The Rise - Part I

The rise - Part I

"Passion projectile on Social networking site"

Phase I - The traveler and the explorer

Its hard to track back and say when I started thinking about doing photography or even when I started doing photography. This photo of my best friends from graduation is probably one of the first documented photo by me on facebook dated back when I was getting the hang of social network on orkut.  

Best friends Dr. S. R. C. ISH, Bangalore

I was wondering if the photography was just a shadow of the love towards nature and wildlife. As I got busy with my education and other stuff, I would have taken up photography to patch up the distance. That sounds like a reasonable explanation on how I started photography. But "when" still remains unclear to me. 

While I was with my parents in the national park and roaming around in the tiger reserve freely, I didn't have the urge to take photograph. I was happy enjoying the wildlife thinking I wouldn't miss them any time. Had this feeling that "they are all mine". However, I was not allowed to take photographs of animals anyways. My dad said some logic but I didn't get it nor I remember what he said to figure it out now. 

Spending my long school holidays in the wildlife I waited 2 years of my stay in Nagarahole to see a tiger and I sighted the big cat 5 time but none of the time I wanted to take a picture. The tally (number of times I sighted a rare mammal) itself was the biggest thing. There is a mysterious poorly focused photo taken by our first and old camera (kodak). Dad says its a tiger and I have no hesitation to doubt what he says. That photo is still a real mystery for me. 

my family 

Growing up with a family like mine, I need not run away from parents/home to go to a trip. They themselves were crazy enough to visit different places and give what they have got to us (me and brother). I took all the opportunities to explore every time I was with my parents. None of the time they real stopped me from my exploration. Probably they knew this guy isn't going to listen anyways. My mom says she used to visit places even when she was carrying me. And the places where not the holy places or some place for relaxation. But they were all adventure places. 

legendary bike ride

There were trips from college, with friends, my brothers and his friends too. I would get along with all of them without much of a problem. I was not a great entertainer for them but I would mind my business without interfering anybody. I use to carry our second camera (Nikon digital compact) and take photos for documentation of our trip.     

with my brother 

Sathodi falls

Banawasi

We visited waterfalls, boating sites, hill stations, national parks, bird sanctuaries and so on. Very few bike rides were done as I didn't own a bike back then neither did my brother. I used to go the way less taken and climb the steep hill less climbed (shortest cuts). I used to climb up with a curiosity to find the origin of a waterfalls (how crazy can I get) and end up at the peak of the hill where water fall started its descent. 

Thats when I realized... "I got to be at an unusual time, at an unusual place to see the unusual"  ...... which proved to double adventurous. 

(Unfortunately those were another bulk of pictures and videos which I did not save or did not know to save )

Being just a traveler and explorer there were some of the clicks in the digital compact camera which still are as good as they were and unbeatable to any of my photos taken after that. My aim then was to see as much as possible and explore as far and deep as possible. Those were the days when I started considering forest service as my dream career. Every time my dad said my son knows more about wild life than me as RFO, I would start dreaming. Ya I know what actually happened is a completely different story...:-) 

    

With these introductory share of my life I would like to begin the series about few years of my life dreaming big, but only doing a little. Few accomplishments and lot of them seemed to be a failure but they are turning out to be building blocks. 

The social life of my photography may have began with orkut but unfortunately I am unable to track them down which you all know why. So I will just stick to track records on facebook. 

My next post in this series would be The Rise - Part II The Beginning  

Prasanna Hegde