State of the mind

At times, we all are in a confused state. A state that sometimes can hamper thinking abilities and creative sparks in an individual. I am quite sure that all of us go through the phase and get bugged. As for me , honestly, confused state is something that I always cherish. It is something that opens up a plethora of opportunities, and if executed ,something or the other actually clicks.Although with many caveats.

Now when this confused state comes when you travel or when you have a camera in your hand ,many would say that it wont be a good sign for making pictures, which is quite true to an extent. But there is always a chance to be taken, with some caution of course to implement some opportunities in confusions.who knows ,may be we could have a different look towards the world e are in.....

Many may not approve of this ,as the common definitions are that you should be sure of what you are shooting , but looking at a thing in many confused ways may sometimes yield some eccentric viewpoints.Isn't it true that when you actually are lost in a dream,you find a better one...here is a series of some of my confused states of mind,from the jungles....

The music of nature-, the perception of the height of the trees and the motions of the green make it look as if winds have changed directions and flowing up.No of interpretations made from such images are myriad and its better to leave them on the viewers...

The army of trees-, a spooky appearance of a jungle. I wanted to create a nightmarish feeling of the night times in jungles, alone. The dark woods and grey grass created a feel I wanted, again tastes vary from viewer to viewer....

The broken dreams-,there was once a time when I was fruiting with all my might and there were greener days for me, but all has gone brown now, exclaimed the tree. I wanted to portray how the times changed for the tree,in the left., winds of changes they say are always unavoidable.....

Through the dreams-,A feeling of dejavu, feeling of repeating the journeys may occur a lot of time in sleep. What we remember about them after we wake up is not a clear picture , a mixture of things is rendered afterwards. This was more or less what I wanted to portray, a motion through times..

From the similar lines of above pic this is below the way I portrayed a flying peacock.Honestly I wanted to make a clear picture of a flying peacock, but it was too far from me , and backdrop of trees was interesting. 
At times , you should use your tools to the way you want them to....

Coexistence-, The story of togetherness of egret and buffaloes, the day to day flying away of egret from one buffalo to other one, and the calmness of buffalo is what i wanted to portray.The bluish rock like structure is actually a calm buffalo who always remain so and egret the same one which was on buffalo for an instant and flew away in next one....

Together for ever-, The state of mind need not be always hazy ,confused or undefined.They can be deep,unmoved and defined. The two trees, standing together , on a beautiful landscape indicate a deep thinking levels, which can infer too many things about what they may really be thinking about....

Well this is about it , the confused state of mind. I know I may not have been successfully in representing the idea behind the subject but as it goes its the curiosity that drives us. And as the prominent artist Salvador Dalli puts it ,"what is important is to spread confusions ,not eliminate it "I feel its more proper to spread them far and wide, it only helps to clear them. 
Also in every walk of life confusions always encounter you ,aptly its been said that "If you are not confused ,you aren't paying attention"... so the bottomline simple goes " Stay confused, stay blessed " ... :)

The Woods and the Denizens.....

Forests , from a long time have been considered as the first temples of divinity, nothing can be more refreshing than a drive through the forests , hearing the sounds of the nature via the winds gushing through the dry leaves, the chirping of the birds, the calls and sounds of the denizens. Nothing can be more pleasing to the eyes and mind than to see a totally different life cycle flourishing in the nature.This set of pictures is just an account of the happy dwelling of the denizens of forests in their home, admiring it to the fullest.....

When we talk of the woods and the denizens ,the first that comes to the mind is monkey , that dwells on the woods for most part of its life, depending totally on it. A langur rests of the branches in the jungles....

A mother langur with its child , in evening light ,waiting for her clan to proceed into the woods....

A different life forms of avians also depends on the woods for their survival. Some dwell on woods, some into it. Owls are known to rest most the day into the tree trunks before proceeding for their nocturnal activities. An owl below seen to be resting in the tree trunk......

The tree trunk here was a nest of this owl, who could be seen regularly resting on the tall structure of the tree trunk.

A greater coucal appeared to be entrapped in the maze of the bamboo twigs, probably finding its way out. life some times takes a hard turn in the forests, but there is where the spirit and the survival of the fittest matters....

A peacock looking at the surrounding ,to search something , in the morning light ,stepping by the woods...

A very intimidating character , Indian gaur or the bison in its habitat in the dry forests of summer season....

Apart from the gaurs , monkeys and birds, the forests are found to be inhabited by myriad animals like cheetals, sambars, mongoose , monitor lizards and list goes on and on....
There also are carnivores feeding on the smaller animals like jackals, panthers, and tigers who basically are at the top of the food chain...
 A jackal below , looking for some signs of prey in the bushes..

A predator that is mostly known for the use of the trees to rest, hide preys, and dwell is the leopard or the panther.Since the leopard shares its space with a more powerful predator like a tiger, it hides its prey on the 
trees to protect it. Also it dwells high up to avoid confrontations...
A leopard, with its kill (top left corner) in the woods....

