Better photography by my better half ..my wife

All this while while i was screaming out my love for nature and photography,, my emotion was contageous enough to catch my wife too. Slowly she started getting involved, could be just by clicking some pics inhouse, then when on outdoors and very gradually, unknowingly it so happened that she started taking amazing pics...So its a great news for me..

My first love falling in love with my second love... Friends my blog will be now ours..will belong to photography luv of we both, i.e. Snehal and Prasad and not Prasad only.. here are some pics for you to have a feel of what my better half is capable of clicking.

I Swear I have not seen her do anything of this sort before i started taking pictures or photography seriously. So the kind of exposure to the camera, or lets put it in easy words..the amount of practice my wife gets to do on the camera is absolutely negligible. An this is what she is already clicking. I feel pretty much overwhelmed by what she has clicked... more to come.

Flamingo Festival on 27.03.2010 at Sewri Bay

Hi Folks,

Feeling fully contented today. Spent almost 3 1/2 hours watching various kinds of flamingo birds at the Sewri Bay yesterday. Amazing experience and that too so close to mumbai. Going crazy by the number of birds that were there. All of them busy eating away, which caused it to feel somewhat boring since all of them were in the same action and there was no variation of movement or flights or flapping of wings etc.. But then after sometime we started keeping a watch / following them ( thru the lense ofcourse) to be able to catch any action more beautifull . And ya i tried my best with the compact 18 x optical zoom that i have in my camera. Pics are looking cool, though they may not be upto the mark in a professional sense,, in terms of the pic size and resolution etc as compared to the high end camera equipments. But thats fine by me. I am sure my folks will like them and the whole thing has definately given me a happy day yday.

Thanks to BNHS and thanks to my wife who made me go for this programme since i was not planning to go since i had those normal weekend things to finish at home.

Lend ur space for our little winged friends

Hi Friends,

As i had already mentioned about bulbul birds nesting , breeding in our window, we were still waiting for them to arrive this year. But looks like a bad time this year since lot of huge trees in front of my house and around were chopped down since there are some construction projects coming up..feeling bad and down because of this..




Last weekend i thought of helping at least some of our winged friends.. put of a pot of water near our plants for birds to beat the heat this summer.. Then found out some plywood sheets, took help of a neighbour who is as enthu as we too and made out a small box shaped nest. Then hung this nest in the external grill of our bedroom window,, and yes !! yes !! next day there was a sparrow couple observing it in the morning. By afternoon they had already zeroed upon making this their "aashiyana " . They have now started working towards making it their home and the place for bring their young ones in the world.. Cant express the magnitude of happiness that me n my wife are feeling. Every morning, we get out of the bed and unlike every mornings,,," hi baby ! or good morning shonaaa !!! " we walk towards the window, move the curtain slowly and see whats up with these guys... then comes all other things,, putting fresh water in the pot, then some grains for them etc.. found time today to take some pics of these guest family..





And ya , I woke up today morning to the voice of a bulbul and jumped off the bed, to look for them. A pleasant surprise, bulbul couple was in our plants, they would look at the place all over, look at the nest that another bulbul couple had made last year ( we have kept it still intact).. then again flew back to our bedroom window, again came back etc etc,, god alone knows what they are thinking about, whether both of them or any one of them are one of the chicks who took birth and grew up in the nest last year .. or are they just considering staying here and bring up their kids ... really kept us wondering,, lets hope they decide to do it,, and we really dont mind keeping both our windows closed and curtains closed till they happily built their nests, lay their eggs, bring their young ones in the world and grow them untill they all fly away happily to come back in the next year...
we really hope they come.. we have delicious food too ready for them...
if thats a lucrative option. other than the fact that we love them and wouldnt even trouble or disturb them in any which ways.

lets hope they come,, and i be able to do what i get immense happiness in, help them..

Urge everybody to note that just an hours time on our weekends we spend to make these small nests with very little expense,,and these lovely creatures will be able to make their life cycle little better..at least this much is what we could easily do ... considering the epitome of bad things that we have done to the nature around us... even if one of you does what have done, and spreads the word to even one another person who you know, i will feel that i could manage to do atleast a bit.

PS : Could not even notice another photography enthusiastic person developing in my own house. Snehal, the lady of my life n house, the love of my life has also fallen for photography and does it quite well as compared to the amount of practice she gets to do on the camera, here as some amazing macro pics that she has clicked,, there are many but these are the latest ones we have.

Hi Friends ! after a long while.. but ya i am back,,,was bzy with some work related exingencies..

