Creative and Artistic Nature Photography - Nature Lyrics

Monsoon rains has started in this part of the world where I live. During monsoon months some of us have made it a habit to pack all of our gear in a air tight bag stuffed with silica gel packets for next couple of months

One of my recently learned lesson is best light for nature photography is bad light!! I realized the bad light offers us so many unique perspectives. Made this above image today at Ramanagar (click on the image to see it better in higher resolution). I felt background white cloud was perfect for what I wanted to create in this image.

The below image of a flower demonstrates the other lesson I have learnt recently - if we can control dominant light in an image then there are some interesting possibilities. Here in this image below (click on it to see it better) I tried to create a unique lighting by using the flash and selecting a the partial sky background. I have selected the right flash output level, aperture and shutter to subtly highlight the flower with a unique emphasis on background (sky).

There are a few more visualizations in mind related to bad light - hopefully I will be able to explore them during coming weeks. I wish it rains during every week end for next few weeks !!

What is in common between them ?

Last Monday I got up and getting ready to go to office - thought it was another usual day, but it wasn’t. Around 6am it started paining below left ribs. The pain increased exponentially and it became unbearable around 7:30am. I had some kidney stones diagnosed earlier but was dormant, often, when I remembered to be precise, I use to drink water. Last year it was about 6mm and this year it has grown to 7.5mm - that is about 25% growth even during sub-prime crisis and economic downturn - not bad at all - wish my fixed deposit grows at that rate!

Soon, I called my photographer friend, Dr Ajit, a well known kidney transplant surgeon. I could not reach him but I rushed to Columbia Asia Hospital in Bangalore where he practices. On the way, I could contact Ajit when I reached hospital, Dr Ajit’s friends Dr Mohan and Dr Manohar whom I was supposed to see have been informed. His friends knew I share same interests Dr Ajit did - wildlife and photography. They started talking to me in those languages!

After a couple of doses of pain killers I was able to talk. Ultrasound scan showed a 7.5mm stone stuck at the tip of the ureta. Dr Manohar showed me the sonogram and showed the stone. I was curious to know where the ureta is - being familiar with 1600×1024 resolution and s-rgb color space is no use to interpret what is seen on the ultrasound screen. I asked Dr Manohar, where is the ureta ? Manohar replied - “Ganesh, it is not like tiger stripes - you can’t see that clearly but I can” - Needless to say I agreed with him!!

Next couple of days I was on medication (dialators, pain killers) in the wait mode to see whether the stone just passes out by itself - unfortunately it didn’t. On Thursday, doctors decided to remove it using endoscopic surgery. At 2 PM I was taken to operation theater where Mrs Ajit who is anaesthetist there helped me boost my confidence, so nice of her - it really helped. I was scared about taking anaesthesia. In OT I was greeted by Dr Manohar, who said - “See Ganesh, this is our forest”, I agreed and told him - “You folks are tigers here” - both of us had a laugh. Just before injecting anaethesia doctor asked where I wanted to go, he himself suggested Nandi Hills for some bird photography, I agreed. Next moment I was there probably, when I opened my eyes around 5pm my father and wife was near by. I was back from my 3 hours journey to Nandi hills.

Got discharged from hospital yesterday evening - It is still paining a bit, hope to recover soon…

Some of you have asked me why I have not updated my website or blog for long. It has been more than 3 months I have been working weekends and nights with a small team of friends who are also passionate nature photographers in creating a platform with a very narrow focus on creative nature photography. Here in this forum we have a clear focus on sharing some unique creative perspectives of nature not often seen. Unfortunately, as a friend of mine said, evolution of a nature photographer has been often considered as one who just bought an entry level SLR and a kit lens to those who could afford that 10/12Mega pixel, 8/10fps professional body and a 500mm/600mm f4 lens. Person behind the camera is often forgotten. In CNP we hope to clearly focus on aspects of making creative or original images. Currently we are doing beta testing of this platform. You can visit CNP here . You are welcome to join!

Here after I think I will get more time to update my blog and web site often.

Recently in one of nature forums I came across a discussion related to ethics in post processing. Later I realized it may be a good idea define a boundary for myself and put it in black and white. This resulted in a small article -

Digital Post Processing Ethics - My frame of reference

24 April 08 - UPDATED

Made some quick changes to my gallery software to show how post processing is done for each of the images. I am yet to add the symbol UA,DE and DM to all files but I added that feature to my gallery software. For a sample image you can see this one.

Last week end I visited Ramanagar in southern India to see my favorite vultures. There were a few roosting there and weather was very pleasant too (for a change). The blue sky and beautifully lit vultures offered me some nice possibilities. When I saw this vulture on the edge of the cliff first backed off quite a bit to get the perspective I wanted and made a couple of images. Later I thought of diagonally balancing the blue sky with a little darker region in the frame. I found an unlit tree and its branches which offered me some possibilities. With some difficulty I could make a few images through an unlit branch such that I get a kind of natural burning effect which resulted in the image below.

