The world is divided into cat lovers and dog lovers. In whatever form you may love the four-legged friends, but we all love the furry creatures. And when the time is right, we all like to bring them home as constant companions.
Pets are known to alleviate suffering of their owners, and to give tremendous joy when a tired soul reaches home after a difficult day outside. The fast-paced world has compelled many to turn to their pets for some moments of relief and joy.
Eshita Prasanna, a pet photographer, love animals so much that she decided to turn it into her work. It was not an easy beginning though.
She completed her Masters in Photography from Light & Life Academy, Ooty. She says, “I did my bachelors in Visual Communication in Chennai, where photography was one of my subjects. As my interest grew in photography, I just started photographing everything around me and everything around me was an inspiration to me.”
But when she finally donned the cap of a professional photographer, the most important question arose, that of getting her first client. She decided to set a digital footprint, but how. Setting up a website was not easy, as she had to cater to many factors and requirements. She took professional help for coding, but had to manage website design and content on her own, with some help from friends.
Having overcome this first challenge, she got her first client. She had to lug very heavy camera equipment around for her shoots. She was not prepared with any expectations for the first shoot. She had to work with three dogs on her first day as a professional pet photographer. But she had some fun on the way, and enjoyed meeting the owners as well.
She faced challenges like convincing people regarding the legitimacy of her choice, and credibility of pet photography as a career goal. She says, “I had to meet a lot ofpeople and introduce the new idea to them.” But she liked meeting new people because that allowed her also the opportunity to meet new pets.
She admits that each pet has its own personality. She recalls a couple of incidents when the dog was so reactive of the camera, that it refused to quiet down. It requires some effort to calm the pet down, and carry on the shoot when the pet finally submits to the camera.
Otherwise its just fun and frolic at the shoot site. But whatever the personality type of the pet, Eshita goes with the flow of the moment, and manages to capture each pet in all its innocent glory.
Her process of working involves the first step of familiarising herself with the pet. She spends some time with them. And then she begins the actual process of working with the camera. Her preferred apparatus is 5D Mark 2, which suits well for the work she does.
Though the apparatus is heavy, as time has gone by, she is used to carrying it around. Her husband often accompanies her on these shoots.
One would think that working with animals would be more difficult as they are not aware of the workings of a still camera. But Eshita loves this fact about the pets. They have no qualms or expectations of a what a good picture will look like. They just be, and let her capture their spontaneity and innocence in a frame.
When asked about her inspiration behind the original career choice, she said the pivotal moment came when she realised that she wanted to turn her passions into her work. The absolute love for animals was the true reason for getting into pet photography.
Eshita says, “It’s often tough to capture moments of our furry friends due to their constant restlessness, hyperactive energy, and mainly due to the fact that they create moments every minute. Here is where I come in.”
She agrees that the scenario in India for such a niche field is changing. People are more open to the idea and more people are getting support to pursue their dreams. And yet, it remains a challenging task to make a career in it.
Eshita has worked for her own Tailshots, and turned her passion into her career.
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