Break Free...The voyage to enjoy the weekend

     Well finally after half a year of hiatus its nice to be back on to Phlog-ing... Its been a confusing and conflicting few months, especially the past 4 weeks had been a bit too harsh, but thanks to it, now am back to what I Like to DO... i.e., Photography and Blogging... Probably this Anonymous quote suits well to whatever has gone by

"Sometimes the wrong choices bring us to the right places"

     So finally back to my Weekend Expeditions, this particular one was the most awaited one for me as, 
one: I had to Break myself off from few adverse turn of events, 
two: I always wanted to visit this particular location, but cud never manage it properly due to some or the other annoying reasons and 
three: Had to enjoy the Monsoon magic and capture the vibrant greenery along with refreshing and live creations of the Almighty.

     Well the location was Mumbai's very own Sanjay Gandhi National Park (S.G.N.P.) along with few of my photography enthusiast friends. Initial plan was of an early photowalk along the various Nature trails of the Park, but after witnessing the vivid variety of subjects in we were a bit taken back by our urge to explore our photography than to explore the VAST park. So at snail's pace we could capture hardly a 2km distance in a total exploration of 4-5hrs, but the hunger for photography was so extensive amongst us that we utilized the whole of the time in capturing, probably, few of the best shots ever taken by us.

     The whole expedition was a mix of close shots, portraits, Macro shot and few long exposure ones, though the long exposure ones were all ruined thanks to the omission of Tripod and also a Delightful Sunshine, which actually made our day as the earlier days, close to a week, had been pouring in very heavy rains and any more rains, especially during this expedition would have restricted us from exploiting our DSLRs...
     
     The track selected by us had been the one that headed towards Kanheri caves, but we explored a few more paths that ran parallely following few butterflies and birds. The following are the shots we I, in particular, had captured and these are probably the Best I have Ever captured... 

An orange beauty, a really small insect brought into notice by Vishal. Used reverse lens technique to capture it, hence the very shallow depth of field
EXIF:
Canon EOS 550D Canon 55-250 IS
F/0 Shutterspeed(S.P.) 1/100secs
ISO 400 In built flash used

A better view of the micro beauty

One example of the Long exposure shot, Was lazy to change my zoom lens to normal kit lens. Also the liter left around by our very responsible and sensible citizens made the frame even more pathetic

One of the most commonly sighted or infested worm was this one the Kambalkeed or Kambalipudu(Mangalorean name)
EXIF:
F/7.1 S.P.: 1/200 ISO 800
In built flash used

Few other shots of the same insect, spotted at some other tree. The water droplets, let after a brief drizzle, and the lighting had made it look very astonishingly beautiful. So tried experimenting with diff techniques. This one was with a flash fired, to capture its intricate details along with the sparkle of the water droplets, while the later one was w/o the Flash

Another most commonly spotted/ infested crawler was this mammoth snail. This is as big as our palm and were present in huge no.s. An interesting thing I observed was there were few place where the shell of these snails were lying broken, may be the monkeys' feed themselves on them or else might have been a tragic accident after falling from tree's due to heavy winds or rain

One of then, while it was on the ground

A lovely sight very close to the spot where the snails were resting. This tiny bee was enjoying/ collecting the sweet nectar of the flora that had grown all around in shaded areas

A very rare opportunity, still confused if its a butterfly or a moth, as the flight was very similar to a butterfly. Was spotted taking a brief moment of rest in the pleasant weather.

A shot of one of the gorgeous pink beauties. Had spotted them in my office's premises, unfortunately due to the absence of my mobile and restriction on use of camera couldnt capture it there, so relished on it here were several macro shots in reverse lens technique

Another shot of the same. ID help would be deeply appreciated

Accompanied my friends in their quest to follow and capture a resting shot of these very mobile butterflies

A strange growth on the bark of a tree lying near a waterbody

Someone's busy fishing??? This chap was pretty difficult to spot as the light at that corner, at the bottom of the small dam.

