Enchanting Munnar
A nature photography destination.
About Munnar:
Munnar is a small hill town located in the Idukki district of the southwestern Indian state of Kerala. It is situated at around 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) above mean sea level in the Western Ghats mountain range. The winters here is quite severe by South India standards and temperature often goes down to lower single digits.
I am one of the members of a group called Vismaya (vismayaforcause.org ) which is group of six like minded software professionals. We are a team of photography enthusiasts who have set ourselves on a mission of lending a helping hand to the ones in need using our photographs.
Munnar the photographic destination for nature lovers:
The Vismaya Team
The Vismaya Team : From Left Amar Bhaskar, Venugopal Thantry, Goutham Ramesh, Myself, Sisir Kumar and Murali Santhanam.
The team's survival kit
Every year we travel from Bangalore to Munnar in the month of January during the Indian Republic Day holiday, to photograph the beauty of Munnar under the effect of mist. These photog trips are great fun accompanied by some serious photography. After we reach Munnar , the next morning, we typically start at 2:00 am on days when we intend to take pictures of Star Trail or the Milky Way and then between 5:00 to 6:00 am proceed to Kundala Dam to take pictures of the lake covered with a layer of mist or go to Top Station to capture the mountain tops piercing out of a blanket of cloud. When we are on such an assignment sometimes we have to be prepared to have breakfast of Tea or Coffee at the locations where there are no restaurants or tea shacks open at those hours. So we go fully prepared with portable kitchen complete with portable stove, table and chair. It not only helps survival at those freezing temperatures but is also tremendous fun.
It’s not just about fun and food, we also take pictures during these nature photography trips:
The colourful temple on the hill on the way to Munnar.
This is a temple that we always stop at on the way to Munnar. The colors of the temple in the backdrop of green mountains, and the view of the stairs leading up to the temple has always fascinated us to stop every time to take some pictures. Sometimes the mountains are covered in mist or cloud which adds to the composition.
This lone tree in the background of the mountains is quite an interesting composition
Once we are in Munnar, the first location for photo shoot is the layers of mountain slopes under sunrise hues from vantage points at Top Station . I have been told that sometimes this valley will be so full of clouds that you cannot see anything below and the mountain peaks will be emerging out of the clouds. But I am yet to witness that scene. I go there with the hope of seeing that every year but haven't got lucky so far.
sunrise at top station
Once the sun rises over the mountains it tries to peek through the bunch of trees. The peeking sun, with the burst around it, the sun illuminating the mountain rims , the cloud kissing the mountains, shades of grey over the tea gardens forms an interesting composition.
The lone tree and the sunburst.
Capturing the flare around the has been an technique that I used extensively on this trip. You do not need any special filters to do that . You just need to use apertures smaller than F16. It gives a starburst effect around any light source. This technique makes even night lights very interesting.
The mystical Kundala lake - The boiling lake.
The mist blanket over the lake with a peek at the red roof hut through the mist , the sun covered mountain top makes the whole place mystical.
Road to Kundala
After finishing the shoot at Top Station it was around 5:30 - 6:00 am . It was time to head to the Kundala lake and the dam.
View from the dam of the rising sun over the Kundala lake.
The Kundala dam provides a fantastic photo opportunity if you reach the place early in the morning. However we did not get too much of mist over the lake to add to the composition. The antique dam gate opener provides an interesting foreground.
A portrait of the dam with sunlight reflection having starburst .
The portrait of the dam zoomed out . Here again I used small aperture to give a burst effect to the light drops in the water.
The food court near Kundala.
By the time we finished taking pictures of Kundala lake , we were hungry for breakfast. There are no fancy restaurants near the lake but only the tea shacks that provide some bread with spicy omelette. The tall trees along the road to Kundala , the rising sun peeking through them and the auto rickshaw provided a good composition.
The paddle boats at the Kundala dam.
This picture is from one of my earlier trips when they used to allow entry into the lake. In the evening the sun sets behind the mountain and casts an orange hue . With the boat in the foreground its a very good composition.
Tea gardens at Devikulam
Devikulam , about 8 km from Munnar offers a thick canopy of greenery. The natural vegetation of this region, consists of tea plantations and slim red, blue and yellow gum trees. This place is on the way to Thekkady from Munnar. This is a private tea garden belonging to Kannan Devan Tea and is a vey scenic location that would leave any visitor mesmerised. The winding road, the sun going behind the mountain cutting off the rays provide an interesting composition.
The cluster of trees enroute Devikulam
On the way to Devikulam is this cluster of tress on the hill in the background of sunset colours. The different shades of mountains covered by a thin blanket of fog, goat beard kind of grouping of trees, makes it an interesting place for landscape photography.
Sunset over the Mattupetty lake.
The Mattupetty Dam located 13 km away from Munnar is a concrete gravity dam. constructed in the late 1940s, for the purpose of water conservation and power generation. Now the dam is a vital source of electricity generation in Munnar and also a haven for many wild animals and birds due to its constant water availability. The reflection of the mountain and the setting sun provides an excellent photo opportunity and hence is one of our favourite places in Munnar. This point is also called "Echo Point" as your loud shouts will echo back at you.
Sunset over the Mattupetty lake.
Picture of sun rays peeking out of the cloud and enhancing the composition by rendering it in black and white.
Star trail over the tea gardens at Munnar
After photographing all interesting places for landscape pictures in Munnar, we were eagerly waiting to shoot start trails. Munnar is one of our favourite places for shooting star trails as we find a number of locations where the light pollution is minimum at late hours. A star trail photography is a type of photograph that uses long exposure times to capture the apparent motion of stars in the night sky due to Earth's rotation. A star-trail photograph shows individual stars as streaks across the image, with longer exposures yielding longer arcs. Typical shutter speeds for a star trail range from 15 minutes to several hours, requiring a "Bulb" setting on the camera to open the shutter for a period longer than usual. However, a more practised technique is to blend a number of frames together to create the final star trail image. This picture was taken by taking several pictures each with a 4 minutes exposure over a period of 2 hours. We started at 1:00am when the temperature in Munnar was 5 deg C. But at the end of all that we were happy with the result. Staking out in that cold was finally worth it.
After 3 wonderful days it was time to go back home. But we knew that we would be back again next year as next year will offer different lighting conditions, different cloud patterns and after reviewing this year’s pictures it would have given us new ideas to shoot the same locations with different perspective.
I think this what makes photography very interesting. It provides an excellent opportunity to spend time with nature and with your friends while seriously pursuing your hobby.
Cheers,
