Kerala, India
Bird of the Day: Yellow-rumped Flycatcher
Kerala, India
Nature Photography
Life of Periyar (Periyar Lake)
Photo by: Varghese TJ
The most familiar scenic view of Periyar Lake, which covers 26 Sq Km of the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black Baza (Thekkady, India)
Bird of the Day: Night Heron (Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, India)
Photo: Taken by Ravi Raj at Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary
Blue Grass Dartlet
The first time I saw this species, I was dumbfounded, to say the least. We live in a 10th floor apartment in urban Cochin, which admittedly is on the banks of the backwaters. Nonetheless, I was quite surprised to see a dull-colored damselfly float through a window and over our dining room table, and out the door onto the balcony on the opposite side of the room. Fortunately, I gathered my wits quickly enough to rush back with my camera, and corralled the enigma into a corner in the balcony (non-violently, of course), and was able to get a few shots before it breezed off in the lethargic float I’ve come to associate with damselflies. The only time I’ve seen any damselfly zooming the way most dragonflies do is when they’re swooping in on their prey, at which point even the laziest, slowest, and smallest of them can put on quite a turn of speed.
Bird of the Day: Purple Heron (Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, India)
Photo: Ravi Raj taken at Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary
Bird of the Day: Darter (Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary, India)
Photo: Taken by Ravi Raj at Kumarakom Bird Sanctuary
Bird of the Day: White-Throated Kingfisher
Photo: Ravi Raj, taken during a stay on a River Escapes houseboat
Kerala Backwaters, India
Bird of the Day: Great Cormorant (Thekkady, India)
Bird of the Day: Indian Pond Heron (Gavi, India)
Male Trumpet Tail (Revisited)
A few months ago while staying at Cardamom County, I spent a morning with a wonderful character named Jain – a tribal man with an avid interest in insects and arachnids, working as a guide in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary, and incidentally, a friend and student of Mr. Vijaykumar Thondaman‘s. Both armed with cameras, Jain and I entered the reserve just after dawn, and spent the best part of the morning hunting dragonflies and damselflies across streams and fields, ponds and gullies. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Malabar Grey Hornbill-Male (Thekkady, India)
Experience
My routine interaction with the guests staying at Cardamom County provides first hand information about their experiences at the resort and various activities in and around wild Periyar. I recently happened to speak with Mr. Namjoshi and his family, who stayed at Cardamom County a couple days ago.
Here are some of their comments and photos:
Bird of the Day: Common Kingfisher (Gavi, India)
Bird of the Day: Flameback Woodpecker (Thekkady, India)
Bird of the Day: Juvenile Cormorant in Rain (Thekkady, India)
Bird of the Day: Great Cormorant on Nest #2 (Thekkady, India)
Relics
Everywhere you go in India, even cities considered ‘modern’ by today’s standards, there are relics of the past. Architecture, attire, animals walking through the street. In Cochin, one of Kerala’s biggest cities, locals don’t even look twice if an elephant walks down the street – the same street with IT parks and shopping malls on it. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Red-whiskered Bulbul
Thekkady, Kerala
Kerala: Seeing & Learning
As I begin putting myself in situations in which photographing people in their natural state is more possible, I’m finding that I not only become more comfortable doing so, but the quality of my photographs improves. The subject doesn’t always have to be smiling, or even friendly – my best portraits are the ones that express the authenticity of a subject’s disposition and emotion in a single frame. Asking a scowling subject to smile will usually result in a sheepish grin, or a reluctant curve upward of the lips that ends up radiating a general feel of puzzlement. Continue reading
