• About – Tim Bird

Six Images

~ Selections from Tim Bird's travel photography archives

Six Images

Category Archives: travel photography

International Women’s Day: Women of India

08 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by Tim Bird in India, travel photography

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

India, indian women, international women's day, travelphotography, women, women of india, women's rights

Every day seems to be Something Day and today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. I don’t think it should be necessary to set aside certain days for particular causes or ideas, but I do have some interest in this one since I am in the middle of my Women of India project. This is an ongoing project which gives me even more motivation, as if any were needed, to seek out interesting tales from India, to photograph the people involved, who in this case are girls and women, and to summarise their stories.

So I have encountered tea pickers in Kerala, young female cricketers in Himachal Pradesh on the edge of the Himalayas, and trainee girl boxers in Manipur in the northeast. I’ve photographed a beautiful Assamese bride and tribal women in Rajasthan, female petrol pump attendants in Delhi and a charming dancer turned designer and entrepreneur in Pondicherry.

There are a lot of negative stories being told to the outside world about India and how women are treated there. There is a lot of bad stuff going on in what is a very patriarchal society. I don’t intend to ignore the bad stuff, but I hope my stories give a counterweight to the negative impressions. There are lots of gutsy women doing interesting things on a day to day basis, not necessarily celebrities or leaders, although there are plenty of them too.

I’d like this to turn into an exhibition and even a book eventually. But meanwhile it seems like a worthwhile thing to do for its own sake, and at my own expense. So in celebration of International Women’s Day, you are looking at a few of the stories so far…

The tea plantations of Munnar are a spectacular and beautiful green patchwork quilt spread across the valleys and slopes of this part of the state of Kerala. Life isn’t always so beautiful for the women tea pickers, and tea picking is a gruelling task. Each picker can collect more than ten kilos of tea every hour. Women have demonstrated and protested against poor working conditions and low wages in recent years, but the health, housing and school facilities provided by the dominant Tata company make this a relatively attractive source of livelihood. The Kerala pickers have been demanding an increase of the minimum daily wage for a tea picker from 350 rupees – less than 5 euros – to 600 rupees.
Rahana Hasam Husain and her daughter Nasma live in a village at the foot of the Himalaya foothills, close to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, home of the Dalai Lama and seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile. Nasma runs a charming homestay (Home in the Himalayas), Rahana spends much of her time in peaceful meditation.
Rahana was one of a dozen siblings born into a Muslim family in the later period of British rule, a decade before Independence in 1937 (her birth was undocumented). Her father was a barrister, a landowner in the time when a feudal society still existed in India. They lived in the small town of Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh. There was rioting in nearby towns at the time of partition in which her grandfather was killed, but Fatehpur was peaceful. Up until partition, Muslims and Hindus lived quite harmoniously together, celebrating each other’s festivals, as they generally still do today. There was a strong sense of community.
“Her father – my grandfather – was a practicing Muslim, but Rahana’s upbringing was not especially religious,” says Nasma. “My mother hates rituals and superstition, and so do I. If you want something, you work towards it, we believe, you don’t try to keep the Gods happy. My mother is very unconventional in many ways. Very down to earth and carefree.”
Rahana’s husband and Nasma’s father, who died in 1999, was the radical Marxist journalist, Najmul Hasan. An especially happy time of her life was in Delhi in the 1970s and early 1980s, when Delhi was a real cultural hub.
“In their house, before I was born, there was a lot of poetry and music,” says Nasma. “My mother was tutored by Begum Akhtar, a well-known Indian singer of Ghazal, Dadra, and Thumri genres of Hindustani classical music. Rahana still sings but she doesn’t like an audience! She experimented with drinking and smoking. She liked to throw parties. My parents were not very conventional. My father had his Communist Party work and studied Farsi and Sanskrit. She was balanced in her views but supported his causes, and he made sure that she went through college.”
Now they live far from the choking air of Delhi, beneath the snow-capped peaks of the Dhauladhar sub-Himalayan range. “I’m here with her, she likes me being around,” says Nasma. “We sit and chat and talk about old times and she tells me a lot of stories. We have huge family albums but we don’t have any shelves to put them on yet!”

