The local lake is a great place to catch some birds in the morning. These spot-billed ducks were caught in flight with my new VR lens.


f/4.8, 1/400s at 340mm film equivalent focal length.

This picture was taken at Pashan lake this Sunday morning. The Nikon AF-S VR 70-200mm f/2.8 is over a TC-17E converter with a polarizer. The exposure bias is pushed one step (1/3).

This waterhen was caught in a recent trip to Saras Baug (Pune) one rainy afternoon.


f/4.5, 1/160s at 70mm film equivalent focal length.

It is sad to see all the junk people dump around in this beautiful place. The waterhen seems to ignore a bit of rubbish as it cranes its neck in search of food.


f/4.5, 1/320s at 65mm film equivalent focal length.

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage in Srilanka is roughly half-way between Colombo and Kandy a little off the A1 national highway. This picture was taken in December 2005.


f/6.3, 1/160s at 46mm film equivalent -- could have been better.

A twenty-five acre land reserved for elephant care and bringing up orphaned elephants. Babies found orphaned in the woods are brought into this santuary, fed and cared for over a decade before returning them to their wild habitat. Elephants disabled by poacher gun-shot wounds to landmines are also treated here.

This small crab is about 15mm wide and gave quite a chase on the sands creeping between small rocks. With the super-macro mode enabled on the S2IS, I was following the fellow for a while before he managed to get himself between those four small pebbles. He was out in a jiffy -- not before I managed this somewhat dark picture with the lens looming some 20mm over his head.



Canon S2IS SuperMacro mode, f/4.0 at 1/250s and a film equivalent focal length of 38mm.

Following him a little further, yielded this neat frame where he appears to be staring at the lens.



Canon S2IS SuperMacro mode, f/4.0 at 1/125s and a film equivalent focal length of 38mm.

Out of the hollow between the pebbles, there was more light, for this brighter image. Towards the left of the picture, you can see him using one of his claws for leverage as he rolls his shell over.

The Taj Coral Reef resort is a small coral-island in the North Male Atoll, Maldives. About 32 Km from the Male International airport; just over an hour's ride in their speedboat (heading north-north-west about 330 degrees). The timezone is a half hour behind Indian Standard Time and 5 hours ahead of GMT.

It sports good food, clear waters with coral fish, friendly staff and peace! This small place is called Hembadhu and can be covered on foot within 15 minutes. All gardening is done in white sand (with some soil mixed in you will probably not see). But most of the place is under tree shade.

This place is not as small as it appears in this pan of five pictures from the front-deck.


For each of the 5 images in the pan, f/9.0 at 24mm with +1/3 exposure bias, and white balance set at Cloudy on Nikon D70 with Dx 18-70mm lens.
The shutter speed was varied over 1/640s to 1/1000s

A view from the shade of palm trees on the other side of the deck ramp.


Canon S2IS f/8.0, 1/320s at 46mm film equivalent.

You can get a wallpaper of this image here.

On vacation this time, we were not expecting a lot of birds. This grey heron surprised us though.




This picture of the bird drying itself on the deck was taken with a Canon S2IS i carried with me (f/5.0, 1/1000s at 1019mm film equivalent). It covered for the lack of macro and telephoto features in my Nikon D70 with its 18-70mm DX kit lens.

The Nikon was used for these take-off pictures.




Nikon D70 Dx 18-70mm lens: f/11, 1/500s at 105mm film equivalent with +1/3 exposure bias.




Nikon D70 Dx 18-70mm lens: f/10, 1/400s at 105mm film equivalent with +1/3 exposure bias.

A sunset over water panned with two images.
Each 1/200s f/7.1 at 70mm.

A Weekend brunch with friends. If this looks enticing you can pickup the recipe at asuph's blog.

This garden flower was described as a Tulip to me. But, tulips are supposed to have just 6 petals. It came as a bulb (not a seed). While the flowers may be regarded as showy, they are not very large. Flowers with 8 petals and stamens with one stigma and style (which is out-of-focus and at an incorrect angle in this picture).

Would be glad to know more about this plant -- drop me some notes if you can help.

As the season of rains nears its end, the sky in pune is a different shade every evening; and almost every minute of the evening. This picture could not avoid a microwave tower on a neighbouring building. The next one is a crop of a different picture taken at the same time.




The stronger glare of the sun just about to reach out of the lower clouds is cropped off along with the microwave tower in this frame. You decide which one is better :-)