Amoghavarsha's Journal » Travel

Mumbai street photography on a mobile phone

amogh — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:58:16 +0000

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

Experiments with technology and media

amogh — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:06:20 +0000

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.

What’s their future?

amogh — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:11:47 +0000

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?”

King Cobra babies are about 30cms when born and do have venom glands from birth. They are usually born during the monsoon months of august/september in the wild western ghats. The forests of Agumbe are one among the last habitats left for them.

The Agumbe Rainforest Research Station headed by Gowrishankar has been key in protecting and safeguarding the nests of the King Cobra. Gowri’s team has been monitoring nests and making sure no human activity disturbs them. In this photograph you can see the barricade they’ve built to make sure the nest is safe. You can see Gowri removing the hatchlings from the nest so that they are safely released. The King Cobra is the only snake in the world to build a nest and she abandons the nest before the eggs hatch.

Survival rate of the hatchlings is quite low given factors such as natural predators and availability of food, adding an element of human disturbance and intrusion will only make their survival so much more difficult.

The leopard cubs which were rescued from the sugarcane field have another story to tell. The villagers say the mother leopard had 4 cubs and while escaping on seeing the villagers, it abandoned 2 cubs in the field (probably in a state of confusion). Animals don’t like to get out of the forest, but we are not leaving them much of a choice by encroaching what little forests they have. The mother of the cubs might have wandered into the fields in search of food or in search of space and territory. The mother and the cubs are lucky to have escaped unharmed, but that’s not the case always. You can read Kalyan‘s blog about other incidences involving leopard-human conflict here and here

The Leopard cubs have been fortunately saved, but the question that poses a bigger problem is whether to release them in the wild or raise them in captivity. The answer is not simple. Since the cubs haven’t learnt the way of the wild from their mother and survival on their own might be difficult, releasing them in the wild might not be a feasible option and raising them in captivity might be the only option.

While as uncertain as their futures might look, there are still green warriors protecting them, be it Gowri’s team or the forest department. While its not possible for everyone to go out into the field and save them, being aware of the situation and making others around aware is certainly a big step.

Leopard tales

amogh — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:24:59 +0000

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!

It was the morning safari and after a good session with a pack of 12 wild dogs marching along the safari jeeps for a good 3kms on the main road, we entered the forest track. We stopped when we heard loud alarm calls, we knew we were really close to the cat. We went ahead a little more and took a left cut on the track. When we were all looking into the thicket, Jeevan the naturalist pointed at the leopard running in front of us on the track and only few of us saw it. Then we went further and then we saw the guy hiding in the bushes on the left, given the undergrowth is high after the rains, it was hard to spot anything.

Then the driver said “another leopard!” and I didn’t see it then because I was busy shooting. But when I came and saw the pictures, yes there was another leopard lurking in the back!

After that we did see the second leopard trailing the first one through out but in the thicket. We also figured that the one in the front was male and the other female. Then the male decided to dash on to the road

Then he waited on the road for a while, hoping that the female would join

When she didn’t turn up, he gave up and sat posing on the slight open patch next to the road and that’s when I got the portrait shots

Then we saw the female walk behind him and ofcourse he faithfully followed and we lost track of both

Light was low because the sun wasn’t around and photography was hard, but I enjoyed every bit of it! Also this time I got very close shots of wild dogs, will post soon…

A new journal

amogh — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:01:55 +0000

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.

The Band theory

amogh — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:11:00 +0000

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:

“I was serving in Kargil as my first posting, and that was when the kargil war broke. The times were hard and everything was a struggle, there were times when we had so much ammunition to carry that we had no space to carry water and we used to use the gunpowder box to heat some ice in it and wait till the ammunition particles settle down and then drink. I lost many friends in the war, I’ve seen death just next to me several times and when you see death so close, you lose fear of death. Losing fear of death also means losing emotions and after the war I wouldn’t emote for the next 6 years. Then came a time in life where I had to get married. And the girl was a friend for a long time and I wasn’t too sure if I’d do justice. But then since she understood me too well, we decided to get married and she over time helped me get back all those emotions. We are expecting a baby in a week and now I’m all excited about it, I’ve learnt the joy of life, family and now everything else is secondary. There’s a very beautiful theory called the “Band theory”, which I apply to my life all the time and live by. It goes something like this – Everyone is born in a certain band, a certain band in economic conditions, social conditions, emotional, career etc. We as individuals should take every aspect of our life to the next band and then you can say your life is successful. Let me explain what a band is, let’s say your father earns just enough to feed the house, that’s your economic band and to take it to the next level means to be able to do more than just feed. And this applies to everything, be it social, emotional, cultural or personality bands. Some people get too involved in one band and take it quite far and neglect the rest, like someone who’s very career focused will probably excel and increase a few bands in career while actually dropping a few bands in other aspects, may be cultural, social etc.”

What he told me then, about 3 years back is suddenly making a lot of sense. In the last 4 years of my life I’ve focused quite a bit on my career and my development as a successful individual. All through overlooking some finer aspects of life, and self-development is one of them. When I say self-development I mean development as a personality, giving importance to growing as a human, understanding the importance of being a better human being. The last few weeks of my life has been a path to many self-discoveries, as I went low on my career for a bit and focussed on other aspects of life and it has helped me to a great extent as I realize what is that I’ve missed so far. And each time I look at people who are really happy, I realize it’s this balance between all the bands of life that’s making them happy, not just career or not just personality. Well I am on this path, are you?

Welcome Maximus

amogh — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:05:00 +0000

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

Ghost of darkness

amogh — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 04:48:00 +0000

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.

Life update

amogh — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:26:00 +0000

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.

Life’s been happening

amogh — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:14:00 +0000

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