I have always wanted to try street photography. A big camera (read DSLR) unfortunately is not the tool for it I’ve realized, the attention the camera seeks takes away from the natural expressions and ruins almost all opportunities for a candid shot. Recently when I upgraded my mobile phone to a Samsung Galaxy SII with an amazing camera and visited mumbai simultaneously, it was the perfect time for me to try my hand at street photography. This experiment is also to reiterate that the a DSLR is not always the solution and even a mobile phone can produce some amazing results…

Marine drive walkway

Juhu chowpatty

Sunset at Juhu chowpatty

No trip to Mumbai is complete without Masala Pav

And ofcourse the famous colas

Ganapati immersion procession

Boys who take the Ganapati for the immersion

The old and new, mills that make way for malls – Phoenix mall

Contrasting worlds

Madh island, the escapade from the bustling city

The ever growing city and its needs… The sealink

The last few months have been very interesting and exciting. Coming from a technology background and having worked with photography and filming, I’ve always felt that the line between different types of media has been fast diminishing. There are times when you want to freeze that moment and show a photograph to tell a story, other times you need the brilliance of motion and audio. There are also times when you feel you could have shown a panorama of the place to establish its beauty. Recently I had the opportunity to work with Microsoft Research Labs on their new platform which combines different types of media to create a whole new method of interactive story telling. Digital narratives is where the new technology “Rich Interactive Narratives (RIN)” is being showcased. I worked on stills, 360 degree panos, synths and video for the Hampi narrative, take a look at it and tell me how you liked it. The technology is very new and these are just some pilot projects, hopefully will be able to work on narratives for wildlife soon.

Also the new Nikon D7000 has been proving extremely good. Great image quality and amazing video. Been working on some new video projects with it which should be out soon.

Its been a lucky season. I’ve been fortunate in seeing and photographing young ones of a few key species found in India. The Joy of seeing a new generation of these animals in times which are hard for their survival has been an overwhelmingly emotional experience.

After a really long wait, I finally managed to be there at the right place at the right time to photograph the Baby King Cobras which had just hatched in a nest close to Agumbe.

I also made a short trip to Nagarhole where 2 leopard cubs abandoned in a sugarcane field close to the Nagarhole forest by the mother and have been rescued by the forest department.

The one question that came across my mind each time I saw them was “What’s their future?”

Not many times in life does one come across opportunities like this. Wildlife is full of surprises, and one rewarded and when least expected. Having spent almost 2 weeks in the summer in Kabini and having had no luck with photographing any cats though sighted a few, I didn’t expect I’d get to shoot much in the monsoons. But I was in for a pleasant surprise. I was to see two leopards!

So I did try be lazy and pushed the unavoidable but anyway here it is my new journal amoghavarsha.com/journal

I will still cross post to LJ until it works.

Also I haven’t put up any images lately though I’ve shot a ton. Here’s one for starters

In the summers, elephants spend a lot of time close to water. When we came to a waterhole expecting a tiger, we saw this guy playing without a care in the world. He was no farther than 200ft.

It was a cold august night in 2006 at the army base in Leh, and after biking for more than 4 days I was spending that time resting in my room. I was sharing my room with an army officer and every evening we would discuss quite a few things and he’d tell me quite a few tales. And this is one of the most important things he told me that night:
its preachy, beware!

My new ride, a 4X4 Safari dicor EX – mountain green. Been wanting this for a longtime for all my jungle travels, with 4 wheel drive and green color its just perfect for the forests. With 140bhp under the hood and a refined 2.2 ltr engine, its powerful and more fuel efficient. And ofcourse I’m not selling the zen

A sudden trip to Hampi, made it one of the most memorable ones. We drove to Daroji Bear Sanctuary in the evening and as the light started fading, we got out of the sanctuary. Sanath was driving the car and after a while he spotted the leopard on the edge of the road! It was wading through the empty fields, and what followed later will need a 4 page essay. In short we photographed this guy for a long long time, enough to run out of battery and memory card. I have close to a 100 shots of him in all sorts of positions, but here’s one for the start.

A lots been happening. For starters I’m no longer with asklaila. It has been a very hard decision to quit a company where I started from day 1 of the company. Well I’ve moved on to fulltime photography and filmmaking. I’m working part time with felis. Its a new exciting phase of life I’m moving on to, where most things are new.

My last few trips to the jungles have been mostly to the western ghats, and to Agumbe. Was with the filming crew of the Nat-geo King Cobra documentary with sandesh, also got to see the hatching of king cobra babies!!! Will post a pic or 2 on that later. A photo-expedition to Agumbe went really well. I couldn’t post the details as the seats were filled even before I sent out a mailer. I’m planning to do another one soon, and will keep you guys posted.

Haven’t had time to process photos but here is the Bush frog and the Beddome’s cat snake I photographed at Agumbe.

Very hectic schedules, have had very little time in the last couple of months. Building a career afresh in a new field can be very taxing.

My assignment with Club Mahindra took quite a bit of time, and its now over. Also conducted a photoworkshop last week. Couldn’t blog about it as even before I blogged, the seats got full. Will be conducting another one soon. Will keep you guys posted.

Loads of images from trips to Kerala, Rajasthan and Western ghats are to be processed. Will put it all up in the next 1-2 weeks