The birds and almost bees, not to mention a few animals

En route to Kerala from Tamilnadu, we stopped overnight at Theni, a beautiful and cool place in itself. On the way to Thekkadi preserve we stopped by Suruli Falls. It was a waterfall about 50 feet tall and 150 feet wide and it had an artificial look to it. 

They had put steel bars everywhere to let folks bathe and that gave it a very man made feel. The water though was cold and refreshing and given it ran through a bunch of herbs, was supposedly medicinal. 

Those of us who decided to take bath in the falls had a great time. There was no photographing this falls because of the bathing folks! On the way back from the falls (it is almost a mile hike one way with some steep steps at the end to get to the falls), we saw a bunch of vendors selling fruits, cut mangoes, beads etc. 

It was a treat to watch the kids go check all this out.

Took a chance and got a "towel" for the bathing thinking it would be a good souvenir. It has turned all my baniyans and other white garments that went to the laundry load a nice purple! 

Did get to take photos of the monkeys near the falls. They were such a menace, stealing waterbottles, purses and even trying to grab at little kids.

and this one posed nicely for his portrait!

We saw firsthand the problems of having wildlife interact so closely with humans. It was neither good for the monkeys nor us!

Later we were rewarded with sightings of lots of different birds, deer, wild buffallo. On this trip we got to see bee hives that were thrown in the ground, possibly by the monkeys!

The boat ride!

It was raining on and off  every 5 minutes and that made the bird photography challenging, but the weather resistant 70-200mm lens proved itself!

The cormorants (if I got that right) were amazing. They are smaller than the ones we see in US or the ones we saw in New Zealand, but they make up for their stature with speed! The wild buffallo we saw were huge. This is my first time seeing them in the wild in India. 

We got to see baby birds crying out to their parents!

Kerala, is truly "gods own country!" The scenery on the way to Suruli falls was pretty much this for a good 25 miles. 

The Thekkadi lake itself is a sight to behold. The colors are vibrant, the sky was perpetually ominous and the constant rain makes it difficult to forget that even though you are on a large boat, you are not secure..

and my favorite photo in HDR of the lake!

It is not easy to do multiple exposures on a moving boat in the rain. It was worth a try. Unfortunately it did not work out. This shot though is a single exposure tone adjusted using PS5.

We had a great time in Theni, Thekkadi and on Thekkadi lake. Would strongly recommend this as a three day trip without time deadlines.

This is not one to be rushed. We will definitely try to revisit this place in this lifetime!

A trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park

The long weekend that comes after a long long time every year came and went. We HAD to go somewhere on a long drive to relieve all that pent up stress of the routine between January to the end of May. 

We decided to visit Lassen National park after a six year gap with the cousin family. We had a ton of fun over the two day trip. 

The weather was perfect. There was lots of snow in the ground at 7000-8000+ feet altitudes. There was plenty of water gushing down the cascades and waterfalls. It was just perfect!

Ice had started melting and it created caves that had a nice bluish glow with the light reflecting from the other side!

Last time we visited this park, it was mostly snowed out and we could not go on any trails as they were all closed. We drove through the loop and came back. This time though, things were different. 

There were snowball fights, adventurous trekking, the kids all grown up and at an age where watching them interact and play is a joy in itself. Even the driving to and from the park was pleasant compared to the usual because we decided to put the younger kids in one vehicle and the older kids in the other vehicle!

We could clearly see the hot sulfur springs for a change!

and watch the sulfur meet the water which makes for some amazing hues..

We made one mistake, or rather the park authorities did. While trying to get to the Kings Creek falls, there was a trail that was closed. Given all the snow, we were off the trail walking in snow. Two families we crossed in the opposite direction told us "just follow the footsteps on the snow".. turns out we wandered off on a closed trail that was very dangerous. We made it in one piece to the falls and back where a rock slide had recently crossed the trail. It was quite and adventure with the kids. 

What were we thinking!

For some strange reason, I did not haul my tripod on the trip. So fancy falls pictures to show. Did get a few shots by placing camera on a rock tripod I built at the base of the falls.. 

Here are the only decent shots of the different falls I managed to get.. Did get a lot of pictures of the kids in action.. but they go on other Social Media!

That last shot almost cost me the camera! 

On day two we visited all the "vista points" and let the kids play in the snow some more. We also went on a beautiful trail around Manzanita lake and around the Lily pond. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from those two hikes.

That we learned is Lichens.. not moss! It gave the giant trees a flourescent hue that was fantastic.

Lake Helen, although frozen provided other entertainment .. like me doing Triangle pose on snow/ice in front of the family! 

The beautiful Manzanita lake..

There were a lot of ripples.. but given my tripodlessness, opted to take the shot at a very high shutter speed to avoid the ripples.. this was taken with a 1/4000 or 1/8000 speed with ISO at 400. While driving back I realized that to get the entire reflection, a better idea would have been to use the full ND filter instead of the graduated ND filter and go a good 1/2 a second or 1 second at f22 with ISO 100. That experiment will be for the next trip or next reflection shot that comes our way!

The famous standing boulder at Bumpass hell..

Now for some pictures with the kids in action to add more beauty to the scenery..

and last but not least, the ghost cat.. 

and one of our best outdoor family portaits in recent memory (thanks to BB for the click)!

Strongly recommend Lassen as a weekend trip from the bay area, if.. IF it is not snowed out and you can get accomodation last minute at Red Bluff, which is 45 minutes away from park entrance. This is a lot less crowded than Yosemite and a lot more fun in our opinion!

Alaska animal sightings..

On our recent trip to Alaska we saw many animals on the Denali Bus tour, on our way to and from Denali, at the wildlife conservatory in Turnagain Arm.. 

You could watch animals cross the desolate roads.. closest we saw this was at Yellowstone. The area of the preserve has to be really huge for this to happen is our guess!

Here are some of the pictures .. 

That was Dall sheep on the steep cliff faces, elk, grizzlies, moose, musk oxen, an owl, Ptarmigan which happens to be the state bird in Alaska, wood bison which is endangered and caribou! 

We are definitely going to plan another Alaska visit for a longer time in a couple of years.. Apparenlty you need to have 20 photographs published to be able to apply for a permit to go inside the park to photograph wild life and it is a lottery system of sorts. Will get there in time!

Flying by Denali

We are an equal opportunity family, at least when blog photos are concerned.

The last post saw the little one all happy to be airborne. This one has Jr. aka style missy on the plane.

We spent a wonderful two days at the Grande Denali Lodge which was an architectural marvel in itself. It is on a hill and the windy gravel road that leads up to it is apparently the third highest road in Alaska (or close to it)!

The views from the hotel were spectacular and the service was great. The kids loved the place. There were pick up services for the air taxi and to other places there from the hotel door which was great! 

If the views from the lobby and rooms were great, the views on the Fly Denali plane were mind blowing!

Here are the last few shots taken as we flew back from seeing Denali mountain up close towards Haley.

If you are going with small kids on this 8 seater plane.. remember this! There is NO restroom on an 8 seater plane. You get a bucket. The sight of the bucket is enough to deter any kid from thinking about going.. The bucket officially beats "think of daisies" as the pee pee restrainer!

That one looks hazy but the large size image shows up much better than this compressed jpg on this website.. 

On our way back the sun did his magic by giving us some special effects. We were going through clouds and that helped!

Have not gotten around to editing the images from the ground trip through the National park by bus.. 

On this trip we travelled by plane, boat, bus, car... bike, horse and dog-sled were other options, but the Homestead tour where we get to see the sled dogs being trained was vetoed against the better wishes of Jr. and the little one.. we know how it goes. . . first it is a request to see huskie puppies and before you know it the puppy lobby in the house has a major advantage and we are back to discussing why we will not have dogs in the house!

Next, bus tour pictures..

Denali by Air

We got a chance to fly on a Talkeetna Aeroservices (Fly Denali) plane all around Denali National Preserve to get a "birds eye view" of the Big one aka Mt. McKinley aka Denali! 

It was unbelievable. This mountain is 20000+ feet high and we got some majestic views when the clouds moved out. It was a great day to be on that little 8 seater plane.. The pilot, four of us and a Chinese family from Shanghai .. 

The little one had a bad cold and we decided not to go on the Glacier Landing tour. The fly by tour was amazing in itself. The pilot was patient and answered all of 200 or so questions the little one asked on the intercom type system..

think she was so excited by the intercom that she asked questions non-stop! They were all decent questions except for the one about the Ocean and the Pilot went "there is no ocean here!" .. think she mistook the blue yonder for "ocean" having done too many coastal trips..

A few photographs from the fly by trip..

That was the big one! The one in the photograph below is a peak that is framed in the back by the big one!

Everyone got sunglasses to protect their eyes from the light reflecting off all the snow. I did not wear it because of the logistics of taking pictures. Big mistake! After we landed, my eyes were sore for some time..

While we flew by this section which was a valley with an ice river running through it aka Glacier, thought of getting a HDR shot.. 

Was not expecting it to come out as the plane was moving fast.. but the idea worked. Went for a fast shutter speed, f/22 and high enough ISO to support the fast shutter speed. Got three images and merged them together (shown below).. You do get the detail in the shadow and the highlights on the HDR. In spite of the image having pretty much a black and white feel to it, the HDR worked! Cropped off 20% of my border, thanks to the movement but still happy with the end result!

On our way back..

Another HDR image of same location as we flew away from the Glacier..

The 17-40mm lens came in very handy for this trip. Was able to capture wide panoramas from an airplane window! 

More later..