With the advent of the novel Coronavirus, we all knew what was coming towards our deep loved passion of wildlife photography which always demanded frequent traveling to distant places in search of species and their photographs. And it finally struck us - LOCKDOWN.
But did that put a halt in my way of creating frames of nature? Well that is what I will share with all of you - My Local Wildlife Series.
Since the Lockdown started on March 2020, I always felt that 2020 was going to be a pain in the heart. With restrictions on traveling, shutdown of all transport means, it was eminent that my passion will come to a pause. But somewhere I kept trying to go out for a fresh air in the morning with proper protections and slowly it was an amazing news all over the papers how nature is regaining its purity with less people on street. We all could remember the emergence of River Dolphins in the Ganges, Leopards and Tigers crossing National Highways out of nowhere, videos of Wild Ducks crossing an empty high road which were once congested by traffic. I knew - 'This is my chance to push boundaries!'
Upto June I was caged and from July 2020 when I came back to my hometown in Kolkata I discovered the magic of the wildlife species that were abundant at a field, few meters away from my home. I discovered how simple subjects can create unbelievably satisfactory frames, I understood the value of observing the most common things and presenting them in an uncommon way.
Being a wildlife story teller, I personally feel that photography is about framing the things that common people see, in an uncommon way. Or should I say that Wildlife Photography gives you two big options : CAPTURE THE EXOTIC SPECIES IN A SIMPLE FRAME or CAPTURE SIMPLE SPECIES AND SHOW THEM IN AN EXOTIC WAY.
Honestly, photography never took a break for me. Lockdown opened my eyes in a newer way - it helped me perceive the subjects in a different way. I started to enjoy the simpler subjects around me so much that even a common crow grabbed my attention with its behavior. I could study their behaviour more and again I could start a sel-assignment on window birding! Who knows? Now I believe strongly that other wildlife photographers who missed out travelling to exotic places also felt the same importance of this period. The Covid Era was not only an opportunistic one for all the photographers like me but it was more of a challenge to change the workflow that we were accustomed to.
How did you take the best out of this one ?
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