Some how I tend to like this latter image a little more than the former. In field we often don’t have time to think - at least we think so!!

PS : For better quality you may want to click on each of the images above.

During our recent visit to Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary in India, as I mentioned in the previous blog below I was challenged to make natural looking images of bears. Second day I stayed off the usual place which photographers use to make images of bears from a vehicle hide. I thought of setting up a remote trigger at some place to try something different. So I set up a remote trigger at a place where there are good chances of seeing bears. Set up everything and at around 1pm I sat in my camouflage cloth covered car far away just waiting to see bears. Around 1:30pm it started getting very cloudy and there were very heavy thunder storms. I had setup my Nikon D200 with 50mm f1.8mm lens mounted and buried in ground and just covered the whole setup with a cotton camouflage cloth. I was sure my camera will get totally soaked in water with cotton camouflage cloth nicely adding to collect more water - yet I decided leave it there and take a chance. I was ready to foot repair bills for just one memorable image.

Sure, it continuously rained for next few hours. My whole setup took nice multiple showers for about next 4-5 hours. I just sat in my car thinking about my camera and lens. No bears showed up may be due to heavy rain. At around 5:30pm a few bears started coming down. I was just hoping to see them on the path where I set up the trigger. No, they did not show up there but went some where else. It is nature and luck. Can I expect to be successful with one day of experiment ? I realized I was dreaming.

At around 6pm it is time to return. I slowly drove down near my set up. Just out of curiosity pressed release button on my remote trigger. I could hear D200’s shutter releases !! Everything was working just fine even after getting soaked in water for 4-5 hours on the ground. I had all appreciations for the Nikon’s construction quality of both the camera and the lens. Though I came empty handed, my camera and lens were in the same state as it was before - may be better since it took a nice bath -:)

If successful I was hoping to get a view something like below (image credit - Shivakumar L. Thanks Shiv!). Instead of seeing yours truly there you would have seen a bear !!

I really cherish those moments of waiting in rain now even if I could not make any image. Sure I got some very valuable learnings from this experiment. It is not only the images which count but the experiences of making them are invaluable too - more so when we are doing something out of just passion.

I made a few days trip to Munnar and Kumarakom in Kerala, India. Since I went with my family I left my camera bag at home. Nevertheless, I had my wife’s Nikon Coolpix P-50 to experiment. Wish I had my gear for better control and quality but then it was meant to be a sight seeing trip with family ..

We spent a day at Kumarkom in house boat. Very relaxing day on house boat. Spent some time at Kumarkom bird sanctuary - If you plan to visit this place for bird photography I advice you don’t waste your time.

We spent next couple of days at Munnar hill station in Kerala. I really enjoyed seeing Ervikulam National Park - an amazing place to make images of Nilgiri Tahrs amidst breath taking back drops of Sahyadris. One can literally touch them - they come so close to humans. But what is interesting is opportunities for beautiful compositions. May be I will visit this place again in future just for photography…

I made a quick visit (2-days) to Daroji bear sanctuary. This is my third visit to this beautiful place. I thought Daroji is the best place to photograph sloth bears in India. I have some second thoughts on it now. No doubt it is the best place to see them - but is it the best place for bear photography ? I personally feel very challenged to make natural looking images of them. Those who have visited Daroji may be able to relate what I am talking about. I spent just one day from vehicle hide near usual place and second day decided to stay off that place hoping to make some natural looking (at least) images of them. But both days it rained heavily. Not much of images from this trip - but lots of learning for the next one…

When I went to Kaziranga recently I thought of making conscious attempts at creating some unique perspectives of nature. But the excitement of the new place and lots of new subjects made it very difficult. I totally forgot about it ! It was during last couple of days I realized I did not make an effort at all to see things differently. I think visiting the same place again and again (for example places like TG halli) will probably forces us think out of the box.

You can see some these images here.

- Ganesh H Shankar

Went with a few friends to Kaziranga National Park in north east of India a week back. Currently busy processing some of the images from the trip. Kaziranga is a beautiful place. I was told that it rains during all months at Kazi. But we had ample sunshine during our stay at Kazi - I wish it rained just one day though. We were fortunate to meet Steve Winter, a National Geographic photographer at Kazi. I was just humbled by some of the images he made at Kazi (and else where). He has spent a few months now at Kazi. All I can say is creativity and meticulous planning at its best.

Lots of images to process. Hope to make a gallery just for Kaziranga images at my web site Nature Lyrics and get it up and running in a week or two - stay tuned !!