Caught Special - 136

What: Mahatma Gandhi Statue, Clock Tower, a lot of Birds crossing, on a rainy October Sunday morning!
Where: Marina Beach, Mylapore Chennai
When: 18th Oct 2020, 8:45 am
How: Samsung S10e

What: Santhome Cathedral Basilica through a rain-drop clad glass!
Where: Santhome High Road, Mylapore, Chennai
When: 18th Oct 2020, 8:49 am
How: Samsung S10e

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This is a series of Caught Special pictures that I captured at different places.
Please share your comments here.
To see all postings in this Caught Special series, click here.
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Caught Special - 135

What: A pair of Parrots, and how the Female scared away the Male, but later felt lonely!
Where: On the Avenue trees in our Apartment, Bangalore
When: 2nd Oct 2020, 10 am
How: Canon EOS 700D, 55-250 mm lens

A Male Parrot has a ring around its neck while the Female does not.

This Female was having a fun time eating the Flowers on the Silver Oak / Avenue tree in our apartment.

Then a Male arrived on the scene.

It waited for a moment to check if the Female is objecting for it to come and eat its share of Flower.

Then slowly it joined in and started eating as well.

But in between, showing off as if it is eating only the Leaves and not the Flower.

But as you can see in the 10th picture, the Female took a step closer... hinting to the Male to move.

And the Male had to promptly move 3 steps away... and just watch the Female have its feast!

And, while doing so... sadly.. as in the 18th picture.. had to chew only some Leaves... staying at a distance!

The Female showed some more aggression.. sharpening its beak as in the 22nd picture... and giving a stare!

The Male played a calm game.. waiting.. and also once trying to sharpen its own beak as in the 28th picture.

But the Female did not budge. It kept giving a stare at the Male.

Finally the Male had to leave as you can see in the 32nd picture.

But then, as in the 33rd to 36th picture... the Female started feeling alone.. and kept looking in that direction!

And after eating some more of the Flower... again.. kept looking at the Male's direction, alone!

<Remember to click more to see all the pictures>

Caught Special - 134

What: An Owlet on the avenue trees!
Where: Our Apartment, Bangalore
When: 28th Sep 2020, 2 pm
How: Canon EOS 700D, 55-250 mm lens

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This is a series of Caught Special pictures that I captured at different places.
Please share your comments here.
To see all postings in this Caught Special series, click here.
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Caught Special - 133

What: A short Coconut tree... bearing fruit!

Where: Our Apartment, Bangalore

When: 16th Aug 2020, 9 pm

How: Samsung S10e

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This is a series of Caught Special pictures that I captured at different places.

Please share your comments here.

To see all postings in this Caught Special series, click here.

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Caught Grinning - 120

FALT for sale!
Ready to OCCUPIE!

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This is a series posting such pictures I captured at different places. Click on the picture(s) to see bigger version. Click here to view all 'Caught Grinning' postings under this series.

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* * * You can write your COMMENTS about this Post BY CLICKING HERE * * * 
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REFLEXIONS - Caught Special - 132

A picture speaks a thousand words!

Happy to release my Coffee Table Photo Album - REFLEXIONS - on Flickr!

This is a collection of my special pictures... My Hobby Photographs!

This Album REFLEXIONS is composed of a selection from my captures I had over the last 15 years... over the journey from 2005 through 2020!

Enjoy your Coffee Table moment... browsing through them slowly.

Every picture might have something to look at... so please pause and look for it!

How some frames are set either for symmetry or the unusual angle taken or simply the kind of content it has captured.

In some, you can spot the color composition of sky, texture of water bodies, silhouette captures of objects and people, etc.

Some pictures might seem like a close repeat of another, but if you look closely, what is covered in the frame, or the zoom level, or the angle, would vary.

Some of those have candid moments of people or a natural moment in action or a scene captured, that may not be generally common to get, even if we look for. And, many of them were captured by my quick reflex clicking of shutter button. And some were captured while on the move, from a moving car or bus etc., with no time to set a frame!

You would see cats sleeping in unusual heaped postures, a dog taking a hill-view basking under the sun, butterflies drinking water, a cat from its back view, a wasp entering its nest, spiders on a sunshine reflection, honey bees on flowers, and so on.

Look for some village side pictures of streets, people, front yard of their houses, etc. in candid natural action!

And, see some pictures captured of the objects or people with their reflections... on water or a glass or a mirror!

Every picture's captured date, the camera used, and settings can be seen. And I have mentioned the Location of the picture taken, and I have given more details and comments in the Description of the photo. You can also get to see the names of Flowers and Birds in the Description.

Many of the pictures may not be of super special quality... with fancy colors or great resolution or having intense depth or something like that... but I think you will get to read those information at least!

Also, all my pictures posted are in their original form. I have not done any post-processing, or applied any filters, enhancements, etc. That's another factor about my pictures.

One recommended way to browse through each Picture along with the Description below is on a mobile phone, by clicking on an individual picture. It will show you the Picture and Description in one view, and you can just flip to next or previous by the touch screen easily! That will also allow you to view the Title, Description, Date taken etc. below the photo.

