Once again, I happened to be spending some time at Natadol. The rains had been incessantly going on for many days and there seemed to have been a short break. Right time to look after the garden, collect some fruits and enjoy some walks under the tall trees. My friend says that I am in love with the place. Maybe he is correct after all.
Hot summer season and lazy sunny days… a perfect hint to take rest in the lap of nature, on the hills. On the last weekend, that’s what I did. With a couple of friends, we planned on staying at our cottages in Natadol (Maini’s Hill Cottages). The evening passed quickly in the company of friends, chatting, while sitting under the starlight. For the next morning, we planned on a nature walk along with our resident nature guide. It was hard to sleep at night in the expectation of early morning walk. When the first rays of light hit the snow-peaks, I was up and ready with my camera.
On way to Bhimtal, from Kathgodam, there is this rock which has become a stop over point for many tourists. Some click selfies and others just sit there. The rock is located just before the town of Bhimtal and on the side of the road. Some of the locals are scared of going near it. What is it that attracts tourists to this point and why is that bad?
On a wet autumn evening, when the clouds are all over the sky and thunderstorms frequent, only a handful of people want to venture out. For photographers, these are opportunities to be encashed. Beautiful photographs can be made. With a plan to capture some beautiful fall pictures, I stepped out with a group of friends. Leaving the comfort of dry place behind, we trekked on a muddy path, with our feet wet, mud everywhere but spirits high! After all, we were in the lap of nature.
Most of the time when I want to travel or indulge in photography, I prefer to hit the hills. Somehow they never fail to attract me. Armed with my camera, I just need a reason to escape to the hills. I started early morning on one fine day for one such trip. After photographing the first rays of the sun and a few landscapes in the crisp chilling weather of autumn, hunger struck me. Was it because I could smell something nice being cooked at a small roadside shack? Maybe that this was exactly what was needed for the famished photographer.
A rainy Sunday morning. Four of us gathered up early in the morning for a planned photowalk. Yesterday evening, we had thought of going for an early morning outing. Rain or no-rain, the photowalk was still ‘on’. We were not going to let a few drops downpour spoil our plans. Packed with our photography gear and umbrellas, we all started off for our destination while the day was still breaking out. With an overcast sky, the photography was going to be nice, provided the rains stopped a little. The destination? A mountain stream that should be nicely flooded at this time of the year.
(Cascading mountain stream – this is the place we wanted to visit)
With the monsoon season, well advanced, rains have taken their hold on the hills of Kumaon. The persistent cloud cover and high humidity gets quite depressing after a time. It also happens to my late grandmother’s birthday, who I was very fond of.
After a week of almost incessant rains, today, the weather cleared up a little. It was not raining but the sky was still overcast. The diffused light from overcast sky is what I needed for a photograph I had in mind. Armed with my camera, I once again set out to photograph some more cascades that appear with the rains.
