A Tête-à-Tête with Mr Mukund Soni by SWAPNIL SAUNDARYA ezine

|| A Tête-à-Tête with Mr Mukund Soni, a Man who choose passion over profession || by

SWAPNIL SAUNDARYA e-zine (Vol- 07, Year - 2020, SPECIAL ISSUE)

"You can not live a life without passion. Passion can bring meaning to your life . I do have one - Photography. I always want myself to replay my life when sitting ideal on a bench somewhere near my house when my legs would hesitate to move on and my vision would drop off . During those old days, I want to recapture all the captures I made throughout my life"

These are the words and feelings of one of the greatest wild life photographers from India......'Mukund Soni' who needs no introduction in the Indian photography fraternity. He is a wildlife photographer in India. His long and passionate association with photography began in his student days. What started out as an exploration of the enchanting world of the camera gradually gained direction and came to focus upon wildlife photography.

He believes that wildlife photography is not underscored by photographic hardware and skills alone. A deep understanding of and concern for the wild environment ought to be an integral part of a good nature photographer’s ‘eye’ in order to be able to convey the spirit behind a picture.

His pictures are noteworthy for their technically sophisticated and evocative character, generating appropriate moods to move viewers. Mr Mukund Soni is an IT Professional, working in an MNC based in Pune.

While having a conversation with Swapnil Saundarya ezine, Mr Mukund said, "Photography to me, is never flaunting an expensive, high resolution device. It is a way to let viewers of the photograph feel the contents of it. A picture needs to speak in itself. I always wondered how animals and birds interact with each other with a small set of alike sounds.

Gradually, I got involved in Wildlife photography. I still remember riding a bicycle and birding every Sunday during my school days. It got me attracted towards varsity of birds and their activities. It is very easy to get attached to a hobby,when we are teens. So, my childhood and my teenage years, got me aliased to wildlife photography. College days gave me ample time to find my inner peace. And alas, I was very much involved in wildlife photography. I started my part using a small piece of camera we use to get with our mobiles. Nowadays, of course we often get too much with a mobile.

But in those days a mere amount of pixel densities got me moving. Such was my passion.

Gradually, I moved on to become a responsible person as per the society. Getting a job.

And first thing you can cluelessly imagine myself spending my debut salary on was none other than a camera. I was lucky to get a job in a city which is surrounded by soothing places which were equally soothing for wild lives. Then started a journey to explore more and more, day by day, year by year, life by life. There was no stopping to my pasture.

One year passed by and I felt that some more life needs to be added to each and every click of mine. Time came for me to move on to DSLR cameras. With more upgrade, I felt

my passion can now be justified enough. I started learning various aspects of wildlife photography. It was great. For my friends, for an IT engineer, weekends were meant to take rest. But for me, weekend meant photography. Somethings which I felt I was born to do." he added.

It is a wellknown fact that no road always has a smooth curve.

The only reason why automobiles have got brakes deployed in their machines.

My life also got a severe road block. With demise of my father, I being the only son in my family, was immediately burdened with hell lot of responsibilities.

Those responsibilities started pushing my photography to a corner. A place where I could hardly reach out to. But as goes the saying, with one door closed another is always waiting to be opened by you. With the support of my mother's blessings and

courageous wife, I crawled out from the socalled misery. With passing days, our family added another profile and things seemed to be in my stride.

I dusted out my camera and my photography started to roar with the same old instincts.

Support from family was always there and to an extent which allowed me to grab moments in a jungle with my son barely 7 months old back at home.

I started putting up my work on social platforms. Just to let people know the beauty of nature. They started recognizing my work.

From social platforms like Instagram to competition at organization level to display at art galleries.

My work started to pull people. I still hope that somewhere sometime, I might have touched someone's life with any of my work."

On asking about the challenges of this area , Mr Mukund described, "Wildlife photography is all about opportunity. You need to be at the right place at the right time with the right kind of equipment & settings and with the right kind of people. There are multiple factors and challenges faced by any wildlife photographer. To be a good wildlife photographer, you need to be a good naturalist and understand and follow the ethics of wildlife photography. With increasing affordability of DSLR camera equipment, the number of people aspiring to take up wildlife photography has increased dramatically over the years. This has resulted in dilution of the ethics of wildlife photography, thus discrediting the entire community at times. From a financial standpoint, the cameras, lenses and accessories along with travel are expensive. No matter how good you are at this, you cannot make a lot of money. It takes several years to build the credibility to make a mark in this genre of photography.

The bottom-line of Wildlife Photography is – We are in it because we love it, not with the hope of making a lot of money."

For the readers of our ezine, Mr Mukund said, "Do add some things in your regular schedule which can be remembered for long and give you some pleasure in your days of discomfort."

SWAPNIL SAUNDARYA EZINE WISHES MR MUKUND A GRAND SUCCESS IN ALL HIS ENDEAVOURS!

- Rishabh Shukla Founder-Editor Swapnil Saundarya ezine

Published by

Aten Publishing House

'The Bold Brigade’,

a collective to celebrate the Inclusive Power of Arts.

Launched in June 2013, Swapnil Saundarya ezine has been the first exclusive lifestyle ezine from India available in Hindi language ( Except Guest Articles ) updated bi- monthly . We at Swapnil Saundarya ezine , endeavor to keep our readership in touch with all the areas of fashion , Beauty, Health and Fitness mantras, home decor, history recalls, Literature, Lifestyle, Society, Religion and many more. Swapnil Saundarya ezine encourages its readership to make their life just like their Dream World .

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