Perils of Photographer!!! :)

A beautiful weather early in the morning is a wonderful ask for a hopeful photography..

Today morning I woke up to find pleasant sky, with the sun playing hide and seek. There was a touch of chillness in the air, all to inspire me to pick up my camera bag and head down in the apartment compound. As I walked out, I found this beautiful red flower in a small puddle water that got created because of the rains last night.

Standing tall, I stopped to examine my subject with my camera still packed in the bag slung behind. I was like the doctor to a patient...

     Hmmm, red flower.. lovely and that too in the water, 
     The reflection on the water.. Amazing...I saw some lovely rain drops on the petals 
     Sun behind me and the clouds... so not too harsh light...
     Angle to shoot could be lower... hmmm

I was in deep contemplation when someone from behind said, "Sid, just shoot it or else it may feel shy and run away"... I looked around to see one of my neighbours peeping from his balcony..

I just smiled ... "Bugger, this is not a military drill and she ain't my girl friend... It is a creative delight... Grrr".. well I wanted to say all that but I just smiled and waved...

My focus went back to my subject and the analysis. Now it was time to move on with the action... Kept the camera bag on the pathway carefully away from the water puddle and pulled out my camera.. Did the settings and got onto my angles...

Top view.. nah.... Will miss the reflection.. bend 45 degree, without a tripod I can't trust my body to be stable.. From right, from left, from front, from back... It felt like being in a temple and going around the lord for a complete view... After all the pradakshina done.. decided to prostrate and shoot.. The lord Red Flower could be happy with me that way and give me what I was seeking for... :)

Finally after all the adjustments, I got into shooting...

At the end, while downloading out the pics realised what all one needs to do trying to get the image closer to the imagination one had built up..

Phew!!!

The video shot while doing the act..

Nature Mr. FURY

Chennai, (I still love it by the name of Madras)... a growing modern city in India, has been my karma bhoomi for the last 16 years now. In these 16 years I have struggled and there is a constant struggle to keep pace with what my desires have been. A fight to always be on top... In this struggle, I have least been bothered about what is happening in my surrounding. It has largely been with me and my family. Life had been good!!!

They say, life is a leveller and a great teacher too. Like in Avatar, all things are interconnected. I do feel the nature does conspire around you to teach you and bring to your face what else you are missing to see the purpose of this life. The rains that lashed in waves after waves in the last few weeks, brought this whole city onto its knees. I could not be kept away from that. When the lakes and ponds surrounding my apartment complex breached its banks, water gushed out like rivulets with its intense ferocity... The night was calm as I happened to stay in a higher ground apartment. The next day morning as I took out my car to go to my office I was shocked by the magnitude of destruction that has happened. So many people have to leave their homes and move away with just themselves intact. My couple of attempts to use my usual road was pushed back but I being I, wanted to still make it. The statement was, "What nonsense, I have an office to attend and my life was dependent on that".

Water almost 3ft of water

Well somehow in the afternoon by 12.15 pm, I started in a taxi along with a friend of mine who was equally eager to go. To top it up we had a courageous taxi driver in his Indica who was eager to make the first buck of the day. Our first main road attempt ended in cops saying to turn around. Well we were a stubborn lot and wanted to make it through. After the being part of the slow moving crowd realised that there is a 4 ft water ahead. We could not anyway turn around as there were many more stubborn heads like us... :) Finally our guy halted for a few seconds and then hit the accelerator and waded through that 4 ft water. I almost freaked out but the guy did a fab job of making us reach the other side. Oh Boy!! I thought that it was all done now, least realising that there was more to come.

Water expanding
across the road

Well having reached by 1.15 pm, I started to focus on my work. Well that did not last long as my focus started drifting to the window pane which was getting darker and thunder clouds started to play beautiful music... I ran to my friend and started to edge him to move on. Well finally by 5.30 pm we started. Without any transport or any cab that we could not get from Ola or Taxi4sure, we decided to walk the 5kms back home. As we started to walk back, through the back road of Sholingnalur SEZ there was a good samaritan who was equally eager to reach office in his WagonR. He gave us the lift through the back gate.. well less that we knew that we were actually getting into the dragon's mouth. Wohoo... as we stood at the back gate of the SEZ we saw a sea in front of us. Well, a peculiar human tendency that when pushed and that too with strangers with you.. you tend to push yourself more. Well our wonderful person drove us right up to his office which was next to his entry point of the SEZ. At that point we had to get down into the water.

