Lightning

Lightning is an interesting event which happens during rains of pre monsoon showers or by the end of monsoon. It is difficult to capture the event on camera as it is very short and fast event ( Lightning event! to be precise). Though I have tried to capture them many times it doesnt happen because it should be dark , there should be no rains. we need a safe shelter from where we can take picture with visibility of good area of open sky free from any distarcting elements and above all camera and lens need protection from water ,dust and wind.With some camera settings it is not difficult though! Here are some points:
1. Camera to be set in manual mode and aperure of 6-9 and shutter speed kept at bulb so that we can really wait for lightning and release shutter after the event.
2. ISO can be kept at 200 -400 or otherwise picture becomes bright with long exposure.
3. It is better to shoot in RAW and further adjustment can be done post exposure
4.Tripod is a must and if we have a wireless remote release it is much better .
5. Keep the lens in manual focus and set focus for infinity.
6. last but not the least wait patiently and keep on taking pics .
Ihave taken these pictures from t the terrace of my house  or if there is rain try from the balcony sit out place. So far I didnt get an oppurtunity to go outdoors in field or open space but  it can make wonderful pictures outdoors. The settings I use or as explained above and used white balance of fluorescent as it will make sky dark blue.The focal length was kept minimum so that larger area of sky can be covered and can catch any event in the exposed area.I usually  focus the camera in the direction of maximal lightning. It usually happens in some definite and particular area repeatedly.I just release the shutter using remote release and wait for lightning.If there is one I release the shutter release after the event and if there is none after 20-30 seconds. I set the long exposure noise reduction on from the camera menu. This will take sometime to process after shooting is over and in between if there is one lightning we are sure to miss it. But I feel it necessary as it will decrease grains.
To shoot one event if are lucky 8-10 exposures may be needed or it can be easily hundred takes for one successful capture. It definitely depends on the frequency of lightning. Big streaks or long vertical streaks really require lot of luck and tons of patience . When I get one surely will post here.

 The light streak seen near the roof is LCD screen light from my son's camera ,as it was a long exposure shot it has captured light trail when he moved camera in that direction.

Ranganathittu

Painted Stork at Ranganathittu:

This weekend I was in Mysore to attend annual state conference of Association of Physicians of India ,karnataka chapter. This was an oppurtunity for visiting Ranganathittu bird sanctuary. Sometimes we tend to have difficulty in visiting places which are nearby and this was true in my case. For more than a year several of my plans to visit this sanctuary didnt materialise for various reasons ,though I had no difficulty in travelling to far off places like Kutch . As the birding season was almost over I had dropped the idea for this year. But the conference gave me another chance this month.Though it was late it is better than never. Ranganathittu is unique in several respects. Though it is season dependent for migratory birds it is said throughout the year it provides some birding options.Second ,in this place birds are so accustomed to human visitors they hardly take note of our presence and dont move away even if the boat goes near. Though most of birds like painted storks, open billed storks were juvenile and pelicans,pied kingfishers, heron, darters,carmorant,egret, etc are in plenty, probably I missed spoon bills and few others for off season

Painted storks adults and a baby:

Young Painted Storks :They are yet to get painted by nature!

Open billed stork

Stone Plover

Night Heron

Pied King fishers in pairs:

Spot billed Pelican

For a web album of Ranganathittu click here or click on photo below:

Ranganathittu

House Sparrow

House Sparrow:
This once common household bird has almost disappeared from most parts of our country. I remember my childhood days at my village when we had a permanent guest at home in form of sparrow. They used to have their nest behind a wall photo or mirror and later we provided a box for them. Their chirps ,play ,laying eggs, feeding young ones ,teaching young ones to fly was a continuous source of activity for us. But this changed once a cat entered our family and scared of the cat sparrows gradually avoided our home and later stopped coming altogether. Sparrows were common in almost every village houses. But unfortunately these tiny beauties gradually became less and less and of late everyone is talking about missing house sparrows. Where have they gone?
There are various explanations given by many people regarding missing sparrows. One most important is change in designs and architecture of modern day houses which do not have any place for sparrows. In olden houses they used the space between beams, beams and tails etc. but now such spaces are not seen in our house designs.
Another theory that with booming mobile telephony in india ,the towers ,radio waves from mobile phones are said to be driving away sparrows from towns into remote areas. But sparrows though sensitive live in vicinity of human beings and feed on grains,leaves and small insects. I wonder have they changed their habitat away from humans into forests? I also believed this theory to some extent till recently.But when I saw number of sparrows in the new Bangalore International Airport terminal building,it made me think otherwise. In an airport terminal with so many passengers with mobiles, radars, RF waves from radio,aircraft,Wifi,Wimax, etc. these sparrows happily move around and are plentiful near restaurants and even upto boarding area. I havent taken a picture yet and will do and post next time when I am there.So where is the theory of radiofrequency waves driving away sparrows?
Anyway it is nice to see sparrows anywhere because they are a rare sight now and because they are one type of birds which live with man.

For a web album of house sparrows and other common birds click here

common birds