If you like to view a larger form of the Picture then a laptop screen is advisable. While that would give you the advantage of a large image view in the individual picture view mode, you have to scroll down to view the Description box etc., and also, when you do the move right or move left for next and previous pictures, it will stop for the commercial advertisement (as most of us use standard Flicker and not Flicker Pro) that will be an interruption to the flow.

Please go through the pictures closely and read the details.

Please do share your comments about every picture.

I will be happy to hear and learn from your views.

Feel free to share with your friends and family.

Click here... Happy... REFLEXIONS!

Thank you.

See below for Viewers' Comments...

Caught Special - 131

You may have read my recent post about our Green Hotel Mysore, Dubare Elephant Camp Trip here. Here are a few nice moments in pictures from the trip.

What: Honey Bee on a Flower

Where: The Green Hotel, Mysore

When: 25th Dec 2019, 2:18 pm

How: Samsung S10e

What: Decorative window exterior

Where: The Green Hotel, Mysore

When: 25th Dec 2019, 5:46 pm

How: Samsung S10e

What: Decorative palatial traditional interior

Where: The Green Hotel, Mysore

When: 25th Dec 2019, 6:26 pm

How: Samsung S10e

What: Decorative palatial traditional interior

Where: The Green Hotel, Mysore

When: 25th Dec 2019, 6:35 pm

How: Samsung S10e

What: Picture on a large mirror on the wooden stair platform

Where: The Green Hotel, Mysore

When: 26th Dec 2019, 6:59 am

How: Samsung S10e

Green Hotel Mysore, Dubare Elephant Camp Trip

We did this Road trip to Green Hotel Mysore, and to Dubare Elephant Camp - Jungle Lodges & Resorts, that is located at about 100 KM from Mysore, over ~3 days and 2 nights. It was at the end of December 2019 at Christmas time, and we had a good trip.

The Green Hotel Mysore

Green Hotel Mysore was formerly a palace called Chittaranjan Palace or Chittaranjan Mahal, built by the Maharaja of Mysore for his sister in the year 1916. It later changed ownership and became the headquarters of the iconic Premier Studio built very next to it in 1954. Later it was used as a private residence, and then subsequently restored in the 1970s by a Charity group and converted into The Green Hotel that is open to people to come and stay.

With adorable traditional interior decors and furnishing maintaining the historic Royal touch everywhere in the grand halls and corridors, added with extensive gardens, lawns, pergolas and such surroundings, they use solar water heating, no TVs and ACs in the rooms, and so on. They employ more people from the needy. In their Malgudi Coffee Shop bakery they employee especially women and widows to help them. The profits of The Green Hotel are said to be distributed to various charity programs associated with rural health and literacy.

The Premier Studio, which had 7 floors, built on 10 acres of land, was once Asia's second largest indoor studio, was closed over a period, and was actually demolished in September 2018. That was the studio where a major fire accident took place during the shooting of TV series by Sanjay Khan, The Sword of Tipu Sultan, in February 1989; an accident that claimed several lives.

Our plan to stay at The Green Hotel Mysore was only for experiencing all those historic connects in that very ambience and surroundings. We wanted to book the Princess Room, but as all the rooms in the main palace building were sold out even though it was 5 weeks in advance, we had only booked a normal Suite room in the annexe block. However, we got lucky when we reached there and got to stay in the Maharani's Suite in the main palace building itself. Do not miss a lot photos later below.

Our stay at The Green Hotel was also coincided by two other interesting events. We were there on the Christmas day and night, so it was just a week to the new year, and several streets and buildings in Mysore were decked up with lighting when we went around in the night. And the next morning, we also witnessed a full solar eclipse, the last of the decade, right before we departed from there towards our second destination of the trip, The Dubare Elephant Camp.

Dubare Elephant Camp Jungle Lodges & Resorts

Dubare Elephant Camp is part of Jungle Lodges & Resorts, located along the river Cauvery. We stayed there on a day package that included a jungle safari by their jeep, nature walk into the adjoining nature park with their guide and an elephant interaction session that the resort people arrange for the guests staying with them. The elephant interaction is also arranged for open public people who venture crossing the river waters dangerously by walking through it, taking a lot of risk unnecessarily; hopefully some authorities look into this to put in place some guidelines and do's and don'ts restrictions.

We leave the car at the parking lot (see the point below on the parking trouble) and a boat service by the JLR ferries us across the river to the resort on the banks on the other side. Each cottage had a unique name to identify; we were allotted 'Chandra'. The stay package we booked includes all the costs of the food and activities, as is common in all the JLR locations. Again the rooms here do not have a TV or telephone. We generally do not sight any wild animals during such jeep safari trips, and it is especially true during winter time like end of December. But, to go all the way and stay in a calm serene environment surrounded by wilderness for a day away from the city's busy norm is always a welcome experience.

