This are some of my first wildlife images. Till this images, i was just a birdwatcher and still am. My interest in wildlife photography was triggered initially after seeing the success of my beloved friend Mihir Dave. I am sure today he would have been proud to see my images and would have taught me many things.

In between i totally lost interest in birding and i stopped going out also. The Strong seeds sown by Sri Lavkumar Sir and friends like Pranav Trivedi and Ajay Jhala with whom i did my initial birding ensured i never forgot the birds and love of going out always remained. After the hibernation another birding friend Mohan Iyer once told me about Steppe Eagles being seen at Dabhla Village. I could not believe my luck. I was always fascinated by Raptors. Till that day i had only seen the Eagles occasionally. I visited Dabhla with mohan and realized the potential of shooting eagles at close range. Although that day we saw only Vultures at Dabhla and no Steppe Eagles, the decision to take a camera was already taken.

I started actively looking on Net for an Digital SLR camera. I did have an Nikon Film SLR till then and thanks to my job at Xerox, i never had to break heads on understanding how an camera works. Little did i realize at that time that knowing the technical nitti gritty of how a camera works and making decent images are two different things. With a 300mm prosumer lens i never could make decent wildlife images. Another birding friend Santosh Gupta then gave an Mumbai contact of an Camera supplier from whom i got my used Sigma 170-500mm Lens. The price was lucrative and suiting my pocket and thus came the lens before the camera.

By this time i had narrowed my option on the then very popular Nikon D70. My desire to jump technologies for this hobby was known to my dear friend Charuta Raykar. With her, Naren and our lovely kids Advait and Atharva we went to many a places. If i have an camera today and do wildlife photography, apart from birds credit has to go to her for encouraging me to take this decision of spending money(50k) on the D70. 24th Feb., 2005 i allowed myself to one of the best(and the costliest yet) birthday gifts i ever got. Since then began an journey i hope to carry forever. The first trip yielded some of most favourite images i could make so far, all shot in auto and that time processed in Nikon Picture Project...........