A Photo Journey with Bird Silhouttes @ Pong Dam Lake, Nagrota Suriyan, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh state of India

It's been quite some time that we have been sharing colors from Pong Dam Lake, Kangra and Masroor. Now we are sharing some of the late evening shots with silhouettes from Pong Dam Birds and some interesting features of the place. Silhouettes are one of the brilliant form of Photographic expression which tells one of the basic sights of a place or event. Let's have a look at this Photo Journey with lot of Silhouettes from Pong Dam Lake with thousands of Migratory Birds in Winters of 2012 !!!

Flying Birds and people in the boat, all looking for same thing in this huge Lake - Fish. Note a huge flock of shining birds floating on other end of this lake. Thousands of Migratory Birds come to Pong wetland during winter season of every year. Pong is really a paradise for Birders.

Fisherman going to market after collecting the fish-net and parking his boat on shorelines of Pong Dam Lake. Now it's time to go to the market and sell the lot of caught fish on current market Rate. Some of the species are rare in this lake and sold at very high cost, although original cost is negligible as compared to the price charged from end-user in cities like Delhi.

Here is my favorite Silhouette of multiple water-boats in front of sparking water of Pong Dam Lake. The Sparking water looks amazing during early mornings or sunset time. Some of the stretches of Pong Dam Lake give amazing views of sparking water. 

A Gull standing on single feet and few Cormorants sitting on a smallest possible island inside Pong Dam Lake This Silhouette could have been better as lot of birds around this place could have been used to create a nice frame to add more value to this composition. Earlier I was not happy during late evenings, as light was extremely low and we could not capture the birds in our Travelling Cameras. On top of that we were standing against sun. But at the same time, we got this opportunity to try out some Silhouettes at Pong Water Reservoir, which is in Kangra Region of Himachal Pradesh State of India.

I love this photograph as it really gives me an impression of late evenings at Pong Dam Lake. Peaceful environment with some mist in air and birds floating in water. After spending some time watching these birds may end your day with very warm feeling. At times, these birds are naughty and try to have various plays in water. Some of the species keep their head inside the water and keep their tails up. They float amazingly with the flow of water and against various water waves. This was first time I extremely enjoyed watching birds with credit goes to all folks whom I was accompanying during this trip and Mr. Dhadwal, who is a passionate wildlife Professional in Himachal Pradesh.

Lot of birders come to pong wetland during winters and lot of migratory birds come to this place during this season. Birdwatching or birding is the observation of birds as a recreational activity. Most of the birders use devices like binoculars and telescopes, or also enjoy listening to bird sounds. Birding often involves a significant auditory component, as many bird species are more readily detected and identified by ear than by eye. During this visit, I also got an opportunity to attend a session which was mainly on birds and how should we watch them without creating any problems for them. During the same talk, DFO Hamirpur, Mr. Satish Gupta talked about this - Eyes and Ears of a Birder needs to be synchronized to have maximum fun of bird watching. Most birdwatchers pursue this activity mainly for recreational or social reasons, unlike ornithologists, who engage in the study of birds using more formal scientific methods.

If we talk about Silhouette Photography - When we are getting ready to take silhouette photographs, there are a couple things to keep in mind.  These tips work for both digital and film photography.  We need to make sure that we never point Camera lens directly at the sun. If there is too much light, the light will fall on our object.  If there is not enough light, our background will become gray.  The main key to silhouette lighting is having a background lighter than our object, but this can be done in more ways then one.  Many photographers focus on a certain time of day, where their subject is, what kind of weather there is, and where the sun positioned in the frame. I am huge fan of Silhouettes and some of the silhouettes shot during last five years can be seen at - http://phototravelings.blogspot.in/2010/10/photo-journey-through-some-of.html

Bird-watching, Photography, exploring new places like Pong & Masroor and lot of evening fun with professional wild-lifers and passionate birders; what else I can expect from one trip of two days. The whole experience of Kangra trip was amazing. This was one of the unique photography trip for me where I fallen love with such lovely subjects. This was first time I preferred to watch birds rather than keeping myself busy in clicking photographs. Right company also made be disciplined, otherwise I could have disturbed these birds unknowingly.

Here is a photograph of fields around Pong Dam Lake. Th land around this lake is best for agriculture. Folks from surrounding villages come to these fields for protecting their crops from birds. Some of them also try to catch these birds with unethical tricks, which is a sad part. Most of this agricultural land was taken by land by paying appropriate money to localities, but still this land is used during winter season.

Little Egret with little cormorant standing one shoreline of Pong Water Reservoir at Meenu Khad region of this wetland in Himachal Pradesh, India.

Birders still looking for more birds during late evening at Pong Dam Lake near Nagrota Suriyan. Apart from these devices for helping eye, their hearing senses are also very strong which help them looking in right direction and locate birds even behind the bushes. At times, sounds are there but birds are visible, but experienced birders have another sense of judging if the bird will come out or not.

Finally I thought of adding a colorful photograph to this series of silhouettes shot during late evening time at Pong Dam Lake in Himachal Pradesh.


Lot more Photo Journeys to come from Pong Dam...