This morning I had to wake up early even after a very late night…. Reason…. My father spotted a Bird of Paradise Flycatcher. Well excited to capture the beautiful bird, I picked up my camera and ran to the park. Unfortunately before I could reach the park, the bird had flown away and we could not reach the place where it was sitting (oops Girls Hostel). Anyways it was not a waste trip as it was the time for some birds to feed and I saw some action of Green Bee Eater and Jungle Babbler catching their prey. Got the opportunity to take a real good close up of the Jungle Babbler.

Captured by Manvir Randhawa

Captured by Manvir Randhawa

Spring is in the air. My Favourite time of the year. Chandigarh – The City Beautiful is getting prettier with all the flowers blooming. Kachnar with its pink flowers, Simbal with its scarlet and various other colourful trees and flowers – Its a mesmerizing site. This weekend I walked through a few parks of Chandigarh photographing the birds, the bees, the flowers and the general Landscape. It made me realize how we are neglecting nature and all its beauty.

A 40 minute flight from Bangkok, Koh – Samui (Samui Island) is a beautiful island located in the Gulf of Thailand. Nice sandy beaches, coconut trees and very polite people make Samui a relaxing holiday destination. Not very densly populated, Samui is Thailand’s 3rd largest Island. Samui is sustained mainly by tourism, coconut and rubber exports. With its small population, Samui till the 1970’s was not very well connected with the mainland. Today, there is an hourly flight from Bangkok to Samui.

Our Trip to Samui started from Bangkok. An interesting chain of events occurred while reaching Koh Samui… But I guess we were just having a bad day. Anyways, the place is beautiful and peaceful and we were feeling relaxed right at the airport. For starters, I did not see much security on the airport. The airport itself is a pretty sight. A group of hut like structures open air… gives a very tropical look. Walking through the streets, I did not come across a single policeman for the 4 days that I stayed at Samui. I liked the locals of Samui. Very nice people I must say.

For places to eat…. The main town is at the Chaweng beach where one can find a number of eating joints and bars. Another good place to visit is the Fisherman’s village at Bophut Beach. A row of restaurants and bars right at the beach. A recommended one at Fisherman’s Village is Shades. They have some nice romantic seating right on the beach. A lot of people recommend “Happy Elephant” at the Fishermans Village but frankly I did not like it. The kitchens usually close by 11 pm but most places serve drinks till 1 am. A must place to visit for dinner is “The Cliff”. The view is just awesome and the food simply sumptuous. For The Cliff, make sure that you book a table in advance and insist on a sea view table.

A friend on Facebook asked me to write about the wildlife around Chandigarh. Well….. Here it is…..

Chandigarh is a beautiful city located in the foothills of Shivalik Hills. About 250 Kms from Delhi, Chandigarh can boast of being close to some excellent weekend getaways. Whether it is hills, rivers, religious places or just plane simple tour of the tradition, is just a days return journey from Chandigarh. A peaceful, green and clean city, Chandigarh is home to many variety of Birds and Animals.

Birds

Chandigarh hosts home to many local and migratory birds. Common sights are Sparrows, Crows, Eagles, Bats, Tailor Birds, Barbets, Crimson Crested Barbets, Bulbuls, Doves, Sun Birds, Red Starts, Pigeons, Shikras,  Kingfishers (Common Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher and the White Chested Kingfisher) and the list can go on.A number of migratory birds are seen during winters in the good old Sukhna Lake. These include Bar Headed Geese, Brahmani Duck, Shovler, Mallard, Pintails, White Eyed Pochard, Red Headed Pochard, Crested Pochard, Starling, Tail Harrier, Fan tailed fly catcher, Larger Cormorant, Intermediate Egret etc.

Animals

There is a reserved forest area near Sukhna Lake that has Blue bulls, wild bores and Sambar. Or at least this is what I have seen.

Will keep adding to this as and when I get more material and updates….

After reading a lot of reviews about the Canon 7D, I went ahead and got myself one. I got a Nikon D300s for my father a few months back so I did not want to get the same camera from me. Have been using the camera from almost a month now and boy I’m really happy with the product. The Camera is fast and accurate. Though the D300s has more focus points than the 7D, I have had no complaints about 7D’s ability to focus. Recently, I have read in a number of reviews that the 7D is slow in focusing on moving subjects but I have had no issues so far with this. Click here for examples.

I have been experimenting a lot with still objects, moving objects and flying birds. Almost all of the pictures that I clicked are keepers. I’m also very impressed with the quality of shots in high ISO settings. An example of this is posted here (http://manvirrandhawa.com/2010/01/25/owl-dark/). This picture was taken handheld at ISO 3200 and a shutter speed of 1/13 of a second. Contrast has been touched in Photoshop.

For more pictures please visit http://gallery.manvirrandhawa.com

I’ll be taking a lot more shots and will keep updating this post with the results. So Far, I am really happy shooting with this camera.