Born free in the jungle
Sachin stresses on the point that one cannot plan in advance to take such photographs.
Photographer Sachin Rai loves nature and wildlife, he shares his experience of capturing the young wild animals, the abundance of wildlife in Africa and hispassion for the unique events that nature has to offer us.
An uncompromising reverence for nature and an unfailing eye for unique perspectives underline Sachin Rai’s journey as an ace naturalist and eminent wildlife photographer with over a decade’s experience. Although Sachin has been enjoying photography for a few years, he says that it was his trips to Africa that gave him a chance to click photographs of baby animals. “I started taking baby animal photographs just two to three years ago, when I started visiting Africa. Now that is a place where you get a lot of potential to shoot more wildlife than in India.”
He explains, “There one would invariably end up seeing animals in every corner, so that is where you get the opportunity to choose what you need to shoot unlike in India where you might have to search a lot to find any animal. No matter what season you choose to go to Africa, there will be some or the other animal hanging around with a baby.”
Sachin stresses on the point that one cannot plan in advance to take such photographs. “Most of the animals breed throughout the year, like tigers and rhinos. Large animals like elephant have no particular season for breeding, so one cannot really plan and go in such situations to take photographs, unless you are shooting certain species of antelope, for instance wildebeests. Their breeding period takes place in one week time. I will be visiting Tanzania only to see this phenomena, it’s called the calving season,” says Sachin, who has an uncompromising reverence for nature and an unfailing eye for unique perspectives.
For him photography is not about equipment. “It is about making the most of it,” he says. Chief Operating Officer of Toehold, a travel and photography platform, his images carry an unusual oomph and pack a bagful of impact because they are not minute quanta of time squeezed into a frame. He has won many awards including the ‘Photographer of the Year’ award of Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Photography Awards.