The bird that made our day....An Indian Pond heron. Initially that was a bit too far off from us, but later it came right next to us, hardly 15-20 feet away and spent ample time allowing us to experiment with it and also making me awrae to capture the frame I always Dreamt of capturing

Once it came to the edge of the dam I realized my dream frame is about to happen and hence switched my cam to Spot metering

And then the moment came. An optimum lighting and spot metering allowed me to get almost completely blacked out back ground and almost perfect frame
EXIF: Canon EOS 550D Canon 55-250 IS
F/7.1 S.P. 1/4000sec ISO 800
-1.7 step

Continuing on with the other winged beauties along the bank of the water body/ river

Interestingly S.G.N.P. seemed to had an outbreak of snakes and there were several guys with a unique jacket patrolling along. Initially I didnt realize it, but later came to know when they signaled few forest officials about a presence on Cobra. Despite several attempts to get the location of the sighting the guy was stubborn and didnt reveal the area, but shared us location of a garden lizard...understanding the complexity of chasing a Cobra, we decided to try our model photoshoot with this predator... :)

...And I should say, our model was seriously photogenic :)

In a quest to search for some wild cats we came across this cat, though a household one, along with its cute and playful kitten, posing for us in lush bright green patch of the park

I loved the way this little chap jumped around over the short grass and played around it's mother, also alert enough to keep distance from me :)

     As me and Vishal were busy moving around looking out for something more interesting, especially the winged ones, Ganesh, another good friend of mine, mentioned about having a close encounter with deer while he was following the call from a Tailorbird/Prinia and to our surprise these were the spotted deers that were resting somewhere inside in the bushes. Hoping to be lucky enough to spot them in the same location we all headed to that spot and there they were resting among dense bushes a triad of spotted deers. And to our surprise these were pretty calm even after be aware that we are around them. Rather they were not bothered while we were heading closer to them.

     After a moment though saw them moving out of the place and continuing with their general grazing. It was great to experience the whole allure of their graceful movement.




     The same place had an array or huge bunch of an interesting looking flower, which initially related to the Water hyacinth's flower, but later, through a board put up by the park's administration, came to know that it was a Hill Turmeric and was quite a unique plant, and with many of them around could witness the various stages of this flower/ plant

     Another strange flower/ bud spotted very close to the Hill turmeric's spot. May be because it was just about to bloom, I could not identify the flower or the plant.

     Few beauties taking a time off during the start of the Noon. Interestingly this butterfly wasnt even concerned with my presence and rather had to shoo it off as it was blocking the pathway to the interiors of the trail

     Another shy beauty was trying its level best to avoid being in line of my lens, Had to hold back the neighboring leaves to get a decent shot of this hopper.

     After a moment I realized I was the only person roaming around, and my friends were somewhere else. In a quest to locate them I returned back thru the path and headed back to the place where we all had last met, only to realize that they were along some houses and were busy capturing the monkeys. So continued along with the hunt for capturing the whole range of emotions and actions happening in the whole group.

An important fact to be understood by us...Its good to visit a place so close to nature, but Please be Mature enough to act responsibly...Here is the biggest hazard of humans around the animals...
A primate trying to get something stuck at the bottom of the Plastic bag, but for a moment got itself entangled inside it.

Luckily, It could get out of it, but started eating the plastic along with whatever that was inside it...

'Ma...Look I can fly!!!'

An auspicious moment...an encounter with the Centipede, and the moment we tried capturing it, it came right to the edge of the grass blade. Though an encounter with a Tiger-centipede would had been even more rewarding

The walk ended off with another interesting shot. While we were walking by a road next to the river bank, I realized some motion at the other side of the bank. Later I realized it was some form of a Heron, but was bigger than a normal cattle egret. The Id of the bird is yet not clear for it is close to a Juvenile Cinnamon Bittern as well as a Juvenile Night heron. Any help regarding this bird's Id would be really appreciated

     So here we were, after close to 4.5-5 hours of moving around and may be about 3-4 km of walk and a completely filled Memory card we decided to return back and ended with a note to have similar walks in the future, may be a bit more deeper into the National park or its neighboring areas like the Yeoor hills.
     Overall it was a good break, something I had been starving for quite a long long time, and with quality time spent on capturing the nature's beauties and above all able to get the best off me, it was a delightful accomplishment and hope to continue with this kind of expeditions and rewarding satisfaction :)
     Well I hope to get back to this phlogging seriously and hope to compile few of my past trips, a few successful and a few unsuccessful one ASAP, so do keep in check and Do share ur thoughts on the quality of the blog as well as photographs and any form of suggestions for improving the overall look and feel of the blog/ phlog will be kindly admired and soon implemented.

Thanks and Regards,

Still...simply ಪ್ರjwaല്