THE WEEKEND WORK

i had attended a nature quest programme on srilankan reptiles by world renowned herpetologist Anselm de silva. the talk was good and informative. sunday was asusual movie time and post processing pictures. i got time to see die hard 4, a very good action packed entertainer. goona sleep soon so that i can start a mundane life from monday.

cheers,

ram

working for my site

i sat down to write an article on the restoration work going on in adyar estuary and creek but i am in no mood to write it today. just started to process pic for my site www.naturelook.info . my friend avinash from banglore is designing it. i hope it will be ready by august end.

current mood: happy :)

cheers,

ram.

PASSION, GOALS,AMBITIONS,ASTROLOGY.............

I just got back from college and i want to share with u a very touching incident that happened in the college today. It is about my very good friend sharath. i am writing it very casually in direct speech coz people will have a feel about what happened :)
I don how to introduce sharath to you. To put it in a very simple way he is a photo copy of me. so people who know about me can figure out who sharath is... but for people who don know me here i go.... sharath is a very good wildlife enthusiast and a good naturalist. He does wildlife photography with his cool D SLR's and big bazookas. He is so very addicted to it and he never listens to even the good lectures in my zoology department coz most of the time he will be reading books and papers on wildlife, photography etc. He literally breathes wildlife and is very keen in pursuing his career as a naturalist|wildlife photographer|film maker. ok.....enough introducing him.let me come to the senario.
English class was going in the 170 years old gallery room of Madras Christian College. The accoustics is so well made that even a small pin drop in the front row can be heard at the back,20 rows away from the front. The class was silent as my favourite english prof was teaching a poem " Thought fox". When i entered the class i couldn find sharath. I thought he should be somewhere out in the woods searching for snakes n stuff. As he was teaching something related to nature i was hooked to it. Suddenly my concentration was diverted as my mobile was vibrating. i saw a message n it was from sharath. the message was ".... ram,how many times i begged u to see me last hour.... u never turned up.... pls spend sometime for ur friend too...don just spend time only with ur love..." and i got another message from him saying " dude i can feel my Blood pressure shooting up like anything...there r chances i may collapse in the class". Now i came to know that he is in class. I just turned around and i saw him crying with his faced red and bloated. He was shivering and after seeing me he literally collapsed on the bench. ' thud' the sound echoed and the professor noticed him falling. I told him that my friend is not well and i need to speak to him so grant me permission. the professor being a nice human allowed us both and asked him whether he was not well. sharath replied " sir, its nothing physical, its all mental trauma of that i am undergoing". i took out my crying friend sharath and asked him what had happened.I thought it was his usual stressful life he is leading. whenever i see him he will be stressed because of the college n he always says "we r going in a path without knowing where it will lead. we need to do something related to our passion soon etc etc" he is a typical workaholic. After he reaches home he sits before his comp working on pictures n studying something related to wildlife. today he totally broke down. i know something wrong had happened.i asked him. this is wat he said......
Ram " i got a call from my mom, dude. They consulted a sri lankan astrologer it seems. The astrologer told that i should not be into wildlife photography and i should not aim to become a good naturalist because the planetary positions tells that being a naturalist, knowing about wildlife will spoil my life and instead i should get into some academic stuff deviating to genetics etc and pursue a life in that, and the astrologer also said that i am badly influenced by my friends and my well wishers. and the most funniest part was that the astrologer told my parents not to get me married before i am 35" and that i am having a girl friend from last december.
i couldn stop my laugh when he said the last stuff. but then i controlled and listened to him.
