Karthik Subramaniam, an Indian-origin application engineer in the U.S. and a hobbyist photographer, has gained the prestigious Countrywide Geographic’s ‘Pictures of The Year’ award with his photograph titled “Dance of the Eagles”.
Picked from practically 5,000 entries, Subramaniam’s photograph gained the grand prize on Friday, earning him a feature in the magazine’s May well challenge together with Nat Geo’s leading photographers.
The award-successful photograph captured a bald eagle scary its peers to claim a primary log while salmon searching in the Chilkat Bald Eagle Maintain in Alaska.
“Every 12 months in November, hundreds of bald eagles get at Chilkat Bald Eagle Protect near Haines, Alaska, to feast on salmon. I visited there very last two November to photograph them,” Subramaniam was quoted as declaring in the assertion.
Salmon and chaos
Camped in the protect, ready for the great simply click, Subramaniam’s motto was, “Wherever there is salmon there’s likely to be chaos.”
The California-primarily based program engineer begun experimenting with wildlife photography only soon after getting grounded by the pandemic in 2020, before which he utilized to seize landscapes and his travels.
The prize-profitable picture was captured on the last working day of his week-very long pictures excursion to Alaska, in Eagle Preserve, where he watched bald eagles catch salmon from the drinking water.
“They (the eagles) also seemed to have some favourite places to hold out, and typically, commotion ensues when an eagle wants an presently occupied spot. This image was taken through a single these types of commotion,” Subramaniam was quoted as declaring in the assertion.
“Hours of observing their styles and conduct assisted me seize moments like these,” he included.
Homage to George R.R. Martin
In accordance to the statement, he titled the photograph “Dance of the Eagles” as a homage to a fictional dragon war in George R.R. Martin’s novel A Dance with Dragons.
In recognition of his perform, Subramaniam also gained a six-thirty day period electronic membership to the journal.
Tied to the yearly ‘Pictures of the Year’ listing featuring National Geographic’s leading photos of the yr — 118 out of more than 2 million whole — the photograph contest invited aspiring photographers from throughout the state to submit the favourite image they captured in 2022, broken into four categories: Nature, People, Sites and Animals, the assertion explained.