In September this year (2023), I was in Zanskar for a Milky Way expedition. The idea was to chase the dark skies and create Milky Way images. Here is my blog post describing that adventure. For my Zanskar trip, I was carrying a friend’s 70-200mm GM Mark 2 lens and it was first time handling that baby. We were a bunch of photographers, some were interested in shooting only the Milky Way and the others in shooting the Milky Way and the Himalayan birds. I was in the former camp, my interest was only the Milky Way 🌌.
On of those days in Zanskar, my friend Ananta Murthy , while casually sipping his piping hot morning tea and chomping on his Marie Biscuit showed me a blue colored bird, circling around our camp. I struggled to spot the bird, while he kept insisting that the bird was perching right in front of us. Perhaps that is the difference between a trained and a non trained eye. Ananta has spent many years birding and photographing wildlife, and I guess he is one of the best at it.
Finally, after a few minutes of searching for the blue bird, I gave up. It anyway dint mean much to me. I was more interested in shooting the jaw dropping landscape with my 70-200. As I was mounting my lens, the blue bird flew right in front of my face and settled on the compound wall. Ananta Murthy casually nudged me to take a shot with the 70-200, and I did.
I was told that blue bird was a Eurasian Magpie, a fairly common bird in high altitude regions. That was my brief birding experience in Zanskar, and it felt good. Yeah, I know its not a great shot, but heck, that picture sowed the birding bug in me 😛
After the Milky Way expedition, I was back in Bangalore. A few weeks later, I was scrolling through the Milky Way and landscape shots, and the Magpie picture resurfaced on my system. The more I looked at the picture, the more was the urge to photograph birds.
I rented a tele photo lens and decided to give birding a spin. Like all budding birding enthusiasts, I tried shooting birds in my back yard. Common Taylor birds, Pigeons, Red Whiskerd Bulbuls, and Kites were my targets. Needless to say, all shots were blurry and out of focus.
It slowly dawned upon me that bird photography is very different compared to other types of photography. Since then, I’ve been spending lots of time learning how to photograph birds and in the process learning a bit about birds as well. Afterall, what is the point of photographing a subject, without really knowing a thing or two about the subject.
You see, thats why I like photography. Different genres of photography leads you to different worlds. In my case, people, culture, places, streets, astro, and now birds. And each time I discover a new world via photography, I learn something new.
Photography is my Gateway Drug 😎
Over the last two months, I’ve pretty much visited all the usual birding spots in and around Bangalore. I tag along with Sandeep, who goes by the name Winged Furrytales on Instagram.
We’ve been driving out every Sunday morning, looking out for birds. With each outing, things do get slightly better. I see new birds, I figure something about them, and make slight improvements with my camera technique. This is a never ending process 🥹.
Observing these birds and their skittish behavior is fascinating. Along with that, understanding how my camera and lens behaves under various conditions and figuring ways to overcome the gear limitations to extract a crisp sharp image is fascinating too 🙂
I know I still have a long way before I start making interesting images, but for now, I’m just enjoying the process of learning something new. Like the say, the journey is more interesting than the destination.
And I know, this is a long journey!
If any of you reading this post know of any interesting birding spots in and around Bangalore, then please do drop a message in the comments below. I’d be happy to visit and explore 🌍.
I’ll leave you with a few more images from my short birding adventure so far, I hope you like them. Do let me know.
Top Row, starting from left –
- Common Kingfisher, Valley School
- Yellow Billed Babbler, Muthanallur Lake
- Yellow Oriole, Muthanallur Lake
Bottom Row, starting from left –
- Spotted Owlet, Saul Kere
- Orintal Darter, Saul Kere
Please do click on each of the images and see on full screen, and I do hope you like them. Let me know!
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