"......so because of all this my mom is going to be with me here in chennai and monitor my activities to make sure that i dont concentrate on wildlife. My equipment will be locked. Freedom is cut. I shouldn read books related to wildlife. i shouldn meet people related to wildlife and i should only concentrate in academic stuff like genetics, molecular biology etc. wat stupid astrolger he is ram... who the hell is he to decide wat i should do.... passion is determined by interest and its not the astrologer who should say what i should be doing in life. watever we do we should be happy in doing it. people think We all study and join a company just to earn money for a prosperous life. life is not just money... its more than that... we follow our passion and ambition so that we can lead a peaceful life and feel very happy in what we r doing. i don know how the hell an astrologer can decicde about my life...... its kept on going n he started narrating about wat he will do if situation like this happens. from wat he spoke i know that he is a man who follows he passion and leads his life in his own terms.
and ram"last month our micro biology professor asked the students " friends, y is that we r studying all these subjects for three whole years" 95% of the students replied " TO MINT MONEY". i was shocked. as far as i know many people in my dept study zoology without knowing y we r studying. there is no burning passion and ambition in them. they have a very little knowledge on wats happening to this country. The topper of my class don know about the glasgow incident and the trial. he didnt know that india is playing a match with england. he just knows wat is a cell, technical stuffs on that etc...few of my friends in pondicherry university who r studying ecology and wildlife don even know about the actual tiger crisis in india...they r not aware that tigers r wiped out from sariska. I didnt mean to say that they should know about cricket match, blasts and current issues etc. u need to learn know more and not just stick to the book. some people's minds r like a cup filled with coffee. u cant fill more coffee unless u empty it or pour it. our mind is exactly like a cup of coffee.if we need to add coffee(knowledge) we must register required knowledge in our mind and pour the unwanted stuffs out. wat ever we study we must give it back in some way or the other to develop our nation and to do something to this country. it should not be just earning money. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. wat ever we do finally we should be happy in wat we r doing. Learn what u excel and what makes u happy. The real source of happiness can be stated in a single word: achievement. lasting happiness comes from steadily working to accomplish your goals and advancing confidently in the direction of your life's purpose. THIS SHOULD BE DETERMINED BY YOU WHO IS GONNA WORK AND NOT THE ASTROLOGER WHO IS NOWAY CONNECTED TO YOU.
This is wat he said in that fifteen minutes with his eyes like an image which is totally out of focus. he was lying down crying with his eyes completely drenched. he was telling me that he don know wat he is gonna do without his books and equpiment. he said he is gonna start from scrap and build up gradually. by saying this he moved out of the college with a great frustration.
The reason why i want to share this to u is to show how people r believeing in astrology and how its influencing ones's life very badly. i didnt mean to say that 'don't believe in astrology' its totally each person's own perceptive on viewing it. but my opinion is astrology and astrologers should not determine the passion and ambition of a person and it should not choose your life partner or wat u should do in your life etc.Everything in your life should be decided by u. people say astrologers fore tell the future but nowadays in this present world "FUTURE IS NOT WRITTEN. ITS IS MADE BY THE INDIVIDUAL". IF U LEAD YOUR LIFE WITH A SINGLE MINDED GOAL AND A PASSION TOWARDS IT,U WILL DEFINIELY ACHIEVE IT and such persons can see their future just infront of their eyes. This is my view on passion, achievement, goals, astrology etc. People who r contradicting my views r most welcome :) i am ready for a debate :) and one imporant thing i need to reveal to my blog readers is The person sharath is none other than me. This is wat is happening to me rite now. I wrote this stuff with a fully dejected state of mind . The person whom i mentioned as ram is my friend arun.

