*"Flora picture of the year 2011" Ajay Ramakrishnan*
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Ajay Ramakrishnan
Jan 5, 2012, 12:15:51 PM1/5/12
to indian...@googlegroups.com
Though I am a brand new member of EFI, I have been passionate about flower photos since August-September 2010. Around that time, I heard about Kaas for the first time. But that year I was not able to plan the trip. In 2011, I made the long awaited "pilgrimage" along with my brother and cousin
But the dream almost became a nightmare... First, the Neeta Volvo that took us overnight from Mumbai to Satara was 2 hours late. Then, the driver dumped us on the highway instead of taking us to the Satara ST stand as advertised on the Neeta website. Then, we had to pay an auto driver 90 rupees just to take us the 3 or so kilometers to the stand. Then, we learnt that we had just missed the 6:45 am ST bus to Mahabaleshwar that would have taken us directly to the Kaas plateau and that the next bus was at 8 am, by which time the sunlight could get too bright to take good photos. Then, we asked a tourist taxi operator what he would charge for the round trip to Kaas, and he quoted an eye-popping Rs. 1200
Okay, now for the twist. Telling the taxi driving con artist we'd get back, the three of us started bargaining with some auto drivers near the bus stand. One of them finally agreed to take us first to Kaas, then to Thoseghar waterfalls, and then back to the ST stand in the afternoon, all for Rs. 1200. We grudgingly agreed to the fare and hopped in. On the way to Kaas, the hillside road was lined with beautiful flowers, including some light blue morning glories that I had never seen before. But since I wanted to reach Kaas by 7:30 am, which I had been told was the best time for flower photography on the plateau, I sacrificed the blue ipomoeas and probably many other rare morning flowers. But it was worth it, since the auto driver stopped on top of the Kaas plateau, which was only slowly filling up with tourists, at precisely 7:25 am
We spent 90 minutes of exploring the plateau to find the few rare species left other than smithias and balsams (it was already October 1, the fag end of the season). Among the beautiful flowers we did find was this bunch of Adenoon indicum - Blue Sonki. Hope you all like the photo (resolution reduced for sending to the EFI group)
Neha Singh
Jan 5, 2012, 1:57:29 PM1/5/12
to efloraofindia
Quite adventurous trip.
Thanks for sharing Blue sonki- never seen it bfr.
Regards
Neha Singh
Thanks for sharing Blue sonki- never seen it bfr.
Regards
Neha Singh
Balkar Singh
Jan 5, 2012, 7:13:02 PM1/5/12
to Neha Singh, efloraofindia
Beautiful and Rare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!--
Regards
Dr Balkar Singh
Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology
Arya P G College, Panipat
Haryana-132103
09416262964
Regards
Dr Balkar Singh
Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology
Arya P G College, Panipat
Haryana-132103
09416262964
Prashant Awale
Jan 5, 2012, 10:20:09 PM1/5/12
to Balkar Singh, Neha Singh, efloraofindia
Nice photograph Ajay ji. Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Prashant
Regards
Prashant
Madhuri Raut
Jan 5, 2012, 11:43:03 PM1/5/12
to Prashant Awale, Balkar Singh, Neha Singh, efloraofindia
beautiful flowers--
Regards
Dr.Bhagyashri Ranade
J.M. Garg
Jan 5, 2012, 11:51:54 PM1/5/12
to indian...@googlegroups.com
Nice picture, Ajay ji.
'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna'
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg. You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.
The whole world uses my Image Resource of more than a thousand species & eight thousand images of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg. You can also use them for free as per Creative Commons license attached with each image.
For identification, learning, discussion & documentation of Indian Flora, please visit/ join our Efloraofindia Google e-group: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix (more than 1760 members & 1,00,000 messages on 21/12/11) or Efloraofindia website: https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/ (with a species database of more than 6000 species).
Also author of 'A Photoguide to the Birds of Kolkata & Common Birds of India'.
prasad dash
Jan 6, 2012, 1:33:05 AM1/6/12
to J.M. Garg, indian...@googlegroups.com
Superb photography and very nicely taken background Ajay Ji. Nice one
Regards
Prasad
Rajesh Sachdev
Jan 6, 2012, 5:35:35 AM1/6/12
to efloraindia
Dinesh Valke
Jan 8, 2012, 9:17:19 AM1/8/12
to Rajesh Sachdev, efloraindia
Beautiful capture, Ajay ji ... and well the story of Kaas is interesting.
Hope you get there next time very smoothly and get to lot of beauties.
Regards.
Dinesh
Hope you get there next time very smoothly and get to lot of beauties.
Regards.
Dinesh
prasad dash
Jan 8, 2012, 12:08:38 PM1/8/12
to Dinesh Valke, Rajesh Sachdev, efloraindia
Superb catch again Ajay Ji.
Regards
Prasad
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