Land of Trumpet, Roar, and Song: Wanderings in Wild India: Coorg Diary: I

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Coorg Diary: I

I have not posted here for awhile, but I have an honourable reason, I have been out photographing birds. The 500mm IS lens makes this possible, and after my leopard, I thought I should turn towards new challenges. In the past, only water birds had been within decent range. Now, weather permitting, I try to get out every morning, at least to Hebbal.

First there was Kyathadevargudi, then several trips to Hebbal and Tippegundannahalli, and then a trip to Coorg. I shall post the other pictures later, but here are some images from the Coorg trip.

I still continue to be unrepentant and use the longest possible lens which I have. I started this with my Spoonbills: Up Close and Personal and continue it with this new series. My intention is to give the viewer an intimate glimpse of the lives of the birds I photograph. In every instance, the bird was unaware that I was present, often very close to it, and the behaviour was completely unselfconscious. The effect of peering though the foliage to glimpse the bird, to my mind, adds to the mystique of the private lives of birds.

Whilst camouflage did help me get closer to Coorg birds, I faced dreary weather, high ISO settings and high noise, and produced a lot on unusable images. My success rate was very low, but I shall be going back armed with a plethora of blinds and hides.

My favourites here are the bulbul images, the flowerpecker images, and the image of the chloropsis. The last was completely serendipitous, I was photographing sunbirds on garden flowers when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed bird activity at the top of a tree some distance away. It was the chloropsis and I was able to manage several decent shots of it.

More Coorg pics as I process them tomorrow.