A dream Photography journey - Lens Academy

A photography excursion to foothill of Dev bhoomi Uttarakhanad

A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step, Such as our trip.
By our trip, I mean the Lens Academy and Scottish High International School students who were on a journey of a thousand photos. So we headed to Haldwani station and from there to Camp Whistling Woods at Gatgarh, a village 10 Kms from Kaladhungi. We all visited many places there but I, Karthikeyan S Kumar one of the students of Lens Academy will tell you about my experience from new Delhi railway station to camp Whistling Woods.

I was accompanied by my photography mentor Mr. Vipul Gupta and Nitin sir. Other students were Pranav , Abhiraj, Rahul, Ayush, Shailender and Prashi. Pranav was accompanied by his mother while Prashi had her whole family travelling with her, her parents and her younger sister Priyal. Also, when we reached the camp, we met our guide and naturalist Mr. Prashant Kumar, a resident of Ramnagar, a city situated 40Kms from our camp. He travelled to the camp on his gorgeous Royal Enfield.

Our journey began when our train 12040 Shatabdi express started at 6 am in the morning from platform 14 of New Delhi Railway station. The train journey was of 5 hours. Though we woke up quite early in the morning to catch the train, but the excitement of travel, company of friends, did not let us go to sleep for even a single minute on this train journey.

Our first 2 minute stop was Gaziabad station. Its first stoppage in Uttar Pradesh. Next stop was Hapur station. Hapur is a city in Uttar Pradesh as well as a part of the Delhi NCR. It is know as a manufacturing hub of stainless steel, pipes and tubes. Also famous for papads, paper, cones and tube. Our third stop was Moradabad junction. Moradabad is situated on the banks of river Ramganga .It is famous for its brass handicraft industry. Our fourth stop was Rampur station. Rampur is again a city in Uttar Pradesh. It is famous for its sugar refining and cotton mills. We also stopped at Rudrapur and Lal Kuan for 2 minutes. Our final stop Haldwani station, where we deboarded the train at 11:10AM. Haldwani is the largest city of Kumaon region. As we moved towards station exit, train started for its destination station Kathgodam, 5 Km away from Haldwani.

We had two taxis waiting for us, lead by Charu bhaiya, one of the drivers of these taxis. We quickly loaded all our stuff in the vehicles and boarded it. We took around 1 hour to reach our camp Whistling woods in Gatgarh village, covering a distance of 40 Kms and we passed through the small towns named Kaladhungi and Chhoti Haldwani. Chhoti Haldwani is known to be the home of famous hunter turned conservationist Jim Corbett. Our journey from station to camp was wonderful, as we passed through some forest and from Chhoti Haldwani we covered 10 KMs of hill road to reach the camp, which is on the way to Nainital.

Honestly speaking after, we reached the camp, at first place I felt a little weird when I saw mud rooms and tin shaded washrooms but gradually I started liking the place as it took me time to adjust with the environment. And after that I was just enjoying the beauty and nature of that place.

Overall from 6 AM in the morning till the time we reached came was an experience in itself. Although we could not get down at Rampur or Hapur but got to know many things about those places, may it be through internet or by our sir. The drive from the Haldwani station to camp was great. It depicted a story in itself. It told me about the difference between the life in plains and the hills during the drive. In short, my trip was amazing and I had a really great experience.

From here Shailnder bhaiya took over documenting next part of our journey.

Thanks Karthik for such beautifully narrated story. I Shailender, student of SHIS and Lens Academy will now narrate you my experience of next part of this journey.

We all reached our camp at 12:50PM. The caretaker of the camp, Balam bhaiya got our luggage to our rooms with help of cook bhaiya Harish. We took few minutes to soak into the pristine beauty of the place and spent some time getting acquainted with it. At camp, our bird guide and naturalist Prashant sir was waiting for us. We all greeted him and admired the bike he was riding, the Royal Enfield.

In the dining hall, we quickly grabbed our lunch, which was nice decent home cooked kind of food. The speciality was the Bhat ki Daal, which is produced only in hills and consumed mostly there.

At 1:45PM, we started for Corbett fall by our cabs, which is 15 KMs away from camp via Chhoti Haldwani. After half an hour’s car ride, we arrived at waterfall’s gate.

Prashant sir bought us ticket there and we again started travelling to parking area. From parking, we started walking towards waterfall and on the way, we clicked pictures of water canal, water bodies, plants etc. We found a giant tree fallen on our path. The beauty was that instead of removing that tree from there, forest department had chiselled a stair in it which we used to cross it.
On the way to water fall, Prashant sir told us about the local flora and fauna. One interesting tree he introduced us to is known as Khair in local area which develops and grows on the surface of other trees, takes nutrition from it and slowly kills the host tree. Prasant sir also showed us tree named Rohini which is favourite food of elephants. It took us 30 minutes to walk 500 meters to reach waterfall as we gained a lot of knowledge on the way and crossed a beautiful wooden bridge built over the water flowing from waterfall.

