The Western Ghats, it's packed with beauty and wonder. Last year, we at landscape resorts
did something which no other nature photographer had done before. We presented to the world
the beauty of Luminous Fungal. This year, we have packed it again, but this time we want
to do something far more challenging and exciting. We want to showcase to the world the hidden
beauty of these deep and dark jungles. The main objective of this mission is to use creative
shooting and lighting techniques to showcase the real beauty of luminous landscapes. Ever
since we got back last year, we realised the need for better lighting to highlight the
beauty of luminous Fungal. So we went back and we worked out and conceptualised this technique
called spray flax. What makes this expedition far more challenging is it requires trekking
in the rain inside the deep forest and trekking in the pitch darkness. One of our first challenges
is to identify a location which has got a good potential for making a nice landscape image
and this seems to be one of that where it's got a nice open space unlike the other parts
of the jungle which is tightly weaving with absolutely no visibility. And then we also
have a lot of opportunities or probable candidates for luminous fungi. Now this brings us into
question for the second part of our challenge which is to see if this forest actually has
a glowing fungi. If they do, then we have our place named. So we are here to shoot at the
place where we had come in the evening and we have got a very good potential where we
have a very good foreground of the forest and there are plenty of glowing fungi out here.
We just have to see how it turns out to be. It's pouring rain and we are hoping for the best.
So once we have identified the place, now the biggest challenge for us is to optimally
light the whole scene and for that we have invented a new technique called spray flashing
where we control and spray just about the right amount of light onto the whole landscape.
This is so that the brilliance and beauty of the bioluminance is not lost but at the
same time we illuminate the landscape at just the right light.
This image is without flash. As you can see there's no detail in the foreground and the
whole essence of the whole place is lost in this image. This is the one with a very mild
flash triggered off the shoe. Even though the light is very mild, it kills the natural glow
of this beautiful fungi. This image is with the spray flashing which we have conceptualised
at the LW. As you can see it has illuminated the whole landscape in a very mild way without
compromising on the glow of this beautiful fungi.
Illuminating the landscape was not easy. All these images which you see now were done
using the spray flash technique. The challenges involved in this technique basically revolved
around identifying the right intensity of light, working out the right direction of light
and finally determining the duration of the light.
Last year our main objective was to document the brilliance of the fungi but it's that
we focus mainly on the capture of the true essence of this landscape for that we use
a new technique called spray flash which lights up the brilliance of fungi that it's
taking advantage of. Therefore, this technique has adjusted to this wonderful image which
really lights up the whole landscape.
