“The Long Way Back to Kanha”
When I first stepped into the wildlife genre through birding, my first wildlife safari was in Bandipur. I returned having seen only elephants, peacocks, and deer. Yet I felt a personal connection with the forest. The light felt different there, and the potential for meaningful images was high.
At that time, wildlife photography meant something else to me. Like many others, I was chasing tigers and focusing more on sightings than on the forest itself. That trip did not change the way I saw wildlife immediately, and I continued to photograph with the same mindset for a while.
The same year, I visited Kanha National Park with the same group of people I had travelled with to Bandipur. I must admit, I had never seen a place as magical as Kanha in my life.
During that period, from 2017 to 2022, my strength as a photographer was shooting against the light during golden hours. I created many silhouettes, and back then I believed I understood light well. But in Kanha, the light felt different. It felt magical.
However, I made several mistakes. Safari conditions came with their own challenges, especially vehicle positioning. Aligning the subject with the light was difficult, and that frustration grew because the opportunities were clearly there, yet I could not create the image the way I wanted to.
I was frustrated, and at the same time, the place felt like heaven. I remember thinking how different things might be if I were allowed to walk inside the forest, to position myself freely, to align light and subject the way I imagined. These thoughts kept running through my mind throughout the trip.
After returning, I reviewed all my images and realised that most of them were missed by a very small margin, whether in settings or placement. That frustration pushed me to explore places closer to where I live. I began searching for similar environments and shifted my focus from the subject to the scene itself.
After the Kanha trip, 2023 became a major learning phase for me. I followed light obsessively, hoping to return to Kanha the following year to capture what I had missed. Unfortunately, I was unable to visit such a magical place for two consecutive years, which was heartbreaking.
Still, the fire within me kept searching for similar moments in my own backyard. As the years passed, I made a promise to myself that in the winter of 2025, I would return to Kanha. I was going back to the place that shaped my vision, this time with far more clarity.
Life surprises everyone. I kept my promise to return to Kanha, but this time I went back in a completely different role. I was leading a batch alongside my fellow lead steersman, Srikanth, with whom I had earlier travelled to Bandipur and Kanha.
I returned with far more clarity and confidence. It felt as though the place itself had pushed me to become a better photographer. Going back not just to photograph, but to guide others, felt right. I had learned through my mistakes, and now I could help others see more clearly than I once did.
The trip went well, with a lot of knowledge sharing in both directions. I came back with a few images I truly liked, and as always, while reviewing them, my eyes could still spot small things I could have done differently. I guess that is photography for you. It is always a learning curve.
I look forward to returning to the same place again, while also searching for similar spaces closer to home that continue to push me to become a better photographer.
Happy clicking. Let us focus on what truly matters in the field, one shot at a time, staying open to multiple thoughts before making the image.
Thank you...!