Cloudy Kudremukh in HDR

After shooting the waterfall I covered in the last blog, rain was following me. So leaving all the thoughts of getting any photos of birds or other wild life I changed my lens to wide angle and concentrated on getting some landscapes. The ambiance was beautiful, but continuous rain was hampering my photography. I waited for a long time in my car for the rain to subside and give me some clear view. Here are few photos I could get on that day. First picture above is a fusion of 3 photos which then converted into High Dynamic Range picture (HDR) using hdrsoft’s Photomatix Pro. I tried to retain the natural look as much as possible as I don’t like the grungy looks of many HDR’s.

Cloudy Kudremukh in Sepia

I have used Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM Lens & Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM for these photos. I also did a sepia conversion of HDR from another set of 3 photos. As I was returning I could get a brief moment of cloud raising from the thickets of Shola forests which I captured as panorama. Now let me allow the pictures to speak for themselves.

Cloudy Kudremukh

Cloudy Kudremukh

Kudremukh Panorama

Kadambi Waterfall

Waterfalls are some of the most beautiful natural wonders you can photograph. But though they can look simply stunning, photographing waterfalls is not easy to do well. That Sunday I had gone to Kudremukh National Park hoping to photograph some birds or animals. It was drizzling on & off. As I couldn’t get any good sighting that day, I thought I will try my luck photographing tried and tested Bonnet Macaques at Kadambi falls which were featured in my blog earlier. Even they were on holiday. All I could get was a fleeting glimpse of Female Grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) on a very vertical slope of the waterfall.

Female Grey Wagtail

So disappointed I turned towards the waterfall. To make matter worse the rain increased in intensity. After few minutes of a heavy rain there was brief break. That is when I tried to take few photos of the waterfall. For the waterfall photography light was perfect. There was no need of any ND filter as the light was very low intensity. I only used circular polarizer filter. I used my newly purchased Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS Lens. As it was raining I did not have time to setup tripod. The bridge across the waterfall gave a nice view of the waterfall. So I opted to support the camera on the bridge railing to take shots. Aperture was kept at f/22. Shutter speed varied from 1/2 to 1.5 seconds.

Kadambi Waterfall

When we need photograph waterfall you need to understand that water can be photographed in two ways. One using fast shutter speed which freezes water droplets make the waterfall looks like that it is suddenly frozen. Better way to photograph a waterfall is to use slow shutter speed. The key to getting a silky water effect is to use a slow shutter speed. Balanced and diffused light is great for waterfalls because it helps bring out details in the shadows and amplify the contrast. The best diffused light occurs on overcast days (the clouds act as natural diffusers). It is better to walk around the waterfall and explore different angles and camera positions. Shoot at an angle instead of directly in front of the falls. As it was a restricted national park and since it was raining I did not have liberty to do those. So I stuck to the common front of the waterfall picture.

Kadambi Waterfall

To get that silky water effect you see in all the waterfall photographs, you’ll need a long shutter speed. So, set the camera to Manual mode. Use a small aperture which helps you get a longer shutter and it helps keep everything in sharp focus. I recommend starting with f/16 and then going smaller if that doesn’t give you a slow enough shutter. Some photographers will tell you to always use the smallest aperture possible on your lens, but I avoid this because lenses usually lose sharpness at their smallest apertures due to diffraction.

Use the lowest ISO speed on your camera. This also helps you get a longer shutter, but it has another benefit too: lower ISO speeds will produce less noise and capture more dynamic range. Since you’ll be using a long shutter speed, your image will be much more sensitive to noise, so a low ISO will help prevent that noise. Start with a shutter speed of a few seconds. When photographing waterfalls, finding the right shutter speed involves a lot of experimentation, but a speed of 2 seconds is usually a good place to start. Be prepared to use shutter speeds ranging from 1 to 30 seconds. Unfortunately since I could not use my tripod I used relatively faster shutter speed of 1 second.

Kadambi Waterfall Fast shutter speed

Common mistake is to use faster shutter speed. Just to show you what happens I used a commonly used shutter speed of 1/90th of a second in this last shot before I ran to cover to escape from the rain. See the water droplets which are frozen and falls does not look as silky as it should. I plan to go there again once rains are reduced so that I can get the really long exposure and the subsequent really silky effects.

Juvenile Bonnet Macaque

During last summer I had been to Kudremukh national park. Whole park was quite dry. Did not get any great photo opportunity. Returning back in the evening I knew that a family of bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata) near Kadambi water falls. I have been seeing these macaques for quite a few years. They have turned more human friendly due to contact with tourists who feed them. Highway passing though the National park that too connecting quite a few religious places, brings hordes of tourists. Some macaques have resorted to stealing food from open vehicles. This time I saw many young babies with their mothers. Alpha male who usually bosses around the juveniles and others males for food was not to be seen around. Many of these macaques showed injury either due to their fight or road accidents trying grab food from a running vehicles. Few have even been run over by speeding vehicles and have lost body parts in the process.

Bonnet Macaque Mother With Baby

Evening light that day was very pleasant and quite diffuse. Luckily no tourists were visible on that day. I took my Canon EOS 7D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM to capture these macaques. It is a risky business to approach them as they can be quite aggressive. I was aware that however friendly and cute they look they can jump on you and can attack you if provoked as they have lost the fear of humans. First I saw a young juvenile sitting on top of a sign board expecting me to hand over food. Once he realized that I am not there to feed him he jumped away to nearby tree. Later I approached cautiously towards a mother feeding its baby on the side of the road. She was cautious but cooperative and allowed me to take quite a few pictures without getting annoyed.

Bonnet Macaque Baby

I saw another mother baby pair which was sitting on side wall of the bridge. As I approached closer to take the curiously wrinkled face of the baby, mother panicked and started grimacing at me. So I was able to capture both the baby’s innocent face as well as mother’s panic. As I did not want to provoke her further I withdrew. As I backed off she calmed down and gave another pose along with her baby sitting quietly farther away. Tricky part in macaque photography is to get eye contact. Babies and juveniles allow you to look at their eyes. Adults will think looking straight into them is a threat and gets panicky. So you need to be quick while they glance at you to get the photos.

Bonnet Macaque Mother With Baby

Soon my peace was spoiled by car loads of tourists who landed near me and started teasing and feeding these monkeys with peanuts. Disappointed on lost opportunity to photograph rest of the macaque troop I headed back home. I knew I had quite a few of good pictures but I wanted to take more emotional expressions out of these mother & baby pairs.

The bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) is a macaque endemic to southern India. Its distribution is limited by the Indian Ocean on three sides and the Godavari and Tapti Rivers along with a related competing species of rhesus macaque in the north. The land use changes in last few decades has resulted in changes in its distribution boundaries with the rhesus macaque, raising concern for its status in the wild.

Bonnet Macaque Mother Threatening

The bonnet macaque feeds on fruits, nuts, seeds, flowers, invertebrates and cereals. In southern India this macaque exists as commensal to humans, feeding on food given by humans and raiding crops and houses.

Bonnet Macaque Mother With Baby

Two subspecies of Bonnet Macaques have been identified: Macaca radiata radiata occurs in peninsular India (Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu). It is found in the major portion of the species’ range south to the Palni Hills and southeast as far as Timbale, inland of Pondicherry.
Macaca radiata diluta occurs in southeastern coastal India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu). It is found from the south tip and southeastern coast of India, north to Kambam in the Western Ghats, at the southwestern foot of the Palni Hills in the center and Pondicherry in the east.