Meghalaya in northeastern India is home of the Khasi people, believed to be among the largest cultures that still adhere to a matrilineal system. Traditionally, the youngest daughter of the family inherits ancestral wealth and the mother’s family name is taken by children. Matrilineal does not mean matriarchal, however, and abuse and exploitation of girls and women still occur in vulnerable communities. The Faith Foundation was co-founded by Shannon Dona Massar, pictured here with her baby Amenia, her mother Nelifa and mother Mary (from the Monpa tribe of Arunachal Pradesh in the far northeast of India) – four generations of ladies – in the family home in Shillong, the state capital. Although the name implies a religious link, the NGO works on preventive strategies, promoting indigenous collective rights in communities and empowerment of girls and women.
I travelled to Imphal, the capital of the northeastern state of Manipur close to the border with Myanmar, to visita boxing academy for both young men and women. It was set up by Indian boxing champ Mary Kom, who claimed a bronze medal in the London Olympics in 2010 among her many titles and is one of the most famous women in India. I wanted to meet and shoot Mary herself but that wasn’t possible, so I met the young students who are inspired by her and had fun shooting and talking to them instead.
Former classical dancer Vasanty Manet is the founder, designer and owner of the Via Pondichery fashion boutique and business in the south-east coastal city of Pondicherry. Her shop on Romain Rolland Street in the French quarter of the city backs onto her beautiful 17th century wooden-beamed house. Vasanty’s ancestors made the choice offered to them in the 1880s to take French citizenship along with a French name. She studied in France but her mother was a Tamil language teacher. She professes to be comfortable sitting between the French Christian and Indian Hindu cultures. Her bags, pashminas, bangles and necklaces combine Indian elements with modern European style. Her entrepreneurial spirit is an example of the kind of modern, cosmopolitan Indian woman whose actions speak louder than words in the face of Indian society’s prevalent patriarchal tendencies.
Bishnoi tribal lady in a village in Rajasthan. One of the traditional tribal tenets is for new mothers to be separated from the rest of the villagers, with their newly born children, on the grounds of impurity for a month after childbirth. A tribal legend about the Bishnoi from the 18th century tells of Amrita Devi who tied herself to a tree to prevent a forest being felled by the Maharaja of Jodhpur who wanted the wood to build his palace. The tale has it that 362 of Devi’s fellow villagers joined the protest, and all of them were slaughtered by the Maharaja’s soldiers. Amrita Devi, an early Indian environmental activist.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six images: On target for a lucky break

30 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by Tim Bird in India, Travel, travel photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

archery, betting, fortune, gambling, India, lottery, Meghalaya, Shillong

Every now and then I’m tempted to waste anything from 5 to 10 euros on the instant lottery tickets sold at the check-out in the supermarket. I gave up choosing my own numbers ages ago. The street number of my house, my birthday, my mum’s birthday, the date of that particular day – none of these made any difference. I never win more than two or three euros, which I can’t usually be bothered to collect. It’s my belief that a lotto-cop watches me at the check-out using some hidden close-circuit camera and presses a button to prevent me winning more than a pittance. “Here comes Bird, press the win-exempt button.” So I reckon a random choice made by a computer gives me as a good a chance as any of achieving instant riches – that is, practically none at all.

I have just been to one of India’s less well-known and more remote states, Meghalaya in the country’s far north-east, where I encountered a much more original and exciting potential route to a quick fortune.  The archery lottery is decided on the number of arrows that hit a target aimed at by archers from  local clubs, who are paid a fee and stand to earn extra cash prizes depending on how many times they hit the target, which is a bundle of hay situated about 12 metres from the archers.

meg-7837

Place your bets, dream on.

The contests are held at the back of the Polo stadium in the centre of Shillong, the state capital, but you come across betting shops everywhere. You have to collect your winnings, if you get any, from the same shop at which you placed the bet. Bets are also placed online, and not just from India.

meg-7839

Bookmakers take bets from far and wide.

The winning numbers are arrived at by taking away the first digit of the total number of arrows that hit the target. So if 978 arrows hit the target, the winning number is 78. There are two rounds of arrow-shooting at each daily session, each producing separate results that yield a return of 8/1 – so for a 100-rupee (€1.2) bet, the winning sum would be 800 rupees (€10). If you bet successfully on the combined result of both rounds, your winning prize would be 4000/1. So a modest bet of 100 rupees would reward you with a prize of 400,000 rupees, or about €5,000, if you guessed the result of both rounds correctly.

That kind of money goes a long way in India and it’s no wonder the punters, the vast majority of which are male, look so apprehensive after the arrows are all fired and the count begins. I bet 100 rupees on two numbers for the first round only – number 9 (my house number – how predictable) and number 87 (I can’t remember why). Needless to say, I didn’t win anything.

 

meg-7853

Arrows are colour-coded for each archer and are a regulation length.

meg-7891

The archers sit in an arc facing a single target.

meg-7943

Arrows are extracted from the target and counted immediately after each round.

meg-7983

Anxious faces await the results of the first round.

