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This is photograph of flamingo taken at SUKHANA DAM near AURANGABAD . . .
Taken on Date 19/01/2008 and Time 5.44 pm. It was nice evening and I was sitting in front of TV. Suddenly I thought to go outside for photography . My younger brother ONKAR was also sitting near by me.I asked him to come with me for photo shoot . As I was expecting he was ready to come with me . . . from December 15 I was regularly going at SUKHANA DAM for taking photographs of flamingo . . . I got some nice shots but a photographer never get what he want . . . he always hopes for better than what he had . . . So it was one more trip to SUKHANA....But I have never been there at evening . . . I used to go in early morning . . .
We left the home at 4.00pm and reached there by 5.00pm. . . It was first time when ONKAR was on wildlife field for photography . . .He was so excited and I can understand his feelings . I attached telephoto lens to the camera and mounted CAMERA on tripod and started moving towards flamingo.These birds are shy so we have to take some precautions to approach. Therefore I sat down on the grass and ONKAR started crawling on the mud . . . As it was river bank side it was all mud . . . we were succeeding step by step and we got more closer to these birds . . . still they were busy in their eating . . .after covering certain distance I realized that this is our limit and I started to adjust tripod and focus of camera .But when I was busy in all this stuff ONKAR reached more closer to them . . . . As ONKAR was crawling they didn't notic ONKAR . . . I was thinking that now its all over for today . . .Now birds will fly away and I will not get a single photo. And it was not that situation where I can shout and tell ONKAR to stop . . .I thought that "JO HOGA WO DEKHA JAYEGA" . . .Still flamingos were busy in eating and distance between ONKAR and them was hardly 20 feet . . . ONKAR was lucky that he could go much closer to flamingo . . . From one month I was trying but not get a single chance. . . I started clicking photos by thinking they will fly away and at least I will get flying shot . . . Suddenly all of them took off their heads from water . . . . they might noticed presence of ONKAR . . . as they taken out their heads , ONKAR also stopped crawling . . . at that time I have clicked this snap which is posted above . . .after clicking it I have stopped clicking photos because the sound produced while clicking may disturb the birds . . . and what I realize that if you want nice wildlife photos you should capture it them in natural habitat without disturbing OBJECT. . . ONKAR was there sleeping in mud silently and observing flamingo only and not at all looking at me . . . as he was there to watch them only and not with me to help me . . . I was also maintaining silence . . . after 5 min flamingo confirmed that there is no buddy and they are SAFE . . .they started eating again . . . I think ONKAR was satisfied by seeing them from much closer distance and he turned back and started crawling back . . . I just pressed preview button on my camera and i was happy to see this above photograph I have taken . . . I got nice evening light falling on flamingo . . . Nice color combination . . . Perfect frame and as time permitted I was totally prepared with my equipments. . .And after watching this photo I was also satisfied and I left my position silently without disturbing them. . .
So after reaching place where we had parked my PULSER . . .I committed to ONKAR that we will manage one more trip for flamingo. . . ONKAR was happy and I know this was nice experience in his life and he will remember it for lifetime . . .
Flock of Flamingo were chirping continuously. . .This might be their sun set CALL. . . It was about to sun set . . . And our home was 30km away from SUKHANA . . .So me and ONKAR leaved flamingo and that place happily by storing images in CAMERA and memories in heart . . . Thanks!!!
