How this Indian-origin photographer won Nat Geo’s ’Pictures of the Year’ contest

The spread of COVID 19 virus has left permanent imprint on people's live. Where some are still get back on track, others are trying to move ahead on new path they switched to during lock down. Pandemic helped the Indian-origin Kartik Subramaniam to build his expertise in wildlife photography and win National Geographic's ‘Photo of the Year’ competition.

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USA's Karthik is a software by profession and a photographer by hobby. He is fond of doing landscape photography and travelling. His photograph of the eagles in Alaska won Nat Geo's ‘Picture of the Year’ contest on Friday. His award winning photo will find place in the May issue of the National Geographic magazine. He clicked the photo during his week long photography trip in Alaska.

On the final day of his trip, the chaos of bald eagles near the shore of Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, gathered his attention. That place was the largest congregations of bald eagles in the world every fall, when around 3,000 arrive in time for the salmon run.

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Subramaniam found the opportunity to get one of his best clicks and rested his camera lens on a branch to catch the direct shot of a log where few eagles linger to rest and get the desired proximity to catch the fish.

Immediately, an outsider eagle swooped in, intimating the current resident of the log, and claiming the prime spot. The chaotic replacement of the resident was the opportunity for the photographer to capture the chaos in his lens.

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Subramaniam titled the image as “Dance of the Eagles” as an homage to a fictional dragon war in George R.R. Martin’s novel A Dance with Dragons, and submitted it to the National Geographic Pictures of the Year contest.

As he began wildlife photography, Subramaniam started venturing into wildlife reserves and forests. He used to drive for an hour to Point Reyes National Seashore and walking the city’s parks—in search of birds and other creatures. Once, he build a ritual to visit an elementary school, two hours from home, every weekend just to catch the perfect shot of two bald eagles nesting on top of the school building.

Apart from the winner photographer's click, the website also featured some other photographs sent in the competition.