And the god of the forests as they say is the tiger. The life line of the jungles and the most revered cat of the forests .
 A tiger in its habitat in bandhavgarh forests in central India.

The forest life cycle also depends on one of the tertiary consumers, who feed on the aftermath, who are also known to keep the jungles clean. Above tigers , of there is some one in the food chain are these, the vultures.

In some mysterious ways , the forests never seem to be at a standpoint ,at every instant a thousand things keep happening into them. A worlds begins there, a worlds ends. Change and development always continues there, which is probably the most important lesson the woods offer us.... in physical terms, we move though them, but deeply within its the other way round, they move through us ,through our hearts.. Always....

An evening....

I love to spend most of my evenings on a lake near my house. Since I can spend long hours on that lake, I sometimes get ample amount for experiments.Mostly the lake is inhabited by common birds like egrets , kingfishers and bee eaters etc. Time spent on those experiments allow me to get into the nuances of the art and science of photography. This little writeup after a long sabbatical is just about some of those pics on the lake during a silent evening....

This is a reflection of the bamboo sticks in lake water that was kind of making an eccentric pattern.The water surface painted with the reflections and the sunlight made it look different. Working on the patterns of the reflection , here is another one pattern made by the reflection of tree covered by egrets. Reflections, they sure are kind of different , especially when they are cropped to include only the water surfaces.

Apart from the patterns , the steady reflections made by the birds too can create a frame. For instance in this pic , the flying birds and frozen moments created a frame for me. The colours of the dry grass and the twigs and greens reflected from leaves made a colour quotient that is characteristic of the lake sides....

 

 



 

 

The hovering blue kingfisher was a star of the evening , when it was the only bird that was into my framable distance. The slighly lower shutter speed gave me a motion blur in its wings and as luck would have it ,its head was steady then.

The light , it surely changes everything from mood to the drama in an image. The setting sunlight's golden hue and the silhouette of the flying bird made a good recipe for the image....

And as the sun bid us a goodbye, it was time to wrap up the evenings , both for the birds and for me, not before recording some patterns of the flocks as they went to their abode.....

The disciplined pattern of the flock, making a shape that will be an aeronautical advantage similar to an aeroplane is something I have always been in awe with. Something that will be mastered by us , but only artificially....

And finally the dusk knocked the hourglasses and it was time. The birds just flew away to their destinations , bidding the lake goodbye for the timebeing, as they both know , the cycles would always go on..... the decorum and discipline will always remain.... and we all will be, I hope, just the silent admirers......
 

Perceptions....

We always encounter this debate whether photography is an art or science.Though we all end up saying its both art and science. Mostly photographs can be judged both from technology point of view as well as the art point of view. Using either of the one can result in either a technically perfect photo with no art, or an excellent art photo with technical faults. We all start with techniques first when we start photography, exactly opposite takes place for painters, they start with pure art. Which is why we mostly come around art in paintings and moment pictures in photographs. After a while, we all reach a saturation point and in a need to satisfy our hunger for thought food we begin our journey towards the unreal. Many have their own paths, own thinking and executions.Of course , in search of uncommon we go to lengths ,some find success ,some don't. And as a common notion in this world, mostly the conventional rules. Below are some pictures , some technically  flawed pictures that I shot with pure deliberation. Of course there have been several experiments before on the same , and I may be blowing the same trumpet again, but still, here goes... some of my attempts to amalgamate art abd science of photography...

 

This is a baby elephant and its mother moving along the forests. The upper body  of the mother in front is a reflection of motherly care that elephants are famous for.Freezing of a pic or slowing it down is always a prerogative of the photographer/artist and his thinking and executions....

This is a crocodile that was resting in still waters, owing to harsh light , I decided to shoot monochrome to pump up the contrasts and added grains by over sharpening the background. These kind of pics can be edited according to mood you are in....

After taking some conventional shots of the leopard, i decided to cut down the exposure so background got darkened, the left half of leopard I retrieved later, I also liked the flower near the leopard giving it a perfect jungle feel.....

This is a heron , again an underexposed pic, but then it all depends on taste buds of person to person, just a weird experiment this time.....

I actually desaturated the beautiful colors of the magnificent Indian rollers. The contrast of the background and the light falling on rollers made a perfect recipe for monochromes.Just amplifying the feel of duality in the pic....

These are one of the most common birds that we can sight near any lake.We always have a tendency to use a high shutter speed to freeze the motion , many maestros then decided to counter the technical aspects and slow it down to reflect the motion of the flapping wings. The above pic is combination of panning and slow shutter speeds that reflected the motions....

Similar is the above pic where the commotion is more apparent along with the setting sunlight reflection in the lake.Avery slow shutter fused the wings and the birds and tangled them to create the effect. One more similar pic below, where two egrets separated them from the flock ...

