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Six Images

~ Selections from Tim Bird's travel photography archives

Six Images

Tag Archives: travel

Happy birthday Tikau

18 Tuesday Sep 2018

Posted by Tim Bird in India, photography, rural India, Travel

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Tags

India, photography, travel

In November 2011 I sat in a car loaded with luggage and five ladies from Kolkata airport to the town of Balasore in the Indian state of Odisha (also called Orissa). Of those ladies, three were Finnish and two were Indian and we were on our way to visit a small, remote and very poor village in the flat Odisha countryside. The village was (still is) a Dalit, otherwise known as ‘Untouchable’ community, right on the bottom rung of the Indian social and economic ladder.

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Kolkata airport – Ea Söderberg, Taina Snellman and Linda Lehto.

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A very crowded car.

The Finnish girls were members of an NGO, Tikau Share (Tikau means ‘durable’), that was developing the artisan skills of the villagers, especially the women, so that they could sell their bamboo design handicrafts via the Tikau shop in Helsinki. The charity also donated clothes and toys and blankets, and our car was loaded with extra cases of odds and ends. There was barely room to breathe, but I managed to get the seat in the front with Ganesh, the Elephant God, whose job it is in Indian vehicles to remove obstacles to travel on the chaotic and often very bumpy road ahead.

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The airline, Finnair, had donated extra kilos so we could carry all this stuff to India. I was going to write an article about the project for the Finnair magazine Blue Wings.

The next two weeks were an inspiring, life-changing event for me and I returned to Finland having made three great friends in those Finnish girls, who included Taina Snellman, the founder of Tikau, a female pied-piper who casts a charm over everyone she meets, luring them unsuspectingly and inescapably into the Tikau camp. I’ve returned to India and that village many times since, and I made a multimedia documentary, Outcastes, about the village in Odisha. We’ve held exhibitions on the theme of Design Helps, we’ve got sick and got well again, there have been romances and weddings, there have been adventures…

This year Tikau/Tikau Share celebrates its tenth anniversary, and the villagers have increased their confidence, their self-sufficiency and resourcefulness while Tikau has continued to sell their products and those of other Indian artisans. I was checking through my photos from that first visit – I have hundreds more from subsequent visits -and thought this would be a good time to shake them free of digital dust and reveal them to the world again. So here’s a selection (yes, this is meant to be Six Images, but who’s really counting):

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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.

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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.

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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.

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‘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.

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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.

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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?

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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

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Yearning for Creative Stress© in Incredbial India

29 Sunday Oct 2017

Posted by Tim Bird in culture, culture shock, India, photography, Travel

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

creative stress, culture, Delhi, guru, incredible india, India, misunderstandings, photography, travel

I’m going to India again. Why India? I go there several times a year and my friends and other people often ask me why. I pay my own way, so this isn’t some all-expenses-paid press junket. It’s usually not for a holiday, either. I love going to India, but it’s not a place in which I can honestly say I normally go to relax (although I hasten to add that there are places where this is more than perfectly possible).

So why the hell do I love going there? First of all, there is the incredible (did I spell that right?) visual variety, a feast for any obsessive photographer and writer such as myself, and the surprises that seem to wait around every corner. And it keeps you on your toes to discover, again and again, that a taxi driver might actually mean “No” when he says “Yes”, as in: “So you know this address, right?” “Yes, sir.” So why is he driving the wrong way (and sometimes against oncoming traffic) for half an hour, then calling his mate for directions? To describe just one example, familiar to many people almost as soon as they get off the plane at Delhi, bleary-eyed and gullible.

I am of the old fashioned, slightly perverse school of travel that says it’s fun and life-enhancing to be removed from your comfort zone. India does comfort zone-removal better than anywhere, unless you happen to be Indian, in which case it’s just normal. Arriving from Europe, you have to take a mental shift sideways or fight against the cultural flow. Either way, you are enriching your soul. In any case, that’s what I keep telling myself. In fact, I’ve just invented a name for it: Creative Stress©. Watch out for the self-help manual.

In India there seems to be a guru for everyone for every day of the week. I’ve been consulting my blog guru lately and I’ve been advised to inject some humour into these blogs. I have a lot of very good friends in India and I think – I hope – they won’t be offended if I tease them a bit with this selection of photos that illustrate some of the more amusing visual culture shocks I have encountered during my visits. If they want to get their revenge they only have to remember that I’m British, and these days that’s about as ridiculous as you can be.

And just to cover my tracks, I have to mention that Indian hospitality is of the first order. Indian friends are for life, not just for Diwali. So I keep returning happily to see them as well.

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Spotted in The Times of India, Mumbai edition, I’m not sure this needs any comment. I think all of us condemn bum blasts in public places.

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No, I don’t know what a Dliabetologist is either. Probably someone who treats ‘dliabetes’. Meanwhile, form a queue to put your mind at rest with Assistant Professor B. Shit.

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Those well-fermented drinks are collector’s items that date back to the days of the 16th century Mughal Empire.

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The slogan of the Indian Tourism Board is widely promoted by auto-rickshaw drivers. I think this sums it up. All my memories of Idnia are of incredbial experiences..

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On the border with Pakistan at Wagah, near Amritsar, I witnessed the surreal evening border-closing ceremony, at which the Indian army demonstrates its considerable sonic warfare capabilities. I kid you not.

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This guy’s tee-shirt is all the more alarming for the fact that he was wearing it at the site of the shrine of the Sufi Muslim saint, Nizamuddin, in Delhi. Sufis are known for the gentle, music-loving, celebratory nature of their brand of Islam. Either this fellow didn’t know the meaning of the slogan or he actually really did know I was going to be there. Probably the latter.

Lots more photos from all over India here, although not all as irreverent as those above:

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

Come and see me on Instagram too at @tim_bird_photo

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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

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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.

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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/

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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.

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Outlying farms and cottages close to the town of MĂĽrren, 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.

 

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

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

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

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

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A night shot of the ridge of mountains further along the valley from MĂĽrren. 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

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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!

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Six Picks: highlights from India

21 Saturday Jan 2017

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

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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!

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A Sikh pilgrim at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. 

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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!

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Six Picks: highlights of 2016 – my Christmas gift to you!

25 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by Tim Bird in Finland, India, lapland, photography, tourism, Travel, travel photography, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Assam, Örö, Baltic, finland, India, Japan, kabuki, Kanchenjunga, Kerala, Lapland, Northern Ireland, photography, Stromboli, Theyyam, travel, volcanoes

It’s Christmas Day 2016 and I’m in a generous gift-giving mood, so for my review blog for the year I’m giving you not six, not seven, but EIGHT pictures. Well, that includes the header above, taken one November morning as the sun’s rays spread across the third highest mountain in the world, Kanchenjunga, from the West Bengal hill station of Darjeeling.

It’s been another exciting year with some amazing assignments and adventures. Here are a few highlights – well, seven to be exact:

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Reijo Jääskeläinen runs the Levi Husky Park near Levi in Finnish Lapland. In January I visited Lapland to write a story about how this part of Finland is becoming popular with film makers – with animals among the acting casts.

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In May I went to the one-time Finnish military island of Ă–rö. It’s a spring tradition for myself and a group of friends to ‘conquer’ a different Baltic island. Because access was limited to the military for many years, Ă–rö’s environment is especially pristine.

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My visit to Japan included a tour of the mountainous region north of Nagoya, where I went behind the scenes at a Kabuki theatre.

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Northern Kerala in India is the exclusive location of the weird and wonderful Theyyam ritual, a colourful spectacle involving several hours of make-up and an attempt by participants to become  inhabited or possessed by the deities they impersonate. Extraordinary.

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In the summer I found myself in Belfast in Northern Ireland for the first time, taking a tour in Billy Scott’s black cab around the city. This stop was at the Peace Wall which separates the Republican Falls Road and Loyalist Shankill Road communities.

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Capturing this shot of the Stromboli volcano erupting  in October was something a ‘bucket list’ moment. I’ve seen volcanoes smoking and steaming in Asia and all over Central America but I’d never seen or shot a full scale eruption before.

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I was honoured to attend the wedding of friends Drahkya and Subrata in the town of Nagaon in Assam, India in November. The hospitality of my hosts was overwhelming and the occasion was touching and colourful, and an opportunity to make new friends.

So where next? Lapland again, a voyage on a working icebreaker in the Baltic, and another India adventure are planned so far, but new years always bring new surprises. Watch this space…! And best wishes to all ‘visitors’ for a happy and peaceful Christmas.

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Six picks: spring 2017, photo tour to Kerala

14 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by Tim Bird in India, photo tours, photography, Travel, travel photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

India, Kerala, photo tours, travel, travel photography

Announcing an exciting opportunity to explore many of the highlights of this most photogenic of Indian States, brimming with exotic tropical colour and visual surprises. Join our compact group of photo enthusiasts in March 2017 for workshops, photo-shoots and inspiring photo chat as we explore a variety of cultural and scenic wonders.

