Great places for Photography tours in the Western Ghats of Kerala
The art of photography is about patience and perseverance, but it will take you to greater heights if you have a love for it. Along with great ambiances and subjects, you make great photographs. Located on a cliff with a broad panoramic view of the Valley Beaumont Plantation Retreat, Chellarkovil is one such place, very much photogenic as well as charismatic. The valley has a lot of farms and fields, Mangala Devi and Meghamalai hills on the opposite side.
The Western Ghats of Southern India is one among the top bio hotspots in the world with a wide range of flora and fauna spread across the mountains. Munnar was one among the richest spaces regarding natural wealth in the Western Ghats. However, most of it vanished to replace tea. The forest wealth was drastically felled for timber, and it was replaced with vast areas of tea plantations. Tea plantation looks photogenic, but from an environmentalist perspective, replacing the woods with plantations might not have done any good.
The road from Munnar to Thekkady has a record of maintaining a height of 3500 meters throughout, even though the route has a lot of winding turns, the elevation remains more or less the same. While Munnar is known for tea plantations, Thekkady is known to be producers of one of world's top quality cardamom. The region is called The Cardamom hill reserve, which was demarcated during the reign of the Travancore Kingdom. Cardamom has been exported from here since ancient times. While the Western side of the Ghats gains elevation in a progressive course, the Eastern side of the ghats is almost like a cliff. This is how you get a beautiful view of the Valley of the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu. Technically, most of the prime areas of the Western Ghats remain in Kerala. However, the ghats extend up to Gujarat running parallel to the Malabar and Konkan coastline on the South West Indian coast.
Concerning photography, there are beautiful locations regarding landscape, the countryside drive and walks will fetch you an excellent opportunity for beautiful portraits of the villagers, macro photography is stunning with a lot of beautiful creatures around us. While clicking Macro, you will start to recognize the beauty and the intricacies in the smallest beings in the world.
Ramakkalmedu a hillock located around 17 kilometers from Beaumont Plantation Retreat, is not just an excellent place for a trek, but once you are atop the hill, you are not only on top of the world, you get to have magnificent landscapes as well as get a beautiful curve of the horizon.
A walk through the countryside will give you a great chance to see cardamom plantation workers engaged in their work. Local women wear colorful saris and men wear lungi, a dothi kind of attire. These are chances for great subjects, if you get quick permission, you are going to unlock a world of beautiful subjects. Evening tea shop visits will get you not just great tea, but some very interesting clicks of local people and the man who makes the 1-meter tea. They are really charismatic when clicked with those wide angle lenses.
The Periyar National Park is an arena of endless possibilities, it is a paradise for birders and bird photographers. There are exciting programs like treks and hikes into the forest, guided by forest guards. Exclusive rafting and nature trails will give you very extraordinary opportunities to click the wildlife of the park. Based on the season and time, sighting the wild beings is about luck and patience. The great Indian hornbill is a native of these forests, you can find her in Periyar, Neliyampathy, Athirapally Valparai route and a lot more places in these high ranges. The great Indian Hornbill is the state bird of Kerala, its flight itself is a graceful thing to watch. The possibilities of macro photography have enough and scope while you hike in these forest tracks, just that you would require a knowledgeable and helpful guard along with you, exclusively booked for you.
Going down on the Eastern side of the Western Ghats will take you to the countryside of Tamil Nadu, both Kerala and Tamil Nadu are two different states with entirely two different cultural backgrounds, occupation, traditions, and way of doing things. Tamil Nadu is interestingly colorful, they have these farmers in the farms, banana, palm, pomegranate, grape and other vegetable farms and people working there are great subjects. They have these cultural elements like the Kolam, a drawing on the floor done with rice powder. You will get to see bullock carts, horse carriages while driving down the road.
Great places for photography near Beaumont Plantation Retreat include
Anakuthipara - A cliff from where you have a great view of the plains of Tamil Nadu (the neighboring state of Kerala).
Chellarkovil waterfalls if you have a drone you can take some mindblowing clicks of the Chellarkovil waterfalls.
Walk to Beaumont point will give you a lot of scope for macro photography.
Visit to Cardamom and other spice plantations.
Countryside walk and drives will give you scope for portraits and countryside snaps. Especially during golden hours, the tea shops are great places for chats, and you can find a significant human element in the subjects.
Hope you found this blog interesting, book your stay at Beaumont Plantation Retreat to explore the beautiful photography possibilities for the shutterbug in you.
