Wednesday, September 29, 2021

#Puri–Bhubaneshwar–Cuttack-Jajpur-Balasaore-Biripada-Ghatsila-Jamshedpur

Day 551 since lockdown, 1 image a day continues, Sept 30th 2021 After returning from Chilika to Puri, we took a break for a day buy some gifts & then it was time to return back home and REFLECT on the trip, return trips always seem to go faster we were returning a good 450 km, and Google claimed it would be a 9 hour trip, we chose the longest route back, more so based on calls to a few friends as there were 3 roads to choose from, Google suggested we take the shortest but then me being me, chose the longest.
We came across a few nice patches of Kaash flower along the way and plenty of cows resting on the highway, Not sure why they choose to chill on the highway but then they seem to enjoy the smooth roads. We had started out at 0700 hours and were home by 1500 hours , with 2 stops, One for fuel and
one for food at “Sandhu Billu da dhaba” 70 km from Jamshedpur approx..
Route on return was Puri–Bhubaneshwar–Cuttack-Jajpur-Balasaore-Biripada-Ghatsila-Jamshedpur Approx. 470km, time taken 8 hours Toll Rs 375 Road condition, 80 % good, 20 % diversion and bad

Sunday, September 26, 2021

#Puri–Rambha–Manglajhodi – Puri 295 km, good roads Toll Rs 90

Day 549 since lockdown, sep 28th 2021
A day in Puri to get over the travel lag and we are ready for visit to Chilika lake, I have in past seen amazing images of birds in flight and action at Chilika lake and my desire to get a piece of action Photography is high by now, we decided to get to 2 different places at Chilika in 2 days, this is more of a scouting trip as birds migratory ones are known to arrive in December and be there till march Chatting with a friend Mr. Sushanto Burman a car Rallyist and pursuer of the good life confirmed that Orissa tourism property at Rhumba has rooms with Chilika lake view and Mangalajodi is 70 km from the Orissa tourism guesthouse, so these would be out target over the next 2 days, a 2 day and 1 night trip we set out. Starting at 0700 hours after a breakfast of eggs and Okra we were headed to Mangalajodi, we wanted to see the place and then stay the Night at Rambha, spend morning at Rhumba and then visit Mangalajodi at noon the next day, and return to Puri post sunset.
We did good time, toll on the way was Rs 90 and we were at Mangalajodi approx. 70 km from Puri by 0920 hours, We came across quiet a few fishing boats which had fishermen working on the water body and informed us that during birding season Dec to March they do carry bird watchers and Photographers. Bird Photography by boat rates are Rs 1200 for a 2 hour session on the boat, and ideally done at 0600 hours and 1600 hours, September not being a birding time, they were willing to give us a Rs 200 discount in case were interested, but we would have to come at 1500 hours, currently there was nothing there except a bird watch tower, it was hot as hell and we got roasted in 2 hours we spend there, we did manage to get a few shots of a blue bird with red head “ the Purple Moorhen”
I felt happy to have gotten a few pictures with my 80 * 200 lens and the 2x convertor ( the 2 x converter is my new purchase after doubting my decision for 2 years should I , do I need it / Should I buy it ? ,,,, not that I suffer from Equipment envy, just cant see why to get it if I cant use it commercially
Any way by 1100 we were exhausted from the heat and decided to head to Rambha, and what do you know the narrow road is blocked by a truck which had just started to unload its 1000 sacks of supplies, so there we were looking at the truck and knowing the truck would probably take an hour to unload, so we did what next was to be done, we drove on a narrow patch, and luckily we did not topple in the water body, some off-roading with the Nexon, came out with some scratch and a small ding on the body. From here on we drove on to Rambha total distance covered from Puri approx. 148 km, the time was 1300 hours and we were famished, the day being around Full moon time when crabs are typically larger in size we did order those for lunch and post a very satisfying lunch we went to our room which had a view of the lake from our room, the room had a balcony and sadly no chairs, but we were prepared and had carried 2 folding chair so we were well set to sit at the balcony and sip on tea and watch the lake.
It was almost 1500 hours and getting an hours rest we were on the lakefront with our camera hoping to get our 1st amazing picture of lake Chilika at Rhumba Rambha is at the furthest corner of Lake Chilika (which is 1100 sq. km) from Puri. There are boating service from the lake but we were not too keen on boating it was about getting more pictures of bird and lakescape for us. Not much action and we were back in the room by 1800 hours day has started to shorten and we called it a night early, next morning 0500 hours we planned to be up and about. And get on with our cameras.
NEXT DAY Sure enough there was a huge cloud cover exactly where the sun rose the next morning but then every cloud has a silver lining we did get a few interesting images of the lake and fishing activity’s and a few birds, yes I managed to get my 1st action picture of fish caught by the bird on lake Chilika, while in flight.
As I was coming away happy to have caught a action image I turned and the impeding storm had the sky turn dramatic, as reflected in the lake, spend a few minutes there and then slowly came back to the hotel, and spend the remaining few hours relaxing and chit chatting,
TO MANGLAJHODI again before we started out again by 1100 hours n we were at Mangalajodi again and this time we sat around for a few more hours, the sun was not beating down so hard, I got some more practice with my new lens combo about how to track and photograph birds, it can get quiet addictive,
finally ay 1600 hours with light softening up we started back and Google showed us a shortcut that we decided to take that road, travelling by car leaving highways and taking short cut is not very smart, but then sense of adventure, it was a single lane road and had us backing or going off road a few times if there was another vehicle approaching from the opposite direction, the road was narrow and full of character,
dint seem like cars crossed this path too often( we crossed 5 ) I think I got another ding on my car as we tried to negotiate a bend and finally by 1630 hours we were back at Puri.
#backtonewnormalseries #Sonycamera #sea #Chilikalake #slowmotion #traveldiary #circleoflife #instamood #bestoftheday #editorialphotography #Monglajhodi #Rajatghosheditorialphotographer #rajatghoshphotography #rajatghoshfilm #love #biketaleswithrajat #travelphotography #environmentalportraits #photographyworkshop #RoyalEnfiled #reflection #Lordjagarnath #moods #karma #coexistance #RajatGhosh #rhambha #Roadtrip #playful