Highlights include

  • The picturesque and emblematic Chinese fishing nets of Fort Cochin, Kerala’s bustling colonial port city
  • A private showing and photo-shoot of the enchanting Kathakali traditional dance
  • Visits to the Kadar, Malayar, Muthuvar and Mannaan tribal villages
  • Hiking in the spectacular tea plantations of the upland Munnar hill station area
  • A backwaters overnight voyage on a traditional wooden Kettuvallam boat
  • A visit to the colourful backwaters town of Kottayam

The ten-day tour has been planned in expert cooperation with the highly experienced UK-based adventure travel operator Intrepid. The itinerary is devised with special attention to the best photo opportunities and with time available for informal workshops, comparing notes and discussion. A local travel guide accompanies us, while Yours Truly, an award-winning English travel photographer and writer who has visited Kerala on several occasions and traveled extensively throughout India, supervises the photography. I’ve earned a few prizes for my work, including British Guild of Travel Writers’ Photographer of the Year in both 2012 and 2015.

INTERESTED? VISIT MY WEBSITE FOR CONTACT DETAILS

I will advise about the kind of camera gear that will be useful to have with you on the tour and I am available before and during the tour to discuss other photography-related aspects of the tour. My eBook, Motion Pictures – a travel photographer’s companion, is packed full of tips and anecdotes about his travels and photography experiences and is available for purchase through Amazon, Kobo, and for Apple iPads from iTunes. Tour participants will be offered a free PDF download of the eBook.

Accommodation will be in a range of exciting hotels of four-star standard, a secluded rainforest resort and on board a fabulous wooden Kettuvallam backwaters boat.

To get you in the mood, here are six photos from Kerala, giving you a taste of what to expect and the photographic riches on offer.

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The backwaters and traditional fishing nets of Kerala are a gift for photographers, especially in the subtle light of early morning or late afternoon.

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A dredging sand boat: the backwaters are a parallel world along the coast of Kerala, India’s southernmost state.

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A fisherman on the beach at Fort Cochin, where colonial Portuguese architecture and a rich trading history offer plentiful material for photo-shoots.

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The colourful traditional Kathakali performance. A special show will be arranged for our tour group, ensuring some unique photography.

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Tea plantations contrast with rugged landscapes in the mountainous Munnar area.

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Kerala is rich in wildlife, and if we’re lucky we’ll have a chance to photograph some of the wild elephants that inhabit the forests and nature reserves.

KEEN TO COMBINE YOUR LOVE OF TRAVEL WITH YOUR PASSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, IN THE COMPANY OF LIKE-MINDED, ADVENTUROUS PEOPLE? CONTACT ME FOR MORE INFORMATION.

 

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Six picks: the Theyyam in northern Kerala

22 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by Tim Bird in India, photography, travel photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

culture, Fujifilm, Fujifilm X-series, India, Kerala, photography, religion, ritual, Theyyam, tradition, travel

A lamentably occasional photo blog in which I share some samples from my archives at www.timbirdphotography.com .

Did you miss me? I’ve been away from here for far too long but I’ve had lots of adventures with my camera while I’ve been away. I don’t have a good excuse for not posting for a while apart from other creative distractions going on – more news of those to come. I shall try to make up for lost time in the coming weeks with some photo selections that I hope you’ll enjoy.

I’ve been sifting through my archives and amazing myself at all the extraordinary things I’ve seen and the places I’ve visited since the last time I posted anything. Top of my list is the Theyyam ritual ‘performance’, for want of a better word, which you’ll only find in the northern part of the Indian state of Kerala. This is very much a living tradition, a ritual of great significance to local people, not just staged for tourists. There are often several Theyyams being performed each night during the winter season at shrines, many of them in remote villages. Theyyams can continue through the course of a night from dusk to dawn, and sometimes even longer.

An important part of the ritual is the preparation, in which intricate make-up and elaborate costumes are applied to the ‘actors’, whose aim over the course of the enactment is to actually become the deity that they represent, not just play its part. The trance into which they attempt to enter is induced to the accompaniment of frenetic drumming. Only men and boys are permitted to represent the characters, and only members of the Dalit or low-caste community are allowed to serve as actors. It is a rare case of Dalits being held traditionally in great respect by members of higher castes.

I stayed near the small fishing town of Kannur and attended three different Theyyams during my visit.

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Making up is very hard to do: face and body decorations preceding the Theyyam can take several hours and is a highly skilled art form in itself.

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After make-up, dressing up. Costumes are very colourful, and very heavy.

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A Theyyam character (there are hundreds of them) ready to ‘perform’.

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The character ‘actors’ need plenty of stamina.

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Some Theyyams involve dancing and the acting out of ritual scenes.

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Assistants provide support as the characters ‘become’ the deities they represent.

If you’d like to see more of my Theyyam photos, click here to visit a gallery on my website.

All photos produced with Fujifilm X-Series cameras and Fujinon lenses.

Please follow this blog and watch out for the next edition!

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