The Hindu Nxg had a photo contest called "Framed" and had invited photographs about Chennai as part of their Chennai Day celebrations. I sent some pics that i had taken and one of my photograph got published. This is the first time that one of my photograph got published in a newspaper and i would like to share this with all of you. Thanks a lot for all your support and i hope i can entertain you with my photographs!!
The idea of traveling is to explore new places and to learn new things along the way, and we all learnt a lot of things during our trip to Topslip and Valparai. I would like to share the experience with you so that you can go better prepared. Planning for this trip started few months back… First we booked train tickets to and from Coimbatore junction. Then we checked out Valparai tourist sites and booked tempo traveler for the entire trip and a cottage to stay in Valparai.
Day 0 (15th July 2010) :: Central Station:
After lots of confusion and last minute drop outs 14 of us were supposed to board the Nilagiri Express in central station exactly @ 21:00. The train started exactly @ 21:05 and only 12 of us boarded the train. Our friend Prabhu was near the train’s engine and Super Hero Satish was near the parking lot. After lots of frantic calls we found out that Prabhu got into the “Ladies Compartment” and Satish into the “AC Coach”. After few hours they joined us when the train stopped in Arakkonam junction.
Day 1 (16th July 2010) :: Pollachi, Parambikulam and Topslip:
Time - 05:00 AM. A cool breeze announced that we had arrived in Coimbatore junction. Had breakfast in Coimbatore and proceeded towards Pollachi. We stopped at a place called Ambaram-palayamPollachi to get permission letters to stay in top slip. The office of the Forest department opened only at 10 and we got permission to enter Top slip and also got a dormitory where 16 people can stay for Rs.1300. Only forest guest houses are available in top slip so contact “Department of Forestry in Pollachi(Wildlife Warden Office, 178 Meenkarai Road, Pollachi, Ph: 04259-225356)” for accommodation. Tree Top houses, Dormitories and other cottages are available at affordable rates...
Recently i uploaded a picture of Monkey Waterfalls (Valparai) and i received lot of queries as to whether i photo shopped it since it was looking very unrealistic. So here is the camera technique used to capture waterfalls like this...
Shutter Speed:
You need to have a compact camera or a DSLR or a point shoot which would allow you to adjust shutter speed of the camera. If you shoot with a faster shutter speed (eg: 1/600) you might get a picture something like this where you can freeze all the water splashes and drops:
