[M35]

Prelude:

I am not a ‘photopro’. I loved my drawing during my school/college days, the habit eventually faded away, thanks to the pressure of work-related stress. I still love art, I don’t claim myself to be an artist though. 12 years later, I realize photography is what hits my soul spot the most and hence my medium of expression and ‘Nature’ my subject. A session of walking through woods and ‘clicking’ helps me take away all the daily stresses, eventually achieving the ultimate “flow”.

I had my blinders on for most part of my life but it is only recently that I started stopping and looking around mother nature. Yes, I am amazed as to what the nature has on offer. Birds are my most favorite targets. In our daily life we don’t quite get close to them to appreciate how graceful they are. It’s only when I started zooming in to capture them, I started to fall in love with them and their behavior.

After seeing some of the bird shots, friends of mine often don’t believe that they were shot at places they pass by all the time. It is only that we just don't take the time to look around and enjoy them. Or is it that a person behind the lens sees things differently than others ?

Firstly, a bit of what Chongqing is like !

I live in Chongqing, most part of the year. Chongqing is one of China's directly controlled four municipalities, the other three being Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. During Sino-Japanese war, Chongqing used to be the wartime Capital of China back in 1973-1945.


A night shot from the heart of the City of Chongqing

Geographycally, Chongqing isn’t a plain but mountainous, spreading across a number of low hills. The surrounding mountains seem to trap the heat, hence quite humid and hot during summer. Winter on the other hand gets very cold, very close to 0 C . Due to this summer heat, Chongqing is known as one of China's "Three Furnaces", the other two being Wuhan and Nanjing.

It isn’t yet hot enough though, this year. But what I dislike is the fact that this city is covered with a thick layer of fog most of the days due to which it is also known as"Fog City" in addition to "the Furnace.

The main features of the downtown area are the hilly slopes. I happened to climb up onto one of those hills recently to capture this shot.

[M35]

Great Hall of the People (Chongqing):



Also called as Chongqing People's Auditorium, this architectural symbol is a large hall for political meetings and cultural events. It’s a huge auditorium about 55 meters high. I was told that the hall can hold over 4,200 people.

Opposite to this hall is the Three Gorges Museum.A five minute walk from the Hall takes you to the Museum. Took some long shots of the Hall as I walked towards the Museum. Visibility was poor thanks to the thick fog = ‘Fog city”.




Three Gorges Museum:

The museum showcases the history of settlement in the Chongqing region. It actually exhibits artifacts that were rescued from land to be covered by the waters of the reservoir created behind the Three Gorges Dam. The main focus of the museum is on the culture and geography of the Three Gorges region and construction of the dam. Huge area ad well maintained but put off by the fact that everything was described and labeled in Chinese, hence didn’t bother to take many pictures.

Display about the 3 Gorges Dam at the Museum depicting hardships men underwent at the construction site.




By the time I came out after having spent a couple of hours inside the Museum it already started getting darker.



After dinner, had a spin along the Jialing River that evening before getting back home.

[M35]

Nanshan Botanical Garden:



A wonderful setting, up the Nanshan Mountain, both indoor and outdoor. A very well maintained green park. Just visited once and had a couple of hours of walk around. Won’t go again thanks to the huge and suffocating crowd and the unnatural feel all around.


Chongqing Hua Yan Tourist Spot:

My most favourite spot.


It’s a green spot surprisingly in the middle of an urban built up area of Chongqing City. It has a Buddhist monastery . The green valley on a small lake is very much inviting and a 3-4 hour walk around listening to birds singing is definitely worth it, at least for me.

These look like 'Finch' species and there are lot of these here.
Note: Please click on the images for better view !







More action !

[M35]

Hua Yan Exploration continuesThe water body out here, welcomes you with lovely flowers like these by July-August, but now it looks a bit dry.



Lot of these ‘finches’, I guess, are found here. Some spring shots.






Looks like in some deep thoughts !

[M35]

This time some shots to get a picture of what road/ traffic is like here. It’s not a highway but a small street way away from the city centre. Clicked these as I walked towards Hua Yan.








The "Enjoy" in its original Avatar !

[M35]

Back to Hua Yan !


Though it was dark, this Redstart was very cooperative that day. Some high ISO shots and cropping didn’t help either. Some of the useable one from the series.











Lot of white-browed laughingthrushs around.





Found this beautiful baby bird resting at an isolated place, very well protected by small little branches all around. I silently took a picture and left. Can't take my eyes off this picture of this beautiful baby white-browed laughingthrush.

[M35]

I was about to return that day after sundown. But then this little fellow landed right in front of me with its prey = ISO 6400 shot.





The other day, this fellow too was spotted at a similar time of the day. Looks like a Red Billed Leothrix.




The days when our avian friends stay away, I quickly change my gear and enter the amazing world of ‘smaller’ friends. Close-ups / Macros offer great potential as you don’t have to search for your subjects.

[M35]

Let me wind it up with a few more macro/ close-up shots.

• The fun behind getting frame-filling images of these small and beautiful friends is unexplainable.
• Keep seeing, keep exploring, never stop learning

Taking a break here, my photo-walk in search of Nature will continue though !

[.anshuman]

Thread moved here from assembly line. Thanks for sharing it with us

[zorori47]

Wow M35, thanks for sharing these pictures! The macro shots are really good. Which camera/lens combination did you use?

[ampere]

Your first post has some amazing shots of the cityscapes. I dont need to say anything about the macros.

[M35]

Originally Posted by zorori47

Wow M35, thanks for sharing these pictures! The macro shots are really good. Which camera/lens combination did you use?

Used my D610 + Sigma 105/2.8 for macros. A Samyang 14/2.8 for the wide angle and Sigma 150-500 for birds.

Originally Posted by ampere

Your first post has some amazing shots of the cityscapes. I dont need to say anything about the macros.

Thanks Amp.
I am yet to shoot macros with my newly acquired speedlite. I am sure there is a lot of learning shooting with additional lighting/flash.

[.anshuman]

Hi M35, lovely photographs. The night shots look similar to Guangzhou, i guess all of the Chinese cities have similar lightning.

[Ddrive]

Great photos.. couldn't believe they are out of a Sigma 150-500. So sharp.
Yes amidst our everyday work and pressures we miss noticing those beautiful friends so close around us.

[NomadicLife]

Lovely Photos and excellent description of Chongqing. I glued to this for more to come. your high ISO photos are really great. please post some photos to get the mood of the city and its culture.