Photography

Photography

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Location : Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya | Date : June 2012

Camera, Lens, and Post-processing Specs

As of 2016, I use a Canon 500D DSLR with a Canon EF 100-400mm (F4.5-5.6) IS II USM lens. Most of my photographs prior to 2015 have been taken with a Sony A550 DSLR and a Sigma 150-500mm lens (F5.6-6.3). There may be occasional photographs taken with my father's old Minolta 100-300mm or (even more rarely) his Sigma 500mm prime. I typically shoot in RAW and use RawTherapee or UFRaw for post-processing. RawTherapee is a Linux-friendly, open source software, that is not perfect but my pick nonetheless. It needs to be built from source though and can be a tad tricky. For everything else, there's GIMP :)

Borrowed Feathers

(Photos used in magazines, blogs, books, manuals, etc., with permission)

  • "Karayal - Swan Story"

Short film: "Home to the Indian fox, desert cat, the spiny tailed lizard, and other arid-land-specialist birds and animals, and an overwintering ground for a number of migratory birds, including the vulnerable Houbara bustard and the critically endangered sociable lapwing, the Banni grassland was a delicate ecosystem. The Banni, in the western-Indian state of Gujarat, is now evolving and changing under the impact of the introduced invasive species, Prosopis juliflora. Karayal explores the question of whether restoration of these grasslands is possible, or whether Banni has now become a novel ecosystem with a brand new set of rules."

Credits: Direction - Vandana Menon | Cinematography - Vivek Singh Sangwan, Debashish Nandi | Aerial Footage - Vivek Singh Sangwan | Location Sound - Vandana Menon | Scientific Advisors - Ankila Hiremath, Abi Tamim Vanak | Music - Mustafa Jat | Additional Footage - Abi Tamim Vanak | Camera Traps - Kadambari Devarajan | Edited by - Vandana Menon, Debashish Nandi | Sound Mastering - Debashish Nandi | Executive Producers - Sanjay Barnela, Geetha Narayanan | Produced by - Srishti Films, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)

  • '"Sometimes it happens": How wildlife is thriving among India's booming population', Current Conservation - Arian Wallach, September 25th, 2015

  • 'Harlequin Quail - Jizan Area', Birds of Saudi Arabia - Jem Babbington, July 18th, 2015

  • 'Mystery bird: Malay eagle-owl, Bubo sumatranus', The Guardian - Oct 14th, 2011


Here Be Dragons

A collection of lateral, dorsal, and ventral profiles, and other scientifically relevant photographs of different crocodilians. Some of these were taken at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Center for Herpetology with specimens in captivity, while some of them were in the wild (such as the alligator, the Nile crocodile, etc.) ...