Meanwhile got an opportunity to go on a trek with Kalpavihar Group.. and what a trek it was. It is one of the social activities that Kalpavihar does,, they had taken up the task of "showing" Fort Shivneri to 25 blind students from a blind school in dadar . I immediately took up the opportunity and wht a day it was...

heres the link for the pics http://picasaweb.google.com/prasad.pandhare/TrekToShivneriFort13th14thMar2010

Photography - My second love

I have been a crazy lover of photography dont know since how many years. Vaguely remember me eying a mini hotshot camera that a classmate had brought with him our school picnic when we were in the 6th class. The guy wouldnt just let us come even in close vincinity of the camera.

As we started growing up, I too got the Kodak Mini hotshot, experimenting on it, i realised that it is a great way to store your memories. Thats when i started getting along with friends who were involved in trekking, nature activities etc. I joined them for the heck of it at the begining. But really fell head over heels in love with mother nature.. As everybody who has been into these activities will agree, now the love for nature and love for photography both went hand in hand.

I continued trekking a lot, photographying the way i could, met lot of people, made friends, friends changed, parted etc. Gradually with work and family commitments trekking started taking a back-seat...and now finally what really really remains is PHOTOGRAPHY.. and i feel now that i have a long way to go.


This picture taken near the Bari Village at the base of Mount Kalsubai - rightly referred as the Everest of Maharashtra. Amazing light engineering by mother nature herself.

This one is my favourite rock at the end of a valley near the tunnel in Malshej ghat, giving a view of the trekkers paradise - Harishchandragad. I love this place and the photogenic ness of it so much in all climates

Further more experiments and I started realising that there is a whole new world of beauty spread around by nature. Every part of it is beauty.... sheer beauty ! be it a small insect or a flower or a bird or whatever really comes accross to you.. talking of beauty i remember a leopard crossing over the pathway when we were trekking and this beauty really brought our hearts to a stop.. but then too its lovely.

Next came a stage where i started observing everything that came accross while travelling, trekking - from human beings, to insects, plants, flowers, birds and absolutely anything. And the most surprising thing is I found a whole new world of beautifull things happening around me. And every thing around had some or the other characteristic feature in it which tantamounted to its being beautifull in its own way.

Here are some more intersting pictures that i could click, viewers may not neccessarily find them interesting, but thats what i feel.

Thanks to the damselfly couple, they did not pull me to the court for invading their privacy. I love the pic because probably my first ever macro pic which involves a living creature, rather two. And the other fellow, me n my wife called kept him home for two days just because i did not have time to shoot him till the weekend, and then this unforgettable shoot happened.


I must say, these are creatures around you all the time and one doesnt need to travel extensively for getting these pics. They are small, maybe even unnoticeable, but possess certain beautifull aspects.. All except the black beatle and the spider have been shot in places nearby my house.

Trekking in jungles, mountains and making more n more friends with same thought background..i.e love for nature and photography, something within me was developing and unknowingly being nurtured. Then met some people who were birding enthusiasts and another magnificient area of birding came to light. Though not much but have developed a liking and little knowledge about which bird is called what etc . Birding had caught my interests.




Got this Crested Lark with its prey at Malshej Ghat. The Heron at the Jijamata Udyan at Byculla. The Weaver birds (Baya) are as if the members of our society itself. They have made as many as 35-40 nests on a tree in our society. Every year a new generation of them come , make their homes, lay eggs, grow up their younger ones and fly away. A Robbin also was daring enough to make his nest in our society post box. Unfortunately nobody else excluding me and my wife was interested in co-operating with the Robbin family and therefore the nest and the eggs were thrown out ruthlessly.. and we call our societies " co-operative housing societies". A family of a Bulbul made their nest in the grill of our french window, laid eggs, and also grew up their kids. We watched every part of the process and photographed them whenever possible, though not very promising photographs as such.

Amidst trying my hand at various things like flowers, creepers, insects etc., i also started looking at human beings as my subjects. Pictures that had unique actions or just nice body language etc were things that i gave a try




In a Gudhi Padava yatra i tried to photograph some dholkaris from a group since their engrossed and concrentrated facial expression and body language were outstanding.

My quest for photography seems unending,, now planning to get a high end DSLR Camera, since i find a lot of limitations to what i can do in photography with the equitment that i currently have.

Will keep on posting whatever i click on this Blog.

Viewers, may please not hesitate sending me your comments because those are going to be my guidlines to improve my photography. I can be reached at prasad.pandhare@gmail.com

Got an opportunity to attend one of the bullock-cart races that happen near my place. A complete rustic race, prizes and the execution of the race.