"சென்றிடுவீர் எட்டுத் திக்கும்"
World is a Global Village.
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
They go from East to West during the day and go back to where they started in the night. So that they catch the first rays of Sunlight the next day. Wow! And I’m fifty years old.
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.
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When we were five, we were mostly dreamers. A dreamer with eyes wide open. A dreamer deep asleep.
I was too young to think of what I would become as I was told a lot of stories about animals and characters in cartoons. I lived purely in an imaginary world. A fairy tale life, to be precise.
I enjoyed listening to those stories and I imagined I would one day go meet them really and want to spend time with them.
Some stories wouldn’t end well as characters were chased and put to death. That gave me nightmares.
I remember I asked my parents one day if I could stop people killing animals. My parents told me that I should then become a forest officer, wear a uniform, carry a gun and travel in an open jeep. All day and night. A life in the wilderness.
That’s when I imagined I would be an officer who was out and about helping save the animals.
That gave me pleasure. I thought I would bring those animals home, live with them in the comfort of my parents, brothers and sister.
A happy cartoon family was what I wanted.
Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?
I would love a comparison with Alex, the male African lion in the Madagascar franchise, Escape to Africa.
Because he’s happy, funny and is loved by all the other animals in the wild.
His dancing in the movie both in New York (while in captivity) and in the wild later on was awesome. I too I’m a good dancer, in a funny way though.
His look when posing with a fruit-hat (as punishment) is what made me choose him as my favorite animal.
He is, no doubt, a real hero.
"சென்றிடுவீர் எட்டுத் திக்கும்" 