Posts by: Kalyan Varma

Finally after months of waiting my new gear had arrived. After the Adorama fiasco, the lens went out of stock everywhere. Late July, Gowtham (an online friend whom I’ve had exchanged few mails before regarding photography) shot me a mail saying he was coming down to Bangalore and he could get the lens for me. Exactly on the same day, fresh stock of this lens showed up in B & H. Gowtham ordered it right away and got it delivered to his place without any issues what so ever. Then he flew into India exactly on the day the London…

This is the view from top of Honnamati hill at BR hills. My favorite place on earth. The valley that you see is about 30% of this amazing wilderness paradise called BR hills. This wildlife sanctuary is in a valley which is protected on all the sides by hills, which keeps it relatively less disturbed. I was at the right place at the right time to have captured this ray of light falling on the forest cover through the monsoon clouds. My last two trips have been very fruitful in terms of photography. I’ve managed to upload the first set…

Some updates on my photography front : I got a mail from BBC Wildlife last night. I did not make it to the wildlife photographer of the year award. However, my Vine snake photograph made it to the final stage of the ‘Animal Portraits’ category it seems. I’m just thrilled to even have reached to that point considering they had more than 18,000 entries from 55 countries. About 20 of my photographs have been selected for a exhibition being hosted by WWF. If you are in Delhi, do visit the Indian Habitat Center from 25th to 31st. The exhibition will…

After weighing in all my options for many months, I finally decided on upgrading my lens. I decided to buy an expensive telephoto lens. (One of the top end Nikon lens which costs about $5000) My friend Sanath agreed to carry the lens for me from the US back to Bangalore. He gave me his relative’s address in San Diago where I was suppose to ship the lens. Since I live in India and my Credit card has a $2000 limit, I asked Bharath to buy it for me and I said I’ll wire transfer the money once the delivery…

Jeffrey Friedl has written an excellent overview on the Digital camera white balance. Most of the photographers I know (even professional ones) do not understand what White balance is and they just leave it in auto most of the time, without touching it again in post-processing. I spend few min on each of my photograph to get the right balance and right temperature in post-processing as it makes a BIG difference in how your photograph will look finally.

These lovely lily’s were in bloom in my garden this week. So got out my macro lens and did a small photo shoot of this flower. This photograph is my favorite of the lot. I’ve made a 1400×1050 wallpaper version since I get so many mails for them.

The holiday rocked even though the weather was very hot and sweaty. After spending a lot of time in Bangalore and in the forests, it was amazing to see a place which has the best of both the worlds. Goa has lovely roads, amazing thick vegetation all around. We rented out bikes and drove around the city. I cannot even remember the last time I’ve had so much pleasure time riding a bike without all the pollution, bad road and the traffic. But I don’t think I can ever live long term there.. the weather is just way too humid…

After many years, I’m finally going on a “non-wildlife” holiday. As in just pack and go without cameras etc 🙂 Goa here I come…

noelladsa‘s Nikon D70 has been acting weird and I had given it to the Nikon service center for repair. I just got a call back from them and it seems some ants have entered the D70 and have shorted some circuits. In his own words .. “We just disinfected your D70 using pesticides”. Ironic considering my D70 became famous for photographing ants.

Got up from sleep because of the cold breeze rattling my windows. The Great Indian Monsoon has finally hit Bangalore and this year it has arrived quite early.. Because of early arrival and some unavoidable circumstances, I had to stay put in the city. Like the last two years, I wanted to spend this year at some peak at western ghats when the monsoon hits and then try to chase it up the ranges. Anyway goodbye ticks. Leeches, here I come.