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

working 20* 7

I was completely tied up with work over the last one week. finally after working 20*7 last week i could post process some of my photographs which i made over the last one month in the field. Its was a very fruitful trip. I managed to photograph 71 species of birds and 21 species of mammals and few insects.over all 100 species photographed in 32 days.

list of birds photographed:
1)river tern
2)spotted owlet
3)purple rumped sunbird
4)southern grey shrike
5)painted spurfowl
6)rufous tree pie
7)ashy crowned sparrow lark
8)yellow billed babbler
9)spotted dove
10)little brown dove
11)jungle buskquail
12)red unmped swallow
13)common iora
14)indian busklark
15)oriental patrincole
16)grey francloin
17)petronia
18)red vented bul bul
19)indian roller
20)grey headed fishing eagle
21)painted stork
22)laudhing dove
23)indian night jar
24)indian robin
25)black winged stilts
26)purple moorhen
27)barn swallow
28)crimson fronted barbet
29)whie bellied shortwing
30)grey breasted laughing thrush
31)grey headed canary flycatcher
32)pied bushchat
33)pacific swallow
34)nilgiri pipit
35)yellow browed bulbul
36)little grebe
37)great egret
38)brown fish owl
39)crested hawk eagle
40)white breasted kingfisher
41)crested serpent eagle
42)spot billed duck
43)painted snipe
44)jungle myna
45)black drongo
46)common hoopoe
47)lesser flameback
48)eurasian blackbird
49)eurasian collared dove
50)grey jungle fowl
51)rose ringed parakeet
52)pond heron
53)brahminy myna
54)grey heron
55)bay backed shrike
56)racket tailed drongo
57)malabar whistling thrush
58)pied crested cuckoo
59)common crow
60)eurasian spoonbill
61)paradise flycatcher
62)nilgiri flycatcher
63)oriental white eye
64)rufous babbler
65)nilgiri woodpigeon
66)sirkeer malkoha
67)coucal
68)painted snipe
67)malabar grey hornbill
68)white bellied tree pie
69)jungle owlet
70)peafowl

mammals photographed:

1)spotted deer
2)sambhar deer
3)barking deer
5)black naped hare
6)hanuman langur
7)nilgiri thar
8)tiger
9)elephant
10)jackal
11)black buck
12)ruddy mongoose
13)sloth bear
14)wild boar
15)bonnet macaque
16)gaur
17)dusky striped squrriel
18)three striped palm squrriel
19)wild dogs
20)malabar gaint squrriel
21)stripe necked mongoose

These r some of the species i photographed from may7th to june 9th. i promise to keep my blog active with pictures and reports when i find time.

current mood: happy and energetic

cheers,
ram

BACK FROM DAROJI

After a few days stay in Badhra i moved to Daroji bear sanctuary near Bellari.Its a haven for sloth bears. A 6 days stay in daroji was one of my best trips in the last two years.I went mad shooting bears,francolins, spurfowls etc burning some 25 GB worth pictures. After daroji i went for a day to Rane benur blackbuck sanctuary. A one day trip i could get the Blackbuck,Jackal, Black naped hare and few birds to my store.

i heard that my college re opens on 13th[:(]. So i ended my 32 day long trip at Rane benur and started to chennai. This month shoot was very successful as i could document 61 species of birds and 25 species of mammals. i should work 24*7 to post process 100 GB worth pics. i will upload my blog with pics and trip reports when time permits. rite now i am back to the concrete jungles of Chennai and trying to learn some academics [:)]


current mood: missing daroji

cheers,

ram