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Photography for a passion
Looking through the lens has become part of his life. Whether it is a microscopic examination of a balance-sheet or focussing on a subject through his Nikon, the Additional Commissioner of Income-Tax (Visakhapatnam), Mahendra Singh, holds them both in high esteem.
Hailing from Lucknow, he is a die-hard photographer, apart from being an IRS officer of the 1986 batch.
Mr. Singh wanted to be a professional wildlife photographer, but a stern diktat from his father put him in the hunt for the civil services, and he qualified for the IRS cadre in his very first attempt. But working amidst piles of ledgers and profit-and-loss statements has not dented his passion for photography.
"I was attracted towards wildlife since my childhood. It was later in my college days that I discovered a way to vent my feelings through the lens. An incident while on a visit to the Periyar National Park during my graduation days cemented my urge to capture the lovely animals in their natural habitat," says Mahendra Singh.
Mahendra Singh
Pursuing his passion over the last 20 years he has visited almost all national parks and reserve forests, right from Kaziranga in Assam to Ranthambore in Rajasthan and from Corbett in Uttaranchal to Mudhumalai in Tamil Nadu.
He had quite a few close encounters while clicking wild animals. "Once while shooting a herd of pachyderms in Periyar National Park, a rogue elephant charged at us, fortunately we were clicking from a boat on the river, it stopped puffing at the edge of the water a few metres away from the boat. Another time while walking through Kanha National Park, I suddenly found myself standing in a patch of clearing and just a few metres away lay a tiger on a rock. It raised its head glanced at me and dozed off. May be it had already had its fill and did not bother for another hunt," remembers he, with a sense of excitement.
According to him, clicking wildlife is the most exciting branch of photography, but it needs a lot of patience. " We have to wait for hours to sight the object first and then wait for some more time for it to react to our theme, and finally the clicking has to be done within that split-second reaction. Even a lazy wink of the eye might be costly. And most of the time, it does not happen the way we want it to happen. Either the light fades or there would be some happening that would disturb the settings. After all, the nature is not within our control. And we have to satisfy ourselves by telling aloud, "better luck another day" or "dude, let us pack off".
Apart from clicking flora and fauna, he does not miss any opportunity to give a lecture on wildlife at schools and colleges. He intends writing a book on wildlife photography and animal habits.
S.B
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