DOME HOME
I won the “Grand Title” of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021 for this image. This image also won me the award of “Category Winner” of 10 years and under in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021 competition.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is one of the most prestigious photography contests. It is often called the “Oscars of Wildlife Photography”. The Natural History Museum, London, organizes this award.
I took this image at a theme park that houses upcycled old/used car parts and old cars. These are the letters of the script of the language Kannada, made using old/used car parts and they have been placed adjacent to the main road. I was trying to capture the tent spider with moving vehicles in the background. It was challenging to focus the spider because the web shook every time a vehicle moved in the background. After clicking on hundreds of images, I got some in good focus!
Nikon D5000 + Nikkor 85 mm f3.5 lens + Manfrotto Tripod; 1/250 sec at f5; ISO 200
BLUE ON GREEN AND
RED
This image won me the award of “Highly Commended” in the “10 years and under” category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021.
This is a Cupid or Cycad Blue butterfly. I captured this image in my school garden. If you are wondering why I was in my school during online classes, I won an award under the Young Photographer category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 awards. So, my school principal told us that whenever we wanted to come to the gardens to take photographs, we were always welcome. So, my father and I went to my school on a beautiful Saturday morning. We took a lot of images in the garden. We were about to leave when I spotted this beautiful butterfly. I had to bend a little a lot to position the butterfly on the left and to get the colorful background.
Nikon D5000 + Nikkor 85 mm f3.5 lens; 1/2000 sec at f4; ISO 200
city signature
This image won me the “Highly Commended” award in Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020.
The spider had built its web in the lanes of the main road; it used to build a new web every morning. My father and I watched it every weekend for a month. One day, when it had four signatures, I photographed it. I was not tall enough to have the spider in the middle of my image, so my father brought a stone and I stood on it and took the photograph. This Photograph is also special because my grandmother was with us when we were taking the photograph.
Signature spiders are orb weavers. Their signatures make them look big, so the predators think it is too big to swallow! Their signatures also reflect UV rays which attract insects.
Nikon D5000 + Nikkor 85 mm f3.5 lens; 1/1600 sec at f6.3; ISO 200
GECKO’S GARAGE
This image won me the ‘Special Mention’ of the Young Photographer category of the Nature in Focus 2023 competition.
This is a “Green Emerald Gecko”. It is endemic to the Andaman Islands of India.
We were on vacation, in the Andaman Islands. At the resort, when I was having dinner, I spotted this gecko in the hanging light above my head. I gobbled up my dinner, ran to our room, and brought my camera. Then, I stood on the dinner table and captured this gecko. Whenever I moved a lot it used to crawl back to the end of the light, then come back to the front after some time!
Nikon D5000 + Nikkor 24-120mm f4 VR lens; 1/320 sec at f4; ISO 200
THIRST
This image was a Finalist in MontPhoto – Changing Planet 2024
My family and I (with a few friends) drove to Hampi on a weekend to click images. Early morning the next day, around 5:30 am, we climbed Matanga Hill. We saw the sunrise, then, something unexpected happened! A young monkey stole a bottle from a tourist. It first pricked a hole to drink water. But, it couldn’t drink water from it. Our tour guide lifted the bottle and made it like a tap. The monkey was delighted to drink from it!
Nikon D750 + Nikkor 24-120mm f4 VR lens; 1/160 sec at f4; ISO 100 (-0.7 ev)