Capturing the moment

Life has been so mechanical these days that we become almost indifferent to our surroundings, friends and family. There are many people with whom we interact on daily basis, but still we don’t get to know them in real sense.

One such person in my life is Mr. Narayanan Ganesan. We both have been colleagues for the past 16 years. Personally, we are very good friends too. It is only recently that I have come to know about his favorite hobby of Photography.  Exceptional quality of his photography has made me speechless!

Following is a brief note on how he views PHOTOGRAPHY.

It is five O Clock on a summer Sunday morning at the home of Narayanan Ganesan. He has packed a snack and a drink and some other bits and pieces and is about to leave home. Ganesan is a photographer in his free time, and early morning is a good time to catch the insects he specializes in as they soak up the heat of the early morning sun before their day’s activity starts.

Ganesan first took up photography some seven years ago and initially worked on landscapes. “I started with mountains. They always fascinated me,” Ganesan comments. “But during a visit to my home town in Kerala, the sound of the morning birds woke me up. I started with zoom photography, but then the little insects made me to move into macro photography. Many times what you can not see with the naked eye can be seen through a macro lens; nature’s perfection at it’s best!”

Ganesan’s interest in nature photography is not limited to his Sunday morning outings. “I arrange an exhibition every year at a local school with videos and photographs,” he explains. “The children enjoy that and it helps them learn to identify birds, insects and butterflies.”

“Some times I wait for hours for a little butterfly to spread its wings, or for a bird to fly into the nest to feed its young. Photographing insects teaches patience,” Ganesan says and continues, “That is not a bad quality to possess at work either.”

Ganesan along with some of his Photography Colleagues has also developed close links with a local research institute. “We take photographs at annual intervals of the same location and check whether the insect population level is the same, whether there are changes in coloring and so on, and we contribute our findings to the institute,” explains Ganesan. “We also get a lot of support from other professionals and learn about insect families, their behavior and so on.”

Ganesan has made his photos available to an even wider audience than the school and the institute. “I am member of a club called “TREKNATURE” and post a lot of my nature photographs on their site.

One might think that this hobby must involve international travel and a major investment in time and money. “It is true that the equipment is not cheap, and I always have a camera with me when I travel on business. Most of my pictures though are taken within five kilometers of my home, I cycle from home and my son often comes with me and takes pictures, too. We are out from 5 am to about 11 am on Sunday mornings,” smiles Ganesan.

Ganesan's Nature Gallery

** Interview has been taken from our Internal Magazine with Ganesan's permission.