More beautiful than anything made by man is God’s creation. I have always had a fascination for wildlife. I used to love watching wild life movies, read works by Willard Price and Gerald Durrell and don’t miss a single opportunity to visit the local zoo of whichever city I am in. So going over the Indian Wild Life photography blog of Angad Achappa was an absolute delight, an entirely entrancing experience.
The photos on this blog seem to be right out of The National Geographic. Once glance at the photos will tell you this guy is a thorough professional, who knows his job. The animals and birds look just splendid in the most natural of poses. I am sure he would have spent hours waiting in the wild to capture them like that. The photos reflect his passion for nature and wildlife. The photos have been taken with the right lighting, exposure etc. : clearly speaking volumes of the pedigree of the camera and the person behind it. Even a person like me with absolutely no knowledge of photography can see clearly that the photos here stand way above the photos found on any other typical blog.
The accompanying writeups are terse and to the point. The photos anyway speak for themselves. The writings just briefly give the basic necessary background information. The back drop is simple and pure black. I think with such good photographs, frills are unnecessary. So simple is best and bright photos look best on dark background. I like the choice of widgets also. There aren’t any unwanted widgets. The popular post and slideshow are appropriate navigational widgets for this kind of blog. The blog roll and advertisement widgets are all related to wild life and so highly relevant. One thing I would suggest is not have all widgets on one side. It causes too much scrolling. I feel it is better to have widgets on both sides and the not so important ones below the blog as well.
I must say for a change, I have found a blog whose navigation I actually like. As I mentioned earlier, the slide show widget is a nice one providing glimpses of the wonderful photos. The popular posts and archives provide another option. What I like best is the use of labels. The labels have been used creatively to create a species list. It provides a very useful reference for anyone looking to identify fauna. Related post and search widgets can give additional navigation options. But navigation is good as it is also. Beyond a certain point anymore of it might not add too much value.
In terms of interaction, I feel there isn’t too much interaction. There is reasonable number of comments but comments are not always responded to. But I am finding that is the case with most travel and photo bloggers. Possibly they believe when photos are speaking for themselves, the blogger need not unnecessarily waste words. But this blog definitely has scope for more interaction. The blogger clearly has lot knowledge on wildlife and photography. So the visitors might find it helpful to have a section where they can ask for tips and guidance. Possibly a separate static page for this purpose can be added.
Another thing I would mention before concluding the review is the facebook fan page. It has been done nicely by pagemodo and looks really appealing. I must say this was a tough blog to review with almost everything right and hardly anything to suggest for improvement. Only thing I can say is I hope he travels to jungles all over the world having varieties of species and captures more and more rare gems such as these for us to savor.I would definitely recommend one and all to visit this blog and enjoy the beautiful snaps unless you hate animals for some reason. Find below a selection of works from the blog.
Kabini Calling!!
Slender Loris
Tiger Tales
Daroji Bear Sanctuary - Heaven for Sloth Bears
Greater Spotted Eagle with Kill
The photos on this blog seem to be right out of The National Geographic. Once glance at the photos will tell you this guy is a thorough professional, who knows his job. The animals and birds look just splendid in the most natural of poses. I am sure he would have spent hours waiting in the wild to capture them like that. The photos reflect his passion for nature and wildlife. The photos have been taken with the right lighting, exposure etc. : clearly speaking volumes of the pedigree of the camera and the person behind it. Even a person like me with absolutely no knowledge of photography can see clearly that the photos here stand way above the photos found on any other typical blog.
The accompanying writeups are terse and to the point. The photos anyway speak for themselves. The writings just briefly give the basic necessary background information. The back drop is simple and pure black. I think with such good photographs, frills are unnecessary. So simple is best and bright photos look best on dark background. I like the choice of widgets also. There aren’t any unwanted widgets. The popular post and slideshow are appropriate navigational widgets for this kind of blog. The blog roll and advertisement widgets are all related to wild life and so highly relevant. One thing I would suggest is not have all widgets on one side. It causes too much scrolling. I feel it is better to have widgets on both sides and the not so important ones below the blog as well.
I must say for a change, I have found a blog whose navigation I actually like. As I mentioned earlier, the slide show widget is a nice one providing glimpses of the wonderful photos. The popular posts and archives provide another option. What I like best is the use of labels. The labels have been used creatively to create a species list. It provides a very useful reference for anyone looking to identify fauna. Related post and search widgets can give additional navigation options. But navigation is good as it is also. Beyond a certain point anymore of it might not add too much value.
In terms of interaction, I feel there isn’t too much interaction. There is reasonable number of comments but comments are not always responded to. But I am finding that is the case with most travel and photo bloggers. Possibly they believe when photos are speaking for themselves, the blogger need not unnecessarily waste words. But this blog definitely has scope for more interaction. The blogger clearly has lot knowledge on wildlife and photography. So the visitors might find it helpful to have a section where they can ask for tips and guidance. Possibly a separate static page for this purpose can be added.
Another thing I would mention before concluding the review is the facebook fan page. It has been done nicely by pagemodo and looks really appealing. I must say this was a tough blog to review with almost everything right and hardly anything to suggest for improvement. Only thing I can say is I hope he travels to jungles all over the world having varieties of species and captures more and more rare gems such as these for us to savor.I would definitely recommend one and all to visit this blog and enjoy the beautiful snaps unless you hate animals for some reason. Find below a selection of works from the blog.
Kabini Calling!!
Slender Loris
Tiger Tales
Daroji Bear Sanctuary - Heaven for Sloth Bears
Greater Spotted Eagle with Kill
4 comments:
TF, I love the way you penned about the wild life blog. So here I go to have a look at the beautiful website.. Glad you loved the navigation of the site. PS: I would personally feel to have widgets on one side because readers tend to get distracted if it on both the sides. :-) And once again a beautiful review from you pen.. Keep reviewing more and more beautiful blogs..
Someone is Special
Thanks, SIS. You have a point. But I prefer widgets on both sides somehow than a long line running on one side like a tail. But as I have mentioned in my reviews there is no right or wrong. Just opinions.
Thank you for this in depth review.. :) Will go by the suggestions and follow up on the interactions part.. Thanks again!!
Regards,
Angad Achappa
Glad you liked the review, Angad.
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