Apart from breaking technical rules in photography , there is also distortion in visions. I shot a normal pic of a geese in lake whose reflection caught my eye. The shape of the geese and curves in reflection made a shape of OM. Also flipping the image made it look like a trident. I converted it in monochrome to give it a more profound look like a trishul.....

These are some of my perceptions towards the aspects of photography. To satiate the hunger of art , both within and outwards ,is a very difficult job. Sometimes you are successful in satiating your inner search , most often not.... but it should be on...and as always ..the debate will go on........

Yalan excursions

Yala national park ,one of the largest parks in Srilanka is located in southeast part of Srilanka.In spite of yala being noted as the one of the national parks having the highest densities of leopards in the world, I had little expectations of the sighting of leopards from yala ,  given the shy nature of the predator. I am glad that I was proven wrong. The times in yala were one of the most amazing times I had spent in jungles , in company of smallest predator from the cat family and one of the biggest mammals ,the asian elephants, and of course the mouth watering pineapples.

Here is a brief account of the small time I spent there in October 12.

As we entered the park, we were greeted by many water birds like pelicans, storks, stilts etc. This was natural since yala is  home of many lagoons. Eye catcher amidst this lagoons was a shikra bird ,that landed briefly in it for a small instant and flew away.

Driving ahead through the jungles , in search for the elusive predator(which I was going to learn later that it isn't elusive here) we sighted many species of mammals , birds and amphibians. As we parked our chariot to get the sense of the woods , we sighted a monitor lizard climbing a tree trunk.We were  lucky it was bold enough for some seconds ,so we managed some pics.

A mother elephant and her kid showed a nice camaraderie amidst nice backdrop of a lagoon and dense vegetation. The beauty of habitat always adds up to the charisma of the animals residing in it.

Yala National Park has a variety of ecosystems including moist monsoon forests, dry monsoon forests, semi deciduous forests, thorn forests, grasslands, fresh water and marine wetlands, and sandy beaches.So one really cant afford missing his wide angle lenses.Two of the very different landscapes in yala, sadly I still miss not having a wide angle then.

The kind of variation in flora,fauna and landscapes can be seen in above pics, crocs, deers and buffaloes in dry arid pic and the colony of storks in above pic.

Now as we moved ahead in search of the predator we were surprised to sight a couple. But to my chagrin they had moved away when our jeep arrived at the location and we could not manage a pic together. we then spotted the same male ,but in low light. Was kind of ideal condition for panning the motion of a leopard, a weird experiment.

The next drives through the park were pure blessing as far as the leopard sighting was concerned.As we were heading towards the inner parts of the jungle early morning next day, we saw a male leopard lazying around on one of the rocks.A typical yala shot of the leopard on the rocks is what everyone got.As many jeeps began to gather around and created ruckus it just walked around through the foliage to the other part of the jungle. Drivers proactive thinking led us to the other spot faster than the leopard. As expected it came out through the foliage ,not before it sharpened its nails by scratching the tree trunk.It was kind of lucky shot as its eyes were clear in spite of being in foliage.

It so happened that the leopard probably found some hunt and hence came crossing through the road.It showed almost all the stealthy ways that leopard exhibit and silently stalking its prey until it is within striking distance where it unleashes a burst of speed to quickly pursue and pounce on its victim.Unfortunately our sadist prayers on seeing leopard kill were unfulfilled, and we only saw its futile attempts.

Being close to the roads ,the predator came very close to the jeep and offers some close perspectives.It was worth notable to see the rusty yellow coat with dark spots and close-set rosettes, which are smaller than in Indian leopards

The muscular frame of the leopard ,and its curves getting accentuated is a sight to watch for.

A yawn, by any member of the cat family is a classic sight to capture. The white canines and the pink tongue and its expressions create a superb combination.

Yala offers some very different habitat shots of the leopard, in the open , having its big territories overlapping with other females. They rarely haul their kills into trees, which is likely due to the lack of competition and the relative abundance of prey. Since leopards are the apex predators they don't need to protect their prey, which is primarily the reason they can be seen in open unlike rest of the regions where leopards are seen.

Apart from the favorite leopard sights there were many other interesting things yala offered. The landscape of yala rock , with brahminy kite and the elephant in foreground, the colony of storks and crocodile were something mesmerizing.

A painted stork quenches its thirst in predated waters. It was very surprising to see crocodile not bothering pelicans n storks , opposite to what we had expected .crocodiles were super quiet and behaved like a kid being reprimanded by its teacher.

A brahminy kite sat on a perch with backdrop of yala rock was something again spectacular and unique habitat of a bird.

One of the most interesting inmates of the forests of yala is the srilankan endemic monkey. Honestly i had never seen anything cuter than this species in real.Perched high up in the trees , it made itself naturally very photogenic.

The trip to yala was way beyond expectations. Although nothing very extraordinary was sighted ,but still ,the leopards and elephants and rest members of avians, mammals and amphibians made the day.

The trip to yala certainly rose a satirical question in mind while leaving "why does the srilankan flag

has a lion on it and not its apex predator?????......