Toucan barbet in Ecuador
| Photo Credit: MN Jayakumar
Photographs can capture a moment, place, animal or thing that can either bring back a memory, preserve one or give viewers a chance to gaze on something they may never have the chance to. And while this can be said of all photos, travel and wildlife photographers are perhaps the ones whose work only showcases the best moment, while the rest go unmentioned.
Anyone who has done a bit of birding or gone on a jungle safari knows the odds of spotting a creature in its natural habitat is not always great. Knowing that a particular shot would have been clicked after hours of patient waiting, throws the images captured by any wildlife photographer into sharper perspective.
It would seem MN Jayakumar has endless reserves of patience, perseverance and time. “Sightings are rare and can occur in a split second. Of the 100 times you may spot an animal, only 10% of the time can those images be used as they might be a blur or obscured by foliage. And even if you click 50 images in that moment, you end up with only two or three, which are usable. Getting a shot in the wild is not as glamorous as one might think.”
Photographer MN Jayakumar
Needless to say, there is no end to the encounters Jayakumar can recall. “We were at the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya, hoping to capture elephants at dusk. Suddenly, the whole sky darkened and was covered with clouds, but at the same time turned a beautiful shade of blue. We asked our guide to take us to any elephant haunt where we might be able to photograph them.”
“Instead, we came across a few giraffe and were able to get a few shots before the light faded and it began raining. It went on to pour for three hours straight! We were lucky to capture the atmosphere in those few fleeting minutes.” The beauty of two stately giraffe standing on a swathe of vivid green under a sapphire blue sky is on display at the show.
He goes on to share how at Kabini a few years ago, they saw small elephant herds scattered around the backwaters. “We were hoping they would group together but after about 30 minutes when they didn’t, we chose a herd which had a male, female and a few calves framed against the backdrop of Bandipur forest.“
Alert leopard on a tree in Botswana
| Photo Credit:
MN Jayakumar
Jayakumar shares a geography nugget: Nagarhole frames the northern bank of Kabini and Bandipur its south.
“After a while, a few elephants from the other smaller herds began rushing towards us. Thankfully, we had an experienced driver and it turned out to be a mock charge.”
He mentions another image from the show — that of a cheetah running in the golden twilight. “That was when two cheetahs were on the hunt for prey. They did not realise then that they had been spotted by a leopard which began chasing them. They took off in two different directions; fortunately, we were at a vantage point and I was able to take six or seven good photos.”
Jayakumar held his first exhibition in 1998 at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Project Tiger, following which he has had many shows both in India and abroad. In 2009, he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, England, for his work on Indian birds. While the honour is a rarity in itself, he was the first Indian forest officer to have been awarded the fellowship.
Also read: Karnataka forest officer awarded MFIAP
Nature’s Splendour has around 30 of Jayakumar’s works in the gallery, while another five have been placed in the lobby of the venue. The works, which are on sale, have been printed on Hanemuhle Daguerre canvas and are his most recent work taken after September last year, during his trips to Colombia, Texas and other forest regions.
A velvet purple coronet in Costa Rica
| Photo Credit:
MN Jayakumar
Hanemuhle Daguerre canvases are created without the use of acid and lignin, and as a result, images printed on them can last for five decades without colours fading.
Jayakumar does not post his photographs on social media platforms due to blatant plagiarism. However, one can follow his Instagram handle mnjayakumar23 for updates on his upcoming exhibitions.
Nature’s Splendour will be on display at Sublime Galleria till August 31, 2024. Entry fee ₹50.
