Giggles in the wild
Training one’s lens on the animal kingdom can yield hilarious results. Four Indian contenders for the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards open up about their funniest pictures
Wildlife photography is all about timing. Photographers spend hours, even days, waiting for the perfect picture. A microsecond too late, a bit off the mark, and you’ve missed it. Often, they end up with images that are surprising, endearing, absurd, and ridiculously human. Like a shocked squirrel holding its hands up in seeming surrender, a cub leaping to grab a lion’s drooping genitals, or a turtle seemingly flipping the bird.
These were the images that won the overall Comedy Wildlife Photography award in the last three years. The awards were launched in 2015, by British photographers Paul Joynson-hicks and Tom Sullam, to showcase the lighter side of wildlife photography and use it as a tool for conservation.
The contest is open to all. A jury of established nature photographers picks finalists, one overall winner and winners in other categories — creatures of air, land and water; best portfolio; best video. There’s a people’s choice award too, from online votes.
This year’s winners will be announced on October 22. The shortlist of 42, whittled down from 7,000 submissions, features a number of Indians. Meet four of them.
Water babies
Aditya Kshirsagar, 32, a marine engineer from Maharashtra, has two images on the shortlist: a vine snake that looks like its laughing uproariously, and a grumpy fanthroated lizard. “I found the lizard near a lake in Solapur, which has a good population of them,” Kshirsagar says. “In breeding season, they puff out the colourful fan near their throats, to impress females and show dominance over a territory.”
Kshirsagar found this lizard resting on a twig, taking a break from all the showboatery, seeming for all the world like someone not having very much luck at a singles’ bar.
“The funny moments are all about how you perceive them,” Kshirsagar says. In the case of the vine snake, it’s a deceptive photograph. The snake isn’t cheerful; it’s actually rather annoyed. A craned neck, puffed-up body and wide-open mouth are a defensive stance it takes when it feels threatened. “But they are beautiful harmless creatures,” says Kshirsagar. “And at this angle, it really does look like the snake is laughing.”
The hugger
Rahul Lakhmani’s shortlisted video shows what looks like a white-throated kingfisher going in for a massive hug. The 30-year-old entrepreneur shot the video from the terrace of his Delhi home. It’s all of 0.2 seconds long, but slowed down by up to 20x, it shows the two birds colliding in what looks like painful joy.“it made me think of hugging my friends after the Covid lockdown.”
Lakhmani says this doesn’t seem to be typical behaviour for these birds, so in all probability the little guy just miscalculated his landing, lost his balance, or was actually expecting his mate to get out of the way.
Lakhmani has been a hobby landscape photographer for nearly four years. In the pandemic, he began training his lens on the birds around his home. “I used to be a night guy and fall asleep only by 10am. Photographing wildlife has changed my life.”
The dancer
Sarosh Lodhi’s image of a dancing langur was much more calculated. Lodhi, 48, an entrepreneur from Nagpur in Maharashtra, has been a hobby wildlife photographer for over two decades. While on a safari and waiting for the larger animals to appear, he always makes it a point to park near langurs.
“They’re always monkeying around and doing something you can watch and photograph while you’re waiting,” Lodhi says.
On one evening at the Tadoba tiger reserve, Lodhi and his group had heard the alarm calls from langurs, deer and peacock, indicating that a big cat was near. So they stopped near a watering hole. “The big cat never showed,” says Lodhi. He kept training his lens on one mischievous langur. And walked away with an image of what can only be described as joyous revelry. What was the monkey thinking? Who knows.
The logger
Chhattisgarh medical student Siddhant Agrawal’s entry is of Chhoti Paro, daughter of the famous Paarwali tiger of Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand. In the image, she looks like she is carrying a log, perhaps to start up a fire for dinner.
“We were expecting to see Paarwali, but it looks like in the last year, she has given up some of her territory of her daughter,” says Agrawal, 20. Chhoti Paro had just crossed the river, the sunlight still shimmers on the water behind her. She came up to fallen tree and began rubbing her neck against its bark, as tigers often do to mark their territory with their scent. In that split second, Agrawal captured the frame that looks like she’s heaving a log home.
As the child of wildlife enthusiasts, Agrawal has been immersed in forests since he was five. He began taking pictures at 10, and has a particular interest in tigers. “I even track their activities on social media… who gave birth to cubs and how the territories change over time,” he says.
It made me think of hugging my friends after the Covid lockdown. RAHUL LAKHMANI, on his shortlisted clip of what looks like a white-throated kingfisher going in for a massive hug