Photograph tells more than words

“Come forth into the light of things

  Let nature be your teacher.

—William Wordsworth

Nature photography has always been a true emotional experience for me. I think photograph can tell more than words. Still I remember my childhood, when purchasing a camera was one of my dream. During that time I had spent a lot of money in purchasing film and developing these. Nobody taught me photography. When I was at school, I had purchased one photography book. It was sent by a Delhi based book publisher through V.P.P. Still I don’t know the level of perfection in my photography. But I feel for better photography one thing is must. It is- “an artistic mind”. All my friends and well wishers admire my artistic mind. May be, I think it was in my blood.
      Nature photography refers to a wide range of photography taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures. Nature photography tends to put a stronger emphasis on the aesthetic value of the photo than other photography such as photojournalism and documentary photography.
      But the techniques of wildlife photography differ from those used in landscape photography. For example, in wildlife photography wide apertures are used to achieve a fast shutter speed, freeze the subject’s motion, and blur the backgrounds, while landscape photographers prefer small apertures. Wildlife is usually shot with long telephoto lenses from a great distance; the use of such telephoto lenses frequently necessitates the use of a tripod.
    Initially I was interested in taking photograph of sunset and clouds. But now I like micro or close up photography very much. Really, taking a close up photography of a tinny orchid or insect is very much interesting subject. Micro photography or close-up photography is that the image projected on the “film plane” or a digital sensor is close to the same size as the subject.
In the recent pass I had shot a large number of close-up photography. Few of these are here......
Happy viewing!!!!
      

                               Babori Phul

                                   Lily

                               Coelogyne

                                Fern

                               Gerbera

                                Camellia

                                Dhonia phul

                                Hybride Phalaenopsis

                                Wild gem

                                Rose

                                Moss ?

                               Lip of a Hybrid Phalaenopsis

                               Wild Flower

From the Hills of Blue Pine

Almost every year I have been visiting Zero to see and to take photograph of some magnificent wild orchid in it’s natural habitat. On 2nd of May,2010  (Sunday)we have visited Ziro along with my wife Bobita and daughter Garima. This time Nitu (Budhindra N.Sonowal) also accompanied with us. He is an orchid fanatic .He has collected a large number of orchids not only from North East  but also from abroad.

The weather was clear and one of my friend lalin, a local youth and his friend joined us at Hapoli. Within a short time we have visited some of our favorite destination and have found several species of blooming orchid and  wild flower. We have taken close up photograph of them. It was really a mind blogging for all of us; particularly for my daughter Garima who came to Ziro for the first time.

                                Hapoli 

                                With my wife and daughter
Ziro is the district head quarter of Lower Subansiri district  of Arunachal Pradesh and is one of the oldest towns located at an altitude of 5754ft. (1,780m) from the sea level. it is one of the most beautiful towns in North East India. Its cool weather in summer is one of the main attraction. Ziro is famous for its pine clad  hills around it and rice field .

                                Pine forest

                                Crops field 

 After completing M.B.A.from Bangalore Nitu is doing business successfully.Apart from orchid he has some nice collection of western and old Assamese song.........!!
 

Ziro is home of the friendly Apa-Tani tribe.

There have some unique characteristic features of Apa-Tanies,  which differs from other tribes like Nishi, Dafla, and Miri in Arunachal Pradesh and India. Few of these are:
(1) Apa-Tanis settled permanently in one place whereas other tribes are nomadic in nature move from one place to another in search of fertile lands.
(2) Apa-Tanis cultivate permanently in wet land whereas other tribes practice shifting or dry land cultivations by burning jungles.
(3) Apa-Tanis used to practice facial tattoos before; now they have dropped this custom gradually.
 Population : As of 2001census, Ziro had a population of more than 50,000. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%.
Literacy: Ziro has an average literacy rate of 66%, higher than the national average of 59.5%:
Education : Ziro has highest numbers of Schools in Arunachal Pradesh. There are more than hundred private and Government Schools and one college run by Christian missionary.
Religion : The Apa-tani people, worship nature God.
Festivals :The main festival of Apa-tanis are  Myoko, Murung and Dree
Myoko Festival: This festival is celebrated during the month of March every year by the villagers for well being of society in which people from other villages are invited for local beer and merry making traditional song like BUSHII and AYU. People  sacrifices the pigs during the festival.
Murung Festival : This The festival is celebrated for well being of individual during the month of January in which all the villagers participates. In this festival, Mithuns and cows are sacrificed that are distributed to the whole villagers of Apatani
Dree Festival: This Agricultural festival is celebrated during the month of July, centrally on 5th July every year at Nenchaleya, Old Ziro to propitiate the Dree God to protect the agriculture crops from pests and diseases. In this festival traditional songs and dances are also performed.

Biodiversity:Ziro and it’s entire adjoining area is very much rich in biological diversity having varied flora and fauna .I personally feel that it’s sub tropical and alpine forest is more rich for some of the rare plant than any other parts of Arunachal Pradesh. It’s moist hilly forest is the home of several hundreds of eye catching wild orchid. I think one orchiderium can be established in Ziro, so that tourist can see the local wild orchids without going to the jungle.

