Wildlife Photography is one of a kind passion which keeps you anxious for your next trip into the wild. Animals are not just intriguing but its beautiful to understand their daily life phenomenon. Watching documentaries of the Planet Earth series or Nat Geo explaining wildlife behaviour definitely gives me goosebumps. The emotions are so raw, the instinct for survival so strong and persistent, nurturing their progeny, protecting from the wrath of nature or other beings is unbelievably just like humans. We have basically just evolved.
I feel great pleasure in sharing some amazing wildlife photography and nature work by Narasimhan. He is the Co-Founder of SalTree, a fine art print and travel company based in Chennai.
Here are some excerpts from our tete a tete with him.
How did you start photography as a profession and why wildlife photography interests you the most?
I was doing photography for the last 15 years.Somehow, I have a liking for landscapes and wildlife .The other genre like portraiture or fashion didn't attract me much.
Occasionally, I collaborate with other fashion photographers in their projects. However, from the beginning my attraction towards Himalayas, and mountains in general set my path towards the nature.
What is your camera gear like, which camera and lenses do you prefer the most generally?
I am a Nikon user. Currently I use Nikon 810, Nikon D3s along with Nikkor 500mm f/4 lens , Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8, Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 lens for wildlife.
For Landscape, I rely on Nikon D810 along with various combination of Wide angle and Tele photo lens.
How often do you plan photography excursions and how has photography
changed the way you look at the world?
I do regular short trips perhaps 3-5 days in a month and apart two or three long trips (from 10-20 days) in a year. Photographing various places, meeting different people, getting exposed to India's multi cultural spirit has made me understand and realise the beauty of this country, its vast cultural and environmental gradations.
The complexity, variations of the culture, bio-diversity which the country brings in, cannot be defined in simple terms.
Where can we view all your work and how do you support this passion?
Since you love covering animals and have been in wildlife forest areas very often, do you see the impact of global warming affecting the animals, how has it brought changes to any terrain and survival for them?
Global warming is a complex phenomena and its effects are felt by everyone, but not everyone realise the changes. The changes are happening slowly, the increase in temperature or change in rain patterns are subtle and gradual.
For example, in Masai Mara, the migration season is slowly changing, going towards end September or October. This has started to happen in last few years. In India, more than Global Warming, our problem lies in the way forest management is controlled. With growing pressure from society for better roads, energy-consumption in the form of basic utilities, improvised lifestyle, development of infrastructure, employment opportunities all bring an enormous pressure in management of natural resources. Until now, we have not been able to come to a balance between growing human needs and limited natural resource available to us. This imbalance is creating multi-fold problems to wildlife.
How has it been using the Blackforest camera messenger bag so far? is it useful for your work and does it make it easy to carry some gear?
Now the Blackforest camera bag is my regular companion for all my travels, India or abroad. It is sleek, easy to handle.
I really like the quality of the bag. I keep frequently accessed gear in this bag, along with other big lenses which reside in bigger back-pack.
I'm quite happy about the quality of the bags.
This is Narasimhan, a man on a mission to unearth some deeper emotions of the wild. Do visit his website or Instagram account to view his latest work.
