India - Nation of villages ( Collection of photos) - Part I

India - Nation of villages ( Collection of photos)

This is first post of a photo-series I started posting recently - India : Nation of Villages. Its an attempt show case the people, life, culture, landscapes and infrastructure of Indian villages I was lucky to visit.

A villager driving his cattle flock - Vangani (Maharashtra)

श्रावण मास

श्रावण मास 

ढगात दडले गुढसे काही 
शोधीत वारा निघाला 
सप्तरंगाच्या कमानीखाली 
एक झंकार विसावला ! 

PhotoQuote: Flower feeds the soul !

Eclosion of a butterfly

Eclosion sequence of the Tailed Jay

Eclosion of a butterfly

Eclosion is first activity of butterfly relates pupa and adult butterfly, two stages of butterfly life cycle. It is emergence of butterfly out of the pupa and very important stage in the life of a butterfly. This is a fast and mind-blowing event to watch. Eclosion can take place any time in the day, from early morning to late night. 

Macro photography (Texture and pattern) at a brick making site

Macro photography (Texture and pattern) at a brick making site

These are some of the images of textures and patterns I have taken on a brick making site, near Vangani village.Captions are enough to explain the images. If required please post your questions in comment, I will happy to reply!

Note: Single click to view in full screen mode.

Bricks ready to go to market. Heat treatment cures and harden the bricks.

Pattern emerging from bricks kept for sun-drying.

PhotoQuote: Wings of butterfly kiss the sun

PhotoQuote: Wings of butterfly kiss the sun

Butterfly courtship and Mating

Mating pair of Common five-ring

Primary natural task / activity of any living species is reproduction to sustain. Butterflies are not different and one adult finds other suitable adult to mate. My observation says, the mating period is afternoon and late afternoon in a day. Sure shot chance of mating can be caught where the population of a particular species is higher. This place could be near to food plant. There are incidences reported when individuals from two different species seen mating. 

The process starts with courtship. Courtship means pursuing the female for mating, which may or may not be successful. In most cases female raises the abdomen to show her refusal. There is no any kind of show-off by male seen with butterfly  before mating as seen normally with birds and other mammals. If there are more than one male present then swirling up fight decides the winner who is mostly the strong one. During mating, male and female can be easily distinguished. One with larger abdomen and dull appearance is female. Males are usually fresh and good looking ones.

Chances of seeing a mating pair is more where there is food plant around or nectoring done in large quantity by same species or near-by mud-puddling site.

As the butterfly coming out of pupa (eclosion) is a full grown adult, its almost ready to mate. The female adult can mate immediately while male adult can take about an hour to mate. Sometime mating is observed when one of the partner is just emerged out of pupa. Otherwise, the male butterflies patrol the territory in a particular fashion with his scent scales out. Scent scales are used to attract the female. Such habit is common with crow butterfly.

Wandering destination - Vangani : part II

Wandering destination - Vangani : part II

Bridge that bridged the gap:

After leaving IIT campus it was the first occasion for me, leave Cotigao trip apart, to go out with a camera. It was such a long gap but thanks to my sister - Prachi and one younger colleague of mine - Suraj, that both wished to learn basics of photography from me. The bridge over the Ulhas river, connecting nearby villages to Vangani, literally bridged the gap. It was the first object for me to be shot. It was early morning and light was so perfect penetrating between the pillars of bridge, casting shadows to make horizontal patterns on water - perfect situation for making HDR images. Intuition - or should I say experience was so right that image popped out after post-processing has become one of my all time favorite. There is pattern, texture, light , perspective and depth - almost everything a perfect photo must have. I took one more photo from the other side  when Sun was bit high in the sky. This allowed me to have clear reflections of bridge pillars captured.

सहल

सहल 

आज या वाटेवर भेटली सहेली 

बहरीत फुलांची सहल चालली  !

उघड्या माळावर, तृण फुलांच्या साक्षीने 

धरीत्रीच्या मंदगतीने, छेडिली कुसुमावतीने. 

बहरीत फुलांची सहल चालली !

हात कटीवरी, गुंजन या गाली 

वारा साथ देई, स्पर्श मलमली. 

बहरीत फुलांची सहल चालली  !

नकोच तू पुसू काही एकले मी चोरुनी 

गात गीत रंगुनी, सुखावलो मनी. 

बहरीत फुलांची सहल चालली  !

Read my more poems here.

- Paresh Kale

Image: 'Sonaki' flowers at Kaas Plateau near Satara, Maharashtra

PhotoQuote: Every flower enjoys the air !

Wandering Destination - Vangani : Part I

The landscape:

A farmer driving his cattle flock

I never thought the college I am joining as professor, would be located in such a place which is well connected to Mumbai but still far from the urban developments. It has a local-railway station, national highway and an observatory too (not known to many). It has picturesque landscape with Sahyadri range on backdrops, a calmly flowing river with open-lands around it. Sahyadri range starts from Badlapur and then hosts some well-known tops such as Matheran, Malshej, Rajmachi. Monsoon months transforms the atmosphere to heaven - green lounges all over hosting small currents. Sahyadri, brownish-black in summer month, now  wares attractive greenish-blue shades. Temperature drops well below ten degree in post-monsoon season- all because of water bed and wide-spread grasslands. January ruins it all - green turns to yellow and yellow turn to brown.