After profusely thanking him, my friend suggested to remove our shoes but then realised that we have no clue where we were stepping and on what. Better to sacrifice the shoe than our beautiful feet... There we started walking in 2 ft deep water. Our brave decision was being questioned by our own self after having walked 500 mts from the office. Now desperation took over, as the coldness took over. As I started heading towards desperation, my courage took over to look out for options. That is when one of the Wipro bus driver was about to leave the SEZ with his bus, I could only ask his permission to get in. He did not even blink once to say, "Do not worry, step in.. I will drop you on the way". Well our happiness had no bounds. Having jumped in we now had to be patient to reach home. As the bus rolled out of the SEZ on to the road next to the lake, the realisation dawned that it was a very daring step to even have thought to walk. There was 4 1/2 ft of water. The bus literally inched in the water at a steady pace keeping close to the median. I could not differentiate where the lake was and where the road. It was the median that made me feel that we are on the road. It was a scary scene. The place that used to be filled with birds and a beautiful life today looked like a murky brown sheet of death. Water had covered in every inch of the land as if saying this is my place and let me feel it till I can. One could feel that the road had taken a big battering and with vehicles coming from the other side on the same road, the displacement of water shook the huge bus... After the struggle for 20 mins we covered the distance of 2 1/2 kms and reached our cross road where we got down.

While getting down, I handed this humble driver 50 bucks which he was not even expecting. I just nudged it into him thanking profusely. As I got down, I was feeling so grateful to the lord in that bus and the cab friend who gave us a lift. Humanity comes touching us in many ways.. but the most humbling fact was that "Nature is a leveller and does tell that you that all are equal.. care for one another and you will survive".

Peace and Grandee

Mother Nature has so many treasures and one of the most beautiful creations is “The Avian” life... As much fascinating they are to watch, they seem to be equally difficult to capture their movements. Recently, I did my annual ritual of going to Vedanthangal.. One of the best bird sanctuary in Chennai. All you need to do is to plan to spend your day there with these beautiful creatures.

This place is close to 75 kms from Chennai on the GST road. Though the main road is a very good drive, but the inner road of last 14 Kms could be better. I felt that last stretch gives you the feel that you are getting into a reserve area.

It is stated that the local people actually care for the birds and protect them too. I get awed with not only by their majesty, but by their flamboyant colours and sizes. They do really come in various sizes and they are BEAUTIFUUUUULLL!!!

This time when we planned for the travel the idea was to shoot the birds and capture their moves. I wanted to experiment with my camera. Happen to reach their by 11 am and set my equipment to start shooting. One thing for sure that shooting birds teach you Patience and patience and patience... and then there are times when I am so much awed by the beauty of the birds that I tend to forget the intent of being there. You could find “Grey Pelican, painted stork, vsnake bird, Open-billed stork, large egret and many more…

Some of these large birds, one would wonder, how can they fly so swiftly? They are so so huge, and then their wings are very strong to enable them for the cross continent movement. Though when they try to get onto the water, they do not land, the large ones crash land and then they glide too on the water. The proverb stands so true, “Duck looks so calm on outside but keeps flipping its webbed feet hard underneath”. The elegance and grandeur personified.

The beauty and vibrant spread makes me wonder could we humans ever bring that out. One could simply be awed.

Co-existence is something that we humans should really learn from Mother Nature. There happen to be this one particular shrub, which is right in across a “Bird watch platform” that had a lot of these Grey Pelicans which stay. If my observation is right, that place is marked out for these large birds year on year. At the first sight one would think that it is a monopoly of these large birds but when you keenly observation, one could see hoards of bats hanging underneath their nests. It
was amazing to see the co-existence. Neither of them is troubled by it. You could think, “Live and Let live” staring right into you. We humans have so much to learn from Mother Nature. Some part of us does try to live in that co-existence. The villagers protect these birds because they find the birds to be very helpful. During the late monsoon season that Chennai has, the water bridges between the sanctuary and the farm lands are closed so that the place could be filled up with water for the Birds to come and stay. The birds fly in and stay between November till Feb. Once the birds have moved out as the temperature gets more warmer, the water is released to the nearby farm lands. This water is supposed to be filled with a lot of manure and helps the fields with a good yield. One would not need any more of these artificial chemicals to make the fields yield better… Support to the ecosystem is balanced.
We were there till 3.30 pm, if not for the thought to drive back home. But, as I drove back I had taken with me not only the movements but also lot of memories and refreshed..

The place is well cut off from all the hustle and business. What they say, that time slows down is very true at that place. The sound of the birds, the shade of the trees and the cool cool breeze, just helps you unwind and puts your mind at peace. All so so SO beautiful. For me this is a heavenly place which, I intend to visit every year…

Painted Sky!!

The year has begun for me on a very hectic note!!!

But, with the pace at which it is going, I seem to be enjoying the way my days are getting packed. Recently i packed off to my regular long drive place.. Pondicherry. During one of my walks down the rocky beach i was captivated by the setting sun and the clouds. The light were being dispersed by the clouds giving the blue cloudy sky a wonderful texture to look at... I wished it could have just stayed like that for the whole day...

Confused steps

The Confused traveller at the Mahabalipuram beach, trying hard in all directions to find out his reasoning to life from the vast ocean...

Sunny Modern Art

The radiance over the sky as the sun was about to set.. was at the Besant Nagar, Chennai beach facing the sea, as i turned the setting sun was peeping out of the clouds and the beauty was seen all over the sky. Could not resist grab my shutter bug and shoot it... Splendid..

It felt as if the sun was trying its hands at Modern art.. :)