At waterfall we used the knowledge of how to freeze a moment and how to click a dreamy waterfall and clicked a lot of photos in various composition. I pulled 45 photos of different composition. Before we started back to Corbett museum, we took a group photograph in the backdrop of beautiful waterfall. Just to inform you, waterfall is not approachable. It has to be appreciated from viewing deck.

At 4PM, we started for Corbett museum, which is in Chhoti Haldwani, 5 Kms from the gate of waterfall.
Prashi will take over from here to let you know the further story.

Thanks Shailender, I Prashi Gupta, having great fun and learning on this trip will tell you the story of our visit to museum followed by High Tea at camp.

We reached Corbett museum at Chhoti Haldwani in 10 minutes from waterfall gate. Entry ticket for the museum is Rs 3 for students with valid ID card and Rs 10 for all other Indians. It is a very beautiful bunglow surrounded by lush green garden located in Chhoti Haldwani. Prashant sir provided us information about the hunter turned conservationist Jim Corbett, his association with Chhoti Haldwani, the books he wrote, how he turned into vivid conservationist from a ferocious hunter and how he had to leave the country post independence to move to Kenya, where he later breathed his last. He killed many tigers and leopards in his life that were preying on people in the near by villages of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions. Later on in life, Corbett became an avid photographer. Jim Corbett National Park is the oldest national park in India and was established in 1936 as Hailey national park to protect the endangered Bengal Tiger.

We also visited the souvenir shop in the museum where we bought few things respective to our interest like caps, key rings, fridge magnet etc.

By the time we started back from museum to our camp, it was already dark at 5:30PM. We travelled back to camp in our cabs, and on the way, almost all the kids had a power nap since they were awake since 3 AM in the morning for this trip. We reached camp at 6PM looking forward to refreshing high tea. We were there served with hot tea, coffee and delicious Aloo pakodas. We were so hungry that all the pakodas vanished in no time.
Something very interesting happened after High tea, which will be narrated by my peer Abhiraj. Thanks for reading so far.
Prashi

Thanks Prashi.
I Abhiraj, will now take you the journey of the rest of the evening we spent at the foothill of Uttarakhand.
Prashant sir, conducted a small but impactful presentation which provide us great information about the beautiful world of the birds.
In this duration, we learnt how many birds are there in:
1.the world
2.Asia
3.India
4.Uttarakhand

Prashant sir is a bird watcher, bird photographer and a naturalist. He told us some interesting facts about the birds like-
1. Birds evloved from dinosaurs millons of years ago
2. The first bird is called “Archaeopteryx”
3. They are warm blooded veretebrates
4. A body covered by feather
5. Forelimb modified in to wing
6. A beak with no teeth
7. Laying hard shelled eggs

He showed us pictures of some amazing birds. He informed us that Himalayan Monal, found at height above 3000 mtrs is the state bird of Uttarakhand.

He told us how many species are found across the globe and at various places.

1. There are 10,000 species of birds found in the world
2. Above 1300 species of birds are found in South Asia
3. 1200 species of birds are found in India
4. 680 are found in Uttarakhand

He made us acquainted with body parts of a bird.

He told us about the habitat of various species of birds, such as;
Spotted dove lives in villages and cities
Black necked stork lives in wetland
Ashy crowned sparrow Lark lives in grassland
Changeable Hawk eagle lives in forests

We came to know why birds are so essential for us
They are useful as
1. Pollinator
2. Controller of insects pests
3. Seed disperser
4. Scavenger
5. Cultural icon
My experience was that after learning about them, I was able to identify a red avadavat and common green magpie. All thanks to Vipul sir and Prashant sir.

Before going to sleep we had a bonfire dinner which means that we were eating in front of the bonfire and warming ourselves, as the temperature kept on going southward after sun set and it was chilling. We had dal, gobhi aloo ,rice, roti, pickle, green chatni for dinner.
We had a rule that who would eat 2 roti, rice and dal and gobhi aloo, would only go for the bird watching and village walk the next day. I was so excited about it that I forgot about the rule.

After dinner, Vipul sir, Nitin sir, Rahul, Shailender, Ayush, Karthikeyan and I said Good Night to Pranav, Prashi and their families, who were spending night in the cottages of Whistling Woods, and we trekked a distance of 500 mtrs to Camp Brookhill where we had our cottages. I felt that Brookhill rooms were better than Whistling Woods. Rahul, Karthikeyan and I were in a room. Vipul sir, Nitin sir in next room and Shailender and Ayush in last one, making Vipul sir and Nitin sir staying just next to all of us. While others slept fast after a super exciting day, my roommates spent some time having fun discussion in cosy room. I guess we went for sleep at around 11PM.

Here comes the first day to an end. Next day is going to be greater fun, which will start by narration of Paranav. Good night.

