—Categories: darter

Random musings – posts on this blog, travel plans, photography tours, etc

travelHere is a general update again, I think after a couple of months. We still have three months for the year to end, but I am already beginning to feel that 2012 is here. It is probably because I have my sights set and calendar blocked as far as February 2012. Nearly every week of mine from late October to third week of Feb 2012 already has some activity planned and some travelling scheduled. It is good to be busy, especially when you are busy having a good time.

You might have noticed that the recent posts here are mostly about our photography tours coming up in future. It is largely because I have been terribly busy designing, planning and putting up tours in the last few weeks and have little time to post anything else. Since winter—the only true travel season in India—is about to begin, we at Darter have been working out a variety of wildlife, culture and nature tours across India. On the calendar are tours to the diverse places in Hampi, Goan wildlife, splendours of Rajasthan, birds and mammals of Kutch, the cultural riches of Varanasi and a lot more. You will be seeing a few more tour updates here, before regular posting of travelogues and images begins in a week or so.

I will be leading some of our photography tours, a few that are already announced and a few more on the drawing board. Below are my destinations for this winter.

  1. Hampi (November – 3 days)
  2. Rajasthan (November end – 10 days)
  3. Varanasi (December end)

There are a few more coming up besides these, which I will be posting as we work on them. Besides the above tours, I am also planning a personal trip to Himachal and am leading a private group of photographers on a long two-week trip to Kerala. These are journeys I am looking forward to.

Here is a full listing of our tours in the winter. Do come and join us on any of these. Our tours are photography-centric, but photographers or otherwise, people who have joined our tours have almost always gone back carrying beautiful images, great memories and having made some good friends. And since we go in small groups of 10-12, we get plenty of time to talk to each other, interact well and spend a lot of time discussing photography with the tour lead. I really look forward to meeting a lot of readers of this blog this winter season in our tours.

Happy Travels!

—Categories: darter, rajasthan

Photography Tour to Rajasthan – Dunes and Forts

Forts and walls that go on as far as the ridges of the hills that contain them, red sun setting over orange sand dunes, slippery grains of sand slipping through the feet, starry nights in the middle of the desert whose silence is occasionally interrupted by the camel’s bells, orange turbaned men playing flute and traditional ravan hatha, making the little dolls dance to the tune of soulful music, children dancing to the voices of old men wearing colourful clothes, women in red robes and long skirts walking gracefully with a pot of water leaving behind the sonorous sounds of anklets, temples painted with playful acts of young Lord Krishna and palaces where opulence can’t be bettered. That’s just a few glimpses of what Rajasthan has to offer us, and what we are going to see and photograph. Our photography tour of Rajasthan will leave you lingering for more, and the pictures we bring back will ensure that the memories will never fade.

Dates

rajasthan photography tour rajasthan photography tour rajasthan photography tour
rajasthan photography tour rajasthan photography tour rajasthan photography tour

To see full details of the tour and to register, visit Photography Tour to Rajasthan.

—Categories: darter

Hampi Photography Tour – Many Worlds of Hampi

Come November, temperatures in the hot plains of Northern Karnataka begin to dip and the faraway winter sun casts an orange glow on the boulders and heritage sites in the ancient city of Hampi. Darter Photography, our venture in photography centric journeys, takes you to the incredibly photogenic and versatile expanse of this city by the river that was once the capital of the most powerful rulers of South India.

hampi hampi hampi
hampi hampi hampi

Many Worlds of Hampi – An Outdoor Photography Tour
November 5, 6 and 7

Few places can offer a photographer such an amazing choice of subjects, irrespective of his/her area of interest and degree of expertize. In Hampi, a landscape photographer is greeted with, what a guidebook calls “arguably one of the most beautiful sunrises in the world” and perhaps the most colourful sunset one can ever see in this part of the world. The travel photographer, inclined towards heritage sites and street life, will have enough work for his camera that can keep him/her busy for weeks together. A wildlife and nature photographer will be equally amused, with a range of bird life unusually rich and diverse for a region this arid, and a wildlife sanctuary teeming with sloth bears.

See full details of the tour and registration information – Hampi Photography Tour.