One of the most frequently asked question I receive is about what settings to use to photograph a sunset or sunrise.
This image was photographed at Satpura National Park – an amazing place to capture both due to the beautiful watery surroundings. The open grounds offer the added advantage of being the habitat of mammals like the spotted deer so I planned to capture them in silhouette against the magical sky. Continue reading
Kabini, Karnataka
Seen from one angle, the sun is setting over the pool on Xandari’s western perimeter; the way this photo is taken makes it appear that way, but if seen from Kerala, the sun would just be rising. Just hours ago, Xandari joined Raxa Collective. Welcome! Continue reading
Photo credits : Ramesh Kidangoor
Flowers are an integral part of Indian festivals; people use them on a daily basis for offerings to their gods and goddesses at home. In India, people come door-to-door, similar to the way milk men make deliveries, and provide fresh flowers to every household — the large demand for floral offerings is catered to by the flower markets prominent in almost every major city in India. Continue reading
Photo by Julian Herbert/Getty Images
We rarely have the chance to link to the writing of Hendrik Hertzberg, one of the New Yorker‘s cleverest turners of phrase, because he so frequently writes on political matters (generally outside our scope on this site). But when he writes on another topic, it is invariably worth reading if nothing else for the quality of his writing. This one, as it happens, is closer to our general range of interests because of the ecological implications:
On Wednesday came news that, starting in 2016, the Bank of England will replace its paper currency with plastic.
This doesn’t mean that our British cousins will thenceforth have to make all their purchases with credit cards, as in, “Do you take plastic?” They’ll still have folding money, but it will be printed on sheets of plastic polymers—a stiffer version of the stuff that the plastic bags which disfigure the trees of New York City are made of. Continue reading
People typically wash their hands seven times a day in the United States, but they do it at a far higher temperature than is necessary to kill germs, a new study says. The energy waste is equivalent to the fuel use of a small country. PHOTOGRAPH BY GAETAN BALLY/KEYSTONE/CORBIS
Which small country are they referring to? Does it matter? No. Just read on to be awed by the news that something you may have thought to be important to your health is actually not; and worse, it is costly to the earth’s health:
It’s cold and flu season, when many people are concerned about avoiding germs. But forget what you think you know about hand washing, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. Chances are good that how you clean up is not helping you stay healthy; it is helping to make the planet sick. Continue reading
Hindu God Idols
Hinduism employs many different gods, many of which represent aspects of the world or ideologies such as the Sun god, the god of prosperity, the wind god, etc. These various deities are depicted in the ancient scripts and are believed to be reborn in human form when the world is being exploited by evil in order to restore peace and harmony. Continue reading
Christie’s Images Ltd. 2013. An untitled artwork by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde.
We would not know whether to say this news is welcome or not, but we thank India Ink for it nonetheless. On the one hand we have been inclined to disfavor the hyper-commercialization of art. On the other hand, it seems better to know that Indian artists are now getting their fair economic shake relative to Western artists:
Demonstrating the robust demand for Indian art, Christie’s first auction in India almost doubled its high estimate of $8 million to bring in $15.4 million, or 965.9 million rupees, selling nearly all the works on offer and breaking a number of records for Indian artists. Continue reading
As a wildlife photographer and educator I have the privileged opportunity to give workshops in numerous national parks of India. At the Satpura National Park in Madhya Pradesh I witnessed this kind of behaviour from the Sambar Deer for the first time. It was playing by itself in the muddy water. It sunk its face in the mud, got up, ran around in the water and suddenly jumped. Continue reading
Opposite the badminton field, which part of the year serves as cow pasture, is a wall with these hand-painted signs announcing the December dates for the tournament that these players have been practicing for–singles, doubles, juniors, seniors, etc.. Raxa Collective is proud sponsor of this tournament. Live webcam coverage (maybe) so stay tuned.
Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat
2,088 field staff taking part in the eight-day exercise in five landscapes
Today’s Hindu newspaper reports that:
The eight-day phase-one of the all India tiger estimation 2013-2014 by 2,088 field staff began in the forests of the State on Monday.