Good morning readers.
“If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down” We all want to fly one day and become great people, be it in any field, but I, Pranav Mahendru want to accomplish this goal in the field of photography and this dream has already started coming true because of Lens Academy. On our first educational photography trip to foothills of Uttarakhand, we enjoyed a lot but…the most interesting thing of all was the bird watching experience. On the second day of our trip , we woke up at 6am, got ready to face chilling weather and took our cameras out, went to the studio set up and started clicking birds. Meanwhile our team from Camp Brookhill trekked back to Camp Whistling Woods, who informed that they saw tens of Red billed Blue Magpie birds on the road. Prashant sir identified the visiting birds and enlightened us with his knowledge.

We saw birds like the Grey Treepie, Chestnut-bellied Nutthatcher, Greater Yellownape, Lesser Yellownape, Black naped woodpecker, Streaked Laughing Thrush etc.

As none of us except Prashi had a telephoto zoom lens, Vipul sir had got his 100-400mm lens was set on a tripod with his 7D on it and we all clicked some photos with it. He told us the difference between a wide angle lens and a Telephoto lens.

After we had clicked enough at the studio in the resort, we moved further down the road . With the 7D in my hand and the telephoto zoom lens on it, we moved down. We saw some other birds like the Himalayan Bulbul, Oriental White Eye, Red Vented Bulbul etc. To call the birds, our naturalist, Prashant sir took out voices of different birds and it was amazing to hear them. After a long walk down the road we started heading back to our camp . Prashi’s father kept on honing photography skill along the way. On our way back to camp we bought some maggi for us from a shop by the side of the road and made our way back to camp where fresh breakfast was waiting for us.

“Glory awaits you at the finish line.” My schoolmate Ayush will take you further on this journey. Thanks.

Thanks Pranav. I, Ayush will now take you to breakfast, followed by village walk. From morning bird walk, we came back to camp at 9AM and had our breakfast which was “Like A King” and we then got prepared for the village walk. After breakfast, we started trekking to the village of Balam bhaiya to see life there and to click some great pictures. Balam bhaiya lead our way, Prashant sir followed him and we followed Prashant sir. Prashant sir kept cracking hilarious jokes on the way, and we kept laughing on them. We trekked through the dense forest to the village.

At village we saw the local villagers and I got an amazing shot of a boy looking out through a door which is my personal best shot of the journey.

We clicked a lot of pictures of local people, homes, farms and natural beauty. We met a lovely aunt on our way who very pleasantly posed for us. We thanked local residents for letting us click their pictures, and moved on.

On our way we found a white kitten running to us and we clicked pictures with her.

We found an Amla tree which we broke the fruits from. Meanwhile we were indulged in getting the fruits from tree, a man suddenly came and scolded us because we were creating a lot of noise. I clicked a portrait of his at the Kumaon Maggi Point. Apparently, Maggi seems to be one of the most famous road side snacks in the hills.
On our way back to camp, Rahul graciously gave us a pose in SRK style.

Our trek lead us to main Kaladhungi-Nainital road and we walked to our camp where we were dying to have lunch. My part is over and rest of the journey till we reach New Delhi Railway station, will be penned down by my friend Rahul.

Thank you Ayush for narrating such a good story. I, Rahul, will now take over and take you to our dining hall for lunch, followed by our journey back home.

After our visit to a nearby village we returned to our camp. The lunch menu was simple yet very delicious.

As the clock was ticking, we started packing our bags and started loading our luggage into our respective cars. Before leaving our camp, we all wanted to click a group photo as a memento of our short trip to Ghatgarh (Uttarakhand).

Journey from the camp to railway station was a bit sad because we were remembering the best moments from the trip and wished it lasted longer. We were sad to bid adieu to Prashant sir as there was so much more to learn from him, but we were happy to know that he was accompanying us to the railway station.

After 45 mins drive, we finally reached the railway station. My friends, Vipul sir, Nitin sir and myself we all were waiting at the waiting lounge eagerly for the train, which would take us back home.

Finally the train arrived and we grabbed our seats. All of us were tired, eager to meet our families. As the train honked and pushed forward, we chao adieus to Prashant sir. Some were sleeping, some looking out of the window and lost in their thoughts of the camp experience.

The train stopped at various stations taking us near to destination back home. We reached NDLS at around 9.45 pm. Karthik and Prashi went home with their parents from station. Abhiraj, Shailender, Ayush and myself Rahul, we came back to Vipul Greens with Vipul sir and Nitin sir, where our parents were waiting for us. This is how this whole exciting trip came to a beautiful closure. Thanks for reading through.

2 Comments

Savithri Singh · June 21, 2020 at 5:18 pm

Lovely trip! Well written. I loved the pictures!

Lens Academy · June 22, 2020 at 6:15 am

Thank you for encouraging comment.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply