ABOUT

19 year old Ramnath Chandrashekar's love for wildife photography began at a very tender age, when his dad gifted him a camera. His very first shots were at the Periyar Tiger Reserve. The lush green jungles of Western Ghats and the intricate Rainforests of this area made him fall in love with wildlife instantly. This fascination has now transformed into a passion that has helped him grow from a kid totting a camera to a professional wildlife photographer and conservationist. As he grew older, he started documenting various wildlife sactuaries of South India.His journey took him through the forests of Bandipur,Kabini, Mukruthi National Park, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve,Rainforests of Western Ghats and other sactuaries where he started seeing nature in all her glory.

He also saw and read the sad side of the story. Tiger's being poached in Bandipur inspite of all protection and laws, rapid industrialization leading to depletion of rainforests which are the water factories and other threats to wildlife. All this had a deep impact on the young soul who decided to take up wildlife conservation as his goal.

He has since been working on various projects related to wildlife and its conservation making youngsters understand the importance of forests with the help of his talks supported by his pictures all of his projects were self sponsored, thanks to an understanding father.




Many of his photos have been printed in various magazines and newspaper such as Sanctuary Asia, Hornbill (BNHS), Better photography, Times Of India, Indian Express and Deccan Chronicle. Fujifilm shortlisted him as one of the six wildlife photographers of India for the year 2008. This paved the way for him to exhibit his photographs at different locations in India. He had the opportunity to travel to some of the biggest cities of India where he conducted exhibitions and created awareness among people using nothing but his photographs. He was given a special mention at the 2007 Sanctuary Asia wildlife photography awards.

Ram is a member of the Photographic Society of Madras and Bombay Natural History Society. He has worked with the National Geographic Television Team in 2008 as a field assistant in the making of a Documentary on the world longest venomous snake, the King cobra. He spent a year in the forests of Agumbe, documenting the entire natural history of the Cobra's and in the process learning the art of wildlife filmmaking. Ram is now his spending time learning the nuances of wildlife filmmaking and about how to create awareness about wildlife to youngsters from his mentor and role-model Mr Shekar Dattatri .

He believes that its high time to inspire youngsters and make them know about our rich bio diversity with the help of emotionally captivating images and films that portray the importance of forests before they lose contact with nature.

My Equipment:

Nikon D2xs
Nikon d200

NIKON F80

NIKON 70-200mmf2.8 VR

Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR

NIKON 28-105mm f2.8 VR micro
Nikon 12-24mm f4 VR

Nikon 2x and 1.4x tele convertors

Nikon SB-800 flash
14 GB worth CF cards
EN-El 3 batteries for D200
Gitzo GT 2530 tripod with Wimberley gimble version II head
Ameristep hides
And few more accessories…