Travel Photography - Mahabaleshwar

My last post on Sinhagadh was written back in Oct 2015. Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted anything new on this blog.  But that for sure doesn't mean that I have stopped photography. I have been travelling and busy with work and unfortunately not able to upload pictures here. 

So today I am going to share pictures and some stories about my trip to Mahabaleshwar. Most of the people living in Mumbai, Pune know of this place. It's a super popular destination in Maharashtra. Mahabaleshwar is a hill station with some really beautiful views, specially if you visit the place in the right season. 

As with all destination in Maharashtra, best time to visit is Monsoons or just after monsoons. I went there in late October of 2015 which is a decent time to visit the place. 

There are many points to visit in Mahabaleshwar. Most of them are scenic but there are 2-3 points that will make you go Wow. I highly recommend visiting these points if you are visiting Mahabaleshwar

1. Savitri Point
2. Arthur Seat Point
3. Kate's Point

Okay- so without writing too many things, let me take you to the pictures now. 

Fort of the Lion Knight - Sinhagadh

I admin, I am not very good at giving sensational Titles to my posts. But if you have studied in India, especially in Maharashtra, you would know the story of Sinhagadh Fort and why it was named Sinhagadh.  Well, I am not going to take a history class here, but the fort was named Sinhagadh in the honor of Shivaji's favorite and brave knight Tanaji, who died conquering the fort. 

More about history of Sinhagadh at - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhagad

Coming back to photography, ever since I moved to Pune in May 2015, I never really got a chance to do photography. I (along with my friends) made several plans but somehow they kept rescheduling until on 29th August 2015 where we put our foot down and decided to go to Sinhagadh Fort. 

Sinhagadh is a popular tourist destination. Anyone living in Pune, or even Maharashtra knows that it is one of the most scenic destinations in Maharashtra.  Monsoons are the best time to visit Sinhagadh (in fact any fort in Maharashtra).

But of course, as always there are many challenges when trying to do landscape photography Sinhagadh.

1.  Monsoon = Rains. And rains is something that your camera will not like, unless you take the necessary precautions.  If budget is not a problem, but a waterproof cover for your camera. That way you don't have to worry about safety of your camera. But for all other(like me), I recommend going to the fort when you know that it is not going to rain. 
2. Crowd.  As I said, Sinhagadh is a very very popular location and there will be a lot of people over there. Choose a time which is less popular among the crowd. We decided to go early morning (6.30am to 7am) to avoid crowd and also get the right kind of lighting. 
3. Dense Clouds. Monsoons will also have a lot of dense clouds. While they are great for visual pleasure, they are not so great for photography. This is one of the challenge that we faced while doing photography of Sinhagadh. The clouds were dense most of the times and we were hardly able to see anything from the fort, except of course the dark dense clouds.  My recommendation is - be prepared for this. You may not get the kind of images that you plan to take. 

Alright then, without wasting much of the time, here are the pictures that I clicked. Hope you like them.