Why Photographing Wildlife is Like Fishing for Landlocked Salmon

A pack of Golden Jackals and a pair of Asian Antelopes at the Sultanpur National Park

Some of the best photographs I have taken have turned out to be those shot in unexpected conditions, an experience most wildlife photographers will have experienced. You plan to visit a wildlife sanctuary because the weather is clear. You set out early in the morning and reach the location only to have the weather worsen. The mist rolls in and you are in a state of uncertainty about whether to return home or hope that the wind will drive away the mist. On another occasion you see a large bird flying towards you, you point your camera towards the bird, and see it filling the viewfinder even as you press the shutter button, hoping to have taken your best shot to date, alas, lo and behold, it comes out blurred because the shutter speed was way too low. In other cases, it might be about having the wrong aperture or even the wrong ISO setting. Often the settings you have for still shots will not work for shots that have movement in them, especially those of birds flying in the air. It is clear that photographing wildlife is like fishing for landlocked Salmon. Sometimes you get a good catch, but most often you end up with nothing!

A pack of Golden Jackals and a pair of Asian Antelopes at the Sultanpur National Park

Just yesterday when I visited the Sultanpur National Park early in the morning I least expected to spot a pack of Golden Jackals and a pair of Asian Antelopes, also known as Neel Gai staring down at me down the trail that I was walking on. Thankfully I had been alerted by a fleeting glance of a Golden Jackal fleeting into the underbrush by the side of the trail. You might not however be as lucky when a brace of Partridges shoots across your path just in front of you! At other times you hide in the bushes hoping to take a potshot at some of the ducks paddling around seemingly unaware of your presence, but then, the moment you poke your head out, a Lapwing calls out the alarm and the entire flock vanishes into thin air! It goes without saying that some of your best photographs might not be the ones in which the birds' eyes are in focus, in fact, some of the best photographs might be ones you might discard or delete because you think they are not very clear! Just one day while on a visit to the Najafgarh lake near the Chandu Budhera village I spotted a troika of Flamingos out in the distance. The weather was really bad, thanks to the poor AQI levels and the photographs that I took of these birds turned out to be not so sharp at all. However, on looking at them closely, I realised that while the birds were not so clear, I had however managed to capture the atmosphere and the ambience of the scene. There was a sense of mystery, a sense of suspense in the moment.

Flamingos spotted one misty morning at the Najafgarh Lake

Flamingos can stand on one leg for hours!

As if the weather was not a spoilsport, having a large number of Batchelor Asian Antelopes wander across the scene scaring away that exotic bird you had been trailing so patiently might be a put-off, so you might as well decide to take a snap of the intruders, with good effect . If you can capture their startlement, then I guess it would be a better tradeoff from photographing that exotic bird.

A flock of Asian Antelopes at the Sultanpur National Park

Who was more startled, these Antelopes or me?

How strange it is you visit a national park thinking you will get a few photographs of migratory birds but end up taking photographs of animals! This blog post should have had more pictures of birds than it has, but then, I guess you need to make do with anything that offers a decent enough reason for stepping outdoors on a holiday, early in the morning. I guess you need to have something to justify your inability to stay at home even on a holiday! 

A Kingfisher at the Sultanpur National Park

A Blue-throat at the Sultanpur National Park

A Greater Coucal at the Sultanpur National Park

The best possible photograph that one can take is that of an expression of startlement or amazement etched on the faces of bovine creatures. It is amazing how many of them you will find in a National Park like the Sultanpur National Park. Having a multitude of domesticated animals including stray dogs can defeat the very purpose of having a National Park for migratory birds.

We need to have a National Park for domestic animals too!