Mission Gamble

The day started with a good sign. The first baby flutter-by came out from its pupa incubation after a period of 10 days. It was very comfortable to post for my clicks as i know it right from its childhood days :-) . I rescued it from my neighbors garden as an egg of the size of a mustard seed and was taking care of it by providing food and water for more than 25 days. I believe I would be the God-father of 30+ little slimy caterpillars. That’s another story... might be a series of those flutter-by from start to end.

This incidend was like a a positive sign for a gooday start. Having experienced very bad days especially on the Mahabs trip with Samyak , Snake walk, Nanmangalam photograhy trip... where my Camera battery would die even before noon by the time I click my 60th or 70th photo. I was desparately in need of a spare battery as it would back me up during future CTC treks, I was expecting to have one atleast before the long trip/trek that happens during the season of during May-June.


Coming to the story, I needed 2 photos to be submitted to the contest, Where my final selection and consolidation was 3. I was breaking my head looking at all angles on which 2 to select. Being more addicted to Wildlife photography. My preference was in the order mentioned below.



Golden Rat Snake
Thanks to Prabhu Ramakrishnan – for Camera & lens Courtest when my battery went off during the middle of the snake walk.



Hoopie Sharing food
Thanks to Samyak –For taking me along for the Mahabs trip



Father & Son in Sea shore

Thanks to Rithwik – for taking me along with him to Seashore on a Sunday



5 min before the submission time, I decided to go on with the 2 photos which has got some kind of message of LOVE & CARING that would suite the Christmas season. Finally submitted the last 2 photos and finally the Father_Son Photo fetched me a first Prize.

It all happened like what Samyak said at the end of day like "God was so merciful that I got the prize of The battery pack exactly the time when i wanted it desperately“ In all the above 3 shots, I had someone or the others contribution for clicking them. Thanks you all for the support and encouragement.

Mahabs Escapade !!!

A trip that was planned at the neck of a moment. A Personal trip indeed.

1) Me 2) Samyak & 3) Harini_Samyak started a little late after lots of hurdles,
Another 1 hr was stolen by Harini even before crossing Chennai border. This is the first time i see harini a little fussy. Might be she needed some extra attention!!! Samyak would be the right person to answer it :-(

When we headed out of Chennai, the sun was burning right on our faces. It was indeed a bad sign that it was already 11 AM that we reached Mahabalipuram Shore temple.

But still we were lucky to click a few birds and it was this trip i was craving for a sharp lens.














































For a change , Clicked some photographs with people to give a finishing touch.


On our way back, we visited the Crocodile bank and were able to click some more photos. I am sure we would be planning for yet another trip to the Croc bank where we would like to stay there for a night amongst 100's of crocodiles in the Croc bank!

We were happy that Samyak's Harini didnt create any problem except that she had a flat tyre in the begining of our trip.

It was Pramod who initiated this trip was not able to join us at the last moment. This post is dedicated to "Pramod - A volunteer of the Crocodile Bank of Chennai"


More photos

Cousins wedding - A family get-together

Its been years that i stopped clicking people and turned my interest to wildlife and landscape.

Reasons:
1) I can take my own time to process the photos and post online (neither the landscape or the wildlife would ask you when the photos would come online :-)
2) Neither of the both would come and say that I clicked it when it was showing its teeth, when the eyes were closed. ( a few bad experiences in the past )
3) neither of the both would ask for prints of the photos that were clicked.

I know the above mentioned reasons might be because of the expectations that they have on my clicks, but the problem i face is "Neither" do i have a laptop or an internet connection to transfer my images to and upload online "nor" am i rich enough to both invest on the equipment and also for the prints that i should give to the people whom i click :-) , Wont it be great if the person whom i click sponsors me in terms of equipment or atleast the trips that i undertake for photography or atleast pay for my service and make me happy as well!!! Am i sounding that i am planning to do things commercially. Might be :-)


Let me come back to the story, It was after a very long time that we met all our relatives and friends on the ocassion of my Cousins wedding. So thought that i would use the opportunity to click a few photographs of people - (not wild people).

















All the photos were clicked candid except the above 2.







I believe these birds even thought were not human, adds to the mood of the marriage ceremony !!!!

Nanmangalam Forest Walk

It was yet another initiative by CTC-Photographers. The first Photography trip was to Pondicherry which was a great time for all of the participants. This one was planned as a trip to Nanmangalam. Our main idea was to head towards Nanmangalam for photography. Nanmangalam was not the destination, but Photography was our vision.

We had 5 seats vacant for this trip and we got 4 registrations ( Rithwik, Shubhra, Aditya & John ). Since it was raining very bad on the previous day, Shubhra and Aditya had a little of making up this trip. With more energy we were able to convince them that what ever be the case, we would head towards Nanmangalam, and if it rains, we would go elsewhere and do some rain photography in the busy streets of chennai.

With all set, John and Aditya reached Koyambedu busstop to meet Rithwik at 6.20am. Parked their bike and boarded into Rithwiks car and headed towards Velachery and picked Shubhra on the way at Vadapalani.

The climate appeared to change and it favoured the team a lot. We headed to Velachery and took the Tambaram highway and reached Quagid-e-Millat college canteen and started our trip/trek into the Nanmangalam reserve forest.

We started the day with Rithwik clicking a few shots of the local village boys, and it became a menace for the team in the later part. The kids were actually alerting the birds with their shouting and talking, ans so we somehow left them behind before entering into the forest.

We started climbing the small hillock and were able to click some butterflies on the top of the hill. We climbed down through the other side of hill throught the dense bushy forest. Within half an hour we reached the stagnant water reservoir and clicked more pictures. Those who participated in this trip, made use of all the opportunities and clicked more pictures and added more life to the pictures with their different styles.

We were able to learn and explore a lot from each other. At the end of the day, we had the satisfaction that we have learned some basic lessons Practically, which we would not forget for our life time.

Stay tuned for a more detailed writeup by Shubhra.

" Rithwik taking a small nap in front of the quary after a long photo session "

" The Nanmangalam abandonded Quary "

" The Big Bug "

" The Little Flutter-by "

" A Catterpillar "

" A well cameflauged Spider "

" Photographers lost in the forest "

" The hunter and the Hunted "

" A well cameflauged Spider-2 "

" Water Reflections "

" Dragonfly in flight "

" A Test shot with back-light "

" The stagnant water in front of the Quary "

" The Butterfly " ( Actually it is called Flutter-by, and as time passed by, people started calling it butterfly - funny is it.. )

" People in action "

" The morning dew on the grass "

" Rithwik in action "

" Adams ladder "

" The little Rock agama "

" Colourful Spiders "

" Gloriosa Superba "

" The Little Flutter-by "