Recently I had a great excuse to take a road-trip to Corbett Tiger Reserve in Northern India – a place I had always wanted to visit. In a quick chain of events, vehicles, safaris and accommodations were arranged for the weekend (thanks Chinmay) – and after a six hour car journey from Delhi I arrived. It was hot, still and dusty. I had arrived in Ramnagar – the main tourist entry point in to Corbett from the south side. It was already 4PM and I was dying to get inside and leave the bustling, dusty, hot city of Ramnagar behind. No sooner had we started towards the entry gate 18 Kms away, that the weather began to change. From still and hot it became cloudy and breezy. Then a few minutes later, the clouds burst. Large raindrops followed by even larger, marble-sized hailstones came pelting down on to the gypsy. I struggled to secure camera and laptop bags while Anwarda, our wonderful guide/driver navigated the road in the storm. The tarp was leaking, and there was no sign of the rain or hailstones stopping any time soon. I pulled out a rain Poncho and covered all the gear while I pondered my rocky welcome to Corbett.

For most folks in the field of natural history the name Corbett needs no introduction – for others just getting interested in the outdoors, Corbett’s books should be on the must-read list.
So who is Corbett? Wiki says – “Jim Corbett was a hunter, conservationist and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India.
His success in slaying the man-eaters earned him much respect and fame amongst the people residing in the villages of Kumaon, many of whom considered him a sadhu (saint).
Corbett was an avid photographer and after his retirement, authored the Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore and other books recounting his hunts and experiences, which enjoyed much critical acclaim and commercial success. Corbett spoke out for the need to protect India’s wildlife from extermination. The Jim Corbett National Park in Kumaon was named in his honour in 1957.”

Ten minutes into the park, a tiger crossed the road and walked down towards the storm filled nallah, or sots as they call it here. A few quick shots of the tigers back side was all i could manage. Time was running short and we had to reach our first night halt point at Ghairal. I’m glad we were running late. Just as we were getting close to camp, a magical sunset, embedded with lightning and thunder was a welcome ending to an otherwise stormy beginning.

The lovely stormy weekend brought out some incredible sunsets and sunrises over an amazing landscape.

On the second day I was joined by Priya Singh a Senior Researcher at the Wildlife Institute of India. Together we managed to bore the living daylights out of Anwarda by spending altogether too much time on creatures like, Brown Fish Owls, Tawny Fish Owls, River Lapwings etc.
Now cutting a long story short – we saw lots of cool creatures, Otters, Gharials, Crocs, Monitor lizards, Dollarbirds etc. etc. One afternoon was spent on a tower close to Dhikhala – fantastic spot to see dollarbirds and shy barking deer but little else. So after two nights in Dhikhala we moved to the Bijrani range the third day. Anwar was hell bent on showing us a tiger and took the help of one of the guides in Bijrani. In fifteen minutes we were parked on a high bank by a tiger peacefully sleeping along a deep nallah by the road. In this image the tiger looks as if he’s snarling at us baring his long canines, but in fact this is the last frame of a bored, long yawn as it occasionally glanced up at the ever-growing number of tourist vehicles that lined up to watch the resting tiger.

After a couple of hours we left unable to deal with the burgeoning crowd. We took a spin around the park and an hour later came back to the same spot. The tiger had been roused from his sleep and had left. As we listened intently for any signs of movement we heard a movement in the leaf litter – Priya quickly spotted the mid-body of a King Cobra – the longest venomous snake in the world! The king moved gently across the ground rustling tinder dry leaves under the weight of it’s ten-foot body. A daytime hunter, this snake was out foraging – looking for its next serpentine meal. That was excitement indeed! Coming across a King cobra while watching out for a tiger!

The next day we made a trip back to the same spot, and this time spotted the King cobra swimming along the stream back and forth foraging actively at around ten in the morning. After about fifteen minutes of swimming, it came and inspected the exact spot where the tiger slept the previous day. Hood raised and body sprawled across the rock, the king offered a majestic pose, although slightly obscured by a dead tree-trunk.

