2010 – A YEAR IN THE JOURNEY

PS: Firstly let me warn you that this will be a slightly longer post comprising of more number of images and words than what I usually post on my blog.

To begin with 2010 was a year of surprises for me both with regard to the number of last minute travels i did and the type of photography portfolio i built up. The year started with a small addition to my JTN website in form of “People & Places” gallery but i hardly got time to update the gallery with images on a frequent basis. This year was a mixture of dedicated Landscape, Travel, Wildlife photography and i attended couple of (non-nature/non-travel related) workshops which i really wanted to attend as i wanted to extend my portfolio there as well.  JTN website faced a serious web attack during mid 2010 after which it had to go under axe for some of its front end features which it is still not able to recover. But i promise all your JTN viewers a brand new and replenished JTN portal coming your way in 2011 – with more images, tutorials, photoessays, stories and the usual rants and cribs here and there about the state affairs of photography and photobusiness in our country.

So without further delay let me take you through the year 2010 and some images that i made during those month.

(Click on the more button to load the images . . . )

January 2010

Trip to cover the Kambla event at Moodabidri (Koti-Cheniah Kambla) along with my buddy Sharath and his wife Vaish. Also visited the famous 1000 pillar Jain temple. I am really sure this place can give you infinite opportunities to shoot with every time you to this temple.

February 2010

Celebrating my bday which i share with my dear sister after almost 5 years gap meant that February was meant to be a silent month.

March 2010

First of the two unplanned and unexpected trip to North and apparently my first visit to Taj. I am surely in love with it. Covered a lot of places in and around Taj along with a quick flying visit to Fatehpursikri too.  Also published a small photo book with my images of Taj called “Taj a retrospective” having B&W images from the trip.

April 2010

Second of the two unplanned trip to North India – thanks to the prebooked tickets anticipating the long weekend but no plans of any sort to visit any wildlife parks and no company. Tried to cover Kumb mela and also did a day long visit to the famous Rajajinational park which shares its border with the famed Corbet national park.

First of the two workshops I attended in the year. This was a portrait photography workshop by Dr. Prem Muttu. I should admit this was a real eye opener. Being a self thought photographer in all other streams the concept and world of strobes and flashlights were always a mystery for me. Prem made sure that he not only thought us how to use certain lighting techniques but also gave handy tips in posing and also loads of advice for we beginners in this field. Gotta be one workshop which was worth every penny that i spent on.

May 2010

Should i say dream-come-true month ? Corbet was high on wish list place for more than 5yrs now – either due to my onsite travel or leave issues or some wierd reason i always had to postpone this trip until May2010. This really gotta be one of the most marvelous place i have ever visited. Even if you are not a photographer – this place has so much of magic in it. I must thank my buddy Anoop for having able to accompany me for this trip despite a injured leg due to accident the day previous day of our travel. Apparently he seem to enjoy the trip more than me who was down with fever for the first couple of days due to the sever heat and humidity.

June 2010

Monsoon was round the corner according to my calculation but when myself and my fellow team mates from office landed in Kodachadri – we were in for a surprise. It was pouring as if we were in middle of a peak monsoon season. The entire trip was such a washout that hardly could anyone be able to go out forget about even seeing anything or trekking comfortably till the peak of Hidlumane falls. One such rare trips when i didn’t even shoot a single frame when i was out in field.

July 2010 !!

The mid year saga as one can say. JTN was down for almost a week or more due to a hack by internet criminals who had posted some phishing website pages on my server and that lead to me face all the beating of my website being down. This was also my peak project time in official work and hardly could i imagine even going out of town for even a weekend.

August 2010

A much deserved break after a long project and accompanying stress-n-strains. A quick friday night decision and we were off to Gopalaswamybetta off Mysore-Bandipur road. One of the magical places from which i started off my first steps in Nature photography long back.

This was one trip which thought me a biggest lesson of not to change lens when its windy and misty around you.

September 2010

Trip of a lifetime as I can put for it. It was decided way back in 2009 itself that i will be going back to Ladakh for the second time in 2010, but cloudburst and flash floods meant that i had to call off this place for until future. Back to back phone calls, loads of planning and re-planning, last minute consultations with people who had been just back from this region ensured that me and my friends finalized on Spiti the Tribal Triangle for 2010 high-pass photo expedition. Hardly did me or any of my friends knew how challenging it would be to face mother nature when she is at her extreme with her weather behavior. We were exposed to everything from extreme snow storm, heavy rains, scorching sun, shivering cold, landslides in one trip. None of the above made our enthusiasm level go down and it turned out to be one of my most loved after trip of the year. A trip which thought me one of the biggest learning to be calm when the situation demands the most. Getting tensed or restless in extreme situation will not give solution to any of our problem. This is also a trip which gave me a kick of love for Timelapse photography.

October 2010

The hangover of Spiti was not receding from my head leading to less travel and more time sitting in front of comp and getting indulged in the beauty of the images from Spiti. Just did a small portfolio photo shoot for a close friend of mine. Also this turned out to be my first exposure to work independently using flashlights and also outdoor/indoor lighting and most imptly posing techniques which i was hardly aware of. October was also a month when i decided i will completely part way with Windows world at home and i made way for a spanking 27″ iMac. Just when i thought everything is easy after shifting to Mac (was already a mac guy since 3yrs) but setting up a system from scratch to suit for photography workflow was a biggest task and the learning curve just started that moment.

November 2010

A month full of buzzing activities. I had my new apartment gruhapravesha scheduled for end of the month so it came packed with loads of travelling (sometimes without camera) to places in and around Bangalore inviting friends and relatives. One such visit to home town meant that i had to visit the famed Nandi of Chamundi hills. Have to admit though having roots in Mysore its been ages since i had been or seen the Nandi at the hills. End of function meant that one half of headache and pressure at home was getting down. So dedicated the last weekend learning something new again in form of workshop and this time it was a Architecture-Food-Product photography by cinematographer Manohar Joshi. Little did i know that even this field would be so challenging.

December 2010

Last month of the year, just when i was settling down with some workflow which i came up with for working on mac world and also i had completely migrated to Lighrtoom as a DAM tool for my photography needs. Most of the month was spent learning new things and unlearning or relearning lot of processing things using new Adobe tools which had landed in the kitty. A month which saw the launch of our new and evolved “Landscape Wizards” portal. Last trip for the year came in form of a scheduled trip to attend a marriage of my friend Vinyas and Shwetha at Mangalore. Except for the journey to this place which is a nightmare in itself (had always been since my road trip in 2008 ) everything was so perfect with regard to this trip. Also kicked off one personal project from this trip, about which you will hear more in the coming year.

Again one of the month when am undergoing changes in my career paths, more about this you can read following me on twitter/facebook/buzz.

So in all as you can see it was year with mixture of surprises and fun learning.

So what does 2011 has in store for me and JTN ? Hmm not too sure if i can talk about it much as its too early to even dream or comment. But for sure 2011 will be a year where the journey will be longer and the frames will be faster. Hope that says it all 🙂

JTN website will also undergo revamp soon and you will be able to see all those images from 2010 which never found its way into the web world.

Hope you all enjoyed reading and seeing the images from 2010 and also will continue to support me in the journey in the coming years.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season and wishing you a very happy and a prosperous 2011.

Last but not the least a big round of thanks to so many people who have in one or the other form inspired or supported or helped me in 2010 with all the travel and photography and life above. This is in no particular order but some people whom i really wanted to thank for what ever they were associated with me in 2010. If i have missed any name in this list then its purely unintentional and all you folks really make a lot of diff to me and my Journey Through Nature.

Ganesh Shankar, Pramod, Anil, Ashwin, Harsha, Praveen Mohandas, Siva AN, Arun Bhat, Neelima, Pratap J, Kabilan, Keerthi, Sharath S, Vaishali, Pradeep, Madhavi, Brunda, Bhavana, Prashant, Prem Muttu, Manohar Joshi, Dhritiman, Soven, Moushumi, Nilanjan, Dheeraj, Shwetha, Vinyas, Adarsh, Premsagar, Anoop, Glyn Dewis, Chase javris, David Duchemin, Matt brandon, Philip Bloom, Mitchell K, Colethompson, and of course my family & many many more folks around me.