It was a hot Saturday morning and the city almost seemed like a ghost town. But at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, an enthusiastic bunch of camera-totting people were connecting with nature in a different creative way. Standing in front of the black buck enclosure at the zoo, the group comprising professional photographers, amateurs and school students were all ears to their mentor for the day, wildlife photographer Rathika Ramasamy while she enlightened them about various aspects of wildlife photography at the photography field workshop.
As Ramasamy walked the group through the basic techniques of shooting animals in different light conditions, the group got busy preparing to take their first shots.
Birds chirping in the thicket, a lonely cry of a tiger and shriek of the eagles provided the background score.
An excited B. Jithin, student of class 8 of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, learnt how to shoot in manual mode. “Some of my shots were getting over exposed. I came to know about the ISO settings in harsh day light and how to click moving subjects in nature,” added the budding photographer. Others like T. Hari Vamsi, class 9 student, learnt the techniques of adjusting aperture to get the right depth of field with a hands-on experience. “Wildlife photography is best shot in the early hours of the day when the light is perfect,” Ramasamy explained.
During the workshop, the photography enthusiasts were told what the minimum shutter speed should be at which they can obtain sharp images with the camera and lens combination and how high to push the camera’s ISO setting to get a good frame.
Predicting subject's behaviour
“Since much of wildlife photography is based upon capturing fleeting moments of natural history, it pays to predict the subject’s behaviour beforehand,” Ramasamy added.
Photography enthusiasts and nature lovers who attended the workshop felt that wildlife photography had an important role to play in conservation. “It documents natural history, flora and fauna, animal behaviour and serves as a scientific tool. As the number of wildlife photography enthusiasts keeps growing, the awareness levels increases on various conservation issues such as how the different species of birds and animals are dependent on each other. When you start loving trees, plants and animals, you also conserve.
This itself is a positive step towards nature conservation,” said Prabal Mohanty, a professional photographer who attended the workshop.