All in all, a fantastic four days spent in one of India’s most spectacular wildernesses

I picked a seat on the right-hand side of the flight. It was 3 in the afternoon and I was flying from Guwahati to Bagdogra – a short 45 min flight. Looking outside my window was the spectacular snow-capped mountain range of the Himalaya. From this aerial vantage point, not only could I see the flat floodplain of Assam, but I could look over ranges and ranges of foothills, all the way into the mountain kingdom of Bhutan where mysterious snow-capped peaks lay untouched by humans for millennia. I wondered what the name of the grand peak may be, and waited for the pilot to announce something… ten minutes later, the pilot announced from the cockpit – it was time to fasten our seat-belts in preparation for landing. We landed in Bagdogra ten minutes ahead of schedule. That was fine by me, I was eager to get into Bhutan!

An aerial view of the floodplains of Assam to the snow-capped peaks of Bhutan

I was in Bhutan to present my work along with other members in the region who had received grants from The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (www.cepf.net) – a fund that was established to help foster awareness of critical conservation issues and gather further knowledge of flora and fauna in the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot. I’ve been working here since early 2009 developing a coffee-table book very similar to the Western Ghats book, that was completed a few years prior. It was now that the grant was coming to an end and time to present our findings to the committee, guests and hosts from around the world. I’m very glad that Paro, Bhutan was chosen as a venue. I only need the slightest excuse to head to this beautiful country.

Soon after the workshops, presentations, dinners, drinks, dances, meetings etc. I joined a group of delegates from www.atree.org and other organisations up to Takstang Monastery – Tiger’s Nest. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to get here and is not a terribly difficult hike. It’s a good warm up hike to get you used to the elevation and get your muscles back into shape. I had been here a year before and had photographs of the monks to return to them. Upon reaching the Machi phu Monastery a little further and away from the main Takstang monastery and seeing that my beloved monk friend was not there, I left the pictures under the door to his house. Hope he gets a good surprise on his return.

Takstang or Tiger's Nest Monastery near Paro

Later we headed to Thimpu after a delicious lunch of momo’s and beer at a local restaurant in Paro. The next day I was to head back to India. I had hardly done any birding or photography other than conference stuff. So it was disappointing to have to head back so early after coming out so far. There were still many things for me to cover from the Bhutan region, especially the birds!
To my pleasant surprise the next day I found out that it’s not necessary for me to head back, as some meetings had been cancelled. In the last minute thanks hugely to Chopel at WWF, Bhutan, my permits and vehicle (a Toyota Hi-lux) were organized to travel for the next week across the country to the key birding hotspots. It was a Friday, and we headed straight to Punakha to see the White-bellied Heron, a critically endangered bird. So endangered that Rebecca Pradhan at RSPN is planning a project to hand-feed young ones to maturity in a captive facility. On our way there we stopped at DochuLa, just outside Thimpu and spent time with Rebecca and Tshewang. They told us where the birds are most likely going to be the next day and offered other tips and advice as to where to go to see some other specialties.

To cut a long story short, as I am now in Guwahati and need to head to Kaziranga, we did manage to see a good fifty plus species of birds. A very humble list for a bird hotspot like Bhutan that harbours nearly 700 species of birds! But the important thing was that I was able to photograph and spend time with some of the key birds – like the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in Phobjikha, the White-bellied Heron (Ardea insignis) in Punakha, the blood-pheasants (Ithaginis cruentus) in Trumshingla and a bird I had always wanted to see – the Ibisbill (Ibidorhyncha struthersii).

A covey of blood pheasants along the road at TrumshingLa

I will probably expand on this blog post a little later and fill in the details of locations and birds. It’s most likely never to happen, but a bit of wishful thinking never hurts.
I’d like to thank the various individuals and organizations that helped make this trip happen, especially Chopel, Kinsang, Jigme at http://www.wwfbhutan.org.bt/, and Rebecca Pradhan, Tshewang at http://www.rspnbhutan.org/ and Suman and Samuel Thomas at www.atree.org. I would also like to thank Pema Dorji, who patiently drove me across many mountain miles with care and precision. He also knew where to find the birds, which helped greatly! Oh, and I almost forgot, we spotted leopard cats twice on the road to Trumshingla – once on the way there, and once on the way back – both times under the cover of darkness!

A lady along Dochu La - happy to have her picture back

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive by email or Facebook is, “How do I become a Wildlife Photographer?”, “How do I become a documentary filmmaker?”. I’m not sure I can answer that question or am even qualified enough to answer the question in the direct manner in which it’s been asked. That’s probably because there is no direct path to getting there. One thing for sure is that, whatever the path, it’s up to the individual and their dogged persistence combined with undying passion that will get them through the bumpy, muddy, arduous jungle road that is the path towards becoming a wildlife photographer or filmmaker.