It makes for a much more interesting spectacle than watching numbers being drawn or balls being spun on Saturday night. Health and safety regulations would probably prevent it being launched in any European country, for fear of some aggrieved archer turning his arrows on the spectators. So it’s back to the supermarket for my instant ticket this week. Wish me luck.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

My name is Tim, I’m a Facebook-aholic

12 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in addiction, social media, travel photography, Uncategorized

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

addiction, facebook, instagram, some, travel, travel photography

I gave up smoking in the early 90s. I decided that changes of scene and routine would be the best circumstances in which to make the break, and my companion, now my wife, also reckoned this would be a good plan. So we decided that a trip to Singapore and Bali would be a good time to kick the habit. We had been upgraded to Business Class (those were the days) so we sat in the Lounge at Helsinki Airport waiting for our flight to Singapore to start boarding. We had bought one last ceremonious pack of cigarettes (yes, kids, you could smoke in airport lounges in those days) and sat puffing away over our gins and tonics.

smokers-3373

An Indian pilgrim at a festival in Allahabad lights up for the first smoke of the day. But has he checked his Facebook yet?

The time to board arrived. There were maybe a dozen cigarettes left in the packet. Solemnly, we crumpled up the pack, making its contents unsmokeable, and gathered our bags to make our way to the plane. This was the allotted time at which we had decided to quit. Then came the announcement: a delay of 40 minutes. Damn. We could have smoked at least four more cigarettes each in that time.

smokers-4879

Temple offerings in Ubud, Bali. Notice the cigarette in one of the baskets. Even the Gods like a ciggy.

I haven’t smoked another cigarette since. It was actually quite easy. I had tried many times before, aware that I was getting a reputation for smoking that special brand known as OP’s – Other People’s. This time I realized that I really wanted to give up and it wasn’t difficult. Sometimes I still lift a cigarette to my nose and inhale the scent of dry tobacco, finding it strangely pleasant. But I’m never tempted to light it. Sometimes I dream that I’m smoking too, but I never wake up reaching for a packet at my bedside.

smokers-6234

‘Giving up’ probably wouldn’t have been in the vocabulary of these smokers in Hanoi, Vietnam.

So I don’t think I have an addictive personality. I can go a whole week without a drink. Like most people of my age and circumstances, I dabbled with drugs in my youth, but I never tipped into the abyss, although I might have looked into it a couple of times. Until now tobacco was the most addictive drug I’ve ever sampled, and I managed to kick that instantly. But now I find myself facing a much deadlier addictive beast: Social Media.

If you share my addiction you’ll understand. The urge to look at my phone in the morning – before I have my breakfast, before I shower – to gorge on the Facebook ‘likes’ being offered to me, or to feel a deadly slump at their absence, must be familiar to many of you. Likewise the thrill at that throbbing red heart in my Instagram account.

smokers-1923

Delegates at a Helsinki start-up conference try to look important while actually liking silly videos on Facebook.

Largely, I blame Brexit and Trump. Both of them make me so angry that I need a way of venting my fury and receiving confirmation that my fury is shared. But I also blame my work, not because of the pressure it incurs, but because Social Media (or ‘Some’ as it’s now being called – oh dear) is the canal de choix for anyone involved in media production, especially if you’re freelance. A large part of my work is as a travel writer and photographer. So I get to boast about all the cool places I’m lucky enough to visit. It’s actually desirable for me to do this, so that people know that I ‘walk the talk’ in terms of travel. You’re not much of a travel writer/photographer if you never go anywhere, are you?

The conventional wisdom is that a presence on Social Media, whether Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Sprinkle or LumpedUp – OK, I invented the last two – is essential if you want to build and maintain the kind of visibility that converts to financial income. You don’t even exist without a presence on SM. Only a few brave souls are prepared to challenge this idea.

smokers-1354

Russian vodka in a St Petersburg store. If you had to give up Social Media or Social Drinking, which would you choose?

The knowledge that I am addicted means that I have a love-hate relationship with Social Media, especially with Facebook. It doesn’t stop me living an active and interesting life (and lets me brag about its best moments), but it’s like speaking in a parallel voice that I don’t always recognize. I find myself getting sucked into outraged political arguments with people I haven’t even met, for example, afterwards suffering from the kind of guilt that you feel after a night in a pub making a lot of noise and with the vague sense that you misbehaved in some way. Or am I the only one who knows what that’s like?

smokers-3983

A casino in Las Vegas. Those cynical designers of Facebook aimed to replicate the addiction of gambling. I wouldn’t bet against it.

Meanwhile, my dependence continues. And I am relying on yours to spread the word. So please feel more than free to share, tweet, re-tweet, post, re-post and like this blog to your (and my) heart’s content.

If you follow this blog you won’t have to keep looking at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/timbirdphoto) to see when I’ve published a new one. And like a barman at happy hour, let me tempt you to visit my Instagram account at @tim_bird_photo

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six Images: Six photos to check from the bucket-list

18 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in bucket-list, travel photography, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

aurora, Baltic, Bandhavgarh, bucket-list, finland, himalayas, India, mountains, northern lights, Stromboli, Taj Mahal, tigers, travel, travel photography, volcano

There are certain things you simply have to get shots of. As a travel photographer you can never exhaust the photographic possibilities of the world around you, whether it’s the people or the places or the natural phenomena. I know I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to tick off quite a few items on my photo bucket list. On the other hand, if you don’t go looking for those opportunities they’re not going to fall into your lap. So luck is only part of the story. You need to be at least a little bit adventurous and resourceful.