follow your passion,work with a perfect mind set with a goal in life,

current mood: depressed

ram.

Ranebennur blackbuck sanctuary- once home for the Great Indian Bustard

Last month i had gone Ranebennur Black buck sanctuary from daroji,700 kms from Chennai. Harish told me that he will show me the place were the Rreat Indian Bustard which was once found in the sanctuary. he had told many incidences about bustards and Ranebennur. so i was keen on visiting the place.
Ranebennur blackbuck sanctuary was declared a wildlife sanctuary on the 17th of june 1974.It was created to protect the majestic blackbuck. Spread over the sprawling area of 119 square kilo meters,it is divided into three blocks viz; hulathi,hunasikatti and alageri for administrative purposes.it has a core area of 14.87 kms and a buffer zone of 104.13 km wherein the tourists are allowed. The vegetation here comprises mainly of scrub forests and extensive eucalyptus plantations. Located in haveri district. The fauna here comprises wild pig,fox,jackal, wolf,blackbuck etc.



Accompanied by the ACF, Ranebennur we reached there late in the night. An awesome dinner was arranged by him n he was telling about the efforts taken to protect the bustards.
Next morning with a great excitement n worry I entered the sanctuary. Excitement because I will be seeing blackbucks for the first time and there r good chances of sighting my favorite animal, the wolf, and worry because I am driving my dad’s sedan in the thorny and rugged mud roads of Ranebennur. After driving in and out of the sanctuary I was totally exhausted. I couldn’t sight even a single blackbuck. After leaving the sanctuary harish was explaining how the blackbucks would raid the crop fields in the night. They enter silently after sun set, graze peacefully in the fields n get back before dawn as though nothing had happened. A typical robbery style :) Heading back to the forest IB i did some birding in the near by area.



Next day we left to the sanctuary very early by 4 am. On my way I had a very nice sighting of the black naped hare. It was resting in the open area n my car provided a very good hide to photograph it. But the light was very very low and shutter speed was 1\30th of a second. I Managed to get a record shot of it in the open. At this situation the VR really helped.
Driving few feet away we came across a jackal out in the open but again the light was not fortunate for me. I managed to get some shot of the blackbucks. But everything was a record shot. I didn’t expect wat I wanted. Heading back in the evening I was accompanied by the forester Hiramutt. He saw a shepard.his sheep was grazing the area. He got down to catch him but he ran. When he came back he was carrying a goat from the herd so that the Shepard will collect it by paying fine. We put the goat in the back seat and reached the IB. on our we just couldn hear anything because the goat which was on the seat was bleating like hell.



That night we had a very good touching conversation with Harish and ACF. They we talking about the existence of great Indian bustards in this area. They were lot of them in the nineties and it was depleting due to heavy encroachment and the habitat of the great Indian bustards was grazed complete by 5 lakhs sheep in that area. Bustard prefers open grasslands but this place was planted with eucalpytus trees which was a very big hinderence to them. They breed very slow and lays one or two eggs a year. As they lay in the land which r prone to predators. They r none other than us, humans, the most greediest n senseless species in the world. At the end the numbers dropped down as count down and reached zero. Harish made a awareness’ film on bustards in Ranebennur. In one of the clipping a Shepard was narrating how he cooked the bustard egg for food. All this were very evident that the great Indian bustards will be viped from Ranebennur. Its very disheartening to see the habitat without the bustards :( the forest department is planning for a captive breeding programme here but we don know how effective it will be. we lost most of them without knowing the importance. Atleast now people should wake up to help conserve one of the greatest endemic bird of India,THE GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD.
Finally before everyone left harish told me a touchy quote with mosturising eyes. Ram “We people now atleast know something about the bustard but it took us a long time to know about it. Now around 400 birds survive in 7 states of India. All the places r filled with biotic pressures. One thing is for sure ram, we are now holding the bustards tail. Its upto us, humans to bring the bird back from the brink of extinction or just to bring the feathers from the tail” It was very touching and I promised harish that I will do my maximum to influence people about the status of bustards.

I hope after reading this article u would have got an over view of the status of bustards.I think I am doing a bit of conservation. R u doing it?

People who have suggestions and who r willing to help can mail to Mr.Harish Bhat , honorary wildlife warden,Banglore. Email: harishrbhat@gmail.com

HELP PROTECT THE BUSTARDS

current mood: thinking

Will be continued……

Conserve wildlife,
Ram.

weekend photography and post processing workshop

i was in blore last weekend to attend a workshop on photography n post processing by my friend sudhir shivaram( www.thejunglelook.com ), an expert bird photographer from banglore. its was a very wonderful session n the weekend was utilized to the maximum constructively. from next month i will be spending weekends in banglore n nearby places for photography.

