If you have observed any avian gallery for some time you will quickly see a pattern there – lots of images look beautiful at the first glance – scientifically very well executed – right exposure, head turn, nice perch, catch light, eye contact, eye level – *conforming* in general to *well accepted rules* of making image of birds. During initial few years of my avian photography I practiced this a lot. After some time I realized I need to find my own way of conveying how I see my subjects. This led me to experiementing with various compositional possibilities, use of light and shadows, use of habitat, use of “positive space” in the frame amoung other things. Not easy since it is not formula based, I may not be successful always and may end up in a typical BOS or its variation, but when I succeed it is a very satisfying. For me the image above is a typical bird-on-a-stick image without much originality while the below one is not (for my tastes). It is interesting to note though that differences between them are very subtle !!
You may want to click on above images to see them in their actual sizes. Blog’s resizing algorithm appears bad and hence some critical details are lost which are essential to relate the point I am trying to make here.
PS : I am out of station durning 25 Nov – 30 Nov and may not see my blog.
- Ganesh H Shankar (Nature Lyrics)
posted by ganesh at 1:52 pm
When I made this image I had to spend a few hours in planning, waiting for this Tailed Jay butterflies to show up on the flower and thinking about right shutter speed, background to use etc. Happy to know this is one of the winning entries in the 2007 National Wildlife Photo Contest.
- Ganesh H Shankar (Nature Lyrics)
posted by ganesh at 12:03 pm
Perspectives – Creative Visions of Nature is a new gallery at my home Nature Lyrics. I skimmed through a fairly large collection of my images and picked those images where an attempt at seeing things differently are evident – at least to me -:) Does that mean there is not much of “seeing” in rest of the large number of images in my galleries ? I would humbly accept so. Not confusing between originality and beauty I keep rest of the images for the latter reason in my galleries. I wish and hope to add more images to this gallery of creative visions in future.
posted by ganesh at 4:24 am
Rare Bird’s Year Book 2008 has been published recently which can be bought
here. Since I contributed a few images of Indian Vultures (subspecies of Long Billed Vulture) I got a complementary copy of the book. Initially I was happy to see a few of my images in the book but soon I realized what the book is all about – for me it symbolically stood as evidences for misdeeds in this world which pushed some of these beautiful creation of God towards extinction. I hope a book like this will atleast help create awareness amoung some people of this world towards conserving them. I only wish thickness of subsequent books decreases during years to come. Part of the proceeds of each book sold (4 pounds out of 19) will go towards conservation efforts. I encourage you to buy them ! I have ordered 5 more copies as a small token of my contribution towards this conservation effort..
- Ganesh H Shankar ( Nature Lyrics )
posted by ganesh at 10:22 am
“Ramanagara Rocks” – Yes, pun intended. Rocks of Ramanagar are very scenic. Every time I go there it offers me different “seeing” challenges. Long Billed Vultures roost and nest at “Ramadevara Betta” (Mountain of Rama). This is the best place to see these critically endangered vultures. I have seen about 7-9 of them at this place.
May their tribe increase…
Back to seeing, vutlure and its habitat offers some fantastic opportunities. Couple of images above are some attempts at seeing differently and also portraying its habitat. The below image of rock and the vulture was a non-trivial composition for me. While tracking the bird in the view finder, I found this arrangement very interesting.
**UPDATED on 11 Nov 07 ** Made this image below today at Ramanagar..
More images from the trip are at my home Nature Lyrics.
posted by ganesh at 1:02 pm