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Mandarmani to Puri #mandarmantitoPuri

Distance 395 km Road condition was 75 % good; many a bypass is being build along the way. Toll Rs 325.00 Route: Digha – (Egra-Solbatta) – Balasore - Bhadrak – Cuttack – Bhubeneshwar – Puri
This day too looked very gloomy and prediction was rainfall all day, no chance of fluffy clouds as we had hoped for, ( my dreams of making images with canto cumulus and Cululus all gone ) so we decided to take off for Puri, where I would be dropping off a friend and maybe visit Chilka lake, “ the largest brackish water lake with estuarine character that sprawls along the east coast of India. It is considered to be the largest lagoon in India and counted amongst the largest lagoons in the world. The Lake is a highly productive ecosystem, with rich fishery resources. “( source : Google) We started at 0815 post breakfast, we had 400 odd km to traverse this day, The car had been sitting idle for 2 days in Mandarmani outside in the open, I had to coax it a few time to get the car to start & it did start shuddering for a while, yes my battery on this car is 3 + years old, (yes I am little worried is there a issue with the car that is coming up I had another 1000 km of this trip to drive, but then I took solace in the fact another friend of mine Nandan drives a few 1000 km a month on highways and never has any trouble he uses a similar can like me, so “ all is well “ being the though ) & we were off, we now had a time line to stick to, my buddy had a bank to visit and we would need to reach by 1500 hours ideally, for it all to happen smoothly. We started out rains were not far behind and we enjoyed for most part of the day, we travelled via Digha – (Egra-Solbatta) – Balasore - Bhadrak – Cuttack – Bhubeneshwar – Puri
Lunch was a quick affair at a dhaba, my favorite road side food, anda tarka & roti, cant go wrong with this combo and the intelliget way for the dhaba owne r to fan the tandoor
Just as luck would have it, we encountered rains almost in all major city just as we entered the city it would start to rain torrentially, moving the two wheelers out of the road and we had no major traffic to deal with anywhere, while we were on the road we were not sure if Bhubaneswar would happen by 1500hrs, so I called a student who I had taught few years back at Xavier’s University, Smriti Das was sweet enough to call the bank, and co – ordinate our route to the bank and inform the bank we would be reaching by 1600 hours ( 30 min grace eh ) and we managed to make it by 1520 hours and got the job done, and a hurricane 10 minute visit with Smruthy was icing on the cake to boot. We were in Puri by 1720 hours and a little bit of traffic had us look for the house as did stopping to pick up supplies for the house, we were home by 1800 hours
Distance 395 km Road condition was 75 % good; many a bypass is being build along the way. Toll Rs 325.00 Route: Digha – (Egra-Solbatta) – Balasore - Bhadrak – Cuttack – Bhubeneshwar – Puri #puriroadtrip #mandarmanitopuridistance #mandarmanitopuritoll #mandarmanitopuriroqdcondition #backtonewnormalseries #Sonycamera #sea #Puri #slowmotion #traveldiary #circleoflife #instamood #bestoftheday #editorialphotography #travelbug #Rajatghosheditorialphotographer #rajatghoshphotography #rajatghoshfilm #love #biketaleswithrajat #travelphotography #environmentalportraits #photographyworkshop #Tatanexon #reflection

