We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ranganathan M S a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ranganathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

I am a wildlife photographer but also a finance professional who works for a Bank. I have been lucky enough to discover my passion for wildlife photography and have had a very supportive professional set-up at work, wherein i am able to balance both work and my passion. With the increasing work load and pressure, i feel it is extremely important to detach for work and charge your batteries. The wildlife trips serve as a means to connect with nature and at the same time helps me make some images along the way. The vacations/wildlife trips to me are a very key part of my life and in a way they offer the best opportunity for me to disconnect from work. Once my trip ends, i am equally excited to be back at work and it helps me stay motivated at my workplace.

Ranganathan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a finance professional who works for a Bank in India. Along my professional journey, i got a opportunity to attend a “Bird Walk” organised in the city. For people who are not familiar with “Bird Walk”, this is a activity where a birder takes participants around the city to show them the various birds that can be viewed/seen. I was unsure of spotting any birds in the city and was wondering what this activity had to offer. I was proved wrong immediately as we stopped at the first stop of the day. I walked past a sparrow looking bird and was amazed to see many water birds. When the spotting scope was used to show the sparrow looking bird, i was told it is a Scaly-breasted munia. The view from the spotting scope took me by surprise and i was amazed at how beautiful this small bird was. The next hour or so had us spotting about 30-40 different types of birds. This got me hooked on to birding and after chasing birds for a year, i realised that i wanted to photograph them for my records. What started as a journey to photograph birds turned into passion a year later when i realised this is what gave me the most happiness. The photography journey started for me in 2014 when i picked up a long lens and a canon camera body. I have been lucky to meet mentors along the way and have slowly improved as a wildlife photographer. I started with basics, then turned into a portrait photographer and over the last 5 years have been exploring different parts of the world to photograph wildlife with unique conditions such as snow, dust, fog/mist, etc. My images try to portray what my eyes see using the elements that nature has to offer. I enjoy using light as a medium to show different types of images, which are not easily achievable.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me personally the most rewarding aspect of being a wildlife photographer is that i get to spend time in nature and observe wildlife, who teach so much about our own self. The journey of identifying location/wilflife sanctuary and then gathering information about the place and the potential photography opportunity and to then execute it are huge challenges and achieving results equally amazing victory.

I take pride in showcasing wildlife images and believe that with these images, if i am able to spread awareness/educate/motivate the younger generation about wildlife, the world will be a very better place as the younger generation will have the responsibility to take necessary steps towards conservation of wildlife. With each passing day, the human population does something in their interest which has a massive impact on nature and wildlife. I believe the younger generation has the power to change this and restore balance.

7uy8I print wildlife theme calendars for family and friends and to see the joy, the questions, the conclusions from the younger generation on the calendar gives the most amount of joy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When i started my wildlife photography journey, i used to see all the photographers with long lens and i started to believe that if you have a long lens, you are a good wildlife photographer because you will get very good images. I managed to get a long lens for myself and in a couple of trips, i realised that long lens is just a medium for photography and just having a lens does not guarantee you images. Yes, the quality of image will be better as compared to other equipments, but at the end of the day it is the photographer who place a very important role. One of the most important lessons was that pressing the shutter is actually the least important activity in making a image. The though of why to click, what to click, how to frame, etc are the most important and constitute for 90%. The shutter pressing is probably 10% of the task.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/msranganathan82
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@msranganathan1101

Image Credits
These images are photographed by me