Tag Archives: travel

Six picks: Face to face with an Indian tiger

12 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in travel photography, wildlife, wildlife

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

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!

Six Picks: highlights from India

21 Saturday Jan 2017

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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!

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

25 Sunday Dec 2016

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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:

crimboblog-6575

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.

crimboblog-2750

In May I went to the one-time Finnish military island of Örö. 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, Örö’s environment is especially pristine.

kaboki

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

crimboblog-1850

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.

crimboblog-9494

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.

sicily-volcanoes-tb-b-6463

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.

crimboblog-1089

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.

Six picks: spring 2017, photo tour to Kerala

14 Monday Nov 2016

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

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.

slinna-1326

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

slinna-1373

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

slinna-2088

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

slinna-2419

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

slinna-3124

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

slinna-2789

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.

 

Six picks: the Theyyam in northern Kerala

22 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in India, photography, travel photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

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.

theyyamblog-1680

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.

theyyamblog-1727

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

theyyamblog-9435-2

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

theyyamblog-0118

The character ‘actors’ need plenty of stamina.

theyyamblog-1831

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

theyyamblog-1880

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!

Six Picks: Suomenlinna, fabulous in winter

15 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in tourism, Travel, travel photography, Uncategorized, winter

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

A shamefully occasional photo blog presenting six-at-a-time appetizers of the delights in my photographic larder. Sneak in for a midnight feast at www.timbirdphotography.com

The most exotic and exciting venue for photography for me in the locality of my home in Helsinki, Finland, has always been the historic island fortress of Suomenlinna (literally, Finland’s fortress). Helsinki is a vibrantly modern city but that means it’s short of truly old historic districts. Suomenlinna’s ramparts and defences are built across a small archipelago of rugged islands, a mere 20 minute ferry ride from the city’s main market square. A UNESCO listed World Heritage site, it’s a wonderful place to visit at any time of the year, romantic and windswept and with wide sea views.

For myself, winter has always been the best time to visit, especially when (or in these days of unpredictable climate, if) the sea freezes. This winter has been the coldest for some years and that means dramatic sea ‘smoke’, the effect of very cold air sweeping across not-yet freezing water. There has been a fair amount of snow, too, with more to come, it seems.

And it also seems that my fondness for Suomenlinna in the winter is being increasingly shared. Today I got a press release recording the fact that the numbers of winter visitors have soared. There was an increase of 14 per cent in the total number of visitors in the winter months in 2015, and the total of over 200,000 was a new record.

Since this means I might not have the place to myself in coming years, I don’t know if celebrations are called for, but in any case I’ll mark the news by showing six of my best shots from the dramatic afternoon on January 5 when the the entire archipelago and South Harbour were enveloped in that extraordinary ‘sea smoke’. Here goes:

blog-4238blog-4248blog-4257blog-4228blog-4250blog-4290

Visiting Suomenlinna while in Helsinki is easy – just jump on the ferry. Helsinki city transport tickets are transferable. Click here to find the timetable from the Kauppatori (Market Square). More information about Suomenlinna and its museums and restaurants: click here.

If you’ve enjoyed your visit to Six Picks, come back and let me distract you again some time, or visit previous blogs in the series. And feel free to Tweet toot, hoot, share and anything else that social media well let you do – but remember copyright is MINE! If you’d like to use the photos for any other purpose please get in touch.

Six picks: Motion Pictures – a travel photographer’s companion

12 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

eBook

My eBook – out now on Amazon

I’m returning to Six Picks after a long absence with the great news that my eBook, ‘Motion Pictures – a travel photographer’s companion’, is now available on Amazon. Here’s the blurb:

“Designed for viewing on colour devices, this is a richly illustrated, beautifully designed companion to anyone whose twin passions are travel and photography. The book contains tips, advice and anecdotes by experienced award-winning photographer and writer Tim Bird, illustrated with his own colour photos, and featuring sections by three top guest photographers. An entertaining and inspiring companion rather than a ‘how-to’ manual, this eBook discusses cultural issues encountered when using your camera in exotic locations as well as practical shooting situations.”

