nature photography – Page 2 – Footloose Forever

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ephemeral Moon

March 29, 2015March 29, 2015Posted in Photo challengeTagged blood moon, moon, Nature, nature photography26 Comments

moon, blood moon, ephemeral moon, moon's phase

The moon puts on an elegant show, different every time in shape, colour and nuance. ~ Arthur Smith

I once asked my parents why they kept my name ‘Moon’. They said they liked this name when one of my aunts suggested it for me. When I was young I had so many embarrassing moments with my name which was uncommon in our community. Anyway, I don’t know when I started liking my name. Probably when I realized I like the source of my name that is, the moon very much. 🙂 Ever since I felt a connection with the moon and am always charmed by its magnetic existence.

The moon is an enigma to me. Its appearance – ephemeral but its presence – eternal.

That night when I looked through my window I was amazed to see the half-moon with a reddish glow which was transient. I didn’t waste time in capturing it with my ‘third eye’ – my camera. 😉 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh

March 22, 2015Posted in Photo challengeTagged dew, dew drops, fresh, freshness, Nature, nature photography, Photo challenge20 Comments

hibiscus , china rose, flower, red, fresh

And my heart springs up anew, bright and confident and true. And the old love comes to meet me, in the dawning and the dew. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

What is more fresh than the flowers we offer in worship?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reward is finding joy in small things

February 28, 2015March 1, 2015Posted in Photo challengeTagged nature photography, Photo challenge, photography, reward48 Comments

For me reward is finding joy in small things.

It can be admiring the shiny droplets of water on giant taro leaves (colocasia) right after the rain.

It can be following tapping sound in a quiet afternoon to find a woodpecker on the palm tree in your backyard. (It’s rewarding because we don’t often see such birds except crow, pigeons and sparrows in the concrete jungle of urban life. 😦 )

It can be discovering beauty in wildflowers that bloom by the road and we never bother to look at. They may look ordinary but get closer and you’ll see beauty in them too.

It can be watching animals play in the wild.

It can be getting up early and rushing to the garden to discover the buds you saw yesterday turned to flowers.

It can be waking up to a beautiful morning after a terribly dark rainy night and see the rays of gentle morning sun tear apart the cloud and flood the valley.

It can be resting under the cool shades of a tree after a long walk in a summer morning and feel rejuvenated.

And finally, it is when I see my little niece happily playing, singing and smiling all by her.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds

February 21, 2015Posted in Photo challengeTagged Flower, nature photography, photo, rule of thirds, weed28 Comments

Published in response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: Rule of Thirds

Little deeds are like little seeds, they grow to flowers or to weeds. ~ Daniel D. Palmer

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Scale

February 7, 2015February 8, 2015Posted in Photo challengeTagged calendula, Flower, moth, Nature, nature photography, yellow21 Comments

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Scale.”

While roaming around in a resort garden in Shantiniketan a couple of weeks ago I noticed this tiny moth resting on the leaves of this common calendula which seemed so big compared to this beautiful little creature!

“I can give not what men call love,
But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above
And the Heavens reject not,—
The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow?”

– P.B. Shelley

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Depth

January 31, 2015February 21, 2015Posted in Photo challengeTagged depth, Nature, nature photography, Photo challenge, seclussion, Wordpress31 Comments

depth, wood, woods, Sonajhuri forest, Shantiniketan, WB

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge – Theme: Depth

Into the depth of wilderness in Sonajhuri, Bolpur-Shantiniketan, West Bengal

“That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view
These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,
Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
‘Mid groves and copses. Once again I see
These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines
Of sportive wood run wild:”

Lines quoted from one of my most favorite poems, which I can relate to this theme – LINES COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY by William Wordsworth.

A Bunch of Flowers from the Hills of Sikkim

June 27, 2011December 16, 2014Posted in PhotographyTagged Flower, namchi, nature photography, Sikkim, Travel14 Comments

Flowers are perhaps the most beautiful creation of Nature. And you’ll find them aplenty on the hills. During our stay in Pipalay, a beautiful village in Namchi, South Sikkim I did try my hand on nature photography. There were wide variety of flowers and foliages. Some were known to me and some unknown. Some dazzled in vibrant colors while some were too small to go unnoticed, but when they blossom you can’t ignore their collective beauty.

There was this red Zinnia in the garden of Shepherd’s Vacation Home (the cottage where we stayed during our short trip). I zoomed in with my Sony Cybershot DSC-W190.

I found this tiny crimson beauty in the bush behind the cottage and the yellow one too…

The pink and blue ones bloomed at the feet of the Holy Statue of Samdruptse in South Sikkim. Can you tell me their names?

The monastery at Samdruptse has manicured gardens where purple and white cosmos were bountiful. They looked like small butterflies amidst the green blades of grass.

This ‘unidentified’ pink blossom along the garden fence also caught my eyes. And this time I badly felt the need of a DSLR…

On our way back to Pipalay (from Samdruptse) we stopped by Namchi Rock Garden that offers mind-blowing view of the mountains all around. Bonus was a variety of foliage that adorned the small garden. I thought this magenta one is worth sharing.