“Art, creativity and technical knowledge are the skills required to be a good photographer,” says wildlife photographer Pradeep Sutar. The Bhubaneswar based shutter bug is equipped with professional skill though professionally he is a businessman. He adds, “If you have art, only then you can see an object in a photographic angle. The next task is to utilize your creativity to visualise the photo before clicking. The final step involves setting of the measurements to get the result as per your visulalisation. And now it is time to hold your breath for a second and push the click button.”
Pradeep has worked vigorously to click leopards. “Leopard is a shy animal. It spontaneously does not try to attack. Rather often it attacks to defend. The animal preys animals whose weight is less than its weight. The reason is — it can carry the prey and climb a tree to eat,” Pradeep intimates.
Pradeep has visited different places of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Leh and Ladakh and Karnataka for photography. He excels in candid, portrait and natural scenery capturing photography besides wildlife photography. Yet, wildlife photography is his first choice.
How it all started. The photographer narrated, “Years back I was regularly watching a drongo bird which used to sit in a champa tree near my house. Once I clicked its picture. I was overwhelmed to look at the photo. For the first time I could realize beauty of a bird after clicking a successful photograph. I went on clicking photos of birds and then animals and gradually developed love for them. You can say love for animals made me to become a wildlife photographer.”
What is the first choice of Pradeep when it comes to wildlife photography? He said, “I have clicked some brilliant photos of leopards. The most memorable of them is one which I clicked from a distance of merely six feet. It was too dark and so I increased ISO of the cam to a high 60,000 for best output. I did not used the flash because the animal would have attacked me after getting disturbed by the light. Also experts should not depend on flash. Rather they should adjust everything manually for optimum result of their choice.”
What is the benefit of clicking on manual mode? Pradeep explained, “There are four modes in professional cams like ‘shorter priority’ (S), ‘program mode’ (P) and ‘aperture priority’. The fourth mode is manual where you can set the aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc. as per your choice. The talent lies in setting these measurements. One can click in the auto mode, but it would give result only as per the fixed measurements but you would miss a customized photo.”
The photographer has beautifully clicked birds’ photos at Chilka. He intimated, “I have clicked photos of birds like Pelican, Darter, Cormorants, Grebes, Egrets, Herons, Storks, Flamingo, Ibises, Ruddy Shelduck, Lesser whistling duck, Northern, pintail, Lapwing, Plover, Godwits, Snipe, Wood sandpiper, Little stint, Gull, Caspian tern, Barn swallow, Martins, Marsh babbler, Warbler, Wagtails etc.”
Pradeep has been awarded on a few occasion for wildlife photography. Asked about it he said, “One of my photos of a Kathakali dancer that I had clicked during my Karnataka tour, had got the award. I have so far toured six times on behalf of Sony and the other tours were at my own cost. Sony cam users can take benefit of the tour where they are provided fifty percent discount in air mode travel and at par accommodation. They select only 16 people per tour. It is purely a theme photo contest among members of the alpha community where Brand ambassador Dhiraj Paul from Delhi is the mentor. I am thankful to Paul, director IPT Sanjeeb Vandula and Territory incharge of Sony Sidharth Pattnaik for their encouragement.”
Son of late Satyabhama and late Chintamani Sutar of Chandbali in Bhadrak district, Pradeep has done MBA (HR) from RCM under BPUT. Manorama, Uma, Tilottama and Nirupama are his elder sisters.
Asked about support of his family Pradeep said, “My family has extensively supported my passion for wildlife photography. Besides, my friends Deepak Das and CK Patnaik have also encouraged me to go ahead.”
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