The estimation, at the initiative of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), is a countrywide exercise conducted every four years to assess the status of wild tigers, co-predators, prey species, and their habitat. Continue reading
It was mandatory in my family culture that young girls learn dance and music, the traditional dances like Bharathnatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathakali, as well as Carnatic music. And I was inducted into a well known school of art to learn them.
The theory part included learning about the various dance formats, stories, and most importantly the costume. Continue reading
Computer-generated images of the ‘EuroVegas’ gambling complex and conference centre outside Madrid
This was never a good idea for Spain. When we first read the horrifying news that Madrid was not only willing, but desperately vying, to become home to a megacasino and all the dark arts that accompany such a beast, we did not have the heart to share those reports. The ick factor hung like a cloud imagining it. In the last week, news broke that the whole deal had fallen through; here is a recap of the story’s perfect ending, from the New Yorker‘s website:
The puns practically wrote themselves, last week, when headlines announced that the billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson had folded on a years-long bet to build a mega-casino in Spain. Dubbed EuroVegas, it was supposed to be Adelson’s foothold on the Continent: a thirty-billion-dollar venture, replete with twelve hotels, nine theatres, six casinos, and three golf courses.
A year earlier, Adelson had chosen Madrid as the sunny, temperate hub for his European incursion. He’s had a captive audience ever since. Presiding over a wobbly economy and an unemployment rate of around twenty-five per cent, the Spanish government was desperate for any large-scale investment, let alone one as immense as Adelson’s. The project’s gaudy name provoked derision, even revulsion, in some quarters in Spain. Continue reading
Photo credit: Ramesh Kidangoor
The Jacaranda is a deciduous tree native to South America that can grow up to 20 meters high with magnificent snaking branches. These trees are planted as an aesthetic addition within the tea plantations of Munnar for their beautiful and long-lasting blue flowers. Continue reading
El Cuyo, Mexico
Image Courtesy The Huffington Post
It’s no secret that icecaps are losing mass due to increased global warming; and one of the world’s safeguards against carbon emissions, the ocean, is working overtime trying to sequester anthropogenic gases. The ocean as a carbon sink has been well known for quite some time, although recently it seems as though it has been on the back-burner for many governments, organizations, corporations, businesses, etc.
David Foster, director of the Harvard Forest, speaking at a news conference to announce the launch of a new Harvard Forest Study on future scenarios for the Massachusetts Landscape, looking as forests as infrastructure. Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer
An article in the Harvard Gazette illustrates one kind of collaboration we hope to see more of in our home state of Kerala, India. The state of Massachusetts, USA is fortunate to be home to Harvard University and a wealth of resources–financial, yes, but more importantly ideational–that Harvard generates. Kerala has its own wealth of resources, and we hope to see here more collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as academic institutions, such as we see in this article:
For the last two years, researchers, nonprofit representatives, and state officials have put their heads together to figure out how to maintain Massachusetts’ status as one of the nation’s most densely populated yet most heavily forested states.
Massachusetts’ forests expanded for 150 years as people abandoned farms for urban life and reached a high-water mark in the 1970s, when they covered nearly 70 percent of the state. In the face of expanding development, however, forest cover has since declined, down to 60 percent, with further declines likely.
The result of the collaboration is a report by the Harvard Forest and the Smithsonian Institution. It lays out four possible futures for the state’s forests and highlights one, called “forests as infrastructure,” that would dramatically increase both logging and land conservation, while also encouraging clustered development to minimize forest loss. Continue reading
Recently I had meetings at the Tata Management Training Center in Pune. It’s an amazing place, almost like a national park in the heart of the city. Fortunately, I had my camera bag with me, so I went walking around with my 17-55mm and 70-200mm lenses. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the Sigma 150-500mm nor was I carrying an extender. So 200mm was going to be my max zoom.
While I was walking around, hearing various bird calls and taking aim at some kites that were hovering above, I was told about some resident owls. I went looking for them and was fortunate to spot one of them almost immediately. This Spotted Owlet stared at me for a while and finding no interest (or threat) in me, closed its eyes and looked away. Continue reading
Organikos 