Through a chronicler's lens

Interview with Percy Fernandez, wildlife photographer who is Professor and Chairperson for the School of Media and Communication, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dubai, UAE.

 

A cheetha named Imani and her cubs in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.

A herd of impalas in Masai Mara.

Two male lions in Masai Mara. Percy Fernandez: “You have to have ... infinite patience to get a photograph capturing the moods of wild animals.”

In Masai Mara, zebras drinking water.

In Masai Mara, grey crowned cranes. Fernandez: “By shooting over a period of time, serious photographers can chronicle natural history and the relationship between man, nature and the wilderness.”

The leopard Luluka and her cub in Masai Mara.

Giraffes against the morning light in Masai Mara.

A black rhino flanked by a topi and a gazelle.

The famous cheetahs of Masai Mara. Fernandez: “This group was the largest coalition ever to be observed in the wild hunting together. In 2017, they were five of them, called Tano Bora [which] in Masai means the Fast Five.”

Kurile Lake with the Ilyinsky volcano in the background in Kamchatka, which is in Russia’s Far East.

Mutnovsky is an active volcano in Kamchatka.

A bear with her cubs in Kamchatka.

Fernandez: “... overfishing for salmon, a human-induced disturbance of the food chain and the ecosystem, has had a telling effect on the bear population.” 

The Vilyuchinsky volcano in Kamchatka.

Siesta time for a mother and her cubs. Fernandez: “... photographers should take care not to disturb animals during shoots.”

A jaguars walking along the side of a river looking for caimans, in Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland ecosystem, in the Brazilian Amazon.

A giant otter with a fish in Pantanal.

A hyacinth macaw in Pantanal. The region suffered massive wildfires in 2020.

A view of the Pumori peak, from Gorakshep, en route to Everest Base Camp, Nepal.

Wild dogs at the Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka. Fernandez: “It is an indescribable feeling when I am in the mountains or in the forests [or in some other landscape], whether it is the forests of Nagarhole in Karnataka or the desert in the UAE or, for that matter, the grasslands of the Mara.”

A gaur at the Nagarhole National Park.

A Malabar giant squirrel at Nagarhole.

A langur at the Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Percy Fernandez.

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Tim at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya. He was 50 when he died in 2020. He was considered to be Africa’s largest elephant with arguably the longest tusks.