Tag: skills

Birds don’t pose for photos! You need patience!

Take a look at the picture.

What you have seen isn’t just a photo of a bird. It’s a poem. How?

A bird diving 30 miles an hour into clean and still water to meet his twin brother. Without a splash of water wasted. 

This amazing photograph was captured by a fisherman-turned-wildlife photographer called Alan McFadyen. He lives in Scotland and is now running a wildlife photography business.

This photo wasn’t taken in a day. A painstaking effort went behind creating this masterpiece.

McFadyen took six long years. 4200 hours in total. He travelled every day, many miles, seven days a week to the same spot, River Tarff woodland. 

He would skip breakfast and miss his dates (missed many girls in the bargain). All for the love of wildlife photography. 

He got his first camera – a Nikon D4 – in 2009 and that kicked the adrenaline in him. 

He would cycle to the spot daily, set up the porch at vantage points with camouflage (birds don’t pose for photos) and click, click and click. Hours would be gone. 

He clicked 600 shots a day. A whopping 720,000 clicks in all. 

Patience paid him. 

And the passion for photography shouldn’t be any less. This is an adventure sport. Only a superhuman effort could win laurels.

It cost McFadyen his relationships. He was engaged five times. Twice divorced. 

He was six when he first fell in love with nature. His grandfather was his inspiration, as the lad was taken around on a bicycle every day to see those bird’s nests. 

That was how his love of nature kick-started and his passion for wildlife photography. 

McFadyen dedicated this one helluva masterpiece to the memory of his granddad. 

How a ‘Kiss of Life’ could help save a man from certain death?

This photo won a Pulitzer in 1968. Rocco Morabito of Florida was the photographer. 

On a dull, boring day in the office, Mr. Morabito heard a group of workers from Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) shouting. He saw a lineman hanging unconscious on the top of an electric high-tension power pole. 

Mr. Morabito quickly reached the spot and dialled for an ambulance. Before he could get a grip of what was going on, he took out his camera and started taking pictures. A poignant scene which he couldn’t afford to miss, as a photographer.

This linesman, Mr. Randall Champion fell unconscious after touching a 4000-volt electric wire. There was a commotion on the ground and everyone was shouting “help”. 

Mr. Thompson, who just saw the whole incident from about 400 ft away on the power pole, had quickly jumped to his colleague’s rescue. 

He grabbed him, pulled him off the smoking wire and gave him mouth-to-mouth CPR. At once.

CPR is short for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, by which a person can breathe air into the lungs of an unconscious person through mouth-to-mouth. That is to keep the injured person conscious before paramedics arrive at the spot. 

Mr. Thomson pumped air into his colleague’s lungs and checked if he started breathing. 

He indeed survived. Thank god!

Morabito stood shocked. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He knew he was doing one of the best assignments yet.

This picture was suitably titled ‘Kiss of Life’ and it went viral the next day. The world spoke about the picture. People spoke about what CPR was and how it could help bring a man’s life back. 

This picture is still revered as one of the best in photography.

All ended on a happy note as Mr. Champion survived, and you won’t believe he went on to live another 35 years. 

His colleague, Mr. Thomson, when asked about the heroic day he said he just did his job. He helped his friend and colleague.

In fact, this incident and the photo helped popularize what CPR was.

A ‘Kiss of Life’ is not just a guarantee of someone’s dear life, but a tiny act of kindness can save life and unite complete strangers into a life-long friendship. 

The linesmen and the award-winning photographer were friends for a long time after this incident. 

Wish I had ‘braved the weather’.

What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?

Roads in India are bad. Motorists often flout rules. Accidents, therefore, are a regular sight.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) says 70 percent of fatal road accidents happen due to speeding. 

And, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, the minister for transport, said people are so negligent on roads. 

It’s each individual’s responsibility to observe strict discipline while driving. One should always be on guard. With all senses open.

I wish I had the skill to spot the (most common) traps people in India fall so easily into, like cricket falling on bright headlamps.

The advanced skill that helps me (every day) spot potholes, leaking sewer holes, unmarked speed-breakers, a two-day old fallen tree, deadly blind-spots, sudden road-closures, diversions, a speeding metro truck from behind, a petrol station that’s “closed for maintenance”, a minister’s motorcade crossing, the dead-end (daily) election meetings, huge blaring speakers on either side, a falling billboard, a 15 ft cinema banner in the middle, a religious procession on foot, the auto-rickshaw in front that stops abruptly when seen a client, failed lights at junctions and a parking lot which is full (already) but without a notice.

Can I?

Know Your Worth.

Over 1000 people passed by a violinist on a subway, Washington DC. About seven or eight stopped to listen to him. One recognized him. 

He played for 45 minutes and collected about $32 in tips from 27 passersby. Including $20 from the one who recognized him. 

The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.

He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written on a violin, worth 3.5 million dollars.

Just days before he was on the subway, Joshua Bell sold out a Boston theater. The seats averaged about $100 each.

What does this experiment prove?

Talent is so often overlooked and undervalued.

There are talented people everywhere who aren’t receiving the recognition and reward they deserve. Once they remove themselves from a nonproductive environment, they thrive and grow.

Value addition is more important for one’s survival.

Listen to the gut feeling that says where you belong to. Go where your worth is appreciated and valued.

Know Your Worth.