My story
My story starts in a small fishing town in the Andaman Islands. Our village had only 30 or 32 families, and my friends and I explored every bit of it: the forest, the mangroves, the streams and the sea. We learned to swim very young. I walked 5 km to reach school, and I helped my father with his fishing and his farming. Out there I learned about birds, snakes and everything else that lived around us. That is where my love for wildlife began.
After college I came to Havelock, looking for a better opportunity. How I found Havelock was very interesting to me, because here I could go birdwatching, hike, and walk the shore to explore the intertidal zone. I also found that many people in Havelock are interested in birdwatching, trekking and intertidal walks, and I began taking them out myself. I am the first person who started birdwatching in Havelock. The more experience I got, the more my interest grew. I took up birdwatching, herping and trekking, and then I bought a camera and some equipment and started photography.
My first wildlife photograph was of a white-bellied sea eagle in the mangroves. Waste fish had been thrown away, and the eagle took it. I captured the moment. That was the start.
Many people did not believe photography could be a career. I was one of the first photographers on the island to start. I worked with many big brands, running wildlife tours and photography, but my interest was always in wildlife and underwater photography.
My first scuba dive was not a great one, and it took me some more years before I thought about going underwater again. Later I became a scuba diver and an underwater photographer. I kept working hard to buy the right equipment, and step by step I made wildlife and underwater photography my full-time work.
Today I am a full-time wildlife, underwater and conservation photographer. The boy who explored every corner of his village is still out there, only now he has a camera.