But what I can do is point towards two premier events that can help fuel the passion and perhaps even jump-start one’s career. The first is – Wildscreen – the Mecca for Wildlife Filmmakers. Every two years filmmakers from around the world gather at this Gala event to celebrate and applaud the very best in filmmaking, exchange ideas and pitch stories. Attending this festival, as a volunteer or a newcomer, must be top on your list of priorities if you’d like to be associated with Wildlife Filmmaking in any manner!

So what is it that you can possibly expect to get out of attending the festival:

* the opportunity to network with individuals from every corner of the industry
* pitching opportunities in a crucial marketplace, where films are bought and sold, and where new commissions and contracts are awarded
* inspirational, and sometimes controversial, discussion panels
* in depth filmmaker masterclasses and a unique programme of training workshops
* access to hundreds of the world’s best wildlife and environmental films from the past two years

The other major Photography event is – Wildphotos – a Nature Photgraphy Symposium that brings together people from around the world to talk about new technology, innovative ideas and share their experiences as wildlife photographers. I’ve been to a couple of them in the past and it’s simply inspiring to listen to talks and mingle with like-minded Nature Photographers. This year I’ll be giving a talk about ‘The documentary power of mixing stills and video‘ – which also goes into the new breed of Canon HD-DSLR cameras that i’ve been using to shoot documentaries.

Another very important step is to buy a copy of the book by Piers Warren titled: Careers in Wildlife Filmmaking. This book is a fabulous resource that is packed with advice to aspiring filmmakers who want to get a toehold in the industry. I just found this book available at www.flipkart.com for Rs. 800.

Soon after the launch of the Western Ghats book an idea was born to produce a similar book about the Rio Grande Valley. This region, stretching from Falcon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most bio-diverse parts of the United States, yet little is known or written about. When we first conceptualized the book, we realised that it would have to be bilingual – as the book covers topics that stretch across both sides of the river. The next challenge was to get someone on board to take on the challenge of documenting not only the biodiversity but also the many human elements that make up the landscape … enter – Seth Patterson – A talented young photographer with a passion for natural history. Over the subsequent two years Seth worked hard at capturing the images that were necessary to tell the story of the Rio Grande. The full story though wouldn’t be complete without touching on the history of the people who came to inhabit the region and shaped the land that we see today… enter – Lawrence Lof – President of the Gorgas Science Foundation and an ardent historian interested in all things cultural. This combination along with inputs from many contributing authors has now resulted in: El Valle – The Rio Grande Delta,  a 284 page English / Spanish coffee table book of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

A first of its kind, El Valle takes the reader on a visual journey through the Valley, from Falcon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico, exploring the rich biodiversity and cultural legacy that has taken root along the banks of the Rio Grande.

If you would like to learn more about the book, scroll through a few pages and learn about the authors who contributed to the book click here: http://riograndebook.com/

The book is all set to be launched on September 18th 2010 – 7 PM at the Historic Alonso Building in Brownsville, Texas. Please do attend if you are in the area and meet the authors!

Congratulations to my good friend and colleague Seth Patterson for a highly commendable job in compiling the entire book and my best wishes to Lawrence Lof and the whole team at the Gorgas Science Foundation who some how or the other raise the resources to make sure that such projects come to life. I am glad to be a small part of it!

A few months back I posted a short video clip with the introduction to North-eastern Diaries. I’m pleased and excited to announce that the first chapter titled: Kaziranga – Land of the Rhino and the Tiger has been nominated for a Green Oscar Panda Award at the Wildscreen Film Festival which happens once every two years in Bristol, UK.

The Wildscreen Festival is internationally acknowledged as the most influential and prestigious event of its kind in the world. Its aim is to celebrate, applaud and encourage excellence, and responsibility, in wildlife and environmental filmmaking – films which increase the global viewing public’s understanding of the natural world, and the need to conserve it.

The short documentary is about 20 minutes in duration and captures unique aspects of tiger behaviour. At the same time that this documentary was completed, it was announced that Kaziranga supports the highest density of tigers in the world – nearly 32 tigers for every 100 sq. kms. But this doesn’t mean that seeing a tiger here is easy! The dense grassland combined with the secretive habits so inherent of tigers, makes them nearly invisible.  With the use of camera-trap technology and patient waiting in the hide I was able to document first-hand not one, but several different tigers coming to feed on a rhino carcass. Here’s a short video compilation of my days sitting in a hide and being a spy in the jungle…

The Team: Working on documentaries usually involves a small crew of people in the field and another group of people sitting and working in the studio, editing the rushes. In this case, we had what’s called a micro-crew, which involved mostly Chinmay Rane, Lahaan the forest gaurd and I working in the field to get the shots during the day, and spending the night editing the footage. It was no doubt a difficult process, but the rewards have been more than satisfactory.

The Equipment: Another unique aspect of this particular documentary is that it was all shot on the new breed of HD-DSLR Cameras. The cameras I used on this project include the: Canon 5DMarkII, the Canon 1DMarkIV,  Canon T2i, Canon 450D and the tiny but excellent, GoProHD Cam. More information and reviews about these cameras can be found in their respective linked pages on Amazon.  We did use a Sony Z1 camera for one of the sequences that was shot late last year, but that only comprises a flashback sequence about 2mins in duration.

The advantage of using this equipment, apart from the fact that they’re smaller, more versatile, and higher quality than my High-Definition Panasonic AJ-HDX900 camcorder is that they allow me to film late into the evening, when even with my naked eyes, I can’t see what’s going on. The Canon 1DMarkIV allows you to film with reasonably little noise even up to 12000 ISO. I mean the camera does allow you to go upto a 100,000 ISO, but in the tests I made, the results were best when kept within the limits. Okay, before I digress and go on about equipment, I best stop and save that for a different post.

Other Panda Award Nominations from India:

In the same catogegory as mine, which is Wildscreen’s Award to promote filmmakers from developing countries is The Wild Meat Trail by Dusty Foot Productions (India) Filmmakers – Rita Banerji & Shilpi Sharma

In the Animal Behaviour category is Krupakar & Senani’s  Wild Dog series titled – The Pack, produced for Animal Planet International (USA).  I just had the opportunity to watch the five-part series last night and it’s simply brilliant!! Some amazingly rare moments captured on camera, a testament to the two years of patience and dedication it took to produce the series.

A few months back I made a mention that as part of the documentation project I am working on I’d be presenting a series of short films that covers different topics primarily intended to be in the book. So we’ve (Chinmay and I) been thinking of different ways to develop the story-line that doesn’t stray too far from the coffee-table book, but at the same time encompasses all (well, almost all) of what we intend to cover for the book. So we broke the video stories into story-book chapters and we’ve now completed the first of the series -
Chapter 1 – Kaziranga: The land of the rhino and the tiger.

Initially it was only – Kaziranga: Land of the Rhino, but after spending nearly a month here and capturing not just the rhino but an amazing amount of Tiger behaviour in a habitat that’s not really conducive to proper tiger observation, I decided we had to change the title! Not only that, Kaziranga now has the uniquely distinct position of having the highest density of tigers in the World! Previous studies had put the density at about 17 tigers per 100 Sq. kms., but recent studies suggest that the tiger density is at a whopping 32 tigers per 100sq. Kms. Sighting one, of course, is a totally different story. Kaziranga’s tall grass and thick woodland, makes it one of the most difficult places to see a tiger, although signs of their presence – scats, scrapes and claw marks on trees, makes their presence very evident.

Another unique aspect of these short films, is that they were shot entirely, well almost entirely, on the new breed of HD-DSLR cameras that allow us not only to take a high-resolution 16+ mega-pixel image, but also allows the user to record HD video in full 1920x1080P resolution the quality of which is outstanding! Not only that, the high-ISO capabilities of cameras like the Canon 1Dmark4, allows for filming late into the evening, when previously sequenced would have to be canned before they were put in the can. So armed with these new tools in my toolkit I went out with a small team of people consisting mostly of my field assistant, Chinmay and Lahaan the forest gaurd, to shoot the first chapter in the series.
For now I’m just posting a short intro, as I’m still in the field with painfully slow internet connections and frequent power cuts. We are now getting ready to head out to Arunachal Pradesh to shoot some of the little creatures that make a living in the foothill forests of the Himalaya.

Please keep an eye on FelisTV on Youtube for more videos and shortly – the full version of what you see in the Intro piece.

http://www.youtube.com/user/feliscreationsindia

Last week an image I captured while shooting in the North-east garnered the top spot in the category – Community at Risk at the 2010 ICP Awards in Seattle, Washington. It was quite an honour to receive the award and have the image displayed at the Burke Museum of Natural History. If you are in the Seattle area please do stop by the Burke Museum as the display will be up until the 6th of September. The other highlight of my trip here was an opportunity to meet several of my photographer colleagues, Chris Linder, Jon Conforth and renowned photographer Art Wolfe – the founder of the ICP awards and an incredible photographer! If you want to learn bits and pieces of photography visit their websites and be inspired by what you see. Amazing Stuff!

I was lucky that my return trip to Texas coincided with the opening night, so I took a bit of a detour on my way back to Texas. Stopped in Seattle, took a quick trip to Mt. Rainier National Park courtesy my host Raja, Deepa and Rushil. Thanks guys!

Canon 5D Mark2 with Canon 500mm f/4 lens; Gitzo Mountaineer Tripod; Kirk BH-3 Ballhead f/4@ 1/250 ISO 100

About the Image: I had always heard how relatively common the Greater Adjutant Stork Leptoptilos dubius- a critically endangered bird was at the garbage dump near Guwahati and I wondered how a bird so commensal with man and dependent on human garbage could be so endangered. Upon visiting the landfill I saw how patiently they awaited their turn at the garbage table – every time a fresh truckload of rubbish entered the landfill people rushed to it first, and once they were done with their pickings the storks moved in filling their gullets with rotten meat. I still wonder how this species living so calmly in an urban environment can be so endangered… I later found out that it’s not because of a lack of food resources that this species is dying out, but because of a lack of nesting trees. These large birds need relatively large trees to build their nests and with the expansion of highways and lack of protection of nesting trees, the future of these birds seem very bleak indeed.

It’s been two months since I’ve left home base – Bangalore. The first stop (after Guwahati) – Kaziranga.
Spent two weeks in this landscape before the rains.
The highlight – Tigers!
Filmed some amazing natural history and behaviour of tigers in Kaziranga. Short film coming soon about that.
For now, here’s a picture:

Soon after, Chinmay and I headed to the remote region of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. We were here looking for Munzala – The monkey of the Deep Forest. This is one of the most recent primate discoveries. More in detail about that later – but here’s an image for now.

Then after that crossed over to Nepal to look for what is, without any argument one of the cutest little creatures of the Himalaya – The Red Panda…

It was an arduous climb up and down the Himalaya at the foothills of Kanchendzonga. But it was all well worth the effort. Now in Sikkim to photograph the Rhododendron flowers which are in full blossom at the moment.
here’s an image of what they look like in Sandakphu – with a background of the snow-capped Kanchendzonga mountain range…

More about everything later…
Another month of travel to go before heading back to Bangalore

I was all set to write a blog report of just how awesome this last month of travel across the Eastern Himalaya had been… How amazing the wildlife of Kaziranga had been and how we’ve managed to finish editing a short wildlife film shot entirely with HD DSLR Cameras… But all that will have to wait until next time I’m in Internet zone.

For now – quick news update -
Mountains of the Monsoon is all set to release on Mutual of Omaha’s – Wild Kingdom shown on Animal Planet US – Sunday 18th April 7PM. Do spread the word…

Here’s a link to the trailer:

If you’d like to learn/read more about the Western Ghats – the region where this documentary was filmed and also the inspiration behind getting this film commissioned check out – Sahyadris – India’s Western Ghats – A Vanishing Heritage.

Now I’m off to look for a species of macaque that was very recently described as a new species. It’s called Macaca munzala – Monkey of the deep forest.
More about that when I’m back…

- Sandesh

One of my favourite forms of photography using DSLR’s is to produce timelapses of everyday scenes. What’s timelapse?

As wikipedia says, “ Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby each film frame is captured at a rate much slower than it will be played back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. Time-lapse photography can be considered to be the opposite of high speed photography.

Processes that would normally appear subtle to the human eye, such as the motion of the sun and stars in the sky, become very pronounced. Time-lapse is the extreme version of the cinematography technique of undercranking, and can be confused with stop motion animation.”

So here’s a compilation of timelapses produced on various models of Canon DSLR’s over the various projects and years that I’ve been working in the western ghats.

Visit FelisTV for more videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/feliscreationsindia