THE BEAUTY OF INDIA
A landscape
is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they
integrate with natural or man-made features. A landscape includes the
physical elements of geophysical defined landforms such as (ice-capped)
mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living
elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements
including different forms of land use, buildings, and structures, and
transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions. Combining both
their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often
created over millennia, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and
place that is vital to local and national identity.Elephants
are mammals of the family 
Elephantidae and the largest existing land animals.
Three species are currently recognized: the African bush elephant, the African
forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. Elephantidae is the only surviving
family of the order Proboscides; extinct members include the mastodons.
The
character of a landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit
it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It
is the dynamic backdrop to people's lives. Landscape can be as varied as
farmland, a landscape park or wilderness. The Earth has a vast range of
landscapes, including the icy landscapes of Polar Regions, mountainous
landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes, islands, and coastal landscapes,
densely forested or wooded landscapes including past boreal forests and
tropical rainforests, and agricultural landscapes of temperate and tropical
regions. The activity of modifying the visible features of an area of land is
referred to as landscaping.
The Taj
Mahal lit. 'Crown of the Palace', is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the
south bank of the Yamuna River in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned
in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house
the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah
Jahan himself. The tomb is the centerpiece of a 17-hectare (42-acre) complex,
which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded
on three sides by a crenellated wall.
Construction
of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643, but work continued on other
phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed
to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time
to be around 32 million rupees, which in 2020 would be approximately 70 billion
rupees (about U.S. $916 million). The construction project employed some 20,000
artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect
to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.
The Taj
Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being
"the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired
masterpieces of the world's heritage". It is regarded by many as the best
example of Mughal architecture and a symbol of India's rich history. The Taj
Mahal attracts 7–8 million visitors a year and in 2007, it was declared a
winner of the New7Wonders of the World (2000–2007) initiative.
Squirrels
are members of the family Sciurid, a family that includes small or medium-size
rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels,
chipmunks, marmots, flying squirrels, and prairie dogs amongst other rodents.
Landscape
photography shows spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but
other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence
of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes.
Landscape photography is done for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the
most common is to recall a personal observation or experience while in the
outdoors, especially when traveling. Others pursue it particularly as an
outdoor lifestyle, to be involved with nature and the elements, some as an
escape from the artificial world.
Many
landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the
pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature, devoid of human
influence—instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather,
and ambient light. As with most forms of art, the definition of a landscape
photograph is broad and may include rural or urban settings, industrial areas
or nature photography.
Landscape
photography typically requires relatively simple photographic equipment, though
more sophisticated equipment can give a wider range of possibilities to the
art. An artist's eye for the subject can yield attractive and impressive
results even with modest equipment.
Any ordinary
(or sophisticated) camera -- film camera or digital camera—can be readily used
for common landscape photography. Higher-resolution and larger-format digital
cameras (or larger-format film cameras) permit a greater amount of detail and a
wider range of artistic presentation.
However, a
larger-format camera yields a more limited depth of field (range of the scene
that is in focus) for a given aperture value, requiring greater care in
focusing (see: "Shutter Speed and Aperture", below).
A camera
with "panorama" function or frame can permit very wide images
suitable for capturing a panoramic view.
For
"wide open spaces," a wide-angle lens is generally the preferred
lens, allowing a broad angle of view. However, medium-range to telephoto lenses
can achieve satisfying imagery, as well, and can enable the capture of detailed
scenery of smaller areas at greater distances. Telephoto lenses can also
facilitate limited ranges of focus, to enable the photographer to emphasize a
specific area, at a fairly specific distance, in sharp focus, with the
foreground and background blurred (see: depth of field).
A big difference
between a wide-angles lens and a telephoto lens is the compression of the
landscape; the wider the angle the more distance will appear between the foreground
and background elements; however, a telephoto lens will make the same elements
appear closer to each other. Other lenses that can help include the fisheye
lens for extremely wide angles and dramatic effect, and the macro/micro lens
for extreme close-up work. While variable-range zoom lenses are widely used,
some landscape photographers prefer fixed-range prime lenses to provide higher
clarity and quality in the image.
Mussoorie
is a hill station and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the Indian
state of Uttarakhand. It is about 35 kilometres from the state capital of
Dehradun and 290 km north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill
station is in the foothills of the Garhwal Himalayan range.
