Luminous Landscapes!

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Sriharsha Ganjam
Luminous Landscapes!
"When the Woods go Dark,
The Forests come ALIVE!"


Bio luminescence has always fascinated me as a subject. Given the scale of its beauty, its always been understated and under represented in nature photography. This has been primarily due to the inherent challenges when dealing with the subject. I have always wondered if we could do better at representing this beauty, and also wanted to explore beyond Fireflies and Glow worms. Luminous fungi was a subject on my to do list for a long time now, but I got lucky only this monsoon after close to 3 years of hunting and inquiring about the phenomenon.
When I got set for the expedition, I was keen on showing the fungi glowing in context to their surrounding. I wanted to show how the forest floors comes alive when we humans retreat into our dens at sunset. What I did not anticipate was how inconspicuous the fungi itself were. There was absolutely no way for us to identify which stump of dead wood glowed and which didn't. The luminescence is completely invisible to the naked eye during day light and it needs PITCH DARK conditions to be visible. Even faint light from a torch can render our eyes blind to this faint glow. Hope this presentation does some justice to the subject.

You can read more about our expedition here
http://www.landscape-wizards.com/home/u ... landscapes


Also we have a short 5 min video of the entire experience on Vimeo. Please do check it out and hope you enjoy. (Watching it in HD on Vimeo is recommended)

Lastly I must thank my dear friend Ashwini Kumar Bhat for accompanying me on this shoot and for his invaluable support and guidance.

Thanks for Exploring!

Harsh

Mon Oct 28, 2013 1:27 pm
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Sriharsha Ganjam  Joined CNP On 23 Jun 2008    Total Image posts 125    -   Total Image Comments 839    -   Image Post to Comment Ratio 1:7    -   Image Comment Density 50     -     Total Forum Posts 42

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Commentby Madhav Jois on Tue Oct 29, 2013 9:10 am

Absolutely incredible Harsha! The way you have presented this picture with a sequence of images transcending from daylight to night is just brilliant. I salute you and Ashwini for all the hardwork in those harsh conditions. Can you try making a GIF with soft transitions between images? (like a video so to speak), I think it will look super cool. Thanks for sharing this beauty Harsha.

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Best Regards,
Madhav
My Gallery

Commentby Ganesh H Shankar on Tue Oct 29, 2013 9:43 am

This is just amazing Harsha !! So many wonders are hidden in the womb of the nature. Incredible !! thanks for sharing..

--
Ganesh H. Shankar
Wishing you best light,

Image
Fine Art Nature Photography

Commentby Prashanth Sampagar on Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:31 am

Amazing work, Harsha! The natural phenomena is one thing and capturing and presenting is another thing. Both are top notch here. I too agree with Madhav on slow transition of the images would be even better. I'll watch the video and your write up in LW later. TFS this brilliant work.

Best Regards,
Prashanth

--
Prashanth Sampagar

My Insta feed

Commentby Vijay Mohan Raj on Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:45 am

Harsha, what a shot! Brings back memories from my Forestry college days memories where sitting in a dark forest in Uttara Kannada, these fungi showed how remarkable they are, sometimes giving you goosebumps if a cocktail of horror stories followed the dinner. I never imagined that a few decades down the line someone can capture this on digital medium and recreate the great aura of nature. This is cutting edge work. Congrats to you and Ashwin in pulling this off.
I call these 'Southern lights' our own 'Aurora terrestrialis'

--
A creative mind is a restless soul...

Commentby Sankett Ghumra on Tue Oct 29, 2013 12:27 pm

Lovely Harsha...!! I never knew that this existed. TFS!

Commentby Vikram Sathyanathan on Tue Oct 29, 2013 1:22 pm

Hi Harsh, you have opened our eyes to the inner beauty of the forests, remarkable work..keep it going and thanks for sharing

Commentby jayesh joshi on Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:26 pm

Mind blowing stuff ! I still remember an attempt to search for such fungus at Bhimashankar WLS during night trekking many years back....Great documentation & presentation.....

Commentby dinesh.ramarao on Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:09 am

Incredible this is Harsha and Ashwini. You two have pulled off a great work. I am sure this is just a beginning, and will wait for more from your further work on "Southern Lights" as VMR says. Congrats friends.
-RD

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- RD

Commentby nirlep on Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:47 am

one should not miss what Harsha is bringing to us. So far I've only seen time lapse of moving objects but this work speaks different language. it goes a step further when the viewer sees the phenomenon emerging. A true revelation this Harsha!

Commentby swapnil19 on Wed Oct 30, 2013 2:41 pm

wow... many have said such awesome things abt the pic.. so i wont say anything and just njoi the pic sir.. can just say... this is a paradigm shift in creative nature photography.. kudos

--
Swapnil Deshpande
http://​swades1986.blogspot.i​n/

Commentby rajeshmkrish on Thu Oct 31, 2013 10:12 am

Very creative! You have set a new trend I must say :)
Hats off to your idea, effort, perseverance and execution.

Commentby Hrishikesh N on Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:45 pm

Stunning and brilliant work... Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing the experience... Bravo.

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Hrishikesh
http://www.facebook.com/hrishikeshNSwamy?ref=hl

Commentby Vikas T R on Tue Nov 19, 2013 11:46 am

Never seen anything like this Harsha. Its so beautiful and amazing.

--
"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."
-Vikas
PhotoGallery of Vikas