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Wild shots
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G.S. Krishnamurthy has the patience of a crocodile when it comes to shooting wildlife
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Krishnamurthy and his award-winning shot.
"I T WAS about 6 p.m. Our safari was almost coming to an end. We saw the tiger peeping from the cluster of trees. The park officials stopped the jeep and we moved back a few dozen metres. We waited there. The tiger then began to slowly emerge, dragging an antelope it had just killed. I couldn't believe it. I had never been this close to a wild tiger before. I was clicking away furiously. Then a jeep came unexpectedly from the other direction and the tiger went back into woods immediately. It was all over in a matter of minutes," recalls an excited G.S. Krishnamurthy.
Another honour
Mr. Krishnamurthy, Deputy Manager, State Bank of India, Jalahalli, and an avid wildlife photographer, won the 2004 Epson Colour Imaging Contest in the Nature and Human Category for his photograph of a tiger dragging its kill at the Ranthambore National Park.
He is one of a lucky few to even catch a glimpse of the maharajah in the wild, let alone photograph him with his dinner. Was he scared of being so close to a wild tiger? No way. "I was never scared. I have photographed tigers in the wild before. But this is the closest encounter I have ever had." When he is not working in the bank, Mr. Krishnamurthy routinely packs his bags and heads for the nearest wild country. And he has been doing this since 1985.
"I have loved photography since my college days, but I seriously started pursuing wildlife photography in 1985. I learnt the finer points of photography at my friend's studio," he says.
The Epson Award is just one of the many awards that fill his trophy cabinet. He has been made recognised an Artiste of the Federation Internationale De Lart Photographique, Belgium, Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, London, and been awarded a fellowship by the India International Photographic Council.
Among his well-known pictures are those of a kingfisher at Machinabele and of a barn owl flying into its nest with its kill — a rat — at night. How does he get his shots of subjects that obviously don't pose? "It requires a lot of patience. Sometimes I have to camouflage myself and wait for the whole day or night. In fact, for the barn owl picture, I sat below the tree for several hours just to get the perfect shot."
Mr. Krishnamurthy has shot photographs in most sanctuaries in India. He has not yet visited the Kaziranga National Park in Assam and the Gir Forests in Gujarat, though. But his favourite spots remain our own Nagarhole and Bandipur. "I was there in Bandipur just one week before Veerappan was killed," he beams.
Through most of his trips, his enthusiastic wife Shanthalakshmi, who is the Principal of Maharani's Science College and a Kannada poet, has accompanied him.
"We used to take our kids with us before. A summer holiday meant a trip to a wildlife sanctuary. But now our daughter is married and our son is in Australia, so it is just he and I. I help him with his photography and he sometimes helps me with my poetry," laughs Dr. Shanthalakshmi.
Vast collection
The sheer number of photographs Mr. Krishnamurthy has shot is mind-boggling. His collection boasts of tigers, elephants, wild bison and just about any insect or bird one can imagine. And he treasures his collection. But he has never sold any of his photographs. "It just something that I enjoy, that's all," he says. His next dream project is to shoot wild game in South Africa, with a camera, of course.
ANAND SANKAR
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