One endemic plant with flower like anthurium

Wild Begonia in it's natural habitat

What to see in and around ZIRO 

HAPOLI: Headquarter and main business centre of Lower Subansiri District. The Deputy Commissioner’s office is situated in this Township.

PINE GROOVE: This Pine clad area is about 3 km. from old Ziro. GREF (Border Road organization) established in December 1961 is located in this area.One can see blue and yellow wild Irish and several species of pine tree.

ZIRO PUTU: Ziro putu or Army putu is a small hill at old Ziro where first administrative centre was set up after India’s independence and ARMY cantonment was located . From this hillock one can see tehe Apatani flat terrain.

KILE PAKHO: A ridge located at 7 km. from old Ziro. On clear weather during December and January , one can have clear bird’s views of  snow capped range of Himalayas which is known as “NYIME PEMBU”

PAAPU: In this area the first administrative centre was established before independence in 1944-45 by an british Mr. F. Heimendrof .He was a famous anthropologist and the author of “Himalayan Barbary”, “Apatani and their Neighbours” and “A Himalayan Tribe: From cattle to cash”, and was  appointed by British Administration as a Special Officer .

PADDY CUM FISH CULTIVATION: About 3.5 km from Hapoli Town, one can see beautiful high altitude fish farm where breeding of high altitude fishes is done. This is one of the  famous innovative cultivation practices followed in Apa-tani. After transplanting of paddy in wet rice cultivation field, the fish fingerlings are put in channels in paddy field at knee-deep height and that are kept for 2-3 months before harvesting of fish.

BAMBOO GROOVE: Ziro is famous for one stem monopodial Bamboo, (Phyllotachys bamboosoides) grown with blue clad pine, is one of expert practices of farm forestry followed in this part of the world. These are the ideal place for trekking and hiking.

TALEY VALLEY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY: One of the most beautiful and virgin wild life sanctuary having diverse flora and fauna ranging from sub-tropical to alpine forests. A variety of rhodendron, orchids, ferns and bamboo are seen in this sanctuary. This sanctuary is the home of rare clouded leopard and a large numbers of hills bird. This is also one of the important biodiversity hot spot of the world, which is about 32 KM away from north east of Ziro.

Tale Valley WLS.                       Map source : Sanctuary Asia.Vol.XXII No.5,October 2002

......" Tale Valley Wildlife Sanctuary had been created in 1976.Tale is an artist’s paradise, with almost every imaginable color represented.Lush green forests contrast against a crystal blue sky,orange and yellow maple plants stand out against huge dark green conifers with fast flowing silvery torrents rushing through it all. The valley is the mother of the river Pange,which flow through the middle of the sanctuary. Further downstream, the Pange sustains agriculture in the Apatani valley before rushing to join the mighty Subansiri river.The river’s abundant and diverse fish stock form a major source of animal protein for locals. The sanctuary also had a large population of endangered mammals including the leopard,clouded leopard and golden cat, all on Schedule I of the Wildlife (protection) Act,1972"  .....Dipankar Ghose, Sanctuary Asia.Vol.XXII No.5,October 2002
Read More about Tale Valley  http://hubpages.com/hub/Talley-Valley

ORCHID AND FLOWERS: Ziro is famous for some of most rare orchids and other flowers like Rhododendron , wild Irish. Hedychium, etc. The climate of the area is congenial for cultivation of orchids and varieties of flowers.

                                Venda roxburghii

                               Coelogyne...

                               Coelogyne...

                                             Coelogyne...

                                Phaius in it's natural habitate

                                Arundina graminifolia

On way to Ziro from Kimin we had captured photographs of some magnificent natural beauty.These may be some attraction for tourist from different parts of India and as well as from abroad.But the road condition was not so good. Here is some of these......

                               Ranganadi

                                 Ranganadi is blocked and dying.                
Beyond the gaze of Delhi, the Northeast is sitting on a time bomb. They have destroyed these magnificent ecological hot spots and its indigenous people...........
Read an article in TEHELKA
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main13.asp?filename=Cr070205eyeless_in.asp

                                Wild creeper Rose

                               Crops field ....

                                Sunny days..

In 26th of August 2007 we went to ziro.It was a cloudy day.Just after rain I had captured some beautiful snap of clouds over deep blue sky including a rainbow.

cloudscape photography

Photography of clouds and sky is known as cloudscape photography. In 18th century Belgian photographer Léonard Misonne (1870-1943), was known for his black and white photographs of heavy skies and dark clouds. In the middle of 20th  century, American photographer Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) created a series of photographs of clouds, called “equivalents” (1925-1931). More recently, photographers such as Ralph Steiner,Robert Davies and Tzeli Hadjidimitriou  have been considered as noted for cloudscape photography.

  

 

                               This photograph was taken from a Apatani village

                                Unforgettable

Here comes the Sun

The Rain is Over

Summer

Magic World

Heaven is a Place on Earth

Wonderfull World

Unspoilt Beauty

Endless Journey

Crops Field

Magic of Clouds

Natures Splendour