About the Photographer
My photographic journey began with a simple desire to take better vacation pictures. In a bid to improve my technique, I started frequenting online photography forums and that was when I started stumbling across wildlife images made by other amateur photographers. I was blown away by some of the work I was seeing. All along, I had assumed that beautiful wildlife images of the kind found in National Geographic were the exclusive domain of the seasoned pros, a standard I could aspire to but had no hope of attaining. Gradually, a realization dawned on me—that with some patience, study, and work (and the right equipment!), I could be making beautiful photographs of the local wildlife as well. So, in the spring of 2007, I invested in a Canon 400-mm lens and have enjoyed every second of the ride since.
I am lucky to live in Ithaca, home to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and an exceptional birding community, which has played a major role in my growth as a birder and bird photographer. My goal in bird photography is to go beyond the classic "bird-on-a-stick" kind of shots. Though I have shot my fair share of bird portraits, my favorite pictures are ones that capture some aspect of bird behavior or include more environmental context. I dream of the day when I can take an extended break to photograph the amazing wildlife of the African plains, or my native India. In the meantime, I will continue stalking my two most favorite subjects—warblers in the spring and finches in the winter.
Raghuram Ramanujan
Ithaca, New York
See more of Raghu's photographs at his website: http://rramanujan.smugmug.com.