विचार करून कंटाळलो !

विचार करून कंटाळलो !

              कधी कधी मी मराठी  असल्याची लाज वाटते. अर्थात हे वाक्य केवळ "मराठी" हा  शब्द बदलून अनेक बाबतीत वापरता येईल. तर मुळ मुद्दा मराठी असण्याचा. का ? आणी कधी वाटते बर लाज ? सुरेश भटांनी  लिहिलेल्या

" लाभले अम्हास भाग्य बोलतो मराठी
जाहलो खरेच धन्य ऐकतो मराठी
धर्म, पंथ, जात एक जाणतो मराठी
एवढया जगात माय मानतो मराठी"

या ओळींचा नायक असुनही माझ्यावर अशी वेळ यावी ? एखादा कट्टर (?) मराठी माणुस माझ्या मराठी असण्याबद्दल शंकाही घेईल. अस झालच तर हेच लाज असण्याची पहीलं कारण असेल. केवळ विरोधासाठी विरोध केल्यामुळ मन, आचार विचार , प्रगती आणि व्यासंग संकुचित होत जातो हे ज्यांच्या बरेचदा गावी नाही त्यातलाच एक मी आहे. 'आपला तो बाब्या, दुसऱ्याच ते कार्ट' या सूत्रावर ज्यांची अभिरुची ठरते त्याच जातीचा मी आहे. शिवाजी महाराजांचे गुण न घेता त्यांचं फक्त नाव वापरून धिंगाणा करायला उत्सुक गटात मी मोडतो. अर्थात हि सर्व वाक्यं व्यक्तीसापेक्ष आणी स्थळ सापेक्ष आहेत. भारतातल्या प्रत्येक राज्यात जिथे प्रादेशीक अस्मिता बिंबवली जातेय तिथे विचार साधर्म्य असणारे लोक पुष्कळ असतील याची कल्पना आहे. अशा लोकांना माझे काही प्रश्न :

Photographing Southern Birdwing - Largest butterfly in India

Photographing Southern Birdwing - Largest butterfly in India

Southern Birdwing male nectoring on pagoda flower.

Southern birdwing is the largest butterfly of India. Its botanical name is Troides minos.

Occurrence:
It is endemic to western ghat. It is reported from Mumbai to Travancore. However latest occurrence is confined to Konkan to South India. It is found up-to 3000 feet. 

Identification:
As it is endemic to western ghat, it is easy to ID. Wingspan is about 140 mm to 190 mm. Wings are larger than even some small birds and that's why its named after. Occurs in black and yellow combination. Male and female are distinct.Female has black spots on hind wing.

PhotoQuote: Let a hundred flowers bloom

PhotoQuote: Let a hundred flowers bloom

PhotoQuote: Chaos is all so beautiful !

दुरावा

 दुरावा 

या तरुतळी 
एकलीच मी. 
हात दे सख्या रे ,
घायाळ मी हरिणी. 

पाहते वाट तुझी
आज तरी येशील तु !
अवस्था गुढ माझी 
कानी शीळ देशील तु. 

विरले आभाळ सारे 
भिजवुनी सरला दिवस 
पाय घरा परतले 
रात्र पुन्हा एक अमावास. 


मोजीत तारे रात्र चालली 
चंद्रप्रकाशात रातराणी फुलली 
नाही मला काय त्याचे 
डोळ्यांनी रात जागली.  

आयुष्य असे क्षणभंगुर 
लावू दे तो भैरवीचा सूर 
मिटवून टाक अंतरे 
आज तरी ये बरे !

येशील स्वप्नात तू 
इतके मज ठाव आहे 
काय करू? अभागी नशीब आहे 
डोळ्यात मात्र जाग आहे !

Read my more poems here.                                                          
Image Source: http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/tenki/tenki1111/tenki111100001/11377695-girl-with-pink-frangipani-flower-sketch--vector-illustration.jpg

PhotoQuote: There is room for the gap !

PhotoQuote: There is room for the gap !

Top 14 reasons to blog

Top 14 reasons to blog

1. Share information: Whatever one writes on services provided by Blogger or WordPress etc. makes it a blog article. It may be about travel, poetry, article  photo, virtually any text or visual form. Necessarily information is always shared which may be useful to somebody somewhere in the world.
2. Share knowledge: Information helps learning and learning deeply adds to Knowledge. Some smart tricks and tips may be shared over the blog, which may speed-up others progress.

Mexican Prickly Poppy (Argemone mexicana)

Mexican Prickly Poppy (Argemone mexicana)

Mexican Prickly Poppy is an introduced flower in India [1]. Its almost seen in every wasteland and cant be missed because of some features like: catchy yellow color, bottle-green colored leaves with spines. Another reason being its all year flowering season. In konkan like areas where flowers blooming in dry season are pretty low. 

