You don’t take a photograph, You make it.

- Ansel adams

Rightly said, For me photography is all about freezing the perfect moment and cherishing them forever, only photography has that power.

Now let us get in to my story..

My Passion towards photography has started from college itself, back then when I was in first year of my graduation, an art and cultural

competition was held in our college and we were encouraged to present the art works of any kind of creative hobby which I never had, then I

remembered that there are few photographs of some wild animals which I took when I visited zoo in my city. So just for the sake of

participation I exhibited few photographs and guess what, I have got second highest number of votes.

( as the winner will be decided based on voting )

I was surprised to see the response for my work then I strongly decided to top that competition in the coming years, so I started photography

as a serious hobby in which Nature and wildlife photography has always been my point of interest. I bought a entry level point and shoot

camera and started exploring the wilderness of my home town. Luckily having a hometown like Tirupati is such a bliss that you have a privilege

to access the enormous flora and fauna of Sesachalam forest range ( Tirumala hills).

The game changer for my interest in photography is a rare sighting of a baby koel being fed by a crow, I was astonished to see that moment

and feel truly blessed to capture that. From then I never doubted my choice of choosing it as a hobby and started to capture different birds

in the near by parks and it became a thing for me that my eyes randomly search for a bird on the every other tree / electric pole / mobile tower

I pass by and lot of my friends still wonder how am I able to spot such tiny birds from distance.

It slowly became a weekend ritual for me to go to the park, click the pictures of some birds and spend some time with mother nature.

Trust me one needs a lot of patience to be a bird photographer, you have to move close to your tiny little subject with out getting noticed and

then standstill for like hours to get it accustomed to your presence and then it flies away.. it happened to me like 1000 times. But believe

me its fun. One such experience for me was capturing a kingfisher with a catch , it took me 3 hrs and 400+ photos to get one right shot.

Never stop clicking until you get the perfect shot is my thing. I feel lucky enough to capture very rare birds in my area.

Once Photography enters your bloodstream it is like a disease

After coming to Hyderabad , the bird sightings in this concrete jungle has become a difficult thing and so I started to explore other forms of

photography ( Landscapes and Portraits) and they are turning out to be good too.

I never learnt any thing a particular about photography, it is always my experience in the field which made me what I am today and I still feel I

am a amateur and has a lot to learn in photography , for me every time I hold the camera and look through the lens I discover a whole new

world.

And at last one thumb rule about taking good photograph is always keep in mind that “It got a little to do with the things you see and

everything to do with the way you see the them”

Wait, how about my decision of winning the photography competition in my college, Did I win ?

Yes of course , I won that competition 3 years in a row.

Cheers to life!

- Dhanush Manugunta

Interior Engineering design