Portrait: Poonam

She loves fish. Drives fast and furious. She is a softhearted person with the soul of a fighter.

I try to look for that fighter, hidden behind the usual light banter and laughter...

Camera: Sony A7R III
Lens: Sony Zeiss Plannar 50/1.4
Light: Portable square softbox with strobe

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher - The Jewel of the Konkan

The Kathikar's had come down from Nagpur. Ravi and Sanket from Mumbai. The ODK - as the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher is lovingly called in the birding community - was the center of our attention. Samadhan Pawar from Kalle Village on the outskirts of the Karnala Bird Scantuary had a couple of hide's setup. It was my first experience of photographing from a hide. about 8 of us sitting in silence for about 6 1/2 hours! I was the only noisy one.

The birds used to come to the perch (setup opposite to the hide) with the food they caught for their budding hatchlings. They used to rest for a couple of seconds, look around and then pfffft! fly away. Those were the sessions when all the cameras went clicity-click-click-click.