Two photos presented here are shot at Vangani. I have seen this flower at Matheran, at height of about 1000 m. Its Marathi name is Firangi dhotra. My speculation that like other 'dhotra' plants this must also be toxic, and in fact it is. Its also a medical plant used for curing Malaria in Mali [2].

The Sanskrit name svarnakshiri is given because of the yellow juice (Svarna - Gold; Kshiri - Juice ) [1]. 

PhotoQuote: A contemplation upon flowers by Henry King

PhotoQuote: Smooth roads never make good drivers !

PhotoQuote

Torch Ginger

Torch Ginger

On the last day of one of Cotigao trip, we all (Me, Deepak, Rajas Deshpande, Priti patel and Blaise) were searching for a butterfly mud puddling spot on the way from Cotigao to Netravalli. 

We stopped at a place to inquire tot he people about any such spot. Luckily we were near to one nursery, where some unseen plant was planted. I took so many photos, as it was indeed something spectacular. When returned home, I found it was indeed the plant was lesser known to many people - Torch Ginger.

11 Essential things to do when starting a new blog

11 Essential things to do when starting a new blog

• Remember 'Quality Content' win the race of best blog. Other measures may be good for start, quality is for long race.
• Read more and more related to blog design, enrichment of content, tools for blog development. You can always borrow good elements from other blog such as : subject, how-to do stuff etc. 
• Choose the name of the blog wisely. It should reflect the creativity and information about the blog simultaneously. Instead of repeating common names and tags, try to be creative. Name of the blog is the brand name. 
• Draft at-least 25 good main articles and schedule it spread over next 2 month. Draft 50 filler articles and schedule it in between the main articles. Filler article can be top lists, favorites, to-do things, quotes, photos etc. After one or two months start promoting your blog.
• Start 2 or 3 blogs simultaneously, one of them must be your main blog. For example: Main blog may include your strong, important articles including photographs etc where as your supportive blog may include just the photographs. Interlink the three blogs by cross posting, references and support links. 
• Consistency is another key : Always keep on correcting, updating, interlinking your blog. 
• Start inter linking the blog posts. Plan main article first and then start supporting articles, it makes linking easy. 
• Register your blog on various blog directories (indiblogger, marathiblog), blog promoting sites (stumbleupon, pin-interest), search engines (Google, yahoo). Post at least one article daily to increase your rank. 
• Don't worry about stats initially. Concentrate on blog design and quality of articles. Here quantity follows quality. Add good tools such as popular articles, related post, RSS feed, followers, social plugins to keep reader engaged. Don't add too much and make chaos. 
• Labels and key-words are important for search related issues. Add most suitable labels to widen the abilities for articles to get searched. 
• Create FB page, Google + page and arrange for automatic posting of your blog article on it. This will help to create viewership and increase traffic. 

PhotoQuote: Our dreams must be stronger

PhotoQuote: Our dreams must be stronger

Top 11 must watch videos on TED

Top 11 must watch videos on TED

Here is the list of 11 great lectures I watched recently on TED and thought sharing with you. Of course there are many more yet to be watched. I will share best of them too! Right now these 'oceans 11' for you - the title of individual is self explanatory. 

PhotoQuote: Miracle of light !

PhotoQuote: Miracle of light !

PhotoQuote: Play black and white notes together

Posters which makes you think

Posters which makes you think:

" A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. - Wikipedia "

Posters can be used for many purposes. The famous ones are films and advertise. However, posters can play vital role in various campaigns such as literacy, family planning etc.

The simplicity, eye-catching elements and slogan (mostly rhythmic) are few characteristics of a good poster. These basics are not that applicable for technical posters, where it is used to explain the concept to maximum extent by adding tons of data and analysis. 

Logos of photography company explained

In my earlier post about 'Logos - what they hide?' - I have explained the essentials of logo design with plenty of examples. As I am more interested photography, here are some of the logos related to it, explained as I understood them.

It also features sequential white rays which depict the future and express Nikon’s mission to move forward and meet customers’ expectations.

PhotoQuote: The clearest way to universe

PhotoQuote

KISS principle and minimalism explained

Windows - @ Jaipur

KISS stands for 'keep it straight and simple'. One of the objective of photography is to convey the ideas in simplest manner possible. Keep the chaos and clutter at minimal. Such technique is called as minimalism. The usual rules of photo composition are applied. 

My click is nominated in top 25 clicks

This is a great opportunity for me to win best likes in this festival. 
Juries has given certain points to my click regarding photography rules.
Now I have to increase click's like in face book with the help face book user friends as well as followers.

My click is nominated in top 25 clicks of 
CLICK ONLINE PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL 2013. 

 I request to you all to click link is as follows...

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=390828011024998&set=a.390827517691714.1073741825.269023593205441&type=3&theater

In period of 1 April to 15 April, participant has to get highest likes on their CLICKS.
Jury's points + maximum likes = total points i.e. will decide winners.

Share maximum…. like maximum…. Enjoy!

PhotoQuote: Sunlight is painting.

PhotoQuote: Sunlight is painting.