Here are six images of things I really wanted to photograph and managed to. Some of them, like the Northern Lights, I could happily photograph daily – or nightly – if I had the chance. But then I wouldn’t have time to shoot all the other amazing people and things I see on my travels.bucketlist-9397

Walking on water: I live in Finland and large parts of the Baltic Sea freeze every winter, although climate change is affecting the extent to which ice forms. But it’s still possible to walk on water – an enthralling experience. I shot this during a cruise on the Sampo icebreaker, converted to tourist use from the north-west port of Kemi.

http://www.visitkemi.fi/en/sampo

bucketlist-6463

2. An erupting volcano: Shooting an active volcano has always been an ambition. I went through a period of travelling throughout Central America peering into dramatically smoking craters, even glimpsing red hot lava just a few metres away. But I didn’t see a properly erupting volcano until I went to Sicily and the island of Stromboli, probably the most frequently and visibly active volcano in Europe. When I was there the lava spewed out every 20 minutes or so. This was shot from a ledge about half a kilometre from the eruption. Less intrepid volcano-watchers have the option of viewing more distantly but very comfortably from the terrace of a pizzeria further down! Or like my even more intrepid companion, trek for several hours almost right to the rim of the thing, where shooting has to be done at far greater speed.

bucketlist-8331

3. Wild tigers in India: The first time I tried this, I got one shot of a tiger’s head emerging from the bush and another of its tail disappearing into the undergrowth on the opposite side of the track! My second visit to the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve in the state of Madhya Pradesh was much more fruitful. This little family (minus Dad) came strolling along the track towards our jeep and passed within a few feet of us. A breath-holding moment.

Thanks to my hosts at http://junglemantrasafaris.com/ for helping me on this one.

bucketlist-7145

4. The Taj Mahal: This extraordinary building has a lot of hype to live up to as India’s most famous tourist destination – but it succeeds. It really is magnificent. It also is really crowded during the daytime, so get up early (getting up early is an essential thing for photographers to do if they want to get the most interesting light) and head across to the other side of the river just before sunrise. When I did this I was rewarded with this wonderful view of the marble domes wrapped in mist. The night before I had seen it in moonlight. Go out at different times, see the same places in a different light…

bucketlist-5195

5. The Northern Lights: The aurora borealis is without question – in my view at least – the most magical, transfixing and addictive spectacle on the planet. It reduces me to blubbering infancy every time. You can’t just see the Northern Lights once, you have to keep trying to see it again once you’ve seen it. It casts a spell. I still haven’t got what I think is the perfect shot and the alerts I have on my phone frustratingly let me know that activity is sometimes strong – even when the sky is covered in cloud! This shot was from a lakeside near Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, almost bang on the Arctic Circle. Note the reflections on the water – this was taken in September before the lake was frozen and snow-covered. So you don’t need freezing temperatures but you do need clear skies.

bucketlist-0364

6. The Himalayan Mountains: This dawn shot of Kanchenjunga, the summit of which is in Nepal, was from Darjeeling in India. I love mountains, all the more for their rarity in Finland where I live! I remember waking in a village in Nepal on the Annapurna trail and parting the shutters on my guesthouse window and seeing the Annapurna range in this kind of light, shaking my room mate awake and telling him: “Juha, you have to see this!” Is there anyone who cannot be humbled and awestruck by a view of mountains?

That is my bucket list shortlist. If you have enjoyed this visit (and thanks for dropping by), do come again, and feel free to share, but contact me if you have something commercial in mind – copyright for all photos is mine, all mine. If you’d like to find out more about me and my photography, visit my website at www.timbirdphotography.com

I am also in Instagram at @tim_bird_photo

and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/timbirdtravelphoto/

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six images: Outcastes revisited – a village in India

10 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in India, Odisha, photography, rural India, sustainable development, travel photography, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

artisans, caste system, dalits, handicrafts, India, multimedia, Odisha, orissa, village life

A couple of years ago, with the help of my friend Finnish photographer and expert on all-things-multimedia Kari Kuukka I published Outcastes – a Village in Odisha, India, an experimental multimedia documentary about a Dalit community – or rather Kari did, on his innovative multimedia site DocImages.fi. The village in question is the target of work, especially for organising women artisans, carried out by Tikau Share, a Finnish NGO of which I am a member. I’m still really proud of the documentary, even if it is a bit rough round the edges. So every now and then I bring it back to life. You can download and view it here – please do!

