monsoon and you will realise the true meaning of its name. Clouds dot the landscape everywhere. Water bearing rain clouds ready to pour their heart out or just beautifully aligned white clouds set against a brilliant blue sky or the clouds that sweep across the ground and the valleys in the form of fog, creating a thick white carpet cover....

Minimalism is one of the interesting and powerful concepts or styles in photography, irrespective of the genre. ‘Less is more’ is a popular phrase which says: “that which is less complicated is better understood and appreciated than something that is more complicated”. This is the crux of minimalism. And its benefits can be seen in nature photography too. My personal understanding and opinion is that a photograph is minimalistic, if, apart from the subject in topic, there are very few distracting elements....