Thomas Vijayan’s love for big cats knows no bounds.
His passion for wildlife photography, in fact, has been a constant hunt to capture felines in all their majesty.
No, not for the striped beast
Ironic then that the photograph that emerged people’s choice in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award 2015, considered the ‘Oscar’ for wildlife photography, instituted by the venerated Natural History Museum of London, didn’t feature the striped beast.
Instead, it brings to life a small langur swinging on the tails of two other langurs in the beautiful twilight of Kabini forest reserve in Karnataka.
The 46-year-old Canada-based businessman, originally from Kottayam, captured the image during one of his 15 visits to India in 2013 to capture his favourite big cats.
“This was the only photograph which I could manage during that entire trip,” he recollected.
Instantly, he had a hunch that the picture could be special and held it back from Indian awards for contention in the coveted global competition since a picture submitted for one award will not be considered for any other recognition.
That hunch proved spot on as his photograph was among the 25 shortlisted from among 42,000 entries from 96 countries by a nine member jury from nine different countries. The selected photographs were then put up for online voting and his photograph emerged as the people’s choice.
“I was told that my photograph won more than half the total number of popular votes cast. The photograph is now being exhibited in museums in 60 different cities across the world,” Mr. Vijayan said.
The global recognition comes to the family hardly a month after Thomas Rajan, Mr. Vijayan’s brother who is a doctor in the U.S., was adjudged the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015, a coveted award instituted by Sanctuary Asia. In fact, the love for wildlife photography runs deep in the family, as Mohan Thomas, another brother based in Bangalore, is also an avid wildlife photographer.