Pictures below are some of the stills in the package which also includes video, some less-than-slick time-lapses, some amazing 360 panoramas showing the village and house interiors, and narrative text.

Where the world ends on the horizon

The distant low rumble of a train drifts across the flat rice fields, its horn scaring away the occasional cow and dispersing the women using the railway line as a short cut back from market. The sun has risen to a punishing height and most of the villagers are huddled in the shaded porches of their mud and straw houses, breathing life into their fires or stirring rice.

odisha-8535

The boys take a break from their cricket game and a group of girls are giggling by the water pump. At the back of the village, just-washed saris flap in the breeze, vivid flags of mauve and orange. A cow saunters into view, flicking its tail at a spiral of flies, oblivious to the stacks of its own dung left drying in the sun for fuel. A chicken pecks fussily at the ground and a baby starts to cry inside one of the windowless houses.

odisha-0431

Out on the flat plains of northern Odisha, the world ends on the horizon. The soaring tower blocks of Delhi, the call centres and high-tech offices of Bangalore and the glitter and honking taxis of Mumbai might as well be on another planet.

odisha-9113

The village architecture of mud walls on mud platforms, crowned with tussled roofs of straw that gets washed away with each torrential monsoon, has not changed for decades, perhaps even centuries. Nor have the daily concerns, of earning enough to buy rice for the next meal, of weaving baskets for the market, of heading out to the fields to defecate.

odisha-3943

Isolated economically and socially, this Dalit village is not unique. Odisha, like other Indian states, remains home to the impoverished and the underprivileged. The Dalits, at the bottom of the caste system, still suffer discrimination and a social stigma from other sectors of India’s vast and complex society.

odisha-3790

I can call these people my friends. Tim Sir is the man with the camera, which no longer makes them scared or nervous. I observe their lives, they laugh at the photos I produce of them. I sit on their mud floors and listen to their stories. During my visits I am briefly humbled by their lifestyle. And I return to the comforts of my western existence, the petty stresses of which are unknown to them.

odisha-8541

If you like what you have seen, do come back and browse my back pages, and look out for future posts. Feedback and comments also welcome!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six images: Happy World Animals’ Day!

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in Central America, Costa Rica, Finland, India, Mexico, namibia, nature, photography, Travel, travel photography, Uncategorized, wildlife

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

animals, Bandhavgarh, brown bears, conservation, Costa Rica, crocodiles, finland, India, kuhmo, Mexico, Monarch butterflies, namibia, natural environment, whales, wildlife, world animals' day

Who knew it? October 4 is World Animals’ Day! Time to feel the beast in you.

The official World Animal Day website states its aim as “To raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards around the globe. Building the celebration of World Animals’ Day unites the animal welfare movement, mobilising it into a global force to make the world a better place for all animals. It’s celebrated in different ways in every country, irrespective of nationality, religion, faith or political ideology. Through increased awareness and education we can create a world where animals are always recognised as sentient beings and full regard is always paid to their welfare.”

It seems like an event worth marking in photo form, so here are six photos from some of the unforgettable close encounters I’ve had with various wildlife in recent years. I’m not a wildlife photographer as such – I probably don’t have the required patience – but I have still been lucky enough to photograph animals in many special locations.

More observant readers will notice that there are in fact seven images here, not six. Sorry about that. It might happen again.

animals-1

Brown bears sound each other out in a summer storm in eastern Finland. There are a number of hides along the border between Finland and Russia where you can watch brown bears through the summer night. This time I was hosted by the Boreal Wildlife Centre near Kuhmo in Kainuu, right up on the northeast of Finland.

animals-0001

Crocodiles, Costa Rica. This shot is from a famous bridge on one of the main highways crossing the country and spanning the Tarcoles River. Like much wildlife in Costa Rica, the crocs are easy to spot, sometimes dozens of them, basking in the mud beneath the bridge.

animals-4380

Monarch butterflies, El Rosario, Angangueo, Mexico. This reserve is in the hills above the otherwise unexciting town of Angangueo, about four hours from Mexico City, to which millions of Monarch butterflies make their way each winter, migrating from the mountains of northwest America. I got to the forest before anyone else early in the morning and watched the wings of the insects warm and open as the sun rose. Truly extraordinary.

animals-5390

Grey whale, Baja California, Mexico. I timed my trip to Mexico to be able to see both the butterflies (above) and the grey whales that congregate here to mate before heading back north. I can still barely believe that I saw these enormous animals. Rather than breaching, grey whales pop their heads above water and rotate their heads like periscopes. They are very curious and once they realised that myself and my two companions in a small boat were not a threat, they started to emerge, dozens of them in all directions. It was hard to know which way to look.

