Bamboo Chicken photography

While visiting Araku Valley in India, I visited this place called Borra caves. During this visit I tried a local dish called bamboo chicken. This was first time when I heard of any such dish. There were plenty of small shop setups where local people were cooking chicken in bamboo pieces.

As we went closer to the caves we saw, Lot of folks were putting blocks of bamboo on fire. As we observed closely, all those bamboo blocks were filled with marinated chicken pieces and then both the sides of bamboo were a specific leaf which is easily available in the forest.

This is such a brilliant way to cook Chicken and that too without oil. Just put the marinated chicken in bamboo shoots and put these shoots on fire. Thereon experts know when to take these shoots out from the fireplace and how many times one needs to rotate the shoot, so that chicken is properly cooked.

Bamboo Chicken is traditional tribal cuisine of Araku valley in Andhra Pradesh state of India.Skinless chicken is cut into small pieces and mixed in finely chopped onion/green-chillies along with various pastes of garlic, ginger with pinch of salt/spices/turmeric/red-chilli and some sort of fancy masala powders.

Photograph above shows one of the locals in Araku valley taking out the cooked chicken from Bamboo shoot. Notice the bundle of leaves in his other hand. This was used to cover the bamboo stick from the open side.

When asked & observed some of the locals who were cooking Bamboo Chicken, the process looks like -

Marinate the chicken pieces with ingredients mentioned and keep it for an hour or so.
Stuff this marinated stuff into the bamboo shoots
Cover the bamboo shoot with leaves from open sides
Roast the bamboo stick for around 40-50 mins on a balanced flame. (Neither too low nor too high)
Take out the chicken and then garnish it with whatever you like :) - At Araku, I didn’t see any garnishing as such.
So if are around Araku Valley, try finding place to try Bamboo Chicken and if you visit Borra Caves, you can't avoid it. Personally I liked it but it was not something which was super impressive. But the fact that it's so soft and without any use of oil, it's incredible. Taste is certainly depends a lot on how a person if marinating the chicken.

Wildlife photography

I am a wildlife photographer, filmmaker, naturalist and explorer dedicated to documenting wildlife and the environmental issues that define our times. I freelance with many of the world's leading magazines, environmental NGOs and television channels like Nat Geo and BBC.

Over the last decade, I have worked on many landmark blue chip wildlife series for the BBC and National Geographic channel. My work has appeared in many publications worldwide, including National Geographic, Nature, The Guardian, BBC Wildlife, GEO, Smithsonian, Lonely Planet and other magazines. 

Along with a team of photographers I founded India Nature Watch, an online community which now has become the largest platform for upcoming wildlife photographers in Asia. I am also the co-founder of Asia's largest nature photography festival Nature InFocus. Sharing my knowledge of photography, wildlife, and people across various platforms including workshops and seminars is an important part of the work I do. 

I collaborate with wildlife scientists, conservationists, policy makers, activists and educators on conservation action, activism, documentation, books and film projects. I actively work with Nature Conservation Foundation and VGKK in India. 

I hope to combine an artist’s eye with a journalist’s curiosity and sense of storytelling in my visual style, resulting in a body of work I hope will inspire the viewer to discover more. Using narrative and visual construction I strive to lure the audience into the subject, prompting them to ask questions rather than accept a ‘standard version’ of changing landscapes.

Through The Looking Glass...............

**PHOTOGRAPHY**

The

process and practice of creating photographs is called photography. A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface. Photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene’s or pictures which we wants to capture in a camera. 

Photography is a wonderful pastime filled with creativity and discovery. Through photography I came to learn how beautiful the world and the creation of God (Nature) is. When I come out with my camera, I see different perspectives and I try to capture it in various ways. I love doing photography and this is only the way I can get my old and beautiful memories alive. But photos never change into reality. Once the time is gone, no one can return or buy that time but when I see that old pictures I can feel that emotion all over again. My photographs make me feel happy and sometimes emotional also and this is the power of a your third eye. When I see something fly in the sky I also feel like to fly in the sky and capture the whole world beauty with my camera lens. 

My blog is going to do just this...bring to you a whole new world through my small inner eye. Each post of my blog presents a different creation that I have witness as a photographer. Enjoy !!!  

Lens Of My Life

**PHOTOGRAPHY**

The

process and practice of creating photographs is called photography. A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface. Photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene’s or pictures which we wants to capture in a camera. 

Photography is a wonderful pastime filled with creativity and discovery. Through photography I came to learn how beautiful the world and the creation of God (Nature) is. When I come out with my camera, I see different perspectives and I try to capture it in various ways. I love doing photography and this is only the way I can get my old and beautiful memories alive. But photos never change into reality. Once the time is gone, no one can return or buy that time but when I see that old pictures I can feel that emotion all over again. My photographs make me feel happy and sometimes emotional also and this is the power of a your third eye. When I see something fly in the sky I also feel like to fly in the sky and capture the whole world beauty with my camera lens. 

My blog is going to do just this...bring to you a whole new world through my small inner eye. Each post of my blog presents a different creation that I have witness as a photographer. Enjoy !!!