” The Coveted Kingfisher” by Praveen Prabhakar & Photography

Hi,

Good evening. Today has been a day of Friday hangover, Saturday sleepy lecture sessions and thoughts of an amazing Sunday. No plans as yet,but, something makes me feel it will be a great Sunday.

If you had read my post “The Rainbow Walk”, you will remember that I had told you about The Keoladeo National Park  in Bharatpur and why I had been there and what was my opinion of the place.
For those who hadn’t read it,here is the link http://ppnphoto.blogspot.in/2012/08/the-rainbow-walk-by-praveen-prabhakar.html.

I had also told you that I had a lot of pictures that are close to my heart ,some birds,landscape and other shots. In today's post I will be sharing with you guys, some of those pictures and as to why these are special. I would like to share a little bit out of the very little I know on Bird Photography.

Story : Bharatpur National Park is home for more than 230 species of Birds, Including those that are migratory and native. This makes it one of the favorite landmark for Bird watchers and Photographers. This is a site where a lot of famous Bird Watchers from India and abroad, Including the Famous Dr.Salim Ali did most of their research.

 As for our schedule we only had 2 complete days in Bhartpur, which is very less when you consider the variety of birds,the huge landscape vs my slow pace. . As a negative, I had no fancy lenses to help me reach to far placed birds,restricting me to concentrate only on those that were reachable with the 55-200mm telephoto lens that I carried and the extra zoom of a Sony Cyber-shot ( but, as the zoom increases the quality degrades.) . So I had to be careful not to zoom too much and click with the quality in mind. This was proving to be difficult, till one of the experienced bird photographer in our group Mr.Shivang Mehta told us that, “every creature,including birds have something called a “Circle of Fear”, if someone tries to close in on them with in this circle of fear, they are alarmed, as the intruder gets closer and closer they fly/run away or attack.”

This “Circle of Fear”  will be Bigger in case of Big birds and Smaller in case of Small birds. So as the Size of the Bird gets smaller the closer you can get to the bird without disturbing it gets smaller. This also sometimes may vary depending on the attitude of the bird. So, Now I had to keep this in mind. And as my lens was not a 400mm or 500mm (which is a must have if you want to do serious bird photography), I had to make sure I get as close as possible to a bird that I want to shoot without Disturbing them. Above all, you should take special care on the cloths that you wear. Wear something that will camouflage in to the surrounding, and Birds are not disturbed by your presence. Never wear Perfumes when you are venturing into a forest. Birds can be aware of your presence from a long distance and you will miss the opportunity of sighting some exotic birds. You are prone to animal attacks, as animal sense the smell and usually mistake it to be food somewhere ( yeah!! for them we are food  ) .

With  all this in mind and taken care, we as a group of 2 with a guide from the sanctuary started our birding… We started well before sunrise,

1/400sec , F/5.6 @ 120mm , ISO -1000.

 

Then I saw this little fellow, don't know what species(could be a parakeet) it was..( for that matter I don't know if it was a Fellow or a Lady. But, the mood and the feel of the shot when I revisited it later was that, of sadness, it was as if he was waiting for someone special,or had already lost someone very dear. It could also be that he was enjoying the morning ( the later is better ).

1/400sec, F/5.6 @200mm, ISO-640

There were other visitors, Some in Rickshaw,

1/500sec, F/2.8 @5mm, ISO-100

And Some on Bicycles,

1/80sec, F/4.2@ 86mm , ISO-640

 
And I was walking…….,

From the first minute of the walk I had desired to click a Kingfisher. As I was not really into birding, every variety of the Kingfisher was the same for me, I just wanted to click one for the color that they carry. Like a artistic work.!! There were some occasions when I came close to them but, I was too slow to click and they would fly away, or sometime I had no way to get any closer to them!!!.. My wait continued..and on the way I saw a lot of birds,some clicked,some just admired,some I saw with the feeling that,’oh! I wish I had better gear ‘

1)1/500sec, F/5.6 @ 144mm , ISO-100

2)1/250sec , F/5.6 @ 144mm , ISO -400mm

 3)1/320sec , F/6.3 @ @200mm , ISO-100

4) 1/640sec, F/5.6 @ 200mm , ISO-640

Most of the above shots were challenging,but among these one the most challenging was this one, of the  Shikra .We had sighted the bird from very far, and walked almost for 30 minutes to reach to it, there was a chance that when we reach it, we realize it was just not a bird but some tree branch or something ( too much!!! :p  ) or when we are just about to reach they fly away?..But thank got it didn’t turn out so, we reached closer to it,but, once we were almost some 500m to the tree on which the bird was sitting, I went into the soldier mode, I kept the tripod,the bag that I was carrying on the floor and hiding on the bushes, making small moves, little by little approached the bird. I even crawled on the floor. Yes !! I did.  Only thing that was missing was some patriotic song Sarfaroshi ki tamanna was playing in my heart though . I positioned myself on a place from where I could get a nice view and shoot. Till I clicked some shots it was looking in the opposite direction and then it turned towards me…after posing for sometime, It flew.

5)1/250sec , F/5.6 @ 144mm , ISO-160

Of the most challenging was this one,of this little birdy. It was challenging for many reasons, it was swift, unpredictable,very small ( trust me!! smaller than 6-7cm .) and I had discovered it all of a sudden and was dangerously close to it. But, I took chance and clicked. You believe it or not, I got only one shot of it, No time to change the settings or think about framing, just click and the result is here, 

Got to click many more birds and some animals too(deers and bucks etc..) , but unfortunately those images still remain with one of my group members, who went out of India soon after the trip. Still waiting for those pics.

On 2 days, we walked for almost 75kms. 45 kms on the first day and 30kms on the second. And in all the excitement didn’t feel the tiredness. With so much going on, there was something that was haunting me, something that left a feel of incompleteness, yes.!! it was cos I didn't get to shoot a Kingfisher till…almost the end of the day…when…I saw this one..

 1/500sec , F/5.6 @ 144mm , ISO – 250

A white-throated Kingfisher sitting on a branch by the pond, and enjoying the evening. This time I made sure I don't repeat my mistakes, and slowly with caution, moved little by little, and after taking almost 10 minutes to cover less than some meter of distance.Started clicking..and finally I had achieved something that I wanted from the beginning of the walk. Somehow, everything had worked my way and I had shot a KF.

Lesson :  With this Kingfisher Incident, I was reminded of the famous dialogue from the movie Om Shanti Om!!! it goes like this “Itni Shiddat Se Maine Tujhe Paane Ki Koshish Ki hai,Ki Har Zarre Ne Mujhe Tujhse Milane ki Saazish Ki Hai.“   and    “Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho to poori kaynath use tumse milane ki koshish main lag jaati hai”.

Yes!! I had very badly wanted to click a KF. This thought was always running on my mind and heart, through out the trip. Having come so close on so many occasions had made me restless. Still I was looking for it. Till I finally found it.

So, I would say, “Keep looking,never give up, what ever it may be, how impossible may it seem, still keep looking. You will find it !! and will find it in the best way you could imagine.”.

Doondne se toh Bhagwaan bhi miljaata hai!!!!

See you all..Will be back soon. Do let me know how do you like the post? Take care.


Cheers,
Praveen Prabhakar Nair
https://www.facebook.com/PPandP