And one of the common features we have seen with our previous JLR stay at Galibore was, a very passionate friendly guide who is very involved in his job and always trying to do the best job for the nature walk audience. Here also we experienced the same with one Mr Puttanaik who took us on the guided nature walk in the morning. They do not take any tips from anyone, but do a wonderful job of explaining about most of the flora in the route, the insects and birds around, environment, habitats and so on. A good complete experience.

The car parking mismanagement at Dubare before we take the boat to cross over the river to reach JLR is a complete chaos, and can make us into a mess. And there are no safety barriers between the edge of the road and the river cavity where the cars are parked to the brim. We were there in the Christmas to New Year vacation time and we were entangled amidst the chaotic incoming and outgoing vehicles including big buses, with just no responsible person assigned to help the vehicles at all.

Highlights - The Green Hotel, and in Mysore

• A great cozy room with traditional touch in the furniture, decors, floor tiling, and so on
• Our Maharani's Suite had a window overlooking the razed location of Premier Studio building
• Grand halls and corridors with fabulous interiors and furnishing of the palatial construction 
• Wooden staircases, easy chairs, colorful antique tinted glass decors, gramophone unit, piano, library
• The Malgudi Coffee Shop served some wonderful stuff made in the bakery
• Their Lemon Drizzle cake was a wonder, so much so that we repeated the order!
• The vast open garden restaurant with a large open seating area and some covered seating areas
• A small roof top terrace area with old time outlook and multi-layered tiers to wind around
• A look through window near the compound wall to view the remains of the razed Premier Studio
• The night drive with the Mysore Place as well as several roads illuminated up brightly
• Our mandatory dinner at the Gayathri Tiffin Room, delicious Khara Bath / Upma and Masala Dosa
• With a bit of cloudy sky, we still witnessed the decade's last full solar eclipse through camera images

Highlights - Dubare Elephant Camp Jungle Lodges & Resorts

• Cottages located in a calm and serene environment by the side of Cauvery river
• A nice Nature walk in the morning conducted very well by Mr Puttanaik
• Good range of food at the Gol Ghar, and a short camp fire near there in the evening
• A stilted view point in the premises had a set up with a tough climb step ladder
• Obviously we came across several Elephants in the camp that the jeep safari drove through
• We also spotted Peahens, Crested hawk eagle, Flame-back Woodpecker, Hoopoe, and an Egret
• During the jeep safari, Mr Puttanaik also showed us pug marks of a tiger that roams around here
• Mr Puttanak showed a lot of information during the morning Nature walk
• Spices like Marathi moggu, Stone flower, and Cinnamon, fungi and termite on trees, and ant hills
• Hanuman phal a sister fruit to Sita phal (Custard Apple), and many other flora
• We also spotted a Malabar squirrel and birds like Spotted doves during the Nature walk
• A standard at JLR stays, an animals film show at the Gol Ghar, before dinner time
• The elephant interaction session was on the next morning outside the rear exit, near the river
• The trainer mahouts put through several elephants to bath and allow the guests also to participate

Overall a very good stay experience at both the places, good cuisine, calm and serene surroundings for 3 days out of Bangalore. The drive from Bangalore to Mysore and to Dubare also enabled us to spot several local produces on transport or sale along the way. Sugarcane, Coconuts, Paddy were very common. On the sector from Mysore towards Dubare, when we pass through Bylakuppe cross and Kushalnagar we do not miss to see a lot of the Buddhist monks who come from the famous Monastery nearby, shopping in the area. Another interesting sight always driving through small towns and villages are the terracotta roofed houses with single deck and some with an upper deck. We also passed through the popular Cauvery Nisargadama, though we did not stop. There was a big crowd of vehicles owing to the vacation season. The other major sight we had was the farms of Mochai (Field Beans / Faba Beans) and the sales with heaps of those produces along the road side at several places by those farmers. On the return route we stopped in Dubare at a spices shop to buy some Coorg Coffee powder, a produce from this area, and later we also stopped near Nisargadama at a shop to buy a few nice items made out of clay pottery.

Routes

Our drive routes from Bangalore to The Green Hotel Mysore and from there to the Dubare Elephant Camp JLR:

Look for our itinerary summary and the trip review scores later below. Scroll down to see a lot of pictures - Do not miss!

Caught Special - 130

What: Rain Lily Flowers  
Where: At Home, Bangalore
When: 31st May 2020, 12:05 pm
How: Canon EOS 700D, 18-55 mm lens

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This is a series of Caught Special pictures that I captured at different places.
Please share your comments here.

To see all postings in this Caught Special series, click here.

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Caught Grinning - 119

27Jun20, 7:36 pm: What a discipline... these four cat siblings in our premises were maintaining a safe distance... while waiting for their food!

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This is a series posting such pictures I captured at different places. Click on the picture(s) to see bigger version. Click here to view all 'Caught Grinning' postings under this series.

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Caught Special - 129

What: Sun rays at the edge of a cloud  
Where: At Home, Bangalore
When: 5th June 2020, 6:14 pm
How: Canon55-250mm lens

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This is a series of Caught Special pictures that I captured at different places.
Please share your comments here.

To see all postings in this Caught Special series, click here.

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