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

To Mandarmani, ( beach in West Bengal)

18th Sept
So today we are headed to the beach town of Mandarmani, a seaside place where the sky tends to merge into the sea n the receding sea is often 500 meters away in low tide, the plan is photograph a few moments and activity that will be unique.
I started from Jamshedpur at 0700 hours, cloudy, no rains, had a snack of one paratha and took few cucumber’s (they are full of water) for the way, Gps says it will take 6 hours for the 290 km odd, I presume the road will be mostly good and some bad patch, n I made good time stopping to use the restroom twice n to cool the car, some how I feel the car deserves a rest every 100 km, so it was a nice drive, overcast day meant I could take more pictures along the way I was half way into my trip, when I encounters bad roads a few km from Egra it was a bone rattling ride for the next 70 km till contain, and the existence of road was mostly missing, no idea why, reached mandarmani by 1300 hours n met e few friends who were already there, we had a wonderful lunch of fish n rice which would be our lunch for the next 2 days and we sadly encountered bad weather for the entire duration of our stay, the clouds were not well defined like I had hoped (cumulus clouds with blue sky as I had hoped for )
We stayed at The Golden retreat a wonderful place of stay, righ ton the beach n excellent food to boost. We still hung out there for 2 days and hoped things will improve but it was not to be, Toll between Jamshedpur and Mandarmani was approx. Rs260 My car returned a average of 17km/liter, Tata Nexon Petrol, driven mostly around 80 at max, which seems to give a better milage. time to say good bye 2 days later as I head off to Puri, my next destination on this trip.

Thursday, September 16, 2021

Grace

Day 535, since lockdown Sept 14th Storm is brewing, birds are flying , great ambiance to be creating this image, Had set out with a camera that I did not mind getting wet, but then could not resist the weather n went back to grab a camera capable of slow- mo too, Then she posed or is it a he ? Please DM to purchase or license Images © Rajat Ghosh #backtonewnormalseries #Sonycamera #sun #birdlife #slowmotion #traveldiary #wildlife #instamood #bestoftheday #editorialphotography #travelbug #Rajatghosheditorialphotographer #rajatghoshphotography #rajatghoshfilm #love #biketaleswithrajat #travelphotography #environmentalportraits #photographyworkshop #RoyalEnfiled #reflection #jharkhand #moods #karma #coexistance #RajatGhosh #ancestors

Monday, September 6, 2021

Destiny

Day 526 since lockdown, Sept 5th 2021 We are all like in mid cycle of the swing, just do what you think is good/right karma and life will be fair, the amount of effort you put, rewards will be accordingly Else we control nothing but destiny does