Himanshu Guru
Pradeep Kumar Sutar who has spent several years wandering in the dense forests of central India, documenting the beauty and diversity of wildlife, says a lensman should not just be passionate but also technically adroit…
A wildlife photographer and great animal lover, Pradeep Kumar Sutar from Bhubaneswar loves nothing more than spending time in the wild. One of his favourite pastimes as a child was to quietly watch a drongo perched on a champa tree. Once, after he had clicked the picture, he realised how beautiful the little bird looked in the photo. He went on clicking in gay abandon, mainly birds and animals, and gradually developed a deep love for them. Photography is his passion, not profession. However, the amateur photographer is equipped with professional skills. The photographer talks about the technical aspects of his art and the adventures of wildlife photography in a tête-à-tête with Sunday POST.
“Not only tigers, leopards too are a declining species,” says Pradeep. “I have visited many states as a wildlife photographer. At Bera in Rajasthan I was amazed to see a person working really hard to preserve wild animals, especially leopards. He is locally known as the ‘Lord of Leopards’. We all are aware of the plight of wild animals and I am executing my share of the duty through photography. I would like to sensitise people to work on animal conservation.”
Reflecting on his years of experience as a photographer in the midst of an unimaginably swift cat, the leopard, Pradeep says: “Leopard is a shy animal. It hardly tries to attack. It mainly attacks for defensive purposes. Interestingly, it preys on those animals that are lighter than it, so that it can carry the prey and climb up a tree to have his meal. I have some brilliant snaps on my Sony 7RM2 camera. The most memorable was the one I clicked from a distance of merely 6 feet. It was very dark and so I increased the ISO of the camera to a high 64,000 for best output.”
He didn’t use the professional external flash to click leopards for “it would have been an embarrassing occasion if I would have done so,” he says. “The animal would have attacked me after getting disturbed by the light. Besides, expert photographers don’t bank on flash. They love to manually fix every measurement of the camera to get the exact result they want.”
About the benefits of the manual mode, Pradeep says, “There are four modes in professional cameras – shutter priority (S), aperture priority (A), programme mode (P), and manual mode (M). In the manual mode you can set the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO as per your choice. The main thing is to set the measurements. One can click in the auto mode, but it would give results only as per fixed measurements. Otherwise anyone can be a good photographer.”
So what are the skills required to be a good photographer? “Art, creativity and technical knowledge,” replies Pradeep. “If you are artistic you can catch a live scene or object in a photographic angle. Utilising my creativity, I visualise a photo before clicking it. Then, it is time to set the measurements to get the desired result.”
Son of the late Satyabhama and late Chintamani Sutar of Chandbali in Bhadrak district, Pradeep passed HSC from Dakha High School and Plus III from BJB Autonomous College. He received an MBA degree in HR from the Regional College of Management in 2009. Married to Renu, the photographer is blessed with daughters Prerna and Priyani. Thanking his family for constant support and encouragement, Pradeep says: “My family has extensively supported my passion for wildlife photography. Besides, my friends Deepak Das and CK Patnaik have also encouraged me.”
The animal lover has three pets, a male Labrador named Bruno, Sophie (a female), and a Rottweiler Alphie (male), at home. He has visited different places in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Leh and Ladakh as well as parts of Karnataka with his favourite camera hung on his shoulder. Pradeep excels in candid, portrait and natural scenery, besides wildlife photography which, naturally, is his first choice.
How promising is wildlife photography as a professional pursuit. Pradeep’s candid reply is that it is “too risky to make wildlife photography one’s profession. But yes, if the photographer succeeds in proving his mettle at the global level, he could look forward to earning in millions.”
Some of Pradeep’s photographs have earned awards like the Kathakali dancer’s shoot he took in Kochin which received the critics’ award at a global contest. His repertoire includes a fascinating range of avian wonders that throng the Chilika lake. He says, “I have a huge collection of snaps of birds including the pelican, darter, cormorant, grebe, egret, heron, stork, flamingo, ibis, ruddy shelduck, lesser whistling duck, northern pintail, lapwing, plover, godwits, snipe, wood sandpiper, little stint, gull, Caspian tern, barn swallow, martins, narsh babbler, warbler and wagtail.”
Photo courtesy: Pradeep Ku Sutar