I’m hoping to follow up with Apple and Kobo versions, although the publishing processes of both platforms are presenting various frustrating obstacles to this. It’s available on different Amazon national sites, including the USA, Mexico, India, Germany, France and Australia. I’m donating a euro for every copy sold to the very worthy charity in Nepal, Moving Mountain School Bag.

The eBook will make a perfect companion for anyone joining my fabulous photo tour to Assam in April 2016. Still places available for what promises to be the adventure of a lifetime: click here and here to learn more and contact me at timothy.bird@kolumbus.fi when you’ve decided to join me!

Other great news includes my award from the British Guild of Travel Writers as Photographer of the Year 2015, presented at a gala dinner at the Savoy Hotel in London on the eve of the World Travel Market. It’s the second time I’ve won this award – the first was in 2012 – and I’m thrilled to be recognized by such a prestigious organization. This news was followed by more good news, namely that I have two photos included in the finalist list for the Travel Photographer of the Year awards and one shortlisted in Outdoor Photographer of the Year. The winners will be announced in December.

Here are the winning four shots from the BGTW award:

bgtw_15b003

Light installation at Amsterdam’s Light Festival.

bgtw_15b004

Festival of Arts and Culture in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Mending nets at a Longhouse community in Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

Mending nets at a Longhouse community in Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

Celebrating boy drummers at a Muslim festival in Jaipur, India

Celebrating boy drummers at a Muslim festival in Jaipur, India

Here are a couple of my own shots from the eBook, two of many from a richly illustrated design which is the work of my talented friend Ea Söderberg, director of Hapate Design:

bali

Working in a Balinese rice paddy.

Ceiling and frescoes of St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg, Russia.

Ceiling and frescoes of St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg, Russia.

If you splash out the modest sum for my eBook you’ll see plenty more of my work and share some of my ideas and stories about travel photography. Feedback welcome, and if you do make a purchase, I’d be eternally grateful for a review on Amazon too.

Over and out for now – watch this space for more news about my photo tour to Assam!

Info for photo gear nerds (like myself): All photos made with Fujifilm equipment, XPro1 and XT1 bodies with various lenses, although mainly 18-55mm f2.8-4 zoom.

Six Picks: Outcastes – a Village in Odisha, India

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Dear oh dear, no entry for many weeks, this won’t do. My other blog – perhaps I’d better combine them from now on – at birdseyeview.me revealed my latest big news but I seem to have neglected my vast and loyal readership on Six Picks with those developments.

So here it is: at the beginning of the month I launched an online multimedia documentary called Outcastes – a Village in Odisha, India, telling the story of, yes, you guessed it, a village in Odisha, India. The village in question is a Dalit, or so-called Untouchable village, and it’s the target of the Tikau Share charity with which I’ve been working for the last couple of years.

Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 6.28.23 PM

No pictures on the blog this time – I’m going to direct you straight to the project, made in collaboration with, and with the guidance of, an old – let’s say “long-term” – Finnish photographer friend Kari Kuukka, who is something of a wizard when it comes to multimedia. I suggested that our village would make a good story for his DocImages.fi site, he agreed, and this is the result. We know it’s not perfect, but we think it does more than hint at the possibilities of using multimedia elements to tell important stories.

I recommend a fast and reliable internet connection, and you can view it in three ways:

As a website which works across all platforms:

http://www.docimages.org/publications/outcastes/intro/

As a iPad specific publication through an app:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/docimages/id796410557?ls=1&mt=8

As an iBook in the iTunes store:

https://itunes.apple.com/fi/book/outcastes/id927469532?mt=11

Feedback more than welcome as ever. And do drop in to my travel photography web site at www.timbirdphotography.com