Usha Peddamatham photography

03/01/2026

Borage or star flower

03/01/2026

Gilia tricolor aka Bird’s eyes

When I saw these beauties growing amongst a bed of bluish purple blue-convolvulus or blue rock bindweed, I had to find a composition to shoot Gilia against this wash of the same color by bindweed blooms. How serendipitous it was.

The mantra was ringing in my ears. Choose the background first and then compose. Sometimes the background is more important for the composition. And how true it is.

# macrophotography

02/12/2022

When we were in Gujarat in 2020 we were surprised to find out that a lot of birders come here because of a lot of migratory birds they get to see. The farmlands are lush with their crops providing plenty of food for the migratory birds.
On one of the FB sites on Indian birds I am amazed to see so many kinds of birds.
Not being a serious wildlife or bird photographer I tend to shoot the subject in their habitat like a birdscape.
This is a black winged stilt. Trying to identify birds now.

01/27/2022

The downside of digital photography is shooting thousands of images on your trips and never finding the time to look at them.And soon all is forgotten.
I have been revisiting my trip raw files and see all these photos of birds that I have taken. Now that I am seeing them I want to learn about them and post on my FB for memories.
A large, spectacular, slender, carmine-pink-and-teal-blue bee-eater with a long pointed tail, black bill, and black facial mask. The bee-eater is a migratory species, spending the breeding season, between August and November, in Zimbabwe and Zambia, before moving as south as South Africa for the summer months, and then migrating to Equatorial Africa from March to August.
BTW I had to crop it to 1/3 rd of the file but the enhance feature on PS-CC doubled the resolution. These AI updates are awesome.

01/26/2022

As I have said before I am not a bird or wildlife photographer. But I do find them as interesting subjects to shoot when I am on trips to these locations.
My shooting style is mostly animalscapes or animals in a landscape. That is how I see them. Zooming in on them with a super telephoto lens to create a portrait is not my style.
These are not pretty birds that you see generally on any wildlife groups. But I see it as an interesting composition as different birds are perched on their own branch.
I will have to google to identify these birds.
The largest bird is very large tropical storks, also known as the adjutant bird.There are two white backed vultures and lappet backed vultures. I am not sure of the lappet backed ID.
To me this image represents the scavenger birds all in one shot.

01/22/2022

I don't consider myself as a wildlife photographer as I don't have the skills to shoot them. I have physical limitations to hold long lenses. For bird photography that is a must. But I photograph anything that I find interesting.
I have started looking at my files that are a decade old. Better software is allowing to resurrect some images.
This particular image even though was shot at 550mm lens still did not have the ability to get a closer shot.
Photoshop CC allows a feature called Enhance that gives super resolution and hence tight cropping can be done of this tiny bird.
Not being a birder I cannot identify most of these birds. This is a African bee eater.Just googling brought up some fascinating tit bits.
There are 27 species bee-eaters.
Bee-eaters have one of the most complex social systems of any bird species. Many species (but not all) are monogamous, cooperative breeders living in large colonies of over 100 birds, but can reach 200 birds if conditions are favorable.
Each bird lives in an extended family with members of four overlapping generations. They appear to recognize parents, siblings, offspring, friends, and nesting neighbors, likely from voice recognition. This cooperative behavior vastly improves survivor ship of chicks. Females leave their natal group to join her mate’s family.
In Greek mythology, the Theban Botres was fatally struck by his father when he desecrated a ritual sacrifice of a ram to the god Apollo by tasting the victim’s brains. The god took pity on him, turning him into a bee-eater.

he Ancient Egyptians believed that bee-eaters had medical properties, prescribing the application of bee-eater fat to deter biting flies, and treating the eyes with the smoke from charred bee-eater legs to cure an unspecified female complaint.

In Hinduism, the shape of the bird in flight was thought to resemble a bow, with the long bill as an arrow. This led to a Sanskrit name meaning “Vishnu’s bow” and an association with archer gods.

01/19/2022

I went to Tanzania on my first wild life safari in 2014. I had never done any wildlife photography. I rented a 200-400mm lens for my Nikon D90 and went. I was the only serious photographer on this family and friends trip.
I saw this flock of Grey crowned crane coming towards us at a distance. As they flew overhead I lifted my camera and took one shot. To this day I am so shocked that I got this photo with zero experience in wildlife photography and handling a long telephoto lens. Talk about a fluke shot !

01/07/2022