animals-7430

Cape fur seal, Cape Cross seal colony, Namibia. I left the group of journalists I was with for half a day to take a private trip up to Cape Cross, and I could smell the vast colony and hear their calls before I saw them, hundreds of them, spread across the rocks and spilling into the South Atlantic. The saddest thing was spotting the pups separated from their mothers and being instructed by the warden that it was against the rules to try to pair them up – nature must take its own course.

animals-7671

A green lizard, Tortuguero swamps, Costa Rica. Tortuguero is on a waterway running parallel to the Caribbean coast. All sorts of wildlife, including sloths, iguanas, snakes and brightly coloured tree frogs can be spotted on early morning boat ‘safaris’. A magical place.

animals-8357

A mother tiger and cubs, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. This little family, minus father, came strolling along the forest track by surprise, obligingly passing my jeep within just a couple of metres. My pulse shoots up when I look at these photos. My base was the very accommodating, friendly and knowledgeable Jungle Mantra Resort – recommended.

These images are the tip of my photographic iceberg, much of it stored on my website at www.timbirdphotography.com. Watch out for my Instagrams at @tim_bird_photo, Tweets at https://twitter.com/BirdTimothy and Facebook stuff at https://www.facebook.com/timbirdtravelphoto/

Thanks for dropping in. Please share and do visit again!

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six Images: Mad about mountains

26 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in mountains, Switzerland, travel photography, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Alps, beauty, Jungfrau, Lauterbrunnen, mountains, Schilthorn, Switzerland, travel, travel photography

Time to revive my sadly infrequent photo blog, formerly Six Picks, now rechristened Six Images, in which I present six themed photos (sometimes a few more if I am feeling especially generous) from my uncontrollably mushrooming archives. Visit my website at www.timbirdphotography.com for a collection of galleries.

I was inspired to kick-start the blog again by a visit to the Swiss Alps, specifically the region dominated by the three mountains of Mönch, Eiger and Jungfrau. Living in Finland, we have to travel to see mountains although there are a few in northern Lapland. That’s OK, Finland has other charms. But I do love a good mountain and I think that if I woke up to the view across the Lauterbrunnen Valley every day, I would never cease to be amazed by it. I thought I should share a few views to press the point home.

mountains-8942

Outlying farms and cottages close to the town of Mürren, at the foot of the Schilthorn mountain. The Schilthorn Cableway takes you up from the valley to the Bond World museum at mountaintop Piz Gloria, where scenes from the Bond movie, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, were filmed. I wasn’t ready for wintery snow, nor temperatures of minus seven centigrade – in September, for goodness sake. But it was beautiful.

 

mountains-9339

The sheer sides of the Lauterbrunnen valley reflect spectacular morning sunlight. Waterfalls cascade down the cliff face.

mountains-9421

Another view along the valley from the Trümmelbach falls, towards the town of Lauterbrunnen.

mountains-9671

Mönch, the smallest of the three peaks, glimpsed through the clouds from the blissfully traffic-free town of Mürren.

mountains-9718

OK, so it could be Eiger, it could be Jungfrau, but it’s magnificent anyway, especially in the magical light just before sunset.

mountains-9740

A night shot of the ridge of mountains further along the valley from Mürren. I spend an hour in the darkness here gazing at the Milky Way and making a few wishes on shooting stars (I’ll tell you only if they come true).

To see more of my pictures visit my website at www.timbirdphotography.com, on my Instagram site at @tim_bird_photo, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/timbirdtravelphoto/, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BirdTimothy

Thanks for dropping by. Do follow the blog so you don’t miss future posts! And tell all your friends and families the good news – in fact, shout it to the mountains: Six Images is back!

Visit https://schilthorn.ch/en/Welcome to find out more about the local attractions and the Cableway.

Want a nice hotel to stay in? Here’s one:

http://alpenruh-muerren.ch/en/Offer/Willkommen

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six picks: join my workshop for a photographer’s day out in Helsinki’s sea fortress!

04 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in Finland, photography, travel photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

finland, helsinki, suomenlinna, travel photography, UNESCO World Heritage, workshop

There are still places available on all three of my summer photo workshops on Suomenlinna, Helsinki’s fabulous Baltic sea fortress, the top highlight of Finland’s capital.  Workshops are on July 8, July 29 and August 19.

Contact me by email at timothy.bird@kolumbus.fi !

Spend a summer day exploring the limitless visual attractions of Suomenlinna, discovering new views and comparing notes with fellow photo enthusiasts of this beautiful UNESCO World Heritage-listed destination. I’ll be your English-language workshop tutor, not least as photographer and author of “Suomenlinna – Islands of Light” (Docendo 2017), a celebration in photographs and encounters with some of the islands’ most colourful residents.

Screen Shot 2017-03-23 at 17.05.45

The emphasis will be on creativity and ways of seeing rather than technical issues, so this is not a “how to use your camera” course, although we’ll discuss and compare techniques where appropriate. Enthusiasm is more important than your knowledge of photography!

workshops-1235

Choose a date that suits you best from three separate workshops:

  • July 8 from 10 to 17
  • July 29 from 10 to 17
  • August 19 from 10 to 17

workshops-

Your tutor – me, i.e. Tim Bird

Workshop fee of €165 includes:

  • Tutoring, assignments and experienced advice in a compact group (maximum 8-10 per group, 7.5 hours)
  • With the group, use of a secure and cosy meeting room with all facilities in one of Suomenlinna’s historic buildings
  • Coffee/tea and fresh Finnish pulla
  • Buffet lunch at Suomenlinna’s Chapman restaurant
  • A signed copy of my book “Suomenlinna – Islands of Light” (Helsinki retail price €35-39)
  • Entry to the museum at Suomenlinna Centre to view my exhibition “Islands of Light”
  • workshops-7304

Fee does not include:

  • City ferry transport to and from the island (9.20 a.m. departure from Helsinki Market Square)
  • Meals and refreshments not included above

workshops-4411

You need:

  • a camera (preferably a digital DSLR, although point-and-shooters are also welcome, with a formatted memory card)
  • enthusiasm, open eyes and a sense of adventure!
  • Suitable clothing for the weather (wind and waterproof clothes, protection from sun, good shoes)
  • Suomenlinna’s streets are often cobbled and other surfaces are rocky and uneven, so do bear this in mind

workshops-3344

How to guarantee your place at the workshop

  • be quick and confirm your place by replying to timothy.bird@kolumbus.fi
  • Please include your name, phone number, e-mail address, special diets and information about your experience of and aspirations for your photography

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six picks: Face to face with an Indian tiger

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in travel photography, wildlife, wildlife

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

animals, Bandhavgarh, India, Junglemantra, Madhya Pradesh, safari, tigers, travel, travel photography, wildlife

I’ve just returned from India where I visited the Bandhavgarh National Park Tiger Reserve, as a guest of the delightful Junglemantra resort, right on the edge of the park’s buffer zone and close to the core area. The park is home to a great deal of wildlife including what is probably India’s highest concentration of wild tigers.

Hosts Sheilin and Rhea are effusively enthusiastic and very well-informed about the abundant wildlife – all sorts of birds, jackals, wild boar, leopards, spotted deer, sambar deer, monkeys, peacocks – on their doorstep. Sheilin is a keen wildlife photographer himself and was great company on the drives I took in the park.

The couple also do a lot of good NGO work in the nearby villages, where they arrange health clinics at the local school, for example. In their own words: “It is our policy to provide training and employment opportunities to local villages thereby reducing the dependence on the forest resources. We also support the local village school with books and teaching aids. At Junglemantra, we believe in sustainable eco-tourism, where tourism is for the forest and its denizens.”

My first evening started with a frenetic but exciting search in the dark for a tiger that had been feeding on a ‘kill’ a few hundred metres from the resort entrance! We didn’t find the tiger then, but I had some great sightings over the next few days of a mother and her three cubs. I was there during the pre-monsoon hot season, when the vegetation is dry and the animals make frequent visits to the watering holes in the park.

If you want to see tigers in India – and there are only a couple of thousand left – Bandhavgarh should be top of your list, and Junglemantra is hard to beat as a base – good food, comfortable bamboo huts, a nice lounge area, and expansive grounds that include a small lake frequented by lots of birds. Here are a few tiger shots to whet your appetite. .

If you’ve enjoyed your visit, do follow me and come back for more! Please remember, no reproduction of my photos without permission, but feel free to share the blog!

Thanks for dropping by!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...

Six Picks: highlights from India

21 Saturday Jan 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in Golden Triangle, India, photography, travel photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

agra, Amritsar, Assam, darjeeling, Delhi, Golden Temple, himalayas, India, islamd, jama masjid, Kanchenjunga, mamallapuram, mountains, photography, religion, Sikh, Taj Mahal, travel, travel photography

I travel a lot but I find myself returning to India more and more. For a photographer there is nowhere more rewarding. There are surprises, some small and quirky, some funny or tragic, some vast and majestic, around every corner.

Recently I have been organizing some of my best material, compiling a single gallery of highlights from the many visits I have made over the last decade or so. It made me appreciate the distances I have covered and the variety contained in this extraordinary continent, in which the mountainous regions of the north, for example, are as different from the tropical jungles of the south as Norway is from Spain. There are common threads running through India, of history and culture, but the landscapes and traditions vary immensely from one area to another.

So far I have added well over 1,000 images to my India gallery, which is on my website at this link:

http://timbirdphotography.photoshelter.com/gallery/India/G0000irlXmGr5Dyg/

I still have to add several hundred more images, from places like Varanasi, Srinagar in Kashmir, Haridwar and Mumbai, and complete the inclusion of key words and other info, so it’s a work in progress. I’m well on my way to making it one of the most comprehensive single galleries of photographs from India available anywhere.

Meanwhile, here are a few samples:

kanchenjunga

The peak of Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, illuminated at sunrise as seen from Darjeeling in Assam. The peak itself is across the border in Nepal but the mountain is a precious cultural icon to Indians, too. 

mamallapuram2

Fishermen on the beach at Mamallapuram. This small town, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal between Chennai and Pondicherry, is famous for its ancient temple carvings, but I spent more time photographing the fishermen early in the morning and in the evening than looking at the carvings.

jama-masjid-mosque

The Jama Masjid mosque in Old Delhi is reckoned to be the biggest place of Muslim worship in South Asia and was built under the rule of the 17th century Mughul emperor, Shah Jahan.

subrata

At its most colourful, there is no more dazzling country on the planet than India. This is my friend Subrata at her wedding in the state of Assam in the northeast. I wanted to photograph her all day, she looked so stunning. Sorry, Subrata!

amritsar-punjab-golden-temple

A Sikh pilgrim at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. 

india-agra-taj-mahal

Like the Golden Temple, the Taj Mahal at Agra lives up to the hype. The cool marble changes shade and mood during the day and is especially mysterious in early morning mist and dazzling in the late afternoon.

I hope you enjoyed this quick tour of India and introduction to my photos. If you are interested in taking advantage of my considerable photo resources from India, please get in touch through my website at www.timbirdphotography.com  And of course, I would be delighted if you follow this occasional blog. Thanks for dropping in!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Recent Posts

  • International Women’s Day: Women of India
  • Happy birthday Tikau
  • Around the world in six World Cup nations
  • The archery lottery in Meghalaya, India
  • Six images: On target for a lucky break

Recent Comments

Rudolf Shaw on When Santa’s presence ma…
Tim Bird on International Women’s Da…
Eeva-Helena Laurinsa… on International Women’s Da…
Tim Bird on My name is Tim, I’m a…
Geoff Harris on My name is Tim, I’m a…

Archives

  • March 2019
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • March 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014

Categories

  • addiction
  • Amritsar
  • architecture
  • Arctic travel
  • art
  • Assam
  • aurora borealis
  • books
  • bookshops
  • bucket-list
  • celebration
  • Central America
  • China
  • Christmas
  • Costa Rica
  • culture
  • culture shock
  • Estonia
  • festival
  • FIFA World Cup
  • Finland
  • football
  • France
  • geology
  • Golden Triangle
  • Guilin
  • helsinki
  • hotels
  • Independence
  • India
  • Juhannus
  • lapland
  • Mexico
  • Midsummer
  • mountains
  • music
  • namibia
  • nature
  • northern lights
  • Odisha
  • Paris
  • photo tours
  • photography
  • Punjab
  • religion
  • rural India
  • social media
  • Solstice
  • spirituality
  • summer
  • sustainable development
  • Switzerland
  • tourism
  • Travel
  • travel photography
  • Uncategorized
  • wildlife
  • wildlife
  • winter
  • Yangshuo

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • International Women’s Day: Women of India
  • Happy birthday Tikau
  • Around the world in six World Cup nations
  • The archery lottery in Meghalaya, India
  • Six images: On target for a lucky break

Recent Comments

Rudolf Shaw on When Santa’s presence ma…
Tim Bird on International Women’s Da…
Eeva-Helena Laurinsa… on International Women’s Da…
Tim Bird on My name is Tim, I’m a…
Geoff Harris on My name is Tim, I’m a…

Archives

  • March 2019
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • March 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014

Categories

  • addiction
  • Amritsar
  • architecture
  • Arctic travel
  • art
  • Assam
  • aurora borealis
  • books
  • bookshops
  • bucket-list
  • celebration
  • Central America
  • China
  • Christmas
  • Costa Rica
  • culture
  • culture shock
  • Estonia
  • festival
  • FIFA World Cup
  • Finland
  • football
  • France
  • geology
  • Golden Triangle
  • Guilin
  • helsinki
  • hotels
  • Independence
  • India
  • Juhannus
  • lapland
  • Mexico
  • Midsummer
  • mountains
  • music
  • namibia
  • nature
  • northern lights
  • Odisha
  • Paris
  • photo tours
  • photography
  • Punjab
  • religion
  • rural India
  • social media
  • Solstice
  • spirituality
  • summer
  • sustainable development
  • Switzerland
  • tourism
  • Travel
  • travel photography
  • Uncategorized
  • wildlife
  • wildlife
  • winter
  • Yangshuo

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Six Images
    • Join 63 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Six Images
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: