Mangalore Photography Club is conducting a Basic Photography Workshop on 18th Dec 2011. Here are the details.

Love taking pictures with your digital camera? Want to improve your skills, but don’t have a lot of time to spend? How about some straight-to-the-point tips that cut to the chase and show you step by step how to accomplish a task? If that sounds like just what you had in mind, Digital Photography Workshop is just what you need.

Digital Photography Workshop covers important tasks from choosing a camera to making great photos. It also shows you basic operations along with some great tips on Portrait, Landscape, Street and Wildlife photography.

You’ll be able to learn:

• What is photography
• The need to take good photos
• Camera from film to digital
• Getting the best out of lenses
• Tripods & other accessories
• How to take a good photographs
• Composition
• Framing
• Lighting
• Point of view
• Getting best out of your camera
• Aperture
• Shutter speed
• ISO
• Basic Post Processing
• Tips on
  • Portrait photography
  • Landscape photography
  • Street photography
  • Wildlife photography
  • Event photography

Date: 18th December 2011,
Sunday 10AM – 5PM
Venue: Hotel Mothi Mahal, Falnir R0ad, Mangalore 575001

Resource Persons:

• Dr. Krishna Mohan, 98807 44258
• Rohit S.Rao, 98450 71770
• Dijaraj Nair, 98452 85808

Workshop Fees Rs. 1000.00  (inclusive of course material, lunch & refreshments)
Special discount for registration of over 5 persons
Special fees for students: Rs. 750.00
Spot registration: Rs. 1200.00

Hurry! Registration closes on 16th December 2011

Confirm your registration at
Mangalore Photography Club
c/o Crystal Electronics & Appliances,
Kumudavathi Building, Ground floor, Balmatta, Mangalore 575001
Phone: 0824 4251525  E-mail: mangfoto@gmail.com

Brown Shrike

That Sunday evening as I was returning from my photography round, I found this Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) sitting on an Indian Almond (Terminalia catappa) Tree. I was quite far away from the bird and there was no way I could approach the bird without startling this vigilant bird. I was holding Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens fitted with Canon EF 2X II Extender. Evening light was quite weak. I used a higher ISO of 800 to capture this bird. The pictures presented here are cropped by around 50%.

Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for “butcher”, and some shrikes were also known as “butcher birds” because of their feeding habits. Shrikes in general have a variety of names that arise from people’s observations of the bird’s feeding and food storage strategy. In Africa they are called as fiscals. That name comes from the Afrikaans word fiskaal (“public official”, especially a hangman)

Brown Shrike

This species is solitary except when breeding. They are found in open habitats where they can be seen sitting on a prominent perch like a treetop or a telegraph pole. A sit-and-wait hunter, they “hawk” or pounce on their prey, which includes large insects, small birds, reptiles and mammals. These birds use their feet to hold smaller insects whilst they rip them into bite-sized pieces. Larger prey are impaled upon a sharp point, such as a thorn or the barbs of barbed wire so they can be ripped open with the bird’s hooked bill. This also serves as a cache so that the shrike can return to the uneaten portions at a later time. As this looked like butcher’s larder, the name “butcher birds” was given to it. The distinctive black bandit like mask through the eye also might have influenced this name.

Brown Shrike

The Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) and Isabelline Shrike (Lanius isabellinus). Like most other shrikes, it has a distinctive black “bandit-mask” through the eye. It is found mainly in open scrub habitats, where it perches on the tops of thorny bushes in search of prey. Several populations of this widespread species form distinctive subspecies which breed in temperate Asia and migrate to their winter quarters in tropical Asia. They are sometimes found as vagrants in Europe and North America.

The Brown Shrike is a migratory species and ringing studies show that they have a high fidelity to their wintering sites, returning to the same locations each winter. They begin establishing wintering territories shortly on arrival and their loud chattering or rattling calls are distinctive. Birds that arrive early and establish territories appear to have an advantage over those that arrive later in the winter areas.

Brown Shrike

The timing of their migration is very regular with their arrival in winter to India in August to September and departure in April. During their winter period, they go through a premigratory moult. Their song in the winter quarters is faint and somewhat resembles the call of the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and often includes mimicry of other birds. The beak remains closed when singing and only throat pulsations are visible although the bird moves its tail up and down while singing.

Brown Shrike

Micronia aculeata

That night coming home for dinner I spotted this moth on our kitchen floor. Being a pretty common moth around my house I assumed that I will get lot of information about this white moth. It was sitting on the vitrified floor tile which I have used in my kitchen. Dark clay color of the tile was a great contrast to the white, grey moth. Unfortunately the profile picture of the moth was impossible to get as it was sitting as though it was firmly stuck to the tile. That is why you see the picture from one angle here. I used Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm F2.8L USM Macro lens illuminated with Canon Speedlite 580EXII fitted with ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter.

Micronia aculeata

When I searched internet for the information about this moth, I drew blank. Even thoughit is so common we hardly know anything about it. This Micronia aculeata moth belongs to Uraniidae family of moths. Unfortunately I could not find any common name for this moth. Some have called it Wayanad greystripe moth. It is found throughout India, China, Taiwan, SriLanka, Burma; Andaman, Java and Borneo. The adult moths of this species have speckled pale brown wings with two faint darker submarginal bands. Each forewing has a hooked apex, and at the tornus of each hindwing there is a short tail with a black spot.

Micronia aculeata

Like many moths in the family Uraniidae, the moth has its wings open and flat in its resting posture. It is also a day flying moth. Thanks to Haneesh K.M we have Life cycle of Micronia aculeata on Flickr. Host plant for its caterpillar is Green Milkweed Climber Wattakaka volubilis.