World Photography Day

August 18, 2013 06:42 pm | Updated 06:42 pm IST

Dr  R.Tolstoy Photo:K. Ananthan

Dr R.Tolstoy Photo:K. Ananthan

K.Jayaram

Favourite shot Leopard in the Gir Sanctuary

Where Gujarat

One evening, as I was roaming around in the jeep looking for lions, a herd of spotted deer was grazing by the side of the road and I was not interested in clicking as they were quite common. Also, the light was not good. But, suddenly, in a flash of a second, a leopard appeared from nowhere and killed a spotted deer just in front of our jeep. It lasted only a few minutes.

Since I was prepared for any eventuality in the forest, my camera was set accordingly. I was able to capture this very rare sight. But I could not improve on the image as several tourist vehicles caused a disturbance as did a tourist who stood on the jeep seat waving his hands and shouting loudly. All this commotion led the leopard to abandon the kill and disappear!

Though, this is not my best picture, it is certainly one of the images that I remember most of a rare incident in the wild.

T. R. A. Arunthavaselvan

Favourite shot A tusker with its trunk raised at a 90-degree angle

Where and when Bandipur, 10 years ago

On a late afternoon in June, I was in Bandipur. There was a tusker close by and I was hiding behind a tree, trying to photograph him using a 100-200 mm lens. Suddenly, he came very close. I knew I would get a good shot. I trained my eyes on him, silently dug into my bag and changed the lens. I managed to land my 50 mm lens.

The tusker was trying to reach a branch of a tree. Its trunk was at a 90-degree angle. Can you imagine how it looked? It seemed about 20 ft tall. I clicked a horizontal shot, and then a vertical. By then, it sensed my movement and kept looking towards my side from the corner of its eye. And then gave a warning call. I managed to take another shot before moving back.

Dr. R. Tolstoy

Favourite shot Gaurs caught just after sunset

Where and when Western Ghats, near Tirunelveli, September 2011

I enjoy animal-scapes and so this picture automatically is one of my favorites. It was taken in the Western Ghats near Tirunelveli in September 2011. I did my homework with the help of Google terrain map, and easily found the small hillock from where I expected a bird’s eye view. What I got far exceeded that. There was a beautiful sunset at a reservoir situated at least 1,000 ft below us. I was wishing there was another element to complete the picture, when to my surprise, gaurs, probably on the run from a carnivore, emerged from the sholas. Luckily I had my camera already loaded (unusally) with a normal lens and so started shooting without wasting time. This photograph is the outcome of that experience.

R. Prakash

Favourite shot A pair of Niligiri Marten, a rarely-photographed carnivore

Where In the Nilgiris

I managed to click a pair in the wild, which is very rare. It’s elusive, shy and only a handful of people have seen it. I have been looking to capture the marten for many years and, one day, while trekking in the Nilgiris, I spotted the pair. The lighting was harsh, it was 11 a.m. and it hardly stayed for five minutes. But, I was lucky enough to get the image of a lifetime.

K. Maruthachalam

Favourite shot A series of high-speed photographs of the blue jay

Where and when Kanuvai, 35 years ago

It was the third week of June and I was at my farm, to photograph the blue jay. I had missed shooting it the previous year, and this time around, I waited for about a week to capture it in action.

At about 4.30-5 p.m., it flew in and I used high-speed photography, a rather difficult thing those days. I shot in black-and-white and in colour, and when I processed the b/w image, I knew there was something special about the photograph. The colour image was sent to Germany for processing, and it was an eager wait to see how it would turn out.

THE unforgettables

A pioneer of macro photography in India, K. Jayaram is an ARPS and EFIAP. His photographs have appeared in more than 400 journals, including the BBC and National Geographic, besides international salons. Jayaram has co-authored Some South Indian Butterflies as well as many books on natural history. The most recent is Jungle and Lodges Resort’s Wild Vistas, a coffee table book on wild life. On World Photography Day, Jayaram remembers I feel that we should remember some of the world’s great photographers of this century.

Yousuf Karsh (famously known as Karash of Ottawa)

He has photographed all the great personalities of the world, including all great politicians, scientists, and artistsetc. He has also photographed Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Indira Gandhi. His famous photograph of Jawaharlal Nehru later was used in a postage stamp of India.

His all-time famous picture is that of Sir Winston Churchill. When Churchill accepted to pose for him, Karash requested Churchill to remove his cigar from his mouth which he refused. By talking to Churchill casually, Karsh pulled out the cigar from Churchill’s mouth and clicked the picture and returned the cigar with a ‘sorry’. That picture went on to become one of the greatest ones of this tough leader.

Ansel Adams: Landscape photographer

Cornel Capa: Photographer of the First and Second World Wars

Larry Burrows: Vietnam War photographer

Alfred Eisenstadt: Life magazine

Lord Snowden: British royal photographer

Stephen Dalton: High-speed photographer

Eric Hoskins: Bird photographer

Rajah Deen Dayal: Indian photographer during colonial rules who documented great Indian famine, floods and royalty

Richard Avedon: Fashion photographer

Brassai: General photography

Cartier Bresson: Significant moments

If you want to learn more, check out the following websites

http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/exposing

-of-a-gestapo-informer/

http://www.the.me/gandhi-and-henri-cartier-bresson-hcb/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams

http://www.worldphotoday.org/about

http://akpa.in/content/world-photography-day-history

http://fip.org.in/fipweb/aboutus.php

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