“I was in Kenya. It was the year 1994. My cousin had taken me to the Nairobi National Park. While driving through, we saw a lioness with her cubs. Keen on getting a picture of them, I asked my cousin to roll down the window. But that didn’t help much. So, on instinct, I got out of the car, approached the bonnet, and clicked. The next instant, I saw the lioness spring.”
What followed was pure mayhem.
Describing the moment, Mumbai-based wildlife photographer Parag Bhatt says that the lioness inching closer was accompanied by his cousin’s frantic urges to usher him into the car.
It was only later, when he was out of the woods (figuratively and metaphorically), that the dread ebbed, leaving him with an aftertaste of ambition. “I knew I wanted to become a wildlife photographer,” he tells The Better India.
Parag credits his aptitude for the wild to his mother, who was born and raised in Kenya. “She would often tell me stories of how the animals there weren’t caged but roamed free.” His photographic acumen, meanwhile, comes from his father, who was a photographer. “As a young boy, I remember assisting him in the darkroom (a space where photographic films are processed). I would pick up his camera sometimes and try my hand at it.”
From a young age photography held Parag’s fancy. He was amused by how pictures didn’t age or warp. Instead, they immortalised the moment.
A love affair with the wild
Whether it has been shots captured in South Africa, Svalbard, or closer to home — in the Bandhavgarh National Park, Kanha National Park, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, Nagarhole National Park, and Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary) — each of Parag’s photographs has sought out a distinct narrative.
Often asked how he made it big in the world of photography with no formal education in the discipline, Parag says it was an intuitive pulse that guided him. An impeccable camera, lenses, and equipment help, he agrees. However, the ability to create striking images demands more than technical competence.
How to be a GREAT wildlife photographer?
- Get a story, not a picture
“Reverse the car, please?” Parag requested the driver as he — and 19 other photographers from across India selected for promoting Assam’s Wildlife Tourism — cruised through Kaziranga National Park. The group wondered: Had Parag spotted an unusual creature? Minutes later, as the car backed up, they were amused to discover that his object of interest was a family of tortoises.
So, why did he want to capture a family of these little reptiles in a national park filled with larger wonders?
“It’s the way they were sitting that caught my eye. While the majority of them were in a single file, looking in one direction, there was one that was looking in the opposing direction. A pretty democratic setup, right?”
Through this, Parag makes a compelling case for how images don’t need to be flamboyant. They simply need to tell a story. A good picture, he says, will grab eyeballs. But a great picture is one that becomes a catalyst for reckoning.
And Parag’s images have met the ideals of greatness; they have featured in UK dailies like Daily Star, Daily Mail, and Daily Express. But he can’t be cajoled into taking the credit for this, he says, crediting nature for being a good sport.
- Develop an eye for composition
Don’t just eke out a photograph for the sake of it, Parag urges.
“My advice to budding wildlife photographers is to assess the background before they shoot a picture. The background can make or break the image. It should lead the viewer to the subject rather than letting their eyes hover over the image.”
For example, consider bird photography. “Getting a good shot is tough, because normally, there are branches and other clutter that come in the way.” To fix this, Parag advises changing your position to get a cleaner background.
- Spot opportunity everywhere
In a world where everyone is a photographer by instinct, beating ubiquity is difficult. But if you want to stand out, you’ll need to buck the trends, Parag encourages.
He urges the wildlife photographers he mentors to spot opportunities in unassuming places. Illustrating this with an example, he says, “When I go to a tiger park, I don’t only run behind the tigers. Instead, I keep an eye out for deer and langurs. Often, people are so focused on what they should be clicking that they lose real photographic opportunities.”
One has to really develop the eye and the skills for good composition, he says, assuring that this comes with training. “Only when you spot opportunity can you produce striking photographs. Otherwise, they will be mere snapshots.”
- Say ‘yes’ to challenging shots
Take the circuitous route in photography, says Parag. Sharing one of his most compelling shots, he recalls his attempt at capturing a polar bear shaking water off its torso, with the droplets resembling a constellation of stars.
Letting us in on the behind-the-scenes, he shares, “This female bear was sitting on a ridge. We neared closer, assuming she would move, but waited for 57 minutes, and nothing happened. She just lay.”
Just when Parag thought he’d have to call it a day, the carnivore rose, walked down the ridge into the water and sniffed it. She then dove into the water at one spot and rose out of it at another. Twenty seconds was all it took between the dive and the rise.
Parag, intent on capturing the bear on its rise out of the water, found it an acute test of his resilience. “We did not know from which spot she would rise out of the water. Secondly, the long focal lens we deployed — since we couldn’t go too close to the subject — narrowed our field of view. To add to this, the waters were choppy, and the boat kept bobbing, so nailing the composition was tough.”
But, persistence was key, he discovered, and finally managed to get his shot.
- Anticipate the moment
Wildlife photography may be a series of hits and misses, but Parag says the former can top the latter if you learn how to anticipate the moment. A heightened sense of curiosity always helps.
He learnt this while shooting elephants in Kenya. “You have to keep your camera ready. Sometimes, it’s not possible to figure out their direction, and if you risk venturing closer to their path, they might change it. In such cases, anticipating the moment and positioning your camera at a spot where you think they will arrive can help.”
- Know your subject
Imagine this. You are in the middle of the Kenyan plateau. You’re ready with your camera. Two rhinoceros run up to you. You can almost touch them. Are you nervous or is this just your dream come true? For Parag, it was the latter.
Recalling this incident, he says it taught him a lot about animal behaviour. “Rhinos have poor eyesight and can only see you clearly when they are close to you. They kept inching closer to me, perhaps trying to figure out what I was doing or what my camera really was. They sniffed me playfully. That’s when I shot them with an ultra-wide lens.”
While this was fun, Parag cautions, it was only because these were Kenyan rhinos. If it had been an Indian rhino or a Kenyan black rhino, he wouldn’t have been as calm.
- What camera should you pick?
When setting out to shoot wildlife, Parag encourages going in for a mirrorless camera. “These are fairly newer cameras. Earlier, DSLRs used to have a mirror and the mirror would flip. But the new mirrorless technology means you have a direct view of the subject. What you see is what you get.” Another advantage of the mirrorless system, he says, is its auto-focusing capabilities. “Ensure the lens has about 400 mm to 600 mm of reach and on the lower side about 100 mm to 150 mm.”
While he has many more lessons to share with budding wildlife photographers, Parag says the biggest lesson he has to share is the one he learnt the hard way. Photography taught him that you may plan for a moment in a certain way, but it might not unfold as expected; instead, it will unfold even better.
Edited by Khushi Arora; Pictures source: Parag Bhatt
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