JOIN USNavin Raj, a BBA graduate, has always loved the forests and the big cats have held a special fascination for him. Four years ago, the former customer officer at an airlines also discovered a passion for photography.
A couple of years on, he quit his job and decided to change his line of work to combine his two passions. In a chat with Chetana Divya Vasudev, the Bengaluru born and bred shutterbug talks about immortalising wildlife through the lens.
How did photography happen?
For about eight years now, I’ve been visiting national parks and tiger reserves — I’ve always loved spending time in the forests and looking at various mammals. Four years ago, I started clicking pictures on my Kodak film camera. I enjoyed it but the camera didn’t have a powerful zoom; it wasn’t an SLR. Two years later, I bought a Nikon D500, which I use now.
What exactly do you do now?
I teach photography and conduct photography walks and tours, apart from clicking pictures myself. Every Sunday, a group of techies get together with me and my friends and we all go to places like Madiwala, Jakkur Lake, Lalbagh or Cubbon Park for bird
photography. The Jakkur Lake is a great place for wetland migratory birds at this time of year. You can also find around 130 and 140 bird species nesting in Nandi Hills. Sometimes we also travel to the Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve, about 80 km from the city, to photograph animals like the mongoose.
What is the best time for taking photographs of the wildlife?
November to March is great for birds and March to April or May for the big cats. We also do macro photography — mostly focussing on frog species — between June and August.
Tell us about some of your special clicks.
I’ve been trying to capture pugmarks, or footprints as you might call them, of the tigers for four years now. Helping differentiate between the pugmarks of male and female tigers often help predict where the cat might be at a certain point in time. Finally, this August, I got a male tiger’s pugmark in Tadoba Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra. Another was at Dandeli, where a bunch of us were waiting to photograph a tiger near a cave. Suddenly, I noticed a movement inside and realised it was a smaller mammal — a jackal. I clicked and the picture turned out fantastically. Only the jackal is visible, the rest of the frame is entirely black.
What does it feel like to be able to marry your two passions?
I feel I am documenting something important. Tigers’ numbers and habitats are shrinking every year, and what I’m doing will contribute to keeping a record of them.