A Personal Photo Album – Part 1

Photography has been one of my long standing hobbies and passions since I learnt its basics from my brother in the early sixties.  In those days the term meant, for all practical purposes, taking pictures in black and white with 35 mm or 120 mm roll film using a primitive, manually operated camera, developing the film laboriously in a dark room or black box and making prints out of it with an enlarger on photo paper, also in a dark room.  I had experimented with a variety of cameras ranging from an improvised box camera to a sophisticated and professional quality Graflex camera.  It was a far cry from the world of digital photography today when a photograph in glorious colour can be viewed within seconds of being shot and then transferred to a computer for editing, preserving and sharing in ways that would have been the stuff of science fiction.  I set up a studio as part of the Physics laboratories in my college and encouraged students to indulge in amateur photography through a photography club.  Colour photography soon became possible but was outside the realm of amateur photography and certainly not affordable.   I lost interest and dropped out of the hobby for a long time until the sensational advent of digital photography.  I have been back with a bang ever since and accumulated over ten thousand digital photos of my own, captured with 8-10 progressively more and more sophisticated digital cameras, including a Canon D-350 SLR with interchangeable lenses. My latest acquisition is a Panasonic Lumix DMC - FZ35 non-SLR camera which offers an amazing range of features and capabilities at a modest price.  An indication of how good it is can be seen in my blog post titled ‘Luna with a Lumix’.  

My photographic interests are largely confined to the broad categories of nature, architecture and children.  Adult humans rarely interest me.  I invariably carry a camera during my not inconsiderable travels and look for every opportunity to indulge in my hobby.  Here I present a very small and random sample of my photos that have tried to capture nature in its different facets, forms and locales, including its rightful inhabitants, and aided by human efforts in some cases.

The following four photos were all taken in the famous Karanji Nature Park in Mysore where I live.  The butterflies were captured inside the small but spectacular butterfly park forming part of the larger nature park.  The peacock was captured inside the aviary which is one of the largest of its kind anywhere.

[Note: All the photos can be blown up to their full size by just clicking on them.  Essential technical information about the picture can be obtained by opening it in any image viewer and looking up the properties of the picture]

The following two were taken inside the world famous Lal Bagh in Bangalore.  The tree is really a remarkable specimen of its kind.  The second photo represents the serene atmosphere of the place.

While visiting the Margod Falls in Uttara Karnataka district, I just happened to look up and see the Sun peeping through the trees.  It was a great photo opportunity.  The nearby Falls with its muddy waters is also presented.

Here are two photos of deer in their natural habitat.  The first one was captured at the Nagarhole forest in Karnataka state and the second one just last week at the Gir forest in Gujarat.

The following was captured at a well known resort in the outskirts of Mysore.  The human presence was unavoidable!

There is something mystical about this lonely tree captured at Hampi in north Karnataka against the backdrop of some of the famed ruins.

The following two photos were taken in two aquariums inside the busy, bustling departure terminal of Delhi airport.  How edifying!

Kerala state with its rich greenery and great coastal line is a photographer’s delight.  I sign off this post with two photos from my rich collection.  The first one is a view of the famous Kovalam beach and the second was captured at sunset time off the coast near Trichur.