Shoot at Sight

“I took this photograph in February,after 10 days of following the bird around in Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary in Rajasthan. It captures a rare moment. The golden fish is one of the fastest swimmers in the water,and the cormorant swims even faster to follow the fish. Once the bird catches the fish underwater,he has to come up so he can swallow it. Capturing this moment,when the cormorant emerges out of the water for a second or two,is quite difficult,” says Patil. “The fish was actually quite big,and the cormorant had to keep coming up every now and then to try and swallow. Sometimes,the birds are known to swallow fish so huge that it gets stuck in their throat and they die.”

Talking about the award,Patil says,“It is the first time that an Indian has won the contest. Everyone was amazed at how I had done it without the high-end equipment that other wildlife photographers have. Mine is a Nikon 700 camera and has a 500 mm lens.” While Patil takes portfolio photos for a living,it’s wildlife photography that is his true love. In his 15-year career,many of these have gone on to win international,national and state awards. Last year,the 42-year-old received the Canon Photographer of the Year award for his photograph of two fan-throated lizards fighting.

“I took that picture in Latur,where I had been studying lizards for over three years. One lizard entered the other’s territory and I saw his throat and body going from beige to a bright violet-blue. I knew there was going to be a fight,” he says. Patil shares that this happened in a twelve thousandth of a second. “I know because my shutter speed was 12,000. They rose in the air for a fight,kicked up the soil around them. One bit the other and then it was all over,” he says.