Hampi is well known for its heritage sites and the ruins of Vijayanagar Kingdom. But very few people go past these structures to discover the riches of Hampi. When we announced ‘Darter Many Worlds of Hampi’ Photography Tour, one of the intents was to introduce the facets of Hampi that is relatively less known to travelers. One such face of Hampi is its precious wildlife. In the two tours that we did to Hampi, we managed to capture a variety of birds – some commonly found and some very endemic to Hampi and not easily seen in other places. Here is a compilation of images of birds that I captured in Hampi during my visits in the months of January and February. Coming up in next post is images of heritage sites of Hampi.
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Many Worlds of Hampi is a photography tour from Darter Photography Tours, a venture created by me and wildlife photographer Shreeram MV. We recently concluded two highly successful tours to Hampi. Our upcoming tours and workshop include
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Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark
Black Redstart
Common Sandpiper
Indian Robin
Little Cormorant
Painted Sandgrouse – female
Painted Sandgrouse – Male
Rufous Tailed Lark
Sirkeer Malkoha
White Browed Bulbul
Grey Francolin
Plain Prinia
Peahen
Coming up next: Heritage sites of Hampi.
Prints of the image available. Request for prints
The Monastery at Thiksey is one of the places that I much like in Ladakh. Naturally I was excited when I got to know that I will be able to make another visit to the monastery during my trip to Ladakh last month.
The place was much different last month and looked desolate, unlike my earlier visit in summer time when it was buzzing with tourists. It is a large monastery with more than hundred resident monks, but it was so empty this time that I saw no one except a monk who showed us around. There was some change in the landscape too. The arid and brown mountains around Thiksey were dressed in fresh snow. The Indus Valley, which is one of the greenest places in Ladakh during summer months, had lost its colours to an expanse of white. Some images from visit to Thiksey last month.
Also read my two-part travelogue on Thiksey from the earlier visit.
The dramatic setting of Thiksey Monastery
The monastery complex is often compared with Potala Palace in Lhasa
Chortens and Prayer Flags (?).
Chortens, monastery, super-blue skies and a bright sun.
The two-storey high Maitreya Buddha statue at the monastery.
Prints of all the images available. Request for prints
In the last few years, I have been increasingly focusing on photographing landscapes. Although I work on multiple genres of photography which includes a wide range commercial work, interiors and architecture, travel and people, heritage sites and monuments, if I still have to pick one area that fascinates me it has to be landscapes. Even when I go to places that are not exactly known for beautiful landscapes, I always keep an eye on possibility of creating landscape images. I keep looking out for landscape photography opportunities where it may not be obvious and often spend a lot of time moving around the place, walking long distances.
Fortunately or unfortunately, photographing landscapes is not easy (not that photographing anything else well is a simple task). It is complicated by the fact that the quality of light wears down rapidly soon after sunrise or sunset. The window available to landscape photographers is usually a small half-an-hour in the morning and an equal amount of time in the evening. The nature of landscape photography also requires the photographer to carry heavier than usual equipment (read: sturdy tripod) wherever he goes. But it is human tendency to run behind challenges and I am no exception. My baggage weighs more than ten kilos no matter where I go. Sometimes I have come back from short trips without ever getting a chance to use the tripod, but I still make it a point to carry it even if I go back to the same place again. The effort has been rewarding at times and fruitless sometimes, but I make sure never to stop looking for opportunities. Here is a quick collection of some landscape images I have photographed so far this year. And my hope is to make 2011 a year of making many landscape images. I hope you like the images below. Your comments are welcome.
Also visit the collection of landscapes, nature and wildlife images on paintedstork facebook page.
I made two visits to Hampi this year, one in January and another one a week ago. I spent time shooting landscapes in the first visit, while I focused on photographing architecture and birds in the second. Here are some images of the boulder-strewn landscapes Hampi.
Soon after my first visit to Hampi, I spent two weeks walking on the frozen Zanskar River in Ladakh. It was an amazing experience walking sandwiched amidst the mountains, walking along the narrow gorges formed by the river. Being at the bottom of the valley most of the time, it was a tricky situation for photographing landscapes since we did not have the vistas typical of a viewpoint atop a mountain. But the brilliant blue river and some frozen waterfalls made up for the absence of views.
Prints of all the images available. Request for prints