current mood: energetic

cheers,
ram

WEEKEND BIRDING AND LENS TEST

i was in Nanmangalam to test my mistress( my new lens) :) Nanmangalam is a scrub jungle in the out skirts of chennai. it is home to lot of birds espeically the great horned owl. i was there with Mr.murugavel,environemntal activist and ornithologist and my friend deepika. the main reason to go there is to test my lens though my spine didnt permit me to do photography like how i was doing before. i started aching the minute i lifted it :( but on the happier part the lens is rocking. auto focus is razor sharp and VR works amazingly well. i couldn believe that i used 200-400 for my one month shoot in south india.
after i recover completely i decided to work full time in weekends for documenting wildlife and to work on the book

have a look at this image clicked with the new lens :)




current mood: very happy

cheers,

ram.

BEHIND THE SCENES DAROJI

have a look at some behind the scenes pictures from daroji.
me waitng for the bears to come




the hide used for photographing bears. dad s fiat pertra made into a all terrain vehicle :)



the place wer the bears,bushquails, francolins,spurfowls, peacocks come to feed.

coming up:
a post on Rane benur blackbuck sanctuary- home for wolves n blackbucks.

current mood: happy

cheers,

ram.

BEAR HAVEN

Atlast I found time to write about my field trips. I was in daroji for a week with my friend arvind rao,a Wildlife Photographer who designs air crafts and Rahul Chavan,a wildlife biologist from United Kingdom. Daroji is 50 kms from bellari, the richest district in Karnataka. It’s the best place in the world to see the sloth bear. I spend a week photographing bears, painted spur fowls, jungle bushquails, francolins and few other birds and mammals. It was a very amazing trip.










Photographing bears in Daroji is tough especially when u go there In summer . We park the vehicle in a particular place were the bears come to feed. The car is used as a hide. We reach the place by 1pm and station the car behind the bushed and cover it. The hot afternoon from 1 pm to 6 pm will exhaust everything in u. the bears come slowly in the evening. The first day was my luckiest day. I am photographing bears for the first time and the excellent light and setting provided by nature is good. I saw two female bears with cubs. We got some shots of cubs playing, resting, feeding etc. I burnt some 14 GB and by the end I ran out of cards. NeXt day I decided to bring the laptop to transfer images while photographing. But after that,the next four days we didn’t have good bear sightings. Daroji is also the best place to photograph Painted spurfowl, a beautiful south Indian endemic bird.

I met my dear friend Harish bhat, researcher from IISc and honorary wildlife warden, banglore. He is an expert in south Indian jungles and he worked extensively over adecade in the forests of Karnataka. I was about to leave to Chennai on 9^th but harish said we will go to Rane benur blackbuck sanctuary and try to photograph wolves n blackbucks. Post poning my trip we left Daroji to Rane benur blackbuck sanctuary, one the home of great Indian bustard.

I will write about Rane benur blackbuck Sanctuary and the Real story of how great indian Bustards were wiped out from Rane benur.

current mood: happy

Cheers,

Ram

My mistress is back replaced!!

Over the last few weeks i was anxious as i returned my falulty lens to the place were i bought.It refused to focus in the field and i was manually focussing which is reflected badly in my images.I got a call from FOTO TRADE(the place were i get my equipment) today saying " sir, your old lens is replaced for a new one, u can collect it today". I left college immediately bunking the last hour and rushed to foto trade to collect my lens. I tested the lens in a near by wetland and it was absolutely perfect. razor sharp focussing with D2xs, VR works amazingly well and everything is perfect.
i am waiting to completely recover so that i can be into action :)

current mood: happy

cheers,
ram

Grounded!

My first bad news this year. i went to the doctor as i was suffering from severe pain in my spine. after examining my x ray and stuff he said its a mild slip disc and adviced me not to give any load on my back.with my camera equipment weighing some 10 kilos i just cant think about carrying it. i should be in rest for atleast four months. so rite now its just college- home. now i will be having enough time learning post processing... digging all my old pics n segregating it. i hope i recover soon n get back to work asusual :)

current mood: pissed off

cheers,
ram